Blood Stained Roses

tw: murder

Every year on the first day of spring, dad gave every important woman in his life flowers, it is a tradition I intend on keeping now that he’s getting older. 

On the drive over to my parent's house, I stopped by the flower shop to pick up mom's favorite ones, roses. Today was the first day of spring and I couldn’t wait to see Mom's face light up with joy when she greeted me on the front porch. As I pulled into the driveway I noticed the front door was open, which was strange considering they were always so paranoid about their safety, still, I took the flowers in one hand and hopped out of my car rushing to the door. It didn’t take long for me to realize something was truly wrong, and at this point, my heart was pounding violently. As I approached the porch I could hear the alarm system beeping sending me into full panic mode.

I didn’t even bother to close the door behind me, I just started calling out for them and rushing from room to room. “Mom! Dad! Where are you?” I shouted, but I only heard the alarm system beeping in return. As I approached the kitchen I felt my heart drop. There they were, laying in a pool of their own blood. The roses fell from my hand as I saw their bodies on the tile floor. Dad had a gun in hand and mom had scratches on her arm as if she had fought her attacker, yet still, it wasn’t enough. I stood there in shock as I came to the realization that this was really happening.

I picked up the phone and immediately dialed 911 yet I couldn’t seem to form any words as the operator tried to get my attention. “They're dead. My parents, I- I found them dead. Please help. T-this can’t be happening” I couldn’t seem to find the right words, then I heard it. Footsteps. “Oh my god! Someones here!” I whisper yelled into the phone. “Ma’am please get out of the house, I have dispatched officers to your location. Stay out of sight” the operator responded calmly. 

I quickly rushed to my car, set my phone down on the passenger seat beside me, and locked myself in. Oh god! The killer must have heard me calling for my parents. I thought about pulling out of the driveway and driving down to the police station where I couldn’t be hurt, but it felt wrong. I couldn’t just leave my parents there, I have to wait. My thoughts were quickly disrupted by a man walking out of the house with a gun. I hastily grabbed my phone and pulled up the camera to try and get a picture of him, so the police could identify him. As he was exiting the house he closed the door behind him and looked out over to my car. He must have noticed the camera because he stopped and did the most unexpected thing, he smiled and waved. I was petrified. I felt frozen in place and couldn’t bring myself to put the phone down or drive away or even scream in fear. I was just frozen. In the background, you could hear voice sirens getting closer, and the man waved again and began jogging down the street where he hopped into a car and drove off.

Once his car was out of sight I ran back into the house. He was upstairs, so maybe he was looking for something. I ran up the old wooden staircase and was careful not to touch anything so I wouldn’t mess up any fingerprints or anything that might be useful to the police investigation. Once up the steps, I noticed that the only room that was disrupted was their office. Mom and dad shared an office at home for when they had to grade papers and lesson plans. Since I was a little girl they told me the story of how they met on their first day of work and fell in love. They would teach elementary school and spend their lunch breaks together, and soon began dating and moved into this house together. Looking at the room now and how books and files were thrown all over the floor, it broke my heart. What on earth would someone want to kill my parents for? And most importantly why would they go through my parent's office?

Carefully I began looking around as to not mess anything up, not that I could mess it up more than it already was. Everything was so out of place the only logical thing to do was to start by looking at the things that were in place. The chairs and desks were still in their place, the middle of the room facing each other, and the bookshelves that lined the walls were still there but the books were thrown on the floor. The only empty wall was the back wall. The back wall was the picture wall, it had a huge family portrait of the three of us, as well as smaller pictures of us on family trips, diplomas, and certificates framing the windows. The family portrait was hung at an angle, which drew my attention to it over everything else. I stepped over all the papers and carefully lifted the picture off the wall. I was shocked to see a safe in the wall. I knew my parents were always paranoid but I never imagined seeing this. we had safes located on the bookshelves and in our rooms but what was so important that it needed to be hidden from plain view. 

We used important dates as codes for our safes so I figured I would try some out. I tried my birthday, my mom's birthday, my dad's birthday, my parent's wedding anniversary, and my graduation date, yet none of them worked, each time the little light above the dial pad turned red. I decided to try the date that they met, it was a long shot and I wasn’t sure if I remembered the date right, they only mentioned it once and it seemed to have slipped on accident but it was the only date I hadn’t tried yet. I typed in the number as quickly as I could, the police sirens were getting louder and louder they sounded like they were seconds away. I hit enter and the light beeped green! Quickly I opened the safe, grabbed its contents, closed it up, and put the picture back in place. I ran down to my car and stuffed the contents in my backpack just as the police pulled up to the street. 

One of the officers stepped up to my car and tapped on the window. “Good evening, my name is officer Harrison, is the suspect still inside?” “No” I responded, “He walked out and got in a car just a moment ago”. My hands were shaking as I began to process everything that just happened. My parents were murdered. I saw the murderer. I stole potential evidence. It didn’t feel real, yet everything kept moving so fast. “Please stay in the car while we handle the investigation, an officer will pass by soon to take your statement” noted officer Harrison, then he walked into the house. 

I pulled out what I had taken from the safe and started going through everything. I didn’t know what to expect but what I found certainly was the last thing that would have crossed my mind. 

The first thing in the stack was a flash drive. I pulled out my computer and plugged it in. the files were passcode protected so I decided to use the anniversary date of when my parents met again and it worked. There were very few files on the flash drive but the first one was a video. I clicked on it and my parents popped on to the screen. “Hi Alex, it’s mom and dad. If you’re seeing this it means something happened to us and it’s time you learned the truth.” At this point, tears were rolling down my face. It felt strange hearing their voices but knowing I would never see them again. “The next few files will explain everything, please read them closely. We want you to know that we love you and we never planned on you having to find out or for us to stay in this field for so long. Be safe sweetie and whatever you do, don’t let anyone else see these files.” Those were the last words I would ever hear from them, and it’s about a secret! What did they mean by staying in this field? They were teachers, there isn’t anything all too secretive about that! But with everything, I just witnessed I have a feeling they weren’t just teachers. 

The next few files revealed everything to me. Being teachers was just their day job, a cover for their real lives. My mom and dad, Lia and Mike, the most cautious and boring people ever, were hitmen. From what I gathered, they worked for an agency called Sanctus mortem, a group of professional hitmen all working for the same leader. 

The paper files were reports of all the cases they worked on, and the digital files were notes that they scanned. Most of the notes were about trying to discover who the leader was, and if it was another agent. The last note scanned was a warning from one of the agents that a hitman was hired to kill them and it was someone from their own crew. 

As I looked up I saw an officer approaching my car and quickly closed my computer and stuffed the files in my bag. “Excuse me, we are ready to take your statement now.” I quickly recapped all the events to the officer, I told her about the flowers, the opened door, calling out for them, making the call, hearing footsteps, running back to my car, but then I got to the part I knew I had to lie about. I decided to show the officer the picture that I took of the killer and tell her how he had waved at me, but then I lied. “After that, I just stayed in my car waiting for you to arrive, I’m sorry I’m no help I’m just still trying to process everything that happened,” I remarked as tears came to my eyes. “I understand” the officer replied, “you did your best under the circumstances. You can go home, well call you if we have anything pertaining to the investigation. Go get some rest”

Pulling out of the driveway I was blinded by rage and grief. I had only one thing in mind, I was going to find the leader of Sanctus mortem myself.