Verena

As I lay on this white soft, cold mattress looking up onto the dimmed ceiling I always think about that night. It was the most horrifying night of my entire life. Since that day I have never been the same, I can still hear their screams in my dreams. I know I need to move on but deep down I want whoever did this to pay for it. If I do not get my revenge I will never be able to rest, I have to do this.

1 year ago :

(Five people walking out of an Italian restaurant in the City of Hollow at around midnight) "Damm that was some of the most amazing food I have ever eaten", "Oh Jackson its only because you don't eat any proper meals anymore". Jackson turns around to Lucy and sticks his tongue out, while Lucy and Verena laugh. Their Mum catches a glimpse of this in the corner of her eye, "aren't you guys a little too old to be so childish now". Verena and Lucy stops laughing while Jackson rolls his eyes. "Hey come on now Anna we hardly ever get together like this anymore let them have some fun". John then wraps his arms around Anna and smiles "oh fine then they can act like children" Anna says while smiling at John.

We continued to walk down the dark street, Lucy and Jackson were play fighting I didn't realize how much they have both changed but they will always be the most childish people. While walking behind them all I noticed was Jackson had gotten a lot taller since he has been away. Jackson works for a market research company which means he sometimes has to go away on trips, but the one he had just been on lasted for a whole year. I can tell he hasn't been able to get a hair cut for a while since his dark hair is in a man bun. Even if he looks like a hippy he is still his usual self.

Unlike Jackson Lucy clearly had some sort of mental breakdown at University by the way she looks. I only assumed this because her hair is completely shaved off and she has died her hair neon pink. When Mum first saw Lucy after coming home one weekend she screamed in horror, it was rather funny at the time. I think me, Dad and Jackson just laughed while Mum was chasing Lucy around the garden with a saucepan. After a while our Mum accepted it and pretended that she still had her long black hair. As much as I hate to say this but I am quite jealous of Lucy, she can pull off these insane vibrant colors unlike me.

In a way I am jealous of both of them, unlucky for me I am the youngest. Which means I cannot do things like they have. With me just living at home its a lot more quieter and lonely that's why I love it when we can all get together and catch up. Being the youngest sometimes sucks because now my Mum is more protective, which isn't a bad thing but its rather annoying when I walk to the shops and she texts me to ask where I've gone. But I know that she just worries about me especially living in a City like this and after her accident.

The City of Hollow was once a vibrant happy place to be in, everyone was happy there was so much life here until gangs arrived. For some unknown reason many different gangs started coming here, hurting and killing people. This once beautiful City turned into a dark, grey place, people are scared to go out. The police stopped caring and the gangs and thugs run the streets, people like my family can't even move away we are all stuck in this scummy City. There was a rumor that came from a street food place that the Mafia was the one that had taken over the City because the Mayor lost a bet, but nobody knows if its true or not. Since that rumor spread the whole family of the street food place went missing even their cat, so it wouldn't surprise me if it was true. Although ever since that incident nobody has ever spoken about it again. I know deep down everyone wants the old City back but there's no going back now I get the feeling that we are all being controlled by someone yet nobody can prove it. And even if we try to snoop in something that we don't understand we will just get our whole family killed.

Still I want to change this City to how it use to be before. Since the City became the slums my dad has had to work extra hours and is hardly home. Since the gangs arrived the money coming into the City mysteriously gotten low which means the wages has. As much as my Dad wants to hide it I can see how exhausted he his I just want to help him. We don't have that much savings left because most of it went to Lucy's loan for University. And Jackson has to pay for his home but he sends us a little of his money to help. I have been looking for a job but at the moment because of the low income people are not needing new staff, I honestly don't know how long we have left till we end up on the streets, we might end up in the thirteenth block.

When the gangs arrived and the money income went down many families and people lost their jobs, homes and life's. So these people ended up going to the thirteenth district, when the City was normal the thirteenth block was the most gorgeous place to visit. It was mainly fields of colorful flowers and blossom trees, but now it was a dirty place. The bright green grass that once grew there was now brown mud, the blossom trees got chopped down or burnt. All you see when you go there is people begging for money or for some food. There must be thousands of starving people living in horrible conditions, with no clothes or shelter. I once accidently walked down there and I saw this young boy, he was so skinny I could see his ribs and his skin was more white than a ghost . He was only wearing blue shorts and his feet had blisters that looked infected. When I saw this boy he was crouching down looking at something so I called out to him. The boy turned around, his eyes seemed like he had no soul but as he turned around I noticed that he had a dead rat in his mouth. The blood was around his mouth and hands I felt sick to my stomach. All the boy did was stare at me while chewing on this dead rat I was completely shocked and disguised. Has this boy not seen another Human before does he have a Mother? All I did at that moment was run home I couldn't believe how bad this place had gotten, I decided not to tell anyone about this especially my Mother.

