Samantha Gilmore || A Gilmore Girl's Fan fiction

When the feeling sinks in

Archie nodded, grabbing a word puzzle from the coffee table before loud voices could be heard from the foyer. He furrowed his eyebrows, putting the magazine down before getting up to see what was happening. He could feel goosebumps rising on his arms and the back of his neck the closer he got. He could hear his father pleading and his mother crying, and the shouting just got louder in response. He peeked his head around the wall, his eyes widening in unadulterated horror at the scene before him. There were two masked men dressed in all black standing in his house.

"Put your hands behind your heads!" the taller one yelled, pointing a gun at his mom's head as his dad immediately did what they said. "Is there anyone else here?"

"No, no," Ivey spoke up, tears streaming down her face as she shook her head vigorously. "It's just us. It's just us."

Archie looked at his mom, having no idea what to do next, before glancing at his dad. At that moment, his dad made eye contact with him. Archie felt his heart plummet to his stomach as his father mouthed one word to him, "run." Archie ignored the heaviness in his chest, turning on his heel and making a beeline for the stairs. He kept on running, keeping his breathing as low as possible as he neared the top. Archie let out a quiet curse as he tripped on the top step, his knee colliding with the edge. It was loud enough to catch the attention of the people downstairs, but that didn't stop him. Archie ran into the girl's room, causing them to look up.

"Hide," he whispered before loud footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs. Not having time to find a better hiding place, Archie grabbed the stunned girls by their arms and pulled them into the bathroom.

"Archie, what's-" Lucy started to ask before he clamped his hand over her mouth, causing her eyes to widen.

"Quiet."

Archie, Lucy, and Samantha pressed their backs against the wall, hiding in the bathtub as they listened to the conversation in the bedroom. Archie's heart was pounding so hard he could hear it in his ears. Lucy's fingers wrapped around his own and squeezed.

There was something incredibly inhumane about hearing your parents beg someone to spare their life while you were powerless to stop it. It was up to the person holding the gun how much time the people that raised you had left in their existence. And suddenly, rank didn't matter so much anymore. It didn't matter that Archie Brown had a 5 million dollar trust fund in his bank account. It didn't matter that he went to Chilton. It didn't matter that he planned to become a trauma surgeon in the army when he grew up. None of it mattered because he wasn't the one holding the gun.

"Where's the money?"

"What money?" Ivey cried, sounding hysterical.

"Don't lie to me, lady! I know that you Gilmore's are filthy rich. Now give me what I want."

Archie turned to look at Samantha, whose face had turned ashen at the mention of her surname coming from a burglar's lips.

"We don't know what you're talking about," Archie's father yelled before a gunshot echoed through the house.

BANG!

And that was where sound shifted. Archie knew things were still happening. He knew he needed to do something, but it was like his feet had been nailed to the bathtub floor. Everything outside the bathroom was muffled. He heard the shooter say something, and his mother respond, but their words were slurred and distorted. Instead, all he heard was Samantha.

She was barely making a sound, her whisper so silent he wouldn't have heard it normally. Her eyes were squeezed shut as her lips mouthed a prayer. Archie knew what was happening at this point, but he wasn't comprehending it. It felt like he was trapped in one of his video games, except he couldn't control anything in this one. The scariest part was the way Samantha's hands shook. The Gilmore girl didn't get scared often. And when she did, she'd screech and run in the opposite direction, laughing at herself as she did so. He'd never seen her face this white. Never seen her pray so desperately.