The Dominion

Chapter 1

Annabelle woke up to the sound of her alarm ringing through her room. Blinking away the accumulated sleep in her eyes, she managed to snooze her alarm and put an end to the constant reminder that the peaceful world of sleep was twelve long hours away. She flopped back onto her bed, pillows and blankets pilling around her, and wondered what the day would hold for her. Would she have toast or cereal? Would she rock the all-day pyjama look or put normal people clothes on? Would she wake up to an eager to see her loving mother, or a cold, empty house? Annabelle guessed the latter.

She lumbered out of bed and decided, for now, to go with the all-day pyjama look and a messy bun to top it off. After draping her dressing gown around her shoulders to shield her bare skin from the goose bump-inducing cold that ran throughout the house, she wandered into the hallway that separated her room from her mums and found a note taped to her door that read: 'Gone for a training course until Tuesday. There is some money on the side to get food. Love you.' Annabelle smiled in anger and put the note in the bin. It was no surprise that her mum, Maud, would have left without telling her, she did it all the time whenever a training course came up. With a job as a Doctor, she was expected to go to all the meetings, lectures and social events. No question about it. Annabelle had just about got to the end of her tether with her mum and wanted to move out, but she didn't have a job and couldn't afford to rent.

Annabelle's relationship with her mum had been fractured for as long as she could remember. Yes, they had their rare good days, but they were severely outweighed by the habitual arguments that happened more times than she could count in just a week. Despite their occasional good days, Annabelle had always felt neglected by her mum. She needed more than two hands to tally up the countless times her mum had blamed Annabelle that she was the reason her dad left or the many times she came home drunk and they had argued. All on top of the fact that whenever Annabelle asked about anything to do with her dad her mum always waved her hand in dismissal and changed the subject.

Annabelle decided not to let thoughts of her mum taint her weekend when she wasn't even here. Besides she had actions of the upmost importance to complete such as getting breakfast and watching television. She thumped down stairs, skidded into the kitchen, made some toast and finally, slumped into the bean bag in the living room. She clicked through the channels with no luck and settles for watching the leaves fall off the trees and the wind blow outside. Annabelle had always loved Autumn; even since she was a child. She had fond memories of running through the Penrose woods with her mum. She would collect as many leaves as she could, pile them up and then run, jump and lie all over them and her mum would even join in! Those days were some of the best of Annabelle's life. Even now she could remember the cold prickling at her skin, the wind hitting at her face and despite the bitter cold weather, she could remember she mums laughter. It was a memory she treasured as her mum vary rarely laughs anymore. It seemed that as Annabelle got older her mum was more stressed and worried like she was dreading something that was getting closer...

Annabelle was dragged out of her memories by her phone chiming its usual notification tone. Maybe it would be her mum? She glanced at the screen from behind her plate of toast and saw that it was Karla, one of her mums old friends.

Karla: "I heard your mum is away again. You okay?"

Annabelle never knew what to say to Karla. She used to be so incredibly close with her mum but something happened and they stopped talking. Annabelle had heard many tense conversations between her mum and Karla over the phone which would usually escalate into shouting and abrupt hang ups.

Annabelle: "I'm fine, thanks."

Karla: "If you need anything let me know."

Annabelle clicked her phone off and put it to the side, eager to finish her toast and binge watch Stranger Things to pass all of the hours that made up the day. She got comfy, she was going to be there a while.

Annabelle awoke to the sound of the television. She glanced out of the window and saw that the bright light of day had faded into the eerie twilight of night. So much for binge watching Stranger Things, more like sleeping through it. She glimpsed at her phone and saw a missed call and voicemail. It was from her mum.

Voicemail: "Hi sweetie I hope you're okay. Did you eat today? I've not had chance yet, this training is so full on. Anyway, call or text if you need anything. Love you."

Annabelle rolled her eyes and put her phone down deciding that doing anything to get her mum off of her mind would be the best. She got up to close the curtains and as she did she saw two people standing across the road staring at her. They were too far away for her to make out any faces or distinguishing features but they gave her the creeps. She closed the curtains and added creep 1 and creep 2 to the list of things or people to get off her mind. She battled with the decision to text Karla but decided against it. It was Halloween soon, it was probably just people trying to scare her.

After checking that the doors were locked she dragged her self up to bed, finally happy to be just a finger tip away from the glorious world of dreams and sleep. As she lumbered into bed and her blankets puffed up around her, all of her thoughts and worries about her mum, Karla and creep 1 and creep 2 melted away and she drifted into sleep.

Author's note:

Hi guys! So that was sad, tense and a whole bunch of things. Looks like Annabelle is going to have a weird couple of days, let alone a weird life. Let me know what you think. I'm always looking to improve.