 I've never had a lot in my life. I've never had brand new clothes, always hand me downs. I've never had my own room. I've always had to share with some of my siblings. My siblings would sometimes tell me that we wouldn't even have power in the house. But some nights they would need to use candles instead of light bulbs. I've always had to fight for food at dinnertime and try and get in before everyone else. I've never gone hungry, but I definitely always could have eaten more. I am the youngest of 15 children, 12 of which still live at home with my mother. My mom is a single parent and she tries her best to give us all a happy and content life. And for the most part, she does an amazing job. I've never met or known my father. In fact, I don't even know who he is. You see, all of my siblings have a different dad, apart from Lee and Kayla, who are twins. But apart from those two, we all have different dads and none of us know who our dads are. Mom says that every time she meets someone, she gets pregnant and when her partner finds out, they leave. I think the fact that we only know our mother is something that my siblings and I have all come to terms with. Three of my siblings, two brothers and a sister, have all moved out of home and are quite successful. My oldest brother, Simon, has actually found a job in advertising. And even though I don't see him too often anymore, still quite often see adverts he has helped create on the TV. After my siblings moved out, things at home got a bit easier. There's more food on the table and a little bit more money to go around. Most of my siblings are older now as well, so they all have a job and help out with bills and pay their own way throughout life. Now, it's only me and my sister, Lisa, who are left at high school. Lisa is in her final year and I still have two more years left of school. As I'm in the final years of my schooling, I'm allowed to choose some subjects that are of interest to me. And one of those subjects that I chose was history. I've always been fascinated by the past and the people and the events that happened before I was alive. My recent assignment for my history is to research three different ancient mythical creatures and write a report about the creature and how the myth surrounding the creature affected different cultures and peoples. I always like to go above and beyond with my reports for history. And so that's why I decided to go to the library and town to research using old text and books. Well, maybe it was because I wanted to go above and beyond or maybe it was because my mom can't afford decent internet at home. But either way, I ended up at the town library after school on Tuesday night looking through older books to find out about different mythical creatures. This isn't the first assignment that I visited the library for help. Also, I've built up a relationship with a librarian, Mrs. Poole. She's an older lady with short gray hair and she always carries her glasses in her hand. But I never see her actually wearing them. I have established a decent relationship with her over the past year or so. And due to that, she's always willing to help me with whatever I need. In the library, there's a small section of very old books and texts that is usually closed to the public and is only able to be accessed by academics from the university. But Mrs. Poole is always kind enough to let me access it. Once again, I told Mrs. Poole about my report and she told me that she knew just the book that could be helpful. She walked me over to the academic section and told me to put on the special white gloves that you need to use when handling these aged texts. She then also reminded me to not tell anyone about being allowed to view the old books, which of course I promised not to. I sat down at one of the tables in this section and watched as Mrs. Poole walked away and opened a locked door, which I knew all of the books were stored behind. She disappeared into the room behind the locked door and I patiently awaited her return. It was only a minute or two before I saw Mrs. Poole return holding a fairly large hardcover book with yellowy brown pages. She placed the book in front of me and told me to be careful with it. Please don't damage it in any way, otherwise I'll be in all sorts of trouble. This is a 300 year old book. She told me I'll be back in half an hour to collect it. I hope you find what you need. I looked down at the book and saw that written in green ink were the words creatures and beasts. The title was in the center of the cover and underneath the words was a small image of what looked like a red dragon. I admired the artwork for a moment before carefully opening the book. I lifted each page and placed it down gently, not wanting to damage it and get Mrs. Poole in trouble. I looked through the many pages of the book, each one with a different painting of a creature which underneath had a paragraph explaining what the creature was and where it could be found. I looked through the pages, trying to find the three that I wanted to write about. I read about the bone fairy from Scotland, the tree walker from Canada, and the sky dweller from India. All of which I found interesting but I couldn't find enough about them to write about them in my report. I kept on turning the pages of the book and I read the words the alluring harpy and saw the small picture underneath. I stopped and couldn't believe what I was seeing. The alluring harpy was a winged woman that had long claws at the end of her arms. She was wearing a light purple dress with her wings sprouting out the back of it. She had