PREQUEL
The monsters in her mother's stories always had red eyes.
At least, that was how she imagined them.
She sat cross-legged on the bedroom floor, carefully arranging her carved wooden dolls beneath the silver glow of the lantern beside her bed. Outside, the forest swayed beneath the wind, branches scraping softly against the walls of their house. The sound had never frightened her before.
Tonight, it did.
Her mother slept in the next room. Or at least, she thought she did.
The little wooden fae doll in her hands had lost one of its painted wings years ago, but she still loved it more than the others. She placed it beside the tiny market cart she had made from twigs and smiled to herself.
One day, she would travel to the Fae kingdoms.
Not the monster kingdoms.
Never there.
Her mother's stories had made certain of that.
The creatures beyond the borders were cruel things with claws, teeth, and hunger buried deep inside them. Creatures that dragged people into forests and returned only bones to their families.
She hated those stories.
"Hm." Her mother's sleepy voice drifted from the doorway. "You're still awake."
She looked up immediately. "I was playing."
A tired smile crossed her mother's face as she stepped into the room. Moonlight slipped across her dark hair.
"You should be sleeping."
"I don't want to sleep.when I grow up," she whispered excitedly, "I'm going to the Fae kingdoms with you and Father. I'll become a trader and we can live there forever.but we should never go to the Demon Kingdom,there are demons and they will kill us.right mama?"
Her mother stared at her strangely for a moment.
Then she knelt beside her and brushed a strand of hair from her face.
"You should not fear monsters so easily," her mother said softly.
She frowned. "But they kill people."
Silence.
A strange look crossed her mother's face then. Something sad. Almost guilty.
Before she could ask what was wrong, her mother suddenly turned toward the window.
Stillness filled the room.
The wind outside had stopped.
Every instinct in her body tightened at once.
Her mother moved so quickly the lantern flickered.
"Listen to me carefully," she whispered.
Fear crawled cold beneath her skin.
Her mother grabbed her shoulders, eyes sharp now. Alert. Terrified.
"Go to the hiding place. Now."
"What?"
"NOW."
She had never heard her mother raise her voice before.
The wall beside the wardrobe slid open before she could even move. Her breath caught.
The hidden passage.
They used to play games inside it.
Hide-and-seek.
Treasure hunts.But her mother had never looked like this before.Never afraid.
"I don't understand," she whispered shakily.
Her mother pressed something cold into her palm. Her mother's wristband.some unknown vibration echoed from that.her mother never removed it.
"Do not come out," she said. "No matter what you hear."
Then her mother lifted a trembling hand.
And snapped her fingers.
Light exploded across the walls.
Symbols burned silver through the stone passage as something invisible sealed around her like glass.
A ward.
Her mother somehow had magic.but she didn't mention it.not once.they were only humans and they don't have magic.only fae and demons and other deadly creatures from her mother's stories had magic.but how did she created a ward? What type of ward is this?
The realization barely had time to settle before a scream echoed from downstairs.
Not human.
Something slammed against the front door hard enough to shake the entire house.her mother went downstairs
She crawled deeper into the hidden passage, trembling as the sounds below grew louder. Heavy footsteps thundered through the house. Something shattered downstairs. The walls themselves seemed to groan beneath the weight of whatever had entered their home.
Her mother was down there.
Another loud voice,something like a screm echoed through the house.
Not human.
The hidden passages twisted beneath the walls like roots beneath a tree. She crawled through the darkness until she reached the narrow opening connected to the basement below.
Carefully, she pressed her eye against the slit between the stones.
At first, she saw only shadows.
Then one of the creatures stepped into the lantern light.
Its body looked wrong.
Long limbs bent unnaturally beneath dripping black skin. Water pooled beneath its feet as though the creature itself had crawled out from the bottom of the sea.
Kelpies.
But not like the ones from the stories.
These looked dead.
Rotten.
Three of them stood inside the basement.
She was terrified.utterly terrified.
The creatures moved too fast.
Her mother's scream echoed through the basement as silver light burst against the walls.
Then came the sound of something tearing.
And suddenly, her mother was on the floor.
Not moving.
Blood spread slowly across the stone beneath her while the monsters stood over her body in the darkness.
And as she watched it unfold infront of her eyes,she could not hold her tears.she cried the whole night unable to reach her mother due to the wards.what would she do?
