1 | Dream? Or Real? |

My breath was haggard as I sprinted down the hallway, my feet pounding on the floor the count down sounding. Through the hall of portraits and paintings, ignoring the stern faces as I raced past them.

I have to hide! I fumbled through the house away from my captor to find a suitable safe hiding spot.

At the end of the hallway, I took a sharp left having a place in mind. The expensive carpet absorbing the noise of my footsteps as I scurried through the passage.

The tall oak doors towering over me as I stepped forward to the door of my hiding spot, easing the door slowly I slipped inside.

The room I was so very familiar with, was exactly the way I left it, the chic covers on the bed perfectly made, the once carpet floor now expensive wood.

Re-adjusting my pigtails and dress with a giggle I made my way across the room passing the large oak table that held a fine china vase of flowers. My dress-making slight crinkling noises as I walked giggling to myself at the idea of my mother never finding me.

"I'm coming!" A feminine voice echoed through the house that I'd grown to love. Laughing I made sure to jump on my parents' bed ruffling it slightly before jumping off and skipping to my Mother and Father's walk-in closet, but just as I was walking past the round oak table I usually played cards with my father, I heard a blood-curling scream and then a very loud noise sounding like a door being banged open, accompanied by loud voices of men, echoed through the house that made me yelp in fear.

I whimpered at my mother's shrill scream of fear. In my confusion, I whipped my body around quickly turning towards the door, to only succeeding in knocking the vase from the oak table. It shattered immediately when it the floor making me even more upset. Mother and Father would not be happy about that.

I tip-toed over the glass before rushing out of the room, running back through the hallway I quickly emerged at the top of our grande stairway that led to the foyer, where my mother just moments ago was counting in our game of hiding seek, with a dashing smile on her face.

I stared down the stairs puzzled by the scene before me.

I could see my mother well, not all of her, but her black stilettos she wore everywhere she went, her feet sticking out of the game rooms door. Voices of men were sounded in the room. What was Mother doing on the floor with strangers in our game room?

I walked soundlessly down the stairs, my curiosity growing, moist tears still on my cheeks. My little heels made slight taps on the marble floor as I crept towards the game room.

I stared in bewilderment at my mother who was on the floor motionless. Her body slack on the floor not moving not breathing. My chest tightened at the sight.

"Mama?" My voice cracked. Mother's white summer dress littered with flower design was discolored by a deep red. A puddle forming around her slowly making its way across the white marble floor. A red oozing stripe forming across her throat widening slowly.

I gasped, my hand over my mouth as tears and sobs racked through my tiny body. I looked from the floor to see two men standing right behind my mother. One with a knife and another with a similar weapon.

I screamed backing up quickly, sadistic smiles formed on their faces as they crept towards me.

Without a second thought, I sprinted up the stairs running once again through the hallways I used to skip around in without any worries at all. They pounded after me.

Taking a sharp left I busted into my room shutting the door quickly locking it behind me. breathing heavily I rushed to my closet shutting the door behind me, before huddling into the corner grabbing my stuff bear that was on the shelf.

I hugged my stuffed bear as I rocked back and forth on my bum, shaking in fear that the bad men would find me.

I heard my bedroom door crash open, their murmurs filling my room as my body shook even more as if I was having a seizure.

"Where is she?" One said. I couldn't hear the others reply as my eyes blurred with tears. I could hear them searching before I heard their steps retreating out of my room.

I sighed in relief.

Hands gripped my shoulders whispering into my ear, "Gotch you." Before dragging me backward, my endless screams sounding.

I gasped before I sprang into a sitting position my hand clenching my shirt right above my heart. My mind recognizing the familiar cold sweat that usually visited during the night, I sighed, before laying back into my pillow staring up at the ceiling, my bed enveloping my body.

The dream more a memory than a nightmare, shivering at the remembrance of my mother's death. I looked at my alarm clock.

Five am in the morning. I groaned, I wasn't supposed to be at school until eight o'clock.

Well, might as well do something instead of just sitting here. With one more groan, I sat up again shifting out of my warm comfortable bed before my feet hit the cold wooden floor. Making my way through my large room.

My room was pitch black, so it took me a while to find even my door. I clumsily felt my hand along the right of my door feeling the smooth wall before finding the light switch.

Fumbling for a second I finally turned on the lights making me stumble back from the bright lights and fall on my butt.

"I'm such an idiot," I mutter to myself before standing up in my highly decorated classy room. My dad didn't really let me decorate my room very much saying that it was decorated for me. All I could usually do is mutter my silent rebel voice before cowering away when he asked what I said. I'm not the best at confrontation.

I sleepily shuffled to my wardrobe before throwing it open. Digging through my messy bins of workout clothes I picked out some white skintight workout shorts, and a black sports bra.

Might as well go to the gym, at least that will take my mind off my troubles, I absentmindedly think to myself, before walking through my considerably large house, towards my dad's private gym.