The world is a cold and strange place because it has people who feel different about the world and each other. I stood in a cemetery with my arms held down against my body. My brother Ray, who was behind me, stood silently while holding a bouquet of flowers in his right hand. In his other hand, he held a black umbrella. He looked up towards the sky to see dark clouds rolling over him. I stared at one of the tombstones with a frail look; I closed my eyes and remembered that awful night.

I grew up in a safe home with my parents and older brother, Ray. My father told me that home is where the heart is, that it’s a place to keep you warm and safe from the cruel world that could make or break us. I was a shy person so I didn’t have a lot of friends, except for Ray who always made me feel alive. My brother and I did everything together, but when I was 12 and he was 14, there was a streak of crimes happening in our town. People’s houses got robbed, a double murder happened a few blocks over, and there was a house fire down the block. My mother feared for us and she wanted to move. She said she couldn’t trust our home anymore.

“Why do we have to move, mom?” I asked her as she started packing her clothes. “I don’t want to leave our house. Dad said its safe here.”

“I’m sorry, Brandon but we have no choice but to move. I don’t want anything to happen to you, Ray or your father. Your father and I found a house already. We can’t stay here.”

As frustrated as I was, my father agreed with her. Ray didn’t like the idea of moving either, but he believed it was for the best. A couple of days passed and we finally finished packing. The only thing left in the house was our beds. On the night before we were supposed to move, I stayed up late because I didn’t want to leave the house yet. I stood by my window and looked out towards the clear sky. Ray came inside my room while rubbing his eyes. He looked at the clock and then back at me.

“Brandon, it’s almost midnight. We have to get up early tomorrow for the new house.” He said quietly. “I know you’re scared, but you don’t have to worry about a thing. Your big brother is here to protect you.” I slowly turned away from the window to face him, where he saw how exhausted I looked. “Brandon, go to sleep please…”

“Get out Ray, can’t you see I’m trying to sleep?” He made a face as I slowly stumbled back to my bed. Once I was on my bed, he left the room and closed the door behind him.

I don’t remember what time it was, but I was awoken to a loud sound of glass breaking a couple of hours later. I woke up slowly, while Ray jumped out of bed defensively. I rubbed my eyes assuming something minor happened; perhaps my mom dropped a glass cup while trying to get water. I remember mushing my face, before I heard a lot of footsteps downstairs. I glanced at my clock which read 2:21am. Ray was already out in the hallway when he heard a loud bang. That’s when I finally woke up and grew scared. Downstairs my father opened his door to see four black silhouettes in the living room. He faced my mother who was standing right behind him.

“Go get the boys. I’ll hold them off.” He looked out into the living room, where he saw one of the silhouettes holding something large. “Regina, don’t get startled when I tell you this, but I think one of them has a shotgun.”

“I don’t care about that Bruce.  I’ll get the boys no matter what.” My father smiled to himself. He jumped out into the hallway, where he saw all four men look towards him. The one closest to him, raised the shotgun and shot a round. I grew scared as my father moved out the way. That’s when he took off running down the hallway. He punched the wall really hard, that I even felt it on the bottom of my feet. Ray ran passed my door when I opened it. He hurried down the stairs to see four silhouettes running down a hallway. He saw my mother emerge from her bedroom and head towards the stairs. Ray ran back up to my room and opened my door slowly.

“Brandon, we have to go now!” He said in a loud whisper. He reached for my hand, where I reached for his.

“What’s going on?” I asked in a panic. He turned back towards the hallway, where he heard yelling coming from downstairs.

“We have visitors…” He said with irritation. “Come on.” We hurried down the stairs towards the front door. Then, we heard two loud gunshots come from the back of the house. The only new thing was a loud thump was heard after the gunshots. My mother saw us and sighed with relief. She had her hand on the doorknob as she stared at us. “Mom!” Ray said in a loud whisper. Then, footsteps emerged from the back of the house towards us. My mother exhaled heavily, before she ran towards the footsteps.

“Get the boys!” A voice shouted. My eyes widened.  That wasn’t our father’s voice. My mother’s eyes widened even more because right there it was clear that my father was dead. She saw a man come out from the hallway and point the shotgun at her. She grabbed onto it and started struggling with the man.

“Brandon, Ray, get out of here!” She screamed at the top of her lungs. That’s when Ray gripped onto my hand tightly and opened the door. We ran outside into the cold, windy night. I heard Ray scream, “Call 911!” I’m pretty sure the commotion was heard by everyone on the block. Suddenly, a gunshot went off and I saw Ray’s visage cringe in absolute pain. I saw blood splatter from Ray’s arm and then another gunshot went off, shooting Ray in his stomach. Blood splattered out his mouth as he fell onto his back. He released my hand and I stared ahead, to see a man in a gray hoodie pointing a pistol towards me. Behind me, I heard three gunshots come from inside my house. I stared at Ray, who turned over onto his chest. I saw him grip onto his arm tightly before he went completely silent.

