Sometimes the things we try forgetting the most come back to haunt us forever...
Fall was in full swing in the cozy Pennsylvania town. The weather was still warm, but a cool breeze swept past a mother swinging her two year old daughter in a baby swing. The pink swing was attached to a small oak tree in the backyard. The little girl’s blonde curls bounced as she giggled and danced at the ice cream truck in the distance. The day was perfect until the wind began to slow down.
As the wind slowed down, the world around the mother and daughter seemed to go with it. The rustling of the leaves lessened, and the song of the ice cream truck began to sound warped until it stopped all together. The whole world seemed frozen, the only sound coming from the creaking plastic swing the little girl was strapped in.
The little girl smiled and pointed at the wooden fence behind the mother.
“What is it
Laura?” The mother turned to look behind her, but saw nothing.
Laura giggled, still pointing. “Uh oh.”
The mother smiled at her daughter. “Uh oh?”
All at once the wooden fence shattered in toward the mother and daughter. She shielded her eyes, but when she looked up, there were three hooded figures. Their eyes glowed green underneath their hoods. The older man in the middle she recognized. The pale woman with short hair, and the darker man with dreads she did not.
The mother noticed the frozen world, and knew exactly what they were there for. She stepped in front of her daughter. She needed to think of a way to persuade them to leave without getting what they wanted. Fifteen years ago she made a deal with these creatures; she let it slip her mind in hopes they would never return, but now they were here to collect what she owed.
The mother tried to stay calm, but her fear did not go unnoticed by the cloaked figures with the bright green eyes. “Please…you can’t.”
The tallest one in the middle stepped forward. “We made a deal.”
He was right of course. She remembered him well. “It was so long ago, I didn’t think-”
“That we’d remember?” This time the woman to the left spoke. “Of course we remember. We never forget a deal, especially one like this. Now pay us what you owe.”
The mother shook her head. “No, you can’t have her!” She stood her ground, blocking the figures from her daughter’s view. Her eyes were in a panic, deep down she knew could not win this fight.
The man in the middle lowered his head, still keeping his green eyes on the mother. The two figures on either side of him growled and charged at her. The mother put her leg out and swiped over the legs of the two creatures as they sped past. They fell to the ground, and the mother ran to her daughter. She unstrapped one buckle on the swing before getting thrown to the ground. The older man from on top of her.
“Do no use what we taught you against us.”
The mother was crying. “Please, not my baby! I was young and desperate then, I never thought it would matter!”
The man smirked. “We made a deal, and now your debt needs repaid.” He snapped his fingers and the two others got up after recovering from their fall.
Once they were up, the man and woman unstrapped Laura from the swing. The child looked shocked, but was not sure what to think about the situation. She stayed silent, but stared at her mother with sparkling blue eyes. The mother fought the man standing over her, and managed to wiggle out of his grasp enough to run towards her daughter.
Rough hands grabbed her and threw her on the ground causing mud to steak across her long tan sleeve. She tried getting up, but the leader held her down.
“You can’t stop this!”
She watched as the other man with dreads held her daughter. She turned to the man holding her back. “Please Cephas, I made a mistake! Take me instead, please!”
“Once a deal is made, it cannot be undone. You know that.” His fingers dug into her arm.
The mother shook her head; tears were streaming down her face. Cephas gave her a rough shove into the ground before letting her go. She looked up to see her daughter crying in the arms of the ones who saved her own life long ago.
"No!" Before she could stand, the figures were gone in a black mist. "Laura!"
Time began once again. The wind picked back up and the ice cream truck played its song throughout the neighborhood as if nothing had happened. People began to walk out of their houses to see what was going on. All they could hear were the frenzied screams of a broken mother sobbing in her backyard, with a shattered fence and empty creaking swing.
