“Bye, ladybug girl.” The words followed me as I ran toward my daddy, but I hardly heard them in my excitement to get back to the car.

Daddy drove us to the movie theater to see the spy movie. I sat between him and Marco so I could sit next to both of them, which meant I got to hold the popcorn. I only had to go to the potty one time during the movie and didn’t get scared at all.

By the time the movie was over, it was dark outside and way past my bedtime. I could hardly keep my eyes open from the excitement of the day, and the car’s gentle motion on the drive home quickly lulled me to sleep. I didn’t wake when the doors to the car opened and closed. It was the stillness and the silence that stirred me from sleep. Blinking my groggy eyes, I quickly realized I was alone in the car. From where I sat in my booster seat, I could see Daddy and Marco outside, walking over to two men dressed in black vests. They didn’t look like any men I’d seen before with their long, scraggly beards and black tattoos on their necks and faces. But my daddy wasn’t scared of them, so I wasn’t. My daddy had all kinds of friends.

The men shook hands under a streetlight, my brother pretending to be one of the adults. Just before my eyelids could drift shut again, the scene suddenly fell into chaos, stirring me wide-awake. Frozen in my seat, I watched my worst nightmare play out before me like a movie with no pause or rewind buttons.

One of the men in vests began to yell. I could hear his angry voice penetrate inside the car. His face contorted, and he grabbed Marco by the hair, pressing a gun to my brother’s head. The man snarled at my daddy like the neighbor’s dog did when we walked by the fence. My daddy stood motionless, hands raised in surrender.

Why wasn’t Daddy helping Marco? Why was the man so angry?

I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I could tell it was bad. My stomach clenched viciously as fear immobilized my body.

The next moment played out in slow motion, like the cartoons where the tomcat accidentally runs into a wall when he chases the little mouse. A loud bang rang out in the night, echoing off the tall buildings and making me clasp my hands over my ears. My eyes jerked shut, but only for a second. They opened in plenty of time to see Marco’s head jerk to the side and a dark liquid spray out around him.

I couldn’t stop what I was seeing.

As if someone was forcing my eyelids open, I watched in horrified silence as my brother’s limp body collapsed to the ground, a dark puddle quickly seeping out from beneath him.

I couldn’t breathe.

All the air in the car had been sucked out, making my head spin and my vision blur.