A Gilded World
an excerpt

Addie woke up suddenly. It took her a minute to get her bearings, but she knew some sound had woken her. She realized that it had been the doorbell. Glancing at the alarm clock on the nightstand she saw that it was three forty seven in the morning, too late for her parents to be stopping by, and too early for them to be picking her up. She wondered who it was, figuring it could be some of the older kids in the building playing a prank on a sleeping family. She turned over in bed, trying to go back to sleep. She could hear Sean slowly walking down the hallway, opening the door. Half asleep she heard soft voices.
“No,” she heard Sean plead from the living room. As soon as she heard the cry she knew something was wrong. Someone, probably Sean was running down the hallway, past the room. She wondered what was going on, she figured it was something bad, but she was too tired to understand. Two pairs of footsteps this time, heading past her room again.
“Oh god,” she heard Laura sob. “Oh god no…”
They were both crying. Addie didn’t want to get up.
She didn’t want to know what had happened.
She didn’t want to know why Sean was crying. He shouldn’t be crying, he was always so happy. Nothing should make Sean cry. She wondered if she was dreaming. Turning over in her bed she felt more awake, more restless. Addie knew that she would never sleep until she knew what was happening.
Cautiously she slid out of bed, her bare feet cold on the hard wood floor. She opened the door a bit, sliding out. Something tugged on her insides and she didn’t know what to do. Sean and Laura were in the living room holding each other and two policemen were trying to console them. Addie wondered if Miles had been arrested or something.
“What’s going on?” she asked, dreading the answer. Sean and Laura turned to look at her, their faces tear stained, dressed in robes in slippers. Suddenly, even without knowing what had happened Addie started crying too.
Laura walked over to Addie, who was at the end of the hallway, right on the edge of the living room. She grabbed her shakily, putting her arms around the crying little girl. Addie knew. She knew what had happened. She knew exactly what Laura was going to say, and although she knew she would never want to hear it she knew she had to.
“I’m so sorry, Addie,” Laura said softly, squeezing her tight. “Your parents are,” she was interrupted by a sob, “dead.”
Addie’s chest began to heave with sobs rising from the pit of her heart.
“Everything’s going to be okay,” Laura said, “Everything is going to be fine.”
Somehow Addie knew she was lying.