- Chapter 12 - Elmer Kasprzak -
Warnings: mentions of sickness, death, sobbing, a grieving mother
Third Person POV

The World Newspaper
Almost Whole Family Dies to due Illness, Leaving Behind a Nine-Year-Old

By: J.B. Barrington

On Saturday morning, nine-year-old Elmer Kasprzak ran to a hospital. He was breathing hard and sobbing when a nurse confronted him.

"There was just this little boy who came into the hospital sobbing," the nurse explained when she was interviewed. "I just went up to him to ask him what was wrong, and he told me that his mom needed help."

The nurse, Emily Grimshaw, grabbed a few paramedics and the police, who followed Elmer back to his home.

When they got there, they were met with a horrible sight.

Elmer's mother, Katia Kasprzak, laid sobbing and sick with one of her dead kids in her arms.

The paramedics tried to convince Katia to go to the hospital so she could get treatment for her illness, but Katia refused to leave behind her children, despite the fact that they were dead. She tried to kick away the paramedics when they came close to her.

The paramedics said that over the course of the ten minutes they tried to help her, Katia slowly started coughing more and more. Her coughs became violent, and all the paramedics could do was make sure Elmer couldn't see or hear his mother as she gasped for breath, before passing out.

The paramedics rushed Katia to the hospital, but she was dead before they arrived.

Police found six more children in the house. Only one of them was alive, but they were in critical condition when they were taken to the hospital and the doctors say the child is unlikely to survive.

Elmer Kasprzak has been taken to a group home for the time being, while police try and figure out what happened to the family and where to put him permanently.

(342 Words)
Elmer's age in the book (for all of the current-day chapters and not the newspaper chapter) is 15.