The Dissociated Stranger

     Suzette put a small hand to her forehead in a useless attempt to relieve a pounding headache. The morning sun forcing its way past the living room curtains was angry and demanding. Pinching the pink tulle of her skirt, she wondered if her mother would be around to give her some medicine for her sudden headache. Making her way through the house she called out for her mother, but no one answered. It wasn’t uncommon for Suzette’s mother not to be home. It seemed more and more often her mother would disappear, leaving her two children in the care of a husband she didn’t have the strength or will to deal with.

     “Papa.” Suzette whispered fearfully while she stared upstairs where her parent’s bedroom was. The sound of her father’s angry tread was so real sounding in her mind she actually shuddered in remembrance. Suzette didn’t dare wake up her papa for medicine. He was known for his quick and unpredictable temper and the longer he slept in, the better it was for Suzette and her brother.

     Grabbing a banana from the counter, she tried to eat it for her breakfast but quickly found that the banana had long since passed its ripeness. Suzette spit the fermented fruit in the trash and hoped that her mother would come home with groceries that night. Suzette was hungry and at the age of ten she was still too young to cook for herself. She settled instead for some crackers from the pantry and headed upstairs to her room to munch and relax.

     Just as she was halfway to her room, a heavy knock sounded on the front door. Suzette paused, heart in her throat. The sudden sound had scared her. The knock sounded again, but Suzette ignored it and continued in to her room. She wasn’t supposed to answer the door for strangers, and any adult at the door would be there for her father. She wasn’t going to be the one responsible for waking her papa. Putting it out of her mind, she made herself comfortable and enjoyed her snack.

     The rustling of paper pushed Suzette further towards consciousness and she was surprised to find herself lying on her bedroom floor. She glanced around in confusion to find a crumpled paper note wedged under her arm. She noticed distantly that the ink on the paper had partially transferred a funky pattern of backwards letters to the skin of her arm, but she didn’t really care. Figuring that she must have fallen asleep, she smoothed out the paper to read the note someone had left for her. With a slice of fear, she realized it was from no one in her family. Someone had been in their house. The note read very simply:

     I’ve been watching your family. You have a bad family. I had a bad family too. Stop being bad. If you’re bad, I’ll be bad too. I don’t want to be bad.

     The ill written note made Suzette feel very disturbed and gave her a heavy sense of foreboding. There was a surreal moment where nothing looked right and she had an overwhelming feeling of disconnect. A shadow moved very subtly in the corner of Suzette’s eye, drawing her back to herself and chilling her with an instinctual fear that paralyzed her body. She closed her eyes, breathing very shallowly. It had to be the intruder who slipped her the note. Keeping her family’s safety in mind, she struggled to manage her fear. Nothing moved and no sound was heard. Stealing her nerves Suzette looked towards the door as bravely as she could. No one was there. Trying to be extra silent, she got up carefully and peered past the door and into the hallway. Still no trace of anyone. She darted into her brother’s room and grabbed his baseball bat from the closet. Steadily and prepared, Suzette combed through the house for an intruder. She was shocked to see that night had already fallen, adding an even heavier feeling of primal fear. On her way through the house, she made sure to lock the back door and thought it best to check the front door as well.

     Before locking the front door she peered hastily outside to see if anyone was on the porch or in the yard. A woman walking her dog spotted Suzette and gave her a very odd look that made Suzette uncomfortable for reasons she wasn’t sure of. Making sure to lock the deadbolt as an extra precaution, she continued on through the rest of the house. The last room she went to check was her parent’s room. It gave her pause before opening the door, because she didn’t want to incur her father’s ire, but the need to feel safe and protect her family rose higher in her. Carefully opening the door, Suzette was relieved to peak in and see her parents sleeping soundly in bed. She took a moment to check her parent’s bathroom and closet before making a speedy exit. Not only did she definitely not want to wake her father, but her papa wasn’t the cleanest man in the world and his bedroom really stank for it.

     Closing the door behind her with a barely audible snick, Suzette breathed a sigh of relief knowing the house was safe and her mom was finally home. A frown puckered her face as she pondered her missing brother Kody. She had searched the whole house and he was nowhere to be seen. Needing to put the baseball bat back in her brother’s room anyway, Suzette decided to check his room one more time. It didn’t make sense that he wouldn’t be home, he was too young to be out on his own at this time of night.

     “Suzette?” A questioning voice called from the closet of her brother’s bedroom.

     “Kody?” Suzette cautiously opened the closet to find her older brother standing inside looking scared. Suzette put her hand delicately over her nose to avoid the smell coming from Kody. “What are you doing in here?”

     “I saw a stranger in the house.” Kody told her with terror. “I hid in here, because I didn’t know what else to do. You’ve got to hide Suzette, what if he’s still here?” Kody attempted to pull his sister in the closet with him, but Suzette was having none of it.

     “I’m not getting in there, it stinks. The stranger is already gone, I checked. How long have you been hiding in here?”

