|CHAPTER 1|
The packed dirt beneath her feet rumbled in reflection of the chaos surrounding her.
Illiana had never been fond of crowds, but the temptation to escape Hell had been irresistible.
Loud colours and flashing lights cut through the swirling mist to leave her almost sightless.
But the visual assault was nothing compared to the noise.
Bystanders applauded and shrieked in time to the haunting music, focused on the act in the Ring.
Currently, it was an aerial tightrope performance of dizzying proportions.
Liana should be amongst the unassuming audience, an anonymous, slip of a girl to suck money out of in the name of entertainment.
How she wished she was.
But Father’s grip was unrelenting, his hand clutching her wrist as if she alone held the key to a million dollars.
He dragged her unceremoniously from the dominatingly tall Main Tent, until the erratic motion faded into a memory of blood-red candy apples and plastic smiles.
Shadows masked the murderous intent on his face, evident in the slope of his dark eyebrows, and the twist of his thin, chapped lips.
Liana had long grown tolerant to the fear that spiked her blood upon seeing such an expression on Father’s face.
But this time felt different.
He had been pushed too far – by what, she was uncertain.
But the consequences would be the same, in spite of their trigger.
The relief felt when he released her wrist was fleeting, as he wrapped an unyielding hand around her throat.
His low growl cut through the unmoving darkness, like a high beam spotlight, illuminating its target.
“Why the fuck were you flirting with that pig?”
The question, unspecific as it was, should not have startled her as much as it did.
“Father, I do not know what-“
A resounding backhand sent her tumbling onto the damp grass, her body boneless.
“Don’t think you can lie to me, you little slut. I saw the way you smirked at him earlier.” The words were punctuated with a sharp kicks to her unprotected stomach.
Pushing the stemming throb of agony away for a moment, Liana tried to think of what had caused Father’s latest ‘discipline’.
As his panting and agitated figure loomed above her, barely visible in the shadows encompassing the smaller tents, a blurred memory slowly formed in her mind.
The man seated next to her in the back row had turned slightly towards her, and offered her a piece of candy before the show started.
Seated away from Father as she had been in the darkness, with Mother and the little triplets between them, she had thought he would not notice her gratefully accept the small, sugary sweet.
Berating herself for once again lowering her guard, Liana opened her mouth to quickly spill out an excuse.
Before her mind could scramble for anything of semi-coherence, Father fell upon her, clenched fists leaving a tirade of swollen bruise on her arms, her check, her chest.
She had thought this night would be decent.
Since she had begun living with the Thompsons’ three years ago, Liana was not often let out of the house.
Mostly, she had been occupied with helping Nina, her Mother, with housework, or caring for the three bundles of destruction otherwise known as her sisters.
And, of course, Father wished for his Favourite Daughter to always be present and accounted for, so he could spend time bonding with her.
If only Mother had known this bonding only consisted of Father’s body connecting with Liana’s in hatred and desire.
But she would never tell her.
Liana did not want to sully the perfect haven created when the influential family took her in from the streets.
This night, where Mother insisted they all go out and enjoy themselves as a family, had held the promise of fun, or at the very least a few hours of reprieve from a beating.
Seems Liana had been wrong, as usual.
Presently, Father continued to expunge his jealous rage through beating her, like one would a strung out blanket, to remove from it dust and dirt.
If only the impurities layering her soul could be so easily removed.
Before her instincts could kick in, and cause her to attempt to curl into herself, her frazzled mind registered an odd sound.
Akin to the smoothly confident hiss of a snake, it grew in volume and echoed in the empty space.
After a few more solid hits, one of which trapped the air in her lungs, Father also heard the disturbing noise.
He froze, and quickly stood from his kneeled position – frightened that someone may have noticed his actions.
No-one had ever caught him in the act of behaving anything less than a giving and charming Chancellor and family man.
Liana, more worried that the sound was a large Python escaped from its cage to eat them both, tried to scramble to her feet.
She had witnessed their hypnotising dance in an act earlier, and had no desire to see it repeated, up close and personal.
But her body refused to work in conjunction with her mind, and merely lay roasting in livid discomfort and shrill pulses of pain.
Before either her or Father could react, a cold voice slithered through the darkness, edged with the same skin-crawling tone as the hissing.
“Oh, look Sun, a cowardly mammal beating the shit out of another useless piece of cattle. What say you, we eat them both and save him the trouble?”
The voice sounded lower to the ground than Liana expected, and held no inflection, other than amusement.
The same person answered itself with a purr of higher pitch, “Why, Shine, I do believe that would be a wonderful idea.”
As her eyes adjusted to the shadows, she realised it was not one person talking to themselves, but two similar shapes holding a conversation.
Their bodies were slim and petite, much like hers, but unlike hers, they held an almost child-like softness.
What stood out most was their eyes, glowing green with alien intelligence.
Liana swore she felt her heart stutter to a stop, and she knew her mind must have finally snapped from trauma.
Father sucked in a breath next to her, and shifted as if to flee.
She saw his body jerk sharply, and realised the two people were not where they had been a moment ago.
As Father slumped to the ground, much like she had done with his first slap, Liana saw pale limbs move frenetically across his body.
A shrill scream was ripped from his lips, and Liana flinched unsuccessfully, as her body remained in its frozen stasis.
Something startling warm and curiously thick landed on her face, and she stupidly glanced up to see if it was raining.
