They ran through the woods quickly trying to find a good place to hide. Of course they would never find a hiding place good enough to hide from me, but I'd that them think that they could. I'd already put the dogs out at them and now I was going after them myself.

Oh, I relish how it will feel to drag them back kicking a screaming, practically drowning in their sorrows and their blood. As I turned down another trail, I heard a small whimper and them someone breath out the word “Hush” ever so softly.

I smile and lick my lips. Turning around, I pull out my knife and my wire net. Walking over, I lift up the branch that's hiding them. I hear all of their scared gasps as I grin and start to throw the net-

I wake up screaming a gasping for air. What the Hell? I haven't had a nightmare like that in a while. I was supposed to be fixed.

I get up and go to the down to the kitchen to fix some coffee. Coffee always helps. As I drank my second cup I start to calm sown some. A little while longer and I'll be fine.

Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bad dream doesn't mean anything. At least that's what my therapist used to say before he cured me. It was probably just all the alcohol I had last night.

As I wash out my cup I hear what sounds like someone walking, but who would be out walking at this time of night? I have to check it out though because it might be a thief or something. I walk to my window and move the flannel curtains out of the way. Outside are five small looking children! Their all shivering and look scared and hungry. So with my kind heart I open my door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


It was cold and dark as we walked through the street looking for safety. None of us knew where to go or what to do. It seemed like only a few minutes ago that we got out, when it was really hours ago. Now we were alone and afraid.

As we turned onto the next street I looked around to see if any lights were on. None were. Good. We walked up the street and we were about to turn down another when a door flung open.

We all jumped back as a tall man's silhouette stood in the door frame.

“Who are you all and what are you doing up at this hour?” The tall man asks calmly looking us all over.

We all look at each other, then they all look at me. I start to answer when the man starts to talk again. “Its freezing out here. Why don't you guys come inside?” He offers stepping out of the door to offer passage inside.

Once again they all look at me. I shrug. Right now I'm so cold I wouldn't dare reject such an offer. I take the lead and head up the stairs onto the porch. After we're all inside, the man closes the door and just looks at us.

“Now your can answer my questions.” He says rubbing his hands together to warm them up.

I opened my mouth about to make up some lie, when Timmy moved forward, “So you have anything to eat?” He asks shyly. There's a chorus of voices echoing the demand.

The man nods and starts to walk towards the only other room with light. “Here's the kitchen” He starts opening cupboards and pulling out stuff. “What so you guys want to eat? I've got plenty.”

“We don't care we're hungry.” Says Julie happy to be in the warmth.

“Okay, there are 5 of you so I can make whatever you want.” He says going through the refrigerator.

“I want spaghetti!” Cries out John.

“I want cereal.”Whines Julie.

“What happened to I don't care?” The man asks with a smirk.

“I changed my mind.” She says sticking her 8 year old chin up.

“Okay, then.” He says

“I want a turkey!” Timmy says with a happy light in his eye at the thought of a whole turkey.

“I want a turkey, too!” Exclaims James.

“Okay, I've got one order of spaghetti, one of cereal, and two of turkey. What do you want young lady.” He asks looking at me.

I just shrug and mumble that I don't care under my breath.

“What? What was that I didn't hear you.” He says.

“I said I didn't care.” I mumble just a little louder.

“I need something a little better than that, how 'bout a pizza or some soup?” He offers.

The thought of pizza is great, but my throat could really use the soup. “Umm...” I say wanting them both.

“How about both?” He says with a grin.

“I guess, sure.” I mumble trying not to look so happy at the thought.

“Okay, so you guys can go watch TV or something while I make all of this, then we'll all eat.” He says fishing around in the refrigerator.

So we all go and sit around the TV. John found the remote and started to switch through the channels way to fast to know whats on.

After a while the man, whose name is still a mystery, came in and told us that the food was all done. So we all went into his dining room and sat down at the table. We were all staring at all the food, because honestly none of us had ever seen that much food at one sitting.

I decided to eat my soup first and then eat my pizza that way I could soothe my throat and then devour my pizza. Everyone else was shoving food in there mouth.

The man lets us eat for a while before he starts to asks us the same questions as before. I counter him by asking him his name.

“My name is Rob. What's yours?” He asks with a smirk.

I look down for a second then mumble softly under my breath, “I don't have one.”

He raises his eyebrows at me, “What do you mean you don't have a name, everyone has a name.”

“I don't” I mumble still looking down.

“What about the rest of you do any of you have names?”

