The Parents

The familiar blaring that came from my bedside table never failed to remind me that my dreams were just a fantasy that I had created, and that reality continued to move on. Gripping onto whatever energy I had, I sat up in bed and ended the horrendous noise before grabbing my glasses from the bedside table. The chaotic mess I had created in front of me caused me to wince. I was so getting an earful from Mum later; my room was an absolute pigsty.

An icy cold breeze washed over me, pulling me away from my thoughts as goosebumps covered my arms. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to keep warm, before noticing that the window above my desk was wide open. I chose to ignore it before quickly jumping out of bed, slipping on my fluffy slippers, and darting out of the room.

I made sure I followed the house rules and shut the door behind me before moving towards the stairs. I noticed that there was sunlight blaring into the hallway. Huh, that’s odd. I looked to my right to find the big, double doors that led to Mum and Dad’s room wide open. Mhm, that’s strange. Mum’s pretty nuts about keeping the doors shut in the house, especially since we got Oscar. I knew I shouldn’t be a snoop, but curiosity got the better of me.

Getting a good look at the room I gasped at what I saw, everything was so clean. This is very unlike Mum and Dad, they’re always busy and as much as they get on my case about having a clean room, their room was never clean. At least not like this. Everything was perfect; the bed was made; the windows were all shut: the curtains tied neatly away from the glass; even the bedside tables were clear. I was shocked at the sudden change in character, but maybe Mum just had some extra time on her hands this morning.

It made sense, so I chose to accept it. Moving away from their bedroom I continued my journey to the kitchen. But instead of the usual calmness washing over me, I was left in confusion. The normally silent house, was now filled with the sound of a sizzling fry pan, a radio broadcast and, was that humming?

Freezing in the kitchen doorway, I watched Mum hum and dance as she prepared breakfast. Okay something weird is going on. Did I get a perfect a report card again? No, it’s the middle of semester. Did they lose Oscar? They better not have. No, Dad wouldn’t be this calm if they lost Oscar. Is he, reading a newspaper? I watched confused as Dad’s eyes skimmed back and forth over the black and white paper quickly.

“Uh, good morning, Mum.”

“Oh, morning sleepy head, did you sleep well?” Mum continued to dance around the kitchen whilst preparing a plate for me. “Yeah alright, I guess. Why isn’t Dad cooking like usual?” Grabbing the bacon and eggs from Mum, I made my way over towards Dad who was sitting at the dining table. “And why aren’t you at work Mum? You’re usually never home for breakfast.”

“Well Betty, I had something to do this morning, so your mother agreed to make breakfast.”

“And I don’t have work today honey, I took today off.” My eyes darted between the two of them as I contemplated their responses. Seems legit. “Fair enough, I guess.”

Sitting down, I noticed that the room had gotten eerily quiet. The humming had stopped, and any movement had ceased entirely. Suddenly, the radio seemed to jump in volume, scaring me as the once silent room was filled with a reporter going on about some police investigation. Probably just a load of bullshit if you ask me.

“Detectives have deducted that mass murderers, ‘The Perfectionists’, are moving towards more suburban areas. Please take care and report anything suspicious if you live in the areas of–”

The sudden cut in the report startled me, making me drop my fork, as I looked towards Mum who stood in the kitchen with a strained smile on her lips and the power plug in her hand. “Mum was that necessary? You know I don’t really believe that stuff, right?”

“Of course, sweetie. I just wanted to make sure you won’t get any nightmares or anything.”

“Oh… uh, okay.”

What? Nightmares? I’m a 17-year-old honour roll student, who loves horror movies. Fictional stories about murderers don’t scare me. Shaking off my confusion, I quickly darted my eyes up to the clock. “Oh shit!” Ignoring the disciplinary yells coming from my father, I quickly darted out of my chair and made my way upstairs.

“What on earth are you doing Betty Mason?!” Spinning around, I came face to face with the stone-cold expressions of my distraught mother. “I’m getting ready. School starts in less than an hour and I still have so much to do –”

“Calm down Betty–”

“I still need to have a shower and get dressed–”

“Betty–”

“And clean my room and feed–”

“Betty Mason! Stop right now!”

