I. Out in the Woods
"Mylene," the mother called out. "Mylene!"
Mylene was nowhere to be found in the house. In fact, she was venturing out in the woods to find her missing doll. Mylene stayed visibly clear in her older brother's sight Marcus, who is barricading all the exits from the house. All the screaming and the yelling came from the mother trying to look for her daughter. The father was looking out from the window at the attic, eyeing towards his diabolic son and confused daughter.
"Hey," he growled towards his son, "What in heaven's sake are you trying to do, you moron?"
"Just forget about him, I can't find our daughter," the mother was on the bottom of the stairwell about to climb to the attic. "She's got to be around here somewhere."
"She's not. She's out by the woods."
"What?" She was shocked, knowing that Mylene was not supposed to be around the woods.
As she climbed up the stairs to the attic, the father then saw Mylene frantically searching and yelling for her doll; that was when she started walking deep into the woods. Next thing after the other, an apparition grabbed the mother's left ankle that caused her to trip and had her head bump onto the edge of the stair. The father went downstairs to his wife to help her out as he suddenly saw smoke coming out of the kitchen downstairs on the first floor. Finally, he heard a scream just outside the house far into the woods.
"Mylene," the brother called out, "Mylene, over here. Come to my voice!"
"What. . . was that," the mother weakly asked, her breathing out of sync.
"I'll lift you up the stairs," he softly whispered. "Can you lift yourself up on a seat?"
"I'll try."
As they carefully and gently climbed up the stairs, Marcus went to the window below them and packed both his backpack and satchel. As he picked both of them up, he saw Mylene's doll in a sitting position underneath them like it had been there all the time. He picked up the Victorian Porcelain Romantic Rosalyn doll and wiped off the dirt before he put it in his backpack.
The father finally put his wife down on a white chair besides the window overlooking the woods. The father saw from the corner of his eyes that Marcus started running towards the woods; he felt relieved that his own son still wanted to look out for his younger sister. To the father, Marcus seemed diabolical yet caring. Little did he knew that his son did it for his sister, a favor for barricading the house so she won't be able to enter it at all. Marcus left their parents behind in the house trapped, knowing that he can't save them from the horrors within the house.
After leaving the house behind, Marcus heard two faint screams as he got deep into the woods looking for Mylene. He heard another scream nearby towards his right as he dashed onward. Passing twisted trees and fallen branches and twigs, he leaped and ran towards the scream once more as it got fainter.
He stopped running for a minute, trying to figure out where the next scream was coming from. One to the left was fainter than on the right. He listened very carefully as he tried to remember his own sister's screams, pleas, and whimpers. The one to the right he could hear a little girl's cries that was very faint; the cries was a lot closer as he slowly tiptoed to the small cave-in he encountered just about a yard away. As he carefully tried not to step onto the leafs that made the crunch sounds, he noticed a little girl's silky, red ribbon lay on the leafy grounds just near the entrance to the cave-in. He came in closer and saw a silver streak of hair shown beaming from the sun's rays.
"Mylene," he softly whispered.
He heard her sniffle as he came to take a closer look at her. He softly touched her shoulder indicating her to turn around. Her pale skin turned white, her face covered in tears and scratches from the cheeks. Her hair was a mess, twigs and leafs on top of her head and at the ends. Her one pigtail on her right was still attached, but it was loose. He came towards her to fix her hair, taking out the clumps of leafs and twigs. He then bound up the ribbon so it won't loosen again.
He picked up the other one laying on the ground and did the same after he picked up an enough amount to tie the front of her hair in a pigtail. Her angled, side bangs completely hid her pigtails, leaving the the ribbons slightly visible to the sides. The rest of her blue shined, black hair was left untouched and unbounded, her pigtails up front and center. He looked her in the eyes and found hers dim and afraid.
"I'm sorry," he murmured, "I should've ran faster."
"It's fine, you're here now." she sniffled under her heavy breathing. "Don't leave me, onii-chan."
The sky grew darker as the time passed by every minute they spent sitting there, Marcus comforting Mylene. Every minute spent crying, Mylene would look over his shoulder. She then saw smoke rising from the east towards where they lived. She let out a small gasp, where Marcus in response looked at her quizzically before he turned around to face the music. A faint sound can be heard: the police and the ambulance came. From the sounds of the sirens, it was going toward the smoke of where their house was. Mylene whimpered as Marcus sat frozen in place.
"What happened?" Mylene murmured under her breath.
"I think the fire got to them." He responded, petrified. "I'm sure of it that I made one barricaded exit of its beams weak for them to go through."
"Mum." She whimpered.
"Come here."
Mylene went in for the warm embrace. She made herself sit in a position where her face was completely covered onto his chest, and her tiny body fitted well in between his legs. Her muffled crying was the only sound aside from the sirens filling in the forbidden silence spreading around the countryside. Marcus kept his sight fixed to their burning house with their parents possibly still inside. He had an urge to pick up his sister and run towards the fire, but he had an odd feeling that it won't go too well. Instead, he continued hugging her comfortably and tightly as he petted her head.
The sky grew even more darker as twilight came to an end. The clouds dissipated everywhere but underneath their house, leaving a row of dark clouds. As if the time had passed by, the sirens had finally died down as well as the still fire rising went from dark to light. The night grew darker, possibly already midnight; the creepy silence grew colder as noises from owls and bats kept on going from time to time.
Marcus kept quiet as Mylene fell fast asleep sometime hours ago. He went to grab for his blanket in his backpack and gently placed Mylene onto the edge of the log inside the cave-in. He grabbed the blanket and laid it down on the ground inside their temporary shelter. He remembered hiding a few pillows behind the log from which he dug out with his own hands. He grabbed the luggage out and opened it as quietly as possibly.
By the lower right, he grabbed a face towel to wipe his dirt filled hands off and then grabbed the three pillows they had packed for emergencies. He placed two of them leaning against the log just near the blanket. He grabbed another blanket out of the luggage, but this time it was thick. He kept his folded and placed it on top of the luggage out by the log. He went towards Mylene and gently picked her up so he can place her on top of the blanket and the pillows. He once again gently put her down before he picked up the thick blanket and laid it down onto her.
He finally grabbed his backpack and satchel so he could put it by the luggage; he took out Mylene's doll from the backpack and placed it beside her in between her arms as if she is holding it. He fixed the place up even more by placing a thin bed sheet as a curtain to hide themselves for when the sun sets. With everything inside their shelter, Marcus suddenly fell asleep as well as he found himself with his own thick blanket he had placed on top of him. It was starless that night as the clouds reunited again for the rest of the dark sky until dawn.
