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Chapter three: The Incident

By the time of the incident, we had been living at Leah’s house for almost three weeks. We can all tell Leah is getting annoyed that we are still here, but it isn’t our fault. The police still haven’t found Jason. No one has found Jason or any of his minions. It scares me to know that they could be anywhere in the world by now and no one has found them. They could be right outside of Leah’s house. Watching and waiting for the right time to attack my family and me, whom I have learned to love. These are the things that go through my head as I take Rustina with me to grab more clothes and take care of our Pitbull- Corso named Nanny that had to be left at the house. Me and Dom set up a schedule on when who was going to take care of the dog and grab things for the kids and us. We would take one of the kids with us so that we were less likely to be picked up by Jason and his crew, and so that the kids could get out of the house and out of their aunt’s hair. Rustina was set to come with me in the mornings, and Dom would take Eric in the nighttime. Rustina was ecstatic to finally be outside and getting to go to the house. She remembered her light purple elephant was still at the house within a couple of days, and I told her that she could only get it if she knew exactly where in the house it was. I didn’t want her wandering the house without me knowing where she was. We got to the house in the usual time it takes me to get there. As soon as we got to the house, Rustina hopped out of the car and ran into the house. I let her have the key to the house so that she could let herself in. Once she darted in, Nanny went to dart out the front door. I grabbed the dog and took her on a short walk to the back of the yard. I wasn’t paying attention to where Rustina was in that moment. I was more concerned about quickly taking care of the dog and leaving. I had a harsh vibrating sensation in my back that I only get when something bad is about to happen. Once Nanny finished up in the yard, I took her back inside and gave her some food. I looked towards my bedroom door to see Rustina sitting on the bed, hugging her purple elephant tightly with little tears starting to stream down her face. She must have really missed her stuffed animal. I sighed in relief as I waited for Nanny to finish eating so I could walk away from her and start packing up things for the twins. I didn’t walk away before the dog finished because the dog had a habit of following people around the house until they walked back to her food bowl. She feels as if she needs to be watched while eating at all times. I managed to pack some more clothes for the kids and some of their toys since they easily get bored and get into things they shouldn’t because they are so bored. I walked out of the kids room and walked into my room to grab some clothes for me and Dom. I walked in, and Rustina was no longer in the room. I thought that she had gone to the bathroom. My head didn’t think of anywhere else that she could have been. I should have, because that could have stopped the incident from happening. I finished packing things for me and Dom and headed out to the car to place the bags in the car. That was when I got a phone call from Dom. I answered right away and watched the house as Dom started to talk to me. “ Hey babe, I got some great news.” Dom hasn’t referred to me as babe in years. Something isn’t right. I can’t put my finger on it, but something is definitely wrong. “ The police caught Jason! We are safe to go home now! Could you come and pick up Eric and me and the stuff that we have here at Leah’s?” I decided to use the code word that Dom and I made up in case one of us had a run-in with Jason. The code word was slides. I asked, “ Okay, I’ll come pick you guys up, and we can take the kids to the slides before heading home.” Dom sounded serious when he said, “ Babe. I promise that Jason is caught. He is already back in prison, and we are fine. I promise.” I nodded softly at the phone, and the harsh vibration got worse in my back. I then said, “ Okay, I’ll come and get you guys and everything as soon as I can find Rustina. I just noticed that she has been taking a little longer than usual in the bathroom. She probably got distracted with her elephant and is somewhere in the house. I’ll get her, and then we’ll be on our way.” I hung up the phone before Dom could answer and lightly jogged into the house. That was what was wrong. She should have been out of the house by now. I got in the house and looked around the house. I didn’t think to look in the hole in the floor under the bed because she had never gone in there, plus it was covered with the bed and a long, thin piece of wood that was outside. I started to panic. She wasn’t in the house. She didn’t leave through the front door; I would have seen her. I checked the back door; the door leaves marks on the floor when it is opened. The floor had no new marks that weren’t there from people opening the door in the past. My spine was starting to hurt from how hard it was vibrating. I was starting to cry. How could I have lost my baby girl? I curled up on the floor in pain and guilt and called Dom. It was time to get a search party in place to find her. I was sobbing into the phone as I told Dom everything and heard the concern and anger in his voice. He had borrowed Leah’s car and got all of our things packed in it. He had left Eric at the house with Leah so that we were less likely to lose both of the kids. Dom and I went around the house and were calling for her and checking in tighter spaces to try and find her. We couldn’t find her anywhere in the house. My back got worse, and I almost collapsed in pain. Dom walked me over to our bedroom and laid me down. As I was lying down in the bed, I could hear light breathing. I was panicking when I heard it. I yelled for Dom and told him what I was hearing. He told me that it was nerves that were making me hear the breathing. I understood what he was saying and was trying to calm down. But no matter what I did to try and calm down, all I could hear was the soft breathing. I could even hear the breathing in my dreams. It never went away, no matter what I did. I tried using noise-cancelling headphones; I’ve tried using more pillows; I even tried to smack the piece of wood under the floor to scare what was breathing away. I started to think that it was Rustina under the piece of wood. I tried to move it, but Dom had bolted it to the floor. I couldn’t look to see what was breathing under my bed. I couldn’t see if it was my daughter who was still missing. My son hasn’t been able to come home since we found out she was missing. I couldn’t sleep knowing my daughter was missing and that there was breathing under my bed. Dom had noticed that I haven’t slept and decided that I should sleep over at Leah’s until he could see what was causing the noise and until we could find our daughter. I agreed to it because that was the only thing left for me to try, and I am really tired. I’m falling asleep during the day when I need to be awake looking for my daughter. This had gone on for a week. I went to sleep for one night at Leah’s, and I woke up in the middle of the night to my phone going off. It was Dom trying to call me. Something in his voice was wrong. He was crying as he told me, “ We found Rustina. She was trapped under the trailer. She must have gone through the hole in the floor before I boarded it up. She’s gone! I can’t believe this! The police just pulled her corpse out from under the trailer!” I started sobbing the moment that he said that they found her under the trailer. I must have been the most horrible mom in the world! My child died under my house because I didn’t keep an eye on her! She’s gone. How could she be gone? I need to see for myself. I grabbed Leah’s car keys and headed out the door. I didn’t take the time to ask her if I could take the car. My daughter being dead was way more important than asking if I could take her new Honda. I sped away from her house and towards mine. When I showed up to my trailer, there were blue and red lights plastered along every trailer that was in the park. The lights were coming from the ambulance truck and the two police cars parked in front of my house. I ran the car over to park it right next to one of the police cars. I got out of my car quickly enough that I could see them loading Rustina into the ambulance. She was in a body bag. I could now officially believe that my daughter was dead. I could now believe that it was her that I was hearing under the floorboard breathing. I did nothing to save her. I scared her and brought her to her death, if anything. But I did nothing!