"Mom ?" the child called, in the living room.
Silence answered her. She turned her head around, standing on her tiptoes to scan the living room over the arm of the couch. She wasn't much taller than the cabinet and could barely stand on her tired little feet. She had just woken up and her eyes were swollen, and her mouth still pasty.
She couldn't see her brother or her parents around, so she wondered if she was alone in the house. The rain beat against the windows, filling the thick silence that enveloped the room. The air was heavy and humid, as if the end of the world was approaching. She walked on the wooden floor in the dark, her figure just lit by the moonlight and the flashes of lightning that hit the ground.
She didn't like the storm and it usually scared her, but for once she was oddly calm, as if something was telling her that it wasn't what she needed to be afraid of. As if something even more sinister was approaching.
" Mom ?" she tried again, with no response.
She hugged her teddy bear to her heart, leaning on the objects in the living room to maintain the meager balance she had.
'Maybe mum and dad are in the kitchen', she thought, turning her head towards the door.
She didn't know what they could be doing in such a place at this time of night, but that wasn't the only unusual thing she noticed. A thread of light escaped from the bathroom door, as if someone was there. As held back by an invisible force, she hesitated to approach.
However, she heard a muffled voice that seemed to come from there. Was it her mother, her brother or her father? She didn't know. She didn't like knowing she was alone in the big house engulfed in darkness, so she hoped to see her mother appear behind the door surrounded by light.
She staggered towards the small room, careful not to fall. She had short chubby legs and an unathletic physique, which got in her way. The road seemed exhausting and endless, to the point that she hesitated several times to simply drop to the ground, waiting for someone to come find her. However, after long efforts, she finally reached her goal. She was out of breath and numb from fatigue, but still managed to bang on the wood with the palm of her hand, as if to let the person in the bathroom know she was there.
The little squealing noises that echoed from the other side stopped almost immediately and a thick silence only broken by the clinking of the rain against the glass enveloped her.
The young child waited and waited, until she wondered if anyone was really there, and then suddenly, the door opened. The brightness of the light from the chandelier blinded her, so much so that at first she only saw a dazzling white halo, in the center of which a figure as tall and wide as that of a mountain loomed. A strange smell escaped from the wide open door, which seemed unfamiliar and familiar at the same time.
"...What are you doing up?" asked a man's voice that she recognized immediately.
" Dad." she breathed without realizing it.
Her little eyes finally adjusted to the light after a few seconds and she made out the serious, masculine face of her father, whose dark hair shone with an almost golden glow under the light of the glass chandelier. His voice was a little strange and seemed slightly colder than usual, although she didn't ask any more questions than that.
A small creak behind him caught her attention and the child naturally tilted her head to the side to glance inside the room.
" Why are you there ?" he reiterated, moving a little closer to her, covering the entire door frame with his silhouette.
She almost immediately forgot the reason for her curiosity and looked down, hugging her stuffed animal to her. Her father was still wearing his black wool sweater and jeans from the day, despite the late hour and the child assumed that her parents had gone out while they slept.
"I had nightmares."
There was a short silence, during which her father didn't respond, before she heard him sigh.
"You're a big girl, go back to bed." »
She noticed the somewhat annoyed tone in his voice and wondered why he was acting so strangely towards her. She was sad not to hear her father's gentle voice, as well as to be denied his usual compassion. She wanted to protest, but changed her mind when she saw her father's frowning eyebrows, just lit by the light that enveloped his silhouette. She couldn't quite see her father's face from where she was standing, it appearing to her as a blurry stain without any outline.
He looked annoyed to see her there and comforted the little girl in the idea that she had to make an effort to overcome her fear and go back to bed. She didn't want to upset her father. She pursed her lips, slightly annoyed, and nodded, turning to go back. She stopped however when she saw a strange thing, just behind her father's arm.
It was discreet and almost invisible, but she immediately noticed the small red stain that covered part of the immaculate floor. Seeing that she wasn't moving, her father approached her a little closer, putting his palm on her shoulder as if to push her towards the exit.
" What is that ?" she asked innocently, pointing to the thing that had been puzzling her for a few minutes already.
Her father froze in his tracks, before following her finger with his gaze. When he looked at the object of the young child's attention, she saw him stop in his tracks. She then felt the air suddenly get heavy, causing a brief start in her. The vague feeling of unease that seized her only intensified and turned into a deep terror, when she saw a reddish hand lying on the ground. Almost mechanically, she hoisted herself up on her tiptoes, fidgeting in all directions to get a better view, and the scene she discovered literally took her breath away.
A human figure lying on the tiled floor in a scarlet puddle. It only took her a few more moments to recognize the dazzling blonde hair strewn across the floor like a swarm of tangled threads.
