It started out as any other family reunion. Everyone came from all over the country to have fun and re-connect once more. There was laughter, singing, dancing and fun. Little did I know that that reailty was about to shatter.
I was babysitting my younger cousins so my aunts and uncles could rest when Alicia, the youngest who was about 5 at the time, suggested that we all play a game of hide-and-seek. Being fair, I said why not and Alicia was then became the designated seeker.
We were in an old house with secret passages and panels. The architecture was very bizzare; the closet I was hiding in was twice as large on the inside compared to the outside. I climbed to the top shelf after silently closing the door behind me. I was crouching on my perch for a good ten minutes before everything became silent.
I didn't have much time to ponder the reason why that because what I heard next still haunts my memories to this day.
Alicia's scream of sheer terror.
Her high-pitched scream was cut off and I saw a spash of crimsion blood under the tiny crack of the door.
I would have jumped down and see what happened but my fear held me back, like a rope tied around my ankle. I tried to shake it off and tried to convince myself to move but I just couldn't. All the while, I could hear the screams of my perishing family echoing around me, reminding me how I failed to save the ones I loved.
The door knob rattled and I slid back, pressing myself against the wall just as the door opened.
A voice down below murmered something, but my heart was pounding too hard against my ribcage to hear it. Whoever it was grew frustrated and slammed the door as they left.
I inched forward and saw no one was in the closet. I gingerly climbed down and peered through the door, even though my mind protested against the taboo thought.
A guttural rang throughout the corridors.
My own scream.
My family's innocent blood, splashed up the walls like paint. Their corpses were dismembered and re-arranged unrecognizably. My uncle's head was on my aunt's body. My mother's hand was attached to my cousin's arm.
The grotesque sight of all the blood and corpses threw the bile up my throat and out my mouth. Vomit spewed as my frail body trembled and knelt amid all of the blood. When I nearly exausted myself, I was close to passing out from the fumes of the decaying bodies but my tears kept me awake. They fell and diluted the red flowers everywhere. The red, life-giving flowers that could also kill you. The tears, they wouldn't stop. No matter what I did.
It was in that pinnacle of despair and disgust, that I wished for someone to come and take me away from that horrid sight. Just someone to make me forget.
Footsteps came from the kitchen in a slow, yet percise manner. Step. Step. Step.
A shadow emerged and took form. I had thought for sure it was a demon, because it was drenched in my own family's blood.
"I see you found my handiwork. My best one so far." No. Not him. Why did he have to appear.
"L-Lance..." I sobbed. No, not my Lance. My sweet, gentle Lance. My older brother with his bright, uplifting smile that always picked me up when I was down. My Lance who would always teach me how to use my talents for good and not to succumb to darkness and evil. Where has he gone?
"You know, I think something's missing from this masterpiece." Lance put his blood-stained hand on his chin in thought. An image of him holding out that very hand to me after I fell when I was young flashed in my memories. Were all my memories from before a lie?
Lance looked at me with the steely eyes of a murderer. "I think you know what's missing."
"No..." I backed away, feeling the overwhelming sense of approaching death.
"Come on, little sister. You know I would never hurt you." Lance held out his hand, much like he did back then.
I knew he would never hurt me.
"What's wrong?"
That was then.
"Don't you trust me?"
And this,
"Come on, come closer."
This is now.
