S.E.C.R.E.T.S.

Chapter 1: The Intruder

I was woken up by a loud noise coming from downstairs. It sounded like someone was trying to break into our house and unfortunately succeeded. I looked at the time. 4 a.m. I got up and quickly ran into my sisters bedroom trying to be as quiet as I possibly could. As I entered the girly pink bedroom I noticed something odd. My sister wasn't in her bed. The combination of the intruder in our house and Lilly getting lost made my heart race and I started panicking. I almost started screaming when the closet's door started opening so I had to cover my mouth with a hand. It felt like a nightmare. A horrible, terrifying nightmare.

"Jess?" I heard a soft voice coming from behind the doors of the closet. "Is that you?" As the crack became wider a little girl with a teddy bear in her hands stepped outside the closet.

"Lilly!" I mumbled quietly in relief as the wide smile crossed my face. I walked up to her and picked the five-year old up kissing the top of her brown-haired head. "You are okay. You are safe," I whispered to myself trying to calm myself down. Holding my sister tight to my chest I started walking to my parents bedroom. Suddenly another loud sound from downstairs reached us and I felt my sister flinch. Whoever was downstairs I don't think they knew that we were awake because otherwise we would probably be laying dead by now or they would have gone away or both.

I opened the bedroom's door and saw that my parents had just woken up too and were quickly getting out of the queen-sized bed. "You heard that too?" My dad mouthed looking for his gun and I nodded my head.

"Mommy!" Lilly giggled in relief and I put her on the ground.

"My babies!" Mom walked up to us and pulled us both into a tight hug making me feel a little less scared. "Are you both okay?"

"Jess found me," Little girl chuckled squeezing my mother's hand.

"Thank you, Jessica," In the dark I could see her smile and I almost forgot about a whole intruder situation downstairs.

"I'm going downstairs. Wait here." My dad commanded holding a gun in his hand. I saw the fear in my mom's face and I couldn't say that this whole situation didn't scare the hell out of me either.

"Ray. Don't. It is very dangerous. We don't know maybe they have guns," My mother pleaded in whisper.

"Call the cops." He commanded kissing her on the forehead. "See you soon," He said and walked out of the door. Mom immediately took out her phone and called 911. There was a loud noise coming from the downstairs that made all of us freeze. It sounded like a gun shot. Mom started crying quietly squeezing Lilly's small hand but I was just standing there praying that my dad is okay.

"Wake up! Wake up!" I started screaming in my head desperately. As much as I wanted to wake up, I knew this wasn't a nightmare. It was real.

There was a weird noise that shook me to the core. The sound wasn't loud but it was loud enough to let me understand that it was not the voice of my beloved father. It was a deep angry voice that reached us but it didn't sound normal. It sounded like the person who was making it was crazy. "You can't hide from me," He shouted and I could hear that he had a smile on his face.

"My dad is gone. He died," I repeated it over and over in my head but I just couldn't. I couldn't believe that. I didn't want to believe that but that was the truth and I knew it. I felt my eyes tearing up as I took my sister's hand into mine squeezing it tightly. "Hide," My mother mouthed letting Lilly's another hand go. I did what she said and crawled into a small closet dragging Lilly with me. I know it was a lame hiding spot but we didn't really had a choice. I closed the doors and put some clothes over me and Lilly trying to make us less noticeable.

"What is happening?" The little girl whispered and I could hear the fear in her voice.

"We are just going to play a little game of Hide and Seek, okay?" I answered trying to sound happy and she nodded her head in agreement. She loved that game. "Okay,"

I covered my ears and closed my eyes tightly waiting for another shot. We sat in the dead silence interrupted by a loud screams coming from my mother. The scream that I will never forget followed by another shot. The shot that took my mother's life away... I wanted to cry but I didn't let myself to. If I did Lili would understand that something was wrong with this game of Hide and Seek. Very wrong.