CHAPTER 3
Earlier…
Both mother and daughter were asleep in their darkened suburban house, when a soft thud broke the silence of the night. Stephanie opened an eye. Pulling herself out of the bed, she wandered quickly past pictures of the three of them, happy and smiling as if everything was alright.
"Wake up, honey." She whispered, kneeling down beside her daughter's bed.
"You need to get yourself outside, and call your father. Wake up." The small girl's hazel eyes opened, searching the darkness. Seeing that she was awake, Stephanie left the room to give her daughter time to escape.
The girl reached for her emergency bag, as she hurried through the darkness. Her curly blonde hair was tousled from sleep, as she crept down the hall in slipper-clad feet, towards her mother's bedroom.
"Mum, wake up!" She whispered, tugging on her mother's sleave. That was when a splintering noise echoed through the silence from somewhere near the kitchen, and the smell of smoke started to fill the moon lit room.
As Dad would say, Son of a fish! She thought, scanning the room for the best route of escape. It was easy enough: her mother's room had a large glass sliding door that led onto the patio. On second glance, it wasn't so easy- it was locked. There wasn't time to look for keys, and Dad hadn't taught her how to pick one yet. She glanced around the room and spotted her mother's emergency bag. Problem solved, She thought, as she threw it through the window. She did the same with her own bag, before grabbing a pillow and hurrying to remove as much glass as possible from the bottom half of the hole.
"Mum, you need to wake up." She tried again, but didn't wait for a reply- she knew she only had so long- smashing a window wasn't so quiet. With a deep breath, she grabbed her mother and dragged her out of bed.
A few minutes later, the young girl sat beside her mother on the lawn as the sirens in the distance grew nearer. Her blonde hair swayed gently in the early morning breeze, as she waited patiently for help, and her father, to come.
Stephanie sat down beside her daughter, worry haunting her eyes. Dean better get here fast, because her energy was fast diminishing, and this was far from over.