"Mummy, why's there a knife hidden in the pantry?"
Alexandriana had never seen a knife like it before. A black blade, a black hilt with odd symbols. It looked nothing like the kitchen knives her parents used when they cooked food for the family in the kitchen, just as her mother did now. The large knife chopping celery into small, even pieces was silver and normal. Nothing like the black blade that she could have sworn tugged at something unknown in Alexandriana's chest.
The large knife clattered onto the cutting board. Her mother whipped around to stare at her. Alexandriana paused, bewildered by her mother's fierce expression as she stopped kicking her leg. She remained seated on the chair she'd dragged into the kitchen for the very purpose of watching her cook. "What were you doing in the pantry?" she snapped. "You didn't touch it, did you?"
In a small voice, Alexandriana answered, "No. I didn't. I was just looking for the cookies Matt said were hidden in there." It occurred to her now, of course, that Matthew was likely looking to get her into trouble like this. Her older brother was always pulling tricks like that. But she wasn't to be distracted by her annoyance with him. Instead, she was immensely interested in her mother's reaction.
Her mother's shoulders slumped in relief. "Forget you saw it," she warned, turning back to her cooking. There was a warning in her tone that Alexandriana so rarely heard. She'd only heard that tone when she'd heard her mother tell her not to go in the attic – a rule she seldom broke with her brothers. There were so many strange things up in the attic, it scared her.
Her mother must have seen the upset, worried look on her daughter's face, for she softened and paused to reach over and brush hair from Alexandriana's cheeks. "If you promise me you won't think about it again, then you can have one cookie before dinner, but only if you don't tell your father."
"Promise!" Alexandriana squeaked, flying for the pantry.
She broke that promise, of course. Mere days later, when the scary man with the oddly sharp teeth broke in and used those sharp teeth to rip open her father's throat in front of them all – when her mother hid her and Matt in the very pantry that knife was hidden in, she broke her promise. For when the scary man's dogs dragged her kicking and screaming from that pantry, their teeth shredding through delicate skin, she used that very knife to try and scare them off of her, all the while screaming for her dead mother as her older brother wept in the pantry only six feet away.
And so begins the revised/rewritten version of Skinwalker! I'll be keeping the ending comments and review thanks as they were upon original posting. :)
NOTICE: some clear discrepancies will occur until more recently updated chapters/the story will seem a little mismatched for a bit.
Updated: February 14, 2024