A Mother Scorned

Something wet and cold woke up Jack. He thought he was in bed sleeping; the last thing he remembered doing. When he came to he realized he wasn't in his bed or even his own home. He now noticed he was tied to a chair in his underwear and in some dark place he'd never been before. The only thing he saw before him was a tin bucket. Was that what woke him out of a goodnight's sleep?

"What, what the hell?" He said. "What's going on? Who did that?"

"Good, you're awake," said the woman standing behind him. "Now we can get started."

"Who's there? What's going on? Where am I?"

"You'll know soon enough, Jackie boy. We're going to have one hell of a time."

"Wait, how do you know my name? Who's talking?"

"Jack Darling, graduated from Mason High School, now a successful college professor. Very impressive. I bet the young ladies get a rise out of your workmanship. You must really keep in touch of them."

"What is this shit? Why am I here? Who are you? Is this a joke?"

"The joke...is on you."

"What are you talking about? Did I hurt you in any way? You need money?"

"Oh, you did more than hurt me. You took something from me that can never be replaced."

A dark brunette with some strands of gray hair, walking with the use of a brown polished cane, stood before him. Jack got a closer look at her but didn't recognize the face.

"Who the hell are you?" Jack asked. "Do we know each other?"

"As a matter of fact," she said, "we have met only once and that was a long time ago. You could say we were very close."

"Why am I tied up? What is this?"

Instead of rope or duct tape, Jack was bound in barb wire. Already he was bleeding from his arms and chest before he was awakened. Whoever did the job made sure he would suffer slowly and painfully. Any move Jack made, the wire would cut deeper into his flesh, allowing more blood to spill than he had already.

"Oh, what the fuck?" He said, wincing in pain.

"I wouldn't struggle if I were you," said Karen. "The more you do that, the more you'll bleed out, and that's a worse way to die."

"What the fuck?" Jack said. "Why is this happening? Tell me now!"

"Ah, yes the direct approach. I so admire that from a man who's about to speak his peace before dying."

"Dying? Wait, don't do anything crazy. Tell me who you are, and maybe we can work something out."

"My name is Karen. Karen Norris."

The name sounded familiar but he couldn't quite remember where he heard it. That was always Jack's problem; remembering names was always an issue. He did take his time trying to remember that one particular name but nothing clicked.

"Norris?" He asked, just to be sure. "Norris. I'm sorry, but I can't remember. I'm not very good with names or faces."

"Perhaps you remember Sean Norris? That should help jog your memory."

"Sean Norris?" Jack tried again with the next name. It took a few seconds to figure out where he heard it before. It was a name he hadn't heard in such a long time and had long forgotten. "Sean Norris, Yeah, I remember him. We were in the same class together, and one month before graduation...he died."

"And do you remember how he died?"

"Yeah, it was an accident. A terrible accident."

"And do you remember who was responsible?"

"Responsible? What do you mean? What are you talking about? He was the one who drove. I don't really know what happened."

"You is what happened. You and your friends playing your stupid little game, ruining a boy's life. I should know because I was there when it happened. I know everything."

"What do you mean you were there? What are you saying?"

"What I'm saying is Sean Norris...was my son."

That's when it all came down. Jack now remembered her name and a certain day when things got out of hand. The pain, the horror, and the anguish that soon followed. It was a dark day for Mason High and Jack put aside that event to focus on his own future.

"You remember now," said Karen, "the look on your face tells the story. You may have been young then, but there was no excuse for what you and the others did. My boy had plans, big plans for his future and you took that away. I remember it like it was yesterday."

Jack's memories had become a living nightmare. Taking a stroll down memory lane was the last thing he wanted to go through. Jack knew exactly what happened but Karen was going to retell her story, and he had nowhere to go but to listen to every detail of that tragic event all over again.

"It was a nice day," she said. "Sean got his license and we went for a ride in his dad's car. I'd never seen Sean so happy. He was going to be the first member of our family to go to college. We were so proud of him."

Mother and son smiled that day, with the wind blowing in their hair to that drive through Hudson Lane. Then the warm smiles came to a crashing halt. There were six young people in another vehicle, with Jack right behind the wheel. He drove his car beside Sean's, close enough for his friends to throw water balloons at him.

"You hit us," she said, reliving that day. "You hit us with balloons just to get a good laugh."

Jack and the others all thought it was fun doing what they did, unaware that the consequences of their actions would take a turn for the worse.

"You laughed at him," said Karen, "you distracted him. He lost control."

Sean did lose control and the vehicle flipped over seven times. While he and Karen remained inside suffering and bleeding to death, Jack and his friends stopped to check on them. They never gave them a hand or call for any help. Believing both had died, Jack drove away and never told anyone what went down.

