THE HIDDEN WEASLEY

THE VANISHING ACT

Please imagine this is Lucy in the picture

ONE YEAR LATER

It was early too early if truth be told for anyone to be awake, let alone a small seven nearly eight-year-old child, but that didn't stop Lucy's mind and body, from processing that it was a new day. So with the sounds of birds chirping outside the windows, and beams of light forcing themselves through the cracks in the curtains, Lucy's body began to work its magic of making a small sleep-deprived child awaken. The sounds of the birds chirping outside the window and the beams of light forcing their way through the cracks in the curtains penetrated Lucy's subconscious mind forcing her to awake from her sleep. " stupid birds, why can't you go away, you stupid bloody birds, every morning it's the same old thing, why won't you let me sleep" she muttered under her breath as she let out the loudest yawn of her life. Raising her shaking hands to her face, she gently rubbed the sleep out of her eyes she couldn't help but notice that once again they were swollen. She sighed knowing that once again it would be obvious to the other staff and her fellow residents that she had been crying, she hoped that for once the older girls wouldn't tease her for it. She knew that they were only joking with her trying to cheer her up and make her smile. The last year had changed the once shy girl into a lively bubbly outgoing girl always up for a laugh and embracing life but that had changed when she had been delivered some news she had not expected to hear. The other girls loved her and Maisey and would do anything for her they hated seeing her regressing to how she had been when she had first arrived but it still hurt when they called her crybaby and told her to toughen up. Lucy yawned once more and stretched out her sore cramped legs and arms and gently opened her eyes, when she did so she noticed that her bedroom was still pitch black. Yawning she turned and faced her small Disney princess alarm clock, growling with being awoken so early she shook her head in annoyance, and she sighed when she noticed it was only five am. "bloody stupid birds I could happily kill the lot of them, I wish they would make their nests somewhere else" she growled as she pulled her covers back over her and tried to go back to sleep. It was no use though, just like it had for the last two months and all night long the sleep she was crying out for evaded her. Her mind was too full of terrifying thoughts of what was ahead, that they stopped her from relaxing and being able to sleep. She had barely slept that night, as she had been plagued with the same nightmare, that she had been suffering from for the last two months, of her being handcuffed and carted off to a padded cell in the middle of nowhere and locked in, forgotten and left to die of starvation and dehydration. The day hadn't even started yet and already she wished that it could be over and done with, or even better not be happening at all. She had prayed to God, every morning and every night, since she heard about the trial for it to be cancelled, or to hear that she didn't need to be there, but once again like so many times before it appeared to her that God was choosing to ignore her desperate cries of prayer. It was at that moment when she felt that she truly needed God to hear her, that the last shred of faith in the god she had heard about so many times left her. "stupid no good god" she whispered punching her pillow over and over "why don't you answer me, why do you leave me to suffer, haven't I suffered another, why must you do this to me". It only took a few minutes for her to fall into silence and for her body to begin to shake because of the tears that were falling like a never-ending waterfall from her eyes. Lucy let out a long sigh when she remembered how she had once enjoyed the comfort of her warm bed and the night after night of peaceful sleep, she had got which made her wake feeling refreshed and happy ready to face whatever the new day threw at her but that had all changed just two months ago, though to her it only felt like yesterday. She had been shocked when Jasminda had informed her, that Jennifer was finally coming to trial for all the abuse and suffering that she had inflicted upon her. She hadn't been happy when Jasminda told her that on the day of the trial she and Lucy would have to attend as Lucy may have to testify about what had happened if Jennifer decided to plead not guilty. Since that day the happy life she had begun to carve out for herself, came crashing down and her terror-filled nightmares had returned and once more her bed was no longer a place of sanctuary and peace, but a place to fear above all else.