Chapter 1

"Hey Jamie, what kind of meat do you want on you sandwich," Melanie Stryder yelled through the bright white, kitchen wall.

There was a second's pause. "Do we have roast beef left?" The muffled voice of her brother Jamie, yelled back.

She heard the loud flushing of their white toilet, the sound of running water and the bathroom door slamming. He rounded the corner onto the white and blue tile on the kitchen floor.

"Did you wash your hands good," she said more like a mother, than a sister.

"Yeah," he said embarrassed by her natural nurturing.

"Go flip on the news. I'll bring your sandwich." She opened the refrigerator and pulled the roast beef out. She put it on the bread and slathered it with mustard, just the way he liked it.

To tease him she yelled. "Do you want mustard on it?"

"Melanie," he yelled laughing at their old joke. When he'd turned five she started this and used to make him laugh crazily. It still worked on him and her too. She had fun just doing it.

She walked out of the bright kitchen into the immaculate living room. Jamie was lounging on the couch flipping though the channels looking for the news channel.

She placed the plates on the small coffee table in front of the couch. She threw Jamie's legs off the couch so she could sit down.

She went back into the kitchen. "What do you want to drink?"

This time there wasn't a pause. "Coke."

She got two glasses of coke and went back into the living room. She pushed his plate over to him. and grabbed her cotto salami sandwich and took a giant bit out of it.

"Turfn nit fup." She said to him.

"What?"

She swallowed almost choking herself. "Turn it up."

He got up from the couch and bowed to her lowly. "Yes master, it shall be a pleasure." He was trying to make her laugh and it worked. Unfortunately, it was right when she was taking a drink and once again almost choked herself. This resulted in making Jamie laugh.

He turned it up and the stuffy newsman. He was wearing a pressed suit and had his blonde hair parted to the side. Luckily, Jamie turned it up at the beginning of a broadcast.

"Ten banks have been robbed in the last two weeks. It is believed that the same two people have been doing the robbing. The only twist is that each bank has a different height for each. Sometimes one is about six feet while the other is about five. In another situation one is four feet while the other is seven. The only confirmed fact is that they both have black hair but one is a lighter shade with a single white strip. If you have any information the anonymous tip-line is on the bottom of the screen."

The newsman turned to the stunningly pretty co-anchor. "What do you think about that Barbra?"

The pretty woman shook her bright red head. "I don't know what to think about this. Coming up: Child found in dumpster and later, the Seattle Serial Killer was finally caught. Tonight; it could be the deadliest thing on earth and you could be eating for dinner, stay tuned for more information." Their camera zoomed out; giving a wide-shot of the newsroom, then went to commercial.

She stood up grabbing her now empty cup. She hadn't realized that she had been that thirsty.

"Hey, I'm going to get something to drink you want a refill." He handed her his empty glass without a word.

She took it into the kitchen and poured the coke into the glasses. She walked back into the kitchen and poured the drinks she went back into the living room and handed the drink to Jamie.

He took a giant swig without taking his eyes off of the television.

The screen went from commercial to the newsroom.

"For the last two weeks, one name has been on the hearts and minds of everyone. That name is Gavin Schlep. This is the name of the two year old boy that disappeared. He was recently found in a trash dumpster with his hands and feet cut off. It is believed that he was tortured until he died. Our hearts go out to the family."

A picture of a cute boy flashed up. He had on a blue shirt with blue jean shorts. The front of his blond hair was flipped up.

"For the last two months there have been one hundred-seven murders in the Seattle area. It will be a relief to the friends and families to know that the killers have been caught. He broke the record for most serial killings in the country. He was killing people four to five a night. The only motive that he seemed to have was to kill. There was no rhyme or reason to his murders. Thankfully however we finally got this mad-man off of the streets. He has been sentenced to death with no possible chance of getting out of it."

"Ug," Melanie said. "Turn it off."

Jamie grabbed the remote from the table and turned the volume down. He shook his head. "What the hell is going on out there?" Jamie asked disgustedly.

Melanie shrugged. "Watch your language." She said half-heartedly.

"You taught me to talk like that." He said exasperatedly.

She changed the subject of his language habits. "I don't know what's going on out there but whatever it is, it's not for the best of the world. Their killing each other like crazy."

"The world is literally tearing itself apart at the seams. Murder, suicides, kidnapping, and torture." He looked despaired. He was a nine year old child obsessing over the news. When she was a child she worried that one of her friends wouldn't be able to play with her.

"You've got to stop worrying about things like this. You're going to get wrinkles and premature gray."

He shook his head. "Well, what am I supposed to do? The world is going crazy and I guess that it's taking everyone down with it."

I smiled at his pathetic joke. "I see what you mean. The human race has become nothing but a big mess. It's like evilness is born in with us."

Apparently, Jamie didn't want to talk anymore about it because he tried to subtly change the subject. "When do you think that mom and dad are going to be home?"

"They haven't gone on a date in the last two years. Let them have their fun."

He shook his head in agreement. "I've been telling them that they need to get out of this house for months. I hope that their having a good time."

"If mom did half the things she wanted to, trust me, they've had a good time."

He laughed at her small innuendo at their love lives. "Let's just hope that we don't have another brother."

She hit him. "Honestly, I have no clue where you learn this stuff."

"From you."

"If anyone asks, I don't have a clue where you learned all of this stuff." She said laughing. She loved the carefree and open relationship that she had with her brother.

"Turn the television back up." She said to him. He grabbed the remote off of the table and turned it back up.

"The bodies of ten dead cats were found in various ditches. They appear to have been tortured."

Immediately, when they said that, he grabbed the remote and turned off the television. Jamie was the biggest cat-lover on this earth, and hated people who tried to hurt a poor defenseless animal.

To take his mind off of the animals she suggested something that he loved to do. "How about we play some video games?"

"Sure." He said in his sad voice. She looked at him but his head was turned away. She heard him sniff and realized that he was crying. She'd never really thought that he loved animals that much.

"What do you want to play?" she asked hurriedly hoping that it would take his mind of these things.

This time when he spoke his voice was back to normal. "Grand Turismo? It's been forever since we played."

She got up off of the couch and went to a small cabinet under the television and pulled the game out and put it in the station. She grabbed the controllers and walked back.

They went through the start up process and got to the menu. They chose their cars and their favorite track. It was in San Francisco and was really steep.

They sat and played the game for a long time. The sun slowly sank out of the sky and turned the ground black.

She looked at the clock with a start. It was nearly eleven o'clock and hour after the time that she was supposed to put Jamie to bed.

She paused the game. "Come on, Jamie. Time to put you in bed."

He groaned and closed his mouth trying to stop from yawning but failed. They walked to his room. He walked through and flicked the light on. She helped him unfold the covers on his bed.

He stripped down to his underwear and pulled on his pajamas. She gave him a hug and picked up his clothes. When she went out of his room she turned off his light and pulled the door closed.

She threw them in the dirty cloths hamper and went to her own bedroom. She pulled out the journal that she kept in her drawer.

June 24, 2005

Things on this earth are starting to get worse. Everything is changing. The people on the earth are starting to get more ferocious. It's almost as if the people are being born with it. I don't know what on earth we as a people are going to do but we can't possibly do anything worse than we already are. I can only hope that things start to get better.

She pushed her journal back into her drawer and flicked off her lights but she didn't go to sleep.

She sat there listening for the sound of her parent's car and the door opening. She soon drifted into a restless sleep. That night she dreamt of the things that had been happening on the news.