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“Dad we have guests!” Jimmy yelled up the stairs.

The girls and man stood in front of the stairs. Their eyes were going over every detail of the house. They looked around like they weren’t sure where they were supposed to go. Jimmy extend his hands so he gestured out to the table sitting in the middle of the kitchen.

“You can sit down if you would like,” Jimmy told them.

They each pulled out a chair and sat down. I heard Charles coming down the stairs, and I expected that soon Tommy would come down too. I couldn’t see him missing this opportunity. I just wished that Jimmy would tell me to go up to our room now. I couldn’t stand to look at their faces and know they only had a couple hours left to live.

“Who is it?” Charles asked.

“Their car broke down a couple miles away,” Jimmy said. “They’re going to spend the night here so they can go into town in the morning.”

“Of course. No need for them to freeze in the cold,” he said.

His voice sounded a lot sweeter than I have ever heard before. Even when he first talked to me at the club he didn’t sound this nice. Scott got up from his chair and extended his arm out towards him. Charles reached out and shook it.

“I’m Scott,” he said introducing himself. He gestured over to the other side of the table at the girls. “This is Brittany and Erica.”

“I’m Charles. This is my son Jimmy and his wife Juliet.”

Hearing the word wife made my stomach flip. I knew Jimmy and I were going to be together until one of us died, but they had never used that word before. We weren’t legally married, but it must be the same thing.

“Where are you all from?” Charles asked, he pulled out a chair and sitting down. Jimmy did the same thing and when I went to pull out my chair, Charles shot his hand out. “Juliet, go get our guests a glass of water.”

I nodded my head and went over to the counter. I pulled out three glasses and filled them full of water. I set them down in front of them before sitting down next to Jimmy. The stairs started to thud again as Tommy walked down them. Everyone turned to look at him and he walked forward looking confused.

“Their car broke down,” Charles told him. “This is Scott, Brittany and Erica. This is my younger son Tommy.”

They all nodded their heads at each other as a way of introduction. There were no more open seats, so Tommy leaned up against one of the kitchen counters. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked like he was observing us.

Erica was looking around, her mouth was slightly ajar, and it was easy to see she was starting to get scared. Brittany looked around curiously. I wish she was able to persuade them to sleep in the car. It wouldn’t have given them this terrible fate.

“So where are you all from?” Charles asked them.

“Vancouver,” Erica said.

“Canadians,” Jimmy said looking a bit shocked. “What are you doing all the way down here?”

“We’re on a vacation,” Scott told us. “We left in the summer and took the first semester off so we could travel around North America.”

“Sounds like fun, but you must miss your family,” Charles said.

“We’re university students,” Brittany pointed out. “They aren’t calling us every hour to see how we are. They’re use to having us out of the house.”

“When’s the last time you talked to them?”

“Yesterday.”

“And how long have you been gone for?” Jimmy asked them.

“This is our fourth month on the road,” Scott said. “We should be back home in a couple months.”

Erica’s hands were shaking as she brought her glass of water up to her lips. She was nervous, even though she was the one who convinced them to come in. I hoped she had changed her mind and who soon start begging them to leave. Maybe if I got one of them alone I could convince them to? Jimmy would find out though and I’d get punished. The doors are locked anyways, there is no way for them to get out.

“Jimmy. Tommy,” Charles said. He turned his neck so that he could look at both of his sons. “Come up stairs with me. We need to make sure that the spare room is in shape for our guests. I’m sorry the bed only fits two people, so one of you is going to have to camp out on the couch.”

“I’ll do it,” Scott offered.

“Good, that’s settled,” Charles said, his lips lifted up into a smile. “Juliet, be a good girl and stay down here to keep our guests company.”

“Yes,” I told them and Charles sent me a quick threatening look. Scott and the girls didn’t see it, but I nodded my head to let Charles know I did.

They headed up the stairs and I was left alone with them. Scott and Erica were across from me and Brittany sat at the end of the table.

“Are you two brother and sister?” I asked Scott and Erica. I couldn’t think of any topic of conversation and I wanted to confirm my suspicion while I still could.

“Yes,” Erica said. The corner of her lips tugged into a smile. “He’s my older brother by three minutes.”

“Oh, twins,” I said pointing out the obvious.

Erica reached out and ruffled Scott’s mop of blonde hair. I thought about how upset their parents were going to be when they realized that their two babies were never going to return home.

“You’re really young,” Brittany told me. “How long have you been married?”

