Chapter 1: An Unhappy Birthday

Four year old Will woke up early Monday morning excited to be able to go out with her parents for her birthday. When she got into the living room, she walked into the kitchen and didn't see her parents there. Will sighed hoping that her parents would have something for her to eat, it is her birthday after all. She couldn't tell time yet and so she had no idea that it was only four in the morning and she hadn't even noticed that it is dark outside. She is just too excited to notice anything like that. She walked over to the T.V. and turned it on hoping to see something on. It being only four in the morning, there really wasn't anything on. She sighed and then went back to her room and started playing with her frogs. 'I wish mommy and daddy were up.' Will thought to herself as she played with her toys. 'Did they forget my birthday? Did they forget about me?' That thought brought tears to her eyes and more thoughts like that came to her. 'My mommy and daddy don't love me anymore.' Will then started crying loudly.

In the bedroom a few doors down from Will's, Susan woke up to Will's cries. She shot up and ran out the door the best she could, scared that her daughter may be having a bad dream or worse but decided not to go into the worst case scenario. She made it out of the room clumsily and down the hall over to her daughters room. Susan opened the door to her daughter's room to see Will on the floor crying. Susan kneeled down next to her and wrapped her arms around her for comfort. "Will sweetheart, what's wrong?" Susan said yawning.

"Mommy and daddy don't love me." Will said through her tears.

Hearing this broke Susan's heart. She couldn't think of what could have happened to make her daughter think that. "Honey, we love you very much." Susan couldn't think of anything else to say and then Tony walked into the room rubbing his eyes.

"What's wrong Susan?" Tony asked still half asleep.

Susan looked up to her husband sadly. "She thinks that we don't love her for some reason." Susan said sadly trying to think of some reason that her daughter would think that. Tony came over and wrapped his arms around Susan and Will to try and help with the comfort.

Then they heard something that tore them apart. "Why do you hate me?" Will said sadly.

The two parents looked at each other with shock and hurt and then back to there daughter. Susan decided to speak first. "Will, we love you more then anything, what would make you think that we don't love you?" Susan asked with hurt in her voice.

"It's my birthday and you didn't come to my bedroom like you always do with food. You weren't up when I was." Will then started crying a little again.

The two parents wrapped Will into a tighter hug and this time Tony spoke up. "Will, it's still early, it's not time to wake up yet. You should still be in bed."

That made Will feel even worse even though Tony wasn't trying to. "You hate me now because you're up early."

Susan looked at Tony with a unhappy look on her face that said 'not helping' and then turned back to Will. "Will, we don't hate you honey, we could never hate you. We don't mind being up early, we just want you to be happy."

Then Will said something that made Susan feel even worse. "So now your mad because I'm not happy."

Tony then got his chance to give Susan the look she gave him a second ago. Before Tony could say anything, he saw a shadow go by the nearby window. Tony got up and told Susan to wait here. He got up and went and grabbed a bat and headed to the front door. He looked out the window and could see only small rays of sun on the ground so seeing much of anything is near impossible. He cautiously walked outside and looked around with the bat ready to hit whatever came at him, if anything came at him. He went to the side of the house and looked around the corner quickly and then brought his head back to make sure that nothing would hit him. After a few more looks, he walked around to the gate and opened it up. Tony walked slowly to the back of the house keeping his eyes open for anything. He couldn't find anything and decided to go back inside figuring that he was just seeing something. Once he got to the gate, he turned the corner and someone was just about to hit him when the person saw who it was. "Mack, what are you doing?"

"I was just about to ask you the same thing. I saw someone walking by my window and so I came out to check who it was. I didn't see him down the street and so I thought that whoever it was went into you're yard." Mack, his neighbor explained.

"I saw someone as well but I saw the person walk by my daughters window. Who ever it was is gone now though. I better get back inside." The two said goodbye and noticed the sun coming in more now.

Tony walked back inside and found his wife and daughter standing near the door. "There was no one there but get this, Mack saw someone as well. Who ever it is though is gone now."

Susan felt worried but decided to let it go and then went to the kitchen and made some frog shaped pancakes. By the time all the pancakes were finished cooking, the sun had shone through the darkness completely. Will ate happily now knowing that her parents still love her. "Ok birthday girl, what do you want to do today?"

Will thought about it and decided that she wanted to go to the park to catch frogs. "That's definitely what I want to do today, go to the park and catch some froggies."

Tony and Susan couldn't help but laugh at that. They had never met someone with such an interest in frogs. Susan and Tony nodded with a smile and then helped Will get cleaned up since she now has syrup all over her face and hands. "Ok Will, you ready to go?" Will nodded happily and rushed out to the car the best she could while dragging her father with her. The group got into the car and Susan started it up. She put it in drive, pushed on the gas, and off they went. They were just a few minutes from the park when a car came flying by and slammed into the side of the car. The car spun out and into a nearby tree. The car wrapped around the tree killing Tony on contact. The steering wheel was pushed downward onto Susan's body pinning her in and the seatbelt tightened cutting off her blood circulation and air. Glass hit Susan below the neckline. Will only had a few scraps as the part of the car that hit was the front and only some of the back to where Will is slightly pinned even more into her seat and some glass flew into her arm. All three of them were knocked out.

A/N: I know, this is starting off bad for them and sad. It will get better though. Please review and I hope you enjoyed the first chapter as much as a person can enjoy a sad story.