Seen

3.

Mrs. Mandez was standing with a man, holding her from behind, his hand over her mouth. I knew he would come...

The window was open and the wind was slightly blowing the blue curtains. That's only entrance he could have came through.

"Jay, just don't hurt her." I said, trying to keep my voice even so he wouldn't assume I was planning anything. "Why are you even doing this?" He'd already grabbed my phone from my bedroom and his foot was crushing it now.

He hesitated as if debating whether or not to inform me then said, "Now that your mom's gone finally, she can't protect you anymore. I've already "punished" your mother for threatening multiple times she'd leave me, but now I have to deal with you for witnessing it. I need to rid of you before you turn me in."

"But why would you need to protect yourself from getting caught when your already supposed to be in prison?" I asked. Why would anyone want to get out of somewhere to go and make sure they don't have links to something that will get them sent back to that place, even if their going back anyway.

The whole thing was confusing anyways but I actually was interested in his answer.

"Because, I'm only in on a 3 year serving for multiple counts on child harassment but if I get booked on murder too..." He slightly shook his head but didn't seem scared, even though his eyes were dark and empty.

"But..." Before I could say a word, he very quickly twisted Jake's mother's head in an easy motion.

The crack was so loud, it rang in my ears.

After I'd just seen the second death of two similar acts from the same killer, Jay stepped over her body and began walking towards us.

I turned to run but Jake wasn't following.

I turned to see what was keeping him and he was just standing there with streams of water running down his face.

His expression was blank even so.

All I thought to do then was grab his arm and yank him along. I knew Jay was coming.

We were practically flying as we ran down the stairs, three steps at a time.

It was difficult to pull a broken boy, half falling, who could barely breath or see through his tears, down the stairs but I did it, I had to. It was done and now we managed to make it out the door.

With no phones, food, or water and a grown murdering prisoner after us, our next stop: fourteen miles to the nearest police station...

***

As we were sprinting faster and faster in the middle of what seemed to be a deserted gravel-dirt road, we noticed a wire fence in the field on the left side of the road that looked rather easy to jump over.

Jay was coming fast and he wasn't stopping any time soon so we figured we outta try and maybe if we jumped it fast enough, then it would give us enough time to look for a decent hiding spot for now.

He was still approaching at a steady speed and we darted to the left, through the dying crops and without slowing, I leaped over.

Jake jumped after me but before I could see what had happened, his foot was caught in the wire.

That whole area of the fence collapsed and bended down as he fell on top of it and to the ground with a thump. Entangled in all the wire, he struggled to get loose.

"Hunter! Hunter, help!" He screamed, his voice cracking as he looked back to see Jay's progress then desperately at me.

Jay was so close.

Too close.

I hesitated, rocking on my heels before turning and running the other way.