Five year old Kayla had been sat in her room, painting and drawing and taking photos of the countryside from her window. Art was what she loved, capturing nature's beauty. She was singing along the lullaby her mummy always sang to her when she heard shouting from downstairs. Instantly her heart dropped...
Daddy was home.
Kayla looked around the room with her large eyes, scared and afraid, there was nowhere to hide... but she couldn't hide this time. Shaking her head, she pulled together all her courage and crept downstairs.
"Please... please... don't go upstairs, not in this state..." She heard her mother plead.
"And since when have you told me what to do?! I am the man of this household, you obide by my rules here!"
"You've been drinking, your not thinking straight!"
"Shut up you whore!"
Kayla was used to similar conversations and also used to waking up and seeing her mummy's face or arms bruised and battred, cut and scraped. Why? She didn't understand. She wanted to try and stop it this time. She didn't want her mummy to get hurt.
Kayla reached the door. "Mummy...?" Her voice was small as she stepped inside the room, she saw her father back away from the place where he had held her against the wall, she watched as her mother fell to the floor, shaking. "Mummy!" Kayla panicked and ran over towards her as fast as she could, but her father intercepted, grabbing her by the neck, he threw her to the side.
"No! You bastard! Don't you dare touch her! My beautiful baby!" She saw her mother scream and yell and begin to hit and thump him as hard as she could, anything to get him away from Kayla.
"Mummy... It's alright, Daddy didn't mean to, did you daddy?" Kayla smiled up at him, her daddy wasn't usually like this in the daytime, but now was nightime and as she looked into her daddy's eyes, she didn't see her daddy there. Thats when it happened, she was smacked around the face, hard. She began to cry. "Daddy!" She was confused, why was he hurting her so, she was so scared.
"I will kill you, you little brat! You dare talk back to me?!" Daddy looked angry now and Mummy was scared, she began screaming again, trying to pull him off me. It was then that he picked up the Kitchen Knife.
It was all a big mess.
Kayla couldn't focus on most of what happened, she just screamed and tears flew from her eyes as she saw her mummy jump in front of her and her daddy stab her. "Mummy...." Her voice faded as she watched her mother fall to the ground... "Mummy!" Her dad ran out of the room, mortified with himself. Kayla wept beside her mummy. Her mummy was gone. Kayla blacked out.