     “Awhile.” Her brother admitted, looking sheepish. Kody had his back up against the full length mirror of his closet while he looked down at his shoes. “I should have been the one trying to protect everyone, instead of hiding in the closet. I’m almost twelve and I’m the big brother.” Kody looked at his sister with shame shining in his eyes.

     “Don’t worry about it, Kody.” Suzette smiled at her anxious brother. “He’s gone now and that’s what matters.” Suzette showed her brother the note the stranger had left behind, but neither of them understood what it meant.

     “Are you going to tell Dad?” Kody asked tensely.

     “I’m not going to tell Papa anything about this. I don’t want him angry.” There was an uneasy silence between the two siblings as they imagined their father’s reaction to a stranger in the house. Both of them shivered.

     “I’m going to go to bed Kody. See you tomorrow.” With that Suzette made her way back to her bedroom and settled in for the night.

     She didn’t know how long she’d been sleeping, but the window in her room told her it was still night. She turned over to get more comfortable and her cheek hit something crinkled on her pillow. Bolting upright she was terrified to see it was another note. Her hands shook as she turned on her bedside lamp and cast a panicked look around her room. All was quiet. Suzette picked up the note and read:

     Please, I don’t want to be bad. Why do you have to make me like this? It’s not my fault! You need to listen to me! I’m going to be bad and you need to stop me. You have to stop me, because I can’t stop myself. Please don’t let me do this.

     Suzette ran to her brother’s room through the bathroom they shared, clutching the note in her hands. The room was dark, but she could still see her brother Kody standing in front of his open closet door with fear in his eyes. Suzette wondered if she had caught him about to hide again.

     “Kody! He’s been in the house again. I got another note.” She handed it to her brother and absently noticed an imprint of ink on the back of his arm. Suzette’s headache started to reemerge with a vengeance. Her brother read the note with alarm and showed her a note that he had found just before Suzette had come into her room. Kody’s note read:

     I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

     “What are we going to do?” Suzette asked, just before a loud boom echoed downstairs. It sounded as if the door had been kicked in. Kody and Suzette stood together in silent fear as they heard movement in the house. Someone was calling something out, but Suzette couldn’t understand what they were saying.

     “Let’s hide in the closet.” Kody pleaded desperately, putting one foot into the darkness where Suzette couldn’t bear to look.

     “I can’t, it smells so bad in there.” Suzette whispered to her brother furtively as the sounds of an intruder grew closer. The door swung open startling the siblings badly. Suzette let out a strangled squeak and fell to her knees as a large heavy shadow loomed in the doorway before being obscured by a bright light in Suzette’s eyes.

     “Put your hands up and don’t move!” A stern voice yelled at Suzette, the light blinding her. She turned back to look at her brother only to find her own reflection in the mirror staring back at her. Kody was gone.

     “DON’T MOVE!” The voice at the door thundered, aggravating Suzette’s headache and causing her to ball in fear. “Put your hands up!” The voice called out again, and Suzette did as she was told while tears coursed thickly down her cheeks and she choked on a sob. Someone stepped in front of the flashlight and approached Suzette. The cold feel of metal encircled her dainty wrists as handcuffs were fastened around them. The stranger at the door approached the closet and briefly shone his light inside and muttered a passionate curse. The next few minutes were like a nightmare as Suzette was roughly hauled up and walked through the house. Faces of strange men stared at her with cold hostility as she cried and no one would listen to her pleas.

     The first man who had yelled at Suzette to not move in her brother’s room, approached another man and said, “Found him talking to himself in the closet mirror, we took a closer look and there’s another body in the closet. The son from the looks of it.” Suzette couldn’t make sense of what was happening, but she realized with shock that all the strange men were police officers when she saw a badge catch the light and shine like a beacon on one of them.

     “Looks like he killed the whole damn family.” An officer muttered with disgust quietly and shot Suzette a venomous glare. “We found the daughter’s body in the living room and the parents were in their bed. Poor bastards didn’t even see it coming.”

     Once outside, the neighbors gawked openly as little Suzette was escorted through the yard. The lights of the cop cars lit the night in a garish coruscation of blue and red. A man was explaining something to Suzette about her rights, but she wasn’t really listening. It was all too much for her to take in.

     “Who is that man?” Suzette heard one of the bystanders ask and was shocked to figure out they were looking at her and not the brutish man who held her captive.

     “Look at what he’s wearing.” Another person gasped, and Suzette took a brief moment to look at her outfit. She didn’t see anything odd about her pajamas, except that they were tight. Her mother just hadn’t had a chance to get her new clothes lately.

     Just before being helped into the police car, one last thing caught Suzette’s attention. A girl around her age asked a woman, Suzette assumed was her mother, what was going on.      The mother gave a helpless shake of her head, her eyes warily watching Suzette and responded with, “I don’t know. Looks like a stranger is being arrested for breaking into the Dawes’ house.”

     I’m the stranger? Suzette wondered bewilderingly before her personality faded and she was replaced with a small, thin unstable man wearing torn girl’s pajamas.

     “I’m sorry.” He said wretchedly to no one in particular.