Lauren was in bed sleeping soundly, her dream nice, one she hadn't had before.
She was on a hot beach frolicking in the sea in a hot pink bathing suit. She heard a familiar voice calling her name, she turned and was splashed with sea water. Lauren squealed with delight and her arms began to wave frantically splashing the person back with abandon, their face was obscured which Lauren found weird. Lauren felt herself being hoisted into the air and dropped into the water but instead of being scared she was laughing raucously. She stood up water pouring into her eyes and saw her mum kneeling down grinning at her. Alice waded towards her slowly arms wide and Lauren tried to run.
"No mummy no!" she giggled.
Alice splashed, reached her and picked her up again, this time she fell backwards with her and they both submerged. When they were back on their feet Alice began to tickled her. "The mummy monster!" she growled.
"The Lauren monster!" Lauren replied tickling her mum back. Alice pretended to scream and ran. Lauren caught up with her and Alice once again picked up Lauren and dropped her under the water. Lauren got up tried to run and stopped when she saw sea weed floating in the water, she picked it up and examined it. Alice smiled at how easily distracted her daughter was.
"Hey Lauren why did the sand blush?" Alice asked.
Lauren shook her head.
"Coz the sea weed, get it?"
Lauren made a confused face. "What does that mean?"
Alice smiled and took her hand. "You'll understand when you're older."
Lauren looked at the sand under the ocean and saw a rock. "Mummy look look!" the rock was multicoloured. "Look at the rock!"
When the water goes out kneel down and I'll help you dig it out, Alice knew Lauren would kick off if they tried to leave without it. It took a few tries but they managed to dig it out and Lauren took it and sat it on a rock to make sure they didn't lose it as neither had pockets.
"We can't forget it mummy ok!"
"We won't" Alice promised and they went on looking for jellyfish in the water. A short while later Alice saw Danny waving.
"Look Lauren daddy wants us."
"Can we have five more minutes please?" Lauren pleaded.
Alice nodded and they had a few more minutes of splashing and playing, all too soon it came to an end and they walked up slowly to where Danny sat.
Lauren was smiling knowing that she would remember this day forever and ever when she was big. She chatted to her mum happily until she saw the biggest fluffiest dog she had ever seen! She pulled away from her mum and went to stroke it.
"Lauren!" Alice scolded taking her hand before she could touch it. "You know you're not supposed to touch a dog you don't know!"
"But mummy!" she pouted. "He's nice look!"
"He might have been nice Lauren, he might have thought you weren't nice and bit you." Alice looked at the owner. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine." the owner replied and walked off.
Lauren glared at her mum angry at not being able to touch the dog. They began to walk back up to her dad and Lauren was so angry she refused to even hold her mums hand. Mum was stupid! The dog was nice he wouldn't hurt her! As her mum chatted on promising that they would come to the beach another day Lauren realised she had forgot her best stone! She turned.
"Lauren!"
"Mummy I need my stone. it's the best one I ever got!" and ran down to the sea. Found it exactly where they left it. She picked it up and turned expecting to see her mummy…..but she wasn't there. There were lots of people everywhere….but where was her mummy?
Lauren began to twitch uneasily in her bed.
Laurens chest began to feel funny and she was scared. She wasn't supposed to go anywhere by herself! "Mu…." she began to shout when a woman knelt down in front of her.
"Are you ok?"
Lauren stared at the stranger with wide eyes.
"I have some sweeties, you can have them if you come with me."
Lauren shook her head and took a step back. Mummy always told her to never take things from a stranger Daddy always told her to scream really loudly if someone told her that, she opened her mouth wide to scream fro her daddy when the woman silenced her.
"Your mummy's name is Alice Trevanion and your daddy is Daniel right? And you have a sister?"
"My daddy is Danny and my twin is Lily." Lauren whispered. "How do you know?"
"And you are Lauren." the lady supplied with a smile.
"How do you know my name?"
"Your daddy is ill and he had to go to hospital with mummy really quickly. I have Lily at my car and your mum asked me to come get you and take you to them."
"I'm not allowed to go with strangers mummy said!"
"But Lauren I'm not a stranger I know your name and your mummy and daddy. Am I a stranger?"
"I don't know who you are though."
The lady patted her cheek. "My name is Emma."
Lauren physically jerked in bed but remained asleep.
"Am I still a stranger Lauren?" Emma asked.
"I guess not." Lauren agreed.
