My Good Luck Charm

Prologue

My dad killed them. My dad killed them. My dad. Killed. Them. My three week old baby sisters. They're dead. Murdered.

No they're not. They're just sleeping.

I pick up the still warm body of Angel, not looking at her beaten in head. I smile and start to sing softly to her like Mum does to put her to sleep. Gently I rock her and then place her in the cot, but I have to step over my dad's unconscious body to do it, and I decide to block it out.

"Good girl. Sleep tight." I whisper and pull the blanket over her shoulders and then go looking for Alexis.

I see her beside my older brother's unconscious form, on her face and lying at odd angles. I smile at her and bend down to pick her up. I am singing again I realise. I place the baby's body beside her sister's and rock the cot gently.

"Good night sweeties. I'll see you in the morning." I say and then leave the room to look for blankets and pillows to give to my family, who are all scattered around the house.

First, I go to Mathew's room and pull his fluffy blanket and pillow off his bed. He can never sleep properly without them. I hurry back to the nursery and cover my eldest brother and give him the pillow to snuggle.

"Goodnight Matt." I say, only stopping for a moment with hesitation.
Something feels wrong, my body is shaky, but my mind keeps telling me that everything is fine. I shrug at the shaky feeling and go and get my dad's stuff from the couch where he's been sleeping these past few weeks.

I don't know why I'm as rough with dad as I am, yanking his head up and dropping it down without care and thought. It's like my body is punishing him while my mind tries to look after him. No matter how hard I try, I can't bring myself to say goodnight to him, I just creep away to not wake up my siblings that are also asleep in the nursery. I close the door behind me after turning off the light.

Next I cover my twin brothers that are asleep hunched against a wall, and curled against the fire place in the lounge room. I straighten them out, and lay Felix down carefully from his slumped position against the wall. I laugh quietly at them, they can always fall asleep in the weirdest positions and places, as long as they're near each other.

My next sibling to tuck in is Hamish, my twelve year old brother who is half asleep, still groggy, sitting against the kitchen bench.

"C'mon buddy. Lie down. That's a boy." I say gently, helping him lie down on his pillow. I cover him in his blanket and kiss his forehead.

He closes his eyes and slowly falls asleep, but he seemed reluctant to do so.

Last of all is my mum, who for some reason is in a ball on her bed, tucked tightly against herself.

"Hey mother bear. Time to sleep." I say gently, but when I touch her shoulder, I realise she is asleep, just in a weird position. I carefully untangle her limbs and straighten her out and then pull the covers over her and push her hair off her forehead where it's sticking. I screw my face up at the sticky red stuff that's in her hair, all over the sheets and now on my hand. I don't know what it is, maybe some new medicine paste that the doctors have put her on to try and cure her cancer. Maybe.

I glance around the living room, Felix and Oscar are still sleeping peacefully against the walls, facing each other, right where I left them. It's so quiet I realise. I walk to the television and turn it on. Some stupid SitCom is running and I sit on the couch.

It's not even funny I decide after watching it for a couple of minutes. I lean across the couch to the little end table that's beside it. I grab around, feeling for my phone which I know is there somewhere.

My fingers brush the smooth surface of the old Nokia flip phone and I grab it triumphantly.
I hold the screen in front of my face and see that I have a new message. I flip the phone open to see who it's from and it's my best friend Georgia. I smile and open the message.

'Hey Emz. I'm getting pizza for dinner tomorrow. Sound good?' The message reads and I remember that I'm going to her house tomorrow night! Yay!

'Yum!! Hell yeah! Sounds great!' I reply, lying down on the couch and staring at my phone.

My finger twitches and I wonder if I am meant to be using my phone for something else. I frown at my fingers as they type in the emergency services number. My frown deepens when I press call and hold the phone to my ear. Why do I need emergency?

"Hello. Do you require police, ambulance or fire brigade?" A pleasant sounding man asks me. I'm not sure.

"I need ambulance and police." I reply. Wait, why?

"Where are you currently miss?" He asks and I tell the man my address.

"I'll put you through to the Western Australian emergency department." He says and I wait patiently, kind of confused as to why I'm still on the phone.

"Hello there. I'm Kyle, what's your name?" A warm voice asks me.

"I'm Emily." I reply.

"Okay Emily. I need to know how many ambulances you need." Kyle says.

"Six." I reply. One for each member of my family.

"Are you in danger?" He asks.

"No. My dad is unconscious now." I reply. What? He's just asleep.

"Okay. A police car and some ambulance vehicles have been sent to the address you gave the previous person. Are you okay?" Kyle asks.
I realise how tired I am now.

"Yeah. I'm just really tired." I mumble.

"Okay Emily, can you stay awake and keep talking to me until the police and ambulances get to you?" Kyle asks warmly.

"Mhm." I murmur.

"That's good. Can you tell me what happened?" Kyle asks.

I don't know why, but I start screaming.

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Yes this is a long prologue, but you need to know Emily's traumatic past to like her in the rest of the story to come.
The boys will be introduced in chapter one.
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