Broken (The Siren Series #1) (15 page)

“
Hi Dad I’m back.” I called to him as I
hung up my jacket while trying to cover my face.

I walked into the living room and let myself
fall onto the sofa. I felt tired all of a sudden and started
yawning.

“
How was the film?” he
asked.

“
Um yeah it was alright I guess,” I
answered. “The girls said I slept through it.”

“
What a waste of money.” Dad
said.

My stomach knotted when he talked about the
money. “Yeah it was,” I said with guilt in my voice. “I think I
might have a bath and then go to bed.”

“
Yeah I think your right. I may have an
early night as well.” Dad answered.

I took a deep breath and felt all my
energy drain from my body. My old aches and pains were back. I got
up from the sofa and dragged myself up the stairs while my body
cried out in pain. I switched on the bathroom light and turned on
the hot and cold taps. While pouring in some of my favorite
strawberry bubble bath, I sniffed the liquid and the sweet smell
lifted me in a slightly better mood. I grabbed my bath candles and
lit them around the edges, having the candles around the bath made
it more relaxing. My
IPod
was
docked and ready to go, waiting for me to press play. The speakers
started to play soft music that I always used when taking a bath,
nothing too loud.

Once the bath was full I turned off the light
and stripped off. I gently lowered myself into the steaming hot
water. My bruises cried out as the hot water lapped over them. Once
I got use to the water I laid back into the lounge position. The
hot water felt nice, I could feel all my aches and pains disappear
within minutes. It felt nice to relax as the candles flickered in
the dark while the music playing softly. I could have easily fallen
asleep while in the bath. I sat up and grabbed my strawberry body
wash and started to lather up with soft suds, making sure not to
scrub my beaten body too hard. I laid back into the bath to wash
all the lather off. As I laid there with my eyes closed my mind
began to work. Again I was beginning to think of those monsters I
dreamt about.

I hope I don’t dream of them
again tonight
I thought.

Rhea then popped into my mind. For
someone who wasn’t human, she was beautiful. I wonder what she was.
Should I trust her? I didn’t know. She’d just appeared into my life
and I’m expected to trust her. I tried to put it out of my mind. I
started to listen to the soothing beats of the music. The water
around me was starting to go lukewarm and my fingers starting to
prune up. I decided that I had had enough and pulled the plug. I
slowly stood up from the soapy water making sure that I didn’t fall
back and hurt myself. Climbing out of the bath, I took the towel
that was folded on the radiator and started to dry my body with the
warm fuzzy towel. The softness of the towel felt nice against my
skin, but became wet and soggy quickly. I switched off the music
and placed my
iPod
to one
side.

Wrapping the towel around my chest, I picked
up my old clothes that were discarded on the floor. Quickly I
stepped out into the hall and hurried off to my bedroom, being
careful that my towel didn’t slip. I looked in my draws to find
some oversized t-shirts and grabbed the first pair of underwear I
could find. I dropped the towel to the floor and changed into the
lazy clothes.

Crawling into bed felt like heaven. As I lay
there, I thought about watching a movie from my collection but I
was too tired to get up and look for one. Finally switching off the
lamp, I got into a comfy position and I tried to block off my mind
and after a few minutes sleep came to me.

My eyes opened to complete darkness. I
groggily checked my digital clock to see that it was four in the
morning.

“
Crap.” I mumbled.

I wanted to sleep through till morning, but I
was glad that I didn’t have those dreams. I tried to go back to
sleep but the room felt too stuffy. Something wasn’t right, I felt
uneasy. I got up from my comfy bed and opened the window to air the
room out. The wind outside filled my bedroom with its sharp cold
air and slowly blew my curtains with ease. I then dragged myself
back to my bed.

I opened my eyes again for the second time to
find my room filled with sunlight. Finally I had slept through till
morning and without the nasty dreams. I again cheeked my clock; it
showed that it was nearly ten o clock. My eyes lit up with surprise
and I started to panic.

“
Why didn’t Dad wake me for school?” I
said with panic.

Until it dawned on me that I had no school. I
didn’t want to go back to sleep so I stretched my aching muscles
slowly and threw back the covers. I slipped on some clean pajamas
bottoms, and went downstairs to the kitchen to get something to
eat. Dad was in the kitchen leaning on the counter, drinking (from
what I could only guess) tea.

“
Morning Dad,” I said while
yawning.

“
Morning,” he replied. “Ellie I have to
go into town today for a few things, do you want to
come?”

“
Um, no thanks I just want to stay home
today and just do nothing.” I placed some bread into the
toaster.

“
That’s fine, I won’t be long.” He
said.

“
So what time did you go to bed then?”
I asked.

“
Hm, let me see it was after nine I
think, just a while after you had your bath.” he
replied.

“
So not that late then.”

I grabbed the honey jar from the kitchen
cupboard. The lid was sticky with its sweetness and I licked the
golden goodness of my fingers.

“
So what do you need to go into town
for?” I asked.

He didn’t answer straight away and I felt
maybe it was the wrong question to ask.

“
It’s for Kate.” he slowly
said.

I remained quiet and regretted asking.

“
Sorry.” I said.

“
It’s ok.”

“
Instead I’ll like to come.” I said. I
wanted to support him through this.

“
No, no, stay here, I’ll be fine.” he
insisted.

“
Are you sure?” I asked.

“
Yes, I’ll be fine Ellie, but thanks
for offering.”

Remembering about my toast, I quickly pressed
the button and out popped the golden brown toast, this time I was
thankful that it wasn’t burnt like last time. I lifted up the
butter dish and started to spread the butter and the honey on
slices of toast. In the cupboard, I took one of the small plates
and carried my breakfast into the living room (after asking my Dad
if it was ok first). We both went into the living room together. I
sat down to watch morning TV, while he got ready upstairs. Flicking
through the many channels, I found a morning talk show and decided
to watch it while I ate. It showed the top story’s of the day so
far, while interviewing people on different subjects. I hated the
news, it always depressed me and I tried to stay away from it.