Emma extended her hand and Lauren took it. "Will my daddy be ok? Are the doctors here taking good care of him?"
She and Emma walked off. "I'm sure he has the best."
Very soon they were off the sand and heading towards a car. "Where is Lily?" she asked when she saw only two adults in the car.
The woman didn't answer just proceeded taking her towards the car Lauren tried to pull but Emma was strong.
"Stop it!" Lauren cried yanking at Emma's hand. "Stop it!"
Lauren was looking around frantically for help but they only gained curious looks, no one tried to help.
"My daughter is angry she doesn't want to go home." Emma told them.
"LIAR! I WANT MY MUMMY!" she screamed and cried.
The woman picked Lauren up and clamped a hand over her mouth. She was soon pushed into a car. The car started and they began to move. Lauren cried.
Emma looked at her. "BE QUIET!"
"I want my mummy!" she cried.
Emma grabbed her and looked in her eyes intensely. "You will NEVER say that again, are we clear?"
Lauren looked at her eyes wide with fear tears falling from her eyes.
Emma released her face and began talking to the man who drove. Lauren didn't know what they were saying, she was looking out of the window. She saw her mummy daddy and Lily walking along the beach.
"DADDY!" she yelled and beat her hands off the window. "I'M HERE DADDY!"
Emma grabbed her shoulders and pushed her face down onto the seat.
"Give me that cigarette Bob!" Emma demanded. "Here's your first lesson Lauren….."
Tears leaked from Laurens eyes as she felt the burning that coursed down her arm. She whimpered but slept on. More and more memories from that day surfaced engulfing her. The car ride, being taken into a house and Emma….Emma….
"Who do you hate?" Emma hissed.
"I want my mummy!" Lauren cried. "Please let me go home."
"WRONG ANSWER!" Laurens pain filled screams filled the room.
Days passed slowly there, the room was dark and cold, Lauren still only in her bathing suit.
"Tell me about Alice…." Emma asked her softly.
"Mummy takes care of Lily and me." she whispered. "She has short black hair and blue eyes and is lovely."
"WRONG ANSWER!" Emma yelled and once again Lauren's screams echoed.
"I want to go home." Lauren whimpered. "PLEASE!" she begged. "I want my mummy!"
"NO! You don't want her! You don't love her!" Emma roared and a chorus of thuds filled the room.
Lauren awoke with a start and looked around frantically. She tried to calm her breathing but her heart was racing hard. She got up, the sheets she slept in soaked with sweat, she approached a window and opened it. Uneasy with the light off she turned it on and rested her forehead against the wall, eyes closed.
"It was just a dream, just a dream." she whispered to herself, her accent somehow less pronounced.
The dark fragmented images from her dreams flashed in her mind one after the other, she clenched her jaw trying to force them away but they refused. Emma with a belt in her hand was prominant, her face one of pure malevolence. She'd had uncanny aim, even though she had only been tiny she had never missed, the room she had been in, she couldn't remember where it was all she knew was that it scared her! Even now the thought of it scared her.
"My mum is nice." she whispered to herself and felt herself flinch instinctively almost anticipating a blow. Her eyes closed tighter, she really needed her dad right now! "I need you dad!" she whispered. "Where are you?"
Knowing that Danny wasn't around to help she dragged her feet over to her bedside cabinet and picked up her Ipod, looked at the bad and shook her unwilling to sit somewhere which had evoked such painful images and sat on the floor beat playing in her ears, somehow the music didn't calm her like it usually did. She got up and ripped it from her ears and threw it on the bed staring at it accusingly. She fisted her hands in her hair and paced for a straight twenty minutes. Finally she gave up, being alone in the room making her edgy. Maybe she could stay with Lily tonight, maybe if she went in and asked Lily would be fine with it.
"What are you Lauren?" Emma hissed in her head. "SOFT?"
She bent double and clutched her head. "Leave me alone!" she moaned.
"Who do you hate Lauren? You hate Alice! SAY IT!" Emma told her menacingly.
Lauren ran from her room stumbling into the hallway needing to escape the voice, it was worse in the hallway, the darkness amplifying it she jumped back in her room breathing hard.
"Still here Lauren!" Emma goaded. "You can't escape me, you tried remember long ago!"
Laurens eyes rolled into the back of her head as she remembered
A cold winters day, all the doors and windows left open and she being so very cold her teeth chattered. Lauren had got up to run away but when she opened the front door the alarm went off. She had ran outside only for one of Emma's friends who lived next door to grab her and lock her in the room. Lauren had felt ill waiting for Emma to return home. She had shook, only this time not from cold. Emma had came home and the expression on her face told Lauren she was in more trouble then she ever imagined!
