Disclaimer: I own nothing! This is simply a short fic. :)
Author's Note: Hello! I am posting this as a part of an assignment for my creative writing class. We needed to create a fic, post it, and get feedback from readers about what we could do better. I'd really appreciate any comments I could get so that I can improve as a writer. Thanks in advance!
"Take that!" The girl yelled, light laughter leaving her in the form of delighted squeals as she tossed the plastic teacup from the treehouse entrance. She knew very well it wouldn't break, simply from the many times she's thrown it. It landed back onto the grass below, amongst the other various pieces of the set. After it fell a plastic figurine, one of her favorite ones to play with.
For the dozenth time that evening, she swung her legs over the branch to descend her makeshift ladder and retrieve her toy from its green confines. It was getting dark outside, casting dusk shadows over her fenced backyard, but she didn't mind the darkness. She was one to take positivity out of any situation; her young age was still untainted with the negativity to come with life.
The moment her feet touched the grass, she was turning on her heel and immediately retrieving both the toy and the teacup, before she paused. The rest of the set, alongside a teddy bear of hers, lay in the grass. Smiling, she dropped to her knees and settled on the grass, reaching for the pot. She couldn't see as well as she normally would in the sunlight, but she didn't mind.
"Okay! Let's—" She began speaking to her teddy, propping him up on the grass before getting promptly interrupted by Sandra, her babysitter and the woman serving as her guardian while her parents were on a trip to Savannah. The glass door slid open, and her voice sounded cheerfully through the yard.
"Clementine! It's time to eat dinner, if you're hungry! I got us a pizza."
Clementine liked Sandra just fine, of course — and the girl had seen her a few times before — but she could be boring sometimes. Sandra never seemed interested in the games she'd like to play, instead choosing to plant herself in front of their TV. That was okay for Clementine, though; she had a preference for playing games by herself anyway when she wasn't at school.
Clementine turned, smiling, towards Sandra's silhouette in the doorway and immediately rose to her feet. She liked pizza quite a bit.
"Okay," she responded agreeably, running up the porch stairs and over to the door, stepping inside as it was slid shut. "I am."
A pizza slice was soon placed in front of her, and she ate ravenously, wanting nothing more than to get back outside. She couldn't help but blurt out a question around the pizza slice, though — one stemming from one of the only sources of negativity to plague her mind. She missed her parents.
"When will my mom and dad be back?"
"Soon, dear. They have a few more days to go." Sandra answered almost immediately, though her face carried a reassuring smile that silenced any protests within the girl. "Am I not fun enough for you?" she continued. It was rather obvious to Clementine that she was joking.
"You are fun," she responded instantly, the words contradicting her own thoughts about Sandra. She could be boring, yes, but that was only sometimes. It didn't matter anyway, since her parents always told her not to be rude to someone. "But I miss them."
"I know..." Sandra cooed, and that was where their conversations would always end when they ended up on the topic.
Not particularly comforting to Clementine, but it was good enough for her to finish the rest of the meal in silence. Immediately upon standing, she asked, "Can I go back outside?"
Sandra's head turned, peering out the sliding glass door and into the dim light before letting out a hum. "Sure... stay in the yard and be careful. I'll turn the light on for you so you can see, okay?"
"Okay," Clementine agreed, already tugging on the handle and sliding the door open once again, prepared to step right back out into the dusk as the porch light flicked on behind her. The door remained open, but Sandra tugged the screen shut as Clementine left the house.
A distant siren was the only other noise besides the usual night ambience and the shuffling sounds of her own feet upon the porch. She paused for a moment, before choosing not to pay much attention to the siren as she crossed the yard, returning to the base of her treehouse.
She settled on her knees in the grass, reaching for her teddy bear. Much to her displeasure, the siren had gotten louder... No, sirens, plural. A frown crossed her face. The noise was loud enough to be both uncomfortable and disruptive, and with a turn of her head she spotted a glowing series of red and blue lights blinking over the top of the fence.
She couldn't help but clamp her hands over her ears as the loud noises rushed past, taking the bright lights with them. She stared after them curiously, slowly lowering her hands from her ears once she deemed it 'okay' enough to do so. She wasn't sure why, but the amount of noise and light bothered her.
