Chapter I
January 18, 1999
The sun felt too bright for a mid-January morning. Though that was not what woke
William up. The sound of a siren getting closer and closer to his house made him
open his eyes.
“Crap,” he muttered to himself when he noticed the time on the clock. He had
overslept, and school had already started.
He hopped out of bed and grabbed the jeans closest to him, not caring how dirty
they were. William absent-mindedly pulled a flannel shirt out of the closet and
raced out of his room.
William assumed his father would have woken him up. His father usually did and
would always remind him that he would always be there to do so.
He remembered turning the alarm back on before falling asleep. He was sure he had.
The siren stopped by the time he entered the living room, but William could see the
flashing lights outside the window. They were at the house across the street. An
ambulance and two police cars. One of the cars blocked the driveway, so William
wouldn’t be able to leave for school anyway.
The worry about making it to school faded from his mind. It’s not like anything
important would happen today.
William sat in the chair closest to the window to see what was going on. Besides