Freezing, I dropped the clothes in my hands. I watched, as she moved across the room to sit down on my unmade bed before motioning for me to sit next to her. Being cautious of my angry mother, I chose to sit a little bit away from her, but she quickly saw right through my intentions and pulled me towards her. “Now. Your father and I were thinking that maybe you could have the day off.” Mum wanted me to take the day off. The same mother who berates me about grades and says I can’t have a day off school unless I’m quite literally dying? That mother?

Mum must have noticed my confusion, as she continued to talk. “We just want you to spend some quality time with us.” Her voice was soft, but it had an unnatural, sickly-sweet undertone that made me physically grimace. Something extremely bad must have happened. “That’s why your mother got the day off of work, and so did I.”

I whipped my head around to face the door to find Dad leaning against the wooden frame, watching us. “Really?” It was obvious in my voice that I was sceptical. “Oh, don’t give me that look Betty.” Dad rolled his eyes at me. “We are all going to stay right here in this house today.” I could feel Mum’s grip tightening around my shoulders, making me wince as I watched my parents stare weirdly at each other. Shifting in Mum’s grip, I tried to shake off the coldness that had seeped into the room as the silence grew.

All of a sudden Dad broke eye contact with Mum and stared at the opened window across the room. Breathing in deeply, a deep fear settled in my stomach as I watched him storm over to the window and forcing it shut. ‘BANG!!’ “Why on earth have you got this open?! I thought I told you to keep it shut!” Okay. I really don’t know what’s going on here. “But. You were the one who opened it Dad.”

Timidly I got up from the bed, escaping Mum’s iron like grip, and started carefully moving towards Dad. Yet, I quickly became aware of the anger radiating off him and instead chose to keep my distance and stop in my tracks. “Um,” I gulped “You said it was too stuffy in my room and opened it for me last night.”

Seeming as though this is all news to him, I watched as his demeanour completely shifted before he started to close the gap between us. Trying not to back away from him, I made sure that I stood completely frozen in place. “Betty, that was last night, you still need to shut the window when you wake up.” Standing directly in front of me, he brushed a strand of hair away from my face before sweeping me up into a tight, impromptu hug.

“Uh, I get it Dad. I won’t do it again, I promise.” I slowly managed to squeeze myself out of his tight grip. “Uh, you okay Dad?”

“Of course, I am. Can’t I give my favourite daughter a hug?” But Dad hates being touched, and he only hugs Mum on special occasions. What has gotten into him? Did he have a stroke or something?

“I guess so.” Ignoring my confusion Mum stood up from the bed and started to walk towards the door. “Come on you two, let’s go finish breakfast then.” Grabbing her hand, Dad followed her out of the room. I watched as the two went down the stairs and into the kitchen, before following behind them. Stopping in the doorway I managed to come to terms with what had just happened, as I tried to shake off the eerie feeling that had settled in my stomach.

Taking a deep breath, I ignored my gut and moved towards the pantry to get the Oscar’s cat food out. He’s usually in the kitchen by now. He always gets fed right before I head to school. “Um do either of you know where Oscar is?” I placed half a cup of his dry food into his bowl before picking it up and shaking it. Huh. That’s odd, he tends to come running when he hears food.

“Who honey?” I looked towards Mum baffled. “Um, my cat. Well kitten, he’s only like 3 months old or something.” I looked between my parents only to find them both avoiding any sort of eye contact with me. “You can’t be serious right now, you guys bought him for me like a month ago!”

“Don’t you raise your voice at your mother, Betty Mason!” I ignored Dad as I continued to shout louder. I couldn’t believe them. What in the world was going on?

“How could you forget? He’s been living in this house for at least a month, if not 2.” How could they not know about Oscar? My gut is telling me to get out, and my head is slowly starting to agree. Where could he be? “Oh, yes Oscar. I must have just forgotten honey.”

“But how? How could you forget about a living, breathing being? HE’S A CAT!” “THAT’S ENOUGH BETTY!” Everything went silent after Dad yelled and tears quickly started to well up in my eyes. But I blinked them away. I couldn’t cry, not here, and certainly not now. This is serious. I need to get out.

