Hi, I just wanted to write an explanation of how Milly came into care and why she doesn't speak. This was by best try at it. Here you go.

She looked out of the window with a tinge of fear on her face.

"He's coming!" she whispered to her seven year old daughter. "Remember where to hide!"

She didn't have to remind her. It was what she has been through the last six month. The girl followed her mum around the house, the way she was conversant with in the darkness, touching the walls and holding onto the corner of her mum's dress. Follow the leader, she thought. Then I'll be safe.

The lights were always off at 8PM. He would come every week, looking for them. What was the point in making everything dark? she thought. He had his own key, so he could just turn the lights back on. Is that what he did? She never sussed it out, because you cannot tell when you're hiding in a baby spaced underground haven.

Little did she know that tonight would be different.

The woman's face was clouded with contusions. What did he care? It was not her who he was after. Yelling each time, asking the same questions. Her, shouting back at him. And right before he burst into the house, she would give her daughter the same warning: "Don't speak!"

Why so? Without all the bustle, everything was silent. If the little girl so much as whimpered, he would hear it. He'd find her and kidnap her. And maybe, once again, he'd recap the events of six years ago...

She couldn't remember it; her mother had told her. All she had to know of it were the stitches. In her back. A knife could do that much damage to a baby.

And speak she didn't. all she did was listen. The indistinct sounds of her mother getting attacked. His shouts of "WHERE'S MY DAUGHTER?" followed by erratic punches. She was quite good at this now. You couldn't tell that there was another person in the house. hidden, she was.

But not tonight. Coming out of her sanctuary, she saw that the lights in this room were still off. But the rest of the house was ablaze with radiance. That was not the unusual thing.

It was the screaming. She didn't recognise it. Habitually it was her mother's. But this voice was too manly. Something was up.

Without any hesitation at all, she followed the voices. it was coming from the kitchen.

And as she stood there at the doorway, she saw him for the first ever time. Much taller than her mum (how could she tell if he was lying on the floor?).

There's no way I inherited his legs, she thought. I've always been short.

She could tell that he'd come into the house with a white shirt. A white shirt turned crimson. What had her mother done?

Her mother was hurt also. Why was her arm hanging at that odd angle? The other one was fine, if you'd take away the long knife that it was carrying.

And still, the little girl hasn't said anything. She knew where the phone was. Calling the police, she never said a word. She took the phone to the kitchen and allowed the receiver of the call to listen to the screams.

Her mum smiled back at her. Just maybe, there would be no more of these violent games.

Presto. What do you think. The whole thing's gonna have three chapters.