For the love or Mary

"Let her go!"

Mary heard her father's bellow from below the stairs. Her heart raced wild and thumped hard at the floorboard as she hid underneath the bed.

Thud!

"Aaah!" The painful groan of her father was muffled by the walls, though it still made it to her hearing and made her whimper in fear. Her trembling hands could barely cover her mouth and the tears that dropped falling out of her widened eyes rolled like a stream.non-stop. Even if she was oblivious to what transpired downstairs, she could still tell that it was far from pleasant from the horrifying screams.

"Shut up, you fool!" She could make out that this was none of her family member's voice, and it was probably that of the aggressors. It had been a perfect night as usual until some strangers broke in.

"Aah!" This time it was the unmistakable high pitched outcry of her mother, desperate and in pain. The consecutive groans and screams of her mother, as well as the painstaking cries and outwails of her father became horrendous music to her ears afterwards along with the evil laughters of the strangers.

"You shouldn't have crossed paths with the Blood Croods!"

The dark room she was in became an abyss of demons born from the 'coincidental' power out and screams that filled Mary's ears.

"No matter what happens, do not make a sound..." The prior warning of her mother as she hid her underneath the bed earlier, resounded in her head but as the cries and wails re-echoed in her head, it became even harder to bear the horror.

"Aaaaah!" Mary let out an ear-piercing shrill that brought her into the real world.

...

tzzz!

Rumble! Rumble!

At the crack of doom, baby wails resounded in the dimly lit living room of Caminante's home. Despite the fact that it was dark outside around midnight, the room was as busy as day as the older children were busy trying to shush the babies whilst the younger ones were crying in fear. The rain slammed hard on the shut windows and the power supply was out. The sole lantern held by Derek dimly illuminated the well decorated room with children dreamcatchers and lovely cute wall stickers that now looked dreary by their distorted shadows. Mary quickly reached for her stuffed unicorn and held it tightly to her rapidly palpitating chest.

"...Remember, unicorns make every of your wish come true with their little tiny horn. Do not let anyone take your unicorn from you, okay?" The smiley face of her mother appeared in her mind as she remembered her teaching on the importance of this unicorn, and that was exactly why she held it so dear.

Creak!

Suddenly, the door to the room opened and slammed shut behind a panicky middle-aged lady of average height and ginger hair, the brows on her angelic face were raised in pity and worry as she gazed at the children with her green eyes that sparkled in the dark like a warm spring.

"Mother Dorothy!" As soon as the kids saw her, they relaxed and called out to their guardian angel in relief.

"Children, now now, It's just the lovely downpour and a natural weather. Nothing to be scared of" She said with arms spread and approached each of the children one by one, caressing them and tucking them away in bed once again with soothing words and gestures.

"Oh Alina... oh my sweet child" She cuddled the 4 year-old brown-haired girl who was trembling. She went on to another when Alina calmed and she eventually reached Mary.

"Good job, Derek. You too Mila, Aliyah and Kayden" She complimented and patted each of them on the head as she walked past them, approaching Mary who was in actual trepidation. She noticed Mary staring at a spot with that same blood-stained unicorn that she'd done so much to take from her and help clean the stains off but she wouldn't let go of it. Mary held the stuffed unicorn to her chest as she trembled in fright. Ms. Dorothy was bereaved seeing her like this;

"Is it the nightmares again, Mary?" She asked with her forehead lines wrinkled, and with her eyes gleaming concernedly. Mary who was still frightened, struggled to nod in affirmation.

"It's okay... Everything is going to be alright, okay?" She cuddled Mary, uncertain of how to ease the traumatized child who was brought into the home just few months ago. Mary had experienced her parents death and saw her mother's corpse hanged on the walls of their home, murdered cold blooded when she was only at the age of nine. Ms. Dorothy couldn't help but feel that Mary was doing quite exceptionally well as she wouldn't speak the same for herself if she were in the little girl's shoes. Nonetheless, the cuddle seemed to work just as always as half an hour later she began to mellow out.

'I guess I'll be spending the rest of the night here' Ms. Dorothy said looking around at the few gazes of the children fixated on her with Mary still in her embrace, unable to go to sleep. Obviously, she was afraid of being haunted by the nightmares again once she closed her eyes.