“Only a couple months,” I lied.

“Why don’t you have a ring?”

“Money is tight. We couldn’t afford to buy wedding rings. We can’t even afford to have a phone in the house,” I said letting a fake chuckle grow behind my voice. I curled my lips into a sweet smile. “There’s always hope for the future though.”

They came back down the stairs and I felt Jimmy put his hand on my shoulder. He leaned down to my ear.

“I need to talk to you for a second,” he whispered into my ear.

I nodded my head and got up from the chair. It screeched along the ground and as I pulled it back. Jimmy laced his fingers through mine and led me into the living room. We stood in the middle of the room as he wrapped an arm around my back and brought his face down to me. He had the bridge of his nose pressed up against his.

“I need you to be good,” he whispered to me. His hot breath tickled my skin. “You need to go up to our room and close the door. I don’t want you to leave no matter what you hear. Can you do that? I’ll come up with you as soon as I can. I promise.”

“I will,” I told him, mostly because I didn’t want to witness what was going to happen.

“I love you,” he said giving me a quick kiss.

As soon as Jimmy let go of me, I headed for the stairs. I made sure not to turn my head and look into the kitchen. I didn’t want to look at the three of them and know that their lives were about to end a any moment.

“Can you come down to the basement with us, Scott?” I could hear Charles ask.

The basement?

Oh God.

I could feel my stomach twist as I knew they were about to murder him. I closed the door behind me and crawled into a ball on the floor next to the bed. I was expecting to hear some kind of scream, but it was silent. They must have asked Scott down first because he was the strongest and would pose more of a threat than the girls.

My arms wrapped around my knees and I rested my chin on top of them. I just wanted Jimmy here with me now. I wanted him to read to me to distract me. I wanted to feel safe in his arms and tell me everything was going to be okay.

Minutes must have passed by before I heard the first scream. It was loud and high pitched, so it must be one of the girls. Scott would already be dead. Another feminine scream joined in and I covered my ears with my hands. It did no good as the screams continued to ring through my head.

I needed to stop hearing this and I didn’t know how. I got up off of the floor and ran into the bathroom. I locked the lock, but it did nothing. I could still hear them screaming. I turned on the shower and the water flowing began to cover up the noise. I quickly peeled off my clothes and jumped in.

I kept my hands over my ears and the sound died down to a barely audible mumble. I quickly washed my hair, so I didn’t get in trouble for wasting water, but I waited until I heard nothing before getting out.

My clothes lied crumpled on the floor, but I didn’t want to put them on. I needed to put something new on. Something clean that never met those three innocent people.

I wrapped the towel around myself and went over to the mirror. My bruises were almost completely faded, but Tommy’s bite mark was still visible. I had to put something on before Jimmy saw that.

I left the bathroom and started digging through Jimmy’s drawers. He usually gives me my clothes so I never bothered to remember where anything is. I threw one of his shirts on and slipped on the pair of sweat pants they gave me a long time. I brushed my long, tangles, wet hair and felt it as it began to soak my back. I didn’t even bother to tie it up.

I sat on Jimmy’s bed with my legs crossed underneath me and waited. I impatiently sat there until he finally came back in.

When he did, my eyes directly went to his shirt. Last time I saw him it was white, but now it was almost completely covered in a sticky, wet, crimson. My jaw hung open and I couldn’t stop myself from staring at it. Jimmy saw me and quickly pulled it over his head, that key still dangling around his neck. It didn’t help any, his jeans were covered in the same blood.

Jimmy ran over to the bed and kneeled down in front of me. He ran his fingers through my wet hair and I couldn’t help but stare at him in shock.

“Julie, it’s alright,” he said soothingly. “You’re okay. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.”

“The blood,” was all I managed to say.

“I know it’s a lot, but none of it is mine,” he told me. “None of it is Dad’s or Tommy’s either. More importantly, none of it is yours. Your family is safe, Julie. You are safe.”

My body still felt frozen with shock. All I could do was nod my head. Jimmy kissed me and then slowly pushed me down so I was lying on the bed. He pulled the covers out from under me and tucked me in. He continued to stroke my hair with one hand and I reached out to grab his other.

“I have to go take a shower, but I’ll be back soon,” he told me.

He got up off of his knees and planted a kiss on my forehead before going into the bathroom. I felt cold without him here with me. I needed him. I needed the man who just killed to keep me safe. He was the only one who was ever going to truly love me.