A Quarter Mile Away

Prologue

A Quarter Mile Away

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The house was silent, not the peaceful kind. It was an eerie silence; faint snoring can be heard from across the hallway. All sound asleep except one person. One determined girl who was the only one awake walking through the hallway that had a permanent smell from the constant cigarettes, that were being smoked all day every day.

She was on a mission and nothing was going to get in her way.

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"Alena, wake up!" I whispered softy, making sure the two sleeping bodies directly across the hallway of her room couldn't hear me.

"Mhm just one more cookie please!" Alena murmured in her sleep.

"Alena!" I shook her out of sheer desperation. I had been working on this plan for 8 years since I was ten, I was not about to fail now because she was having a dream, about fucking cookies.

After another attempt, Alena finally woke up from her slumber, "Avery? What are you doing in here?"

I looked straight into my baby sister's eyes, "It's time to go okay. I need you to get up please, we have to hurry! Remember the promise we made? The promise to leave? Now's the time Aly-cat" my voice broke in fear as I explained it to my sister.

Alena's eyes widened in realization before jumping quickly yet quietly out of her bed to grab her bags, ready to leave. A week ago I had warned Alena that our time was coming up, to get her bags packed and to hide them where our mum or step-dad couldn't find them. Not that it was necessary as that would have required them to actually interact with us.

She looked more determined now than ever, grabbing my hand we began to take slow yet steady steps out of her room into the hallway. I raised a finger to my lips to remind Alena not to make a sound, nodding her head slowly she tightened her hand around mine.

We quietly made our way to the staircase and began walking down but stopped abruptly when we heard the creak from under our feet. My heart beat was beating so loud in my ears that I felt like it was going to wake up the entire neighbourhood, thankfully the creak was silent enough for our ears only. As we reached the end of the staircase, to our left we saw our exit, our safe haven. The front door.

Quietly, we made our way to the front door, my hand reached the doorknob and I silently began to turn the knob and open the door but I was soon frozen on spot, my ears embracing a clicking sound that appears to have come from behind us.

A wave of fear rushed over me as my hand began to shake. I turned slowly, only to see my scumbag step-dad Henry standing across from us with a wicked smirk on his face.

That smirk was glued to his face as I took in his stance, standing there in nothing but his sweatpants and beer gut on display, while he had both hands behind his back.

"Going somewhere Avery?" he said as he lifted his left hand up to reveal what is now aimed at me.

Alena immediately hides behind my hand out of fear of what we both knew was about to happen.

"You can't make us stay here, we are leaving whether you like it or not. I refuse to allow you to abuse us anymore. Just because my mum hates us doesn't give you the right to hurt us."

Henry tilted his head slightly to the right while still sporting that ugly smirk of his face. "Cute story Avery, now get the fuck back upstairs or you are going to regret it!"

"Fuck you! You can't make us do shit!"

"If you leave, I will come after you and make you regret it" he threatens.

I looked down at Alena, "Come on, let's get out of here."

I turned back around to face the door, as I opened it, a loud bang pierced through my ears and everything began to slow down. Pain started to take over my chest and I started to fall onto my knees. The noises around me began to become muffled and the last thing I could hear was a faint scream coming from Alena's mouth.

Everything around me then goes black.

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