It was raining the morning that Christopher Bryant escaped from the mental institution. The soft pellets of rain hit the windows of the institution, clouding the view of the manicured gardens and high fences.

Christopher was never fond of the rain, and today even less so. Today was the day.

He may have been a bit psychotic at times, but his mind still worked, he was still able to have rational and well thought out ideas. They came sparingly, but they did come to him.

Most of the time the medication dulled his thoughts, dulled his body and mind so much that he could feel his resolve fading. Other times his rage against Rosalie would overcome him and he would long to watch her loose the things that she cared about, knowing what she had put him through.

Time became irrelevant, everything became irrelevant compared to serving Rosalie his unique type of justice, one that would end in her blood.

Ideas came to him on the rare days where the dullness nor the anger overcame him, and he was placid, quiet and thinking, devising and creating plans and ideas which would lead him to Rosalie.  

One of these ideas was how to escape, and sitting in his room, Christopher Bryant knew that this idea was going to be a great one. For a year he had been plotting, planning and scheming. He had been devising plans and imagining every scenario possible. He had done this all for one girl, Rosalie Montgomery.

The thoughts of what he was going to do to that girl was the only thing that kept his head clear but clouded at the same time. Thoughts of her appeared to be a double edged sword, keeping him focussed but hurting him all the same.

His room was white, too white. Everything in the mental institution was white, except a painting in the hallway. A red rose. Sometimes Christopher would just stand before it, mesmerised by the bright red and wonder if that was the same colour of the blood he would spill as soon as he left the institutor. 

Christopher was in that hallway now, standing, observing, watching, thinking.

‘Mr Bryant, please come with me’

A man appeared next to him, dragging Christopher’s thoughts away from the painting.

Christopher didn’t say anything, just took one last glance at the painting, the red standing out against the white of the hallway, a slight smirk pulling at the corners of Christopher’s lips.  

Christopher nodded and followed the nurse. Christopher had planned this day out, he knew exactly what he was going to do, down to every miniscule movement.

Killing that nurse hadn’t even been hard, getting out of the institution after that, on the other hand, became quite the struggle.

Christopher managed it. He escaped, and the dark clouds made way for morning light, bathing him in it's warm glow, as he breathed in the fresh air and pushed all other thoughts aside, Christopher Bryant knew what he had to do next.

It was time for Rosalie to die.   

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Mackenzie was playing with her dolls when the doorbell rang.

The sound was normal, average, common, so she didn’t think twice, continuing to play with her dolls.

Her Aunts crying was the sound that alerted the child to a problem.

She let out a low whistle, and watched as her dog came running into the room, excited for any adventure that involved Mackenzie.

Quietly and quickly, Mackenzie made her way out of her room and into the hallway, her puppy close by.

Muffled voices were low in her ears and no matter how much she strained to hear them the words blended in with each other and the sounds were too low to be distinct. With the faithful puppy by her side, Mackenzie quietly descended the staircase, the voices becoming slightly clearer with each step, until she was at the base of the stairs, able to hear each word.

‘How? How did he escape!?’ Her Aunts desperate tone sent shivers down her spine as she listened, wondering who her Aunt was talking to.

‘It seems that a few hours ago he killed a nurse and then a guard, stealing the guards uniform and cards which allowed him access to the back of the building, and then they believe that he must have scaled the fences or hijacked someone’s car as they were leaving the facility’ A man’s voice said.

‘How are you going to find him? He is a crazed killer!’

Mackenzie knew then who they were talking about, a few weeks ago she had turned on the news to see a local program which was in honour of the one year anniversary of her parents deaths. They showed pictures of Christopher, a man she had once though was good but turned out to be much different.

Mackenzie wondered if the bad man was back, and the thought worried her greatly. 

‘Miss, we are doing everything we can, and we are going to post a patrol car outside your house until this matter is resolved. Where is your niece? She will need to come here immediately, she will need constant protection until this matter is resolved’

‘She-She’s on a camping trip with her friends, I’ll call her right now.’

Mackenzie heard footsteps and she tried running back up the stairs, but her Aunt had already seen her.

‘Mackenzie?’

The young girl turned around and walked back down the stairs, the puppy standing next to her.

‘How much did you hear Mackenzie?’ her aunt asked her and the girl blinked back tears.

‘Is the bad man back again?’

Her Aunt didn’t say anything, just pulled her into her arms and stroked comforting fingers through the young girl’s hair.

