After a few cries the baby was finally silent. Susan was still nervous after her husband came home acting strange. Her hands were visibly shaking even though the tears in her eyes were subsiding.
Why would a random stranger bite a person? She thought to herself. It doesn’t make sense. Was the guy provoked?
She sat at the kitchen table waiting for Adam to come back downstairs and explain things thoroughly. Her hand played with the top of a soda can she took from the fridge.
He never shouted at me like that before, he looked terrified!
She popped open the soda, the sound echoed off of the walls in the kitchen.
He’s taking a long time, I hope everything is ok.
Susan continued to wait. Moments turned into minutes. No movement could be heard from upstairs.
I’m gonna check on the baby at least.
She ascended the stairs carrying their child’s favorite toy, a small fire engine with a little fireman sticking out of the top. The noise the toy made annoyed the shit out of her, but whenever baby Cameron saw it, he would light up, which of course, made her light up. As she reached the top of the stairs, she heard a short “thump” sound coming from Cameron’s room at the end of the hall. She called out.
“Adam, Are you still with Cameron?”…No answer.
Susan stopped quickly at the master bedroom between the bathroom and Cameron’s room, the bedroom door was open.
“Babe, you in here?” She popped her head into the room…Nothing.
He probably fell asleep with the baby like he usually does.
A rough, crunching sound shot down the hallway, surprising Susan. She tensed up; something other than Adam’s earlier actions seemed…off. She left the bedroom and continued down the hallway. As she approached Cameron’s door another sound, one that Susan couldn’t place at the moment, but a familiar sound intensified at the baby’s door. She turned the doorknob slowly, concerned that she would wake Adam and the baby if they weren’t already asleep. The door swung open noiselessly. A putrid odor stung her nose as the door came to a soft stop. She saw Adam, standing at the far end of their child’s bedroom facing outside a window. Globs of a thick red substance dripped sporadically at his feet, making a puddle on the floor. Although he was facing away from Susan, she could tell that he was cradling something in his hands.
“Adam,” Susan said as she entered the room, “is everything ok with Cameron, What is that smell?”
Adam flinched, startled by Susan’s entrance. He remained as before, facing the window. Over his head Susan could see the sun begin to set over the horizon.
“St…ay back Susan,” Adam said, a slight quiver in his voice made her more nervous than before. “I’ve done something…something you shouldn’t see. Something bad.”
Susan took a few more steps closer to her husband. The foul odors in the air began to overwhelm her senses.
“Honey, Cameron’s not in his crib, do you have him?”
“Susan,” Adam spoke again, his voice a little calmer that before, “please, go away, please. I’ve done something horrible, I can’t take it back. Walk away, close the door behind you and leave the house, but don’t come any closer. I can smell you, you’re too close to me.”
Susan froze, gripping Cameron’s fire engine so tight that the plastic parts began to squeal against one another.
“Adam! Have you done something to our son? What the fuck do you mean ‘you can smell me’? How can you smell me over whatever is in here? Face me! What did you do!?”
Adam’s shoulders dropped as he let out a sigh. He turned around slowly. The vision that Susan saw next burned an image into her brain that she would not soon forget.
Adam was in fact holding…what remained…of their son Cameron. Massive sections of Cam’s right arm were chewed off from the wrist to the shoulder. Teeth marks were embedded into his left cheek, exposing his tiny gums. Many of his toes were severed whole, with protruding bones in their wake. Blood covered the tiny body from head to foot, dropping onto the carpet in soft “plops”. Cameron’s head bobbed from side to side each time Adam moved. Susan stood, horrified as her husband continued to cradle the baby. One arm held his son as if he was trying to rock him to sleep. The other, dug through Cameron’s little belly snatching pieces of flesh free and inserting gore into his mouth. Tears filled Adam’s eyes.
“I-I can’t stop!” He cried out through mouthfuls of his son’s remains. “I only wanted to take a nip, nothing serious, but he tasted soo good!”
Susan was speechless. She wanted to scream, run or…something! But fear and disbelief kept her still. Adam began to approach her, Cam’s beautiful and lifeless green eyes stared at the ceiling. As each moment passed, Adam’s own eyes began to cloud over with red. Adam spoke as he closed distance between them.
“I’m so sorry Susan,” greenish yellow tears saturated his cheeks. “Please, take our son, I don’t want to hurt him anymore.”
Susan found herself slowly backing away from her husband. The crunching noises, those were Cameron’s bones! That smell, Cameron’s blood! I have to get out of here, I have to call the police.
“Stay away from me you bastard!” She shouted, “Our son! MY son! How could you do that to him?”
