Apocalypse: The puppetmaster

"Congratulations, It's a beautiful baby boy Mrs Briar"

Today would be May the 22nd, 1996. This would be the day I was born. And the start of a warm childhood.

[3 years later]

"PLEASE! Don't leave!" shrieked a pleading voice laced with grief

"Tch. I said don't touch me bitch!" shouted a gruff voice as a clap was heard and a woman fell to the floor pitifully.

She looked up at the man with tears in her eyes as her hand touched her cheek where the outline of a faint red handprint stood. And in those muddled eyes a torrent of emotions could be seen raging. Fear, regret, anger and grief all swirling in her emerald eyes, however, as the man picked up his belongings and his footsteps echoed in her ears all those emotions stopped raging as she curled up into a ball and began to sob. And as she lay there pathetically in a ball the man walked out the door in large strides and the door slammed and her sobbing increased in volume but no matter how long she cried for, or how loud the door didn't open again.

But as the minutes passed and she lay on the floor pitifully a tip-tap of noises was heard and a small boy who seemed no less than 3 years old poked his head out from behind a wall, with a slight look of fear and worry on his face. And then the boy opened his mouth, with tears threatening to overflow, as he asked

"M-mommy what's wrong?"

However, as his voice was heard the woman's head snapped to look in the boy's direction, and her eyes filled with venom as she looked at the boy, and her face convulsed malevolently. And then she shrieked at the boy

"YOU! It's your fault! You should never have been born! You ruined my life! Now I have nothing… nothing"

The boy startled, jumped slightly in fright. As he looked terrified at the sight of the woman who was supposed to be his mother looking like a demon-possessed, with a terrifying gleam of insanity radiating from her eyes.

Then the boy began to back off slowly in fear as a peal of disturbing laughter was heard emerging from his mothers' mouth. And she slowly walked towards him with a look that reminded him nothing of the mother he remembered. However, before she could reach him, he tripped on a shoe and something hit his head as everything suddenly turned black.

[10 years later]

It had now been 10 years since his father had left. And on the surface, I and my mother's relationship seemed like the normal mother-son relationship.

But after the incident, she had changed. She wasn't the same anymore, she no longer looked at me the same way and she despised my existence. However, my mother was smart, and I knew it, although she looked as if she wanted to kill me, I always knew she never would. She was afraid, she knew what it entailed, and she knew the consequences. Neither did she physically hurt me, because after the incident she had received quite a lot of scrutiny as after I had woken up, all the doctors heard me scream at her to back away in fear as she came to visit me. Needless to say, there was no proof she had abused me but all the doctors knew something was wrong with the situation after seeing my reaction and naturally they contacted the relevant services. However, as nothing had happened and my injuries were caused by a trip, naturally nothing could be done about the situation as even though it was obvious, I was terrified of her. There was no proof of any wrongdoing and hence they had no choice but to let it go and everything was chalked up to my mind playing games or I was confused from the fall, in no small part thanks to my mother. However, she remembered the scorn she received from her friends and family during the duration of the investigation and she spared no effort in reminding me of how I ruined her life and how despicable my actions were and how everything that had gone wrong in her life stemmed from me. But despite my mother constantly spewing poison in my ear, she had never hurt me in these 10 years but needless to say, this was not an environment that a healthy child grows up in. But despite that, as I started to mature I began to try and rekindle our broken relationship and although at first, it was hard I gradually began to repair our relationship.

However, no sooner than we had finally regained our relationship had my mother developed serious depression. Maybe it was because she had finally lost a place to direct all her resentment and hate.

And then, just 2 days before my thirteenth birthday I found a letter on the floor addressed to me on the doormat. And as I opened the letter and began to read, a smile of satisfaction couldn't help but creep onto my face.

[11 years later]

It had been 11 years since my mother had died, the whole fiasco after her death was hands down one of the most unpleasant experiences of my whole life. She had decided to commit suicide and no sooner than her body turning cold, fingers were thrown, and accusations were tossed. My mother's family had turned the whole situation into a mudslinging match about who was to blame, and I can still recall to this day how the family was torn apart as theories were shared and dark secrets started to come out. I didn't really understand why they tried to delve so deep into her death. Maybe they didn't want to believe that she wanted to end her life and that nobody had noticed. Maybe the guilt was crushing them and they wanted to believe there was some nefarious reason she had decided to kill herself. I just guess that's what guilt does to people, maybe they just couldn't accept what had happened and in the end, everyone's relationship was left fractured due to the slanderous comments and despicable secrets.

But alas despite the fiasco life had to go on and no sooner had it been 11 years, 11 whole years.

A lot had happened in those 11 years everyone had finally moved on and me. Well, I had gotten a scholarship for a business course, and after I had finished my undergraduate with the highest honours.

And I guess that brings us to today, in front of my interview location looking at someone mauling a body on the sidewalk.