Lauren snapped back to reality with a thud, it took her a moment to realise she had fell to the floor. Instead of wrapping her arms around herself and sobbing like she wanted to, she decided to be tough, turn the light off and go back to sleep. She would handle this like she did everything else. Head on with fearlessness. Tremors filled her after she turned the light off. She didn't like the dark, it hadn't bothered her before the dream but now….the dark held secrets and shadows. She left her room creeping down the hallway to the kitchen, using the excuse that she wanted a drink, really only wanting a torch or something so she didn't have to sleep with the light on. When she reached the apex between the kitchen and living room she saw a light burning in the study and Alice in the study surrounded by photo albums. A bottle of amber liquid by her side. She looked up and spotted her. "Lauren?"
"Couldn't sleep." she answered softly and went to the fridge for a drink. Poured herself a glass of milk.
"How bout some hot chocolate?"
Lauren shook her head. "No thanks, that's yours and Lilys thing, not mine."
"Used to be your thing too." Alice remarked absently looking at a page. "The three of us, marshmallow and hot chocolate when your dad….." took a gulp from her glass then poured some more as thoughts of Danny made her feel sad.
Lauren frowned at her. "Should you be drinking that stuff straight? Its strong, you'll have one hell of a hangover!"
"How'd you know?" Alice asked voice slightly slurred.
"Emma used to drink it." Closed her eyes. "I learned to steer clear when she did!"
Alice eyes filled with pain she couldn't mask. "Sometimes a little alcohol helps you know." lifted her glass and looked at it. "Tonight I learned a lot is much better! Ah might regret it themorra like…." then Alice smiled. "I sound like you!"
Lauren laughed. "Not quite, your accent is too strong." the she shrugged. "I'll leave you to it then."
Alice went to her impulsively and took her hand looking at her. "Losing you was by far the worst thing that has ever happened to me!"
Lauren looked at her. "I guess so, but I suppose when you have a perfect life…."
"Perfect life?" Alice laughed no humour in it at all, releasing Laurens hand. "Is this what you think I've had."
"I don't think Alice I just look at the facts and I'm not being horrible, just honest."
"I'd give back every minute of this so called perfect life to have you back!"
Lauren sighed. "yeah you would. All mums would." she stared at Alice confused. "You know I struggle with you sometimes, you and Danny could keep all this and just have another kid, name it Lauren and I wouldn't have been gone anymore. You get me and keep your perfect…."
"Stop it! Stop belittling yourself and stop calling this perfect! You have no idea!"
"Alice look at from an outsiders point of view. You're an actress, loved by god knows how many people, earn an obscene amount of money for what can be considered a small amount of work. You have NO worries! Seems pretty damn perfect to me! And all you had to deal with was losing me! And lets face it I'm not that special!"
"You are special, to be and your dad your perfect! Not all this stuff! And I have more worries that you think. EVERYDAY I worry whether something will happen to you, Lily or your dad! Everyday I wonder whether I have been safe enough this time. Every part I take I wonder whether I'm good enough and every time I walk out of the front door I wonder whether someone is watching me!"
Lauren rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Get over yourself Alice! Why would anyone watch you?"
"Why? I don't know!" Alice exclaimed. "But don't say this is perfect. Its as close to perfect as I'm allowed and right now it is all falling apart!"
Laurens eyes narrowed. "You really are a good actress, I never realised how good before."
Alice took her arm. "You really think I am acting right now?" Voice cold.
Lauren tried to yank her arm away but Alice held it tight Lauren looked down to remove Alice's hand and saw the raised skin on Alice's hand, it looked like…"How did you burn your hand?"
Alice looked down at the ugly skin, she had forgot that happened. "It was a long time ago." she murmured.
Lauren studied it, still holding Alice's hand. "Why not get it fixed?"
Alice shrugged. "I looked into it a few years ago and they said the burn was too bad to fully cover it so why bother?"
"How'd it happen?" Lauren asked. "Firework or something, they can be bad."
If only it had been that simple. "Go to bed Lauren."
Lauren pushed up the sleeve of her pyjama top, Alice looked at her arm littered with scar of all shapes and sizes. "Everyone of these is a gift!" Lauren told her passionately. "Emma told me they were special, reminders, I was NEVER to forget where I came from! I was never to forget…."
