The Third Parent Read online

  And so I began to search, Jack. I spent entire lifetimes wandering the coldness of space, fighting despair and hopelessness. I was convinced that I was alone in this existence. Was I some cruel creation of the same forces that made The Barrier? Was that it? Was I entertainment to fill a lifeless reality? Or was my original thesis correct? Was I an anomaly of The Barrier? I didn’t know and that drove me ever onward.”

  “Jesus Christ,” I whispered. “This is madness.”

  “I too, once, thought I was mad,” Rez continued, “but when I stumbled upon Earth…when I discovered life and other beings…oh, Jack…your language doesn’t possess the words necessary to express my relief and overwhelming joy. Finally, after endless ages, I had found something that made me feel not quite so alone.”

  I felt dizzy, waves of disbelief crashing into my skull. “How can I believe any of this? Just what the hell are you exactly? Some kinda of…of alien?”

  “There are no aliens, Jack,” Rez said softly. “I have traveled the expanse of the cosmos. There is only you…and me.”

  “I just…this is impossible,” I whispered, “How can this be true? How can I accept this without losing my mind? And if it is true, how can you possibly be talking to me right now?”

  “That wasn’t easy,” Rez said quietly. “No matter how hard I tried, I just could not figure out your language. Any of them. There were too many and I became lost in the different dialects and variations. You’re a complicated people.”

  “So…how?”

  “Your technology. That was something I understood and I began to figure out ways in which to use it so that I could communicate with you. But even now as we speak, what you are hearing is not my voice. What you are hearing is what the wires in your headphones are transmitting and translating. If we were to stand face to face, I’m not even sure you would know I am talking. Just the concept of speech was something I had to learn.”

  I ran my hands over my face, feeling like my mind would explode. “Ok…ok, say I buy into all this…where does Tommy fit into the picture? What the fuck is he!? How do we stop him!?”

  Suddenly a screeching blast rocketed through my skull and I cried out, wincing. The blast faded and static crunched through my ears, followed by far-off horns.

  “Jesus CHRIST!” I yelled, holding my head in my hands, “what was that!?”

  “Oh no…” Rez whispered, “Jack, you need to get back to Liz’s house right now.”

  An alarm suddenly went off in my head, a terrifying, pressing urgency. “What happened?! What’s going on!?”

  “There’s no time! GO!”

  “Wait, I need to know—”

  “We’ll finish this conversation later, Jack, NOW GO!”

  Cursing, panicking, I pulled the headphones off my ears and stuffed them into the duffel bag. The panic in Rez’s voice scared the hell out of me and I fled my apartment.

  I threw my bag into the car and roared out of the city. My stomach bubbled with fear and I drummed my fingers against the steering wheel as the busy streets bled into streaking countryside. What the hell was going on? How was I supposed to accept any of this? And how the hell could it help me kill Tommy? Questions bombarded my mind as the road blurred beneath me. What was happening at Liz’s house? Why had Rez been so insistent I go back?

  When I finally reached Liz’s street, I discovered why.

  Jason’s car was parked in the driveway.

  Chapter 10

  I abandoned my car now parked next to Jason’s and ran for the front door. I felt sickness infect my stomach and spread throughout my body as I sprinted up the stoop and practically ripped the door open. I knew that whatever I was about to walk into wasn’t going to be good. I stepped inside and stopped, pulse racing.

  Tommy was seated in a kitchen chair directly in front of me like he had been waiting for my arrival. He had one leg crossed over the other and a smile twisted his lips to reveal that alien strip of white that aligned his gums. He didn’t move when I entered, just stared at me in silence, grinning. Behind him I saw Liz in the kitchen, crying and holding Mason. He was looking at her, repeating “Mom? Mom? Ok? Ok?” over and over again in his toddler dialect.

  “Where’s Jason?” I whispered as the door slammed shut at my back.

  Tommy slowly closed his eyes. “Oh, Jack…you just couldn’t help yourself, could you?”

  “Where’s Jason!?” I yelled. Mason jumped in his mother’s arms and began to whimper.

