3275 Hailey Drive, Dyland Woods, Colorado

Alicia

My dolls are having a tea party with a magical pony. Little did they know, the witch is watching outside the treehouse. She is flying up in the air with her broomstick. She placed poison into their tea.

"Come on, drink it," the witch says without patience.

"Don't drink that tea!" The magical pony senses the poison within their tea, "The witch poisoned them."

They all look at the magical pony out of fright.

"The witch?" Jem asks. Jem is an Earthling that believes in magic. Since she does, the magical pony lets her into the magical realm. Other Earthlings think she's crazy. She has blue hair with green eyes. Her outfit is very rainbowy and sparkly.

"Yes, the witch," the magical pony sighs, "That witch is evil and will kill all good in this land. Her spells are strong. She killed a king two hundred years ago."

"What are we gonna do now?" Marigianna asks worriedly. Marigianna is from the elf land, but they say she has no powers. Elves have nature powers. Marigianna is the daughter of the witch and is a witch herself. She knows that the witch placed poison in their tea, except hers. She wanted them dead when she first met them, but she is starting to like them and wishes her mom to stop being so evil. She has long white hair with purple eyes. She also has pointy ears. Her clothes are made of large leaves from nature like every elf.

"We need to kill-" Before Jasmine can finish, my mom opens my bedroom door.

Her eyes move and see that I have not picked up my toys as she asked me to do. She gives me a very angry look and says, "Alicia Ray Mason, I've told you to pick up your damn toys. The next time I come in here and see that they are not picked up, you'll regret it!" She stomps away. Her voice was choppy and scary. It makes me very scared of what will happen if I don't do what she asks.

I take my time to put my toys all back onto my shelf before returning to my dolls. I remember shoving my mess into my closet and lying to my mom that it was clean like a month ago. She figured it out. My mom slammed the door off its hinges. The hinges were already worn out. She kicked me down the ground and screamed at me, shouting that I shouldn't be a slob and pick up my room the right way. She also said I shouldn't be a "lying piece of shit" and if I want to be successful, I need to clean the right way. The more embarrassing thing is that my twin older brothers, Scott and Collin, just stood in the doorway and watched. I was hoping for them to save me from mommy. They didn't. They just wanted to watch their sister get yelled at. I am only four! I don't have a closet door anymore and every time I clean my room, my mind always goes back to that incident.

She says my full name when she is angry. Scott and Collin also had the same last name as me. The only brother I know that has a different last name is Markus. His last name is Joe. I asked mom why Markus has a different last name and she annoyingly explained that he had a different father. She claimed that my dad lives here, but I rarely see him. I don't even remember what he looks like.

My house is a tiny two-story house. When you enter, you will be in a living room with a small TV with a three-person couch. My bedroom is on the right. A bit further up on the left, there is the dining room. The dining room is right before the kitchen, which is also on the left. The stairwell is across from it on the right. If you go beyond the kitchen and the stairs, you will see a half bathroom and the door to our backyard. I haven't gone upstairs. I mostly think it's bedrooms and bathrooms because my mom and my three brothers go upstairs at night.

When I asked her where daddy was, she told me it was none of my beeswax. I kept on asking her, begging her to tell me the truth, but she smacked me in the face. My face hurt for the rest of the day and my cheek was red.

"We need to kill her," Jasmine says. Jasmine is a fairy that also runs this treehouse. The magical pony is her guardian and her ride. No one knows the name of her magical pony, but Jasmine calls her Unicorn.

"Killing is forbidden on this land!" Unicorn stomps her hoof down.

"But she killed a king 200 years ago. Her crimes need to be stopped before she kills more people," Jasmina argues back.

"We can just put her in jail," Marigianna suggests while her eyes trace to the window. She sees her mother riding the broomstick. Her mom is uglier than her. Her mom has light green skin, black eyes, and her hair is very long and white. She looks like a wrinkled old child. The witch silently puts her finger against her mouth, telling her to stay quiet. Mari knew that her mom would punish her severely if she tattletales on her. She moves her eyes back to the group, worrying about her friends. When will she speak? When will she stand up to her mom?

"We need to trap her," Jem states.

