It’s a gorgeous, warm summer evening, the Sun just beginning to dip below the horizon. I am, as per usual, lounging in the large oak tree, re-reading my most favorite chapters from my beloved book. My brothers are laying in the tall grass, playing a card game I can’t remember. My sisters are already inside, bickering over something or another. The day is just as it should be, as it always is.

  I look up from my book to see my father walking up the pathway to our modest home, a gorgeous, red brick cottage with a lovely wooden roof and plenty of windows. Ivy covers the front of our house, wyteria grows everywhere, and mom’s fruitful gardens sprawl for what seems like miles. Dad had been out selling his newest inventions at the market, and it seems like he was successful, seeing that his cart is completely empty.

  Dropping the book to the ground, I leap from the tree and quickly scoop up my favorite possession before sprinting to my father, my bare feet becoming wet with the evening dew.

  “How’d it go, Dad!” I give a toothy grin, skidding to a stop at his side, “Seems like everyone liked your new…thingy!”

  He laughs deeply, his smile dimpling his left cheek as he rustles my crazy, knotted curls, “Darn right they did, kiddo. Sold out pretty quick! I’ll have to make some more tomorrow.”

  “Wow! That’s amazing! Think I can help, Dad?” I pull on his arm, “Can I, can I!”

  He laughs again as he reaches the small, wooden shed beside the house, opening the door to push the cart inside, “I don’t see why not! Unless you’re worried about staining your clothes.”

  “Daddd, you know I don’t care,” I winge.

  “I know, I know, no need to fuss,” he smiles, “I’ll let ya know when I start, okay?”

  “Okay!” I grin, more than happy with the situation.

  My father and I make our way into the house, where he’s greeted by my many siblings, each begging him for the details of his latest venture to the only nearby town. Leaving the chaos, I go to my mother, who is gathering an assortment of things in a basket.

  “What’re you doing, Mom?” I ask, setting my book on the table as I take a seat.

  She looks up from her freshly woven basket, and smiles in a way that could soothe any bad dream, “Heading to the market to pick up some groceries. You nuggets are eating us out of house and home!” She laughs, the sound like breezy wind chimes.

  “Mom?” I ask immediately, flipping to the page I had left off on, “How many Pavarius dragons are there in Hythalla? I know that there’s alotta Wentra, Kenvri, and Axtran, and even Ingush, but I’ve only read of one Pavarius.”

  My mom chuckles as she tucks her final items inside the basket, “Well, that’s because there is only one Pavarius. Her name is Nagavel. She belonged to Mother Earthila.”

  “Why did the Mother only make one Pavarius dragon and so many of the others? Isn’t Nagavel lonely being the only one like her?” I ask, holding up the brightly painted pages of the book displaying the five dragons.

  “Well, the Mother only needed one spiritual guide. She created the Pavarius for herself, and fell so in love with Nagavel that she decided to make more dragons, ones who would better fit the rest of her people,” she explains, hooking the basket around her arm, “Do you wish to come with me, Delly? I’d be happy to answer any of your questions.”

  I think for a moment, but one look back down at the page has my decision laid bare, “No, I think I wanna read some more.”

  She laughs and soothes my frizzy hair, “Alright, I’ll be back soon, okay.”

  “Okay, Mom,” I smile back before taking my book to the living room, settling into my favorite spot on the couch.

  I watch as she kisses dad goodbye -earning a gag from my brother, Percy- and makes her way out of the door. But most unfortunately, I only get one moment of peace before Leovani plants himself by my side, snatching the book from my hands with speed that only an older brother can obtain.

  “What do we have here!” He teases, examining the page I was reading.

  “Leeeoo,” I whine, “Give it back! It’s mine!”

  He swats away my hand, my movements frantic and desperate, “Oh please, Delly, you can go without your little book for one minute, can’t you.”

  I sit back and glare at my eldest brother, my arms wrapped around my chest tight enough that they begin to tingle.

  “Well, now isn’t this interesting,” he mocks, “While all dragons, except the Kenvri, whose scales are always silver, vary in color, size, and tail shape, there are ways to distinguish each species from the other. The Axtran, for example, have large horns that blah, blah, blah, blah. Does this stuff seriously interest you, Delly? It’s not like any of it matters!”

  I tear the book from his hands and bury it under my sweater, “It matters to me! Didn’t Mom tell you to stop teasing me?”

