Episode 1: There's No Once Upon a Time

It is such an amazing night for stargazing—except there are no stars. It's really odd too because it has been a week since these dark clouds and flashes of lightning started and up until now, it's still going on. However, it never rained...

I am currently living in the beautiful town of Winter Plum and by the name itself, there are a lot of winter plums there that bloom beautifully in winter seasons, but not recently. Not even a single flower bloomed. Slowly, day by day, people move away to other places believing that it is a bad omen, which I can't blame them because these bizarre events only got more bizarre as days go by.

While people move away, my family stayed because of two reasons. One is that we are not superstitious and two is because it is cheaper to live there. And oh man am I so glad that we never moved. I could not even comprehend what happened one night.  After everyone left, one night the town became so dark that you can see nothing outside. It's cold because it is winter, and the wind is blowing and swaying the trees creating a calming but disturbing sound. It is really nice to listen to it but on the other hand, I'd rather close my windows. The trees dance along the breeze and created music I'd rather listen to when it's daylight. After closing every window and door we were supposed to sleep until...We heard a knock.

knock knock knock...We didn't open the door of course because we are not that naive, and we all stayed quiet. Lights? oh no we didn't turn it off. If we did, that "person" outside will surely know that someone is inside. So, we rather took the risk of letting the lights keep lit. But—it knocked again. knock knock knock and this time the knocks were more aggressive, but we never heard a voice calling us. We know for sure that we were the only ones left in town and let's just say that it was someone from town—then they should be calling our names by now. But that never happened. Although we were scared, we tried to go to sleep but my father kept watch. With all the strange things happening in town, he can't take any chances.

Morning came we were up and safe and when our father felt that everything was safer now, he finally got a shuteye. My mother made breakfast and my siblings went to take a bath. It was scary but I opened the door.  My soul almost left my body about what I saw...

My eyes widened and my legs froze in shock. I took a step back and fell. "b-bl-blood" I said but no one heard. My hands shivered in fear, but I tried my best to crawl toward my father, but it grabbed my feet. and I shouted " AAAAHHHHHHHHH". My father woke up in shock and saw what happened. He pulled me fast and away from the "person." "You....what. no... who are you?" my father asked while hiding me behind him. but the "person" only replied with "help". And he fainted.

He looked so weak. pale face and he was covered with blood all over. Although we were hesitant to take him in, we wouldn't want to watch someone die. My father carried him carefully like a princess and put him in my bed. Yes, my bed of all places. My mother took care of him with first aid for the time being while my father ran to our town's clinic to take medicines and medical things my mother will need.  Our town was pretty far from the city, so we had to build and keep our own resources in case of emergencies and the one in charge of the clinic was my mom and some of the townspeople.

While my family was busy aiding the man, I was by the door cleaning the blood and I realized, the sky finally cleared up. Of course, I thought it was strange, but I was more occupied cleaning the blood on the floor, on the door, and outside our house. Afterward, I took a rest on the couch outside where my father slept. Our house is not that great, but I wouldn't say that it's bad either. We have three bedrooms one bathroom and comfort room. From our front door you'll come across our living room and straight ahead is our kitchen, and we do have a little mini garden outside and that's it.

Once I was done, I finished what my mother was cooking because my mom really hates cooking once she touches blood. No matter if it's just a drop of blood if it reaches her very skin she would not cook until a day after. So after I finished cooking our food we ate and went on our normal day routine.

When night finally came, we all finished everything, ate, cleaned the dishes, and sat in the living room to watch a movie. It was a horror movie and we turned off all our lights. The movie was getting intense. One by one the lights turned off and the music was building up, the main character was shaking holding her phone trying to turn on her flashlight, and when she did...

We all shouted. "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH" Even my father squealed with a high pitch when we saw the man that we helped blocked the television with his face covered with his hair. He leaned sideways and we only saw a few parts of his eyes and everything else on his face was covered with his hair. So, I hurriedly turned on the light and saw how messed up he looked but it didn't destroy his beauty at all. He was prettier than any woman I saw and the most handsome man I saw. He is the very definition of beauty itself. His beauty was mesmerizing and just like in fairytales I thought he would be my prince charming, but he was out of my league. I can only appreciate him from afar and so to console myself I was thinking that beautiful things are meant to be appreciated. Because, unlike those fairytale stories, mine don't have once upon a time.

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