Unbidden

4 - Cries in the Night

After an eternity of strolling down overgrown roads, I begin to wonder if we're just roaming about aimlessly.  Dace steps into a small clearing, holding up his right hand toward a large brick home hidden behind a row of overgrown hedges and ivy.  

"Home sweet, temporary home," Dace announces.

We step into the threshold, the door ajar as if being kicked open at one point.  Leaves lightly crunch beneath our feet.  Dace leads us up the mahogany staircase, elegant swirls carved into the smooth wood, and down the hallway of blue patterned wallpaper peeling off the walls, stopping at the first door on the right.  His knuckles rap quickly on the wooden door in a rhythmic beat.

"Family code, mom's idea.  Just as an extra precaution." Dace explains in a sheepish voice.

Landon and I nod our heads in silence.  

The door opens with a soft creak, a brown eye peeks out, before opening wide enough for us to enter.  A pair of pinkish arms wrap around Dace's neck.  "I was getting so worried!  You were gone longer than planned!  I thought... I thought..." her voice cracks as she choked back tears.  

Dace's arms wrap around the lad, patting her shoulders comfortingly, "I'm sorry mom, as you can see I kind of had a distraction."

The lady straightened up as if she had only just noticed Landon and I standing behind her son.

"Mom this is Landon, and his sister Paxie.  This is my mom, Lucy Anderson." 

Lucy extends her thin arm, I shake it gently, feeling as if it might fall off if it were shaken too vigorously.  "It's Pax-LEE actually."

Lucy shakes Landon's hand smiling brightly.  "A pleasure running into others."

Suddenly a boy with a mop of straw-blond hair pounces onto Dace's back, wrapping his arms around Dace's neck.  Dace chuckles as he swings the young boy off his back in one swift motion.  "I see you're feeling better!" he lovingly ruffles the boy's hair.  

"Yup!  Now I get to beat you up again!"  The boy playfully swings at Dace, as Dace jumps out of the way.  The boy looks about Landon's age, maybe a year older and about two inches taller.  His hazel eyes twinkled mischievously.  

"Jace, this is my new friend, Landon, and his sister..."

"Paxleigh," I interrupt before he has the privilege of butchering my name again.  

"Sup?" Jace's composure changes slightly, he turns to Landon, "Hey you like video games?"

"Uhh... YEAH!"  Landon replies, "Who in their right mind doesn't like video games?"  With that, the two walks over to a far corner discussing the foreign world of video games.  Never have cared for video games, that was Landon and Dad's thing.  Their "man time" as Landon would say.

I take a moment to take in the room.  It assumed it was a child's room, the walls covered in glittering pastel pink paint, pictures of fairies and unicorns adorned the walls.  A four poster bed off to one side, soft yellowed lace hangs in slight tatters from the poles, stuffed animals inhabit a corner next to a large pink dresser.  I glance closely at a picture frame, my heart aching at the sight of a young couple, smiling lovingly at a young girl with black braided pigtales.  I hope they have made it through managed to stay alive and together.

I spend the next hour getting to know Lucy, her cheerful disposition reminds me of my own mother.  Dace sits in the corner with Landon and Jace chatting excitedly over video games.  

The sun begins to set, slowly disappearing behind the large trees on the horizon, anxiety begins to seep into my soul.  Landon comes and sits next to me, laying his head on my shoulder.  The tension in the room is shared, no one moves, no one speaks.  Ears perked.  Listening, waiting, dreading.  

In the distance a familiar sound causes my heart to drop to the very depths of my being.  I gulp, the sound seems to ring out into the room.  

The sound of metallic screeching, the effect of nails on a chalkboard.  The same sound that filled the air over the cries and screams of my parents on the night they died.  

The sounds of THEM.

A man's high pitched screams fill the air as the manic sounds of the enemy grow louder, excited, almost taunting.

Then eery silence.

The sounds of their frantic feeding upon the unfortunate soul begin to fill the air.  

I swallow hard, the very little food I have had today threatens to evacuate.