Julie sat in her room with her father, playing with the tea set he had given her as a birthday gift. He was sitting near the round table along with her stuff toys. She placed the tiny tea cups in front of them and then pretended to pour tea into all of them. Her father smiled and drank his tea, making the correct sounds to satisfy his little daughter who sat in front of him staring with her bambi blue eyes and toothful grin.

“May I have some more, miss?” Her father said making her giggle. She nodded, her brown wavy locks swishing with the movement. She was in the middle of pouring him more tea when a crash from downstairs interrupted the peaceful atmosphere. Her father got up, his face morphing into confusion. She followed him as he ran out. Her father had already made it down stairs when she left her room. She stood beside the railing as she looked down at her father talking to three people. They were wearing formal clothes but the oddest part was their faces because they had none. They had no eyes, no nose, no mouth yet when one of them tilted its face up, it seemed like it was watching her. Julie stood frozen, staring at the unusual creatures. She walked down gently and stood beside her father who was talking rapidly with them. Her eyes didn’t stray from their faces as fear crept in.

She tugged at her father’s sleeve, trying to get his attention. Her father turned towards her and his eyes widen as if he had just realized she was still in the house.

“Julie, dear, why don’t you go up to your room?” His voice shook slightly as he shot her a distressful look. Julie shook her head, not willing to leave her father down here with such eerie men. Before her father could reply, one of the creatures grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from Julie who was grabbed by another faceless man around the waist and lifted off the ground. She struggled, kicking, crying and screaming for her father as they dragged him out of the room.

The creature that held her tightened his grip and she winced in pain. Her seven year old mind confused and scared of what was happening. She heard the grunts and whimpers of her father as she stood bound in the hands of her captor.

Finally after squirming for half an hour, the creature moved forward, taking the girl with him as he entered the lounge where her father laid beaten and battered. Julie sobbed, crying out for her father who moved slightly to look up at his daughter, his eyes filled with pain and concern but the one emotion that stood out was fear.

The creature took Julie to the dining room as she sobbed for her father but they ignored her as the creature placed her on one of the chairs while the other two dragged her father in and bound him to the chair beside Julie. Julie gently grabbed her father’s hand, her tear streaked face inspecting her father’s damaged face. His bottom lip was cut and swollen, purple marks decorated parts of his face and he had a right black eye. Julie was bewildered, her young brain not able to comprehend what these creatures were or why they were here and being mean to her father.  She could feel the creatures staring at her and her father when one of them moved towards her and she flinched away. The featureless creature made her feel vulnerable and unsafe.

The man kept advancing until it finally stood in front of the girl. It placed its hand on her shoulder and Julie felt her body go slack. She willed her hand to move but it didn’t, she felt her chest constrict in terror. She opened her mouth to scream but no voice came out. The faceless man kept looking at her and she felt as if it was smiling wickedly. Suddenly her hands moved towards the utensils placed on the table without her will. She tried to stop her hands but it was useless as she grabbed the knife which glimmered in the light, its blade sharpened to the point that it could slice through flesh without any effort. Her body turned towards her father and she moved the knife, burying it deep into the open palm of her father’s hand who released an agonizingly piercing scream while Julie’s tiny frame racked with sobs. The dark red blood of her father dripped onto her white cotton frock, staining the pretty blue bows on it and covering her lower torso in slick fresh blood.

She tried to halt her hands, she struggled to not let her hands do what they had done once again but it was all in vain because she had no power over her body as the knife once again sliced through her father’s skin.

Their cries echoed throughout the house, begging for someone to help them and save them from this torture but nobody came as the faceless men watched. Their posture relaxed as if they were merely watching a movie.

Her father’s throat was sore from screaming and dried blood covered Julie from head to toe who was sitting on the floor, numb with fear. The men stood calmly, and nobody disturbed the fear filled atmosphere of the room. Finally the men looked at each other before turning back to their two victims, making them both stand up.

We warned you yet you defied us therefore now, your daughter will suffer a fate worse than death.

With those parting words in the minds of both father and daughter, Julie fell to the floor, raised her hands and started clawing at her face. She felt no emotion within her as her nails cut into her skin and eyes. She scratched her face viciously, ripping out her brown locks and ridding her face of her features.  

Her father watched in distress, unable to move to save his daughter. He screamed and cried for her to stop but it was futile. His trepidation made him not even realize that his own body was being burned. His knees buckled and he fell down beside his daughter. The flames licked higher and higher, leaving behind charred skin and the nauseous smell of burnt flesh in the air. His last sight was the featureless face of his daughter whom he had doomed for eternity as he let the flames take him into oblivion.

The men watched in satisfaction, content with what they had done and even though they had no faces, anyone could feel that they were smiling maliciously at the sight before them. They disappeared that night, taking little Julie and burning down the house she had known for her small life with her dead father inside. Nobody knew how many more deaths those faceless men caused nor how many children they turned into brutal creatures like themselves because whoever saw them didn’t live to tell the tale.

So beware of the men with no faces, their lives are tainted with blood, murder and hatred.