Secrets in the Shadows

    You remember when you were a child, how you could swear someone was watching you from the darkness?  How you could swear there was something inside your closet ... Just waiting until you fell asleep.  Waiting to attack, to drag you under your bed and eat you alive.  I bet your parents said the same as mine did ... That their wasn't anything inside your closet, "No honey there isn't anything under your bed."

   Well, what if I told you that you were right, there really were people watching you when you turned the lights out?  The shaddows really were hiding creatures that waited until you were asleep.  Your parents always told you nothing was watching you, and that nothing was in your closet, waiting for you.  It wasn't their faults however, it happens to all people when they grow up, well, all but me.  You see I grew up differently than every one else, so differently I figure I could make a book out of my childhood. 

   I will tell you the story of how I grew up, but only if you can keep it to yourself ... nobody knows of what I am about to tell you.  A tale of pain, adventure, and secrets beyond your wildest imagination.  Now, if you are williing to be patient with me, then open your mind.  Open your mind and picture, if you will a child ...

   A young girl only about nine years old, with long brown locks, large, green eyes with rusty strieks.  She lived with her parents inside one of the suburbs of San Fransisco, in a small house with one story, that was painted a deep green color.  The roof was falling apart and had several holes, one was directly above the young girls bedroom door, causing her to get wet every time she went to her room.  The girl, whose name was Charlotte, loved to read, and even more she loved to listen to music. 

   Charlotte's parents were very nice people who, although they were poor, loved their daughter very much.  Her Father was tall, with blonde hair, and very long sideburns.  He worked in a factory just outside of town.  Her Mother was rather short, and very slim.  She as well had blonde hair, that was always cut short and died another color.  She worked as a waitress in a small oriental sushi bar. 

   One day Charlotte was at school, and her parents were coming back from work to get her.  They were sitting in the car, arguing as they drove down the busy road, yelling at eachother about how they were going to afford getting something for Charlotte's birthday.  Her birthday that was taking place a week from then.  Her father, who was driving, turned the corner that lead straight to the school, but did not see a double-decker bus.  The driver had been attacked by one of the passangers and was dead. 

   The bus hit Charlotte's parents head on, killing both of them instantaneously, and Charlotte saw the whole thing.  Unaware that the car, brutaly taken by the bus, belonged to her parents she thought nothing of it.  Rather, she believed it to be just another car crash, like she saw frequently where she lived. 

   Twelve minutes later the police and an ambulance arrived at the crash, Charlotte was beggining to wonder why her parents had not arrived to pick her up.  As she was sitting in the lawn, talking with a you friend she was approached by a police officer.  Curious of what the officer wanted she answered all his questions. 

   "Are you Charlotte Slayer?" The officer asked in a calm but carefully hidden voice.

   "Yes." She answered curiously.  The officer dropped down to one knee in front of the small girl. 

   "I am so sorry Charlotte," he said in a careful voice as he pointed to the crash site.  "Do you see all those cars Charlotte?  There was a crash with a small car and a bus.  There were two people inside that small car, those two people were your parents."

   Charlotte gasped, her eyes began to glisten with coming tears, her voice began to crackle as she managed to say, "are they dead?!"

   "I'm affraid so Charlotte," said the officer, whose tag read "Officer Brown."  "Do you have a grandma or another family member in town that we could call, Charlotte?"  Officer Brown said.  As he began to speak Charlotte turned with her back to the officer and started to run as fast as she could.  Her eyes now running with tears, her vision becoming blury as they overflow from her eyes.

   Charlotte ran, she ran until she wasn't seen anymore.  She hid in an ally way that was beggining to darken as the sun went down.  The police officer tried to find her but could not manage to locate her hidding spot.  She sat there on the ground crying until it was well past dark, wondering what she was going to do now that her parents were gone. 

   As she began drying her eyes with the bottom of her knee-length ocean blue dress, she stood up and began to walk through the dark ally way.  She was hoping to find some place she could sleep for the night.  She was affraid to go to her friends house, and she had no other familly in the country, only her Grandmother, and she lived in Northern Germany.  A couple of streets down she found a dumpster lying on its side, empty.  Charlotte crawled inside and layed her head on her hands, hoping to get some sleep.  She was nearly asleep when she heard a voice, "Why aren't you at home?" 

   The voice growled in a low rumbling voice, it came from what seemed like nowhere.  Perhaps it was nowhere, Charlotte climber out of her dumpster and looked around for somebody, but she saw nobody.  The voice spoke again, "Why have you been crying young child?"  Charlotte spun around so quickly that she had to take half a second to recooperate from the spin.  When she looked she saw a large man shaped creature, with no features, it was only black ...