They were here.

The Tragic Reunion.

I unlocked the door with trembling fingers, full of apprehension and fear. I made my way into hallway of my fathers tiny home and was greated with a chilling silence. A silence so cold and unnerving. I walked through the living room calling for my father. He wouldn't of left without telling me.

Walking to the kitchen, there was a lone mug on the side. This was normal to see, my father was a man who wasn't sane before his morning coffee. He would run down stairs and make one as soon as he opened his eyes. I continued to call him from the kitchen and all that returned was a chilling silence.

I climbed the stairs calling for him as I went about making my way to the bathroom to see if he had maybe slipped and fallen. I don't know why I thought that would of happened, my dad was 42 and as fit as an Ox. Falling in the shower or the bath was something you expected of a person who was 70+ and uneasy on their feet. I think my mind was trying to make excuses because I knew subconsciously of the horrors that would follow. The horrors that would great me like an old friend when I made my way to the bedroom.

I found him, I found him dead, wooden stake and shotgun in hand.

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, I didn’t get very far before I collapsed to ground on my knees in the street and wailed. Wailed and screamed until I threw up. Wailed and screamed until there was nothing left in me.

Gerald found me as a pile of mess on the pavement, he didn’t even need to enter the house to know what had happened. He called the police and when they came they tried to move me and ask me questions but the shock was too much.

Gerald spoke to them giving them all the information he had, that he’d spoke to me earlier when my dad hadn’t gone in to work, that I’d said I’d spoke to him that morning but would check in after I was done with my work and get my dad to call him but when that call never arrived he got really worried and decided to check for himself that’s when he found me in the street. The officers would still need a statement from me but they said it could wait till tomorrow given the circumstances.

Gerald walked me home, I don’t really remember much from the walk home or how I even had the courage to get off the pavement. I was in such shock that I spent the walk convincing myself that it was just some stupid prank he was playing, I mean it was plausible. Surely nobody’s body actually held that much blood, right? Those weren’t real claw marks everywhere were they? Those definitely weren’t real, we don’t get animals nowhere near as big as they had to be to make those in Ravens Cove. What was with the stake? I didn’t even know my dad had a gun, where the hell did he get a gun?

I hadn’t even realised we got to the door of my home until I was startled out of my skin by Gerald, whom I’d forgotten had existed.

“If you need me you have my number, I’m only 2 streets away.” He said in a somber tone.

“Thank you.” Was all I had the courage to say before running and locking myself inside.

I collapsed to the floor behind my door. The emptiness I felt was almost palpable. I could taste the change in the air. Subconsciously I knew I was all alone in this world now and that I was now an orphan, I had no family left, my mother left first and now my father, I just didn’t want to accept it.

I needed to shower and sleep and when I woke up in the morning it would all be over. My dad would ring me and apologise or maybe I’m already asleep, maybe I didn’t actually wake up with that feeling this morning, maybe it’s just a bad dream. Either way I’ll wake up and everything will be as it was there will have been no feeling of dread and there will have been no brutal murder of my father. There will have been just a nightmare and everything will be okay.

Little did I know that everything was about to change. Everything I knew about the world who I was and who my parents were was going to come into question. The world is full of dangerous and dark things, monsters and beasts I could never even dream of in my darkest most horrifying nightmares.

Sleep will be my comfort tonight, in my dreams everything will be as it was.