Chicken-Arms

"Jenny did you forget the fucking hot dogs?!"

Kyle exclaimed as he rummaged through the groceries they bought for their weekend in the wilderness

The Aldi's bag was dumped on a new somber colored granite counter top in the middle of a kitchen as big as their apartment. The walls surrounding them were made up of large dark lumber logs, the floor of just lumber. On the outside of the sliding glass door, that was on the back side of the house, there was more lumber shaped as a porch, with a hot tub on top, that had a a view of even more lumber. Wild.

"Nessa said she packed them with the ketchup!"

Jenny yelled from her black jeep's trunk still filled with the family's luggage that Kyle so kindly decided to let her carry in all by her chicken-armed self. She hoped he could hear her from that far, although his hearing would still have been selective if she were right next to him.

Kyle appeared in the doorway, clearly annoyed.

" They're not in there Jenny. How are we supposed to be camping without HOT DOGS?! The nearest grocery store is a damn hour away too. Where's Nessa?"

He asked, yet again.. so kindly.

"Honey, one, this is an oasis compared to actual camping, and two, did you check the other bags yet? Nessa already went off to explore with Conner."

Jenny said in a cool tone, hoping he noticed the little jab at not helping with the other bags.

Kyle paused before he let his pride play again

"No they're STILL out here with you, here let me look"

He insisted

Jenny rolled her eyes and started to bring in Nessa & her's suitcases, mostly to avoid the rest of his tantrum, but also to leave him with his own baggage.

She heard the creaks and groans that escaped the old stairs, that were thankfully built right in the entrance, as her extra weighted footsteps thumped all the way to the top.

She plopped the bags down as soon as she got there and heavily exhaled the breath she was holding in the entire time.

With a small drop of sweat on her forehead, she wheeled both the bags in to the large master bedroom, knowing Nessa would want to pick out which of the other two rooms was hers and which one was Conner's.

She was just as bossy as her father. Conner on the other hand was mellow like Jenny. Jenny hates to admit that she favors Conner just a pinch more for that reason. Since the kids have started to grow in to themselves at the big ages of Nessa's 7 years and Conner's double digited 10, she has found it hard to navigate the mixture of the loud and quiet personalities.

She a lot of the time felt lost and wondered if she was a good enough mother, although she could have cared less of how she came off as a wife now. She tolerated Kyle for the kids, the stability, and her small ounce of hope she'd find the happy go lucky guy she met in college again. It'd be a hard treasure hunt, but that version of him was worth digging until the shovel struck her sanity anyways.

For now, she would suffice. She hoped this long memorial day weekend would make it so they would all end up buried in the same plot under their own memorial one day. She didn't hold her breath for that one. Nonetheless, as long as the kids had fun, she wouldn't see it as a loss.

She started to unpack her clothes, trying to find something to wear so she could get out of her road trip outfit-

"I FOUND THEM!!"

Kyle basically screamed in her ear as she had her back turned to the door.

Hand over her heart she says,

"Well no fucking shit, you scared the living hell out of me Kyle!"

"My bad"

He said in sincere apology, his child-like frustration clearly gone now.

"Where were they?" she asked

"In the toiletry bag. Nessa was trying to be funny. What are we gonna do with that one huh?"

He said with a proud dad smirk

"Now that, I can not tell you."

They laughed together, her smile from it fading slower than his as she saw a glimpse of the old him.

An hour or so passed as they let themselves completely settle in. As the sky started to dim, Nessa and Conner were still in the back playing whatever it is kids play these days. It was a no-screen time weekend for them, so for once they had to use their imaginations. Who knows what they chose to conjour up. Actually, Jenny rather not know.

Finally, to Kyle's excitement, it was time to roast some weenies.

"Nessa! Conner! Come help ya old pops out with these things!" Kyle ordered

The kids came running, starving from not having eaten since the snacks they had on the car ride there.

"Let me roast one Daddy!" Nessa said eagerly

Conner sat in one of the laid back lawn chairs surrounding the campfire that was just down the steps of the patio. Jenny sat down on the one next to him, and together they quitely watched Nessa and Kyle roll the hot dogs in the fire then slather it with ketchup once they finished it off with a bun.

This was nice, Jenny thought. Maybe a cliche weekend away actually does help. The peace of the family bonding carried on as glizzy's turned in to half-burnt smores and smores turned in to children snores.

Nessa ended up picking the 2nd biggest bedroom in the house, leaving conner with the smallest. Which made Jenny have an anxiety ridden thought that maybe she wasn't a bad mother, but instead she just raised a bad sister. She'd ponder on that thought until her eyes shut.

