Elora's point of view:

The day was overtly warm for the end of May. It was almost eighty degrees and there was barely any wind. Flynn and I decided to spend the day at the lake outside of the city where we would do our best to cool off with cold water and Coca-Cola. Well, that for me, beer for him. He didn't like soda really, he didn't have much of a sweet tooth. I hated beer, it was so bitter and gross. I suppose we couldn't agree on everything in the world.

The beach wasn't packed but there were definitely a good deal of people on the sand and water. There were a lot of families there with smaller children all playing in the water while they watched on their towels. Flynn and I were amongst the group of couples that came as well. We didn't know them nor did we talk to them due to Flynn barely acknowledging them, we just stayed on their 'side' of the beach. This side represented the fact that it was calmer and contained no children. There were also people that had snuck some alcohol onto the sand as well.

"You want a drink? Wait, let me guess, Coca-Cola?" He asked me as we set up our beach towels and sat down on them. I chuckled and nodded as he handed me the glass bottle and I popped the cap off. He took out water rather than beer, which was a surprise. He usually drank beer when days were this sunny.

"Hey, have you noticed something here about the beach?" I asked as I looked around the whole area. Flynn took his attention away from the water and read over the place. He shrugged as if he didn't know.

"What do you notice?" He asked. It was a simple thought that had spontaneously come to me as I eyed the beach.

"Everyone here is white," I replied. He realized what I was talking about and nodded his head. I couldn't believe that it had just come to my mind like that. I had never noticed it until I had just seen it now. There were no black people here. The place wasn't segregated, it was open to the full public, race aside. Why was there only one race here if there were no rules against who could and couldn't go?

"They'll never come here. This place has always been an area where white people dominate it. I know it's a bad principle, but they don't wander where white people are, and vice versa. It's like we're scared of each other," Flynn explained to me. I know how some of the race things worked, but I had begun to think that wasn't the case any longer. Clearly I was wrong and people were still picking up on subtle racism.

"That's horrible. Why would we be scared of each other? There's nothing to fear anymore," I asked. Was I really so naïve to think that people shouldn't be judged by the colour of their skin any longer? I mean, what century are we even living in?

"There's always something to fear. That's why we stay away from things that are different from us," he replied. From then on I realized that no matter how much it took for Flynn to explain, I would never understand the feelings of people and their relationship with the principles of race.

•••

Later that night...

An unfathomable sense to go out for a walk came over me. It didn't seem to be realistic, since it was almost midnight and everyone in the house was asleep. Flynn lay beside me, contently sleeping on his side. I tried my best to get to sleep but nothing could take my mind off that walk. Maybe it was just what I saw at the beach today, the indirect segregation. Something about it was disturbing to me, and I knew a walk would help with the initial shock.

I realized then that I didn't have much of a choice if I wanted to get some sleep tonight. So I quietly creeped out of bed to make sure Flynn wouldn't wake up. There was no way he would anyway, he was almost a heavier sleeper than my dad. I obtained my coat from the little rack beside my closet and carefully stepped out of the room. I placed on some simple shoes for walking, and silently shut the front door as I descended away from the house.

There were soft winds blowing softly in the night air, but it was rather humid from the heat we had during the day. I felt the long, moist grass of my front yard seep along the skin of my ankles. Even though it was warm, I held the jacket close to my chest. For some reason I felt this dark, decrepit cold washing over me as I walked down the paved sidewalks. There was something about this night that seemed to have me irked and chilled to the bone. I had no doubt there was nothing malicious at all lurking around these parts, it was a rather suburban area. I decided that I would ignore the feeling as much as I could.

As I walked the ominous feeling kept growing within me, like some pit was establishing itself in the middle of my stomach. Something wasn't right and I knew it, maybe it was best to turn back and go home? I wouldn't want to end up in a place I wouldn't like. However, I was unfortunately burdened with the Horowitz's inconceivable curiosity. For a reason that had eluded me, I wanted to see what was picking at my mind and forcing a fear upon me.

My thoughts were taken away when I came to one of the most terrifyingly exciting things I had ever seen. There was smoke billowing from the skies, a faint grey making its way across the moonlit sky. Someone was burning something, but what was it? It had to be something rather large, because I could make out definite flames from an only slightly lower level than the smoke it created. Perhaps it was the ending of an unfortunate house fire? It didn't seem so though, there was something different about this fire. Something ominous.

