I run into my brother's bedroom and wake him up before, without even explain what is happening, hold his hand and guide him to the false bottom of the wardrobe, something we built together for safety. Inside there, I turn on a flashlight and illuminate the place.
"What is happening?" He asks after we are safe. But I can't speak. My breathing is too accelerated and the damages on my heart are too horrible to speak without cry. "Kat? Say something!" My nine-year-old brother can't keep quiet without an explanation, just like me.
"Nate… I will try to tell you… Without cry." I sob once before recuperate the control. "But you must promise me you will not make even a sound until I say it is all right". He nods in agreement.
After one second of hesitation, I give my first try on telling Nate what I saw downstairs.
"Right. Can you speak now?" He asks.
"Yes. Well… You know I don't have a deep sleep, right? So… I… I woke up with a noise downstairs and went to check if was everything ok. When I went to the stairs to look… Oh, Nate… There… There was a man and he had a gun and… Mom and dad still there. I don't know if anyone saw me, I just needed to come and hide you". I can't stop sobbing as I speak. Must be hard to understand me, once I can't speak properly because of the sobs.
"Kat… You mean that… Mom and dad…?" His eyes are full of tears, which will soon fall trough his face.
"I don't know, Nate. I… I am… I am so scared!" I whisper. Then I hear screams and horrible strangled noises before… It was a shot. And another one. And it happens again, again and again.
It is over. I don't think they survived. And I do not think it is safe to get out of the wardrobe. That man probably still at the house, looking for every single thing what he may be able to steal. Nate starts sobbing, denunciating his psychological situation. Please, don't cry right now, I beg mentally. That man can't hear us, or both of us will be raped and killed or kidnaped. Well, at least I will be raped.
I cover Nate's mouth with my hand and turn off the flashlight. Some tears fall on my fingers and his body is shaking.
We hear a noise out of the wardrobe and our muscles freeze. I can't move and feel his body stop moving as well and I don't feel his breath anymore. I kiss his white hair and close my eyes, hoping he is too stupid to check inside the wardrobe.
"Katherine, I love you." He whispers.
"I love you, Nate." I sob as low as I can. Tears wet his hair and I wonder if Nate and me will be alive tomorrow. Out of the wardrobe, I can hear the man's fake kind voice, trying to attract us from wherever we are.
"Hey, kids, come here! Come play with uncle Josh! I will take you to your parents, come!" Yes, of course you are, you are going to kill us as well. At least I know your name, bastard. I answer mentally. I listen to the noise of the man dropping everything down to look for us. Soon he will drop the wardrobe as well, so I press my hand even harder over Nate's mouth and bite my lower lip. Oh, my god, I am so scared! If I die, it's fine, but I am the oldest sister, I need to guarantee my brother's future. I need to protect him.
We spend at least one our without make a sound as the man look for us without find even a clue. Sometimes he was so close that I was sure he would find us. I could hear his breathing out of the fake bottom without discover it. Then, one our after the moment we heard him going out of the bedroom, he leaves the house.
Nate starts to cry and he cries louder than ever before. I hug him and make him rest his head on my breast, stroking his white hair and trying to control his tears, which drench my pyjama shirt. Nevertheless, now that I can allow my tears to fall as much as I want to, I can't cry. I guess I arrested it so much that I only will be able to cry next mourning. But Nate cries until the moment when he sleeps. Then he makes me sleep with his deep, calm breath.
≥•≤ ^•^ NEXT MOURNING… ^•^ ≥•≤
"Kat? Kat? Katherine!" My brother calls me. It must be mourning, once Nate always wakes up at 8 o'clock. We spend the night inside the wardrobe. Now it's getting a bit hard to breath.
"What?" I open my eyes and don't see anything, because it is too dark here inside. "I think we can go out now, but I go first."
"I'm thirsty." He almost begs me.
"Me too, but we can't go downstairs. Let's just drink from the bathroom, it will not be bad to us if we do it only once." We silently walk trough the house until the bathroom and I open the cold water. Both of us drink as much as we can, as if we had spent a week in a desert. Then, we finally stop drinking and I go to the phone to try to call the police.
