Witness Protection

Chapter One

"Tia! Wake up!" I was woken up by my little sister shaking me. She was as white as a ghost; I looked over at the clock.
"Amanda, it's three o'clock in the morning. Go back to bed." I rolled on my side, facing away from her.
"Tia, I herd something."
"It was probably nice. We get them every year. You know that."
"It didn't sound like mice. It almost sounded like mom and dad were having a physical argument."
"Mandy, you know how they get sometimes, especially if they've been drinking." I jut wanted her to leave my room. I wanted to sleep; we both had school in the morning.
"Tia, can you please go check on them? You're the only one who can calm them down when something like this happens."
"Fine, but after, you have to go back to bed because we both have to get up early in the morning." I got out of my bed. My hair was up in a messy bun; I walked by the mirror realizing it no longer looked like a bun. I took my hair down, trying to fix it as I walked into my parents room. I wasn't paying attention since I was working on fixing the rats nest in my hair, but I did notice the room was dark and oddly quiet. My dad was famous for his snoring. Even if my parents had a fight, they had both been drinking that night, so it was unusual for them to pass out almost immediately after getting into bed. I felt around for the light switch, thinking about how pissed my parents were going to be for waking them up. Finally, I found the light switch; I looked over at their bed. My jaw dropped instantly. I was trying to scream, but nothing was coming out. "Calm down, Tia. You don't know what happened" I thought to myself. I saw things from their night table thrown on the ground; the bed was torn apart, and they weren't in it. I noticed a little red stain on the bed, so I walked over to check it out. As I got closer, I saw blood splattered all over the wall by the window. "Mom and dad really must have beat each other." I knew what else could have happened, but I was trying not to think about that. I turned to look at the other side of the room by the closet. In big bloody letters was written "YOU'RE NEXT, AMANDA!" I screamed, probably the louder I had ever screamed before. Amanda ran to the door way.
"What's wrong... OH MY GOD!" She dropped to the floor crying. I walked over to the other side of the bed. As I rounded the corner of the foot board l, I saw them. My parents were dead on the floor. My mom was wearing nothing but her bra and underwear; my dad just had his pajama pants on. It looked like my dad had been shot in the head, and his hands were tied together. My moms hands were also tied together to the foot board post. I couldn't stand to look at it any longer.
"Mandy, call 911. I'm going to make sure this sick bastard is gone." Mandy grabbed the house phone that was thrown half way across the room.
"The phone isn't working."
"Then grab your cell phone!"
"Hello, 911, our parents..." That was the last thing I heard as I left the room. I grabbed my dad's gun that he had hidden, and I slowly made my way to the stairs. I noticed bloody footprints l, so of course I followed them. They made their way down the stairs and into the living room. I looked into the living room; everything was torn apart. What were they looking for? I looked down and noticed the footprints went to the kitchen. I followed them into the kitchen, trying to be as quiet as I could. They led through the kitchen and right out the back door. The door had been left open, so I went to the edge of the door way looking outside.
"I hope you rot in hell you piece of shit. I bet you left enough evidence behind, and the cops will get you," I screamed out the back door, slamming it shut. I then grabbed a towel so I could lock the door. I headed back through the kitchen and looked out the front door windows. I could see the blue lights heading up the road. I turned around; Amanda had been standing behind me.
"Holy shit, Amanda. You scared me."
"I'm sorry. I just don't want to be alone." I hugged me tight, holding her close, then there was a knock on the door.
"Excuse me? We heard talking. Are you alright?" I looked out the window seeing two police officers. I noticed the multiple police cars with their blue lights on and an ambulance close by.
"We're okay, just scared."
"It's okay, we're here to help. Are you guys alone?"
"Yeah, I looked around to make sure the person was gone."
"Okay, we're going to have you unlock the door so we can come in and investigate." I unlocked the door for the police officers, and they made their way in, followed by the rescue squad.
"May I get your names?" One of the officers said to us.
"I'm Tia and this is my little sister Amanda."
"Amanda, I'm going to have you go out to one of the ambulances to get checked out, and Tia, I need to ask you some questions." Amanda went out with one of the paramedics.
"Tia, what happened?"
"My sister came in, waking me up, saying she heard a noise. She said it sounded like our parents were having a physical argument."
"Is this normal for your parents?"
"It is if they've been drinking, which they both were."
"What happened next?"
"I went into their room to check on them. I'm the only one who can calm them down when they start arguing. The room was dark and quiet which is unusual because my dad snores. I turned the light on and everything was torn apart."
"And that's when you saw them?"
"No, first I noticed some blood on the bed so I walked over to the bed and saw blood splatter on the wall. I looked at the other walk and there was something written in blood."
"And what did it say?"
"It said 'you're next, Amanda'. Why are you asking me this? Isn't there an officer up there right now investigating?"
"There is, but we need yours and Amanda's side of the story. We need to be able to cross you off the suspect list."
"I understand." An officer walked down.
"Officer Tao, can I talk to you for a moment?"
"What's going on? I want to be kept in the loop."
"Tia, usually we can't allow that, but under the circumstances, we'll let it slide, but you have to promise to not repeat anything to anyone, especially your sister. She's not well enough or old enough to handle this. Detective Manson is the head detective on the case."
"Although we haven't had the evidence collected yet, we can tell this attack was personal. Somehow this person knows your family and their next attack is suppose to be your sister."
"Detective Manson?"
"Yes, Tia?"
"Do you think it was someone close to the family?"
"It's possible, but for now, we can't assume. We have to wait for the evidence to be processed."
"What's going to happen to me and my sister?"
"We'll know more once the evidence is processed. Take my card. I'll keep in touch to fill you in when we know more. For now, you and your sister will have to stay at a hotel or with a friend. Call me if you have any questions."
"We'll go to a hotel; it's too early to try to get ahold of anybody."
"Okay, I'll have a detective bring you guys to a nearby hotel." I went out to the ambulance to see how Mandy was doing; she was extremely shook up.
"Mandy, a detective is going to bring us to a hotel for the night. You'll still be going to school tomorrow, but I have to go to the police department to make a statement."
"I don't want to go to school. I want to go with you." I looked at Mandy concerned.
"If they need a statement from you, they will let me know." A detective walked over to us.
"Ladies, I'm detective Johnson. I will be escorting you to the hotel; I will also be watching your room tonight to make sure you two remain safe. Let's go, the cars over there."