Dancing With The Devil

I steadied my shaking arms, while I watched my blistered skin pealing off my hands. If there's one thing I had learned today, it was to never spill candle wax over the carpet while mama was around. If I didn't know how it happened, I would have thought my hands were mutilated by a group of zombies.

Occupying my mind with a simple daydream hosted by my subconscious seemed to distract me from the stinging sensations I was undergoing on my hands. It felt good to be somewhat at ease. My thoughts flew free as I...

Whack!

"Ow! Lucy what was that for?"

"You said you were gonna play ball with me!" Lucy screeched. Lucy was my sister, and we did practically everything together. Every late afternoon we would come outside and throw balls until she got tired. It was our little ritual activity that we would perform to take our minds of the stress we had gone through during the day.

I stood staring at my sister, she had perfect chestnut hair which ran down like silk against her porcelain skin. Her eyes matched her hair in every single way possible. Her lips were full and coloured in a nude pink while her face was the perfect oval-shape. It couldn't be more clear that she would be attractive when she was older.

I couldn't tell if it was weird for a twelve year old to be jealous of a five year old's appearance, let alone that five year old being your own sister. I let the thought of it roll out of my mind, if it was weird, then sue me. I didn't care.

"Well, most people can't throw balls around when they're in certain conditions!" I twitched my palms flamboyantly to drag her attention to my hands dressed up in blisters.

Her reaction was a simple gasp, followed by her blood-curdling screams which followed her all the way back inside the house.

"Typical." I muttered while packing the balls back into the garage.

The sun had started to go down, and with that came the cool breeze that filled the air with its presence. As I walked into my bedroom, through the corner of my eye I saw my mother staring solidly into a necklace. One of my eyebrows formed an arch as I registered the slight of it... I could have sworn I had seen it before, I knew I had. It had a red gem that was seemingly glowing and surrounded by golden stones. Now, I had never seen real gold before, and given how poor my family was at the time, I assumed it wasn't real. But it wasn't like any other fake gold my mum had. This one had a glow. A glow so mysterious it seemed as though it held an ominous meaning inside. I couldn't take my eyes off it. Its glint was something I truly had never seen before. I wanted to go and ask my mum what it was, but before I could I was
pelted with an sudden overwhelming feeling of tiredness. Almost as if it was trying to prevent me from asking any further questions. Dismissing the queries I had at the time, I went to my bedroom and fell fast asleep.

...What was that? My eyes had suddenly flickered open to what sounded like a prisoner being belted. I gently shut my eyes, trying to forget the ear-deafening sound.

It was all a nightmare

it was all a nightmare...

My heart rate had dropped down a bit as I rested my head against the heated pillow. It was all apart of my imagination, that's all. I pulled the blankets over my head and tried to fall back asleep...

There was that noise again... It had suddenly hit me, someone was trying to break in. My heart was then beating so furiously against my chest that if it went any faster, it would have exploded. I scrambled out of my bed and thought hard about where I should hide. I immediately headed for the closet, until something physically stopped me. I then realised it was too late... I wasn't the only person in my room. Someone was behind me. Before I had time to scream, my mouth was forced shut...

"Baby, it's me." My mother whispered low but frantically.

My heart rate dropped down a little bit when I breathed in the
familiar cigarette smoke of her breath, but shortly after my anxiety rose up like a volcano when I remembered why she was in my room.

"There is someone trying to break in. I've already got Lucy hidden
away in the kitchen cupboards, but they could be anyway in our house right now so we can't risk going down there with her."

"Where are we hiding?" I yelled in the most silent way possible.

"In my room..."

We hurried into my mum's room, where the hard banging from the intruders was growing louder. I hid under my mums bed, the last sight I saw being my mum taking out that golden necklace and wrapping it around her neck, before my eyes entered into sheer darkness.

I hope my sister is ok...

All was quite for a minute or two, until a jumble of voices erupted inside the house.. I tilted my head to the side to view the window next to me. Two chariots were parked in front of our house. They had lavish maroon cushions with enthralling gold encrusted gems running along the sides. Two flames were perched on both sides of each chariots that guided them through the threatening darkness.

Even though my thoughts were scattered all over the place, something that stood out conspicuously was the fact that they wanted to steal
something from us. The chariots alone must have been worth millions, and altogether this house wouldn't be go past the $250,000 mark. Just then a spark of hope ignited inside of me. Maybe once they realised what a dump this place is, they would've left.

Bang, bang, thump!

...Or maybe not...

A stampede of criminals scurried around the broken-down room, along with a blur of orders that entered my ears, too fast to comprehend.

I heard the cupboard door being smacked open, and then a gunshot noise filled the air.

My heart froze, the blood in my face drained out. I tried blocking the all-too-sudden cheers and roars of accomplishment and told myself repeatedly that my mother didn't really just die. I forced myself to calm down, and ever so slightly, I had.

Just open your eyes...

You'll wake up soon...

5 minutes passed as I heard the horses galloping further and further away. I waited until the noise had been fully gone into the far-away distance before I scrambled from underneath the bed and threw the cupboard doors open.

All dread had re-entered my body once more. The bullet hole ran right through my mothers head. I checked her pulse to see if any sign of life still remained, which only came to no avail.

I let my salty tears glide across my cheeks, and with that I gently reached in and kissed my mother on the cheek. My mind, body and soul was soon consumed with fear, bereavement and dejection. I didn't know what I was going to tell Lucy, I didn't know where we would end up living. My assumption was on the street. Our dad died shortly after I
was born from a boating accident, which inevitably meant that we would be sent somewhere else if my mother, god-forbid, had left this world early. As I took my lips of her cheek, my eyes skidded down her elegant face to the base of her neck... Her bare, empty neck.

They had come into the house and killed her because they wanted some stupid glowing necklace...

Psychopaths.

I got up slowly, as I ignored the pins and needles that crippled my walking. Making my way down to the kitchen, that all-too-familiar feeling of dread toppled onto me. As I reached the kitchen cupboards, I reluctantly pulled open the doors. There was a chance Lucy was still alive and if that were true, I wouldn't want to scare her.

"Lucy..." I called gently.

I shielded my eyes, hoping with every last ounce of hope left inside of me that she was still alive. Slowly I opened them, as I was greeted with the same lifeless expression that was left on my mothers face.

The tears streamed down with a greater force, as I let my hard sobs echo throughout the ever-so-silent room. I pulled her out, as I shaked her violently to try and revive her. It was no use, the bullet hole through her stomach painted a thousand words. I muffled my sobs, as I brought her head up to mine and gave her a long sisterly kiss before I picked her up and put her on my back. I was going to give her a piggy
back around the house one last time.

I had taken slight notice of the furniture hacked and torn apart, as well as the fridge and television on their sides, shattered beyond
repair. I made my way into the lounge room, where I saw the up piece of wood that used to be our door on the floor. The mere thought of that made my blood come to a boil, which topped off the intense emotions I was already undergoing. I propped Lucy down on the dilapidated chair and kicked what little bit of a door I had left. I kicked it again, and again, and again. I kept kicking it until fatigue ran all across my body.

I put Lucy on my back for one last time and made my way across the whole house. Once I finished, I propped her gently onto my bed, the only piece of furniture that hadn't been torn to bits by the intrusion. I gave her one last kiss and sat next to her, as I cried louder and louder as the night wore painfully on.