I felt as if I were viewing one of those horror movies I wasn’t supposed to see, but that Chuck and I had snuck out of his parents’ collection and watched in my basement. The man-looking creature couldn’t be real and neither could the teen’s screams as that thing tore into his belly. Those vivid red intestines spilling across the ground certainly couldn’t be real. It was all make-believe, but those were the most genuine and pain-filled screams I’d everheard.
Some of our neighbors fled into their homes and doors slammed. Others raced toward their cars, and new shadows slid forth to reveal more hideous creatures. The creatures all had human-like qualities to them, but they were also deformed in someanimalisticway.
A scream lodged in my throat as more of my neighbors were pounced on and torn to pieces. My mom turned and ran into the house with me against her side. I didn’t realize I was sobbing loudly until the door closed behind us. The thick wood door shut out some of the shrieks of the panicked and dying, but they still drifted through the open windows. The screams grew louder when more of them filled the air, and I had the unsettling feeling I was listening to all my neighborsdying.
And we wouldbenext.
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” my mom breathed over and over again as she turned the locks on the door. “We’ll just… we’ll…” She never finished what she was going to say. Propelling me forward, she snatched the phone from where it sat on the table by the couch. She frantically hit buttons before holding the phone to her ear. She pulled it away, hit more buttons, listened to it again, and flung itaside. “Shit!”
I started to cry harder. My mother never swore in front of me. I found it more unsettling and real than seeing the teen boy being torn apart by some human-animalmix.
“It’s okay; it’s okay,” she said again as she rubbed at my arms. “You have to stop crying. You have to be a big girl now, and big girls don’t cry,right?”
I nodded, but I found I couldn’t speak as terror pulsed in my veins. I blinked away my tears and wiped off the snot pouring from my nose with the back ofmyhand.
“Good girl,” my mom said as she crept over to one of the windows and leaned over to peer out it. She jerked back. She tried to hide it, but I felt the tremor runningthroughher.
“Daddy,” I whispered when she edged me away from thewindow.
“He’s fine,” she said. “You’re going to have tohidenow.”
Something smashed against the front door, glass rattled, and a jagged crack raced up one of the windowpanes. My mother’s hand covered my mouth before I could cry out. She ran with me into the kitchen and flung open the cabinet doors under the kitchen sink. With one swipe of her arm, she shoved all the cleaning products totheside.
“Get in!” she ordered as another bang shook the windows of thehouse.
I crawled inside, avoiding the white, curving pipe beneath the sink and drawing my legs against my chest. I huddled as far back as I could to make room for her to fit inside with me. “Come on, Mommy,” I whispered and held my hand outtoher.
“This is just for you, my bonnie girl.” Her beautiful face filled the gloomy interior as she leaned forward to kiss me. Her blonde hair, only a shade darker than mine, tickled my face. “No matter what happens, stay in here and don’t make a noise. Promise me, promise me you’ll stay here and remain silent.Nomatterwhat.”
She clutched my hand, bringing it to her mouth and kissing the back of it. “Promise me,” she pleaded, and for the first time, I saw tears shimmering inhereyes.
“I promise,” I whispered as woodsplintered.
“Be brave, always be brave. And always know how much Iloveyou.”
I didn’t get a chance to reply before she closed the cabinet doors.I love you too, Mommy, I opened my mouth to say, but I’d promised to remain silent, so I didn’t speak the wordsoutloud.
Caught on the dishtowel hanging from it, the left cabinet door didn’t close all the way. I pressed my eye to the small sliver as my mom ran behind the kitchen table and toward the back door. The sand-colored tile floor gleamed in the sun spilling through the windows. The scents of lemon and cookie dough mingled together to become the welcoming aroma my mom’s kitchen alwayspossessed.
The wooden kitchen table shone from a fresh polishing and a vase of sunflowers sat in the middle of it. I’d spent countless hours at that table eating meals, grumbling over homework, and playing games on family night. Over my mom’s shoulder, I saw the gray sign she’d proudly hung on the wall last month. It read,Kitchens bring families together.She believed those words, and this kitchen had always been a place of love and laughter for myfamily.
The two creatures who burst into the room didnotbelong here. Fresh tears streamed down my face; I shoved my fist into my mouth to keep my promise to stay quiet as I watched the monsters tear my mother to pieces. She tried not to scream, but it was impossible for her not to when they pulled her arms off. I closed my eyes to shut it all out, but opened them again when the screams and darkness frightened me more than theseeing.
After they were done pouring my mother’s blood over them, the creatures ripped the back door from its hinges and fled intotheday.
I curled into a ball against the back of the cabinet as my mother's blood seeped across the tile toward me.It’s no longer spotless,I realized as a part of me died, and the world became eerilysilent.
ChapterFifteen
Wren
“Wren, Wren,wakeup.”
The hand shaking my shoulder dragged me from the nightmare clinging to me. The dream had haunted me for years after my mother died, but at least five years had passed since I’d last experienced it. Wetness streaked my cheeks, and I lifted a hand to wipe it away. I was appalled to discovertears.
I couldn’t recall the last time I’d cried, probably while I’d been under that sink. Tears had no place in this world; they were a weakness, and weaknesses got a personkilled.
I blinked away the wetness as I tried to take in my surroundings, but blackness engulfed me. For a second, I had the disconcerting notion my tears had caused me to go blind. I almost bolted to my feet before I recalled what had happened and whereIwas.
