A Matter Of Minutes

Chapter One:

"Kayla!" I yell from the bottom of the stairs. "Kayla, it's time for bed!" My little sister runs downstairs and as she does her blonde girls bounce. "But I'm not tired!" She whines. "And I wanna play Barbies win Cameron!" I laugh as Cameron walks down the stairs. He kisses me and picks up Kayla. Cameron is my boyfriend who shares a brother-sister sort of relationship with my little sister, Kayla. "Go brush your teeth and put your jamies on. I'll tuck you in in a little bit." Cameron puts her down and she gives me a disgusted look. "Jamies? Really Courtney? I'm almost 9." She says. I roll my eyes. "You just turned 8 like 3 months ago." I laugh. She walks upstairs and me and Cameron go to the living room and watch a movie. I fall asleep on the couch with Cameron when I'm woken up by Kayla. "What's wrong?" I ask groggily. "The man with the mask was outside my window again." She says, her voice shaking. Cameron wakes up and I check the time. 11:00. "I'll go take her to bed and put her to sleep." He offers. They walk upstairs and I go into the kitchen. What does Kayla mean by 'the man with the mask' ? I start to feel a bit uneasy as there is a complete silence in the kitchen. I hear Cameron singing to Kayla from upstairs to make her sleep. He's such a sweet guy. I get a call from, one of my good friends, Jacob, about 30 minutes later asking to come over. "It's 11:30." I tell him. "Your point?" I sigh then welcome him to come over. And sense Jacob is coming, I may as well invite the whole clan. At around 11:43, they all show up and scavenge my cabinets for food. I feel a slight draft and my uneasiness returns as it gets closer to 12:00. At about 11:51, Cameron comes downstairs and joins us. "I finally got her to sleep." The guys all make faces. "Look at little Cam boy being all cute with his girlfriends wittle sister." Nash says. Cameron punches his arm. The rest of the guys all 'awe' and I laugh. At 11:56 my uneasiness gets even worse. "Courtney, you okay? You're looking a little bit pale." Nash says. "Yeah, I'm fine I just need to-" I'm interrupted by loud sirens. I cover my ears and scream. The sirens sound for about 2 minutes then adding on to the sirens, a person comes on a loud speaker. "This is not a drill. This is your emergency broadcast system announcing the commencement of the annual purge." I look at Cameron as tears are streaming down my face. "What the hell are they talking about?" I scream. "I have no idea!" "Weapons of class 4 and lower have been authorized for use during the purge. All other weapons are restricted." My heart pounds and my stomach flips. This can't be real. I drop to the floor and have a panic attack. I shake, cry, scream. "Government officials of ranking 10 have been granted immunity and shall not be harmed. Commencing at the siren, all crime including murder, will be legal for 12 continuous hours. Police, fire, and emergency medical services, will not be available until tomorrow afternoon at 12:00pm, when the purge concludes. Blessed be our New Founding Fathers in America, a nation reborn. May god be with you all." It's 11:59 and There is silence until the second it hits 12:00am. As the siren goes off, Cameron yells and we all drop to the floor.