Maternal Alienation
Something is wrong with the boy
A stir of brown leaves collide against the window she stares from; watching two men run lines beneath the ground away from the building and to the power line yonder the overgrown stretch of land which makes up the yard. It hasn't been until recently that the commotions started to occur. Only at night is when the things happen; torn up garden beds laid to waste with dead flora, unattached vinyl siding costing repairs, and the garbage almost never remains in the bin but rather scattered about the property in a vandalistic mess. Being located deep in the forest, they had initially assumed it to be cause of some wild animal -a bear perhaps- but after their son, Jacob, began having night terrors of something lurking about through his window at midnight, they then decided to have security cameras installed around their home.
They had moved in some time ago, with the pretense of starting life over after the devastating still birth of their first child. A couple years later, in their new home, they became pregnant once more; nine months later the world had been blessed with Jacob.
The young boy sings a weird song of his own while running through the house, joining the side of his mother in the kitchen. She continues making breakfast after seating Jacob and greeting her husband walking in a rush; immediately afterwards he leaves with a kiss and heads off to work. Lonely are the days for stay at home mothers all on their own. She looks at her daydreaming child, dreading the days when he is old enough to start school for the first time. How fond of a memory do moments like these make for a mother like her.
The two men finish their work and come to the door. She signs her name afoot of some papers and then they are gone. Afterwards, she makes her way to the home office and looks at the monitor displaying the camera's view. Just as requested, they catch every angle of the house as well as the yard leading up to the forest beyond. Satisfied, she puts it away and returns to her child.
“So what are we doing today Jackey poo?”
“I dunno!” He replies curiously, grinning ear to ear.
Ultimately they’d decide to go on an adventure through the woods for most of the day. Walking amongst barren tree limbs, leaves crunching beneath their feet, taking in the splendid aromas which blow in through autumn. She walks slowly and takes in the scene. Watching Jacob from afar as he dances about and makes believe of the world around him. Bounding through the forest, his butter colored hair tousling as he goes. He looks back to his mother with a smile filled with joy, holding a cool rock to show her before stuffing it into his pockets which bulge with an embarrassment of rocks, toy cars, loose change and half melted candy. His knees are covered with scratches and stained with grass, evidence of countless superhero landings and impromptu soccer matches. His laugh is contagious and comes straight from his belly; pure and unrestrained.
They begin to head back as dawn approaches, holding hands and laughing all the while. On their way she stops, confused and concerned; gazing upon three perfect gouges dug into a tree; just in view of their home. Massive would be an animal to strike out with such force. The claw marks are thin and run deeply into the bark. She imagined the thing lurking beneath moonlight, rustling the garbage and flowers, bumping into their home and watching their son as he slept.
“Mommy, what is it?” Happy little Jacob asked.
“Nothing baby, mommy is just thinking, come on let's go home.”
The rest of the walk is silent and she couldn't help but to look back every now and again; paranoia nipping her feet into some pep.
They get home just past the hour of twilight. She baths Jacob as he plays enthusiastically with a boat and rubber duck. Soon after her husband returns home, tired and smelling of booze. She says nothing to him about the scratches on the tree, they simply eat dinner and then head to bed.
Tucks her son in and then reads him a story - a favorite of his. They giggle and laugh together, playing pretend late into night. She then kisses him on the forehead and turns out the lamp beside his bed, but before she could leave Jacob calls out;
“Mommy!”
She turns with tired eyes, “Yea Kido, what’s up?”
“I love you!” He says with a huge smile.
His sweet words filled her with warmth, smiling back at her beautiful boy she said, “I love you too, Jacob.”
Then she was gone behind a closed door.
Several days had passed by with seemingly no disturbances whatsoever. The garden beds remain untouched, the house is un-vandalized and the garbage kept still. She’d begun to think that the cameras turned out to be a waste of time and money and that whatever it was poking around at night must have gone on with its way to some other part of the forest.
Standing in the driveway, she pulls her sweater tight around her shoulders. The husband's briefcase is already in the car, his breath plumes heavy around them as he leans in for a kiss. She watches as the tail lights disappear; consumed by the vaporous morning air. He’s gone.
Walking back inside, she puts on some coffee and stares empty beyond a foggy window pane; considering the repetition of this morning routine, the desolate morning vibes flood the chilly room as she ponders the hot coffee dribbling with steam, filling the lonesome silence between them.
By long Jacob is awake, stumbling down the hallway and scratching his tangled scalp of bed-head.
“Where’s daddy?” He asks tiredly.
