I know your secret

For as long as Irma could remember, she had lied about her age. When she was 20, she told people she was 15, and at 30 told people she was 22. It was lucky for her that she had always looked young, but as she approached 50, time started to catch up with her in the form of wrinkles, sunspots, and lines around her lips and eyes. She cursed her younger self for not caring so much about skincare and thinking she would always look young, naturally. But no longer could she pretend she was so much younger than she was. People would be able to tell, and then they’d call the Council. In the Land of Wraith, people weren’t allowed to live past 50, and those who tried to outlive their predetermined time of death would be hunted and killed. Irma didn’t want to die. She had a ten-year-old son and a twelve-year-old daughter. She couldn’t bear the thought of leaving them alone. It was unnatural, but that was what the Council mandated, and they had plenty willing to enforce it. So, Irma lied.

On the day of Irma’s 50th birthday, she and her children burned a dead pig they had bought from the butcher. They left some of the ashes in the firepit and prepared the ashes of the dead woman Irma had exhumed from a long-forgotten cemetery over 300 miles away. When the Council came the next day, Irma hid in a secret crawlspace in the basement while the children showed the Council the firepit and presented them with the dead woman’s ashes. The ashes were tested there, to make sure they were human. When the results came back positive, they were satisfied and left. Irma came out of the crawlspace the next morning and would never leave the house again. She was alive.

Irma and her children successfully hid their secret for five years. Every day, the children would go about their normal lives so as not to attract attention, and Irma would stay in the shadows at home. Once, when the weather was nice and the flowers began to blossom, Irma had a strong urge to go outside and tend to her lilies. But she dared not. They lived on a remote street, set back from the road and surrounded by trees, so the chances of being seen were slim, but Irma couldn’t risk it. If the Council found out she was alive, they’d not only kill her but her children, too. So she stayed in the house, the curtains permanently drawn, the blinds permanently shuttered, and she kept herself hidden.

Everything was going well, until the eve of Irma’s 55th birthday. Irma was sitting in the living room watching the tv on mute when she heard a knock at the door. Immediately, she got up and quietly made her way down to the basement, locking herself in the crawlspace. She stayed there until her daughter came home and found her. When she opened the door, her daughter’s face was ashen and she was shaking. In her hands was a box wrapped in brown paper with Irma’s name on it. There was no address, no postage, nothing but Irma’s name written in black pen on the top. Irma stared at the box for a long moment before slowly taking it from her daughter. She placed it on the floor and began to gently peel it open. Under the brown paper was a cardboard box sealed shut with copious amounts of packing tape. Irma and her daughter brought the box upstairs to cut through the tape, where they found Irma’s son, looking for them. They showed him the box, and a grave look came over his face. With the three of them standing silently around the kitchen table, staring down at the box, Irma cut through the thick tape and opened it. Inside lay a single piece of paper with four words written on it: I know your secret.

Panic began to set in. The three of them looked at each other, eyes wide with fear. They decided it would be best to move Irma to the basement permanently, that way they could open the blinds and curtains. Anything they could do to hide that Irma was alive, and prove that she was deceased, they would do. The next few days were uneventful as they tried to maintain their composure and return to normalcy, even with the threat and fear of the unknown gnawing at them from the inside. Five days after the package appeared, a second came. This time Irma’s name was written in bright red permanent marker. The three of them gathered in the basement, fear-stricken once again, to open the new package. Irma unwrapped and cut through the tape for the second time, and found another note inside: You are being hunted. If you want to live, walk to the stop sign at the end of the street tonight at midnight. Alone. If you don’t come alone, your children will die. Erase all evidence of your existence, and say goodbye. You will never see your kids again, but they will live.

Irma burst into tears, so angry with herself that she had put her children in this position where their lives were at risk.

Irma packed a bag while her son and daughter burned her bedsheets and remaining clothes in the firepit. They had no choice but to heed the warning and follow the instructions in the note. Someone knew she was alive, and she couldn’t put her children at risk any longer. At 11:50 pm, they said their tearful goodbyes and hugged each other tightly, knowing this would be the last time they ever saw each other. Five years. Irma had gotten five extra years with her kids, now 15 and 17, and she had gotten to watch them grow into the wonderful and amazing human beings they were today. It was more than most people got, and she was grateful for it but devastated that this was the end. Before she could change her mind, she turned away from her son and daughter and began walking through the darkness to the stop sign at the end of the street, tears still streaming down her face.

