Read I'm Elemental :: Parents

Jen sat and thought long and hard. She thought about her parents who died ten years ago, when she was three. All she could remember was lots of shouting and screaming. She sat by the stairs, listening to the fight. It was about an hour later when, just as Jen was about to sleep, she saw the glint of the knife. She would never forget the look on her mother's face as her father raised it high above her chest and then... she was dead. Jen ran into her room crying. Her father heard her muffled sobs and burst through the door.

"Jen, I can explain..." her father's voice trailed off.

"No! Daddy's a meanie! He killed Mommy!" shouted three-year-old Jen. She ran past her dad and out the front door after grabbing Mr Binglebong, her stuffed toy cat. She ran into Woodland Park which was not far from her house. She disappeared into the trees and her dad didn't get to see where she went.

I miss him, she thought. I probably shouldn't even have ran away. I miss Mom too.

Only a few months later did Jen go back to her house to retrieve her money and belongings.

She got up and decided to stroll by her old house. Walking along the familiar cobblestone pathway, she found herself looking at her previous dwelling. It had looked so beautiful in her childhood but now, it looked rotten and mangled. Trees had devoured it, covering the house with leaves. The once-white-as-snow walls had become a dirty grey. Jen took a deep breath and stepped into her house.

The first thing she saw was ten-year-old blood on the floor, near her kitchen. Her mother's. She carefully stepped around it, going upstairs. She headed for her bedroom. Everything was still in place - her bed, the shelf, her cupboard...

Jen turned and ran. This place held too many painful memories to bear.