All four of them start to plan on how to capture the witch. Since Jasmine has the power of weather and is one of the strongest fairies in the magical land, she will strike the witch down with lightning. This will cut off her chance to fly. Mari knows her mom heals more quickly than others. She has one weakness: Water. Water feels like acid to her skin, but Mari is immune to it. Water slows down her mom's healing and can severely weaken her if large amounts are dumped on her. It can kill her if the water is enchanted with magic. Jem agrees to dump a bucket of water on her. Since they only know Marigianna is an elf, she will construct a net to trap the witch. Elves are great builders and the realm relies on them for defenses, military, buildings, and other things. Marigianna had to quickly learn to build as an elf, so no one suspects her of being a witch.

"Great. Now we all got our plans down. Next step is, how are we going to find her?" Mari asks with mild fake frustration.

"She mostly bothers us or people in the city," Unicorn notes, "I put up some magic that can detect the witch's spells."

"That's a great idea!" Jasmine applauds.

Unicorn looks outside the treehouse and sees it's getting dark. She tells Jem to leave the magic realm and go back to Earth. She opens a portal and she leaves. I put Jasmine down at the corner of the table. Unicorn then tells Mari to go home. Mari thanks her for inviting her and then leaves.

Marigianna walks to a village in the magic realm. It's an elven village. Most of the houses are huts since elves are out building. She enters the hut to find her mom standing inside.

"So, Gia, did they drink the tea?" The witch asks in a crooked high-pitch voice.

"No," Mari shakes her head.

"Sad," the witch disappointedly sighs, "So, what was the meeting about?"

"They are planning to track you down and have you captured," she answers with regret.

"Tell me!"

"The unicorn is going to cast the spell that can sense a witch's magic... They are going to do it in the city." Mari left the treehouse part out. Well, the water, the trap, and Jasmine's stun attack out.

"Good-Good, my child! So I have been reading books lately about magical ponies. They have a source that gives them sO MUCH POWER! It lies hidden within their homes. I want you to find the source and destroy it," the witch replies before laughing wickedly.

"Quiet down!" Mari whispers, "Some elves are sleeping. I don't use my magic, mom."

"You better do or else you will lose your mother. Your 'friends' will eventually find out about us and they will leave you. I don't want you to be-"

"Alica, Scott, Collin, time for dinner!" My mom's shouting snaps me out of my imagination. Aw, I was about to get to the good part!

I set my dolls down and walk to the dining room table. My mom cooked us pork chops with rice. I easily noticed that mom didn't call out Markus for dinner again. She hasn't been doing this for the last three days or so... I sit down where my kiddie plate is.

"Why isn't Markus eating with us again, mom?" I ask her.

"Markus usually eats out without us telling us. He is a very bad boy, young lady. Do not behave like he does," mom sternly answers.

"What does he do?" I need to know!

Scott rolls his eyes and says, "We don't talk about him at the dinner table. Don't hang out with him. You are gonna get sucked into his bad ways."

"Sorry, I just wanna know..." I apologized.

"He gets his attitude from his father. His father was a rotting deadbeat slob. He is always disrespectful to me. We only made it to one kid and that was Markus. I thought he was going to be a great child, but he turned out to be my absolute regret. He hated me for his father leaving him," she sounds very frustrated and it's scary.

I hear Markus somewhere around the stairwell. "Not true," I hear.

"Markus, get back in your room!" She snaps, "Don't utter a damn lie!"

I hear Markus rambling incoherently, sounding sad and frustrated.

"What are you saying, Markus?" Scott comes in.

Mother turns furious, "Markus, get your ass down here now!"

I can finally see him as he dreads down the stairs, awaiting the worse.

"What did you say?" Mother demands.

Markus shrugs his shoulders. "I didn't say anything..."

"That's a lie! I've heard him say something," Scott exclaims.

"I didn't hear anything," I lie. I don't know if that's a complete lie. I did hear, but didn't hear any words from Markus's mumbling.

"Stay out'ta this, Alicia!" Mother snaps back at me, causing me to startle back in my seat.

