Chapter 38 - The Forgotten Truth

>Maya (13 years old)

Life is taken for granted.

We all believe that it will be there until we grow old and choose to die, yet we forget that it was given to us, it was never ours to keep.

We come into this world alone, live our lives with so many dreams, making plans and building castles whilst forgetting death can be waiting around any corner.

Every family believes they will live happily, healthily, enjoying the precious moments in life. People tend to think about the natural order of life forgetting that so much happens in life that is not natural or maybe we just don’t consider it natural since it happens so suddenly while if one thinks about it, life is full of weird happenings.

Anything can happen to anyone at any moment in life but just like every other person, me and my family didn’t think about it either.

We were a lovely family of four. My parents married young and had me immediately, that is why I’m ten years older than my little sister Nena. I was responsible for taking care of my sister since both of my parents worked and often came home late but that didn’t mean they didn’t give us any attention. As a matter of fact they poured us with lots of love when they came home.

Since the time they spent with us sisters were less in normal days, we often went on family vacations. More than any normal family and for that I really considered myself lucky.

The year I was supposed to turn thirteen was quite busy for my parents so they decided to get a small vacation in November and celebrate my birthday in the northern areas.

I got a special leave from school and our family traveled to a vacation spot on the mountains. The place was covered with snow and the little house we had booked was near the forest. Everything was so majestically white it gave an eerie, peaceful feeling.

Under the sun, that rarely showed itself, the snow would glitter.

I loved how white and shiny it was.

The vacation was just perfect.

I clearly remember waking up in the morning excited for the day. I remember the BBQ set dad put up early in the morning of 12th. I remember getting ready and wearing my white fur coat I received from my mom when I woke up as a birthday gift.

I remember standing inside the lounge with Nena while looking at dad who was trying to light the coals but somehow was constantly failing.

I remember him looking back at us and nervously laughing while scratching the back of his head.

I remember diverting my attention to mom who left the house and walked to dad to help him out. She handed him the meat plate and took the lighter from him.

I remember Nena tugging my pants and telling me she was hungry.

“Don’t worry Nena. We’re having a party today!” I picked her up in my arms, “We’ll have tons to eat!” I looked out the wall size window, “When they get the coals lit that is.” I giggled.

Nena giggled only because she saw me doing that and then she too looked out the window.

I remember, it was supposed to be a happy day. The day I entered teenhood. It was perfect, like the type you see in movies.

But I guess I forgot that even in movies it’s not always happy go lucky stuff and that this was life. I was a real person, living in a world that is so cruel, it turns your whole life upside down in a matter of minutes without giving you any warning.

It’s strange really, how such a happy family can turn so miserable.

How such healthy people who were thought to live for years are gone the next second.

How a kid who had never seen or gone through anything seriously bad ended up with the most traumatic experience in life.

Quite queer if you think about it, that all it takes to have one’s whole world go up in flames and turn into ashes are a mere few minutes.

I clearly remember having a smile on as I looked at my parents struggling to heat up the coals for the BBQ. Nothing was out of the ordinary, even the sun was peeking through the clouds every now and then.

Yet, in the most normalest of scenario came two men.

Tall, masculine figures who were very lightly dressed for the weather emerged from the forest and walked towards the people who had finally managed to heat up the coal.

I remember my mother noticing them first and turning to face them while they started to run towards them. Mom nudged dad and he looked back while one of the men jumped high and his body began to change.

From a human he transformed into a wolf and launched at dad. Dad collided with the BBQ stand and fell over with it. The coal sizzled as it came in contact with the snow and smoked out while dad tried fighting off the beast on top of him. Mom was attacked by the other burly man who fought her in hand to hand combat.

I panicked and dropped Nena down. She fell flat on her butt but I didn’t have the time to see if she was okay and ran out.

As I opened the back door and began stomping my way over my dad screamed at me.

“Stay inside!!” I looked at him while he was trying to fight the beast with only a coal stick, “Get my gun and stay inside!!” He yelled and managed to push the wolf off him.

“Do as your father says!” My mother screamed at me and I went back inside, straight to my parents room and ducked under the bed to look for dad’s gun. He mostly kept it tucked under the bed frame but I couldn’t find it there.

