3.

I collapsed onto my bed in a heap, my stomach swollen from the pepperoni pizza I had devoured. Everyone had gone to bed, exhausted as the night began to press its heavy clock down upon our town. The bloodstone was warm on my chest as I started at the cracked ceiling. Our house seemed new on the outside, but appearances are deceiving. It was one of the oldest houses in the town; built when people first began to make it their permanent home, with wooden panels and leftover cracked tiles. While the insides of the house were slowly beginning to decay, it gave it a certain atmosphere. It was almost as if the house was a living and breathing organism. Sometimes Virgo and I liked to imagine the house could talk to us, and would ask the walls what games we should play or where we should hide whilst playing hide and seek.

Virgo always said the house held the spirits of our ancestors. But they could only talk to her, not to me.

Eclipse, Virgo's cat, jumped up onto my bed and interrupted my thoughts.

Her eyes were amber, contrasting vividly against her shiny black coat which barely shed in the summer months. I lifted my hand so she could rub her head on my nails. She ignored my hand and pawed my side, the signs she made when she was hungry. I sighed and shifted off my bed, knowing she would not let me sleep until she had been fed. While Eclipse was supposed to be Virgo's cat, I was the one who got stuck with feeding and cleaning her. Not that I minded, but she had a habit of waking me up in the middle of the night because she wanted to go outside.

I stumbled down the hallway, still wearing my long dress but free of the pain of high heels. My instep was slowly adjusting to the flat surface of the ground after being curved upright for hours. Eclipse followed, curling herself repetitively around my legs. It wasn't until I reached the fridge that I noticed the sliding door to the backyard was left open. I sighed, knowing that Virgo had probably gone outside to cleanse her stones under the moonlight or make another 'enchanted' piece of jewellery.

"Virgo?" I whisper yelled, stepping out into the grass. The tall trees that grew on the boarder of the national park swayed like dancers in the breeze. The grass tickled my toes, spiking into my skin, and the night birds chirped. But there was no sign of Virgo.

I turned to go back inside, but the ball of fur called Eclipse shot between my legs and made a beeline to the forest. I groaned and sat on the back step; only an idiot would leave a door open when they knew their animal liked to explore. I knew better than to go after her; the trees held secrets in their branches; many unkind creatures lay within them. And with the addition of having Extra-terrestrial obsessed parents, I also knew that if aliens did walk among us, they targeted those alone, particularly in forested regions.

Closing my eyes, I let the wind press soft kisses onto my cheeks and brush its gentle fingers through my hair. I relaxed into its embrace and for a moment I forgot about Lucas and the performance and the strange men in the hall. But reality always triumphed; the moment did not last forever.

There was thump. A sickening, wet, thump at my feet. I peeled my eyes open in drowsiness, expecting to see a dead mouse at my feet; a gift from Eclipse. Instead, it was Eclipse who was at my feet.

The cat's body was twisted; mangled pieces of flesh spewing out from its stomach. Its neck was snapped, the bone protruding out of the fur. Its insides hollowed, as if an ice cream scoop spooned them out, the body had folded in on itself, with no support structure to keep it in one piece. Her amber eyes were missing. The cat was no longer Eclipse.

I couldn't control it, the bile rising in my throat, and spewed the remains of my dinner onto the corpse. The sight of the corpse, now covered in my own insides, only served to make it worse. I clutched my stomach as a searing pain rippled through my middle and the rest of my dinner fell from my dried lips. Attempting to rise, I stumbled and fell hands first into the mess, my fingers digging into the mattered fur of the cat. A wretched gurgle escaped my burning throat as my hands darkened with blood. It was only then that I began to sob.

A chuckle. A man was laughing from the tree line.

My eyes shot upwards. I fell backwards onto the step. My head hit the sliding door. What was once open, unlocked, was now shut tight. My limbs weak from shock trembled in a wild anticipation as the man pushed off a tree and stalked towards me. At least seven foot tall, the man had walked half way to my home by the time I had begun to process his appearance. Clad in a long white cape, steam pealed off his broad shoulders, which were built under armoured clothes. His features were undefinable behind a series of long red lines that covered his cheeks and nose, blood dripping down onto his bare white skinned neck. His long black hair fell in rippling waves to his waist, where something tucked in his belt glimmered under the moonlight.

Back pressed against the glass, I was frozen in fright. Attempting to scream was useless; my throat still burning from the upheaval of stomach acid.

