“Don’t talk back to me!” My dad screamed at my stepmom as he raised his fist. 

“I'm sorry! Please!” She yelled back as he slapped her across her face. “I won't do it again, I’m sorry!” She continued to apologize as he started to head to the kitchen. 

“You know what! I’m tired of this! You never listen! I’m done with you!” He screams from the other room. The sound of drawers opening wildly filled the room and I could hear clanging of metal as he shuffled through some of them. “Found it!” He yelled as I heard the sound of his boots getting louder as he headed back in our direction. “Jasper!” He looked at me from the doorway, I couldn’t see very well but I noticed the glint of something metal reflecting from the light of a lamp in his hand. 

“Yes Dad?” I asked in a quiet whisper, my head tilted down so I couldn’t see his face.

“Go into the other room. Me and your mother have things to attend to.” He says motioning toward the room nearest to me.

“Okay.” I say quietly as I quickly walk to the door. Once I touch the handle I hesitate not wanting to leave my mom alone fearing what he is planning to do.

“NOW!” He yells and I quickly turn the knob and walk into the room. “Shut the door!” He starts to turn back to my mom. “And don’t come out until I tell you! Do you understand?” He turns his head back to see me and he looks at me with wide crazed eyes. 

“Yes, sir.” I say as I shut the door and lock it. After making sure the door is secured I turn to look at what room he sent me in because I was too scared to really figure it out earlier. When I turn I see my little sister tears streaming down her face hiding in her closet out of fear. I walk quietly toward her and she puts her hands out for me to pick her up. As I grab her we hear muffled yelling from the living room. My sister flinches back and cups her ears trying to block out the noise. I pick her up and I can feel her long hair tickle my arms and her nightgown shift as she leans into me. 

“JJ I’m scared.”She softly whispers into my ear. After we hear a loud scream. 

“It’ll be alright. Trust me everything is going to be fine.” I say holding her tight. I walk her to her bed and place her in the covers. She continues to hold tightly onto me not wanting me to let go. “I’m going to protect you. You should try to get some sleep.” I whisper to her to get her to relax enough to let me go so I can sit up. She turns her back to me and curls into a tiny ball and covers her ears as the commotion outside continues. I play with her hair and after a little bit I can hear her breath start to even out and her body relax into her bed. I sat there anxiously for a while trying to listen to all I can about what's going on and all I was able to hear was screaming and begging from my mom. Suddenly the noises stopped. The silence was unusual. I didn’t hear my mom quietly crying and my dad stomping off like usual. Then all of the sudden there were loud footsteps and then the sound of a door slamming shut. I decided to head outside the room to check on mom and see if she's alright. As I walk out the coppery stench of blood fills my nostrils. Hurriedly looking around the room I say “Mom?” to see if she is still there. With no response I begin to search my heart, beginning to pound loudly in my ears. I couldn’t shake the feeling that he did something horrible, he's never gone this far before. My breath catches as I turn the corner into a small hallway. My mom is sitting against a wall, blood spilling out of her by the gallon. “MOM!” I scream as I run to her side. I’m able to see the wounds closer now that I'm next to her and it looks as if he stabbed her at least 5 times. Her eyes are glossed over and even though her body was still warm I wasn’t able to find a pulse. My stomach churned as I realized what my dad had done. Suddenly I heard heavy footsteps right outside the door. In a panic I jumped back to my feet and quickly headed back to my sister's room, closing the door just before he could see me. Her blood was still on my hands as I walked back to where my sister slept. I wiped them off best I could on my clothes before I sat back down on her bed, my heart still pounding. After a second I heard the sound of him dragging her body out of the kitchen to the living room, then out the front door. Once I heard the door close I decided to take action. I quickly left the safety of the room and went into mine which was just a way down the hallway to get a backpack and some clothes. Once I had gotten those I headed back to the kitchen trying not to look at the trail of fresh blood that was dragged across the floor. I grabbed some non-perishable foods and stuffed as much as I could in my bag. Once I had fit everything I could I went back into my sisters room and made a new backpack for her with some of her clothes in it. Once I had determined there was nothing else I gently shook her to wake her up. “Hey, wake up. We have to go.” I say in a gentle but shaky tone. 

“Where are we going?” She asked a little groggy while sitting up on her bed. 

“Um, a friend's house.” I respond trying to think of a way to tell her. 

