Kibum awoke with a start with his heart beating wildly in his chest. He quickly sat up in bed and looked around his bedroom, but saw nothing. Another dream…nightmare, he thought tiredly. Even after four months the nightmares hadn’t stopped and each time he had one they scared him to no end. But they couldn’t even be counted as dreams; they were just replays of that night. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Kibum swung his legs over the side of his bed and stood up, slowly walking out of his room.

“Tiffany?” He called out; but there was no answer. He hadn’t really expected her to still be there, but a part of him wished that she had stayed with him. Being alone at the house scared him and he really hated it. He was frightened that an unwelcome visitor might show up again with vengeance.

Moving down the hall, Kibum came to a stop at the white bedroom door with a drawing of a family taped on it. He looked away and pushed the door open, stepping into the room. It was hot and stuffy and the air was thick because of the dust that had collected; the house hadn’t been cleaned in God knows how long. Ignoring it all, he carefully shuffled over to the bed and slipped under the floral blanket and pulled it over his head. Breathing in deeply, he could still smell her sweet, flowery scent as if she were right next to him. He wished that she was, so he could just pull her close and never let her go. But all that was there were her several stuffed animals. And just because of that, Kibum couldn’t stop the tears from coming.

It’s not fair. I want her to be here, he thought miserably, clutching the blanket in his hands. He wanted it to be like old times where he would be sleeping in his room and in the middle of the night his door would open and she would come waddling into his room holding her teddy bear and blanket and climb into bed with him, just wanting to sleep with her big brother.

Knock Knock Knock

The sound snapped Kibum out of his reverie and he quickly sat up. The pounding came again and he slowly got off the bed and left the room. Nervous rolled through his body as he made his way to the foyer; no one came to the house anymore, not for any reason. Heck, there wasn’t even anyone in the neighborhood, which made him wonder who could possibly be knocking on the door. Before answering, he peeked out the glass panel to check to see who it was, and a sense of anxiety replaced the nervousness when he saw a police car parked in the driveway. A million thoughts flew through his mind as excitement filled him. Perhaps an officer came to say that they’d located his parents and were going to take him to them. Or, even better, someone come to tell them that they’d caught him and this whole ordeal was going to be put to rest.

Quickly turning the lock, Kibum swung open the door and looked up at the officer in uniform standing in front of him. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest and excitement in his eyes, but that soon disappeared when the officer gazed down at him with steely eyes.

“Kim Kibum, right?” The man said in a cold voice that sent chills down Kibum’s spine. The atmosphere turned dark and Kibum got a feeling that something bad was about to happen.

“Y-Yeah,” He stammered nervously, suddenly feeling very self-conscious.

“Do you mind if I come in?” The officer asked, and pushed past Kibum without waiting for an answer. He pushed the door shut and turned to look Kibum straight in the eyes.

“You know, having a daughter myself I just can’t imagine what type of monster would kill such an innocent child,” He said quietly, and without warning he slapped Kibum across the face with the back of his hand. Kibum stumbled backwards, holding his hand against his stinging face as tears gathered in his eyes.

“You deserve to rot in ing hell for killing that little girl,” The officer snarled, shoving Kibum so hard that he crashed into the wall behind him, banging his head with a loud thump.  Instinctively he shielded himself with his arms, but that didn’t stop the officer from harshly kicking him in the ribs, causing Kibum to cry out in pain.

“You’re a disgusting excuse for a human. Just go ing kill yourself, you monster. No one will miss you,” He growled. He then turned and opened the front door to let himself out, but before he left he turned to Kibum one more time. “Oh, and by the way, on behalf of the federal bureau, if you don’t start attending school soon I get to come arrest you and stick your in jail. Have a nice day, murderer.”

As the door slammed shut, Kibum stayed on the floor curled in a ball until he heard the police car drive away, and even then he couldn’t move if he wanted to. Trying to calm himself, to no avail, Kibum carefully lowered his arms away from his face and placed a hand on the skin of his stomach, instantly retracting in pain; he had no doubt that there was a lovely bruise there now.

About fifteen minutes later he finally got a hold of himself and ceased the tears. Using the wall to support himself, Kibum slowly stood up, wincing at how much pain he was in. He glanced towards the kitchen with thoughts of putting ice on his ribs, only until he remember that there was no ice since the house didn’t have electricity. He closed