The Girl and The Fox
Chapter 1

Isabella woke to the sound of bins crashing and tumbling over each other. She questioned to herself what heartless beast had been making that deafening sound. It defiantly wasn't thinking of others! Her long, floppy, jet black hair hung in her round face whilst she huddled in her cosy covers with a fox design. As she snuggled up to her cuddly animals, she stared longingly out of her cold, condensed window, wishing she could escape life into a book. She was sure if she kept staring at it, one of these days her eyes would bore through it completely, leaving a gaping hole. She glanced at the midnight sky, indistinguishable to the pitch sea, which lay off to the right, hidden between the selfish coniferous and deciduous trees. The moon was as bright as a lamp, shining like a firefly in a cave with no opening.

The girl wondered if her annoying blonde sister, Lizzie, was still awake at this time of night, and if she should wake her. She was probably a bear in hibernation by now, whereas the poor, dark haired girl had not slept a wink all night.

'Best not to wake her,' Isabella mumbled soundlessly to herself.

The horrendous rattling of the bins was endless, 'Is it ever going to stop?!' The girl thought whilst shivering. Like any person who wanted to be brave would, she decided to investigate. She wrapped her fluffy, deep blue dressing gown around her body and slid down the stairs as a snake. Her long, sickly green night dress was reaching its arms down to the dusty floor, ready to roll in the mud.

After intensely listening for noise, Isabella scampered past the empty room where her overprotective mum was loudly watching some terrible TV show, and slyly slid the front door open.

The pre-teen girl glanced all around the door step, her dull keratin hanging lifelessly in her face. All the once neat and tidy bins were a gruesome mess.

'The thoughtless thing was probably looking for dinner in the bins... if it was an animal,' Isabella shakily thought. Then hurriedly added 'Maybe it was the wind.' She knew that the wind could not imitate animal cries that well, though. Nothing could.

The scared, tall girl, as quiet as a dead rat, looked around once again. The contents of the bins were in front of her mansion of a house and scattered down the narrow street. The green, semi-skimmed milk carton they finished yesterday, the box of the beautiful paint set Lizzie had got last week, absolutely nothing was left inside the bins.

Suddenly, all the birds and sounds around the castle fell silent, apart from the little taps of feet pattering away in the distance, and her gaze didn't rest on the mess the bins threw up in front of her, but the footprints and blood. Lots of blood.

Isabella turned to a statue, petrified at this sight.

"What are you doing down here so late, darling?", Isabella's mum inquired. "You should be in your bed."

Isabella didn't respond. Her mum impatiently tried to follow her eyes, but luckily she didn't spot what she was absentmindedly staring at. Isabella was relieved at that. She went upstairs and back to her lush bed.

"Mummmmmmy! What is that looooooooouuuud noiiiiiiiiiiise".

"Shut up Theo. I am trying to get to sleep. You always wake me up," Lizzie moaned.

"Don't be horrid to your brother, Lizzie. Your sister just couldn't sleep because of the noise.", soothed Isabella's mum.

The next morning Lizzie woke Isabella, who had just got to sleep, and I can't say she was pleased. Lizzie had blonde hair just a little bit shorter than Isabella's, mesmerising green eyes and thin, little lips.

"What are you doing Lizzie? I just wanted a relaxing sleep in for once!" Isabella groaned.

"I heard you got up in the night to investigate. Why didn't you get me?!" Lizzie whined.

Isabella explained that she didn't want to wake the sleeping bear.

"What did you see outside? Was it creepy?", Lizzie enquired.

"I saw lots of bins knocked over," Isabella replied slowly "lots of the things that used to be in the bins scattered everywhere and... and..."

"And what?", Lizzie asked buzzing with excitement.

"And blood", Isabella whispered whilst trembling.

Lizzie was sorry and surprised to see her older sister, by two seconds, trembling with fear. She was never scared of anything!

"When I looked outside I didn't see anything. I think it has been cleared up by someone," Lizzie murmured, disappointed. Lizzie was the gruesome one.

Lizzie excitedly told Isabella that the footprints were still there.

"Shall we go and look at the footprints now? Pleeeeeeaase?" Lizzie asked, eager to get out the stuffy house and take a look.

"OK, Lizzie. Lets go then," Isabella replied wearily. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ (ꜰind)ɴʘvel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"What animal do you think it was, sis?", questioned Lizzie, again and again when they got to the front door.

"I think it was a fox. A fox that was badly injured. I feel sorry for that animal", sighed Isabella.

As her favourite animal is weirdly red foxes, she has studied them endlessly. The footprints of a fox are precisely different from any other animals in her eye. For some random reason, their mother hates her favourite animal being a cute and cuddly, but dangerous fox, but they have never found out why. Maybe it is because on the news there have been foxes biting off people's ears, or stealing their babies, but she never reads the news. So why?

Sadly, outside there was still the tinnyest scent of blood.

"Girls, we have to take your little brother, Theo, to the hospital today to have his hand he fractured checked over" reminded the twin's mum.

Theo probably hadn't fractured his hand, but their mum always thought everything was worse than it was. How would you feel if you have an overprotective, exaggerative mum?

They went downstairs to get ready to go out. The whole family got in the uncomfortable, drab green car, and sped to the hospital, actually finding a speeding ticket when they got home. It took ages to get past every single person at the checkout but finally the receptionist ordered them to sit for hours on end in the children's section. It was a bore for everyone, including Theo.

There were loads of babyish books, toys for little children to play with and a film going. The film was better than all the other things around. There were these cute, little sofa chairs that hurt your back terribly for you to sit on, every colour of the rainbow. None of it caught the girls' picky eyes. They defiantly thought that the hardworking people who made this 'fantastic' place seriously tried too hard.

All they could hear were the mini kids playing around like there was no one except them, and the smell was always of that septic cream. The horrid smell.

"My legs hurt", Isabella and Lizzie chorused in unison once again.

"We won't be here for long now, girls and please be nice to your little brother", their mother snapped, yet again.

Isabella and Lizzie's brother had brown hair like a conker, His eyes shone blue like a Sapphire that had just been washed and his nails had no white on them, from him biting them 24/7.

After hours on end, they finally got home and had to go to their lively room, with their soft bed, filled with toys. Isabella and Lizzie sprinted straight for their beds and were glad to get away from the unearthly, discomforting hospital and into their own, lovely, almost great home.

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