Jenny woke up prematurely even though she was exhausted from the daring day. She picked up her phone and the time read 2:22 AM. A nice little angel number to get her out of bed to get some water from the thirst she originally woke from. She must not have had enough after the salty hot dogs. She creaked herself downstairs as quietly as she could, poured some from the fancy fridge in to a fancy glass and headed back upstairs to enjoy before heading back to rest.

She sat on the bed next to Kyle, who always took the side closest to the window. He must have been more tuckered out than her because he made no movement in her disruption. She sipped the water, then covered herself up in the covers and laid down fully. She was about to drift off- that same thought from before lingering- but a random feeling of wettness on her leg led her back to full conciousness. Had she spilled some of her water without knowing? The wetness seemed to be growing to the point she shot up from the bed, remembering that Kyle, back in those happy go lucky college days, used to wet the bed, from rather too much drinking, or night terrors. That was not a part of the old him she wanted to attract. He didn't seem in any distress but she still quickly turned on the lamp on top of the nightstand where her phone laid.

"KY--" is all she got out before her blood curdling scream

The wetness was just that, blood. It pooled from a clean slash across Kyle's neck, his eyes were wide and his breath wasn't held, it was gone.

"OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD" she sobbed out inbetween screams

She attempted to stop the bleeding even though she knew there was no point. Once that settled in she hugged his corpse and froze there in fear. She realized that someone did this and that someone is in the house with

"THE KIDS OH FUCK THE KIDS"

In the shock of it all her ears deafened, she hadn't heard the kids slamming on the door already screaming

"Mommy! Mommy! What's wrong?! Daddy let us in!"

Wait, let us.. in?

Neither her nor Kyle ever locked their bedroom door.. fuck.

Jenny swiftly jumped over Kyle's silent body on the bed to the nightstand so she could retrieve her phone to call 911, and then zoom out of the bedroom and grab her kids out of there as quickly as possible.

Except the phone had already been retrieved, but not by her.. fuck.

She unlocked and opened the door as fast as she slammed it behind her. She didn't give the kids a chance to see their slaughtered father, as she whisked them away with those same chicken-arms, but this time geared in to mommy mode.

The kids were stunned & crying as their mom carried them down the pulsing groans of wood. She went to fling the front door open but it didn't budge. She looked out the perplexed glass, annoyed she couldn't see out too well, but once she did see she was more than just annoyed. A barricade of sorts blocked them in, she whipped her head around and looked back down the hall behind the stairs where you can see to the kitchen's sliding glass door- also barricaded.. fuck.

She had no idea what to do. A murderer was in this cage with them, was in the ROOM with her, had her phone, had something unbearably sharp, and didn't have a motive other than to kill. Kyle may have been an ass, but he wasn't one enough to have enemies.

She stumbled her and the kids to the kitchen to get away from the stairs considering they were the only way back down to the first floor, and the attacker hadn't come down yet.

She set the kids down, wondering how they hadn't slipped out of her fingers already considering how sweaty she had gotten, but their fear must have held on tight. She took their hands, stared in to their freightened eyes, and as calmy as possible said

"Okay okay okay, I need you to listen to me. Go in to the bathroom and lock the door. DO.NOT. come out until rather I get you, or a cop does. No one else is allowed. Okay? Do you understand me? I love you now, go!"

Nessa & Conner did a teary nod and sprinted to the bathroom right off of the kitchen. Jenny noticed their pajama's were covered in blood, she looked down at herself and discovered her worse off. She didn't have time to think of her now dead husband's blood all over her and their children though. She had to make care more about his blood still warm inside them.

She was going to break the sliding glass door in hopes she could get herself out enough to move the baracde. She knew the front door's window was too small to fit through and the downstairs windows were sealed shut for bears. She tried to throw everything in sight to make it break but nothing was working. She tore the kitchen apart with no luck of a heavy enough object - these damned Air BnB's she thought, only having the bear minimum of necessities. Didn't they know she needed something to destroy their property?!

She paused in her thought.. wait.. did they?

Jenny thought what if.. it was the owner. What if not only his motive was to kill but it was his plan all along. If so, this man knows this place like the back of his hand. I am so fucking screwed, she thought.

Her eyes going a million miles an hour trying to scan the room for something, anything to save her and her babies, they finally stopped on the fireplace base. It was an old one, it had to have a brick loose. It had to.

This place was described as "newly updated log cabin of your dreams" but right now that would actually be a nightmare. The website left out a picture of the fireplace though, so she had some hope it was in ruins. She lurched herself over there and began to attack the bricks one by one, some were definetly loose but she was worried her chicken-arms were mommied-out.

