I remember it like it was yesterday.

Sitting in my room, I had just awakened when I walked downstairs and then expected the smell of cooked bacon and sunny side up eggs. Instead I’m greeted with the feeling of emptiness. I look around the kitchen, family room and all the bedrooms. There was nothing.

It was only until I stepped outside that I realized what had happened. My older brother hung from the old oak tree in the backyard. I searched for any type of letter on him. I found one.

Dear Melanie,

Mom and Dad had left us this morning and i am sorry that i left you alone. But i couldn't do it anyway, i knew you could handle yourself you are so brave, NOBODY could ever compare to you. You were LIKED by so many people. YOUR friends always talked to me about how great you are. So my life has been lived to the fullest by being your BROTHER.

Love,
Jackson 

NOBODY LIKED YOUR BROTHER

It was obvious that he didn't kill himself. Everything seemed to start to spin. I was alone. I had no idea what to do. Until about 3 mysterious looking black vans pulled up to my drive way. Scary men in strange looking uniforms approached me. I knew who they were. I had seen them in countless movies and TV shows. It was the FBI, of course I had no idea who they were, so I just went up and asked, they seemed in no rush to tell me what was going on.

“Why are you guys here?” I asked. My voice sounded very weak

“Your brother, he didn't kill himself, he was murdered by a group of people and you'll be next if you aren't careful, so please get in the van and we will put you in the Witness Protection Program.” the guy that I asked said.

“How do I know I can trust you?” I said

At that moment he wiped a badge out of his jacket pocket and showed it to me.

“Alright i'll go, but only if I can help with the case” I said with almost too much confidence

  “No” He said.” We need to keep you safe”

“Well then i'm not going anywhere” I said.

“This agreement must be discussed with the general in charge, but please come with me so we may discuss” He said
 
“Fine” I said.

For the next few days we are driving somewhere, but i had no idea where, they wouldn't tell me. After what I had estimated to be 2 or 3 days, they told me we were here. Four big walls surrounded me. They matched the color of white chalk on a blackboard. The wall vertical to us had double doors, but there appeared to be no building behind it. The same man that I had talked to earlier grabbed my upper arm and led me to the double doors. I was extremely scared on the inside, but I wasn't going to show them that, I didn't want to appear weak. I read the man's name badge to distract me, it read John Cherry-Bread; it was such a strange name for a man who looked like he had a million secrets. We reached the double doors, which had seemed to be bigger now. The guard in front of us typed a number into the keypad to the right of the doors, my heart was racing. I had little to no idea where I was or who I was with or even what I was doing. I really wanted to ask, but the fear of being hit or yelled at stopped me. The elevator then started to move at a very fast pace downward. I fell to my feet because it was going so fast. Then all of a suddenly then the elevator stopped, making my body lurch slightly upward and then back down again.

The doors opened.

In front of me there is a huge room probably the size of 7 football fields.  A woman with carmel-colored skin and curly hair stood before me.  She said, “Hello, my name is Lauren and I'm going to help you figure all this out. First off you are at one of the most secluded FBI resorts in the country and possibly the world.”

Who knew Utah would have this?

The lady continued, “You will be working with Johnny to figure out the case of your brother since you want to help.”

I look around the place more gray walls but these walls are made out of old looking cement.  There were fire escape type stairs leading to different rooms on the left wall laid small glass rooms that looked like offices with an en elevator on the right over in the right conner was a supermarket and clothing sore on top of each other in the left corner was probably a 3 story waterfall that fell into a hole.

As I looked at it all I started to wonder is this where people live?  I was so curious that I decided to ask.

“Do people live here” I asked.

“Yes, we all do.  Did you think that we were going to let them roam around and risk spilling this place?  No way”, she said.

“I guess I didn’t think of that” I shrugged.

We walked up the fire escape and she threw me a pair of keys once we were at apartment

“Welcome to the team” she said with a smirk.

     I followed Lauren back down the stairs and saw Johnny at the bottom, this time he didn’t have a bulletproof vest on.  He only had a silky black shirt and some dark gray sweat pants.  We got to the bottom to meet him.  Lauren left after we got to him.

“Long time no see” he said with a slight smirk.

I laughed “yeah I guess.  So where are we going to work on my brothers case?”

“A little hurried are we there yet”? He chuckled.

“I don’t know if you know this but my brother is dead and I would be a horrible ex-sister if I wasn't hurried” I said with an irritated tone in my voice.

“You are right. I’m sorry, follow me.”

We walked in complete silence and we go down the hallway to the left of the glass offices.  He turned to the right and opens a big concrete door with yet another passcode.  It make a loud creaking noise when it opens.

A big room opens with several desks with people in black clothing, like myself.  Is this where all the emo kids go to grow up?  I asked myself.  He lead me toward a desk in the middle.

“This is where you’ll work.  This room is for people on special cases, like yourself” he said.  “You will also sometimes go on missions outside of the office.  Right now we are to find out who killed your family, go ahead and look at security videos from around your area and see if you can see any faces or a good candidate for a witness”.

“Okay, so say I found something, who do I report to?” I asked.

“Jason, he’s right over here” he says and points to the boy in the left corner of the big room.  Jason waves his hand as to signal as to where he was.  He looked to be around 17, so just a year younger than me.

The next day…

I sat at my desk looking through security tapes around my house.

I open up one from the 7/11.  There are three men walking up some stairs, most likely to the roof.  I open the camera to the roof they open the big black bags and pour out dozens of fire armour and then I knew for certain they were not legal.

