𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘳𝘦𝘦

Chapter Two: Julia

I turn my keys into the door, and walk in. The white chandelier above the staircase was on, and my dad was in the kitchen making something that smelled like cooked chicken. My mom must have left, she was nowhere in sight. She's most likely with some new suitor my dad will find out soon enough — typical.

    "Hey kid, how was John?" Dad asked.

    "Fine, we talked a bit then he left for basketball." I replied. Our school was religious about kids playing some sort of sport, and they claim it's to look better on our college applications, but really it's just for the school to look better to the public eye. Our education side was okay, I guess, but the main attraction was sports to others.

    "Roast beef good for lunch?" He said,

    "That's fine." I replied, and I walked upstairs to my room.

    Right now, I'm kind of regretting turning down Becca's offer to hang out because when I came into my room, it was a complete mess. I wanted to lie on my bed and sleep for a bit, but I couldn't do that when there was a pizza crust, a half-eaten bag of chips, bras and underwear, and clothes sprawled all over the floor.

    I thought of the excuse I made to get out of going with Becca, and I decide to shout up to Julia.

    "Julia! Want to go outside for a walk to the park?" I shout. My shout echoed the house before hearing her reply

    "Sure! Let me get Dora!" She yells back in a high pitched voice.

    Dora was her little doll that her mom gave her, before the fighting started to happen. My mom doesn't really care for me as much as she does for Julia, I've gotten used to it though and it doesn't bother me anymore.

    I started to walk down the left staircase, while Julia was skipping steps on the right staircase and reached the bottom before me. She put on her tiny pink sneakers and I grabbed my fall jacket and put it on.

    We walked out the door and started to walk to the park, it's a little windy out, but nothing that we couldn't handle.

    "Tellie, when is John coming back over?" She pipes up all of the sudden. I was a bit surprised by her question and I replied hesitantly.

    "Well, I don't know, maybe I'll ask him when I see him again" I replied.

    Julia adored John, and I still don't know why even after two years. He is super kind to her, which is a plus when she's a pain in the ass for me. Sometimes, I think it's the only thing that was stopping me from breaking up with him.

   John and I have had some problems lately. John really want to get married, and continues to talk about it. I mean, you date to either marry or breakup, so I guess I can sort of get it. But, when he first asked me about marriage, I kind of panicked, and I just said I did. The thing is, he never treated me right, always wanting me to change my appearance and such. Looking back at it now, I really don't. If I broke up with him now, Julia would be heartbroken, and then I would have to deal with her again.

So, I keep him around.

    "I want him to bring his Ken doll and we can play together!" She shouted excitedly.

    "Okay, well I'll let him know to dig that out of his closet, alright?" I replied a little annoyed.

    She shouted with excitement, not just from my answer to her request, but she saw the park in view and ran up to it. She was already almost there when I had barely even taken another step. I think my parents should have named her flash or something, instead of Julia. She was only eight but boy, could she run.

    I finally got to the park and I got a weird vibe already, and I didn't like it at all, but then again it was towards the end of June and that's when things really start to feel weird because you are officially out of school. Julia was climbing a fake rock wall to reach the top of the slide, while I sat down not the bench and went on my phone for a while.

    It didn't seem like anyone else was here, but I didn't like the feeling that there might be. I didn't like going to this park often because no one liked it, although Julia loved it, I'm sure if she could spend the rest of her life here she would. The park was a bit more run down then the other surrounding parks, and hasn't been renovated in many years. This park has looked the same since I went to it when I was a kid, and that's saying a lot.

    Julia keeps looking at the trees that surround the creek next to the park, she starts to wave over to it, but I don't see anything. Sometimes, Julia will wave or talk to air because she thinks there is a fairy or something there. You know, what kids think of when they can't hang out with their friends. I ignored it, thinking it was nothing, and continued to scroll through old photos on my phone.

    Julia suddenly hops off from the tall green slide, and walks over to the creek. This time I was intrigued about what she was looking at, and I turned off my phone, got up, and followed her. I call out her name a couple of times, but no reply.

    Suddenly, a blood curdling scream erupted from the trees near the creek. I immediately knew it was Julia, of course. The adrenaline is pumping through my veins, as I rush over there as quickly as possible. Running though rubber wood chips, I turn the corner, around some yellow monkey bars. I'm thinking to myself, God! Chantelle you should have watched her better! Then she wouldn't have gotten hurt! Now you got to dig her out of the water and get muddy. I continue to sprint through the wind, until I reach the gravel pathway.

    Little did I know, getting muddy would be the least of my problems.

Across the gravel pathway, I spotted my now dead sister, hanging on the branch of a tree bush, and a man in all black sprinting into the trees.