Meeting Eben

I walk to a old abandoned house, that looks like it had been left years ago, and no one ever did anything with it. The white wooden walls are chipped, and rotting, floor boards coming up. The door hanging off it's hinges. I walk in and the musky smell of mold and dust almost makes me hurl, had I anything in my body that would be able to come up. The small, quint living room I enter has a moth eaten sofa, a dirty, torn old rug, dusty pictures on the wall, and a rotting wooden table on the center of the carpet. Pieces of a broken porcelain lamp are on a fallen side table near a dusty book shelf with unidentifiable books upon it.

I walk to the next room. The kitchen is a small, but comfortable space for a family of three. A country style counter/table and wooden stools, a sink and a oven/stove. The tiles on the floor are chipped or pealed off. Passed the kitchen I walk down the narrow hall and into a large room with a purple carpet, a queen bed with faded deep green comforter, and green and purple walls. An unsturdy shelf along the wall across from the bed holds up numerous old dolls and stuffed animals. Toward a broken window, letting in cold air, is a vanity, a white wooden desk with a mirror that has black marks all over it, you can hardly see any reflection in it anymore. I spot a tiny box sitting below the mirror and pick it up when I walk over. It's a smooth black, thick box, a jewelry box.

I open the box and a small princess figure with a prince in her arms springs up, and twirls in a dance. The music twinkles through the air, soothing me. I recognize this. Where had I heard this before? I stand there, watching the two glass figures dance, and listen to the beautiful lullaby. When the thing ticks to a stop, I close the box and set it back, taking notice of a picture frame beside it. My eyebrows scrunch together as I pick up the frame and dust of the picture, only to gasp. The picture is a very old picture of me when I was just turning eighteen. When I had beautiful blue eyes, strait, perfect teeth, and was a normal human being.

I remember this place now, it's my home. It had been my home for eighteen years. If I could cry, there would probably be a river in here by now. I had never thought of this place before now. I had no desire to. I'd completely forgotten just where home was.

I am torn from my thoughts as I hear my 'family' members call, signaling that we need to gather around. I leave the house, only bothering to grab the music box and pocket it in my vest, and running to catch up to my family. When I get there, my parents immediately lock eyes with me. I shrug my shoulders and dad shakes his head, and speaks to us as a group.

"A storm is settling in. We must stay alert. The humans will try to move to safer positions. We have ransacked every house, but the scent of humans alive is still so strong. Find them, no one must be left alive."

The group screeches with agreement and dad continues speaking. "My Mae has found something to draw them out." Mother smirks ans reaches behind her, and with a cry, a woman is thrown into the middle of our circle. The dark haired woman whimpers and cries and looks at us all, frightened.

"Please don't hurt me! I'll do anything!" Father scoffs and grabs a hold of her jaw, scraping his dirty, long nails her face lightly, not piercing her skin, and speaks in English.

"You humans, so pathetic. You beg, begging is no help to you," he says in his pity voice. "So sad." The woman cries out again and dad twitches in annoyance. "You will go out there, and drag out the other humans, and maybe we will spare you." The woman nods her head vigorously and takes off hollering. "The things they believe, follow her," he commands, and we nod and jump to the roofs to follow.

"HELP!" The woman calls. "HELP! SOMEBODY!"

Twenty minutes of this passes, but no one comes to help. They are smart, the humans. They know we are using her as bait. When we all descend upon her again she pleads and cries. "Please, I tried, there's no one left!" She gets down on her knees in front of dad as he walks up to her. "Please God, no." Dad raises an eyebrow and drops to one knee to be face level with her.

"God?" He speaks so she can understand him and looks up into the sky, searching. He makes a mocking frown and looks back at her. "No God." And then he gets up and walks away. Mom checks with dad before grinning and skipping up to the woman, where meat head with a tattoo on his head and the others attack. I stand by my father and watch as the torture and kill this woman.

Soon the snow starts to fall again, and then the storm hits, making it impossible to see, even with our enhanced senses. The faint smell of human is blocked even more. As I search, if they are found, if Eben is found, I hope it is me that finds him. For some reason I want him to live. I don't want him hurt. With this thought, I search harder, but still I see nothing.

At least they have cover.