The other children were only scared by Mary's sudden scream and the loud thunderclap but Ms. Dorothy's presence in the room was enough to fix that, however, Mary was a different case. She was traumatized and needed most attention out of all in the room, hence, Ms. Dorothy opted to stick beside her and help her through the night. She only laid her back to enhance comfort as she cuddled Mary but...

Ms. Dorothy's eyes fluttered open at dawn and she met sight of all the children asleep in awkward positions, except for one. Mary in Ms. Dorothy's warm embrace had her swollen eyes open all through the night and Ms. Dorothy was bereaved at the sight of this. However, there was nothing she could do to help this, it was all up to Mary and she personally not knowing how to help the little girl would allow her do anything that would make her feel better, even if it included avoiding sleep. But for the sake of her mental health, she was going to speak to the House Director about it.

The children should be awake at this hour and preparing for bath but she waited another hour before waking the children up one after the other, with Mary following closely behind, grabbing Ms. Dorothy by her cloth. She was the only one Mary felt most comfortable around as she'd been there for her since the first day. However, despite how much Ms. Dorothy tried to bring her close to the rest of the 'family', Mary still had a hard time mixing in with the other kids in Caminante's.

"Hm" The kids grunted and groaned softly as Ms. Dorothy woke them up for the day and they stretched and yawned as they lined up formerly with the two eldest at the start of the line and at the end, readying to start their daily activities.

The first of the day was a shower.

"Derek" "Serena" Ms. Dorothy counted the 13 children one after the other as they marched out of the room.

They weren't told anything as they all moved altogether in a row when the bells rang, leaving those who were to be taken care of by the caretakers behind. The bath was always fun for everyone as they interacted and had the chance to play with water, though not without being instructed several times by the caretakers to stop would they only listen.

Mary on the other hand was always first to finish with her bath since she didn't want to stay too long in the bath as her dead mother would always warn. She was being obedient this time and just perhaps, she might come back for her seeing that she was being a good girl.

The bells rung once again and the children all scurried to grab a towel and dried themselves before putting on their clothes which were brought by the caretakers. Few who were unable to do that by themselves were helped to dress by the caretakers as well.

They all jumped, ran and slowly walked in a file to the dining room afterwards and directly took their usual seat. Mary also took a seat of course, she'd experienced firsthand how much pain hunger could deal and had learnt to never let any other thing get in the way of food before she was taken into Caminante's care. Hence, she had no problem sitting on the table along with the other children, though, she still did not communicate with them.

"Alright house, Breakfast is served!"

"Waah!" Mrs Smith, another caretaker brought food to the table and the kids exclaimed in delight with shiny eyes, curious as to what delicious meal they would get to eat again this morning. Many had experienced the pangs of hunger just as Mary, and every meal was a blessing to them.

"Heavenly father, we bless you for this meal..." Serena being one of the eldest at the age of 14 blessed the meal, urging the rest of the kids who were already drooling to close their eyes, which they struggled to do.

Derek gulped in anticipation as he was close to the meal on the center of the table and he could smell the tasty aroma that permeated from the closed lid. Whilst others blessed the food, Derek directly reached to open the lid and~

Slap!

"ow!"

"Stop it, Derek!" Mila, being the second eldest at the age of 13 slapped his hands away, earning giggles and laughter from the other kids who had opened their eyes at the sudden commotion.

"You didn't have to slap my hands so harshly. I just wanted to see what is served for breakfast " Derek protested.

"The devil will come for you if you eat without praying" Aliyah said to Derek with a scary wringle of her fingers which made the bratty boy shiver in fright. "And all of you..." Aliyah faced the rest of the kids making them cower in fear as well. Mary wasn't any different, and she couldn't help but think that perhaps, it was the devil that came to take her parents away that night because they didn't pray before having dinner. She was at the point of crying when;

"So brothers and sisters, let us pray" Mary heard Kayden say and she hurried to close her eyes and clasped her hands together fervently. So did every one else and the eldest children smiled at each other before sharing a knowing gaze with the caretakers. They were more knowledgeable than the other children and the responsibility to lead them and guide them aright when the caretakers were not there to, lay upon them.

Ms. Dorothy who was busy fostering the infants along with Mrs. Smith looked at the children's interaction with a warm smile on her face.

'Children, what lovely and blissful creature they are?' She thought.

...