She explains to Jacob delicately while picking him up into a chair, “Daddy’s gone for one of his business trips.” Her knees ache as she bends down to his eye level, “He'll be back in a few days, okay kiddo.”
She kisses his scraggly hair, Jacob yawns and agrees with a childish pout. The two share breakfast, and then they are on with their boring day filled with gloomy clouds.
She is woken suddenly, surrounded by darkness, and rolls over into a cold empty bed. She checks the clock on the night stand beside her - three am. Her throat is dry and scratchy and her eyes are irritated to some degree of restlessness. Arising to her feet in a staggering struggle, she waddles out into the dark hallways and makes her way to the bathroom.
The bathroom light is blinding and difficult to see from. Her eyes adjust and she takes a long piss then drinks from the faucet ferociously. Her reflection is haggard and dreary, her heart beats slow as she looks down into the water swirling down the drain; momentarily consumed within brief sorrow. The job of a mother is difficult and lonesome. To deny life's hardships is as much as to paint strictly with monochrome, but to let them consume us is to blind ourselves to the masterpiece entirely. In the endless constellation of human experience, there exists for each soul a singular point of light - that rare convergence of passion and purpose that illuminates all other aspects of existence. To discover it is not merely to find happiness, but to understand why the universe conspired to make you precisely who you are. It is the moment when the cosmic riddle of your own being resolves itself into perfect clarity, and you realize that all paths, even the misguided ones, were leading you to this revelation. For her, this revelation as of lately is her beautiful son.
She stops and reflects upon herself for a long moment. The water is still and the cold mountain winds howl against the house, causing a chill to run down her arms. Leaving the bathroom, she makes her way down the hall and goes to his room; the door is open slightly and the room is pitch black. A steady hand reaches in and finds a switch on the wall. The lights come on, time stands brief as her heart skips a beat. The room is empty, Jacob is gone.
Immediately after seeing his empty bed, she had gone into panic mode. First she checked the whole house frantically to no avail. Then the back yard, the shed, her car, everywhere she could think of - Jacob is nowhere to be found. She called the police and, being so deep in the mountainous forest, they were slow to arrive.
The night is old and vaporous, a waning moon hangs low in the sky as she runs through the forest, surrounded by trees strobing red and blue.
“Jacob!” She screams, over and over, accompanied chiefly by the manly shouts of police officers screaming his name as well.
They’ve been searching for hours, combing the forest inch by inch. The canine’s had picked up the scent, then lost it suddenly, then found it to lead somewhere entirely different several times over.
She joins with the sheriff and the two make haste together, leaves crunch and twigs snap beneath heavy footsteps, on occasion a tree switch snaps back and hits her in the face, to which she pays no mind. Their breath becomes visible as the frigid night winds whistle through twisted tree limbs, both shouting ‘Jacob’ continuously.
Their shoes become heavier with each step as mud packs into the soles. She trips and falls, dirtying her clothes and gouging her hand open on a sharp rock. The officer helps her up and they continue.
By long the trees begin to thin out and open up into a clearing. Spooky shadows stretch long across the tall grass as the officers flashlight beams through the fog of night. Something comes over them both, an instinct of unease, the feeling of being watched. Slowing their roll from a run to a walk, they both step carefully across the desolate meadow.
Then, illuminated by flashlight and surrounded by darkness, they find him. Eerie and strange is the child standing alone in the forest, his clothes are perfectly clean and his bare feet haven't any mud whatsoever. His hair is combed perfectly to one side and he says nothing, just stands there and smiles ear to ear.
“Jacob baby!” She shouts motherly as a tear rolls down her cheek.
She kneels down and hugs the young boy, he does nothing as she does, just stands there as straight as a twig. The officer watches from afar, casting them grimly behind the light in his hand. She takes his shoulders in each hand and looks him up and down to assure he's alright.
“How did you get out here, what were you thinking?”
The boy replies most plainly from a long smile, “I don't know mommy, I can't remember.”
She takes him close to her chest and picks him up. They snake their way back through the forest, treading heavily, toe to heel upon the tracks they had made on their way through.
The house stands broad, every light left on. She takes him inside and then speaks with the officers once last time, they write a report and then they are on their way. She goes back inside, Jacob sits at the table, silent and smiling. She is amazed, looking over the dirt on her clothes and comparing it to his spotless yellow and red striped pajamas buttoned perfectly.
“What were you thinking Jacob, why would you leave like that? You scared me half to death.” She says this with generous frustration, insisting he’d done something wrong yet not quite in trouble.
“I don't know mommy, I can’t remember.” His relaxation is almost bone chilling and his smile throws her off.
