FLASHBACK:
Her father, Robert Caffrey, was a secretive man. He told his family that he worked as a security advisor at one of the largest banks in town, alongside his good friend and partner Jeff. His shifts were constantly changing. Sometimes he was required to go interstate, occasionally for weeks at time. They accepted it as it brought the money, although Molly could tell it upset her mother to have him gone for long periods at a time. When she was 12 years old, she heard her parents arguing one night.
"Why can't you tell me where you're REALLY going?" Her mother shouted in an accusing manner.
"What do you mean? Do you think I'm having an affair?" Her father retaliated.
"I don't know what to think. You're barely here these days and when you are here, you're distant. You've got bruises all over you, for God's sake! Don't tell me you ran into something or fell. I want the truth… or…" Molly could see the tears falling down her mother's face as she stayed hidden, peering slightly through the crack in the door.
"Or what…?" Her father lowered his voice.
Her mother shook her head and turned away.
"I never wanted this for any of you. There are things that I cannot tell you, but it is not what you think it is. I would never hurt any of you… I'm…" his voice cracked, "I'm doing this to protect you."
"I feel like I don't know you anymore. I know you have a dangerous job, but what's changed lately? Are you in some kind of trouble?" Concern etched her mother's face.
He didn't reply. She turned back around to face him when his phone buzzed. He hesitated, not wanting to end the conversation like this. The phone buzzed again so he pulled it from his pocket.
It was work. They needed him urgently, something was wrong and he had to go right away. He looked up at her, she whispered "Go..."
He walked over to her and pulled her into his arms. Molly wasn't sure what was going on but she could tell things weren't okay. She had tears forming in her eyes as she watched the scene unfold in front of her.
Her father kissed her mother, whispering "I love you. I love all of you very much and we will work this out together… as a family." He pulled back from her, squeezing her hands as he gathered his things and moved out the door. Molly ran back into her room. Her brother and sister were already asleep in their rooms. She sprung into her bed, pulling the covers over her head and pretending to be asleep. Her father did the rounds, saying goodnight to each of them, leaving Molly last but not least.
He walked into her room, smiling at his daughter. He knew she would do amazing things one day, she was very clever and smart for a 12 year old. He had a terrible feeling in his stomach that this may be the last time he saw her in a while.
He leant down and kissed her forehead, whispering. "There's no goal too big, darling daughter. Never let anything stop you from reaching your goals."
Molly kept her eyes shut tight, tears forming inside them. Her dad pulled away before taking his watch off and resting it on her bedside table. She heard the footsteps leaving her room and making their way downstairs before the front door opened and closed with a soft bang.
He got into his car and started the motor. His phone rang. Caller ID was Jeff. He answered the call.
"Rob… I hate to tell you this but… It's happening. They're here and they know where you are. You need to get to the safe zone right away!" Jeff told him.
"I had a bad feeling this would happen… I don't know how, but I just knew…." He paused and then finished with 'Please look after my family… promise me?"
"I will. I have men watching the house now and we'll organise to move them in the next few days."
The aliens were here. There may have been only a handful, but they were powerful and they wanted to extinguish Robert, as he was a major threat.
While on an assignment, he had come across a space craft. It wasn't all that large so they were able to transport it to a holding facility within a day, before transferring to an underground bunker in Alaska that was built specifically in the event of an Alien abduction.
It wasn't the craft itself that interested them all, it was what they found inside. Plans to take over Earth. There were diagrams, detailed in several hundred pages. They decided to get a head start on the ship and check it over while it was in the holding facility in Minnesota.
Robert made a huge mistake, though. He couldn't resist pressing just one button. The scientists were too busy rummaging around the ship to notice. Suddenly a screen turned on in front of him. What he saw almost scared the daylight out of him. Aliens. They were black, roach looking creatures.
The scientists looked up in shock and horror. Robert was frozen, staring at the screen as the creatures peered back at him. Suddenly a flash. He winced and pulled away, rubbing his eyes.
"You have our ship. We will find and destroy you, human." The creature said in a snarly voice.
They were pissed off. One, because they had their ship. Two, because now the humans knew their plans to take over Earth, so they could prepare for it.
One of the scientists jumped up and pressed another button. The screen turned off.
"What have you done?" The scientist turned to Robert.
