Under 18's Therapy and Education Center

Ella was 9 years old when she was walking home from school on the day that her father, uncle and mother died. She walked down the familiar road and the first thing she saw was a white van. The first thing she thought was someone must have been having a delivery.

It wasn’t until she walked straight past it and the side door flew open, did Annabelle Smith realise that this was not a delivery van. A large man with brown hair and deep green eyes jumped out and grabbed Annabella, holding her mouth closed.

Ella was too surprised to scream so holding her mouth closed wasn’t necessary.

The man then pulled Ella into the van and slid the door closed. Annabella looked around the dark van and could just about see five faces plus the man who was holding her’s face, all peering at her.

The man who was holding her took his hand off her mouth and loosened his grip on her. Another man saw this as a signal and stepped forward.

“Now little girl, you have a choice, either do exactly what we say or we’ll kill your family,” He paused expecting Ella to answer him, “Are you going to do as we say?”

Annabella felt threatened, she took a step back and was met with the door.
Ella opened her mouth but all she could do was let out a whimper.

The man cleared his throat impatiently, “Well, are you going to do as we say?”
Ella gulped knowing she’d have to answer, and she’d have to answer soon.
“N-n-no I won’t.” Annabella whimpered.

To her surprise the man with the deep green eyes opened the van door again. The sunlight filled the van and she could see each face clearly, smiling or smirking, Ella wasn’t sure.

“Fair enough.” Said the green-eyed man pushing Annabella out of the van and closing the door.

Ella stood frozen; she watched the white van drive away. She took a few moments to compose herself before shakily walking home.

When she got home she found her uncle, mother and father sitting in the dining room talking about boring adult stuff. Still very scared, Ella went into the front room. She went and sat in the empty dresser. Hugging her knees she left enough of a gap in the door to see out.

After less than 20 minutes Ella’s uncle, father and mother walked into the living room. Feeling stupid for sitting in the dresser Annabella remained silent, and waited for them to leave.

The adults began talking about Ella’s brother returning home the next morning from his trip to America. Ella’s brother was called Samuel, which was shortened to Sam after Annabella was born, just so they could be referred to as ‘Sam and Ella’.

Ella’s parents and uncle were stopped in their conversation by six men walking into the room.

Ella lent forward, careful not to make a sound, and she saw the men from the van. One man was holding a gun up to her uncle’s face, her mother began screaming but her screams were cut short with a loud BANG! There was barely any time between that BANG and the next two. Ella’s heart had stopped.

“Come on let’s get out of here.” Said a voice Ella recognised as the man with the deep green eyes and brown hair.

Annabella listened to them leave, and then she listened to silence.
She continued to listen to the silence until she heard the front door open.
Who ever had opened the front door had entered the living room.
“Holy mother fucking shit!” Said a male’s voice that Ella knew was her brothers.

Relaxing at the sound of her older brothers voice she let out a whimper. Sam immediately went to the dresser and opened it. His eyes were filled with tears and the room was filled with blood.

At that moment Annabella realised two things, the first was that she had just killed her mother, father and uncle because she opened her big mouth. And the second thing was that she had been sitting in the dresser for 14 hours straight.

It was that moment that Annabella decided not to talk again.

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I am Annabella Louise Smith, the girl who hasn’t spoken for five years, and that is my story.