***WARNING***

The following book contains scenes and descriptions which some people may find upsetting. Please be aware this is an extreme novel intended for a mature audience.

***

Copyright©2014 by Matt Shaw

Matt Shaw Publications

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

without the express written permission of the publisher

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

The characters in this book are purely fictitious.

Any likeness to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

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Dedication

To Cathy Hudson.

I have known Cathy for a few years now. I first came to know the name after reading one of the reviews she left for my work on Amazon. And - after reading that review - I soon came to fear the name for it wasn’t the best of reviews. It wasn’t the worst, but as a new author at the time… It was enough to dent my confidence a little bit.

Let me just explain now that honest reviews (positive or negative) is not a bad thing. They help us writers get to know what people do and do not like. They enable us to work on our craft in an effort to try and produce something better the next time we put words down. This does not mean that negative reviews do not suck though… Telling an author their book is bad - whether you’re being honest or not - is very much the same as telling a parent their newborn baby is dog ugly. It’s hurtful in the short-term but good in the long-term. In the case of the baby, in case this confuses you, it is entirely possible the parent was thinking about putting their kid’s picture in one of those baby competitions. By being told their baby is a munter - they will no longer enter them thus saving their embarrassment when the paper showcasing the pictured entrants is pushed through the door of every house in the village. See - sometimes we need to be cruel to be kind. But I’m getting off the point.

Over the years I’ve come to respect Cathy’s opinion and I have even sent her books months before they are released just so I can hear her feedback. I don’t necessarily change what I’ve written if she doesn’t like it - but it is a good bench mark to work with. If Cathy - someone I like to think of as a true horror fan - doesn’t like something then there’s a good chance others will be turned off too and I don’t want that. We’ve become what I like to think of as ‘cyber-friends’. People who get on quite nicely but have never met in real life.

Months (and months) ago her husband got in touch asking if I’d be willing to write her a book for her Christmas present. I immediately told him that I would love to undertake such a challenge and - a split second later - I shat myself when the size of the task at hand dawned on me. Here is a woman who isn’t afraid to publicly speak her mind and here I am about to write a book designed especially for her; her family, her fears, her life. Talk about pressure.

Well Cathy, I have been in secret conversations with James for months and I truly do hope I am able to write something worthy considering the amount of effort he has gone to in order to get this off the ground for you. Did you know he took me on a guided video tour of your home, explaining all the different bits and pieces about your life and how he has been there constantly answering my questions in emails whenever a new one popped into my mind? I may have put hours in, putting these words down for you, but only because he was there - step by step - egging me on and drip feeding me the relevant information to make this a truly personalised horror story for you!

I truly hope you do enjoy it more than anything else you’ve read before. I want this to be your book. I want the story to stick in your head and haunt your dreams and - more than that - I want to make you feel uneasy in your own home…

… Because we’re friends.

I wish you (and your family) a very Merry Christmas and hope you get all you’ve ever dreamed of and more.

Best Wishes,

Matt Shaw

my FAMILY

MATT SHAW

“My darling Cathy, As always, my mind, body and soul are yours to keep. Merry Christmas, I love you.”

- James Hudson

A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT

The weatherman had been promising a storm for a just under a week and tonight was the night it finally decided to hit. A barrage of torrential rain, high winds with thunder and lightning. If this was the tail-end of the hurricane that had been promised, Cathy Hudson couldn’t even begin to imagine what the full force of the storm would have been like. She turned onto her side, towards the window, as another roar of thunder shook the house. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of a shadow standing by the window. A flash of lightning illuminated the room just enough to reveal her husband, James, standing there watching Mother Nature unleash her fury outside.

“What are you doing?” Cathy asked.

She was keeping her voice low so as not to wake their youngest daughter, Quinn, who was so far managing to stay asleep during the storm. Quinn was one of their five daughters. The youngest of the five girls at four years old. Due to the cramped nature of their house, she shared a room with her mum and dad. It wasn’t the easiest of situations but they’d all gotten used to it over the months.

“Have you ever seen anything like this?” James asked. Another clap of thunder and a crack of forked lightning hitting somewhere over the woodlands at the back of the garden. “It’s practically on top of us.”

“Get back into bed before you wake up Quinn,” Cathy moaned.

“You sure she’s even in her bed?” James joked.

“That’s not funny.”

“How the hell is she sleeping through this?” James crawled his way back into bed, next to Cathy. He cuddled up to her, stealing her warmth.

“You’re freezing. How long have you been standing there?” she asked.

“Come on, it’s exciting - when do we ever get storms like this?”

The next clap of thunder shook the house. Quinn started to cry as the sound scared her from her peaceful slumber.

A flash of lightning.

“Oh great,” Cathy moaned.

She reached over for a lamp and flicked the switch illuminating the room. She sat up and looked down at the small bed next to her own double bed. Little Quinn was lying in her bed with the duvet pulled up close to her chest. Her eyes wide with fear.

“It’s okay. Just thunder and lightning.”

“I’m surprised any of them are asleep to be honest,” said James. “Mental out there…”

The bedroom door opened and four little faces appeared in the doorway.

“We’re scared…” said the tallest of the four girls; Cleo, Kiah, Misty and Libby.

Cathy shot James a look as though blaming him for the children being awake; his words jinxing the situation causing them to stir from their individual dreams. Had he not said anything - they’d still be asleep… But, no, he had to jinx it. She checked the time on her mobile phone which was plugged into the wall next to where she lay, charging ready for a full day of use starting in the morning. It was one minute past midnight. She sighed and rubbed her tired eyes. Great. A day of feeling crap in the morning then. It wasn’t even as though it were a weekend so they could all have a lazy day and catch up on some needed sleep. She had things to do, the kids had school.

Another roar from above and flash of lightning. The girls screamed and jumped on the bed.

“You think the dog is awake?” James joked.

Cathy shot him another look.

“Who fancies a midnight snack then?” she asked.

It was cramped enough in there with Quinn, Cathy and her husband. It was even worse with all seven in there and it was clear they wouldn’t be sleeping. Flash of lightning. Cathy figured (thunder) that they may as well get up and have a little party in the living room to try and ease some of the tension. Turn the thoughts of the terrible storm into something more positive and fun. Besides which - there was more room in the living room anyway. Lightning bolt.

* * * * *

James was sitting with the children in the living room. The curtains, leading to the back garden, were closed in an effort to block out the constant lightning and the television was on - some music channel - turned up loud to help block the sound of the rumbling thunder.

The girls were setting up a game of Monopoly in the middle of the living room floor. The pet dog, Loki, was sitting on the sofa watching over the proceedings; a little quieter than usual due to the raging storm outside. He was only a puppy and this was certainly the worst storm he’d ever been a witness to. James was flicking through the music channels on offer trying to find something that would - at least - pass for decent music. The problem with tunes these days is they all sounded the same. He settled on a channel at last and looked down at the board game being set up. He sighed. He didn’t say anything but he’d sooner be playing the Playstation 4. Assassins Creed to be precise.

“Monopoly then?” he asked.

The twins, Libby and Misty, looked up at him and smiled. He sat next to them and started to help with the setting up. Hopefully by the time the game was ready, they’d either be asleep in various positions around the room - or, at least, ready for the bed even if the storm was still raging.

Cathy walked in with a large tray in her hands; a midnight feast of cheese and crackers. She set it down on the floor, next to the board game and immediately shot the dog a look as if to warn him away before he’d even made a move to investigate what was on offer. Cathy should have been more concerned about the look on her second eldest daughter’s face. Kiah was fourteen years old and, unlike her sisters, a fussy eater who was completely obsessed with…

“Sushi! Where’s the sushi?”

“Be thankful for this!” Cathy said, “You should be in bed anyway!” Cathy helped herself to one of the crackers, and a slice of cheese she’d cut in the kitchen, and leaned back on the sofa watching the board game getting set up. She looked at James and laughed, “Surprised you didn’t talk them into taking turns on Assassins Creed.”

“Didn’t even think about it. What about it girls?” he asked. “Want to take it in turns playing Assassins Creed? I’ll go first?”

“We’re playing Monopoly!” said Cleo. She was the oldest of the sisters and had the most attitude. At nearly sixteen years old, if there were arguments to be had in the household between mother and daughter it would usually be these two banging heads. A typical teenager. She turned to Quinn, “You can start because you’re the youngest,” she said as she handed the dice over.

“Maybe we should play in teams?” Cathy suggested. She knew Quinn would struggle with the rules of the game. She’d be fine moving the pieces and she’d be fine picking the cards and rolling the dice but - the maths required for charging rent would most likely be asking a bit much of a four year old who’d only just started primary school.

“No!” Cleo went to argue.

“Well okay - you can all go on your own but I’m going on Quinn’s team.” She turned to Quinn before Cleo had to chance to argue further, “Go ahead and roll the dice! Try and get us a couple of double sixes!”

Quinn rolled the dice with a smile on her face when a knock on the door startled them all.

James looked at Cathy, “Well who the hell is that at this time of night?” he asked.

Cathy shrugged. James stood up and walked towards the living room door.

“What are you doing?” Cathy asked.

“I’m going to go and see who it is,” he said.

Cathy stood up. “Whoever it is - they can stay out there.”

“Honey, it’s pouring down out there…”

“It has also gone midnight and we have children in the house.” Cathy tried keeping her voice calm so as not to worry the children who were still taking their turns on the game.

“I can’t just leave them out there.”

“They’ll go. They’ll think we’re not in and they’ll leave.”

“They would have seen the light. Come on, it’s fine, I’ll just find out who it is and what they want…” James walked from the room before Cathy could argue anymore. She stood up and walked over to the doorway so as to keep watch on the front door; a worried look on her face.

James opened the door. A young couple were standing there. Despite wearing relatively smart clothes - he was in a suit and she was in an evening dress - the pair looked like drowned rats. Outside the rain was still coming down hard and heavy. Low rumbles of thunder echoing through the air and the stink of electricity hanging in the muggy air.

“Can I help you?” James asked - taken aback by what he was seeing. He hadn’t known who was on the other side of the door but he did know that he hadn’t been expecting a man dressed in a smart suit and a woman in an evening dress. Not something you saw everyday in this neck of the woods.

“I’m really sorry to disturb you,” the man spoke with a well spoken tone, “but we saw your light on and…” he laughed out of embarrassment, “… we really need some help.”

“What is it?”

“We’ve broken down just round the corner and have no signal on our phone. Not sure if it’s the weather…”

“Certainly is bad out there,” James agreed.

“… Well I was wondering if we could just pop in for a second and borrow your phone. Just a quick call to the recovery agency?”

Cathy walked from the doorway to her husband’s side in the hope her presence would make him turn the couple away. Her presence didn’t have the desired effect.

“Sure. Come on in.”

James opened the door wider and took a step back, giving the couple space to step in.

“Oh thank you,” the man said. “Everyone else’s lights were off. We didn’t want to knock on their doors in case we disturbed the people inside.”

James laughed, “We’re already disturbed here.”

The couple laughed, more out of being polite than finding his joke funny.

“Phone’s through here,” James said - leading them through to the living room where the kids were still playing. They walked through and James pointed to the phone, on the side next to the stereo and television.

“Thank you.”

The man walked over to the phone and picked it up. He dialled a number which was on a scrap of paper, pulled from his pocket, and waited for an answer. The woman - presumably his partner - stood in the doorway and smiled at the children who were looking at her with suspicious gazes. She gave them a little wave - one which they didn’t return.

“Is that your doll?” the woman asked Quinn. She had spotted a tall figurine of Pinhead, standing on a small table along with some other knick knacks. Quinn shook her head; overcome with shyness.

“It’s mine,” Cathy snapped - sensing the woman was mocking the figure as opposed to complimenting it.

The woman smiled at Cathy. It hadn’t been her intention to mock her. She was just trying to lighten the obvious tension in the room. In fact the only ones who didn’t appear to be sensing the atmosphere were James and her partner; who was busy giving the address of the broken car to the operator on the other end of the phone.

“Give them our address,” James suggested, “there’s no sense waiting out there in this weather. They can pick you up from here and take you to your car. It’s fine.”

“Really?” the man was surprised at James’ generosity. He had just planned to make the call and leave. He hadn’t even thought about asking to wait there in the dry.

“James we really need to think about getting the kids to bed,” Cathy said. It wasn’t that she minded helping out strangers but - when it was gone midnight - she wasn’t too keen on the idea of strangers being in her house. Especially when the kids were still up.

“We haven’t finished our game yet!” Cleo looked up from the board game.

“Thank you but we don’t want to cause any trouble,” the man said.

“It’s no trouble. Tell them…”

The man hesitated. He looked at Cathy and back to James again before speaking down the phone, “I’m sorry - can I change the address? Can you pick us up from where we are now and then we’ll take the driver round the corner to where the car is? … The car is at the address I just gave you but we are at…” he paused and looked to James. James told him the address and the man reiterated it down the phone to the operator. He was given a rough timeframe before the operator disconnected the call. The man put the handset back next to the stereo and thanked James.

“Not a problem.”

Still feeling the tension, the woman tried to ease it up a little by telling Cathy, “You have lovely children.”

“I know.”

“You two got any children?” James asked quickly before Cathy had a chance to really say what was on her mind.

“No.” The man shifted uneasily in his chair. “Not happened for us yet, has it?” he turned to the woman. She shook her head.

“Can I get you two a drink?” James offered the couple.

“We’re fine. Thank you, though. And thank you for letting us wait here,” the man said.

“Well - it’s horrible out there. No night to be stranded,” James said.

“It’s my go!” Libby shouted at Cleo who had taken a hold of the dice no sooner than Quinn had  thrown them.

“No. We’re going this way round the board. It goes Quinn and mum, then me, then dad, then Kiah and then you two.”

“Why do we go last?” Misty asked. She was just as annoyed as her twin sister at being pushed to the back of the queue with regards to who gets a turn and when.

Cathy watched the proceedings from the doorway. She thought Cleo had been being nice when she let Quinn take her turn first but now she realised it was just a means to an end as it meant - following the rule of always going left around the board - she’d be second. She didn’t say anything. Let the girls figure it out for themselves. She had no idea why the Hell James had let them get Monopoly out; it was meant to be a quick midnight snack to show them there was nothing to be scared of with regards to the storm outside and then back up to (hopefully their own) bed.

“We always do it this way!” Cleo said - raising her voice as though that were the way to win an argument.

The woman laughed and turned to Cathy, “Looks like you have your hands full!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cathy hissed.

The woman didn’t say anything. She turned to her husband as though - using nothing but eye contact - begging for him to get involved and help her out a little.

“So what is this? Midnight feast?” the man asked James. He’d already seen there was little point in trying to talk to Cathy. Clearly she didn’t want them there in her home and he couldn’t blame her. Had the shoe been on the other foot, he probably wouldn’t have even opened the door - not that he wasn’t grateful to James for doing so or else he’d still be out there in the pissing rain.

