𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓 .𝐍𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐧

.before

━━━━━━━━
. B E F O R E
⇩⇩⇩
━━━━━━━━

7:52 AM
I CLOSED MY EYES, but I couldn't take the rocking. It was so early in the morning, and I was stuck on a small, yellow school bus going to a game with my debate team.

Most of our team were missing, and our best player was gone, so I didn't have much hope for a win. I leaned my head on the cold, hard glass, making my tight curled hair spread.

We were on our way to a small local college, to most likely lose, against a different rival college from down south from our small town. I was our team captain, though, I was a Junior at our collage. Standing small for a twenty-three year old, I often got confused with being a freshman, or even a volunteer.

The only reason I was chosen for the, seemingly, large roll was because when voting for captain, no one really cared. I even thought it would be fun to be captain, at the time.

My friend sitting to the left of me smiled and put one of her earbuds in my ear, only to find one of our favorite songs on. I smiled "Hey, even if we lose, today may still be a good day" I said to her, nudging her shoulder.

12:54 PM
WE GOT THIRD PLACE, losing all but one of our matches. The other teams didn't care that they won, they wanted it to be over -as did we- but they saw our failure.

In the end they put up some form of effort. Everyone on the team met up after our match and went to a local food place to celebrate our lost. Though, for me, I wanted to go home and rest immediately, so I skipped the dinner and went home.

I sat inside our living room, I had just changed out of my nice "professional" clothes, into some casual clothes. Miles, my twin brother, sat beside me; his hands on his phone, texting his girlfriend, Alyssa.

The T.V had on some cartoons on while our sister Lauren, and her little friend, Alexia sat in front of the small table in front of the couch; along with Nathan, Lauren's Twin. Twins ran into our family, my mother being a twin herself, so of course we were a handful of a family.

Lauren's chocolate hair was pulled into a lose ponytail as her attention was locked on coloring in her coloring book, as to contrast to Alexia. Alexia's light blonde hair was straight down as she struggled to keep still on the pillow. Nathan was quiet, occupying himself with Diego on TV.

I smiled looking at my large family, missing my mom and dad in the picture. My mom and dad were at the hospital, no surprise, while working my dad had gotten injured.

Of course the day we leave for the tournament, my dad had messed up his knee by putting too much stress on it while picking up a cement block; but it was for the best, he would have just been in a bad mood if they had not. It was perfect, in the moment. The pair of twins, and a normal, half functioning family. Perfect.

4:00 PM
I WATCHED OUT the window, as my mom ran out of the car. She had a man, a woman, and a boy that was around Nathan and Lauren's age trailing behind her. Mom was frantic, telling us to grab our valuables and pack up. Fear ran past me as I looked death in the eyes.

I grabbed a family picture, my father's ring that I kept on my nightstand, and a bag. To where I repeatedly shoved clothes into as I panicked.

I watched as Lauren and Nathan started to begin a small conversation with the boy my mother brought in. "Nina, Miles, baby, this is Shane, Lori, and Lori's son, Carl." My mom said, almost to clear the air for relief.

Miles swallowed "what's going on?" He asked, fear not showing in his voice.

"There's an infection, and it's spreading, fast. We met your mother at the hospital, we're gonna try and help you guys." The man, Shane, reassured. I closed my eyes, my heart beating rapidly as I hugged my bag close in my arms.

12:30 AM
I WAS ON MY KNEES, sobbing. My mother was bit on her neck; I knew what would happen, she would die. The same way our father died along with so many others only hours before.

I sobbed into her slow rising chest as Miles hid his face in his hands. Lauren and Nathan were being kept away by Lori and Shane, not having the heart to let them be exposed to this hell.

My eyes where red and puffy, but I couldn't care the way I looked at a moment like this. Mom would have laughed, she would of told me I was 'being emotional', and to 'get up'. Her chest slowly stopped rising, and I knew she was gone.

I picked my head up, holding back tears, as I aimed the gun down at the woman who raised me from birth. Tears were falling down my face. "I'm so sorry," I whispered one last time to her. I pulled the trigger, the loud bang ringing out. Miles, the strongest person I knew, still sat there, shaking his head as tears soaked his shirt.

⇧⇧⇧
━━━━━━━━