Where did he come from? No one knows the answer. He came home for the first time about 3 months ago after our cat Maggie suddenly died.
He seemed a normal guy in front of my whole family and the neighborhood so he was loved quickly by everybody. Everybody but me. I could see it in his eye. He never fooled me. He wants all I have, and he almost has accomplished that task.
Have you ever loved someone with all your heart? Most of you will answer “Yes” of course. Well I do it too. I know the feeling. I fell in love with her since I have memories, since I saw her first. She is my world, ain’t nothing without her.
But what would you do if you found who you love with another man? Would you leave her? Would you yell at her? Mistreat her? Or maybe argue with her? If truth be told, you don’t know it, you won’t have any idea until it happens. All you can think of are only excuses to avoid the cruel reality, so you don’t really want to know what you’d do, and neither did I till it was too late.
Everything started with short visits. He appeared to solve small issues in the house, issues that we had never had before. The more he went, the more he was needed. It was like if something evil were taking apart our house in order to let him in again.
He always seemed to know what to do and how to do it to get everybody’s attention. And soon I started to notice that something was wrong.
Strange things always happened on his favor. Most people thought those things were normal. Others just said that he was lucky but all of them had something in common, they thought he was a perfect guy who was born blessed, so they loved him. But not me, he never fooled me. I always knew that he was too perfect to be true.
Then one day I looked at his eyes carefully while we were having lunch all together. Old legends tell that the eye is the window to the soul, but his were empty, even darker than black itself. And she was in there. I saw her reflected within his black eyes. So I knew it in that moment, I had to take him out of my house forever.
Unfortunately she didn’t think like me. I could see how step by step she was getting more into a relationship with him while I could do nothing to stop it. I tried to warn her out about this situation a lot of time, about how she was getting farther and farther from me, about how he was having her changed. But she never listened to me in the past so, why would she do it now? She just treated me like a boy and said that it was my imagination caused by my jealously.
I tried to uncover him and his lies a lot of times but he always played the victim. He told stories about how he was abandoned when he was a child or how hard was growing up or how he went to war six years ago and he was thought dead for years till he recovered his memory and went back home. And then I saw her, she shed a tear for him every time he told one of these lies. Can you believe it? I’d never seen her crying before. The more he told, the more she changed and the more I hated him.
He tried to get closer to me too, but soon he realized that his sweet words and brainwashing didn’t work with me. So he started coming when I wasn’t at home. I could see how she was completely changed after that. She spent the days absent, distracted, with a slight smile in her face as if she were drugged. She could barely hear me when I spoke, she was like hypnotized.
I was on the back yard just few minutes after the sunset when I found myself lying on the floor looking at the sky painted as red and dark blue. My eyelids were heavy, I tried to stayed awake but my strength was leaving me. I fell in a deep sleep and started dreaming.
I was in a strange bedroom, No, it was mine but everything was upside down. The floor was the roof and what it was blue before now was red. Walls were like a chessboard and huge pieces were floating up all over the room. In front of me appeared my cat Maggie. I tried to call her but just noise came out of my mouth, the air was as dense as water is, I could almost touch it, it was liquid though allowed me to breathe.
I tried to reach her up but the floor, now the roof, was soft like a swamp of jelly. The faster I moved the deeper I sink into it. So I stayed still like a bat hanging on the roof staring at Maggie. I missed her so hard. I had her only 10 feet away from me and I couldn’t do anything to have her with me again. Her eyes were sad, and behind her right ear I noticed a trace of blood. I really wanted to get closer and see what was there. Was this her death cause? Did he hit her to death? Anxiety was killing me to know the answer. But I couldn’t move, I had to keep still or I would’ve been swallowed.
I heard a noise coming from my right. I turned around slowly and then I saw him. He was stood on the floor holding the door open. Even when I was upside down our eyes were even, so he could see my fears and I his emptiness. He was as surprised as I was. I could see the anger on his face. He Just gave a sigh and said “You want ‘er? Come get her!” Then he shut up the door behind him and left.
Immediately the roof got softer and I started to sink faster into it. I tried to swim but it was worse. Any single move I made just sent me deeper into the swamp. I took as much air as I could before being finally swallowed. Was this it? Was that my end? I couldn’t hold my breath any longer. I felt how life was leaving me. “Help me please,” I cried in my mind, “anybody help me.”
“You’ve got to live,” an unknown voice said inside my head. It was warm and sweet. I’ve never heard an angel before but if they talk I bet they sound like that.
