The Girl Next Door

Prologue

                                                                           "Oh mama, mama ,mama, I just shot a man down ..."

Robyn Fenty

My heart pounds in my ear and the only sound that can be heard is my bare feet slapping against the concrete as I continue running.

I can hear the sirens of the firetruck up ahead and the sounds of the police behind me. My chest heaving, I continue running.

The firetruck zooms past me, casting a red and yellow glow to the dark Barbadian streets. I continue running as it speeds past me to the house where I once lived. The house where so many bad things happen. The house that I'm running away from.

I can feel the cold metal of the gun pressed against my skin though my shorts pocket. Blood is trickling from a wound on my forehead, clouding my vision. My legs are burning, but I continue running, my chest rising and falling heavily.

Screams echo in my head, forever haunting me. But what I did was right. No one can tell me that it was wrong. Self-defense. If the police catch me, that's what I'll say. Self-defense.

I need to find somewhere to go. Somewhere away from the hellhole people called the Barbados.

But for right now, I need to keep running.