"I was still alive," said Karen, "while my boy laid dying. I barely called nine one one while we were trapped inside. We made it to the hospital, but by then it was too late."

Sean was dead on arrival. Karen suffered some cuts, bruises, a broken arm, and her leg broken in two places, forcing her to use a cane for the rest of her life.

"I survived," said Karen, with tears running down her face. "He didn't."

Fear of being arrested for murder, Jack and the others never told anyone what they did. No one knew; friends, teachers, loved ones, people they trust were all kept in the dark. It was a secret they would keep for the rest of their lives. Karen told the police what really happened, but not enough to make an arrest, due to the fact she didn't get a good look at their faces.

"No," said Jack, "this is not happening. This is all a bad dream."

"You", said Karen, "turned our lives into a bad dream. You ruined my family. You ruined my life. When Sean died, his father took it hard the most. Then one day he started drinking, and blew his brains out."

Karen still remembers the echo of that shot fired, discovering the horrific mess made on the couch. The blood and bits of brain and bone splattered on the wall remained etched in her mind. Karen had completely lost it that day. When the police arrived they struggled to pull her away from her husband's corpse. She wouldn't let go of him and screamed for his help, believing he would wake up and do so.

"Two important men," said Karen, "gone from my life. I lost my father when I was thirteen, but it's nothing compared to the pain you and your friends caused on my family."

"Mrs. Norris," said Jack, crying tears himself, "please, it was a long time ago. We were young and stupid and we didn't know any better. I'm sorry for what I did, but I can't speak for the others. I haven't made contact with them in years."

"I know you can't speak for them, and you never will. That I can promise you."

"Come on, all these years you remembered all our faces? You couldn't have. I was driving really fast so it's impossible. That's why we didn't get arrested. You couldn't identify any of us. Now you're telling me, after all this time, you remember what we all look like? You're crazy."

"I didn't have to remember. All I have is something that would remind me every year."

Karen pulled out a cell phone belonging to one of his friends, putting it right at his face so he could see old pictures of himself and the others when they were young. Pictures he had forgotten about and thought deleted.

"That's you," she said, "and Ray, Janet, Kyle, Mitchell, and Terry. Am I right?"

"Yes."

"That's you and your friends in the car. Am I right?"

"Yes."

"That's you right behind us. Am I right?"

"Yes."

"That's Kyle holding a bag full of water balloons. Am I right?"

"No more."

"That's you getting closer. Am I right?"

"Please, no more."

"That's your friends throwing the balloons. Am I right?"

"I've seen enough."

"That's your friends having fun. Am I right?"

"No."

"That's me and Sean left for dead. Am I right?"

"Oh, God."

The last picture was the most disturbing. Sean's vehicle was in complete ruin while he and his mother suffered slowly inside. Jack wished he never laid eyes on that one picture shown to him. He never knew it existed until now.

"Please," he cried, "please stop."

"Stop what?" Karen asked. "This is a work of art, Jackie. Your friend Terry should be very proud of herself."

"T-Terry?"

"This was her phone. Don't you recognize it?"

Jack recognized two small stickers of black cats on the back of the phone. Terry always had a thing for cats.

"Shit," said Jack. "She told me she lost that phone."

"She did, but I recovered it from a garage sale. I bought it because it looked exactly like Sean's and it brought back good memories. One day I recharged it and there I saw Terry's face, lit up on screen in a bikini, where I discovered those historic photos of our misadventure. Not very bright, is she? She should have deleted these when she had the chance."

Jack felt like a beaten man now that the past had come back to haunt him with a vengeance. He was so upset over Terry's lack of intelligence in not ridding the photos she took that day.

"Out of curiosity", said Karen, "I asked around who these young individuals were. Everyone in the neighborhood gave me all the info I needed to make this reunion possible."

Throughout the conversation the others' untimely fates were already in the works. Janet laid in her tub, relaxing to a bubble bath. Ray was at his place, ready to take a dip in the pool. Mitchell waited for his ride in the subway. Kyle got a view of the city from the terrace of his apartment high rise. Terry woke up someplace dark surrounded in bars.

"Please," said Jack, "I know you're hurting, but this will not bring Sean back. I regret what I did. We all did. You don't have to do this. You're not heartless. How would Sean feel if he saw you do this?"

"Don't!" Karen shouted, banging her cane to the ground. "Don't you dare give me that speech. Sean is dead. He can't feel anything anymore. People say, 'forgive and forget,' but I can't forgive you, nor can I forget. I spent years searching for each of you, and once I hired the right people money can buy, everything was all set in motion."

