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Rockbye

'Rockabye baby, sleep little one.' She lulled me to sleep. The sweetness in mum's voice was too intense to believe. I couldn't help closing my eyes.

Last night, she woke up abruptly around two. I heard her door creak and feet pressing against the floor down the stairs to the hall. I waited for a while for her to return after drinking some water or visiting the bathroom, but she took more time.

I woke up in the morning with the screams of my dad. He was yelling mum's name, in a disturbing, urgent manner. His voice pleaded for something, bringing goosebumps on my skin and I knew I needed to rush. I jumped from the bed and ran down the stairs. Before I reached the hall, his shrieks turned to moans. My mum, a fragile and pale lady, who always needed a sweater around her even in the summer, stood there with a knife in her hand. The needles she knitted my sweater with, was straight through my father's throat.One. Two. Three. He wriggled on the floor, eyes wide open, a pool of blood under his head. Mum stood at his feet, her face unrecognizable, eyes penetrating greedily through him.

In a moment, I was afraid to the bones from the person I loved the most on this earth. None knew I was there. She raised her hand and the glistening knife went piercing his flesh. 'Mum!' Before I could help, I cried. She rotated her head slowly. She was a person I've never met before. Smiling devishly, she pounced on me and I ran upstairs dodging the blade by an inch. I didn't remember reaching at the top but before I knew, I was in the cellar hiding behind the box holding my kindergarten toys, panting heavily. Somewhere I knew I wouldn't breathe for long and somewhere I didn't want to. My courage had already entered the cellar holding the knife. She found me and smiled. For a moment, I forgot she'd forgot I was her daughter.Down the blade went, a fierce pain in my stomach. 'Mum!' I just called her like I do everyday after returning from the school with the might I was left with.

She looked up, her hunger vanishing just for a second and shushed me. Dragging my head in her lap, she caressed my hair. 'Rockabye baby, sweet little one.' And I couldn't help closing my eyes.