And then there was silence. Sweet, sweet silence. The kids are asleep for the night, Jill is out of town, so she isn’t around constantly answering calls for work, and mom FINALLY left. Hell, even our lab, Bella, is sleeping quietly at the foot of the couch. I can actually hear the crickets outside.

“How long has it been since I could actually hear crickets?” I ask myself with a laugh. I slump down into the couch to watch the newest James Wan horror movie. “Let’s see, Ali is six so…” With a sigh I roll my eyes. “Ok, that may be an overstatement, but it's been far too loud for too long.”

As the starting credits roll, I turn out the lights. I have always loved horror movies; Jill too. The only way to watch them, in my opinion, is in the dark. If you’re not getting chills down your spine and questioning perfectly normal noises you’re not doing it right. I grab today’s movie buddy, Jill’s pillow from upstairs, sink deep into the soft pillows of the couch, and hunker down for what I had been told was the scariest movie Wan had made yet.

My mind drops deeper and deeper into the horror cloud as the movie progresses. Little things seem to start moving in the room’s shadows and the A/C turning on makes me jump a few times. Every jump makes my smile grow and I know that this is going to be a good night.

I’m at the part where the main character is about to open the door to the closet where a voice seemed to come from, her hand inching closer, and closer and shaking in fear. Just as a door slams behind her something heavy slams against the ceiling behind me. I jump alongside the actress on screen and laugh nervously. Bella picks her head up, groans, and flops down on her side.

“Boy, the reviews had not lied, that’s for sure. Not even 30 minutes in and I swear I’m hearing things going bump…” I stop, thinking about what I just said, and my mind slowly fades back into reality. With a sigh I pause the movie and get up from the couch,heading up to where the girls are supposed to be sleeping.

Walking up the stairs I hear two little voices giggling, hurriedly shushing each other as though that would erase the noise they just made. I see the light peeking out from under their door suddenly shut off and hear more shushing. Shaking my head with a small smile, I open the door slowly and peek inside.

Two little dirty blonde heads peek out from beneath blankets, trying to hide their most likely smiling faces. Smirking, I sneak closer to their beds.

“Hmmm… how odd. I could have sworn I heard a noise coming from up here, but both my girls are asleep. Oh dear, but that must mean we have a couple of little… Ghosts!” I quickly lunge forward and start tickling Lilly through her blankets.
With a squeal Lilly pulls her covers up higher and Ali sits up laughing.

“No!!! Mommy stop!!! I’m Lilly, not a ghost!” she exclaims, laughing and rolling, trying to get me to stop tickling her.

“But that’s impossible,” I say with a laugh, continuing my attack. “My daughters are supposed to be asleep like good little girls!” I smile and stop tickling her, and quickly pull down the sheets. “Lilly! What are you doing awake?” I ask with joking sternness.

“Lilly had a nightmare,” Ali said. “I was trying to get her to smile and laugh so she could have good dreams.”

Getting up, she walks over and gives Lilly a hug and give me a kiss on the cheek. “We weren’t trying to be bad mommy, I promise.”

Lilly nodded rapidly, letting her head flop back and forth some. “I’m sorry, mommy,” she said, hugging her sister tighter.

“Girls, you know you can always come and get mommy, or momma when she’s home, if you have a bad dream or need anything, right?” I remind them gently. While I love that they are trying to be independent and take care of each other, I want to make sure they know I will always be there for them.

The girls smile at me. “We know, mommy,” Ali says “We just didn’t want to interrupt your movie. I know I don’t like my movies interrupted.” Ali aims her blue eyes right into mine as though to iterate just how serious she is. Lilly nods beside her, her pigtails flying around her head, trying to look just as serious.

I can’t help but smile at my girls. How did they turn out so thoughtful? I couldn’t be prouder.

“Well, thank you girls, but now it’s time to get back in bed and shut the lights out. Ok?” Tilting my head, I give them my best “mom” look and both girls giggle and climb into bed. I tuck in each girl in turn, give them a kiss on the head, shut the light out and stand in the doorway for a moment.. I feel stunned and in awe at the two beautiful girls in the room. Each of them is a perfect little angel. Before they came around I knew I would love kids, but now I cannot imagine my life without them - they are my everything.

I slowly turn and shut the door, walking down the hall and back down stairs. As I round the corner, heading back to the living room, I notice Bella standing at the back door which is slightly ajar. Frowning, I walk towards it slowly, trying to remember if I had heard the alarm go off. Fairly certain I hadn’t, I close the door and check the alarms. I realize now that I never turned them on.

Quietly, I start to look around the rest of the first floor of the house, sure I hadn’t heard anyone on the stairs. I’ve always hated having to search the house at night alone, so I grab my Louisville Slugger.

I start searching the place I hate the most: the closets. Each time I open one I have a mini heart attack. Just as I’m about to open the last closet door I see Bella jump up and open the door. With a sigh of relief and a smile I set the bat down by the closet and walk over to close and lock the door, patting Bella on the head.

“Who taught you to open the door, huh?” I laugh and brush the thought off. She’s a lab. They’re ridiculously smart, so she probably figured it out herself from watching us.

