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It was ten o’clock at night in the warm Georgia summer. I had just gotten both of the kids to sleep. They made me really tired today, and I just want to relax. I had a set of twins, na, Rustina. They were both born premature, and it was known from the beginning that we were going to have problems with both of them. One of them has skills the other one lacks. I don’t know, flustered, with my head, how this happened, but this was our life, and that is how it needs to be lived. Erabout is physically okay for the most part but is mentally behind. He is now four years old, and he still has trouble with the basics he should have known by now. On the other hand, Rustina seems to be smarter than other kids her age, and she tries to help her brother catch up. But she has acement-coveredh this because she physically is behind. She was severely underweight when she was born, and other problems have erupted since then. I am happy, though, to see that for the most part they are happy, and for me that is all that matters since I have to stay home with them because my husband, Dominick, works all day and because of their problems I can’t send them to a day care. I also can’t work because I have something mentally wrong with me that no one has been willing to tell me more about. I would like to know why I can’t have a job and why I have to take so many pills every day and night. I want to know why everyone always starts smiling once I enter a room after they were sobbing just a couple of seconds earlier. I wonder if it has something to do with my ex-boyfriend from high school that I was with shortly before I met my husband named James. James had a lot of his own issues, and he was forced away from me by my family and the police. I never learned what happened to him after the police found him until almost fifteen years later, on this exact night, when I turned on the TV to watch my baking show that is usually on at this time. I was sitting on my light grey cushioned chair with my red fluffy blanket wrapped around me while I sat crisscrossed with my travel mug full to the brim with chamomile tea, instead of wine, which is what I really wanted. I was waiting for my channel to come on, but only saw a very startling breaking news broadcast instead. The broadcast was saying to lock all your doors and board your windows because Jason had escaped prison. I didn’t know that he was still in jail and was surprised to hear that he had escaped. I then started wondering if the rumors that were being spread during our high school years were true in that Jason had been kidnapping little kids and forcing them to help him find women to r**e and murder, and then eventually those children would have the same fate as the woman, and I had gotten my answer on that question back. The rumors were true. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, I thought me and Jason were meant to be and my family didn’t want me to be happy. But I can see that they were trying to keep me safe from him. Then I was stricken with fear and realization, Jason could be coming after me and my kids! I can’t let that happen! I don’t want my kids to be taken or have worse things happen to them, and I also don’t want to be taken or have worse things happen to me! I have to protect them and myself, but I don’t know how. I live in a trailer that I don’t own, so I can’t board up my windows. The most I can do is close the curtains, lock the door, and cover the hole in the floor of my bedroom. I know that it is weird to have a hole in the floor of your home, and I don’t remember what happened that the hole in the floor is there. I stared at the TV in awe at the picture of Jason. I had known him since we were kids, and I don’t know what could have caused him to be like he is. I didn’t want to keep watching the TV anymore, but I couldn’t get myself to turn it off. Tears started to grow in my eyes and drop from my face like a fruit that had gone rotten on the branch. I heard my front door open and shut, but didn’t think anything of it until the TV turned off out of nowhere. I turned towards the remote that had been sitting on the coffee table right beside me to see that it had vanished. I got out of my seat and started looking around for it until I heard a loud thud that sounded like plastic hitting something. I swung my head around towards the sound and saw Dominick in the living room with his dirty construction clothes covered in cement and his face covered in anger. I gave him a sheepish smile and started to sit back down. I was a little confused on why he was angry. Was it because I was looking at Jason on the TV? Was it because I didn’t see him come inside the house? Why is he mad? I didn’t know what to do, so I started apologizing to him. Even though I didn’t know what I was apologizing for. He sighed and looked down at his cement covered shoes for a couple of seconds before looking at me. He then seemed a bit happier after that and said to me with calmness in his voice and happiness in his face, “ I’m not mad at you, you didn’t do anything wrong. I’m just stressed out from everything that’s going on.” He then stopped for a second to take off his shoes and started making his way to our bedroom. “ I’m going to wash all this crap off me, and then we have to get the house prepared for this because we have to keep the kids safe.” I gave him a soft smile as he shut the bedroom door. I picked up the TV remote and set it onto the table instead of leaving it on the floor where it was beforehand. I contemplated turning the TV back on once Dominick was in the room, only for a second, but I didn’t. I got up and started closing the blinds on the windows and grabbed the duct tape to cover the blinds even more. I made sure the front door was locked and the old baby monitor that we used to use for the kids I took down and used it as a security camera for the front door. It was the closest thing that we had to a security camera. I set it up so that the camera was facing the door, and I put the tablet that shows what the camera sees on my belt loop. By the time that I finished covering the biggest window on the side of the trailer, Dominick came out of the room with a dark blue towel around his waist. I looked at him with a small devilish smile on my face. He looked at me with an even bigger smile on his face. He grabbed the front of his towel as he walked towards me and ran his other hand through damp black hair. He walked up to me, and his smile grew bigger with every step. He reached over my shoulder with his hand, now slightly wet, and locked the other locks that were higher on the door. I started to blush and cover my face. I didn’t want him to see that my face was redder than usual. He then started kissing me on the cheek and started making his way down my neck. I knew where this was going, and I was ready for it. I was ready for him again, but we had to cut things short since the kids' bedroom door started to open. I sighed, and Dominick pulled away. I turned towards