Nate and me go down and I hold his hand, both of us nervous about what we will see after the stairs.
"Mom!" My brother's childish voice sounds scared and upset as both of us run to met our mother's body. "Kat… Mom! Mom, please, wake up!" He screams, crying hysterically. Tears are falling again trough my cheeks, but now more sorely. Her body lies on the floor, still on her pyjamas. The blood formed a pool around her body. There are holes all over her chest and her face is even paler.
"Nate… She will not wake up." I sob. I just need him to stop talking. I can't keep listening to his hopes.
"But she needs to! Katherine… She needs to wake up!" He tries.
"Please, stop it, she will not wake up, she is dead, Nate. She is already dead." I say. He closes his eyes, finally accepting it. "I'm sorry, I know exactly how you feel, but she will not wake up. And Dad will not come back either. You know it, right? You are a smart boy, Nate… You know they wouldn't survive."
"I know… But I need them to come back." His eyes show that he knows the truth. I open my arms for him to fit on me and he comes. I had never hugged him so hard before. "What are we going to do now?" He asks. Somehow, I make myself stop crying and push my brain to start working.
"The police will come soon. Probably is better to have a bag and be ready to leave." I say, trying to keep thinking.
"Okay. I just want to say goodbye. And I think you should do it as well." I nod and both of us kneel to give our mother a hug and cry on her lap one last time. Then we do the same with our father. I kiss his forehead one last time before holding Nate's hand and pulling him trough the stairs.
We start organizing stuff that the thief didn't want to keep or either sell. There are family pictures, his robots, my books, my phone, which I took to inside the wardrobe last night, my laptop, which was well hidden on my bedroom, once I've been paranoid since I was nine years old. We also take some clothes and both of us get dressed before going back to the stairs and watch when four men get into our house.
"Hello, kids… I guess there is no point on saying good mourning" Says a man who seems to be a social worker.
"It depends." I start. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"
"What?" He asks. I roll my eyes. Stupid.
"Gandalf said it in The Hobbit". I explain. "You know? The Hobbit? Bilbo Baggins? Gandalf the Grey? Thorin Oakenshield? Gollum? You know, the one that, in the movie, keeps saying 'my precious' with a weird voice?" I say the name of the most known characters.
"Oh! The Lord of the Rings. I see. Gandalf is nice." Yeah, I don't think there is any point on discussing it with this man. "Well, why don't you come here to explain me what happened last night?"
"Yes, sure. Come, Nate." I hold my brother's hand again and we go downstairs. Three men are analysing my parent's bodies meanwhile I explain to the man, Peter Scott, what happened yesterday night and today's mourning.
"Are you the only children in the house?"
"Yes. Hm… Can I ask you what is going to happen to us after we are finish here?" Asks Nate.
"Well, I think I should talk to your sister about this."
"No. Nate has the right to hear as well. He will know it, no matter what you tell me. So or you tell me here, or you just don't tell me at all. Both of us know that our parents are dead. We know they were murdered and we are alive because of a miracle. We know that we are going to an orphanage or worse after this. If you are also going to separate us, just tell us now, because nothing worse can happen, Mr Scott." I am not quite sure of where did this new way of speak came from, but I like it and Nate seems to like it as well, because he smiles at me.
"I will not separate you. I am taking you to a place called Wammy's House, it is an orphanage where you will live from now on. Believe me, you will like that place. My best friend was raised there and he decided to keep working there as an assistant. We are leaving as soon as possible."
"Okay. We got our bags ready."
"One of the agents already packed everything you had left in your bedrooms and we will take to the Wammy's, where you can select what you want."
Finally the man guide us to a black car and tells us to get in it. I hesitate and look behind for a moment. After this, after getting into the car, I will never have my life back. Well, I wouldn't get it anyway. It will be better if I have my little brother with me. I obey him and Nate follows me and we keep looking back as the car starts moving. We look at the house in which we lived. We look at the house where we used to be happy, without know if we will feel it again. I honestly doubt it.
I allow one last tear to fall trough my face.