The electricity went out as I skidded into my parent's room. My parents made no sound, no protest or bouts of anger at the sudden power outage. And if they had been asleep my father would surely have snored. Unless his quack remedies worked- which I doubted.

"Dad, are you awake?" I asked but there was no answer. "Mom?"

Low growls sounded behind me, I spun around but there was only darkness. I reached my hand out; my fingers grazed something cold. It was only the wall. I huffed in relief and turned back, but a hand brushed across my cheek. It grabbed me by my throat as it pulled me back into its hard body.

The first bolt of lightning crashed down. It illuminated my parent's room in an eerie shade of blue and revealed the still bodies of my parents. They were in each others' embrace in front of the television. Both dead.

"Mom! Dad!"

I struggled against the creature, but this time its grip held. It lapped up the tears that flooded down my cheeks. Its teeth teased the soft flesh of my eye.

Something crashed in the kitchen, the back door? Furniture was tossed aside as two sets of feet scuffled past. Someone called out my name, loud and panicked. They called for my parents as well, their voices heard above the crashing thunder. My cries had been heard.

The scuffling moved closer to my parents' room, stopping every once in a while as they moved closer, searching the rooms for us. I made to cry out but the creature held my mouth shut as it savoured my fear.

Light bounced over the floor as my saviours ran farther down the hallway, toward me. They stopped and their light flickered off. The creature laughed deeply in my ear. And I was no longer restrained. It was gone.

I sagged to the floor with my knees to my chest and my face in my hands.

"I told you to bring a reliable flashlight," a man said with a huff.

The light flashed on and I could see the light creeping closer into the room. Two men stood in the doorway. My nephew and his friend. They shone the light at my parents and rushed toward them, but turned aside quickly.

They shone at me, the light hurting my eyes. One after the other they fell to their knees beside me and embraced me. They stood and pulled me with them and helped me toward the kitchen. Me nephew grabbed the phone from the shelf as we passed and helped me into a chair.

It didn't take long before the police arrived at my house along with an ambulance. I told them everything, I knew how they would have reacted, but I told them anyway. I was not injured, but as my parents' bodies were loaded into the morgue-van, I wished I had at come of worse from the situation.

They called Dwayne, my psychiatrist, and it wasn't long before his car pulled up in our drive-way. He leapt out of his car and raced past the policemen, toward me. He smiled and sat down next to me on the front steps.

"You alright kiddo?" he asked but I ignored him.

"My parents died."

"It's alright to feel angry, it's good to lash out. Get rid of all that bottled up anger."

I hated him. He was always patronising, making light of what I felt and telling me how I should feel. I glared at him. He ignored it.

"I'm not angry, I'm scared."

"There is no reason to be scared, no one will hurt you now."

"You're wrong, who's going to stop it from coming back? Are you?" I laughed, genuinely laughed.

"It won't try to hurt you, because that's not what it wants," he said calmly, "and it won't be here now, because I am here." I laughed again, if he was trying to cheer me up it was working.

"Don't stare yourself blind at the exterior of things. Even the largest thing has its fears," he said, his face contorted into an evil grin.

I blanched at that and scooted away from him. His skin looked so otherwordly and his eyes were pure black. My nephew walked from the police officer and toward me. He smiled kindly.

"Hey Eddie, what did he say?" I asked.

"He's not going to consider your witness account. You're a suspect, there is no sign of forced entry," Eddie said. "I know it wasn't you."

"Don't worry, I'll get you out of this mess," Dwayne said and winked at me.