Never Make A Promise

-Tallahassee, Florida. Five years later-

That long vacation mom told me we were going on? Turns out it was a permanent vacation. She left my dad five years ago. I still didn't know why. The only thing I did know, and was sure of, was that I really missed him. In some way, I knew that I shouldn't. It's not like he tried to find me or contact me or anything. I was pulled out of thought when I felt a little pain in my thumb. I jumped and saw that I pricked it with the moon rock I was squeezing in my hand. I sighed and put the stone back on the nightstand. I looked out the bedroom door at the front door and waited for it to open, but it didn't. I looked at the clock. It was midnight. I shook my head and laid down in my bed. Whatever, I was done waiting for Mom to get home. If that's what I could call this place, home. Maybe not. A hotel isn't really a home. I sure as hell didn't want it to be. Most of the people here were snotty rich butt faces who came here for paradise beach vacations and were only here to escape their boring every day lives back home. Not me, though. I would give anything to go back home. I would give anything to go back to the family manor and see my dad again. But no. The front door slammed open and the living room lights flicked on and snuck under my door.

"Mom's home," I mumbled to Mr. Ted. Yes, I still had the teddy bear. No matter where I would go, he was coming with me. I never wanted to lose him or the moon rock. The moon rock came from my dad and Mr. Ted came from my grandma, who I lost to cancer a couple months before Mom made me leave Dad. There were voices out in the living room and I got out of bed to see who. I cracked the door open and peeked out. Mom's back was really the only thing that I could see.

"Please don't," she whispered. Don't what? What the heck was she talking about? She stiffened and then fell. I saw why. My uncle, her brother Ed, had stabbed her. I saw the knife in his hand, covered with blood. He wiped it on his shirt and looked down at Mom.

"Maureen, look what you made me do," he sighed, bending down to move her. I gasped softly and backed away from the door. He knew I was in here. Was he going to kill me too? I looked around the room and saw the door that went out into the hallway. I grabbed Mr. Ted and the moon rock, and bolted out that door. I ran down the hall in my Eeyore pajamas and fuzzy blue slippers and didn't stop until I was at the front desk. I told the man there everything that just happened. He brought me behind the desk and asked Cheryl, my favorite desk worker, to watch me while he called for help. I was crying so hard and she didn't make me explain anything to her. She just held me while I cried. How could Ed do that to Mom? She was his sister. How could he? I trusted him! Mom trusted him! He promised that he would take care of us! You trusted that you would see Dad again too, I thought. I did. I trusted that I would see him again. He promised that I would see him again. But I never did. That was another promise that was broken to me. What if there wasn't anyone that I could trust? What if there were no promises that could be kept to me.

-Aspen, Colorado. Present Day-

I was sitting on top of my bed, doing my Trig homework, when a huge breeze burst in my room.

"Damn!" I whispered, hopping off the bed to shut my window. It's freezing outside and you have the window open, Hayley, I scolded myself. I rubbed my arms and returned to my bed.

"Hayley!" Joyce called from downstairs.

"Yeah?" I called back.

"It's dinner time!"

"Okay!" I said, putting my book aside. It's been seven years since my mom was murdered by her own brother. The cops caught him and he's in prison and he's going to be for a while. He didn't know that it was me who ratted him out. He thought I was still asleep in my bed and that some other guest heard the noise and called the cops and that child services took me away. Joyce was the big boss of the child services agency that took me away and she adopted me on the spot. We moved to Aspen about six years ago when she noticed that being in Tallahassee was causing me pain. She now worked at some other child services agency here. I came downstairs and sat at the table across from her.