Vito and Svetlana were taking turns having control one day on the mountain near Mike's house. We had been here several times before, and I did love it up here. Manitoba brought us up here whenever we needed to just run away and get away from everything and everyone for a while. Vito would do sit-ups and pushups, and Svetlana was trying out some Chinese acrobatics she had seen on TV. Both built muscle tone, so they didn't mind taking turns. Mike was eight now, which meant I was six. I still didn't like the others, but I tolerated them better now.

"Guys, let Jake have a turn!" said Mike. "He never gets to have any fun."

"I don't need to come out, Mike. I don't want to take control from you."

"I don't mind, you should get a turn, just like everyone else. Svetlana, Vito, let Jake come out."

"Later!" said Svetlana. "It has been eternity since Svetlana got to stretch her muscles. Zis body vill not be keeping itself in shape."

"I'm sorry Jake, I promise you'll get a turn later," said Mike.

I doubted it. When the others wanted something, they took it, and Mike was a pushover. He would do anything to keep the peace between us.

Since I had nothing better to do, I secretly took one of Mike's memories. You would expect him to notice, but he never did. I started doing this a year and a half ago, taking memories of the abuse so he wouldn't hurt so much. I made sure not to take any memories that would leave him confused, but he didn't need all those memories of Daddy hitting him or being locked in the dark. And it did seem to help, he didn't seem as sad now. It was harder on me, but it was worth it.

"Quit getting so close to the edge!" said Chester. "You trying to kill us?"

"Svetlana never falls, she alvays lands on her feet."

Vito made the mistake of taking back control as she was doing a flip over a boulder. He slipped and landed on his face.

"Vito, on ze other hand, is not so graceful. If ve fall off cliff, it vill be because he is a clumsy ox."

"Ayo! I'll get you for that, Twinkletoes."

He was sore from the fall, so he decided to end his workout early and tan, instead. It didn't last long though, because Manitoba got restless and took back control. He dug through the dirt with his hands and exclaimed over just about everything he found. It seemed no discovery was too small or insignificant to him.

"Look at this!" he said excitedly. "And you dingoes said there was no treasure around here."

"That's a bottlecap, genius," said Chester.

"One man's trash…" said Manitoba as he tucked it in his pocket.

Manitoba took us back off the mountain at Mike's insistence. By the time we got back down, it was after dark.

Mike took back control and said, "It's been forever since Jake's gotten to do anything he wants to do, so it's his turn now. No one take control from him."

None of them agreed, but they didn't protest either, which was something.

"Thanks, Mike," I said as I took control. Without even thinking about it, I knew exactly where I wanted to go.

"The playground?" Vito scoffed. "That's the best you can think of?"

"It's my favorite place in the whole world," I replied.

Since it was after dark, I got the whole place to myself. I remembered the before times when Mike used to bring me here, and we would play for hours. He would push me on the swing, and we'd chase each other in tag and play hide and seek. My favorite was when we would play catch. Mike taught me to throw and catch a ball, and never got mad or impatient with me when I did it wrong. Even the jerks couldn't ruin this place for us. I didn't have many happy memories, but most of the ones I did have took place here.

I went down the slide and swung on the swing. This was the first time in two years that I had gotten the chance to play. It was the first time I had come out for something other than a punishment. It was glorious, but something was missing, and I knew exactly what it was.

"I wish we could play together, Mike. Like we used to, before I… before I… died."

"I do too, I miss it. But you're here, and that's what matters."

I found a rubber ball on the grass. Since I had no one to play catch with, I threw the ball against the wall and caught it in my hands. I pretended Mike was catching it and throwing it back to me.

"Mike! There you are!"

I dropped the ball when I heard that voice, and my blood ran cold. I quickly let Mike take back the wheel before Mom reached us. Playtime was over.

"Where have you been all day?" she asked. "Were you running away?"

"No! No, I was just playing outside," said Mike.

"You really expect me to believe that? All you ever do is lie to me. Well, get home, your father wants to see you."

"He's home? But he was just here a few days ago, he never comes this often."

"Don't ask questions, just be grateful. Now get going!"

Mike was going to go with her, but Manitoba took control and took off running in the opposite direction.

"There's no way we're going back to that crocodile. We're getting out of here."

"Where will we go?" asked Mike.

"Anywhere but here!"