the kids' door to see Rustina standing in the doorway with her blanket in her little hands and tears in her eyes. I walked over to her and scooped her up off the ground. Dominick placed his head on my shoulder to look at Rustina. Rustina gave him a little smile and put her other hand on his face. Dominick asked in a soft voice, “ What’s the matter, sunshine?” Dominick grabbed her hand from his face before she answered in her sad voice, “ I heard the TV. Are we going to be okay?” Dominick nodded and said, “ Of course we are going to be okay, sunshine. Me and I are going to make sure that you are okay.” She then nodded slowly, and I started to put her back down on the ground. Dominick reached his face over to hers and gave her a little peck on the cheek before her feet touched the floor. Once she was on the ground, she wiped the last bit of tears from her face and made a little sniffling sound with her nose before asking, “ Can I sleep with you guys tonight? I’m still scared.” Me and Dominick let out a sigh of defeat at the same time before responding with the answer that she wished for. Rustina then giggled a little and let out a squeal as she ran back into her room to fetch her stuffed animals. Once she was in her room, Dominick wrapped both arms around me after tucking his towel ends together to make it stay in place. He kissed me on the cheek again and whispered into my ear, “ Don’t worry, we can pick up where we left off another night.” My face got bright red again as I heard those words. Dominick was never the type to want to do anything without me asking first. I was excited to know that things had changed when it came to that aspect a little. Dominick quickly made his way back to our bedroom to change into pajamas that he was now forced to wear because Rustina was sleeping in the bed with us tonight. Right as our bedroom door closed behind him, the kids' bedroom door opened. Rustina came out with her light purple elephant stuffed animal that had a red glittery bow on its head in one hand and her blanket that she had come out of her room with previously in the other, and a big happy smile on her face. She ran over to me and launched her body onto my lap like a missile. I let out the last bit of air that was in my lungs because of her head plunging into my stomach. She giggled at me, and all that I could do was give her a big smile in return. Rustina and I horse played for a little bit before Dominick opened the bedroom door to let us know that it was safe to come into the room. Me and Rustina walked into the room together, each of us holding one of her elephant's arms and swinging it like it was a little child forwards and back. As soon as we got into the room, Rustina threw her elephant and her blanket onto the bed. She then climbed onto the big bed that was already covering the hole in the floor. Rustina then got herself comfortable in the bed once she reached the top and she slept right in the middle of the mattress, with her blanket and ours covering her and her elephant that she has had since she was a baby. I stood in the doorway and watched her as she got comfortable in the bed and was starting to fall asleep. Dominick then stood beside me and tapped my shoulder to get my attention. I looked over to him, to see him using his head to point over to the living room. I nodded back in agreement and went into the living room shortly after Dominick led the way. Dominick walked over and sat on the dark navy blue couch and patted the seat next to him with his hand. I then joined him on the couch and grabbed his hand before I sat down. I squeezed his hand once I saw the worry on his face. He rubbed the back of my hand with his thumb and kept his hand where it was when he said, “ I got news from Colson from down the street a couple of minutes ago; he said that he saw a bunch of little lights going around to houses and a bigger light heading down the street closer to our house. That sounds like Jason is trying to find us, and he already has a bunch of kids helping him. We need to get the kids and leave for a couple days. I was able to get a hold of my sister and she said we can stay at the house, we just can’t bring the dog.” I frowned a little bit. I didn’t think Jason was already as close to us as he was. I also didn’t think he was going to be rallying up children with him already. He had escaped prison earlier tonight and he already has a crew to help him with his crime. I nodded in agreement and then asked, “ what are we going to do about the dog?” Dominick answered with, “ One of us can come back every morning with one of the kids and quickly take the dog out quickly and give her food and water for the rest of the day. It isn’t a big deal if something happens to the dog, but it is a problem if something happens to you or the kids.” I gave Dominick a little nod and a warm smile. Dominick gave me a small kiss on the cheek and then got up off the couch. I got up off the couch and headed towards the bedroom to go and grab Rustina to get her into the car. Dominick went to the kids room and roused up Eric and started packing a bag for the kids. Eric walked out into the living room, still groggy from slumber, and followed me and Rustina outside to the car. I didn’t notice it that night, but Rustina accidentally left her blanket and elephant stuffed animal in the bedroom. She also didn’t say anything about it that night because she was too tired and she fell asleep right away once she was in her car seat in the car. Both of the kids didn’t know what was going on, but fell asleep right away after I turned on the car and the engine started to purr. I sat in the driver’s seat and waited for Dominick to come out of the house anxiously. It felt like an eternity had passed by the time he had come out to the car. He had two big duffel bags with him full of stuff that we were going to need. He ran to the side of the car and opened the trunk. We both happened to see a bundle of light from up the street out of what felt like nowhere. We could hear the tapping of shoes on wet concrete that matched the movement of the lights as the people got closer. There were a bunch of them, but one person stood out from all of them, It was Jason. I could tell from how tall and slightly slanted to one side the light was. Jason has always been really tall so his height gave him away, and he had one let that was five inches longer than the other. He was born that way and no one knows why. I felt the air in my chest become harder to claim as the steps got louder. Dominick slammed the door of the trunk shut and scrambled to the passenger door. He got in as one of Jason’s minions got over to the car. I was in such a rush to leave and was a nervous wreck and didn’t notice that the child was in the way of my car once I started to back up. The back of my car bumped him out of the way as I started to speed out of the street, and on my way to Dominick’s sisters house. I felt a little more at ease once I was off of that street. I knew then that we were going to be safe, or so I thought.