1 Opening

Darkness. Utter and complete darkness. Nothing would be visible to human eyes in this pitch blackness. Nothing. But didn't matter, for these weren't normal eyes...these were different. They could see clearly...make out every detail.

Hands covered in thick red liquid shook as they fidgeted with something. Was it nervousness that shook them...or was it excitement? They were...crafting something. A small doll. Such a bother this had to be done with human flesh, but oh well. The hands applied the final layer of skin over the doll's face...done! The last one completed!

The hands then very carefully placed the doll on a stone shelf...four others stood beside it. Small dolls...they were made out of some grayish leather...almost like skin just starting to decay. Blood ran down them in little droplets. Ah, this was a good moment...it was an exciting moment! It had finally begun...finally it was time. Finally!

A laughter started ringing out in the darkness...a long, howling, cruel, laughter. The large room rang with the wailing...as if the entire world was filled with it. A laughter of complete joy and malice. It was as if the source was absolutely reveling in the thought of what was to come. What had been set in motion.

Death was approaching!

* * *

"A light. A single light in utter darkness."

That's what Jack was, thought Liana Arkwright as she sat on her windowsill in her room and looked up at the night sky.It was a cloudy night. Not a single star shone through. Only the moon pierced the dark blanket. This was what Liana was relating to; her "only light".

She'd just hung up the phone on Jack Carlson, the attractive, smart, charming, and very caring young man from her university. They'd been talking for hours, and now, at one in the morning, she was feeling very poetic looking over her silent surroundings.

Liana had had a crush on Jack the moment she first saw him. Running his hand through his smooth hair, he was laughing with a bunch of other students as he walked across the campus lawns. By some luck, he'd been in one of her classes and her friend had made an introduction.

They didn't talk much at first, but one day her car had broken down and Jack had offered to give her a ride home. After that, their conversations took off. They'd chat for hours on end. Liana really felt like she connected with Jack...but she never had the guts to tell him how she felt about him. Today, diverging from their usual texts, they had called each other up. Time absolutely flew. Before Liana knew it, they had been talking into the late night.

Liana let out a deep sigh and looked down at the backyard. The grass was still and not a creature breathed. "So...peaceful. So perfect." She repeated Jack's words in her mind: "I....I really like talking to you. We should do this more often. How about we grab something to eat the next time we meet?"

Did he "like" her, she wondered. Or was she just taking a few nice remarks way too far? He hadn't given her anything really concrete...and she hoped she hadn't given him much either. Wouldn't wanna appear desperate.

Liana smiled. This was a start. No point in over thinking it. She tore her eyes away from the window, and looked in her now darkened room. It was like a Barbie's room. Pink everywhere: but not the shocking dark pink: Liana hated that pink. It wasn't too light, not too dark. The room had been made like that because of some childhood fantasy she'd always had, but one which her father had only fulfilled a couple years ago. Her huge wardrobe was pink, the bedsheets pink, even her dresser.

She looked at herself in the mirror there and a pretty twenty year old brunette stared back at her. Her green eyes glinting in the moon's light. She pushed a strand of her soft hair behind her ear when she heard an all too familiar grumble of a V8 engine.

It was coming from the driveway and wouldn't have normally reached her if not for the dead silence of the night. She rolled her eyes as her mind registered that it was her younger brother rolling up in his sportscar so early in the morning.

"Oh, grow up, Val", muttered Liana to herself. She checked her watch, "still a bit of time left to grab some sleep", she thought. "Not a lot....but it'd been worth it."

Smiling, she walked over to her bed, jumped in, rolled up inside her blanket and shut her eyes.

* * *

Outside, Valek Arkwright, Liana's younger eighteen year old brother, was just getting out of his lime green Aston Martin Vantage. He softly closed the door, and his black eyes looked around; no one. His parents' room had no light in it; a good omen.

Valek had spent the night partying with his friends and though his mother would let this late arrival of his slide, his father would not be so merciful. Subconsciously, he ran his hands through his black hair, and started making his way towards the main doors.

He had planned for this in advance and had asked his sister, Liana, to keep the backdoor unlocked. In good spirits, he went to the backyard after jumping over a fence and tried the door: it wouldn't budge.

"Goddammit! Sisters." muttered Valek. But no matter, he had a backup plan. A duplicate key of the house he'd had the questionable 'wisdom' to make a few months ago. He slid the key in with an ease that indicated that this wasn't his first time doing it, and walked into the darkened kitchen. Not a soul stirred; perfect.

Tiptoeing through the kitchen, he took the stairs up and turned into a corridor. The house was a rather big one, and there was absolutely no way his parents would ever hear him, Valek thought easily, as he broke into a light jog as he went up to his room. With his hand on the doorknob, he listened for any sound one last time. Nothing.

Smiling, he swung open his door, walked in like a king, and slammed the door behind him.

* * *

The sun dawned bright; it's rays illuminating the house and its surroundings. The garden gleamed in the yellow light, the flowers shining with dew. The few birds that always came to the the tree in the house's huge backyard started singing, and the soon the bustle of life reached the home.

The rays, passing through the blinds, hit Alexander Arkwright's face. The oldest of the Arkwright siblings. At twenty three, he'd just finished his masters of business with full honors and would start work in a couple of months. Making himself push off the cozy blanket and get off the comfortable bed, Alex walked into his bathroom, and jumped into the shower.