She glares back at Markus. "One more word out of you and I'm gonna kill you!" Mom threatens before she grabs one of the dinner knives and throws it at him. Markus jumps out of the way and it hits the wall before falling back down. My whole body is motionless. What did I just see mom do? Why would she do that to my brother? What's wrong with her? My body falls into tears.

"Markus, please, go back into your room. Don't make mom madder," I beg him with tears in my eyes.

He quickly obeys and bolts back up the stairs. The dinner went quiet for the rest of the meal. I read a kiddie book before mom said it was time for bed. I went into my pajamas and turned off the light. I was scared to fall asleep. When the night became very quiet, I got up and resumed playing with my dolls with a flashlight.

"I don't want you to be alone," she says before grabbing her daughter's hands.

Mari sighs. She doesn't want to be alone and she is afraid to be alone. "Alright," she whispers in defeat. The witch flies out of her window, leaving Mari in peace. She can't sleep because she needs to figure out how to find the source of Unicorn's power. Since she can't sleep, she decides to return to the treehouse and find the magic sourc-.

I gasp when I hear some plastic bin falling down onto the floor, followed by the word "shit." I peek out of my room to see Markus looking through the fridge. I leave my room and tip-toe to the kitchen.

"Markus, what are you doing?" I whisper to him,

He gasps and quickly turns around. Our eyes locked into each other. I can tell he is holding the plastic container with the pork chops.

"I'm starving," he whispers to me weakly. He looks like he is about to collapse. His legs are not holding him to stand still.

He grabs a pork chop and quickly heats it up. He took it out of the microwave when there was only one second left. He begins to eat it as if his life depends on it. He glares at me, "Go back to sleep!"

Before he gets a chance to leave the kitchen, we hear a car pull up into our driveway with the lights on. Markus gives me the look that I should hide, otherwise, I am dead before he skitters behind the stairs. I hide behind the counters in the kitchen. I peek out from the corner and watch the door open. I can see mom sprint down the stairs, eager to greet this person.

"Welcome home, honey! Did you get it?" She asks him.

What is that?

"Yes, Elisse, I got it with other special things inside it too," he replies as she gives mom some container with some white fluff. It's hard to make it out in the light, but the white color of this powder is easy to see. My mother takes it. "I haven't got this in days," her voice changes, "Wanna come upstairs and show what you've been missin' out?"

"Always for you, darling," he replies as kisses her.

They kiss again before they go upstairs. As they get closer, I can see the man is my pale father in a suit with a black bag. We hear a door shut moments after. Markus and I look at each other. He looks at me filled with woe and concern before shaking his head with a sigh.

"It was never like this," he tells me miserably, "She was better than this."

"What did papa give her?" I ask him.

"Something that should never be seen, nor used," he replies grimly, "Mom is losing her mind because of it."

"Like an evil spell?"

"Pretty much. It's never good. It's bad."

"So daddy is bad?"

"Both in some manner. Don't get into that, Alicia, no matter what!" He says in a whispered shout.

We all went quiet as we heard a mild creaking noise upstairs and some chuckles of laughter. Those walls sometimes don't quiet what my family upstairs are doing. "Stay quiet about this, otherwise, she will start targeting you too, Alicia. Go back to your room now. I will go back to my room. Goodnight," he orders. I immediately obey.

I didn't fall asleep after what I'd just discovered. I stare at the wall in disbelief that my mom and father are the bad guys. I was always frightened by my mother's anger, but more terrified that she is taking something that makes her evil. Are Collin and Scott getting the same thing?! Collin and Scott are twin boys and are in eighth grade. They mostly look alike and act alike. My mom leaves me alone most of the time and the twins barely talk to me. It's like they can read each other's minds or their minds are controlled by someone else! It's really creepy! After what happened today, I'll stay closer to Markus.

I begin to doze off around two in the morning until I hear footsteps again. I get off my bed and peek from the bedroom door. It's Markus again, but something feels off about him. I can't tell, but I feel unimaginably scared. I feel my legs turn into those of a teddy bear. He violently shakes like he is about to explode. I hear slight growls coming from him. I wonder if he is okay...

I left my room and decided to tip-toe towards him. "You okay?" I ask him.

He winces towards me and I can see a slight hint of red in his eyes. When he looks at me, the redness is fully gone. He looks like he wants to kill me.