“Girls couldn’t sleep due to the storm,” James said.

“Can’t say I blame them - I used to hate storms when I was growing up,” the man replied. “Now I quite like them. It’s like God is washing everything clean again. He lets things get messy and then - boom - down with the clean up crew.”

“Interesting way to look at it. I used to tell them God was farting,” said James.

The girls laughed. Cathy shot her husband a stern look again.

“He’s moving furniture,” Cathy said - more to the girls. The subtext being that they should ignore their rude father.

“That’s what my mum used to tell me!” the woman said.

Cathy didn’t care.

“Come on, girls, time for bed.”

“We’ve only just started playing!” Cleo argued.

“Bed! Now!” Cathy didn’t raise her voice. She didn’t need to. The tone was enough to put the fear of God into the girls. They all got up, grumbling, and slowly made their way from the room.

“Night, night…” the woman said as they walked past.

Cathy followed them up the stairs leaving her husband with his new friends. As she neared the top of the stairs she could hear him apologising for the way she was behaving. She heard him say that she wasn’t usually like that. She felt her blood boil. The way she saw it, she had every right to feel threatened by these two strangers in her house. She’d read enough horror books to know this had the potential to be something awful. A nice family invites a couple into their house in their hour of need and - before you know it - the nice family is under attack by the unexpected visitors. Well she wasn’t going to be a statistic. With the storm still venting its anger outside, the girls could sleep in their room. If the Roadside Assistance truck does finally show up, and James comes upstairs, he can sleep on one of the girls’ bunk beds. Cathy - in turn - would sit up with the girls sleeping around her, watching the bedroom door… Ready to defend her girls should a crazed man and woman suddenly burst in.

TUESDAY

By the time morning came the storm had subsided but the rain continued to beat down heavily.  The News had stated flood warnings had been put in place in various locations across the country but Cathy didn’t really pay them much notice as it was always further up North, or further West, which were hit by those. Where they lived was usually just slapped around a bit by heavy winds.

Cathy was standing in the kitchen waiting for her crumpets to finish cooking. The girls already had theirs and were busy eating out in the dining room; filling their little stomachs before heading off to school. Cathy was tired and irritable because of her lack of sleep. An hour had passed - the previous night - before James had come up to bed. He had come into the room, waking Cathy as he opened the door, and then disappeared back out again when he realised there was no room in his bed. She didn’t check on him in the morning to see where he had ended up crashing.

He walked into the kitchen.

“Morning,” he said.

He too looked blurry-eyed from lack of sleep. Cathy could tell from his face that he was desperately wishing he didn’t have to go into the university today. No choice though. As a student mentor and outreach representative - he had a lot to do and that was before he even took his own assignments into consideration.

“Still raining then…” he sighed as he looked out of the window. “Hope the bus isn’t late.”

Every morning James got the bus into the university, Cathy ran Misty, Libby and Quinn to school in their Chrysler and the older girls - Cleo and Kiah - walked the thirty minute walk to their schools.

“Well if you hurry up and MOT the BMW,” Cathy said as she flicked the kettle back on, ready to make James a coffee. She knew they didn’t have the money to MOT his car. It had been sitting on the drive for a while now, waiting for the student loan company to pay what was owed. The fact she hadn’t even said ‘good morning’ to him and had barely made eye-contact, he knew she was in a mood with him for the previous night and so he didn’t bother asked for a lift. Besides, with the weather as it was outside, she was probably going to be doing a few trips anyway - running the three girls in and then running Cleo and Kiah in too to save them getting drenched before the day had even started.

“I love you,” he said tentatively before giving her a kiss on the cheek. The Ice-Queen cracked a smile.

“You’re such an idiot sometimes.”

“Now what have I done?” James asked. He knew what she was referring to but wanted to hear it from her.

Cathy - on the other hand - didn’t want to answer the question directly. Instead she thought she’d ask another question which would give him enough of a clue to know why he was an ‘asshole’.

“Finally got rid of your new friends last night then?”

James laughed, “Is that why I’m an asshole?”

“We have children in the house.”

“I’m well aware of that.”

“You didn’t know who they were and yet you invited them into the house. Now - considering the fact we have kids in here - do you think that was a good idea?”

James laughed again, trying to make a joke of the situation, “Is that a rhetorical question?”

Cathy raised an eyebrow.

“Look it was horrible outside - it still is - what would you have had me do?”

“Leave them out there! It was just a bit of rain… They would have survived!”

James shook his head, “Why are we even having this conversation?” he asked. “They came in, they used the phone, they got picked up by the AA and that was it. They’ve gone. They’ve had their car fixed no doubt and they’re probably at home now. Maybe - just a thought - they might even be talking about us right now too. You know what they’re saying? They’re probably saying what a lovely couple we were for helping them out last night… Now - can we drop this, please? Considering they’ve left and nothing was stolen and we weren’t - I don’t know - brutally murdered… I’d say there’s little point in arguing about it.”

“You just need to think sometimes!” Cathy said.

“I do and I did. I thought, Gosh - they’re really wet, I think I’ll let them use the phone.”

Cathy shook her head as she continued making James his morning cup of coffee. She paused a moment to call through to the dining room, “Five minutes, girls!”

“Am I forgiven?” James asked. “You know - punishment was probably enough making me sleep in Kiah’s room. Won’t be much longer before she needs a new bed.”

“Aw was it uncomfortable?”

“Yeah. My back is killing me.”

“Good.”

“Oh come on! Okay - I’m sorry. I’m sorry I tried to help out a couple of fellow humans. I’m sorry I stopped them from getting pneumonia. It won’t happen again.”

Cathy turned to him with the teaspoon raised as though it were a weapon, “It had better not!”

He smiled, “So… Do I get a morning kiss now?”

He walked over to Cathy who - in return - gave him a peck on the cheek.

“And maybe a back massage?”

“On your bike.”

* * * * *

“God you’re a rubbish dog!” Cathy moaned at the dog.

With the kids at school and James at the university, her day was usually filled with various tasks such as cleaning around the house, doing the shopping, preparing the meals, knitting, reading and - when she was really bored - trying to teach the young dog new tricks. With her mobile phone in one hand - videoing the proceedings - and a dog biscuit in her other hand, she was trying to get the dog to lie down. Loki had other ideas though as he continued to get over-excited by the attention he was being given.

“Lie down!” she told him again.

The dog spun on the spot.

“No, I didn’t ask you to spin around you stupid dog! Lie down! Loki… Lokiiiiii, lie down!”

The dog spun on the spot again.

“Oh for God’s sake. Okay… Sit. Loki. Sit!”

The dog sat.

“Now lie down!”

Loki laid on the floor and Cathy cheered, “Yay! Clever doggie!”

She fed him the biscuit in her hand. The door bell rang interrupting them both. Loki barked and ran towards the front door with Cathy following muttering under her breath how he felt the need to bark at the door now but not when it was knocked upon gone midnight?  She pulled Loki back as she opened the door. Her heart skipped a beat when she realised who was standing there; the woman from the previous night.

“Can I help you?” Cathy asked.

The woman looked a lot more presentable now she didn’t resemble a drowned rat but Cathy still didn’t feel comfortable to be standing there with her. The woman had a bouquet of flowers in her hand. She held them out towards Cathy.

“These are for you,” she said.

“Me?”

“You and your family - yes. A little thank you from my husband and I for helping us out last night.”

Cathy took the flowers, “Well - thank you - you didn’t have to.”

“No. We wanted to. I was saying to Jeff…” she pointed down the street to where her car was parked up with the engine still running. Jeff was sitting in the driver’s seat, “… last night - after we left - that had you been at our door, I probably wouldn’t have let you in.”

Cathy looked towards the car and saw Jeff who - in turn - saw her. He waved. Loki barked in his direction.

“Well I wasn’t happy about it,” Cathy admitted.

“Well - anyway - thank you again.”

The woman took a step back from the front door.

“You got the car fixed then?” Cathy asked. She felt a little guilty about how she had spoken to the woman the previous evening. She didn't ever feel the need to bite her tongue or hide her feelings if something didn’t please her and having strangers show up in her house, after midnight, certainly fell into the category of not pleasing her.

The woman laughed, “We’d run out of petrol. Apparently our gauge is broken.” She nodded towards the blue BMW parked up in the driveway, “I’m guessing you don’t have that problem though,” the woman laughed; insinuating that the BMW was the better car.

Cathy laughed, “That thing can’t even pass the MOT at the moment!”

The woman smiled, “Well - anyway - we just wanted to drop those into you to say thank you for last night so… Thanks again.” She turned and ran from the house, back towards her husband’s waiting car. Cathy watched as she climbed into the passenger seat. A second later and the car pulled away from the curb side and headed down the road. Cathy watched until they were out of sight before closing the door. She walked through to the kitchen with the flowers in hand. Loki dutifully followed.

“Well that was nice of them wasn't it?” she said to Loki as she put the flowers into the sink - running the water - to give her some time to find a vase.

Loki barked. At first Cathy thought he was agreeing with her but then she realised he was looking out towards the front door with his head cocked to one side. She stopped a moment as a feeling of unease washed over her. She walked back through to the front door and opened it; a quick check outside and the road was clear. Being stupid, she thought to herself as she closed the door again. She walked back through to the kitchen just in the nick of time to stop the water from overflowing in the sink. She twisted the tap, killing the water flow and reached for a vase in one of the many kitchen cupboards.

Loki just sat there - staring at the front door, growling. Cathy stopped what she was doing and walked through to the living room where she opened the patio door - leading to the garden.

“Loki!” she called out, “If you’re going to be an idiot, you can do it outside.”

Loki didn’t need telling twice. He ran outside and up to the side fence where he continued with a low growl.

Cathy shook her head and returned to the kitchen, “Stupid bloody dog,” she muttered.

WEDNESDAY

Cathy was in the living room. A pile of wool spilling from a carrier bag next to where she sat on the sofa; knitting needles in hand. The dog was asleep by her feet having been tired out with a long walk. The children were at school and James was at university; the room was perfectly silent - filled only by Cathy’s own breathing and the click-clack sound of her knitting needles. She loved the kids - of course she did - and she loved James but that didn’t mean she couldn’t love the peace and quiet when she had the place to herself and all of her little jobs done and dusted. After the last couple of days she had had, she was enjoying the peace and quiet more so than ever. What with the storm keeping her awake Monday night and then the dog being an idiot and barking at the door for most of the afternoon yesterday… And then of course the arguing from the kids last night as Cleo and Kiah came home with a box of chocolates each, refusing to share them with their sisters…

The peace and quiet was definitely welcome.

Cathy’s mind drifted back to the chocolates yesterday. The girls had both come in, brandishing the boxes in their hands with big smiles on their faces. They must have done half a box each on the way home; a perfect way to ruin their dinner much to Cathy’s annoyance.

“Where did you get those?” she’d asked them.

“We won them at school,’ Cleo answered.

“Top of our class,” Kiah agreed.

It was always nice to hear your children were doing well in their classes but Cathy couldn’t help but think a more productive prize might have been more effective. She had made a mental note - one that she was only just remembering - to have a word with the school. Perhaps instead of chocolate they could give out a book, or something? Something they could learn from as opposed to something that would ruin their health and turn them obese; not that either child was obese. They were both of a good height and both slim but that wasn’t the point. The more she thought about the chocolate incentive, the more it annoyed her.

Loki sat bolt-upright and stared at the door. His sudden alert mood didn’t go unnoticed by Cathy, “What is it, Loki?”

She watched as her pet dog ran towards the front door where he continued to growl. Cathy set her knitting needles to one side and followed the dog to the door.

“What are you doing?”

Cathy took a hold of him - by his collar - and pulled him away from the door. Loki pulled away from her and returned to the door.

“You stupid dog!”

She stormed back over to him and reached down for his collar once more. She jumped back as a letter slipped through the letterbox.

“Great! Now who’s being stupid? Scared the life out of me!” she laughed, “Isn’t mummy stupid?” she asked Loki.

Loki barked.

“Yes, well thank you, that was a rhetorical question. You’ll learn.”

She gently kicked Loki away from the door with her foot and bent down to scoop the letter up from the floor where it had landed.

“Don’t usually get two mail deliveries,” she said out-loud. “Strange,” she noticed there was no stamp on the letter. No stamp meant it wasn’t delivered by the mailman. Couldn’t have been junk mail. It had James’ name written on it. Junk mail doesn’t come personalised.

Whatever it was - it was hand delivered.

Frowning, she walked through to the living room. Loki was patiently waiting by the patio door in the hope of being let out. Cathy opened the door and he ran out, straight over to the fence where he proceeded to bark.

“Stupid dog is going to get me an ASBO at this rate.” She returned to her spot on the sofa and set the letter to one side before reaching back for her knitting needles.

She paused.

Her eyes drifted back to the handwritten envelope. What was inside?

Cathy didn’t make a habit of opening James’ mail but then he wasn’t usually the recipient of post that had been hand delivered. Might be important, she thought as she tore into the flimsy DL envelope. She reached in and pulled out the single sheet of A4 contained within. Folded into three, she unfolded it and started to read the handwritten note scrawled across the page in blue ink. Her eyes went wide as soon as she realised what it was and - more specifically - who it was from.

* * * * *

“Okay. It’s odd. I’ll give you that,” said James.

He hadn’t been home for more than five minutes before Cathy had presented him with the letter and forced him to read it.

“Odd?”

“Well, yes.”

“Mum what’s for dinner?” Libby came into the kitchen.

“Go and play - I’ll call you when it’s ready,” Cathy snapped.

“But how long?” she whined.

“Libby I won’t tell you again - go and play. I will call you when it’s ready!”

Libby ran from the room.

“Calm down, you’ll upset her,” James said.

“I can’t believe you're not taking this seriously,” Cathy turned her attention back to James and the letter. “They want our children.”

“Not all of them,” James tried to make a joke of it.

The letter was from the couple who’d come round during the stormy weather. It detailed how they’d like to adopt two of Cathy and James’ five children. As a couple they’d never been able to have children of their own and it so happened their best friend was a lawyer and could draft up the adoption papers for free. The letter had even been written in such a way that it read like the couple were doing Cathy and James a favour by taking two children away from them as it would give them breathing space and a little more time for themselves.

“We should call the police.”

“And say what? They asked to adopt two of our kids? Or how they brought us some flowers as a thank you for letting them use our telephone? I’ll tell you what we’ll do, we will ignore the letter. They’ll get the message and go away.”

“And what if they don’t?”

“There’s a phone number at the bottom of the letter, I’ll call them up and say thanks but no thanks.”

“And you really think that will work? These people sent us a letter offering to take two of our children from us. You think that’s the behaviour of normal people? I’m telling you - these people are bad news. I got the feeling from the moment you let them into our house…”

“That again? I thought we were over that?”

“We were. And then they showed up again. Not just once but twice. Once to drop the flowers off and once to post the letter… You invited them into our lives! I told you to ignore the door but you had to answer it and - what’s worse - you had to let them in.”