"What?" Alice asked willing her to finish.
Lauren refused to budge. "No, but I will say that these." pointed to her arms. "Are only the beginning! So you tell me yours I'll tell you mine." she negotiated.
"Fine!" Alice said. "I got it from a fire!"
"What kind? Bush? And I'll look it up so don't lie."
Alice quieted knowing that Lauren was going to find out either way, at least this way she would find out on Alice's terms. She took her daughter by the arm and led her into the study. "You want the full story Lauren? All the grisly details? Ok. But I need you to promise that you won't ever tell Lily."
Lauren frowned. "Is it really that bad?"
"You wanna know about my perfect life then you promise!" Alice told her stonily.
"I promise I won't tell her!"
"Swear on Danny's life or no deal." Alice used Danny as he was the only person Alice knew Lauren really cared about.
"I swear on Danny's life." Lauren told her solemnly.
Alice turned on the lamp in the study and pulled the partition across. She went to the safe, opened it and removed a small locked box. Using a key hidden in a different box she opened the it and removed a file.
"Years ago." Alice began. " Before I met Danny, long before you were born I had a….well lets say an admirer. He used to send me sweets and flowers and I was flattered to have such a nice fan. I was pretty new to this fame thing and thought nothing of it, even when it continued after a few weeks. Time passed, I went on a date and I received a letter from him the next day. He wasn't happy I went out with another man but he said he forgave me. Soon after he started sending me photos."
"Of him? You should have gave them to the police!" Lauren told her.
"They were of me. When I was on set, out walking, even sleeping in my room."
Laurens eyes widened. "He actually went in your house?"
Alice nodded. "He deactivated my alarm, took my clothes, hair brush anything I touched he wanted. He even went as far as killing a puppy I got as present to hurt me, he couldn't share me he said."
"Whoa!"
"I told the police, expected that to be an end to it, it humoured him. He started telephoning me my number was unlisted, he used to tell me in detail the things I'd done that day. Where I went on holiday that sort of thing. Eventually I took a film in South Africa to get away from it for a little while. And that is how I met your dad."
"Bet that went down well." Lauren said softly.
"Me and your dad had about two weeks before he found me. I was photographed kissing your dad, he sent me shredded lingerie and loosened the bolts on a lion pen so I was almost mauled."
"What the hell?"
"Still I refused to listen, his words not mine. I was falling for your dad more everyday and we tried to stay away to stop it but we couldn't. Before too long I had fell in love and my stalker knew and blew up my trailer on set."
"Holy crap!" Lauren declared.
Alice raised her top and showed Lauren the burn across her stomach. "I was three steps away from the blast, very nearly in my trailer. I was picked up and literally thrown threw the air and bounced off my co stars trailer. Burning debris fell on me, that's how I got the scar on my stomach."
"Wow! That must have been…"
Alice put up a hand to halt her. "That's not all Lauren? You haven't heard the best bit of this perfect life yet!" Alice carried on. "So anyway he blew up my trailer, I recovered and an article was printed in a newspaper about mine and your dads relationship, it just so happened to coincide with the first time I told Danny I loved him. It pushed the stalker over the edge and he set a bush fire not far from here and lured your dad out there. Then he set fire to this house with both of us in it!"
"All of that because you fell for dad?"
"Because I didn't love him!" Alice corrected. "If it wasn't your dad it could have been anyone. Only your dad wouldn't let me walk away while someone else might have. Well anyway here I was the house coming down all around me, he drugged me and I ended up in the study and as I was beginning to pass out my hand fell in the flames, and that is how I got this." Alice lifted her hand. "It woke me up a bit though but I couldn't get out so I had to smash the study window," pulled her t-shirt down to her shoulder and the jagged line that rested there. "That is from a shard of glass. Obviously I got out, your dad spent almost a full day believing I was dead though. I hid under a bush unconscious, if he hadn't found me when he did I would have died."
Laurens face was shocked. "Wow!"
"Any questions?" Alice asked resting back and crossing her arms.
"How can you bear to be in this room?"
"The main structure was completely destroyed. This is the rebuild. The old study is now the spare room, it's never been used and I never go in there, for any reason!" Alice handed Lauren a picture of the blacked ruined from the files.
"Bloody hell!" Lauren declared when she saw the veranda caved in, black marks up the wall, no roof on the structure. Her hand covered her mouth.