  Without looking, Tommy pointed into the living room on my left. I turned. Fireplace, couch, TV, recliner…but no Jason.

  “What is this?” I asked cautiously.

  “Don’t you see him?” Tommy asked, finally standing. “He’s right there.”

  I looked again but still didn’t see him.

  “What the hell is going on…?”

  And then I heard my friend, his voice pained and muffled.

  “Jack?! Jack, help me! PLEASE!”

  My eyes went wide and I looked at Tommy, a shudder running through me. Tommy just smiled wider, his eyes flaring with color.

  “Jesus Christ,” I whispered.

  He’s in the chimney.

  Tommy chuckled. “It was a tight fit, but I got him in. Don’t think he’s doing very well, though. I heard a couple bones snap when I stuffed him up there.” He ran his hands together. “I hope they didn’t puncture anything important.”

  I raced into the living room and dropped to my knees by the fireplace. Blood dripped from above and splattered onto a pile of wood that had been prepared in the hearth. I craned my head into the space above and looked up. A dark mass squirmed in the chimney and I heard Jason try to shift around.

  His voice was hysterical. “Jack, get me out of here, please! PLEASE!”

  “Oh my God,” I cried, desperately trying to reach him. My fingers brushed against the bottom of his shoe, but that was as far as I could stretch. I felt wet warmth trickle onto my face and I spit it away, pushing my arm in as far as I possibly could.

  “Try to scoot down a little bit, I can’t reach you!” I yelled, panic and horror overwhelming me.

  “I CAN’T!” Jason howled, “it hurts! It fucking hurts! I think my shoulders are broken! Oh God, Jack, don’t let me die in here; please don’t let me die in here!”

  I pulled myself out, panting and searching for something to snag him with. I twisted around, wiping my friend’s blood off my face. I needed something, anything. Jason’s cries dug deep into my mind like screaming termites.

  As I turned around, I came face to face with the barrel of a pistol. I froze, blood draining from my face. I slowly looked up the barrel and saw Tommy smiling down at me. He pressed the gun against my forehead.

  “Jason brought a present. What do you think?” Tommy asked quietly.

  I said nothing. I didn’t dare.

  Tommy kept the gun against my skin, its metal kiss cold and foreboding. “I think he wanted to kill me. Now…that’s not very nice, is it? He should know better. He of all people should know better. Maybe he forgot about our little game all those years ago. You remember, don’t you, Jack?”

  Slowly, I nodded. Of course I remembered. I had watched Tommy put a bullet through his own skull and then get back up like it was nothing. What the hell had Jason been thinking?

  Tommy stayed immobile. “Was this your idea? Did you tell him to do this?”

  “Of course not, Tommy. I know the rules.”

  My eyes shifted past the gun and I saw Liz and Mason watching us from the entrance way. Mason looked scared and worried.

  “Gun,” he said, the world meaningless on his lips.

  Tommy looked over his shoulder and laughed. “That’s right Mason! It’s a gun! Would you like to hold it?”

  Liz took a step back, eyes going wide. Tommy lowered the pistol from my head and walked to Liz. She held Mason tighter against herself.

  “Tommy…” she begged.

  Tommy suddenly brought the gun up and pressed it against the side of her
head. She let out a whimper and closed her eyes.

  “TOMMY!” I screamed, still on my knees. At my back, Jason howled as his mangled bones shifted against the hard brick.

  Tommy looked at me, digging the gun into her head. “Something wrong, Jack?”

  “Please…” I croaked, “this isn’t her fault. I’m the one who called Jason. I just had to talk to someone. I didn’t know he would come over here. I’m sorry!”

  Tommy lowered the gun and held it casually at his side. “Did…did you lie to me, Jack?”

  I said nothing. Jason wept in the chimney, blood dripping onto the firewood at my back.

  Tommy ran a hand over his eyes. “Oh, man…what a situation this is, huh? What am I supposed to do? What kind of example are you setting for your son? What’s he supposed to think?”

  “I didn’t know this was going to happen,” I said carefully.

