The next morning, I was in a pretty decent mood.

For about 20 seconds.

All the memories of the night before came flooding back into my head. I almost started crying again, but the tears wouldn’t fall from my eyes. I decided to draw instead. I got out my sketchbook and pencil but couldn’t think of a single thing to draw. My pencil hovered over the blank page, and I finally realized the only thing I could think of was tragic disasters. I flipped through my sketchbook, looking at all the drawings I created when I was happy.  Before Rachel died.

Before.

Rachel.

Died.

Those three words rang in my head.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

I gasped. If John would kill Rachel, his own wife, he would definitely kill me and Asher without even a second thought. I dropped the sketchbook and dashed to Asher’s room, only to find him snoring like an elephant. I jumped on top of him and shook him awake. “Asher. Asher wake up!” He groaned and buried his face in the pillow. “Go away Mabel.” He grumbled. “No! I need to talk to you. This is important!” I exclaimed. He groaned even louder but turned to face me. I took a deep breath then continued. “We need to leave. Now.” Asher raised an eyebrow. “Leave? Why?” I lost it. “WHY?! ASHER RACHEL IS DEAD! JOHN IS GOING TO KILL US NEXT! WHEN WILL YOU START USING THAT PEANUT SIZE BRAIN OF YOURS?! I felt bad for yelling at him, but I had to make him realize the importance of this. He looked like he was thinking. There was silence in the room for about one full minute. Then finally, he spoke. “You’re right. Let’s go.” I was shocked. Asher always takes forever to convince. “So that’s it?” I asked. “We’re just going to leave? No doubt or anything?” “Why would there be any doubt?” He said. “You said what was true, and I believe you. Now let’s go before John wakes up.” I shrugged and then said, “I’ll go pack.” I quietly walked back to my room and packed my few belongings. All my clothes, books, toiletries, and finally, my sketchbook and pens. As I was zipping up my backpack, I heard the floorboards creak. JOHN. WAS. AWAKE.  I grabbed my backpack and zipped back down the hall to Asher’s room. Thankfully, he had already tied all his sheets together and were hanging them out the window. I threw me and Asher’s backpacks out the window and they landed in the bushes. Asher told me to lower myself down first, and he would come after. I looked back at the house one last time, and then climbed down the sheets. I landed nice and safe, when I heard Asher thunder down behind me. I turned around and he was moaning on the ground. I rolled my eyes. Typical Asher. “Mabel? Asher? Twins? Where In the hell are you guys?!” I heard John scream. It sounded like he was drunk. “Go go!” Asher whispered, and we ran off into the woods.