“Don’t you think you’re overreacting just a little bit?” James asked.

“I can’t believe you’re not!”

“Look - just leave it. If anything else happens, if they come back again… We’ll go to the police. Okay?”

Libby called in from the other room again, “Mum - I’m hungry!”

“Let’s just get dinner and forget about the letter. Like I said, they’ll probably leave us alone when we don’t reply to this. Trust me. Now… What’s for dinner?”

“We’re not done yet,” said Cathy. She folded her arms. “There’s something else…”

James sighed. He’d had a long day. All he wanted to do was come home, put his feet up, have some dinner, play some Playstation and maybe get a little coursework done and yet he had come home to a seemingly paranoid wife. He didn’t disagree that the letter was strange but - at the end of the day - that was all it was; a letter. It wouldn’t be the first letter he’d received and not replied to which hadn’t led onto anything else - certainly nothing as bad as Cathy was insinuating. He just wished she’d drop the whole damned thing.

“What is it?” he asked. He tried not to show any irritation in his voice. Cathy was already irritated and - if he spoke with the same tone - it would just result in fireworks between the two; and he really didn’t have the patience for that. Not tonight.

“I think they gave the girls some chocolate.”

“What?!”

“They came home yesterday with a box of chocolates each.”

“So?”

Cathy explained what the girls had told him - how they’d supposedly won the chocolates at school for doing well in their classes. She also explained how - whilst waiting for James to come home and whilst trying to take her mind off the letter - she phoned the school to have a word with them about it. She explained how she was going to suggest something which would have been a better alternative to give to the children other than chocolates.

“I don’t get it,” said James before Cathy had a chance to fully explain.

“The school told me they hadn’t given the chocolates to the girls. They agreed that it wouldn’t be a suitable incentive…”

“Okay…”

“Okay? They must have seen the children on the way home from school… Maybe on the way to school. I don’t know. But they gave the chocolates to the girls.”

“That’s crazy.”

“They dropped a letter into our house detailing how they want to adopt our children and yet you think them giving chocolates to two of them is crazy?”

“The kids probably shoplifted them!”

James didn’t mean his glib comment; he was just being a smart-ass and trying to show Cathy there were a number of ways the kids could have got hold of the confectionary. Cathy raised an eyebrow.

“Did you talk to them?” he continued before she started shouting at him.

“Not yet, no.”

“Well talk to them. Tell them you know the school hadn’t given the sweets to them. Maybe they’ll tell you where they really came from? If you want - I’ll go and talk to them.”

“I want you to talk to the police.”

“Honey, I’m not talking to the police. It’s stupid.”

“What if you talk to the children and they tell you they had been given the chocolates by those people? Will you go to the police then?” Cathy asked. “Strangers giving sweets to your own children - the children they want to adopt from us - enough of an alarm bell ringing for you?”

James didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. If the couple did pass the confectionary over to the children - especially stopping them on the streets to do so… It went without saying that that was a game changer and - yes - the police would have definitely been involved.

“How long is dinner?” James asked again.

“About an hour,” Cathy replied.

“Then I’ll go and talk to them.”

Before Cathy could say anything else, James walked out of the room to find Cleo and Kiah. They were sitting in front of the television, in the living room. Quinn was playing in the corner of the room and Misty and Libby must have been upstairs. Loki was asleep up on the sofa.

“Girls can you come through to the dining room please?”

“Is dinner ready?”

“No, just want to ask you something. Nothing to worry about.”

The girls begrudgingly followed James through to the dining room. He was the first to sit at the table. They sat opposite him. They both looked nervous - as though they knew they were in trouble. He smiled at them in an effort to relax them a little. If they didn’t relax they wouldn’t tell him the truth.

“What?” Cleo asked.

James squirmed in his chair. Sometimes the way she said things really wound him up. He couldn’t help but wonder whether she knew what she was doing or whether she was oblivious. He hoped it was the latter. He took a couple of seconds to shake it from his mind.

“So your mum’s been telling me you’ve been doing well at school,” James said.

The two girls instantly looked guilty.

“That’s really good. We’re proud of you.”

“Thank you,” Cleo took the lead as though she didn’t trust her sister to keep up with the lies that were about to come.

“And you got a prize? What did you get?”

There was a slight pause, “We got chocolate,” said Cleo.

“Chocolate? You do well at school now and they give you chocolate? That’s a bit strange, isn’t it? How come they give you chocolate now? Never got that when I was at school. We used to get little round stickers that were known as SuperBlobs. I think I’d have rather had sweets,” he said.

The girls didn’t say anything. They both just sat there red-faced. It was the look on their faces which told James Cathy was right - the sweets hadn’t come from the school.

“Anyway tomorrow - it’s supposed to be raining again - I just wanted you to know that your mum is going to drive you in, save you getting wet. I think she wants to have a word with the teachers too, for the chocolates. Probably to thank them, or something.”

Panic all over the girls’ faces.

“She can’t!” Kiah was the first to crack, just as James had expected.

“Shut up!” Cleo snapped at her.

James shot Cleo a look which shut her up. She folded her arms and sulkily slumped back in her chair. With her quiet, he turned to Kiah, and asked, “Why can’t she?”

Kiah looked at her sister almost apologetically. She didn’t have a choice but to continue with what she was saying, though. Not now she had blurted out.

“Well?” James pushed her for an answer.

“We didn’t get the sweets from school,” Kiah sighed.

“No? I don’t understand - why did you say you had then?”

Kiah went to say something but Cleo pounced on the question, “Because we bought them from the shop using our pocket money and mum doesn't usually let us.”

“Oh. Right. So you lied?”

Neither girl said anything. They knew they were in trouble. The question now was - how much trouble were they going to be in?

“You bought the sweets from the shop?” James reiterated.

The girls nodded.

“Well, okay then…” he took a deep breath, “… So how is school going then?”

Once again the girls’ faces reddened a deeper shade. James sighed. On the plus side - he’d been right about the chocolates. They hadn’t come from the couple. No need to get the police involved. Although he couldn’t help but worry the neighbours might be calling the police later in the evening when he’d tell Cathy he wasn’t going to…

“You won’t tell mum will you?” Kiah asked.

THURSDAY

Cathy was walking around the house calling out Loki’s name. She’d seen him in the morning, before she took the girls to school, but couldn’t recall seeing him since. Panicked thoughts racing through her mind; wondering whether he’d managed to get out the front door when they’d all left the house earlier. Had he sneaked out without them noticing? She’d already hunted around downstairs and - as she stepped into her room in the hope of finding him sleeping on the bed - she had searched upstairs too. No dog.

“Loki!” she called again.

Shit.

Cathy headed downstairs and through to the living room. She opened the patio door and stuck her head outside, into the garden. She called for the family pet again but - again - there was no reply. She didn’t recall letting him out the back in the morning but that wasn’t to say James, or one of the girls, hadn’t. It would have been possible for them to accidentally leave the dog out there, without thinking. No dog though.

Panicked Cathy stepped back into the house and closed the patio door again. She called out once more in the hope Loki would appear from a hiding place he’d holed up in. Nothing. Not even a hint of a bark anywhere throughout the house.

He must have snuck out the front, Cathy thought.

She left the living room, walked down the hallway and up to the front door. She pulled it open hoping to find Loki sitting there - a nervous (and sheepish) look upon his face having been shut out of his home. He wasn’t there. She tried to cast her mind back to the morning - had James taken him to the university with him? No. Of course not. He’d never done that before and - even if he wanted to - would the university have even permitted it?

Cathy turned back to the house and stopped in her tracks at the sound of a male voice from further down the road. She didn’t turn round. She didn’t dare.

“Are you looking for this little guy?”

Cathy recognised the voice. Jeff. Slowly she turned around. He was standing by his car with her pet dog tucked under his arm. She immediately noticed a white envelope in hand. He was walking over to her, a beaming grin on his face as Loki tried to struggle out of his grip. The man noticed Cathy’s expression; she looked horrified.

He jumped in with, “He was down the road looking lost,” he said. “I recognised him from the other night… Clearly shouldn’t be out by himself… Here… I’ll put him in your house for you… Pretty heavy for a puppy.”

“That’s fine, thank you, I can take him.” Cathy held her hands out, ready to take Loki who seemed more than happy to be taken by her, but Jeff walked right past her.

“Honestly - it’s not a problem.”

She followed Jeff up to her house.

“You’re lucky I found him. Cute dog like this - someone could have snatched him.”

“Yes. Thank you.” The words stuck in Cathy’s throat. Loki had never managed to get out of the front - at least not unnoticed - and she didn’t believe he had this time either. She wasn’t sure how they had done it but she honestly believed the couple had somehow got into the house and taken the dog. A perfect excuse to come back to the home and talk to the family. She didn’t know how they had done it and truthfully she didn’t care. She just wanted them out of her life once and for all.

“We were thinking about getting a dog. Thought about it after we found out we couldn’t have children…”

They reached the open door of the house. Jeff leaned into the house and dropped Loki into the hallway. Loki ran up the stairs and out of sight. Jeff turned back to Cathy - blocking her from getting into the house.

“So how are you guys anyway?” he asked as though he were catching up with long lost friends.

“What?” Cathy couldn’t believe the cheek of the guy. Did he really think they were friends? Did he really think he had a right to ask after the family? They were strangers. Strangers whom James happened to help out. Cathy wondered whether James would have helped them if he knew how… clingy… they were going to get.

“The family. How are you all? Keeping well I hope.”

“I’m sorry - I have to go… I’ve got dinner in the oven.”

“Oh, right, okay. Sorry. I didn’t mean to hold you up.”

Jeff stepped to the side and Cathy took the opportunity to get into her house. She turned back to Jeff, with her hand on the door - ready to slam it shut.

“Thank you for bringing the dog back,” she said - trying to keep Jeff happy for the sake of being polite only.

“Not a problem. Oh - before I forget - I was actually coming by to drop this off.”

He held up the white envelope he had in his hand.

“What is it?” Cathy asked, in an almost aggressive tone.

“I had my friend draft up the papers.”

“The papers?”

“You got the letter we dropped off right? Our offer?”

“You need to leave,” Cathy hissed.

“Yeah, have to pick the wife up from work,” said Jeff. He raised the letter higher for Cathy to take. “So - yes - take a look at this and let me know what you think.”

“Are you actually insane? We don’t want it. We’re not giving our children up.”

“Why not? You have so many - not the biggest of properties… We thought we’d be doing you a favour!”

“Just… Leave us alone. Don’t come back here. If you do - we’re calling the police. Okay?”

Jeff didn’t say anything. He just stood there with the letter held out to Cathy still. Cathy shook her head in disbelief before slamming the door in his face. Jeff hesitated a moment before he slid the letter through the letterbox. He hesitated a moment before walking away - back towards his waiting car.

* * * * *

“You told him where to go. You slammed the door in his face. He’s gone. It’s dealt with.” James had walked into the house to find Cathy waiting for him, sitting on the bottom of the stairs with the home phone in her hand - fingers twitching to call for the police. “Just leave it.”

“It’s dealt with? How is it dealt with? Even after I slammed the door in his face, he still dropped the letter in as though there was still a chance we’d go with his scheme. Here is clearly a man who has not got the message… And the dog - he took the dog!”

“You said he returned the dog.”

“After taking him - yes. He took the dog.”

“How? It sounds like Loki got out. We should be grateful the man brought the dog back to us. A dog like that, anyone could have taken him… Look I’m not sure what is going on with you, and I’m here to talk about it if you want to, but you need to let this go. You told them we weren’t interested. Done deal. Gone. Finished. Drop it, just as I am sure they’re going to drop it too.”

“I’ll call the police myself then.”

“Oh Jesus, and say what exactly?” He mimicked her voice, “Hi, I’d like to report someone for returning my dog to me.”

“People are threatening our family - your children - and you don’t seem to care.”

“No. They’re not threatening my family. They asked - rather randomly I’ll admit - whether we would be willing to let them adopt two of our children. That’s not a threat. Bizarre, yes. Threat? No.”

“A restraining order.”

“What?”

“We can get a restraining order. Keep them away from our house.”

James fell silent. He didn’t know what to say. His wife was clearly worried about the couple but - to him - they were harmless. They hadn’t shown any threatening behaviour towards the family, they hadn’t been abusive to them - nor given any inclination that they could turn that way. If it weren’t for the letter they dropped in, asking for the legal right to take the kids, they would be yet another normal couple. Hell, after his time with them when he gave them shelter, he even thought they seemed pleasant.

“I just don’t think it’s necessary,” James said, eventually.

“You don’t think your children’s safety is…”

James cut her short, “Do not question me about the safety of my children. If you want to know, I think you’re being a little too paranoid about all of this. It’s bordering on the ridiculous…”

“They sent us a letter asking…”

He didn’t let her finish again, “I am well aware of what they did. Today, you told them where to go. You told them we weren’t interested. I am pretty sure we won’t hear from them again. If you want, I can even write them a letter tonight stating we’re not interested. I can get it in the post first thing, recorded delivery.” He took a deep breath, “I think, maybe, you should give the horror a rest for a minute.”

“What?”

“The horror books. The ones you love reading - I think you should give it a rest for a while.”

“You think I can’t differentiate between fiction and reality?”

“I’m not saying that, I’m just saying..”

“Yes you are. That’s exactly what you’re saying. Well I’m sorry if I might be a little over-cautious when it comes to the safety of my family but it has absolutely nothing to do with what I may or may not choose to read. If anything, perhaps you should start reading some of what I choose so you can get a glimpse of what the real world is like.”

“The real world? What you think you’re going to find real life stuff in books by Matt Shaw, Iain Rob Wright or Michael Bray? They’re fiction. Nothing more and nothing less. The products of an individual’s vivid imagination.”

“You’re an idiot. Just… Don’t even talk to me.”

James sighed. He kicked his shoes off by the front door and walked through to the living room, leaving Cathy sitting on the stairs - fuming. Misty and Libby looked at James, a worried look on their faces.

“Are you and mum going to get a divorce?” asked Misty.

James tutted under his breath as he let his laptop bag slide from his shoulder onto the floor, “No. Sometimes mummy and daddy just like to raise our voices for a change. Otherwise it can get boring hearing the same voice all the time. This way it mixes things up,” he said with a wink.

The girls laughed.

Cathy called through from the stairs, “And your dad is an idiot,” she shouted.

Keeping things light, James smiled at the girls, “But you already knew that..” he gave them a wink.

FRIDAY

Friday was a breath of fresh air all round for James. It had finally stopped raining and even the sun had come out a little, although only teasingly so as it still liked to disappear behind the many clouds dotted across the sky. Sure it wasn’t a perfect day but considering how the rest of the week had been - it was a beautiful summer’s day by comparison. Cathy hadn’t really spoken to him the previous night - their earlier argument on how best to handle the situation with the strange couple had turned to ‘the silent treatment’ but neither seemed to mind that much. Cathy had used the night reading her horror collection on her Kindle - if only to annoy James a little more after he’d told her to give them a break - and James had spent the night staring at various assignments on his laptop; each one with an ever-looming deadline which didn’t help his stress levels.

