Illusions

A dog barked loudly, tugging at its chain with utmost urgency. He looked around wildly and whined when his eyes caught something, his tail falling between his legs. A pair of dark red eyes peered out at him from the darkness, telling him to shut up or risk losing his pointless life. Somewhere in the huge, white house across the street a family was about to return home to a clean house hold. Or so they thought.

Nell was always very close to her family. There were never any horrible fights between them, you could even say they were perfect, perfect on the outside that is. Being human though, perfect was unobtainable.

It all started with her brother. They blamed everything on him. If it wasn't for him nothing would bad would have happened. If it wasn't for his addiction he could have been in the army, and wouldn't have to live off of his parents. His coke addiction was taxing and slowly making them poorer every day. This was an exaggeration fed to Nell from her father himself while her mother stayed in her neutral position on matters. It was always Richard's fault.

Then came her sister. The day she had moved out, she called to say that she and her new girlfriend were eloping, too afraid of what her parent's reaction would be. Needless to say, Nell never heard from Lulu again. This too was told to her by her father. She wasn't even sure if her brother knew about Lulu.

You can only imagine what she thought when she saw her family slaughtered. And He made sure she saw it all.

First was her father, always courageous when it came to his family, always strong. Unfortunately, he wasn't strong enough. His spine was ripped out, slowly so He could hear every plea, every whimper of pain the man uttered. Grant was dead in a matter of minutes.

Next came Nell's mother. Her screams were almost too unbearable for Him. Almost. He took out her heart, first reaching in through her chest to grab the pulsing organ, breaking several ribs in the process. He pulled it back out a moment later and, to Nell's horror, began to devour it slowly. Amy had passed away soaking in a puddle of her own blood.

Lulu already lay on the ground, a greeting gift from Him. She was missing over half of her face. The intact face was staring wide in shock. Maggots infested the missing half of her face, wriggling in the still warm flesh. He had known Lulu hated maggots.

Richard was next. Already high on the drug, it only magnified his terror. He shrieked as his face was grabbed a hold of by Him. He forced his lips on the squirming boy. Although it otherwise would have been an intimate action, it was only a kiss of death. Blood trickled down Richard's chin, dripping onto the floor and mixing with his mother's. A moment later, He dropped him onto the floor. His mouth was filled with blood, and open in an act of pantomimed horror. Richard had always liked acting, and this would be his last, this was his curtain call.

Nell trembled as He turned on her, a twisted grin on his face. His pale skin was smeared with blood, mostly on his mouth. He licked it off quickly. From a hidden pocket He pulled out a thin blade and handed it to Nell.

"You're going to kill yourself." He murmured. She nodded, still terrified, and put the blade to her wrist. A moment later she gasped as blood gushed onto a clean floor. She blinked rapidly, looking down at it. No bodies, no blood, besides her own. He moved closer to her and grabbed a hold of her wrist, sucking the blood from it before it was all spilled. He was gone a moment later, letting her slowly dying body hit the floor with a slam. As if on cue her parents walked in. Amy screamed, it was the last thing she heard.

It was all over the news the next day. A young girl, about 13 years old, was dead. Her wrists were cut and she had bled to death. Her family had said that she'd had no real reason to. They'd lived a nearly perfect life. She was an all A student and was well liked at school. An autopsy showed that she hadn't been on anything when she had died, no drugs or alcohol. They couldn't understand why she'd done this.

Somewhere across the country, a desperate girlwas falling into the same game that Nell had.