Drafted

April 15,1871

I remembered the day it happened. It was cloudy that day, and the sun hadn't even graced us with her presence yet. As if she knew something bad was about to happen. My family and I were asleep and I was awaken by gunshots. I rubbed my eyes and looked out the window to my right in between me and Margo's bed.

Through the alley it was wet because it had been raining all morning. I looked down the right of the alley and there I saw three rows of men marching down the brick alleyway in black uniforms. As I stared, a man spotted me in the eighth row of three. He was the one closest to the building. He yelled out to me:

"Damn you!" he fired at my window as I ducked to take cover. The glass window shattered on the floor. As I crouched, I quickly ran to Margo's bed and shook him awake.

"Margo!" I yelled.

"What is it?" he said in a yawn, still tired. He sat up in the bed, stretching and scratching his head. He happened to look down at where I was crouched, and how there was glass on the floor next to me.

"What the ­-­-­-­-"

"BOOM!" a bomb sounded outside. It startled us both, and Margo fell onto the floor right along with me,scared.

"C'mon!" I yelled. "We gotta go get everyone up!"

"Uh, I'm sure they heard the big explosion outside!" he said still afraid out of his mind.

"Go get Mario!" I shouted to him over the loud amount of gunfire going on outside, along with the screaming from all of the chaos going on.

"Okay!" he said. "Then you go and get Mom and Dad!" We then both split up, me heading towards the staircase to my parents room. As I made my way up the stairs, there was another "BOOM!" outside, knocking me to the ground. I panicked, tripping up the stairs saying: "Mom!Dad!" I yelled it at the top of my lungs to the point that I was hurting my throat. "Mom!" I shouted in a panting voice. I had been blown down to a crouch and I continued to attempt to make it up the stairs until I finally reached the top which seemed to take forever.

And there was my parents bed, Banning's bassinet close by it. "Mom!Dad! Please wake up!" Just then another bomb exploded. I ran up to their bed shaking them.

"Boy what is it?!" Father said. He was still very sleepy.

"The English have come!" I told him as he climbed out of bed. "They're here!"

He peeked out the window at the catastrophic scenery. People running and being shot down and killed. "My God!" he said. He then reached under the bed, grabbing his shotgun, along with ours. My mother climbed out of the bed grabbing our baby brother in her arms. The guns were fully loaded. He passed me a gun and I held tight to it, very nervous of what was to come.

My brothers soon entered the bedroom as he passed us each a shotgun. My Father stood tall, and strong, a rifle in his clutched fist. "Margaret, go upstairs with the baby." he told her. "Lock yourself in the attic." My mother rushed up the stairs to the attic as our father looked each of us in the eye in a look of concern, love and fury. As if there was no way that he was going to let this happen. Not here, Not now.

Just then there was the sound of the front door being broken. My father pocketed five bullets. Around his neck was his gold cross. He prayed a prayer as he held it between his fingers. He went through us to head down the stairs first, touching each of our heads.

"C'mon boys. Let's go downstairs." He aimed his gun, prepared for what was in our living room. We nervously followed behind him, procrastinating at the top of the staircase.

From the sound of it, there were people in our kitchen since he was shooting at the bottom of the stairs. We could hear swords being swung at the top of the stairs. I went down first, Mario behind me, and Margo behind him.