A cold hand caressed my face as I heard an eerie voice cackle.

“This won’t hurt a bit daring...” it said.

I shrieked and sat straight up in my bed as I began consoling myself about the disturbing dream. Suddenly, I realized that my mom had not run into my room when I screamed. So, I put on my blue furry house slippers and, I tiptoed down the long corridor towards the master bedroom. Once I reached the door and opened it, I saw something that no fifteen year old girl should see.

My parents bodies laid lifelessly next to each other as blood ran down their bodies and stained the silver bedsheets. I walked towards their bodies and thought that I was imagining it all I was so confused.
A million different questions rushed to my head. How did this happen? Why did this happen? and most importantly, Who did this?

As I looked down on my mother’s body I noticed a silver pendant that hung from my mother’s neck. I took it off her neck to get a closer look at it. I placed it in my palm and flipped it over, it was engraved you will always be mine. I decided to let it go for now and finally left the room to go wake up James. James was my mild-mannered, eighteen year-old brother who is going through a strange emo phase. He had recently moved back home due to the heartbreak he had endured not to long ago.

When I opened his bedroom door, I saw that he was fast asleep with the bed sheets on the floor. I shook him as hard as I could to try to wake him. He finally stirred, and woke up. He looked up at me.

“What in the world do you want? Couldn’t you see that I finally getting some form of rest…” he murmured?

Before he could continue, my eyes welled up with tears and I said, “ Mom and Dad are dead and I don’t know what to do.”

James stared at me like I was a lunatic and said, “ Wait, what is going on? Is this some sort of joke?”

“James this is no damn joke!!!!” I screamed. He rose from his bed and looked me in the eyes and said, “ Wake Mary and tell her what is going on. In the mean time I will call the cops.”

I ran out of his room and trudged up the stairs towards the guest room where Mary the housekeeper slept.
As I entered the room I saw Mary in her pink silk nightgown and purple slippers sitting upright and staring at the wall. She looked so pale that I thought she was going to faint.

Once she realized that I was in the room she began to speak slowly, “Jane, I... need to tell you something… Your parents… they’re…” Before she could say anything else I spoke up and informed her that I knew my parents were dead and that James had called the police.

Ten minutes later, I heard the police sirens outside of our building. I walked towards the window in Mary’s room and saw that there were several cop cars lined up and there was yellow tape around the entrance of the building. As I backed away from the window I heard someone pounding on our front door. I raced to the door and opened it expecting to find a policeman but instead, it was our family lawyer and family friend Harry T. Smith. He gave me a hug, which I found odd because he had never hugged me before.

He put his hands on my shoulders if trying to console me and looked me in the eyes and said, “ I am so sorry for your loss and I hate to do this, but you, your brother, and Mary have to evacuate the house immediately because the police are saying that the entire apartment is considered a crime scene.”

Harry gathered everyone together and explained what was going to happen. Then, he ushered us all downstairs to where the police wanted to take our statements. Once we had all answered their questions they reminded us not to address the media because our parents were some of the most renowned lawyers in all of New York, and the media would end up making this a public affair.

Harry had set us up at Plaza Hotel for a few nights until we were aloud to go back home. By the time we arrived the hotel it was nine am so we all decided to go get some breakfast. Once we loaded our plates from the buffet, we took a seat at our table. The ambiance through the whole meal was somber. I had barely eaten anything off my plate because I kept on picturing my mother and father’s bodies that lay on their bed. When we finished eating we decided to go back to the hotel room to freshen up before we had to go down to the police station. An hour later the three of us met up in the lobby and then headed to the police station.

When we arrived at the police station the head detective greeted us on our parents case, Detective McKay and her partner Detective Cruz.

Detective McKay pulled me aside as we entered the station and said, “ Jane, I am so sorry for your loss and I know we questioned you yesterday… but, we have a few more questions that we would like to ask you, if that is okay.”

I agreed to let her question me. She led me down the dark gray corridor and into a small room with only a metal table, a desk lamp, and two metal chairs. She ushered me towards one of the chairs, and as I sat down I felt the ice-cold metal press against my skin. Once she took a seat she turned on the lamp and pulled out a notepad and a pen. She leaned in as if trying to whisper something but instead she spoke loudly.

“Jane, I need to inform you that since you,James,and Mary were the only three people that we can place inside the apartment at the time of your parents murder, so you will all be prime suspects in this homicide.” Detective McKay said. “What!! I had nothing to do with the death of my parents!!!” I screamed.

How could she think that I could possibly have killed my parents? Detective McKay calmly said, “ I am sorry, but we are just following the evidence. So, lets begin with the questions. Approximately what time did you go into your parent’s bedroom?

