I woke up, ate breakfast, got dressed, and did my makeup

I did my makeup, a task so simple, yet I wouldn’t have done it if I know that by the end of a single school day I would have mascara running down my face and blood running down my leg

I remember his voice like ice going through wet hair

“This is not a drill, I repeat this is not a drill”

And then bang, the sound of death and evil and my best friend dying

We stood in the back with books, scissors, and anything we could find like our lives depended on it

What we didn’t know was that our life did depend on us holding these things

This wasn’t an “I’m holding this because someone told me to” type of hold

This was a “mommy please hold me” type of hold

This was a “I’m scared daddy, please hug me one more time” type of hold

This was an “I’m sorry we fought all these years Kade, but please hold me one last time” type of hold

And just like the gunshot, the smell of death hit us like a brick wall

I looked down and saw blood darker then the midnight sky

I no longer knew if it was mine or the kid next to me