Prologue
My mother pushed me through the house, trying to escape the killer humans. I fell into my brother's bedroom and ran to the closet, knowing that our secret basement lay beneath it.
I slid the door open and rushed inside, moving clothes around trying to find the handle to the door that led to the staircase. Mother rushed in behind me and pushed me aside as she shut the blue sliding closet door.
Mother pushed an old fleece jacket to the side and grabbed the door handle that lay behind. Twisting it she pushed it open and then ushered me inside. I turned around and she grabbed my face and kissed me.
"I love you, baby.", was all she said before closing the door and replacing the jacket. I looked around at the small spiral staircase and the brick walls before slightly opening the door and peering out. "Mommy?", I whispered as I stared at her long black hair and dark tanned back.
"Hide, now!", she demanded right before the closet door bust open. I grabbed the jacket and held it up so it covered most of my face as I watched the human grab momma by the hair. The human had a scar running across his cheek that ended right under his left eye.
He was bald and had bright yellow, cat like eyes. He laughed before slitting her throat and dropping her dying body to the ground. He crouched down and stared into the dark closet, obviously looking for me.
I backed up and let go of the jacket, then turned around and ran down the stairs as fast as my four year old legs would take me. When I reached the bottom I rushed to the safe room that was always left wide open.
I went inside and piled myself into my daddy's arms. "Daddy, da human hurted momma!", I shouted. His eyes widened and he got up, leaving me on the floor of the safe room all alone with the teddy bear I'd been clutching ever since mommy grabbed me from my bed.
He walked out of the safe room and to the control center, where the press of a button could open and close any door in the house, including this one. The human ran down the stairs, then pointed a metal tube like thing with a handle at daddy.
A loud bang rang throughout the air as I watched daddy nearly fall, but then regain balance and smash the button that closes the door. Then he broke apart the whole button system. "Daddy!", I screamed as I watched him slump to the floor, blood coming from his chest and then the door closed, shutting me off from my parents' killer.
I heard loud bangs as the human pounded on the door and shouted, "Come out here, little girl! You can't hide in there forever!" I tuned him out as I cowered in the corner and looked around, observing what I have.
There was a long shelf going from the right of the door all the way to the wall. It was covered in cans and bottles of water, a few pieces of folded clothes lay near the far side. Staring down I turned my teddy bear over and looked at a loose string dangling from the back of it's ear.
I pulled on the string watched as the ear fell off and a piece of paper poked out of the stuffing. I grabbed and unfolded it, happy that I could read basic things. I read, "If yur in a tuff situaton tink of a sayfe pwace an imagin yurself dere."
I thought about this for a second before imagining myself out in the field full of flowers where me and my mommy had once visited. A loud rumbling made me turn around and look at the hole in the wall that just formed.
I walked up to it and looked inside. I saw the field of blue, red, and purple flowers. I walked over to the shelf knowing I'll need the stuff and took a few bottles of water, some cans of food, and a change of clothes. Taking my teddy bear with, I walked into the hole and out into the field.
For some odd reason my Aunt Rene was standing in the middle of the field, her arms wide open as if expecting me. I walked into her arms as she hugged me, and that's when I started to cry. Tears poured down my cheeks and made Aunt Rene's shirt all wet.
"It's okay child. I'll protect you now.", Aunt Rene said as a grin spread over her lips. She gently pat my hair as the rest of my tears fell and then dried on my cheeks.
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Gia spent the next ten years living with her aunt learning to act like a human. She also learned all about humans and their culture. When Gia turns fourteen though, Rene demands she get sent off to the human world and Gia doesn't want to go.