“ I went to their room at 1:00am.”I answered. She scribbled something down onto the notepad. As she kept asking me more and more questions I felt as if I had committed a crime because it felt as if she was trying to get me to say that I was the one who killed my parents. She finally asked one last question. “ We found an impression of a necklace on your mother’s body, but it did not match any of the jewelry in her room. Do you know if there is anywhere else she kept her jewelry?” I stuttered, “ Um… well… I think..um... that she...kept some… in the safety deposit box at...at... the... bank on fifth ave.”

She thanked me for answering the questions and walked me to where Mary and James were waiting. The three of us left the police station and hailed a taxi back to the hotel. During the ride to the hotel, Mary tried to lift our spirits by telling us that in a couple days we could go home, but I had no desire to go back home. The rest of the ride we all sat in silence.  By the time we arrived at the hotel it was around suppertime. We all went upstairs to freshen up and get changed. As I put on a vibrant floral dress, and a pair of silver heels I placed my mother’s necklace into my purse, and then exited the room. By the time I got downstairs, Mary and James were already sitting at the table. Once the waiter took our orders and had walked away, I began to speak.

“Mary, James, I need to ask you guys something.” I pulled out the necklace from my purse and placed it on the table. “ Have you guys seen this necklace before?” James replied, “ Nope, and I don’t think that dad would have given it to her. “ What makes you think that James? Your father always gave your mother jewelry.” Mary chimed in. James replied, “ Dad was not one for cheesy romantic gifts, but I do wonder who gave it to her.” Mary picked up the necklace, flipped it over, and traced the engraving with her finger. Once she placed the necklace back onto the table she sniffled and said, “ I have... never seen... this necklace... before.”

Suddenly, she started sobbing and I said, “ Mary what is going on?” She spoke in between sniffles, “ Nothing... is going on. I am still… really upset about what happened.” Mary got up, threw the napkin onto the table and ran out of the restaurant in tears. It is pretty obvious that Mary is still shaken up about everything right now. She needs time to take this all in, just like us.” We smiled at the patrons and left the restaurant.

As we went upstairs towards our rooms, James followed me to my room and said, “ Janie if you have a minute I really need to tell you something.” I invited him into my room and we sat down on the leather sofa. Before I could say anything he began speaking once again.

“Janie, about a week ago when I came home, I heard mom and dad arguing about something which I thought was strange, because they never really fight. Since they did not realize that I could hear them I moved closer… they mentioned Mary’s name but that was the only thing I really heard throughout the fight. I did not think much of it before, but now....” I interrupted him and said in a hushed tone, “Do you think that Mary killed mom and dad?” “ I really don’t know Janie. James got up and said goodnight and left the room. I changed into my silk pajamas and crawled underneath the covers and pondered the day’s events. I closed my eyes and suddenly I was in a dark room and I heard eerie whispers coming from the shadows that surrounded me. The darkness began to consume me and I began to cry. I suddenly jolted up from the bed, realizing that yet again, it was just a dream.

I looked at the time and went to turn on my phone. I saw that I had several missed calls and a text, they were from James. The text read, Detective McKay has some important information for us and is coming to meet us in a half an hour. I brushed my teeth, threw on a pair of denim shorts and black tank top, and raced downstairs to the lobby.

When I arrived Detective McKay, Mary and James were already there. We followed Detective McKay to a small hotel room that had been converted into an office. Once we had all taken our seats, Detective McKay started to speak, “ There has been a development in the case. Did you know that your father attended private anger management sessions with Dr.Fields?”

Detective McKay looked at us as our brains were trying to process what she had just said and to understand the direction that this conversation was heading. Since no one had responded Detective McKay spoke up, “ I am assuming with the lack of responses that this is new information to you.” The three of us nodded. She cleared her throat and continued, “ I would like to know if your father was physical with your mother or with any of you.” The look in her eyes softened when she saw a tear run down my cheek.

Before she said anything, I sniffled and began to speak in the faintest of whispers. “ Um,well there was this time where my dad was in a drunken rage and my mom and I were there. When my mom tried to take away his glass of whiskey he slapped her, He was going to slap her again but I pushed her out of the way and he hit me instead. He... um… dislocated my jaw bone…” Mary got out of her seat and rushed over to where I was sitting and gave me a hug. My brother clenched his fist as if ready to punch a hole through the wall. He turned towards me and said angrily, “ You told me that you dislocated your jaw when you fell off a swing! Why did you not tell me the damn truth!” I sobbed and murmured, “I did not want dad to hurt you and mom told me to never tell anyone what had happened.” I slowly got up from my chair and left the room. I walked outside, and hailed a taxi.

