Mr Ashliford shut off the engine, the garage door rattling closed behind him. He sat back for a moment and just breathed. The entire city for the last two years just seemed to be getting increasingly worse. Shootings, knifings, robbery, violent break and enters, random fist fights, needles everywhere. People pointed fingers, placing blame and offering no solutions.

He knew that there would probably be security cameras installed all over the school now, rather than any real preventative measures.

Useless. All of it. He thought, jaw clenching and teeth grinding.

Nothing changes when you're only reactive, instead of proactive.

He resisted the urge to hit the steering wheel in frustration.

There was no point in lamenting it, he knew, because in order for anything to change for the better, it would require that people stop rewarding such behaviour and start rewarding actually being a good person... Something that he would have thought would be a relatively easy thing to accomplish, but apparently it was too far against their nature.

The pile of clothes-

No.

He's not dealing with that just yet-

She's going to be getting more aggressive.

It's a normal thing when puberty hits; it's the Dad's job to teach them how to control it.

He near-silently swore, realizing that he had screwed up; he hadn't been teaching her how to manage her emotions properly.

She may have killed someone. He acknowledged, It may have been for a good reason, but if they trace it back to her and realize...

His stomach churned and he took a moment to calm himself, concentrating on his breaths for a slow count of 10.

Whatever happened, he would deal with it.

Looking at his daughter snoozing in the backseat under Mimi's watchful eye Mr Ashliford knew that they were going to have to move. He wanted her grow up safe and sound, not having to be afraid of people.

It's like these people wanted things to be scary, like they wanted to live in a dystopia.

He missed his homeland.

He missed his people.

He missed stability and safety.

He also needed to call his wife and tell her what had happened.