Raura's Daughter

twenty four.

Laura

"Yay! Yay! Yay!"

"Oh, Bella," I groaned. My left eye flickered open slightly as I watched a practically toothless Bella grin back at me, her chocolate eyes shining under the dim lighting of my bedroom. "It's late, baby. We need to get some rest now, okay?"

"Yay?" Isabella repeated for what felt like the millionth time that day, only this time her tone sounded uncertain.

Keeping my tone calm and loving, I replied with a soothing, "No, baby. No more 'yay's' for today, okay?" 

Pulling Isabella close to my chest, I wrapped a blanket around the two of us and stretched over to my bedside table to switch the lamp off, leaving only the television on in the corner of the room as a source of light for the two of us during the night.

I pressed my lips to Isabella's forehead once the two of us were settled and smiled to myself. "I love you. Have beautiful dreams my sweet Princess."

"Wuv..." Isabella attempted back to me, sleepily. 

I felt my hope rise throughout my body at the thought of the word, 'wuv' becoming a replacement for the word, 'yay' but then that hope slowly faded almost as quickly as it had arrived as Isabella, in her rem state, murmured one last, "Yay," dreamily to herself before falling into a deep and peaceful sleep.

Shaking my head and rolling my eyes at my eccentric daughter, I exhaled and shut my eyes, allowing the darkness underneath my eyelids to pull me in.

I was beyond exhausted.

And beyond ready to be grateful to get a good nights rest.

~

I awoke with a sudden jolt to a loud crash which seemed to have come from downstairs, more specifically, from the living room, which just so happened to be directly underneath my bedroom. My first instinct was to reach across to Isabella's side of the bed and to my instant relief, my beautiful little toddler still lay there in a peaceful, dreamy slumber, completely oblivious to the noise that had just occurred in our home.

Slipping out from the warmth of the cover that had been draped over Isabella and I just moments before, I felt the chill of the wooden floorboards beneath me as my bare feet quietly made contact with the ground. Being careful not to make too much noise, I crouched down onto my knees and reached to the underneath of my bed for my baseball bat which Ross had given to me after discovering that I had no 'protection' around in case of an emergency. At the time I had thought that he was insane and had named him what felt like a hundred different reasons why he would be better off keeping that stupid baseball bat of his, but now in this moment of need, I could have blessed the ground that he walked on.

I gripped it tightly in my hand and practised swatting motions as I manoeuvred my way around my creaky bedroom floor. If anyone had broken into our home, I would be sure not to go down without a fight. Now that a male presence was absent in our household, I felt the need to step up and protect what is rightfully ours. Not just for myself, or for my mom but for my daughter now too.

With a squeak that made my teeth clench together, my bedroom door finally opened. I peered over my shoulder one last time at Isabella and watched her chest rise and fall as she hopefully dreamt of unicorns, rainbows and fairy dust. Then, after confirming that she was safe, I closed my bedroom door behind me and crept over towards my mom's bedroom which was located directly opposite mine. With any luck, she'd be awake and the two of us could inspect the strange noise together.