A Little Girl's Broken Tales

1 **

I skipped through the fields, dancing and chasing colorful butterflies as I passed by happily. My cheerful laughter trailed behind me as I pounced on a butterfly a second too late. As I hit the winter green grass, the yellow butterfly flew away. "Liv! Be careful of the ditch, darling!" my nanny called out.

Elizabeth was a worrier and that was why she was chosen as my nanny. She never had no troubling thoughts not on her mind. She worried about everything and everyone, even if it didn't include her. She always had a terrible fear that something horrible would happen the one day she wandered too far out of the manor with me.

That day, it seemed as if she was correct.

We were in plain sight of the manor, but something felt wrong. All around the manor, black nondescript SUVs surrounded it, there was smoke coming from the chimney and then the opened barn doors had me stopping in my tracks. It was never all opened at the same time!

I wanted to run to my house and see if my parents were okay, I wanted to see what was wrong, but Elizabeth’s firm grip kept me in my spot. I gave her a questioning look.

“No, child, you cannot go there. Please, just for once listen,” she pleaded earnestly.

I nodded. “Run to your secret tree and put a branch in front of it. Hide there for now and only come out if it is your parents or I, okay?” she asked in a terrified voice. She bent down on one knee, soiling her white dress. Patting my golden, unruly curls, she whispered fervently, “I love you, Liv!”

My throat felt choked up for some reason. “I love you too, aunty Liz.”

She hugged my tightly and spun me around towards the direction of my tree. “Go, child, run and don’t look back.” 

She gave me a slight push and I latched onto her nervous energy as I ran to my tree. It was a huge with a large canopy overhead. The twining barks that grew over one another added and gave it a fairy tale-like feel. The hollow bark went underground and I suppose in this time, it was a good thing.  When I finally reached, I was tired and out of breath, but I had to get in, I knew. I grabbed a branch that one of the gardeners cut for me and cover the hole I crawled through.

Why were those people there? What did they want? I wondered silently.

Minutes went by and I was starting to calm down, praying helped me even more. I prayed that my family would be alright, and that they were safe but my dried choked up throat told me something else. Deep down I had a feeling that something was horribly wrong.

My heart felt sluggish and slow, as if something was tightened around it, which in turn made my breathing to become restricted. I leaned further against the tree, melting with the dark shadows and counted to fifty to slow my breathing down. When I was done, I searched for my favorite teddy bear, Tommy.  I clutched him happily to my chest and fell asleep with the hopes my family would come for me soon.  

The faint streaming in of the late evening sun filtered in and woke me up. With a nasty curse for the small hole, I squirmed around to stretch the muscles before I moved the covering to peek for a clear coast. With the worst kind of luck, I found a nightmare. Three huge men, with dark eyes, broad bulky shoulders, rode past me on my family horses. Their wide grins were contradictory to the blood that ran from their mouths. The tightening sensation that happened earlier, happened again as fear clutched my heart as I bolted to my house. I ran dragging behind Tommy as the twigs tore at my dress and the mud soiled it. All that went through my six year old mind was to get to my family.

Huffing and panting, I reached the thick wooden oak door. The door stood wide open and while it was a blessing, it was also a flag raiser.  I crossed my fingers and walked in without a clue of what to expect, but the horrendous sight that greeted wasn’t close to anything that I could have expected. My parents were tied up to dining room chairs and blood dripped from every visible bite mark. My father’s bare chest looked like the bloodsucker went mad. The bite marks criss-crossed each other, some were deeper than others, but still blood was dripping. My mother’s neckline was ripped and the bite marks went around her neck like some sick necklace. Bite marks ran up the length of both of their arms. Poor Elizabeth was tied to a pole and her head hung at an awkward angle –that fact alone distracted me from noticing she was only dressed in her full slip.

Tears streamed down my cheeks.

My family was dead and there was nothing I could do about it. I ran to my parents and crouched between their chairs as I cried my heart out for their deaths.

Finally, as all the tears dried up, a plan came to mind. I could not stay here or else those, those –monsters would come back for me, I realized. With the little energy I had left in me, I ran to my mother’s room and grabbed her favorite duffel bag. I scanned the room for what I would need. I took her scarf and mittens, then raided her jewelry box for her favorite locket that she never allowed me to wear. I went to the safe –I only knew the password because father knew I was responsible –and emptied it of all the money it held. I took our family photograph off mother’s nightstand and then I ran to my room to grab the clothes I would need. I took out a thick pair of jeans, thick woolen socks and a woolen pull-over and put it on as well as my favorite pair of boots. In my bag I stuffed in more winter clothes that I would need and my favorite black coat. I zipped the bag up and slung it on my shoulders as I bounded down the stairs in a hurry to leave before the monsters returned, but also reluctant to leave my parents there.

 The glittering sparkle of my parents’ rings caught my eye. With a heavy heart, I walked to their cold, lifeless bodies and slipped it off before entwining their hands together. They should always be together in death, like they were in life. I closed their open eyes and crouched down.

“Please forgive me, mother and father. I am leaving you here and not even reporting your death to the police, but I fear if I do, they will find me. I cannot let that happen yet.” My voice was strained and filled with unreleased sobs. “I am so sorry to take all you have worked your life for. I am sorry I am just leaving you for the wolves to find, but the monsters cannot find me before I am ready to kill them yet.”

My parents’ death will be avenged, I vowed. I will not let those monsters live while I can kill them.

I found my purpose and I was going to live up to it whether or not it got me killed.

“I, Olivia Maria Montgomery, vow to avenge my parents murder.” I whispered and let it flow in the breeze as I walked away in the cold evening of March.