Mistaken

Original Suggestion: A father, wife, son and daughter at the dinner table when two gun shots go off
Suggested By: Chris Gutekunst (@CRGutekunst)


It was a typical evening in the Rancor residence. Mother was preparing the dinner table; Myself on the steps playing with my toys; Father and my sister we sitting in the living room, reading by the fireplace, the cackling and cracking of the wood a reminder of how cold it really was outside. It had been one of the coldest winters by far, at least in my memory. There was almost no snow to be seen, but the bitter air left our little corner of the neighborhood frozen to the core.

As it neared six o'clock, mother rings us to dinner. We gather around in the same seats as always; Father at the helm, sitting with his back to the window, which showed our tiny backyard, the beaten fence that covers us from the alleyway beyond out plot. Across from him is mother, doing her best to ignore the mess in the living room that I had just left by the staircase. To her right is my sister, disgusted in the meal that lay before us (she was a very picky eater, and never had much of an appetite). And my seat sat across from her, back towards the entryway to the tiny, dirty kitchen. I try to eat a slowly as possible, knowing that once out meal is over, it is my duty to clean up everything.

The normal dinner talk took over the rest of the evening. Father began complaining (again) about the state of the office he works in; the incompetence of some of his fellow workmates, and going on and on about how much he hates his bosses. Same old, same old. Mother didn't have too much to go on about. She seemed to have exhausted her supply of drama and gossip over dinner the previous night. I remember hearing something about the neighbor lady and a very sultry conversation she was having with the postman. I wasn't really paying attention to be honest. I never show too much interest in anything my parents have to say, as it normally is nothing of importance to me anyway.

Father was just about to ask my sister and I about our days in school, when a weird bang interrupted him. Something has just happened outside, but what, none of us knew. We waited a few moments, but didn't hear it again. We assumed it was a car backfiring or running over the pothole in the street, as is usually the case. As my father opened his mouth again to speak, we heard the bang again, this time in two quick succession. My father, with a note of hesitation, told us to stay as he jumped from his chair and ran outside to see what was the matter. We aren't quite sure what happened from there, but father came back inside, unable to discover the source of the disturbance.

We finished eating, I cleaned up the mess in the kitchen, and then ran up to my room to get ready for bed. I went to my window, as I do every night, and looked out into the nighttime sky. I sat there much longer than I usually do, so enthralled in the dark sky, with it tiny sprinkle of stars cast throughout the deepening vastness; the faint glow from the distant city beyond the horizon. Peace. I looked down towards the backyard and saw something rather curious just beyond the fence by the alleyway. Someone was lurking just on the other side by the trashcans, as if trying to look for something, or hide whatever was in his hands.

It was nearing eleven. So, as quietly as I possibly could, I made my way downstairs, careful not to step on the creaky floorboard at the top of the steps, so not to wake up mother and father. I wasn't sure what this person was doing outside our fence, but my curiosity told me to take a look. Even from my window, the person looked vaguely familiar. But without a good look at his face, I couldn't quite put my finger on who it was.

I scampered through the kitchen and out the back door, careful not to let it slam shut behind me. I crept through the yard, feeling as if the tiny lot had suddenly bloomed into a deep, overgrown jungle. Finally, I reached the fence in the rear of the yard. Walking along it, I reached the spot where I knew there was a tiny, hallowed out knot in the wood so I could peer into the alley, virtually noticeably.

I looked left and right down the alleyway, but could not see any sign of the stranger. I looked down for a moment because I thought I had felt something around my ankles. Possibly just a bug crawling around. When I looked up again, I let out a huge gasp and ran back towards the house. An unknown eye had been peering right back towards me.

Not caring about subtlety this time, I flew through the kitchen, up the stairs, and burst into my parents room. I was blithering, talking so fast  that I wasn't making any sense. Father did my best to calm me down, and mother brought me a glass of water. After a few minutes, I tried to explain what I just saw, but neither believed me. I wouldn't give up, but still, they wouldn't hear it, telling me it was just a nightmare. Finally, I grabbed father by the hand and dragged him downstairs and out to the backyard. It all happened so fast. He opened the gate to the alley, took a couple steps, then a deafening bang cracked through the silent night, and father collapsed in a heap. I scream, and cried, and fell over the unmoving mass, now lying in a sticky pool of it's own blood.

We found out later that the stranger was actually the neighbor, waiting for the "unknown suitor" of his wife's to come back after he shot out at him earlier in the evening. Being the nervous man that he was, he shot at the first person to enter the alley.

Another senseless killing.