Case Closed/Eyes Open

Chapter 1

"...Noah?" The room around me was bright and cold. A rampant buzzing from the lights above me resonated in my ear leaving an uncomfortable ringing in my mind. I was dazed. Everything was moving around me. It felt like I was on a moving ship swimming over some not so calm waters.

"Noah...?" I could hear their voices, but for some reason I just couldn't focus on them or their words. What had happened to me...what I had experienced I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy...then again I don't have many enemies. Actually, I have no enemies at all. What has my life become.

"Hey Noah. Stay with us, you have to tell us who killed your Mother. Who killed Lyla Emmerson?"

Rewinding to just  half a day later I was on my way home from school. My dad had been on a business trip for a few days and my uncle from Florida, was visiting my mom. A little backstory on my mom and Uncle, I didn't know I had one until he randomly visited us and apparently, he and my mom had a bad falling out.

He moved to Florida erasing her from his life and she doing the same. Dad didn't even know mom had any siblings. All I remember is coming home after school and walking into a full-fledged drunken war between my mother and uncle. Nice way of meeting someone for the first time by the way. My mom noticed me and quickly guided me to my room and closed the door behind her. I have never seen her act that way before so you could imagine how startled I was at the time. They went on for hours. So long in fact I practically fell asleep to the sounds of their rambling. That's when I woke up at the odd hour of 3am. I literally slept for a straight 12 hours and don't remember falling asleep.

I got up from my bed with my school clothes still on. The air was thin and the silence thick. I called for my mother but with no answer, so I decided to walk out the room. I called for her once more when I made it to the top of the stairs, but again no answer. I looked down the steps and saw that the front door was wide open. I slowly walked downstairs as the wooden steps creaked beneath the pressure of my footsteps. I tried being quiet because I didn't know what had happened or what was going on. When I made it downstairs the first thing I saw was my uncle passed out drunk hands covered in blood. My eyes trailed from his position upward and I fell to my knees and began screaming in fear and disbelief.

My mother's face had been bashed beyond recognition and if it weren't for the clothes she was wearing I wouldn't have realized it was her. What felt like minutes was hours of me crying over her body. I nearly wore myself out as I was finding it hard to stay awake. Every time I dozed off I felt something tugging at my mind unaware of what it was. I remember closing my eyes for a solid second and seeing my uncle come to. After that everything went black.

About 15 minutes later I could hear the faint sirens. They sound helped wake me from blacking out. I saw my neighbors sitting beside me rubbing a rag on my head. Within moments police officers flooded my home, immediately apprehended my uncle who woke up abruptly and snapped his head back and forth examining the room trying to grasp the situation at hand. His eyes focused on my mom as they soon widened.

"Lyla...?" He said in as much disbelief as I was, "Lyla?! What happened?!" The police held my uncle up so that one of the officers had a clear look at his face.

"So, Hayden. You have a history of drunken assaults...but this, this one takes the cake. If you are lucky they'll give you the death penalty. As for me, seeing you behind bars for life would be even better. I'd watch you rot you pathetic piece of sh-"

"Chief!" One of the officers had said as he led the Chiefs attention toward me. The Chief had rubbed his forehead after taking off his cap. Letting out a deep sigh he proceeded toward my uncle as he escorted him out the front door. I was soon approached by another officer and was guided out my home as well. Walking across my lawn I noticed two coroners brush passed me. I didn't want them touching my mom, but I had no more fight left in me. I was in a daze still. I didn't know what to say or what to do. Honestly what could I have done other than cry some more?