The reason I was here in the first place was because of my father-not-father-nor-will-I-ever-call-him-my-father-ever-again. The memory of the warning seemed to bring back all my nerves as I browse my surroundings.

The red on the floor and the awful feeling that something isn't right has me ignoring the strange man close to me. 

"What is it Valerie?" He asks as he reaches for my hand.

"THAT'S NOT MY NAME!" I yell pulling away. "And you're not my father." I frantically search around me but see nothing that gives a clue or hint of what to do. Something tugged at my attention as I glanced back at the man beside me. "What are you doing here exactly?" I carefully ask backing away from him.

He looks at me before finally answering with "I needed to see it for myself." 

Which wasn't even an answer!!!

"WHAT are you doing HERE." I repeat taking another step back.

"I-..." He ran his hand down his face while sighing. I just stood there waiting for answers. Time passed and he paced while I trace my moonlit birthmark. "I just- I- We have been looking for you and- and when we saw a post about you- I- well I- I just sorta came to find you." 

"We?" I got stuck on one word drowning the rest of his sentence out of my head.

He looks into my eyes before smiling as he says, "Your family."

I felt the cold wind of the night brushing against my skin. It was so cold now that it made my skin tingle with a numbness. It whispered into the night and blew my hair into the air while I stood trying to ignore the very small flutter my heart had. My family. Family. My. Family. 

My phone buzzed in my pocket pulling me out of my daze and bringing me back to the heart poundingly scary situation I was in. 

I pulled out my phone and stared down at the new message that had popped up.

"The tick and tock of the clock starts to spin time away. Draining what seems to be the last drop of day."

I immediately realized who it was. They used to say that to me. When I was younger they used to repeat over to me that same wierd phrase. They used to say that it meant that nothing lasted forever. I was confused to why HE had messaged me this. 

What wasn't lasting forever? Why play these sickening games? Why even bother to take me back? I'm old enough to make a life for myself. A life far far Far away from them.

A scream cut through the air and it sounded close which made me shiver with goosebumps. I looked around hurriedly, hoping that nothing had happened when my all of my frantic thoughts screeched to a stop seeing somehting in the corner of the warehouse. I moved closer towards it as thoughts raced through my head.

What the heck?!

That was the main thing running through my head as my heatbeat thumped against my chest. I took a cautious step towards it and once seeming a better view of it I walked over to it. My hands trembled as I grabbed the phone. I jumped out of my skin as a scream yelled out from what must've been hidden speakers around the warehouse. My eyes burned with guilt as I looked at the live footage of-

Pain hit my neck as a needle was stabbed into me. I felt light headed in a matter of seconds. As I dropped to the floor, the phone flew out of my hands and landed just inches away from my droopy state. My brain buzzed as I tried to fight back the sleepieness that was making my eyelids flutter but it was no use as a second later I was in a pitch black mindless state. 

That was my worst nightmare. Every monster hides in the dark. Along with the past.

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I nurtured and clung carefully to my left arm which was badly bruised from the most recent arguement with my parents. And when I say that I mean my father literally dragged me into the arguement and twisted my arm behind my back, making me take his side just so that he would let go. The dark purple quickly spread everywhere he had gripped so hard on my skin that I thought that my bones would break from it.

It hurt just to move my arm and as much as I tried I couldn't help the usual shock of pain running through me from my arm everytime I tried to slightly move it into a better position. I winced as I tried to move it closer to my chest, trying to cuddle it closer, hoping that - well I don't know. Maybe hoping that holding it closer will somehow make it hurt less. Maybe hoping that this would never happen again. Or Maybe hoping that despite it not being that bad of an injury that I would die from it rather than live my useless and miserable life.

Then it shifted to when I was 9 years old. I sat curled up on my bed, huddled in a blanket as I covered my ears, bu that didn't seem to block away the screaming. It felt like it had lasted forever. The back and forth banter that the so called "adults" were having. 

This time it wasn't just my parents that were arguing, it was some other strangers. I had first thought that they were family friends of my parent's but the way they were arguing didn't seem to prove my theory. There was a man and woman, both seemingly upset about whatever they were argueing about. 

Despite the fact that I could still hear the conversation even while I covered my ears, that didn't mean I understood what they were yellinging about. I never really do. I caught a few weird sentences like, "You can't have her back! We had a deal." and "Please! It was a mistake. This isn't what we wanted!"

None of it really made sense to you so it went with all the other things that you wished to forget. In your "Black Box". You had found it on the side of the road one day after walking home from school and you had kept it ever since. You used to imagine all your nightmares and bad memories (usually of the fights) being stuffed into the box. It actually wasn't even a black box. It was just an old wooden box that was probably used to store jewlery. The reason you called it your "Black Box" was because of the darkness that it held. Every dark memory, traumatizing event, anything that scared you or hurt you was mentally shoved into the box.

It never seemed to actually work to take away the actual memories or make you forget everything that had happened but for some reason you liked to keep it.

"She's Vianna Quinn now. You have overstayed your welcome. You've already threatened the deal. Now leave."

Other memories had replayed in your mind, drowning yourself in darkness, choking you in the thick shadows of your past. Ones that you had tried to bury long ago by either shoving them in the Black Box or moving away from the source itself.

Pitch black.

Your mind was racing, memories being brought up from deep in your subconcious yet it was all just pitch black.

<3 Lots of love from the one and only Brownie. Thank you for reading!

(I'm so so so so SO sorry that it's taken me forever to update. Pls forgive me <3)