"Dad..." I whispered. "What's the Rising?" I looked at him, turning my neck slowly. Saying I was terrified out of my pants was an understatement.

My dad didn't look away from the wall. He didn't say anything either, which worried me more. My father was usually very calm in the horrible situations that occurred in our lives.

Then again, this was more horrible than anything we'd ever experienced.

I slapped my dad's arm, terror making me a bit harsher than usual. He flinched away from me. "The Rising is something that has been coming for the past one thousand years. And I knew it would be soon...I just thought..."

"Thought what dad?" I asked, my voice quivering.

My dad looked at me, his eyes so wide that I was surprised they weren't popping out of his head. "I thought that we'd have more time."

Jackie, who had stopped trying to help Jax to look at the message on the wall, turned and looked at my father. "Well, we don't have more time." She said harshly, making my dad flinch again. "So we need to do something now."

"What do you expect us to do, Jackie?" I snapped, grabbing my dad and pulling him a little closer to me. "Run out of the house where they can get us? We're safer down here, after all."

Jackie opened her mouth to reply when suddenly, we heard a terrible screeching sound at the window. (Yes, our basement has windows. It's not completely underground. Only half of it is below.)

All of our heads jerked around. Jackie and I screamed. Something with long crooked fingers and nails like knives was scraping the glass. It had yellow eyes, so large that they took up most of its face. No pupils, just empty glowing sockets.

And...it looked like it was wrapped in bloody grey bandages, like a mummy...but not human shaped. It was wrinkled and its head was morphed in a grotesque way.

It opened it's mouth wide, showing off a black hole lined with huge razor sharp teeth all the way around. After doing this for a moment, it snapped its jaws shut and continued to scratch at the window.

"What the hell are those things!?" I screamed. I felt my dad shiver next to me. "Those are the things that killed your mother." He said quietly.

I heard a screech, one that wasn't glass being scratched, as the monster opened it's mouth again. It was trying to get inside.

We all huddled closer together, watching the monster scrabble at the glass. Cracks started to appear as it pushed harder.

I got to my feet and ran around the basement, searching for something we could use to defend ourselves. Obviously, we weren't just going to sit there and allow this thing to rip us to shreds. We were going to fight.

"There's nothing down here!" I yelled, panicking. Jackie was shivering, and my father couldn't speak. Jax, obviously, was basically dead.

"I'm going upstairs to get something to kill that thing with!" I said, listening to the frantic scrabbling and the cracking of the glass.

I thundered up the stairs, my heart throwing itself against my ribs like it was trying to escape and run off on its own. 

I grabbed some knives from my kitchen, and then I grabbed an old baseball bat that my dad used to use. After I had all of these things secured in my arms, making sure that the knifes wouldn't stab me, I ran down the stairs. 

Just as I hit the last step the window flew open, causing glass to scatter everywhere. My sister jumped in front of my father and Jax to keep the glass from hurting them. A few pieces got stuck in her back, but the rest of them just bounced off. 

I ran across my basement and chucked a knife at the monster that was crawling into our house. It stayed true to its mark, but the monster was still crawling around. "I JUST STABBED YOU THROUGH YOUR CHEST, WHY ARE YOU STILL MOVING!?" I screamed, even though I was well aware that it wouldn't reply. 

Jackie got to her feet quickly and dragged Jax away from the monster. I shivered when I saw the large bloodstain he had left on our carpet. 

The monster scuttled down our wall and landed on the ground with cat-like grace. It had feet with nails almost as long as the nails on its' hands. The legs were stick-thin but still terrifying, in their own way. 

Really, this monster looked like a skeleton wrapped in grey bloody bandages with a deformed head and yellow glowing eye sockets...oh and the mouth of some weird shark.

"Go for the eyes!" Jackie yelled as the monster started toward my father and I. "Dad, take a knife." I said, keeping my voice deadly calm. My dad looked at me like a sad puppy waiting for his owners approval. When I raised my eyebrows he got to his feet and took the knife from my hand. 

My dad and I ran at the monster together, me trying to move like I normally did. The weird thing was, I felt almost sicker than after I got stabbed by the spider. 

Once I got close enough to the monster to stab it, something happened. 

Something that I didn't really understand.

---

"KORA WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" I screeched as my sisted halted an inch apart from the monster. She turned around and her eyes seemed to have gone blank, as if she couldn't think anymore. 

She dropped the knife, her knees shaking, and turned toward the monster. When she spoke, her voice was utterly inhuman. "Kill me. Now."

The monster almost seemed to smile as it reached out a clawed hand to dig into my sister's chest. Before it could I picked up the baseball bat Kora had left on the ground and chucked it at the monster's face. The monster fell to the ground, stunned, and I ran at Kora and slapped her in the face. 

Kora fell to the ground like I had just shot her. I caught her by the arm and saw that her eyes had lost the blank look...now they were full of pain. 

Kora passed out in my arms before I could say anything. I looked at her for a moment, and then I set her down, grabbing the knife she had dropped.

As I got to my feet and turned to face the monster, I felt a hand with an iron grip grab my ankle. I squeaked and spun around again to see Kora hanging onto me, her eyes glowing yellow. 

"They're...killing...me...from...the...inside." She whispered. I stared at her, not sure what to do. My blood ran cold as I watched her body jerk on the ground. "Kora!" I yelled, bending down to slap her and snap her out of it.

Kora grabbed the knife from my hand and positioned it over her chest. "KORA NO!" I yelled. She didn't listen. The next thing I knew she was cutting herself, her face, her chest, her arms. 

"KORA STOP!" I grabbed the knife from her hand and watched her stare at me, her eyes switching between yellow and light green. 

She let out a shuddering breath, and I noticed that her lips were turning black.

Something was possessing her...or poisoning her...but whatever it was it was killing her. 

Little did I know that as I was watching her, the monster had regained its' wits and snuck up behind me. My blood went cold as nails dug into my back, trying to tear my apart. 

Through a haze of pain I watched my sister digging her own nails into her skin, causing blood to spatter on the floor.

In a matter of moments, my life had turned into hell.