"Judged by Lead" Season One

Chapter 1: Shattered Innocence

Chapter 1 of "Judged By Lead" - Shattered Innocence:

The scream caught in her throat, suffocated by fear. Little Hayler Lewis stood frozen, eyes wide with terror, as an unspeakable scene unfolded before her in the dimly lit living room. 

Two tall figures dressed in black burst through the front door like vengeful wraiths. Their faces were obscured by skull masks, eye sockets leering with malice. Hayler trembled, clutching her worn teddy bear tighter.

"Where is it?" one of the intruders growled, brandishing a wicked-looking knife.

Hayler's mother, Claire, instinctively shielded her younger sister Emily with her own body. "I don't know what you're talking about!" she cried, voice wavering with panic.

The knife-wielder snatched a porcelain vase from the mantle and hurled it. The shattering ceramic exploded across the room in a starburst of shards. "Don't lie to me, bitch!"

The figure loomed over Claire, blade raised to strike. "Last chance to give it up. Where's the stash?"

Realization crept into Claire's blue eyes, swiftly replaced by defiance. "Get out of my house, you pieces of shit"

Her words were cut off by a brutal backhand across the face from the second intruder. Hayler muffled a shriek as her mother crumpled to the floor, the metallic tang of blood filling the air. Emily screamed in terror.

"No! Leave them alone!" Claire sobbed, cradling a bloody lip.

The knife-wielder seized her by the hair, jerking her head back in a brutal grip. "Tell me where it is or you're gonna watch your brats die first."

Claire trembled violently, resolve cracking. "O-okay...okay, it's in the basement..."

The masked figure shoved her towards the basement door, knife angled at her throat to herd her along. Claire shot one last look towards the paralyzed Hayler and her sister. A tear slid down her cheek.

"I'm so sorry, my angels..."

Then her world exploded in a crimson mist.

The knife arced through the air in a silvery blur before cleaving through Claire's neck in one brutal stroke. Hayler watched in numb, childlike incomprehension as her mother's decapitated head thudded to the hardwood floor, eyes already dimming.

Her scream finally released in a piercing wail of agony and shock. The intruders looked up, regarding the cowering child for a beat.

"Take care of the brats," one of them growled.

Emily began shrieking wildly as the other figure stormed towards her, blade leading like the fang of a viper about to strike. Hayler couldn't process it. This was a nightmare...it couldn't be real...it just couldn't-

Emily's body jerked as the blade found its mark, slashing her throat with cruel efficiency. The little girl went deathly still, blue eyes staring blankly at her traumatized sister.

The nightmare made flesh surged towards Hayler then. She tried to run, legs rubbery and unresponsive, feet stumbling on the slick pool of her mother's blood. The glinting blade descended on her-

Her eyes snapped open, chest heaving with labored gasps. Hayler jolted upright in bed, bedsheets twisted around her trembling body like ghostly vines. She sucked in shuddering breaths. The nightmares again.

Rubbing her aching eyes with trembling fingers, she glanced at the digital clock. 4:16 AM. Around the same time it always yanked her from fitful slumber into the jaws of her own private hell.