“What was that?!” Juri shouted.

Lars jumped out of bed and scrambled to find anything that could be used as a weapon. The only thing he managed to find was a lamp. He held it upside down with the wires wrapped around his hand.

“I’ll go check…” Lars said as he inched towards the exit of their bedroom.

“Be careful…” Juri shivered under the blankets.

Lars walked out into the hallway. Their bedroom was on the second floor, and he paused for a moment to hear if he could hear any sounds coming from the staircase, as there was a single step that always made a screech, but there was no noise.

He turned to the staircase and peered down at the door. Sure enough, the door was wide open, with the glass of the window shattered all over the floor, reflecting the faraway street light glow.

Calming his breath, he gripped the lamp tighter and walked down the stairs, skipping the creaking step. He stopped at the bottom of the staircase and listened. Faint footsteps were heard coming from the kitchen, in and around other rooms, and then back towards Lars. It sounded as if there were two people.

He braced himself behind the doorway, as he waited for them to come back round to the front. But how would he deal with two people? One enough could pose a challenge.

The footsteps were getting closer, and finally they were right outside of the doorway. Lars took a deep breath and saw the figure pass in front of him. He twisted his arm back then forward, smashing the bottom of the lamp into the person’s head as they fell over screaming.

And just as that happened Lars’s worst nightmare came true. The other man came in right after the first, without giving him time to react, as the other intruder pulled out a knife and pierced it into Lars’s chest and he fell to the ground.

Juri scrambled out of bed, the screaming jolting her fight response. She heard two bodies fall to the ground, she could only hope neither of them were Lars. On the off chance that Lars had been hurt, she needed to at least hide Jack somewhere safe, who knew what kind of monsters they were. She could only hope Jack wouldn’t wake up and cry.

She took Jack out of the crib and wrapped his body in blankets. Opening their closet door, she placed him in the back, as he laid bundled as if he were still in a bed. She tossed some blankets over the crib, trying to disguise it as best she could, regardless of Jack being absent from it.

Juri gently shut the closet door, leaving it open just a crack. She too, grabbed an ordinary item and held it like a weapon. A metal curtain rod rested in her hands and she took a step out of the room.

“Hey!” an unfamiliar deep voice said. “Cooperate and I won’t shoot.”

She felt something hard placed against her head. Her body couldn’t help but shake. Did this mean Lars had been captured too?

“Yes, okay.”

The man dragged her down the stairs and to the entrance door where she saw Lars laying in a pool of blood. She wept and disobeyed the intruder. She sprung at Lars lifting his body slightly up feeling for a pulse, but as soon as she felt for a pulse, her own pulse stopped.

“Told you to listen to me.”

Lars’s eyes opened slightly, as he stared at Juri’s corpse that was laying atop of him. His anger was too great, his mind froze, but the knife in his chest kept him from reacting to anything.

“I was gonna use yer woman for a bargaining chip, but I guess it’s too late now. All we came here for was to find yer research notes. Doctor.”

Lars tried to speak but only coughed, spewing up blood. His unfocused eyes looked to the unconscious man at the ground, and then gazed at the door behind the standing intruder. Someone else was there.

“Excuse me,” a familiar voice said, and then a loud noise followed.

The intruder fell over. A bullet through his head.

“Mr. Nelto…” Lars said as he fell over unconscious.

*****

“So, Mom died because of your research…?” Jack asked.

“Yeah... If only I would have never taken such a job.”

“Why did you still continue it then?!”

Lars sighed. “I figured if I stopped after your mom died, all my research would have been for nothing, even her death would have been for nothing. But, if I can continue and find something that could change and possibly save millions of lives… Well, then maybe your mother’s death will have had some meaning. Ever since that day, I have locked myself away doing nothing but researching, and well raising you.”

Jack didn’t know how to respond. He took a minute to process everything.

“What about me though? You weren’t afraid someone was going to come back?”

“We were safe. After that, Mr. Nelto had security hired to be constantly around our house.”

“If only he would have done that when Mom was still alive…” Jack looked at the floor.

“Yeah, but we didn’t know. We were still a smaller company just on the breakthrough of big things. Things are a lot different now.” Lars looked out the window.

“But, we don’t have security now.”

“I’m glad you think we don’t, it means they are doing a great job.”

Jack stared back, puzzled.

“Everyone in Lyros works for me.”