Vice and Acceptance | Completed |

Biting the Bullet

"Jadyn, you and Riley just play outside today okay? Mama needs some time alone."

This wasn't the first time Jadyn had been put in charge of her 9 year old brother for the day, luckily Jadyn and Riley loved each other more than anybody else in the world.

They ran around all day playing kickball, tag, hide and go seek, and now that the sun was beginning to set they were completely tuckered out. They were lying under a massive oak tree in their backyard, it was their tree. A couple of years back Jadyn had etched their names into the bark with a sharp rock. Now she was slowly tracing it with her fingertips, thinking about how much better her handwriting was these days. Riley was growing restless beside her.

"Jadyn, mom hasn't checked on us all day. What is she doing?" He sighed.

"You act like this is something new Riley, you know she likes her alone time. We'll go in and see her in a little bit. Just wait for the sun to go all the way down."

"But she hasn't even walked up to the window to look out at us," he exclaimed, "I usually see her at the window every once in awhile when we're playing."

Jadyn rolled her eyes, "Riley you can be such a little worry wart. Come on, we'll go in early."

They scrambled around the yard picking up their miscellaneous toys, as Jadyn reached for her jump rope there was a loud noise from inside their home. A noise that echoed through the trees and bounced off of every house in the neighborhood. A noise that will haunt Jadyn's dreams from this moment forward.

"MOM!" Riley took off running towards the house, his mother's safety being his only concern, feeling no fear for his own. Jadyn grabbed him right before he reached the door, "we have to be careful."

The scared children stood silently outside the door, waiting to see if there was any more commotion. After a few moments of silence, Jadyn stepped forward, wrapping one hand around the knob and gripping Riley's hand in the other.

She'll never forget the scene that sat before her. Her immediate reaction was to turn around and embrace Riley, shielding his eyes from the horror movie that was in their living room.

"Riley.. I need you to go next door and tell Mrs. Novak to call the police. Can you do that? Don't look inside. Please don't look inside. Just turn around and go straight to Mrs. Novak's, do you understand me?"

Riley nodded, tears streaking down his face solely because he saw them forming in his sister's eyes, then he ran. He ran as fast as he possibly could, only stopping to look back at his sister one time.

He'll never forget the way her face seemed to break into a thousand pieces as she hugged her knees to her chest and finally released her tears.