Chapter 00; Prologue

A tall man stood at the edge of the woods connecting to the park. The children were captivated by his soothing aura and gentle voice, completely and helplessly entranced by him, even my sister but I knew better.

It was all a ruse; I knew that he didn't have the purest intentions. He reeked of evil, no he was evil. I kept my distance but stayed near as to not seem suspicious; I had to keep my appearance as a normal child, well as normal as normal can be.

I was adopted into this family because of how mature I am; my foster parents wanted someone to keep their darling daughter in line and keep her company -someone her age. They have been raiding orphanage after orphanage, interviewing children looking for the magical miracle child and so here I am, adopted. I always felt that I am more of The family's built-in babysitter than a sister or daughter. My foster parents were more than happy to have someone dependable taking care of their daughter while they are working.

I always suspected they had a few screws loose because seriously who gives this kind of responsibility to a 6 years old child and be satisfied and certain things will go well? Well, no one!

Granted I am not 6 years old, even though I appear like one, I am much much older. But the point is, it could have been another child and they wouldn't have been able to do a thing. They were really cold parents and cruel to an extent, not that they meant to be that way, but humans are usually foolish.

Their poor daughter, Elizabeth was emotionally neglected. She really needed the love and company, and as soon as I joined the family she attached herself to me instantly. I was afraid she may develop a sister complex.

And here we are in a suspicious park near the edge of the forest with the other kids and a tall faceless monster trying to lure everyone into the forest and do god-knows-what probably eat us. I felt my eye twitch at the idiocy, seriously who builds a park for kids near the forest anyways!? People are so stupid!

I was snapped out of my thoughts when the faceless monster asked the children gently; "Want to play a game?"

He extended his tendrils gently to the children and immediately I moved from the edge of the group to my sister and pulled her away before she can touch it.

"No, me and Liz will play alone." I stated childishly. Man, looking 6 is a good reason to be bratty and not get in trouble for it.

My sister seemed shocked out of her trance, her cloudy eyes cleared up as she looked at the man in alarm. Shock then fear flashed through her eyes as she noticed that she was about to go with the creep.

The last thing I wanted her to do was freak out and scream and cause the monster to act violently. So I continued; "Me and Liz make the best girls team but you are not a girl nor are you our sister. You are not allowed to play with us."

I stated boldly pointing my finger at him. Seeing how confident I was acting, calmed Elizabeth a bit. I was always touched by her blind faith and trust in me.

"That's really rude and mean, you know." The faceless monster chided disapprovingly in his gentle soothing voice. It seemed to put Lizzy in another trance so I squeezed her hand painfully causing her to snap from her stupor with a jolt.

I suppressed the disgusted shivers from racing down my spine. How could anyone go after children? I am sure, he didn't have to eat children specifically but he still did and that's just low; I couldn't understand how anyone can harm such innocent creatures.

Anyways, I continued on with my bratty 6 years old kid act and smiled cheekily at him. "Not my fault you're not a girl, but you can always dress in a pink dress and we will play with you." This caused Lizzy to calm down more and I'm so sure that she would have laughed at that comment if she wasn't so afraid at the moment.

I dragged Lizzy away, not waiting for his reply; "Come on Lizzy."

Even if I liked children, I knew I couldn't help the other kids and keep Lizzy safe at the same time.

Since he didn't seem to mind letting us go, I used the chance and started to run, dragging my sister with me and out of the park.

Later that week, I told my parents that there was a strange tall man in a suit and white blank mask who was trying to make us go and play with him in the woods, but since he seemed creepy to me I took Lizzy and got us out of there. I also told them about the children who went to play with him and what of their names that I could remember. My parents were sceptical at first and called some of the families that they knew.

What they learned shocked and scared them; the children have been missing since that day, which didn't surprise me. Our parents forbade us from going to the park again. They also called the police, Lizzy was freaked out by them but answered the investigator's questions the way I instructed her; (tall man in a suit and white blank mask) I also told her to not speak about his tendrils.

Later at night the next day, the faceless monster came. He was tapping at the window of our room. I glared at the window and sighed in annoyance, deciding to ignore it; I tried going back to sleep but soon after Lizzy awoke and man was she scared.

I tried to calm her down and go get our parents but she refused to let me go and clung to me tightly. In the end she won and I laid down next to her.

I tried to hush her telling her to ignore it and go to sleep but she shook her head and hugged me harder, burying her face in my chest. I held her close and used the covers to hide us completely. She refused to sleep and shook in fear the whole night. I could feel the wetness through my shirt, she was crying silently afraid to make a sound. The monster kept tapping the window till late at night, the bastard was clearly enjoying the fear.

At the morning, I told our parents that the guy from the park climbed the tree outside the window and tried to get us to open it for him. Lizzy told them about how he kept tapping the glass for a long time. Mom and dad freaked out and demanded why we didn't wake them up, to which I answered that we were afraid to leave the room or else he would try something. Mom and dad freaked out even more after that incident and decided that we are going to move out immediately, to a new city away from this place.

This became a distant memory, all forgotten. Lizzy seemed happy to forget which I was glad she did.

She liked to believe he forgot us as well.

But I never forget and I am glad I didn't do so.