  Tommy nodded understandingly, “Of course, of course. How could you? You’re not in control of your friend. He’s not your responsibility. But regardless, he did come charging in here like a wild animal. You should have seen him. I didn’t know Jason had it in him. He certainly has changed from the scared little boy we knew, huh, Jack?”

  “We’re all scared right now,” I reasoned, “and confused and hurting. Let’s just take a breath and make this right, ok?”

  Tommy seemed to think it over, but slowly, he shook his head. “No…no, I can’t do that. You see, if Mason thinks lying is ok, that it can go unpunished, well…how am I supposed to live with that? How can you, as his father? That’s just not good parenting.”

  “I’m sorry,” I hissed. “Please.”

  Tommy strode toward me. “I’m afraid that’s just not good enough.”

  I went to stand, adrenaline surging through me, but Tommy clocked me on the side of the head with the butt of the pistol. I moaned and fell on my side, my world ringing. Stars exploded across my vision and I felt my face hit the floor. The room swam, an inverted view of pandemonium. I blinked sluggishly as I watched Tommy retrieve something from the floor.

  Oh no…

  I heard Jason scream for mercy, but it fell upon deaf ears.

  Tommy lit a match.

  “Tommy, please, NO!” Liz screamed. Mason wept, a distant sound to my battered senses.

  Tommy looked over at me, his face shifting in my altered vision. “This is your fault.”

  He tossed the match into the fireplace and I watched the wood ignite with a fiery passion.

  “Jason!” I screamed, crawling on my hands and knees. My skull pulsed with pain and I couldn’t seem to get the room to stop rocking.

  Jason screamed as the long tongues of flame reached him. The house trembled beneath his cries and Tommy smiled through it all.

  I scrambled to the fireplace, desperately trying to clear the logs from under Jason, but Tommy kicked me away. I collapsed in a heap, gasping for air, and listened as my friend burned alive. I gritted my teeth and pounded on the floor, struggling to get up. Tears ran down my face and a sickly smell entered the room.

  Liz retreated back into the kitchen, shaken, horrified, and lost in herself. Tommy turned to watch me as Jason’s sputtering, panting pleas now grew feeble and thin…until they stopped.

  I looked up at Tommy with tear-stained eyes, breath blasting between clenched teeth. “You monster. You fucking monster.”

  I jumped as Jason’s charred body dropped from the chimney, collapsing in a heap on top of the blazing wood. All his muscle had melted away, allowing room for him to slide back down. His body curled and turned to ash, the disturbing sight reflecting in my watery eyes.

  “You’ve caused quite the mess,” Tommy said darkly, a smile plastered to his face like a paper cut-out, “and I’m afraid this isn’t the end of my lesson.”

  “Haven’t you done enough!?” I screamed, finally crawling to my hands and knees, the air returning to my lungs.

  Tommy left me and went into the kitchen.

  As soon as he was out of sight, Liz began to scream.

  “No!” I howled, “STOP IT!” Panting, sweat sticking to my skin, I pulled myself across the floor. Everything was spinning out of control, a terrible nightmare brought to life with violent, stark clarity. Mason was weeping as I got to one knee and pulled myself up along the wall. I grasped the corner of the molding and turned into the kitchen.

  Mason was standing helplessly by the table, crying, face flushed, his little body shaking with fear. Tommy was dragging Liz by the hair down the hall toward the bedroom, her hands wrapped around his in an attempt to free herself.

  As Tommy pulled her into the bedroom, he called to me over his shoulder, “Could you watch your son for a little bit?”

  And then he disappeared with Liz and the door slammed shut so hard the hinges shook.

  “Leave her alone!” I screamed, “Goddamn it! LEAVE HER ALONE!”

  I heaved myself to Mason and scooped him up in my arms, holding the little one to me as he sobbed, confused and scared. From the bedroom, Liz began to howl and beg.

  I stood up, stroking Mason’s back, my own tears mixing with his as we stared down the hall together, helpless to the wrath and shocking violence of our captor. My eyes fell upon the table and I saw that Tommy had left the pistol. For a split second, I thought about going to the bedroom and blasting Tommy away, but I knew it would only make things much worse in the long run.

  With Tommy, it could always get worse.

