December 12, 2020
The storm was nearly through. At least, the snow would be dying down in the next few days but the temperature was due for a significant drop in the next few nights. Mabel looked out the window to see that another one-two feet of snow was added to the already growing mounds of snow.
Edward, Gabriel, and Jordan had all been working to keep the driveways plowed, the pathways around the house cleared, and the house looking ready for Christmas. Isaac would help them when the snow was higher than usual but, for the most part, he seemed to have preferred the company of himself in his room.
Poor kid.
He saw something almost about two weeks ago and now he was usually too scared to leave his room. The other part of Mabel thought to herself that the kid needed to grow some balls and start being a man but, Mabel had a soft side for her nephew. She knew that the kid wasn't destined to be some ladies man that hit the gym everyday. He was into music and chess and the like and would make his own path in life. That didn't mean that Mabel didn't want to get Isaac at least one girl.
She laughed at the thought and threw on her large winter jacket and stepped out back and followed the path for a little bit, until she was a little distance from the house. Sarah still smoked but she didn't want to have her smoking to make it any harder for Isaac to quit than she was sure it already was. Mabel had tried quitting numerous times but found that she couldn't stop. Whether it was from one of the many men she was with offering her one or just feeling like she was going to pull her hair out from not having one, quitting felt impossible.
"Aunt Mabel!" Lillian's voice said from over by the garden.
Mabel looked over and threw her cigarette to the ground and stomped it out. This was the other most important person to her. She wouldn't ever want anything bad to happen to Lillian and refused to ever smoke in front of the little girl. Little Lily was a constant reminder of her little Irene. She wouldn't fail her niece.
"Lily? What are you doing out here?" She looked her over and noticed that she only had on a small pink sweater. "Any where's your coat? It's freezing out here?"
"I was taking Sir Billy out to play. He said he was getting hot inside of the house and was getting tired of Tabitha."
"Whose Tabitha?" Mabel asked.
She noticed that Lillian's cute little innocent smile turned to her puckering her lips and looking to the ground.
"Lily, whose Tabitha?" Mabel asked, more concerned.
Lillian looked to both sides, as if she wanted to run away.
"I'm... I'm not suppose to tell you. I was told not to tell anyone," Lillian said.
"Lily, it's okay. I'm your aunty, you can tell me anything, okay?"
Lillian hesitated and looked like she wanted to cry. "She might hear me if I do."
Mabel looked behind her at the back windows. Each one of them, aside from the room where Jordan and Dana were sleeping in, were dark. Mabel knew that the imagination of a child were wild, however. She put her hand on Lillian's back and gestured her to walk with her.
"Well, how about we walk down the path a little bit and then nobody will hear us, okay?"
Lillian looked back to the manor and then nodded her head. "Okay," She said.
They slowly walked down a path that led into a hiking trail into the forest. Although, based on the marks on the ground, it looked more like it was a four wheeling trail than somewhere people were walking down.
Mabel and Lillian walked far enough to where Mabel could still see the manor but she was certain nobody, without superpowers, could hear them.
"Okay, Lily, tell me... whose Tabitha?"
Lillian still looked unsure and fiddled with her wooden sheep in her hand. "I'm really not suppose to say Aunt Mabel."
"Lily, you can tell me anything. Please, for Aunty Mabel?"
"Okay..." Lillian sighed. "She's my friend that I've been playing with in my room. Well, we were playing in her room in the attic but then Isaac saw me playing up there and so mommy and daddy wouldn't allow me to go up there anymore. So we play in my room with my sheep and her wooden duck and sometimes watch TV together. She says she's never been allowed to watch TV because her mom wouldn't let her..."
"Okay, okay. Hold on," Mabel said. "Is this the same little girl that your brother said he saw?"
"No," Lily replied. "That's one of her other sisters whose not allowed in the house in the morning. That's Aletha. Tabitha said that she got trapped outside in a rainstorm and fell into the mud and couldn't get out."
Mabel's heart felt like it was skipping a beat. "So there's two little girls running around the house?"
