*
I see the lights before I hear the sirens.
I’m watching for Carrie’s shadow running between the houses, her bag slung over one shoulder, but she hasn’t come. It’s been over an hour now and I’ve been tempted to go to her house and find her. But I stayed where I was, waiting.
Scared half to death to go back to the house of blood.
She’d be back soon, I told myself.
I changed my bloody clothes and packed them in a plastic carrier bag. I have them with me; I’m going to get rid of them on the way.
The lights bounce from house to house, red and blue and red and blue, and the sirens blare to life. A scream in the still night air.
The police car comes to a stop at the sidewalk and an officer gets out and puts on his hat. He hasn’t seen me yet. Another car stops at Carrie’s house. ‘Oh shit,’ I think.
I stand up slowly, my bag over my shoulder, and I take a cautious step away from my house, hoping to be swallowed up into the darkness. But he sees me.
“Stay right where you are,” he yells.
I take another step, seeing one of the officers going inside Carrie’s house. A flashlight shines through the windows, a spotlight in the darkness.
“I mean it, stay right where you are or I will shoot you.”
I feel sick. I feel dizzy. I feel numb. I feel heavy. I feel lost. I feel found.
A scream erupts from my house.
My mom woke up.
She’s seen my dad, dead, stabbed through the heart while she slept with her unblinking eyes.
But I don’t run.
Because there’s nowhere to run, not without Carrie.
