Chapter Two: Death
Andrew woke with a start when he heard someone knocking on the front door of Myles' house. He checked the digital alarm clock on Myles' bedside table: 05:47am it read. Even though the sun wasn't meant to be up, Andrew thought he could see a faint orange glow through the window. Thinking back on it, Andrew thought it was more of a glare than a glow. The shining was so hard, it actually hurt his eyes to stare right into it, as if staring into the sun. Myles had woken up at the sound of the knocking on the door as well.
Myles' mother moaned and awoke from her bed, moving towards the front door. The light in the hallway provided a few shadows to be seen in the hallway through the small gap in the bedroom door. The front entrance to the house opened.
'I'm sorry to have disturbed you, ma'am,' came an unfamiliar, female voice. 'Unfortunately, I have some bad news for someone currently staying within the confines of your house.'
'Andrew?' said Myles' mother sleepily to the unfamiliar female voice. 'Andrew Richardson?'
'Yes, ma'am. May I come in and wait for him to wake up?' said the unfamiliar female voice rather formally.
'Yes, yes.'
Judging from how formal the unfamiliar female voice was speaking, Andrew and Myles figured it must've been a policewoman. Suddenly, the shadow figures of the two women came down the hallway and past Myles bedroom, and the two nine-year-olds quickly lay flat in their beds from their previous sitting position. But they didn't pretend to be asleep. If Myles' mother came in and found them awake, then they'd find out quicker what was going on.
'Would you like a coffee, Miss?' asked Myles' mother.
'Oh, no thank you, ma'am,' came the voice of the policewoman.
'Well, I'm just going to check on Andrew and my son.'
'Okay.'
Andrew and Myles didn't have to speak to each other to simultaneously mentally decide to sit up in their beds and wait for Myles' mother to enter the room. When the door opened, she got a bit of a surprise.
'Well, gathering that the pair of you were silently eavesdropping on my conversation with the policewoman out there, you know what to do, don't you?' said Myles' mother in a criticising tone. 'The policewoman wishes to speak to you, Andrew.'
Myles' mother led Andrew and her son in to the living room. Everyone was sitting in different chairs.
'Which one of you is Andrew?' the policewoman asked politely. Andrew slowly raised his arm, not daring to speak for fear of what was to happen. 'No, Andrew – you're not in trouble,' said the policewoman suddenly, reading Andrew's mind. 'I have some unfortunate news for you.'
There was an awkward silence in which nobody spoke, and then the policewoman continued.
'Your father was found to be involved in a terrorist organisation by the police around four months ago. We were unable to gather enough evidence to send him to prison. Unfortunately, your father got on the bad side of one of the leading head terrorists in the group, and desperately tried to escape on Wednesday night. And he did – at least, he thought he did. Three hours ago, these terrorists are believed to have bombed your parent's house.'
It was at this moment that Andrew became shocked, and the look came on his face. His worst fears were confirmed.
'Both your mother and your father are dead.'
O
The police station was cold and blue – police blue. Before this, Andrew had never been in a police station. But it wasn't such a great moment for his life. In his mind, Andrew kept repeating what the policewoman had told him.
'Three hours ago, these terrorists are believed to have bombed your parent's house … Both your mother and your father are dead.'
Andrew couldn't hide it from himself – he was scared. What was going to happen to him? Where was he going to end up? He was all alone in this area of the station. Myles and his mother had to go back home, but they promised to come back. Even after all this, Myles still wasn't convinced of anything that was going on. He may not have realised it, but he was beginning to have a mental breakdown.
The policewoman that had spoken to Andrew before at Myles' house opened the door and came in. She seemed very tense to Andrew. With this, Andrew realised why his father had been so tense the previous night.
'How are you, Andrew?' asked the policewoman. She may have spoken politely, but Andrew refused to speak to her. But he didn't think he was being rude, he was just having trouble adjusting to what had happened.
'Andrew?' she asked again.
'Stop it,' mumbled Andrew in such a low voice that the policewoman could barely hear him.
'Pardon? I didn't quite catch that.'
'I SAID STOP IT!' shouted Andrew. The policewoman was so shocked she almost fell over backwards. 'YOU'LL NEVER UNDERSTAND HOW THIS FEELS! ALL YOU PIGS EVER DO IS COMPLAIN ABOUT YOUR JOB AND HOW YOU DON'T GET ENOUGH MONEY! SO JUST STOP IT AND LEAVE ME ALONE!' This time, the policewoman actually did fall over backwards. She was so shocked at Andrew relieving himself of all his stress that she began to feel a rush of anger. However, she quickly calmed herself down.
'YOU COULD HAVE STOPPED THIS!' Andrew continued shouting. 'IF YOU'D GOT OFF YOUR FAT BACKSIDES AND ACTUALLY DID YOUR JOB, THESE STUPID TERRORISTS WOULDN'T BE ROAMING AROUND SCOTT FREE, WOULD THEY?'
'I'll go then,' she said quietly.
'YOU DO THAT!' Andrew shouted back.
As the policewoman left, a policeman entered, completely voluntarily. Andrew was so angry that he didn't even notice.
The policeman didn't say a word; he just put a needle into Andrew's arm and watched the little boy quickly fall asleep.