" Mom... "
Almost immediately, the child slipped between her father and the door and into the bathroom, in the center of which she stopped. She was greeted by a strange vision. Her mother, dressed only in her powder pink nightgown, was spread out on the frozen floor of the room face down, her hands on either side of her face, as if she was imitating a starfish, but with a slightly twisted movement.
The little one approached hesitantly, without noticing that she was holding her breath. She instinctively knew something was wrong, without knowing what exactly.
"Mom…" she ventured again, noticing that her voice was trembling.
She had closed eyes and pale skin, like that of the dolls she stored in the storage room. From where the child was, her mother merely appeared to be sleeping, but the thick, slimy red stain spreading beneath her told a different story altogether. She wasn't sure what was happening, but she was convinced that what she was witnessing was not normal. A gasp of astonishment escaped her lips and she ran across the room before realizing it, her breath short and her heart pounding.
" Mom... ! She is hurt !" she exclaimed, her eyes watering, ignoring the fact that her father had not spoken a single word for several minutes.
The child knelt beside the lifeless figure, ignoring the pain of the cold against her already frozen skin. Now that she was near her, she saw much more easily that the motionless body in front of her bore strange marks. Her mother's lips were slightly purplish and the skin on her face was red, as if she had been hit. Her fingers were covered in blood and her right eye was slightly swollen.
'Mom doesn't seem to be sleeping...' she silently thought to herself, still far too surprised to dare try to understand what was in front of her.
She placed her hand on her face and was surprised at the low temperature of her skin. Worry began to grip her when she saw that her mother was not answering her calls.
" What's wrong with her ?" horrified the child, whose face grew paler as her questions remained unanswered.
She gently shook her mom's face, hoping, praying that she would open her eyelids and answer her and almost immediately, it trembled. She held a breath, her teddy bear close to her and watched with fear and apprehension as her mom was awakening.
" Mom... "
She placed her trembling hand on her cheek and saw her brown pupils appear. She fluttered her eyelids and groaned, as if in pain, before her half-opened eyes rested on her.
She watched without seeing her, as if completely disoriented, before opening her lips to let out a small rattle, like the growl of an animal.
"You…" she began to tell her, before her eyes fell somewhere behind her and a deep terror appeared on her face, as if she had just seen a monster.
" Are you OK... ? You're hurt, you…" the child began before her mother violently grabbed her hand, gazing into hers, clinging to her desperately as if she was being chased by something.
"Run-away…"
" ... What ?"
She didn't understand what her mother was saying. Flee ? For what ? She looked at her in disbelief, sometimes lingering on the blood that was flowing from the top of her head and down to her clothes. She moaned and winced, because her mom was squeezing her hands too tightly, to the point that she was hurting her. She tried to free herself, without succeeding and a few tears formed at the corner of her eyes.
'What happened to her... ?' the child wondered, not noticing the dread that seemed to engulf the young woman's mind as time passed.
"You have to run, otherwise…" she muttered, her voice shaking, before a crack made her jump.
" Darling." The man of the house finally called, in an affectionate voice.
The little one then remembered that she was not alone with her mother here and that her father had remained there without saying anything for a little while already.
The child saw her freeze, before her gaze turned to the ground and her hands began to shake violently. She looked... terrified. The child glanced at her father and noticed with amazement that the honeyed tone he used totally denoted with the expression he wore while looking at his wife, who quivered like a dead leaf in the middle of winter. His eyes shone with undisguised anger mixed with madness.
"I told you to go back to sleep though." he thundered coldly, without an ounce of sweetness, at her this time.
The man didn't seem particularly aggressive in his tone, but something… Something was strange and a deep terror suddenly twisted her stomach. The child had the impression that death had just spoken to her. She didn't recognize the man in front of her. He was her father, she knew it... But he seemed to only have his appearance. It was as if he had been possessed by something sinister.
Facing his familiar yet completely emotionless eyes, she held her breath, feeling trickles of cold sweat running down her back and shivers shaking her skin. He took a step towards her and this gesture was enough to make her give in to panic, to the point that her body started shaking, without her being able to control it.
"Dad...I'm tired..." she stuttered pitifully, squinting to hold back the tears.
She felt her mother's wriggling hand slip into hers as she faced her father. She didn't know why these words had come out of her mouth, given the situation, but the panic that had seized her had pushed her to utter the first words that came to mind. She couldn't believe it... She was afraid of him.
'Maybe I'm imagining things. ..' she thought, as if to fight the contradictory thoughts that were raging inside her.
This man was after all her father and he would never have hurt her... Right? The happy memories she had of him collided with the terror creeping inside her and she felt like she was going mad.
