If You're Not Busy

Chapter 1 Escaping !

Growing up Mariah never really got love ! The cult wasn't  exactly the right place to find that sort of thing. They had all these rules  which Mariah hated to follow, she always sat on the wall looking out at the big wide world thinking there has to be something better than this ? It was very restricting and it didn't help that her parent's were awful ! When a van turned up with delivery's  she always  had this urge to climb in the back and hide so she could escape.  But there were CCTV camera's everywhere watching every move they all made. Well at least that's what she was told. She laid on her bed one night and thought about what was on the other side of the boundary fence and decided she needed to formulate a plan to escape. Three month's later she had worked out which delivery van would be the best one to hide in. There was just one camera she had to worry about at the back of the kitchen's where the van went to deliver fresh veg and fruit.

The day before she was going to put the plan into practice she decided to try and knock the camera out of action. The trouble was she had to come up behind it , so if they were watching she couldn't be spotted. Luck was on her side how ever when she rounded the corner of the kitchen wing and saw two men. One holding a ladder and the other looking at the camera . Is there a problem ? she asked Err yeah said one of the men it looks like it's busted for good, we will have to go and get a new one and replace it. How long will that take ? Asked Mariah quizzically . Oh at least a day or so said the man. Mariah smiled to herself as she left the men to it. Well that could of not worked out better she thought. During the night she managed to get quite a lot of her clothes in the rucksack she'd managed to hide from everyone under her bed. She always hoped every time her room got cleaned no one would detect it ! Mind you she always had a load of junk under there so people would take one look and think I'm not moving that lot ! I guess being the cult leader's daughter did have some perk's ? She tried to sleep that night but she was to on edge thinking about what she had to do to accomplish her plan. She also thought about her parent's ! Why were they so awful ? There must be better people out there she thought? 

As she looked out of her bedroom window. I don't think I'm going to miss them at all . She smiled to herself  as she looked into her mirror. She must of finally nodded off because outside her door she could hear her parent's getting up. I have to have breakfast with them. It's a ritual they have insisted on since she can remember ! Getting herself up she paused by the rucksack. You are doing the right thing she told herself as she hide it back under the bed. Her mother called up the stairs that breakfast was ready. Mariah called down that she was just going to the bathroom to brush her hair. Ok her mother said but don't be long your father's a busy man and you don't want to keep him waiting ! "Mom" I'll be as fast as I can be. But Mariah knew she had to be quick. her father's temper was something she didn't like seeing very often. He'd only ever hit her once ! A few year's ago now, when she was much younger . But she still remembers it and how it felt to this day. There was no way he was ever going to do that to her again. She knew he beat her mom every now and again because she'd heard them and she'd seen nasty bruises on her mom's arm's.

I hope I never have a person like him in my life ! Finally she went down for breakfast . Her father was not in good humour for some reason ? He was very rude to her mom which Mariah hated ! But she knew if she interfered she would be for it herself, so she carried on eating her breakfast in silents. Finishing up her father asked what her plan's were for the day ? Err well the usual prayer first then I have all my chores to do. Good ! Good! Her father nodded at her. Her mom just went around cleaning up after them without saying a word. Her father then left and she could see her mom visibly relax. She wanted to tell her mom to leave him because he was such an awful person in Mariah's eyes anyway. She also wanted to tell her she was leaving and escaping but she didn't trust her mom to keep her mouth shut and not tell her father where she had gone. So she thought eventually one day if I manage to escape today , she would write her a letter to explain everything.  Her mom always had chores she did on certain day's. Today was always wash day. So Mariah knew her mom and her father would be on the other side of the compound to her. To hide the fact she was carrying a rucksack Mariah decided to find a huge box to put it in and then she could carry that to the kitchen's. She was hoping people would not stop her on the way. Because she had timed everything down to the last second ! She saw her mom leave from her bedroom window . Ok here we go it's now or never she thought as she pulled out the rucksack from under the bed and headed down to the garage where the box was.