  “Come on Leo, let off her,” Augustine groans as he takes a seat across from us. Leo may be the eldest sibling, but Auggie has always acted like it, “I would seriously rather spend the rest of my life at the MADD House than listen to you two bicker all evening.”

  I stick my tongue out at my eldest brother and send a smile of thanks to Auggie. He always handled us the best.

  “Whatever,” Leo laughs, sliding off the couch to sprawl on the floor, “become a historian of a make believe world for all I care.”

  The rest of the family files in soon after, and the room combusts into light hearted chatter. We’ve never been a family who’s had a lot to complain about. We don’t have a lot of money, but I would take my peaceful life anyday over the hustle and bustle the wealthy families experience.

  All is well until I notice something out of our front window. I rub my eyes to make sure I’m not hallucinating, but by time I look again, it's gone. But something in my gut tells me that I did see something. But that would mean that I just saw the creature that makes me fear the underside of my bed just outside my living room window.

  Anxious that my eyes didn’t deceive me, I get up from my seat and move to the window to get a closer look, “What is it, Delly?” Dad asks, “Is Mom back already?”

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  I peer out of the glass and look up and down the street, “No…I thought I saw…” If I tell them I think it was a monster from my “make believe” book, they’d all laugh.

  “I’m sure it’s nothing,” Rosabella smiles, standing to peel me away from the window, “Maybe we should make some tea to hold us over until Mom comes back.”

  I nod half-heartedly but keep my eyes glued to where I had seen the demon as she guides me to the kitchen, Percius and Iridessa following along to help. They pull a chair out for me at the counter and push me into it, Percy running outside to fetch some water from the well a few paces away while Rose and Dessa open the cupboard to grab my favorite, homegrown tea.

  Percy is only gone for a moment when a scream rips through the house. The jar Rose had been holding crashes to the floor, the glass shattering everywhere, raining across our bare feet. Every hair on my body stands up, every atom of my being goes static with fear.

  “PERCIUS!” Dad yells, jumping to his feet and bolting to the door.

  I turn to get up from my chair, my siblings already rushing forward. But we all freeze as we hear our father scream, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH HIM!”

  My heart lurches to my throat, almost choking me, suffocating me. No, no, no.

  “Delly, get into the cupboard,” Rose whispers.

  When I don’t move, she pulls me by my arm and drags me from the chair, Dessa helping her open the large cupboard under the sink. The twins shove me inside and push the doors closed, leaving only a small peephole for me to look out of.

  “No, no, what’s happening, I can help-” I try to get out of the cupboard, but get cut off by the most horrifying noise I’ve ever heard, followed by an ear shattering crack as the door is split in two, now squeaking terribly as it hangs off its hinges.

  A long, bone chilling hiss sounds from the front door, and I watch terrified as a large, tar body emerges from the darkness. And to my horror, it carries the lifeless, bloodied body of my brother in one hand, and the thrashing body of my father in the other. Blood falls from my brother’s neck in a slow, nauseating pattern.

  Drip. Drip. Drip.

  The creature, called the esha, is even worse than I’d imagined. Standing well over nine feet tall, every fleck of skin black as tar, it has to bend its long, skeletal neck to fit in the home. Its face is a blank oval, with a thin line that spreads from one side to the other, sharp teeth tearing out of black gums. Where eyes should be are instead hollow indentations, and its arms are so lengthy that if it was empty handed, its massive talons would scrape along the floor.

  “Where isss ssshe,” it hisses in a voice that makes me want to run and never look back.

  “Who are you talking about?” Dad gurgles.

  “Deliandrah,” it snaps its teeth close to Dad’s face, “This hovel reeksss of her ssscent.”

  “We don’t know a Deliandrah,” Rose squeaks from the kitchen.

  The creature tightens the hold on my fathers neck, making blood dribble from where his talons have begun to dig into his skin, “Liarsss,” it screeches, loud enough to make the windows tremble.

  “Leave them alone,” Dad sputters as blood begins to pool in his mouth.

  “QUIET!” The creature shrieks, “You all sssmell of her. Mussst be her brood. You have to know, I know you know. Now, I will only asssk one more time. Where. Isss. Ssshe?”

  I watch as my sisters begin to reach for the knives, I want to beg them to stop, that the monster can hear even the mice in the back garden, and so much as one step will alert him of their location.

