The present is the past

Chapter 1

        It was a night like any other night tiny stars in the sky, bright shining moon, and a pile of homework that was due the next day.  But, it felt different than most nights, there were a lot more stars than usual, the moon was a bit bigger and brighter, and I actually finished all my homework for once. But this one beautiful night that I admired so much actually turned out to be the worst night of my life. My name is Jayden and this is my life story. I have a younger sister who was six when this happened and her name is Harper as for my parents, let’s just say we never had any. Anyways, after I had just finished my homework I started to see a trail of smoke crawling in under my door followed by the smell of burnt wood. I didn’t know what to do, I started to feel dizzy and the room started to spin. I tried to open the window but it wouldn’t budge and when I tried to open the door, the door knob burned my hand so, I ran my shoulder into the wooden door and finally broke through. I ran to Harper’s room to check if she was hurt but I couldn’t find her anywhere. Everything started to fade away and suddenly I just blacked out.

"What's going on?" I asked as I woke up to the brightness of the lights that kept coming in out of my vision.

"It's okay son, you're alright you just need a little rest." A tall man said who was pushing the gurney I was on through the halls.

"Harper!" I yelled, remembering what had just happened, “Where’s Harper?!” I asked in shock.

"Harper?" The tall man asked.

"My little sister I need to find her, please tell me she’s ok,” I kept panicking

“I’m sorry son but, the officers said you were the only one in that house.” he answered back

What was he saying? I thought to myself, Then where could Harper be? All these questions kept filling my head.

    I had no idea what was going on, nothing was making any sense any more and I just blanked out.  What could this all mean?  I had all these questions that had to be answered but, no one seemed to care to answer since it felt like I was stuck in a bright white room for hours without a single person walking through the door, not even a night nurse. Everything was quiet and calm but inside I was still kind of shocked and confused. Maybe I heard him wrong, yeah that’s it! I was just not fully awake and I heard him wrong, he even said I just needed some rest. But, as soon as I lied on my back, there was a knock on my door and I sprang up. A deep voice greeted  me from the doorway, it was a police officer.

“Hi there, I’m officer Pomeroy.” He said while taking a step in.

“Hi, I’m Jayden.” I greeted back and held my hand out for him to shake.

“Can I ask you some questions?” He asked me holding a notepad.

“Sure.” I took a deep breathe, “But, can I ask you something first?”

“What is it?” He asked me.

“Well you see, I have a little sister and I was just wondering if she was found in the house?” I asked reassuring that I heard the doctor wrong.

“I’m sorry but like the other officers said no one else was found in that house but, we will work on finding your little sister so if you’re ready I will ask my first question.” He said looking at the watch on his wrist.

    About one hour passed and it was filled with the questions I was answering that the officer kept asking. Why does it seem I am the one with the answers when I was the one that started with the questions? I tried to keep myself calm and kept taking deep breaths every thirty-seconds. I kept thinking about where Harper could be that I didn’t notice what the officer had told me after all the questions. I looked at him with a puzzled look so he could repeat what he had said earlier but he didn’t seem to notice my confusion. Moments later there was another knock at the door a short pudgy nurse had came in followed by what looked like a family of six. She then announced that I had visitors and whispered something in the officer’s ear then left. But, these visitors didn’t look familiar to me at all, I looked at each one of them trying to remember if I had seen them somewhere but I didn’t have one clue who they were.