HOURGLASS

CHAPTER TWO - Anticipa.....tion 24:30

I still can recall that night as vividly as the day it happened. My mom was a healthy women, and she should have had so much more time on this planet, but it was stolen from all of us with a bullet that caused her blood to run through my fingers as quickly as the grains of sand in an hourglass, counting down the last breaths she would ever take.

The shooter was never caught, and for the longest time I was determined to find the murderer and make them pay for the pain they had caused me and my family. I hate the fact that I was there when the gunshot rang out into the crystal clear night. We were celebrating my birthday in our backyard, under a full moon. Suddenly my mother dropped to the ground in time with an earsplitting boom. I ran over to her and tried to stop the blood pouring from in between her ribs, but to no avail.

Within minutes, she was gone. The last words she ever spoke to me were, "Don't miss me

too much, Robin. I promise that this isn't goodbye. Don't get stuck in the past, because you'll only find monsters there."

Little did we know then, but there were going to be even bigger and badder monsters in my future.

. . .

A little over twelve hours later Nessa pulled up outside of my house and honked right in the middle of my neighborhood. I rolled my eyes at the obnoxious mechanical shout and started walking outside. Right before I laid my hand onto the brass doorknob my father quietly said, "Have fun, Robin." from the couch. I turned to smile at him.

Before that dreadful night my dad was as much as a horror freak as I was. We planned to go to Lexicon at some point, but after mom passed, well, you know what happened. I always had been sad that we never went, and now I felt a bit guilty that I was going without him. I walked over my dad and hugged him.

"I promise I'll tell you all about it, okay?" He smiled at my words and ushered me towards the door.

"Go, have fun. I'll see you later. You deserve this." I hugged him one last time and joined Nessa in her car. She grinned at me with a crazy light in her eyes and stepped on the gas like she was in a NASCAR race. I flew back in my seat as Nessa viciously streaked along the road on the route to the haunted house.