Scarlet: prequel of Azure

The memory was crystal clear in my mind, as if it had just happened yesterday. Sometimes I wished I could forget it, yet I yearned to know more about it. It was no accident, they were murdered. Nobody had the slightest clue about this murder. The police had been searching for months- almost a year-for the murderers, or rather, the creatures.

It happened when I was eight years-old. It was a horrible to see your own parents to get murdered in front of you, especially if you were merely a child, and in such a brutal way. I remembered everything.

Years ago, in the evening of June 11^th, just when the sun was setting, the sky was dyed by orange and red like a painting in a museum. Inside a bedroom of a small house by the countryside was an excited little girl with her mother…

‘Where are we going, mommy?’ The younger version me asked, fiddling with the edge of my white summer dress as my mother was combing my hair tenderly.

‘We’re going out for dinner to celebrate your birthday. Now hold still dear,’ my mother replied while tying my hair into pig tails with pearl white ribbons.

‘There. All done,’ she announced.

Before I could get off my chair and thank mom, the door opened. In the door way stood a handsome man, my dad. He was more attractive than any other average father. He had sandy blonde hair and deep blue eyes. His skin was golden brown, just perfect. If it was any shade lighter or deeper, it would’ve ruined his whole appearance.

‘Hurry dears,’ my father called, walking into my bedroom.

He was wearing a sharp business suit, as always, a navy blue jacket over his white dress shirt with a carmine tie. His black glasses masked his sapphire pools. My mother wore a simple short-sleeved cream colored gown. Her black hair was combed neatly. She had a diamond necklace and a tawny purse to match her outfit. She put on some light make up, lemon-yellow eye shadow over her hazel eyes, lip gloss on her cherry lips.

‘You look adorable,’ he placed a hand on my head. I dodged away from his hand.

‘Hey! No touching my hair!’ I received chuckles from him. I crossed my arms. ‘Not funny!’

‘You look beautiful too, honey,’ he placed his hand on my mother’s waist. At the same time, he planted a kiss on her cheek. Her face turned into a lovely rosy pink.

‘Where are we going, pops?’ I cut in, their affection was kind of annoying me.

‘To your favourite restaurant, of course.’

‘Yeah! Thank you, thank you, thank you!’ I hugged them both, repeating ‘thank you’ continuously. That restaurant was not only my favourite, it was also the most expensive place to dine in town.

My father laughed merrily. ‘Let’s go now, or else we’ll be late.’

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My eyes watered, tears were threatening to fall. I shut my eyes. How I wished I could still feel my mother’s loving touch, to hear to father’s delighted laughter, even seeing them one more time was enough. I would give anything just to be together again.

The Moore sisters stood still, watching me. They knew about my past. Even if their parents were alive, they understood my pain. Their younger sister had died three years ago in a fatal car accident. They too, had loved her deeply; they too, had grieved for her greatly.

Everything was quiet, even the birds also stooped their music. It seemed our surroundings were grieving with me, grieving for my lost.

I thought that day was going to be great; I didn’t expect it to turn out like that. It was going to be the best day of my life, but it turned out to be the worst…

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‘I’m stuffed!’ I stared at my now rounded stomach.

‘That’s good, darling,’ my mother smiled.

We were on our way to my father’s car, passing through a dim street. I was hopping because they promised to give me my birthday present when we got home. I had almost trashed the house today when I was trying to find it. I had looked in everything corner in the house, yet I couldn’t locate my gift.

My parents halted abruptly, I was pulled back by mom. Father stepped ahead of us, shielding us protectively as two creatures emerged from the dark. I hid behind my mother. Me and mom gasped as father filched at the sight of them.

Both of their features were mainly the same, equally hideous. They resembled decaying corpses. They reminded me mummies without their bandages. They were like skeletons but with a little bit of flesh sticking here and there, along with messed up hair, razor sharp teeth and yellow huge eyes that seemed like they were going to fell of their sockets. There was disgusting incest travelling through their bodies. Saliva or some unknown substance mixed with bubbles leaked from their mouth like drools which gave off an unbearable smell that made me want to vomit. I pitched my nose to avoid that stench, or else I might see my digested dinner.

Father was tensed, he stood still, awaiting those creatures to make their first move.

‘…Girl…’ Slowly, one of them held out its hand.

My father stood still in his place, harden his stare, ‘Please leave us alone…sirs.’

It ignored him completely, as if he was only a buzzing fly. I was wondering about what would happen, but I knew I would be scolded, still, curious got better of me so I moved to the right to get a clear view of what was happening. My movement earned a nervous glance from mom, also resulting three pairs of eyes staring back at me.

‘Stay behind your mother, Charlene!’ Dad barked.

I obeyed him and hid behind mom immediately as the beasts let out monstrous cries. Mother faced me and embraced me tightly, she was shivering. I didn’t know what was occurring, all I heard was something was dropped, a horrified scream, a ripping sound, then a small crashing sound. Besides that, I noticed my mother’s dress was vermilion, no longer the cream color that I had seen before.

‘Aaa!’ She screamed. A hand went through her chest. I looked fixedly at the blood-spattered hand next to my cheek. Its finger nails scratched my jowl, leaving a thin line of red liquid trailing down. If I wasn’t standing here, the hand would’ve crushed my skull and killed me instantly.