a seductive smile in eyes that looked inviting. It looked like the sort of creature you'd find in a book about ancient mythical creatures. And normally I wouldn't think anything of it but there was something about this picture. The face of the harpy was the face of my mother. I don't mean they looked similar or bared a resemblance. I mean they looked exactly identical. I was looking at a painting of my mother. I sat staring at the photo for maybe a minute or two but my stare was broken when Mrs. Poole returned and said to me, I'm really sorry but I'm gonna have to return that book now. The curator is here and I can get into a lot of trouble for allowing you to read this book. She then went to grab the book off of the table and return it. I hadn't read yet about the alluring harpy and so I quickly begged Mrs. Poole to give me one more minute to read about it but she said that it wasn't possible. She said that she could take a photo of the page for me though and I could collect it the next day. I told her that would be great and that I would be back the next day to look at the photograph. She then took the book off of the table and walked it over to the locked door. I quickly left the academic section careful to avoid being seen by anyone in case it was the curator. I managed to not be seen and made it out of the front door of the library and out onto the street. I looked back at the library and thought about what I'd seen. I knew that it was probably just a coincidence that my mother looked exactly like the picture of the harpy but at the same time I thought it was too similar to not have any connection to my mother. I walked home from the library plagued by thoughts of my mother and the harpy. I couldn't get it out of my mind. I didn't really want to see my mother when I got home because she'd know something was wrong and she'd find a way to get me to talk about what I'd seen. So I was disappointed when I arrived home and saw my mom's beaten up Toyota sitting in the driveway. I slowly walked inside trying to avoid my mom and go to my room that I share with four of my brothers. I walked in through the front door and standing there in the hallway was my mother. Good afternoon. She said to me, how was your day today? I looked down at my feet and answered that it was a good day. I then tried to excuse myself to go to my room but she stopped me. She knew something wasn't right. She asked if everything was okay. I told her it was. I don't know why I was so nervous about my mother now just because I'd seen the picture. It didn't mean it was her. That was just crazy. My mom would have no idea about any harpy and I knew that I was just being silly but still I couldn't help but feel nervous around her. Are you sure that everything's okay today? You seem different. Like you're nervous about something. My mom said to me again, trying to get an answer out of me. I stood there for a moment before I began to speak. Yeah, yeah, everything's okay today, mom. I just have a history report due soon and I'm not too sure what to write about. Oh, I can give you a hand with that if you want. She offered. I then decided to explain about the assignment and tell her about a few of the mythical creatures that I'd seen in the book. She told me she didn't know much about that sort of thing but she tried to help me anyway. I told her about the bone fairy and about the sky dweller. I didn't really need help with these but I was building myself up to mentioning the alluring harpy. Eventually I did manage to mention it. As soon as the words the alluring harpy exited my mouth, I saw the look in my mother's eyes, the look of fear, the look someone gets when they've been caught. Never heard of this creature? Mom finally managed to say, sounds interesting though. I told her that I didn't know much about it but I wanted to know more. She then told me that if I didn't know much about it then maybe I shouldn't write about that creature. She then flashed me a sweet smile and her eyes almost sparkled at me. I suddenly felt a lot more comforted. I realized how stupid I was being and that there was no way that there was any connection between the harpy and my mom. She then lightly touched me on the shoulder and I felt a warmth run through my arm and all of my worries of before were now vanished. I now felt a lot better. My mom then excused herself and told me that she had to get dinner ready. She left and went to the kitchen to begin cooking. As she walked off, I could have sworn I saw a slight bulge under the back of her top right where a wing could have been but I quickly dismissed this as my eyes playing tricks on me. For the rest of the night I didn't think too much more about what I'd found or the bulge under the top. I slept very well that night, much better than I normally do. The next day I awoke early, got up and got ready for school. When I went down to the kitchen my mom had already left for work and so I didn't see her that morning. School passed by quickly. Soon it was the end of the day and I was about to walk home when I suddenly remembered the photo that Mrs. Pool was going to take out of the book. I'd almost completely forgotten about it like it'd been wiped from my memory but I remembered at the last minute and decided to head to the library to get a look at this photo. I made it to the library and was greeted by Mrs. Pool who when she saw me reached into her pocket and pulled out a small photograph. She handed it to me and I saw that it was the picture of the page I wanted to read. It was hard to read because the photo was so small but I managed to read it. It read as