"Terri, we're here." Alex said, shaking me awake.
"What? Oh, thanks." I struggled with my seatbelt, trying to get out of the car. Though, I didn't really want to be here, it was too painful. The dream I had been having, a memory of that day, was still fresh in my mind. I always had that dream this time of the year. On the 8th anniversary of our parents and brother dying. So young, so innocent. '8 years isn't nearly long enough to get over something like this,' I thought to myself, bitterly. Alex waved a hand in front of my face.
"Ter, you alright?" he asked, looking concerned. I'd been leaning against the car door, too caught up my emotions to enter the graveyard where our family lied.
"Yea, I'm alright, just thinking." I mumbled.
"Alright, let's go then." he said, forcing a smile. He always tried to stay happy for me. Sometimes I just wished he'd let his emotions out. Just scream. I've heard it helps clear your mind. But that's not like Alex. He's cool and collected, too old for his age. 'Probably from taking care of me all these years,' I realized.
He handed me a basket full red and white roses, taking one for himself and a flashlight for when the sun would set. On our way through the cemetery I sniffed one of the roses. Red for Dad and white for Mom. They were my favorite colors also. 'They went perfectly together.'
I mainly said things in my head, not liking to share my thoughts with people. I hadn't even muttered a word after the funeral until I was 12. Some kids were making fun of me in class one day because I didn't answer the teacher's question. They thought I was stupid. That's what everyone thought. I'm actually pretty smart. But you stay silent for that long and people just automatically assume you belong in Special Ed. Then they started spouting off crap about my parents and that was it, I just exploded. Every ounce of emotion I'd bottled up since that day I let loose on the kid who had started it. I was shouting everything that entered my head as I bashed his face in. He ended up with a broken nose, black eye, sprained wrist and decided to be home schooled for the rest of the year. He'd have been a lot worse if Alex hadn't pulled me off of him before I finished. Stupid son of a bitch was always looking out for me. I was suspended for 2 weeks, which was getting off pretty easy. Except that none of the other kids went near me anymore. I think they were too afraid. I didn't really care though. It was nice being left alone.
My family's graves finally came into view as we neared the end of the cemetery and my thoughts switched back to that painful day. I felt like crying, but didn't. 'Crying's for babies,' I told myself. My Uncle Jim, my mom's brother, reminded me of that when he came home drunk and hit me. He never touched Alex, though. He said it was because Alex wasn't "a stupid girl" like I was. I think he was hurt by a woman when he was younger. Alex tried to protect me but he wasn't very strong. He laid his flowers down on all 3 of the graves and I did the same. We put 41 on our mom and dad's graves each and 12 on our brothers. Kind of like birthday candles on a cake. Except we were marking how many years they would have been alive. Sick? Maybe. But it helped us cope.
Alex cleared his throat. "Do you want to start?" he asked me. I gave him a dumbfounded look. "Do I ever want to start?" He rolled his eyes, "Right, I'll go then. Give me a minute." He pursed his lips together and his gaze became distance. 'This outta be good' I thought.
I watched him as he tried to think of something to say that would do our family justice. A breeze came through and blew his dark shaggy hair into his face. "Phhtthhppp" he spit the hair out of his mouth and shoved the rest back with his hand. I chuckled. For twins, we acted completely different. Anyone could tell we were twins, though. We had the same dark almost black hair and grey eyes. Pale as they come and small figures, we took after our mom. The only difference between Alex and I was that my hair went down to the middle of my back. Ben was only 4 when he died but he would have been a lady killer. He looked just like dad, light brown hair with natural caramel highlights and big brown eyes. "Alright, I've got it" Alex stated. 'Here we go' I shivered. "Mom, Dad, Ben," he started, "I hope you guys are doing alright in heaven." 'You've got to be kidding me!' I thought. I threw him a dirty look. "What?" he asked, looking confused.
"Are you retarded?" I snapped. "You really think, after all we've been through, that there's some "all loving god" out there?! That they're in some super awesome place, made out of clouds and rainbows?!" He was hanging his head now. I could tell he didn't want to look at me.
"Maybe there is…" he whispered. Honestly, sometimes it felt as if I were the older, wiser twin. "Yea?!" I shoved him, making him stumble back a few feet. "Then where has he been these past 8 years, Alex?! Why didn't he save Mom, Dad, and Ben?! Answer me that!" My face was wet from my tears. I hadn't even realized I'd been crying.
"Terri, don't cry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you so… emotional." he said, trying to comfort me with a hug. I pushed him away again and wiped my eyes.
"I'm not emotional, you're just-HIC! Dammit! You're just an idiot." Great, hiccups from crying. I tried hitting him again but he just backed up, laughing now. "Why the hell are you-HIC-laughing?" This was not helping my anger go down any.
