Midnight Train Going East

Chapter 1: The Night That Changed His Life

Richard Anderson's POV:

My wife Holly and I were driving home from a business dinner that ran late. It was 12:30 a.m. now and I was about to turn onto our street.

Our little ones were left in the care of our most trusted babysitter, Evelyn Fredrickson. She's going to get extra pay for watching them this late.

I think $500 should about do it for 3 kids. Plus the youngest two are sick, so Holly will definitely give her at least $700 because that's the way she values things. I personally don't care to pay her $200 more than what I already said I'd pay.

As we entered the driveway, we noticed there was a light on in Alex's room, but all the other lights were off. Blinds were closed too. Hmm.

"Now what could be going on in there. Maybe they're playing Scrabble or Uno because Alex can't sleep. He has been getting nightmares lately." Holly said, rubbing my arm.

"Let's park and check it out," I said. "You're right, That Evelyn is actually A really sweet girl." I continued and I gave my wife a reassuring smile while we walked through our front door.

Holly's brows furrowed as cries echoed throughout our three story house. She quickly ran toward Alex's bedroom. "Holly, you're overreacting maybe he fell!" I shook my head. Holly would always panic over little things, nothing could possibly be wrong right now.

I still ran after her but my arms were quick to catch her when she passed out. For a moment I was slightly confused but my eyes flickered to what was happening right in front of me.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" I screamed, but before I could do anything about this madness, Evelyn quickly ran out. There, I saw my 7-year-old son, in tears, naked. He had his arms bound to his bed by rope. I was bewildered.

I slowly laid Holly down and ran over to Alex scooping him up in my arms. "Shhh, it's alright son I got you okay?" I wiped his tears, kissing the top of his head, not knowing how else I could approach this. I kept asking my little boy what was wrong but he would just shut down on me.

My wife would do the same for a while. She wouldn't talk to me, only her therapist she had started talking to shortly after the incident. She had terrible anxiety from what she saw. She was always very careful when it came to Alex.