Blood and Roses

I never thought something like this would happen to me...
I had always been so close to my parents, they were my life. They treated me so much different then most rich families treated their children. Most of them practically bought their children's love and wouldn't really pay no mind to them. But not my parents. They may have bought me everything a kid could ever ask for, but that's not why I loved them. Honestly, I've always told them they didn't have to, but they said their little angel deserves the best. No. I loved them, because they treated me how a child should be treated. They were always there for me. Whenever I was sick, they'd take turns staying home to look after me instead of just telling me to rest and then going off to look after their business careers. We always spent so much time together once we got home. But now.....that's completely impossible.

~Three Months Ago~

*Beep, beep, beep*
I groaned as I rolled over, reaching for the snooze button on my alarm clock. I missed it a couple times before I finally got it. As I began to fall back asleep, I realized that today was May 16th. Suddenly my body shot up in a sitting position as I looked at my calender just to be sure. Then a huge grin grew across my lips. "YAY! I'M FINALLY SIXTEEN!!!!!!!", I shouted, throwing my pillow up in the air. There was giggling coming from my door. -Huh?- I looked to my door to see Rosetta and Nathan, my best friends since the first grade.
"Happy birthday, Leah!!!!", they yelled as they jumped onto my bed with me. We were so excited that the three of us started jumping around on my bed in a circle, hands joined together, squealing and laughing.
"Well, aren't you three overly excited today." We plopped down on my bed and looked to the door to see my mom, holding a tray of pancakes and three glasses of orange juice, and my dad, holding a small, blue envelope. We just smiled and laughed.
"Well of course we are, it's not everyday that our little Leah turns sixteen.", Nathan said patting my head. I smiled, slapping his hand away from my head and throwing a pillow at him. My parents walked over to us, my mom handing me the silver tray of food.
"I just thought you might want to plan your day over with Nathan and Rosetta, so I made you three some breakfast.", she said. "Awww thanks, mom. But you didn't have to.", I replied, taking the tray from her, carefully and resting it beside me, as we each took a plate.
"Yea, we love spending time with you two. You're two are like, the best parents in the world! You're like our second family!", Rosetta replied. My parents smiled and my dad responded, "Oh, that's so sweet darling. We wish you two were our kids also, but come on. You three are young, you don't need us in our business." Nathan piped up, "Of course we do! If you two don't then who will?" My parents just laughed, then I remembered the envelope in my dad's hand.
"Hey, dad. What's in the envelope?", I asked. "Oh!", he responded, holding it up. "THIS....Is our present to you." He handed me the envelope. I stared down at it, looking over it's features. It was a baby blue color with 'Leah' in gold, Old Gothic letters with blue ribbon tied in a bow at the top corner. I turned it over, opening it out and pulling out the content in it.
The first thing I pulled out was a birhday card with three hamsters with bow-ties standing in a classy pose. "Are we planning to celebrate your birthday in a sophisticated, dignified manner?", I read outloud. Then I opened it to hear The Hamsterdance Song. Nathan, Rosetta, and I immedately cracked up, my parents laughing at our reactions. Once we finally settled down, I pulled out the rest of the content to see that they were three tickets for a plane flight to Italy. I suddenly screamed, "No way! We're seriously going to Italy???????" Nathan and Rosetta looked at each other saying, "WHAT??" They suddenly took the tickets from me looking them over.
"Your mother and I thought that maybe it was time we actually let you go out of state with your friends, but then we decided that you'd probably have a better time out of the country. Since you were always talking about how much you wanted to see it, we thought, 'why not Italy'.", my dad explained. I squealed and climbed out of bed, glomping my parents. "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!", I shouted excitedly. "You're very welcome, sweetheart.", my mom said as they hugged me back.
"Well, we've got some things we need to take care of. You three have a great day and we'll see you later tonight. Be sure to get back at eight o'clock so we can take you out for your birthday dinner.", my mom said. I nodded, gave them one last hug, then they left. I plopped myself back down on the bed, picking one of the tickets up in hands. "I can't believe we're going to Italy!", Rosetta said, even more excited then when they came in. "I know! Just think, the three of us partying with Italian boys, shopping in an Italian mall, eating Italian food! I just can't wait!", I shouted throwing my hands up.
"And we're leaving in two days! This is so sweet! We should so go shopping right now for our little Summer vacation!", Nathan replied, jumping off the bed, going through my closet for some clothes and throwing them to me. I caught them and quickly got up to grab some underclothes from my dresser.
"Hell yea! I'll be out of the shower in like two seconds! Then we'll get a move on!" So I ran into my bathroom and began to start my day.