“Were you dreaming?”
“I think so-” They lock eyes and she squints in confusion. Slowly, the boy's head turns away, looking out the sliding glass door across the room and into the night. She too turns and looks at what he sees - nothing.
A moment passes, as if something is going to happen, the silence is deafening and she breaks it with a movement.
“Alright, let's get you back to bed.” She says while ushering him off of the chair and down the hall to his room.
Now tucked back into bed, she stops at the door of his room and looks at him, unsure of what to think. Jacob lays unmoving, looking directly at her with a blank expression.
“Alright kiddo, try to get some sleep.” She smiles at him before switching off the light and turning away.
From the darkness he says, “Mommy.” She stops abruptly and listens, “where's daddy at?”
She turns back around. The silent darkness stands thick between them. “Daddy will be back in a couple days.” She reminds him, then closes the door, the handle latching in a jolt which echoes through her consciousness.
It is now the next morning, bacon grease sizzles on a hot pan. Jacob sits perfectly still at the table with a bowl of cold oatmeal in front of him untouched. She hadn’t slept a wink all night and if you could see her you’d be able to tell. Just laying in bed with anxiety all night, tossing and turning restlessly beneath lonely sheets, replaying the events of last night in her mind.
She arose at the crack of dawn this morning, the very moment the sun broke the horizon, and immediately called her husband to tell him what had happened. He reciprocated as expected and decided to end his trip earlier than planned and to come home a couple days in advance. Afterwards she went to check on sleeping Jacob and, much to her surprise, Jacob seemingly hadn’t slept one bit either, she found him lying in bed exactly as she’d left him, lying completely still, smiling and staring at the doorway upon her entrance. The boy then got out of bed and proceeded to dress himself for the first time in his life.
The bacon is burnt and she decides not to eat anything, only black coffee. The day passed by slowly, routine as usual except for their usual walk through the woods. Before lunch her and the boy practiced his preschool activities -putting different shaped blocks in the right holes, few piece puzzles and simple memory games- all of which Jacob completed with unusual ease, yet, strangely, he forgot how to brush his teeth today.
By late day she's concerned and begins to worry about the boy. Observing him from a distance like some sort of study. And it appeared that Jacob had almost begun doing the same. Eventually, through comparison within her own mind, she had came to the realization that nearly everything about the boys behavior and personality is somehow different; his speech is much better yet his vocabulary is bland and almost restricted; he used to never be able to sit still yet, now, that seems to be all he does; and his smile, that God awful never ending smile. She began asking him things like, ‘are you feeling alright?’ and ‘did you hit your head when you were in the woods last night?’ Each of which he replies to plainly and well spoken, almost dismissive of her concerns, and only interested in the Fathers return.
The day goes by and by long the waning moon arises once more in a foggy sky. She puts him to bed and leaves him with no bedtime story. They say nothing to each other and she closes the door, then promptly falls asleep the moment her head hits a pillow.
She wakes in a sudden jolt, her heart is racing, the bed sheets beneath her clammy with cold sweat. She looks to the clock beside her - three am. Something unsettling drifts through the room as she stands to her feet, anxious and prickly. There is something peculiar about human instinct, almost like a mysterious sixth sense that is quite difficult to describe, yet, when it arises we know something is wrong. She stands still in the darkness, listening for what it is that's not right. White noise and blood flow fills her mind.
Her bedroom door is open. Slowly, she makes her way across the room and steps out into the hallway. She stops sharply and her heart begins to palpitate; she can hear it, just down the hall, behind Jacobs door. They’re speaking to each other.
Taking several careful steps, listening intently and holding her breath as the words become more clear. One voice is strange and difficult to make out. The other, her sons.
Now standing just before the door, she stops and gently puts her ear to the touch. What a curse it must be to hear such a tongue. Archaic and wicked be the speech of the demons beyond the wall where she stands; perplexing and strange, speaking a language which no longer exists, flowing like water beneath a vocal distortion and pronounced with weird cackling. The leading talk is raspy and coarse, the other is delicate, boyish, familiar, disgusting.
She takes another step, floorboards squeak beneath her feet. Suddenly the voices stop, rustling footsteps followed by the abrupt closing of the window can be heard. Time stands brief. Hesitant, she reaches for the handle. The door opens slowly, revealing pitch black. A shaking hand reaches in and finds the light switch on the wall. Blinded by fluorescence; Jacob lies in bed, wide awake and smiling. The window beside him is closed but the blinds are pulled to the top.
Only a fool would enter such a room. From the doorway she says with a shaky voice, “Honey, who were you talking to?”
