As I walk home from the bus on that Friday afternoon, I notice how much colder it got from the recent warm spell. The weather was unpredictable during the early spring in Washington. This past winter was rough. We lost power a few times, but the worst part about the winter, was the snow. The endless mass of white, blanketing every rooftop, every tree, and static object in it's path.

'Why didn't you bring your sweatshirt?' said somebody in our convoy who noticed the shivering on my pale face. That's what it's like after the bus drops us off, we're a convoy. Our stop has the most kids at it, and we all live relatively on the same street, so it's as if we're one big convoy.

I realize that the person who spoke was Josh, a 'cookie cutter' Christian, who preaches 'the word' to anybody who touches anything close to the subject. "I left it in my locker, the damn thing never opens right, so I just gave up." I replied, while wrapping my arms around my body. I didn't wrap my arms around me to stay warm, it had become a nervous habit I picked up a year ago.

Josh nervously looked at me, with an expression of distaste when I said 'damn thing.' He always did this. He thought that just because he's a prude intolerant zealot, he has the authority to stop peoples vulgarity. I hated him sometimes. I guess the only reason why I could tolerate him, was how long we've known each other. I've known him for 3 years. To most people, this doesn't seem like a long time, but I move every 2 or 3 years, so this is a very long relationship for me.

My father has a corporate job making circuit boards, or something. I didn't care much about his job. I try to give him a hint at this, but he never takes it, and he takes me to his work on Saturdays on occasions. I always are forced to wait in his office, and doodle on any paper I can find.

About a third of our convoy parts with us, going to the street, perpendicular to the street we were on. With a few waves, and goodbyes, they depart to there houses, off to do their homework, or play video games. I was one of the few people that don't play video games in our school. For an eight grader, I was a rare find. I never played video games, never had a girlfriend, didn't play sports, etc.

We get to Josh's street, and he departs with a silent nod, and I return the nod of acknowledgment. By this point I was alone, and was on the 'home stretch', as I liked to call it, of the walk to my house. I see my neighbors dog outside, and recall how worried I used to get when I saw him, thinking he ran away. I used to always ring their doorbell, with the dog in hand, and tell them that I caught the dog. I later assumed that they do this all the time, they just let the dog out. I felt a wave of embarrassment, and regret wash over me, as I recalled this.

As I walk onto the drive way of my house, I notice that my mother had taken the Halloween decorations down while I was at school. Today was 'All Saints Day,' the day after Halloween, and I remember exactly what I was doing last year. I remember that I had wrestling practice. I used to wrestle, and I detested it. I only did it because I thought that it would make me tough. I was mistaken, and I learned that I have no physical strength in the process. I remember waiting outside with Jared, another person on the wrestling team, discussing what we did on Halloween. I remember that I was Jason, from the 'Friday the 13th' movies. I had all of this fake blood smeared over my hockey mask. It had fascinated me at the time.

This year though, I didn't dress up, I just put on a sweatshirt (it had been really cold out) and took my backpack. I had met up with some friends, Josh was one of them, along with a few of Josh's friends and neighbors, that I didn't know. Eventually, I had split up with them, to go with my best friend, Richard, who was dressed up as a zombie, or so he said. I think he just fell down, or something, and ripped his shirt. It was a sorry-ass costume. I had met Richard at his house, as he was grabbing his skateboard, in his garage. We had ding-dong-ditched pretty much every house on his street that night. It was extremely fun. I did childish stuff like that all of the time. I got some sort of thrill out of it.

I suddenly snap back into reality, as I bump into the garage door. In my state of recollection, I had forgot my surroundings. I punched in the code on the garage door, and it opened.

As I walked in the garage, I notice that my Mom is not home, because her car isn't there. This was odd, she would usually tell me that she would be going somewhere.

I walk inside, and take some of the candy that my sister collected the night before into my hand, and walk upstairs to my room. I finish the candy as I am walking up the stairs, and drop the wrappers in the trash can in the bathroom near the top of the stairs. As I walk into my room, I notice that it was clean, and everything was picked up. Not that my room is extremely messy, but my guitar was on the rack, instead of the ground, also my clothes weren't on the ground anymore, I guess my mom must have put them into the wash.

I grab my guitar, and start playing 'Let It Die' by The Foo Fighters. I had just learned it the other day. I had tried to commit to learning that whole album, but I was far too lazy, and too ADD to do it.

I hear the garage door opening, and know that it's either my sister, or my mom. I continue playing guitar, and I hear heavy footsteps coming through the door, leading from the garage to the house. It can't be my mom or my sister, because their footsteps are must less heavy then those. It's probably my dad, I think, as I turn my guitar's volume knob to 0, listening for signs of who it is. When I hear the footsteps stop, I put the guitar down on my bed, where I was sitting, and start descending down the stairs.

As I reach the final step, I see no signs of entry, or any disturbance at all. It couldn't have been my imagination, I thought, as I turned around to see if my father had gone on the computer for some reason.

I see nobody on the computer, so I continue my search in the kitchen. It seemed that nobody was there, so I grab some more candy, and decide to go back upstairs. As my hand reaches the bowl of candy, I hear fast movements behind me, I try to turn, but I am struck with a hard object, and fall out of consciousness