“Where's mommy?” She asks as she starts to get out of bed and get dressed.

“She and dad are out right now.” I respond dodging the real question. 

“Are they going to meet us there?” She asks clearly wanting a straight answer from me. 

“No we're gonna go on a long trip without them ok?” I respond looking her straight in the eyes hoping she understood now is not the time for questions. 

“Ok, is everything ok?” She asks while putting on her shoes.

“Yeah it's fine,” I responded while patting her head “Mom and Dad just need some time away from us so they can try to fix some things.” I stand up and gesture toward the door once she looks ready. “Are you ready to go?” 

“Yeah.” She responds standing up and putting on the backpack I handed her. 

“Ok, now when we leave the door you have to close your eyes and don’t open them until I tell you to.” I say walking to the door. “Ready?” I asked, looking back to see her covering her eyes with one of her hands. 

“Ready.” She responds sounding a little unsure. I quickly grab her hand and open the door. As we walked towards the door suddenly I heard my dads heavy footsteps begin to approach the door. 

“Change of plans, we need to get back to your room now.” I say quickly turning around with her and dragging her back to the room. Once we reach the room I hear the front door open and him start to approach. I quickly hide the bags while my sister stands near her bed confused. “There is no time to explain, but I’m going to need you to hide underneath your bed and not make a single sound alright?” I ask grabbing her hand to help her get down.

“Alright.” She responds, sensing the urgency in my voice and  quickly moving into action. Once she is safely tucked away I lay on the bed and grab a book pretending to read for when dad comes into the room. After a couple more seconds he slams the door open causing me to flinch. 

“Where is she?” He asks the knife he used to kill mom with still bloody in his hands. 

“Where is who?” I ask with a slight waver in my voice as I set the book I was fake reading down in order to look at dad. 

“You know who! Isabella!” He yells clearly irritated with my question. “I’m only going to ask one more time, WHERE IS SHE!” He screams at me, taking a step forward. 

“I don’t know.” I respond quietly, staring straight at him with my eyes wide with fear. 

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW!” At this point he is getting truly aggravated taking multiple more steps in my direction. 

“I’m sorry, I just don’t know. Maybe she's at a friend's house or something.” I respond holding my ground, though my eyes are locked on the knife. 

“She can’t be at a friend's house! I would never let her do that! She has to be in this house, I swear if you are hiding her!” He says as he gestures towards me with the knife. 

“I swear I’m not.” I say in a quiet tone hoping he’ll leave so I can try to think of some way out. As I hoped he stormed down the hall and started to search the house to see where she was. Once I see that he is far enough away I grab my sister from under the bed and silently gesture for her to be quiet. As she climbed out from under the bed I quickly grabbed the two backpacks from their hiding place and placed them on her bed. “Now, I’m going to open the window. It’s small so only you are going to be able to fit through, once you make it out I want you to take both of the backpacks and hide in a bush or tree somewhere nearby so I can find you. Do you understand? Just nod your head if you do.” I whisper as quietly as I can while having her still hear me. She nods her head and I move to open the window. It only opens to a large crack so my sister will barely be able to fit through. Right before she is able to start to climb out dad bursts back into the room. 

“I KNEW IT” He screamed as he saw my sister. “YOU BASTARD, I AM YOUR FATHER! NOW MOVE I HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF THIS.” He yells as he quickly approaches the both of us. 

“No wait! Stop, please!” I yell back standing in front of her as he gets closer. 

“Move or I'll make you! I’m tired of all the disrespect this family has given me! Just let me do this and we can move on! It was a mistake to try to start a family with that woman, I need to erase it!” He yells as he gets into arm reach. 

“I won’t let you hurt her! She didn’t do anything to deserve this! PLEASE!” I yell at him pleading and attempting to push him back away from her. 

“FINE, I GUESS I’LL JUST HAVE TO MOVE YOU!” He yells pushing me hard back causing me to stumble back out of the way. 

“AHHH!” My sister screams as she sees me move away from her. “BRO! PLEASE! HELP!” She screams as he advances on her, raising his knife. She is backed against the wall by him as I try to run back to stop him from hurting her. 

I scream “PLEASE DON’T” lunging for his knife before I can reach his knife he brings it down on her and stabs her in the neck. She lets out a terrible gurgling sound as he tugs the knife back out getting ready to strike her again. Before he gets the chance I grab the arm he is holding the knife with and manage to twist it out of his hand. 

