I woke up with a gasp and instantly threw my butterfly covers from my small body. My heart was racing from my nightmare. I rubbed my eye with one hand and the other ran through my long blonde curls.

I was scared and I knew only one thing could help. I knew what I wanted. A hot chocolate. Daddy always made them for me when I had nightmares and they really helped. Daddy wasn't here now but I knew how to make it, he'd taught me.

With that though in mind I decided to climb from my bed, being steady not to make too much noise. I didn't want to wake Lena or mommy up.

I was startled and confused when I climbed out of bed; I could hear voices shouting and things smashing from underneath me. I could hear my mommy's voice, but the second and third ones I did not recognise.

That scared me. A lot. Why would there be strange people in my house? Mommy would never let strangers into the house. She would never let any nasty people hurt me, but these people sounded nasty; with all the smashing and crashing and shouting…

With my heart beating really, really fast through my chest I moved across the room to my sister's bed. She was a little older than me and I knew she'd protect me from the bad people. She had always protected me and I trusted her, a lot.

I roughly began shaking her shoulders and whispering her name, when she didn't respond my whispers grew louder, and louder until suddenly she zipped up in her bed, panting and shaking.

"Lena." I croaked as I hugged her.

She looked at me with confused and tired puffs for her eyes, lifting an eyebrow and tilting her head slightly.

"Ella!" She growled. "You woke me up!" She scolded but stopped when she suddenly noticed me crying. "Wait? El, what is wrong? Did you have another nightmare?"

I shook my head as I pointed a small hand towards the door.

"There are people in the house Lena." I told her, the breathes I was taking slow and painful and causing me to cough. "Mommy was shouting and there was smashing and strange voices!" I panicked.

"Maybe it was mommy and daddy? Maybe they were arguing?"

"No Lena!" I cut her off sharply. "Daddy isn't here! He's at the hospical and mommy didn't sound like she was happy with the peoples in the house! They are bad peoples Lena!" I stressed as I got scared again, even while in my sisters arms. "What if they hurt mommy?" I whimpered.

My sister continued to hush my sobs, suddenly slapping a hand over my mouth as another, louder than before crash sounded through our small house. The loud crash was then followed by a scream. A really, really loud scream that made me whimper against my sister.

Mommy, that scream was mommy.

Why would anybody want to hurt mommy? My mommy? She was kind and lovely and so, so beautiful. Nobody would ever hurt my mommy! Not hurt her and get away with it at least!

I nearly jumped right up to the roof when Lena suddenly moved from the bed, leaving me sat their alone.

I whined and stretched out my arms, wanting her to come back.

"It's okay Ella." She prompted as she walked toward the door.

What a liar she was! I knew it wasn't alright! Mommy was hurt and if I let my sister go out there she'd be hurt too! I couldn't let Lena get hurt because then I'd have no big sister, and I needed my big sister.

"Lenaaaa!" I squealed, trying not to make a lot of noise but by the time I'd shuffled off her bed and to the door, which she'd shut behind her, she was already gone and I couldn't see her down the corridor. "No! Lena, come back!" I ordered and did both growl and whisper.

I slowly and carefully walked down the staircase, not wanting the bad people to hear me. As I got further down the stairs everything became clearer. Especially the voices. The funny, very funny voices.

"And you are sure, brother?"

A voice asked. It had a silly accent, nothing like mine or Lena's. Not even like mommy and daddies because sometimes grownups had different accents. No, this one was completely different, funny sounding but I decided I liked that.

A second voice spoke, answering to the first.

"The girl is definitely here, I can smell her…"

The second man's voice was a lot funnier than the first ones. But this one softer and more soothing.

But what where the men talking about? What girl? Me…? Or Lena? It wasn't mommy of course, they had probably already found mommy if she had been screaming, but then who did they want? And what did they mean by being able to smell her? It wasn't me, because I don't smell… maybe it was Lena.

I slowly tiptoed further down the stairs, hiding myself behind the rails so they couldn't see me. When I got to the bottom I had to hold in a gasp. In the lounge there were three men. As I studied them closely I knew I didn't recognise them.

One man, who was clearly the eldest, stood tall wearing a funny outfit. It was a suit, a nice, neat and clean suit. He had dark brown hair, chocolatey like Lena's. He had a very nice jaw, it was very square and his lips were frowning. His dark eyes fixated the bored expression on his face. He had broken into my house… and he was looking bored?

