"Father?" The little girl asked him as he picked her up.
"Yes, sweetheart?" The father replied as he carried her across the kitchen and over to the stairs.
"How come I don't have brown hair like you and mama?" The four year old shook her head, her curls bouncing as if a soft wind had just blown by.
"Because you are special."
"But I want to be beautiful, like mama was." The father stopped and brought her in front of him as he responded,
"You are the most beautiful child I have ever seen."
"What about mama?" The little girl's eyes widened.
"She was the most beautiful woman I'd ever met. You remind me of her every day." The child smiled and rested her head on her father's shoulder as he lightly carried her up the stairs.
"Now it's time to get you ready for bed. Which gown would you like tonight sweetheart?" The father asked as he pulled open a drawer.
"The white one," The child replied, "It reminds me of angels. That's what mama is now, right father?" The older man smiled as he knelt down to his yawning daughter.
"Yes. She certainly is."
After the girl was all set in her night gown and washed up for bed, she asked her father if he would pray with her. Of course, being the loving father he is, he complied and kneeled down next to his only daughter to pray.
The child was tucked neatly into her bed as the father said,
"Goodnight sweetheart. I love you."
"I love you too father." She replied sleepily as her eyes shut because she could no longer hold them open.
The father smiled as he kissed her forehead and turned off the oil lamp. He quietly snuck out of the room to leave his daughter in a peaceful sleep.
He went back down the creaky old stairs to check on his son, who he had left to read in the sitting room. As he walked in, he had found his son fast asleep in his chair, book sliding off his lap and head lolled to the side. The father chuckled as he picked up the boy who was coming of age quickly. The twelve year old had been studying hard in order to become a doctor; he wanted to help the sick and dying. This new found passion had been slammed into him at the passing of his beloved mother. The poor child had been devastated when his mother had finally died and had refused to leave his room for two weeks straight afterwards. The father has been making sure ever since that even though his mother is gone, he will always be there for him.
When he was about to make his way up the stairs he had heard a smash outside his front door. He froze, clutching to the child in his arms, and backed up behind the stairs to set his child down.
"Son, Son! You need to wake up," His tone hushed but urgent. The boy woke up groggily and asked,
"What's wrong father?"
"I think there is somebody outside our front door. Go upstairs and protect your sister. Go now!" The boy nodded and flew up the stairs as silently as he could.
The father pulled out his shotgun from under the stairs and then yelled,
"We are armed! If you do not remove yourself from my property I will shoot to kill." He listened intently. All he heard was the howl of the midnight wind and the shuffling of the leaves across the dirt road. He lowered his guard and turned back around.
Meanwhile the little boy had woken his sister and told her to get into the closet. They hid her behind an old dress of her mother's and the boy told her,
"Do not move from this spot, okay? Do not move until father or I come to get you." The little girl nodded as the boy stood up. He whipped his head towards the door as he heard his father yell from downstairs.
He looked down at his little sister and said,
"I love you. Now stay where you are." He closed the door of the closet and ran to help his father. As the boy came down the stairs he gasped at what he saw. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. This was like the stuff that came out of nightmares or stories. He watched as the monster tore into his father's body, melting the skin wherever it touched, and saw him pull out a pulsing red heart before him. The boy cried out as the monster stuffed the heart into his greedy mouth and the child ran back up the stairs. Unfortunately, he never made it to the top.
The little girl covered her ears as she heard the cries and screams of her father and brother; silently knowing she would never see them again, as she would never see her mother. Tears ran down the small child's face as she experienced, what would be known as, the worst day of her life.