Still frowning, she headed back towards the house, once again forgetting about her teddy as she tugged the screen door open. From the outside, more sirens came and went, leaving another trail of light in their wake.
"Sandra?" she called. "What's all that noise?"
Across the room, Sandra's silhouette stood by the front door, allowing light in from the street outside as she leaned out. Upon being addressed, her head turned.
"I don't know what these sirens are all about," She responded thoughtfully, turning her head back out the door before turning away entirely and crossing to the sliding door. She squinted through the trees, before shrugging again. "Maybe to Atlanta, but...why would-"
She cut herself off immediately, as if she were about to say something she didn't want to. Instead, a bright smile plastered onto her face. It didn't do much to ease Clementine's nerves.
"Nevermind! I'm sure everything's fine." Her tone had changed to a brighter one as the smile was maintained. "Do you want to watch a movie before getting ready for bed? It's a bit late for you to be outside now."
It was dark now... Clementine felt herself smiling at the idea.
"Yes!" She agreed cheerfully, before running back over to the door. She opened the screen door, shut the glass one, locked it, and turned the porch light off before running back into the living room and jumping on the couch.
Wall-E. She loved that movie. All she remembered after that was a few moments of the movie's beginning before she dozed off, the exhaustion of being out all day finally coming to greet her.
She wasn't sure what time it was when she awoke again.
She was still on the couch, and the entire room was dark now. Why'd she wake up? What time was it? Slowly reaching up, she rubbed her eyes to rid them of the sleep-induced blur.
As she came to, she became aware of quiet knocking, followed by a quiet noise. It only took her a split second to recognize the sound of quiet footsteps crossing the room. Someone was speaking outside the front door as well, she noticed. A man's voice, pleading in a barely audible whine. "Help," he was saying. Turning her head quickly and waking up the rest of the way in an instant, Clementine sat up straight as a board. Her nerves from earlier in the night returned full-swing.
"Sandra?"
This was a nervous whisper as she peered towards the door. She couldn't see much in the dark at all, besides the faint outline of the woman's silhouette as well as a faint reflection of light off of her ginger hair. Sandra stood up on her toes by the door, peering out of the peephole. The light immediately flicked on, causing Clementine to shield her eyes as Sandra began to frantically fiddle with the door's locks, failing to provide acknowledgement towards being addressed.
"My God..." she was muttering, before throwing open the door and crouching down. "Are you alright!? Come on, I've got you."
Sandra straightened back up, struggling under the weight of the man's arm slung over her shoulder. The man looked like he was barely awake, and unlike the coherent words he was speaking mere moments before, he was now muttering things Clementine couldn't understand. The fabric of his shirt was torn, exposing one of his shoulders, which was stained red and sending more of the stain down the front of the shirt's remainder.
His shoulder looked like what an apple would look like after taking a huge bite out of it. At least, that was the immediate comparison Clementine's first-grader mind made.
It was one that made her feel sick to her stomach.
Shuddering and finally responding to the shock that had entered her system, Clementine practically jumped from the couch as Sandra dropped the man into one of the chairs.
"Clementine," she spoke, grabbing the frightened girl's attention. "C-could you please get me the first-aid kit from the bathroom?" She sounded calm, but she looked the absolute opposite...
The girl nodded without providing a verbal response before racing to the bathroom as fast as she was able to. Turning the light on, she stood as far up on her toes that she could before reaching into the cabinet. Frustratingly enough, she was unable to reach the red box. So, she resorted to climbing onto the counter to get it. This time, she was successful.
Jumping down, she raced back into the living room, ignoring the sound of the telephone ringing, and handed the kit over to Sandra. She was unable to prevent the tremble in her arm, nor was she able to stop herself from looking at the man again. Her gaze was instantly attracted to his injury, and her stomach turned over once again.
"Thank you." Sandra responded calmly, before turning to the man again, who was still mumbling. He mumbled about an 'it' and an 'attack' over the noise of Sandra's reassuring hums. Clementine backed off almost immediately, not at all interested in hearing the conversation; she was repulsed and frightened. What had happened to him? Would he be okay? What had hurt him like that? Why did he stink so bad?