‘Is he going to hurt Rose?’

‘I won’t let him hurt Rose and I won’t let him hurt you, you have nothing to worry about Mackenzie’

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Rosalie held her phone in her hand as the signal dropped from four bars to three, from three to two and eventually from two to one. At that point she turned off the phone and put it back in her pocket.

‘According to Sadie, it should be up here on the left’ Benjamin commented.

‘Are you sure? All I’ve seen for the last half hour is trees and lakes’ Parker commented from the back seat.

‘Pretty sure’ Benjamin confirmed.

Rosalie looked around and didn’t see anything she recognised, but to be fair, she was surrounded by trees, the car following a partially dirt path, of which, Sadie had told them lead to the cabin. The tall trees and other plants were dense around them and seemed to darken their path with their big branches, blocking out the sunlight.

After a few minutes and a few curses to the lack of cell reception later, they saw a flash of silver and then realised that they had found it, Deon's car parked out the front.

Getting out of the car, Rosalie admired the cabin. It wasn’t too big, nor too small. The wooden cabin looked like it was made a hundred years ago, but she knew that Sadies brother had spent a lot of time trying to fix up this place.

She remembered coming here a few years ago, laughing at the memory of Sadies parents getting lost trying to find the cabin which was located in the middle of nowhere.

They carried their bags into the cabin and Rosalie was surprised at how neat and modern it looked. The front door opened up to a large open planned kitchen and living room with stairs against the wall which lead to what she remembered to be three or four bedroom and a bathroom. There was a flat screen television against the wall and a few modern sofas facing it.

‘Hey, you guys are here! We thought you were lost’ Sadie said, munching on a chocolate bar, so she obviously wasn’t too upset by her friends possible predicament.

‘We found it’ Parker smiled, ‘where can we put our stuff?’

‘Your room is upstairs, first one on the left’ she nodded towards the stairs before looking at Rosalie and Benjamin, ‘you guys are the last one on the right’

‘Let’s go’ Benjamin lead the way upstairs.

The room was small, a queen bed in the centre with a dark blue bedspread. A mirror was placed against one wall and a window on the other.

Throwing her bag on the ground, Rosalie flopped onto the bed, soon to be joined by her boyfriend.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Something doesn’t feel right’ Rosalie said, thinking of the butterflies in her stomach and the nervous feeling she couldn’t shake.

Benjamin rolled over to face his girlfriend, ‘Mackenzie is safe, I am sure of it, and you are safe too’

‘I know- I, I am being silly, it’s just so strange being away from her, but I’m going to have fun’ Rosalie forced a smile onto her face.

‘Good, let’s go downstairs and see what they are all up to?’ Benjamin started to get up, but Rosalie’s hand shot out, grabbing his arm and pulling him back to her.

‘mm, but’ she looked around the room, ‘we seem to be in a room, alone?’

‘mm?’ he mumbled, pressing a kiss to her lips.

‘With a bed’

‘mm?’ A kiss was placed on her jawline and as she spoke again the kisses continued down her neck.

‘With no children who could walk in’ Rosalie shrugged, ‘I’m sure that we could think of something to do with this rare opportunity’ she emphasised the word something, making Benjamin laugh. His warm breath fell against her neck as he laughed.

‘Oh, I can think of something’ He murmured, wrapping his arm around her and flipping them slightly so that he was on top of his smiling girlfriend.

Rosalie wrapped her arms around his neck in an effort to get him closer and he obliged, lowering his face to meet hers. Rosalie felt safe in his embrace, loved and cared for. This freedom to just be together without responsibilities was so rare that she felt like she had to cherish this moment, and maybe if her next few days were filled with moments like these, then maybe she might have the good time that everyone seemed to want her to have.

It would have been in that moment, if she had cell reception, that her aunt would have called her. It would have been that moment that she would have made plans to get home to safety. In actual fact, her phone was turned off in the side pocket of her jeans, no signal reaching it anyhow.

Ignorant to those facts, Rosalie smiled as she attacked her boyfriend’s mouth with her own, creating a kiss that was all teeth and tongue, hands seemingly everywhere.  

She tugged on the bottom of his shirt, and he leant back, pulling the fabric over his head and tossing it against the wall. She tried to take her own off, but his hands stopped hers, doing it for her, his warm hands travelling up her sides.

It was safe to say that those two didn’t leave their room for a few hours after that, during which, a man wearing dark clothing was on his way to them, looking for blood.