The past
1283 Words
I was 12 years old when everything happened. I remember baking cupcakes with my mother and sister, the smell of the sweet mixture of the batter, and my mother’s perfume. My father gave my mother a new bottle for mothers' day. He persuaded her to wear some of it. They were happy. I remember thinking about my own gift I bought for her. I collected some money by doing chores for people around the neighborhood. I was thrilled to show my dad I earned five dollars. He took me to the jewelry store where I proudly gave the manager the money. I searched for the most beautiful set of earrings and told my father to grab them for me. My father knew that my five dollars were never enough for some silver earrings but he never told me that. He paid the remaining dollars while playing the game that I paid for it. I had the tiny velvet box in my pocket as I waited for my dad to return from work. I pulled my mother's arm while holding the box in my hand. My dad came into the kitchen just as my mother opened the oven to grab the freshly baked goods. We laughed at the jokes my dad made as she put down the baking tray on a big brown coaster. I gave her the earrings and she immediately put them in her ears. My eyes trailed off to the treat before me. I was ready to try one, to put my teeth into the sweet golden-brown goodness of the cupcakes before my mother grabbed the tray again to place them out of reach. She claimed them to be too hot and she told us that it needed to cool down first. So all we had to do was wait. Of course, I was impatient so I tried to climb up a kitchen cabinet to steal a little piece of it when nobody was looking. I burned my hand to the tray and fell down the cabinet. My mother picked me up and made sure to cool my hand. She told me that she was glad for the wolf genes. Especially for a clumsy daughter like me. She just turned off the water when my father entered the kitchen again. His face was pale as snow and shock were readable on his face. Something was going on. He told us to hide in the secret room he installed years earlier for attacks like this. The entrance of the room was hidden in the basement wall. You had to pull a vase to open it. It led to a small hallway and finally a bigger room just outside the living room where my parents were at that moment. We could see them through the cracks of the wall. Nevertheless, it was safe as nobody was able to see us. I remember putting an arm over my sister's shoulder as she crawled closer to me. I told her that this was just a drill and that everyone was safe. My father was the first one to leave the house. He was a pack warrior which meant it was his duty to stand up and fight intruders within our territory. My mother on the other hand stayed as extra protection for us. Soon, the door was kicked open and the living room was filled with wolves. Rogues. There were so many rogues, my mother could’ve never fought them off. So she did the only thing she could do to keep us safe. She gave up. They took her with them and started to leave, thinking the house was empty. I started to relax as I thought the coast was clear. Well, it was far from clear. One rogue came back in human form with gasoline and some matches to light the house on fire. The first flames made my sister panic. She started crying which caught the rogue's attention. The rogue must have called for backup because more wolves entered the house again. The house was completely on fire now. One pounded into the wall a couple of times to break the thin wall of our sanctuary. After breaking it, they grabbed us by our arms to drag us along with them. This was the last time I saw our pack territory as it was consumed by flames. Everywhere, people were dragged out of their houses and locked up into black SUV‘s. The fighters were injected with wolfsbane to keep them calm and sedated. Others were cuffed with silver. As we drove off, I could only think of my parents. I hoped they were safe. What happened next was to change our whole lives. My sister and I were thrown into a dungeon along with other kids. Some were young. I think I even saw a baby in there. Others were a bit older. I remember Stan being there and he was 18 years old. He was the only one with a wolf. Which is probably why he felt the urge to protect us. We stayed in the dungeon for a couple of days without any water or food source. We tried to make jokes, in the beginning, to cheer each other up but after a while, we just gave up. Three days passed and a woman came in. She looked about 30 years old with very short black hair. She had a clipboard with names on it. The doors closed behind her and she showed no signs of real interest to us. She only called names and told the named kids to join her. I kept hoping for them to be saved but that hope was in vain. Afterward, they came back crying and almost broken. One even changed into his wolf form within the dungeon which was weird as kids normally turn when they are 17 years old. I knew that kid was supposed to be 14 years old which made me freak out. This woman came back a couple of times before it was our turn. She checked our names off her list before telling us to follow her. We did as we were told and I mentally prepared myself. The iron doors opened and showed two guards in front of them. This already lowered my faith but still… I hoped they would bring us back to our parents. They did but the reunion wasn’t exactly what I was thinking it would be. We walked through a giant hallway with a lot of small details. It looked like something belonging to a castle. I saw some fancy arches and flowers embedded in the windows and ceilings. My sister held my hand the whole time and I knew I had to be strong for her. We stopped in front of 2 giant doors which opened as we arrived. The first thing I saw was my parents, on their knees, with hands and feet tied. They both had tears in their eyes as if they knew what was going to happen. We broke loose from the woman and the guards and ran towards our parents. We never reached them. Two men stopped us midway and pushed us down to the ground. Another door opened and I sat back up straight. An older woman appeared, fully dressed in black, with a big smile on her face. She seemed friendly so I did the only thing a normal kid would do, which in this case was begging for my parents. I hoped she would’ve understood and for a minute I thought she did before she grabbed a knife from her belt and slit my mother's throat right in front of us. Our father was next…
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