The Two Lives of Aubrianna McClane

Chapter One

11 Years Prior

"Daddy!" I cry, running towards my father the lock I had just picked in hand. Daddy crouches down to my level and holds his arms out and I giggle as I jump into them. "Look what I did Daddy! Just like you!"

"Good job, sweetie. I expected it to take you longer," Daddy says while standing up and placing me on his hip. He bonks my nose with the tip of his finger and smiles at me, his perfectly straight white teeth blinding me before I remember to look at his eyes instead.

"What can I play with next?" I eagerly ask, wondering what my next adventure will be. Yesterday I had disabled a security camera daddy had brought home.

"Today we are going to go outside and work with archery. Do you know what that is, Aubri?"

"Bow and arrow, like a huntress in my book! Will I be a huntress now?"

"You can be whatever you want to be, little one."

8 Years Prior

"Remember what I taught you, Aubri?" Daddy asks, giving me a small smile. We are sitting in our car, black clothes and gear on. I'm in charge of picking the lock and disabling the security system this time, something I haven't been allowed to do yet.

Daddy had only been taking me on these mock 'missions' for a few months now, since I turned eight. Every week we would do something new. Last week we went hunting for deer, and the week before we had hacked into someone credit card records. The week before even that we had pick pocketed at the mall and played a game where I would have to return it within five minutes without them noticing. Daddy said it was for work, but I couldn't tell anyone because I wasn't suppose to know.

I respond in French, the language of the week. "Oui oui papa!"

"That's my girl.

5 Years Prior

A knock on the door attracted my attention away from the safe sitting in front of me. Daddy had brought it home from work he said. He said it was to bring my pick locking up a level.

Standing up, I brush off my baggy brown cargo pants and walk to the door. Daddy wouldn't knock, and he wasn't suppose to be home for another day. He had gone on a business trip three days ago, so who could it be?

Opening the door, I pull my long black hair up into a bun, but my hands fall to my sides when I see who is at the door. Panic instantly hits me.

"Is there something wrong, officers?" I ask, trying to keep my voice calm and steady, like daddy taught me.

"Are you Aubrianna McClane?" The taller of the two asks me, awkwardly stroking his goatee before his hands go down to fiddle with his belt that is cinched to tight around his scrawny thin waist.

"That's me, yes."

The other officer speaks this time, his green eyes as soft as his tone as he breaks the news to me.

"Your father was kidnapped yesterday morning. This is now a missing persons case. I'm terribly sorry."

The way he said it made me think my father was dead.

I collapsed, my eleven year old self unable to bare the news that my father wasn't coming home.

"We're here to escort you to a Group Home. Someone will come back here with you tomorrow to pack your belongings. We truly are sorry for your loss."

Missing persons case.

He wasn't coming home.

***

I don't know when I started screaming and crying.

I don't know when I was put into the officer's car, still sobbing, clutching my chest. It hurt.

IT HURTS.

I don't remember arriving at the Group Home.

I do remember going back to my home the next day and packing everything that was special to me, and things of my fathers.

I do remember packing his favorite flannel and baseball cap, and grabbing a photo off of his stand of the day when I first picked a lock.

I do remember saying goodbye to my home.

I do remember the last time I cried.

I was eleven years old, and I was just told the news that my father wasn't coming home.