Post by Everleigh Mason on Nov 13, 2011 4:04:37 GMT -5
| [atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; height: 600px; background-image: url(http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab190/kortluvsummer/c-3.jpg); -moz-border-radius: 250px; border-radius:100px 100px 100px 100px; border: 3px solid #ffffff;] I can feel you, all around me. It had been a very sunny, picture perfect day at the farm where Everleigh lived with her dad. The little ranch house and garden had been a dream of her dad's for years but until Ever was about four and her father's mother had died it had been just out of reach. The garden was one of Everleigh's favorite places. She loved to get lost in the middle of the tall sunflowers or sit among the lilacs and lilies that roamed across the backyard. On that fateful day, she had been laying on her back, staring up at the clouds when a sound from the house caught her attention. It was a scream. Everleigh had never heard anything like it before. She was in that stage of life where she thought her daddy never got scared by anything so hearing the terror in his voice now was horrifying to the child. She had a moment of terror where she just laid where she was, her mind and instincts warring with each other. Instinct was telling her to lay low and stay hidden but her mind was telling her that she had to get to her father. Apparently her feet agreed with her mind because she found herself rising to her feet and heading in the direction of the noise. As she got closer something inside was telling her that her father hadn't screamed because he was hurt by his own hand. Somehow the child, even at the young age of four, knew that it was worse than that, much worse. Still she couldn't stop herself from climbing the back porch and opening the door. It was almost immediately that she saw all the blood. There were spots on the carpet just inside the door and drops that led into the main house. It was there in the kitchen that Everleigh found her father's body. There was a massive pool of blood under his body and, from the shoulders up he looked like he could have been sleeping. It was from his chest down that all the damage had occurred. Everleigh could only glance at the carnage for a moment but that sight would be burned into her mind forever. Her father's chest lay open and all his organ's exposed to her young eyes. She could hear a scream and it took a moment for her to realize that it was her own voice. She just stood there in shock and horror for what seemed like forever, staring at her father until another noise brought her out of it. This was the approach of footsteps. Considering that the only people that lived in the house were Ever and her father, this was strange. There shouldn't be anyone there. The man that revealed himself as he came out of the living room was covered in blood. It was more than obvious that he was her father's killer but she was so scared that she couldn't make herself move. She just stood there as precious moments where she could have gotten away ticked by. Her eyes flickered to the butcher knife in the man's hand and then up to his face. When their eyes met Everleigh felt trapped by them. She felt in that moment that she knew this man though she had never met him before. It was in his eyes. She had seen those same eyes in every picture of her mother that she had ever seen. This man looked so much like him that he had to be her Uncle Drake. She had only heard about him once, in a passing conversation just a few months before but his name had stuck with her because his existence had been such a shock. She looked at this relative stranger now as he came closer to her and she couldn't make herself run, even though everything inside her was telling her to move. Soon, however it was too late. The child felt a stabbing pain in her side and then everything went black. It was a few days later when she finally awoke in the hospital and had been told what happened. Drake had escaped the mental hospital where he was being housed. Her father was dead and she had been slit down the back and left for dead. That was the beginning of her journey into foster care. After spending a month in the hospital she was released to strangers. Being a foster child was nothing like having a family. She could only hope to ever be that lucky again, to feel that safe and loved like she did when her father was alive. That was what she searched for and longed for ever since, a family, a place to belong. NOTES: just a little background info |
