13elieve (Short story collection)

June 8th, 2006

"If only I didn't leave her alone that one night." Treger Merad thought to himself. Treger was a single father, to his daughter, Borrbey. Like any single parent, Treger had to work a lot in order to insure his daughter and him the best life. Treger still had nightmares of that one night. It was the first day of summer, June 8th, 2006. This meant that Borrbey didn't have school, but Treger still had to go to work. Borrbey was 11, so Treger thought that she would be old enough to stay home alone. Treger made sure that Borrbey knew all of the rules, like not having friends over, or not opening the doors for strangers. Borrbey agreed, and Treger went on his way to work. Treger wanted to trust his daughter, but he was worried, because Borrbey was entering a rebellious stage, and he felt she would invite a friend over anyway. Treger felt that Borrbey's best friend, Genative, had a negative influence on her. He worried, that despite telling her not to, she would invite Genative over. He felt bad, because he wanted to trust Borrbey, but had a very hard time doing so. The entire day at work, Treger kept having a gut feeling, that something was going to go wrong. He figured it was something that all parents went through the first time they let their kids stay home alone.

Treger tried not thinking about it, but he found himself calling Borrbey multiple times that day. For the most part, Treger would call her and tell her that he was just checking on her, and she would tell him everything was fine. Pretty much, all of the calls went like that, except for the last one. When Treger called the last time, Borrbey didn't pick up, or at least he didn't think she did. When he called the last time, somebody picked up and then immediately hung up. He imagined that Borrbey was getting annoyed with him, but that gave her no right to hang up on her father. He doubted that she would do something like that, but no one else was in the house. He knew, that either she wasn't the one who picked up the phone, or that she was getting a real attitude problem, which meant she was not able to stay home alone. Either way, he felt that he had to go home and talk to her about this.

He tried to get home quickly, but he found himself hitting all of the traffic. When Treger got home, he could not believe his eyes. In his driveway, and on his street, were seven police cars, and he saw a handcuffed stranger being taken out of his house. Treger had no idea who this guy was, or why he was in his house, but then his thoughts jumped immediately to Borrbey, and he tried to run into his house. An officer stopped him, but Treger showed him his ID, to prove that he lived there, and ran inside. When he got inside, he saw that 95% of his stuff was either destroyed or stolen. He kept calling Borrbey's name, but she didn't answer him. He walked into the kitchen, where he found that part of it was surrounded with caution tape. He went up to it, and surrounded by the tape, were the bodies of Borrbey and Genative. Treger was already upset about the robbery, but those were only things, they could be replaced. People could not.