Yelling was heard in the french countryside house. A man was yelling at his wife and threw a glass bottle at her, nearly missing her and he slowly leaves his shaking wife. As soon as the man left, the woman quickly lifted an old floorboard and pulled out a child. It was a little girl with short bright auburn strawberry blonde hair(Think Molly Ringwald's hair in Sixteen Candles). She was also shaking like the woman in fear. The mother wrapped her arms around her to give her comfort and looked at her child. She seems to reflect her child in her looks, from the hair to her pale skin tone and her thin, rectangular body shape despite her small size

"I'm so sorry, ma Cherie," the girl pushes herself away from her mother, shakes her head no, and points to the door where her father departed, making the mother sigh through her nose.

"He'll be back soon, you must go to your room and pack." the mother strictly instructs her.

The child did as she was told and ran to her room which was the attic. It was very old, rusty, and in disarray. There was only a bed, dresser, and a bunch of old belongings of the girl's parents and she didn't have much stuff. She quickly eyed a large box with a white cloth on it. She rushed to it and unveiled the box which had lots and lots of rats. They were in multiple colors of brown, black, grey, and white and were mostly adolescent to adult rats. She clicks her tongue to get their attention. She grabbed a black notebook and a pen from another box near her bed, wrote a message down, and show it to them. It said

We Are Leaving

All of the rats squeaked and ran around the box. She waved her hands around to get them to stop. They watch her run to her bedside. She grabbed a brown messenger bag and went into her dresser and took out a long-sleeved green shirt with brown small stripes and a pair of jeans. She looked around and grabbed a pink, yellow, and white small blanket and cuddled it viciously before stuffing it in her bag. And then she packed her black notebook and she looked down and saw that she was in her red and white raglan gown. She rushed to her dresser again and changed into a blue, gray, and white plaid shirt, A dark grey shirt, blue jeans, and slipped on her black sneakers and places her gown in her bag. She raced to the box that had the rats inside

"Hurry honey" her mother called

The girl then gently tips over the box allowing the rats to have access to see and direct their attention to the child. She opened her brown bag and clicked her tongue again and pointed toward the bag, telling them to jump inside. She brings herself closer to have an easier leap. One of the brown rats squeaked at the rest of them to jump 10 at a time and the rest of the rats did as they were told and jumped into the bag, luckily with her clothes and blanket breaking their fall.

Then suddenly the child heard footsteps coming towards the attic. She was frozen with fear but then she was relieved when it was only her mother with a suitcase in her hand. She came toward the child where she saw that she was hiding away the rats who were still waiting for their turn to jump since half of them are in the bag

"No No, No, It's okay… you can take them with you… they… they need a home, here isn't the place for them" She gently tells the girl.

The child looked down sadly. The mother gently rubbed her daughter's back. The child then threw herself onto her mother giving her a hug which the mother returned

"Je t'aime chérie," said the mother. They then broke from their embrace and the mother gave the little girl a necklace. It had a large leaf on in and it was held by a thick black thread. The child then noticed that the leaf had a button on top. She pressed it and it opened to show a picture of her and her mother. She had a small thin smile on her face signifying that she loves it. The mother then gave her two small little pouches. The girl looked inside and saw that one of them had cherries in them and the child looked out the window to a nearby cherry tree in their backyard and the other pouch had cheese for the rats and the child gladly took them and packed them in.

"One last thing ma Cherie" The mother then took off her wedding ring which had a small diamond and a gold band and slipped it on the child's slightly pudgy right ring finger. The child then touched her face with her palm

"I don't need it dearest" the woman spoke. Then the child looked at the direction of the old creaky bed that she used to lay and took a frame. It was a similar picture to the photo on the locket. She gently packed it in her bag and she quickly allows the rest of the rats to jump in the bag and let the leader rat hide in her shirt pocket before turning to her mother.

"It's going to be alright, we'll be in a safer place and we'll never have to worry about that man" She kissed the little girl's forehead and smiled at her.

Then they here the door unlock

"Come on" She took the child's hand and the little girl looked back at the attic where she had resided as her room and didn't look back at it again.

