Fighting In Shadows

Prologue - Warzone

PROLOGUE - WARZONE

I was ten years old when my mother woke me up in the middle of the night. It was just past midnight when she decided to awaken me from my amazing dream about pancakes and jelly beans. I was seven years old. Don't judge me about the dreams I had. If you had those dreams, you would say they were the best dreams you have ever experienced.

'Baby girl,' my mother whispered hastily. She was lightly shaking me, but in a rough, rushed way. I groaned loudly, my eyes slowly opening. I squinted at the light that shone over me. I felt like I was being interrogated--not that I knew what that word meant when I was seven. 'I'm serious, baby. You need to get up. Now. Good girl. Grab Stitches, he'll comfort you,' I smiled softly at the name of my most cherished teddy. I called it Stitches because its leg was torn off, so we had to stitch it back together. I've loved him ever since.

'Mummy?' I asked in my innocent little voice. 'What's going on?' My eyes shone bright with confusion and sympathy for my mother. She had always told me that I had a big heart. I never believed her though. I never believed a lot of the things that she told me. Now I truly wish that I had.

She stoked my hair softly, her eyes filled with worry. 'Little, there is no time to explain. Grab Stitches. We need to leave, right now. I'll tell you everything later.' I had never heard that voice before. It was demanding, but soft. I nodded slowly, and kicked my sheets off. I grabbed Stitches from the floor, as he had fallen off my bed during the night. I told myself that everything was going to be alright, and that mother would tell me everything later. How I wished that was true.

I swung out of bed, my feet finding my fluffy 'Finding Nemo' slippers. They were soft and gave instant warmth, which made me smile happily. My mother quickly took my hand, and before I knew it, we were rushing out of my room, and downstairs. Every kid my age would've expected their father to waiting at the bottom of the stairs. But mine wasn't. He had died when I was 3 years old, due to cancer. At least, that's what my mother told me. She tells me a lot of things, but hardly anything about my father. It somehow makes her uncomfortable.

'Little. Honey. You have to close you're eyes now. Close them tightly, and do not open them. If you do, I swear honey, you will regret it. Remember the time I told you to close you're eyes in the scary part of Jaws, and you didn't? You had nightmares for a week. This is the same thing, honey. The only difference is, is that it's not a movie,' Her voice sounded so...scared. The fear in her eyes reflected in my own. 

'Why, mummy? Why do I have to close my eyes?'  

'Do you trust me?' I nodded. 'Then close you're eyes.'

I did what my mother told me to do. I closed my eyes tightly, and I didn't open them...well, maybe not for a short time. My mother picked me up in her arms, and I heard her say, 'You're getting heavier every time, Kiddo,' That made me smile shortly. She opened the front door of the house, and that's when I smelt it. I smelt the sickening fumes of smoke and gas mixed together. What I heard was even more scarier. Screams and gut wrenching gurgles from...well, I didn't know what those things were. All I knew was that when I opened my eyes, I saw monsters. They might not be called monsters now, but they looked exactly like a monster that I would picture in my mind.

Their faces looked as if they had been put into a pot of boiling water, and had melted slightly because the water was so hot. Some of the 'monsters' had only one eye, but most had none. Small horns grew out from their temples, but most of their horns had been cut off. They drooled ferociously, their teeth sharp and pointy. They wore scrawny, ragged clothes that looked as if they hadn't been washed in decades. The smell that radiated off their bodies was even worse then their image. It smelled as if they hadn't had a shower in millenniums, or that they bathed in rubbish. Some had wings that looked as if they had been butchered by a knife, and some had the longest fingernails I had ever seen in my life. I was terrified, and I'm pretty sure my mother was too.

There was smoke surrounding us, a fire blazing to the left. It felt like we were in Hell. My mother didn't stop though. She ran as fast as she could, and finally made it to a black, shiny Jeep. It wasn't ours though. The Jeep, I realised, was familiar. I looked at the person who go out of the car, and I saw the relief flooding into my mother's eyes. It was Walker.

Walker had been a friend of ours since I could remember. He wasn't related to us, but he felt like family. He felt like he belonged with us. I tried to smile, but the look on his face stopped me straight away. He was dressed in something I had never exactly seen him dress in before. He usually wore a normal white shirt with black jeans and his ripped up All Stars Converses. Tonight, he wore a tight black shirt with a black jacket over the top that looked as if it was filled with many things. He had dark grey pants on, but they weren't jeans. They looked like cargo pants. And his shoes were considered as black combat boots. I frowned lightly, confused.

I was even more confused when my mother handed me over to Walker. I sent her a panicked look. 'Mum? Where are you going?' I asked, my voice shaky. My hands were shaking ferociously, and my teeth were chattering like it was below 5 degrees. It most probably was.

My beautiful, loving mother stroked my hair. 'Little,' she whispered, but just loud enough that I could hear. 'I will come back for you, baby. I always do,' She kissed my forehead, her lips lingering for a bit. When she pulled back, she shot Walker a look. 'Keep her safe, Walks. If you let me down, her death is on that very long list of yours.' When he nodded briskly, my mother looked at me again. 

'I love you, Little,' she said, then turned around. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. My mother was turning her back on me, and walking towards the creatures and monsters that surrounded our house. My childhood house. 

'Mum!' I screamed, but she didn't turn back.  

'Little, we're going to go now,' Walker said, but his voice was hesitant. I knew that he didn't want my mother to walk off into that crowd either.  

'No!' I yelled. But he had already pushed me into the Jeep.

He locked the doors, and even when I tried to unlock them, they wouldn't budge. Cold tears streamed down my face as I pressed my hands against the windows. I saw my mother, but only just. She didn't look...normal. She didn't look like her loving, glowing-self. She looked dark and dangerous. My eyes widened slightly when I saw her raise her hands above one of the monsters. Something was in her hands--but, no. That can't be right. Shadows don't naturally fill inside palms and send off a dangerous glow. Darkness swirled around my mothers body, and I saw her hands come down onto the monster. I screamed softly when the shadows and darkness entered the monster's body, and dropped back onto the ground, twitching.

Before I could see more of my mother's supernatural powers, Walker powered the engine, and pushed down hard on the accelerator, taking off. He cast a dark look over at me. 'Little,' he said softly. He took a deep breath, looking back at the road.

'I'm going to take you far away from here. I will explain everything later. But one thing you need to know. You're definitely not human,'

I hadn't heard what Walker had said, except for the 'You're definitely not human' part. If I wasn't human...then what was I? I looked out the window, knowing very well that this wasn't like Jaws...it was worse.