It wasn’t just the weather which had changed though. By the time James had returned from work he was pleased to note that Cathy’s mood had also taken a turn (for the better) and - not just that - she didn’t mention the couple at all. There were no more letters, there were no more issues… Everything just seemed normal.

Over dinner James kept expecting Cathy to mention something about the couple but she didn’t say a word. Well - not about them at least. She mentioned the weather, she said what she’d done with her day, she asked the girls how school was, even asked James what he’d been up to at university (although the exact details never usually interested her because she didn’t share that particular passion). As James sat across from her - he couldn’t help but watch, and listen, wondering whether she was continually talking in an effort to keep her mind from turning to the couple. Had she really managed to finally put it from her mind or was it still there, bubbling underneath the surface? He half wanted to test the water by asking her whether there had been any mail delivered today. On one hand an entirely innocent question but - given recent circumstances - one which could have been taken completely differently. He swallowed his next mouthful of potato down, along with all thoughts of testing the water. He didn’t like arguing with Cathy. If she was making the effort to forget about the strangers - and their strange requests - then he should respect that. No sense in rocking the boat for the sake of it.

The rest of the evening went smoothly too. The girls played quietly for a while before all - at varying times - heading off to bed. Cathy sat with the television on, happily knitting with her assorted balls of wool. James himself sat on the sofa with his laptop on his lap - university assignment loaded up (and near completion much to his relief). Even Loki was behaving; lying down in the middle of the living room floor quietly snoring, with his back leg twitching. It wasn’t even a question of being given the silent treatment as - occasionally, when it looked as though James was taking a break from writing his assignment answer, Cathy would ask him something or tell him something that she thought he’d be interested to know. She’d even talk about the television programme she was watching - some old horror movie - laughing about a predictable character or questioning the abilities of the writer.

As the credits rolled James asked her whether she had liked the film’

“It could have been good,” she said, “but no. I don’t know… It was like Joe Pasquale reading a passage from The Shining.”

James couldn’t help but laugh. He liked how Cathy critiqued various things she read, or watched. Sometimes he wondered whether she was trying to be genuinely funny with her comments or whether it just happened. He leaned across from where he was sitting and gave Cathy a kiss on the cheek.

“What was that for?” she asked.

“Can I not just kiss my wife?”

She eyed him up suspiciously.

“Try again,” she said.

“It’s just nice.”

“What is?” she raised an eyebrow.

“This.”

“This?”

“This is nice. Tonight, this evening. It’s been nice. You know, after last night… The silence…” he immediately regretted bringing up the previous night.

Cathy shrugged, “I’m just bored with arguing about it,” she said. “You have your opinion. I have my opinion. If they get in touch again - for anything - we’re going to the police, no arguments.”

James nodded, “That’s fine. Thank you.”

Cathy smiled at him. What James didn’t know was Cathy had already approached the police, along with the two letters drafted by the couple. She kept the story straight with regards to what happened exactly; she said how her husband had invited them in and she mentioned the letters. She did not mention her theory about both the origin of the chocolates or the family dog being potentially snatched (albeit temporarily before it was given back again). The police officer who came to talk to her agreed the whole thing seemed a little strange but they didn’t seem overly alarmed about it. They did - however - say they’d run a check on the two names just to be safe. If there was anything to worry about, they explained they would step in and have a word and perhaps talk to Cathy and James about the option for a restraining order but - otherwise - Cathy should just keep an eye out for them. They were of the same opinion as James; Cathy had told them that they weren’t interested and that they should leave them alone and - since then - that’s exactly what they seemed to have done.

“With any luck,” the officer had said, “you’ve seen the last of them.”

He had also explained that Cathy should call them straight away if she felt her family were in any immediate danger but, given what had been talked about, it sounded as though it had already been dealt with. Funny how the officer’s words put Cathy at ease despite the fact James had - more or less - said the same thing himself.

“And - for the record - if you invite anyone else in out of the rain… I’ll kill you,” Cathy smiled sweetly at him.

James nodded, “Fair enough. So - what did you do with the letters?” he asked.

“I put them in the bin. I just wanted them out of the house.”

“Shame. We could have framed them. A permanent reminder for when the kids are misbehaving. We could have turned to the letters, hanging on the wall, and reminded ourselves that once - once upon a time - someone actually liked them enough to want to take them off our hands.” James laughed as he continued to make light of the situation, “Hell, we’ll probably be pulling the damn things off the wall and seeing if the offer still stands.”

Cathy hit him, “Don’t be so cruel.”

“Oh come on, I’m joking. You know I love them. Ninety-nine percent of the time. But come on… Let’s play the game…”

“What are you talking about?”

“The hypothetical game of what if.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“I’m not playing…”

James continued regardless, “What if we did decide to give two of the children away?” James asked.

“I said I’m not playing…”

“… Which two would you give up and why?”

Cathy put her knitting needles down to the side, “And on that note I’m going to bed.” She got up and walked towards the door after telling James he could turn everything off.

“Come on,” he called after her, “two names… Who’d it be?”

Cathy walked from the room.

James stood up, smirking at having wound Cathy up, and turned to look at the picture of the whole family which hung on the wall above the settee. One of those family photographs taken by a professional which saw them all posing together; beaming smiles on their faces. He looked at the picture and laughed again at how easy it was to playfully wind his wife up. He wouldn’t give the children up, none of them. Even on the worst day he wouldn’t part with them, just as Cathy wouldn’t. He’d love them no matter what and would never want to be away from them and Cathy was the same - if not a little more so (although the difference was negligible).

He turned the television up and gently tapped the dog awake, “Come on, boy, time for bed…”

The dog grunted as he slowly came out of his pleasant dream and scrambled up to his feet. As James helped him towards the door, with a foot up his bum, Loki turned and grunted another low growl at him. James couldn’t help but laugh as he imagined it was Loki’s way of telling him to ‘fuck off’.

“Yeah, you fuck off,” he laughed.

When they were both out of the living room, James turned around and closed the door behind him. Loki was still a puppy, maybe when he was older they could trust him to stay in there for the night but not now. Too many accidents despite his best intentions. Accidents happen.

Loki started to growl. James noticed he was staring at the front door.

“What’s crawled up your arse?” he asked.

The dog whined and ran up the stairs with his tail between his legs. James watched him for a while before turning to the front door.

“Well that was a first.”

James turned towards the stairs and froze. He turned back to the front door and paused a moment. He turned his head back in the direction the dog had run. Loki was sitting at the top of the stairs - staring at the front door.

“What is wrong with you? Come here…”

Loki whined and backed up a little.

“Loki, come here… Look… There’s nothing out here.”

James walked to the door and opened it up. A burst of cold air rushed in from the dark night beyond. James turned back to the dog and beckoned for him to come down the stairs to see for himself that there was nothing to be scared of. Loki didn’t move; he let out a low growl once more. James tutted as a shiver ran down his spine as another gust of wind blew into the house.

* * * * *

Having got changed into a tee-shirt and leggings ready for bed, Cathy crept quietly to her side before climbing in. Quinn was quietly sleeping in her own bed and Cathy didn’t want to wake her - not that she was particularly easy to wake up. She pulled the duvet up around her body and snuggled down in the hope that the bed would hurry up and warm a little. She rolled onto her side, facing the window, and couldn’t help but wonder where James was. She thought he was coming up right behind her. She shrugged to herself as she guessed he’d been distracted by something on the computer. It wouldn’t be the first time and she was sure it wouldn’t be the last either. It used to bother her at first but now she was used to it and - sometimes - it was the other way round anyway; he’d go on up to bed and she’d stay downstairs until she’d finished the chapter she was on with whatever book she was reading.

A noise from the landing stole Cathy’s attention. She sat up and listened intently; her head titled to one side as though that helped. Quinn’s heavy breathing from the side of the bed, the wind blowing through the trees outside, a car alarm in the distance but… Nothing… Wait. There it was again. Loki. He was growling from just beyond the bedroom door, on the landing.

“Loki, hush!” Cathy shushed him in a hushed voice herself so as not to wake her sleeping child. She stayed sat up as she listened to see if Loki had heard her and - more importantly - listened to her.

Quinn’s heavy breathing.

A slight fidget from Quinn as she turned in her bed.

The wind blowing through the trees outside.

No car alarm; the owner had clearly silenced it.

Loki growled again.

Cathy muttered under her breath as she climbed from underneath the duvet and walked from the room to see what the problem was with the dog. She couldn’t help but wonder why it was her investigating what was wrong with Loki when James was still up. She should have been able to stay under the warming blankets and James should have checked on the dog. In her mind, she had already decided to return the favour if this occasion ever arouse again with their roles reversed; James in bed and Cathy downstairs.

“What is it?” she asked Loki as soon as she saw him. Loki turned to her whined. Before Cathy had a chance to ask him again, he turned and ran past her - towards her bedroom. “Bloody dog!” She called downstairs to James, “Thanks for ignoring the dog. He’s not just my pet, you know!”

James didn’t answer. Cathy hesitated at the top of the stairs a moment, listening for any sounds from downstairs. Nothing. Everything was quiet.

“James?”

She waited again and - again - there was nothing.

Cathy walked down the stairs; heading back towards the living room, where she’d left her husband. She called his name again and - again - there was no reply. She turned into the living room and froze on the spot. Her pulse had raised slightly as she’d started walking down the stairs calling out to a seemingly absent husband but now - now she was confronted by this - her pulse was racing faster than she’d felt before with a sickness swirling around in the pit of her stomach.

“James?”

FRIDAY NIGHT

James was sitting on the sofa; he looked uncomfortable. Standing in front of him, with his head turned back to face Cathy, was Jeff. He wasn’t threatening James on first appearances; his hands were even in his pockets. That wasn’t what made Cathy feel nervous - it was the fact he was there at all.

“Oh hello, James had said you’d gone off to bed. We didn’t disturb you, did we?” Jeff said. His tone made Cathy uncomfortable too - as well as his appearance. It wasn’t the fact he sounded as though he were being overly aggressive, it was the fact he sounded perfectly normal. Like him being here was absolutely fine, even after his last conversation with Cathy.

“What are you doing here?” Cathy asked. She tried - unsuccessfully - to hide her shaking tone. Before Jeff had a chance to answer her question, Cathy was shoved into the living room from behind. She fell forward onto her knees with a heavy thud as the man’s wife walked into the room. James went to stand up in order to defend his wife but was kept firmly in his seat with a stern look from Jeff who simply shook his head at him.

“The children are asleep,” said the woman.

“Any preference as to which two you’d like?” Jeff asked his wife, Dawn.

Cathy sat up from where she landed on the floor; a look of horror on her face.

“I quite like the twins,” said Dawn. “Not many people have twins, do they? We’ll be the talk of the town!”

“You can’t have our children!” Cathy hissed.

Dawn walked across the room and stood next to her husband. They both looked at Cathy in utter disbelief at what she’d just said. They’d come for the children and what Cathy didn’t realise (yet) was that they weren’t leaving without them. Not all of them - they didn’t want to rip the whole family apart - just two. Two children.

“Please come and sit next to your husband,” said Jeff. He held his hand out to help Cathy up from the floor. Cathy didn’t take his hand but clambered to her feet. She nervously walked over to James and sat with him. He immediately put her arm around her to offer her some form of comfort.

“Are you okay?” James asked her.

Cathy was shaking - clearly scared - but she was okay. She nodded.

“Let’s get this finished, shall we? Then we can go and start our new life with our little family and you can carry on with your life,” Jeff suggested. He looked around the room, “Where’s the paperwork we gave you?” he asked.

“She put it in the bin,” James said.

Jeff stood there for a moment; a look of confusion on his face.

“You put it in the bin? Do you know how much trouble we went to in order to get those drafted up for you? You really put them in the bin?”

Cathy shook her head.

“What? You didn’t put them in the bin? Yes or no?”

“I didn’t put them in the bin,” Cathy said.

Jeff visibly breathed a sigh of relief. Even Dawn smiled.

“You had me concerned then. I was going to say - here we are doing you a favour by giving you more time to spend with your other children and here you two are throwing it back in our faces. Not entirely sure the correct way to respond to that…” he laughed.

“I didn’t put it in the bin because the police kept a hold of them,” said Cathy.

James shot her a look. This was the first he’d known about the police. As far as he was concerned, the paperwork was binned and they’d agreed not to get the police involved as it all seemed trivial. Up until this point James had been silently kicking himself with regards to keeping the police out of it but now he knew they did know… He found himself irritated that Cathy had lied to him.

“The police?” Jeff looked confused again. “Why would you do that?”

“You’re trying to kidnap our children,” she replied.

“No we’re not!” Dawn shouted.

Jeff held his hand up to his wife; a gesture to silence her.

“We’re not trying to kidnap your children,” Jeff said. “We’re trying to adopt them. I thought we had established this. We get to have children and you two get more time to spend with the other kids. Win, win.”

“We’re not giving up any of our children!” James said.

Jeff nodded, “Yes - you are.”

Both of the couples fell silent. James and Cathy clearly more nervous than the two visitors.

“Well look - fret not…” Jeff turned to Dawn, “Honey, you got the duplicates?”

Dawn nodded and reached into her long overcoat pocket, pulling out two duplicate copies of both the letter they’d originally dropped in and the adoption form they’d organised through their friend. She handed them to Jeff who gave them a quick once over to ensure they were the correct forms. When he was satisfied, he gave a little nod with his head to show as such. He slid the papers into the back pocket of his jeans and looked to Cathy and James.

“Right,” he said, “you’ve heard what my wonder wife thinks so… What do you think? Shall we agree upon the twins? Makes sense if you think about it… They both look the same so I’d imagine it would be like you’re giving one child away.”

“Did you not hear me?” said Cathy. “I went to the police!”

Jeff stood up straight. He nodded.

“Yes. I heard you. You went to the police. And how did that go for you?”

“They’re investigating.”

“They are? Investigating what exactly?” Jeff smiled.

“You want to take our children from us.”

“What? No. We want to adopt two of your children. I’m not sure whether you understand law but - believe it or not - adoption is not a crime. It happens all the time, all around the world. Hell - sometimes - people fly to other countries to adopt children from under privileged areas. It’s all quite heart-warming… People who can’t have children get to have their kids. It’s lovely. As is this. You’re helping us out. And we thank you.”

“I know how adoption works you piece of shit. And I’ll say it again - we’re not giving up any of our children.”

Jeff smiled again, “Yes - yes you are. And the sooner you do, the sooner we can all get on with our lives. So - I’ll ask again - which two are you going to give up?”

“Why two?” James asked, stalling for more time with which he could come up with a way out of this - without losing any of their children.

