*Flashback*
-Some gore and violence within the chapter-
*It had been almost 2 years since Wren met Galina, and true to Galina's words, they hadn't met again.
'I wonder if Galina is okay?' Wren thought to herself as she was outside under a large tree. 'Someone's approaching,' Wren nodded and looked in both directions, but she didn't see anything. *Rustle* There was a slight rustling sound in the tree above and Young Wren quickly rolled to her side to avoid being attacked by the person in the tree when they jumped down. "Gosh Wren-Wren, how do you always avoid my attacks? I tried hard this time, hmph!" A young Diego pouted as he stood up from his crouched position. Wren smiled gleefully, "You're no match for me brother, I have others that can assist-" 'DUCK!' Wren instinctively did as the young man's voice in her head requested. At almost the same instance when she hit the ground, an arrow struck deep within the tree. "Ego RUN!" Wren scrambled up and quickly went to grab her brothers hand. Try as she might, she was not fast enough and Diego ended up taking the lead, not stopping until they arrived at their "Secret hiding place," no one knew about.
Both the young children were out of breath, "Wren-Wren-" Wren quickly put a hand over her brothers mouth, 'Calm down Ego. Are we being chased any more Mr. Spirit?' Diego's eyes grew wide, this was his first time experiencing Wren speaking to him within his own mind. Due to Wren not knowing the names of the spirits she tried to ask them respectfully. 'No Miss, you are safe for now. I wouldn't recommend going back there,' the young spirit responded. She let out a sigh of relief and uncovered her brothers mouth. "Wren-Wren, what was that?" "It's a long story Ego...one I still don't fully understand,"... -A couple months had passed since the arrow incident and after explaining her abilities, Diego finally understood why he could hear her thoughts in his mind. "Mom, is Ego with Dad again?" Young Wren lightly tugged at her mothers skirt, resulting in a sigh from her, "Wrenny Bear, we talked about this. Today is an important day, I can't be bothered with your frivolous questions."
Wren's mother, Shannon, walked out of the kitchen into the main office they have within their home. 'Meany head Ma!' Wren thought as she stuck her tongue out towards the direction in which her mother left; she then crossed her arms and walked outside. Wren was surprised when she heard more noises than usual around their normally secluded home. Wren's senses have become sharper as time goes on and she relies on the spirits less than before. 'HIDE!' Wren was startled by the aggression behind the voice and immediately turned to run and hide under a dense area of shrubs. *BOOM! BANG!* Wren heard loud noises not far from their home, and felt the ground start shaking with every loud "Boom." Wren covered her ears in efforts to muffle the sound.
After a few moments Sharron leisurely walked out the side door of their home, Wren was about to run to her mother, but the spirit told her to wait. Wren was reluctant but did as she was told; Sharron looked to the left and to the right, seemingly looking for someone. 'Sir, she's looking for me! I need-' She heard a deep growl within her mind this time and immediately cowered down lower, to where she was laying on her belly. Sharron seemed to lock onto what she was looking for and quickly reached out her arms and smiled. Wren saw a man that was vaguely familiar to her appear from up the hill. Wren's face scrunched in confusion; 'Is he the orange haired man from before?'
Sharron embraced the man quickly and kissed him passionately. Wren's heart sank, 'But, what about Dad?' She let the man go and they briefly exchanged words, before the man ran off the opposite direction drawing a baton from his hip. Sharron then proceeded to ruffle her deep purple colored, shoulder length hair slightly and slapped her cheeks. Wren was confused but figured out why after her mother began to call for her. After yelling out her names a few times, Wren finally came out from her hiding place. She reached for her mother and they began to run; Sharron eventually had to pick Wren up and carry her. 'Why did Ma kiss that orange haired man?' Wren clung to her mother as they made their way to Takeda's house.
