Hiding in the shadows

Chapter 12

Everywhere I looked was red. Blood. There was crimson covering the floor and splattered against the tiles. Dad was curled over on the floor. I looked passed him and saw mom in the shower. The door was wide open and her hands were tied together, looped around the shower head. Her feet unable to touch the floor, her neck was slit and she had multiple stab wounds to the front of her torso.

"You did this." Dad chocked.

Stunned I looked at back at him, nearly unable to take my eyes off of my poor mother. "W-what?" I managed to choke out.

"It was all you." Dad had risen to his knees, his old clip point knife in his hand covered in blood, "You. You're such an arrogant bitch. You never appreciate anything. We tried so hard. But you just had to be different. Now look what you've made me do. You made me kill the one thing I have ever loved. I hated you from the moment you were born. You shouldn't have even been born, you were a mistake!" He said slowly walking towards me, trapping me against the wall, tears were streaming down my face. "Don't you realise that anyone who ever loved you was wrong? That everyone has only ever tolerated you? Why are you the way that you are? I hate so much about the things you chose to be. You would be so enormously improved by death!" He yelled at me before lunging at me with the knife. It plunged into stomach. "This is what you have always deserved," he said before sticking the knife through my temple.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I let out a shriek and sat up. My legs were tangled in my sheets and I was covered in a cold sweat. I heard a rumbling in the hall, then saw mom and dad enter my room.

"Ari, what's wrong?" They both asked with concern in their voices.

"Mom...Dad." I said weakly and pulled them both into a huge hug. "I'm so, so sorry. I love you both so much, I'm sorry for being a horrible daughter lately."

"Hun, it's okay, it's okay, we love you no matter what." Dad said, letting go of me. "Now get some sleep okay, it was just a bad dream."

They both left my room, and I went back to lying down. I stared at the ceiling but I just couldn't get back to sleep. I wandered over to the window in my room and opened it. I breathed in the fresh, sharp night air. I turned on my phone and saw that it was 3am. Only four more hours until I had to get ready for school. Two hours of complete and utter boredom past and I decided to get changed into a singlet and shorts and go for a jog. Grabbing a jacket before I left the house I took a moment to admire the sunrise. Beautiful. I set out along a path a  reasonable pace. After about 20 minutes I turned round to head back, but found myself at the creek behind Elijah's house. I sat down with my back against the rock from the other day and faced the creek. The sound of the water running was so calming. Relaxing.

"What are you doing here?" A voice startled me, snapping my eyes open, which must have drifted closed.

"Just going for a jog, you?"

"I come here when I can't sleep. You don't look like you're doing much jogging" Ironic.

"Hmm." I said thoughtfully before saying, "You're right, I'm not really jogging am I?"

Turning to see Elijah standing behind me, by heart melted at the sight of him. "I'm sorry about yesterday. I didn't mean to intrude your house, it was pretty rude of me."

"Nah, it's okay, I get snappy when people go into that room."

"What's with all the trophies by the way?" I asked, "if I'm allowed to ask that."

"They're mine."

I didn't say anything, I just gave him a look that said, no shit dumbass.

"Before my family moved here, I used to UWM."

"WU- what?" I asked quizzically.

"UWM, Unified Weapons Master. It's weapons martial arts combat. It's pretty fun, but it's hard. That and baseball."

"Wow..." I breathed.

"Hey, um, can you please not tell anyone, I prefer to be kind of in the background."

"As long as you don't tell anyone that I fell into a creek. That's pretty embarrassing for someone who used to be the head of the local swim team."

"Your secret is safe with me." He said with a small smile and a wink. My heart did a small dance. I looked at my feet and smiled. "I guess we should probably get ready for school huh?" He asked.

"Shit, yeah." I said looking at my watching seeing it was 6:30am and I wanted to get back before my parents woke up. "I'll see you at school." I said before running off.