The little girl stood at the top of the stairs looking at the two drunken men with tired eyes. It was quite a common occurrence for the young girl to stay up late while waiting for her brother and his best friend to return from their drunken outings, scared that something bad would happen to them.
"Tilly, what are you doing up so late? Shouldn't you be in bed its quarter past 2 in the morning." Nick asked her, slurring his words slightly while trying to not topple over while pulling his boots off.
"Uncle Pete and mama are going to be mad at you for staying out so late. You're up at 6 working on the fields," Matilda informed them, "Also you were being very loud. I could hear you singing all the way up to the house."
The girl looked quite annoyed over the two drunk men disturbing her. To be fair, them both singing 'Sweet Home Alabama' was quite loud and, quite frankly, very poorly sung with neither of them actually knowing all the words and yelling loudly at certain parts of the song.
"Well, we're sorry Tilly. Didn't mean to wake you up." Luke, the more drunken one of the two, apologised to her after he had removed his boots and slung them to the side forgetting that other members were asleep in the house.
"You need water, that'll help with the hangovers tomorrow and maybe you won't have as much of a headache, especially after Uncle Pete will be done lecturing you two." Matilda tiptoed down the stairs, careful not to make any noise but her small frame already prevented that.
It was obvious that the two boys had woken her up. Her hair was stuck to her cheek from where she had drooled and the too large shirt that once belonged to Nick was creased badly. She reached over the tap and filled two glasses of water and gave it to the two men.
"So how was the night out?" The girl asked curiously while pulling the hair stuck to her cheek off her face.
"It was fun I got a girls number and look here it is as proof!" Luke enthusiastically shoved his hand in the girls face and she giggled. It wasn't a girls phone number but instead just random letters. In his drunken state, he had mistaken it for a phone number and was overjoyed that he was actually successful in talking to a girl, however once again he had been rejected.
"Good job Luke! I hope I can meet this lucky lady soon." She teased, going along with what he was saying.
"She was pretty and oh my god so funny. Wait, did I mention she was pretty? I can't remember but she was very pretty." Luke told her. The discussion of their night was quite short as the men had both passed out on the couch quickly. Matilda grabbed a blanket and covered them both in it to make sure they would be warm and quietly made her way back to her own room and, fortunately, fell asleep quite quickly.
"For fuck's sake! I told you two not to stay out so late!" Pete's angry voice echoed through the house loudly as he had discovered the pair of men nursing strong hangovers. Matilda moaned and covered her head with her pillow, annoyed that sleep was something that she was unable to get as everyone in this house couldn't stay quiet for a few hours. She was up now so there was no point lying in bed longer and proceded out her room into the kitchen where the rest of the family was.
"Both of you are working on the fields and I can't trust you with the tractors in this state! I specifically told you not to stay out so late." Despite Nick and Luke being 24 years of age, lectures and telling offs were still common and they had definitely received more of them rather than the 10-year-old girl.
"Sorry, sir." Both of them replied looking sheepishly at the older man. He sighed and waved it off.
"I don't want this happening again." Although Pete could sometimes come off as quite cold and harsh, he did mean well. He had looked after Nick and Matilda as if they were his own children rather than being just their uncle. His sister was only young when she had Nick, and Pete wasn't fond of the man she had him with. Matilda's dad wasn't any better. He had run off as soon as he found out she was expecting. A couple months later he was arrested and sentenced to jail for a couple years for dealing drugs. Nick's dad was in an out of their lives, he was a violent man and hot-tempered was putting it nicely. The family had agreed to exclude him from their lives.
Nick and Matilda weren't much alike either, appearance wise extremely. Nick was very tall and lanky. He had light skin, bright but cold eyes and a cocky smirk that would often get him trouble. Matilda was very much the opposite. She was very small, arguably too small for her age as many would assume she was 7 or 8 rather than 10. She was a lot darker so people often guessed she was adopted which annoyed the family because obviously families couldn't be in an interracial relationship. Instead of a cocky smirk, she was adorned with a glowing smile that radiated happiness and everyone mentioned how she lifted the atmosphere of the room up with just a smile. However, they both had a temper but both prefered to express theirs differently with Nick being a lot more vocal and Matilda often bottling it up and worried about upsetting anyone.
