Flash Fiction: All it Takes

*** EDIT *** I've won the competition! I officially have a wonderful editor for my completed manuscript

I entered this into Michele Sagan's "win an editor" competition and I'm over the moon to say I've been shortlisted! Read on for my first ever flash fiction piece: All It Takes.

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I'd only looked away for a few seconds, momentarily distracted by a sound behind me. By the time I'd turned back to her, she'd wandered off. I skirted around yet another rail of sequinned dresses and a poster promising me the perfect Christmas party outfit for less than £39, before ducking my head beneath the shimmering folds of slinky fabric. I'd strongly suspected she'd made a beeline for the glitter. But no. I was wrong. She wasn't there. I straightened up and narrowed my eyes, scanning the shop floor for any sign of her. Nothing.

"Excuse me." I pushed to the front of the queue, heart pounding, the sound of frustrated women tutting barely registering in my ears. "Have you seen a little girl? She's only two. Red hair. My daughter," I added. The heavily made up twenty-something behind the counter raised her meticulously designed eyebrows in surprise. She hadn't seen her. I felt a fresh flush of panic flooding through my body. If she wasn't in the store, then she must be... my gaze fell on the glass doors that opened automatically as the shoppers entered and exited, bringing in a fresh chill and a few stray leaves with them each time. It had only been a few minutes. She couldn't have got that far. I elbowed my way through the disgruntled shoppers, too preoccupied to apologise to the woman whose bag I'd knocked to the ground, causing the contents to skitter loudly across the floor.

I burst through the doors and paused, eyes darting left, then right. Which way would she have gone? Across the road and to the left I could see a small and colourful toy shop, with a large bear grinning from behind the window... any small child's dream. I wagered my chances that she would have headed in that direction and my feet started to weave around the bustling, bag-laden shoppers before my head had registered where I needed to go. I was operating on autopilot.

I was a few tentative steps into the toy shop when I spotted a flash of red hair and the starfish shape of a pudgy hand reaching for a large plush giraffe. I let out the sharp burst of breath I didn't realise I'd been holding in. "There you are." I swooped down on her, scooping her up and pulling her warm body close to my own. She gazed back at me with quizzical green eyes, her slightly sticky fingers still buried deep in the toy's fur.
I left the shop with her bundled in my arms, heading straight back towards my car. We'd had enough excitement for one day.

A blood curdling scream rang out behind me, and her little head snapped up from its resting place on my shoulder, staring at the commotion that was happening behind us. I gripped her small frame closer to me and quickened my pace. "Don't worry, petal. Let's get home and out of the cold."

Her eyes were troubled. "Mumma?"
I smiled and gently smoothed a scarlet lock of hair away from her face. "Mumma's taking you home, sweetheart."
She kept looking back at the scene behind us, where a frantic woman continued to scream. Something terrible must have happened to her. Perhaps her child had been stolen from her.

Perhaps her child was the one I was holding in my arms.

I broke into a run and I didn't look back.

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I hope you enjoyed reading it, and welcome any feedback in the comments section below.

Roxie

@RoxieAdelleKey