She's A Dangerous Woman

Chapter 1 - Goodbye, Mum

It was five in the morning. The whole of Station Road stayed deadly quiet, every window on each house pitch black and showing no inside light. Well, nearly all of them. Ariana Vandertrump lay in bed with her bedroom lamp beaming proudly beside her,  a feeling of unease preventing her from sleeping. Every time she attempted to close her eyes the same vision popped up as if she was at the cinemas watching the movie screen- a crashing plane full of mortified passengers, dangerously spiralling through the air as if doing a circus trick on a trapeze rope. Then there were a few last screams. Then darkness. Not just any darkness, it was a darkness that could drain all the happy memories out of anyone. It was like a black hole from outer space, looking for anything joyous to consume, leaving only death and hatred behind. 

The cause of these disturbing visions was quite unexpected. At this rate you may think that Ariana had been having nightmares or experienced a traumatic event the day before, but this was definitely not the case. The case was in fact that in only two hours time she was to board a plan to Cancún, Mexico to visit her estranged father. The thought of a several-hour long plane journey mortified her, especially as she was boarding the plane on her own. What if there was a crash? The plane became out of gas? Or if she simply got lost at the airport? There was to many fears to list. However, she did have one small comfort- leaving the UK would mean escaping her brutal, cruel mother. Ariana's mother, Marie-Ann, never cared for her daughter. It was always a case of 'please pass your exams so you can get a well-paid job and leave this house as soon as possible'. 

These words deeply upset Ariana and she had always wanted a bond with her mother, but that wish just simply never came true no matter how hard she tried. If she tried to start a conversation with Marie it would always turn into a screaming match. 

It was now half-past-five. The plane left for Mexico at seven. 'I might as well start packing,' the teen thought to her self. She failed to pack the previous day because she was  in the kitchen, baking a cake to give to her father in Mexico, even though she didn't know if food was allowed to the plane. But she still told herself that sneaking it onboard was worth a try. 

Once Ariana had assembled all her clothes and personal belongings together, she picked up all her bags/luggage and stood at the doorway of her bedroom. She took once last look at the colourful room: a quite small room with a small wooden bed and a pink duvet, mattress and pillow in the corner, the wall next to it decorated with colourful WW11 - style propaganda posters she had designed in her history class at school, Keith Johnstone Academy. A desk carrying a small lit lamp and a window next to that was part of the image to. She was about to leave when a few thoughts struck her mind: she ran to her bed, grabbed her laptop and it's charger, stuffed them in her back-pack, shut the blinds on her window and unplugged and grabbed her fairy lights. Now that she had everything in hand, she trekked of to her mum's room. 

Trying to prevent the floorboards from creaking and moaning, Ariana crept  across the hallway to her mothers bedroom. She peeped her teenage head into the room. 

It was quite an old Victorian-styled room. It was small and contained only a desk carrying a mirror and a lamp, a window with the blinds right open and a bed carrying a 70-year-old-looking woman fast asleep, mouth wide open and drooling. 

Ariana crept beside her mother. She reached down and planted a short but loving kiss on her left cheek. It was the first time she had felt truly connected to her mother. 

"Goodbye, mum," she whispered, tears welling in her eyes. 

Marie made a moaning sound as if to say 'bye'. Ariana slowly backed out the room, wiping away her tears with her hoodie sleeve. 

She then exit the house and entered the dark unknown.