Prologue

The Bellow the World was dark, darker than it usually was. Seth could still hear the rapid fire pops as over half of the bare hanging bulbs, the Bellow the World Stars, imploded one after the other. His eyes seemed to still hold onto the sights that he had seen just before the popping started, even though darkness shrouded what was once clear. All he could see with his real eyes were shapes and impressions of horror. All he could hear with his real ears was the quiet ticking as the filaments in the broken bulbs cooled.

    Seth stood next to his mother, neither of them breathing, in the dim light. Time seemed to stand still, even for his five year old brain he knew that something should be happening. When something did happen he found himself wishing it hadn't.

    It started with a low creak, the sound wood makes as pressure is applied almost to the point of shattering. The next event was the loud crash of wood bouncing off of concrete, followed by a rush of air that smelled of putrescence and decay. By the time Seth heard the shuffling, like broom whiskers on the dirty cement floor, his mother started to move. She turned and scooped him up into her arms, heading for the stairs that were behind them.

    As soon as his feet left the ground Seth started breathing again. His breath came in ragged gusts from deep within his lungs. He felt the sobs coming and held them back as best he could. He did not want to disappoint his father, not now.

    When his mother's feet hit the first step of the wooden stairs that lead to Above the World, Seth felt her grip around his chest slipping. Her elbow was now digging into his armpit uncomfortably. He started squirming against her panicked grasp and she almost dropped him. Jouncing up the stairs he feared she would lose her grip and he would fall back Below the World and be alone. But he knew in his heart that down there he would never truly be alone. That thought was enough to stop his squirming and send a chill of fear down his small spine.

    Seth felt the searing pain as the skin was scraped off of his bare arm, just below his shirtsleeve, before he realized that his mother had tripped. Rolling over and feeling the riser that had scraped him digging into his shoulder blades, he saw her splayed out across the stairs with half her body hanging over the open side.

    As he reached for his mother Seth felt something start climbing the stairs. In a panic now, he clawed at his mother's arm trying to force her to stand and run. She began to stir, finally climbing to her knees while looking down into the dim abyss that had once been Seth's secret playroom.    Gaining her feet the young woman grabbed her child and lurched up the stairs. They were almost to the top.

    Seth cried out in surprise when his mother swung her arm upward and released him at the top of the arch. He flew through past the last three steps and landed hard on his left hip on the landing, rolling through the door into the hallway on the other side. He scrambled out of the way as his mother came through the open doorway. She spun around and slammed the door shut just as something hit the other side.

    “Run baby! Run!” She screamed as she scrambled to reach the table across the hall while keeping the door wedged shut with her foot.

    Seth ran. He turned from his struggling mother and ran down the hallway. Away from the woman that had nurtured him his entire short life. Away from the place he had enjoyed so many adventures over the past few months. Away from whatever was trying to tear his family apart, limb from limb.

    Leaving the hallway, Seth burst into the foyer. The stairs to the upper level were on his left. With the living room on his right, that meant the front door and freedom were dead ahead. Pelting across the floral rug that predominated the room Seth realized that he was speaking.

    “Please,” he was saying under his breath. “Please, please, please.”

    Coming up to the door Seth reached his small hand up to the doorknob and pulled down. He heard the latch click as it disengaged but when he pushed on the door it did not move. Leaning his shoulder against the door he put all of his slight weight into it. The door still didn't budge.

    Trying to hold back the uncontrollable sobs that he felt welling inside him, still not wanting to disappoint his father, Seth looked behind him as he heard something scraping heavily against the floor. His Mother had finally pulled the table across the hall and wedged it under the door handle. She moved her foot tentatively to see if it would hold, there was a grinding noise as the legs of the table scraped a half an inch of polish from the floor but it held.

    Yelling out to his mother Seth threw his body against the heavy wood of the door trying to get it to budge. His shoulder was beginning to throb by the time she ran up beside him. Reaching over his shoulder she grasped the deadbolt knob between her thumb and finger, turning it to the unlocked position. Seth sobbed in relief as he understood why the door hadn't opened. As his mother turned the knob the young boy pushed against the door anew. The door still wouldn't move.

