AN: This is the first fanfic of the Emigrated series! Yay! You guys might be a bit confused because I'm creating a character profile, but I'm also writing a fanfic at the same time. Also, note that Pauline is my own character, nothing to do with Pauline from Mario. Please don't worry, though, I am trying my best to get the profile finished. Have a great day, people, and enjoy :)

Chapter 1 - Underwater

I slowly looked up from my plate of food and shot a scared look across the dining table to the woman who had supposedly made me and my siblings' lives a misery. My mother. Pauline Riley. As I stared into space, completely blocking out the mindless chatter from my siblings and Pauline, I reminded myself of the horrible, grotesque things that I had been told about her and that she would never, ever come back and visit us again. I had never experienced these things myself, but when my brother, Iggy told us all about this, part of me believed it, part of me didn't. Ever since then, I've thought really hard about whether a mother of four could be so ignorant and selfish towards her children for eighteen long years. Surely not. But even as my mind was screaming at me to think that Pauline had changed over the course of eighteen years, she was sitting adjacent to me at the dining table; it looked as if she was staring me down and I felt a little threatened.

"Enjoying your lunch, Larry?" Pauline asked.

I nodded, but didn't reply. To be honest, that was a pretty stupid question because she must've been able to see that I hadn't touched a lot and I had never so much as nibbled a piece of my sandwich; Pauline's shady and chilling presence was making me lose my appetite. I wanted to run out of the dining room as fast as my legs would carry me and upstairs to my room and therefore, I could let out all my stress and fear into my pillow, but I had second thoughts on that. I wasn't that much of a coward. Right at that moment, Pauline slowly lowered her head so that her face was centimetres away from mine.

"You're awfully quiet," she said eerily. She looked into my eyes and I couldn't help but do the same.

"Is it a bit of a shock that I came back?"

I shot a frightened glance at Iggy for help.

"Don't worry about it, Mom," he replied, nonchalantly, "He usually doesn't like change,"

"Oh, that's fine, then. As long as he's not afraid that I might hurt him in any way. Now, that's a thing I would never do, not now at least,"

Within an instant, my mind started whirring. I noticed that in Pauline's voice, she sounded very malicious and sinister, as if she actually was thinking about hurting me, not just in any way, but in every single way possible. I took small, surreptitious breaths, anticipating the worst to happen any second. Knowing that I had to eat, I reluctantly picked up my sandwich and opened my mouth to take a bite, however, something stopped me. Something unmistakable. Something that I had to run away from. I had seen a brief but bright sparkle from the corner of my eye. My eyes slowly moved downwards and fixed onto Pauline's coat pocket. The very moment I saw what emerged from it, my breathing, as well as my heart rate increased rapidly.

It was a knife.

I knew exactly what Pauline was going to do with it and I needed to act fast. Very fast. I couldn't look away, I couldn't wait a single second. I had to protect my siblings because I couldn't bear to see them suffer from Pauline's power of her knife and otherwise they wouldn't even know what hit them. I sharply stood up from my seat, causing the legs of my chair to scrape along the floor as I did so.

"She's got a knife," I said solemnly.

I gestured to the table with my eyes and instantly, my siblings' heads disappeared under the table. As I had expected, they all popped back up again within a millisecond later; I suppose they would've been too quick for Pauline to shove the knife back into her pocket again. My siblings stared at me in shock and I noticed that their faces were white as sheets.

I shot a look at Pauline, angry that she, as a mother, had gone as far as to attempt to kill her children. We both shared a similar gaze, and I suppose she was angry because I had just revealed the fact that she had been caught. As seconds passed, I gradually noticed Pauline's face glow with fury and I saw that her eyes had become ablaze. All of a sudden, she gritted her teeth, gave a piercing shriek of rage and charged towards me, drawing back the knife, which was secured firmly in her hand. With my heart pumping so fast, I thought I was going to explode, I dived out of the way just in time and Pauline stabbed a huge hole into the wall. My siblings had escaped out of the back door and they were screaming and pleading at me to join them so that I would be free from the danger, but I already knew how quick Pauline could be, so I simply remained where I was. However, I was foolish to pay attention to the back door rather than Pauline because the first thing I saw when my head turned was her running straight for me.

I was cornered now. There was nothing I could do. Time seemed to slow down as I weakly watched the knife draw back. I closed my eyes tight, waiting for the sharp, pained sensation to enter my stomach and, what seemed like minutes later, it did. I let out a howl of pain and I didn't know how, but I was still standing upright. It felt like I was underwater. I couldn't see, I couldn't hear, I couldn't feel. After a few seconds of complete and utter physical torture, I toppled forward.

My body hit the floor.

AN: Yes, it's pretty dark, I know, but it's what I can come up with…sadly. I will be really happy if you like it though :)