Once they arrived to Takeda's house, Wren was suddenly dropped from her mother's arms and fell to the floor. Sharron yelled out something but Wren couldn't focus, she felt an incredible pain in her hip because of the fall. Once Wren felt she could focus she looked at her hands and noticed a dark colored, sticky liquid on them. She then looked up to her mother and saw that someone was holding her by the throat from behind. They were both yelling loudly and Wren turned to stand up and saw where the liquid was coming from. Not far from her was a man, face down on the floor. "...D-Dad?!" Wren recognized the dark green, short cut hair, as belonging to her father. She was in shock and scrambled to his body to confirm, her vision was becoming blurry from her tears and all she could hear was her own heartbeat pounding in her chest. As she got closer she saw that it was indeed her father, Gilbert. His round glasses were broken and lying not far from his face. Gilbert's face was somewhat swollen and purple in places, as well as having a deep gash in his head and back. He still had his name tag on, indicating his status as a scientist at the medical institute on the island.
Wren looked towards her mother as tears were streaming down her face, about to call out for her, but froze when she saw what was happening. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion, as the man who held her mother grabbed a knife from his belt and plunged it into Sharron's neck repeatedly. Blood began pouring from the wound spilling onto the floor; Sharron's black eyes seemed to slowly grow lifeless as her limp body was tossed aside and fell to the ground with a dull thud. Young Wren couldn't do anything but sit and watch in horror. The man slowly made his way to Wren, holding out the knife in front of him. Wren was in a panic but managed to shuffle backwards evading the mans strike. Angered by his miss, he launched his body towards Wren and barely grabbed hold of her ankles.
Young Wren did her best to squirm away from the man but to no avail. The man was getting more and more irritated; he grabbed the knife and sliced at an upward angle on Wren's calf, causing her to yell out in pain. "Heh, give up kid! I was going to do this cleanly, but you really PISSED ME OFF!" Wren mustered all the strength she could in her un-wounded leg and kicked down towards the mans head, managing to kick his nose. "Ow! Little bit-" Wren took the chance to stand and run to the back side of the house. 'If...I just need to...*pant pant* I can hide,' Wren was in a daze, from the shock of seeing her parents dead and the loss of blood. Wren suddenly felt a sharp pain deep in her shoulder and when she looked down, she noticed the knife point sticking out from the front of her chest.
She gasped for air as she slowly fell to the floor. She rolled on to her back, and looked up to the man who stabbed her. Her vision was blurry so she couldn't get a full view of what his face. She turned her head to the side and saw the small umbrella holder Takeda keeps near the side porch, gathering her strength once again, she reached for it as quickly as she could and hit the man in the head. He grabbed his head in pain and Wren turned and began dragging her feeble body to the last room on the left, where she knew of a hiding space below the floor. Before she could make it she left a heavy hand drop down on her ankle, completely stopping her escape. She looked around to try and find anything else she could hit the man with, but found nothing.
The man moved closer to her and straddled her small body. He slashed the knife from the left to the right, and back again, slicing Wren's arms because she was trying to defend herself. "Give up little Lass, your brother didn't put up near as much of a fight when I sliced him open. Even your dammed mother didn't fight so hard. Yet here ya are, a 10 year old still not dead-" "...7," The man's face scrunched in confusion and leaned closer over Wren's bloody body. "What was that little Lass?" Wren took a deep breath, "I said I'm only 7!" As she finished talking she sat up and bit down as hard as she could on the man's ear, eventually tearing off a piece. The man yelled in pain and this time plunged the knife into her belly with a twisting motion with so much force, it chipped on the hard wood floor below her body. After retrieving his knife, the man stood up from her body, clutched his ear in his hands, and quickly ran out the door.
Wren's breathing and heartrate dropped, she could hardly keep her eyes open. 'Just hang in there Miss,' Wren could still hear the young man from before. 'Thank you...for helping,' Wren used the last of her energy to thank the man. Shortly after, she could hear the sound of footsteps coming closer, but couldn't focus, she only noticed one man had light blue hair and the other had grey and black colored hair. "...All dead Sir...bodies of family...next move?...leave them..." Wren could only hear bits and pieces, then she felt someone suddenly and very quickly crouch next to her body, "This one...Alive...I'll bring...and train..." Wren then fell unconscious as her body was being lifted from the floor.*