"He meant business Lauren, I had to die." took the picture and returned the file to the safe. "That's my perfect life."
Lauren nodded slowly heart pounding. She turned and sat on the desk, her back to Alice. "Look."
"At what?"
"My back, there's a message for you on there."
"I don't understand…."
Lauren turned her head so she looked at Alice. "I told you my arms were only the beginning." looked away again. "I'm not allowed to forget Alice, and neither are you. That's what she said."
Alice raised her top slowly, Laurens eyes closed tightly. The light show and surrounded by lines was a name. 'Murphy?"
"She said it a clue, says every scar is a gift from you." Lauren looked around at her.
"Me?" Alice gasped and lowered Laurens pyjama top.
Lauren turned nodding. "Every time she hurt me badly like that she used to tell me why this was your fault. What you had done. That there, she did it with the edge of a hot iron."
Alice felt her head begin to pound. "Oh God this is my fault!"
Lauren shook her head smiling at Alice reassuringly. "To be honest Emma was a loony! She said she spoke to dead people, apparently her dad told her to hurt me but he had been dead for years!"
Alice cupped Laurens face in both hands. "What did you go through?"
"No more than you with your stalker I guess." Lauren shrugged. "I guess my way of sticking two fingers up at her is proving I love you regardless of her, I'll get there it might take time but I will." Lauren assured.
"Take all the time you need, I'm always here."
"Anyway." Lauren started. "I'd better get to bed. Night Alice." as Alice started to clear away, her mind spinning trying to figure out why Murphy was on Laurens back, Lauren headed for her room. Her milk forgotten on the kitchen table.
Lauren stopped at the junction and looked back. "Hey Alice. Did they get him?"
"Who?" Alice asked looking at her.
"Your stalker."
"Yeah. He died in the fire. I finally found out his name too, Alistair Murphy…." even as the name left her lips Alice felt her head spin.
Lauren froze, her whole body turning to ice. "Alistair Murphy, but he's my….." Lauren remembered what Emma told her and stopped talking.
Alice walked to her slowly, knowing what Lauren had been about to say but needing to hear it before she could fully believe it. "How do you recognise that name?"
"I promised her I'd never tell." Laurens voice small. Everything connecting in her head the same time it was in Alice's. It now made some kind of twisted sense. Thoughts of what might of happened if she hadn't co-operated flashed in her mind, what if she had taken Lily too? "If she finds out I told…." she started, feeling like she was five again. The fear taking over.
Alice was near to her now. "You're home, you're safe. Trust me."
Lauren looked in Alice's…. her mums eyes and began to shake. "Alistair is my dad. She told me, she said you killed him."
Alice felt sick to the pit of her stomach.
"He's her dad too but she told me to call her mum so when the police came around they wouldn't suspect anything." Lauren inhaled sharply as a memory engulfed her.
Alice was in turmoil, Emma Murphy…..Emma Murphy….she had been a suspect long ago. The police had spoke to her as someone had seen her with a little girl who matched Lauren's description. The police had questioned her but when they spoke to the little girl she had been adamant Emma was her mum. Lauren! Emma! Why hadn't she connected it before?
While Alice was kicking herself for not realising. Lauren was in a worse place, back in her memories, sat on the sofa talking to a scary policeman telling him lots of lies, begging him with her eyes to see she was it. She took a step back and stumbled over a chair falling to the floor. She scrambled to her feet seeing Alice in front of her but not quite understanding she wasn't that five year old child anymore.
"I'm sorry for lying, really sorry!"! Lauren babbled as tears filled her eyes. "But she made me talk to them, told me what to say, told me I'd come home soon if I was a good girl and did as I was told." Laurens accent completely gone, sounding so much like the girl Alice knew years ago.
"Lauren calm down." Alice coaxed hands of her arms.
Lauren carried on like she hadn't heard her. "And I tried to be good I really did but she all these things about you and she was wrong but she hit me if I didn't agree. Then the police came and I told her I'm not supposed to lie to police, that I'd be in trouble if I did and she said the policeman in th UK were different and would lock me away if I told them the truth, I remembered daddy telling uncle Dupe about the naughty police who arrested the wrong people back at home. I was so scared. And I really wanted Lily." tears fell. "I knew if Lily was there she'd see I was lying in my eyes…." began backing away slowly. "…and we'd go home. When the police left she put me back in the room with no light and I was so scared…." she whispered. As Lauren entered the darkened hallway her whole body tensed and she seemed to shrink. "No not the dark again….I don't like the dark." more tears falling.