"Markus, are you okay?" I repeat.

"Yes... I am okay," he says to me, "Go back to bed. It's like two in the morning."

"But I saw re-you shaking," I imply, I feel that saying the wrong thing will end me.

"Yes, I'm fine," he groans, "Now bed!"

I go back into my room. I let out a sign out of fear and relief. Tonight was a weird night. I refuse to sleep for the rest of it. The next morning, I was sleepy, but I didn't care.

The rest of the day was quiet. I didn't play with my dolls because I felt the air was charged with anger, dread, and madness. Mom, Scott, and Collin carried on like they didn't feel it at all. Markus didn't leave his room and I was getting very worried, not even for school.

Bedtime arrives. I have a gut feeling to not fall asleep because I feel that at any moment, a killer will come in and kill me. I have an urge to find the basement. I haven't been down in the basement or seen a door to it. My grandpa used to live there until he died. Maybe I can find it quickly and hide down there? I get up from my bed and sneak my way into the back of the house with a flashlight. I look around to see any signs of an entrance to the basement until I find a door behind the stairs. It's painted to its surroundings as if it is a hidden room like in the witch's house. I try to find the door handle, but nothing. I put my hand on it and try to push it around. When I push left, the door starts to move. I smile as I point my flashlight down and find the stairwell down into the basement. I get ready to enter the basement, but I hear irregular stomping above me. I gasp in fear and quickly turn off my flashlight. I peek from behind the stairwell as the stomping goes down the stairwell.

I see Markus with glowing red eyes and smoke all around him. I hear him growling louder than ever. I see him on fire! I don't move... I don't want to move because he doesn't look like the Markus I knew a few nights ago. His skin turns black and his hair goes away. I see horns coming out of his head and wings dark as night sprawl out of his back. It's hard to see him at night, but the fire and his red eyes help me see a better view. He is worse than the witch herself!

"What the hell is that- Oh my God! What the fu-" I hear my mom yell out as she leaves her room. I hear loud banging. I can't see her. My whole body refuses to move. I don't even see mom before I see her chucked across the living room, hitting the wall hard in the process. I hear my twin brothers come out of their room and hear screams as they see what lies ahead of them.

"Alicia, stay in your room!" I hear Collin scream out, but he doesn't know where I am at.

My bedroom door slams viciously shut, which makes the house tremble. Then, I hear choking sounds above me and I can only see them when they land nearby Markus.

All of them rise up in the air and fire circles around them. I want to look away because I feel very sick, but my eyes are glued to what I am watching. What is going to happen to them?! What happened to Markus? What is going to happen to Scott and Collin? What is going to happen to mommy?

The smoke of the fire takes over the entire house, making it hard to breathe without coughing. The atmosphere changes too. It turns dim and red. I pinch myself. I want to wake myself up from the nightmare that I could've dozed off into. I keep pinching myself, begging to wake up, but I can't.

I hear all of them howl when the ground opens up. I see that a hole appears as big as the circle of the flames. The fire circle is bigger than the living room itself, it's almost close to the kitchen. The stairs are next to the kitchen and I am behind them. The circle of fire is a couple of feet away from my bedroom door. The window in the kitchen shatters into smithereens. The glass shards rise up and join into the circle of fire. A dark cloud surrounds them. I can't see anything. The growls coming from the clouds are too much for my head to bear.

When the cloud goes away, I see large giant knives, along with broken glass. They try to fight away from Markus's powers, but they are losing the battle. I hear a loud monstrous snarl coming from Markus before the knives and glass move directly towards my family.

I try to scream out no but no words exit out of my mouth. The sharp objects enter their own bodies. Screams come out of them. It's higher than the witch's cackle. I cover my ears, sobbing. The smoke saturates the entire house. It is hard to see. The fire alarm's beeping and beeping in a haunting tune in a lullaby will keep me up all night as it is. My family looks like shadows now. I see two of their bodies drop into the pit below them. Right away, I knew that it was Scott and Collin. My mom's body lowers a bit before I hear the ground closing up. I can still see her. Half of her body is still present while the rest is trapped within the ground. Markus flies back down.

