NB: Zac is Oliver. He changed his name after the tragedy.
Ten years ago
I can't fall asleep. I move Zac's leg from my body and step out of his bedroom. He recently has been having trouble sleeping alone. Just like how recently things have been changing. My mother has turn into a zombie, a drunk zombie. We are strangers to her, strangers living in the same house. Silent and stolen gazes along the hallways. Holding her bottle close to her chest, like it will fill the emptiness in her eyes. She misses him. We miss him. It is eight months since we buried my father. The wound is still fresh, with the blow that we faced two days ago. The court dismissed the murder charges we pressed on the Nickel's. There wasn't enough evidence to show they had the motive or the killed my father.
Am on the last step of the staircase when I hear noises in the kitchen. Probably my mother, opening the cabinets to find more alcohol. I deter from my mission to walk in when I hear manly voices.
"The order was clear make sure, the girl is dead. She's the priority before we kill the rest of the family."
I slap my mouth before I gasp loudly and move a step back to hide.
"I have the blueprints for the house, I will find the safe. Roby, you go finish the kids and mother and Penguin, you leak the gas. Once we are done we blow this mansion to dust.
I move backward and the back of my leg hits a stair and I fall with a thud. The voices in the kitchen hush and I know they heard me. I stand and start running back to my brother's bedroom.
"Get her!" one of them yells after me. I run calling out my mother, but who am I kidding. She's a drunk and already passed out. I find, my brother still asleep. I shake him. I can hear the steps nearing. I shake him harder, he doesn't wake up. I then realise we have no way out. I rush to lock the door before he gets it. Where is the family's security.
"Open the door, kid. We aren't going to hurt you." The man lies and kicks the door. It is too strong for a single kick to bring it down. Either way I know we are still going to die when the house blows up.
"Cara!" Zac calls out my name, he moves to stand under my arm, he's shaking in fear. The door is kicked again. I go through the drawers to find my Nokia phone and call police. I find it, I dial 911, The man keeps on kicking and the door loses the first hinge, it is a matter of time before he gets in. And we don't have time. I put the phone away. I open the window. We are one floor away, I can jump but Zac can't. I take many bed sheets I can and tie them together and on the window pane.
"You trust me, don't you?" I calmly ask Zac. He nods his head in fear.
I tie him around my body. The man decides to shoot the the door and I take that as a clue as we jump through the window. Another bullet follows as we land on the ground and it comes into contact with my body. A sharp pain spread from my inner thigh throughout my body.
Zac unties us when he sees the blood tickling from my leg. Another bullet follows but misses me by an inch. I grab my brother and we run towards the only SUV parked outside. I break the window and we get in. This was my father's SUV, Zac rode with him always and he's quick to start it with the wires. I have never driven in my life. I step on and just hold on the steering wheel. We don't get far before the house we called home goes up in flames. And the life we knew burn down with it. The next day, the papers report our incident as an homicide. A mental mother who killed her children and killed herself by burning down the house. My aunt and Uncle are everywhere in the television. Filled with crocodile tears. Assuring the public they found our bodies and how sorry they are it had to end that way.
I assure Zac as we drive to a new town. "It isn't the end."
****
"It isn't the end." I whisper to myself as the man chokes me depriving me of oxygen.
"You weren't suppose to live that day." I can't see his face the afternoon sun is only shinning on his lower body.
I struggle but he's strong. Is this how it ends?
"Wh..o" struggle. "Se..n..t." Tries to find something to defend myself. "Y..o..u?"
He pushes me back until my back hits the wall, His hands never leaving my neck. He's determined to finish his work this time. And all I can see Is Oliver, the malicious world ready to swallow him. I failed him. It is the end. My hands fall to my side as I stop struggling. A scary darkness is enveloping me, for the very first time over the ten years, I feel peace within me.
Someone rushes in, my vision is blur and I can't see my saviour clearly. He grabs the man from me, my body feels lighter and I slide to the floor.
Everything around me is whirling. My head is spinning and all I feel is dizzy...
A gun shot is heard. All is silent.
"Zac!" I shout, am taken ten years back. The pain of a bullet going through me.
"Cara," The voice is familiar. "It is me, Andre. You are alright now." I feel his arms hold me.