I See Ghosts

A Mother's Promis

The Midday sun shone grimly over the town of Leaf Falls, as reports of a young girl who had slit her wrists forcefully with a pair of scissors swept the town. As if that was not bad enough, a serial killer who investigators could conclude was right handed had just marked his first victim; a blond boy in his teens, who wore a red hooded jacket, found in the forest around the Mary street neighborhood. An axe was lodged in his chest with the inscription 'ut mortum' curved on the axe head and his left arm was hacked off and missing. This would spell the beginning of the worst string of deaths that ever befell Leaf Falls.

In the rather quiet cul-de-sac neighborhood, at the very edge of Mary Street, house Number six. Moving in were a family of three, the Releks. Chrome who was oblivious of the current incidents of the town had just arrived with David and Sue, his parents. Their charcoal black Station wagon glazed with red tinted windows was parked on the front yard and they had just finished unloading the last of the boxes.

From the on-look David and Sue appeared so brazenly- normal. David was a tall dark brawny man, with a bald head he kept cleanly shaved, and a sideburns beard that enveloped his passive face like a well-kept lion's mane. Wearing rectangular glasses to top up his serious glances. He almost always wore his formal attire; a neat white shirt with a black tie and dark trousers held up by suspenders over his broad gorilla shoulders.

His wife Sue, who was tiny in comparison to her husband, was a caramel beauty with shoulder length ebony dreadlocks that tended to stray along her thinly slit back almond eyes, like two dark brown marbles above a button nose and the modest smile, her luscious lips would bear above her sharp chin. Her slim figure was complemented by her blue polka dot dress that swayed gently in the wind before David shut the door behind them, with his strong right hand.

Just your average new neighbors moving into the neighborhood type of couple, nothing more to see here. So to say, that's what they preferred prying eyes to believe. Sue was a stay at home mom by 'choice' as she would so sharply state from time to time. Her nine to five tasks at home included taking care of their son Chrome. Who suffered from a peculiar illness that no normal doctor could treat.

As a necessary measure his parents kept him cooped on average in his room, and if he was ever in dire need to stretch his legs they would allow him to move freely within the confines of the house. He was not allowed to take a single step outside. A prisoner in his own home, bubbled from society. He wasn't allowed to have a bed. Too dangerous they'd say.
We can't risk it they'd say. So his room's center piece was this cotton stuffed pad he'd sleep on. The windows were boarded up immediately when they arrived, claiming that they did not want him accidentally falling out.

Like he was an idiot to believe that when their true intentions were crystal clear that they didn't want him performing any escapes from the room. Leaving it's darkness that persisted even in the day as there were no lights because they couldn't trust him with electricity, heavens no! Sue Relek wasn't going to let her precious boy near electricity.

Infect Electricity was officially forbidden within the Relek house hold. The only thing the electric bill covered were the lights excluding Chrome's room. Anything else was out of the question. Though they needed the use of the mini portable electric stove and the mini fridge in the kitchen to not be completely cut off from the luxuries of the modern world.

So Chrome wasn't allowed in the kitchen too, for security measures. All those plats, spoons, forks, knifes! -sharp objects were a big no-no, on Sue's guide on how to raise Chrome. Of course this made Chrome hate the life his was forced into even more. His teenage years would end like his prohibited childhood ended long ago. All the curiosity and potential thrill in his veins would die out like before. Trapped in the walls of protection. Walls he'd most certainly die behind. Oh how he wished he could go outside. But this was for his own safety, and for the safety of everybody else for that matter. This illness wasn't anything that compromised his health in any physical way that it would be harmful to him if he was to go outside, but his parents thought it would be better safe than sorry.