The hand pulled back. Her body slid to the ground. I covered my mouth with my hands. The scene in front of me was absolutely dreadful. My father…he…he was in two pieces, ripped apart by those monsters. The walls were painted crimson; his organs spilled the floor, his glasses laid by not too far way, smashed. His sapphire orbs lost their shine.

‘F-father…’I never thought my father would die now, at least, not in such a terrible way.

Thereupon, I was picked up by the same hand, a strong grip on my neck. I saw two big eyes with murderous look before I was thrown aside like a rag doll. I crashed the brick wall, hard. I felt so much pain that I became numb, my bones have been broken by the impact. There was some liquid streaming down from my wound on my head, to my forehead, nose, mouth. I could taste the warm liquid, it was distasteful.

Blood.

I was sure that I was going to die, sooner or later. I didn’t let my hope up as I heard police sirens and felt bright light on my face.

‘Freeze!’ a policeman yelled.

‘Run, people.’ A raspy voice said.

‘…Girl…?’ The other voice inquired, once again picking me up by my broken arm, worsened my injury. I stayed limp in its strong hold.

The first one threw me to the wall anew, breaking more bones. ‘Girl dead, run now.’

I heard gun shots, more screaming, then people calling for help. I used my remaining strength to open my eyes and crawled to mom, seeing her one more time before I died would be good enough, even if she was lying in a pool of blood and she had a small hole in her chest. I wanted to see pops to, but I couldn’t bear to see him like that. I was scared. Crystal like tears kept falling from my sky-blue eyes.

Mother… my heart cried.

‘Charlene…’ a soft hand caressed my bloody cheek.

‘Mother!’ Surprised, I creased my crying at once. ‘Hang on, mom! The police are here, they…’

‘I…won’t make it…’

She took out a silver necklace from her purse. It was made of small chains with a resplendent crescent moon locket. She put it around my neck with her trembling hands.

My gift… ‘Mom, h-hang on, t-they a-are here. You’ll b-be f-fine,’ I tried to choke back my sobs.

‘…Remember…I love…y...you…’ Her voice declined, I could barely make out what she was saying.

Then, she took her last breathe. Everything was in slow motion as I watched her hand fell to her side. Never will her heart beat again. Never will she look at me with her eyes
again. Even in death, she wore a warm smile on her face. She looked like she was sleeping peacefully.

‘No…’ I whispered, my vision became misty as tears filled my eyes. ‘No!!!’ I screamed at the sky. A drop of water hit my face. Soon, thousand and thousand drops of water landed to the ground, like the sky was sobbing with me.

When the strength finally faded, I fell onto my mother’s corpse. I ran my hand thorough my mother’s ebony hair weakly, also touching her now lifeless body. Her body was beginning to turn cold, like ice.

There was more blood in my throat. It was preventing me from breathing. I coughed, spraying blood on her angelic face. My vision started to turn black. I heard sound of people running to me. Their shoes made a lot of noise against the stone floor.

Tack, tack, tack.

‘There’s a survivor!’

‘Call the ambulance!’

‘What took them so long? ...’ That was my last thought before I lost conscious.

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I stayed in the hospital for weeks until I was fully recovered. I had changed, both physically and mentally. My eyes had changed from light blue to very dark blue, I had no idea why. A lot of people had mistaken them as black, it was only a shade lighter than ink.

I became depressed too. I had attempted suicide, there were many cuts on my wrists. I knew mom and dad were watching over me from above, waiting for me to return to them until the day I had completed my life, but I couldn’t wait. I wanted to be with them, I wanted to die there and then. I wished I hadn’t survived the assault.

After I was released, I had to live with my dear grandmother. I had never met her before this incident. I thought she was going to comfort me like everyone else. I was wrong though. I still remembered our first encounter.

An old woman walked into the room with a police by her side. Her faced was full of lines. She was snaring which made her face wrinkled more. She looked ugly, like a witch instead of a loveable grandmother. Her eyes narrowed into slits as she glared at me with so much hatred…

‘This is your entire fault, you cursed brat. If only you weren’t born…’

That was the first thing she told me. She hated me, she blamed me for her son and daughter-in-law’s death. I didn’t mind. It was my fault, if father had handed me to them, they would’ve live, they wouldn’t suffer such a gruesome death.

It was pure torture for a few years. Grandma was abusive; I had countless bruises and scars on my body. She was bossy too, I had to listen to her every need, if not, I would receive more beating. I didn’t know should I consider this lucky or not: she died three years later. On the bright side, I was free of her abuses, on the down side, my only relative died too. I didn’t have any aunt or uncle, hence cousin. Both of my parents were the only child. It was unusual but true.

I lowered my gaze to my door steps; all of these unpleasant memories had haunted me every day until last year, I finally had let it go. I had a will to live, to forget these remembrances.

‘Hey, Char, you ok?’ Gwen’s voice was the first thing to break to silence.
‘Of course she’s not, stupid!’

‘I’m not stupid…Anyway, we came here to take you out for an adventure as a celebration.’

‘Adventure? …Don’t tell me it’s the mall.’ I didn’t really hate shopping, but I disliked crowded area and I loathed preppy girls. They were live-action Barbie dolls. They had the looks, yet brainless. I really thought a trip to the shopping mall was an adventure, I wasn’t sure whether I would survive or not.

‘No, I’m not that moron,’ she pointed at her sibling.

‘Hey!’

‘It’s about the abandoned house up that hill.’ That caught my interest. An abandoned house was way better than the mall. Besides, I heard rumors about that house being haunted.

‘I’m listening…’