The Pursuit of Leanne Masters

Why were we born?

"Shhhhh! Chloe please" I begged "We must go to our safe place quickly"
I had my hand placed over her mouth to silence her startled ramblings. Rubbing her eyes with the back of her hands a sign she was getting it together after I had shook her awake.

"Lea what do ya want, I'm tired, I wanna sleep" she grumbled. "Chloe please Mum, Dad, the sheriff and his deputy are coming, we need a pow wow". On hearing my words Chloe's eyes shot open with horror and she started sniffling.

"Quickly now's the time to do what we planned, grab your clothes I've packed your bag and mine, let's go"

Silently Chloe slid off the dirty, stained mattress that lay on the floor, tossing the single worn blanket to the side and slipped on her only dress she possessed the one that was given to me by the school after I had been tossed and rolled in the mud by Clarissa and her gang of bullies.

I had cherished that flimsy faded yellow summer dress as it was the only decent piece of clothing I had, until I outgrew it and passed it on to Chloe who loved it as much as I had.

Looking around our dingy room with it's single bare light bulb a filthy mildew covered mattress that we shared, cracked and worn flooring, nothing adorning the walls as we were forbidden to touch anything.

No drawers or hanging space our clothes resided on the damp wooden floor where large gaps allowed the woodland bugs in to infest our room and belongings.

Paint peeling off the walls, broken window with tape flapping around, that had come unstuck from the cardboard, used to cover the broken pane keeping the cold damp Tennessee air out.

This was our home the place you are supposed to feel safe, happy and loved, three of the things desperately missing from our childhood.

Chloe brushed her long brown hair from her round cherub like face her dark grey eyes blinking as she adjusted to being awake, her dirt stained face from the grubby bedding we slept on.

At nine year's old she still looked beautiful though she was painfully thin as was I due to not eating regularly and then only scraps from our parent's plates when they couldn't finish their meal.

Why you may wonder, would our own parent's treat us like this, simple! We were drunken mistakes!

After they had successfully pulled off two huge armed robberies and got drunk (Yep! our parents were drunks) I came along sixteen year's ago and Chloe nine, you would have thought they would have learnt from having me and not putting my sister through all this hell, we were lucky I suppose we were born before the drugs came.

My father was once a tall striking man long straight golden brown hair a real charmer all the girls hung around him apparently, he met our mum at school she was a cheerleader and just as you imagined a clichéd cheerleader to be, tall, thin, leggy and blonde, the perfect couple, until they discovered drink and then drug's at parties, then it was all down hill.

They both lost their jobs, parents disowned them, friends shunned them as the drugs and alcohol took their toll and they became wilder and more outrageous, then they became bitter, resentful and down right nasty, as people vented their disgust at them, so they turned to crime.

This I pieced together from all the nasty comments and evil, vindictive speeches I received during the constant bullying at school, that the teachers turned a blind eye to, not that it bothered my parents they just laughed at me when I came home in tears.

Our plan had come about when I overheard my parents speaking to the sheriff. One Calvin Schultz a large bulk of a man, in his late 40's who looked like an aging boss Hogg from the dukes of hazard but with much less charm, leering at me whenever we passed in the street and whispering lurid comments to me, he always had a handkerchief in his hand using it to constantly wipe the drool from the corner of his mouth or the stream of sweat emanating from his large expanse of forehead.