The Life Changing Vacation

~Chapter 199~

Joanna's POV
It was December 25th, 2023. It was Janice's first Christmas. She was 7 months old. I woke up around 5:30 am, to her crying. ''Good morning, baby. Are you hungry?'', I fed her and then I went to make the Christmas breakfast. I looked at the tree and smiled as I walked into the living room to leave some presents there. I thought of all horrible things I had done, and how much I've changed the past months. I felt a tear ran down my face. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and it was Alex. ''You're a good person, Joanna'', he said and kissed me.

It felt weird not having snow on Christmas that year. Moving from New York to Los Angeles. It almost felt a little sad. But unfortunately, we had no choice but to leave. Otherwise the police would have found us. As I was making breakfast, Alex asked me a question I absolutely had no idea how to answer. ''Do you miss the dark version of you?'', he asked. I stood there just staring out in the air for a few seconds, but then I suddenly found out how to answer that. ''No, that Joanna is still there. Everyone has a dark version of themselves, don't they?'', I asked with a grin. Alex laughed. ''Right'', he said. Not a long time later, Dory came downstairs. The time was around 8:00. ''Merry Christmas, sweetie. Did you sleep well?'', I asked her. ''Merry Christmas. Yeah I did'', she answered. Kristina came downstairs around 9:30. We ate breakfast, and then we went to open presents. Everyone looked so happy, except Kristina. We ended up being alone for a few seconds, while Alex and Dory went to get one of Janice's presents. ''Are you alright?'', I asked. ''Yes, of course. I've never been happier'', she smiled. I could see her smile was fake. ''Honey, please don't lie to me'', I said. ''I'm not, It's Christmas. I thought that was the time everyone was happy'', she said. ''Yeah, everyone is happy. But you doesn't seem very happy. Please tell me what's wrong'', I laid my hand on her shoulder. ''It's okay, I'm fine'', she said. ''If you say so'', I walked away.

Kristina's POV
Joanna was right. Something really was bothering me. I had been kidnapped since I was 15 years old. I was so sick of it. I kind of had gotten used to it the past years, but some things still didn't feel right. I had been having secret phone calls with Emma. She had just begun working with the LAPD. Not for full, because she was only 17 years old. But she had begun giving them information about Alex and Joanna. Alex had just gotten a new job with the LAPD, and that would not last very long. A few days before Christmas Day, I met Emma downtown and she gave me a speaker to wear all the time that made the police hear what was happening in the house. To help them get real evidence that Alex and Joanna was killers and kidnappers. I kind of felt bad, because I knew they had changed, but I was still sick of feeling like a hostage. I didn't feel very free. I wanted to put an end into this. Later that day, I was talking to Joanna about the first day of Dory and I getting kidnapped by them, and she confessed it herself and the police heard it. None of the people in the house knew what was going on.

We ate turkey around 6:00 pm. It was a very nice meal. But suddenly, we heard knocks on the door. ''LAPD, open up!'', we heard. Alex and Joanna thought I was happy in this house, so none of them looked at me. They were about to get the guns, but I told them that it would get a lot worse. ''Stay out of this. You and Dory take Janice and get upstairs'', Alex said. ''Open the god damn door then. It will only make it worse to use violence against the police!'', I yelled before I picked up Janice and went upstairs with Dory.

Joanna's POV
We decided to listen to Kristina. We opened the door for the police. ''Alex and Joanna Murphy, you're under arrest for murder and kidnapping of innocent people, along with cops'', one of them said and put handcuffs on our hands. Dory and Kristina stood with Janice in the stairs, just watching us get arrested. ''What a Christmas'', I thought.

Auther's note
I got a little inspiration from another person in this chapter. I hope you enjoyed! Early Merry Christmas to everyone❤️