"Do you have any sins you would like to confess?" Markus snarls at her. It's not his voice anymore.

Mother whimpers..

"None?" Markus comments in anger, "Lying is going to cost you."

His flaming hand touches her face. Mom screams. My body forces me to lean back against the wall like it doesn't want me to see what will happen next. I've already seen too much in this nightmare. I hear mom scream louder and louder while I also hear snapping sounds. I hear unpleasant splattering sounds afterward... The ground opens up again and I can hear content being thrown in there. I peek out again. Markus is the only one present. He is looking at my door. He slowly walks to it. He opens my door and looks in there. What is he going to do when he finds out that I'm not in there?

An awful roar shakes the house. I scream out loud when the whole house goes up in flames. I force myself to move. I quickly grab my flashlight and enter the basement. I close the door behind me. The basement doesn't seem to be on fire. I can hear the roars of the flame going on above me. I can feel the temperature rising. I went down there and cower in the corner of the room. I use my flashlight to gather my surroundings. It's dusty down here. There are bookshelves and papers on the floor. There's also a dusty old chair.

I scootch to one of the papers on the floor. I pick it up to see what it is about. I try to read it, but can't figure out what it means. It seems to be written in some other language.

The basement door rips off its hinges. I squeal. It flies to the other side of the wall. I jump and cry more.

Looks like Markus found me.

I turn off my flashlight and hide behind a shelf. I peek to see as Markus goes down the ladder. I hide back again as he starts to look around. My heart is pounding and I am panting out of pure terror. I feel a major push from the bookshelf as if someone shoved it. I dodge out of the way. My side hits the floor. Markus is dead-staring at me. The bookshelf combusts into flames. If I didn't move, I would've joined my mom and my brothers.

We both lock eyes again like we did last night. His eyes are fully red. I don't see any traces of white or black in them. Every exhale he takes, he growls. His razor-sharp teeth are the scariest! His hand lifts up into the air. I feel like hands are choking me. I see myself begin to rise up. My tiny legs kick the air as I struggle to be free. I see myself move above the shelf that is on fire. I can feel intense heat. The oven where my mother sometimes cooks was cooler than this.

"Markus, s-stop!" I scream out. Tears flow down my cheek. My throat is burning!

I see the brown in Markus's eyes and the fire dims a little.

"Wh-Why a-are you d-doing this?" I utter out, his grip is tight around my throat. "I-I'm s-sorry th-the w-way we treated y-you." My cries make my throat hurt and burn at the same time. I beg, "M-Markus, please. Don't-Don't hurt me. I-I love you!"

"You didn't do anything to me," Markus replies. He sounds very dark, but I hear his own voice in there too.

"You did nothing!" His voice turns monstrous and his eyes turn red again. I scream louder as I struggle to break free. I feel a force throw me across the basement. My left side slams into the wall first. I plummet to the ground. I realize I can't move my left arm. The left side of my tummy hurts. I am in a corner, taking in the much-needed air. I look up to where the stairwell is... I need to escape. I have to get out of here! I don't want to die!

Before I can try to get up and run, Markus runs towards me with incredible speed. I can see his hand sway up in the air. I can see his long claws about to strike me. I raise my right hand towards my head and turn away, ready for his attack. His strike tears through the pipe that is sticking out of the wall. Water dumps onto me and onto his hand. I feel searing pain as his claws tear through my hand and down into my arm. I also hear sizzling noises and Markus growling out of anguish. I look up to see his arm is no longer on fire as the rest of his body.

"You bitch!" He shrieks at me. My only reply is in cries.

"Sorry, Markus!" I got back up and crawl out of the corner of pain. I look at my right arm. Three fingers are only hanging on and where he clawed me is bleeding pretty badly. Am I going to die from this? I'm running out of tears to cry. I run towards the stairs again, but my whole body freezes up. My body gets tossed away from the stairwell.

"Markus, please!" I plea. I look at him again. I am all out of choices.

"Please stop!"

"Markus, I care about you-" He lifts up his hands and I start to levitate.

"You don't even know me," he growls back.

"Markus-"

"Shut up!" He yells and the whole basement shakes. A crack opens up in the ground. He moves me above the crack. I can see lava at the very bottom. I let out a cry.

