Falling Gravity (Season 01)

CC (1)

Piedmont, California

April 18th 2004

The sound of a loud crash made a little girl with two braids wake up with a frown. She rubbed her eyes and sat down on her bed, blinking them open to look at her bedroom door. "Mama? Papa? Are you home?"

She heard some noises from outside, but didn't dare to move from her bed. One of her mother's rules: Don't check the sounds; She obeyed mama, and of course, knew that it could be something dangerous outside. Her parents always told her about how many of the stories she learned were somehow true, and how there was something beyond human comprehension scattered around the world. She didn't know what that word meant, but she knew that witches, fairies, mermaids and a lot more were real.

Her parents researched them, with a man from another town, which both of them travelled to for a research. The girl wanted to go, but her parents had decided it would be best if she stayed at home. So she was being taken care of by her grandmother, Caitlyn, who was supposed to be downstairs at the moment, either watching TV or lost to the slumber on the couch as she always did. Being a teacher was tiring for the old woman, and she, sadly, didn't have her husband, River, anymore.

The girl got out of the bed, going to the window and opening the blue drapes filled with moon drawings. She smiled at the sky. "Hi, Mrs. Moon." she waved at the moon. "It's still night. That's why you're there, right?" she tilted her head. "I heard a noise downstairs. . . Mama told me to never check, but I'm worried for papa's mama." she knew the moon wouldn't reply, it never did, but talking to the sky made her feel better. "I don't know why, but I feel like you're watching me, or someone else is." she giggled. "That's silly. But papa and mama told me to be careful. It could be something." she turned around. "It's quiet now. Papa says to be afraid when it gets too quiet." she turned to the moon. "I heard a lady at my school saying the word 'dramatic'. Are they being 'dramatic'?" she made quotation marks with her fingers. "Hm, I don't know either."

Then, a loud bang made her jump. The little girl ran under her bed when she heard footsteps approaching. The door opened with a low creaking sound. She saw the silhouette of what seemed to be a paw at the door, followed by the end of a scorpion tail. That was no scorpion, she knew that. But what could it be?

She wasn't staying to find out.

As soon as the silhouette got to the other side of the bedroom, near the window, she carefully retreated and got out of under the bed, crawling backwards. She reached the door and managed to get a view of the creature: the body of a lion, scorpion tail - as noticed before - and the head of a girl with dark hair, that she didn't get to catch the colour properly with the distance and the short light on the person. It seemed to be some sort of dark blue or purple. As soon as she felt the side of the door, she quickly turned her heels and - as quietly as she could - dashed downstairs.

To her shock and panic, her grandmother wasn't there. But where could she be? The sound of something on the second floor made her panic grow. Run, her mind told her, and she obeyed. The closest door she could find was the one her parents told her to never go to alone: the basement; but the girl couldn't think too much, she didn't have time. She quickly opened the door and shut it behind quietly, breathing quickly. The staircase was dark, and she held onto the door like before her was an infinite void of darkness that she'd get lost in forever if she entered. Well, the door behind her is shut, and whatever just got into her home, probably got grandma.

The girl searched for something to hold beside her, luckily finding the staircase handrails. She took one step below, then another, and another, and another, and another, until she reached the basement floor. On that basement was what seemed to be a simple lab, but surrounded with things no common scientist would ever think existed: fossils of dragon's bones, fairy wings, horns of a minotaur her parents probably had to do something bad to get, and a lot more, either boring or super cool. At the familiarity of the lab, she felt safer, but something there felt odd.