The owner, Dan if she recalled correctly, was just as polite as any of the other hosts were. She didn't think anything of him, but maybe she should now. Why has he not come down the stairs to carry out his plans yet? She for certain would have heard him on those stairs, and then seen him straight away. Was it even him? Did it actually matter?

The suspension built up and she decided to let it grow a bit stronger by being silent for a second, but still she could hear nothing other than her heavy breathing. Oh! She got a brick loose! A brick came loose!

With no hesitance she leaped back to the kitchen and threw it with all the arm strength she had left. YES! A shattered hole was made, but simultaneously with the worst noise she had ever heard.

Her kids shrieking bloody murder

She ran to the bathroom, leaving behind the escape plan, confused as to how the hell he got past her to the bathroom and still had enough time to break down it's door. She blinked a couple times to see clearly once facing it.. it wasn't open? He. was. in. there.

She then remembered there was a window in the bathroom, he must have jumped from the damn 2nd floor and purposely not have sealed that one in the renovations. He'd have to be a big, big man who had already studied, or done that jump before.. FUCK!

Jenny furiously banged her fists on the bathroom door- really wishing that that brick wasn't laying outside in her freedom. That the man wasn't smart enough to know she'd try to break down the more fragile of the two entrances, that he wasn't smart enough to know she'd be perking her ears up for the stairs, not anything outside, wasn't smart enough to know where she would hide her kids, wasn't smart enough to know that if he broke the bathroom window at the exact same time as she broke the sliding doors, that the noises would cancel each other out and he'd have one more moment than her to get himself to his bloody pajama wearing victims.

She couldn't let him out smart her anymore but what was she to do? She continued going at the door like it was him himself until she noticed the kids had stopped screaming. No no no no no no no no!!! Very muffled screams from both her baby's mouths were heard once she settled her fury, and let a breath of relief go. Still, she could tell that their mouths were covered with something.

"If you dare hurt my children I will kill you god dammit do you hear me!! I WILL KILL YOU!!" she yelled, her motive now stronger than his.

In a deep toned, gravely voice, the man says

"Hi, Jenny."

Well that's one part of the puzzle solved.

"Fuck you DAN, I know it's you, let my kids fucking go you bastard, take me if you must as long as you leave them alone!!"

The muffled screams got a little louder there

"Mommy's right here Conner baby, Mommy's right here Nessa, I'm gonna get you out safe okay?"

Dan chuckled and asked

"So, "mommy", which one is it gonna be hmmm?"

"What the fuck do you mean which one?" Jenny replied

Her heart started racing more than it already had been

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHICH ONE?!"

She didn't know this race involved games.

After a short but agonizing pause Dan explained the rules

"Jenny, dearest, which of your spawns do you prefer? The little rascal that is Nessa" saying Nessa's name with a grunt

Jenny heard Nessa muffle out an "ow" behind the door

"Do not fucking touch her!!"

"...or would you rather keep your sweet boy Conner" another grunt, but a slap heard, and a louder muffled "OW"

"STOP IT!! Stop it pleaaassseeee don't do this to me, please im begging, please"

Jenny sobbed the words down the door until she was defeated on her knees at the bottom of it

" You have 5 seconds to figure it out bitch 5.."

"NO! No please!!!"

"4.."

"Don't make me do this! Plea-ea-ease"

"3.."

"FUCK fuck fuck"

"2.. o- "

"Conner, okay,conner. Fuck, fuck, Nessa, sweety, I am so sorry, mommy loves you, fuck please don't hurt either of them, I can't I can't I can't"

Her pleads were interrupted by gargling sounds louder than the muffled voices

"NO- O- NO-O NO-O"

To Jenny's surprise, the bathroom door slowly creeped open. She expected to first look up to a giant angry man but the space far above her head held no one. He must of already went back out of the window. She lowered her gaze, it was Nessa that she was looking up at, holding on to the door frame silently like she needed to steady herself from the shock.

Jenny let out another held in breath, a smile even, until she followed Nessa's eyes to the floor next to her. Conner's body lay as his fathers was. Slit throat, the entire floor engulfed in the red's wetness.

Jenny let out the most excruciating mother- whom just lost a child -roar

Her eyes looked away from the horror back to her still living child's and followed those to directly behind her.

Jenny didn't even turn around. She let him. With a sword that had sat on the mantle of the ruined fireplace, he slashed her chicken-arms clean off.

"Nessa, you or mommy?" he asked

She had no expression when she assuredly replied

"Mother."

She was in fact, a bad mom.