Requiem

1. The Haven.

"Nothing's going to be the same..."

-Iris Robins.

I woke up due to a loud noise outside. I could hear someone knocking on my door loudly. So, I sprinted towards the door and opened it.

Mom was standing on the threshold panting and scared.

"Mom, what happened?" I asked, confused and terrified.

"The Army has given an immediate warning," she replied, after taking a deep breath. "We need to leave."

"Wait," I said in a hurry and rushed towards my closet. I quickly took out my emergency suitcase out of the closet. It wasn't first time for this had happened and it surely wasn't the last.

Having done that, I met mom out in the porch where she was already starting the car. I quickly kept my suitcase in the boot of the car and sat in the passenger seat.

"Wait, where's dad?" I asked, worried.

"He has already left to meet with the sheriff, the Army Head and other council members." I nodded, feeling relieved.

Then, we drove to the Adelaide hills in the Mount Lofty Ranges. Many thoughts were racing through my mind. Why us? What did we all do to deserve a life full of chaos, strife and death?

I didn't know what the other regions did to survive. Did they even know about the supernatural chaos? Did the World know? What was their response to this if they knew about the supernatural?

All such thoughts made me feel helpless and weak, and the last thing I wanted was to feel helpless.

When I looked out of the window, I saw people were running in panic for a safe place. The Vigilance Army was giving signals to the people to hurry towards the Adelaide hills. It was our own military, not to fight with the monsters but to alert all of us.

We weren't totally successful in eradicating them because nobody exactly knew how they looked or what were their strengths and weaknesses. If anyone had seen them, the person wouldn't survive to tell anything about them and those who had were mentally unstable.

So, we were totally unknown about these creatures not having any knowledge. Questions about them were endless, but none of them were answered with certitude.

When we reached near the hills, we gave the car to the soldiers to hide it. We began to walk on the narrow, untraceable path that led to the entrance of the caves parrot-fashion. The narrow lane had groves of South Australian Blue Gum and Oysters' Bay Pine on either side.

We entered the caves where my father was and saw him fretting.

"Are you both fine?" He asked, his voice dripping with concern.

"Yes," I replied softly.

He looked relieved. Then, he hugged us both very tightly.

⚜️

I was bored and alone. So, I decided to explore the caves that weren't occupied and were located in the periphery.

I passed the passages that were lighted by the slivers of sunlight that peeked through the holes in the walls. The walls of the cave and the passages were a mixture of brown, red and black.

I had walked a lot of distance. I saw flames flickering in the peripheral vision of my eyes. I snapped my head in the direction of the fire. I was at the threshold of a cave that seemed occupied. Small candles lighted the dark and chilling cave; six candles to be exact. It was hard for me to believe since the cave was in a recluse location in the ranges. And, no human would choose such a cave to stay. No one would risk by being solitary in the ranges.