I remember my father used to work as a doctor. He doesn’t anymore after an incident. He never told me why he quit, he just said every time “I’ll tell you later.” I never dared at ask him to tell me then, so I just… I just kept quiet. I remember I was home alone, and since I was a nosy kid, I went into my father’s office while my older brothers played on their Xbox downstairs in the living room.
I walked into my father’s office and rummaged through his desk, looking at files, before throwing them on the floor because they didn’t seem to interest me. Then I grabbed another file that had in bold letters, TOP SECRET, I didn’t bother putting it up, since I wanted to look inside. I opened the file, looking at the first paper. It had a picture of a child, about my age at the time. Its name, age height, weight, and description.
I studied the picture. It didn’t look like a normal child, but I didn’t pay mind to it since I just wanted to read the file. Five more papers of children came after. A total of six papers of children. I continued looking through the file, passing through papers that were blank or censored out, I didn’t really pay mind to it, since I was still a little kid. I continued to flip through the papers, until I came across a piece of paper titled ‘VACCINE TEST 01’, then a bunch of nonsense, at least to me anyway. It was just about how patients were reacting to a new vaccine I’ve never heard of.
I slowly flipped to the next piece of paper. It showed a picture of one of the patients, laying on top of a white bed, just laying there awake. I was confused, very confused. I didn’t know what to make out from it. I flipped to the next page. It gave each patient name, and the side effects from the vaccine. The side effects were, meat cravings, black outs, reduction in weight, and violent behaviors. I stared at the last one, at least three had violent behaviors. Two had meat cravings, they all had weight reduction and black out. I suddenly felt uneasy, but I kept reading anyway. It was an entry, my father’s hand writing.
‘Patients began showing violent behavior, I don’t understand why he gave them such large doses the second time.’
I felt shivers down my spine. I didn’t want to continue but my curiosity got the better of me. I flipped through more papers. Most of them were what the vaccine was meant to do, the changes in the parents, stuff that made me bored reading, but I read them anyway. Then I came across another entry.
‘The patients were sent home, I wish we didn’t. One of our doctors informed us that, out first patient, ate his father. He told us that the patient’s father had his stomach ripped open, and his arm torn off, although his face showed nothing, it showed no pain, like he was allowing his son to eat him. Then his father looked at the doctor and said he was hungry. The doctor ran, ran all the way here, but when we arrived at the house, two of the other children in the house were dead mangled corpses. They were 6 years old, the other child was four, she was alive but looked paralyzed. The patient and his father were gone, a small blood trailed followed into the neighborhood.’
I closed the file after I read the entry my heart sped up quickly. I ran downstairs as fast as I could. My brother looked at me confused.
“Why are you running?” he asked me.
“I read something, and now I’m scared.”
He stood up and picked me up, then sat down and put me on his lap. I was a short 6 year old so this was normal.
“This is what happens when you decide to be nosy.”
I remember around the time I went to bed. I heard something at my window. I looked at it. It was one of the patients, the same one I read about. Staring at me, blood dripping down his mouth, redder than his red skin. I was too scared to move. I’m typing this all now, because I see him. After all these years, he looks like same, same 6 years old, staring back at me. Maybe if I don’t leave this spot, he’ll eventually leave. Help me…