In the Shadows of the Night

Chapter 2

Three months later

"Jessie, come on!" My mother yelled from the living room.

"I'm coming!" I yelled back as I finished packing my bag. I lifted the bag off the bed and carried it down the stairs and out to the van.

"She's always making us late, why didn't you put her up for adoption?" my annoying older brother said as he climbed into the car.

"Because I was the better looking of the two." I announced as I climbed into the car.

"Alright you two, that's enough." my mother scolded us as she climbed into the car next to my father. we always give each other a hard time, but when push came to shove it's us against the world. Saxton and I have always been really close, even though to the outside world you would never know it.

"I've told you both several times that we couldn't put either of you up for adoption because we were blessed with the perfect family, one boy and one girl." our father said as he got into the van and started to back up.

"Did you call Brian and ask him to take care of the house?" Mom asked dad yet again. She had already reminded him like fifty times to call him and frankly I was getting tired of hearing her badger him.

"Yes, Hillary, I called Brian and I asked him to just take care of the flowers outdoors and the mail. I explained to him that we had all the locks changed and got an alarm system a few weeks ago. I also explained that it wasn't that we didn't trust him we just felt safer knowing we were the only ones to have a key to the house." He said as he pulled out of the driveway and drove down the street. "He said he understood and that was that."

"I still don't understand how the man got in." Saxton turned to give me a look, as if to ask if I let him in, I ignored him.

"Brian must have thought he locked the door and didn't or maybe he didn't get it shut all the way, it's hard telling, Saxton," dad explained, then turned a sharp corner and drove down a dirt road.

"Saxton, hand me some water out of the cooler back there," mom more ordered than asked, turning slightly in her seat to wait for the water.

Saxton turned in his seat and pulled a bottle of water out of the cooler, then handed it to mom, without argument, which is amazing for him. "It's weird that it only happened that once and nothing's happened since." Saxton glanced over at me, knowing that the masked man had been back, but he never came back into the house he just stood outside my window and watched. I glared at him as if to say, you promised you wouldn't say anything. Saxton just stared at me then quickly looked away, "So, how far away is the campground?"

"Sax, stop acting like a little kid. You know we will be in the car for a while, just read a book or something," my mother demanded with a wave of her hand.

I shoved my earbuds in and stared out the window and thought about the man that stood outside my window every night since his daring attempt to see me. Why would he wait outside my window every night and what was he waiting for? For a while it scared me, and I thought about telling my father. One night after everyone went to bed I looked out my window and he stepped out of the bushes. I stared down at him for a while, and then from out of the blue the serious no nonsense look on his face turned into a heartwarming smile. I couldn't help but smile back at him.

After that night, he would look up at me with his serious no nonsense look, and then he would give me that heartwarming smile. It was almost as if he was there to protect me from something and the smile was his way of telling me that everything was alright. I didn't know the real reason he was there so, I never approached him, I was too afraid, mass murders can sometimes hide behind a sincere looking smile.