It was supposed to be a normal night, nothing more, nothing less. Why did he of all people need to show up? She shivered hugging herself as she remembered what happened earlier in the day.
She strode up to the front of her apartment keys in hand, while she fumbled for the right one she thought she heard a noise. She finally jiggled the right key into the lock and pushed the door open. Nothing was off except the music blaring from her sister's room. Shrugging she threw down her keys and her purse, for once being grateful that her parents worked so late every night. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror from the bathroom. She strode over to it and opened the door wider, so she could see her full reflection. Sighing she brushed out her golden-brown hair, and let it frame her face.
"Don't know why it matters, I mean I'm not seeing anyone," She mutters to herself, but she doesn't step away from the mirror quite yet. She stares at the person in the mirror. Her hand creeps up and strokes her high cheek bones, her near-perfect nose, the hand pauses by her right eye. The piercing ice blue color doesn't complement her hair like her left eye which is a soft golden color. She shakes her head and looks back in the mirror to find that someone was looming behind her. Her eyes narrowed and she twirled around to face the man. Her defiant gaze melted away as she relaxed into her dad's arms.
"Welcome home Daddy, how was work?"
"Fine, but what are you doing up so late?" He eyes her warily, and she rolls a lie off her tongue ily.
"Oh, I was reading Richard Castle's latest Nikki Heat book," She looked at him innocently. He chuckles and ruffles her hair giving his 16 year old daughter a lopsided grin.
"Of course you were, now off to bed," She nodded and walked back to her room, "And no more reading!" He calls after her. She tossed a smile back his way and turned into her room. The dark blue room was almost a midnight black. She felt her way to the bed, but tripped on one of her sister's toys.
"I thought I told her to leave those damned toys in her room!" She growled softly. She picked up the stuffed toy up and trudged back into the hallway and into her sister's room. She rolled her eyes at the little girl's sleeping form. She walked over to the stereo and turned the music off. She shook her head and placed the stuffed animal under her sister's arm and switched off the lights. Walking back to her room she heard a loud BANG in the front room. She freezes and runs into her sister's room, grabbing the smaller girl and stuffing her into the closet.
"Sh, stay here Jade, I'm going to see what's going on," She stood up and placed her first finger to her lips. Her little sister nodded and stayed as quiet as she could, with a whimper or two escaping her.
She closed the closet doors and stole out into the dimly lit hallway.
"If this wasn't real life I would swear that this was a movie scene," She grumbles to herself. She sneaks a peek at the scene in the living room. What she sees shocks her. Her mom on the ground holding her side with a pained expression on her face, with her dad on the ground staring at the ceiling completely lifeless. Her hands flew up to her mouth, 'Dad must have tried to block the shot from hitting Mom,' she thought to herself. She backed away staring at her lifeless father and almost dead mother. Before she could turn she heard a man's voice, the voice of her stalker about a year ago, "Where is she Mrs. Roth?"
"Like I'd tell you," My mom spat out, before she coughed, and something sounded like it splashed on the floor.
"She's here, I know she is, so tell me and you won't have to die," The voice sneers.
"Go to hell," Her mom says, but the next thing shocks her. A shot doesn't ring out again, but the sound of a body snapping backwards sickened her. She backed up even more, and turned on her heel to flee to her room. She slipped into her room silently and blended into the darkness of the room. She shut her eyes knowing that her right eye would give her away from the slight moonlight coming through the single window in the room. She sunk to the floor, but before she could cover her ears with her hands a scream rings through the night and is quickly silenced. Her eyes fly open in fear and horror.
'My god! He killed her! He killed Jade! I have to get someone! I have to call the police! I thought a restraining order would be enough!' She thought furiously as she scrambled as quietly as she could to her bed. She freezes in cold-blooded terror as she realizes that she left her phone in her purse out front.
'I can't call for help! I-I can't do anything!' She backed away from the bed and melted into the shadows curling into a corner and weeping silently as the door to her bedroom opened. She stayed in the corner sobbing quietly.
"Dammit, she's not here. I guess I'll have to come back later when she's here. Tomorrow is most likely when she'll return," The voice retreats and the front door locks and footsteps fade into silence. She stayed there in the corner for the night, until she had the nerve to call the police.
"Excuse me? I'm Kate Beckett, are you a relative of these people?" She lifts her head and looks into the brown depths of the woman kneeling in front of her. Her gaze shifts to a man shadowing the woman she cocks her head remembering that her dad had the same kind look to his eyes. Her vision starts to blur as she and the man lock eyes for a minute. She rips away the split-second connection and swallows hard and looks around the woman some more. She sees a black man with a short cropped haircut, and a lanky-ish man. Numbly she nods her head at Ms. Beckett.
"Can you tell me your name?" Kate asks the girl. The girl looks up and Kate sees the emptiness in the girl's eyes as she struggles to keep herself afloat.
"N-Name?" The girl asks as if the word is foreign to her.
"Yeah, can you tell us?" she shifts her broken gaze back to the man who reminded her of her deceased father. "Tell you what- We'll tell you our names then you tell us yours?" He looks at the girl expectantly. She nods her head again.
"Well you know Kate," Again another head nod.
"I'm Espezedo," The black man says kneeling next to Kate.
"I'm Ryan," The lanky man says.
"And I'm Richard Castle," The last man says. Her head snaps up and wonderment and confusion clouds the girl's eyes.
"Castle…. Richard Castle, I know that name! I have your books!" The girl exclaims shooting up. Castle looks excited that he got a reaction out of her, but as quickly as it came the girl slumped back on the couch shaking in horror, "N-name, my-my name is Emerald, I-I had just, no-he." The girl starts to spit nonsense as she mumbles incoherently to herself. The group's expression turns concerned as Kate moved herself to sit next to the trembling girl. Emerald pulled away from her and jumped at Castle sobbing yelling, "DADDY!"