Warm arms hold me in an embrace and I look up to see my mother holding me close. We are in a large living room. Red couches and a fire glowing bright in the furnace. My father walks over and kisses my head before grabbing his newspaper and sitting down to read. A relaxed day. The sun shines in through the window and I smile at the perfection that is this moment. Nothing could break the happiness I felt all around me. A family, warmth, a place to call home. Nothing could be better. If only it was real.
I wake to screaming. Shrill cries cut through the air and fade away just in time for another one to strike. They reach my ears and my body jolts up; on guard straight away. Forgetting my dream had been just a dream I look around disappointed at what I see. An empty room with cold cement walls and floors. Cracks cover the place and on the left wall there is a large hole that could be used as a window of sorts. I lay on a mess of ripped up cloth mixed with dry grass. It would be a disgrace to call this home. But its what I have now. An abandoned factory that I had survived in for the past three months. A girl. Alone in the world.
Another scream breaks the short silence and my fingers edge towards the crossbow that rests beside me. I grab it and in one swift movement I am on my feet; creeping towards the makeshift window. I peek over the edge of it hoping to see whoever is making the ungodly screams has a chance at surviving. But to my dismay the symptoms are spreading quite fast and the predator is helping it spread faster by gashing deep wounds all over the poor humans body. I can’t even tell whether its a he or a she anymore. And so I patiently place the head of my weapon over the edge of the window, carefully watching the suffering person from a distance. The predator roars and flies off over to another part of the factory where a very stupid man had decided to attempt at shooting it. Useless.
About an hour later the seemingly lifeless body begins the gruesome process I knew was coming. Green scales start to form over my kinds bloody face and the screams return. But now they are inhuman. More so each time. Soon a tail starts to break out of its skin reaching far out into the sky. Horns begin to stick up from its back and I hear the loud cracking of bones as they struggle to form their new shape.
The thing that had been feasting on the stupid man who seemed my age (that is until his life was ended with a simple snap of the neck between the predators teeth). It came back though; seeing that its creation was coming to life. And before long another hour had passed and it was almost a complete newborn. There was no helping it now although there wasn't really any helping it when I had first found it either. After the last gruesome minutes its back legs finally snapped into their place and it was now done with the process. The predator that had caused this started roaring ferociously; proud of its work. And with that it flew off leaving its wingless newborn behind. The newborn started snarling and sniffing the air. But didn't seem to catch a whiff of anything. I knew it wouldn't smell me. I was protected. And with that it began running a lopsided run away from me and the abandoned place I had watched all this occur from.
My lip snarls as I watch the thing run farther and farther away. I decide it would be better if I didn't track this one down. Newborns could be amazingly strong. I despised these things with all of my being. They had ruined my life. Had torn apart everything that had ever mattered to me. Those god awful things that just seemed to think they could simply take over the world. Just take the human race in their teeth and chomp down once, destroying us. But if I had anything to say about it the damn things wouldn't stand a chance. They are called; Creatures. And I planned to kill every last one.
“I-is it gone?” A shaky voice pipes up.
My head whips around and I point my loaded weapon to whoever made the sound. But my arrows tip comes face to face with a young child. A girl no older than the age of ten. Her clothes are ripped up revealing a visible ribcage and bruises. Her ginger hair reaches to her shoulders and is pulled into two loose braids. Gray eyes stare up at me almost asking me to pull the trigger. Asking me to end the misery. She looks incredibly calm for the situation but you can almost feel the fear radiating off of her. Her eyes squeeze shut as if shes actually expecting me to kill her.
“You can do it. I’m not afraid.” Her words shock me and I raise my eyebrow in confusion.
“Why would I want to kill you?” She cringes some at the words but ignores the discomfort.
“Because I’m dead anyway.” She’s right. Kids on their own normally don’t survive for long if at all.
I pull my weapon back and hold it at my side. Staring down at her I’m at a lose of what to do or say. Should I do anything? She looks back up at me holding her ground. The silence is eating at me. I’m not exactly good with children. Although she doesn't really act like a child she is one nonetheless.
“What is your name?” She speaks first. And I’m taken back by the question. No one has given a damn about my name since, well since this all started. I’ve almost forgotten it myself. But for some reason I felt like I could tell this little girl anything at the moment. Not like it really mattered anyway.
“It’s Ren.” I answer. My name at birth had been Renne but sometimes something as small as a name could bring back the most painful memories.
“My name is Lexi. I’m eight years old. How old are you?”
“Why do you care?”
“Because the first steps to trusting someone are knowing the basics of their lives.” She replies. Very mature for eight years old…
“I’m seventeen.”
“Hmm. Do you have food?”
How did she seem like such an innocent scared little girl when she first came in here? Now it’s like she thinks she owns the place. Although she hasn't moved from her place her eyes now scan the room. Obviously in search for the answer to her question. Her eyes land on a box of canned foods in the farthest corner. She looks at me again. Now her eyes show hope. But she still doesn't move and continues to look at me, pleading for food without a single word. Deep down you can tell shes afraid. But her strength drowns it out. Again I look her up and down and find myself stuck at the bruises masking the right side of her body.
“How did those happen?” I gesture to her side and she quickly covers up what she can with the torn shirt. Then begins to glare at me.
“None of your business.” She says through gritted teeth. I’m shocked at her sudden anger and don't really know what to say to her.
“Well, um can I help with them?”
“What?” Again her teeth are clenched and she obviously has a story behind the black and blue marks.
“The bruises. Can I help you with healing them?”
Without saying anything she simply turns so that the bruised side of her is facing me. She then pulls back the shirt so that I can see that the awful marks go farther around her body than I thought. Her head snaps back to me. Still with a glare on her face she replies.
“Please, make the pain go away.” Her face softens as she pleads for me to help her. But within a second it returns to normal and her cold eyes return now expecting me to begin. I grab a first aid kit from my pack and get straight to work.
A few hours later I’m sitting behind Lexi icing her back with an emergency ice pack. The wounds were worse than I had imagined and a nasty gash had stretched from her side to her back. It was deep and was in need of stitches. Although it had been painful she pulled through and I was now attempting to ease that pain with ice as he slurped down a cold canned soup.
“Ren?”
“Yes?”
“Do you know any stories?” Again I am taken back by the girls words. She didn't seem the type to want a bedtime story.
“Only one.” I reply honestly. “And its not a happy one.”
“I dont care.”
So I sit behind her ready to tell her the only tale I had not yet forgotten. How the world came to be this way.
-Author's Note-
Thanks for reading my first chapter! Hope you enjoyed! INFO> Not edited.
-Ellie