I jog over to Jason.

“Jason I’ve found something on the 7/11 cameras, come with me” i said.

Without another word we run over to my desk and I show him the clip.

“This was only 4 minutes ago, I bet they are still there!” he said “Alright everyone make your way toward the fire jets we have to leave now!”

I go and grab my backpack under my desk, it is filled with two guns and emergency items.  I run next to Jason, because I have no idea where the fire jets are.

“It felt like three days to get here from my home town.  How on Earth are we going to get there on time?”

“Sometimes the government doesn’t want you to know certain things, like mowing at 5,000 mph and not feeling it, we will be there in twenty minutes.

We continued to run while turning a few corners we get to a gate and once we opened it there were five jet like planes sitting there.  We all packed into the first jet and I got to sit next to Johnny.  I took a minute to actually look at him.

He had brown eyes, they we almost black; he also had jet black hair.  He was kind of muscular and it was weird seeing an Asian that way.

We took off, saying that because the plane jerked, because there were no windows.  We sat in silence for almost exactly  twenty minute.  The pilot announced the intercom said “We have  reached our destination, door opening”.

Just then the back floor of the plane slightly moved down, and I suppose that now we had to jump. Johnny grabbed my waist and ran and jumped, I was very frightened but I had to be brave.  My hair blew fiercely in the wind.  Then Johnny pulled the cord, but nothing happened the parachute wasn't working!  I knew in that moment that I may die.

Johnny kept trying to pull an everything, and nothing worked.  Nobody was going to save us.  The ground got closer and closer.  Johnny flipped over so I was on top.  Johnny kissed my head and said “good luck Melanie”.

We hit the ground and I was out.

Everything was black and a sharp pain erupted in my head.  I reached my hand out to rub it and somebody screamed “She’s alive!”.

I opened my eyes.  Lauren and Jason sat across from me.  The looked happy.

“How ya holdin’ up” Jason asked.

“My head hurts a lot” I said “Where is Johnny”?

“I’ll get you some painkillers and about Johnny… he passed in the accident”.

It almost seemed unreal that Johnny is gone.  He was such a great person he gave up his life for me.

“We found the guys, they are in Federal prison now” Lauren said.

“I guess that’s good, I’m going back to bed now”.

And with that… I fell asleep.

I decided to stay and work with the FBI.  It always pains me to see where Johnny used to work.  Sometimes I look over there and think of how many people loved him and how many people think that he would be better at this desk than me.

He missed out on one of the best parts of his life, falling in love, having kids, retiring, and he gave it all up for me.

Today is Johnny’s funeral. It’s up in Nashville, Tennessee and I paid for the entire thing.  It was the least I could do.

I drove myself, all of the others rode in the jets, but I honestly wanted to be alone right now.

It took only 1 ½ days to get to to Nashville and when I walked into the old church, I feel like he was honored the right way.

The walls were gray with black and red roses lining them.  At the door there was a picture of Johnny in his uniform.  He was very handsome all around was pictures of him with his family and friends.  THere was one of myself and Johnny and it was him taking a selfie with me while I was asleep on the ride here on my first day.  I smiled at the bittersweet picture.

After the funeral everybody goes home.  There was no reception, but I paid for one.  I didn’t ask about it because maybe his family used if for something else.

  The next week I had to go to the Federal prison to investigate the idiots that killed Jackson.

Alarms ring as soon as I walk into the door of the prison.  I see two large men and they are running to the red honda across the street.  The two men were still in their bright orange jumpsuits.  I get my gun out and shoot at one of the guy's shoulder and then another on the leg.  The man fell to his knees while the other one kept going and jumped into the red Honda.  Seven or Eight cop cars followed him.  The cannot let him get away.  I knew there was nothing I could do so I went to the man on the ground.

“Why did you kill my brother”?  I ask.                                                                     

“Your brother, nobody liked him. So we got rid of him” he said back.  You could tell the man was Jamaican and had little knowledge of English.

The man suddenly grabbed my ankle like a shark would it’s pretty.  He pulled out a knife and stabbed me in the ankle.  I feel to the right and everything starts to turn black very quickly but before I black out, I shoot the man in the chest so he can hopefully die and he can’t stab me anymore.

Then I’m out…

It was three months until I woke up again.  My foot was amputated.  The other man died in a car crash when the police were following him and I couldn’t help but be happy.  They deserved it!  All of my problems were gone.  No chance of them hurting me or my family again.

I’m leaving soon to go back home, since getting my leg amputated I was not able to go on any missions and the FBI wanted to replace me with someone more agile than myself.

I drove home in my own thoughts about what I’ve done and accomplished.  It all started with me finding Jackson dead, and it looked like suicide, then I join the FBI as one of their agents.  I found my brother murders, then Johnny saved me but also took his own life.  I went to Johnny's funeral, I went to investigate my brother murders, got stabbed, went into a coma for three months, my leg got amputated and now here I am going home after all of that.

Suddenly gunshots started going off.  You could hear the mother's screaming and see the fathers trying to protect their families.  Then some hit the side of my car and then another broke my left back window, they were after me.  I tried to start the car but they blew out my tires.

It must be because I’m in a car and pose a bigger threat?  I don’t know.  I start to panic so I jump out of the car and run.  I thought it was my car that was making them shoot.  The men shooting let out a grunt/yell and then all of a sudden a man grabbed my upper right arm and pointed a gun at me and said “Nobody liked your brother”.

And that was the last time i ever touched atmosphere.