Fearful Tidings

         They were fighting again as I sat in the upstairs bedroom with my twin sister, Caroline. She is like me in every way, or so our parents say, but personally, I thought she was prettier and more athletic. Me, on the other hand, I was the one who got on honor roll and had a crass personality. We're both only 12 but we understand more than what others do that are our parents age. Caroline looks at me with a sad look on her face, her light blue-grey eyes glistening in the light coming from the full moon just outside our bedroom window. "Lily," she said in a soft voice," how much longer do you think mama and dad will fight?" I gave out a sigh, they were fighting since this morning when we left for school till now, at eight at night. All I could do was give my sister a hug and tell her what I always do when they fight," Everything is going to be fine, Caroline, you'll see. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday.".



         Caroline and I have never thought that our parents would become the way they are now. When ones not around the other, our parents are always loving but when the other shows up, it becomes another fight. It seems like just yesterday that it was winter, everyone was happy. Mama still had her smile that made the world a better place, Caroline wasn't as quiet, dad was still loving as ever, and I still had the mind of a normal child.



          . . .



         MONTHS LATER . . .



         Me and Caroline got up for our last day of school before summer vacation. We were both so excited! Summer was always a treat for us, we got to go see our uncle, who we call 'uncle jr.', and our little toddler of a cousin, Christopher. We would always go swimming in the handmade pool, jump on the trampoline, play video games that dad didn't like us playing (uncle didnt mind and mama found no harm in it so he never found out), and light fireworks at night on weekends. Right now, it felt as if summer was already here. The air was warm, the sun was bright and they breeze was soft as a whisper in my ear. All seemed well in the world today.



Notice how I said 'seemed'.



         After me and Caroline got our stuff together for school, we ran into our parents

room to say good-bye, as we always do. Instead of seeing our sleeping parents, we saw our dad holding a bloody knife in his hand, our mother laying on the bed, still alive but her throat cut. We both were frozen in place, unable to process what were looking at. I could hear Caroline whimper behind me, she grabbed my arm painfully tight. She was shaking. Or was it me? Either way, we were terrified. Both mama and dad saw us right away. Dads expression went from a look of insanity to that of sadness, as if he was sorry that we saw him kill our mother. Mama looked at us and yelled as loud as she could, using the last of her energy,"Run! Run and don't look back!" And so we did.



         We ran. We ran away as fast as we could, to the only place where we felt was safe and close: the school. We were only blocks away from the middle school so we usually took our time getting there. But today we ran as fast as our legs would carried us. Every morning, our favorite teacher, Mr.Kennt, would let us into the school since we were the first ones there. He was a nice man, still new to the job but he was naturally good with helping the kids to learn . He adored me and Caroline, and us him. He was also our uncle jr, funny enough. As soon as we reached the school, he smiled at us, not yet noticing our tears and hysteria. "Hey kids, ready to spend another summer with your old uncle?" he asked in his loud and joyful voice. After seeing our expressions, he grew concerned and asked us what happened.



         At first, we were unwilling to talk but after minutes of hysteria and tears, Caroline blurted out,"Mama's dead! Dad killed her! We saw it!". With that, our always happy and silly uncle became just as devastated as us. He hugged us tight and tried to hold back his own tears. Our mama was practically his mom too, our grandparents were young when they had him and even younger when they had mama. Mama raised uncle since she was only four years old, when he was born. She looked out for him and did all she could to protect him from their parents and others around him. Now she was gone, his adoring sister and our loving mother. Gone. All the joy in life was gone and now our path to the future began.