I’m sorry I haven’t been able to update sooner, but it’s been a crazy couple of days, and quite frankly it wasn’t on top of my todo-list given the urgency of my current situation. I’ll do my best to give an accurate description of the events that followed the brutal demolition of my life as I know it, but time isn’t exactly on my side, so I’ll have to keep it brief.
After the text from “mom” I didn’t have time to think. I didn’t know what to think either, I just knew I had to get out of there before my “dad” arrived. So in a panicky haze I quickly grabbed the laptop, and Dave the cat - who’d been loitering diligently just outside the door - and ran down the deserted street sobbing hysterically. I had no idea where I was going, or what I was doing. I guess I just figured that running was a solid plan given the circumstances.
I got about halfway down the block before the rational part of my brain interfered. Why am I running? Shouldn’t I show this video to someone? The police? My brother? I slowly came to a halt as I considered all my options. How sure was I that this wasn’t just a prank? How could it be a prank? Who in their right f’ing mind would think that this was even remotely funny? No, it was the truth alright, there was simply no denying it. I gently placed Dave on the ground as I fished the phone out of my pocket, dialling 911 with trembling fingers.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” a female dispatcher answered.
“Uh, I need help,” I stammered incoherently. “My mom, uhm, that’s to say she’s not really my mom, uhm, killed my real parents when I was a baby, and now she’s sent my dad, who isn’t my dad, after me, and I, uhm, don’t know what to do.”
“Sir, you’re not making any sense. What is your location?”
“So I got, uhm, this DVD,” I continued, waving my laptop around like she could somehow see it. “And it’s got everything, uhm, on it. Like, the murder, and my mom, and everything.”
There was a long pause, like the dispatcher was considering whether or not to just hang up on me, which in retrospect makes total sense, since I must have sounded like a crazed, blabbering maniac. I was tripping around nervously in a circle, head bobbing up and down erratically, tears streaming down my face. I was looking at this rather peculiar garden ornament, shaped like a bulbous rat, when suddenly I caught movement in my peripheral vision. Moments later I was on the run again, laptop under one arm, Dave in the other, phone hazardously kept in place between my cheek and shoulder.
My father’s car.
“You gotta hurry!” I yelled into the phone. “He’s here!”
I somehow managed to pocket the phone while juggling the laptop and Dave, stumbling down the street aimlessly. I could hear the sound of car tires approaching from behind - my “dad” more than likely - and in a moment of panic I decided to run up to a random apartment, banging on the front door awkwardly with my elbow. I saw movement behind closed curtains, then a pair of inquisitive eyes glancing at me briefly, before disappearing again. Of course they weren’t gonna let me in; I was a grown-ass man in my pajamas, carrying a laptop and fat cat named Dave. But I was hoping they’d call the cops on me.
“Jeffy,” my “dad’s” voice beckoned from behind. “Please, son, get in the car. I think you’re a little bit confused.”
He was parked by the curb, hanging over the open car door, like we were having a perfectly casual conversation about the stock market or something. He had this awkward smile on his face, and there was a look of genuine concern in his eyes.
“Uhm, no, no way,” I said, feverishly trying to find a way to escape that didn’t require me to use any of my arms. “I saw the video, uhm, the baby and mom and everything.”
He laughed heartily, slapping the roof of the car theatrically. “Oh, that? Jeffy, Jeffy,” he said. “It was just a prank! You have to know that, right? It’s just another one of your mom’s silly shenanigans. I think she went a little too far on this one though, I’ll give you that much.”
So here’s a weird thing; I sort of believed him. Sure, looking back on it, it was a stupid f’ing thing to do. But you weren’t there. You weren’t in my head. You don’t know them like I did. They were just so painfully...dull, you know? A boring, old couple. Nothing about them ever stood out. They were normal. So unbelievably normal. And a five minute video can’t undo decades of carefully planned indoctrination.
“Uhm, yeah, I mean, OK,” I said, hanging my head in shame. And I did feel shame right then. Ashamed I’d made such a fool of myself. Ashamed I’d accused my parents of something so utterly heinous. That’s how deep it went. That’s how easy it was for them to control me.
“That’s a good boy,” my “dad” said, patting me on my back as I climbed into the backseat. Dave was getting fairly fed up with all the back and forth, and he’d scratched me up pretty severely on my panicky half-assed escape, so I focused on calming him down.
“Where are we going?” I inquired, staring out the window idly. We were heading out of town, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why.
I heard a soft chuckle, seemingly innocent enough, but for some reason I didn’t like the sound of it. “I figured a few days down by the old cabin would do you wonders,” he said. “Get you back on track. We cannot move lest we leave a demon behind in the hurricane, you know.”
