The Third Parent Page 4

  “It was him again, wasn’t it?” Tommy asked quietly. I said nothing, clamping my hands tightly together.

  Tommy smiled. “Hehehehe…”

  The evening fell into a state of stunned silence, shock and fear ebbing into each one of us to take root. The sun slowly dipped behind a graveyard of hills and bled a stunning painting across the sky. As the darkness snuck closer, I felt myself falling into an almost nightmarish fit of worry. I didn’t like the night. I never had. I was afraid of it, afraid of what could be in it. Each night before I went to bed, I would don a pair of headphones. This was my security blanket, something my dad had thought of. If I couldn’t hear the house settling or the chirp of night bugs, then the monsters would have no lifeline into my imagination. But now that Tommy was here, the night seemed ever more hostile, teeming with teeth and claws.

  Tommy had reclined in the living room and stayed there for most of the evening. I noticed with unease that he had closed the curtains over the big bay window. It was like watching a prison door slam shut. My parents hovered around the kitchen, trying their best to mentally recover and put on a brave face for Katie and me. The two of us sat at the table, a forgotten stack of coloring books before us. I just stared at the floor, praying for this all to be over. Katie would occasionally shoot a look at Tommy who just smiled at her from the living room as he lounged comfortably on the couch.

  At nine, Mom and Dad rounded us up for bed. Tommy watched us as we were ushered up the stairs to brush our teeth and change into our pajamas. I noticed that Dad had wrapped his hand in a white bandage and he kept it at his side. After I finished in the bathroom, I went to my room across the hall from Katie’s and stood in the doorway. Katie went to her room and stopped, turning to look at me.

  “Love you,” she whispered before Mom gently guided her inside. Dad glanced over the balcony at Tommy and then came into my room. He turned off the light and helped me into bed. I rolled into my covers, the air conditioning humming from the vents like the cold breath of a dying iceberg.

  Dad sat at the edge of my bed, his hands folded in front of him. I could tell he was heavy with thought, his hair falling across his eyes in a dark curtain. After a moment, he brushed it aside and turned to me.

  “You ok, little man?”

  “When is he going to leave?” I whispered, staring at the open door.

  Dad gripped my leg over the covers. “I don’t know. We all just need to be brave right now. Something is happening in our neighborhood that…that I don’t really understand. But we’re a family and we’re going to get through this together. I will always do what’s best for us. I don’t want you to be afraid.”

  “He’s so scary though,” I breathed, pulling the blankets up to my chin.

  Dad tried to smile. “He doesn’t scare me, kid. He’s just a bully. And bullies always get what’s coming to them. He can’t keep us hostage forever. Someone will say something. Until then, let’s just stay safe, ok?”

  Before I could answer, my heart jumped into my throat and my eyes went wide as they jerked over to the bedroom door.

  Tommy stood watching us, a small smile dancing at the corners of his mouth. Dad looked up and I saw his face go white. Tommy said nothing. He curled a finger at my father, motioning to him.

  Come.

  Dad looked back at me, blinking furiously. He exhaled slowly and then grabbed my headphones from the nightstand. He gently slid them over my head, the severed cord just a tiny nub sticking from the side. Sometimes I liked to touch the exposed wire as I fell asleep, the simple motion lulling me into slumber.

  Dad looked down at me and then kissed my forehead. I watched him stand and leave the room. Tommy threw me a wink before closing the door part way.

  And so I waited for sleep. Begged for it. I just wanted to escape this hellish situation for a couple hours and forget about all the fear and pain. After a little while, my eyes wandered to the crack in my door. I saw Mom leave Katie’s room and go down the hall to the master bedroom. Even with the headphones on, I heard the door slam shut. I jumped, clutching my blankets, the darkness pressing in on me.

  Seconds grew into minutes and time seemed to slur before me. I was lost in the muffled silence of my padded headphones, blood pumping in my ears, heart bouncing in my chest. I waited…and waited…and waited…until I heard my parents begin to scream from their room. Horrible, piercing shrieks that echoed through the house.