“Well I’m an only child and, I’ll be honest with you, that wasn’t much fun when I was growing up. Dawn here, she was a middle child and - well…”

“Middle children get ignored,” Dawn piped up.

“We don’t want our children to be ignored and we don’t want our children to not have any fun so it seems obvious - we’d need two.”

“You’ll have to find them elsewhere,” said James, “our children aren’t up for adoption. Why not go down the proper channels to get a child? What’s the matter - did you fail the background checks?”

“Let’s try not to get personal. This whole thing will be a lot easier if we stay on track,” Jeff’s voice didn’t rise but there was a tone to it which suggested he wasn’t to be messed with. A tone which James and Cathy both noted. Jeff took the letters from his pocket and held them out to James who begrudgingly took it.

“All we need are your names and the names of the children you want to sign over to us. It’s quite easy. All very straight forward.”

James hesitated a moment before a thought materialised in his head, “I’m not just going to sign this without our solicitor going through it as well to ensure everything is above board.”

“Everything is fine. I told you - our friend is a lawyer, he did it for us.”

“But even so…”

“You’re signing tonight. There’ll be no arguments.”

“Would you mind if my husband and I had a few minutes to discuss which children we’d like you to adopt?” Cathy said. She hoped the strangers would step from the room for a while giving them some much needed privacy to discuss a plan out of this mess.

“We’ve already said - we’ll take the twins thank you,” said Jeff.

“That won’t work with us. If you want us to give up two of our children,” Cathy countered, “then it has to be our choice as to which children.”

Jeff didn’t respond. He looked to Dawn.

She shrugged, “I just want children,” she said, “and they’re all quite cute.”

“My husband and I would like some privacy to discuss our options,” Cathy continued. “It’s obviously quite a big decision.”

Dawn nodded, “Of course.” She turned to her husband, “We can’t rush them into this decision,” she said. “We need to give them time.” She turned back to James and Cathy, “We’ll come back in a couple of minutes,” she said.

“A couple of minutes? You just said you can’t rush us into this and you’re giving us a couple of minutes?” said Cathy. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Your time starts now,” said Dawn. She led Jeff from the living room and pulled the door shut, leaving a panic-stricken Cathy to discuss options with her equally worried husband.

“What the hell are we going to do?” Cathy turned to James as soon as the door clicked shut.

“We’re going to phone the police. That’s what.”

James jumped up and crossed the room to the telephone. He lifted the receiver to his ear. By the look on his face, Cathy could tell it wasn’t working.

“They must have cut it,” he said as he quietly replaced it.

“What about your mobile phone?” Cathy asked.

“It’s charging in the other room.”

Cathy’s heart sank further. Her own phone being upstairs in their bedroom, also on charge ready for the next day.

“One of us could get out via the patio door,” Cathy suggested. “We could go and get help…”

James looked towards the patio door and the main door from living room to hallway. He wasn’t sure whether it was a good plan, or whether it was asking for more trouble but - in the limited time they had to come up with a possible way out - it was probably the best they’d come up with.

“You’ll have to be quick,” said James.

He walked over to the patio door and carefully opened it, trying to keep the noise made from the door to an absolute minimum.

“You’re quicker than me,” Cathy said, “you should go.”

“There’s no way I am leaving you with them,” said James. “You go or we think of something else but if you choose the latter, we’d better be quick because we probably don’t have very long.”

Cathy looked from door to patio door. She looked back to James and nodded.

“Yes? Yes what?”

“I’ll go,” she said.

“Be quick!”

Cathy leaned forward and gave James a kiss.

“And you be careful!” she said.

She looked back to the living room door and back to her husband. It was evident from the expression on her face that she didn’t want to go and leave him - or the children - but she knew she didn’t have a choice; not if they were going to get these people out of their house without any trouble.

“Go on!” James ushered her out of the door. He watched as Cathy disappeared into the garden. Carefully - and quietly - he closed the patio door. He just stood there a moment, unsure of what to do and clearly concerned about the couple’s reaction to his missing wife. He knew they were going to be angry - of course they were - he just hoped they weren’t going to overreact. Hopefully they’d take the opportunity to get out of the house. Even if they did leave, though, James wasn’t going to drop it. He’d get the police here and he’d look at pressing whatever charges would stick, along with obtaining a restraining order.

A few more minutes - which felt like hours to James - went by and still the couple hadn’t reappeared. He panicked for a moment as he thought about them sneaking upstairs and stealing the children from under their noses until he realised there’d be no way of getting any of the kids out of their beds without them screaming the place down. He wanted to go and find them but knew he couldn’t. He needed to give Cathy as much time as possible and - even if she had already got to the neighbours - he needed to give the police time to get to the house too. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously as a bead of sweat dripped down his spine.

“Please be quick,” he whispered to himself, “please be quick!”

After what seemed an eternity - but was most likely a mere minute more - the door to the living room opened and Dawn walked in. She closed the door behind her. James’ heart skipped a beat as he knew he was seconds away from Dawn calling out to her husband; raising the alarm to Cathy’s escape.

“Did you come to a decision?” she asked him.

James frowned. Her question wasn’t what he had expected.

“No.”

“If you can’t come to a decision,” she said, “we’re going to have to choose for you. After all - we don’t have all day, do we?”

“Why are you doing this?” James asked, trying to keep her mind away from both Cathy and the children.

“We said in our letter. We can’t have children and we’d like them. You have five children. You don’t need five of them. Three is plenty enough…”

“If you take two of our children, we’ll be left with three.”

“I’m glad your maths is good,” Dawn said sarcastically.

“You’ll leave us with three children. That means we’ll have a middle child. You said yourself - it isn’t fun for any child to be the middle one. They get ignored.”

“But you’re in the fortunate position of being able to have another child should you choose to. Yes you’ll have three for a while but within a month, you could be well on your way to a fourth child again.”

James shook his head, “You’re unbelievable. How can you do this to a family?”

“How can we do this to your family? We’re helping you out. Five children must be hard. You have a really young one, you have twins and you have what looks to be two teenagers… You have your hands full. We’re trying to help you. You’re the one putting your own family in danger,” she continued.

There was something about the way she said the final sentence; James was the one putting his family in danger. He realised that there was no way she wouldn’t have noticed Cathy was missing from the room. He suddenly felt very, very uncomfortable.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.

“What do you think it means? You asked for time to discuss which of the children you’re willing to let us adopt and yet you… It doesn’t matter. You’ve forced our hand…”

“What the fuck have you done?”

James grabbed the woman and shoved her to the side. He stormed out of the living room and into the hallway. Jeff was standing in the doorway to the dining room. He turned to face James when he heard his footsteps.

“What the fuck have you done?” James hissed.

Without any warning Jeff charged towards him and shoved him - hard - back into the living room. The two men crashed to the floor with a loud bang, which made Dawn jump. Jeff had the upper hand as he landed on top of James. He didn’t get off. He stayed there and moved his hands to James’ throat.

He hissed at him, “Did you and your wife want your children to be orphans? Do you think we’re stupid?” Jeff wasn’t the biggest of men. He had height on his side, but not the weight to back it up. The only reason James was pinned was because he’d managed to knock the wind out of him and - now he was throttling him - he was keeping it out. Jeff squeezed harder until James’ face turned a deeper shade of purple. Dawn was grinning like a lunatic to the side of the two men, clearly getting off on the unforeseen burst of violence displayed by her husband. “If you’re both dead - we’ll probably take two of your kids as discussed but, in all honestly, we’re probably not ready to take five on… You see… Five is just being fucking greedy.” With each word on the last part of the sentence- five is just being fucking greedy - Jeff lifted James’ head from the floor and hit it back down hard upon it again until, with the help of the lack of oxygen, James blacked out; the last thing he heard was Dawn’s crazed laughter.

MIDNIGHT

James tried to move but couldn’t; something holding his arms and legs in place. Despite a pounding headache he opened his eyes and was momentarily blinded by the bright light hanging from what turned out to be the dining room ceiling. When his eyes focused he looked down to his hands he noticed they were tied to the dining room chair he was sitting on.

“What the fuck?”

From where he was sitting he couldn’t see his ankles but presumed they were also bound judging by the lack of movement there. He looked up and noticed he was facing the dining room wall.

“Hello? Anyone?”

He spoke loudly but didn’t shout out for fear of waking the children. Whatever was happening in the house, they didn’t need to see - or hear - any of it for fear of the situation frightening them.

“I’d say keep your voice down but you’re not going to wake the children up so - you know - feel free to shout and scream as much as you want.”

Jeff’s voice had come from behind him; definitely in the same room.

“What are you talking about? What have you done to my kids? Face me, you son of a bitch.”

“Hey now,” Jeff hissed, “I said you can shout and scream as much as you want but let’s not go swearing in front of my wife.”

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY CHILDREN?” James screamed.

Jeff laughed, “I can’t believe you’re not concerned about your wife. Some marriage this is.”

James tried to calm himself down before he opened his mouth again, despite the need to keep shouting and keep swearing at this asshole.

“Look - please - untie me and let’s talk this through. Like adults. The whole thing, we can discuss it all and we can arrange it all. You, me, your wife… My wife. I’ll sign the papers. We’ll sign the papers.”

“Oh, now you want to sign over the ownership to us?”

James couldn’t help but latch onto the word ‘ownership’. No wonder the couple hadn’t managed to get any joy through the official channels. He shifted in his chair wondering what else he could do, or say, to bring everything to a peaceful resolution; a sinking feeling that things would never be the same again for his family. Not by the end of the night anyway.

“Please - where’s my wife? And what have you done with my children?”

Jeff didn’t answer. If it weren’t for the fact that James could hear his breathing, he’d have thought he’d left the room.

“I know you’re there. Come on… What are you going to do?”

Still no answer. He wondered whether Jeff was getting off on this.

“Look we got off on the wrong foot and I’d just like to thank you for your offer of helping Cathy and I out…”

“Go on then,” Jeff said suddenly.

“What?”

“Thank me.”

“What?”

“You wanted to thank me for helping you out. So do it. Thank me.”

James hesitated for a moment before, “Thank you.”

“What for?”

Another slight hesitation as James strained against the restraints. He wanted to break free, he wanted to get a hold of the stranger sitting behind him and he wanted to smash his face in. He took a deep breath and continued, “Thank you for the letter you dropped in. Thank you for offering to take two of our children to give Cathy and I more time for the other children and - of course - each other. On behalf of myself and my wife - thank you very much. We’re incredibly grateful.”

“So how come we find ourselves in this situation now?”

“What do you mean?”

“You say you’re grateful and yet here we are - you’re tied to this chair and your wife is… Well…” Jeff fell silent.

James struggled against the restraints again, “My wife is what? What have you done to her, you son of a bitch?”

“Now, now. Don’t be like that. We were getting on so well. Don’t ruin it. Answer the question; if you’re grateful - why are we in this position now?”

“We were just confused,” said James making it up on the spot. “I don’t know. I’m sorry.” James started to cry, “Please tell me what you’ve done to my wife.”

“Imagine my surprise,” Jeff said, “when I stepped outside for a little smoke… You and your wife were in the living room supposedly talking about which children you’d like to give up… And yet… There I was, having a smoke, when suddenly your wife appears out of the blue gate to the side of the house… Can you imagine my surprise.”

James felt his body trembling as his imagination started to picture the worst case scenario. Another pointless struggle against the restraints. He asked the question that he both wanted an answer to - and didn’t want an answer to - in equal measures, “Did you kill my wife?”

Jeff laughed, “Of course I didn’t kill your wife,” he said.

James audibly breathed a sigh of relief.

“Not yet anyway. You see - I need both of you to sign the paperwork otherwise it doesn’t count. You both need to sign.”

“What have you done to her?”

“I just gave her a little something to calm her down. She was pretty excitable and I couldn’t have her attracting unwanted attention. Gave your kids the same stuff too so they could all sleep peacefully through the negotiations. Bad news is, we need your wife to wake up before we continue with previously mentioned negotiations and that could be anything from an hour to a couple of hours… I’m hoping the shorter timeframe though as I gave her a smaller dosage compared to the kids…”

“You’re a couple of Sick B*stards.”

“No. We just want to be parents.”

“Untie me, we’ll talk.”

“No. I don’t think so.”

“So now what? We’re just going to sit here until Cathy wakes up? You say you gave her something? You sure you got the dose right? What if she doesn’t wake up?”

“She will.”

“Done this before?”

Jeff didn’t say anything.

James tried twisting in his chair to see if he could see Cathy or even the man’s own wife. He couldn’t see anything despite his best efforts. He started to worry about the man’s wife.

“Where’s your wife?” he asked Jeff; panic clearly in his voice.

“Relax. She’s upstairs with the children.”

“What’s she doing?” James panicked further.

“Oi. I said stay calm,” Jeff hissed - annoyed that James dared get upset. “She’s not doing anything. She’s just sitting in with them. Watching them sleep. If anything you should be thanking her for keeping an eye on them for you. She could be down here, ignoring them, but no - she’s offering a free babysitting service for you.”

“Don’t you dare touch my children!”

“Are you listening to me? She is watching them. How does that sound like - she is snatching them away from your house… We aren’t kidnappers. We’re here to help you. We aren’t about to run away with your kids. We just want to adopt two of them.”

James struggled to see the man’s logic. They said they weren’t kidnappers and yet here they were forcing the parents to sign papers (and rights) to two of their kids. It wasn’t the usual way of kidnapping children, granted, but it still had to count as such surely. And then it slowly dawned on James that - with the papers signed by both parents - in the eyes of the law there’d be a good chance they wouldn’t get their children back. The courts would side with the strangers.

He imagined the Judge saying, “Well we have the official adoption papers…”

He struggled against the restraints again. Jeff laughed.

“Good luck breaking through those,” he said as he patted James on the shoulder. He sat down on one of the other dining room chairs and sighed heavily, “It’s getting late and I’m sure you’re as tired as I am. Have you had any thought as to which children you’d like to us to take for you? It would be nice if you had some opinion before your wife wakes up so we could perhaps move things along and get this paperwork signed. Sooner it’s signed - sooner everything returns to normal.”

“How am I supposed to choose between my children?” he asked, a tear rolled down his cheek.

“I don’t know. Some of us aren’t lucky enough to have children to choose between. Maybe you could flip a coin. Or I could see if you have straws in the kitchen… Five straws, two of them short and the rest long… We say the child’s name and pull a straw. If it’s long - they stay. Short - they come home with us. Oh that reminds me - their names - how are you fixed with those because we’d probably want to change them…”

James changed the subject, “Why do you even want children? They’re hard work. They cost a lot of money and sometimes - sometimes - they can drive you up the wall with their arguing and bickering and…”

“See - we’re doing you a favour. Maybe we should take all five off your hands and give you and your beautiful wife A Fresh Start. You might be sad to start off with but… I’m sure you’ll both go on to find your Happy Ever After.”