She remembered Mother’s earlier chastisement to Father, that they should enjoy their night out and not pessimistically think the weather would turn bad.
The dark, promising clouds that had gathered together to shield the stars, had thinned to the point where only a few determined wisps covered the full moon.
As her flushed face remained upturned, she saw those thin grey clouds move further across the sky, allowing the moon to finally break free and illuminate the night.
The oppressive air was disturbed by the sound of tearing and scratching and sucking.
Her pulse frantically fluttering in her ears, Liana turned her head down and looked at Father.
Her mind wiped spotless of thoughts of the weather, she watched in numb fascination, the scene before her.
With aid from the pale sphere of light in the sky, she could see that the two figures indeed looked young enough to be children.
A little boy and a little girl – ravenously mauling Father, until the expensive suit adorning his body was shredded and replaced with nothing but lacerations and blood.
So much blood.
It soaked into the greedy earth below, the lush grass readily soaking up the small pools of crimson.
The two creatures did not pause in their cannibalistic feast, gleefully tearing into Father, like a child would a Christmas gift.
His lone scream gurgled wetly into nothingness, as his horrified expression relaxed into Death.
It wasn’t until Liana reached for her cheek, and her fingers came away with sticky blood, that she started whimpering pitifully.
That drew the attention of the monsters, as their heads snapped up, and they realised she was still there.
They remained crouched low and crawled fluidly off Father’s body and towards her prone figure.
This time, her flinch succeeded in moving her back an inch.
It was not enough.
A hundred miles would not be enough to escape the scene now scorched forever in her mind.
It was the little boy who paused first before reaching her, the little girl continuing forward until her body curved over Liana’s legs.
She only stopped at the hissed warning of her companion.
Responding in a low, almost irritated growl, the girl pressed herself closer to Liana, who jumped at the feeling of icy skin against hers.
“Shine, I do not know if we should eat this one. Her aura is… Different.” Surprisingly, it was the boy’s voice that was slightly higher in pitch.
Liana could not comprehend the drawn-out words, as his still glowing eyes assessed her entire body.
The feeling of countless spiders crawling across her body told her that he knew every one of her weaknesses, and would not hesitate to exploit them before he ripped her heart out.
She gulped, as the girl rubbed herself against her leg, upset that she could not satiate her bloodlust.
Her voice was deeply laced with malice as she spat, “So what? Are you saying we should take her to the Master?”
The boy remained silent, moving soundlessly closer, until he was face-to-face with Liana.
Curiosity lighted the swirling eyes that kept her paralysed, and he leaned impossibly closer.
She felt something wet, like blood, flick coolly against the side of her face.
He shifted backwards, and she saw him dart his tongue out to lick his pale lips.
A sob stuck in her throat as she realised he had licked Father’s blood from her cheek.
Before tears could well in her eyes, she registered his next words.
“Yes, I do believe we should present her to Master. Calm your hunger for a second and look at her. That man tasted sickeningly rotten, but even from here I can sense something more from her.”
The girl huffed, and to Liana’s bewilderment, pouted like a two-year-old, before standing gracefully.
“Fine, fine. The man, as disgusting as his flesh was, curbed my hunger for now. Let us take this…” she paused to rake Liana with a blank look “…thing to Master. Then we must be back for the closing act, or Kali will have our fangs.”
Neither helped Liana stand, but she forced herself to her feet and unsteadily follow them.
She did not think she had the slightest chance of escape, as images of Father’s desperate thrashing and bulging eyes flitted into her mind.
Stumbling along behind the two, she was led deeper into the shadowy congregation of smaller tents.
Lanterns attached to poles softly lit up the ground as they moved further from the Main Tent.
Liana felt her legs buckle, as the twins stepped into a pool of light, and she saw the sheer amount of blood coating their skin.
She had previously focused on their eyes in the weak moonlight, and their words as they contemplated killing her, but now she noticed they had blood spackled on every inch of their bodies.
She fell to her knees, her mind finally catching up with the events of the last half an hour.
The thump of her body on the sandy path drew the attention of the two, and they paused to glance back at her simultaneously.
Their faces were almost identical, with both having slick midnight hair that fell past their ears.
She could tell the boy from the girl, in that she had a slightly fuller upper lip and her chin was a little squarer, while he had arched eyebrows and his cheekbones were not as prominent.
Matching chemical green eyes shone in the lamplight, as they gazed down at her in merriment.
Both pairs of lips, held stiff with drying blood, twitched upwards slightly to reveal a dimple in their left cheeks.
She held her breath, as the enormity of their reality crashed upon her like a brick house.
The twins were not human.
And Liana would not escape from them.
A welcome numbness worked through her veins, as they each reached out a hand to lift her off the cold ground.
“You know, Sun, I think this one could prove to be entertaining. I’m glad you stopped me from ripping it’s throat out.” The girl let go of Liana’s shoulder the second her feet touched the ground.
As the girl strode onward, the boy - Sun - paused to make sure she would not collapse when he released her.
When he felt she was steady enough, he joined the girl once more.
“I told you, Shine - she is interesting. Her blood is different… I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe Kali will know.”
Liana scurried hastily after them, glancing from one bloodied twin to the other.
Sun? And Shine?
These two creatures, who looked barely older than twelve, who she had just witnessed happily shred Father’s flesh from his bone, were called SunShine?
A hysterical giggle bubbled out of her mouth; much like blood had done from Father’s when he exhaled for the last time.
This had not been, and would certainly continue to not be, a good night.