Jane woke needing to pee so badly that she immediately forgot about the shattering sound which had actually jerked her out of sleep. Hoping to keep sleep in her eyes, she didn’t turn on any lights, peering her way around in the dark.

As Jane entered the bathroom, something very sharp stabbed through her foot. She cried out, falling forward on her hands and knees. Something pierced her hand. And then, she noticed the glistening in the dim light- the floor of the bathroom was covered in jagged, shattered shards of glass. Her hand was bleeding freely, but her foot- she twisted back, looking at her raised foot. A thick, dagger-shaped piece of glass was lodged firmly in her arch. She felt faint and sick- but that wasn’t her greatest worry.

Her children and Leo the cat. Any minute any of them could enter this bathroom. Then she heard a careful rustling noise from downstairs, realising the same instant that someone was her house, someone who had no business there. Her pee spread freely, the urine mingling with her fresh blood on the floor.

Gingerly, she turned her body around, facing the door of the bathroom, moving glass out of the way before putting her hands down. She heard the familiar noise of Leo zooming about. He did that sometimes, scampering around chasing something invisible. But it sounded like whatever he was chasing this time was quite tangible. There was loud bump, and muffled cry. Oh god the children would wake at any moment now. She needed so bad to be with them right now she felt she should be able to transport herself to their room.

Leo yowled. Jane had crawled as far as the bathroom door now, and her foot was starting to hurt, a sharp stabbing pain which crawled up her leg. She wondered if she should just risk pulling the glass out. What had shattered like this?

Jane slowly made her way to the landing. Leo yowled again, a victory cry this time, accompanied by a louder thump, horrible screaming, and the sounds of the front door banging.

Then there was complete silence.

The door of the children’s room opened slowly. “Mommy?”

“Stay inside baby. Everything is ok, stay inside your room.”

Leo appeared, dashing up the stairs, and made his way to Jane, still on her hands and knees. He nuzzled Jane’s face, smearing her face with wet stickiness. In his mouth he held a something white and dark, glistening wet, which he presented to her proudly. Reaching to him she instinctually took it. She squinted down at the squashed wet lump in her palm, turning it around to see what it was she saw the brown iris and dark pupil in the center. Dropping the eye to the floor, she looked over at Leo who sat cleaning his face with his paws wearing a look of intense pride.