James realised then that his recently formed plan of trying to talk the man out of wanting children was a non-starter. Clearly the man had made his mind up long ago that - to live a happy life with his wife - he needed kids in his life.

“So come on - you’ve had loads of time - give me two names.”

“I can’t.”

“You can. Concentrate.”

“Can’t.”

“Okay then don’t think about it. Just shout two names. First two that pop into your head.”

“Please don’t make me choose.”

“Then we’ll choose.”

“No.”

“I noticed you have a nice family portrait photo hanging in the lounge - want me to go and fetch it? You can just point to two of the children. Would that help?”

“No.”

“So we will choose then.”

“I need to talk to my wife.”

“You had that chance. You chose to break my trust and force us down this path.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You said. Two names. Give them to me.”

“I can’t.”

“You keep saying that. It’s annoying. You sound like a broken record.”

“Would you be able to choose if the tables were turned?”

“I can’t have my own kids, we’ll never know.”

“Pretend.”

“This isn’t about me. Two names.”

“No. You’ve already said you won’t kill us. You’ve said you won’t kill us and take the children because you’re not kidnappers.”

“Two names or I’ll kill your entire family.”

“What?”

“I’ll make you watch. I’ll start with the children so the wife can watch too and then I’ll move to her before - after leaving you alone for a bit longer - I kill you.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Look at where you are now. Don’t test me.”

“You want children. If you want children you must love them. You couldn’t kill them.”

“They’re not my children though, are they? They’re yours. Makes it easier to hurt them. If I can’t have them - no one will.”

James couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He struggled against the restraints again. He could feel them cutting into his wrists but that was it. He couldn’t feel them giving. He let out a scream.

“Scream all you want. No one is coming. Two names.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Fuck you.”

“Two names or they die.”

Jeff jumped up from his chair, behind James, and rammed a knife into the wall in front of where James was sitting. James jumped, shocked at the sudden violence and obvious threat he was facing.

“Two names or they die,” Jeff repeated. “I’m not joking and we’re not doing this all night.”

1:45 AM

Dawn was sitting by the twins’ bunk beds with a book in her lap. She stopped reading from it when she noticed Jeff standing in the doorway watching her.

“How long have you been there?” she asked, almost embarrassed.

Jeff smiled, “Long enough.” He paused a moment. “You know they can’t hear you, right?”

“Do you know that for sure?”

Jeff didn’t answer her.

“I remember when I was growing up,” Dawn said, “my Granddad got ill and slipped into a coma. Mum and dad took us to visit him in the hospital. I guess they were worried he wasn’t coming home. Anyway the nurse - she told us to talk to him. Apparently it would help Granddad because he could hear us…”

Jeff laughed, “And you believed that?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Did your Granddad wake up?”

“After a couple of days. Died at home a few months later.”

“And did he mention the conversations you had with him in the hospital?”

Dawn didn’t comment. She looked back down to her book and shrugged. Jeff realised it wasn’t the best idea to mock his wife - not about this.

“I guess it’s good practise though,” he said back-tracking; referring to reading to the girls whilst they were sleeping off the drugs they’d been injected with. He changed the subject further, “What are you reading them anyway?”

Dawn closed the book and set it to one side out of Jeff’s eye-line, “Just found it out there,” she said. On the landing space was a large bookcase filled with books. The majority of which appeared to belong to the children. “They look so cute when they sleep,” she continued - turning the conversation back to the children.

“Well you shouldn’t get too attached to the twins,” he said, “I don’t think they’re going to give them up.”

“Can’t you talk them into it? I really want them.”

“I’ll try but I can’t make any promises.”

The pair fell into a comfortable silence. Dawn was watching the children; picturing her life with them. Jeff was watching his wife; worried he wouldn’t be able to get her what she wanted.

Dawn broke the silence, “I think we should go on a holiday.”

“Oh?”

“Just the four of us.”

“Where would you go?”

“We should take them to Disney. All children enjoy Disney. They get to meet the characters and they get to go on the rides…”

“That’s a lot of money,” Jeff pointed out the obvious.

“We could get a loan.”

“Don’t you think we should sort the house first and get the girls some clothes and toys? Bits and pieces to make them feel comfortable?” Jeff obviously liked the idea of taking the girls away - especially to somewhere like Disney - but he had to be realistic too. If they were going to take on two children; they needed to ensure they had everything to look after them. Get the necessities first and then take them on the holidays they deserved. Jeff didn’t want to put Dawn off the idea completely, it was a good one after all. “Definitely something we should consider though,” he said. “Disney and nice beaches somewhere.”

“Maybe you should talk to the mum and dad - find out if they’ve taken them to these places before. Probably best we don’t take them on the same holidays. We don’t want the kids mentally comparing the two holidays, do we?”

“No. You’re right. We’ll get the paperwork filled in and take it from there. Once that’s done we can ask all the questions we want. Might be worthwhile thinking of more to ask,” he said with a smile. After a slight pause he told Dawn, “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“I’m going back downstairs,” said Jeff, “with any luck his wife will be waking up soon.”

“What about him? What have you done with him?”

“I dragged him through to the living room. Plonked him in front of the television.”

Before coming upstairs, Jeff had tilted James’ chair back and literally dragged both James and the chair through to the living room. As James was being dragged backwards, he was able to see back into the dining room. More specifically he was able to see his wife. Cathy was lying on the dining room table with her legs overhanging the edge and her feet just off the floor. James noticed that - just as his were - Cathy’s ankles and wrists were bound with rope. She was unconscious, despite James calling out to her right up until the point he was shut in the living room with the television on at a volume not entirely necessary.

“Did he sign yet?”

Jeff shook his head. “Progress is slow but it is being made. We’re still on track.”

He gave his wife another smile - one which she returned - before walking from the room and back down the stairs; ignoring the cowering dog watching him from the one of the bedroom doorways. Before he walked into the dining room to check on Cathy, he peered into the living room to ensure James was still where he had been left.

“Please - let me go … Let me see my wife!” James begged as soon as he heard the door open. From the angle he’d been positioned, he wasn’t able to see the door, nor was he able to see who was looking in on him - not that he really needed to be told who it was.

Jeff stepped back into the hallway, closing the living room door once more. Jeff walked through to the dining room. Cathy was still on the table just where he had expected to find her. She was still unconscious. Jeff sighed heavily. He’d hoped she’d have been awake by now. They were running out of time; he’d wanted to get all of this sorted before the sun came up. He wanted to start the next day as a proper family; not still trying to obtain a family. He walked over to the side of the table where Cathy’s head laid. He gently touched her face as though hoping to waken her from her deep sleep. She didn’t move. He took a step back until he backed into the dining room chair he’d earlier been sitting on. He sat down without taking his eyes from Cathy. Dawn walked into the room and stood by her man.

“Not awake yet?” she stated the obvious.

Jeff shook his head.

“You shouldn’t have…”

“Don’t even say it.” Jeff knew what she was going to say. She was going to have a go at him for injecting her with the syringe. He hadn’t planned to but - at the same time - he hadn’t counted on Cathy trying to sneak out of the house to raise the alarm. He had done what was necessary. Had he just tried to drag her into the house, she’d have been kicking and screaming and that would have alerted the whole street that something was wrong. “I did what I had to do. Do you want a family or not?”

“You know I do.”

“Then trust me. I did what I had to do. The needle wasn’t full. I’m sure she’ll be awake soon enough and - when she is - we can carry on from where we left off.”

Dawn sat on Jeff’s lap and put her arms around him.

“Do you think I’ll make a good mum?”

Jeff wasn’t expecting the question. They had had a lot of conversations about parenthood - long before they were even trying for a baby. They wanted to make sure they were both on the same page before heading down that route. The last thing they wanted was for one to want it more than the other. As it turned out; they both wanted it just as much as each other. One of the first questions Dawn had asked was whether Jeff thought she’d make a good mum. He’d answered that she’d make the best mother in the world. She didn’t believe she’d make that good a mother but promised him that she’d try her best not to disappoint him or the children they’d end up having.

“You could never disappoint anyone,” he’d told her then and he told her again.

She smiled at him and snuggled in close to his chest.

“You think I’ll make a good dad?” he asked.

She laughed, “I think you’ll be rubbish.”

“Rubbish? Really?” he started tickling her ultra-sensitive ribs as she screamed in response. She jumped off his lap and fell to the floor, laughing. “I’ll be the best dad ever!” he said. “I’ll be a better dad than you’re a mother!” he threw himself off the chair and landed on top of Dawn. The pair were laughing now. They hesitated a moment as their eyes locked. A second later and they were kissing.  Jeff pulled away from Dawn and asked, “Are you okay?”

“Why did you stop?”

“You’re breathing really heavily.”

“No I’m not! I thought it was you!”

“Me?”

Dawn laughed, “Yes! I just thought you were getting horny…”

Cathy groaned. Dawn and Jeff both laughed when they realised that it had been her who’d been breathing heavily as she started to come round. Jeff leaned closer to Dawn and whispered, “We’ll continue this later but - right now - I have two children to adopt.”

From the table, Cathy started to audibly panic when she came to realise the position she was in.

Dawn whispered to Jeff, “Try and get the twins. I really want them.”

Jeff gave her a wink, “I’ll see what I can do.”

He stood up and turned to the table. Cathy was staring directly at him - panic all over her face.

“Morning sleepyhead,” he smiled.

2:10 AM

Jeff dragged James back through to the dining room. He had spent the last twenty minutes trying to get Cathy to agree to the adoption process but all she’d been doing was asking where James was and getting more and more upset. Jeff realised the night was not going to progress the way he wanted all the time he kept husband and wife apart from one another.

Cathy burst into tears when she saw James. Jeff had told her that he was in the other room - in a similar position to her (in that he was tied down) - but there was a part of Cathy which hoped it wasn’t the case. There was a part of her which hoped he’d managed to get out and that he was out there - in the night - getting help for them. Even as she thought it - she knew the likelihood was slim to none and that the stranger was telling her the truth about where he was but, even so, it was a nice thought to have. It’s always good to have a little ‘hope’.

Whereas Cathy burst into tears at the sight of her husband; James looked relieved to see her.

“Are you okay?” he asked. He knew she wasn’t okay in the great scheme of things but he was more concerned about her physical wellbeing at this particular moment in time. He’d worry about her mental wellbeing later when this whole unpleasant situation was dealt with.

Cathy shook her head. She wasn’t hurt but she was far from all right.

Jeff positioned James’s chair so that it was facing the wall in order to stop James from seeing what was happening or - more specifically - what was going to happen.

“Right you’re both awake. You both know why we’re here and you both know what we need from you. So - without wasting any more time - we’re going to need a couple of names. Now, James, you’ve already given us your names…”

“What?!” Cathy didn’t know whether it was the truth or whether Jeff had said James had given the two names just to get a reaction from her. It must have been for a reaction. He wouldn’t have given the names. He wouldn’t give his own children up.

“I’m so, so sorry,” he said.

Lifting her head from the table, looking in his direction, Cathy could see him shaking his head as though embarrassed by what he’d done.

“What have you done?” Cathy asked.

Jeff silenced them both by slamming his hand down on the table Cathy was bound to.

“As I was saying, James has already given the names of the children he is happy for us to adopt so now we’re going to need a couple of names from you too. It would be really good if you’re both on the same page…”

“Who did you say?” Cathy asked - ignoring Jeff completely.

“I’m sorry - I didn’t have a choice…”

Jeff slammed his hand down on the table again. Cathy let out a little scream.

“You give us your names first and then we will compare the two. With any luck, you’ll both give the same name. If you don’t - well - we can either flip a coin or maybe you two will be able to agree once you’ve narrowed the choice down. But - whatever happens - we’re getting two names and two signatures from you tonight. You understand me?”

Cathy yelled, “I’m not giving you my babies!”

“Oh come now - they’re hardly babies. Two of them look as though they’re at the age where they’re about to move out anyway… You can’t call them babies. You’re just being a drama-queen.”

“Fuck you!”

“Hey! Let’s keep things civil. Now - give me two names. Who do you want to put up for adoption?”

Cathy shook her head, “I’m not giving my children up. None of them. You’re not taking them from me.”

“No. I’m not. You’re giving two of them to me. Jesus - woman - I’m not a kidnapper.”

“You are.”

“I’m not. My wife and I just want children. Is that such a bad thing to want? As I told your husband - we’ve tried everything for our own but it hasn’t worked out for us. We saw your family and we thought… Here’s a couple who could spare two kids. Hell… We’re doing you a favour; it must be hard looking after five. Certainly expensive. Well - we’re helping you with that.”

Cathy wasn’t listening. Her eyes were fixed firmly on the back of James’ head. All she could hear in her head was Jeff saying James had given him two names. She thought he loved their family. She thought they were happy and yet here was the man she loved… Happily giving away two of their children. She felt sick. Not just a sickness in her stomach but a feeling of utter repulsion. The man she loved, the man she chose to start a life with - back when she used to work as a taxi driver; where she had met him… She thought she had known him but clearly she hadn’t. Not even close.

“Are you even listening to me?” Jeff asked when he realised Cathy wasn’t paying a single bit of attention. He shook his head and muttered something to himself before he slapped her hard in the face. She immediately turned her attention to him. “When I’m talking,” he said, “you listen. That’s the way it works in polite society. I talk, you listen. You talk, I listen. You got it? If not - I’m more than happy to hit you until you have.” He asked again, “Got it?”

She nodded, trying her best not to show how much the slap had stung her cheek.

He smiled, “Good.”

He sighed a moment before sitting down on one of the chairs, “Okay - you know I have his names. I need your names. I get your names and then we sign the forms and we all go our separate ways. You two are making this a lot harder than it needs to be.” He breathed a deep sigh again before asking once more, “Who are the two children you’d like us to take off your hands?”

“I can’t do it.”

Jeff laughed, “That’s what James said at first. He sat there whining how he couldn’t make such a decision. We went round in circles for a couple of minutes before I painted out how this was going to work. To save time, and going on like a broken record, I’m going to skip the whole yes you can, no I can’t thing and get straight to the point I made with your husband. If you do not give up two of your children - any two - then we will simply kill all of them. You see, if we can’t have them then you can’t have them. So that’s it, more or less, in a nutshell. If you don’t comply, they die. Give us what we want - live on as a little family and put the whole thing behind you. Really is quite straight forward. So… Names?”

Cathy didn’t say anything. Instead she started to laugh. Jeff looked bemused. Of all the reactions he was expecting, laughter wasn’t one of them. Jeff looked across to James to see if he was in on whatever the joke was. He wasn’t. He looked just as confused as Jeff did. He didn’t say anything for a few minutes; he just sat there and let her get it out of her system. Only when she stopped did he ask her what it was all about.

“You won’t kill them,” Cathy replied.

“I won’t?”

“No.”

“How do you figure that?” he asked.

