Brave

chapter two

Chapter two

I knocked on the door expecting a moan or grunt coming from the other side as a response to come in but got nothing. I quickly knock again a bit louder. Nothing. Anxiously I slowly turned the knob and pushed the door open.

It was dark. I tried to see through the darkness in the room, failing my attempt to see my parents. A sharp smell hit my nose. Is that match? Smells like a match. But mom and dad would never light a match this late. Without a second thought I ran my hand over the wall in search for the light switch. The second I found it I switched it on.

 What I saw next will forever haunt my dreams. I found myself stuck. Starring at the scene. My parents were everywhere. I mean everywhere.  I starred as the blood covered sheets at what was left of my mother’s body. I looked at her head, dripping with blood, with eyeless sockets. Across the room I found my father’s legs. I ran across the room in hopes to find him alive or at least in one piece. I was horribly wrong. I backed away seeing only my father’s legs. Torn from his torso. I scanned the room in hopes to find the rest of him. To look into his face one last time. Then I saw it. I had looked up in despair and saw him. He was in pieces. Slowly spinning from the fan.

Afraid, I looked to the back corner, hoping desperately that they were ok. I looked in the corner only to see the blood covered beds of Rebel and Sammy, my two wiener dogs. No. I can’t be alone. No. I knelt down to see under the bed to see nothing. I scanned the room when my eyes fell on something brown. I walked across the room and picked it up. It was fur. It was all that remained or Rebel. I could tell by the shad. I looked at where I had picked it up to see white fur as well.

I was alone. Both my parents and dogs were gone. Falling to my knees I reached for my pone and dialed 911.

“Yes. This is 911.  What is your emergency?” a girl asked through the phone. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

“Their dead” and with that I broke. I collapsed onto the floor full force allowing the tears to flow freely. I cried at the thought of never hearing my parent’s voices again.

“Sir, Help is on the way. Who’s dead?” she asked but I couldn’t respond. Hearing her say the words brought on a new wave of tears and pain at the loss of my family. Within seconds I could hear sirens coming closer to the house till they were out front. I heard the knock.  When I dint move I heard the door kicked open. I found just enough strength to yell out. “In here!” and that was it. They came in to find a sixteen year old boy on the floor in tears surrounded by blood and body parts.

As I cried I felt hands grasp my shoulders and pull me up but I had no strength. I fell to the floor with a thud. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the paramedic’s faces. They looked at me with pity then lifted me again, only this time they carried me out.

 They sat me down in one of the trucks and began to check for injuries. “Stop. I’m not hurt. Please. Just help them.” I managed to choke out as a girl began to clean my tear streaked face. She stopped and looked at me. Her eyes beginning to fill with tears. “I’m sorry but we can’t help them. Not here. Not now. The only thing we can do is take care of you and get them to the morgue. I’m so sorry you have to go through this.” She said as she hugged me. I hugged her back, trying to suffocate the wave of tears that were pushing their way forward.

.......

I had been there for hours. They had questioned me. And now. Now that they were sure it couldn’t have been me, they treated me like a hurt animal. When they spoke to me it was in soft tender voices and they spoke slowly. As if slowly trying to compose a sentence that wouldn’t remind me of my family in fear of bringing a new wave of tears.

It was morning and I had hardly slept with the image of my parents dismembered bodies haunting my dreams. Or should I say nightmares.  They looked for any family connections and found nothing. Nothing more than family I had never met or heard of. That was enough. I was an orphan with no one to care for me.

I looked up at the sound of footsteps and saw a girl with pitch black hair being lead and partially carried into the building. It was Kate. I practically ran to her and took her by the hand. She looked dazed. She looked up with a look of surprise that quickly melted back into one staring off into the distance.

After confirming I knew her I took her to where I had been sitting and took her into my arms. She didn’t seem to realize where she was or even seem to care. She just continued to stare off into the distance. “Kate?” She looked for where her name had been called from. “Kate.” She looked at me. “Are you ok? What happened? Why did they bring you to the police station? Kate! What happened?” I was practically screaming at her as she just looked at me. I looked into her eyes and saw tears beginning to form.

“Nico?” it came as a whisper. “Kate, I’m right here.” I said as I wrapped my arms around her tighter, as if to protect her from more traumas. She looked me in the eyes one more time then turned away. “When I got home they were in their room, asleep I thought. So I went to bed. This morning I woke up at about eight. I went out to the living room and it was empty, kitchen too. So I went to knock on the door but no one responded.  I got worried. Maybe they were sick. I knocked again before opening the do-’’ she was crying now. Tears marking her face but she quickly composed herself. “I opened the door and. And there was. There was blood everywhere. It smelled like rotted meat. I ran out of the room and called 911. I went back in after the call and looked for some sign that it wasn’t my parents. But I couldn’t.”  She began to cry again and buried her face into my chest. I held her till eventually she cried herself to sleep. Even then, I never once let go of her. And I wouldn’t till she wanted me to.

…….

It seemed like hours passed as I held a sleeping Kate in my arms. In her dreams she must have found a way to forget everything that had happened in the last few hours and escape to her own little world. it must have been a good dream because every once in a while she’d smile and I couldn’t help but smile too, knowing that at least in some world she was happy.

I looked up to see who was entering the building as the bell above the door rang. As a group walked in, I could see three teenagers. I froze when realization swept over me and I as able to see who had walked in. I couldn’t be sure though because the police were right in front of me.

I must have moved forward too quickly because Kate looked at. “What’s wrong?” I couldn’t speak, trying to put the pieces together. What are they doing here? Is that really them? Kate must have followed my gaze because in a matter of seconds she was up and running over to the group.

 “Angy! What’s going on? Chris, Alan. What’s going on? What happened?” she asked. Finally I got my wits together and walked over. Angy just looked at us. Her face was marked with the tracks tears had left. I looked at Chris and Alan.

“Are you all right? What happened?” I asked them practically begging them to say something. Anything!  Finally, it was Alan who spoke. “Long story short. Their dead. All of them. Angy called Chris after she tried you and didn’t answer. He drove over to her house and there were cops everywhere. He went back to the house to tell his parents he wasn’t going to be home for a while and get his cell phone. He walked into their room and they were just there. Dead. He called the cops and me. I almost didn’t answer the phone because a few minutes before. I found. I-i-I found- they were dead. The three of us.”  He hung his head trying to hold back the tears as he finished.

 I stood there frozen. What the fuck is going on? All five of us. Finding our parents dead. Something is up. but what?