INTRUDER

NOW

Wanda is dead. How is that possible?

I sit in class with my head on my desk, not even trying to pay attention to the teacher. There is no use to paying attention when everyone around you is dying. I am dead, basically. I am living in my own death. Today when I walked in, I didn't even smile to Ben. I didn't even say hi to anyone. I can't. I can't even talk. I don't want to talk. I have literally no one to talk to because I am frightened that if I talked with anyone, they are going to die exactly like Wanda. I don't want anyone dying because of me. I can't look at another person without thinking that they are going to be next all because of me. I am scared out of my skin, and I am deciding if I should still be alive. Why am I so important to live? Why does this person want to kill everyone around me but not me? What does he want from me?

I ask myself these questions every single day after the incident. I close my eyes and try to envision who the murderer was.

I am walking towards lunch when the principal grabs me.

"Claire, there is some news you need to know."

I follow him to his office and sit down.

"Who had a key to your house before the intrusion?"

"Why? What did they find?"

"There... there is no sign of forced entry. They think someone either had a key or it was someone already in the house."

"You don't deserve to ask me questions like that! You are not a police," I stand up and walk out of the room. I can't tell him anything. I cannot trust anyone anymore, not after what happened to Wanda. No one can know more information about that night without being killed.

Susanne. She is the only one that knows the most at this second. Ben. He knows a little. Ellie.... knows everything. No, what if she is next. I grab my coat from the classroom and hop into Johnny's car. I drive into the elementary school. I see a man entering the school.

I park my car and start walking behind the man. He walks exactly like the man when he entered into our house. I turn around a curb with him and I realize he is heading towards Ellie's sixth grade class. How did they let him in? Did he say it was Johnny? I let him go to the class and run back to the office.

"Who was that person that just checked in?"


"Glenn Líon?"

I have never heard that name. I raced out of the office and run to Ellie's classroom. She isn't in there when I reach the classroom.

I look back and see the man carrying a girl. Is that Ellie?

Mrs. Rowell, Ellie's teacher, asks me if I was okay and if I needed something. I didn't answer her.

I raced outside and reached the man.

"Glenn!" I screamed.

The man turned around and looked at me. The girl also turned around and it wasn't Ellie.

"What?" He asked, as if he was in a hurry.

"Never mind. I thought you forgot something in there."

"And who are you?" He asks impatiently.

"I'm Claire. My sister, Ellie, is she one of your daughter's friends?"

"I hate Ellie! Ew! The stupid girl! She got picked up by her stupid foster mother because her parents were murdered, boo-hoo, she's so dramatic!" I am shocked at what the girl with blonde pony tails says. I want to yank her by the pay tail until she cries.

"Well you want to know a secret?"

"What!" She says in a sing-song voice.

"Eff you," When I realize that I didn't say "eff" but I said the actual word, I was already in trouble.

Glenn grabbed my arm and dragged me to the office.

The woman there looked so confused when she saw me trying to escape Glenn's grasp.

"She called me a bad word!" The annoying blonde haired girl tells the lady.

"Excuse me ma'am, we will need to see your I.D. and did you sign in?"

"No," I say and I walk toward the door.

"Ma'am, I can call the cops! You do not barge into a school without signing in and insult a middle schooler!"

"Call the cops, they already hate me!" I scream and raise my middle finger at them. I start to cry while I race out to my car.

Outside, I can hear the women telling the man that I had just experienced a murder and I needed some time. He rolled his eyes and came outside to my car.

"Listen, I don't care what you "experienced" but I should never see you near my daughter, you hear me?" He grabs my chin but I am quick to slap his face with all my force.


"Yeah, well teach your daughter some manners! Do you even know what bullying is? Your daughter is a B-U-L-L-Y!" I start my car and drive off.

I can see in my review mirror that he got into his car and drove off furiously. I don't care. No one ever insults Ellie. Never. You have to get pass me before you can hurt Ellie.

When I get home, Ellie is playing on the couch with Susanne's iPad. I smile and hug her when she jumps up to greet me.

Susanne asks me why I am so early home today and I told her I wasn't standing everyones crap.

"Some parents should teach their kids some manners, so I taught him some manners."

She asks me who it was.

"Glenn, Glenn Líon."

"Oh! He works at Johnny's work, Except Johnny works most of the time at home... since he only teaches agriculture at the university downtown from eleven to six on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Johnny says he's rude to most of the teachers, no wonder where the daughter gets it from!"

 I laugh at this.

The rest of the day, we play UNO until Johnny gets home. We eat when he gets home and we play another round of UNO with him this time.

I go to sleep at around eleven, thinking about how much I love Ellie. Everything I would do for Ellie.

I love Ellie so much.