"Lay off them Pete, they're young they were just having fun." Melissa, Nick and Matilda's mom, argued against her brother. Although she could be strict herself she was far more lenient with what her kids could get away with as she remembered what she was like as a teenager.
"Fine just get on with the work. Oh and Luke go tell your mother you're fine. She was worried when you hadn't come back to the house. "
"Will do," Luke replied and the two men exited the house.
"When will them boys learn?" The older man sighed to himself. Raising two kids that weren't his own was difficult enough but dealing with another couple's son was taking a toll on him.
"They're men now Pete, believe it or not but their not the teenage boys they once were." Melissa put her hand on the man's shoulder in comfort and smiled at him, "but Jesus they still act like teenagers now and again."
Matilda smiled to herself. She remembered when the two men were teenagers. They never once excluded her from hanging out with their friends and would always let her join them in jumping rooftops much to her mom's dismay.
Later on in the day once the sun had set, Nick and Luke sat in the living room watching some sitcom they'd randomly put on.
"So how do you think we could improve the business?" Luke asked.
"Shit, you really think we can get this going. I mean we're broke man, ain't no way we can salvage this mess." The other man responded. Their unsuccessful attempt at starting a business had put a wedge in their weekly income, taking a toll on the entire family.
"Well that ain't the attitude to keep us going now is it," Luke joked, "Look, I think we can do this we just haven't a good start thats all."
"Nick! Luke!" Matilda had rushed down the stairs and worried the men over her franticness.
"What's wrong?" Nick asked her, aware of her anxiousness.
"I saw something outside my window! Please look it's creeping me out."
They trailed her up the stairs and into her bedroom. Nick peered out the window and observed the view. All it was was a field and a couple of trees, nothing out of the ordinary.
"There's nothing there Tilly."
She rolled her eyes and pointed to a spot in the field. There was something there. It seemed to be someone scouring the fields, possibly drunk judging, by the way, they were limping around and how slow they walked. It was too dark for them to be able to see a face.
"It's some drunk. Don't worry we'll get rid of them." His plan had calmed the girl down and they all made their way outside. Matilda stayed at the door, too scared to go out any further while the other two had torches and were making their way to the person.
"Hey! This is our place get off it!" Luke yelled to the person. They didn't respond and just glanced in his direction. It started limping towards them, arms stretched out. Nick and Luke withdrew slightly just in case it got violent.
"I won't warm you again, get off our land!"
The person kept moving toward them. Making inaudible sounds that they were unable to make out. It didn't sound like talking, not even murmuring, but moaning instead. A deep grunting moan and snarls. They guided the torch in the persons face and it was indescribable. It wasn't even a person. Half of its face had been carved out and its eyes were white, emotionless and expressionless. It looked like it was dead.
"Shit what the fuck happened!" Luke yelled out retreating back even more.
"Tilly get into the house and get Uncle Pete now!" Nick ordered the girl.
"What's happening!"
"Get the fuck back!" Luke yelled at the thing. He dragged Nick's arm back and rushed back to the house.
"Call the police we've got some crazy fuck here!" It had caught up them. Snarling and grunting trying to reach them all.
"Get back or things will get violent!"
"Hit him, Luke, it's fucking crazy!" Nick yelled at him.
He hit it across the head with the torch. It spluttered out blood yet still kept on trying to reach them. He hit it again, repeatedly until it was unresponsive.
"What the fuck was that!" The younger girl stood trembling at the door. She had splatters of blood on her shirt but not as much as Luke who had it covering his face.
"Fuck! I murdered it. I'm a fucking murderer!" He tossed the bloody torch away from him and paced the porch.
"Shit what the fuck are we going to do?"
"Tilly get Pete and Mom now!"