Irma waited when she got there, face concealed under her hooded sweater. She lost track of time, but it felt like at least an hour she waited while every sound she heard made her jump. There were no street lights, only light from the moon, which was faint. When someone came up and stood beside her, she startled. They had been silent, and she could barely see them. They stood silently next to her, face also concealed by a hood. She wanted to speak, ask them who they were and what they were going to do to her, but her voice seemed stuck in her throat. Instead, she stood silently next to the stranger beside her.

They had been standing like that for what Irma thought was about twenty minutes when she realized they weren’t alone. When she peered out from under her hood and let her eyes adjust to the darkness in front of her, she realized that there were many others surrounding them. They were standing in a wide circle around her and the stranger. She counted at least twelve that she could see, but there seemed to be more beyond the circle.

“Irma?”

She jumped at the sound of someone speaking, and even more at the sound of her name.

“Yes,” she said hesitantly, and it came out as more of a question than an answer. Suddenly, the stranger beside her stepped in front of her and pulled their hood back, revealing an elderly-looking man. She gasped, never having seen anyone older than 49. The corner of his lips lifted in a small smile, then quickly disappeared again.

“I’m 64,” he said, answering the question she hadn’t asked but had wanted to know.

“We’re taking you away from the Land of Wraith. About 3000 miles east of here is New York where we can age until we die.” Irma listened in stunned silence as he went on, explaining how a war 60 years ago had been lost by a country named the United States of America, and how a select few from the Council came into power and changed the country forever. They had begun mandating the 50-year law for civilians, while Council members could age freely, as could their loved ones. It was unclear why they implemented the law, but apparently, they took great pleasure in hunting the rule-breakers. About 25 years ago, a city named New York rebelled and was able to free itself from the rule of the Council. It was then aided by other countries and became a sovereign nation, which now planned covert rescue missions for those who had lied about their death. All of this information was a lot for Irma. She didn’t even know other people existed outside of where she lived in the Land of Wraith, let alone that there were other countries. The man also told her about the technology they used to track down the 50+ and she could barely understand any of what he said. In the Land of Wraith, education was a privilege, and Irma had not been so privileged as to receive a good one. All of this intrigued Irma and gave her hope, but she wondered why she couldn’t take her children with her. The man answered her question by explaining that New York was at war with Land of Wraith, trying to free those who were captive in the country. New York had the aid of many strong countries. He hoped the war would be won by the time her children were 50. The man spoke for a long time, and Irma hung onto every word he said, trying to make sense of the world she knew with the world he promised her. Finally, he asked her, “Irma, are you ready to leave?”

Even though she didn’t want to leave her children, she knew she wasn’t safe. The man told her that the Council suspected she was alive and was planning a hunt for her. If she didn’t leave now, she would place her children in danger again.

“Yes,” she said, her voice shaky with fear, sadness, and hope. He smiled and extended his hand to her. She placed her hand in his and was about to ask why there were so many people around them, when he yanked her to the ground and shoved her down, pulling her arms behind her and placing cold, metal handcuffs around her wrists. Irma yelped, as the man shoved his knee into her back.

“Ooooooh, I love a good fake-out. Thanks for setting this up Billy! Now, let’s go string her up in front of her kids before we get them, too,” the man said, laughing as the rest of the men around them laughed with him. Irma, still beneath his knee, burst into tears. She had just wanted to protect her children and instead had led them right into the Council’s trap. This truly was the end, and for the first time in her life, she didn’t want to see her kids. She didn’t want them to see her die, or for her to see them die. She didn’t want to know what sick and twisted things the Council would do to them. She just wanted it to be over, but not for her kids. She screamed, as loudly as she could, “RUUUUUUUUUUUN!”

Back at the house, Irma’s son and daughter were sitting by the front window, wondering if they’d be able to see anything that would give them any clues as to what had happened to their mother. They were just about to go to bed when they faintly heard someone scream. It was faint but unmistakable. They looked at each other, and then they ran.