The man closed the distance between us, stepping on the corpse of the cat-the skull popping under the weight of his boot-before he knelt before me. His head cocked, he leaned forwards and smelt the skin on my neck. His gloved hands reached forwards, dragging the tip of his finger down my cheek. My chest heaved, but I could do nothing but wait to be gutted by the man who had murdered my sister's cat with a smile.

But then he drew back and began to laugh.

I collapsed into myself, drawing my knees to my chest as the man cried out hysterically. I did not believe in a god, but at that moment I prayed for my mother and father to wake and free me from the clutches of the mad man before me.

Wide eyed and mouth aghast, I stared at the man in a fascinating horror as the cuts upon his skin began to disappear. His face was untouched by scarring of any kind and his eyelashes framed eyes the colour of the summer sky. His thin lips, drawn upwards in extended laughter, revealed sharp white teeth which seemed to be covered in tiny gemstones. With a sharp nose and strong brows, the man looked like the perfect Hollywood villain; beautifully dangerous.

"Oh, honey! Did you really believe that was real?" He laughed again and walked back to the corpse of the cat.

I whimpered as he picked up Eclipse's body, only to find it was nothing more than a dead squirrel, its body completely intact. My fingers immediately rose to the stone around my neck as if it would give me the protection my sister had promised.

"I must say, you did quite a number on yourself there." The man smiled wickedly and threw the animal into the tall grass. It was a sick joke, all of it. I swore that I would make whoever had set this up pay for what they did.

"Lucius, stop playing around with the guests. She must return in one piece. That includes her sanity." A velvety voice spoke from the tree line.

He emerged in much the same manner as the first, but he was cautious in his movements. Gliding over the tall grass, this man held an aura that demanded respect and evoked curiosity. His hair fell across his eyes in dark waves, hiding his eyes from me. He wore the same white cloak as his friend, but the steam did not peel of his clothes; it surged from his back in waves. But that was not what amazed me.

Eclipse was squirming in his arms. My body acted before my mind: I rose and took the animal from the mans arms, clutching her tight to my chest. She meowed softly and pawed at my chest, rubbing her big head into the crook of my neck. My eyes rose to gaze at the second cloaked man. He was even more beautiful than the first, if that was to be possible. With a long slender nose at the centre of strong-jawed face, his face was perfectly symmetrical. Thick lips were curved into a genuine small smile, poking dimples into his cheeks. Dark were his eyes, nearly the colour of the night's sky. For a moment, I thought I could see the beginning of a scar atop one of his eyes, but he withdrew from close proximity before I could examine the wonders of his features.

"With all due respect milady, I am going to have to ask you to come with us." He spoke again, his voice thick with an accent I could not identify.

My hands tightened around Eclipse as realisation dawned upon me. This was no prank. These were the men from the hall who had disappeared before my eyes. Every fibre within me was telling me to run, but I knew that these men were dangerous. They had played tricks on me, ones I did not understand, but tricks none the less. I had the feeling they had planned a response to every possible outcome of the situation. But unfortunately, humans have the tendency to pick possibilities over logic.

I ran.

But not for long.

Before I had taken two steps towards my home, I was tackled to the ground by a mass of weight I had never before experienced. All my knowledge of fighting dissipated as I released the cat in fear and clawed at the mans face. He seemed to sigh, as if bored by the situation, and quickly restrained my arms. Eclipse bolted towards the house, I couldn't have felt more alone.

The sneering face of the longhaired man stared down at me, impatiently snapping his teeth at me.

"Listen here, miss, you come with us or you die." Lucius chuckled wickedly and pressed his body against my own. I wanted to gag, but I had already ridded myself of all my stomachs content and I could only choke on dry air.

"Milady?" The second man's voice was calm, soothing, as he crouched next to me and placed a steady hand upon his friends shoulder. "We don't like to glamor people. But we will if we have to. Come with us freely, or your family will be harmed and then you will be forced to come anyway."

His dark eyes captivated my own, pleading for my cooperation. He already had it. He knew that as soon as he threatened my family. I nodded unwillingly, feeling a burn from my eyes as the weight from my body was lifted and the two men pulled me to my feet. I knew they were not sane, but I had no other foreseeable choice.

The old house creaked, sensing the disturbance to its land and people. My eyes drew upwards towards my bedroom window and met the round ones of my sister. My tongue caught in my throat as I clutched the stone around my neck and mouthed I love you. Her hand struck the window, her mouth moving frantically, as a bag was thrown over my head and I was taken. With it, I fell into the mess that was to become my new life, always away from my home, away from my family and away from their sweet ever-present love. 

-

-

-

-

-

Vote and comment if you enjoyed!

xx

Lucius:

Alvar: