He smiled suddenly, a new thought occurring to him. I forced myself not to think about how beautiful that smile was. That would get me nowhere.
"How about this?" he asked in an excited tone of voice, "I'll give you a ten second head start."
As if this was some sort of game.
As if he wasn't going to kill me the instant those seconds were up, the same way he had killed my parents and younger sister. I winced, trying not to recall the sight of the corpses lying mangled on the kitchen floor.
I didn't want to join them.
Instead, I nodded mutely to the man in front of me, then dashed, terrified, into the nearby living room. What was the saying? You can run but you can't hide? That wasn't true for me. I could hide.
I did.
I ducked behind my dad's comfy blue reading chair. It seemed anything but comforting now. I held as still as possible. After a few seconds of silence, I heard quiet footsteps enter into the room. All I could do was pray that he wouldn't find me.