“Yes,” Says Julie, “I'm Julie, and this is James and John their twins, and this is Timmy.” She says calmly pointing at all of them.

“Well, then why don't you?” It was obvious that he thought that I was lying. I wasn't though I really didn't have a name.

“'Cause they never gave me one.” I mumble loosing my appetite.

“Whose 'they'?” Rob asks looking confused.

I start to shrug but Julie speaks first, “Their the people who we just escaped from duh. Why else would five children be out in the middle of the night?” She says rolling her eyes like that was a stupid question.

What the Hell was wrong with her? Why would she say that to a complete stranger? I lean over and kick her under the table.

“Wait a minute. Where did you guys escape from?” He asks looking confused.

“How would we know, we just escaped.” James says calmly.

“How long were you all in there, then?” Rob asks looking startled.

“Well, we all got there at different times.” Timmy says like that was obvious, poor, poor, Rob.

“Were you guys like taken from you homes?” He asks looking worried.

“How would we know, we don't really remember that much. They made sure of that.” Julie says in a duh kind of voice.

“Who is they?” He asks trying to calm down.

“Can we talk about this later, 'cause I'm really tired.” John says.

“We're not staying here.” I say firmly starting to stand up. Just when I was starting to calm down too this happens. Of course it happens this is my life remember, I tell myself.

“What? Why not? I have plenty of room and you guys don't seem to have anywhere else to go.” Rob says starting to clear the empty dishes away, “And tomorrow you guys can explain all of this to me.”

“I don't know...” I mumble softly. I so tired, but should I already go ahead and start risking all of our live this early in the game? I'm not sure I should, but all of their tired whines is enough to convince me. “Fine, I guess we can stay for one night but then we need to leave.”

“Great. So I'll show you guys where you can sleep tonight.” He says standing up, “Right after I put these dishes in the sink.”

So he leads us up the stairs where there are seven closed doors. Great there are enough for all of us. “Okay, you guys can pick whatever room you want. My room is sown stairs if you need me.” He says and turns to climb back down the stairs.

A little while later I'm laying in an unfamiliar bed trying to go to sleep.

Unfortunately once I'm asleep I have one of my bad and when I say bad I mean awful, and one of the things that make them so awful is the fact that I can never remember what I dreamed about. To me that's the worst part, not even knowing what's disturbed you so much that your mind won't even let you remember what it was you dreamed about. I wake up screaming a crying around four in the morning. I'm still trying to catch my breath when all of a sudden Rob comes bursting in holding a water bottle.

“What? What's wrong? What happened?” He asks looking around the entire room quickly.

“Nothing just a bad dream.” I mumble softly staring at the floor.

“Oh, well what was it about?” He asks looking genuinely concerned.

“I don't remember.”

“Yeah? I hate that kind of dream.”

I just nod slowly and continue to look at the ground.

“Well are you okay now?”

“Yeah I guess so.”

“You sure do you want anything? Anything at all?” He asks actually looking worried.

“Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.” I say trying to sound calm.

“Are you still hungry I could fix you something to eat if you want.” He offers gently.

“No, I think I'm fine.” I say, even though my voice is obviously shaking.

“Here, I'll go fix you some pancakes or something.”

I don't argue because right now I'm too scared to. Maybe later when I'm not so scared of my on shadow I'll do something.

So we walk down the stairs and into the kitchen. “I won't waste time trying to figure out what you want this time.” He says calmly, “How about some pancakes.”

“Pancakes?” I ask looking up at him what the Hell was a pancake? Was it bad that I didn't know that? From the look on his face it must be.

He doesn't really say anything about it just says, “You'll really like 'em.” He says and pulls a pan out of a cabinet. I don't feel like watching what else he does, so I go into his living room and turn on the TV. Unfortunately, though, there isn't anything on at five in the morning, so I go back into his kitchen to see what Rob was making. As I walked in a delicious scent hit me. I rush in to see what smells so amazing right as Rob is putting something round and brownish gold on a plate.

I go over and look at it but don't touch it. Is this what a pancake is because if it is then I'm gonna be the happiest person in the world for at least a few minutes. Rob grins at me and goes into the fridge for a second. When he lifts his head up he's holding a container that has some brownish stuff inside. I watch as he pours a lot of it over the plate. Then he looks at me and frowns.

“I put syrup on it to make it taste sweet.” He says calmly.

I nod like I know what he's talking about and follow him to the dining room, where he puts the two plates he has on opposite sides of the table.