"Mummy! Watch out!", a little girl of 6 years screamed as she threw a handful of flour at her mum.

"Emma! You naughty little brat! Wait till I get you", a beautiful woman cried, her gorgeous hazel eyes gleaming with excitement making them turn into a whirlpool of liquid gold.

"Catch me if you can!", the little girl stuck her tongue out and dashed in to the living room, giggling and laughing all along.

The lady quickly gathered a mugful of flour and ran into the living room with her chestnut locks dancing behind her, making the flour bathed strands barely visible.

Seeing her mother's arrival, the little black head quickly hid behind a sofa trying to make little noise as possible.

Seconds passed.

And then minutes.

The kid held onto her breathe as the lady pretended to peek into places.

"Where are you, Emma? Are you here?", the lady's voice echoed with a hint of playfulness as the sound of a curtain being flung open then followed.

"Or here?", the hazel eyed lady pretended again as her lips tugged into a playful smile when her eyes caught sight of a black head peeping from behind the sofa.

Emma peeped just in time to see her mother bent down looking under the dining table. She quickly returned back to her hiding spot as the lady straightened up, trying to muffle the traitor giggle which was threatening to escape her lips anytime soon.

Pat. Pat. Pat.

The little girl froze as her ears trained on the sound of silent footsteps tiptoeing slowly towards the place where she was hiding. Her face paled and her eyes widened in realization.

She quickly slid to the furthest corner and tucked her hands under her knees and crawled into a ball trying to appear less visible.

Her heartbeat rose with every passing second.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

The sound of the clock deafened her ears as the second hand made a one full rotation. Then moved the minute hand once, twice and then thrice, calming down her pounding heart into regular beats.

The minute hand continued doing its job in an ignorant bliss.

Just when she was about to lift her head up, thinking that her mum had given up, she was shook back and forth as someone poured flour from above.

A muffled high pitched scream escaped the girl and the screaming continued till the shaking ceased.

Emma slowly slid down her flour bathed arms from her face and looked up with expectations to see her mum's face stretched into an evil smirk. But, to her surprise, it was her dad!

"Daaad! That's unfair!", the little one pouted as she whined.

"All is fair in love and war", the man said as he picked the little one and twirled her in air.

The girl squealed and held onto the man tightly.

"Where's mummy?", he asked Emma as he put her down and ruffled the little one's hair.

"Dad! My hair!", the little girl glared at him playfully with her hands on her hips.

"Here I am!", the hazel eyed lady cried from behind as she bathed the man in flour too.

The man's eyes widened as a flicker of rage crossed his baby blue eyes, but they soon softened at the sight of his two loved ones laughing merrily, forcing him to join the two.

DING DONG DING DONG

The front bell rang silencing the three.

The man sighed.

"I'll go and get it", he told and walked towards the front door.

"Com'on let's clean this mess", the woman hurriedly dragged the girl by her hand towards the kitchen.

Emma washed her hands and got hold of the broomstick when,

BOOM!

Emma dropped the broom in fright as a gun shot echoed within the walls of the house.

The little black head looked up to see her mother frozen near the sink with fear evident on her now pale face.

No more sounds came from the living room reigning the whole house in silence making the whole scenario much more haunting.

"Mummy", the six year old whispered as she tugged on the woman's dress.

The woman didn't move a limb.

The girl tugged on her floral dress again trying to bring her mother back to reality.

The woman was shaken awake as she felt her dress being pulled. She looked down to meet the questioning eyes of her little angel. Only then did she remember the gun shot.

Her eyes widened in fear as she glanced at the doorway leading to the living room nervously. Panic enveloped those beautiful hazel orbs, almost turning them into a light shade of brown colour.

The woman looked at her daughter and pressed an index finger on her lips asking the kid to be silent. The kid who understood the signal, nodded and gave her a thumbs up in return.

Satisfied with her daughter's behaviour, the lady tip toed towards the doorway and peeped into the living room.

"Par!"

The word escaped her chapped lips in a frantic wail as she dashed into the living room making the little girl to follow her from behind.

BOOM!

Emma froze as she heard the sound again, only this time more closer, making her ears ring with its massive intensity.

Ignoring her aching ears, she was about to surpass her mother and move to the front to see where the sound came from, only when the lady in front started falling backwards in slow motion.

The six year old dodged to the side just in time as her mother hit the floor.

The girl looked into her mother's eyes to notice that they weren't focused on her. She frowned in confusion and was about to look for her dad when something caught the corner of her eye.

Her eyes wheeled back to her mother's beautiful face, only this time, they widened to the size of a saucer with shock reflecting in them.

"Mummy!", the little girl cried as she fell on her knees, unable to peel her eyes off from the bullet wound on her mum's forehead.

Bile rose up her throat as she stared at the amount of blood gushing from the wound, later flowing into her mother's beautiful face and hair.

Tears streamed down the little girl's eyes as she patted her mum's cheeks with so much force, trying to wake her up. She looked in to her mum's eyes and saw that they weren't looking back at her anymore.

Panic welled up inside her as she realized that there was something wierd with her mother's eyes. There was something wrong with them, which she couldn't put a finger on.

Something told her that she wasn't going to see her mother again.

Hot tears spilled down from those beautiful emerald green sockets at the mere thought. Her chest started throbbing and churning in pain for some reason as more and more tears welled up in her eyes.

Daddy.

Something triggered faintly at the back of her mind amidst all those emotions her brain was ejecting.

Daddy.

Something triggered again, but this time it was much more clearer making the girl's eyes widen with realization.

Daddy.

Where's daddy?

I need to find him. He will know what's wrong with mummy.

The little girl wiped away the spilt tears with some renewed hope.

"Daddy! Daddy!", the little girl's hoarse voice called as she looked up from her mommy in search for her dad.

Her voice turned into a half choked sob as her eyes met with a bloody floor. She trailed the pool of blood covering the white tiled floor of her house and her eyes widened in horror as they froze on another blood soaked figure lying motionless on the floor.

It didn't take her a milli second to realize that it was her daddy.

She kept staring at her dad's blood soaked figure not having the strength and the will power to go and check on him.

"Daddy", an involuntary whisper escaped those young lips, but only this time it wasn't a questioning one.

It was much more of an emotionless one. The one that gets uttered when the last bit of hope that you were desperately clinging onto, slips away from your fingers making you catch nothing but thin air.

Yet.

The girl was brave.

Her glassy emerald orbs slowly focused on the lady beside her with a slight flicker of hope.

"Mummy! Please stop playing. I promise that I'll be good hereafter", the little black head sobbed quietly as she shook her mum back and forth.

"Please wake up!", the girl sobbed as buckets of tears streamed down her rosy cheeks.

"I'm scared", she whispered and bit back another sob.

Please. Please. Plea-

Creak.

Her mind kept on chanting as her eyes did the waterworks when an unusual sound snapped her back to reality.

Her mother was all a blur as more and more tears clouded her vision.

Creak.

The girl tensed. This time she knew that she heard it right.

Creak.

She quickly looked up as she heard the front door being opened.

The sight was still blurry as tears cascaded down her eyes, non stop.

The door was halfway closed when she was finally able to makeout the image clearly.

Click.

The door shut close and all that she glimpsed was of a bicep with a dragon tattoo on it.

The tattoo being forever embedded in her mind.

________________________________________________________________________________

Hey guys,

I'm so happy that I could finally publish the prologue. How was it? Please do comment on it. Like I said before, your critics and ideas will be highly valued. And if you do like it please don't forget to vote.

And I will be updating a chapter on every Fridays and Mondays. That will be twice a week. Hope you are all looking forward for more chapters!

Love, 

Ranna