A bloody bad start
I never had an exciting life. Everything was normal, as it should be I suppose. I went to high school at a nearby city and did my homework. I was not very popular, but I never really cared about that. My parents both worked. My mom was a history teacher at the same high school I went to. I liked it to have my mom so close by, well most of the time. Sometimes it is just embarrassing when your mom walks into the classroom telling you that you forgot to put your laundry into the laundry basket. But besides from these occasionally awkward moments, my mom was amazing. So was my dad. He loved cars. And if I say loved then I mean loved with capital L. No wonder he took the job when they were looking for a mechanic at the local garage. Even though I had no siblings, I loved my life. It was simple and easy. No fuss, I didn't like fuss. I liked my life the way it was right now. But that was about to change.
About a year ago I was out for a stroll. I loved to make long walks on my own. Feeling the sunshine on my face while clearing my head. And in the autumn I loved to run trough the leaf piles and search for mushrooms. The lake I walk past is absolutely gorgeous. When it freezes over I always go ice skating on it. I did this pretty often, so I had nothing to worry about. But this time it felt a bit off. I ignored the itchy feeling in my stomach and kept walking. That was the wrong choice to make. But then I will never know what would have happened if I did turn around and walked back. I will never know if that day would have ended better if I had gone home sooner.
I kept walking, but I took a shorter route just to be sure. My mind was bringing up all those nasty scenario's. The ones you get when you feel that something isn't right. But you discard them anyway, because how could something that horrible possibly happen to you. It never does. So it won't happen this time either. Oh boy, was I wrong about that.
The moment I returned, I saw that the front door was left open, something my parents would never do. They always warned me and yelled at me when I left the front door open, so this was absolutely out of order. The itching in my stomach turned into aching. I slowly opened the door and saw that the hall was a mess. There were red smears all over the place and red sticky footprints on the floor. I knew what it was, but I kept telling myself it wasn't blood. It couldn't be. Why would it be blood? There was no reason for it to be blood. I continued into the living room. My hands were almost too shaky to open the door, but I managed. As soon as I opened the door I could see the reason of the bloody footprints and blood smears in the hallway. A glimpse was enough. And it was more than I could handle. I closed the door as quickly as possible. What I just saw was something you never imagine to see and never want to see. It was my mom. Dead. She was surrounded by blood, and her eyes were still wide open. That was the scariest part. Her eyes. I could still see the fear in them. I don't know what exactly had happened and I didn't really care. I had to find my dad. He knew what to do. I collected all of my courage and I reopened the door. I tried not to look at my mom when I walked by her quickly but careful. My knees were shaking as I walked on. I ran towards the dining room, but my dad wasn't there. Maybe he was in the kitchen. I ran towards the kitchen. I was right, my dad was in the kitchen. Only not the way I wanted him to be. Once I saw him my knees gave up. I fell to the floor and started crying, screaming. He too was dead. A large kitchen knife was still sticking out of his back. I could see that there was a knife missing from the knife stand I gave my mother for her birthday. It was in the shape of a stick figure and you were supposed to stick the knifes trough him. It seemed a bit ironic at this moment. Almost scary. I didn't know what to do. My mind went completely blank. How could this have happened? Who did this and why? I found myself lying on the floor sobbing away, thinking about what would happen to me and how I could possibly live on without my parents. I don't know how long I lay there, but they say I had been there for at least a day before the police arrived. Some neighbors didn't trust the situation after she had not seen anyone leave or enter the house the next day, even tho it was a regular school day. My school had called the police as well after calling our landline several times without any answers.
The police officers found me in a state of shock. The paramedics checked if I was doing fine because I had been there for at least a day. I was a bit dehydrated but further I was fine, apart from my mental situation. The police tried to take a statement, but I couldn't get a single word over my lips. My mind was spinning, trying to grasp the situation, to understand what had just happened. I couldn’t wrap my head around this and it would take another week before even a single word was spoken by me.
The police officer who arrived at the scene first was so kind to let me live with him and his wife and kids for a while. They originally wanted to send me to some family, but I didn’t have any family left. They all died or moved to another country. Not that there was many family to start with. My mom came out of a family of five and my dad had only one brother. Only one of them ever had kids and only four of them were ever married, including my mom and dad. So you can imagine how relieved I was to hear that I could stay at his place for at least a while. “Until we find a safe and peaceful place for you to live” he said.
I loved staying at Jake's house. His wife Mace was amazing. She took such great care of me. She cooked me a meal every day and made sure my clothes were washed and ready for school. I did go back to school after my parents died, but only for two days. Mainly because of the memories of my mom there. And because I didn't talk, that didn't help either. I did talk to Jake and Mace and the children, but not to anyone else. Not yet that is. It took me a month to find my courage to talk to strangers. But school wasn't going to be that much trouble. It was almost July, and that meant summer holidays. I wasn't going to miss anything important at the end of the year, so the school let me stay away for the time being.
After staying at Jake's house for two months, they found a place where I could go. He would bring me to an orphanage close by, so I could visit him if I wanted to. I didn’t want to leave, not really. It was an amazing place and his wife and children were so kind to me. I could be myself and I felt at home. And I could walk to school together with the oldest daughter of Jake and Mace. Unfortunately Jake could barely stay afloat with the money he earned. He was really sorry, but it would be very hard for him to take care of me and his family. I understood and told him that he shouldn’t worry about it. I would move to the orphanage and visit him every once in a while and he would visit me. This way he could keep an eye out for me without having to worry about any expenses. I didn't like the idea of moving so shortly before school started again. What would it do to me, moving again. Hopefully it wouldn't stop me from going to school again.
It was an early Monday morning when a black car stopped in front of Jake's house. I was ready, I had packed all of my clothes, a few books and some pictures of mom and dad. They said that I couldn't bring all of my stuff, but if I could fit it in my suitcase I was allowed to bring it. I got into the car after saying my goodbyes to Jake, Mace and their three children. As the car drove away, I could see the house getting smaller and smaller until it disapeared out of sight. I was really nervous and I couldn't stop biting my nails and bouncing my legs up and down. I didn’t know anyone there and I was afraid no one there would like me and that everyone would think I was weird. What if the people who ran the orphanage were evil or what if it was haunted? I had seen a fair amount of movies about orphanages and at that time I wished I hadn’t. After driving for a short while the car stopped. But my mind couldn't stop thinking about all those terrible scenario's. All those horrible images were going through my head as I stepped out of the car. Was I going to be okay?