“
Right, I’m off now.” Dad called from
the hall.

“
See you after, bye.” I called back to
him while waving a toast free hand.

I heard the door close shut. I turned up the
volume of the TV just a tiny bit, just for background noise. I
finished my toast and went upstairs to get my phone. I opened my
clutch purse to see my phone sitting at the bottom with the notes I
used as a lure. I put it at the back of my mind for now. I walked
back down the stairs while checking if I had any messages.
(Nothing). While still walking down the stairs I could hear what
sounded like floorboards creaking. I slowly turned and walked back
up the stairs. Had Dad come back in the house and I didn’t
notice?

“
Dad?” I called out.

There was no reply. I stood on the top of the
stairs waiting for the sound. After a few minutes the sound never
reappeared and I walked back down the stairs ignoring it. With my
phone in my hand, I wanted to talk to the girls, but they would be
in class and they would get in trouble if their phones started
beeping. I decided to watch the TV since the news part was over,
now they were interviewing a woman, (I wasn’t really paying
attention). The interview dragged on asking the woman weird
questions about her life. I think she was some sort of celebrity,
but I didn’t recognize her at all but I continued to watch just for
the sake of it.

While still watching the TV I heard another
noise, but this time it sounded like something was tapping on glass
and it was coming from the kitchen. I muted the TV and tried to
listen closely to the weird noise. It was getting louder and coming
from the kitchen. Dropping the remote on the sofa, I decided to
check it out. I opened the kitchen door and looked around for the
weird noise. Everything seemed to be okay, nothing was out of
place. What was that knocking noise? I stood in the middle of the
kitchen waiting for the noise again. It never repeated itself. I
gave up and got back into the living room in frustration. I unmuted
the TV and decided to ignore the stupid noises.

After deciding to stay put my phone beeped. I
swiped at the screen to read it. The message was from Lilly. She
must have sent it while in class, and she’s never text during
class. She must be worried about me. Knowing she was thinking of me
made me smile and I read the text.

Hi Ellie how are you? Speak to you tonight
X.

I typed in the message I wanted to send, but
thought against it since she would still be in class.

I’ll text her when they’re
on break.
I thought to myself.

I placed my phone down, to hear for the third
time the weird tapping noise from the kitchen, but this time it was
louder and it seemed to come from different directions.

“
What the hell’s going on!” I
demanded.

I got up from the sofa and marched into the
kitchen, when I stopped dead. My whole body froze. In the kitchen
was the faceless monster that I had been dreaming of.

The back door stood ajar and a perfect
circle cut into the glass. The monster faced in my direction, but
how could it see? This
thing
was standing in front of me clear as day. He wore the same
rags that were covered in dark red stains. He was bald apart from a
few deep scars that covered his head and face. The only thing that
made it remotely human was its mouth. It started to lick its thin
black decaying lips. Inside the creature’s mouth were a set of
sharp pointed teeth that were stained in what looked like blood.
The smell it gave off hit me like a brick wall. Its foul stinking
odor lingered around me and I could hardly breathe. Was I dreaming?
Did I fall asleep in front of the TV? No this was real.

I wanted to move, to get the hell away from
it, but my body was rooted to the spot.

Move Ellie,
move
! I screamed inside my head.

My body finally cooperated with my brain. I
backed up from the foul smelling creature and ran through back
through the living room. I wanted to head outside and run away from
the house, the home that always protected me. But before I could
get to the front door, another one of those monsters blocked my
escape. Where were they coming from? Abandoning the exit, I spun
around and headed up the stairs, only to see that the monster from
the kitchen followed me into the living room, it slunk slowly
towards me with its foul odor. I had to escape somewhere, anywhere.
With my eyes still pinned on him, I ran up the stairs.

Within a few steps I felt something strike my
face hard. I lost my balance and fell backwards crashing to the
floor, wincing in pain as my body screamed with agony. Once my
vision had stopped spinning I saw the creature standing on the
stairs with a twisted smile. My lip felt twice its size and stung
like hell. Blood filled my mouth and I swallowed the red metallic
substance. I tried to get to my feet, but my legs felt like jelly
and couldn’t stand. All three of the faceless monsters stalked
towards me. I was surrounded.

Crap, I don’t want
this
! I screamed inside my head while clutching at my
sides.

Again I tried to get up as quickly as I could
but it was no use. I buried my head onto the floor and waited for
them to take me away. That’s when I heard a whizzing noise travel
above me and ended with a crash. I looked over to see the monster
had been sent flying across the room and crashing into the wall,
though he didn’t stay down too long.

Lifting my head up, I could see Rhea standing
over me. She held out her hand which I gladly took. He eyes latched
onto my bleeding lip and her eyes turned a deep shade of red.
Around us the air felt charged, like electricity. The hairs on my
arm and neck began to prickle. The static around us hummed like
buzzing bees, in a flash, Rhea’s eyes turned deadly.

“
Behind me, now!” she spoke.

I agreed to her demand and ran behind her for
cover. Rhea brought her hands out in front of her and a luminous
white light gathered around her palms. She shot the trail of white
light at one of the creatures making the same whizzing noise. The
light exploded on impact, turning the creature into black ash.

I was shocked to see him turn to ash, but a
bit relived that Rhea was here. Two of the creatures were left and
they charged towards us. One of the monsters who had stuck me,
charged straight for us, its talon claws reaching out, ready to
strike. Rhea backhanded the monster, sending him spinning through
the air and crashing against the TV.