"Please, I'm begging you, don't do this. I'm the one you really want. Punish me and just leave them out of it."

"How very noble of you, and so pathetic. Your friends are already ancient history while you and I relived the good old days. It's a shame you'll never get that chance to say goodbye, like I did for my boy."

"No, you didn't. You wouldn't. What did you do? What did you do to them?"

Karen bent down, staring eye to eye at Jack, telling him all he needed to know. "Me? Nothing, really. Janet had the shock of her life."

A stranger entered Janet's bathroom, turned on her hair dryer, and dropped it in the tub with her still in it. She never had a chance to scream as she laid there getting electrocuted.

"Ray," said Karen, "swam with the fishes."

Ray jumped from the springboard and into the pool, only to realize too late that it was infested by a school of hungry piranhas. Razor sharp teeth dug into his flesh, tearing him apart. Every layer of skin and muscle were torn from his bones. His ears and nose severed and eaten one piece at a time. His throat and lips torn to shreds. With Ray's mouth hanging open they feasted upon his tongue. One managed to swim down his throat, eating him from the inside.

"Mitchell," said Karen, "had a train to catch."

Down in the subway, Mitchell's train arrived but he would never set foot on it. Someone had bumped into him, forcing him onto the tracks. The train arrived and smacked right into him, filling the subway with blood and screams.

"Kyle," Karen continued, "needed a little push."

Someone had entered Kyle's apartment and pushed him over the terrace. He fell ten floors down before hitting the pavement in view of passersby.

"And Terry," Karen concluded, "well, let's just say her past came back and bit her."

Terry was in the city zoo, locked in a cage. She soon discovered she wasn't alone once she heard the roaring of two tigers directly behind her. Terry ran and screamed for help as the two beasts chased her down. The poor girl screamed through the bars but it was useless. The zoo was locked down and the zoo keepers were done for the evening. Terry hung onto the bars as the tigers bit into each leg down to the bone. They dragged her away and dug their sharp fangs onto the rest of her body, tearing her apart piece by bloody piece.

"Karma's a bitch," said Karen.

"No," cried Jack. "Oh, dear God no."

"That's right, Jackie. They're gone. Every last one of them. Every smile, every laugh, every joke...gone."

Janet remained in the tub with one leg sticking out and her eyes partially opened. The clear water in Ray's pool had changed to the color red. Pieces of Mitchell were lodged under the train. Kyle laid on the pavement face down, surrounded in a pool of his own blood. The tigers gnawed on Terry's arms and legs, leaving the rest for their cubs.

"But you," said Karen, rising up and reaching into the tin bucket, "are taking the heat the most, and I'm going to finish what you started."

"Mrs. Norris, please," said Jack, "you don't need to do this. Please, stop. There must be something we can work out."

Karen responded with water balloons she picked from the bucket. She threw them fast and hard, drenching Jack from head to toe.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"This brings back memories," said Karen. "So does this, and this, and this."

The painful memories fueled up her anger from each balloon she threw at him. Memories of Sean and her being targeted came streaming back. The balloons that popped on impact. The water hitting Sean's face. The high pitched laughter. Her losses in both the car and in her home. Her life shattered right before her very eyes.

Jack felt a burning sensation in his eyes and wounds. His body riddled in pain from whatever it was that filled the balloons.

"My eyes!" He screamed. "Oh, fuck it hurts! What is that smell?"

Jack had a bad taste in his mouth from the liquid splashed all over him. It didn't take long for him to realize that what he was tasting was not water.

"What is this shit?" He asked. "Oh, fuck it hurts. What did you throw at me? Fuck! It fucking hurts!"

"I didn't use water like they did," said Karen. "So I used something a bit more stronger."

The moment Karen lit a single match, jack figured out that he was soaked in gasoline. Panicking, he made another attempt in breaking free but wasted his time and what little energy he had left.

"No!" He screamed. "No! Not like this! Help! Someone help me! Help! No, don't! Don't do it!"

"You're alone," said Karen, dropping the match, "just like me."

"Noooooo!"

When Karen spoke to the neighbors, she found out that Jack was deathly afraid of fire; a problem he had since he was ten. He screamed in horrific pain as the hot flames engulfed his entire body. Karen turned her back on him and headed out the door, listening to his high pitched screaming and smell of burning flesh up her nostrils. Turns out the place she chose to end him was an abandoned warehouse from across town. The area was perfect; quiet, dark, and no one would ever think of looking inside, not even for a burnt corpse.

The screaming went on until it continued no further. Karen's ride waited all that time, taking her straight home after completing her long awaited revenge. Rather than keeping it, Karen opened her window and tossed out Terry's phone.