Kathryn's Choice

Chapter 1

Mommy, her sweet soft voice whispers reassuringly into my ear as she rushes me into the basement and behind the old wood furnace in the far corner of the room, which crackles and pops uneasily as we quickly walk past it hand in hand. My short legs can't match the urgent pace of Mommy's, so she picks me up and sets me on her hip. I wrap my arms around her neck, clinging to her like I do before sleep time. The atmosphere is tense. She's clammy, shaking. She's not smiling or playing with me. Mommy said we were going to play a game. I don't like this game. I begin to whine and she squeezes me tightly before setting me down. Her eyes are watery, like she's trying not to cry. Something doesn't feel right, and my eyes begin to water too. Something's happening, this isn't how my mommy usually is.

The basement seems darker now, there are noises upstairs. Mommy jumps at the muted sounds of shattering glass and splintering wood. She looks at me with great concern, her beautiful and calming bright green eyes now dark and glassy with unshed tears and fear. Fear. I know what that is. I'm scared. I'm scared so I should cry, right? I open my mouth, but Mommy gently places her hand over it and my heart begins to race. Panic. I know what this is too. Mommy reaches into her back pocket and pulls out a sucker and smiles at me sweetly. Red. My favourite. This will be okay now, right? I have candy. Mommy is smiling again. I let out a giggle and Mommy unwraps the sucker and puts it in my mouth and kisses me on the forehead.

The basement is carpeted, soft and warm for me and my puppy, Bullet, to run around and play. Where is he? He must be with Daddy. Mommy pulls a pocket knife from the same pocket my sucker was in and begins to cut a large squared section of the carpet out. There's a latch underneath and she pulls it up. She smiles at me and tugs on it, but it won't budge. Each desperate tug results in a squeak eerily similar to a short ha! but that only makes Mommy pull harder. The door to the basement swings open, followed by a rush of air. The lightbulb in the lamp by the corner of the room with Daddy's Reading Chair shatters and the room suddenly doesn't seem so friendly. Mommy begins pulling more frantically now, her hands dampened by her falling tears. She whispers for me to get behind her aa heavy footsteps make their way down the hardwood steps. I slowly crawl behind her, tightly squeezed between her and the corner of the room.

There's a scary laugh and the footsteps stop. There's a click and Mommy swears. I've never heard her swear before. She reaches for my hand but grips my upper arm tightly and pulls me in front of her. There's no floor, just empty space and before I know it I'm falling. I don't even have time to make a sound before I land on a bed of blankets, pillows, and stuffed toys. My toys and favourite blanket, the ones I refused to take a nap without earlier today. I call out for her but there's no reply other than soft thunk as the door closes. There are glow-in-the dark stars above me now, but it's still dark. I'm scared of the dark. I begin to cry, but a dim glow illuminates from the cracks above. The basement lights must have turned on.

I hear Mommy crying, there's a man yelling at her, yelling my name. Mommy yells back but the man just laughs. It sounds like fighting, things are breaking and banging. Mommy is crying louder now, Daddy's name. But I don't hear him reply. There's a defined crunching noise and everything is quiet for a split second before mommy starts screaming. I scream with her. What are they doing to my Mommy? Who are they? Mommy's coughing now. Her words are sharp, like she's struggling to speak. I hear my name mentioned a few times and suddenly my sky is pulled away, and a face stares down at me with glowing yellow eyes and sharp teeth. A man's voice tells me to come up, but I can't. There are no steps and I don't really want to anyway. I shrink down as much as I can as he reaches toward me, but the walls glow a bright blue and with a sharp zap! he swears and falls back. Something falls in front of me with a heavy thud but before I can catch a glimpse, the ceiling lights shatter and glass rains down on the carpet above. The odd shard that finds its way into my hole is zapped away by the blue light, just like the thing by the pool that Daddy calls the fly teleporter. It's spooky dark now, but the strange blue light from the walls smells like Mommy's hair and I feel like I'm being hugged.