I walk home from school as usual and I show up at about the same time as my brother. We walk into the house at the time.
“Hey mom!” We both greet. My mom turns around with sad eyes but a smile on her face as she looks at my brother.
“Hi, sweetheart. How was school today?” She asks. She doesn’t look at me at all. My brother’s face falls and he throws his arms around mom.
“I miss her. It’s so hard to go to school and not have her there.” He says. I look at them confused but shrug my shoulders and move along. I walk up the stairs and put my backpack down. I lay back on my bed and close my eyes but my door opens suddenly and my mom walks in sniffling. She looks around and then walks over to the shelf that holds my awards from swim and she picks up my most recent award, I got it about two weeks ago. She smiles as she looks at it.
“You had so many good things lined up for you.” She whispers as she places the award back on the shelf. I sit up and frown at her as she turns and makes her way to my bed. She sits down with a heavy sigh and folds her hands while resting her elbows on her knees. Her shoulders start to shake with sobs. “I should have sent your brother to pick you up after school. This wouldn’t have happened if I had. I’m so sorry.” She apologizes as her shoulders start to shake harder. I sit next to her and try to put my arm around her shoulder but I go right through her.
“Mom?” I ask. She doesn’t respond, her shoulders just keep shaking as she cries. There’s a knock on my door and my mom jumps with a gasp as the door opens to reveal my dad. He has bags under his eyes and his eyes are red as he wraps his arms around my mom. They both start crying again as I continue trying to get their attention. “You guys, I’m right here!” I yell but they ignore me. I groan in frustration and slam my fists down on my bed.
“Let’s go eat some dinner. It’s getting late.” My dad says after a few moments. My mom nods and looks at the clock that sits on my nightstand. They both get up and walks out of my room. I lay back on my bed and then shoot up with a sudden realization. I run over to my desk and sit at my computer. I carefully reach forward and grab the mouse. How was I not able to hug my mom but I’m able to touch everything else? I shake the mouse on the pad and the computer comes to life. I double click on the Google Chrome icon and wait for it to open a browser. It opens with all of my presets in boxes on the screen. I click in the search bar and type in ‘News for the city of Perry’. I hit enter and wait for the results to pop up. The first link to pop up is a murder, I click on it and can’t believe what I see.
‘Body of teenage girl found in an alley’, the headline. I scroll down and read what it says.
‘Savannah Greene, 16, was stabbed to death late Thursday night. Her body was discovered on Friday morning. Savannah was a star swimmer at Perry High School.’ I stop reading as tears start forming in my eyes and I scroll through the rest of the article and stop on my picture at the end. It was the picture of me from homecoming last year, my blonde hair was curled and I was wearing a teal dress. I push away from my desk and turn around, looking into my now dark room. I pull myself back up to my desk and flip on my lamp. I grab a pen and my journal. I open it to a blank page and start to write.
‘Mom, Dad, Trevor,
I’m sorry. Please don’t blame yourselves for this. I love you guys and I know you miss me and I know I’ll miss you too. Don’t worry about me being stuck here, I won’t stay. I don’t want to cause you guys any more pain. Don’t worry about me because I’m not in any pain, I’m happy so please try to be happy too.
Love, Savannah’
I stop writing before I start crying on the paper. I lay the pen in the spine of the journal to make sure it stays open to my note before standing up from my desk. I open my door and walk out of my room taking one last walk through my house, hoping that my parents and brother will notice my room before I have to disappear. I hear footsteps coming up the stairs and I hear a gasp as my mother reaches the top of the stairs followed by my dad. They both rush into my room and I follow them.
“Trevor!” My mom calls him in and he runs over to them. They stand over my desk and read the note that I left them. The three of them start crying and so do I but soon a man in a black suit appears in front of me. He watches as my family hugs and cries before turning to me.
“It’s time to go.” He tells me. I look back at my family one more time before turning to the man and nodding.
“Can you tell me where I’m going?” I ask him. He smiles and shakes his head.
“I can’t give the big punch line, sorry.” I give him a slight smile and nod.
“That’s okay. Let’s go.” I say as I take a step forward. He holds his hand out to me and I take it. I look back at my family one more time as they slowly start fading away.
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