“Ray…” I said softly. I stared at the man in horror as he slowly walked towards me.

“See that car behind me,” he said in a deep voice. I looked past him to see a black four door car that was still on. “Get in right now.” I froze in fear, mostly because Ray wasn’t moving at all. The man looked towards the house to see the four men walk out the front door. “What took you guys so long?”

“Regina was a handful, but we got her and Bruce.” One of the men said. I felt my heart drop as I continued to stare at Ray. “What are we doing with the kids?”

“Ray’s dead.” The four men grew surprised. “We’re taking Brandon with us.” How the hell did he know who we were? I’ve never even seen these men before in my life. The four men approached me, where I took a step back, but the man with the pistol pointed it at me again. The man with the shotgun raised it and pointed it at me also. I surrendered and put both my hands up, that’s when the three other men grabbed onto me. I was about to scream for help, but one of them covered my mouth while the other two held down my arms and legs. I’d never imagine this to happen in a million years, but I never stopped fighting. The man with the pistol lowered the gun and opened the back door. I continued to struggle, where I freed my left leg. I took the opportunity to kick him in the face. He dropped the gun and grabbed onto his face. “Hold his legs down!” Suddenly, he felt a heavy hit in his lower back. The other men didn’t notice him collapse onto his knees because they were still struggling with me. They pushed me inside the car, where they started punching me. No matter how angry I got, they kept overwhelming me. I started to lose air from my stomach, which made it hard to breathe. Then, a gunshot went off right behind them. One of the men hurried into the driver’s seat as two more gunshots went off. I saw the men, who stood outside the door, collapse onto me. I exclaimed in horror and kicked the bodies off of me. The man hit the gas pedal with all his weight. As we started to drive off, I heard one more gunshot behind the car. I faced the driver with anger.

“Let me out now!” Then, I heard a loud thump come from behind the car. I turned around to see someone on the trunk of the car. “Who the hell is that?” I asked myself in slight fear.

“Give me back my brother, you bastard!” The voice screamed. My eyes widened; is that Ray?! “I’ll get you out of there Brandon!” It was Ray, but I could’ve sworn that he was dead. He moved towards the front of the car, where he raised his pistol. He pointed it at the driver’s side and released a round. Inside the car, he struck the driver in the head, which made him lose control of the wheel. The car collided with another car, which made Ray fall off the car onto the street. He landed on his arm that had the bullet wound and he let out a scream full of pain. I opened the door on my side and stumbled out the car. I held onto the car as I made my way around the trunk; I looked ahead to see Ray on the ground holding his arm.

“Ray!” I exclaimed breathlessly. I released the car and walked towards him, where I fell onto the ground a couple of feet away from him. I don’t know why I felt so weak. Maybe it’s because they hit me so much. Ray noticed me and struggled to bring himself up onto his knees.

“Brandon, can you hear me?”

“I’m here Ray…” I said in a quiet voice.

I stared at Ray the entire time with bliss; I couldn’t believe that he was still alive after he was shot twice. An ambulance came within five minutes and took us to the hospital. I only had minor injuries, like bruises from the punches and car accident. Ray went into surgery to remove the bullet from his stomach and arm. He was fine the moment he came out from surgery. After we were treated, they interrogated us on our parents’ murders and all the men found dead on the block. Ray explained everything thoroughly until he was shot, while I explained everything after he was shot. The police ruled us out as suspects, where Ray was found innocent of self-defense. The men that attacked our home, we had no idea who they were or what they wanted, but they seemed to have an issue with my father. Our aunt, my mother’s sister, took us in and took care of us until we graduated high school.

I opened my eyes slowly, to see that it started raining. Ray opened the umbrella and walked over towards me. He stood behind me while holding the umbrella over us. I took the bouquet of flowers from his hand and walked over to my mother’s grave. I placed them down gently, where I glared angrily at my father’s grave.

“You still can’t forgive him?” Ray asked already knowing the answer. “Well, have some respect for him Brandon, he’s still our father.”

“He’s the reason why that home invasion happened. I can’t forgive someone who put my family in harm’s way.” I clenched my fists and walked away from the grave. Ray sighed softly and looked at the grave once more.

“Dad…even though Brandon can’t forgive you, I still do. I still don’t know what the hell happened that night, but I promised Brandon that I would always be there to protect him, something you were afraid to promise. Well, I’ll tell you this, ever since that day and ever since I got those wounds, I’ve learned to never trust anyone in this cruel world. You once told me that a home is a warm and inviting place that’ll always keep you safe, but now I can’t even trust my own home…”