“I SAID I WAS SORRY!” Adam shouted back, his voice sounded hoarse, nearly animalistic. “Please, just…just take our son and call the police. I’ll go to jail without any fuss, just take our son and give me a parting kiss, I’ll wait here for the police.” He continued his approach with Cameron in his outstretched arms.
“I said, stay the fuck away from me Adam!” She backed up a little further.
“Okay, if you’re not going to take Cameron, at least as my wife, give me a goodbye kiss. I know I will spend the rest of my life in prison for this; I’m ok with that but your kisses always make me feel better and you smell soo gooood!”
“This is my last warning Adam! You’re not my husband anymore, I don’t know who or what you are right now, but I know that no FATHER would do this to their own child!”
Adam paused for a moment. He looked down at the cold dead eyes of his son and spoke. “I tried to give our son to you. I guaranteed that I would wait for the police to get here after you called them. All I wanted in return was to feel you one last time.” His eyes met hers. “You should have left the house when I told you to, I can’t stop this, I told you I could smell you, I’ve fought it this long but-but you smell so damned delicious!”
Adam flung his son’s body aside. Cameron’s remains struck the bedroom wall with a “splat” leaving a blood outline on the baby duck wallpaper. Adam charged at Susan with his arms outreached. He grabbed Susan’s left arm as she attempted to run out of the bedroom. As if by instinct, she swung at Adam with her right hand, the hand holding baby Cameron’s fire truck. The toy struck Adam’s temple with pinpoint accuracy. The force of the blow made the toy explode against his head. Adam jerked violently to the side as he landed against a nearby dresser. Susan winced as pieces of shattered plastic dug into her palm. She wasted no time afterward. She fled the bedroom without a second glance, bounding down the stairs two to three steps at a time in her mad dash to the home phone in the kitchen.
“SUSAAAAAN!” She heard behind her.
She nearly fell into the kitchen as she reached for the phone. Her hands shook so severely while dialing 911 that she misdialed the number twice.
“Susan! Why did you hit me?” From the voice alone, Susan could tell that although Adam was down, he was not going to be for long.
She grabbed a knife from the counter as she shouted at the dispatcher.
“Please send someone! My-my husband… something is wrong with him! He’s killed our baby!”
“Ma’am,” this dispatcher replied with a bit of panic in her own voice, “please remain calm for me, what’s your name?”
“Susan Marie Blankenship! I live at 4532 Cedar Grove Court! My husband killed our son and will kill me next, please send police!”
“Ma’am,” the dispatcher continued, “are your husband’s eyes discolored? Did he complain about being sick, stuck or bitten by anything?”
Susan removed the phone from her ear and stared at it blankly for a moment. How does she know? Are there others?
“Ma’am?”
“Uh, yes-yes. He said a homeless man bit him on the way home.”
The dispatcher’s tone became urgent. “Susan, listen to me sweetheart ok? Get out of that house! We’ve received calls like this all day, get out of the house, find a safe place, lock yourself inside and stay quiet! I’ll try to send someone to you now, but there is nothing you can do other than….”
Susan dropped the phone as she stared at the entrance to the kitchen. Adam stood there, eyes glaring at her. A small trail of yellow fluid oozed from his temple. Pieces of Cameron’s fire truck stuck in his flesh. His breathing was haggard and heavy.
“Suus,” as he spoke, saliva with the consistency and color of anti-freeze trailed down his chin, mixing with the coagulated blood of his son, “you hit me!”
Susan gripped the knife handle tightly, thinking about her son, the baby that will not experience a full life. Her fear started to change…it became anger. Her eyes narrowed into slits, staring back at Adam with the same intensity that he stared at her. Adam’s eyes moved from her face to the knife. The dispatcher’s voice was inaudible from the discarded phone.
“A knife Suus? You’re gonna use that on your husband?”
“If I have to…but after what you have done, even if I didn’t have to, I want to.”
“I see,” Adam replied relaxing his arms to his sides. “I told you I can’t control it. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m always hungry, always in pain. What I did to Cameron was fucked up! I know that! But when I bit into him it felt amazing! My hunger went away. My pain? Gone! Ya know how people talk about hitting cocaine or meth for the first time? How that high is the best thing they ever felt? I felt more alive than I ever felt before don’t you get it?”
Susan’s voice got lower…darker. “No. I don’t know. My high came from Cameron, from his birth and every second of his life. You took that from me.”
Adam flung his arms out wide. Specks of viscera spotted the kitchen walls. “Well then wife, it looks like you gotta do what you gotta do.”
Susan remembered the tactic from Cameron’s bedroom. Adam was trying to lower her guard through small talk and gestures. With only one way in and out of the kitchen, now blocked by James; she readied herself for another attack. Adam started his slow approach, arms still wide. Susan saw a smile creep its way across Adam’s lips. Without any other warning, he lunged after her in the same manner as he did in Cameron’s bedroom.
