Rosendale-No Longer Safe

Chapter 1

Night came quickly to Rosendale. At 10:00pm, some of my friends and I decided to go get ice cream at the only place in town that was open 24/7. When we arrived at J-Winnie's for ice cream, and it was closed. We looked in the window, and no one said a word. Inside, the police dragged a little girl out of a booth, a bullet hole in her chest. There, in the man's arms, the girl lay dead. A car pulled up and we ducked into the bushes, and watched. A tall man helped his wife out of the car. They ran to the door, crying. They pounded on the door until an officer opened it. The woman froze in her steps at the sight of her dead daughter. Her father ran over and held the girl's hand. Her eyes glowed a beautiful green. Her mother closed her eyes and tears soaked the floor. The officer grabbed the girl and pulled her out of her father's arms. Another police man came out of the room in the back, holding a gun in a plastic bag marked 'Evidence'.

"I found this in the cabinet above the oven. We can test it for prints." He said. They walked outside with all the evidence, including the girl. They stuffed everything in a police truck and drove off. The girls parents lay in the booth, still crying. As they were walking out they spotted my friends and I. "You! What happened to my little girl?!?!" Shouted the woman. She was furious. Her husband grabbed me and helped me out of the bushes, and he spotted Ember and Leo. Those are my friends who I wanted to take out for ice cream, before we knew about the girl. The man watched them stand up.

"Little man, do you know anything about what happened to our baby girl? She was only 12, who would do something like this?" The man asked. We told him how we were just trying to get an ice cream.

"She was 12, right? That's how old we are. Why haven't we seen her at school?" Said Leo. "She was

homeschooled." Replied the man. Ember started to cry.

"Ember, dear. Is that you?" Asked the woman. Ember raced off in the directing of the police station. We ran after her. The man helped his wife back into the car and they drove after us. They were also going to the police station. When we all got there, Ember was already in the interrogation room. She was wiping her tears away with her sleeve. The man put his hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright Ember." He said. "Just tell us what you know."

We watched as she sang like a canary. She told the man that she was at J-Winnie's when a man walked in and threatened her that if he ever saw her again, he would shoot her. He held a gun out until everyone was out of the ice cream shop. The man looked surprised. Then, Ember really did it. She told him that his name was Marcus Finch. She said, "I went to Devon's house after because, I didn't know who else to go to." The man asked her some random questions like, "Did you tell this, Devon, about what happened?" But she didn't tell me. When she got to my house, I just assumed she wanted to hang out. Why wouldn't she keep something this important from me?

When Ember got out of the gloomy room, her face was stained with tears. She was still crying. I asked, "Why are you still crying? We did what we could to help."

"No. There's one thing they can't know. Come on." She whispered to me.