It was such a strange thing to say, leave a demon behind in the hurricane, and I couldn’t shake the feeling I’d heard it somewhere before. I swallowed deeply as the familiar comfort of the concrete scenery was rapidly replaced by the ominous depths of the dark woods.
“So how did mom do it?” I asked. “How did she make the video?”
I stared at my “dad’s” neck as I asked the question, and noticed a slight twitch as the seemingly innocent inquiry registered. “Oh, you know,” he shrugged. “Computer programs and such.”
“Yeah, uhm, but which one? It seemed very sophisticated.”
“I mean, your brother helped her,” he squirmed. “Yes, they spent all of last weekend on it. Complicated stuff.”
“Justin was there last weekend? During the lockdown?” I asked, gently placing Dave on the floor below me. “He drove two hours for that?”
He didn’t respond right away, briefly glancing at me in the rearview mirror. I could tell that he was having a hard time keeping up with his rather poorly executed lies. “Yes, I mean, we’d planned it for months, so we couldn’t, you know, cancel it because of some silly old bug.”
“That, uhm, makes sense, yeah,” I lied.
He let out a sigh of relief, and I could see the smile returning to his face. The next part I didn’t really think through. It was an impulsive decision you could say. An act of misguided self-preservation mixed with varying degrees of rage and fear. He didn’t see it coming, I’ll tell you that much. An arm around his neck, squeezing as hard as I possibly could. The part I didn’t really think through was obviously the fact that he was operating a moving vehicle at high speed.
If you’ve ever been in a car accident, especially one where the car sort of flips mid-air, you might have experienced a certain calmness as you come to accept the finality of your imminent death. You know there’s nothing you can do; you’ll soon enough suffer the lethal impact of the violent collision, so you sort of sit back, metaphorically speaking, readying yourself for the inevitable conclusion.
But sometimes you’ll make it. Sometimes you’ll climb out of the flaming wreckage, laptop and Dave in hand, leaving the unconscious, fatally wounded body of your murderous fake father behind to burn slowly to death in the most horrible way imaginable. And that’s OK. That’s great, even. Just go with it, I say.
There was nothing around for miles, and I was in a pretty bad shape. I stumbled confusedly into the dark woods not quite knowing what to do, or where to go. I just knew I had to get away from the car. Away from the flames. Away from everything.
I can’t say for how long I wandered around in a dazed stupor, but it was getting dark when I found the old cabin. It wasn’t much, nothing more than a shed really, but it was enough. I managed to crack open a window and climb inside, finally allowing poor fat Dave to roam on his lonesome for a few, while I found an old worn-down couch, planting my exhausted body face down in it.
My phone started vibrating minutes later. It was my “mom” calling. I felt my heart beating out of my chest as I stared at the ominous pulsating greenish light of it. I wanted nothing more than to ignore it. To ignore her. But I knew I couldn’t. I knew I had to face her.
“Uhm, hello,” I answered. “What do you want?”
“Jeffy!” my “mom” sang cheerily. “I’m so glad you answered. I’ve been trying to reach your dad for hours now, but he won’t pick up. I don’t suppose you know what he’s up to?”
“He’s, uhm, dead,” I said. “I hope. Car accident, uhm, crash.”
There was a pause, and I could hear her breathing heavily in strained intervals. “That sounds like him, doesn’t it?” she said coldly. “Fell asleep at the wheel no doubt. Silly old fool, wasn’t he?”
She sounded so unphased, like she was discussing the weather with the neighbor or something. No feelings, no emotion; a flat, inhuman, lifeless tone. I was starting to realise just how dangerously insane she really was.
“You can get fucked!” I suddenly yelled. It was really out of character for me, the cursing. It’s not something I normally resort to, you know. “I got evidence, mom,” I snarled, “and you’re not getting away with it!”
“We’ll see about that, Jeffy,” she said calmly. “You know I’ll always find you. Wherever you are, whatever you do; mommy is coming for you.”
She ended the call on that note, knowing full well the state it would leave me in. If I wasn’t paranoid before, I sure as hell was now. Could she find me? Definitely. I was maybe a few miles from the car crash, probably on the only property within walking distance from it, and she wasn’t stupid. She was anything but stupid.
My phone vibrated again; a text message from “mom”. With trembling fingers I opened it, only to drop the phone to the floor the moment I realised what I was looking at.
It was a photo. A young woman and her baby, sitting on my “mom’s” couch. I recognized her instantly. It was their neighbor, Jenna. Single mom, kinda cute. I’ve had a crush on her for ages, but I’ve never acted on it. Don’t know how, you know? A single sentence captioned the image, and it sent tremors of cold chills down my spine.
If you leave me, Jeffy, I’ll have to replace you with someone new.
Love Mom<3
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