I swerve into my driveway and slam on my brakes. Lying in the middle of the driveway is what looks like another dead man. It looks like his head had been smashed into the paved driveway. I stop paying attention to it, and get out of my car. I run straight into the house through the downstairs door, which leads right into my parent’s bedroom.
I notice a small puddle of blood on the bed, and a trail of blood drops leading out of the room. I start to follow the trail, but first grab one of Joey’s, my brother who is a couple of years younger than me, baseball bat leaning against the wall behind the outside door. Keeping my guard up so that nothing will surprise me, I slowly make my way through the house. As I am passing through the downstairs den, I notice the gun cabinet’s glass door had been shattered open and, from what I remember, it seems one of the pistols is missing.
I take one of the two pistols still in the gun cabinet, and make my way to the stairs. As I get closer I hear what sounds like crying coming from above me. I run up the stairs, careful not to fall with the gun in my hand. When I emerge at the top of the stairs, into my family calls our “middle room,” I see blood splattered along the floor. At the end of the room, and the entrance to the dining room, my mom is laying facedown with two bullet holes in her back and one in her head. Further in the dining room is my stepdad in a similar state, also face down at the beginning of the hallway where my youngest brother’s, sister’s, and a guest bedroom are located. When I get closer I only see two bullet holes, both in the back of his head.
I hear the crying again, which I briefly forgot about, and look down the hallway to see my sister, Kristen, sitting against my youngest brother’s bedroom door. I hurry over to her, and as I approach she raises her head to look at me. She appears very weak, and does not appear to be able to talk, although it seems like she is trying. I start talking first and ask, “What happened here, and where is everyone else?” I still have not seen my two younger brothers.
“You’re here,” Kristen is eventually able to get out. She looks like she is about to say more, but starts crying again even louder than before.
I try calming her down, “I’m here; it’s okay now. I need you to tell me what happened though. Can you do that for me?” I request.
Kristen nods. “They were getting ready to leave,” she says gesturing towards our parents with her head. “I was in the living room watching Richard finish packing the car when a strange man wandered into the driveway. I watched as the man suddenly tried to attack Richard for no reason, but Richard slammed the man on his back to the ground. Then the man bit Richard on the shin, and ripped away a chunk of it. Richard fell straight to the ground, and slammed the man’s head into the pavement until the man stopped moving. Then Richard fell flat to the ground, and also stopped moving.”
“I screamed for Mom as loud as I could, and she came running into the living room. As soon as she looked out the window, she immediately ran outside through the front door of the living room. I was about to go with her, but first I thought I should go downstairs and get Joey out of his room to help too. We both ran outside, and saw Mom already pulling Richard off the ground. Joey helped her bring Richard inside as I cleared off their bed so they could lay him down. Mom grabbed the phone to call for help as Joey went into their bathroom to get stuff to stop the bleeding. Mom tried to call 9-1-1 while watching over Richard, but before she was able to get a hold of anyone, Richard suddenly popped up and bit her arm.”
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Kristen stops talking again, and I can tell she is fighting back tears. She continues though, but in a more frantic voice, “then Mom dropped the phone and fell to the floor. I wanted to go over to help her, but my body wouldn’t move. Richard just stared at me with a crazy look in his eyes, as blood drooled out of his mouth. He jumped off the bed at me, but I ran away screaming. I heard him start to run after me, so I tried throwing things behind me in an attempt to stop him. I tried to take a second to see if it was working, but the stuff was barely even stalling him. I saw Joey come out of the bathroom, and then Mom got up and charged at him. I screamed again and continued to run to the stairs as I heard a door slam.”
“When I got to the stairs I tried to shut the door behind me, but Richard made it to me before I could and grabbed my right arm. I was able to pull away from him, but as I did he scratched me down my arm.” Kristen puts her right arm on her lap, showing me the scratches. The scratch marks look more like she was slashed with large claws, but she still should not be this weak just from these. They are bleeding, but it does not look like she has lost too much blood.
“It actually hurts worse than it looks,” Kristen continues, noticing the questioning look on my face from seeing her wound. “I just ignored the pain though, and kept running until I got to the top of the stairs. When I got to the top I heard something else coming, and when I looked down I saw Mom running up behind Richard. They both started to climb over each other trying to get up the stairs after me, but the stairs actually seemed to really slow them down.”
“I started to cry; I couldn’t believe what was happening. Then I remembered him,” she say looking up at our littlest brother’s bedroom door. “I had to make sure to protect him, and make sure he was alright. I ran for his room, but they were right behind me. I tried to find something in the dining room to fight them off, but there wasn’t anything and they were almost already caught up to me. I gave up looking, kept running here, and was going to lock myself in the room when I heard a gunshot. It scared me, and caused me to trip and fall right over there.” She points, without raising her arm, at a spot near the beginning of the hallway, just a foot or so from Richard’s dead body. “I heard two more shots, and it sounded like one of them fell down. I looked up and saw Richard still coming at me. I didn’t have time to stand up, so I desperately crawled backwards as fast as I could to try to keep away from him. I was going to just give up, but then Joey came up behind Richard and shot him twice in the back of the head. Richard fell to the ground right away, and Joey just walked away without saying anything.”
“I remember hearing another gunshot a few minutes later, but I don’t know what it was for. I’m so scared; I don’t understand why all of this happened. It all happened so fast, then it was over, and then you showed up.” Kristen’s voice is so soft, just barely above a whisper, and slow now, and her eyes are hardly open. “I protected him though. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to him. I knew you would show up eventually to help.”
I assumed she was referring to our youngest brother again. “Thank you, I know you wouldn’t,” I say to her as I give her gentle hug from the side. Suddenly her body gets heavier, and her breathing stops. I lay her on the ground, and her eyes are completely closed now. I hopelessly try to shake her awake, but sadly there is no response. When I check for a pulse I find nothing but cold skin. I know what this means; she died right in my arms, and I did not even get a chance to help her.