SVU: Episode "Recompence"
November 30th, 1998
The night was still. Quiet. Dark. In the mere morning hours of that November morning, not a creature nor person stirred as the Meyers household slept within their old century brownstone. The only sound noticeable was the hush hush wind of winterous air swirling outside their frosted windows.
Darren and Gisele were in the master, snuggled tightly in one another's arms, while their four children slept down the hall. Emma and Jenny, the twins, slept in their cotton candy colored room, their unicorn nightlight glowing just beneath their single bedroom window. Their brother, Noah, slept in the next room. He slept in his Star Wars onesie pajamas as he tossed and turned every minute or so, engulfing himself in a ball of blankets by the time he returned back to a peaceful slumber.
And little Hayley, slept in the room across from her sisters and on the right of her brother. She was the oldest sister. At 8 years old, she was two years older than Jenny and Emma, and three years older than Noah. She was the big sister. The first born. The sound sleeper.
Until she heard a loud bang in the next room.
Her blue eyes shot open as she heard footsteps pound down the hallway. Like boots. Boots banging against the hardwood floor that filled the brownstone from top to bottom. Echoes of the clunky boots filling Hayley's ears even though she clasped her hands down against them to block them out. She could hear her mother, crying from down the hallway. A blood curdling cry shot in her ears and the young girl was petrified as she soiled herself in her flannel pajamas. She started to whimper. She was terrified of what was taking place only a few feet away from her.
She gathered up her bravery and reached for the handle to her bedroom door. She peeked out and saw her mother crawling on the floor, blood seeping out of her chest as she scrambled for the door. Her eyes were wide open, her breath trembling as she tried to fight her way to her children.
But a shadowy figure came behind her and she wailed out in terror as the figure shot a bullet through her head. Hayley gasped as her mother's blood splattered against the walls and she instantly closed her door and hid beneath her bed.
The footsteps came closer and closer and she could hear him enter her sisters' room. Emma and Jenny squealed and squealed as the figure's footsteps came closer and quiet came over again as he silenced them with four bullets each. The pop that gun made jolted Hayley and before she knew it, tears seeped down her cheeks as she heard it pop three times in her brother's room. She clasped her mouth to prevent her cries from being heard.
Her door swung open last and the dark figure entered. Hayley could only see his leather boots from under her bed. She watched him circle her bed, one foot by one foot, so slowly she began to tense with agonizing anticipation of her violent demise. She began to slowly slide across the floor, towards her door as he made his way to the other side of her bed. She was out from under it, her stomach still pressed against the floor as she watched him lift the comforter from under her bed. His shadow filling up the floor beneath it.
In a flash, she was gone and she darted for the stairs, running down as fast as she could into the snow outside her front door. She kept running and running, breathless as she sliced her feet against the pavement of the New York City Streets. She was cold, tired, and most of all, petrified. The image of the man killing her mother and the loud bang of his gun swirled in her head as she cried down the streets.
She only stopped when she crashed into a gentleman eight blocks away. She ran right into him and he caught her, putting his hands on her shoulder to stop her from running away further. She squirmed in his grasp, terrified it was the man who killed her family. She began to hyperventilate at the thought, her eyes bloodshot with horror as it flashed through her mind.
"Whoa, whoa. Miss. What are you doing in the middle of the streets at this time of night?"
"He killed my family! He killed my family!" She sobbed frightfully as she wrapped her arms around herself before the man took her in his. He was stunned, unsure of what to say. What to do. So he called the cops and before she knew it, the nightmare was beginning. Her family's murder was becoming real.
SVU Opening and Theme