One year.
12 months.
52 weeks.
365 days.
8,760 hours.
525,600 minutes.
31,536,000 seconds.
One year.
It's been a year since my parents found it clever to leave me and my brother home alone for a weekend. Of course, I don't blame them for what happened. How could I? They didn't know.
It was only Friday, but everything was going fine, more than fine actually. Caleb and I had made dinner without burning the house down. We had cleaned up without making a bigger mess than before. We were going to prove ourselves responsible to the only people who's opinions actually mattered.
We had both settled in to our rooms for the night when a loud bang came from downstairs. Caleb ran into my room, "Beatrice, hide. I'm going to find out what that was, I'll be back up when it's all clear." He grabbed my softball bat from my closet the raced downstairs.
If I had known what would have happened, I would have followed him.
I quietly pulled my bed away from the wall and hid. My bed was built with drawers at the front which only went under it a little way, so when I pulled the bed back over me, I had just enough room to lay comfortable and camouflaged. I dimmed the brightness on my phone and prepared to dial 911.
The first thing I heard was a crash, something glass had broken. I then heard a pained shout coming from Caleb. I started to pull my bed away to get out and help.
"Help! Somebody please!" Caleb was screaming, I dialed in the three numbers - 9-1-1 and hit call as I stepped out of my room, remaining quit.
"911, what's your emergency?" A calm voice of a woman spoke.
"Someone has broken into my house, they're hurting my brother. Please get someone out here, my address is 1396 Cherry Ln. Please hurry." I whispered in a panic.
"Okay calm down, someone is on their way,"
I nodded knowing she can't see me I asked, "How long?"
"Less than 10 minutes, hang in there,"
"Thank you," I hung up the phone and started slowly downstairs. I flinched when I heard another scream of pain followed by a cry of help. I ran downstairs upon hearing a crack, then silence.
The scene that awaited me was not a pretty sight. Glass was everywhere, my mother's bowls had been shattered. There was a large blood splatter on the wall of the kitchen. Everywhere I looked, there was some sort of damage. Furniture was out of place, a few blood spots here and there. Yet, Caleb nor the sick basturd who did this were nowhere to be found.
The police arrived a few minutes later. I recounted everything that had happened, from the bang to me coming downstairs. One brought me outside.
"Do you have anywhere to stay?" She asked.
I shrugged, having no idea how to react to this, "I could call my friend Christina, my parents won't be home until Monday,"
She nodded, "Okay, call her. Do you want me to call your parents or do you want to tell them what happened?"
"I'll tell them, if they hear it from you they'll both have a heart attack," I answered.
She smiled sympathetically, "You're very brave, we'll get to the bottom of this," She placed her hand on my arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze before heading back into my house, or as they were referring to it - the crime scene.
I called Christina first, she picked up on the first ring, "Hey Tris, how's the parent free life going?"
I couldn't help myself, I broke into tears, sobs actually.
"Tris? Are you okay? What's going on?"
I couldn't answer.
"Tris, hun, I'm coming over,"
I found my voice, "No, you can't, can I stay at your house for a while?"
"Yeah, if you explain what's going on. I'm scared."
"I'll explain when I get to your house." I thought for a moment, "On second thought, can you pick me up, I don't think I should be driving. I'll be at the end of the street, where Cherry meets Brookridge, please don't go by my house."
"Okay, I'll be right there," She said before clicking off the phone.
I took a moment to breath and attempt to control my seemingly uncontrollable sobbing before calling Mom and Dad, "Hello, Beatrice? Is everything alright?" Mom answered her phone.
"No, far from it," I managed to say between sobs.
"What happened?" Her voice was panicked, "Where's Caleb? Don't say anything let me put you on speaker so your father can hear as well,"
I waited to speak as she said. On the other side of the connection I heard and muffled and panicked - Andrew!
"Okay, what happened?"
I took a breath, "Everything was great before we heard a loud banging noise, Caleb went to see what it was. He took my softball bat and told me to hide. I hid then I heard glass breaking and Caleb screamed so I called 911. I went downstairs, the whole time he was screaming and the I heard a loud crack then nothing. He was gone." I finished sounding like a three year old.
Mom and Dad were silent for a few seconds. Dad spoke up first, "Oh my gosh, Beatrice. We'll be back as soon as possible," He was close to tears.
"Okay," I whispered.
"It'll all be okay," Dad seemed to be reassuring me, my sobbing mother, and himself, "We'll all figure this out,"
Christina drove up, I slipped into the front seat, she couldn't turn around so she had to drive down my street, I spoke into the phone, "I'm going to be at Christina's,"
"Okay sweetheart," Dad's voice cracked, "We have to go, stay safe. Don't leave Christina's. See you soon."
"Daddy, I'm scared." I felt so weak, I hated feeling like that.
"I know, we are to. Stay strong, we love you."
"I love you too," The line went silent as we drove past my house.
Six police cars were parked, all with their lights on. A crowd of my neighbors were gathered around trying to figure out what had happened. A news truck was taking footage, everyone would know what happened by tomorrow.