“What do you mean mother? I’m the only one here.” His reply makes her nauseous. They stare blankly at each other for a long moment, the boy not blinking a single time.
Enter her mind; primal and void. The thought has arisen, something is off, and whoever that is in the room does not appear to be hers.
She says nothing and begins to step back. Leaving the light on, she slowly closes the door and steps away down the hall backwards, daring not to turn her back on the thing. Then, the light beneath the door goes out with a click, no footsteps can be heard from the other side.
She makes it to her room and locks herself in.
It is now the next morning, she stands in the kitchen with her arms crossed and leaning on the counter staring at the boy. A bowl of cold oatmeal sits in front of him, untouched and stiff. He stares back, emotionless and smiling.
“So what do you want to do today, Jacob?” She pauses before his name.
“Let’s go for a walk through the woods, mother.”
Dread fills the room. She says nothing.
Shortly after the untouched breakfast is thrown away, she calls her mother to ask if she could take Jacob for the day so that she can have time to herself. An hour later she arrives and takes the boy with her. She stands in the window and watches the car pull away, Jacob smiling to her from inside the car the whole time.
The car is out of sight and down the road now. Immediately, it was like she was on some sort of time clock. Rushing all throughout the house, frantically locking every door and window. She then checked every closet and under every bed. Even going as far as to secure every kitchen cabinet and the fridge. Once she was convinced, she stopped and took a deep long breath, leaning over the kitchen sink and rubbing her heavy eyes.
A cork pops from a bottle of cheap red wine and she pours a tall glass, takes a few sips and then steps outside on the back porch. Troubling thoughts run inside of her as she scans the property, the tree lines casting a nuanced omnipotence against her. She remembers the scratches on the tree she came across the other day, now lingering on into something more grand and sinister gouging into her mind. She thinks back to the disturbances occurring at night time, and the awful things which Jacob would see lurking outside his window.
Then, of course, how could she have forgotten - the cameras.
Suddenly, her feet break idle and dart back inside. Rushing down the hall, spilling the coffee through, she enters the home office and locks herself in. The computer takes a moment to boot on, she peers through the window blinds while she waits. After a few minutes the monitor comes on and she clicks open the camera footage. Live feed is uneventful; she begins going back through past nights, stopping precisely at the other night - when Jacob went missing.
The footage plays as expected; nothing happens whatsoever until about noon. She exits the back door, cup of coffee in one hand and a good book in the other, Jacob runs outside from behind her and begins playing pretend in the backyard. She takes a seat and, after watching Jacob joyfully for several minutes, she relaxes and opens the book. An hour passes by, she remains sitting, consumed entirely by her book.
Then, the footage goes static for a brief moment, afterwards Jacob stops playing and begins to walk slowly towards the tree line, transfixed and almost hypnotized. He stops and stares blankly into the forest for several minutes. The footage goes static once more, followed by Jacob nodding his head in agreement to something to which can not be seen. Then, as if it had never happened, the boy resumes his play time.
She fast forwards through the video. The day passes by rapidly, soon the sun begins to caress the horizon as night gouges upon the land. The footage then switches to night vision.
It was the hour of midnight when Jacob left through the back door. Making his way across the yard and then stopping at the tree line once more. Static runs across the screen and she leans in for a closer look. Her heart begins racing as she watches Jacob seemingly begin to converse with the trees once again. The boy reaches out his hand, then turns and looks directly to the camera, static comes across, then he begins walking into the forest, disappearing within the gruesome night.
Sweat begins to run down her face, she pauses the footage and begins to cycle through each frame. The static is obstructive and difficult to make out. She looks at the still image of her child locking eyes with her through the camera, eerie and unsettling, she leans even closer in and shuffles the frame. Then, in between the static, she sees it. Standing tall beyond the shadows of trees, a dark shadowy figure, a long arm with three sharp claws reaching out to the boy, spiral shaped horns atop its crooked head, looking at her child with a pair of three eyes, then it's gone in a blink.
She winces and gasps for air, rattled to the bone as she begins to put it all together. The computer is turned off and she begins pacing through the house, dread sticking to the walls and she pleads to God for an answer.
Bright white headlights cut through the evening mountain mist and pull into the driveway. Out steps the husband, briefcase in hand, and abruptly slams the car door. Making his way to the entrance, walking fast but not running, he enters the home. His wife and son are sitting together at the dining table, both sitting completely still and not blinking, their hands laid palm down in front of them, each smiling ear to ear. The door closes gently behind him.
Well done and genuinely disturbing !
Couldn’t stop reading, I enjoyed it! Looking forward to more!