Abundance of Awesome

Watching Over You

The paintings that lined the hallways were grotesquely fantastical in nature, the craftsmen-ship of the pictures were so perfect. Yet somehow they were so wrong, a deer in one painting had the legs of a primate. Adeline Shady knew deer monkeys never existed truly, not even in the Prehistoric times, she knew because Governess Emma taught her so.

The size of the Shady Manor was a place you would be easily lost in. The strange paintings lined every room, and sometimes they were the only way to tell where you were. Despite the dark interior, the exterior stood plain but beautiful. Being springtime the green sea of grass made Oklahoma Adeline's favourite place to be: outside.

Doctor Shady, Adeline's father, kept his work, as a private doctor, confined to the basement of the house. 'I must never find you down there Addy.' And that's all she'd ever been told about his work.

Her pace quickened, her black hair like stiff clothes raised from her shoulders a little, she reached the painting of the toad-bird.

Once when Addy's blue eyes were less hollow and more electric, Mrs. Shady would be busy painting these exciting paintings and she would allow Addy to braid her floor-length hair. But there was no Mrs. Shady now, not since Addy was eight.

Adeline loved it when her father would tell her stories about her family and that the paintings dated back a hundred years ago, to the 1860s.

The time came for Addy's 12th birthday. Governess Emma helped the maids decorate her cake in the kitchen. It had been days since she last saw her father and she decided he had to take a break for her birthday.

Again, down the familiar halls and staircases, Adeline had a full mental map of her house. When she was younger she wore a bell so her mother could hear her if she was lost.

Adeline came to a stop at the large door implemented into the ground. Being tall for her age, she reached up to a shelf that held a lantern and matches. When the kerosene lit up, Adeline caught a better view of the small room. It was still dark and damp as though she already was underground. Big thick tree trunks supported the four corners of the room. Her father's words echoed in her head, 'I must never find you down there.'

He's not finding me I'm finding him, she thought and mustered all the strength in her malnourished bones into lifting the door.

It was unlike anything Addy had ever seen before, glowing bugs were piled into the light fittings replaced candles and it was bright as day. The whole place was stark white, like a whole new world. As she walked on she came to pass a cylindrical shape. Mesmerised by fish, Addy eagerly stepped in front of the tank. First the eye of a feline creature, blinked at he. Then a webbed, fleshy hand reached out. Adeline stepped backwards in shock but that only made her realise the full horror; 'this creature's painting hangs on my bedroom wall.' She thought her chapped lips open and bleeding.

She looked upon her surroundings seeing more of these fish tanks. A plaque on the tank read: Spliced by Robert Shady II in 1920.

Addy started running in the direction of another room, hoping to find the comfort of her father's arms but only met a lump heap. The white tiles on the floor were streaked with red, a metal contraption that resembles a bed sat in the middle of the room. Bug lights shone on the bloody sheet laid over something on the table. A strangled sound escaped the lump and it opened its eyes / There was something wrong with these eyes, they weren't animal in fact she had seen these same eyes in her reflection.

The words, 'Your mother had beautiful eyes like yours.' Replayed themselves over and over in her head, her father had repeated them at least once a day since she disappeared. On another bench a hand sat on a stand with wires, connecting it to a power source, protruding from it. As she went up to it she recognised the chapped nail polish and wedding ring.

Feeling shocked, scared but also defiant and angry, Adeline forced herself to read her father's handwriting.

-Dead limbs to be iced to prolong life.

-Electricity acts like cerebral messages to limbs.

She didn't want to read his observations after she saw: 'Marilyn responds to verbal stimuli'. Adeline found the nearest can and threw up all the contents of the bowls she licked earlier. When she was done she braved another peek at what was left of her mother; broken, dismembered and bloody. Tears came out of her eyes in rivers as she watched her mother's eyes dart about the room. The thing with her mother's eyes let out a wailing, pitiful sound. It didn't stop.

Knowing and needing to end the pain, Adeline took a syringe in her hand and filled it with air. Her bony hand wiped the tears of Marilyn's eyes away. The other shook with the syringe as she jabbed it into the neck she struggled to release the air inside it.

She watched clutching at her own hair, was this a mistake? She thought, those blue eyes rolled to look at the back of her head. Her heart beat faster, doom impending, her father would have had to have heard something. She ran as fast as she could, feeling eyes on her back.

Needless to say her father hadn't shown for her celebration that was alright because Adeline knew he wouldn't be operating on her mother anymore. Her soul could be at rest.

With a heavy gut yet empty stomach Adeline made the long trek to her room and a wrapped present lay on her bed.

'From Father', was all it said.

She undid the ribbon and lifted the lid. A tremendous scream escaped her lips as her mother's eyes bobbed around in a glass container of liquid.

Remembering her mother's last words to her she understood: 'I will always be watching over you.' And she cried.