Then, I hear the faint Wee-woo! Wee-woo above us.

"Markus is gone. You hear me?! Dead! He begged to be alive, but no one helped him! Now, you're going to feel what he felt when he was helpless!"

I didn't know he was helpless. Mom always told me he was a bad boy because he always went against her. I only saw him causing fights with mom. It's like mom and him are alike. The fight gets so bad at times that the twins intervene, always taking mommy's side.

The sirens got so loud that I think that they are at our house. He growls again, but in stress. I see the floor closing back up. His red eyes fade to brown again. He drops me to the ground. I hear the front door being kicked down.

"Dyland Woods Firefighters! Anyone here?!" I hear a firefighter call out.

"Help me! I am down here," I scream as loud as I can,

His whole body twitches. I thought I heard the word "No" after it. Markus set the whole furniture in the basement on fire! The whole room begins to cloud with smoke. I begin coughing. My lungs already hurt, but I feel like I'm dying. I am sweating. I feel like I am not going to make it out and I am scared that I might die. It took me so long that this isn't a dream. This is real life!

The books start to rise on their own. They are on fire! I see Markus with an evil smile. His red eyes return. The books hurtle towards me. I am hopeless that I can dodge all. I start to run around in the smoke, coughing heavily. I run around the borders of the basement. A book hits my left side again as Markus predicted. Sharp pain hits into my left leg. I collapse to the floor. Why did he hit them so hard? Other books start to hit me. The fire burns my skin, even though they were on it for a second. My pajamas are now on fire. I scream against the burn. I try to pat them and sway the flames away with the wind, but it doesn't work.

I wince back at Markus. I see his right eye turning brown on and off. When his eye turns normal, his flames calm down even on me. It's like he is battling within himself, but it's taking longer for his human eye to appear. He is watching me intently without moving a muscle.

"Please, brother, please," I say to him as I see black coming into my vision and I feel like I'm feeling, "I love you. Pl-please don't hurt me."

Black smoke invades my vision and the books start to feel lighter and lighter. Markus isn't himself anymore. He has been taken over by something. My body grows weaker and weaker. All I see is darkness that I feared. Can this be my end?

The firefighters found me not long after I collapsed, saving my life. I had a few broken ribs and an arm. My lungs had to be cleared and I had an oxygen mask on me for a while. Three of my fingers had to be removed and my arm had to get stitches. My arm will be scarred and damaged for the rest of my life. They were shocked that I was still alive. They thought I wouldn't make it through the operation, but I did. I was in a coma for three weeks.

The house was completely destroyed and investigators asked me what happened. I told them everything. They didn't believe me when I told them about the monster. They brushed it off as the fire playing tricks with me since I have a wild imagination. I asked why I saw the monster before the fire started. It killed my mom and brothers. I told them I had a feeling that I should hide in the basement right before the monster appeared.

They brushed it off again, saying the monster could've been an arsonist or a murderer chasing me around and also lighting the place on fire. They found my family's bodies in the entrance, tied up, beyond recognition. They asked me why I didn't go outside. I replied that I had a gut feeling that I should go to the basement. I started to get frustrated and yelled at them if I was lying, the claw marks on my arm wouldn't be there. We didn't have a dog and there was no arsonist. The only people that I saw were my mom, the twins , and Markus going into the kitchen to heat up food since my mom doesn't feed him.

That's when the topic has changed. They asked me about my mom and why my brother wasn't fed. I explained to them that she hates him for some reason and she always said that he was a bad boy. I told them my mom threw a knife at him since he was mumbling to himself. I barely even see my dad. When they asked what was the last time I saw him, I told him around the same night and he was giving mom this white stuff in a container before going upstairs. Markus told me it was an evil magic power.

That's when they realized that I had been in an unsafe home and I'd seen too much... An investigation happened. When they returned to me, they told me that if the house didn't burn down, they would've arrested my mother anyway. The authorities didn't want my dad to have me. It was always like this. He didn't care about me! Scott and Collin became mommy's job and he didn't care about them! He never cared about Markus either! If he gave that nasty magic stuff to mom, he was evil in business!

