Terror in the Night

Prologue

Prologue

            A tenth anniversary with an eight year old daughter should have been the perfect night out. Father and Mother were filled with love, their eyes seemed  glued to each other but their gaze always wondered over to their daughter; behaving herself for a change.

            The evening started out with a movie for their daughter, to keep her happy; not too soppy but not too childish so they could all enjoy the film. It ended with a late meal in a very fancy restaurant that would cater for children and because both parents had drunk too much to drive and the weather was cool for the evening they decided that they would walk home.

            It wasn’t that bad of a walk when they left the restaurant, the daughter was several strides in front of her parents as they clung together all lovingly. No-one was looking for trouble in the shadows until it jumped out at them.

            A scrawny little man jumped out of an alley between the parents and their child. He was dresses head to foot in black with a balaclava over his head. He held a pen knife out to the couple. “Give me all your money,” he growled and thrust the knife closer to the wife who had started screaming, “Quiet bitch.”

            “Listen don’t hurt us,” the husband said and held out his hand with his palm out while trying to calm the mugger down as he reached into his jacket for his wallet “There should be at least a couple of hundred in there.”

            The mugger quickly looked through the wallet and took all the money out. “Okay, now the watch and her jewellery.”

            They were quick to give up their valuables, there was no point arguing as long as they all could get out of this alive. They had to keep the mugger’s attention on them and not turn around to see their baby girl standing terrified behind him. “There, you have everything now,” the husband said as he handed everything over with trembling hands. “Now we have nothing but the clothes on our backs.”

            The mugger chuckled as he juggled his haul in one hand. “You see mate, my brother is in jail and it is all because of you, did you really think I was going to let you get away with it?” he asked and lunged forward with the knife aimed perfectly for the other man’s chest.

            “No,” his wife screamed and threw herself between the knife and her husband. The knife embedded just below her collar bone like a knife through butter. She started horrified at the weasel of a man as she started to choke on her own blood.

            “No,” her husband cried and grabbed her just in time as her legs turned to jelly and fell against him.

The knife slipped from her chest as the mugger stood frozen to the spot looking down at the woman he had tried to kill. It wasn’t meant to be like that, his plan was to kill the lawyer not his wife.

“Mummy?” the little girl mumbled from behind the mugger, she didn’t seem able to get any air into her lungs as she watched the blood flower on her Mother’s shirt.

“Shit,” the mugger hissed and started backing away down the alley he had appeared from. Defiantly not what he wanted to do, he didn’t even know there was a child. He was expecting the lawyer to say or do something but he just held onto his wife’s hand while getting his phone out of his pocket with the tears down his face, he didn’t expect to find the little girl; no more than six he thought, to come after him.

She was slow and jerky when she started to follow after him down the alley, it looked like someone possessed coming after him. She suddenly darted for him, faster than he thought possible, she dove for the rubbish beside them and came back to her feet with a metal rod in her hand. “You monster,” she screamed and because of her restricted height, she attacked his waist and knees. She heard something crunch during the screaming but even though he fell to the ground and she could hit him anywhere, she pulled his mask away and studied the man behind the mask contorting in pain. “An eye for an eye,” she whispered remembering what her Daddy once said when he told her why he worked so long and hard to put the bad guys behind bars.

She brought the rod above her head when she heard her Daddy shout her over. “Faye, please don’t,” her Daddy begged her, “We can’t lose you please just leave him for the police.”

Dropping the rod on the ground, she staggered back a few steps away from the mugger before running back to her parents.

Her Mummy didn’t look well; her face was getting paler as Faye watched. Her Daddy who was always so strong and stubborn, someone Faye had never see cry before was broke and in floods of tears over his wife.

“Mummy will be alright,” Faye said quietly and tried to get her Daddy to smile again as the flashing lights of red and blue coloured the night around them.