Jacob seemed like a normal boy growing up with a single mom. That all changed on one traumatic day. May 7, 2010. A day that changed everything for him. He began to evolve! Evolution Chapter 8 by Torey Copyright © 2013 Torey All Rights Reserved.

Oscar Rudolph Samuels was the name of the predator that shook Elizabeth and Jacob Hunter's world during those few days in May in 2010.

He struck before. Two women, two girls and a boy were his victims before that ended up sending him to prison for life once before. Somehow he managed to escape.

He attacked another woman before meeting the mother and son in need of help on the side of the road. All three had to relive their nightmares on the stand in a trial that once again piled another life sentence on to the previous one he received.

"We're putting him away for good, don't you worry," the prosecutor told Liz and her son.

Yet again, he was able to break out of prison.

"It's really not a shock to me," Liz told her friend Meg. "He was a charming, friendly man when you first meeting. You wouldn't know how much of a monster he is."

His face graced many of Liz's nightmares. It graced many of Jacob's and now Jade's, too.

"Feeling him inside of me, stretching me, I was in pain," Jade described part of the horror to Lincoln. "I thought he was going to rip me apart."

Both mother and now daughter thought they had moved on for the most part. But the latest escape brought everything back.

There were quite a few sleepless nights. They couldn't believe it when news came that he participated in a robbery with the two
other escapees. They were caught. He was not. He managed to elude police.

"It was almost as if he vanished in thin air," Detective Lawrence said.

Liz and Jade tried their best not to think about it. They tried to continue on with their lives.

"He held us hostage once," Liz Hunter told their therapist. "He will not again."

*****

The news did not stop the "evolution" of Jade.

Her mother and her mother's friend, Meg, began to see a softer side of Jade.

Meg's daughter Emmie seemed to have that effect on Jade.

"Don't you both look like fairy princesses," Meg said when she picked up Emmie and Jade from the ballet studio.

Jade wore a ballet bun, black leotard, pink tights and a wrap skirt. Emmie wore the same, except in her class' required pink.

Jade let Emmie talk her into taking the "big girls" class that was the same time as Emmie's.

"Seriously, Jade, you do look very beautiful," Meg said. "I think that's a good look for you. Hope you enjoyed it. And thank you
for appeasing Emmie."

"Thank you Mrs. Porter," Jade said. "You know, I think the grace and beauty stuff might rub off on me."

"She danced like a fairy princess, Mommy, you shoulda seen her!" Emmie said.

"I bet she did!" Emmie's mother said.

"Maybe a fairy princess who was a little tipsy," Jade said with a laugh. "I was a mess."

She explained Emmie's class ended 30 minutes before her class and the little girls came in to watch the "big girls."

"We got to watch them, too, since their class started before ours did," Jade said. "They were sooo cute!"

Meg took Jade and Emmie for yogurt after the class. Jade kept on the leotard, tights and skirt to match Emmie.

"Your mother and I are thinking about taking you girls to the beach after everything blows over," Meg said.

"Just us girls Mommy, no boys?" Emmie said.

"Just us girls," Jade said. "We can build sand castles in the sand."

Jade admired Emmie. She told Meg that she had an innocent, carefree spirit "I wished I still had."

"Oh you do, dear one, you just don't know it!"

*****

"Really Lincoln, she didn't bother me," Jade said to her kinda-sorta boyfriend during the picnic at Lincoln's grandparents' farm.

It was nice, and safe, and private.

"Well Raven told me she tried to 'witness' to you at school," Lincoln said. "Her mother tried to do it to my mom, too, once."

"In a weird way, I think maybe they mean well," Jade said to Lincoln, whom she found to be a kindred spirit.

He was as much as target as she was considering his mother was in a lesbian relationship ... they had recently gotten married

and Lincoln's stepmother was allowed to adopt him since, like Jade, his father was no longer around.

And it didn't help that Lincoln did not keep it a secret that he had feelings for Jade, which meant he also had to put up with
nicknames like "faggot."

Ruth Spencer tried to "witness" the gospel on Jade to keep "him" from going to hell. Same thing had happened to Lincoln's
mother when she ran into Ruth's mother.

"She told me she forgave me for shoving her," Jade laughed. "I told her I forgave her for leaving that nasty note on my locker."

"Now that's the fearless Jade I've come to love," Lincoln said.

Jade blushed.

"Well, she did say her church was praying for me and Mom that we'd be safe from that monster who is on the loose," Jade said.

"That, along with praying for our souls. So I guess they can't be all bad."

Lincoln laughed.

"There are times when you can be really funny, you know that, Jade?" Lincoln said.

He then scooped up some flowers and put them in Jade's hair.

"You know, I'm liking this side of you," Lincoln said. "You look beautiful in that dress. I like the more feminine said of you."

"Awe, that's so sweet," Jade said before giving Lincoln a kiss on the cheek.

*****

Liz and Jade ran into Holly and Ruth Spencer after leaving their self-defense class.

Holly Spencer started spitting out Bible verses at them, and told them to repent before "something bad happened to them."

"Can't you just leave us alone?" Liz Hunter told her. "We're not forcing our beliefs on you. You live the way you want to live, and
we'll worship God the way we want to."

Ruth handed Jade a gospel tract. It contained a note.

"I'm sorry about my mother. Praying for you."

Jade smiled, and winked in return before walking off.

"Don't let them bother you, Mom," Jade said.

"I know, but with that monster on the loose, they're getting on my worst nerve," Liz Hunter said.

"Sometimes, though, I think our problems with the Spencers are all because of me," Jade said.

"Don't ever think that way," Liz said. "I love you just the way you are. And people like the Spencers are just going to have to accept that.