  I dove under my pillow, pressing the earpieces tight against my head and whimpered into the cotton. What was he doing to them? What could possibly make my father and mother scream like that? I prayed and I prayed and then I wept. The hours dragged their feet until the screaming finally stopped, leaving me alone with the darkness.

  I don’t know how long it was before I finally fell asleep.

  But it didn’t last.

  Sometime during the long night, I stirred from my troubled slumber as something began to buzz in my ears. I rolled over, the headphones hot against my skin. Was I awake? I groaned softly as the buzzing grew and I realized it was static, white noise crackling like popcorn.

  And then the voice spoke to me through the static like an echo.

  “Tell me, Jackie…do you dream?”

  My eyes snapped open and I clawed at the headphones, tearing them from my head. I lay panting, terrified, my mind spinning. What had just happened? How? I looked at the headphones in my hand like they would bite me, but something whispered to put them back on. It was a quiet voice from the back of my head guiding my thoughts.

  Slowly, I slid the sweaty earpiece back over my head, the plastic band hugging my skull. The static was still there, idly waiting for me.

  “I need you to remember something for me,” the voice said again, almost desperate. “Don’t write it down, don’t say it out loud, don’t think about it until you absolutely need to. Remember this and remember it with furious urgency: six-six-three-five-eight-Rez.”

  And then the voice was gone, the strange reverb of the man’s instructions lodging deep into my reeling mind. Six-six-three-five-eight-Rez? What did that mean? It sounded like nonsense, but for whatever reason, I felt it was important. I closed my eyes and repeated the strange pattern in my head until I could summon it on instinct.

  When I opened my eyes again, Tommy was watching me from the crack in the door, his blue eyes glowing in the black.

  “Hehehehehe…”

  Chapter 2 —1996

  A year passed. I don’t think any of us expected Tommy to stick around for that long. But as time passed, each day compounding upon the previous, a very real dread settled over my family. After the first three months, I think we all knew Tommy wasn’t going away anytime soon. And so we adjusted as best we could. It’s scary how quickly you can become accustomed to misery. Instead of fearing it, you embrace it as something that’s always been there waiting for you. When you wake up, when you go to bed, that awful feeling slips over you like your favorite shirt.

  We did the best we could. Life marched on, the four of us living our lives around Tommy and his cruel ways. That first year we learned a lot about the bizarre intruder. He didn’t like to be seen by outsiders, for one. Whenever my mom had yoga class in the basement, Tommy would melt into the shadows until it was over. Another thing was that he never ate or drank. During meals he would just sit there and watch us, smiling that smooth, eerie smile. Katie offered him something once, but Tommy just shook his head and patted her cheek.

  The mental state of our family during that first year wavered greatly. It was mostly my parents who fluctuated. I don’t know how they carried such a weight on their shoulders without breaking. When my father went to work he’d kiss us goodbye like he expected to come home to a house full of corpses. He would tell us to behave, listen to Mom, and stay safe. During the school year, Katie and I would leave shortly after. I didn’t really have many friends at school so it was easy for me to keep my mouth shut about Tommy and what was happening at home. My teachers noticed the somber change i
n my personality though and asked a couple times if I was ok. I would just smile and tell them everything was great. Each time the lie escaped my lips, I would feel a sudden urge to scream at them, scream that nothing was great and that there was a monster living in my house. But I didn’t. I kept my mouth shut, just like Tommy said.

  The winter months came and went. Christmas was a dismal affair of false joy. But I give my parents a lot of credit because they tried…they really did. It was hard to feel genuine happiness though when their faces were so strained and hollow. Every smile felt false, every laugh a lie. It weighed heavily on me.