“Why don’t you go check the living room honey, I’m sure he’s in there.” Refusing to speak back, I followed Mums orders and put Oscar’s bowl down before moving into the living room. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I started my search. “Oscar, come here boy. Oscar?” I could hear hushed whispers coming from the kitchen as I searched, I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but Mum was scared I would find out.

Find out what? What are they hiding? I knew something was wrong, did they do something to Oscar? Is that why they’re being so weird? Small meows distracted my thoughts as I rushed to find Oscar. I followed his cries into the hallway, past the kitchen and right up to the only room in the house I was forbidden to enter. Dad’s study. I hesitated slightly; Dad was already mad at me. But I could hear Oscar inside.

Grabbing the small, golden handle, I quickly turned it to pull the door open. But instead of the door swinging open a large hand forced the door shut before I could even look inside. “What are you doing Betty?” His breath hit the back of my neck as his cold tone made its way into my ears. “I-I heard Oscar in there, Dad. I was j-just going in to-to get him.” I had been caught.

Keeping my eyes shut tightly, I slowly turned around. Cautious to keep my distance, I made sure my back pressed up tightly against the door, with my hands flat against the wood behind me. I had to face him. I knew I did. So, I opened my eyes, only to come face to face with my father’s livid expression. His eyes were staring right through me, as if I wasn’t even there, and the fear in my stomach tripled as I watched his hand fold into a tight fist right beside my head. “Umm… D-Dad?” The fear I felt in this very moment was something I was never going to forget.

I couldn’t move, all I did was stare at the man I had called my father for the past 17 years. My vision went blurry, but I could see Mum handling the situation and eventually Dad moved away from me. But I couldn’t make out what was going on. My heart was beating like a drum in my head and all my senses were overwhelmed with fear and stress.

A hand on my shoulder grabbed my attention, and when I came back to reality, I noticed that Dad was nowhere to be found and Mum was dragging me up the stairs towards my bedroom. “Make sure you clean your room and get dressed young lady, or today won’t be very fun for you.” Was that a threat? I didn’t know what to believe anymore. “Understood Betty? … Betty?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, understood Mum.”

I made sure to watch her leave completely before rushing over to shut my bedroom door and collapsing on the floor. Thinking over everything, I tried to put the pieces together. My parents weren’t acting like my parents, but if they weren’t my parents then who were they? No, that’s ridiculous, of course they’re my parents. Oh, I don’t know.

Trying to shake it off, I slowly started to clean my room, but I couldn’t quite get rid of the gut feeling that I needed to get out. I couldn’t help but think about what might happen if I stayed. Stop it, Betty. They’re fine, maybe acting a little weird, but other than that it’s fine. Everything will be fine. A knock on the door pulled me out of my frustration. I froze. My head whipping around to face the piece of wood that stood between me and my threat.

“Come in.” I said timidly. The door started to slowly crawl open, and my nerves returned as my gaze fell upon my father standing in the doorway. I backed away from him as he made his way into the room. My back hitting my desk as he made his way towards my freshly made bed. The silence was deafening as I waited for him to say something. Come on, say something, anything.

“I’m sorry about what happened, Betty. It’s just…” I refused to let him out of my sight, so I watched as he fiddled with the clock on my bedside table before turning to face me again. “I just have some really important work in there and I can’t afford to lose any of it.” He apologized. That’s new. I’ve never heard Dad be regretful for something he’s done. There’s always an excuse.

“It’s okay Dad. I get it.” I tried to keep my voice steady as he moved towards me. “Thank you, Sweetie.” I desperately attempted to refrain from flinching as he laid his hands upon my shoulders. “Make sure you finish up in here before coming down. Your Mother’s setting up a movie for us to watch.”

“Yes Dad.”

I kept my eyes on him as he left my bedroom. I made sure to wait for his footsteps to reach the bottom of the stairs before I, once again, rushed towards my door and forced it shut. I would’ve locked it if I could, but unfortunately there was no lock on my bedroom door. Calming my heavy breathing, I chastised myself for not trusting my own father.

