I was sitting on a small chair watching her tie her long brown hair with a piece of string. My mother had always been a beauty, and I would never think I'd see anyone as beautiful as her. Her slender face was smooth, the corners of her mouth always turned upwards in a slight smile.
I adored her. I was in awe of her.
"Do you want to tie the bow, Emily?" My mother asked, smiling as she crouched down in front of me as I nodded my head vigorously. She chuckled and turned around, her back facing me, her hair loosely bound with the string.
"Remember what I taught you," she said, and I reached out to grasp the two ends of the band, making a loop with one end and wrapping the other end around it once, pulling the two parts away from each other, grinning when I finished the slightly clumsy bow.
I ran my small hand through the soft hair of my mother's, hoping my own would one day look like that.
Mother straightened herself up and turned to pick me up, cradling me tightly against her as she walked out of the room.
"I wonder where your father is?" she thought out loud, and we went through several different rooms, all empty of the man who had protected us from any harm since as long as I could remember.
"Sarah!" The voice was filled with fright and concern, making my mother pick up her pace and run outside, my head gently bouncing against her shoulder, eyes wide and alert.
"John!" Her voice was trembling, I could feel the tremors run through her body, but she still grasped me tightly.
"They're here. Take Emily and run!"
She turned with no further argument, and my eyes caught those of my father's, they softened upon my gaze, but turned hard as the gate behind him rattled on its hinges, hissing and growling voices suddenly creeping into my ears.
My mother ran with me in her arms.
A blinding blue light emanating from my dad pierced the darkness, and I shut my eyes as tears started to fall.
My scream seemed to echo through the night.
"Dad!"
I bolted upright, panting heavily, my arms outstretched in front of me in a guarded position until I remembered where I was.
Down below the house with Dennis and Johan and all the food.
I hated this particular nightmare.
It always started out so sweet and innocent, and if I closed my eyes, I could almost feel the softness of my mother's hair, curling my fingers around the empty air, wishing it was entwined in her long brown strands.
And it always ended the same way; the bright blue light that blinded my childish eyes, and all I remember from when I opened them again was that I was huddled in the darkness with my mother wrapped around me, my father nowhere in sight.
I realized then that something had woken me up; the palms of my hands were both tingling.
It had happened before, and it wasn't the first time it had caused me to wake up.
However, this time the strange tingling felt stronger somehow, and warm.
My hands were clearly warmer than the rest of my body.
I shook them, trying to get rid of the prickling in my skin, but it didn't help at all.
I tried going back to sleep, but it was useless. I was fully awake now.
I stood up and stretched my limbs. It was still completely dark down here, so it must have still been night outside.
Even though I should have just stayed put, I felt restless and I walked with silent steps and fumbling arms, trying to find the wooden steps that would lead me back up in the house.
It didn't take long to find them, and lucky for me, I didn't step on any of the guys.
I quickly climbed the stairs and pulled myself out of the opening, standing up before walking out of the room, remembering the way to the front door.
I needed fresh air. I always felt like that after waking up from a nightmare, especially that one.
My mind would start rambling on about that blue light that had seemed to come directly from my father, but how?
I opened the door and stepped outside in the chilling air, breathing in heavily to calm myself down.
Closing it gently, I stepped away from the door, but kept to the wall, not forgetting to still be alert.
I knew it was stupid of me to be alone outside, never knowing what could be lurking out here, but sometimes I just couldn't stand being cooped up in a small room like that. It made me anxious.
I walked around the side of the house, taking in the brilliant night sky that was covered with sparkling lights. Stars, if I remember correctly.
My hands were still warm, I rubbed them together trying to make the prickling cease, but somehow it seemed to make it worse.
The warmth turned into a burning feeling, and I flapped my hands around, trying to cool them down.
What the hell? I thought alarmingly.
Then I felt something stir deep within me, something that was making its way through me and I felt that burning sensation creep like tendrils down my arms, towards my already heated hands. The feeling inside of me was foreign and panic rose in me. What was happening to me? What was causing this? Was I getting sick? I never got sick. Not even a runny nose or a fever. I stepped away from the wall so I wouldn't accidentally hit it with my flailing limbs.
The times it had happened before it would be over before I could really freak out. Dennis and Johan sometimes got those same tingles, if they had been sitting still for too long or been in an uncomfortable position, but this, this was definitely different.
I watched in stunned horror how my palms began lighting up in the utter darkness, and like it was ignited from within, a pale blue light broke through my skin and flickered just for a second.
I gasped and jumped back, but it wasn't like I could run from my own hands. I clenched my eyes shut, counting silently to five before opening them again, wishing it had just been my mind playing a trick on me.
