The Elementals - 9. Ambrose Smith

My name is Ambrose Smith. Most of you know me as Natalie Amber Oakley, “loving” mother of Thomas Riley Oakley, successful entrepreneur and Vice-President of this country. I mean, that is the image you have of me, right? Or you probably know me as the cold-hearted bitch that experimented on her own son and did some rather despicable things for her own curiosity or personal gain. But I’m here tom just show you why I am as I am and let you judge me thereafter. My story starts when I was 6 years old…

30 Years Ago

I bolted upright with a start and everything was still dark. I began to panic, taking in shorter and shorter breaths, only to slowly realise that I was in my room and the lights were off. Even though that thought comforted me a little, I still felt uneasy. As I started to regain my senses, I began to ponder on what had woken me up moments earlier. It took me a while, but I remembered the nightmare I had.

*** I was coming home from school and mom was working the night shift again, so she was preparing to head off to work. If she was working the night shift, then that meant that either my dad was back, or the babysitter was somewhere in the house or coming over in a bit. I didn’t pay too much attention to that fact and wandered to my room to put my bag down after I had greeted my mom. As soon as mom left the house, I was sitting in the entertainment room watching cartoons or something. Some time passed, I guess because it was dinner time and I was sitting with my babysitter. He was my cousin essentially and him and his parents stayed next door to us. Anyways, we ate and then I went upstairs to take a bath, brush my teeth, change into my PJs and go to bed. As I was falling asleep, I felt the bed suddenly get a little heavier on the side I wasn’t sleeping on. I ignored it because I was exhausted. After a while, I feel something touching my private parts and I wanted to get up and scream but I was paralyzed with fear and nothing was coming out of my mouth. After a while, the thing that was touching me moved away and I breathed a sigh of relief. Just as I was about to relax, the weight shifted from the side of the bed to on top of me. I once again froze, and I couldn’t do anything. The next thing I feel something warm and way bigger than what was touching me earlier, touch the entrance of my private part. I immediately tried to squirm and get away from this but whoever or whatever was on top of me held me in place and the voice from whoever was on top of me told me to stop moving and take it like a good little girl. As the warm, large object began to enter me, I woke up. ***

I began crying in my bed at the nightmare I had faced. The sad part of this nightmare is that it has been happening every day from the first time my babysat me. He threatened to hurt me if I told my parents and I never said a word of what he did to me. I mean, who would believe me? He was an angel in their eyes (that being my parents) and I was the child that should have never been born. Dad hardly even acknowledged my existence and mom drowned herself in work to avoid seeing me half the time. Dinner is somewhat civil. Since dad is a public figure, he usually entertained guests when he returned from his business trips and that’s when they act like I existed. Since I was at the top of my grade, they’d brag about my intellect to anyone who wanted to hear.

5 years passed, and the demon known as my cousin graduated from high school and moved away for college. For the first time in my life I was free, but I was left scarred by the entire ordeal. 5 years of repeated rape made me scared of people and I never made any friends. Girls disliked me because I was highly intelligent, and I seemed weird and guys just didn’t feel any attraction towards me. I was never bullied but I was never included in anything that went on. I didn’t care at times, but at other times all the loneliness would catch up to me and I’d cry myself to sleep. The situation at home didn’t improve much. Mom was still distant, and dad was cold as hell, but they decided to do something they had always wanted to try. They adopted a child. A boy who was also 11 at the time. His name was Jeremy. He either didn’t have a surname at the time or he just didn’t want to tell us. I never really cared at the time. He moved in and life at home changed drastically. Mom was almost always home, and dad’s business trips were almost non-existent. Sadly, I was still the outsider. Sure, I ate supper, got to watch TV and had all my basic needs covered, but I never had the love I deserved from my family. My own parents cared more for an adopted child than they did for me and it hurt, but I never let it show. Instead, I began plotting something sinister. Something no one would ever expect from me. At age 18, I implemented my scheme.

In my final year (now aged 18), I was still a major loner and I really didn’t care. I was waiting for my chance to get out of here and start over with a new name and money. Since I was 6, I have been saving up all the allowance money I have been receiving. I currently had enough to buy a three-bedroom house in the town I lived in. Jeremy was a major star in my high school and some people didn’t believe that we were related, even by adoption. He never really cared much for me and I never really cared much for him either. Why care for people you’re going to kill anyways?

It was the night of my graduation. The plan I had was ready to be put into play. The cameras in the house were also prepared for my plan. I had set them up to loop a certain video for a few seconds as that’s all I would have. It took me years to make the poison gas I had made, and it took me a while to acquire a gas mask without looking suspicious. Anyways, that night I released the gas that I had made which had similar characteristics to mustard gas, but it was more potent, took less time to kill and also left no trace forensics could follow. How did I know all this? I had been testing it on rats and I even tested it on a human. One of the men in my neighborhood had been abusing his wife constantly and I decided to test it on him as I deemed him the scum of the earth. Long story short, he was “dead” in 20 seconds and there was no trace of the chemical that had killed him. Forensic scientists were baffled as the cells in the body weren’t destroyed, instead it seemed like they had been told to stop functioning at all. Every living cell in the body seemed to have been deactivated.
To cut another long story short, I killed my family (except Jeremy, as he was nowhere to be seen the night of their murder) and since Jeremy and I were the only ones left, they split the property and money 50/50. Jeremy and I separated, and we haven’t seen one another since the death of my parents. I got a large sum of money and started my life elsewhere. I got into a University for science and I pursued my dream of becoming a scientist. I also legally changed my name from Ambrose Natalie Smith to Natalie Amber Oakley.

At age 20, a lot of shit went down. I was doing my second year at the time and I was still a loner. I guess I preferred working alone at the time. During my second year, we got a transfer student. His name was Noah White. He was easily the hottest man I had ever laid eyes on and for the first time in my life, I felt like I wanted to connect with someone. A few days after his arrival, he somehow found me. I was working in the lab like I always do, and he came in looking for one of his friends. I initially clammed up and I was unable to speak, but eventually I got more comfortable with him and we started chatting about a lot of things. We occasionally got together and before I knew it, I was pregnant. Noah left soon after that and left me to fend for myself with a child I didn’t want or need. I was devastated after his departure and I didn’t know what to do. Luckily, I had made friends during the period of Noah. Peter and Paul Edwards. They were a year older than me and were happily married, I think. They helped me raise Thomas and also, they got a Thomas of their own later on…

Well, that’s it. That’s my story. Why am I so cold? Because of my rapist of a cousin and my distant, unfeeling parents. How can I act like I’m a caring person? Peter, Paul and Noah taught me well how to behave like a human with compassion. I am but a product of my tragic past. I have no regrets in my life. Thomas’ anger towards me makes me feel no regrets either. Instead, it fuels me with a new desire.

To kill my own experiment before it kills me.