Everything was dark around me. Stumbling a bit, I felt around blindly with my hands, trying to find a way out of the never-ending blackness surrounding me. Just as my fingers met with the rough surface of a wall, a loud bang rang out in the darkness. I pressed myself against the wall almost immediately, the rapid thumping of my heartbeats ringing out in my ears.

A woman’s scream pierced through the air, followed by two more loud bangs. In the darkness, I was not able to differentiate where these horrifying noises came from, so I just kept as still as I could, body pressed closely to the wall like a lizard. Biting my lips in anxiety, I carefully listened for any further sounds.

My eyes had gradually adjusted to the darkness as I stood motionlessly against the wall. Now being able to see better, I took quick glances around me while maintaining my position. I was in a familiar room. I slowly took in the view of the room, and then realized that I was in my bedroom. I must have woken up for some reason, though I did not remember why. As I looked around, the tidy bed in the corner of the room caught my attention. It was undisturbed, as if no one had been sleeping in it. I stared at the bed, trying hard to remember where I was before I woke up.

All of a sudden, I heard heavy footsteps. They seemed to be going up some kind of steps, getting increasingly louder. Instinctively, I bolted towards the bed and slipped underneath it. The space underneath the bed was boarded up on one side and accessible only from the other side. The accessible side was hidden, and the bed would look as if it did not have any space under it. As I laid there curled up in a ball, the memory of the night was slowly coming back to me. I was secretly reading a book in my little secret space underneath the bed after the lights-out and had fallen asleep halfway through.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The footsteps were now echoing right outside my room. I tensed up, and kept as still as I could. Although I did not know to whom the footsteps belonged to, I was sure it had something to do with the loud bangs and screams that I heard previously.

“Where is Daddy and Mummy? Why aren’t they stopping this person?” I wondered to myself silently as I laid there trembling in fear. Just as sudden as they started, the footsteps suddenly stopped. Nothing happened for the next few minutes. I was just about to get up when my room’s door opened abruptly.

Frozen in fear, I could only stare at the wall that was beside my bed. I watched as a strong beam of light danced across the room, scanning the whole place. Then, the light lingered in the direction of my bed. I held my breath as I prayed for the light to go away. Beads of sweats were starting to form on my forehead and my heart was beating so fast that I was almost certain that the person would be able to hear the thumps.

Then the light moved away, followed by the loud thud that my door made as it was closed. The heavy footsteps started again, but this time getting softer as they distanced out. I let out the breath that I had been holding in, and started breathing again. It was a close shave.

However, I did not dare to move from my safe spot as I could still hear the movement of the intruder as he went from room to room, seemingly checking out for others in the house. After what seemed like eons, the footsteps finally went down the steps that it came up from, followed by another loud thump, which sounded like the front door.

Gathering up my courage, I sneaked over to the window and lifted the curtains a fraction of an inch, just in time to see a tall man climbing over our front gate. He then walked over to a black sedan that was parked directly outside our gate, threw another look back at our house (I ducked back in order not to be seen), got into the car and drove off with a loud roar of the engine. I heaved a sigh of relief and walked out of my room.

“Daddy...? Mummy...?” I called out cautiously as I stepped onto the hallway. My room was on the second floor of the house and theirs was on the first. Silence hung thickly in the air, and there was a dull sense of gloom.

“Dad...? Mum...?” I called out again, a little bit louder this time. However, only the echoes of my own voice answered me. As I walked over to the stairs leading downstairs, I passed by a full-length mirror that was mounted on the wall of the hallway. My footsteps slowed down as I stopped to look into the mirror.

A little girl in a long pink nightdress stared back at me. She looked around 5 years old, and had black-brown eyes just like mine. Her long, disheveled black hair hung around her. Her pale face wore a look of fear and confusion. I lifted my arms, and she lifted hers. I touched my face, and she touched hers.

I understood that I was that little girl, but there was a sense of unfamiliarity to her that I could not fathom. It was like seeing someone you know that you had not seen in a long while. However, the issue of my parents snapped back into my mind. I moved off from the mirror, and continued down the stairs, taking each step with great care.

The remainder of the house was also dark, since all the lights were turned off. As I reached the living room, I trotted over to the power mains and the lights. The bright lights temporarily blinded me as my eyes had already gotten used to the darkness.

“Mummy...? Daddy!” I shouted out, rubbing my eyes. Their lack of response was scaring me. As I neared their room, I noticed a thick iron-like stench. The same smell used to fill up our house when Dad did his metal crafting works. I looked around, and the smell seemed to be coming from their room. I knocked on the door, but there was no response. I reached for the door handle, but hesitated. There was a naggy feeling in my heart, and a tiny voice at the back of my head yelled for me to walk away from the door.

I was very confused. There was a familiar feeling about everything that was happening. As if I had already been through this many times. However, at the same time, I did not know what exactly lay behind that door. My hand on the handle was trembling slightly. Biting my lips again, I slowly turned the handle and pushed open the door.

As soon as the door opened, the metallic smell grew stronger. As the light from the living room flooded into my parent’s bedroom, something on the bed caught my attention. There, on the silky white sheets, was a huge symbol of a butterfly. It looked as if it was drawn using a red marker, and was as large as the king-size bed.

Then, I spotted my parents sleeping on the floor. They were sleeping in a very queer position, with my dad sleeping spread-eagled below and my mother on top of him. I smiled to myself, as I was happy that I had found them, and ran over.

“Mummy? Mummy! There was a strange man in the house!” I said as I reached their side. She did not answer me. I pouted and kneeled down on the ground beside them. I shook her but she did not stir. So I shook my dad instead. “Daddy! There was…”

I trailed off. Daddy’s white pajamas felt wet to the touch. I looked down at his shirt, and saw that my hands were resting on the red patchy designs on the shirt. I turned my palms over, and saw that my small child-sized hands had turned red as well. “Daddy?” I called as I looked up at his face. My dad was looking at me, but his eyes were empty.

“Daddy?”

He did not respond. In fact, he was still staring at me with those empty eyes. I swallowed and stared down at my hands again. They were the same shade of red as the symbol of the butterfly. The metallic smell was now stronger than ever. Curious, I raised my palms up and sniffed gingerly at them.

The strong iron smell filled up my nostrils as soon as the first whiff was drawn in. Red ink that smells like iron? I blinked a few times and continued staring at my hand. I knew what the red ink was, but I could not remember what exactly.

I then turned to look at my mum, and got another shock. My mum was also looking in my direction with the same empty eyes. However, on her face was a smaller replica of the same symbol that I saw on the bed; that same butterfly that was drawn in red ink, the same red ink that had stained my hands.

Then it hit me.

The smell was…

Blood.