“If you can kill the children then you’re not the sort of person who should be parents. You said you love children. You’re desperate for children… If that is the case then no matter what we do, you couldn't harm them.” said Cathy. She almost sounded smug.

Jeff’s face changed. Without saying anything it was entirely possible to see his mood had changed; a much darker shade of black. Cathy started laughing again, almost as though she believed she’d won and seen straight through him. Jeff let her have her moment. Even when she stopped laughing (which didn’t take very long) he didn’t say anything. Her moment of supposed triumph soon turned to a feeling of discomfort.

Jeff eventually spoke, “I guess you’re right,” he said. “We do love children. Of course we do. We couldn’t kill them. Would take a real sick individual to kill a child, right? Well you saw through me. Well done you. We’re not killing any children today. Or tomorrow for that matter.”

“Then let me go and get the fuck out of my house,” Cathy hissed.

“You didn’t let me finish,” said Jeff.

“I’m not interested in anything you have to say.”

“Let me finish. You see - you’re right - I can’t harm a child. Nor can my wife who - coincidentally - is doing a really good job of looking after them upstairs whilst we talk business so you should probably thank her when she comes back down… However - that’s by the by. We can’t kill children that much is established. But your husband… Well we don't love him. We don’t owe him anything. To us - he’s nothing. A bit like an insect really. You ever killed an insect? Doesn’t take much and - afterwards - you soon forget. That’s what it will be like for me to kill your husband…”

“You’re lying,” Cathy butted in, a certain amount of uncertainty in her voice.

Jeff glanced to the side; the knife was still embedded in the wall where he’d earlier threatened James. He jumped up and pulled it out before putting it to James’ throat. Cathy was holding her head up off the table watching - a look for horror on her face.

“Are you sure you want to test me?” Jeff asked.

“You can’t hurt him?”

“I can’t?”

“Honey… Please…” James started to panic. In his seat - he believed every threat Jeff made. For someone to do what Jeff and his wife were doing… They were clearly insane. He didn’t doubt their capabilities at all.

“He won’t do it,” Cathy tried to reassure him.

Jeff laughed, “You’ll have to speak up! He can’t hear you!” and with that he pulled James ear out a little further than comfortable before slicing it from his head with the sharp blade of the knife. James screamed out, as did Cathy; one in pain and one in shock. Jeff tossed the ear to one side as though it were a piece of rubbish. He wiped the blade clean on James’ top as he continued to laugh. “Blame your wife for that,” he shouted to James who continued screaming out in pain. “Here - look after this a moment whilst I talk a bit more with your lady,” he said before plunging the knife into James’ leg. Again, James screamed out as Cathy started to beg Jeff to stop what he was doing.

Jeff walked over to Cathy. He leaned on the table until his face was close to hers and whispered, “Two names. That is all I needed. Two names and that whole messy situation could have been avoided…”

“Fuck you.”

Jeff slapped her hard in the face, “I’ve warned you about your language.” He sighed, “I only hope you haven’t taught any of the language to your children. Hate to discipline them because their mother is ill-mannered…”

“Please just leave us alone,” Cathy whined.

“We will. When you give us the names.”

“I don’t want to.”

“You’ve seen what I can do. I’m not messing around anymore. The next time you say no, I’ll slit your husband’s throat and force you to drink the blood that gushes out. You understand me?”

“But they’re my children.”

“Do you know what my wife did when she found out she couldn’t have children?”

“No…”

“She tried to kill herself. She tried to take her own life.”

“I’m sorry…” Cathy didn’t care. She wished his wife had killed herself. Had she done so - none of them would be in this position now. They’d all be safe. They’d all be happy. Maybe even Jeff himself; with a new woman who could have children perhaps?

“She took an overdose of anti-depressants. I found her on the floor of our bathroom. Foam coming from her mouth. Her eyes had rolled to the back of her head. Barely had a pulse. I sat with her for days, waiting to see if there’d be any lasting damage. The doctors said she was lucky but she didn’t think so. All her life she wanted children. That’s her whole purpose for being on this planet; to have kids and raise them to the best of her ability. Yet God deemed her unfit. And then the various agencies you can use to adopt - or even foster… They slammed the door on us because of her medical records and the fact she was still undergoing psychiatric treatment…”

“Your wife must know how hard this is for us. She must be able to see it from our position. Surely she must.”

“We both can and we sympathise but… You have five children. We have none. That’s not fair.”

“I have five children who I love equally.”

Jeff screamed out loud – a scream borne out of frustration - and kicked over one of the dining room chairs. His sudden burst of violence made Cathy scream out loud again.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? You have five children. We have none. You think you’d be happy to help us. What’s the matter - is five the magic number, or something? You’re worried you won’t feel like a real family if you have three kids? Clearly you don’t have a problem producing them… I mean - hell - you even had twins… You know how rare that is? Your insides work brilliantly. You miss having five kids - just have more. Simple. Fuck, if it means that much to you - I’ll set you off on the right track now…”

Jeff turned back to the knife. He ripped it from James’ leg, with an accompanying spurt of blood and scream from James, and turned back to Cathy. He pulled at the bottoms she’d changed into, ready for bed, and sliced down the centre of them with the tip of the blade. Cathy screamed out. He turned back to James and stuck the knife back into his leg - the other one this time and once again asked him to hold onto it for a while. He faced Cathy and unbuttoned his jeans until he was able to pull out his member.

“I got tested,” he said, “the doctors said that not only was I healthy but I also had a good count so - never know - you might even get twins again. Back to five with one easy shot,” he joked as he stroked himself hard.

Cathy started to struggle against the ropes that bound her in an effort to break free before things went even further, even begging him not to do it. Even James - through his pain - was shouting for him not to ‘fucking do it’. Jeff ignored both of them as he clambered up onto the dining room table, between Cathy’s trembling legs. When he was on top of her, she turned her head to the side to get away from the stench - and feel - of his warm breath. She squealed in discomfort as he positioned himself against her pussy and pushed inside. James screamed out for him to get off, fighting against his restraints despite the pain he was in. Jeff pulled out slowly and pushed in again - hard. Cathy bit her bottom lip to stop herself from screaming out.

“So fucking tight,” Jeff breathed heavily as he continued to fuck her. “I wouldn’t have thought that would have been the case,” he said.

Cathy’s eyes were scrunched up tight as she imagined herself in a different place, a better place, a safer place… A place anywhere but here.

2:52 AM

Dawn was sitting on the hallway floor. Her back leaning on the wall. Next to her was the (closed) doorway to the dining room. Tears streamed down her face. She’d come downstairs at the sound of all the shouting from James but what she heard - now she was closer - between the screams of a frantic husband was something she’d never expected to hear; the sexual grunts of her man fucking another woman. Almost hidden beneath the cries of James and the yelps of a pained woman but not quite. It wasn’t what he was doing which haunted her - she understood that, tonight, they’d be doing things they wouldn’t usually do… Anything so long as they got their little family by the end of the night… What upset her was the enjoyment she heard in the groans of her husband. He was fucking her to give her what she wanted - more children to replace those they’d take - but it was supposed to be a service he offered. It wasn’t supposed to be something he enjoyed. She wanted to go in there, she wanted to break it off but - at the same time - she wanted two of the children upstairs. She wanted them to call her ‘mummy’ and she wanted them to love her no matter what. She kept telling herself not to fret about what was happening in the other room. She kept telling herself to put the thoughts from her mind. She even found herself making excuses for him; he should be able to enjoy himself because of what he was having to do tonight. He should be able to give himself something to make it all a little nicer for him. Fair is fair - he does something horrible, he gets something nice. Fair is… She broke down as the tears continued to spill from her eyes, trickling down her cheeks.

From behind the door her husband groaned out louder than usual – a long, deep groan as he clearly climaxed - before everything went quiet. All she could hear now were the sobs from a broken husband and a violated wife. She quickly pulled herself to her feet and hurried back up the stairs. She didn’t want Jeff knowing she’d heard. She didn’t want them to have to have that conversation where he made excuses for his behaviour. She just wanted to forget it; bury it the back of her mind as she continued to focus on raising her two children.

With the exception of getting the signatures on the paper - other than that - nothing else happened this evening. See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. Put it all from their minds.

They have to.

For the sake of the family…

2:53 AM

Jeff pulled his hips back allowing his spent cock to slip from Cathy’s vagina with a small globule of his hot semen. He pushed himself up and off the table where he spotted the semen pooling on the wooden top by Cathy’s pussy. He ran his finger through the sticky mess, ensuring most of it stuck to his warm skin, before pushing it back into the now weeping woman.

“Waste not, want not.”

“I’m going to fucking kill you, I’m going to fucking kill you…” James was repeating the words again and again. He wasn’t shouting them; almost a whisper instead as he too was in shock at the sudden change of circumstances.

Jeff ignored him as he put his cock away in his jeans. He buttoned himself up, all the time staring at Cathy. Her head was still turned to the side. Her eyes were no longer closed; she was staring at the wall at the other end of the room. Jeff wondered what she was thinking - if indeed she was thinking at all. Her eyes seemed glazed over as though she’d taken herself away from the situation mentally. Maybe taken herself to a happy place. Jeff wondered how many children were at that happy place.

He put his hand in front of her face and clicked his fingers together. Cathy blinked a few times before looking at him.

“Your husband’s threats,” he said - talking to Cathy directly, “reminds me of something which is probably worth talking about now… You said you went to the police about my wife and I. Not that we’ve done anything wrong, we just want to adopt your children, I think it’s prudent to mention that - if you talk to the authorities again, or try anything to cause us problems - well, we have a large family on my side and they’re well aware of what is happening here… I guess the point I am trying to make is, if anything happens to my wife, or I, then our family are going to take matters into their own hands and - no sense lying now - they’re not particularly nice people when push comes to shove… Do you hear what I am saying?”

Cathy didn’t respond. Jeff took her silence to mean that she understood exactly what he was saying. He stood up straight and looked at James. James’ head was lolling, his chin touching his chest. Blood continued to seep from his legs; both from the wound caused by the first stab and a little less from the second wound which still housed the knife. Jeff pointed Cathy’s attention to her husband.

“He isn’t doing very well. You really need to get him some medical attention sooner rather than later before he bleeds out. Not sure but I might have hit an artery, or something…”

Cathy whimpered, “Please help him.”

“I can’t yet,” Jeff said. He almost looked sad about it. Almost.

“Please.”

“You know what I need before I can help him. I need two names.”

“You need both of our signatures on that form.”

“That’s true.”

“If anything happens to him you won’t be able to get what you want.”

“I’ll get it from someone else. But you’ll be left to raise five children as a single mother.”

“Please help him,” Cathy said again.

“Two names. Give me two names and I’ll let you both go. We’ll take our daughters away and you can phone for help… But remember what I said - anything happens to my wife and I - you will die. Don’t test me on that. I am deadly serious.”

The two of them fell into a brief silence. Jeff could see Cathy was weighing up her options in her mind, it was written all over her face. What sort of life did she want to lead? One without her husband but all of her children or… One with her husband and three of her children?

“He really isn’t looking very well,” said Jeff. “Two names.”

Cathy started to cry again as the pressure of the situation took its toll.

“Two names,” Jeff pushed her.

She wailed out loud before giving the man what he wanted, “Cleo and Kiah,” she wept.

Jeff smiled.

“Your husband gave the same names.”

Cleo and Kiah - the oldest of the girls. Not the twins, who Dawn had wanted, but better than nothing. Cathy hadn’t wanted to give any names out but something Jeff had said earlier swayed her mind to them; they were the older girls. They were the ones who’d be moving from home within a few years (potentially). And, being older, there was more chance they’d understand why they were chosen. There’d be more chance they’d forgive their mum and dad and come back and find them as soon as they could. It didn’t make it an easy decision though as Cathy continued to wail; wracked with guilt.

Jeff pulled a pen from one pocket of his jacket and the form from the other. He handed the pen to Cathy before holding the paper out for her. He put his hand behind the part which required a signature so Cathy would be able to sign without pushing the nib through the sheet. She hesitated a moment, a quick glance towards James, before signing her name. Jeff beamed a smile as he took the pen from her and walked over to James. James was in the process of losing consciousness as the loss of blood (and the pain) started to take their toll on his body. Jeff slapped him in the face a couple of times to get him to focus.

“Are you ready to sign?” Jeff asked. “I just need a little scribble and then that’s it - you’re on your way to getting help and starting your new life with an easy family to manage. We’ll take the girls tonight, whilst they sleep, and get our friend to act as the witness for this exchange tomorrow…”

James looked at him through fuzzy eye-sight.

“How can I sign,” James concentrated hard in an effort to get the words out through the pain he was in, “when my hands are tied?”

“Well - yes - clearly I’m going to have to untie you but I need you to know that - if you try anything - I’m going to kill you. And I won’t stop there. I’ll kill your pretty little wife. You do understand that, don’t you?”

Just as he’d taken Cathy’s earlier silence as an understanding, he did too for James’. He pulled the knife from James’ leg (another scream) and cut the ropes holding his wrists together behind the chair. James moved his hands round to his front and rubbed his wrists. They too had been cut - no doubt caused by trying to pull himself free. Jeff handed him the pen.

“Try not to get blood on the sheet,” Jeff said as he held out the paper for James to sign, tucking the knife under his own arm for safe-keeping.

James didn’t hesitate to sign the paper. As soon as the ink (albeit rather scribbled) was on the paper, he dropped the pen. Jeff took a step away from both Cathy and James; a broad smile on his face. He had what he wanted; two signatures confirming the adoption process. All he needed to do now was put the girl’s names and get his solicitor friend to sign it the following morning to say he’d been a witness to the proceedings. It wasn’t the twins Dawn had wanted but it didn’t matter… They had their girls. They had their family.

A single tear of joy spilled from his right eye and trickled down his cheek until he wiped it clear with the back of his hand.

“Thank you,” he said. “Seriously - you two have no idea how happy you’ve made my wife and I. I know it might not sound a lot now but I promise you both; I promise you we’ll look after them. We’ll give them both an amazing life. They won’t want for anything; toys, books, games, holidays… Whatever they want… They’ll get. And our love - of course. We’ll never raise our voices to them, not out of frustration or anger… We’ll never give them reason to hate us or be upset with us…” He looked down to the sheet of paper in his hands and stopped talking. Cathy’s signature was there and clear to see but James’ signature was missing; in its place were the two simple words “Fuck” and “You”.

Jeff screamed and pulled the knife from between his arm and body. In a fit of rage he lunged forward with it. James put his hands up to protect himself and screamed as the blade passed through his palm. Cathy screamed, unaware of why any of this was happening, as Jeff pulled the blade back from where it’d stuck. He slashed forward across James’ face, cutting him wide open and allowing more blood to flow freely. James screamed out in pain.

“You think that was funny? You think this is a fucking joke?!”

