The Us In This Elliptical World

ONE

4:54 PM, Monday. October 4, 1993

I live in a small home here in London. I don't have any friends. All I have is my family. I've always wanted to make friends for years but I never knew why I couldn't. My name's Redelyn by the way

Mom and dad are fighting again about how they're going to take me and my siblings to New Zealand because of the wars that's been happening here in London. They usually don't fight the way they are now. I guess it must be that serious.

They've been shouting at each other for 30 minutes now while my siblings and I try to ignore their intimidating arguments. As much as I want to butt in and calm them down, I don't want to make the situation worse.

As they kept on shouting their rooted anger at each other, we hear a grenade go off.

Everyone stops in their tracks. Even mom and dad stopped fighting. We then quietly looked out our windows to see what was happening outside.

Suddenly, 3 knocks on the door.

"Open the door, now!" an unknown yet horrific voice shouts

Mom and dad tell us to go hide in the compartment we have in the basement.

Terrified, we run quickly down the stairs to hide. All of our hearts are palpitating and our eyes are shaking with fear and confusion

"1....2.....3"

We hear the soldiers busting down our door.

We hear each and every single foot step they're making.

We hear their guns being reloaded as I speak.

A menacing yet calm voice was heard

"Is there anyone else in here?" the menacing voice asks

"No... no there isn't" Dad answers, a white lie to keep us safe

"O-only the two of us" Mom says

I could hear the distress in moms voice

Another soldier says "Shoot 'em down"

Guns being reloaded we hear in the background

"KNEEL DOWN" the soldier frighteningly says

"What are they gonna do to mom and dad?" Micah asks anxiously

"I don't know, Micah" Another white lie. I knew what they were going to do to mom and dad. I didn't want to hurt Micah and my other siblings.

Mom screams for help with agony in her voice

We hear the knocks of their knees on the floor above us.

One of the soldier says "TAKE AIM!"

A 5 second pause

.....

Dad screams "you're sorry?!"

"3! 2! 1!"

"FIRE!"

...

We go silent. We realize what just happened.

I try to contain myself. So do my siblings.

All we here is the drop of our parents bodies to the floor.

Micah tries to hold in her tears by covering her face with her hands.

Draven and Oscar just look down on their shoes.

We hear the steps of the soldiers walking out the door.

"This house is clear, sir"

We hear a voice calmly say

"Good, now get to work. We have more houses to breach" another unknown voice replies

"Yes, sir" the calm voice responds

I can't help but wonder why. Why would they do that. Why would they kill innocent people