Chapter Three:
The sunlight filtered in through my bedroom window, and I was completely wrapped up in my blankets. After taking a moment to unroll myself, make my bed, and put on a sweater, I headed downstairs where everyone was either sitting at the table eating pancakes, or watching cartoons in the living room.
"Good morning!" I chirped, walking into the kitchen to grab a plate of pancakes.
"Good morning Artemis!" Ella said, waddling up to me to give me a hug.
"Did you sleep well?" My mom asked.
"I guess." I shrugged my shoulders.
"Was it a nightmare?" Dad asked.
"Sort of." I said. "I don't want to talk about it."
After I finished my breakfast, I sat down on the couch, and watched cartoons with my family for a few hours.
"Artemis?" Lily asked me.
"Yeah?" I said, not taking my eyes off the television screen.
"When you're done watching cartoons...um... can we go outside and explore the woods?" Lily said in a small voice. Lily is a generally quiet person, and she can be really shy sometimes.
"Sure!" I said, smiling. "in fact, I'll go get dressed right now!"
Lily's face seemed to light up. I jumped up, ran upstairs, but on jeans, a light green top, brown sneakers, put on a jacket, and rushed back downstairs. Lily was sitting patiently by the door, and jumped up when I opened the door.
"Ready?" I grinned.
"Yup!"
"Then lets go!" I let Lily go out the door before me, closed the door, and together we walked to the woods. Eventually Lily started talking about animals of every shape and size, then we talked about fairy tales, and after a few minutes of climbing trees, we headed home.
The rest of the day went by really quickly, and after dinner, I got a phone call from my friend Seth was tall for his age, he had untidy black hair and deep blue eyes.
"Sup Artemis?" Seth said.
"Nothing much, you?" I asked.
"Just got home from visiting my grandparents." Seth replied.
"Cool." I smiled.
"Hey, I was wondering if you could meet me at the park tomorrow." Seth asked.
"Sure!" I said. "we were heading there tomorrow anyways!"
"Great! I'll see ya tomorrow!"
"See ya!" After I said that, the phone line went dead, and I handed the phone back to mom. Dinner followed, and after that, bedtime. After we all put our pajamas on, mom and dad tucked us into bed, kissed all of us goodnight, and turned off our bedroom lights. When my head hit my pillow, a crinkling noise came from underneath it. Reaching my hand underneath my pillow, I felt around and I felt a piece of paper, I held it up to the moonlight and read what was on it.
Under your bed is a backpack full of supplies that your father, Denis, Lily, Ella and I put together. You'll know when to use it.
I looked under my bed, and sure enough, it was there. I looked back up, and there was a man sitting at the foot of my bed. He was wearing a vest and a white shirt, boots, and a leather cord necklace. He gave me a cocky smile and a wave, before disappearing. Not even bothering to wonder about it, I fell asleep to the same dream I had the night before.
a few hours later...
I woke up to the sound of gunfire. I jumped out of bed, scanning the room, and my sisters were gone. I grabbed the pack under my bed, and ran out of the room. I checked Denis's room, and he wasn't there. I checked my parent room, and they weren't there either. I ran downstairs, and the front door had falling off its hinges, and several holes were in the door. I ran outside, where sleek black cars were parked everywhere, surrounding the house. In front of my some people had forced my family to their knees, and guns were being held to their heads.
"Mom!" I cried, running out the door.
"Artemis! Run!" Denis shouted. Lily and Ella were crying, Denis was shaking, and my parents looked like they had been through a long hard fight.
"Artemis! Go! Run!" My dad hollered. A man in a white hood appeared beside me, but he wasn't the man who appeared earlier.
Several more gunshots were heard, and the house burst into flames. Then there five more went off, and my family fell to the ground...dead.
"No!" I screamed. The man beside me turned and ran into the woods, and seeing that I had no options, I followed him. We disappeared into the woods, far away from home. I sat down on a log, and tried to gather my thoughts. I rummaged through my pack, and found a flashlight, a book about how to survive, matches, rope, several water bottles, a jacket with a hood, some sort off mechanism that pulls out these short blades if you wear them on your wrists, wads of cash and a photo of my family. It was a photo of us in front of our house, and we all looked very happy. After staring at the photograph for a few minutes, I burst into tears. Gathering what little courage I had, I placed everything back in the pack, put on the blades, then put my new jacket on. I slung my pack over my shoulders, then put my hood on. The jacket was a little big on me, and the hood was lowered so that it shielded half my face from view. I set off at a brisk pace, toward the city. I figured that was the best place to hide, and I would become a blade in the crowd.