• Finding Home
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    Prologue




    tab The clock says 8:30pm, but the kids are still awake. Their babysitter tried to get them to go to bed at 8:00, but that didn't exactly work. They just got right back out. She has no idea how the youngest--only a year old--managed to get out of his crib, but somehow he found a way. She tried a second time and ended with the same results. So in the end she just gave up and decided to wait until they fell asleep on their own. But half an hour has passed and they're still wide awake. The older two are coloring while the youngest is waddling around, laughing for no apparent reason. Then again, when you're one, you don't really need a reason.
    tab Suddenly, there is a knock at the door.
    tab Home already? she wonders as she walks towards the door. That was a lot sooner than I thought it would be. Her hand reaches for the knob, then stops.
    tab No, that's not right. They would have just used their key.
    tab There is another knock. She hesitates, then cautiously opens the door.
    tab "Hello?" she asks nervously, "Who is it?"
    tab The knocker replies with a gunshot.
    tab Watching her babysitter fall dead to the floor, the second-oldest child drops her crayons and shrieks. The youngest can only stare--his laughter gone--as several men rush in. One of them rushes towards him while another goes after his shrieking sister.
    tab There is a sudden scream. It is not the scream of a child, but that of a full grown man. The two men turn around and stare in horror.
    tab With his quick thinking, the oldest child had sneaked into the kitchen in the midst of the chaos, and is now standing above one of the intruders, blood dripping down the blade of the butcher knife he had retrieved from the kitchen. The size of the knife compared to that of his small, three-year-old hands would be almost comical if the situation were different. But at the moment, there is cold, bloody murder gleaming in what were once innocent eyes.
    tab He is about to leap when he is attacked from behind by the very intruder who knocked at the door, and the knife is pried from his flailing hands. Then, carrying the three struggling children, the men rush out the back door and into the woods, disappearing almost as suddenly as they appeared.