A BRIDE TO THE DEVIL

Chapter one: Hunted

Serena

It was dark and rainy as we ran through the dark and poorly illuminated alley, l wondered what we were running from and where we were headed.

"Mum I'm scared, where's daddy," I said to my mum as she held my hand while we ran through the dark alley.

"Daddy's coming my love, so we need to be there to receive him when he gets to our meeting place," she said to me.

We continued running as fast as we could, I didn't want to plague her with any more of my questions but she still somehow noticed my anxiety.

We suddenly stopped running and she crouched down to my height and held my face in her hands and reassured me that everything was okay as she struggled to portray an affirmative silhouette but regardless she couldn't hide anything from me as I couldn't hide anything from her. I saw through her corroborative facade, which gave a fretful aspect as she spoke boldly but not without trepidation.

"My love everything is going to be okay and I'm sorry that we're outside in the dark when it's raining and cold and for the fact that you are soaked, let's just get to the meeting place and Everything will go back to normal".

" You promise mum".

"Yes my dearest, I promise".

Without warning, we heard a sound which appeared to be a gunshot, from a distance and it seemed to be arising from the direction we were coming from as I looked back I became apprehended with fear, I glanced at my mum, and her face manifested to be even more horrified, she suddenly snapped out of her trance and took my hand firmly as we sprinted through the dark alley which was leading to a place we knew nothing about.

Unexpectedly we arrived at a crossroad, we were caught up on which direction to go. As I looked back again I knew that whoever it was that shot the gun was catching up on us because I could hear the sounds their running feets made, splashing through puddles of water as they advanced towards us.

I gazed back at my mum and to my dismay, it surfaced that she didn't know what direction to go, but she held me firmly and we sprang towards the road at our right.

This was not a surrounding we were familiarized with, although we had been living in this city for some days now, we were not yet generalized with the structures of the road as we had only moved into the city a week ago.

The light around the streets was dimmed and did not illuminate the paths properly.

We continued running but abruptly heard another sound of the gun being shot and this time it appeared closer than ever, Nevertheless, my mum held me tighter than ever as we accelerated our steps.

We got to a confined area of a small shadowy partition between two buildings which was extremely dark and led to a different avenue. We stopped and then my mum stooped to my height as she moved her hands to my face and stroked my hair, placing it behind my ear, I noticed her eyes were teary as she tried desperately to suppress them.

" My ba...by ". She said as her voice broke."

"I'm so sorry, I want you to know that your dad and I love you so much and will always be with you". She said with her voice which was breaking and barely audible as she tried to format the words.

" Mum what's going on". I uttered as tears rolled down my eye.

"Nothing is wrong honey, it's just that your dad and I have something we need to take care of and I need you to be a good girl for mommy and do what mommy says, can you do that baby?". She asked as she wiped away the tears that continued to stroll down my eye with her thumbs.

" Yes," I said as I struggled to control the tears flowing from my eye.

"Mommy wants you to run through this narrow alley between these two buildings and I need you to continue running as fast as you can and don't look back no matter what happens okay baby, can you do that for mommy".

"Yes, but mommy I want you to come with me so we could go meet daddy".

" Mommy can't come with you now, I told you didn't I? your dad and I have something to take care of respectively before we meet, and after that, I'll come to find you, it's just like playing hide and seek".

"Are we playing hide and seek mommy"? I voice as I hiccuped in between the formation of words.

" Yes, honey that's exactly what we're doing so....". She couldn't finish her words as we heard another gunshot.

"Run, Serena, run". She said as she pushed me through the small spaced alley and I turned and started to run.

I ran and ran and ran and refused to look back as she had told me, cold rain showered down heavily and I heard a loud gunshot followed by a growl and I couldn't help but glance backward, even if it was just for a few seconds, but my eyes widened with what a saw.

Two men in black masks surrounded my Mum, I shifted my gaze back to her as she fell to the ground and looked lifeless drenched in her blood.

I watched as my Mum's body fell to the ground and gasped, covering my mouth with my hand.

Tears streamed down my face like an endless waterfall.

Even after killing my Mum they still weren't satisfied, they looked around as if in search of something, or someone.

" Dude, what the hell?"One of the men scolded as he turned to his accomplice."Why did you just kill her we could have had some real fun with her."

" Where is she? we've got the husband and the wife, the only person left is the little girl."The other man questioned, ignoring the statement of his accomplice, he blew the tip of his gun as if there was an invisible smoke in it.

A sob escaped my lips when I heard that they had also killed my Dad.

No, I didn't want to believe it, I couldn't have lost my parents.

"She is just a little girl with little legs, she couldn't have gone far,"

I quickly hide in the shadows, hoping they wouldn't notice.

I placed my hands over my lip with tears running down my eyes.

I heard one of them sniff the air.

"Ah, I can smell her, she's not too far." The man sniffling the air muttered as he laughed like a maniac."Hello, baby girl, I know you can hear us, why don't you come on out so we can play huh?"

I heard their footsteps drawing closer, and I closed my eyes, hoping it was some kind of bad dream.

Why? why couldn't I wake up from this nightmare?

I thought about my Mum and my Dad.

'We promise that will always be with you, my dear.

Their words echoed in my mind.

If they promised to always be with me why did they leave me?

"Got you!"

I instinctively opened my eyes, moving my hands from my face only to see a pair of red eyes staring down at me, the owner having a menacing smile on his face, with clearly visible and pointed canines.

"Now let's play."