The weekend was here and I still hadn’t given Kevin a straight answer about what we had going on and on top of that I had volunteered to stay at my parents and watch all the rug rats. My parents had left to Reno on a small getaway. The others were all together on a double date. Alex was floating about somewhere…probably on top of the frisky blonde.

The thought got the best of me and I cursed.

“You said a bad word!” Lily giggled.

“Mom says you shouldn’t say such ugly words, aunt Soph.” I wanted to roll my eyes so bad. Brian and his perfect little family were too much to handle sometimes. I was tempted to teach Bailey how to say one of my choice words; I opted not to.

“Yeah…I know. And you shouldn’t say ugly words like that, until you are an adult and you can say whatever the heck you want. Got it?”

They both nodded, their blonde curls bouncing everywhere. I smiled and ruffled their hair.

“Now go play for a bit while I set the table for dinner.” They scampered off and I got busy taking out plates and setting the table. The pizza arrived, compliments of Howie and we all dug in. I have to admit that after dinner time flew by. We played twister, a couple of card games and then I was ready to send them all to bed. Of course, they had other plans.

“Let’s play hide and seek…can we?” Bailey asked.

DJ and Hannah appeared behind them all smiles and joined in on the begging. “Come on. Uncle Nick used to play all the time when we came to see grandma.”

The name sent an odd pang to my chest. Even the kids seemed to be taking his departure better than me. I felt the tears sting my eyes; remembering when we’d play hide and seek when we were younger. He was a pro at finding people which would piss me off and I’d end up punching him in the gut. Luckily he would laugh it off and I’d end up chasing him all the way home.

I laughed.

“Alright! I will seek…you guys hide.”

I was about to cover my eyes when I saw a flash of light outside the kitchen window. Quickly I walked over to the kitchen and took a peek through the window, but there was no one there, just my car.

“Is everything ok, aunt Soph?” DJ asked trying to take a peek too.

“Yes! Everything is fine.” I turned to around and told them to go off and hide and I would count. “1…2…3…”

I heard them all scamper off throughout my parent’s house. I gave them a few minutes and then I looked around the living room. “Ready or not here I come.”

We must’ve played for about an hour, giving each of them a turn to be the seeker. Then I announced bedtime and with groans and moans they all headed to the guest rooms. DJ and Bailey got the room with the two kids beds and the girls got what used to be my king sized bed. I stayed in the living room with Heidi. She was nestled quietly in her basinet and I snuggled up in my blanket and closed my eyes. Kids are tiring.

There was a heavy feeling on my face and I was having difficulty breathing. When my eyes opened I was startled to find a man staring straight at me. His hand was keeping me from screaming. He yanked me off the sofa and onto my feet, while one of his arms held me tightly against him. I tried to fight him off, but he just stumbled back and knocked over the basinet.

I screamed against his hand remembering that I’d placed Heidi in the basinet. I heard a menacing chuckle and into my blurry vision appeared a tall, bearded man. “Hi there, looking for this?” He held the baby in his arms, as if he was harmless.

He motioned the man to let me talk. “Who the fuck are you? What do you want?” So, maybe I should have been a bit more welcoming.

“This is no way to treat guests, Sophia!” He laughed. “I am just here for one thing and I will leave.”

Someone was in the hallway waking up the kids. I struggled against the man again, but he just held onto me tighter, making it hard to breath. “Don’t hurt them.”

He picked up the basinet and placed the baby back in it. Then he walked over to me and punched me in the stomach. I felt all the air leave my body. I choked trying to gasp for air.

“Where the fuck is Hannah?” He placed his fingers on my cheeks and squeezed.

In all seriousness if she wasn’t in the bed, I had the slightest idea. Maybe they had heard them and were hiding. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” I glared up at him.

“Ok!” He turned around and let me have a fist to the face. My vision blurred and pain seared through the right side of my face. “We can do this the hard way or the easy way!”

I gained my vision back and spit at the man in front of me. “Fuck you!”

That response only got me another blow to the face, this time I heard my nose crack. The blood trickled down into my mouth. I swiped at it and squirmed to get away.

“Let go of me!” I heard the familiar voice and fought against the man again. DJ was being pushed down the hall by a short stubby man. Our eyes met and he tried rushing over to me. The tall man stopped him and grabbed him by the throat.

“What if I stop beating you and start beating him…will you tell me?” He snarled.

DJ’s eyes were wide and his small hands were trying to fight off the big man’s hands. His feet were kicking just an inch or two off the ground. What the hell was I supposed to do? Give up one child to save the other?

“I don’t know where she is. If she’s not in the room…I don’t know. Let him go! You are going to kill him!”

He did as I asked and let DJ go. The kid fell to the ground gasping for air. Lily and Bailey were next coming down the hall, they were both holding hands and tried running towards me. They were stopped and pushed to join DJ on the ground.

“We can always burn the place down. Is that what you want? Are you really going to sacrifice all these kids, for one little pest?”

The kids were all crying by now and I was feeling hopeless. I wondered where Hannah was. I wanted to see her face, just to know that she was safe, but on the other hand I wanted her to stay wherever she was hiding.

“Fuck this I’m tired of playing games. You tell that little bitch to come out or we are going to beat her aunt to death and when we are done with her…it will be your turn.” He pointed at the kids.

“Aunt Soph!” DJ cried out.

The man picked me up and carried me outside where he slammed me against the black Mercedes repeatedly. My head had never felt like it would explode before. I managed to kick him right in the balls and made an effort to run towards the house, as I left him rolling on the floor.

As I got to the door I heard Hannah screaming at the top of her lungs and then I crashed into the tall man. He glared at me. “You are one pain in the ass.” I heard him say and then saw black.