iT’s mAKing mE God.
Kate Reese stopped and looked at the childish scrawl on the paper. She couldn’t believe what she had been reading. She quickly flipped back to the previous page to make sure she was understanding this correctly before speaking out loud to Ambrose. They were in Christopher’s room. She had been there since the nurses finished turning over her son’s bed. Reading poor David’s terrified scrawl.
I don’t really know where I am anymore. I don’t know what’s real or what’s imaginary, but we can’t wait any longer. The hissing lady is everywhere disguised as the flu. We have to complete the training now before she takes over the tree house. I asked the soldier why the hissing lady wanted it so much, and he explained what it is doing to me. The power that she wants for herself. It was so simple. It explained everything I was going through. I wanted to tell Ambrose what was really happening to me, but I couldn’t have him call me crazy again. So, I waited until he was asleep, and I got into bed with him. I whispered really quietly in his ear just in case the hissing lady was listening.
“Ambrose. I have to tell you something.”
“What?” he said asleep.
“I have to tell you what the tree house does.”
“Fine. Go ahead,” he said in his sleep. “What does the tree house do?”
“It’s making me God, Ambrose. The tree house makes you God.”
“Jesus Christ,” Ambrose said.
Christopher’s mother stopped reading and looked at Ambrose. She couldn’t see his eyes, but the rest of his face was frozen with grief. She turned to her son, unconscious next to her. She thought of the things he knew. The things he felt. His perfect test answers. His spontaneous genius. His healing touch.
“Keep reading, Mrs. Reese,” Ambrose said.
Christopher’s mother thumbed the page and continued reading in a whisper.
“Fine. You’re becoming God. Go back to sleep,” he said.
Then, my brother fell back asleep. I kept explaining that I wasn’t becoming God all the way. I can’t create or destroy worlds or anything like that. But I know everything, and I can heal things. The soldier said if I went any further than that, my head would explode. That’s what the headaches are. It’s God pushing on my skull like a baby chick tapping on an eggshell. It felt good to say all that out loud to Ambrose. I kissed his cheek and told him I loved him. I know he was asleep and didn’t hear what I said. But it was wonderful to pretend that he listened to me and didn’t think I was crazy. I want to think that he loves me like that because I know in 3 days I am going into the woods to kill the hissing lady. And if I don’t stop her, she will shatter the glass between the two worlds. It’s all up to me.
afTEr aLL, i AM god.
A chill ran down her back. It felt like someone was watching them. Christopher’s mother would normally shrug off this feeling, but after reading David’s diary out loud to Ambrose, she didn’t think she would shrug off a feeling ever again. She thought that the hissing lady might be standing right there. Hovering over her unconscious son like a cat with a ball of string.
“Are you okay?” Ambrose asked her.
“Yes,” she said. “I just need a minute.”
Christopher’s mother looked down at the sheets of paper where she kept her notes. If the orderlies saw them, they would definitely lock her up for forty-eight hours of psychiatric “evaluation.” Words scribbled in a hurried hand. An imaginary world filled with hissing ladies and mailbox people with mouths sewn shut and eyes closed with zippers. Her son was trapped there right now.
BefoRe we kill the hissing lady, we need tO do Some rEcon…
It took a moment for Christopher’s mother to adjust her eyes to David’s illegible scrawl. She had never seen such disturbing handwriting. Not even from her late husband. It wasn’t the handwriting of a child who was crazy. It was the handwriting of a child who was terrified. She read ahead to decipher the message. Then, she whispered it out loud to Ambrose.
Before we kill the hissing lady, we need to do some recon like they do in those war movies Ambrose loves. The soldier is worried I am pushing myself too hard with my training. He doesn’t want my brain to give out. So, he didn’t want me to come on this mission, but I did anyway. I followed her during the daytime. I could see her reaching into people. I could see people getting sick with her flu and changing. I watched her whispering into people’s ears. Making them afraid of their own shadows. The shadow is just people without light. This place is starting to get scary. Even during the day. The town is about to go insane.
I asked the soldier what would happen to me if we failed. At first, he refused to tell me because he didn’t want me to be afraid. But I am more powerful than he is now and I threw him a thousand yards until he told me. He said I will become the hissing lady’s next pet. The final recon mission is tonight. The soldier says it’s not safe because I won’t be invisible. But I told him that Ambrose was in danger, and I am God, so I was coming. We found her hiding place. I can’t believe where it is. It was so close the whole time.
The soldier was captured by the hissing lady. I made a terrible mistake. I thought I was invincible. Now, I am alone. I am so stupid. I went into the imaginary world at night, and the hissing lady used me to set a trap for him. The soldier ran to rescue me, but the mailbox people jumped on him, scratching him with their zipper eyes. I tried everything I could think of to save him. But every time I quieted my mind and got close to an answer, I felt someone hit a deer. Or beat their children. Or try to commit suicide. I should have never have gone in at night like he said. Why didn’t I listen? I should have been humble. I’m so ashamed. She is torturing him right now. I can feel him screaming even on the real side. I have to go in there and try to rescue him. It’s all my fault. God, please help me. Please help me defeat her and save my big brother because…
Christopher’s mother turned the page and looked at her son unconscious on the bed. The machines breathing for him. Eating for him. Living for him. The steady hum of the beep beep beep was the only sign of hope. She looked back at the page of David Olson’s diary. The insane drawings. The terrified scrawl. Each word convincing her Christopher’s survival and the world’s survival were one and the same. That the madness then was the madness now. She thought of the seeds being planted by the hissing lady. The words whispered. The promises made. And what would happen to all of them if those flowers suddenly bloomed.
…the IMaginary world is
ALmOst here.