original

Lock Down

Capítulo 1: The Sclars

For as long as she could remember her and her people had to stay locked up in their homes from before the sound of the first bell until after the sound of the second.

Though everyone hears the screams outside their doors, no one is brave to take a look, since anyone who was didn't live to share the discovery.

They, the Sclars, live in isolation from the rest of civilization. No one here is brave enough to try and and escape after seeing the mutilated bodies of the first families that had tried with no one spared, almost fifteen years ago. They have no idea what's happened to the world outside of our community. Which leaves them on their own, because they are also unknown to the outside world.

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Ms Martha's house was only across from her family's house and since she was a sweet Elder, she would give them food when she could. She watched her mother from the porch of their house as she conversed with Ms Martha-- honey-talking her into sharing the food with them.

As she watched on her heart pumped faster, beating louder in my ears bringing that usual sense of shame she would feel when seeing her mother like this. She hated when her mother would do that and knew she knew it well. Ms Martha was a very kind and sweet woman, one of the few elders in our community but the young teenage girl hated seeing her mother begging her. Neither her nor her family held any significant status in the community and there weren't anyone fifty and over in their house, that meant no special food delivery for them. So what else could they do, but swallow their prides in the name of survival?

She saw her mother coming back, with a usual square box under her arm, to the house. When she got closer the teenager looked away from her mother with arms folded under her chest to show that she was upset.

Her mother, Judy, stopped beside her like she wanted to say something but then thought better of it and with a heavy sigh she enter the house.

Sitting for some time longer before Mandy went inside, she saw her father sitting around on the couch reading a book she was sure he had read many times before. Her father's way of thinking brushed off on her throughout the years they've lived together.

Ryan, unlike his wife, understood her emotions sometimes more than she did, even though they weren't her biological parents.

Judy came from the kitchen as Mandy sat down across from Ryan, "I'm gonna start making something for us to eat. You guys make sure nothing is out of place, it's almost sun down." She walked back into the kitchen.

The father and daughter walked around the house to make sure every window and door leading to outside were tightly closed from the inside first before going to clean themselves up.

The silence was deafening at the dining table, no one talked. The little stopwatch in the center of the table ticked off the last few seconds before it went off. As soon as Judy pushed the little button on the top and it went quiet, a loud screech was heard outside of our house.

The screech like screams multiplied and got louder with every passing minute, none out of the family jumped from the shock since it was normal-- too normal.

Her teeth clenched from the screeches ringing in her ears, no matter how used to them she was, the sounds still tortured her ears. She looked up to see her mother and father eating like there weren't some kind of demonic monsters outside of their house trying to get them.

Mandy's fork fell on her plate making a loud noise, attracting the attention of her parents.

"What's wrong, love?" her mom asked.

She said nothing, there was nothing that she could say. Ultimately there was really nothing she could do about their situation, only continue to wish that one day she could just get even a glimpse of the outside world.

"Mandy, I know how you feel but this is our life. This is how we live and we've lived like this for a very long time. Everything we do, is to make sure we can live another day with our sanity intact." Judy had grown used to her daughter's feelings and though she didn't act like it, she also felt the same-- but she had to accept that they're trapped living there and make it seem alright enough.

Mandy shook her head, "Everyday is the same. Every day is the same, never changing cycle. We don't live mom, we simply survive and there is a difference."

"For the last eighteen years of my life I have been subjected to this torture, every night. It's a never ending nightmare and I just want to leave. I want to leave this place and never set foot back here!" she pushed her chair away from the table then ran up to her room.

Mandy fell on top of my bed. Rolling over on her back, she lied there just staring off into the darkness.

She was tired of being afraid of something she had never seen. She was tired of being restrained from doing what she wanted to do. She was especially tired of her family being so insignificant to the rest of the community.

Mandy's family was from one of the families from the lowest backgrounds in the community and that did not bring them any of the necessary benefits. Anything they needed they had to make with their hands from the materials they had to rear.

It wasn't long after that she was lulled asleep to the muffled demonic screeches.

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The demonic monsters has haunted the Sclars' community for almost two generations.

They would attack anyone who tried to leave and if they made it into your house you would also die.

Some persons head speculated that they were looking for something or maybe waiting for something. But no one ever found what it could be that they've been searching for in all these years.