The day had been long, but it was the final harvest and to be expected, Meadowlyn wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand as she looked on. She didn’t like the fields looking so empty and dead, even if it was necessary for their survival. She loved the summer days when the crops were flowering, and the fields seemed so full of life. Still, she knew that at some point she would move away from the farming life and she could travel to other places and see their beauty for herself. Until then, Meadow kept working.

Her twin siblings had been eerily quiet that day, there were fewer places for the little ones to hide now that the longer crops had been harvested. They couldn’t have been that much in trouble however since her parents did not seem worried or asked her to check on them. Which was why once everything was done, and they weren’t seen anywhere did she begin to wonder if they’d been out helping today at all. And if they hadn’t been helping, where exactly were they? What were they doing? That was what worried the Hybrid more than anything else.

Dinner time was around the corner, so Meadowlyn headed for the kitchen to wash up. Her mother was in there, preparing dinner. The Hybrid dipped her hands into the water and grabbed the bar of soap.

‘’I haven’t seen the twins today, have you?’’ She asked her mother.

‘’Come to think of it, I know they were playing near the barn earlier today, but I have not seen them since. Could you find them please? Dinner will be ready soon.’’

Meadow nodded and finished washing her hands before heading up to change her clothing. Once in fresh clothes, she headed out to the barn.

The barn was as quiet as expected, everything seemed to be in order, so Meadow knew that the twins had at least cleaned the barn up and taken care of their animals during the day.

‘’Not so useless after all,’’ Meadowlyn muttered under her breath. ‘’It’s almost time for dinner guys, head back home.’’ She called out, eyeing looking for any sign of movement. When there was none, Meadow moved back to the house, slightly worried about the lack of twins running around.

‘’Have you seen the twins Grace?’’ She asked in passing to her sister in the hall, it was another negative answer.

‘’Father, have you seen the twins?’’ Their father had already settled at the dinner table and food had already begun streaming out of the kitchen.

‘’I saw them behind the house a few minutes ago.’’ He said unconcerned.

Feeling slightly frustrated, Meadowlyn head back out again, light was already quite low on the horizon and it was harder to see. There was nothing around the back of the home, however the window to the basement seemed open. She approached it, crouching down to pear inside. It was too dark to see anything.

‘’Hello?’’ She called, she really hoped that they weren’t hiding there.

A noise in the darkness made Meadow spring back with a yelp before she scrambled and closed the door. There was no way she was headed down there by herself, much less without any light.

Sighing heavily, Meadow headed back into the house to get a lamp to bring down with her. Her parents were still getting ready, so Meadow grabbed a lamp and headed down to the basement. She stopped at the top of the stairs and brought the lamp forward to see into the darkness.

Creeping down the stairs slowly, Meadow got on the bottom floor and moved about the large room. They often used this place as a cellar to store their goods for the winter and there were shadows in every corner. Something lightly brushed her leg and Meadow yelped looking down to find nothing there. Heart pounding in her chest she moved around quicker this time and when she rounded a corner, she came face to face with a tall figured dressed all in black. Too tall to be her siblings, Meadow screamed as it moved towards her hand extending out to grab her.

Stumbling back still screaming, Meadow ran back to the stairs to find her parents peering down. A hand touched her shoulder and Meadow screamed even louder.

‘’Meadowlyn!’’ Her mother yelled which calmed her down. ‘’Why are you yelling?’’

She’d closed her eyes without knowing and when she opened them her two siblings starred back at her.

‘’Got you!’’ They said in union before running up the stairs before Meadow could catch them.