CHAPTER 1

MICAELA’S POV

Having had such a hard time growing up Micaela had always wanted to join the army when she grew up to prevent the bad guys from harming people. For most people joining the army, the reasons were varying between wanting to serve their country or the motivation from a role model growing up. To Micaela, the decision to join the army came from one event that happened in her life that left her traumatized. She had a normal childhood with a few best friends in her corner and loving parents who adored her so much.

She sometimes felt lonely growing up but she was happy. Her dream was to become a doctor to help save the lives of people. Her heart had always been the kind and helping type. Her parents would always tell her how proud of her they were. Her father was a normal business man with a small business in her home town. Her mom was a stay at home mom who prioritized taking care of her family. With the little income from her father’s business, they were able to survive. She was a smart girl so they did not have to worry about money for college. With her GPA she could get a full ride scholarship to any college she dreamt of. In junior year when she came back home from school, something happened that changed her life completely.

She arrived home and was welcomed by her mother’s warm hug. She showered and went down for some diner before going back to her room to finish some school work. She always enjoyed home cooked meals and her mom’s cooking was the best. Her mom had studied in culinary arts and the family had always encouraged her to open up a restaurant or a small café. With her skills they were sure that the business was going to grow very fast. Her mom however did not want to work. She always joked that her cooking skills were to only be enjoyed by her family. Her father would come late sometimes which was expected in the business world. Sometimes they would wait for him but sometimes they would not.That night when she was finishing up on her homework, Micaela heard a knock on the front door. She got excited thinking that it was her father but she did not know how wrong she was.

She waited for her father to come say goodnight but it never came.  She was about  to go check on what was going on when she was  startled by an ear piercing scream coming from her mom which was followed by silence. She opened her bedroom and run down the steps two at a time. When she got to the living room, she was welcomed by a sight that left her traumatized her whole life. Her parent’s bodies lay next to one another in pools of their own blood. Before them stood two men in black masks. Her mind did not even register that the killers were still in the house. She ran and to them and knelt down and began shaking them violently begging them to wake up but they never did. They were gone and the people responsible for it stood behind her watching as she broke down not wanting to believe that her parents were dead.

The neighbors must have heard the commotion in her house and called the police because minutes later, sirens were heard around the corner nearing her house. This must have brought the killer’s out of their reveille as they turned to run for safety. They seemed to have remembered that they had left behind a witness and one of them came back and pointed the gun at her. The other man pulled him away saying that she was just a child and that they did not have enough time as the police were zeroing in. Nothing else seemed to register in Micaela’s mind as she sat there looking at the bodies of her parents.