But it wasn't. I looked down and saw this small flickering blue ball, hovering just above my palm.
I was mesmerized; the light danced on my hand, like a blue flame in the blackness.
I gaped open-mouthed, staring at it, not knowing whether to scream out loud or smile. Suddenly, my mind went back to my nightmare, to the blue light coming from my father, blinding me.
Was it all connected somehow? Had I inherited it from my father? Whatever it was.
My whole body tensed up at the thought of my father. I never truly got a chance to know him.
"They're here.." Whoever they were, they were responsible for me never seeing my father again. I had a pretty good idea what they were, which had really been the catalyst to why I hated those creatures with a passion.
They'd taken him away from me. They took him from me and my mother and left us to fend for ourselves. My mother, frail and scared had run for two days straight before she'd practically collapsed with me in her arms. Thanks to them, my life and childhood had been torn apart.
Repressed anger flared up in me and out of nowhere the small blue flame transformed into a tall blinding light beam, shooting upwards into the sky, illuminating my entire body and surroundings.
"Shit!" I shouted, before clamping my mouth shut.
I turned my palm downwards, minimizing the exposure of the light, breathing deeply as I tried to calm myself. The whitered garden I was standing in was baded in an almost shimmering glow. I started counting to ten this time.
It seemed to help. The flame was getting smaller with each calm breath.
After a few breaths, the light had all but disappeared from my hand.
I leaned heavily against the wall of the house, trying to take all in that had just happened. It wasn't exactly easy.
Whatever had just happened, it had something to do with my father. Pity I couldn't go ask him. He was gone. You don't truly know that, a voice in my head said and I caught myself thinking.
What if he had somehow escaped that night?
No! My father was dead, otherwise he would have come for me, my own inner voice stood its ground.
I could not keep having these internal discussions about this. It had been years and the only family I had now were sleeping soundly in the house behind me.
I shook my head, clearing my mind, and thought I might as well go wake up Dennis and Johan and tell them. They deserved to know, even if I couldn't explain it to them completely.
But as I turned the corner and came up to the front door, I froze.
I could have sworn I had closed it completely when I had gone out.
It was now wide open, and instantly, my heartbeat quickened.
Either one of the guys had come outside, which would be highly unlikely because I would have heard them, or...
Or something else was in there with them!
I couldn't leave Dennis and Johan, there was absolutely no chance of that happening. We looked out for each other and dammit, I would not run away.
I inched closer towards the door, feeling my way along the wall, careful not to trip over any rocks on the way. The bright moon provided some pale silver light that helped guide my way.
I gulped down saliva as I stepped inside the now eerie looking house, my eyes darting around whilst my ears searched for any sounds, but it was all quiet. So quiet.
I didn't know why, but I felt like I needed to get down to Dennis and Johan, and so without checking the rest of the house, I strode through the empty hallway and straight into the room with the secret hole in the floor.
I still couldn't hear anything as I climbed down the steps, but as I stepped off onto the hard floor, I heard a yawn and someone shuffling about in the dark.
"Em? Is that you? What are you doing?" Dennis muttered, and I heard him get up.
"I don't know, but I don't think this place is safe anymore," I whispered, suddenly afraid that someone else would hear me.
Dennis and I had been through quite a lot during the years we'd known each other and he usually trusted my instinct, so it was to no ones surprise that he didn't protest at all.
He woke up Johan with a gentle nudge and told him to be quiet.
I found my way over to them and quickly and quietly, we filled our backpacks with water and as much food as we could without them getting too heavy.
No words needed to be spoken between us as we left the secret hole in the floor, and it bothered me that we left food behind, but I had to trust my gut, and it was telling me to get the hell out of there.
We didn't bother closing the hatch, we left it as it was and in a single filed line, Dennis first, me in the middle and then Johan at the rear, we walked out of the room and through the abandoned house.
My skin prickled with unease, and though I knew it was incredibly stupid of us to go out in the open in the dead of night, I would somehow feel safer being outside. At least I hoped I would.
"Let's just go to one of the other houses on the street and stay there until morning," Dennis whispered as we practically tiptoed through the open doorway and outside, our heads going left and right.
"We'll each take shifts and then take tomorrow morning to recover before we move.." Dennis' voice abruptly halted as well as his steps, and I nearly walked into him.
"Dammit," Johan cursed under his breath from behind me and I took a glance around in the dark, my heartbeat instantly picking up speed. It wasn't hard to miss the dread in that single word.
Then my insides froze completely.
Even in pitch black, there was no mistaken the subtle, yet visible red gleam of the pair of eyes that were watching us just on the other side of the street.