Scottie walked along the sidewalk in a poor city, wearing rags for clothes, and carrying a bag. She begged at a few houses, declined some offers to stay at their home, and earned a bit of money. She got to the edge of town, where the road trailed off into the country, and saw a farm. Having nothing in that town, Scottie started for the house.

She rang the doorbell. Angus answered the door. He looked as though he were unconscious with his eyes open. One was barely open, because of a bruise circling it.

"Yes?" He asked.

She was distracted by the wound. "Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Can you spare some change?"

"Angus, get yer ass in her!" An old man's voice boomed from inside the house. Angus flinched at it.

"Yes sir," he said to the man. "I'm sorry, I must leave. Goodbye." Angus closed the door. He said goodbye, but his face certainly told her he wanted to go, too.

She heard a thump from outside. Scottie refused to leave. She walked to the back of the house, and ducked under an open window.

"And don't do it again!" She heard the old man's voice again, then heard him leave Angus on the floor in the room. Scottie raised her head enough to look inside. Angus opened the door to a closet, and Isaac came out, whimpering.

"I know the paint you spilled in the garage was yours," Angus said, crouching down to his level. Scottie saw more bruises on his face.

--

"Ack!" Nicholas woke up suddenly.

"What!?" Joey had too much experience with being startled at night.

He calmed down a bit. "Nothing. I just had a horrible nightmare about the children. It's nothing, let's just go back to sleep."

--

"I...I'm sorry," Isaac said as he hugged Angus.

"It's alright," he said.

"Are you okay?" Scottie asked as she stood up in the window.

Angus and Isaac jumped.

"You...the begger," he said.

"Why are you here? You can possibly live like this," she said.

"I'm afraid, we do," Angus said.

"Voluntarily?"

"No. He threatens to kill us daily if we leave."

"Please, come with me. I wouldn't stand leaving people here like this."

"What? That's absurd. We'll all die!"

Isaac ran to the window and hugged Scottie. She was a bit shocked, but hugged him back. The windowsill separated them a bit.

"Please, let's leave, Angus!" Isaac cried. He was really crying.

Angus was hesitant, but walked to the window. The old man came in the room. It was the man in the oil portrait!

"Where in hell do you think you're going?!" The old man asked, although it wasn't really a question.

Angus jumped out of the window, and they all ran for the forest that was just behind the backyard. The old man was supported by a cane, so he hadn't even made it to the gunrack when they got to the woods.

A few moments later, the children were pretty deep in the woods. Suddenly, bark on trees began to explode off near the children.

"He's shooting at us!"

--

This time, when Nicholas woke up, it was morning, and Joey, who had to live up to her new duties as wife and temporary mother, was cooking breakfast in the kitchen. Nicholas left the room, trying to avoid the note that was still on the nightstand, and into the kitchen. Surprisingly, nothing supernatural had happened yet.

Joey had already looked up at the crucifix many times. It was not broken. She went back to cooking.

The children talked, and played word games on the table. They looked like normal children.

"Are you okay?"

"Y-Yes, I'm fine..."

Nicholas just had some sort of lapse. Suddenly he heard the children, like in his dream.

"It's a bulletwound!"

"It's just a graze."

He put his hand over his face, and held the table to stabalize himself.

"Are we safe here?"

"He won't come limping on a cane all the way out here for us."

"Nick? You feeling okay?" Angus asked.

Continuing to hold on to the table, he left the room. "Yeah. I just feel pretty sick," Nicholas said, as he went to his room and lay down. He stared at the ceiling for a while until the voices stopped. He sighed in relief, although he shouldn't have been relieved yet. The note that scared he and Joey that read 'Boo' a day before, then convinced themselves again it was the children before they left, read another sentance in the familiar crude but legible letters.

"Scared?"