  “Very well,” it hacks a noise that must be a laugh, “My way it isss then. Thisss will be rather fun. It hasss been a while sssince I enjoyed human flesssh.”

  The beast drops my brother's body to the floor, and I nearly scream at the sight of his crumpled body twisted like a knot. Leo lunges for the beast, but it only takes one swipe to disembowel him before he makes it a single step.

  “LEO!” Auggie yells, stepping forward to help our eldest brother, now dying on our living room floor.

  Tears flood my eyes as Leo takes his final, strained breaths. There’s so much blood it looks like a waterfall. How is this happening? Why can’t I move? Why can’t I save them, why can’t I try…this could have been prevented.

  This is my fault.

  The creature kicks Auggie into the wall, creating a sickening crack that makes my heart stop dead. My sisters wail as Auggie curmples to the floor, his neck now twisted cruelly, his face a taunting shadow of a scream that will never be finished.

  Dad thrashes under the creature's grip, doing everything in his power to pry himself away. But the creature merely hisses at him, plunging talons into his eyes.

  Dad’s screeches take over the house as his eyes are thrown to the floor, rolling towards me like bloodied marbles, only stopping when sea green irises plant on mine.

  Before I can even manage a scream, the beast tears my father’s head from his spine, his decapitated body falling to the floor like a marionette without its strings.

  Rose grabs our largest knife and begins to run towards the creature, her battle cry fierce and fearless. But she doesn’t even make it out of the kitchen before it steps to her at lightning speed, and snaps her neck in one jerk of thin wrists.

  “ROSE, NO!” Iridessa shrieks.

  Dessa runs to her twin's falling body. She’s frantically waving around two knives, slashing for anything they can reach. She almost knicks the beast when it knocks them out of her hands.

  “Come on girl,” he pushes her onto the table, “You mussst know where ssshe isss. Tell me, I promissse I won’t harm her.”

  “Go to hell,” Dessa pants, reaching for her dropped knife.

  “Thought asss much,” the creature sighs, as if it has a soul.

  The final, petrified scream of my sister echoes in my mind as it skewers her neck with its talons, ending her cry for help with a blood curdling laugh that makes me cram my body further back into the small cabinet. His slick head whips to me, his black lips curling over his teeth.

  Fear so strong that it feels as if I could drown in it floods me like a tidal wave, but this time it’s hard to tell if it’s from my strange marks or me.

  A hollow eye socket lurches in front of my small peephole, a terrible noise rumbling from his throat as a tongue flicks through the hole.

  I must have some wild luck, or the gods must favor me, because the creature takes one final sniff, and turns, sliding back to my sister's gurgling body. But the luxury doesn’t last long. For a moment later, I have to withhold another scream as it begins to feast on her flesh.

  He makes his way through my family, devouring so much of their bodies that they soon become nothing more than blood and bones.

  The esha is just finishing the body of my father when mom bursts through the door.

  “James!” She screams, dropping her basket as she looks around the room, the produce for our dinner rolling across the floor.

  “Hello Deliandrah,” the creature stands tall, blood dripping from every inch.

  Since when was mommy’s name Deliandrah?

  “Lushrav,” my mother meets the creature's eyes.

  The beast circles my mom as she continues to look around the room, silent tears falling from her eyes as she takes in the mutilated family she left whole less than an hour ago.

  She at last looks at my sisters, but stops when she sees my widened eye.

  Seeming to undo her, mom breaks down sobbing and falls to her knees, talking to the creature in words I cannot make sense of.

  I can’t seem to force myself out of the petrified state as the creature picks my mom up by the throat, she looks at me for a moment and mouths I love you, tears falling down her face as the creature digs into her perfect skin.

  He stands tall for a moment, so satisfied with his success, before tearing her from the home, disappearing into the darkness as if nothing happened at all.

  The mocking sound of blood dripping around me rings in my ears until I lose all perception of who I am, only that I am no longer the person I used to be, and I will never be the same.

  Drip. Drip. Drip.

  ? ? ?

  I’m pulled out of the memory by a blinding white light. The brightness of which is so overpowering that my eyes bolt open, only to again close at the scalding sight.

  And then I feel the strangest sensation, almost as if I’m falling hundreds of feet, but I’m quite sure my body is still planted on the ground. The strange coolness only lasts a minute, and when the light disappears, my eyes again open.

  When I at last adjust, I stumble to my feet, mouth ajar as I stare at thousands of skewered heads.