I never had a normal ife growing up. I was rasied by men, four men to be exact. In a normal story you would hear that the father ran away after a child was born, but this was not the case. When my youn ger brother was born, my mother left the state with another man, eaving all her children and husband behind. Later on we heard news that would crush all of us. The man my mother ran off with brutally murdered her. I remember being so confused as to why everyone was in the living room crying. Carson, my youngest brother whom never met our mom, was in the corner obivious to what was happening. I removed him from the room and started distracting him from the truth.
Everything changed after my mothers death. I was only 9 when she died, I was only 8 when hell opened up inside my home. My father began blaming himself for the murder, saying if he hadn't of let my mom leave she would stil be here. He started to drink heavy, and soon he lost his job and depended on Timothy and Nick, my two older brothers, to support us and his own drinking habits.
As school became harder, so did living where I did. I was raising Carson on my own, and trying to keep him safe from my fathers drunk hands. I always seemed to be the target when my father was drunk. He would slam through my door in the darkest hours of the night whispering how I was a disgrace of the family name and I was the reason my mother left. I became more and more distant from my friends and soon had no one but my siblings. When I turned 18 I moved out and managed to take Carson with me. I started living on my own in an apartment building down the road from a college I was attending for criminal law. I would get frequent phone calls from my father pleading for my return or asking if I could bring Carson back, I ignored every plead.
Luckily I made a few friends in college and managed to keep my skeletons of my family history in the closet.
I sat at the kitchen table studying a book on the table. I saw words, I scanned over them, but I was too exhausted to remeber what they said, or even realize that they were saying anything at all. Carson lay asleep on the bed next to the window. Car lights panned across the dark walls as people went about their nightly routine. I closed my book and rubbed my eyes. My phone buzzed from the counter in the kicthen. I sowly dragged over to where it sat and wondered who would be calling at such a late time. "Hello?" I said with a yawn. "Hey Abe." Said Roger, my older brother. Growing up in a house ful of guys, all of my brothers thought I deserved a masculan name to fit in, so I was nicknamed Abe, short for Abel.
"Hey Roger. whats up?" I asked walking back into the dining room area. "I've got a porposal for you. It involves Carson." My heart dropped to my feet. I already knew what he wanted. I wasn't ready to let Carson go live with someone else. I raised Carson from the day my mother left us to the moment I stood there.
"Yeah?"
"Well I know you're swamped with work and school and I know you want to graduate. In order to do that you have to be rested and less stressfull. Me and Sarah Bought a home just down the bock from your appartment and within walking distance of his school. I figured we could take him off your hands till you graduate this spring. It's only a couple of months away anyway. I would give you a key so you can come visit him when ever."
"I.... I would have to ask Carson" I said looking over at Carson who was now looking at me from the edge of the bed. I waved him over and covered the phone with my palm. "So Roger wants to know if you would like to come live with them till I graduate in May. He said I could come see you, so maybe after school so we can study together?"
Carson pondered the thougt for a moment, "Yeah sure. It would be a nice change." He said. I bit my lip, I wasn't expecting him to be so up for leaving me. I could feel my eyes burning from the tears. I hadn't cried since I was 11, so was this feeling in my eyes, the tears trying to scratch up to the surface? Carson saw it too because for the first time ever, he hugged me in his arms. "It's only for a couple months Abe." He said. I nodded and uncovered the phone. "Alright he said it sounds good. When will you guys be over to get him?" I asked clearing my throat. "Around 6 when get out of work. We'll bring the spare key too." He said. "Alright sounds good."
I hung up the phone and walked into the small living room to watch the Tv. Carson went back into the bedroom to play on his phone. I sighed and rubbed my head. I wasn't ready to live in my appartment alone, especially without Carson. I felt like I was letting my son go. I would let Carson go to friends houses on the weekend, but it was different, I worked late shifts at the diner down the road, so I wasn't ever home either. Carson was growing up too fast for me to handle anyway. He already had his sweet 16 and I'm not positive but I think he might also have his first girlfriend.
Waking up the next morning was the same as always, Carson was always gone before I woke up for school. The thought of him actually being gone lingered in the back of my head as I made my way through campus. People pushed their way through in a hurry to get to their class, others lesiurely walked next to each other discussing gossip, parties, and the homeowork they never finished. My mind, however, couldn't seem to keep off Carson. I wondered how his first night went, what it was like sleeping in a comfier bed, or maybe even what he ate for breakfast. I eased my mind by telling myself that I would go visit him after school was out for him.
