In the cold, gray of a London morning in the middle of April, Annie Walker and her sister, Jennifer, walked home from shopping together. Annie clutched two new books and a necklace whereas Jess had four huge shopping bags stuffed with clothes. Annie sighed, glancing at her older sisters purchases and secretly worrying, without their parents around they had to budget well and if they failed, sometimes the consequences could be dire.

They were deep into the Easter holidays but Annie still had a week off from school and Jen had a while before she had to return to university. Annie was glad to have her home, she didn't want to spend the final year of school, or her 19th birthday, alone.

"Do you wanna go out tonight?" Jen asked, turning around to her sister who looked up confused.

"Huh?"

"Do you want to go out tonight?" Jen repeated, slower this time.

"Oh, I don't know..." Annie replied, stifling a yawn, "I think I'm just going to stay in tonight,"

They were nearing their house. Since Jen was an adult when their parents died, Annie was placed into her care and they were allowed to keep the house.

"Sure...sure thing," Jen said with a tight smile, she began walking a little faster.

As they walked through the streets, Annie noticed a group of boys smoking by the entrance to their cul-de-sac. She glanced at them but quickly looked away when one of them caught her eye. Annie sped up to catch u with her sister but her gaze was draw back to the group of boys loitering around. There were a couple of them that looked older than her, including the blonde of was staring at her menacingly, but there also a couple who looked no older than sixteen.

"Urm Jen," Annie hissed but Jen just tightly shook her head, "Jen!"

"Just hurry up," Jen worried.

Annie turned around one last time, her head snapping back and her eyes wide when she saw the tall blonde was staring at her, a grin on his face.

Annie made her way up to Jen, although they didn't look at each other as they made their way up to the house. Jen stuck the key in the lock and made a big effort to turn it.

"I think they had knives," Annie whispered.

Her older sister whipped round, her teeth bared. "Don't be so fucking stupid!"

Annie recoiled, her face flushing red with an embarrassed heat.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm being paranoid,"

Annie sat at the breakfast bar alone. She was eating a bowl of noodles because Jen was taking a nap and they were really easy to make. Jen loved to cook, so Annie was pretty used to having some nice meals made for her. Whereas her skills with food began and finished with noodles.

She glanced over at the window, slurping a noodle between her lips and mussing her dark hair. Sighing, she noticed that there was no one outside, she was relieved but she didn't want to bring it up with Jen even though she had been particularly worried. They didn't look like the regular lay abouts that usually hung around on the streets of London. Instead, they seemed darker, more threatening and particularly interested in her and her sister.

Jen didn't liked the thought though, she hadn't been good with stressful situations since the accident with their parents, she got very paranoid, very easily and that was probably why she was asleep right now.

However, unless they were murderers, Annie could see no reason why they would want to attack her.

Annie had a very limited mind.

Suddenly there was a knock on the window, a small tap.

Annie turned, her body frozen, there was a second tap and she flinched. Her head cocked and slowly she rose from her chair, moving, terrified towards the tapping sound. Annie kissed the sides, sliding towards the window so she could see outside. Then, she realized it was small pebbles being thrown, like something from a romantic comedy.

Anna sighed slightly, it was probably just some silly prank, they got a lot of unimportant disturbances living in London.

Then the window smashed.

Annie screamed and hit the floor, glass sprinkling finely in her hair. She lay trembling on the ground, very slowly raising her head and staring out through the curtain of hair over her eyes. There was a brick in front of her. A brick. A brick that someone had thrown at her second story window.

"What the fuck was that, Annie?!" Jen yelled from the third story, she lived in the attic.

"Jen!" Annie sobbed, scrambling up and cutting her hand on a piece of glass, she winced and cradled her palm as blood coursed through it. "Jen, someone threw a brick!"

"What?!"

Annie took the stairs to the attic two at a time, the blood pulsing down her wrist, tears streaking her face. She drove into Jen's room crying.

"Jen someone threw a brick and it's smashed the window!"
"Anne, your hand!" Jen leat out of bed, inspecting the wound, "We need to clean that!"

"We can't! They could be anywhere!"

"Who?" Jen asked softly and Annie opened her mouth but no words came out.

"Listen, the broken window is on the second floor and the door is locked. Even if someone is trying to get in, they can't. We'll board the window after we've cleaned your hand,"

Annie, pliable in her fear, was led downstairs and allowed her sister to bandage her hand up, checking there were no shards of glass stuck in there.

"Listen, I'll go board the window," Jen said, grabbing her sister by the shoulder, "And I'll ring the police,"

Annie nodded, feeling safer now the authorities would be involved.

"Just go watch TV or something, okay?"

Annie nodded and let her sister leave her to go upstairs. She nodded to herself and moved towards the family room, taking out her phone to tweet about the incident. Suddenly she stopped, turning away from the arch that led into the family room, her phone had no signal which was strange because her phone always had signal.

"Jane?" She shouted up the stairs.

Then a hand was clamped around her mouth and she was being dragged backwards, she tried to screams but the hand made a vacuum against her.

"Shh, shh, shh," The blonde boy hauling her into the back room whispered, "No screaming,"