With her heart slamming in her chest, she backed out of the room before immediately making a beeline for the back door. Once again, the phone was ringing. And, once again, she ignored it. It was almost like a background noise, rather than something that immediately registered to her. All she noticed was her own fear and the desire to rid herself of it. Whenever she was scared, she went to her treehouse.
She tugged the door open before pulling it shut behind her and racing across the yard. She swiped her teddy from the grass and quickly began to ascend her ladder. If Sandra needed her again, she'd call her back. Right? Right.
She lifted the wooden hatch on the side of her treehouse before crawling inside, allowing it to shut behind her with a light bang. She immediately moved towards her little window, clutching her teddy tight. Beside her, she had a few snacks — that she shamefully enough snuck out here — as well as a hammer her father had left behind upon building it that she had just never moved.
She stared outside in silence, still unable to get the horrific image out of her head. She hoped that man would be okay...but she did not want to see that again. She drew her knees up to her chest, trying to focus on the noises of the night instead.
She was successful in temporarily drawing her focus away from the man and his injury, but instead she began thinking about her parents once more. She whined quietly, raising a hand to wipe away a tear that had begun to make its way down her face. She missed them. She wanted them to come back right now.
She thought about the man yet again. What had attacked him? She didn't like the sound of that word. She'd only heard it once before when her father had gotten himself bitten by her grandparents' dog.
She leaned her head forward, resting her chin on the top of her teddy's head. She didn't even know what time it was, but what she did know was that she was too tired and anxious. She glanced back towards the sliding door, before closing her eyes. Maybe she would just sleep out here instead. She always felt better when she was here.
A loud crash brought her back from the brink of an anxious unconsciousness, and she just about jumped out of her skin. Her heart began to race again as she leaned forward to peer out the window. It was muffled, but just loud enough to startle her.
Had that come from inside her house?
Without thinking twice within the moment, she made her way towards the ladder, placing her teddy down as she did so. She began to climb down, quite honestly on the brink of tears. She hated this feeling that she had, the feeling that bad things were happening.
About halfway down the makeshift ladder, she stopped. Frantically, she glanced towards the back door with wide eyes.
Someone was screaming.
Sandra...?
Sandra.
Another crash caused her to flinch, almost losing her grip on the ladder as she began to panic. What was she supposed to do? What was happening to Sandra? Even with one of the lights on, she couldn't see into the house enough to see what was going on. Her parents always told her to stay out of danger, or to call 911...but the phone was inside. She couldn't get to it while something was happening.
She was scared. She was scared. She was scared. She didn't want it anymore.
Eyes still glued to the house, movement began to become apparent. Someone was moving towards the door, very low to the ground and very slowly, before moving backwards rapidly and once again becoming unviewable in the dim light. There was that scream again, one that frightened Clementine into finally shedding her tears. It had been her name that time.
"San..." She'd been unable to finish the woman's name as an uncontrollable sob interrupted her.
Her panicked state took over as she began to climb back up. She didn't want to go down anymore. She wanted this to go away, and she wanted to hide from it. Was Sandra okay? She had a horrible feeling, one that caused her heart to hurt.
She re-entered the treehouse, immediately backing herself into the farthest corner she could go into before tucking her knees to her chest, lowering her head, and crying. It was the first time she'd done so in a while.
"I'm not a little kid anymore! I don't have to cry," Her first grade self would say to her parents. Now, that didn't apply. She was a little kid, and all she wanted was to see them again. She wanted to see if Sandra was okay, but she couldn't leave the treehouse, could she? Her panic and her parents' words both were preventing factors. She didn't want to see that man. Did he do it? Was he a monster?
As her thoughts raced, she noticed that the noise had stopped. Maybe Sandra was okay after all...?
More distant sirens. Why were there so many? This was all too much for her to handle. She clamped her hands over her ears, sacrificing the ability to wipe her tears away simply to rid herself of all the scary noises.
She didn't know what else to do as her emotions ran wild, but she did know one thing.
This was bad.
And in bad situations, she stayed in her treehouse. Here is where she would stay until Sandra came outside for her, or until her parents got home. It was the only thing she could think of in her panicked state.
When her parents came back, they'd know what to do.
She could only hope that nothing bad was happening to them, too.