12 years ago

"Drew, get your brother! Dinner's ready!"

Looking up from what she was drawing, Drew searched the living room for her five year old brother. He sat a few feet away, propped up against the foot of the sofa, with a crayon he had stolen from her. "Mom, Dorian's eating my crayons again!"

Letting out a huff of air in annoyance, Drew abandoned her sketch of what she thought a vampire looked like, and crawled toward Dorian across the carpeted floor, in order to retreve the half eaten blue crayon from her brother's mouth. "This isn't for eating," she scolded him, tossing the crayon next to the pile of stationary that sat beside her sketchbook on the coffee table.

Drew was about to say more, to lecture little Dorian on how he shouldn't be touching any of her things, when she heard the main door being opened, which could only mean one thing. Dorian seemed to understand as well, and the two quickly got to their feet before bounding out of the living room and heading to the foyer where they watched as their father walked further into the house.

A smile touched his lips upon seeing the two children, but as Drew neared him, she noticed things that were different from when he left the house earlier that day. His blue shirt was stained red in certain places. His hair was stuck to the side of his forehead with a sticky substance that Drew could only assume was blood. She knew her father's line of work, so the sight wasn't an unusual one. Still, it troubled Drew to see her father come back home this way, most days.

While he picked Dorian up for a cuddle, Drew's feet remained rooted to the floor as she looked up at her father. "I told you, you should have taken me," she said to him. "I could have helped."

"I'm sure you could have," he nodded in agreement. "But witches are way too easy. It makes my job easier if you're here at home, to hold down the place and keep your mother and brother safe."

Drew didn't really buy that completely but before she could say anything, her mother appeared. "Josh?" She was wiping her hands on a dish cloth as she neared the three of them. Her face didn't exactly say she was happy to see him. Her usually bright brown eyes were now dark with worry. "You're not staying for dinner."

Drew didn't know how her mother had guessed that, but she blamed it on years of being togethr. Her father set Dorian back down on the floor, his blue eyes now focused on her mother. "No," he wasn't exactly happy about it either. "A coven of three but I only got two of them, Sonya. I should finish it off before it becomes a problem. I came back to restock."

"Can I come this time?" Drew looked up at her father eargerly.

"It's past your bed time, missy," her mother responded this time, placing a hand on Drew's dark brown hair to push it away from her forehead.

"Exactly. We can't have sleepy hunters. But remember, you help me out a lot by staying at home to protect the others," her father reminded her, a fond smile on his face. "Dorian needs his big sister around."

Drew pouted but had resigned herself to the fact that she was going to have to sit this one out.

"I'll be back home by morning," her father said, looking away from Drew and at her mother. He leaned forward to give her a quick peck on the cheek, to which Dorian and Drew both made a face, and he bent down to pull both of his children into a hug before he turned and headed back out the door.

Drew could hear him going to the garage, to grab more weapons and ammo, but she couldn't listen for too long because her mother ushered both her and Dorian into the kitchen for dinner. Drew was in bed within the hour, but her sleep was disturbed not long after.

It was the sound of something breaking that led her to wake up. For a moment, she thought her father was home, but something inside her told her that wasn't the case.

Slowly, she kicked off her blanket and swung her legs off the bed. Her bare feet touched the cold, tiled floor and she looked to the right to see that her brother's bed was empty. Part of her wanted to believe that maybe he got hungry and dropped something while he was getting something to eat from the kitchen, but because she wasn't sure of that, Drew walked out of her room. Down the corridor, right at the end, was the front door to the house. Next to it, on the right was the living room. Closer to her, on the right was the pantry while the kitchen was a little up ahead, on her left, where, at the moment, a light was on. Drew also noticed the shadow of a person there.

She was frozen in place as she watched the shadow moving closer to the doorway of the kitchen, but before she could see who it was, she was pulled into the darkness of the pantry, a hand clamped around her mouth. Drew momentarily panicked till she looked down and noticed in the very dim light, that the caramel coloured arm around her belonged to her mother.

She whipped her head around and her mother let go of her. Despite having hardly any light, Drew could see the fear in her eyes. There was some movement beside her and Drew almost let out a scream, but her mother held her finger to her lips.

Seconds later, Drew's eyes adjusted to the darkness enough to realise that the movement had come from her brother, who was clutching onto her mother's night dress for dear life.

Everything after that happened rather quickly. The sound of footsteps along the corridor seemed to be in sync with Drew's racing heartbeat. Her mother pushed both children to the edge of the pantry in a hurry and bent down to open up what looked like a trap door. Drew only suddenly remembered that such a thing existed in case of emergencies. She also remembered that the space beneath it was only big enough for herself and her brother.

"Stay quiet," her mother told both her and Dorian in a hushed tone once she had gotten the kids to get inside. She quickly shut the top flap and Drew was surrounded by darkness once more.

Dorian was now clutching onto her but he was surprisingly quiet. Drew herself was having a hard time trying not to make a sound, and with each second that passed, it got harder to prevent her tears from spilling over.

Her mother still stood above them in the pantry. There was a light creaking due to her weight, and Drew's heart began to beat faster as she heard the footsteps getting louder. Eventually, they came to a stop.

There was only silence for what felt like ages. And then suddenly, Drew heard her mother scream. She could make out the sound of a scuffle above, and it wasn't just her mother's weight above the trap door anymore. All Drew could make out was different sounds. Each one made her jump. There was the sound of metal falling onto the floor, there was the unfamiliar voice of a woman speaking in an unknown language, and then there was nothing.

Drew was shivering, but she was holding Dorian tight, as if she could shield him from even listening to what was going on above them. Footsteps began to recede.

And then there was nothing.