A couple of years ago before the City turned into a hell hole my Mum use to be a construction worker. One day someone left a screw lose on the new flooring and my Mum went straight through it which broke her back. She was in the Hospital for months, it also cost us a lot of money because we didn't have any insurance. The company that my Mum worked for gave us a little bit of money but it wasn't enough. We couldn't sue the company either because my Mum signed a wavier before working with them. So my Dad had to work four jobs in order to pay for the bills but to also feed us. After the accident that's when the gangs started arriving which made my Mums mental health even worse. She hardly goes out anymore, she afraid of being crush or getting attacked. The only time she goes out is with Dad he makes her feel safe.

We continued to walk down our road, luckily for us our part of town was well lit and we didn't see many gangs around here but when we did no matter what we just had to run. I missed being able to walk around freely it was peaceful but now we always had to watch our backs.

As we walked down our street I thought I saw someone in the corner of my eye on someone's roof but it could of just been a bird. Lucy and Jackson was still in front of me while Mum and Dad was walking beside them. Seeing my family together like this made me happy, even though I know that Jackson feels bad for not being there anymore and I know Lucy feels bad about the loan but we are all here together with each other. Still I cannot shake this feeling that we aren't alone.

We were nearly home the restaurant we went to was only about twenty mins away, plus the owner knows my Dad so he gives us discount. The owner of the place is an old guy he looks like he's in his seventy's. Ever since the City went down this man has always been nice to us because he knows the situation we are in. He always makes me laugh its nice seeing someone like him in a place like this it gives us hope.

We were all still walking and I felt a sudden breeze go by I didn't like this feeling. I walked a little faster and grabbed my Dads arm. "Is everything okay Ver"? My dad looked at me with a concerned face, "yeah everything's fine I just want to walk with you". My Dad gave me a smile and looked back up and then suddenly stopped. I was confused at what he was looking at so I looked forward I could tell my siblings didn't notice because they were still bickering behind us until they bumped into our Dad then looked over his shoulders.

My Dad looked as if he had seen a ghost I decided to look up to where he was looking and saw a silhouette of a man standing on the bridge in front of us dressed in black holding two long vertical swords. He had a big hood up so I couldn't see his face, but he looked as if he was out of some fantasy movie. Just by looking at this person I can tell he was extremely tall and by the look of his arms I can tell he is strong. Seeing this man in the clear sky I had a feeling that it was him following us but why. Who is this man why is he here, all five of us just stood there in complete silence looking at this Man.

"EVERYONE YOU NEED TO RUU-" before my Dad could finish his sentence the silhouette of this Man struck my Dad with his two blades. I didn't even see him coming it was like he had God speed. As the man struck my Dad it felt like the world went into slow motion and I saw a glimpse of the man. He had a sharp jawline and cold ocean blue eyes as he struck my Dad he looked at the me in his eyes all I could see was Evil. The world went back to normal and the man disappeared so I turned to my Dad and he was still standing but he had no head.

I stood there in shock as my Dads body fell to the ground, blood gushing out from his neck. My Mum let out an enormous scream and my siblings fell to the ground behind us. As my Dads body fell to the ground in front of me I heard a thump next to the body. I couldn't quite see what it was because there wasn't enough light but I heard something roll down it was the head of my Dad. The head rolled down blood spilling everywhere. His head then stopped and looked straight at me. His face had the same expression on it when he told us to run, the blood from his neck was spilling out and all I could think was why.

I was frozen in place I couldn't move couldn't speak. My ears felt buffered all I was seeing was the head of my dad. I could barley hear but I heard my Mum call out to me so I turned around. As I looked at my Mum I saw the man standing behind her, she started running towards me holding her arm at me "Verr-". Before she could finish calling out to me a saw a slice at her neck and her head and body slowly fell to the ground. A dead silence echoed the streets all my senses came back all at once and I felt a sudden rush.

I turned towards my siblings who were still on the ground trembling. I ran towards them then felt something behind me I ducked and turned around it was the man. I was a little slow because one of his swords cut me on my neck but it wasn't too deep. Because I ducked I was looking up at the man and could see his devilish face. Even though this man was evil he looked as if he was shocked by me. His glowing blue eyes locked onto my forest green eyes and there was a sudden pause. As our eyes met for a moment it felt like a lighting bolt struck but as quickly lighting strikes it flashed away and all I could think of is hatred for this man.

The man then vanished away, I panicked where did he go I looked around me and couldn't see him and then I heard a piercing shriek behind me. I turned my head and saw Jackson bleeding out on the floor next to Lucy. And before I could even move I saw the man sprint and cut Lucy's head off. Her head fell to the ground then her body fell my whole family was killed before my eyes and now it was my turn. I got up as quickly as I could and was circling around waiting for the man to pounce but he didn't. I then heard something like a piece of paper fell to the ground behind me I turned to see a folded bit of paper on my dads body, I walked towards it and picked the paper up and opened it.

As I opened the paper I was confused with what it said. The words were written in some fancy writing and all the letter said was four words "This was your fault". I heard something scratch the bridge so I looked up and saw the man looking down on me then disappeared again. I knew that the man was truly gone now and I was left with the bodies of my family around me, I fell to the ground and screamed at the top of my lungs, tears falling down all I felt was pain.

That was a year ago today the police didn't do anything and all I had was this letter that had nothing on except four words. I stared at this letter while laying in my empty apartment, all I could think about was who and why. I will find whoever did this and make them pay.