LYRA

"Lyra, get up now! I said"

"LYRA!"

I flutter my eyes open, my vision adjusting to the sudden glow of bright sunlight. Mom is standing beside my bed, hands on her hips and an exhausted expression on her face.

I quickly pull the blanket over my head and squint my eyes shut; waiting and trying hard to stop my brain from ranting and switching off back to sleep mode.

"LYRA!" in an instant mom yells so loud and pulls the blanket away from me with such ferocity that I end up sitting straight on my bed in a single go.

And now that I have seen Mom finally without an unclear mind and a clouded vision, I can see that her expression is not one of exhaustion but of grief.

"Mom?" I inquire, " Is something wrong?". She grabs my hand and pulls me to my feet. "You may think that as a mother , this is the worst possible way I'm giving you such a news but believe me, I've got no choice" she says, pulling me along with her. As we pass the hallway, I glance at the clock and it tells me that it is 6:30 a.m, which means now,can still be considered early morning and what could have gone wrong at such an hour?

As we enter the drawing room I notice that the T.V is on and is showing some news channel. Mom gently pushes me into one of the sofa's, "Watch and I'm sorry"

I look at the brunette giving the news report, she is standing outside the colossal gates of a huge Mansion.

"Mom" I turn to look at her,"That's Ellie's house"

I turn back to the T.V, full on serious mode, something is so very wrong.

"......it is a very sad news, a very tragic thing to happen. The police are looking into the matter and hopefully soon we'll have some report on the issue....." the brunette continues for a while and I yet don't have a single clue as to what is happening.

The main newsreader comes back, "Today's headlines- Mr. Julian McQueen, CEO of McMillan International ltd. along with his 11 yr old daughter, Miss Elliot McQueen; resident of the suburban town of Dale-woods have been murdered by an unidentified youth. The local police have taken the matter into their hands for now and are investigating on the case. The visiting doctor has declared the time of death of Mr. McQueen to be 1:20 a.m and his daughter almost an hour later........." I gasp.

Mom gets up from her chair and rushes over, she holds my hands, "It'll be okay darling,I'm so sorry" she says.

I start laughing. Oh! god are these news channel people serious?, Mr. McQueen can be murdered alright, sorry but not Ellie.

Definitely not Ellie.

"Ellie can't die mom" I say to her grasping her hands," They are making a mistake"

"Lyra" mom sighs. No, Mom can't believe this because I don't.

The doorbell rings, I run to answer it and flung it open only to find Carson standing at the porch.

"Miss Montgomery, here is a letter for you" he hands me a pink envelope with my name written on it in beautiful calligraphy, "We found it on Miss Elliot's study desk" he says, I look at him with confusion, but I don't know what he is thinking because he immediately leaves.

Even Carson believes.

I run upstairs into my bedroom. Slowly and carefully I tear open the envelope and pull the letter out; and read.

"No" I whisper, kissing the letter. "No" I moan.

"Ellie" I yell and fall down. I don't believe this, I can't believe this, I won't believe this.

"Ellie" I shout with overflowing tears. Why would god do such a thing to me? I've always prayed to him.

Why did Ellie do this?

Mom and Dad rushes in. Mom hugs me to her, kissing my head and my hair. Holding and cuddling me. Dad reads aloud the letter for mom. I want dad to stop. "stop it" I shout.

"Lets pack and get out of this town, lets go to Bradford, We have an apartment there; lets go now"

"But Ella-''

" No, please do this, do this for our child, do this for Lyra"

"Okay"