Kate’s eyes burst open. The light from the moon cast yellow into her small bedroom lighting up her pale pink walls and raggedy stuffed animals that had become her best friends. A loud bang had awakened her again. This time it was different. Closer.

* * *

After they lost her mother due to a car accident, Kate’s father had tried is hardest to give his baby a good life. They always had each other’s love but the two person family lived in a bad neighborhood because it was all they could afford on his low income.
* * *

It sounded as if thunder had struck her living room. Another gunshot with a dead end sound and a dull thud startled the six-year-old. Hesitantly, still clinging to her teddy bear, Kate pulled herself out of her chilly cot and torn up blanket. The unusual coldness of her concrete floor shocked her tiny feet. Her straight blonde hair fell messily over her daddy’s t-shirt that served as her pajamas. As she tiptoed across her dark bedroom, thunder struck again. Kate halted sharply.


A shadow appeared in her doorway. “Daddy?” It was not her daddy. Her daddy was tall and had such loving eyes. This figure was short and she could not see his eyes through the solid black ski mask. Kate sprinted passed the shadow heading to her daddy’s room, every step a separate thud.


Kate reached his room and saw that he was not in his bed. With a quick turn, Kate found her daddy reduced to a lump sprawled in his carpetless floor. Another turn proved that the masked man was walking calmly toward the little girl. She looked back at the heap of a man. The man that had always protected her. Daddy could not help her now. The mask came closer, pulled the trigger once again, and like a trained animal she laid down with her daddy at the sound of thunder.