Susan side stepped her husband clutching a frying pan with her free hand and struck him hard on the shoulder with it while he was off balance. Adam let out a grunt as he toppled over onto the tile floor. Susan was on him in an instant, stabbing him savagely in the chest. Yellow fluid shot out of him in spurts each time she retracted the blade from his body, spraying her in the face. As the attack continued, she could see that Adam was getting weak. His arms resembled noodles each time he attempted to push her away.
“B-b-babe, you’re killing me!” Adam sputtered.
She continued to drive the blade deep into his torso. “Adam just die! Please die!” Susan’s rage began to revert into sadness when she saw the last signs of the man who used to be her husband, fade away. Adam gasped one last time and went limp.
Susan remained on top of her husband breathing heavily, the knife protruding from Adam’s chest. The recent events swirled through her mind. Adam’s transformation, the loss of her son and the possibility of other people experiencing the same thing. What the fuck is going on with the world?
Adam’s body lurched suddenly. Susan withdrew the knife from his chest and prepared herself. A minute passed, Susan; poised with the knife raised high above her head still straddling her husband…waited. His eyes popped open, blood red orbs looked at her. He began to gnash and bite at Susan viciously in an attempt to sink his teeth into her flesh. Although she had the knife at the ready, Adam’s erratic movements made her attempts ineffective but she hacked away at him regardless. Adam forced his open mouth at her face as she came down hard with the blade. The large goo covered knife embedded itself within Adam’s forehead. Within seconds, his body went limp again. His head fell back to the tile floor with a “thud”, lifeless. Susan did not want to take any further chances. She pulled the knife out once more and with all of her remaining strength; she drove the blade deep into his head again, forcing it down until only the hilt was visible.
Susan fell off Adam and onto the floor next to him, exhausted. The adrenaline in her small frame diminished quickly while she gathered her breath and organized her thoughts. When she felt strong enough, she got up from the floor and washed her hands, face and neck in the kitchen sink, determined not to let…whatever fluids covering her body enter her mouth, nose or any open wounds she might have sustained when she battled Adam. Once she was satisfied , she picked up the home phone from the floor and placed it to her ear.
Panting, she spoke. “Hello?”
The dispatcher in a clear panic responded quickly, “Yes dear, we have units on the way to you right now is everything ok?”
“Yes, my husband attacked me and well…”
“I know sweetheart, I heard everything. I still suggest that you lock yourself up somewhere until police arrive ok?”
“Yeah, I’ll do that.” Susan looked at Adam double-checking that he had not moved since she shoved a knife into his head.
Please stay there Adam.
“Ok…well I’m Genny if you need to know, with a G. Call me back if anything else develops. I’ll be right…er, excuse me sir,” Genny could be heard speaking to an unknown person, “you’re not supposed to be in here, it’s a secured area, I’m gonna need you to lea- wait noooo!” Genny could be heard screaming loudly through the receiver.
Susan shouted into the phone. “Genny!? Genny are you there? Genny!?”
Susan kept the phone to her ear. Sounds of a struggle was clear on the other end. She could faintly hear Genny calling out for help before being cut short by a loud crunching sound. The same sounds that came from Cameron’s room as Adam was consuming him, biting through bone. Susan disconnected the call and placed the phone on the counter. She slumped down into a heap on the floor. Adam remained as he was, with a mass of foul smelling liquids oozing out of various puncture wounds.
“What the fuck is happening here?” She said to herself quietly. As she contemplated her next course of action, she heard a noise upstairs. Out of fear of contaminating herself, she snatched a clean knife from the kitchen drawer and proceeded up the stairs. The sound continued and to Susan, the sound was similar to a person dragging their feet as they walk. Could someone have snuck into the house while Adam and I fought? Were the police already here? She paused briefly at the top of the stairwell assessing her surroundings. Intent on not being caught off guard as she did with Adam, she gently took off her shoes and eased down the hallway. It was clear, the source of the noise came from Cameron’s room. Before she reached the doorway, she steeled her nerve. She counted to herself, one…two…three and rushed into the bedroom hopefully, she could catch the would-be intruders by surprise.
“Get out you motherfu-!” Susan stopped short. Her eyes overflowed with tears instantly. She dropped to her knees hard. The knife slid out of her hands and landed softly on the blood soaked carpet. Susan remained speechless at the sight before her. The broken, dismembered and gruesome body of her son Cameron dragged himself toward her. His eyes were as blood red as Adam’s during his final assault. Yellow puss like fluid seeped from his injuries, leaving a putrid trail of gore behind him. Cameron looked at Susan; tacky thick bits of yellow green flesh came out of his mouth as he reached toward her, uttering one word.
“Ma…ma.”
END
