No One is Innocent

Chapter 10.

We heard people running upstairs, to my parents room if I had to guess. First one person, and then two more. Then, just a few seconds later, we heard a gunshot, and then after maybe a minute, we heard more footsteps, and then two more gunshots.

I screamed and jumped into Hannes's arms. He stroked my cheek and kissed me on the forehead right after he had caught me before landing on the floor.

After a couple of minutes, blood started flowing in from under the little gap right under the door. I turned to Hannes and he dropped me out of fright. I got up and turned to him.

''Do you think she did it?'' I stammered and my whole body froze.

Hannes slowly nodded and then I felt tears coming.

''No, no, she would never do that...'' I cried and Hannes hugged me tight. ''She wouldn't.''

''It's okay,'' Hannes whispered to motivate me a bit. ''She just wanted to save you from later being killed.''

''Clara would never kill anyone,'' I cried and started banging on the door. ''Clara! Please, if you hear me, tell me what happend!''

Soon, the bottom of my shoes turned completely red from the blood that was still flowing in.

''Clara! Clara, open the god damn door!'' I screamed while crying. ''Clara, please!''

Hannes came and helped me. After a minute or two, I heard the door breaking in half. Hannes kicked the door with his foot, and it flew away and down the stairs. We walked out and followed the blood, into my parents room. I saw four dead bodies in there, two people I didn't know that I guessed was working for Marcus, and then mom and dad. I also saw Clara sitting in the middle of the blood, crying over dad and mom's bodies.

''No... no, don't leave me, please,'' she cried and covered her hands with her mouth, and her sobbing became almost completely silent.

''What the hell did you do?!'' I shouted and pushed Clara away out of anger. ''You killed your own parents, what the heck?!''

''I'm... I'm so sorry,'' Clara cried and looked at me, now sitting in a corner of the room, with blood all over her body, even her face.

My anger took over. All I felt was anger to my sister, not any sadness or fright, or anything like that. I just wanted to knock her out and leave and then never come back. I wanted to kill her for killing our parents.

''It's okay Toni, she only wanted to help,'' Hannes said in an attempt to comfort me. ''Don't blame her, blame your parents for starting this in the beginning.''

''Why are you all of a sudden on her side?!'' I cried and fell down on my knees. ''She was the one who killed them, she is the one who took their lives from them!''

Hannes became quiet, crouched down and kissed me.

''Don't worry,'' he said.

I saw a smirk in the corner of my eye, and then I felt a painful stab in the back. I fell down on the floor, and I saw how Clara slowly got up.

''I'm so sorry,'' Hannes said and actually sounded a bit sad. ''But I don't want to die, not now, not here. Not because of Marcus. I need to leave to survive, and I know that you'll never be able to just leave your parents's bodies to rot. I'm so sorry.''

My hands quickly got covered in blood, then my shirt and pants.

''I thought I could trust you,'' I whispered.

But before I could say anything else, he was gone. And to my surprise, Clara followed him out. After a moment, I heard the front door being opened, and then shut. He left me. He left me to die. In an attempt to survive, I managed to get up. One of my hands protected me from falling again by holding different things, and my other hand pulled out the knife from my back.

I nearly fell down the stairs. But when I finally got all the way down, I ran to the kitchen and opened a shelf. After a few seconds I found the first aid kit that mom had put there a couple of years ago when we first moved in. I opened it and wrapped the bandage very unprofessionally around my wound. I tried my best to, at the same time breath. I sat down in a chair, one of my hands still covering the wound even if it protected by bandages.

After maybe half an hour of only breathing and trying to stay calm, my brain repeated what just happend. The love of my life, or at least I thought he was, had stabbed me. In the back. Backstabbing, or betrayal, or whatever you would call it. The only person I really trusted, had tried to kill me. But he wasn't getting rid of me that easy.

I started to remember everything that I had forgotten before, and then I got flashbacks just moments after. How someone knocked on the window, then grabbed me by my hair and I fell down in the grass. How everything went black and I then woke up in a unfamiliar room. I met Hannes. My strongest memory was his green eyes. Green eyes, like a forest. We took pictures for my dad that he never got... or maybe he did after all? Well, after that I knocked Hannes out, escaped, came back again because of that incredibly annoying tracker. Then I remembered that me and Hannes ran away from Marcus together, into the woods. And right after, dad came and took me back home. And I ended up like always, alone. No family, no Hannes. No Clara, no one. In some way, I always managed to end up alone. But deep in my heart, I knew this would happen. I couldn't trust anyone, because if I did, I was stupid. Stupid, only stupid. And dumb.

I stayed in the kitchen, maybe for the whole night. And for some reason, I enjoyed the memories I had with Hannes. The memories I had with my kidnapper. My selfish kidnapper, if I could make it any worse. I also tried to remember a few memories with Clara from my childhood. One time when I was only 4 years old, mom was going to give me a bath, but Clara offered to do it instead. It started of pretty cozy, she put bubbles in, but then when it was time for shampoo, she didn't put it in my hair. She put it in my eyes instead. I cried for hours, and mom grounded Clara for a whole week. But when the whole week was over, I still itched my eyes, so mom rushed me to the hospital. They took a few tests, and I had an infection. What it was, I didn't remember, but one thing I remembered was that I got some kind of surgery or something like that. I didn't really remember, but I stayed in the hospital for about three days after that.

Even if it was painful at that time when it happend, it was nice and fun to look back at it.

But times changed. Clara became more unsocial, was in her room all of the time except for dinner, breakfast and school. But one thing I knew, was that I was going to get my revenge.