Setting the alarm and walking back over to the couch I sit down and start the movie back up. I drop right back down into the cloud of horror and fear in no time.

Just as the woman on screen comes face to face with her possessed daughter I hear a door creak open behind me. Jumping with a scream in my throat, I quickly slap my hands over my mouth as to not wake the girls. I let out a nervous laugh and shake my head. “Bella, you have got to stop opening…”

Bella is asleep beside me on the couch, which means…

I bolt up from where I’m sitting and start searching for where the noise came from. Just as I’m about to brush the sound off as my imagination I see a closet door that has been left open. It is the same closet I didn’t check earlier and my bat is gone.

I scream, “ALI!!! LILLY!!!” and run for the stairs. Just as I reach the second floor I’m knocked to the ground by a hit to the back with my missing bat, falling forward and slamming face first into the floor, sending my front teeth through my lip and breaking my nose. Pinned beneath a man in a black ski mask, I try to get free, kicking out, but his grip only tightens.

“No no no,” he purrs almost gleefully in my ear in the most sinister voice I’ve ever heard in my life, “you’re not going anywhere. And don’t worry, I won’t kill you.” He chuckles under his breath. “At least, not until I’ve made you watch while I kill your daughters.”

Knotting a hand in my hair he stands, dragging me up with him without letting me get my feet under me, and starts down the hall for the girls’ room. I hear something running up the stairs and the man yelp in pain. I am pulled back down to the ground as the man falls. The hand holding my hair releases me and I make a run for Ali and Lilly’s room. Glancing behind me I see Bella pinning the man to the ground, growling and biting at him as he tries to fight her off, and she’s already gotten a good bite on his arm.

I throw open the door to the girls’ room to find them standing just inside holding each other and looking terrified.

Without a word I scoop them up, hold them tight against me, and bolt back out the door.

I press us against the wall and edge around where Bella and the man in the mask grapple. Bella has the upper paw, bless her doggie heart. However, I only make it three steps down when I feel something grab hold of my shirt and pull. I tip backwards slamming my spine into the edge of a step. Groaning in pain I look up to see the man holding the collar of my shirt, preventing me from running. Bella is still pinning his leg to the ground. I see his other leg draw back, preparing to kick and I press both girls’ faces against me, so they don’t see what’s about to happen, and bury my face in their hair. I hear a yelp and wines of pain coming from Bella. I glance up just in time to see him pull a knife out of his belt and stab Bella with it.

I try to pull against the hand still holding onto me, tears streaming down my face silently but I am yanked up the stairs.
“Now then,” the man says with a huff, “where were we? Ah yes, these beautiful girls. Let’s find a better spot to put on a show, shall we? AH! That looks perfect.”

He then walks down the stairs, dragging me down them one by one, each step connecting with my spine with deliberate force.
When we reach the bottom he turns for the dining room. My whole back feels bruised, the pain screaming through me like electrical shocks being sent through my body, and I definitely have a few broken ribs, but is nothing compared to the fear I’m feeling for my daughters. I can’t let them die. I won’t.

While I’m wracking my brain trying to think of any way to get out of his grasp, I hear a car pull into the driveway. I try to think of who it could possibly be, but thankful for whoever came to visit. They may have just saved our lives.

“Oh good,” said the man with sickening glee, “The whole family is home now. We won’t have to wait for her.”

My eyes widen with fear as the garage door opens. No! She couldn’t be back this early! Why was she back?

Obviously not afraid of me going too far, the man drops me and the girls and heads off towards the garage door. My knees buckle when I attempt to lift myself and the girls off the ground.

I hear the door open.

Putting the girls down I try again. This time I’m able to get my feet under me and stay upright, but not for long.

Jill shouts, “Who the hell are you!” and I hear skin hitting skin.

The pain in my back causes me to collapse.

I can hear Jill cry out in pain but also that she is fighting back.

Seeing my girls crying in fear, I close my eyes, take a deep breath. I stand once more.

More shouts, more cries of pain - and this time the cries are not just Jill’s.

I take hold of my girls’ hands and as quick as I can head for the door.

“You stay the hell away from my family!”

I start to trip. It’s no good, I’m too slow to get away, so I head for a closet.

“Run! Dona, Ali, Lilly! Run!”

If I can’t run, I can at least hide.

Shoving the girls into the closet, I run to the back door as I hear the girls terrified screams behind me begging me not to leave them alone. I open the door to make it look like we left, and ran back to the closet.

The man is swearing. More shouts of pain come from both him and Jill.

Inside the closet I close the door and kiss the girls. My girls, our girls, and encourage them to be quiet, as quiet as they can be, like it’s a game. It’s just a game.

The scuffle gets closer to our hiding spot. I see blood, a lot of blood. Oh god! Whose blood is that? I see Jill back up to the closet we’re hiding in. Does she know we’re in here?

Suddenly I see Jill put her hands up. “Please, please don’t…” That is fear in her voice. What could cause her to sound so afraid-

BANG!

Jill slides down the door and hits the ground with a loud thud. The man lets out a gleeful laugh. “I’m so glad you didn’t miss the show,” he says, taking a step towards the body, towards the closet, towards us.

And then there was silence.