I proceeded towards the flame. I really wanted to know what it was by now. I was getting desperate and wondering if whatever the fire had lit was giving off some sort of noxious pheromone that was keeping me from sleeping. I didn't know if that was possible or not, but no matter what I wanted to know what that fire was doing there when it shouldn't be.

It was my mistake. What I saw was an unimaginably horrific sight to see. The burning of a cross---a massive one. All of it was covered in flames, some sort of sacrilegious parody. It seemed like it was that, until I noticed the people all below it. My eyes widened as I realized who exactly they were: the Ku Klux Klan. There they were, a distance away from me, doing their ceremonies. My heart was pounding with adrenaline and fear all combined together. It was such an unfamiliar feeling, that all I could do was sit there and watch, like I had frozen to the ground.

It was then that I noticed what exactly was happening beside that ever flamed cross. It wasn't just a huge amount of KKK members all around a fiery cross. There were three men there, all of them African-American. Oh my God, what were they going to do to them?! I knew what they would do as I saw all of the weapons they planned to use on them. I saw guns, nooses, knives and other tools I didn't even know the name of. They were going to violently kill those innocent people. I couldn't just let that happen!

I managed to hide in the trees where they couldn't see me. I tried to see if I could do anything, but what was there to do? Then I reached into my pocket and realized inside there was a gun. A small handgun that stayed there if I needed it. This wouldn't do much with all those people, but maybe I could find a way to save them with a different alternative? Then I thought of it, I would just have to make sure I did it right.

With one breathe, I shut my eyes and began to walk slowly over to them. I held the gun in my hand as three of the members stood behind the black men as they held their heads down in fear and sadness. I stopped in the field as I took another breathe, some of the smoke coming in around my face as I silently prayed everything in my plan would work out. I walked just a little bit closer to them, but still to the point where they couldn't see me because of the night sky.

I screamed as loud as I could, as loud as my voice would allow me. This took everyone away from their goal. It was only a few seconds after as everyone was preoccupied with the scream. I took the gun and shot all three of the members in the back of the head as they faced away from me. Everyone in the group let out massive screams as they fell dead to the floor. I took the arm of one of the men who looked completely confused.

"Do you want to live or not?!" I asked quickly. The one that I held the arm of nodded and demanded the other two follow him. They ran with us into the forest where they couldn't see us any longer.

"Who are you?!" One of them asked. He was the taller out of the three asked. I took a breathe as I took in the rush of adrenaline flying through me. The three of them all stood there with confusion as we heard the rampant screams of the members by the burning cross.

"My name is Elora Horowitz," I said. It was then that they froze in place and I ignored it. I was too busy breathing heavily from running so fast I may've been just as on fire as that cross.

"You mean, like, Jack and Hilda?" He asked. So they knew my family? That wasn't totally surprising. Many of the people we ran into that new our names off the bat asked if we were related to two of the most well-known war heroes of the twentieth century.

"Yes, I mean Jack and Hilda. They're my parents," I replied. They seemed to be completely amazed by this. Every person who crossed our path was.

"That aside, you saved us. Why did you do that?" The other one, the seemingly youngest out of the three asked. He seemed to be the most innocent out of all of them too. He was still a child, my God. He couldn't have been more than eighteen.

"Why wouldn't I? You were about to get brutally murdered. I come from a family where if we see someone in danger, odds are we'll probably come and help you," I replied. They seemed to be amazed by this. I didn't understand why they felt it was odd that I had helped them or even bothered to go and see if I could do anything.

"Nobody has ever helped us before." It was the middle one that said that to me. Then I understood what they meant when they said this. Everything these days had something to do with racism. There was always going to be people out there that made others feel like they served no purpose in this world just because they looked different and did other things that we didn't. It was one of the most perfect examples of close-minded cowardice.

"Well, I'm sorry about that," I replied. I didn't know what else to say. I saw the three of them in need and I went to try and make things better for them. I had no ulterior motive for anything, unlike many of the other people in this world who think they're humanitarians just because they are only subtly racist.

"What do we do now?" The youngest one asked. I wanted to help them as much as I could. I didn't know who they were or if they had homes to go to. I knew nothing of their lives and it didn't exactly help with the situation.

"What are your names?" I asked.

