Tara

   "What do we have here?" said the creature with a grin. It seemed to take delight in their fear as Tara and her family cowered in his presence.

   This being, unlike the last one, appeared to have a gender. From his masculine form, he was obviously a male.

   The male demon inhaled deeply, drinking in their fear with obvious delight.

   "Don't you think it's time for some fun?" Asked the creature, his silvery eyes gleaming wickedly.

   Though Tara was afraid, she noticed that even though she understood the male before her, his mouth movements didn't match up with his words. She wondered how such a thing was possible, and how he could speak her language so fluently.

   The creature swaggered over to her mother who was shaking uncontrollably and motioned to her.

   "Get up, human filth," he said gleefully as he leered at her.

   Then Tara's father stood up and put himself in between his wife and the male before them. "Please, sir, leave my wife alone..." he began to shakily say, when the creature growled in annoyance and backhanded him, sending him flying against the wall.

   "SILENCE!!" Thundered the demonic creature, as Tara's father slumped against the wall. "What gives a worm like you the right to stand against me? You have no rights! You are nothing but animals to be sold or used as we see fit!"

   Turning to Tara's mother, he haughtily demanded, "Now, Filth, grovel before me and lick my foot."

   Tara's mother and sister was shaking so badly that their teeth were chattering. Tara herself couldn't stop shaking. One of her brothers was laying face first on the floor, covering his head with his arms. Her other brother was staring at their father, who lay unmoving.

   "Father...?" He said hoarsely, as he stared at his father in horror. "Father!"

   "I said to lick my foot," demanded the creature with irritation, as he kicked his foot into Tara's mother's face. She cried out in pain as she lurched backwards from the force of his kick, her face bloodied. Tara noticed with horror that her mother was missing her front teeth, both top and bottom. They had been ripped from her gums from the kick that the demon had used on her.

   Her mother's throat was filled with teeth and blood, choking her. She vomited up her bloodied teeth, causing the creature to step back, his lips curling with distaste.

   "Hmmm... I forgot how weak you humans are. Barely worth keeping around. You humans never last long... takes away the fun," he said with a slight shrug. Turning around, he left the cell, seemingly losing interest in tormenting the human family.

   "Mother!" Cried Tara, as soon as the creature left. "Mother, are you alright?"

   One of Tara's brothers stared at his mother's face in horror, along with his other sister. Her other brother looked back and forth from his mother to his father who was still laying unconscious near the wall, uncertain about who to see to first.

    Their mother wasn't able to speak very well with the lack of her front teeth. She would spit out blood with every word that she tried to utter.

   "Whateba dey tell you to do, ust do it," she rasped, coughing up the blood that leaked into her throat.

   Tara and her sister sobbed, horrified at what was done to their mother. They could tell that she was in pain, but trying not to show it in front of them.

    "Your pader... where is he?"

    Tara's eldest brother finally stood and approached their father.

   "Father?" He called, shaking his father gently. "Father, wake up! Mother... she's... she's asking for you," he said hesitantly.

   When his father still didn't respond to his words or shaking, the boy began to shake him harder.

   "Pa?? Father, please wake up! Please..." he begged, his voice breaking on the last word.

Still, his father didn't move.

A sinking feeling filled Tara and her siblings as they stared at their father. Their mother didn't seem to notice, busy as she was struggling to breathe normally. She didn't see the looks on her children's faces as the same thought crossed all of their minds... was their father dead?

Suddenly, their father jerked. He gave a loud gasp as his body twitched.

"Father?" Tara's sister called hopefully. With a loud groan, their father rolled to his side and slowly sat up. Blinking his eyes, he slowly gazed around their cell. When his eyes settled on his wife, they widened in horror.

Tara's mother wasn't someone that could be called gorgeous, but there was a kind of beauty about her that people saw when they got to know her. She had great inner strength, evident in her caring for her four children and her husband. And though he didn't always show it, Tara's father cared about his wife very deeply. So when he looked and saw what had happened to her face, it was as if something cracked within him. The woman that he loved and cared for, who bore and raised his four children, was so brutally beaten that her face was almost unrecognizable. He could see that she was in extreme pain, and his heart broke at the knowledge that she was hurting and he could do nothing... that she was injured and he wasn't there to protect her or keep her safe.