"I'm sorry," he said between laughs. "This is pretty funny" "It is not! Now stop laughing!" I commanded. He quickly calmed down and fixed the flowers he had kicked during his fits of laughter. Alex was weird like that. He could always go from being sad and quiet to happy and giggly in 2 seconds flat. I sometimes thought he was bipolar, it kind of worried me. I usually stayed the same mood, depressed and angry. Sure, I had my good days every once in a while. Those were when Uncle Jim went out-of-town for what ever excuse he came up with. I have to pick up something from a friend a few towns over, my stripper girlfriend needs to get bailed out of jail again, and my favorite, I need a break from your bullshit. I loved it when he left because then it was just be me and Alex hanging out. We usually rented a couple of movies, ordered a pizza, and raided the liquor cabinet. It was almost like having a normal life. "Terri? You there?" Alex asked, waving his hand in my face. "Why do you always zone out like that? It's really weird," he asked. I laughed. "Because you're so normal?" He scoffed. "I think anyone would agree that I'm a hell of a lot more normal than you are." I rolled my eyes. It was true.
We stood there in silence for a moment. "So, are we gonna finish this or not?" I asked, growing impatient of just standing there. He muttered something I couldn't hear before picking up a rose from the basket. "What?"
"Fine. I'm starting over though."
"Whatever," I mumbled, "Just no more crap about heaven and god. Let's keep this realistic." I crossed my arms and tried to keep the tears in as he cleared his throat. "Mom, Dad, Ben, we really miss you guys and-" he stopped suddenly. "What is that?" he asked, staring into the bushes a few yards in front of us. "What is what?" I asked, confused. I squinted at the spot he was pointing at but could barely see as the sun had nearly set. "I don't see anything" He turned on his flashlight as he walked over and shined it on the spot. "I'm not sure. I think there's someone watching us." He walked closer to the tall hedge of bushes and called out "Is someone in there?" A low growl was our reply. My eyes grew wide. "Alex, I think that's an 'it' not a 'who'. Let's just go before it attacks," I pleaded. Seattle was not known for its vicious animals but that sounded like a very large, angry animal. He nodded and started to back up slowly. The bushes shook and we both froze. A couple of seconds went by and then someone emerged. It looked like a normal ragged man except for the glowing yellow eyes and sharp inhuman teeth. I looked down at its hands and saw claws that could easily scratch someone's face off. "Alex!" My voice was a high-pitched half scream half whisper. "Move!" Alex chucked the flashlight at the creature and ran towards me, eyes wide in fear. He grabbed my arm and we took off towards the entrance of the cemetery. The sun had set and the only light was bouncing ahead of us from my flashlight.
"Shit" I groaned. We had gone off the path and were lost in a cluster of graves. A loud growl ripped through the air and I started to run faster. My lungs were on fire. I couldn't tell which direction the sound had come from so I just hoped I was going the opposite way. I cocked my ears to my right suddenly realizing I hadn't heard my brother gasping for air beside me since I had sped up. I whipped around and didn't see him anywhere. "Alex!" I screamed, "Where are you?!" I heard something that sounded like my name back the way I had come and ran towards it full speed. "Alex!" I continued to call for him. "Terri!" I could hear him cry my name. "Terri!" Something was wrong, he sounded like he was in pain. "No, no, no, no please, please" I cried softly. "Help me please! God please!" His voice sounded strangled, but louder. I was getting closer. I rounded a hedge and what I saw next shook my very soul. There he was, my big brother by 7 minutes, my protector, my best friend lying between two mossy headstones covered in blood from what looked like 2 deep claw marks in his chest. I tripped over a low headstone and fell to the ground and scrambled over to him. Everything was happening too fast to think normally. He wasn't breathing. I was about to try CPR, when I noticed something that had me turn and heave up everything my stomach held. His heart was missing. That thing had attacked my brother and ripped his heart out of his chest.
I heard a growl in front of us and looked up. The creature was standing, hunched over a few yards in front of me and looked ready to pounce for round two. A white-hot rage over took me and I rose to my feet. I let out a strangled cry and ran towards it swinging my flashlight as a weapon. It easily knocked it out of my hand and the force made me fall to my side, barely missing my head on a gravestone. I tried to get back up but it threateningly raised one of its claws and I was sure I was about to meet the same fate as my brother's. I squeezed my eyes shut waiting for the pain to come, but then a gunshot rang out. It let out an animalistic cry and took off. 'What the hell just happened,' I wondered, still in shock.
"Are you alright?" a deep voice asked. I looked up to see 2 men with hand guns standing over me. 'Are they talking to me?' I wondered, my vision blurring.
"Miss," a different voice asked. "Is that your friend?" I looked over in time to see a final trickle of blood escape my brother's mouth. He was gone. And then, with no idea what else to do… I started screaming… until everything went black.