Our Little Nest - 33. Chapter 33

“Christopher,” said a familiar voice that penetrated Jamie’s deep sleep. At first Jamie didn’t respond. “Christopher, it’s time to wake up.” Jamie’s breathing increased as his head rocked from side to side. He opened his eyes and a sweet aroma touched his nose. A person he hasn’t seen for years stared back at him with long amber hair, painted lips, a clean natural face and with the same loving smile he had missed for a long time.

“Mom?” he asked.

“Good morning sleepy head. Better get up, you’re going to be late.” She turned and walked over to the window opened the curtains and raised the shade.

Jamie sat up, still groggy looking over his room. A storage chest at the foot of his bed, a writing desk, and dresser. Posters of movies and bands, that were around decades before he was born.

“Mom,” he said, she turned around and smiled at him.

“Yes?”

He wanted to ask her why she was there, but the words escaped him as he rubbed his eyes and yawned.

“What’s for breakfast?”

“What else, pancakes, your favorite. Now go take your shower and come down to eat.”

“Okay.”

She left the room. Jamie climbed out of bed looking around again, then headed for the bathroom down the hall.

When he was clean and dressed he walked into the kitchen and saw his mother pouring juice in glasses at the table. Jamie enjoyed wonderful smells that floated in the air. He sat in his spot at the table and noticed another place setting. For years, it was just him and his mom. She never talks about his dad except that he died in a car accident when she was pregnant.

She was at the stove loading up a plate with eggs. She carried it over and placed it in the middle of the table. Jamie was confused.

“I thought we were having pancakes, mom?” he said, looking at his mother, whose facial expression had changed to somber. She didn’t look at him she was staring at something else. Jamie turned from her and saw a man sitting in front of him drinking a cup of coffee. For a moment Jamie didn’t know him as he watched him scrape eggs onto his plate. When the man looked at him Jamie’s mind seem to clear.

“Christopher, we had pancake three days in a roll, can’t I have eggs just this once.”

“I guess,” Jamie said, grabbing a biscuit. He looked over at his mother who hadn’t moved. “Mom aren’t you going to eat?” she looked at him, not saying a word.

“Christopher,” said the man across from him, catching Jamie’s attention. “Are you excited?”

“For what?”

“First day of high school,” he smiled, reaching into his back pocket retrieving his wallet. “Here, take this for whatever.” He held out a twenty. When Jamie reached for it his mother grabbed his arm.

Right before his eyes, the skin on her arm began to decay. It started as dry patches that broke apart, then ooze seeped from the cracks. Jamie struggled to break free as the process attacked the rest of her body.

“Mom, mom!” His body shook as he shut his eyes to the terror. Another hand touched his shoulder, causing a new sensation that jerked him awake. Panting with a cold sweat Jamie saw houses passing by.

“Hey Chris, you okay?”

Jamie turned and saw his childhood friend Cole driving. Jamie tried to collect his thoughts when it washed over him the he was going to school.

“Christopher,” Cole said, stretching every syllable, knowing he didn’t like his friends calling him by his full first name.

“Shut up.”

“Cranky, what did you do last night?”

“I thought I was sleeping.”

“Yeah, me too,” Cole said, switching on the radio. When he couldn’t find anything but static he turned it off. They sat in silence as Cole turned on a stretch of road lined with fields. Their high school was a half hour drive away.

Something caught Christopher’s eye. Off in the distance he saw construction going on.

“What’s that they’re building over there?” asked Jamie.

“The new coven I think. I heard my dad talking about it.”

“Want to go check it out after school?”

“We’re not supposed to, so hell yeah.”

When Jamie looked back at the road a pickup truck turned into their lane and charged towards them.

Before Jamie could call out it was too late.

Another jolt awoken Jamie. He was staring at a ceiling, when he realized he was on his back. He didn’t want to move to sit up, he continued to stare at the ceiling. The image made him feel calm and happy. In fact, his whole body responded to what he was seeing. He took a breath and a wonderful smell of earth and freshness filled his nose. The sound of water surrounded him as whatever he was lying on caressed his skin. He combs his fingers beside him touching what he believed was fur.

A face appeared in his line of view, smiling down at him.

“Do you know who I am Christopher?” asked the man.

“Yes, Father.”

“Good. I can see you’re enjoying this, so I’ll be brief. I can’t allow you to leave me again. You mean too much to me. You look so like your mother,” he said, touching their foreheads. “I never wanted to put you under like the others. You were to be my special one. But you left me with no choice.”

Jamie had no reaction for him except for a slight grin. Father looked up towards someone.

“Begin the treatment.” Jamie didn’t understand what he meant now cared as Father moved out of sight.

Slowly Jamie drifted back to his high when the image above him shifted in shape. The figure of his mother was there along with other women all dressed in robes. They circled him as they chanted the same verse. He looked around and saw other boys, no more than seven or eight. Younger than he was, or, so he thought when he looked down at himself and saw he was as young as they were. They too wore robes with a strange symbol on the front. They were holding hands and seemed calm. They were inside a barn with black walls with a drawing of an eye on each of them.

The women’s chanting increased as the eyes on the walls started to glow. Jamie felt safe as the room brightens with a warm light. Until someone screamed. Jamie shot his eyes to his mother and saw blood on her chest, then he saw something shiny go over her throat causing more blood to spill down. Jamie and the other boys tried to cry out, but no sound came as hooded figures dressed in black swarmed on the women. None of the boys could move as the figures turned to them and thrust a hood over their heads.

Jamie’s eyes opened as he lay in a hospital bed. His sight shifted around the room as his pounding heart calmed. He tried to sit up, which was difficult. He looked at his right arm that had a cast on it and an IV in his left hand. He got out of bed and tolled the IV with him towards the mirror. His reflection startled him, seeing a black eye, and a cut lip. He looked around trying to remember what happened. He checked the closest finding it empty. He moved to the dresser and opened the draws finding nothing. He went to the door and discovered it locked.

“Why was he locked in?” he wondered. He hurried to the window finding no way to open them then saw him. Yuri walking towards a taxi. “Yuri.” Jamie banged on the window calling out to him. Tears fell from his eyes as he watched Yuri climb into the cab and the driver pulled off. “Why are you leaving me?” he screamed.

“Because he doesn’t know you’re here,” said a voice behind him. Jamie turned and saw Father.

“Stay away from me,” Jamie screeched.

“Now, Christopher, calm down.”

“Stop calling me that. It’s not my name anymore, my name is Jamie!”

“Now you know that just isn’t true.”

“You killed my mother!”

“You still harping on that? It’s time you got over that boy.”

“Don’t come near me.”

“I don’t have to.”

The migraine came so fast that by the time Jamie registered it, it was too late as his vision blurred and he collapsed to the floor.