Christmas Catastrophe

~Mom's Annual Christmas Party~

December 24, 2014, Christmas Eve. 4 hours till Christmas day. Everyone we knew was at my mom's annual Christmas eve party, there were hand crafter snowflakes draped across the walls as well as Christmas lights. My mom always said why not bring the party outside inside, hence why we have our Christmas light outside and inside the house. My older cousins where helping decorate the cookies well the rest of my cousins and siblings were out playing in the snow. Probably having a snow ball fight or something while I was inside getting the next batch of cookies ready to be put in the oven. I can smell the sweet warm scent of my mom's freshly brewed hot cocoa, everything seems to be going just right.

Everything is made and I put the last dish to wash. I get ready to go sit with everyone in the living room but when doing so the lights go out. I hear my mom yell out from living room telling me to go check the fuse box, to see what happened. She wouldn't be telling me to go unless my older brother was busy, probably using the bathroom. I grab a flash light from a drawer and walk out the back door. Maybe some of the kids were playing back here and accidentally hit the box with a snowball. I open the box and check if anything got flipped off but everything seems to be just right, I flip the switch for the light on and off again but it doesn't seem to have worked.

I make my way to the front and yell if anyone hit the fuse box by accident but no response. I call out again, nothing. These little kids are probably trying to pull a prank or something. I reach the front, there's no one here. Did they go back in side. I call out for my little brother Daniel but hear nothing back, maybe their inside. I look towards the front of the house and see the front door is open. I walk in and see everyone inside, the light have come back on. Maybe it was just temporary I don't know I'm confused. I push the confusion away and go back to enjoying the party.

10:15 , 1 hour and 45 minutes till Christmas

Everyone is doing there own thing and I'm doing karaoke with my cousin Emma, this has to be the best Christmas party we've thrown yet. As me and my cousin horribly sing jingle bell rock, mom calls me from the table asking if I left the front door open. I told her I closed it earlier but apparently it's open and no one has opened it. She says maybe the wind blew it open since we didn't bother to lock the door. As she goes to close it I turn to my mom and see her get shot in the chest and fall towards the ground, I couldn't believe my eyes, it seemed like everything was going in slow motion , I dropped the mic and ran towards my mom. This can't be happening, I crouch down next to her and try to find where the bullet hit her to put pressure to stop the bleeding but it's not working. Everyone is in panic, my brother is rushing to call 911 but in doing so is shot in the back while talking to the cops. My uncle goes to help but is interrupted with the sound of bullets shattering the windows. Screams of terror surround the inside of the house.

I turn to my mom as she's trying to say something to me. She caress my cheek with her hand and tells my that she loves my siblings and I so much, if today is the last time she'll be here, she wants me to know that she'll never be gone , she'll always be watching over us. Tears Stain my mother and I face. I tell her I love her and thank her for everything and apologize for everything I've done wrong. An with that, my mom's breathing stops. I close her eyes and look at my surroundings. Everyone , one by one is getting hit by the bullets coming from outside the window. This can't be happening. I yell out for Daniel "Daniel! Where are you?!". I hear a cry coming from behind the couch. I make my way to behind the couch, staying as low as I can. There is see Daniel curled up covering his ears. "Casey, what's happening" he makes out the words, as he's sobbing while holding his favorite stuffed bear. "Shh sh Shh, it's going to be okay". I hold him close "everything is going to be okay, I'm not going to let them hurt you, now tell me, did you see where your brother Zach went" he points to the hallway. He must have ran to his room.

"Okay Daniel when I say go where going to run towards your brothers room, I'm going to cover your eyes and stay low till I say it's okay" he nods hesitantly. I hold Daniel while covering his eyes with one of my hands, so he doesn't have to see the horrific sight of everyone in the room. I make a run for it towards Zach's room, quickly opening the door and closing it. "Zach are you in here?" I see his closet door open slowly as he peeks out, once he sees it's me he opens it full and runs towards us. "What's happening Casey, why are people shooting at us?" He asks hoping I have a answer to what is going on. "I don't know but it's not safe here and I need to get both of you out of here." I uncover Daniel's eyes and tell him were okay for now. I wiped away the remains of his tears and tell him to get Zach's duffle bag out of the closet for me.

While he does that I focus my attention to Zach to grab a good sized blanket and coats. "I don't know what's going on but we're going to get a distance from here and wait things out, the cops should be getting here soon but right now inside the house isn't safe" he understands and starts getting the items I asked for ready and put into the duffle bag. I open the bedroom window and put the duffle bag through. Seems like no one is at the sides of the house, it's clear. I make a shushing motion with my hand towards Daniel and point towards the window . I help him get through and I motion for Zach to go next.

I hear the sound of foot steps heading towards our direction from the hallway, I quickly grabs Daniel's teddy bear and get out the window and close it just enough to make it look closed but a crack open for us to get back in. The door opens and we stay crouched below the window so who ever it is doesn't see us. "It's clear boss, no one's left, let's get to loading" a deep man's voice comes from the room and I hear the foot steps leave. I wait a moment and motion to my brothers to make a run for the trees. We make it to the trees and stay crouched. The snow seems to be picking up, it's not so cold now but it's going to get colder in about a hour or so. It's going to be a long night.