I was placed in an orphanage that was full of kids. The ones who run it are sweet and the other children are okay. I felt lost. No new mommy and daddy wanted me. I saw other kids get picked up, but I wasn't lucky. Why? I am not a bad kid! I wish to have people that love me and I'll be a good daughter to them!

Not long after being placed in the orphanage, I started to see Markus's terrifying form behind me in the mirror, in the dark corners, and at night. I wake up and I see him. No one else did. I had awful nightmares from that vile night. I was taken to the doctor and he diagnosed me with PTSD and Schizophrenia. I had to take medication, but that didn't help anything. I am always dying that they will see him!

Ten years have passed since the incident. Two adults come knocking on the door, requesting to see me. They greet themselves as Chris and Jacob. We talked together in my room privately. They tell me about what happened during a party ten years ago.

"Fireballs rained down while we were secured to the ground by a strong force, kids had their heads exploding, a rough teenager was stabbed by a fence before being thrown into the bonfire. Hell, even a classmate was slammed against the front door and was held up by knives," Chris tells me, "I think that was Harry." He pauses between his sentences as the memory haunts him.

"Holy moly," I utter,"I saw a monster that had black skin, red eyes, horns, claws, and black wings. ...Fire was surrounding my family. The monster shattered the glass and a dark cloud appeared. Knives and the glass shards were sharpened to a point and impaled my family while they were unable to move. The ground was opened up. My brothers were dropped into. That being closed the ground up while my mother was halfway into the hole. ...I looked away after I saw the monster pressing its fiery hand against her face. I heard a lot of cracking and splatter sounds. When I looked back, my mom was gone. The monster turned my house into an inferno!" God, spilling everything that happened to me is way harder than I thought...

"We never saw the monster's appearance," Chris comments, "But it sounds horrifying."

"He chased me in the basement. He threw me against a wall, threw flaming books, even opened up a crack with lava! He nearly killed me, but the firemen saved my life. The investigators didn't damn believe me! They thought it was my imagination or an arsonist for Christ's sake!" I frustratedly imply. I showed them my scarred arm with only two fingers left. My arm is shorter than the other.

In a sense, I was kind of like my dolls. My mom was a witch and I was Jasmine, Jem, and Marigianna. Mari for being her daughter and my mom trying to make me evil while I started to care for Markus. Jasmine was like me when fighting for survival and battling against evil. Jem is me when nobody believed me. Markus isn't the witch. He was the product of the witch's spell. Long before the event, I had a dinosaur that I used as the monster that attacked the magical city. She was once an elf before the witch cast a spell on him. From what my mother has done, she turned Markus into a monster. She got what she wanted from him. She wanted to make him look evil. Instead of turning back into what he once was, he grew more into a monster.

I despise my mom so much. I loathe my father too. Scott and Collin were kind of innocent since they were puppets to mom, but something was already wrong with them at the start. After hearing what Markus did at the party and what he did to me, I feel kind of sorry for him and also angry. He hurted me! He was the only brother that never snitched on me to mommy and he was never mean to me! Why?! I can't let this go. I still see him! Can he just go away or go back to the Markus I once knew and loved? My life was never set straight. I just want a break. I want him to stop hurting me.

I didn't tell them that it was Markus because they wouldn't believe me. How the hell can a human turn into an actual monster? Most importantly, how did he do that?

"I still see him in the darkest corners, my room, and behind me in the mirror. I still get vile nightmares," I inform them.

"That's not good," Chris says to me, fraught with worry, "It means it followed you."

I feel like I am about to throw up. Damn it! I want to wish it to be just in my head. I am hopeless that what Chris said was a suggestion rather than a statement.

"Once you grow enough to move out, get away from this place and seek God's help," he tells me, "There are gonna be skeptics out there. As much as they are gonna piss you off, you just got'ta roll with it and ignore them. Don't wish that the entity will haunt them too because that is the worst thing. Its capabilities are unbelievably gruesome."

I took advice from Chris. I moved out when I was eighteen and moved to New York City. I took multiple part-time jobs to keep up with local income. I attended a local Christian church regularly, in order to receive God's help. Markus no longer appears, but the nightmares are still here.

It's not over yet. It's not over yet.