Manitoba ran through the streets, directionless but with determination. The streets were mostly empty, and the only light tonight came from streetlamps.

I was very excited, we were finally escaping! I was in agreement with Manitoba, anywhere in the world would be better than this place. I couldn't wait to see where we would end up, it was so exciting. And Mommy and Daddy could never come anywhere near us ever again.

But it was never meant to be. Manitoba was running on a sidewalk, but a car drove up on the sidewalk after him. He had just enough time to exclaim, "Crikey!" but he couldn't get out of the way in time and it ran him over. The car pulled back into the road and parked, and out came Daddy.

Manitoba was knocked onto the hood of the car, but he didn't go through the windshield. If he had, we probably wouldn't have survived. He rolled off the hood and fell on the pavement, bleeding and taking shallow, gasping breaths. He was in too much shock and pain to move or speak, but at least we were still alive. He picked up Manitoba's limp form and put him in the back seat of the car. He was starting to lose consciousness, but I could still make out what was going on around us. I heard a car drive up, and I heard voices outside.

"Hey, Victor! What are you doing out here this time of night? Is that Brian in the back seat?"

"Hello, Paul. Yeah, I was taking out Brian for a little father-son time, but he wore himself out. A car could hit us and he wouldn't wake up."

The man laughed and said, "Brian and Tina are lucky to have such a good dad, there aren't many good ones out there."

"I do my best. I have to take advantage of these years because they'll be gone in the blink of an eye."

"You can say that again. Melissa just got a job with us down at the station, following in her old man's footsteps. I assume Brian will take over the family business someday?"

"I certainly hope so. Tina could too, they're both sharp."

"And I just wanted to thank you again for helping me patch up my roof. No more leaks in my house."

"Oh, it was my pleasure, anything for a neighbor."

"Are you and your family still coming over for dinner on Sunday? The missus is making her world famous meatloaf."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world. I should probably let you get back to work, I'm sure you're busy."

"Yeah, I've got work to do. Someone sent in another report about Eleanor Stiletto and that boy of hers yesterday, they think she might be mistreating him."

"Is she?"

"I've checked it out more than once, and nothing seems to be amiss. I mean, Eleanor's off her rocker, but that's nothing new. The boy seems kinda off, but what more can you expect from a genepool like that? I've always wondered who the father is, but I guess we'll never know. But as um… unstable as she is, she seems to do an okay job of raising her children. No need for us to step in."

"It really is an unfortunate situation, I feel sorry for both of them. Do you know whatever happened to her other boy, the one with curly hair? No one has seen him in a while."

"She told us she sent him to stay with a relative, which I believe is for the best. It is unfortunate, having people like that in the community, but what can you do?"

"What can you do? You can check and see if it's really Brian in the backseat," I said, enraged. "Here's a novel idea, why don't you do your job for once and do an actual investigation? We might be dying back here, and would you or anyone else even care? It's nice to know we have police officers not protecting us."

"What indeed. Well, I'll let you get back to it. I need to drop off Brian by the house and get him to bed, and then I have to get back to my office to get some work done. This case I'm working on is murder."

"Don't work too hard, Victor. I'll see you Sunday."

"Have a good one."

Daddy got back in the car, and as he shut the door Manitoba lost consciousness.

When we woke up, Mike was back in control and he was in his own bed.

"What you did wasn't smart, Michael."

He turned his head and saw Daddy sitting by the bed, ripping up his drawings and shredding them into pieces. Mike wanted to shout at him to stop, but movement of any kind was painful. And shouting at him to stop would only earn him more pain.

"You could have been killed. You're lucky nothing was broken in the accident."

That was no accident, but Mike knew better than to argue.

"You won't have to go to a hospital, you're just going to be very sore for a while. But what I want to know is, why did you try to run away?"

"I wasn't trying to run away," said Mike weakly.

"Michael, we both know that's a dirty lie. Now I'm going to ask again, and you are going to tell me the truth. Why did you run away?"

Mike hesitated, and then said, "Manitoba wanted to run away, he wanted to go off on his own. That's why."

"Ah yes, Manitoba. I should have known. But doesn't Manitoba know that he can't ever leave?"

"Maybe he could someday, when I grow up."