  I huddled Mason into me and turned back to the living room, crying, hating myself, as Liz’s howls peaked in strenuous agony.

  “Shhh,” I sobbed, staring down into Mason’s teary eyes, “Shhh, please don’t cry, please…” I kissed him on the head, the first time I ever kissed my son, and suddenly felt tremendous guilt. I walked him around the room, heart thundering, mind breaking, as the punishment continued down at the end of the hall. I was powerless, a pawn in Tommy’s sadistic world. Fighting back would bring harsher Hell upon us. It would engrave more emotional scars onto Mason’s already bleeding psyche.

  I collapsed onto the couch, Jason’s smoldering bones smoking in the fireplace. Mason sniffled and rested his head against my chest. I felt my shirt dampen under his tears. I stroked his head and wished I was dead.

  “I’m so sorry,” I whispered to Mason, “I didn’t mean for this to happen…”

  Suddenly my phone buzzed in my pocket. It snapped me out of my horrified, manic state and I quickly dug it out, heart thumping.

  It was Dad.

  The slightest sliver of hope rose from the misery, a faint light at the end of a very long, dark tunnel. If anyone could help me, it was him.

  I quickly answered, wiping my eyes with my free hand. “Hello? Dad?!”

  “Hi, Jack.”

  I blinked. “Mom?”

  “There’s something I need to tell you,” she said. Her voice was distant and emotionless.

  “Mom, where’s Dad!? I need to talk to him!”

  My mother’s voice was barely a whisper as she said, “Your father killed himself an hour ago. I’m at the hospital.”

  The phone slid down my face as my body went rigid. My hand hung empty in the air and a haunting darkness rushed in on me. I felt vomit rise in the back of my throat as a blast of cold disbelief rocketed through me. I stared off into nothing, motionless.

  Impossible.

  Mason reached down for my phone, my mother’s muffled voice still talking from the other end. Numb, freezing, and dead, I took the cell from his tiny hands and hung up. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, couldn’t seem to sort anything out. Hell rushed in on me and I burned in its icy currents.

  You did this.

  This is your fault.

  Why did you call him…

  Dead…killed himself…

  Dad…

  Daddy…

  I don’t know how long I sat there holding Mason as the world spun around me. At some point, Mason slid from my lap and sat on the floor, watching me, whimpering. The sun
outside dipped behind the hills and a purple haze grew from the darkening horizon beyond the windows.

  As the last of the light faded from the sky, I heard the bedroom door open. Completely empty of any emotion, I turned my head and saw Tommy watching me from the hall.

  “Something wrong, Jack?” he asked, grinning. Blood stained his hands up to his elbows. I just shook my head.

  No…nothing was wrong.

  “Oh, wonderful,” Tommy said. “Hey, did you happen to pick up those groceries earlier? Are they still in your car?”

  The way he stood there talking about food so casually while covered in blood made me clutch my head. This was a dream…surely…this was a dream.

  Wake up, Jack.

  Dad’s dead…

  Dad killed himself.

  Dad…is…

  …dead.

  Please wake up.

  Jack?

  “Jack?”

  “They’re still in the car,” I whispered, looking up.

  “Good, good,” Tommy said, nodding approvingly, “I’m going to go get them. You don’t look like you’re in any state to move right now. Tough night…I get it.”

  I watched him walk to the front door and step out into the night. This had to end…this needed to end…I could feel myself breaking, dying, collapsing into myself as the walls of insanity pressed closer and closer.

  Liz. I needed to go to her. What had he done? What had he taken from her this time?

  I picked up Mason and placed him on the couch. He looked up at me and I handed him my phone to play with. Taking a deep breath, I walked into the kitchen.

  And there was Liz.

  She was leaning against the kitchen table, tears pouring from her bloodshot eyes. Her mouth was twisted into a silent cry. Her legs were covered in blood, her knees shaking with the effort just to stand.

  And she had the barrel of the pistol pressed against her temple.

  My eyes went wide and her name escaped my lips in a hurried plea, “Liz!”

  “I can’t,” she croaked, “I can’t anymore. Take care of Mason.”

  Liz shot herself in the head.