Jeff screamed as he raised the knife up in the air again. Cathy cried out, begging him to stop, but he didn’t listen as he brought the knife down again in a series of flurried attacks. The knife went through James’ cheek and into his mouth, it pierced his eyeball, it slashed his nose, his lip, it cut through his small finger, and finally rested in his open mouth and through the back of his skull. Jeff stepped back and wiped his forehead clear of the sweat he’d managed to work up through his frenzied attack. He watched as a raspy bubble of oxygen and blood slipped from James’ mouth before he went deathly silent. Jeff realised that - as James’ life slipped away - so did his chance of adopting the children. He took another step back until his back was against the wall; a look of shock and horror on his face that he’d not been able to control his temper to get what he needed. He looked at Cathy who was screaming for her husband; her eyes fixed upon his still body - tears streaming down her face uncontrollably.

“I’m sorry,” Jeff whispered.

He slid down the wall until his arse was on the floor. A defeated man.

“This isn’t what I wanted,” he said. “This wasn’t meant to play out like this. I thought you’d be happy we were helping you out. I thought you’d like the peace and quiet it would have afforded you. I’m really sorry.”

The door slowly opened; Dawn was standing there. She’d come downstairs again to investigate the screams. They’d changed in tone from the screaming that had been happening when her husband was giving Cathy the chance for another child. They’d become from frantic, more desperate. She didn’t say anything. She just stood there with her mouth agape. Her eyes wide with shock - fixed upon the bloodied remains of James.

“What have you done?” she asked.

She looked at Jeff who did all he could to avoid eye contact.

She asked again, “What have you done?”

“I made a mistake.”

“Tell me we got our children,” she said. “Please tell me they signed.”

She saw the piece of paper on the floor and bent down and picked it up. Even if it had been signed properly it wouldn’t have been usable. Blood - from James’ body - had spilled across it and spread from one corner to the other across the top. She dropped it back into the puddle when she realised they didn’t have what they needed. She started to cry.

“I can fix this,” said Jeff.

“How?” Dawn turned and looked at him, “How can you fix this?”

“I can fix it. I promise. I can. I can make it all okay.”

“How can you do that?” she asked again.

Jeff jumped to his feet and rushed over to where Cathy still lay. He took a hold of her head and turned it until her eyes were fixed on him instead of the rotting body of her husband. He repeated the words, “Did you hear me? I can fix all of this. I can give us what we want still…”

“Jeff what are you doing?” Dawn asked from behind him.

Jeff turned around and dashed over to James’ body. He grabbed the knife protruding from his mouth and gave it a short, sharp yank - ripping it from the skull with a loud crack. James’ head flopped forward as Jeff turned to his wife.

“You have to trust me. I can make everything better. I can fix this.”

“What are you doing?” Dawn asked. The look in his eyes, the way he was standing there with the knife pointed at her - she felt her pulse quicken as panic began to set in.

He looked her dead in the eyes, “I do love you,” he said.

She didn’t smile but it didn’t lessen the sentiment when she said, “I love you too.”

3:10 AM

Jeff looked down at Dawn as she struggled for air, the knife sticking from her belly where he’d stuck it in with a twist. God only knows what was happening under her ripped skin; the mess the blade had made of her insides. Maybe it had missed all the vital organs? Or maybe it had pierced her stomach lining and the contents of her gut were spilling into the rest of her body. He wiped a tear from his eye; a single lonesome tear as he struggled internally with how the events had turned to this. He loved her but he didn’t have a choice. Not after what had happened with James. This was the best thing he could have done and not just for his sake. Dawn had wanted children and this was his final chance of providing those youngsters for her. He’d failed. He didn’t want to have to explain to his wife how he’d let her down. He didn’t want to see the disappointment in her eyes. He couldn’t stand to see her upset and - more than that - he fretted that it would spell the end of his marriage.

Dawn was looking at the knife sticking from her. She was at the horrible stage of knowing she was going to die but having to lie there, waiting for the Grim Reaper to come for her as her blood leaked from the wound. The fact Jeff had left the knife in her just made the process that little bit slower with the blood not flowing as freely as it could have been. A blessing in most cases as it meant there was more time for help to come but she knew there was to be no help. She knew he wouldn’t call for help. She was a dead woman breathing. She looked from the knife to her husband; the man who was supposed to love her. She wanted to ask him why he had done it. She wanted to ask him to finish the job. She opened her mouth but no words came out. She couldn’t speak, nor could she move. She could but lie there and wait to die.

Jeff mouthed the words I’m sorry to her before turning his back on her. He walked over to Cathy who was watching him with fearful eyes wondering when her turn was and hoping that it was to be quick and as painless as possible. As he approached, she struggled against the ropes that bound her. Jeff reached out and put a hand on her stomach, reaching underneath the tee-shirt she’d chosen to wear for bed. Her skin felt warm. Soft. Jeff smiled. He smiled wider when he looked at her face.

“Do you think my little guys are working their magic in there yet?” he asked.

“Just kill me,” Cathy said.

Jeff frowned, “Kill you?” He shook his head, “I’m not going to kill you.” He pulled his hand away from her stomach and put it into his pocket as though trying to emphasise he wasn’t a threat to her. “I’ve made a mess of things tonight. I realise that. But,” he continued, “it doesn’t have to be a complete waste. I can still fix this. I mean, we can still fix this…”

Cathy started to cry again, “What are you talking about?” Her head was spinning; she’d been tied up, watched her husband get tortured and killed, she’d been sexually assaulted and the mind games… The mind games were messing her up too. She couldn’t take anymore. She wanted the world to swallow her up; take her away from all of this.

“I’ve let my wife down. I’ve failed her. I wasn’t able to give her what she wanted; a family. And I know I’ve let you down too. I let my emotions get the better of me and I… Well… Let me make it up to you. Let me help you. You have something I want and I have something you want…”

“You have nothing I want.”

“I want to be a father. I’d be a good father. And you need a new father for your children now. Well let me be that man. Not just that, I’ll make a good husband too. I’ll learn to love you just as I loved my wife…”

Cathy craned her neck round to look at the stranger’s wife. She was still alive albeit a lot paler now. Her breathing was shallow and there was a sheen to her skin. She was looking at her husband - too close to death to have much of an expression on her face but Cathy imagined her to be both shocked and disgusted by what he was proposing; similar feelings to which she felt herself.

“You’re out of your mind,” said Cathy.

“No I’m not.” Jeff’s face changed to one of anger. “I am offering you the chance for something you’ll likely never find again. The love of a man who’ll not only take you on but your children too.”

“Fuck you!”

Jeff continued, “You really think any other man is going to want to try dating a woman with five fucking children? It’s hard enough for single mothers with one child to find someone to love them and their children. You honestly think you’ll be able to find someone to take five? Trust me when I say I’m your last chance for happiness…”

“I’d rather live alone with my children,” Cathy hissed. She didn’t care what she said now. If she angered him enough to make him lash out, she hoped it would be quick. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen now. There was nothing she could do from her current position. She couldn’t save herself and she couldn’t protect her children. It was all in his twisted hands and she wanted it over with - one way, or the other.

“You stupid whore! I’m offering you the chance for…”

“I don’t want it!” she shouted, interrupting him in the process.

He paused a moment. Cathy could see he was visibly trying to calm himself down.

He looked her dead in the eye and asked, “What about our baby?”

Jeff took his hand from his pocket and placed it on her stomach. She flinched at his touch, not that she could get away from it.

Cathy laughed, a further effort to speed along whatever was coming, “You honestly think I would keep it even if you managed to get me pregnant? I’d take as many fucking pills as I could to kill it inside of me. And if that didn’t work - I’d use a coat hanger and scrape my insides out,” she spat.

Jeff didn’t say anything. For a split second it looked as though he were about to flare up again but he managed to hold it in. He shook his head in an effort to shake the feelings of the brewing anger.

“You realise what I’ve done for you?” he said, desperately trying to remain calm.

“You killed my husband!” Cathy shouted.

“I killed my wife for you! I took her out of the equation so we could be together!” he screamed in her face. “You ungrateful cunt!”

Cathy shouted back, even lifting her head off the table to get closer to Jeff, “You really want to do something for me? Take that knife from your wife’s stomach and pull the blade across your throat!”

Before Jeff could respond, Loki barked from upstairs. Both Cathy and Jeff turned to the dining room door and froze.

A little voice called out, “Mum? I don’t feel very well…”

Cathy recognised the voice of her eldest daughter, Cleo. The medication injected into her by Jeff and his wife had worn off leaving her blurry-eyed and fuzzy headed, just as it had left Cathy when she had woken up from it.

“Mum?”

Cleo was standing at the top of the stairs.

Cathy struggled against her restraints and frantically whispered to Jeff, “You can’t let her see us like this!”

Jeff panicked and reached for the knife. He yanked it from his wife’s stomach. Her body slumped forward before falling to the side. She was gone now. Jeff wiped the blade on his jeans.

“What are you going to do?” Cathy asked. The fear was obvious in her voice.

It was clear from Jeff’s expression that he had no idea what he was going to do. The whole evening had gone from bad to worse. In his head - when he initially had discussed the plan with his wife - it was all relatively simple. He expected a little resistance but, after putting forward his case, he honestly believed Cathy and James would have given up a couple of children for them. Had they done so - everyone would still be alive and everyone would be happy.

Loki barked again from upstairs - still too nervous to come down; a sixth sense telling him that something was wrong - just as it had done so when he first saw the couple.

“Please don’t hurt her…” said Cathy.

Jeff turned to her with an eyebrow raised, “I’ll untie you,” he said. “And you can go upstairs and tell her that everything is going to be okay. You can tell her that and you can put her back into bed. Once you’ve done that, you’ll come back down here and we will talk like adults… We’ll talk and we’ll make this work… Deal?”

“Okay. Yes. Please. Let me talk to her, let her know everything is okay and get her back into bed… And then we will talk. Just please don’t hurt her.”

Jeff hurried over to the table and - quick as a flash - slashed the ropes that were holding Cathy down. With the ties severed, Cathy shrugged them up and sat up. Jeff took a step back and tightened his grip on the knife.

“Don’t forget,” he said, “you have five children up there. You might be able to save yourself and the one out there but that leaves four more up there that I can get to… I guess, what I’m trying to say is, don’t try anything…”

Cathy didn’t say anything. She looked down to the knife and then to the body of her husband and the stranger’s wife. She wiped her eyes and hoped they didn’t look too raw from the crying. Jeff took another step back giving Cathy room to get to the door without having to get too close to him. She hesitated a moment, another quick nervous glance to the knife, and then made a move for the door. She stepped through and saw Cleo standing at the top of the stairs.

“Why aren’t you and dad in bed?” she asked.

Jeff listened at the door with the knife tightly resting in his palm. He had nothing to lose now. If Cathy made one wrong peep… If she said anything he didn’t like or trust… At this stage, he had no qualms about slicing her throat wide open - even if it were to be done in front of her daughter. Out on the stairs he heard Cathy and Cleo talking; Cleo was saying she had a headache and didn’t feel good and Cathy was telling her that sleep was the best cure. As they got further away, their voices become fainter. Carefully Jeff peered out of the room. Loki was standing at the top of the stairs staring at him. He growled and ran away; back towards Cathy’s own bedroom where he’d been hiding since she had found him on the stairs whining.

Still with the knife in his hand, Jeff ran through to the living room. If he and Cathy were to talk things through, like grown ups, he figured it would be best done out of sight of the two bodies in the dining room. He sat down on the sofa and leaned back. It had been a long evening. He put the knife down next to him and waited Cathy’s return.

3:35 AM

Cathy appeared in the doorway.

“Sorry that took a while,” she said, “I couldn’t get her back to sleep. She wanted to come down for a glass of water.”

“How did you stop her?”

“You said you wanted to talk. You wanted to get things straight between us so we could put all of this behind us and move on.”

“I meant what I said in the dining room,” he said.

Cathy didn’t move from the doorway. She was standing with, her arms folded in front of her, “The bit about no one wanting me because I’m a single mother of five children?” she asked.

Jeff shook his head, “The bit about us making a go of things as a couple. I’ll love your children as though they were my own. I’ll be a better father than your ex-husband could ever have been. I’ll provide everything. And I’ll love you.”

Cathy smirked as though everything from Jeff’s mouth had been both an insult and a poor joke. Jeff had noticed a change in her behaviour. She was standing there with a look of superiority on her face. Anyone looking in from the outside would have thought she was the one with the upper hand but Jeff knew that wasn’t the case. He was the one who had the upper hand. He was the one who was winning this and he was the one who had the cards to play. All else failed - he was the one with the sharp knife which had already been battle-tested.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, almost irritated.

Cathy didn’t answer him directly. “The medication wore off Cleo. I’m sure the other girls will stir soon too. There are two dead bodies in the dining room; my husband and your wife. Yet here you are thinking you can make everything better.”

“We can close the dining room door. We can tell them there was an accident in there, a leak or something, and they can’t go in there. Gives us time to sort it out. Bury the bodies ourselves; you have a nice garden.”

“Bury the bodies in the back garden? Because - you know - it’s a proven thing that serial killers get away with doing that. They’re never caught.” Her tone was laced with sarcasm. Gone was the scared woman, here to stay was the fighter.

Jeff felt uncomfortable.

“We’ll make it work.”

“I don’t think so.”

“We’re talking in order to find a way,” Jeff pointed out. “What do you suggest?”

She shrugged, “We just wait.”

“Wait?”

Cathy nodded.

“Wait for what?”

Cathy smiled as blue flashing lights from somewhere outside, illuminated part of the living room. Jeff’s face changed to one of panic when he was hit with the sudden realisation Cathy hadn’t spent all that time getting her daughter to go back to sleep but rather she had spent it on a phone instead; calling for help. Jeff and Dawn had made sure the landlines were out but they hadn’t considered the mobiles.

Cathy turned and made a dash for the front door, in order to let the police in, but Jeff was right behind her - the knife firmly back in his hand. As he reached the hallway, he raised the knife in the air, ready to plunge it into Cathy’s back as she struggled with the lock on the front door.

A scream from the stairs startled them both but only Cathy turned to see who it was. Cleo again, no doubt sneaking from her bed to fetch the glass of water from the kitchen.

Cathy saw the scared look on her daughter’s face.

She saw the tip of the blade.

She felt the searing pain as it pierced her eyeball, slicing it in two as it continued past into her brain.

She heard a knock on the front door and another scream from her daughter.

She smelt a smell similar to burning toast as she dropped to her knees and fell face first onto the floor.

Another knock on the door.

Police calling from beyond.

The sound of the door being kicked open.

Cleo screaming.

A blackness closing in through the good eye.

A fuzzy image of Jeff running up the stairs.

Cleo running from him.

Gunshot.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Fuzzy image of someone falling down the stairs, falling close to where Cathy lay.

Blackness.

The sound of footsteps running in from the front.

The sound of a petrified daughter.

A barking dog.

A single thought running through her mind as everything else went numb: the children would grow up without parents.

~ FIN