Chapter Eight:

            “Ana someone tried to break into your house again.  I don’t know if they got anything, but there was some damage.”

            “Vania is this ever going to end?  Am I ever going to be able to go home?”

            “I hope so Ana, but now it’s not safe.  I think they are after Sasha’s journal.”

            “I am sure they are, but they are not going to get it.  I am not going to put her in that kind of danger.”

            “Ana holding onto that journal may be dangerous.”

            “I know Vania, but after all Sasha sacrificed for our family, all she did, to make sure we were safe, I think I owe it to her.”

            “Ana I don’t know how long we are going to be able to protect you here, it might be a good idea you and Mom and the kids go up to the Cabin again.”

            “I don’t know that we would be safe their either Vania, I am tired of having to run from this.  I feel like my whole life has been spent chasing Shadows, chasing monsters from the past.”

            “I know Ana, but I don’t want anything to happen to you.  I do not want to lose my sister.”

            “I don’t plan on that happening, but the truth is Vania only the good Lord knows our time.”

            “Yes I know Ana, but I really wish this would end.  I wish we could lead a normal life.”

            “Vania as much as I hate to say it that will not happen until he is dead.”

            “I know Ana, and I find that very sad.”

            “I do too Vania.”

            Ana longed to get back to her house, she loved her parents, but wanted her own life back.  She did not buy that beautiful big house, to leave it sitting empty, with no one in it.  She knew Jelena wanted to get back home too, Jelena was glad to have the chance to visit with her Mother, but she too needed to get back on with her life.  She needed to get back to her therapy sessions so she could grow stronger.

            Ana tried to let time pass by, by working on her manuscript, but even that was not an answer in itself.  She would do much better when she went home, when things were safe once again.  Not that they had ever truly known what it was to be safe, but Ana was not going to go home just to make herself a target, and she had to keep Sasha’s journal away from these people, these people who seemed content to destroy her place, and scare the life out of her to get their hands on that journal. 

            Her Grandfather knew Sasha was alive, he had to, or why else would he send these men after the journal?

            It’s so dark and so scary out here, but I have to stay hidden.  I can’t let him see me.  He thinks I am dead.  He wants me dead.

            Is he going to kill Marishka, Sophia next?

            I’m alive though, I played dead until I saw his truck pull away, and get out of sight.  I have to be careful though.  I have found empty cabins here.  I hope I can get in, get some food.  I am starving, the hunger pains are hurting my tummy.

            I am so hungry.

            Why did he want to hurt me like this?  He even through my journal out with me, and the pen, its stained with my own blood.  Not from being shot, but from falling.

            He’s a monster, my Daddy is a monster, and I am scared for my sisters now.

            I don’t want them to go through the things I went through.

            I don’t want Daddy sneaking in their room at night, doing things, horrible things, things that he did to me.

            I feel so dirty, I never will be clean again, no matter how many bathes I take, how many times I scrub myself with Ivory Soap.

            I don’t want my sisters to go through that, but how can I protect them?

            He thinks I am dead, and as long as he keeps thinking that I will be okay.

            Ana gently closed the pages of the journal, feeling sick for what her Aunt had been through as a child.  It was hard to phantom that someone could do this to their own daughter, then try to kill them and leave them for dead in the woods.    He had hurt her too, but not like that.

            I was seven grandpa wanted me to play a game.  I didn’t like the game.  He got mad when I told him so.  He told me if I was a good girl I would play the game.

            It was a dirty game.  No one should play games like that, they talked about it in school, how you should never play games like that, or get in cars with strangers, but he wasn’t a stranger, he was Grandpa.

            Mom or Dad didn’t know about the game, not until after.  They didn’t know about a lot of things Grandpa did, he was good at lying to everyone.

            Not anymore though, we all know his story.

            He is a monster there is no other way to put that.

            “Ana are you okay?”

            “Yeah, I am okay.”

            “He did things to me too Ana.”

            “I know he did Vania, you told me.”

            “I tried to protect you.”

            “I know you did Vania, but you were just a little girl, we were both little girl’s he was the monster.”

            “He did to us, what he did to Sasha.”

            “I know Ana.”