"I'm Jackson. These are my younger brothers, Gabriel and Bryon," the taller one said. So they were brothers then? I could understand this now that I had seen them. It was dark but it was easy to see that they looked a bit alike and could definitely be brothers. However, there were differences in them as well that weren't just height. Jackson had a sharper jaw, Gabriel had darker and bigger eyes, Bryon had small, delicate lips and a chiseled chin.

"Where do you live?" I asked.

"We live on Banks Street," Bryon replied. I knew the place although I had never been there. That was characterized as the Slums of Washington, as terrible as it was to say something like that. That part of the city just wasn't as nice as the other ones. Many of the lower class people lived there, and lately it had become a dominantly black neighbourhood.

"Do you need me to drive you there?" I asked. Jackson shook his head even though it seemed like his other two brothers disagreed.

"No, that's fine. We're probably not safe there right now anyway. We'll find a hotel until we can figure somethin' out," Jackson replied. I didn't want to see them struggle more than they already had. I mean for God's sake they had almost been shot to death! I was able to help them more, so I would do my best to make sure they would get on alright.

"Why don't you come stay with me? I have a pool house with just the right amount of rooms. If you three want to stay there my parents won't mind," I offered. It probably wasn't great that we just invited people wherever we went, but my parents would agree that these men needed a place to relax for a while and figure out what they had to do to be safe. Whether that was move away or find a new house, they could find time at my place.

"You would really do that? You don't even know us," Jackson asked. I shrugged my shoulders and chuckled a little bit. They didn't seem like they had anything dangerous about them. Plus, if they had done something I'd know, my family always managed to tell us if we needed to watch out for a specific type of people. They seemed to be alright on the Elora radar.

"I know your names, and I know you're probably tired from all this shit you just unnecessarily went through. I can give you a place for a while. Don't worry, we have a lot to share," I said, "I live just up there if you'll follow me."

"Thank you," Bryon said to me. I nodded and told him not to worry about it as I walked carefully back to the house with them. The walk was silent although I could tell they were relieved to finally be able to breathe again.

When we arrived home, I was greeted not just by the foyer but everyone who currently lived in the house with the most worried expressions I had ever seen on their faces. The first to greet me was my mother with a massive hug, I hugged her back as well. I looked to see Flynn standing by the stairs, his arms crossed as he looked like he had just witnessed my murder. I could tell that was something we would have to talk about a bit later. Probably not until the morning as he was most likely very tired and not in the mood to deal with anything stressful until after ten in the morning.

"What happened to you?! Where did you go?!" My father asked, so worried he almost seemed like he hadn't seen me in years and thought I was dead. I looked at the clock to see that I had only been gone two hours. They must have been sitting there in their anxiety waiting for me to come home.

"I'm sorry. You won't believe it! I went to take a walk because I couldn't sleep, then I saw the KKK! I saved these three people. This is Jackson and his brothers Gabriel and Bryon. Guys, this is my family. That's my mother Hilda and my father Jack. That's my brother Jacob and my sister Emmaleigh. That's my friend Rebekka and this is, well, this is my Flynn," I explained. They all said hello but they didn't move away from behind me. It was clear that they were a little afraid of the unfamiliar surroundings with all the worried people inside of it.

"Hello boys, I'm Hilda," my mother said to them kindly. They shook her hand although they seemed confused by her direct sweetness to them. I would have to remind them that she was like that with everybody when she wasn't in the mood to kill people. That was a weird statement now that I think about it.

"Wait, the KKK?! How did you save them?!" My father questioned. I didn't really want to talk about what I had just done. I'd rather just forget that it even happened.

"I had to kill some people, don't worry about it. It's fine, look!" I said, pointing to the boys behind me. My father's eyes widened and he shook his head as if he was hoping that he was dreaming.

"I'm having so much trouble with this. You killed members of the KKK?" He asked. I nodded and remained silent for that.

"What do we do, Jack?" My mother asked him as she stood beside the boys, all of them substantially taller than her.

"We leave it for now. That's all we can do. We don't know what's going to happen. Until we figure things out, everyone should go to sleep. Elora, show your guests to their rooms and then get some rest," my father ordered. I nodded silently as my mother gave me a tight smile and followed my father up to their room.

Note: so sorry for the wait! I wanted the chapter to be just right and I hope it was satisfactory for the delay. Sometimes it's hard to submit chapters daily. Hopefully I'll be able to get the next one out tomorrow as well. It all depends on how the day goes. Anyway, sorry for the wait again. Be sure to vote if you liked the chapter and to comment on what you think. Also make sure to follow me! Happy reading!