Almost engulfed by the imposing figure of her father, she curled slightly towards the ground. She then noticed that her hands were shaking. She had never been afraid of her father before, so she had no idea what to do in this situation. He hadn't moved an inch. He towered over her in silence, his eyes strangely cold on her, as if waiting for the slightest movement on her part. She was young and naive, but she understood almost immediately that she should stay still, despite her almost irrepressible urge to run away.
The man in front of her exuded a particularly heavy and dark aura, which sent shivers down ers spine and did not take his eyes off either of the girls, scrutinizing them with his piercing and almost distorted irises.
This whole situation was incomprehensible. Her father... the one she loved for a long time, the one who was her hero, her protector and her role model looked like a monster coming straight out of a nightmare.
"..." she heard him mutter something, without her being able to make out the slightest word.
Her little heart was racing in her chest and she began to cry silently, as if praying for this situation to stop. Her parents were clearly not in their normal state, otherwise why would this usually loving couple behave like this?
"You disobeyed." the man continued in a hoarse and sinister voice.
Once again, her small, watery eyes locked on the figure of her mother, who was groaning in pain just behind her.
"I'm sorry dad…" she moaned, lowering her head, not really knowing what would happen to her in that moment.
She was scared and wanted to run away from here, but the little voice in her head was screaming at her not to do anything, as if she knew everything would get worse if she dared to make the slightest move. Her body and her mind were doing everything to keep her alive against this terrifying thing that was threatening her nonchalantly.
"Don't touch her...!" growled her mother, who tried somehow to push on her forearms to crawl up to her.
She had never seen her mother so desperate and angry with her husband. The image she had of them and their union was that of a loving and close-knit couple who supported each other in adversity and in the trials of life. It wasn't this... This hell she was watching helplessly, taking the form of a scene straight out of a horror novel. Her father and her mother were for the moment like a predator in front of his victim, like two enemies, ready to jump at each other's throats at the first moment of bewilderment.
In this battle, her mother was clearly at a disadvantage, by her frail figure and the thick reddish net that flowed abundantly on the ground, engulfing itself between her thighs and the fabric of her clothes. It left behind a trail of blood, the metallic aroma of which engulfed the entire room. She didn't take her eyes off the man, however, as if the prospect that the child might be hurt had suddenly given her strength.
"Go away, my darling." she breathed, turning her momentarily tired eyes towards her. "Mom and Dad need to talk."
Her dad looked at her mom with indifference, as if he were examining a common insect. However, he did not make the slightest comment when the woman ordered her child out of the room, against his will.
Leave ? How could she have done so in this situation and especially with her father who pierced her with his cold and violent gaze, patiently waiting for her to face the slightest mistake before throwing himself at her.
" Get out of here !" she screamed at the top of her voice, urging her little daughter not to stand there looking at her.
The child jumped suddenly, holding her teddy bear tightly against her while scrutinizing her parents whom she did not recognize. She wanted to do as her mother told her, but something, a brief voice whispered to her, no... Screamed at her to stay where she was and not to look away from what was going to happen. Her body and soul seemed to collide, so much so that she took a step back without realizing it.
"Annabelle" whispered her father, who had taken a step towards her mother, towering over her from his full height like a mountain.
If she left... Something terrible was going to happen, she was sure of it.
"Aren't you listening to your mother?" this time her father addressed her, embellishing his remark with a sinister laugh which did not bode well. His words sounded like a warning, which shook her whole being and she managed to take another step back, which caused her small form to lean against the door. Her father moved closer to her mother, so that he was only about fifteen centimeters from her.
"Baby, please listen to mommy. Everything will be fine," she begged, crying her eyes out.
"Mom…" she moaned, sniffling loudly.
" Go !"
This time, the child turned on her heel and suddenly pushed the door open to rush into the living room, still shrouded in darkness. Through her eyes misty with tears she scampered off like a frightened rabbit without even looking where she was going, so much so that she stumbled against one of the shelves of the sideboard. She crashed to the ground with a loud bang and grunted in pain as she felt the burn that hit her little knees.
She put her hand on the ground to get up and screamed when something pierced her palm. Tears streamed down her face as she covered her mouth to keep from screaming more. However, she heard a shrill howl that pierced the night and realized that it was not hers. She held back a gasp and shook as she recognized the voice that was familiar to her. Her cry was heartbreaking and terrible, as if her insides had just been ripped out.
The child suffocated under the violence of her tears and placed her hands against her ears to stop hearing anything. She didn't want to be here... She wanted to wake up from this nightmare and find her loving parents, those she had always admired and loved, those who had made her and her brother happy children.
Her trembling eyes rested on the broken vase whose pieces littered the floor of the large living room.
A black vase, like the night which engulfed it and whose pieces were only the vestige of what it was before.
Of the life that had just been shattered in that moment.
A scream once again broke the silence and suffocated her completely, as she plunged into the thickest darkness which – she hoped – would end up engulfing her without leaving the slightest trace.