After work I walked through the dimly lit parking lot. I shuffled through my purse for my car keys. A noise caught the attention of my ears. Foot steps drew closer and closer. I spun around to see who or what may be aproaching me. A dark figure came closer and soon I was face to face with a masked stranger. Before I could make a move a hand was tighly gripping my throat as another covered my mouth. I struggled to break away but it was no use. "Shhhhhhh." Hissed the masked stranger. "Cooperate and I will let you go." Said the dark voice. I couldn't tell if it was a man or women speaking, but the voice sounded so evil that when the person spoke, you could feel the heat of hell on their breathe. "Will you listen?" The voice said again. I nodded slowly, trying to control my blood pressure. The stranger let go of me slowly and pulled the mask back to reveal a women. Her blood red hair poured down her back as she let the hood of her cloak drop. Her black eyes fixed on mine as I rubbed my throat. "Abel?" She asked. Her question made me wonder if she strangled the wrong person before me; I nodded. "My name is marzlonta but in the human world I'm known as Marisa." She picked at her long fingernails. "I've come here to retrieve you. I work for a secret covenant and our leaders seek you as a new prospect. They feel you have the skills to work with us." She said locking eyes with me. My blood turned to ice, like it was too thick to run through my body, I felt sluggish and almost struggled to spit out words. "I'm sorry but I have to decline." I finally sputtered. "I see. Well dear, I'm afraid you don't realize that you have no choice, once you are chosen, you can not decline." She inched closer to me, I stepped closer to my car. "I'm not jointing your colt or covenant, whatever you're in, I'm not interested." I demanded, feeling a little more scared than before. "But if you join us, you will be safe from the evil. From the dark fog that will soon sweep through and wipe out every last one of you helpless human beings."
"What dark fog?"
"The dark fog that is sent to eliminate your kind, by our leaders. Those who are week will not suffer, die quickly. But those who survive are either part of the covenant or strong enough to be in the covenant. Although we are worried about who is strong and they may destroy us for good." She said dragging her freakishly long nail over the opposite hand. "So what happens if I don't want to join in on whatever you may doing."
She smiled as if expecting me to ask this question, "You love you brothers, correct?" I nodded slowly. "Join us and we will be sure to hold a deal where we keep three of your family members safe from the fog." She said staring me dead in the eyes. My heart stopped thinking about what might happen to Carson, I imgaine a dark smog covering the city like a heavy cloack, choking everyone it rolls over. Carson is running from it, panting and panicking. I can hear his crys for help but I can't reach out for him. Suddenly I find myself reaching out into the vacant air, where I once saw Carson. The women smiled, "I can make you imagine your deepest fears. I see one would be lossing your beloved little brother. Carson." Her words were dry with no emotion, and Carsons name made my heart drop to my feet like a fifty pound weight. "How do you know his name?" I snapped back. The edges of her lips curled up into a snear as she began to talk. "Your mother was apart of our covenant for years. We sent her out on a mission that turned ugly and ended her exsistance." The women seem to care little about how this news may effect, like it's just a casual thing to hear why your mother truly died. "We've been watching over you for many years Abel. As a matter of fact, We named you, we insisted your mother name youn after our Queen. You see our queen is becoming very old and fragile, we need a more suited women to take her place. Someone who is young, strong, bold, and is not afraid of anything. If you join us you will be served hand and foot, your family will stay safe from the fog and we will live on, unharmed from any kind of evil force that attacks this planet." The information swirls in my mind. I can almost feel the words spewing back out of my ears from the overload of new discoveris. I sigh and look at my feet, "Okay."
"Oh goody." The women says clapping her hands. Instead of hearing a slap of skin when she claps, I hear booms of thunder, and suddenly we are in some sort of building. There is red carpet everywhere, and other women surround us wearing similar clothes to the woman I jsut met in the parking lot. "We will evalute you on physical and mental strength, then your intellegance. The walls were painted black and the rooms were lighted poorly. "This wont hurt a bit." Said a voice behind me. Before I could turn around and see who was speaking to me, there was a sharp pain and my shoulder. I was being injected with some sort of silver liquid, it glowed in the syrigne. I began to feel dizzy, and all at once, the room went black
I woke up in a dark room. I could hear water dripping somewhere near me. I looked down at myself but only saw darkness. Suddenly a snarling came from behind me. I stood from the floor where I had been sitting and tried peering into the darnkess. I still could not see a single thing. The snarling neered making my heart race faster and faster with every inch it came closer. A beam apeared out of nowhere revealing a tall dark figure who hid in their own shadow. The snarling still continued, but the figure did not walk near me. I felt like the snarling was coming from all around me now. The figure moved his head up, showing his face. Dark scruff covered his lower chin, shaping his well defined jawline.