The year was 1663, and ten-year-old Katherine Lily sat in her small church house by the creaking window with a candle giving off very little light. Night had fallen, so as he did every night her brother was preparing to lead a search party for whatever monsters were tonight's topic of choice. She never believed in such creatures however, Katherine believed that they were just scary stories told to children years ago which people had now begun to believe, and whenever she tried to discuss this with her father or brother, they dismissed her.
"Katherine." Her father's voice echoed throughout the house, she quickly lifted her candle and walked to the kitchen and looked to him, "I'm hungry, serve dinner before your brother leaves" he told her from behind his prayer books. After mumbling a quick "Yes Father", she begun to serve up the stew, praying that for once it was good. It was the job of the mother of the house to cook the dinners, clean the dishes and keep the home tidy, but Katherine's mother died a few hours after giving birth to Katherine, so once Katherine was old enough to read and write her father gave her her mother's recipe book and told her to make dinner. Now while she could read the recipe and measure out the right weight, her cooking always tasted like, well shit. The plates were placed on the table as her brother walked in, ruffling her blonde curls,
"Oh, get off," She grinned, shoving him back as he sat down and began to eat. Carlisle was the one person she could always count on to be on her side, her father was a pastor so as a child had very little time to entertain his children, but Carlisle always ensured his baby sister was never bored. When her father started his hunts for his monsters, it was Carlisle who would put Katherine to bed and maybe sing her a song until she fell asleep, so she knew he would always fight her corner, well almost always,
"Kat, I mean this in the nicest way, but we need to get you cooking lessons" Her brother laughed scrunching his face as he attempted another spoonful, "I mean honestly, I think the butchered cow could have made this better"
"You try then and we'll see how far you get, Mr Cooking Expert" She smirked raising her eyebrows, she then took a bite and tried not to grimace at her own cooking.
"He will do nothing of the sort Katherine, I expect tomorrow's lunch to be at least edible." Her father frowned, before getting up from the table slowly, his age was catching up to him "I am retiring to my room for prayer, I do not want to be disturbed, do you understand?" He said looking to his daughter, who nodded, "I will see you in the morning, my boy" He smiled at Carlisle before walking out. The clock in the town square chimed sounding the hour, Carlisle stood up and kissed his sisters head,
"Do try and stay out of trouble Kat, I won't be back until the early hours of the morning." He lifted his coat, "I love you" He smiled and walked out in the dark night to meet with his fellow hunters. Kat cleared the table and returned to her room. After reading a passage from the scriptures she blew out her candle leaving her in the darkness, but the real darkness was the one about to consume her family, or at least what would be left of it.