“She needs you,” said the voice again. “You’ve got to save her.”
Strength filled up my muscles and I felt something pulling me out by my right hand till I touched something hard. I clung to it as hard as I could with both hands and used it to climb up. I was on one of the pawns floating up in the room. I took a break to breathe the dense air while I felt life coming back to my body.
When I looked at the room again I noticed that Maggie was missing. She probably died again and I could do nothing this time neither.
I was hurt and sad but I didn’t have any time to think about it. “She needs you,” the voice had said. That only means that she was in this crazy world with him and I needed to find her.
Far away I heard a cry. It was hers! I stood up and started jumping from the pawn to another piece. Then I climbed and repeated to the next one. Every time I jumped my body went floating on the air slowly like an astronaut jumping on the moon.
I continued until I reached the door underneath me. Once I touched it I fell flat to the ground. I wasn’t upside down anymore. I stood up and walked out the door.
I ran through a hallway as long as a maze and before I realized I got to another room. This one was horrendous and bigger than the other one. He was stood in the center disguised as a human being holding in his arms a body. “She is mine,” he said trying to provoke me. “And there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
“Let go of her!” I yelled while started running against him desperately. I had to take her back!
I was only few feet away from him when she suddenly vanished from his arms showing the knife he had on his right hand.
I tried to stop but he went forward and hooked his left arm around my neck in the same way a father hugs his son, while gently introduced his knife into my heart. It was quick, but it lasted an eternity. “Told you,” he whispered in my ear before leaving me fall to ground. “There’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
I was left alone. Darkness was covering me up like sheets while the floor was turning red. I couldn’t think of anything, I just cried in agony, I wanted to scream but there wasn’t any breath left.
Suddenly the air got lighter and lighter until it got back to normality and I could breathe again. I touched my chest and it wasn’t any trace of blood or wounds. I opened my eyes to see. I was in my bedroom lying in bed. I didn’t know how I got there. I just realized that I wasn’t dreaming anymore. That I was finally awake. My face was all wet due to the tears and my heart was beating faster than ever.
I jumped out of bed and headed to the next room where I was killed before.
They both were there. She was holding a glass on her left hand with a red liquid and her right one was hooked around his neck while they danced very closely. Then he touched her lips with his thumb and kissed her.
Now I’ll stop for a second to ask you, what would you do if everything I’ve told happened to you?
Well, to my surprise, I did nothing. I was in shock, I couldn’t speak or move and once again I felt the knife into my heart.
“What are you doing?” I finally cried after few long seconds.
She turned around to me and with a kind sweet voice said, “Oh baby, you are awake!”
In that same moment I remembered the last time we hung out together. We were at the amusement park. There were thousands of people yet I felt I was alone with her, my eyes could only see hers. She used to spoil me like no one else. I was there for her and she was there for me. She was my whole world and I was hers. There wasn’t anyone in between us.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” I repeated, this time louder. “I can’t believe it, how you dare?” my voice sounded hurt and tears started coming out. “He is not who he says he is. He killed Maggie to get closer to you and now he’s trying to kill me.”
“What are you saying?” she replied confused. “You just probably had a bad dream!”
“Don’t you see it?” I continued, “he’s cheating you!”
Why she can’t see it? Why is she behaving weird? Is it because of the red beverage in the glass? It’s got to be that.
I went closer and throw with anger her cup to the floor.
“Stop it,” she slapped me. I couldn’t believe what she did. Was I still dreaming?
I sank to my knees on the floor. He was always right. There was nothing I could do. He wanted all I had and he got it. I started crying from the top of my voice. I never felt in that way before.
“Shhhhh, I’m sorry,” she said with regret while giving a warm hug and cried with me. “I’m so sorry, I should’ve told before. I just didn’t know how to do it. There’s been ten years since I met him. We got married and went to live together. I was so, so, happy by that time! Then around six years ago he was summoned to war so he was forced to leave me. I was waiting a baby but I didn’t tell him because I wanted to surprise him when he returned, but he never did it. I stayed alone in suffering for a long long time. Then you came to my world and became the only thing on it, the only thing that mattered. But now we’ve got to make room for a third party. You don’t have to grow up without a father anymore. He came back to us so please give him a chance. Do it for mommy!”
“You are wrong,” I said inside my mind while I hugged her back, “he’s not my father. He came from another world to steal mommy’s love. To take her away from me. I’ve got to watch for her because I’m the only one who knows the truth. But no one would ever believe a six years old boy.”
Would you?