The duo of girl then go downstairs t meet their husband and father

"What's all this"

The mother looked down at the child

"I'll speak for the two of us" she then turned to her husband.

"I'm tired of this, I'm tired of you and your abuse"

"I never abused you woman" the man replied angrily

"Connerie, tell that to the scars you left me and your daughter… those cigar burns, the slashes, and your daughter is speechless, because of you"

"She chose not to talk"

"NO… you took away her voice that she rightly deserved and she's traumatized and you never gave her a name… I'm done with you"

"What are you saying woman," he asked his wife

"What do you think I'm saying you fool, I'm leaving you and I'm taking my child with me,"

"Non, I get to say if it's over"

"You don't control me or my child" the little girl right beside her firmly nods her head in agreement.

Then the man stepped up to his wife in a domineering manner and the child hid behind her

"As I said before I get to say when it's over"

"You know something… I never loved you… I only needed you to survive… You killed 5 of our babies before this one, but you wouldn't stop beating me and you now beat our little girl, and I'm never coming back to this hell called home

Her husband growled and turned toward the little girl who was still ducked behind her mother

"Okay girl, look at me," the husband said quietly to his daughter who refused to look at him in the eye. "Look at me" the little girl shook her head

"LOOK AT ME!" he yelled causing the girl to grit her teeth and cling tighter onto her mother shaking.

As a result of the yelling, the wife slapped him, knocking him to the ground.

"You don't yell at my child" the woman then puts something in the child's pocket.

The man then rises from the ground and began to attack his wife and punched her in the face like a man. The child backs away and watches helplessly watching her mother getting beat by her father. A black eye was already on the woman's face and she began to reach for her bag but her husband drags her by her bright hair and she elbows him on the neck and successfully grabs her bag and pulls out a revolver pointing it to the man's face

"You can't shoot"

"Watch me" She tries to shoot for the man's head and misses. The little girl jumped in fear.

The man then slaps her and the gun flies out of her hand and it flies toward the staircase leading toward the attic. The husband and wife try to reach for it and the woman sees that her child is still standing there petrified

"Get out of here, mon enfant" she yelled at the child. The little girl ran while the mothers yell of "RUN!" echoed. The child took off out of the front door. The parents then fought each other for the gun

The child ran and was about to take off into the woods until she heard

POW POW

She stopped and she ran a few more and she stops again and took 5 steps toward the house but kept her distance. The rat in her pocket pulled at her shirt, urging her to run but she is completely still looking toward the dim-lit house and then she saw something getting thrown toward her, she remained hidden behind the trees. She peeks out and spots that it is a black trash bag. She slowly but surely uncovers it and discovers that it is her mother. She jumps back. The child had a state of shock in her face, the rest of the rats peek out and look down. The girl spots a bullet hole in her mother's chest and her eyes were shut. The girl kneeled to her human protector's body and hugging it, silently sobbing and realizing her terror of being all alone. There was another tug from the brown rat in her pocket urging her to leave then the wind blew making the branches shake driving the young girl's attention away from her mother and to the trees. Then she heard the door creak open and she finally ran, leaving the body.

The wind began to grow stronger as she ran from her house. She circled around on where to run and she looks back and goes straight. She tried her best not to look back while she ran through the trees. She didn't even know if her father was in pursuit of her

Then finally, she spots a small town. It was night time so almost no one was around. She slowly paces herself around the small community and tried to look for a place to hide. Everything, unfortunately, was closed, from bakeries to dry cleaners.

Just then she spots a red double-decker bus heading towards a bus stop that is across the street from her with a bunch of people. She turned around and she saw her father headed towards the red-headed girl and she bolted for the bus. He tried to shoot at her but wasn't fast enough as he lost her in the crowd heading inside the bus. The man then shook his head

"You can't go that far kid, I'll find you" He whispered to himself

The child then waited for the bus to disappear out of her father's sight and sat in the back where no one can spot her in the crowd. The rats began to peek out. The brown rat in her pocket came out and patted the girl on her chest as if to tell her that they are sorry about her mother. All the child can do was look out the window, knowing that she cannot rest yet until she is as far away from that evil man as possible.