Power of the Tribrid - The Awakening

Olivia It had been five nights of seemingly endless storms in Florida. Unbelievable weather for the summer. As I drove along, I felt a chill run down my spine as the rain beat heavily on my windshield. It was like a force of nature was trying to prevent me from reaching my destination. I didn’t have much of a choice but to head my mother’s house after receiving a frantic call from her neighbour. I don’t visit as much as I’d like due to the cost of running my apartment and my car, it’s resulted in me working all the extra hours that I could get my hands on just so I could eat. Sorry, where are my manners. Hi my name is Olivia. I am 22 years old and, like a lot of people out there, feel out of place wherever I go. All I do is sleep and work, pulling double shifts, if available, or I work a second job as a waitress at the local bar and restaurant. My regular day job is too boring to mention but it pays the bills, well, some of them. The rain was so heavy, the wipers weren’t able to keep the screen clear long enough to be able to drive at the speed limit. I was grateful for this because out of no where, a figure stood in the middle of my lane. I quickly slammed on my brakes to try to avoid hitting the person standing in front of me. My car skidded on the wet surface and I ended up hitting a tree on opposite side of the road. My neck and back were in agony. I slowly got out of the car to assess the damage, thankfully it wasn’t that much but, my premiums were definately going to increase next year. I looked back at the road with a confused expression. I put it down to hallucinating from not eating dinner yet. That was left on the table. Rubbing the back of my neck I got back into the car and reversed slowly to get me back on the road. The thought of that figure played on my mind so, I made a mental note to check my dash cam recording later. I finally arrived at the house. Considering my mother was a night owl and it was almost 11:30 at night, there were no lights on. Whilst surveying the house from my car, I noticed a figure in the upstairs window. My eye’s locked onto the figure, neither of us moving. “Olivia!” my mother’s neighbour called from the porch.. “Mrs Peters,” I replied back. “Come inside, dear. I need to talk with you.” I grabbed my phone from the dock and my handbag from the passenger seat, locked the doors and ran over to the house. “Is everything alright? You sounded really worried on the phone.” “I’m sorry, Livvie,” she said, using the nickname she called me when I was a little girl. “Sorry for what Mrs Peter?” I was confused. My heart began to beat wildly in my chest. “ We haven’t seen or head from your mother for a little over a week now. At first, we thought she had gone to send some time with you. She had been talking about it but never said when she was going or if it was a definite plan.” “You have the spare key, have you gone over to check on her?” “I have but, there seems to be an issue with the lock. The key won’t turn, which means…” “It’s locked from the inside with the key still in the lock,” I sighed. I stood there trying to think of other ways to get into the house without breaking a window. I had enough repairs to pay for right now “Have you tried the basement?” “No. Why didn’t I think of that?” she asked, a little bit of hope evident in her voice. I grabbed my keys, flipped my hood up over my head and headed towards the basement doors at the back of the house. Within the 5 minutes I was in Mrs Peters’ house, the wind had picked up and was now bowing me back 2 steps for each step I took forward. “Finally,” I said to myself as I made it to the doors. My hands were cold and numb from the rain so, naturally, I dropped the keys, twice, then fumbled with the padlock What actually took minutes to do, felt like an eternity. There were a million thoughts going through my head right now as to why no one had seen or heard from my mother in a week. “Please be OK. Please be OK,” I whispered. When I opened the door, a gust of ice cold air rushed out, instantly causing me to shiver in the doorway. “Great,” I said aloud. The power was out. I headed to the generator situated in the corner and flipped the switch ‘ON’. It started then cut out. “Ugh!” I groaned. How many times have I told mom to get this looked at. Another thing to add to my list of stuff to do. After giving the generator a swift kick, it finally came to life. “Thanks, dad,” I said silently with a small, sad smile. He’s the one who taught me that as well as some other life skills like changing a tyre, decorating, so that i wouldn’t need to pay for a service, checking the oil, changing a headlight bulb etc. etc.before he passed away. Looking around the basement, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, much to my relief. The air around me seemed to grow much colder as I headed up the stairs to the main house. I also felt like I was being watched, causing another shiver to run down my spine but, couldn’t see anyone there. “Get a grip, Liv. You’re just cold from the rain and are tired from lack of sleep and nutrition.” I closed my eyes and took a steadying breath as I reached out to turn the door knob. Stuck. “UGH!” I groaned. There was not enough space for me to run and jump at the door so I put all my strength into my shoulder. After the third attempt, the door was finally open.