"I… I have to go." He ran out of there as fast as possible. The scientists removed all wire connections to the screen and made sure to cut out any power to the ship to avoid any more transmissions.
He had several meetings with his superiors over the next few days. They had advised that he take some time off but he insisted he keep on working. He needed to find out as much as he could about these Aliens, about their plans for Earth. The aliens were already here. They had taken over a small selection of humans. Robert started to notice strange things happening to him over the next few months. People were watching him, following him in his car.
He thought he was just being paranoid until one of them attacked him one night while he was leaving work. Luckily, Jeff had forgotten to give him something during the day and shot the attacker. When the man didn't fall to the ground, he shot again and again until he eventually fell to the ground. They dragged the man inside and heavily sedated him. The agency ordered that the man to be transferred to Alaska to be held in a facility where he would be constantly under sedation so tests could be done.
Robert was startled by the event but had no idea this would affect his entire life so much. It was hard enough being a secret agent and not being able to tell your family anything.
This was the last time any of them saw him. He never returned home the next day. The next night, her mother received a phone call from Jeff. Jeff had tried to check in with the agents guarding their house, but after no response, he knew something bad was about to happen.
"Anne, I just received a call from... you need to get the kids and hide!" He spoke fiercely.
"Jeff! What are you talking about? What the hell is going on?" She jumped out of bed straight away, knowing something was very wrong. She moved into each of the kids' rooms and shook them awake.
They didn't have a clue what was going on and were disorientated from being asleep, but they complied and followed her. Molly's room was at the end of the hallway. They all stood in there waiting for their mother to speak. Jeff was still on the other end of the phone.
"Have you got all the kids with you?"
"Yes. But-"
"I'll explain everything later. I promise… but right now you all need to hide." Jeff told her.
Before they could say any more, there was a loud smashing sound from downstairs. Molly's younger sister Amy screamed, while her mother quickly covered her mouth to dull the sound.
"Shhh, baby. You need to stay quiet, okay?" Molly's brother Ben thought quickly as they heard men shouting from downstairs. "CHECK UPSTAIRS! GO!" They heard the sound of men's heavy boots thud up the stairs.
"Quick, we need to hide." Ben said to them all. Her mother gathered them and they ran to the closet. They closed the door as quietly as possible and moved toward the back of the closet. There was a secret door inside there. Anne quickly punched in the code and the door unlocked. She opened the door and ushered them inside. It was small, very small, actually, but it would fit the three kids. That was her main priority.
It all happened so fast. There was a bright light, the cupboard door opened and two men stood in front of them all with guns pointed at them. Anne slammed the door closed as the kids screamed. The gunshots rang through the air as their mother screamed.
The men smashed up the house, searching eagerly for the item that her father had left behind. However, they did not have enough time. Before they knew it, the FBI were all over the house like a rash. They shot and captured all of the intruders. They found Anne Caffrey upstairs with two gunshot wounds, bleeding heavily from her shoulder and back.
Agent Jackson ran over to her and checked her pulse, looking up at his partner Agent Moore.
"SHE'S ALIVE!…barely." He shouted, putting pressure on her back wound while the other agent grabbed a towel to help put pressure on the other wound.
The quiet sobs could be heard from inside the closet. More agents filled the room as paramedics followed, moving their mother onto the gurney as they hooked her up to oxygen immediately.
"Jackson. Do you hear that? It's coming from inside there." They saw the door slightly ajar and slowly opened it. What they saw inside broke their hearts. The poor kids were traumatised. The agents moved the kids out of the space as quickly as possible to keep them from seeing the bloody scene, softly speaking comforting words to them.
This was a night they would remember for the rest of their lives. They each had to undergo counselling for the next 6 months and never returned to their house. They had body guards looking out for them wherever they went. Their mother survived the wounds however was paralysed from the waist down after the gunshot wound to her spine. As she was too unwell to leave the hospital, and all the kids were under the age of 18, they were put into a foster care home temporarily until one of Anne's long-term friends stepped up and applied for a temporary guardianship of the three kids.
The next few years were hard, the kids all received counselling twice a week. They never found her father. Never found out why he disappeared. Jeff hadn't told Anne what he knew as he was sworn to secrecy however he was there supporting them through it all as best he could.
END FLASHBACK: