1 INTRODUCTION
Awoken by the loud thunderstorms and branches cluttering against her window, she sat there in her bed, staring into emptiness as hunger crept into her mind. Sadly, her craving for food ended abruptly, as the sound of her dog barking frantically in the kitchen downstairs caught her attention. This was unusual behavior from her, as she is usually laying on the bed throughout the night right next to Amelia. “Cloe!”, she yelled as she jumped out her bed in search of her slippers. Shortly after finding them she could hear her dog panting heavily and the sound of her paws smacking against the wooden floor as she made her way to Amelia’s room.
“What are you barking at you stupid dog?” she said, with a grin on her face.
Out of excitement Cloe jumped on her lap and started licking her, but Cloe quickly shifted her attention away from Amelia and she rushed downstairs once more. Amelia was not as interested in the whole matter, but now a sense of concern started growing inside her.
“Wha- what is this?” she said to herself with a look of confusion on her face.
She stretched out the bottom of her shirt to try get a better look. Amelia had poor vision, so she reached for her glasses that were on her side table, and just as she put them on to get a better look at what was on her shirt, she was startled by probably the brightest bolt of lightning followed by a deep and ground shaking rumble from the storm.
“Well how exciting”, she said sarcastically.
She got up and off her bed and started making her way downstairs to investigate on whatever Cloe was barking at. Afraid that she might wake up her parents, she slowly walked down the passage and tried not to be as loud as Cloe. unexpectedly, red stains that seemed to be smudged along the wall quickly caught her attention.
“Blood?” she said at the bottom her voice.
Now it was more than just a sense of concern that was fueled up inside her but fear as well, especially with the fact that she has in the matter of seconds figured out what was all over her shirt. She decided to rush downstairs to see where it came from. The staircase still wet from the blood that Cloe had stepped in earlier, Amelia Slipped and found herself tumbling down the stairs and thumping her head on the way down. Lying flat on the ground she gently clinched her forehead and noticed that she was bleeding.
“Ahg great, even more blood” she said, underneath her breath.
Still laying on the ground with her head throbbing and blood dripping down the side of her face, she slowly attempted to get up, however she was stopped by the sight of her mother laying on the kitchen floor.
“M- M-Mom?” she said with a shaky voice.
With nothing but apprehension quickly escalating inside of her, she swiftly rushed to her mother only to be tripped by her father’s outstretched arm who was also laying there, lifeless as ever right beneath the kitchen counter. Eyes wide open and as pale as her parents dead corpse, she was unable to utter a single word. Suddenly, she found herself sitting right between her parents dead bodies in a tarn of blood with her arms wrapped around her legs and blood dripping from her forehead, almost as if someone had turned on a tap and left it running. Rocking back and forth ever so slowly, she failed to show any emotion. She was terrified and it almost seemed as if her brain had switched off, as if it were protecting her from what she had just witnessed. Not even the loud and endlessly disturbing barks from Cloe seemed to bother her.
The Neighbour, Mr. Crawford awoken by his inability to sleep due to Cloe’s infinite barking rushed towards the house. With irritation written all over his face he mumbled his way to his neighbour’s driveway.
“Mr. Flint!”, he yelled as he furiously slammed his palm on the front door several times.
“MR AND MRS’S FLINT, DO YOU MIND SHUTTING YOUR DOG UP OR I’LL COME IN THERE AND DO IT MYSELF!!”. He yelled once more.
He released that he was merely talking to a wooden door as he was not getting any kind of response, so he decided to go around the house and try the kitchen door. Still as irritated as any short scruffy middle-aged man would be when woken up in the middle of the night during a heavy storm, he made his way around the house and stood outside the kitchen taking a quick look in the house through the glass door before yelling once more.
“Mr. Flint! I’m starting to believe you’re avoiding me now.” He said furiously.
Cloe rushed to the door and frantically started barking at him. She never did get along with him so one could say the feeling of irritation between the two was mutual. Just as he was about to walk away, Mr. Crawford noticed the blood that was dripping form Cloe’s furry legs. He immediately sensed that something was wrong and dialled 9-1-1. It probably took him 10 seconds to make the phone and most likely even less the break the glass door.
Standing on the shattered glass that he had broken seconds ago he immediately noticed Amelia sitting in the corner of the kitchen with her arms around her legs and blood dripping from her forehead. Mr. Crawford immediately rushed towards her.
“Amelia, what’s wrong, what happened?” he said with a look of concern written all over his face.
She said nothing, she did not even glance at him. He held her and asked her once more, but it seemed as she was too traumatised to even process what was going on around her, she did not even react to Mr. Crawford breaking into the house a few seconds ago, she just sat there, unbothered.