Today was the day that Rosetta, Nathan, and I were finally going off to Italy. I had gotten up at four o'clock this morning to get ready and pack because I was so excited, and I wanted to spend some more time with my parents before I had to leave. Now it's seven thirty and my parents are driving us to airport. Nathan, Rosetta, and I were sitting in the back talking about what we should do and where we should take pictures. I thought we were annoying the hell out of my mom and dad, but really, they didn't mind. They were just happy that I was happy.
We finally arrived at the airport and were now getting our luggage out of the back of the van. I hugged my mom and dad, this was the first time I was actually going to be away from them, and for three months. "I'll be sure to call you guys every week.", I said trying to hold back tears. "We'll miss you, darling. We'll be waiting for you to get back.", my dad responded.
"We love you so much.", my mom said as tears ran down her face. I smiled, hugging her tighter. "I love you too, mom." Then, we split up as Nathan, Rosetta, and I started for our flight.
We finally boarded our plane and were now on our way to Italy.

-Three Months Later-
After three months of endless partying, shopping, and dining, it was now time to start going back home. "This has been the best fuckin' Summer vacation ever!", Rosetta shouted as we sat in our seats on the plane.
"You're telling me. They have some really great food here and some mighty fine boys.", Nathan said leaning back in his seat with his hands behind his head. Rosetta and I giggled. "Yes, yes they did.", I agreed, mimicking Nathan. Suddenly, Comatose by Skillet started playing from pocket. I sat back up and pulled my cell phone. "Hello?", I answered.
"Hello, sweetheart.", my mom's voice said. I smiled. "Hey, mama!", I responded happily. Then Nathan and Rosetta leaned in and shouted, "Hey, ma!" I couldn't help but laugh and put my cell on speaker.
"Haha! Hello, kids. So how was it in Italy? Are you guys coming home or did you decide to stay there?", she asked.
"It was awesome! It was tons of fun. And as GREAT as that would be, yes we're coming back.", Rosetta answered.
"Well that's great! Can't wait to see you guys. Leah, your father says he loves you and he'll see you guys when you get home. I have to go for now, I have to set up this big presentation. I love you three and I'll see you when you get back. I'm going to pick you guys up at the airport so be sure to call me then.", she said.
"Okay, tell dad I love him too and we love you too, mom. Can't wait to get home.", I said. Then the three of us shouted 'bye' at the same time. I put my cell phone away and stretched out my arms. "As much as I loved it here. I'm so glad to be going home.", I stated.
"Yea. Now Nate and I can kick your ass off your bed when we come over in the mornings.", Rosetta stated.
"You two were doing that while we were here.", I mumbled, glaring playfully at her.
Then Nathan wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "Yep, didn't it just make things feel homey?", he asked mockingly. I pushed him off of me and leaned back in my seat with my arms crossed as I mumbled, "Jerks." And they laughed at me.