“Are you coming down dear?” Opening my door, I responded to Mum who was yelling up to me from the bottom of the stairs. “Um, I still need to finish my room and stuff. Just start the movie without me.”

“Okay dear, don’t be too long.” Closing the door again, I realized that this was an opportunity. I could use the movie as a distraction to go and get Oscar out of Dad’s study. I’m certain he’s in there, there’s no doubt in my mind. Maybe I could even figure out what in the world was going on with Mum and Dad today.

Quietly opening my door, I winced as a loud ‘SCREECH!!’ could be heard in the upstairs hallway. No no no, I can’t make any noise. Shut up door. But instead of inquisitive yells coming from my parents, all I could hear were the screams of some dumb horror movie character having her life cut short. So, I decided to use her obnoxious screaming from the T.V to quickly dart down the stairs and through the main hallway.

My heart was beating harder and faster with every step I took, as I got closer and closer to my destination. Finally making it down the seemingly never-ending hallway, I came face to face with the very last door in the house. I took a deep breath before grabbing the small, golden handle once again. Refusing to look behind me, I listened to my own heart beating in my ears as I swung open the door.

I felt a rush of liquid out the bottom of the door and my slippers were quickly stained red as tears blurred my vision. I scooped up Oscar, who pawed at my feet oblivious to what I was witnessing. I wanted to scream, cry, shout, anything. But I refused to let anything escape my quivering lips as I held my tongue.

Coming to my senses, I shut the door to hide the gory scene from my view. I knew something was wrong, I should’ve gone to school, I should’ve asked more questions, I should’ve called the cops, I should’ve done something, anything. But I didn’t. My gut was right, and I ignored it. It’s all my fault.

Tears fell down my cheeks as I tried to silently make my way back up to my room where I had left my phone. I needed to get help. I was shaky and could barely comprehend what was happening around me. “Betty? Is that you? Come down here please, its family time.”

“But you’re not my family.”

***

Everything I had witnessed would forever be burnt in my mind. I had found my parents. They were hanging from meat hooks in my father’s study. The skin around their heads was carefully cut away, leaving a blank slate of blood and muscle where their faces used to be. They’re eyes stared right at me, mocking me, tormenting me. I knew something was wrong. Why didn’t I push it further? At first, I wasn’t even sure it was them, but forensics and DNA samples had confirmed my thoughts not too long ago.

Everything was playing on a big screen right in front of my eyes. The feeling of their blood gushing out of the room. Grabbing Oscar. The short conversation with the imposters. Rushing up the stairs. Grabbing my phone. Opening the window. Crawling out. Jumping from the 2nd story. The adrenaline running through my veins prevented me from feeling any pain what-so-ever when I landed. Instead, I just got up and ran, dialling the cops as I got as far away from the family home as I could, as murder now tainted my memories forever.

Everything that had happened would haunt me. Why me? Why did they choose me? It’s all my fault. “Miss Mason? … Miss Mason? … Betty? Is that all?” I didn’t even notice the police officer standing in front of me as everything rushed through my head nonstop. Replaying before my eyes, taunting me with the knowledge that I could’ve, should’ve, done something. “Um yeah, that’s all I know.” Refusing to look at the police officer, I stared quietly at the ground, the never-ending horror movie playing for me to re-live over and over again.

I heard the officer sigh before he sat down next to me in the back of the ambulance. I was still shaking, the events refusing to erase themselves from my mind as I assessed all the things I should’ve done to save my parents. I was in so much shock that I had even refused to put Oscar down, it didn’t matter to me that he was whining and covered in blood. Their blood.

“I know everything is very overwhelming, but you saved a lot of lives today.” I didn’t feel like a hero, I had lost my parents to the very killers who I believed were fiction. “They can’t hurt you now, or ever again for that matter.” I turn to look at the officer, his kind eyes reflecting my tear-stained face. “I will never have a family again.” And with that the officer nodded and left me alone, knowing that I could never find peace in the fact that I couldn’t save my parents and that I will forever be alone.