How to: Forget me not

A Trigger to Remember

It's a bright day and Jeremiah is twelve he loves his mom and dad more than life itself and would rather die than let any harm come to them. Jeremiah is running in the front yard with his sister Mellissa, who is thirteen. They're playing tag when they hear their sweet mother call them inside for lunch and they rush in with the biggest grins on their faces and wide eyes as they see that their mother has made mac and cheese which was Melissa's favorite and Jeremiah's second favorite food.

They sat down at the table, prayed, said thank you to their mother and dug in to eat. After lunch they went outside in the warm summer air and played until dusk, enjoying the sweet night breeze and the deafening quiet of the night world as it tickles their senses and causing them to giggle as they run to the top of the hill in their front yard and roll down it without a care in the world.

Around eight at night their mother calls them in for dinner which is some fast food Jeremiah and Mellissa's dad picked up on his way home from his work. Their dad was an honest man. He worked hard and never owed any favors to anyone. He got his money through legitimate and honest methods, and he never crossed a man who didn't deserve it.

Other than a few fights when he was a child, Jeremiah and Mellissa's dad was a patient and non violent man who would make them sit in a corner when they misbehaved. He told them that if they could name five things they liked about whatever it was they were mad at, they could only have to sit for one-fourth the total amount of time they were supposed to be in time out.

On average Jeremiah and Mellissa could only get about three or four things they liked and then would give up so they typically always had to serve the full time out sentence. However, they didn't like time out, their dad was a kind man who loved his children enough to correct them and to know when they needed to be reprimanded.

With all that said, when they saw they dad sitting in front of the television, Jeremiah and Mellissa ran to him and gave him a big hug, thanking him for the food. He chuckled very tiredly and hugged them back, eventually falling asleep mid-hug and unconsciously constraining the two munchkins in a hug they could not escape from and he could not actively release them from.

Their mother saw this and walked over quietly and released the two children from their constraints and told them to kiss their father goodnight and then get ready for bed. Jeremiah kissed his father on the cheek and said with all honesty in his heart, "I love you dad and I promise no matter what I will remember you forever and all the nice things you do for me" after which he gave a big goofy grin and ran off to bed with his promise held in his heart and his love in his mind.

With the promise in his heart and the love in his head Jeremiah let's his mother pull the covers over him and let's himself drift off to sleep. He slowly dozed off thinking how lucky he is to have his mom and dad and to have his sister, even if they do fight every so often.

As he thinks of these things he slowly drifts to sleep. With a final smile crawling across his face Jeremiah lays down and sleeps. While Jeremiah sleeps his mother is quietly helping his father up to their bed and lays him down to sleep. She kisses Jeremiah's father on the head, chuckles to herself and walks back downstairs.

Five hours after Jeremiah fell asleep it is now two in the morning and he is softly awoken to the sound of talking downstairs. He wakes up and hears his mom and a man talking downstairs. He is on the second floor of the house and can only make out a few words here and there. Jeremiah hears words and phrases like "upstairs, third door on left" and "him dead" coming from his mother.

He then hears the strange man vaguely ask, "how much?" and "you and me?" Jeremiah runs back to his room as quietly as he can, as he fears he may be spotted or heard. He quietly runs, looking back the entire time to make sure he is not running out of time, and being extra sure not to make a noise.

He rushes into his room, still looking behind him, and proceeds to hide in the first place he can see, the cabinet. After taking a moment to breathe and calm down he looks through the crack in the cabinet doors and realizes that the room he is in, is his parents room and not his.

His parents got themselves and their kids matching upright cabinets and unfortunately put them them in the same locations in all the rooms.

Realizing his mistake Jeremiah starts to get out of the cabinet and head to his room which is just next door but stops when he hears the man and his mother approaching down the hall. He re-closes the cabinet quietly and listens and watches through the crack he left open so he could see. He hears the man and his mother approaching quietly until they are walking through the door of his parents room. Their footsteps are silent as they walk on the blue carpeting of his parents room and slowly approach the bed. Both the strange man and Jeremiah's mother walk up to the bed and take a singular dagger and with one hand from each of them on the dagger they plunge in deep into Jeremiah's father's neck. Causing his screams to come as a soft wheezing and gurgling on his own blood. The two people let go of the dagger and stare. Standing at each side of the bleeding man they both give a smirk and the mother gives a bright grin. She laughs quietly, but loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. She takes a deep breath and says "the children will forget you and all their memories and love for you, will belong to me. Don't worry though. This man right here will be their new father but he will mistreat them, making their love and reliance on me for protection and love for me even stronger. So do me a favor and sink into the dark cold bliss of sleep....forever. With that she takes the blade out of his neck and stabs him in the heart and then gives him one final kiss before twisting the blade and watching him choke and die, drowning in his own blood. Jeremiah shocked, sad, angry, and uncertain runs from the cabinet and grabs the dagger from his mother's hands and before she even realized what's happening stabs the guy in the leg and then slits the random man's neck so as to keep him quiet. With a bleeding dagger and tears streaming down his eyes and anger plastered on his face and in his heart he slowly stops being angry. He forgets what made him mad to begin with and at that, he forgets what made him sad to begin with. He calms down and then asks. Mom, why was I sad? His mother replies after a second to take a deep breath says, "you weren't sad sweetie, you just had tears from being sleepy." Jeremiah replied, "Why did I kill this random guy?!" Jeremiah responded with fear and guilt in his heart and mind. "He was an intruder who wanted to hurt me, and you jumped to my rescue to save me from this bad man. Thank you, and I love you. Now go off to bed, I will clean up here and will take you to go get ice cream when you wake up in the morning. Now run along and go to sleep." "OK MOM!" Jeremiah said with a loving and joyfully innocent smile. As Jeremiah went to sleep he dreamed of a strange man in his living room who fell asleep in the middle of Jeremiah and Mellissa hugging him, Jeremiah wondered who this faceless man was, oh well, it's just a dream. It doesn't man anything. Hi