Chapter 1

April 2000

'Maisie are you nearly ready to go yet?' Mrs Winters shouted upstairs to her daughter. The Winters family were moving and were desperately trying to get everything ready before the moving people arrived.

'Coming mum.' Maisie called down the stairs. Mr Winters and Leo Winters were all ready and waiting in the car for the girls who 'always took too long' as they complained.

Moving vans had come to gather up all the boxes and any leftover furniture had been safely put in the basement and Mrs Winters was about to lock it when a 10 year old Maisie Winters came bounding down the stairs.

'Wait,' She shouted , 'I have to put Mr Wiggles in there.'

Mrs Winters sighed in annoyance and her daughter climbed down into the basement to put her imaginary friend 'Mr Wiggles' in the basement.

In the basement, Maisie placed a strange looking worm-like thing on the floor. It was black and had one large eye at one end. It was fairly small, just the right size to fit in Maisie's hand without Mrs Winters seeing it. The larvae, of what creature was unknown, had a sort of armour like coat around its squishy body underneath. The creature crawled around to a white desk and sat inside the draw. 'Goodbye Mr Wiggles' Maisie said.

Once Maisie was free from the basement, Mrs Winters locked the door and followed her daughter to the car.

'Finally!' Mr Winters said.

'Sorry, Maisie had to put something in the basement.' Mrs Winters explained.

'I bet it was her imaginary boyfriend.' A 12 year old Leo Winters teased.

'Heyyyy' Maisie complained while hitting her brother.

'That's enough you two if you don't behave we'll leave you here!' Mr Winters shouted and both the children immediately stopped arguing.

And with that, the family stared to drive through England, across ferries and eventually through the Louisiana to their new place in New Orleans.

July 2005

'Maisie hurry up or we'll leave without you!' Mrs Winters shouted at her now 15 year old daughter.

'Okay, Okay, I'm coming' She shouted back down.

Maisie ran down the stairs and into the car while taking pictures on a new polaroid she had received for her birthday a few months prior.

'Seriously, what is it with girls and taking forever to get ready?' The now 17 year old Leo Winters complained.

'Shut up, maybe if you actually had someone to look good for, you'd understand' Maisie retorted.

'Oh that's right, I forgot, your boyfriend' Leo responded sarcastically. Maisie scowled at him and they continued on their long journey back to London.

In London

Mr Winters and Leo carried in all the boxes that had been dropped off by the moving vans and were now unpacking them making the living room very cluttered. Many items were pulled out of the boxes and Maisie collected up all of hers and moved them to her room again. Leo brought all of his furniture up to his room and Mr and Mrs Winters did the same.

As Maisie was placing everything in her room, she realised that there was something missing, something she hadn't taken to New Orleans, something she had dearly missed in her 5 years of living in Louisiana. Her dressing table.

'Muuuuum' She shouted.

'Maisieeeeeee' Mrs Winters shouted back.

'Where's me old dressing table?'

'Probably still in the basement, I'll get the keys and open it for you'

'Thanks'

Mrs Winters ran down the stairs and out the front door towards the neighbour's house.

'Mrs Winters, such a long time but you're finally back!' Mrs Rodgers, their neighbour, exclaimed.

'Hello Mrs Rodgers, so lovely to see you again' She said back.

'I suppose you're here for your basement key' Mrs Rodgers said knowingly.

'How did you know?' She asked as Mrs Rodgers walked to her cupboard to retrieve the key. Mrs Rodgers handed Mrs Winters the key and said that her and her family should come over for dinner soon to which she said she would.

'Maisie! I have the key!' Me Winters called handing the key to Maisie as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

Maisie unlocked the basement door and tried to turn on the light which didn't work so instead she went back up to the kitchen, grabbed a candle and lit it. As she neared the bottom of the steps, she heard a strange tapping noise like something moving. She couldn't see what was making the noise in the dim light of the candle so she edged forwards slightly scared of what it might be. As she stepped forwards, she felt something wet beneath her feet seeping into her socks. The liquid was cold and made her even more scared.

Eventually, she had made her way halfway across the room. But, as she took another step, something under her foot crunched. Something hard power her foot making her curse under her breath. Then, the tapping stopped. Frozen in fear of what she might've stood on or what kind of creature had made that tapping, she stared at the wall trying to be as quiet as possible. After what felt like forever, she thought it safe to move so she ventured further into the basement to find her dressing table. When she found the item, it was covered in the same cool liquid she had stepped on. In the light of the candle, she could see that the liquid was a cool blue colour. She ran her finger through the liquid and watched as it dried almost instantly seeming to disappear into her skin. Maisie decided to brush it off and grabbed the edge of the table pulling it to the stairs. The legs of the table scraped against the floor making an awful screeching noise. As Maisie and the table reached the bottom of the stairs, she placed the candle down on the floor next to her and started trying to lift the table onto the first step.

Suddenly, the candle went out and a sort of splashing sound was made. Maisie turned to her right in order to see what had put the flame out and, in the darkness, she could make out a creature next to her. It looked exactly like a snake, only that it was standing up using the back of its tail as a sort of foot. It had two very sharp fangs poking out of its mouth and a liquid was dribbling out of it. She couldn't make out much about the colour of its skin or how it was patterned in the dim lighting but what she did know is that she was in trouble.

The snake like thing lunged towards her leaning against her and sunk its fangs deep into her neck killing her instantly. She used her last breath to scream out to her family and when they came running, they were greeted by the sight of their dead daughter being eaten by a huge creature they had never seen before.

Words : 1.172k

Hi this is my first chapter, I hope it's good.

I like just putting random music with my chapters so if there are any song requests for my chapters then I will take them.

I'll try to update as regularly as possible.

Who else do you want to die?

The whole family or no one else in the family?