Silence | Fillie

Prologue

August 15th
Millie

People always refer to a day in their lives as being the worst day ever, and I never truly believed them until today. Everything was normal, I went to school, had chorus, and headed for the bus. Nothing warned me like it does in cheesy movies that a nightmare was waiting for me at home.

"Are you even listening?" My best friend Maddie Ziegler had asked from the seat behind me.

I pulled out an earbud and turn to face her. "Sorry." I said sheepishly. "I was thinking about Mr. Keery's test tomorrow."

Maddie rolled her crystal blue eyes and gave me a whatever look before launching into a story about whatever cute boy had talked to her today.

I listened or at least pretended to listen until we reached my stop, kissed Maddie's cheek, and got off the bus.

It's at times like these I miss Maddie with her always perfect dyed blonde hair, and never ending string of dance or boy stories.

"Brown!" Romeo's voice drifted up from somewhere behind me.

Turning slowly, I waited for him to catch up before walking again. "What's up, Ro?" I asked only half interested.

Romeo Beckham was a family friend meaning we had to get along because of our parents. He was a nice boy but he could get on your last nerve at times.

He brushed back pieces of wood coloured hair before speaking. "Just on my way to football practice." He shrugged, grinning that stupid grin at me.

"Football practice is that way." I said, pointing behind us. "You're going in the wrong direction."

He shrugged again. "I got time to walk a pretty girl home first."

I rolled my eyes and suppressed a scoff. "Go to practice, Beckham, it's never gonna happen."

Our parents had some kind of dream fantasy in which all of their children married each other, but that wasn't going to happen on any of our watch.

Romeo and his siblings seemed perfectly okay with this idea; however, and wanted nothing more than to see it carried through.

He seemed to think it over but before he could answer a car stopped beside us.

"Get in loser, we're gonna be late." A fellow football player, Connor, stated impatiently from the driver's side.

With one last flashy grin, Romeo got into the passenger's side and the car squealed away.

I don't know why I remember such little things as Romeo was in a blue button down, or how Maddie's famous heart ring was on the wrong finger that day, but I do. Maybe it was just the simple fact of it being the last time I saw the pair, either of them.

The walk home was like any other, I stopped to play with Mrs. Sinclair's dog, and helped Mr. Peeples carry in groceries before finally reaching the house.

Quickly unlocking the front door, I went in and sat my books on the kitchen table. "Hello?" I called out upon finding the living room empty.

"Millie?" Ava appeared in the hallway, her little hands coated in some kinda of red and sticky substance. "Thank God." She ran over to me and broke down crying in my open arms.

I held her close and set her on my hip. "Ava, what's wrong?"

She held a trembling, red finger in the direction of the garage and continued to cry silently.

We never used the garage for anything other than a band room or experient lab. Because Mum and Dad refused to park their cars in there due to the chance of leaving one of them on; which would cause us to die of carbon monoxide poisoning. 

So for something to be wrong in the garage was highly unlikely.

Worst case scenario, Ava had spilled a can of paint, got it all over herself, and was now afraid one of us would yell at her for it.

Discarding all thoughts that anything could be wrong, I carried her into the garage to have a look around.

But what I found was not a spilled paint can, but my twenty-one year old brother Charlie sprawled out on the floor in a over growing pool of his own blood.

Screaming, I about dropped Ava. "What happened!" I demand, peering down at the sight before me.

Ava didn't answer only whimpered and shied away from the sight. 

Setting her down quickly, I was by his side, on my knees in a second. "Char? Char, wake up." I felt for a pulse and found a very faint one. "Ava, go get my phone from the table and call 911 quickly."

I watched as the little blonde disappeared back into the house before turning back to Charlie.

He had a bullet hole in his abdomen just above his jean waistband and blood seeped from it at an alarming rate.

For a moment I wondered if Ava had done this accidently, but no we had no gums in the house save for Dad's police issued one-which was with him at work.

I could see the edges of my purple phone peeking out from in between her small fingers as she returned. "They're on their way."

"OK good." I nodded. "Go play, A, you don't need to see this."

She didn't put up a fight instead turned and ran upstairs.

So I waited in the garage with Charlie's blood all over me until the police finally arrived. Boy was that a mistake for the record books.

Welcome to my new book and I hope you enjoy it. Comments and votes are welcome anytime - Izzy