  My own mind began to wonder if we would ever be free of Tommy. At that age, life seemed so much more infinite. I couldn’t believe the police hadn’t come and taken him away. But why would they? They had no reason to. They didn’t even know about him because everyone kept their mouths shut. We didn’t know how to handle confrontation like this. None of us did. Not my family, not the Murphys, not anyone else on the street. Because you see…something hadn’t just changed in my family—it had affected the entire street. At that point, I didn’t know exactly what it was…but I could feel it. Everything was quieter, more private. People stayed inside more. I barely saw my neighbors and the times I did, they would just hurry along with ghosts in their eyes. We all stopped talking to one another. The cookouts ceased, the Christmas parties, and even the morning church rush. It was as if everyone was afraid to leave their homes…or afraid of what would happen if they did.

  And Tommy observed all this with cool silence. A lot of the time I could see him thinking, his mind spinning behind those shockingly blue eyes. It was as if he knew exactly what was happening all at once and knew that he was in complete control of the situation. During the evenings, Tommy would sit us all down in the living room and give us lessons on how to be good people. It was strange to say the least. His topics would range anywhere from loving your neighbor to the importance of honestly. Each time his knowledge and drawn-out talks would fluctuate from simple child logic to intense, philosophical discussion. It was weird; each night was a toss of the coin.

  His acts of cruelty receded somewhat during those long winter months as well. I would still catch him whispering in my parent’s ears, gripping them tightly, but for the most part he treated us like old friends. It made me sick, his smiling, almost loving pats on the head. He wasn’t a part of this family and yet he acted like the most important member. But the danger never left his eyes. We all felt it. We knew that if any of us acted out, he would be swift with his punishment. Again, I don’t know how my parents bore it all.

  Winter melted into spring until finally, the hot summer arrived in all its blazing glory. It was during one of these scorching summer days that Tommy once again scarred our family. When, once again, we learned something terrible about our captor.

  I was playing catch in the backyard of our house with my neighbor Jason Murphy. It was one of the few times I had seen him over the past year. Mom was teaching her yoga class in the basement and Jason’s mom, Theresa, had brought him over to play with me.

  The July heat burned down over us as I adjusted the glove in my hand and wiped sweat from my forehead. We had been tossing the baseball for about twenty minutes now and neither of us had said much. Jason looked exhausted and ragged. He was the same age as me, but his eyes looked five years older. His skin was pale and his hair hung in greasy strands across his forehead. Wordlessly, he tossed the ball to me.

  “Want to go in the pool?” I finally asked, lobbing the ball back to him. Jason shook his head.

  “Come on,” I goaded, “you love going in the pool. You haven’t been all summer.”

  Jason lowered his glove and sighed, “I don’t have my suit.”

  I shrugged. “So go get it! Your house is just down the street. Come on!”

  Jason looked up at me. “I don’t want to go back to my house.”

  “Why?” I asked and wished I hadn’t.

  Jason looked at me for a long moment and I saw his shoulders slump. He looked at his feet and just shook his head, a frown plastered on his face.

  “I don’t like my house,” he whispered. I went to him, tossing my glove aside. He looked up into my face and I saw fear as plain as the summer sun in his eyes.

  I looked around the empty backyard and leaned in close. “Jason…is something bad happening at your house, too?”

  He seemed to startle at that. “What do you mean?”

  I licked the sweat off my lips. “Is there a man living with you?” I knew I wasn’t supposed to talk about Tommy, knew I was wading into dangerous territory, but I couldn’t help it. After almost a year of solitude, I simply couldn’t stand it anymore.

  Jason’s eyes welled up with tears and he slowly nodded, his lip trembling. “He’s so mean to us…”

  My chest felt like a deflated balloon, all the air rushing out of me in a strong gust. So my suspicions were confirmed. We weren’t the only ones who had been suffering. The looks and changes in my neighborhood weren’t just my imagination. In a sick kind of way, I almost felt relieved.

  “I’m not supposed to talk about him,” Jason whispered, looking nervously around.

  “He’s here, too,” I said softly. “Almost a year now.”

  Again, Jason looked shocked. “What are you talking about, Jack? How is that possible? Don’t be a dummy; he can’t be in my house and yours.”