I looked at the second tallest and probably second oldest man. He was wearing a long sleeved shirt and jeans, holding what looked like a knife in his hand. I wouldn't know really because mommy doesn't let me near knifes, they are dangerous and sharp. He had blonde hair, not as blonde as mine but still a very pretty blonde. His hair was messy and hand red specks of something in it. Maybe it was paint? I looked at his face; he had stubble on his chin. He had stubble like daddy often did when he didn't shave; sometimes he would only look a little like Father Christmas. That made me smile, like his round and plump lips which were also smiling. I looked up and at his eyes, I couldn't see properly because he was looking away from me but at a slight glimpse I saw they were blue, again not as blue as mine. Mine where light blue but his were very much darker than mine. His face was very pretty and he looked very calm, I guessed he was the one with the soothing voice before.

The third man scared me. He had a big build with lots of muscles. Like the first man his hair was brown, but lighter than the elders, he had it styled in spikes and parts of it ran down the sides of his face. He looked very threatening, his jaw was stiff and his lips were smirking. Not a playful smirk, a nasty smirk. Like evil, maybe he was the one that made mommy scream. He also had the red on him but it was on his large hands and I saw him bring a finger to his mouth to taste it. Eeeew! Paint isn't tasty, but he was enjoying it! I looked at his dark brown eyes and I saw something funny in them. Something fun and mischievous, like the look Lena gives me when she's up top something. Except this time it wasn't welcoming. After a few seconds of tasting the red I saw his eyes change and something scary happened to them. I didn't know whether or not I was seeing it but it looked like there were black lines, almost like snakes, crawling up his face and toward his eyes, which now had abandoned the mischievous browns and were now a deep red.

I tried to hold back a scream but not well enough and let out a small gasp. Luckily, they hadn't heard me… I don't think, but just to be safe I ducked back behind the railing so I wouldn't see them and they wouldn't see me should they look up.

"Well she was delicious."

A new voice spoke. It was the only one I hadn't heard yet and I guessed it was the scary man with the evil face. It sounded like what a monster would sound like.

After his words there was a large thump as something was dropped onto the floor, the fact it didn't smash or shatter made me curious but I wasn't going to stop hiding yet.

What did make me want to look was a voice I recognised. It wasn't my own and I knew if I had heard it then the bad men would have too, which frightened me. It frightened me a lot.

"Momma."

The small voice breathed out.

Oh no. Oh no, this was not good.

I looked around the railing to see something I hadn't spotted before. Lena was standing by the lounge door, using the wall to shield her. How had she not been spotted? I looked at the back of her head as she peered round into the room.

She's said 'momma' and now I knew why. My mommy… My mommy was lying on the floor and she wasn't awake! They had hurt my mommy! The bad men had hurt my mommy! She had to be alright she just had to be. But I had learnt from daddy's work that if someone's chest isn't moving that meant….

"No, momma!"

Lena's voice cried out again and I knew this time the bad men were going to hear her… and see her as she stupidly stepped into her line of sight.

I watched, mouth gawping as the scary man was instantly in front of my big sister, causing her to stumble backwards and nearly fall. How had he moved so quickly? I looked at his face, it was still the evil and scary monster face from before and he had the red stuff smeared on his throat. It was the same red stuff in the 2nd man's hair and on the knife he had… and on mommy's neck.

It was blood, not paint.

The scary man smirked as he touched Lena's hair.

"Hello darling."

He spoke to her, his voice sounded dark and nasty.

I didn't like it at all.

Lena whimpered as he got really, really close to her. I was so scared that I was hugging my knees. What could I do? How could I help? They were big grown men with monster faces and I was only a baby girl? No! I wasn't a baby girl, I was a big girl and my sister needed my help.

I took in a deep and shaky breath as I pushed myself from the steps and in front of my sister, pushing at the big man's solid shoulders.

"No! Stop!" I growled pushing him back, probably just taking him by surprise and making him move just a little. "Leave her alone!" I ordered before turning and hugging Lena.

"Well," He chuckled, the horrible face going away "aren't you a little hero?" He taunted, being sarcastic and mean… again.

I scoffed as I kept a tight grip on my big sister.

"You can't hurt Elena." I told him. "She's done nothing wrong to you!"