When the driver asked where I wanted to go I said home. The entire ride I thought of different scenarios that could have possibly happened to my parents. When I arrived at the building, I was surprised to see that there were still police cars lined up outside the building. As I walked through the lobby towards the elevator, I saw a glint in the corner of my eye. Instead of waiting for the elevators, I raced up the stairs to our apartment, which was located on the eighth floor.

The front door was wide open and as I walked in I heard someone calling my name. I turned around and there stood Detective Cruz. His voiced boomed throughout the apartment as he said, “ Jane, you are not supposed to be here.” “There is something that I need to tell you… my father hid cameras throughout the apartment and put two cameras in each of the rooms…” “ We did not find any cameras Jane.” “That is because you were not looking in the right place.” I dashed off towards my parent’s room and Detective Cruz followed.

Once I got to my parent’s room, I slowed down and noticed that my parent’s bodies had been removed and most of their items were gone. I looked at Detective Cruz and said, “ The cameras are in the air vents.” Detective Cruz moved a chair underneath the air vent and stood on it. I handed him a screwdriver from the kit he had brought with him. Once he had unscrewed it, he reached inside and pulled out a camera. He handed me the camera and he got down from the chair.

He said, “ Thanks for letting me know about the camera, hopefully it will help with the investigation. I should bring it back to the police station…” “Wait, before you bring it to the station can I see the video?” I interrupted. “ Jane, you know you can’t…” “But please…” “If you come to the station I will try to pull a few strings to let you watch the video, but are you one hundred percent sure that you want to see this.” “ I need to see this, it is the only sense of closure that I can get, so yeah I am sure.”  He bagged the camera and placed it in his kit. Then, we walked downstairs to where he had parked the police car and we headed towards the police station.

Once we arrived at the station, I followed Detective Cruz to a back room, which contained several high tech gadgets for encoding videos. Once he had hooked up the camera to the computer he fast-forwarded the recording to the night that my parents had died. Once the video was over, I was in a state of shock and Detective Cruz turned to me and said, “ I am so sorry Jane.” I was stunned; I could not believe what I had just seen. He had gotten up and called Mary, James, and Harry to come to the station to show them the tape.
Once the three of them arrived at the station, we all gathered together to watch my parent’s final moments alive.

When the tape started rolling it showed my mom and dad lying in bed watching TV. My parents kept glaring at each other as if fighting with one another silently. Three minutes later there was a knock at the door. My mom said, “ Come in.” it was Mary who had brought tea for my parents. When Mary had asked if they needed anything else my father said no. Mary had still not left the room, so my dad said, “ We said that we did not need anything, you can leave now.”

Mary spoke in a confident voice and says, “ I need to tell you something…” Before Mary could continue, my mother interrupts and says, “ What are you doing Mary? Please don’t do this…” Mary cuts her off and says, “ I need to say this Emma. Adam, Emma and I have been seeing each other.” “What the hell!” My dad screamed. Mary continued and said, “ I want to be with Emma, I need to be with her…”My dad lunges out at Mary and screams “ Get the hell out of my house! I never want to see you anywhere near my wife or kids.” Mary pushes my father away and runs out of the room.

Once the door was closed my dad looked at my mom in utter repulsion and shouted, “ You must think I am stupid, I knew you were hiding something, but to do this Emma! You are disgrace to yourself and this family! How could you betray me! I hate you!” “Adam, I...I…” Before my mother could continue, my father grabbed the necklace she was wearing, grabbed her throat and strangled her with it. Mary, James, and I were all tearing up, as my sweet mother lay there lifelessly with her hazel eyes wide open. I looked back at the video and my father was running around the room frantically saying, “ What did I do? What did I do?”

He sat in his bed, cried, and suddenly began banging his head against the headboard. He did it with such force that he began to bleed and eventually died in sheer vain next to my angelic mother. Then, the screen went black. I sat there shocked as I had the first time I saw the video. Then, I turned my head and looked at Mary. She sat there with a guilt stricken look on her face and she began to cry silently. It all finally made sense. Mary was the one who had given my mother the necklace, because they were having an affair! I was so shocked that Mary was even capable of doing something so ignorant. By having the affair with my mom, she ruined my parent’s marriage and destroyed my family.

Even though she hurt me in more ways than one, I pitied her because she was the one who had to hide the affair while my mother pretended that she was happily married. I felt so bad for her that I took out the necklace from my pocket and slid it to Mary, to let her have one last piece of my mom. It all hit me at once, my parents were gone, and Mary lied to me and was probably going to jail for a while, and I do not know what I am supposed to do know. Do I continue my everyday life like nothing happened or do I choose to mourn the loss of my late parents?