Alice was watching this not able to move, it seemed to happening quickly and she was in slow motion. Lauren as a child had been terrified of the dark, it was like she was reliving it. It was that thought that made her come to life, her child was scared….
Lauren side stepped into a corner wrapped her arms around her head lowered herself until she was sitting slowly. "If I'm good I can go home, if I'm a good girl I can go home." she repeated a mantra "I want to go home." added in now and again.
Alice moved towards Lauren her throat was tight, she was seeing a glimpse of how Lauren must have coped with it all, no wonder she hated Alice, no wonder she believed all Emma had told her, they had brain washed her using her fear against her. Lauren did what she had to to get through it. Alice knelt close to her using her softest voice. The one she used when the girls used to have bad dreams. Lauren had her eyes closed tightly. Alice's mouth close to her ear.
"I'll be good Emma." Lauren whispered. "I promise I'll be good." she exhaled shakily. "I just really want my….." and then she stopped like she had been trained to, like at the last moment remembering she wasn't allowed to want her mum.
"Look up at me Lauren." Alice coaxed.
Lauren shook her head. "Can't." Still no sign of her accent, sounding so young. "Coz I dream of mummy." she said like telling a secret. "But Emma can't ever know coz she will get mad and I don't like Emma when she is angry, she scares me. If I tell her I don't love mummy enough she'll let me go home but I say it and she doesn't believe me!" a sob torn from her. "I DO love mummy but she can't ever know so I'll hide it deep inside and when I get home mummy will know that everything I said to Emma wasn't true. I had a pretend mummy monster at home but she was the real monster. I want to go home!" she moaned shaking her head.
Alice felt her own tears fall everything she put Lauren through hitting her. "I know Lauren, look at me I know! I know you love me! Come home to me, look at me please just look at me!" Alice rambled her hands around the back of Laurens head.
Silence fell in the hallway, Lauren lifted her head a little, eyes wide and uncertain, her expression mirroring the person opposite, i took what felt like an age to realise who she was looking at, when Lauren did realise she felt like she saw Alice, really saw her the first time. The person who made her giggle while making faces at her. The person who picked her up and held her close, the person who made everything better when she cried. She wanted everything to be better, she couldn't be like this anymore….."Mum?" she whispered unsure.
Alice nodded slowly. "I'm here, you're home Lauren."
Lauren threw herself in Alice's direction, Alice fell backwards but remained upright holding Lauren tightly, one hand rubbing her head trying to soothe her distraught child. "Ssshhh. Its alright now, mums here." and kissed her head. Lauren need this, just to get it out of her system.
Lily, who had heard some noises walked out of her room a tennis racket held high, she was shocked to see her mum and Lauren in the corner, Lauren sobbing.
'She's home.' Alice mouthed.
Lily knew what her mum meant, dropped the racket on the bed and walked into her bathroom where she moistened a face cloth with cold water. Returned to Lauren and knelt beside her. Hugged her close, arms around both her mum and Lauren. "It's ok now." Lily told her. "We're here for you."
Lauren pulled away slowly head pounding, Alice wiped her face with cloth Lily had brought. Lauren was blinking tiredly, emotionally drained, unsure of what to do or say. All she wanted was to sleep.
"C'mon." Alice said and held Lauren up. Lauren moved soundlessly into her mums room, crawled into bed and collapsed into the middle if it. Lily returned to her room for a second then joined her mum and sister in the other bedroom she climbed into the bed to the right of Lauren, Alice on the left. Lauren was lain in the middle eyes closed.
Silence fell in the room. "I know why the sand blushed." Lauren murmured breaking it.
Alice turned her head, "You do?
"The sea weed." Lauren laughed drowsily. "Good one, I get it."
Lily saw her mum smile in the darkness and heard her clear her throat. She lifted Laurens arm gently as to not wake her and placed the pink bear under it.
"She belongs to you. Welcome home." Lily said.
A/N wow, really emotional chapter! BUT Lauren is home! Properly this time :D
The bit i most resonated with was when Alice was pleading with he to come home to her, even though they were in the hallway, lauren was back with emma alone. It was such a powerful image and i didn't manage to do it justice at all! Next on the agenda fix danice and get rid of emma and they can all live happily ever after - its never that easy tho lol
I'm just wondering if anyone made the connection of Emma being Alice's stalkers kid when Alice saw the name on Laurens back x