He'd been living alone while he finished his business school from Harvard in Boston, Massachusetts, and had recently come back to home at his mother's behest before he found some permanent residence.

There was nothing extraordinary about his appearance; having inherited his father's normal hair color and eye color, he bore no resemblance to his sister (and, as a child, he had resented the fact that she had green eyes and had made her feel bad by always making fun of them). But he was a good looking man who, in his high school days, had had half the girls of his class swooning over him. But he wasn't ever someone who got into a lot of relationships, often sticking with the girl he liked and preferring to work through the problems rather than breaking up.

As he scrubbed himself in the shower, Alex thought of his current relationship and smiled as his girlfriend's face drifted into view in his mind; he was quite looking forward to meeting his girlfriend, after so many weeks, later today.Alex got out of the shower, wiped himself with a towel and looked at himself in the mirror. Clean shaven and teeth shining, he took off the towel around his waist and started dressing himself.

In five minutes he was down at the breakfast table. The kitchen was illuminated in a yellow, quite cinematic light, that only sometimes would be visible early in the morning. Looking at the God-rays, he admired the clean breakfast table which, presumably, his mother had made one of his younger siblings do.

Alex went to open the backdoor and was surprised to see it unlocked. "Ah, Val, you careless fool", he thought. He swung the door open and took a deep breath and stared into their backyard. The white table set still lay out there, the tree as strong as ever, the birds chirping, the backyard stretching wider than two lanes of road. "I've missed this place", he told himself. In good spirits, he went and got the newspaper from the front door, made himself a cheese omelette, cut a loaf of bread, some orange juice, and sat down on the breakfast table.

As Alex was reading an interesting article about dealing with employees who ask for a raise, his sister, Liana walked in.

" 'mornin'" she said, yawning.

"Good morning" replied Alex. He raised his eyebrows behind the paper; his sister was not dressed. Still in pyjamas, she'd just put on a dressing gown and had come downstairs. This was unlike her, as Alex remembered how she'd always be the last one to the table as she'd dress up before coming down.

"Didn't get a lot of sleep, huh?"

Liana shook her head.

Alex chuckled.

"What?" she asked defensively. Too defensively, she realized and she knew that any doubts her brother had, were now gone.

"Ah, young love. And Anne still so childish" grinned Alex. Liana opened her mouth to retort, but her brother had already resumed his reading.

"Whatever." Liana muttered.

"Any plans today before we head out?" she asked.

"No, not really." replied Alex looking up at his sister.

She laughed, "You'll soon be working a job. Like a job job. Oh, I'd be so nervous!"

Alex gave a slight shudder. "I know. Plus, it's the corporate sector. We're taught to be merciless in college. I already got rubbed dry in my internship."

"Who got rubbed how?" asked Paris Arkwright.

A slender woman, her eyes the exact same shade of green as Liana's, and her hair the same brown, walked in. In her early forties, she had aged gracefully, and not a hint about her showing that she was a mother of four children.

Beside her, her arm around her mother's waist and her head resting slightly above Paris's hips, walked Zoe Arkwright. The youngest of all the siblings.

Eleven years old, she had her mother's graceful brunette hair, but her father's normal brown eyes.

"Me. I got rubbed to the bone during my internship", said Alex. "We were just talking about how it's gonna be extra brutal on me when I join."

Paris kissed Liana on the head, gently touched Alex's cheek and sat down. Zoe assumed the seat beside her. "Even though I respect your decision, dear, I still think you should've worked in your Dad's company." said Paris,

"You're right, Mom. I've told you before though, I wanna try new things. This job I got takes me to Vancouver."

"And so far away from me."

"Don't worry" said Alex taking his mother's hand, "I'll be away; not gone."

Paris Arkwright smiled and kissed her oldest child on the cheek. Was he her favorite? She knew mothers weren't supposed to have any...but they were human after all. She got up and started preparing breakfast.

As the smell of waffles wafted in the air, a tall man walked in, his hair showing the very first signs of graying. He had a stubble beard and wore glasses behind which his eyes glinted with intelligence. There was an air of charisma around him; a person one couldn't ignore when he walked in the room.

"Good morning" he said to his children and lightly kissed his wife on the cheek before sitting down at the table.

Deacon Arkwright was the head of the family. A pharmacist by profession, he had started a pharmaceutical company over two decades ago. He'd had a knack for business, and before he knew it, his company had blown up. Now, he ran a few other business ventures, was a shareholder in a few other companies, and President of Arkwright Industries. Charismatic, knowledgeable, intelligent, ruthless, he was adored by his wife and immensely respected by his children.

Deacon sat down at the head of the table, took the paper that Alex offered him, thanked him, and kept the paper, unopened down at the table, and looked around at his family.

"I'm here, I'm here," said Valek running in. Disheveled and unchanged, he sat down at his place, and looked at his father. "Now the whole flock's here."

When money started pouring in, Deacon and Paris had taken a resolve to raise their children right. They firmly believed in teaching their children the proper values, and even though not one child had ever wanted for something, they'd been taught to to be respectful human beings.

Deacon took off his glasses, cleaned them on his handkerchief, and gave a slight smile that only his wife caught as she sat down at the table. He loved seeing his family like this. It'd been a long time since all of them had been together what with Alex being away. But now, he observed, what he thought, was his greatest accomplishment: his family.