The Blood Bank

1

The moment there was a knock at the door at one in the morning I knew something was wrong.

Firstly, no one ever knocked on our door. Secondly, this was the first time I had heard my mother cry.

Cautiously, I looked over the bannister from upstairs to see mum, dad and a man with a gun.

It was strange to see dad in the house for once. Since we moved here last year after complications with work he was rarely home, which I didn't mind much, we weren't particularly close anyway.

Mum was just as shut off as dad since moving and this sudden display of emotions she was now showing was actually concerning.

Perhaps she ran out of wine?

The funny thing was that this house was supposed to be exactly what mum had wanted. It was too big for her to clean alone and the outside was obnoxious enough to prove to everyone else just how much money her husband really had without having to show them the cases of cash upstairs.

It was funny because although she had everything, she didn't seem one bit happy.

Realistically, it wasn't funny at all.

Work for dad was now steady, and since leaving the last place we were better off than ever. He would go away for weeks at a time, come home and take mum out to a fancy restaurant, before going away again.

"What did you expect me to do Sylvia? I had no other choice and this way she'll have a purpose and a career, don't you see?"

I think this was dad's attempt at sounding sorry, I wasn't sure though, I'd never heard it before.

"You can't, I'll have nothing!" Her sobs were foreign to my ears.

Dad looked up at me suddenly, his lips turning up at the corners yet the smile didn't reach his pale eyes.

"Come down here, Bella, sweetie!" I did as he asked although the word 'sweetie' did confirm to me that something was definitely wrong.

The word 'sweetie' was just something I would never have imagined to leave my dads mouth.

The man with the gun tensed and eyed me up as I approached, presumably assessing how much of a threat I was, before he relaxed when he realised I could cause no harm.

"You're going to be moving out, Belle."

He gave me a thumbs up as my jaw dropped open, words seemingly being too hard for me to string together at this moment.

"What? Why?"

"A friend of mine needs a favour, Belle and the the place your going gives the highest form of education!"

He snook a glance over his shoulder at the man with the gun, when I noticed the red mark on my dad's temple suspiciously the same shape as the barrel of the gun. "Go get packed with your mother, immediately."

"Dad I'm really not going, get someone else to do the favour."

"It's just not that easy, sweetie," he tried to smile again but his words were rushed and anxious, like that time one Christmas he asked in front of his work mates if he was a good dad and I responded with the incident when he threw the plate at my head.. he soon wanted me out the room, "go and pack!"