Hidden in Plain Sight

One

I jolted awake to shouting and loud noises outside my bedroom window. Before I could even move to the window to see what was happening, my bedroom door swung open and my parents come rushing in.

“What’s going on Mumma?” I asked rubbing my eyes to get rid of the sleep. Both my parents ignored me while they sorted through my room, packing my things into a bag. My dad passed me some jeans and a sweatshirt.

“Come on sweetheart, you need to get dressed now.”

“Why, what’s going on?” I asked confused but doing as he asked. I must of taken to long as my mum come over and quickly pulled my pyjamas off and helped me get dressed. “I can do it Mumma, I’m not a baby.” I giggled and pushed her away softly trying to finish getting dressed myself.

“This is no time for jokes now Rosalie! Please hurry up!” She snapped, I flinched at her words. She has never spoken to me like that before, or used my full name. Seeing the look on my face, she stopped. “I’m sorry baby, I promise we will explain but we need to move quickly. Go to the toilet and get your shoes on. Please baby girl.” She begged, grabbing my hands tightly. I nodded and rushed off to do my business.

When I come out the bathroom, my parents were at the top of the stairs waiting for me. My dad bend down and put my shoes on while my mum put my water proof jacket on me followed by a large backpack. I looked at them and noticed they were wearing the same, all in dark camouflaged colours.

“What’s going on?” I whispered, scared of the answer. They both sighed and stopped what they were doing to talk to me properly.

“The king has issued the execution of all our kind-” I gasped at my dads words.

“What?! Why?!”

“We don’t know all the details baby but Aunt Maggie warned us that the Mayor and the Sheriff are taking the orders to the extreme and have set out a hunting party for everyone in our village, so we have to go.” Mum explained.

“Do you remember our plan sweetheart? The one we made incase something like this ever happened?” I nodded at my dads words. “Good girl, so we need to move quickly and quietly and get as far away as possible.”

“What about everyone else?” My voice trembled. They both shook their heads at me.

“We can’t think about everyone right now baby, our main focus is you. We need to get you to safety. Everyone has their own plans and we will only stop if we really have to, okay?” My mums voice broke as she spoke. I nodded. They both hugged me tightly.

We all whispered our ‘I love you’s’ to each other then set off down stairs. As we got near the back door, I finally heard all the chaos outside.

“s**t-” my dad cursed, I looked up at him with wide eyes. “They’re already here. Okay, we need to move double time. Rosie, you stay between us the whole time okay? There is no more talking until we get deep in the forest and one of us says it’s clear. We need to move fast and you need to run as fast as you can okay?” I’ve never heard my dad so stern and serious before. It was scary. I nodded quickly and pulled my backpack straps tighter and buckled it at the front.

With one final hug and kisses, my dad pulled the back door open and we all rushed through.

The screams and gun fire was so much worse outside of the house, my breath started coming through sharp and panicky as we ran through our back garden. The menacing laughter of the men from the main town cut through all of the chaos.

“This is brilliant! Why didn’t we do this years ago?” One man howled with laughter followed by several gun shots.

I could hear the screams and sobs of my friends - of the people I’ve known my whole life, as they all tried to run for their lives. I made the mistake of looking back towards our house and gasped and stumbled. My mum quickly grabbed me and pushed me upright and nudged me forward. I looked at her with tears streaming down my face, she just shook her head at me with a grave look on her face. I quickly turned back ahead and followed my dad further into the forest, trying to ignore the horror I had just seen.

The once green grass and clear pathways now covered in bodies and blood. Windows smashed on the cars and the houses were littered the ground. Peoples belongings thrown aside like trash. Our whole village - our peaceful, beautiful village, was gone.

The further we ran, the quieter the noise become. “Stop right there!” A voice bellowed, my dad pushed forward running faster to get us away, we followed closely behind him as gun shots started at us. I started panting, my heart racing in my chest quicker than before. We heard a loud cry then a cheer. “I got it!!” The same voice cheered.

I breathed a sigh of relief, they hadn’t spotted us. I then felt awful for being grateful that someone else had got hurt instead of us. Who does that? Swallowing the sob that was in my throat, I pushed myself to follow after my dad.