After his fight with Evelyn, Chris’s hours were spent aimlessly wandering around town. Everything he said during the fight swirled in his brain. ….. Maybe I went a bit overboard? Indeed, he wasn’t proud of how he spoke to her.
It was not lost on him all the things she did, or how hard it was on her when his father passed. They had no extended family to pull them out of debt, or to help with food, clothes and any other expenses, Evelyn did it all on her own and he knew that.
He did what he could to pick up the slack by keeping up on his chores, not asking for help with his homework, and not burdening her with his problems in general. Meanwhile Liah does nothing for herself and always makes it either mine or moms’ problem. Of course, all his frustrations lead back to his sister, but he really didn't wanna think about her right now so he tossed that thought to the side.
Glancing up at his surroundings, he noticed that for whatever reason, whether it was muscle memory or dumb luck, he went in a loop and was on his way back home. His mind raced, thinking of what he would say upon return.
By now he was just a few blocks away from his place. Clouds blotched out the sky as moonlight seeped through the few gaps in-between them, and rain trickled down at an increasingly steady pace. This brought him back to a week ago, and all the paranoia that came with it. As if that weren’t enough, he noticed out of the corner of his eye an old dark blue mustang was tailing him; to his knowledge it was an eighties’ model but which year specifically, he couldn’t tell.
Ducking behind an alleyway, he decided to take the long way home and turn every extra corners just to be safe, but he had no such luck. Every time he ended up back on the main street, he’d see the car again. Black tinted windows obscured the driver, the most he could make out was that they'd put their head down whenever he looked in their direction.
Fed up with the day, Chris strolled up to the car to give whoever it was a piece of his mind. To his surprise, the car did not drive off, and he could not decide whether it was a good thing. When he got close enough to look at the driver, he recognized them clear as day, and had almost wished it were the creepy stalker from earlier.
Inside sat Officer Freeland, sipping coffee, and pretending to read a news paper. They were off duty and wearing a black leather jacket with a dark blue blouse under it.
Freeland acted like she didn't see him approach. After 3 knocks the officer rolled down the window, taking their precious time doing so as they lowered their glasses just beneath their eyes, and gave him a judgmental glance.
“What the hell's your problem?!” Chris asked furiously.
“Oh, don’t mind me, I’m just enjoying a night drive.” Her sarcastic tone did not sit well with him, especially because it was clear to him that she was playing it up “You on the other hand, you should really get back home, it’s getting late.”
“And what concern is it of yours?”
“Well for starters, I know your mom has been worried sick about you. Said she tried to call but you won’t pick up.”
Chris had turned off his phone for that very reason, he didn’t want anyone to be able to contact him. But that is besides the point. “What, did she tell you that herself?”
“Well, I did give you guys my number if you needed anything, just never imagined it would be over a family squabble.”
“So, she told you about that? What are you, her new best friend? She ask you to follow me.”
“I am a friend of sorts, and she asked me to keep an eye on you while you blow off steam, let’s leave it at that for now”
Chris let out a heavy sign, murmured indistinctly under his breath and walked away, but Freeland was pretty sure he had just told her to fuck off. As he walked, she followed, driving up next to him and matching his speed “Y’know, your attitude towards you family is bullshit kid, thought I’d let you know that.”
But Chris wasn’t willing to listen to any of that; even if he was, the nosy police officer was the last person he wanted to hear it from. “No, you know what's bullshit? Bullshit is some shady fucking cop stalking me, and then lecturing me as if they know me or some shit.”
“I know your type, kid. Was there myself”
“Stop calling me kid, and so what? About to give me some grand ‘back in my day’ speech? Think we are gonna have a heart to heart become friends? Because no, that’s not how this works.” Chris’s words were followed by him flipping off the cop before continuing forward as if they weren’t there. Freeland continued to follow as the house began to come into their view. Chris could not wait to get inside and away from the cop.
At first, everything outside of the house looked fine. That was until a scrawny kid with shaggy hair, glasses and a black sweater came rushing out of Chris’s house; At first, he couldn’t recognize the kid, but then he remembered him as the boy staring at Liah and Anna earlier that day during school. Both Chris and the officer rushed towards the house. Being that she had a car, Freeland beat Chris there and lazily parked her car partially on the road, partially on the sidewalk. In one swift motion she hopped out and drew her pistol and demanded answers.
Tripping over himself trying to give an explanation, the boy’s flurry of words came out in an incoherent blur. The parts that could be made out were far and few between, but what they managed to catch did not paint a flattering picture. The boy went one about the county fair, Liah leaving something behind, and murder, the mention of which sent shivers down Chris' spine and twisted his stomach to a knot.
An ear-piercing shriek of pain came from within the house and without thinking, and completely ignoring Freeland orders to stay put, Chris ran into the house. Just outside the front door he could hear Liah profusely sobbing and panicked shouting coming from Anna. When he entered, he saw another boy he barely knew but also partially recognized, as he was hanging out with the shaggy haired boy earlier that day. This kid was holding one of Chris’s hockey sticks as a weapon, and jumped at the sight of him, only dropping the stick when the cop walked flashing her badge and gun.
The sobbing was much clearer at this point, there was no doubt it was Liah
As Chris turned the corner into the kitchen, he was met with a horrific and bloody scene that that sent his heart into his stomach. The floor had turn into a crimson sea, splatters of blood covered every surface, and in the corner of the room laid Evelyn, motionless, eyes shot wide open, blood spilling from her face like a fountain.
Hovering over her corpse was Liah, a monsoon of tears ran down her face as she kept violently shaking Evelyn’s corpse, screaming “Mom, wake up! Please wake up. This cannot be happening.” And other various combinations of phrases pleading for this all to not be real.
Beside her was Anna, trying to snap her to her senses but with little success; though, guess its hard to calm someone when you’re barely keeping yourself together. Chris didn’t know what to do, he was unable to form a thought, sentence, or even move his body as he fixated on his mother’s corpse.
Freeland finally stepped in and was just as shocked as the others, however she did not waver. Instead, she stepped right into the blood and placed her hands on Liah’s face, gently steering it in her direction. She tried talking sense into the sobbing girl, telling her that they needed to get to safety, but Liah protested, claiming she had to make sure mom is safe; she was stuck in the first stage of grief.
Freeland remained composed, though for a moment, it seems like she was going to choke to death on her words, but she puled herself together just as seemed she might break. Holding Liah firmly by the shoulders, the officer looked into her eyes. “She’s gone and we need to leave.” Freeland had Liah repeat that phrase over and over until she stopped speaking altogether and fell into the officer’s arms, which wrapped around her tightly like a protective blanket. Freeland felt Liah’s pain with each fragmented breath she took.
With Liah no longer over Evelyn, Chris got a better look at what happened, revealing him the very thing he been fearing all week. Evelyn’s chest had a hole in it, right where her heart should be, just like the women on the road. At first it felt like he was living some fever dream, one he just passively sat through silently as he waited for it to end. But as Freeland escorted them out of the house, as ambulances and police cars swarmed his street and all the neighbors left the comfort of their home to see the commotion, as he watched the paramedics cart his mom off on a stretcher, there was no denying the reality.
