Palm to Paw

Chapter Fifteen

One week later

The screeching cat bell finally rang after a long Friday at school. 'Babe, are you picking me up?' I asked Brad.

'No, sorry hun, I have a pack meeting in five minutes. I'll meet you at home ok?' he apologised.

'Sure, see you later. I love you,' I said.

'Love you too,' he replied.

I walked down the front steps, fishing in my bag for my bus card. "Where's Brad today?" I heard Candace's jeering voice. "What's it to you?" I replied, equally as icy. I found my bus card and began walking towards the bus stop.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Candace screeched. I turned around and glared at her, "Well you know what Candace? I'm not listening. You're just some slut who spends her life trying to make other people's crap. And for some reason they don't do anything about it. But I'm not dealing with your shit anymore! So if you don't mind, I have a boyfriend to get to." And with that, I walked away and onto the bus.

As I sit down I can see Candace still standing there, but she didn't look angry. In fact, she looked kind of shocked.

Everyone was standing around her, but this time they weren't scared of her. They were laughing and some were talking to her. Probably telling her how much they're sick of her crap. Good. I felt quite satisfied as the bus drove off.

*****

I dropped my keys gratefully in the basket in the kitchen. Brad wasn't home yet, I'll have to find out what's actually involved in these pack meetings.

As I trudged tiredly into our bedroom I felt the waves of separation pains crushing me. The house felt so lonely without Brad here.

I changed my clothes into a comfy white maxi dress that Brad bought for me last weekend. As I made my way back into the kitchen, something felt different. Everything looked the same, but I could sense another person in the house. Trust my luck to have an intruder come while I'm alone.

I grabbed a tool from beside the fire place and gingerly made my way into the kitchen. My eyes were wide in fear and I could vaguely feel my hands shaking.

There was no one in the kitchen, yet that uneasy feeling still lingered. Two large gloved hands wrapped themselves around my mouth and I could feel a large body pressed up behind me.

I tried to scream, but the hands against my mouth only allowed a muffled noise. I sucked in a breath and tried to kick my attacker from behind but they didn't budge.

Suddenly, I felt immense agony as the attacker clobbered me in the head with a heavy object. My legs gave way underneath me and the attacker let me fall to the ground. Tears sprung from my eyes as I landed painfully on my face and black spots clouded my vision. They began to close in and soon enough the sight I had of the tiled floor faded to black.....