"No, not even then. You see Michael, this is your home, and you won't ever leave it. The rest of the world doesn't want you, this is the only place you belong. I had to bring you back tonight because I know that if you go out there, the world will eat you alive. Your mother and I are all you have, and we don't appreciate it when you try to leave. You're going to stay here for the rest of your life, and if you try to escape again, I'll do worse to you than hit you with my car, understand?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Now, how's Jacob doing today?" he asked. "Doing well, I hope."

"He's fine," Mike mumbled.

"That's good to hear, I was worried."

Daddy had stopped telling Mike I wasn't real, which should have been a good thing, but it only made things worse. He always asked about me patronizingly, mocking Mike for believing in me. Mike hadn't been talking to me as much since it started.

"Has Jacob talked to you today? What words of wisdom does he have to offer us?"

"Nothing, he doesn't have anything to say."

"I don't believe it. Jacob was a chatterbox, he always had something to say."

"N-Not today."

Daddy leaned in closer and knocked on Mike's head. "Hello, Jacob? You in there, son? It's Daddy, come say hello!"

I felt a seething rage in my gut and I couldn't contain it. I took back control from Mike and said, "Here I am! It's me, Jake! Are you happy now?"

Daddy howled with laughter like it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. My hands curled up into fists under the blanket. "You really think you're Jacob! You're so off the deep end, so in denial about his death that you've convinced yourself that you are him!"

"Mike is not crazy! I came back, I'm not dead! It really is me!"

That just made him laugh harder. He had tears in his eyes he was laughing so hard. "I guess you forgot what your mother did to you, then? Like she did to baby Elizabeth?"

I froze. I knew that I had drowned, and I remembered when Lizzie died. Was Mommy behind both our deaths? It made sense, but I was so shocked I couldn't speak.

"That's right, mommy killed her babies. It's only a matter of time before she comes after you, Michael. She'd really be doing you a favor, put you out of your misery. She's used drowning and poison, I wonder what she'll do to you? Maybe she'll use fire, but who knows."

I didn't say anything. He would never believe that it was really me and not Mike. There was no point in trying to convince him, and I couldn't stand to hear him laugh anymore.

He left the room, nearly doubled over in laughter. Taking control was a mistake, this pain was worse than any I'd been put through before. I didn't mind it though, the pain was better proof than anything that I was real, that I was still here. It felt good, really.

"Manitoba, don't do that again," said Mike.

"Someone's gotta do something, mate," he responded weakly. "We can't keep going on like this."

"Fighting it just makes it worse."

I didn't give control back to Mike right away. After our parents went to bed, I snuck out of bed and crept down the stairs. I had to move slowly, everything hurt so much. The pain was so intense and debilitating, but I was determined and I made it through sheer will. I made sure the others couldn't see what I was doing, and then I went to the kitchen. I took one of the long knives and went back up the stairs to my parent's room. By the time I got there, I was breathless from the strain on my battered body. I had to take a moment to catch my breath so I wouldn't wake them up.

The door was cracked open, and I slipped inside. Mommy and Daddy were both sound asleep; I had never seen them so vulnerable. I crept over to where Mommy was sleeping. I held the knife up to her neck, but didn't touch her in case it woke her up. I wondered what it would be like to cause someone else pain, instead of being the one taking it. This woman had murdered me, it would only be right to return the favor. I eyed my father lying on the other side of the bed, and imagined his crimson blood soaking the sheets. I imagined their eyes staring up at the ceiling, blank and unseeing.

But I couldn't do it. Even after everything they had done to me, Lizzie, and to Mike, they were still my parents. I felt like a coward, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

I tried to stop him, but at that precise moment, Mike took back control. He was confused at first, but then he saw the knife at his mother's throat and almost screamed, but he covered his mouth with his hands to stop himself. He dropped the knife and ran out of there as fast as he could.

"What's going on?" he asked once he was back inside our room. He curled up in a ball by the door. "Was I about to kill my own mother? What's happening to me?"

I should have spoken up and told him I was the one who had the knife, but if I did, he wouldn't trust me anymore. I couldn't lose his trust, his friendship was all I had. So I stayed quiet, feeling angry at myself for letting this happen. Mike was scared by what he had been about to do, but at some point he managed to get to sleep. I stayed awake, thinking about how it had felt to hold that knife. It felt horrifying, but exhilarating too. That's what made it horrifying.