I looked around in all directions frantically while my heart pounded in my chest but when I realized it wasn’t there I got out and ran towards the cabinets and drawers. I don’t know how much time it took me but I found the gun in the bed-side drawer. I grabbed it and ran back to the lounge but froze when I saw the strange perplexing scene through the window.

The burly man was no longer there, rather another wolf lay on the ground unmoving, but so was my mother, she lay not too far away from the second wolf.

The first wolf had pinned my dad down and was growling at him. It felt like dad was screaming at it, telling it something but I couldn’t hear it from inside.

Just then I felt Nena cling to my leg and I glanced at her for a second but when I looked back I saw the most terrifying scene.

The beast bore it’s fangs and bit dad’s neck so hard blood began to seep out immediately. Instinctively I bent down and covered Nena’s eyes but I myself couldn’t turn away from the horrifying scene as the demon bit in harder and then pulled away sharply, taking out the front part of dad’s neck, leaving no room for any recovery, just a hollow blank space with the lower part of his windpipe peeking out.

Blood sprayed out from the place the skin and meat had been detached from. It tainted even the demon’s face who was holding the meat in his mouth, thin skin of which was still hanging onto the body. It pulled back further on it and the skin that hung onto the meat in it’s mouth and dad’s remaining neck began to rip. It got thinner and thinner until it snapped and broke away.

The scene gave me a weird sensation. Something different than remorse, I felt like the sounds were faded from one of my ears as something beyond shock started overcoming me. A feeling of strange despondency.

Drop of blood fell on the glittering snow, tainting it red as the beast began to walk away.

It was only when he was about to approach it’s other prey that I noticed mom was struggling to get up.

She was injured and her head was bleeding but she was still trying to stand her ground. I noticed a silver knife in her hands which she clung onto very dearly.

The wolf stopped in front of her and spat the big chunk of meat in its mouth away. As it growled at her I could clearly see those ugly blood bathed teeth that dripped red on the ground.

I pulled Nena aside so that she couldn’t see anything from the window and then I ran out.

Mom’s back was towards me while she faced the wolf. The demon spared me a glance but deemed me of no importance, perhaps because I was a child?

As he was about to pounce on his prey I got the gun out, aimed at it and fired. It didn’t hit any of the vital places but it did hit his leg and threw off his trajectory. It fell down and I shot it again while I got closer but it didn’t seem like it had much effect.

My mother turned to me and grabbed the gun from my hands.

She was breathing heavily but her injuries didn’t seem fatal. She readjusted the bullets and shot the demon again, straight in the head with a bullet, slightly different than the rest. Nothing of much notice than the silver color that stood out among the copper ones.

She handed the gun back to me and the next moment yanked me in her embrace, “Maya,” She took deep heavy breaths, “Are you okay?”

I pulled away a little and looked up at her while she was looking in a distance with a pained expression on her face.

“Mom.” I called out to her, “Are YOU okay?”

She looked down at me and tried to smile but was struggling to put it on, “I’m fin-!” Before she got to complete her line she vomited blood and it came down on me like a hard splash, covering my head, painting my face and tainting the upper part of my coat.

I flinched, not yet realizing what had happened.

I felt her grip on me tighten for a few moments then the power in her embrace completely vanished.

“Mom?” I felt something warm on my torso so I looked down only to notice my clothes getting wet with a warm red liquid that was coming out of her stomach.

I was unable to comprehend the situation, rather I felt like everything in my brain just froze. I looked up again and noticed how the light in her eyes had faded.

Something behind her moved and my gaze followed her as she lifelessly fell to the ground.

I blinked at her several times then raised my head and looked at the beast standing there with his claws dyed red and meat stuck in the nails. There was something noticeable on him, he had a scar on his forehead.

He had ruptured her insides from behind.

In that moment I felt like every other thing than the demon in front of me faded in a distance. As if the sound lines in my ear snapped and all I heard was a sound single flatline, like the one you hear on a heart monitor, but that too slowly dwindled away.

I raised the gun in my hand and fired without even thinking, I pulled the trigger again, and again and again and again, until the time I pulled and nothing came out.