  I stepped closer, dropping my voice, urgency rising in my chest, “But he is!”

  A noise caused us both to jump and we spun toward the back door. Katie, now ten, walked outside and over to the pool. She waved at us.

  “You guys want to swim?” she asked, dropping her towel onto a chair. We both shook our heads. I wanted her to go away. I didn’t want her knowing I had broken a cardinal rule of the house.

  “He’s here, too?” Jason asked her, a little louder than I would have liked. My heart sank. My cover had been blown.

  Katie gave me a hard look and walked to our side. “Keep your voice down, stupid! We’re not supposed to talk about that. Jack, what are you doing? Keep your mouth shut or you’re going to get everyone in trouble.”

  Jason sagged, face desperate. “But what am I supposed to do? He’s always hurting my mom and dad. I don’t think we’re going to make it. I can see it on my parents’ faces. When he showed up, Dad tried to shoot him, but he missed. I can’t stop thinking about that. About what would have happened if his aim had been a little better. Maybe all of this wouldn’t have happened, you know? And Mom…she’s a mess. She can barely get up in the morning. I’m surprised she’s doing yoga right now. Of course…it wasn’t her idea. She was forced to come. He didn’t like her attitude and told her to get out of the house for a little bit.” Jason looked into both our faces. “How is it here? Is he mean to you?”

  Katie and I exchanged looks and my sister bit her lip before answering quietly, “Sometimes. He creeps me out and I keep hoping I’ll wake up and he’ll be gone. But so far, no luck. When he first arrived he was really nasty. But not so much anymore. Not for a while anyway. But he scares me…he scares me so bad. Sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and he’ll just be standing there, watching me. He won’t move, won’t say anything at all. He’ll just stand over me, smiling, those eyes so bright in the darkness…I get nightmares all the time now.”

  Suddenly, we all jumped as the back door creaked open once again. My sister’s mouth snapped shut so hard her teeth clacked.

  “There you all are,” Tommy said, stepping out onto the patio. “I’ve been looking for you.”

  Jason’s eyes went wide and he swallowed hard in disbelief.

  Tommy smiled at him, “Hello, Jason. Playing catch with Jack?”

  Jason nodded, eyes still bugging out of his skull.

  Tommy grinned. “That’s wonderful. It’s so good to see you kids having fun. But I need you to come over here for a second. I need to ask you something very important before the ladies are done with their class
.”

  He waved us over from across the pool and we sullenly obeyed, dragging our feet through the grass and onto the concrete. Tommy sat down on the edge of the pool, crossing his legs and patting the pavement next to him. We joined him and formed a circle, the three of us exchanging nervous looks.

  Tommy folded his hands in front of him, the edge of the house casting shadows across the four of us. Despite the heat, Tommy showed no sign that it bothered him. The rest of us mopped sweat from our faces and I could feel the back of my shirt sticking to my skin. I tugged at it uncomfortably as we waited for Tommy to speak.

  “I have something I need to ask you two,” Tommy said calmly to Katie and me. “And I need you to be completely honest.” My sister and I exchanged a worried look and shifted on the concrete.

  Tommy reached behind his back and pulled something out of his waistband. He placed it on the ground in front of us and waited for a reaction.

  It was a revolver.

  Tommy folded his hands in front of him again, his tone never changing, “Do either of you know when or how your father got this?”

  I bit my lip and quickly shook my head. “No, I’ve never seen it before. I didn’t even know Dad had a gun.”

  Tommy looked at Katie. “And you?” Katie shook her head vigorously.

  “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you? We’ve talked about how bad it is to lie,” Tommy pressed. “You’re positive you’ve never seen this gun before?”

  “We haven’t,” Katie urged, “we promise.”

  “So what you’re telling me,” Tommy said dangerously, “is that you have no idea what this is?”

  “It’s a gun,” Jason said dumbly, eager to please.

  Tommy snapped his head to Jason. “I know what it is, Jason. Your father certainly knows what it is, too.” Jason quickly dropped his eyes.