We finally arrived back to California. As we were getting our luggage, I decided to call my mom. I waited through 15 rings and still no answer. I made a weird face and hung up. "What's wrong?", Rosetta asked.
"My mom's not answering her phone.", I replied. They looked confused. My mom was the type of person to never miss a call. "Try your dad.", Nathan suggested. So I dialed my dad's number. Waited another 15 rings and still nothing. "Okay. What the hell, people.", I shouted, irritated. So I tried my house phone. Another 15 rings and still nothing. "Okay, you guys. I'm starting to get a little worried here.", I told Rosetta and Nate.
"Relax. I'm sure everythings fine, maybe your mom's still working on that presentation and your dad's probably still at work or something. Let's just get a taxi.", Nathan said, trying to calm me down. Though it didn't work, but none the less, we took a taxi. The ride back was pretty quiet. Mostly because of me freaking out over my parents.

The taxi came up to my house and I quickly climbed out as the driver popped the trunk so we could get our luggage out. I grabbed my stuff fast and shouted a thank you to him, rushing to my door as Nathan and Rosetta were barely out of the taxi. I noticed that both of my parents cars were in the drive way but not a single light was on in my house. I rushed up to the door and pulled out my keys. I unlocked the door and threw it open, but as soon as I did, my eyes went wide and I dropped my luggage on the ground. My parents were lying on the floor in puddles of blood. I would have screamed, but I couldn't get anything out.
"Leah, what's wrong?", Rosetta asked as they ran up to me. But they both stopped when they saw. "Oh my god.", Leah said covering her mouth.
Nathan quickly pulled out his cell phone as he called 911. I couldn't even move. I was so scared and sad that I became stunned. Rosetta quickly pulled me into her arms and then I was brought back to reality and I broke down. I cried on Rosetta's shoulder as she held me close to her, tears also streaming down her face. Nathan came back over to us and pulled us into his arms as he pulled us away from the door. "The police are on there way.", he stated as he sat us down on the sidewalk. I buried my face in his shoulder as Rosetta buried her face in her hands. Nathan leaned his head against mine as he silently cried.
The cops showed up minutes later and quickly rushed inside. One came up to us and asked what happened. I was too traumatized to answer, so Nathan talked for me. "We don't know. We barely got back from the airport. We had went on a trip to Italy." The officer nodded and continued to ask more questions. "Do the three of you live here?", he asked.
"No, sir.", Nathan replied. "Leah lives here." He gestured to me.
"Are those your parents, miss.", the officer asked. I just nodded. "How old are, miss?", he asked. Nathan was getting ready to speak for, but I answered first, "Sixteen."
He nodded. Then asked a bit more questions and we were finally able to leave. I had grabbed my luggage and we went to Rosetta's house. I was silent for the rest of the night, feeling like this was all a dream and that when I woke up, I'd be in my house, waking up to my parents smiling faces.

It had now a year and a half, so it's now March, and I'm seventeen now. Soon to eighteen in two more months. I had returned home four months after the incident. Rosetta also decided to move in with me. Because I was only eight years old and didn't make that much money, my bills were piling up since I couldn't afford to pay them all. So I'd soon have to leave the home I've lived in since I was born. But Nathan said that he'd let Rosetta and I move in with him. Beside me losing the house, I had recieved word from the police that because of so much time they spent investigating my parent's death, they couldn't find the murderer and they were going to quit the investigation. This piece of news made me beyond pissed.
"Leah, calm down. I know it's upsetting, but there's not much you can do.", Rosetta said as I had been ranting on all day about how the police didn't care about anyone other than themselves.
"Oh, there's something I can do about this. If those assholes aren't going to look for that bastard, then I will!", I stated.
"And how do you plan on doing that?", Nathan asked. I stopped and thought. He was right, how was I going to do this. I didn't have any evidence since the police were the ones who were investigating. The only times I saw my parents bodies were when we had gotten back from Italy, and even then I wasn't close enough to see anything.
"The only way I know how. Little by little. If possible, I can get a look at the evidence if I go talk to the police. But no matter what, I AM going to find that son of bitch. Even if it kills me.", I responded. And from then on, I've kept my word and kept my life devoted to find my mom and dad's killer.