• It was impossible to escape their deadly fate. It was sealed the moment the creatures cantered around the house and gathered the scent of human life in its walls. Regardless of this impending doom, Hazel’s parents demanded that she take her sister and hide in her bedroom closet. The older sister knew that all this would do is further the time before their destruction, for the Animus Nullus were soulless, cold-blooded killers. They stopped at nothing to receive the blood that was essential for their sort of life. In fact, their very existence depended on human blood… fresh, warm human blood.

    Hazel just focused on moving her and her sister up the seemingly insurmountable stairs and into the safest place they could possibly find. She allowed herself a brief glance at the pictures hanging on the wall and an epiphany struck her: her old life was gone forever; it was slipping through her fingers like sand…


    She continued up the stairs. This wasn’t a time to break down and start crying, since she knew her parents planed to sacrifice themselves in order for the slight chance that the Animus Nullus would believe that the rest of the house was deserted. It was a long shot, but survival is survival and her parents loved their girls too much to just give up without a fighting chance.

    The white closet door stood behind the door to her baby pink room as usual. Hazel half expected the door to be gone and to be left defenseless, but she knew better then to question earth’s physical laws at such a vital time. She quickly locked the door to her room and guided her sister into the closet’s crevices. Beginning to follow suit, she paused and grabbed her perfume bottle hoping that she could disguise their human scent by spraying the entrance and the carpet where they walked. Finally, feeling confident that she did all that she could, she rushed into the closet and covered her and her sister with a perfume-loaded blanket.

    “Now to quietly wait.” She whispered to her whimpering sister. “Don’t worry we will be fine. I promise. If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll keep you safe.” Hazel soothed.

    “You’re lying…” Her sister started to say, but was interrupted by the breaking down of the front door.

    “Hush! Be very quiet now!” Hazel continued to whisper as she held her hands over her younger sister’s ears.

    There’s no need to have her hear the struggling… Hazel thought to herself.

    The house was silent for several seconds before it erupted in a mass of screams and items being broken. This single moment of chaos seemed to last an eternity, but it ended suddenly with her mother’s death scream, which was quickly followed by her father’s. Hazel shuddered as she began to cry.

    How did she know they were truly dead? Well, let us just say that the screams sounded different, less pained. The pain and torture was done and they died with the hope that their daughters would continue to live.

    Hazel desperately hoped it wasn’t her time to leave this world yet. She didn’t want her parents sacrifice to be made in vain, but, most importantly, she wanted to save her sister, whom she loved dearly. The thought of loosing the one family member she had left was terrifying at the least and was barely imaginable. In fact, it wasn’t imaginable; she swore that she wouldn’t let it happen. She quickly decided she would rather die then live in this cold world alone.

    Hazel’s thoughts kept her so preoccupied that she didn’t even notice the footsteps methodically thumping up the stairs. The door creaked open and her thoughts rapidly dispersed.

    They’re here! She screamed inside her head as the fright started to build up yet again.
    The footsteps continued to grow louder and louder as the beasts neared the closet door. The two girls started to shake and Hazel hugged her sister’s body closer to her own, as if to make themselves smaller and less of a target. Hazel imagined the creatures wandering around her room trying to sniff her out like an animal, but she supposed that’s what they were: animals.

    They both jumped as claws scratched the closet door. They’ve found us! Hazel thought as she hugged her sister tighter yet. It was a hopeless cause, since the Animus Nullus opened the closet door and glared at the blanket.

    The Animus Nullus have lost the ability to reason, however; they are nowhere near stupid and a breathing inanimate object such as a blanket made them curious as to how such an incongruency could occur. This sent the leading one, a black haired male of around forty, into a hungry fit of rage as he ripped the blanket and exposed the girls to the frigid night air. The girls screamed as the male ripped the younger sister out of Hazel’s grasp.

    “No! You can’t have her!” Hazel, close to hysteria, shrieked as she tried unsuccessfully to regain the control of her sister. It was the tug of war for life.

    There honestly wasn’t a prayer for either of them. No relief either, for their death would certainly be painful and torturous, like a cat and a mouse. The cat can’t simply kill the mouse; there’s no fun in that. It has to play with it. Basically, it prolongs the victim’s death for its own selfish and “fun-filled” purposes. This inhumane practice of “playing with your food” is one of the many things gained when a person turns into an Animus Nullus.

    Another one of the monsters, a read headed female of around 28, walked towards the struggle and simply held down Hazel with her superior strength. The male, suddenly growing tired of the game, tore the young girl away from her sister’s protective arms. Sick mindedly, it reminded Hazel of the saying taking candy from a baby. She realized that is exactly what her sister would end up being: candy. What cruel, sick-minded things. She thought, I will never accept the fact that they were once human. Not for as long as I live!
    The now separated sisters struggled against their own captors, but alas they were much too weak to even release a flailing limb. The male was, literally, dragging the girl’s body to the bed, every step forcing her body into creating individual thumps across the wooden floorboards. As this was happening, Hazel continued to shout threats across the room as the male began his “playing”.

    He ran his severely cracked and grayish-yellow right hand down the girl’s face and onto her neck, stopping just centimeters from her chest, while his left hand held her struggling body down. With breakneck speed he dug his nails into her skin and drug them upward. The blood was already leaking from the shallow wounds as he moved into a different position. This time his right hand was roughly placed around her neck and pulled her into a sitting position. Her once struggling form convulsed as bloodstained tears dripped down her torn face and onto his arm. Hazel wished he would end it already.

    “Fat chance” his mutilated expression screamed as its left hand released her body and found a new attachment in her long brown hair. Her crying turned into bellows of pure pain as he ripped masses of her hair out from the roots. Blood began oozing from her scalp, adding to the mutilated look her new beautician was aiming for.

    He didn’t even hesitate as the innocent’s blood ran onto his on skin; there was no guilt seen in his eyes. In what must have been an uncontrollable urge, he dipped his left hand’s fingers onto the forming pool of blood on her scalp and sucked on his new candy.
    There would not be any more playing with something so delicious and both his hands found a new hold on her neck.

    Hazel screamed as his arm’s muscles contracted and the choking began. Gasping and tearing, the girl fought against her undeserved fate. These motions lasted for several moments until, suddenly, the struggling ceased. Her body hung limp from his grip and fell backwards onto the bed when he let go.

    She continued painlessly bleeding on her older sister’s bed.

    “No! No! No! You monster! I hate you! I honest to God hate you! You’re going to pay! You hear me? You’re going to pay!” Hazel cried. The female refused to relent the grip around her body and Hazel knew she was doomed too. She came to realize that all these threats didn’t mean anything and she was wasting potential energy that she needed to fight back. “What am I kidding myself?” She laughed, her mental state in obvious pieces. He was going to kill her and there was nothing she could do about it. The words finally took their effect as she continued in half-sane hysterics, “I’m going to die!”

    As if on cue, the male murderer started toward the only living human in the house. Hazel, after clearly and completely losing all of her salinity once again, wondered how they would kill her. It truly interested her how they would decide to end her. Well, if it was within their mental capacity to differentiate and decide between different things...

    Her thoughts were interrupted as a man, no a mere boy, broke through the window of her room. “I’m being rescued…?” She began to question aloud, until her head was slammed onto the closet floor and her world went black.