Shadows of Forgotten Darkness

Prologue

Prologue

How it all started

October 31st, 2011

It was raining cats and dogs, that day.

The Robinson family house, was located atop the crest of the tallest Westbrook hill.
Alone, with no neighbours in near distances.

The weather was volatile to say the least.

This was no ordinary rain.

It was as if it hadn't rained for thousands of years, and that one evening, the lords of the skies finally decided to pour down all the water together.

The wind blew so hard that the tv satellite upon the roof fell off.

Little Adira, only six years old, glanced out the living room windows, slightly sliding the curtains- just enough to be able to look out.

She was wearing just a white nightgown, and her fuzzy rabbit slippers. Her black hair stopped just a little below her shoulders, and she wore no hair band.

"Adira!" Mrs. Robinson, Cora, called out from somewhere in the house. "Get away from the window. What if you accidentally open it? You might drown."

Adira didn't understand how one could 'accidentally open the window', but she did not argue and moved away.

Her father was in the storage room, where all the tools and ladders were kept.

He was removing the stuff he would need to fix the destruction on the roof, when the rain storm would be over in the morning.

Adira had nothing to do. She had already finished her homework- colouring circles in red colour, and rectangles in blue, and she wrote the spellings of the numbers from one to twenty.

She had toys upstairs in her room, but as she started making a tower using the building blocks spread out on the furry rug in front of her bed, she realized she wasn't interested in it anymore.

She kicked the half made tower from her tiny toes, and watched as the pieces all broke as they fell down.

She scampered towards her tiny, lavender bookshelf next, near her bedside table.

She chose her favourite fairy tale- Little Red Riding Hood- before jumping onto her bed and pulling the blankets over her lap as she read.

She had reached the part where thr Big Bad Wolf was pretending to be the grandmother- when suddenly she heard a loud noise from downstairs.

It sounded like a crash. Like rain and then the stormy wind.

Adira left the book and flew down the stairs and looked for her parents.

Her mother was not in the kitchen, cooking dinner. Father was also not in the storage area anymore.

Adira ran back into the living room and she looked all around her in panic when she noticed that the main door had fallen wide open.

Wind like slicing ice entered and filled the house.

Adira would have simply stood there if it was not for the fact that she heard a scream coming from outside.

It was her father.

She ran outside, despite wearing just a nightgown and home-friendly slippers.

For a second, the rain didn't bother her as her mind was solely focused on her father's screaming.

She ran around the un-fenced backyard, and behind the house.

She found her father lying a little below the hill.

By the time she had reached, her father was dead.

Blood surrounding his middle and the rain soaked grass. His eyes were closed as if he was sleeping.

Adira would have pretended that the blood was just an injury that could be bandaged and her father will be all well again. . . .only if the wolf wasn't there.

But it was there.

It gazed at her father's dead body intensely.

Her mother was lying a little farther. She looked as if struggling to get up- not dead yet, but deeply wounded.

Little Adira was stuck in her place. She thought she wasn't breathing either.

The rain had stuck onto her like second skin.

Her mother did not scream when it was her turn.

But Adira screamed.

She didn't even know what it was that she screamed.

The wolf ignored her, her loud scream, and the rain plunging through, as he thrust his paws right where Adira's mother's heart was.

"Runnn!" She croaked out.

And just like that, she was dead too.

The wolf made his move towards Adira next- who was horrified.

She had just seen her mother die in front of her.

But instead of running or hiding or crying- Adira screamed. Loudly.

"GO AWAAAAAAYYYYY!"

The wolf stopped running, stopping just a little ahead of her.

He howled loudly at her.

The rain poured down heavily in the silence before Adira screamed again,

"GOOOOOOOO! LEAVE ME ALOOOOONE!"

The wolf stared Adira in the eye who glared right back.

Adira could only watch the wolve's unreadable eyes.

After a few beats, the wolf turned back and ran far below, and into the woods. The forests.

Adira would never forget his eyes.