“GIVE THAT BACK!” He screams, lunging for the knife. Before he is able to get it I move out of the way and quickly stab him in the back. He screams from the pain and I pull the knife back out. I stab him again and again until he goes limp and there is a pool of his blood at my feet. Once I decide that it’s safe and he's gone I turn back to my sister who has her own small pool of blood starting to form around her. 

“BELLA!” I scream rushing back towards her. She tries to turn her head to look at me but seems to be unable to. I quickly attempt to stop the bleeding by pressing one of her blankets from her bed to her throat. Her face flinches in pain as I press down. The blanket seems to be doing nothing to stop the bleeding. I can tell that she is slowly slipping away and I frantically try to think of something, ANYTHING to help. Before I can think of anything I see her eyes start to glaze over and her body goes limp. “NO! PLEASE, I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT YOU! SOMEONE ANYONE PLEASE HELP ME!” I scream in desperation. I know no one can help but I scream anyways. “PLEASE SHE CAN’T DIE YET!” Suddenly I see a shadow behind me. Someone or something came. 

Ten Years Later 

“The Devil Doesn’t bargain!” Blasts on the stereo as the song changes suddenly. I reach over and turn it down saying “God I hate this song, can I please skip it?” 

“No you can’t! It's so good!” Bella said, looking at me and turning the music back up. 

“Come on, it really isn't good!” I responded attempting to yell over the music before turning it down a bit just so I could hear her. 

“No it is! This is a masterpiece!” She yells struggling to be louder than the music. 

“Fine! Have it your way!” I respond with an exasperated tone, reaching over to rustle her hair. 

“Hey!” She says as you rustle her hair a bit “You're gonna mess up my hair.” She lightly swats my hand away and I laugh before turning into a parking spot. 

“Alright, get out.” I say as I put the car into park. “And have a great day at school! I love you!” I make sure to yell once she opens her door.

“Thanks.” She responds with her cheeks turning a light shape of pink from me yelling that while the door was open. “Love you too!” She says as she jumps out of the car and begins to head in the direction of a large building with huge letters saying WELCOME TO GOLDEN HIGH SCHOOL HOME OF THE DEMONS! Hung on a banner on the front. As I saw her disappear into the school I began to pull out leaving to go back home. As I ride home I change the music to my preference. For the entire thirty minutes home I blasted Eminem and Drake nearly busting my earbuds from how loud the music was. I turned it down as I pulled into the parking spot marked with a large 666. While pulling in I get an eerie feeling twisting my stomach and causing me to sweat. I walked up the stairs to my two bedroom apartment that I had managed to afford after getting a “great” offer from a landlord who owed me. I unlock the door and when I open it a chilly breeze hits me that sends a chill up my spine causing me to stand up straighter. I cautiously take a step in and see that everything looks the same as it was before. I try to shake off the unsettling feeling I have and reach to turn on the lights. As I flip the switch and wait a second for the lights to flicker on, something seems to move in front of me. It appeared to be in the living room. I quickly grab an umbrella next to me hoping that I could defend myself from whoever or whatever is in my house. 

Before I enter the room I yell out in the most confident voice I can muster, “Hey, I know you're there and if I see you I’m going to attack and trust me I’ll win” Cautiously I step into the living room only to find nothing different. I look around a bit just in case, looking through every hiding spot possible. After I deem it safe laughter escapes me in a huge release of tension I didn’t even know I had. I placed the umbrella back to where it had sat before and took off my shoes. Once that was finished I decided to watch some TV to relax before I had to head to work. As I sit down and grab the remote my stomach growls and I realize that in the rush to get Bella to school on time I forgot to eat breakfast for myself. I get up and walk into the kitchen, the wooden floor groaning underneath the weight of my feet. Once I get into the kitchen it's dark which is unusual. It should have turned on with all of the other lights. I go back and quickly switch the lightswitch. With a small buzzing sound the lights slowly begin to brighten and I can see a small piece of paper folded in half that was left on the counter. Cautiously I pick the paper up and unfold it to find writing I’ve only seen once before. The only words written on the paper were Times Almost Up. My heart began to race as I set the paper back down and tried to pretend like I hadn't seen it.