Unbroken

Prologue

It was a week after my 18th birthday and it was like any normal night. I kissed my parents goodnight, pet my dog for a few minutes and then went to my room. I grabbed my sweats and t-shirt off my bed and put them on to sleep in. I got into bed, played on my phone for a while and drifted off to sleep.

It couldn't be more than a few hours later when I jerk awake. I don't know what it was that woke me up, but something doesn't feel right. Whatever it is has got my heart racing and my breathing labored. I try to level out my breathing and stay as quiet as possible. That's when I hear it-- someone moving around downstairs. At first, my heart starts racing and I think someone might have broken in. But then I think, that couldn't be the case. If someone was in the house, my dog, Asher, would be barking up a storm. It's probably just my older brother, Jason, getting a late night snack. I swear, that boy never sleeps.

I try to go back to sleep, but I'm awake now. So I just mindlessly play games on my phone and scroll through my feed on Facebook. I'm not a huge social media person, but when it comes to nights like these, it can be my best friend. It's about 10 minutes later and I hear my brother climbing up the stairs quietly, as to not wake anyone up I'm sure. He doesn't go to his room first though. He stops outside of my parent's room, across the hall from my room. I hear him slowly open the door, that stupid annoying squeak loud as ever. I keep asking my dad to fix it, but he hasn't gotten around to it.

I then hear cursing, as if the squeaking wasn't supposed to be happening. That's when it hits me. That isn't my brother's voice. It isn't the voice of anyone I know.

There are more footsteps coming up the stairs and my breathing accelerates drastically, as well as my heart rate. The next set of footsteps stop outside of my brother's bedroom next door to mine and outside of my little sister's bedroom across the hall from his. They both open my siblings' doors at the same time and I hear them shut quietly. That's when I hear my mom's scream and my dad say, "Who the hell are you? What the fuck are you doing..." he is cut off midsentence by a gurgling sound. My mom screams again and I let out an uncontrollable sob, covering my mouth quickly as to not make a sound. I grab my phone and dial 911.

I can hear my mom crying begging for them to leave. The man says to her, "Shut up you stupid bitch." I can no longer hear her.

"Hello, 911 what is your emergency?" the 911 operator asks on the other end of the phone.

"Some... someone has broken into my house. I think... I think they killed my... oh god... please god no. I think they killed my parents and my siblings," I answer as quietly as I can while sobbing uncontrollably.

"Ma'am, I need your name and address."

"Thea Richardson, I live-," I'm cut off when my bedroom door suddenly slams open. "They're in my room."

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? She's a pretty little thing isn't she boys?" His voice is this scratchy, deep, scary voice. The type of voice that haunts you in your nightmares. "Hang up the phone and give it to me before I slit your throat like I did to your parents and my boys did to your siblings."

"Ma'am, do not hang up the phone," I hear the operator call to me from the phone. Like I'm going to listen to her. I hang up the phone and hand toss over to the man.

He catches it and smashes it into the ground and I know that this is the end for me. He walks slowly towards my bed, towards me, like a lion stalking its prey. Once he reaches the end of my bed, he grabs my ankle and drags me towards him. I try to pull away, kicking and thrashing, but it's no use. He is much stronger than I am. Once I'm directly in front of him, I refuse to look him in the eyes. He grabs my chin hard and yanks it so I face him. I can feel a bruise forming already. But why should I care, I'm going to die anyways.