Behind The Mask

Chapter 1

My mom was on the floor barely breathing. I lied right next to her with blood streaming from my mangled arm. The hot liquid came in a steady stream and my eyes had black spots forming in them. My right knee had searing pain shooting though it, making it apparent the shotgun shell had broken multiple bones. The sound of sirens filled my pulsing ear drums. A sigh of relief left me as the masked criminals left the only house I had ever known.

 As the last criminal rounded the outside of my house I swore I could see a smile creep across his uncovered mouth.  Then, I suddenly remembered my helpless mom. Her chest rose and fell at an uneven pace. Her eyes remained barely open as if she was in a struggle that she was clearly losing. She looked as though she was trying to scream out in pain, but her throat had a bullet buried into the center of it.

 The sirens grew louder, but they were still too slow and too far behind to be able to catch the morons who just attacked a saddened family of two people with the mom just getting over a terrible divorce. Ever since Jackson, my dad, had left my mom, Jennifer, nothing was the same. My mom now worked two jobs and I only saw her late at night every other day. She was always sad and even though she tried to make our few moments together special, it always ended up in her laying on our bed sobbing until she fell asleep.

 But now, she at least made it seem like she was happier on the inside. She was even able to find someone to go on dates with who, for the first time ever, she genuinely liked. She had never really liked my dad but had been pressured into marriage by his constant abuse and harsh actions. A tall, well built police officer stepped in the door interrupting my train of thoughts. The police officer sucked in a breath of surprise and horror.

 The last thing I could remember was seeing a pair of medics rolling in a stretcher and loading my mom on top of it while she grunted in agony. I woke up a little while later and could see sunlight streaming I though the thin, blue curtains of a hospital room.  I could see that I was hooked up to an IV machine and it freaked me out at first but it made me feel better about it when it pumped blood inside of me. My vision was slowly coming back and I could see a miniature T.V. was positioned in the top right corner of my room.

 Some movie that I had never seen before was on. I saw a scene where a mom and her son were hanging out and it reminded me about my mom. I jumped out of bed as fast as I could, almost pulling the blood machine off the table in the process. A surge of blood rushed to the top of my head and my legs came out from underneath me. My face slammed into the cold tile that lay in the room making it feel like a concussion had just come over me.

 My badly injured leg struck the ground shortly after making me release a scream of pain. I quickly  realized I was making a lot of noise and covered my mouth up so no one came and tried to usher me back into my bed. my knee had a huge cast wrapped around it that I hadn't noticed before or else I wouldn't have tried to walk. I found a wheel chair on the wall opposite to me and hauled myself up into it.

 I rolled myself into the entrance of my room and pushed the door open. I looked around for the nearest nurse and found one that knew where my mom was. After a long lecture about how I needed to get more rest, she led me to my mom.  I tried to remember the path so I could go to her at my own will, but after what felt like a thousand twist and turns, gave up and just followed her while trying to get used to the feeling of this new wheel chair. When we arrived at my mom's room, another nurse was just exiting and left the door open for us to go into.

 My mom lay sprawled out across a bed with her eyes shut. She was still unconscious and had thick layers of bandages wrapped around almost every part of her body except her face. Tears started streaming down my face as I saw my in such a broken, vulnerable state. "Your mom is going to have to stay her for a while, but she will live," the nurse behind me said. "She is incredibly lucky to still be alive and you are lucky too."

 "Unfortunately, neither of you all will be able to walk again." All I could think of was how when they found those responsible for this, I would take pleasure in being there to see them killed. Then, a loud buzzer went off and the nurses faces went blank as tons of people towered into the room. And just before someone locked the door, I swore I could hear a gunshot coming from off in the distance.