The Intruder!

'It's not fair. You're hardly here anymore,' Madison Summers pleaded with her father.

'I know sunshine but the boss is relying on me. We have to finish this or we're in trouble. You know who I work for. I can't just walk away,' her father, Jake Summers, answered. Regret was tainting his voice.

Madison sighed defeat but knew it was for the best. Her mother had died in a drive by shooting when she, Madison, was only two weeks old. And her father was a substitute for the mother she had never known. When she was younger she always thought of her mother as some kind of fairy but now she was fourteen and knew she would never know her mother. And her father worked as a scientist for the Government. She had only found out last year on her thirteenth birthday. 3-3. People thought it was ironic but Madison kind of liked it. Her mother had the same birthday which kind of made her feel special.

'Why don't I take the weekend off and we can spend it together. Just the two of us,' her father invited.

'I thought it was always the two of us,' Madison answered back.

'You know what I mean,' her father replied half exasperated half amused, 'but that means I won't be able to com home at all for the rest of the week.' Madison held her breath praying.

'So I've organised for you to stay with an old friend of mine,' he continued.

'That's not fair,' Madison whined, 'Why can't I stay at Cadey's or Alice's. Why does it have to be one of your friends?'

'Because I said so and you will listen,' her father said in that tone of voice she hardly ever heard. The one that usually meant she was in big trouble if she refused.

'Okay, give me the address,' she answered, Grabbing a pen off her table and a pad of paper.

'Leeds house, Knox rood, Aylesbury. Her name is Eileen Rider,' her father recited.

'That's in Buckinghamshire init,' she said confused.

'Yes it is. Take a taxi. Remember licensed. Check-' her father warned.

'That all the windows and doors are locked. The curtains are closed. Take the house keys and the car keys. Leave the hall light on,' Madison finished in the bored voice of someone who had said this a couple of hundred times, 'and that the security code is in,' she added in an after thought before her father could prompt her.

'I'll pick you up from there sunshine,' he said.

'I hate being called sunshine,' Madison retorted but the phone had already cut dead. She frowned at the mobile as if it was its fault.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Madison stared at her self in the mirror. Her hair was auburn and waved slightly at the end. As usual she had her hair tied in a ponytail with her fringe framing her face. But she had blue eyes. She got them from her mother. She knew no one who had the same eye colour and hair colour as her. She had long lashes and clear complexion. Madison never wore makeup. She was a bit tall for her age and was happy with how she looked. While other girls became anorexic or bulimic she concentrated on her sports and was a happy size ten. According to her best friends Cadey and Alice her face looked like she was from Spain but Alexandria wasn't so sure. She didn't know where she came from on her mother's side of the family. Her mum had eloped with her father.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quietly, she dragged out her backpack from under her bed. It was already full with clothes that lasted around a week. She was always sleeping over at friends' houses nowadays. Not that it was a problem. They didn't mind. She didn't mind. Not much any way. It was as if she and her father were drifting apart. She groaned and took out one of them side beds and filled it with the usual accentual. Brush, hair bands, i Pod, CD player, she ticked them off in her head as she stuffed them inside.

She was piling in her CDs when she heard the stairs creak. It was so gentle she thought she had imagined it. Her ears were waiting for the slightest noise. Then she heard the creak again, quieter this time. They were going down stairs! Heart pounding in her ears, she followed down the stairs, careful only to step on the corners near the walls and to miss the odd creaky on. She leaped the last four and landed on the floor with the silence and the grace of a cat. It was as if she was outside herself. A became a robot. Like she was watching from above as she snuck towards the kitchen.

I'm too late thought Madison to herself as she heard the back door being opened quietly. Her anguish quickly turned into fresh determination. She ran silently through the open kitchen door. She saw a shadow dart through the back door onto the patio. Not bothering to keep silent she slammed the back door open and stepped onto the patio.

'Oi, you stop right there,' she moaned inside at the weirdness of those words. The figure clad in black ran through the enormous garden. The man was slow and Madison reached him easily. She slammed him into the wall. She turned him round and gasped. She dropped her hands.