It only took Mr. Crawford a few seconds to realise the blood that was all over her, he instantly turned around and saw Amelia’s mother laying on the ground.
“Gwen?” he said softly with the shakiest of voices as if the blood she was laying in did not confirm that she was already dead.
“Amelia, wha-what did you do?” he said as he slowly stepped back as if she was some kind of monster.
Within minutes, the sound of sirens had drowned out the loud and heavy storm that was pouring outside. The Police and paramedics were all over the house. Cloe who was still barking at the millions of people who were invading her space was eventually handled by one of the police officers and taken out of the house. Still sitting where Mr Crawford had found her, Amelia was approached by a police officer named Jessica Stones. She had previously questioned Mr. Crawford before she got to Amelia. No one knows exactly what he told her, but all that Amelia noticed was that he kept pointing at her and looking her way every few seconds, as if he were suspecting her of the death of her own parents. Honestly, everyone on the scene suspected her, given she was covered in blood and there was no sign of a break in, other than Mr. Crawford who had smashed the kitchen door to enter the house. Jessica slowly knelt down besides Amelia and asked her if they could have a little chat outside.
“Hi Amelia, my name is Jessica, Jessica Stones. Mr. Crawford told me what happened here, do you mind if I can here your side of the story?” She said, while her and Amelia made their way to the back of an ambulance that was parked in the driveway.
Amelia’s cut was quickly attended to by one of the medics who were at the scene. While Jessica was still waiting for a response from Amelia, two paramedics walked by while pushing a stretcher which had a black body bag on it. By the size and the shape of the body bag alone, Amelia was quick to make out who it was and for the first time that night she showed some kind of emotion, she did not make it as obvious though as she quickly whipped the tears that were running down her cheeks.
“Mr. Crawford knows nothing” she said with a straight face as she watched the paramedics lift her father’s lifeless body into the back of the ambulance.
“Then tell me what you know” Jessica replied.
The second body left the house, but Amelia surprisingly started to cover her ears.
“Aaaghhh, Aaahhh ahhhh stop!” she cried, “Plea- Please, just st- stop!” she wept even louder this time.
“Amelia what’s wrong, who are you talking to!?” Jessica said as she jumped up and off the back of the ambulance.
“The-the voices, the screaming, did you not hear them?” Amelia asked, scared as ever and eyes teeming with tears.
“Voices, what voices?” Jessica asked muddled as ever.
Amelia hugged her as if she were hugging her own mother. Jessica could feel the fear trapped inside of her; her entire body was quivering.
“What really happened Amelia?” Jessica asked herself.
Before she could hug her back two men appeared. One dressed in all black and extremely dimmed glasses, which made no sense because it was 03:00am in the mooring, and the other was slightly shorter, African American and seemed just as serious as the first guy. He was the first to talk out the two.
“Not such a great morning now is it officer?” he said with a smug look on his face.
“My name is Mr. O’Neil, and this here is detective Cooper. We’re from the federal bureau and would like to inform you that this case is now out of your jurisdiction, if you or any of your colleges dig any further into this investigation, I will have you removed from front line duty and you’ll be doing office work for the rest of your life do you understand?” He said as serious as ever.
“Wait wha- uh, how? this makes no sense.” Jessica replied with utter confusion.
“It doesn’t have to make sense, we’re just here for the girl. Amelia, right? please come with us, we have a few questions we would like ask you” he said to her as he stretched out his arm towards her.
Amelia looked up at Jessica with fear fluctuating in her eyes.
“It’s okay” Jessica said as she looked down at her, “They’re just here to help you, and figure out what happened.”
She let go of Jessica and slowly walked towards the two detectives, while doing so she felt a cold breeze brush against her face and nearly as if she could hear the whispers of a thousand voices, she quickly made her way to the two men and walked extremely close to them.
“Don’t worry they’ll look after you” Jessica said with a wide smile on her face as Amelia and the two detectives walked off.
Amelia turned around to respond to Jessica, but she did not. Her heart froze as she saw 3 dark shadows standing behind officer Stones.
“Hell is empty, for all the devils and all the demons walk upon the earth, save your tears for you alone shall lead us” They said to her right before one of them grabbed officer Stones.
Her body was Lifted high into the air and seconds later she dropped down towards the earth. Her body splattered against the hard concrete floor with a bone crushing sound that sent a quiver down everyone’s spine.
No one knew what just happened, as Amelia was the only one who heard and saw the shadows, but everyone knew it all had to do with Amelia, at least that’s what they thought. She was feared from that day forth. Amelia was let go and disappeared without a trace.