"Well there's actually multiple girls living in the house but they're shy and often like to stay in the other bedrooms and some are even in the basement. Isaac's room use to be Aletha's room."
"Why haven't any of us seen these little girls, if there's so many around?" Mabel asked.
Lillian's face seemed to get whiter. "Tabitha said that her mom hurt all those girls and now they're too scared to show themselves because they're ugly. Tabitha's mommy adopted all of them except for Tabitha."
"Whose Tabitha's mommy?"
"I... I don't know her name. But she's very mean to Tabitha." Lillian leaned into Mabel for a whisper. "And I think she plans to hurt daddy."
Mabel leaned back and looked to the house. In her vision, it looked as if the manor was beating like a heart. "Nobody's going to hurt your daddy Lily. I promise you that."
Lily shook her head. "It's already hurting him... and mommy.... and...."
"And who?"
Lillian shook her head and covered her mouth.
"Lily? And who?" Mabel asked.
"Aunt Mabel!" Lillian screamed out, pointing behind her.
Mabel turned around and saw a seven foot plus tall figure in a black suit hovering over her. Her eyes slowly looked up to see the figure had no face and had it head cocked and was looking down at her. She wanted to scream but it latched its hand to her head and stopped any breath that could come out.
She could feel its agony, every voice inside of its white pasty head screaming for release. It was like an animal with all of the thoughts and feeling of its prey trapped inside of its head. Her mind flooded felt like it was going to explode with how many voiced forced their way into her mind. She could breathe, despite her throat being untouched.
Then, the faceless creature threw her to the side into a tree. She felt dizzy but, she was alive. Mabel slowly blinked and could hear the faint scream of Lillian being carried off down the pathway by the Faceless.
Another scream echoed closer to the manor where she was Irene struggling to breathe.
"Irene?" Mabel muttered.
"Mommy! Mommy help me!" Irene screamed. "Mommy! I'm drowning!"
Mabel wanted to ball her eyes out but, whatever that thing did to her made it to where she couldn't. She reached a hand out in front of her, wanting to reach out for her daughter and pull her back to shore. She didn't want to fail her daughter again.
Mabel remembered a stranger trying to resuscitate her daughter, only for him to fail. She remembered the ambulance picking her and her daughter up... only for them to fail. She remembered them trying to get the water out of her daughters lungs... but they failed. But overall, Mabel failed. Maybe, just maybe, if Mabel would have watched her that day. Irene would have been alive.
If she would have been quick to try and save her daughter... Irene would have been alive.
If she would have known CPR... Irene would have been alive.
If she had called the ambulance sooner... Irene would have been alive.
It wasn't the random stranger, the EMTs, or the doctors and nurses that failed Irene. It was Mabel.
She looked over at her daughter, collapsing to her knees and then looked over to Lillian, screaming for her help. The tears desperately wanted to run. Mabel knew what she had to do.
Irene fell to the ground and struggled to gasp for air, delivering a stabbing pain to Mabel's heart. She knew the little girl wasn't real but Lillian was. Little Lily was real and she wouldn't fail her like she failed her daughter.
"Hey!" Mabel yelled. "Let her go you son of a bitch!"
The Faceless didn't stop or even flinch at Mabel but, instead, kept walking. Mabel grabbed a decently heavy tree branch and sprinted at the Faceless ready to swing. Then, it turned around and waved its hand, which threw her to the side.
"Let me go!" Lillian cried.
Mabel felt the bruises that were going to be covering her back but she got back up and ran for the Faceless. In any other situation, she would have been to afraid to even move but she had to save her niece.
The Faceless watched her and seemingly laughed at her. Mabel picked up the branch once more and before she could swing it, the Faceless teleported forward and snapped the branch with its one hand. It grabbed Mabel's head and filled her head with more of the terrible thoughts and screams.
She fell to the ground and noticed that the creature had disappeared. Lillian was standing above her, crying and screaming.
Mabel gave her a little smile before her head fell to the ground and her vision went black.
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