    A loud scraping came from the hallway startling both mother and son. Grabbing Seth's shoulder she turned him toward the stairs and with a push to get him going followed him up the carpeted risers.

    As Seth pounded up the stairs he stared at the bannister, the downstairs hallway flashing between the uprights. He saw the hall table go flying into the wall across from the door to Below the World before he was at the landing and could see no more.

    Once at the top of the stairs Seth didn't know where to go. His mother grabbed his tiny hand in hers and led him briskly down the hall. The first door on the right was Samantha's room, his mother opened the door. As they entered it, even with the terror racing through his veins, Seth hesitated to step over the threshold. He could still see Sam's face, filled with rage as she held him by the collar and told him that if she caught him in her room again she would cut his peepee off. Seth did not want his peepee cut off.    Seth's mother, being much stronger than he, was able to drag him through the door frame and into Samantha's room.

    The room was decorated extensively in 9 year old girl. The walls were a light lavender with a runner of pink lace all the way around the room at the same height as Seth's head. The bed was over half full of pillows and stuffed animals. The television on the pink accented white dresser was even rimmed with a line of pink lace.

    Dragging Seth into the domain of pastels and frills his mother turned and slammed the door. Pushing him deeper into the room she leaned against the chest of drawers that matched the dresser and tipped it until it fell in front of the door, effectively blocking anything from getting in. Seth had seen his mother try and help rearrange this room when they had first moved in and she had not been able to budge that piece of furniture, he wondered how she was able to move it with such ease now.

    “Go to the window baby. Hurry.”

    Rushing to the window Seth had to dodge the stuffed animals strewn across the floor and jump mounds of clothes that his messy sister had left unattended. Once he reached the window Seth knew that it wouldn't open. He just knew it. His mother reached her arms on either side of his head to grasp the handle at the bottom of the window. Squeezing his eyes shut, the boy prayed for the window to rise. He heard the scrape of wood on wood as the window went up in the frame. Opening his eyes he saw light flakes of snow swirl into the trap that was their house from the hopefully safe outside world.

    A loud crash startled both mother and child as something slammed into the bedroom door. They both turned and looked just in time to see the chest of drawers settle back into place after being jarred into motion by the attack. Turning back to the window the frayed mother grabber her precious son by the armpits and hoisted him onto the windowsill.

    “Run baby boy. Get as far as you can from this place,” she said with tears streaming down her face and a hitch in her voice. “Whatever happens don't look back, just run.” With that, the distraught mother shoved her son out of the second story window.

    Seth felt a sharp pain in his left arm, where he had scraped it on the stairs, when his mother pushed him. That pain was soon forgotten as the terrifying feeling of falling consumed his mind. The ground rushed up to greet him and he turned to try and grab his mothers hand, to glean some feeling of protection from her familiar touch. She was too far away to grasp. As he stared up at her shrinking, tear stained face he felt the enveloping embrace of the deep snow on the ground.

    Standing in the waist high snow Seth yelled for his mother as he stared up at the small square of light from the window. His mother looked down at him, making sure he landed safe before lifting her leg onto the sill in preparation of jumping herself. Seth screamed as he saw the black shadow fill the window behind his mother. Startled she looked back as the shadow encircled her waist in a terrifying parody of a lovers embrace.

    As Seth stared in horror his mothers leg was pulled back into the room and suddenly he could only see her hands grasping the windowsill and a distorted view of her face surrounded by shadow. Suddenly with a loud boom the window closed crashing down on his mother's fingers. He heard one last scream as his mothers face disappeared and her fingers relaxed one last time. 

    Seth stood there staring at the blank window for long moments after his mother disappeared. He wasn't sure when the man appeared on the other side of the glass but his feet had gone completely numb some time before. The man stared at the boy in the snow and Seth could feel the hatred and anger emanating from the ice blue eyes that were surrounded by bushy eyebrows and hair on his cheeks. Turning from his family's home and from the bodies of all the people he loved, Seth walked toward the town up the road. Leaving one life behind and hoping to never relive this night again, he began the long trek to Maven...