Demons

CHAPTER 1

I awaken to the rattling of the drainpipe against my house's roof.

My home is a small grey shack fabricated with small pebbles. My mother gets anxious when it starts storming like tonight, because she thinks that one large gust of wind could knock the shack down. My father built this home back in the Deep Freeze, so that he could have shelter from cold temperatures and icy winds.

My father died when I was young, but my mother has kept a few of the knicknacks that he has given her. Yellowed anniversary cards. Dusty teacups from his visit in England. She keeps these items stored in a wooden cabinet on the right side of the shack.

I get up from my bed, and walk over to the cabinet. I often do this because it shows me what kind of a father he was. He must've loved my mother very much, because the cabinet is filled with the knicknacks.

I can hear the whistle of the wind through the rocks that form my bedroom walls. My shack is a part of a community of others, with other families living in them. My mother says that it was once better, with houses ten times the size and people who wore clothing that wasn't torn or frayed at the edges.

A clap of lightning strikes so close to my home, that it knocks the portrait of my mother off the sodden walls. Suddenly, I am nervous that there will be a lightning strike on my roof. It hasn't stormed like this in years.

Suddenly, the wind rips the hinges right off my door and blows the door off, leaving a gaping hole in the wall. I step out to get it, but discover that it has blown past the river. We are not supposed to cross the river, but it seems I need to get the door before my shack gets destroyed.

I stalk towards the muddy bank of the river. My bare feet sink into the wet earth. I spot my door hooked in a tree branch of the Forbidden Forest. The people of my town say that demons live in the forest. I trudge across the river, my heart beating in my throat.

I see a black figure next to my door.

It has a gaping mouth and hollows for eyes.

Demons.