“OUCH!”
Jayson jumped, letting go of the tee shirt wrapped around my leg and releasing the pressure.
“JAYSON WHAT THE HECK THAT IS TIGHT!”
Jayson looked at me exasperatedly and repositioned the shirt around my stab wound. I raised my voice in frustration.
“DOES… IT… HAVE… TO… BE… SO… TIGHT…?!”
“Yes, it does. Unless you’d rather bleed to death. Your choice.”
I groaned and laid my pounding, throbbing head back on the floor, having bolted up as I regained consciousness in response to the immense pressure and pain shooting through my leg. I laid still, my eyes shut, trying to sort out the locations my pains were coming from.
“Jayson he got my right shoulder to.”
My brother looked up at me, then at my shoulder, then down at my leg again. I saw him reach for another shirt from the pile of dirty laundry on his bedroom floor, then quickly release on the one around my leg.
“Here,” He scooted up to my right side and swiftly wrapped the second shirt around my right shoulder and under my arm pit. “Hold this here. Keep it tight and keep pressure directly on the stabbed spot.”
He moved back down to my leg and adjusted the tee shirt, once again asserting an uncomfortable amount of pressure on my wound.
I winced as I held the shirt in place. Then I realized I was using my injured hand. I switched to my right one instead.
“Jayson he got my hand too.”
My brother looked up as I showed him my bloody hand. He pursed his lips and shrugged.
“Not much way to stop that bleeding right now. Did he get you anywhere else?”
I thought a moment, once again sorting out the blurred pain shooting through my entire body.
“No. I hit my head on the wall though.””
My brother nodded and looked back at my leg.
“…Jayson, I feel really weak-“
He lifted his head and cut me off.
“You lost a lot of blood, stop talking and relax until the paramedics get here.”
I sighed and closed my eyes. A few minutes later I heard sirens in the distance.
“Jayson?”
“Yeah?”
“Where is he?”
My brother took a moment to look at me, then he quietly spoke.
“He got away.”

- - -

A couple weeks passed. Jayson commanded me to not think about anything but getting better, but it was hard not to dwell on the fact that some crazy lunatic had killed my entire family. Except Jayson, of course. But still, Jayson couldn’t make up for mom’s hugs when I got home from school, dad’s little talks with me when he’d slip in my room to say goodnight, and Rachael’s silly antics and annoying questions.
The day I was discharged from the hospital, my brother came to pick me up. I was still on crutches, the stab to my leg having torn a muscle. The doctors had repaired it, but I’d never be able to run much or play sports very well again.
“Hey Cora.”
My brother gave me a gentle hug.
“You aren’t going to break me y’know.”
Jayson smiled and talked to the doctor for a minute. Then he signed some papers at the receptionist desk and turned to me.
“Let’s go get your things from the house.”
I looked at him for a moment.
“You never told me where I’m going…”
He began walking towards the door.
“For now, you’re going to be living with Aunt Bethany and Uncle Todd.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. Could me life get ANY worse?

- - -

A policeman met us at the house and escorted us inside. The yellow tape was still around the perimeter and a red note on the front door forbid anyone to trespass. I shuddered, partly from the cool breeze hitting my face, partly from the eerie nature of my house. It was like it was dead too.
As I stepped inside, my mind wandered back to the events that’d unfolded that night. I instinctively walked close to Jayson, occasionally brushing up against him. This whole thing was just too creepy.
We walked to my bedroom, and I noticed some of my things were out of place. I opened my mouth to ask why, then shut it as I remembered the police probably went through my things.
With a sigh I opened my closet and began taking down my clothes off the hangers. After about ten minutes, I’d gotten together everything I needed to take with me, and Jayson crammed it all into a duffel bag.
We went back outside, and I got into the passenger side of Jayson’s truck. We began the 30 minute drive to my aunt and uncle’s house, and I again let my mind wander.
As soon as I was able to think clearly and I’d regained consciousness, a policeman interviewed me at the hospital. She asked me to close my eyes, and tell her everything I could remember about that night. I remembered the man smelling like he was wearing a strong cologne. I remembered the man having an almost soft voice, even his yell when I threw the container at him had a hint of softness. He was maybe 6 feet tall, slender, and I couldn’t detect much muscle under his black clothes. I noticed the knife he was holding had a rather intricately engraved handle, also that it appeared to be a large switchblade. His eyes looked dark, but it was hard to tell a specific color in the almost pitch black house.
She told me I’d done a good job, and then explained how he’d gotten in. Evidently he’d gone to the back patio door, which had glass panes in it. He’d broken one of the panes, then reached his hand through the opening and unlocked the door. Once inside, he went to Rachael’s bedroom, and she heard him enter. He overpowered her very fast, and quickly did a clean cut across her throat. He then walked to my parents’ room, supposedly slitting my mom’s throat first since she was still on the bed and then killing my dad since he ended up on the floor beside the bed. He then went into my parents bathroom to clean his knife, which is when I got home.
“Do you the police have any suspects?”
Jayson cleared his throat at my sudden question.
“Well, right now they aren’t sure who it could be… so I guess the answer to your question would be no.”
I nodded and didn’t speak.
“You’ll like it at Aunt Bethany and Uncle Todd’s. Remember when they came at Christmas? They’re pretty wealthy and ever since Lillian died they’ve been really lonely. I think you’ll enjoy it there.”
I rolled my eyes. Uh, no. Jayson was a horrible liar. I knew he was just trying to make me feel better, but even he knew all Aunt and Uncle ever did was argue and fight.
I looked out my window and saw a large estate with a huge green lawn and a large brick house hidden behind lots of trees and a iron fence surrounding the perimeter.
My new home.