follows. The alluring harpy is a dangerous beast. It uses the power of love and desire to get what it wants and what it wants is to spread its evil across the world. The harpy will disguise itself to look like a human woman but it actually has sharp claws, sharp fangs and wings. The harpy will use its powers of seduction to seduce men or it will then try and reproduce with these men. Its powers of seduction often come from their beautiful smiles, their enchanting eyes and their soft touch. Often, harpies will have multiple children to multiple men. Once the harpy has mated with a man it will perform a small ritual that involves lighting candles and then eating the male. The harpy will then be pregnant and will soon give birth to its children. Harpies will often have around 50 to 20 children in a 30 year period before waiting 100 years then starting the mating period once again. Its offspring will appear human but when they reach a certain age they will begin to develop their own abilities, abilities of seduction and manipulation. They then only have one purpose. They must manipulate as many people as they can. They try and manipulate people to do their bidding almost like slaves. Once the harpy's offspring are old enough they will begin to mate as well and they will try and pass along their bloodline to as many people as possible. The goal of the alluring harpy is to slowly take over the human population with their own bloodlines. I finished reading and I couldn't believe what I'd read. The multiple children with multiple men really struck me. I also was concerned about the harpy's smile and touch as this was something that I'd experienced the night before with my own mother. Her touch had seemed to make all my worries disappear. Maybe these are all coincidences and I'm just worrying about nothing or maybe I am one of the offspring and I am yet to fulfill my purpose. I really didn't know what to think. So I just stood there in the middle of the library clutching the photograph of the textbook. Is everything all right, dear? Mrs. Poole said to me looking concerned because I hadn't moved for a little while. I took a second to process what she said but once I had I answered that everything was all right but I needed to be going now. I handed back the photo to Mrs. Poole and thanked her for getting it for me. Then I headed out of the library door and began to make my way home. So many questions swirled in my head on the walk home. Questions I wasn't even sure I wanted the answers to. My own thoughts must have distracted me though because before I even had time to process all of them I was standing in the doorway looking up towards my house the house that my mother was inside of. Everything appeared to be normal, apart from one thing. A small light was illuminating from within my mother's bedroom. The light was shining through the thin curtain that blocked the view into her bedroom. I could see that this light was flickering and so I knew exactly what it was. A candle, I felt a small rush of fear begin to overcome me. My mother had never burnt candles since I'd been alive and after what I had just read I was worried as to why she was now. I slowly walked down my driveway into the front door trying to stay as quiet as possible. I knew that was all ridiculous. My mother couldn't be some creature that seduces and eats men. It sounded so stupid when I thought of it like that but there was something, some deep feeling inside that made me believe that it was true. Once I reached the front door I pulled out my key ring, found the front door key and slowly inserted it into the lock. I slowly turned the key and pushed the door open. I couldn't see or hear any of my other siblings. The house was eerily quiet. Apart from a small crunching sound coming from the room down the hallway, my mom's bedroom. I slowly began to walk down the hallway taking one small step at a time. As I walked closer and closer to my mother's bedroom door the crunching sound grew louder and louder. Once the harpy has mated with a man it will perform a small ritual that involves lighting candles and then eating the mail. This line that I read in the old book kept on repeating itself in my mind. What if this is what was happening right now? I was now standing close to the bedroom door sweat was now running down my face and my heart was racing. I could still hear it. The crunching sound from beyond the door. It sounded like something was scraping and crunching down on bone. I really didn't wanna think about what that sound was but I placed my hand on the door handle. Was I really about to enter this room? I tried to slow down my breathing and relax and I tried to think of a rational explanation for all of this but I couldn't think of one. I slowly began to turn the door handle. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was fear. Maybe it was the loud snapping sound that I heard as soon as I began to turn the handle but something made me stop and let go of the door handle. I left the door closed and began to walk away. I think I just didn't wanna know what was happening on the other side of that door. I went to my room and put in some headphones to try and block out any noise that may be coming from my mom's bedroom. I didn't really sleep that night. Only a few minutes here and there. The thoughts of my mother and the heartbeat occupied my mind. Eventually though, it was morning and I must have dozed off because I was awoken by my mom. Good morning, darling. She said to me, her voice bright and cheerful. I have some excellent news for you. You're gonna be a big brother. I'm pregnant.