My Religion is You

He Lives in You

Jayden came home after a rough day at high school. He'd been struggling his whole life to live like a normal person and it was often hard to think clearly ever since he found out that his father, Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, had been murdered years ago before he was born, but he was staying strong. Keeping his grades and attendance up the best he could.

It was hard to deal with in general, though. Being the son of a serial killer, a homosexual one at that, you're bound to draw attention to yourself. Both good and bad. His mother, Iris, would show him the letters that her and Jeff would write to each other back and fourth whilst he was in prison, which he enjoyed, as he could see his father's lovely cursive handwriting dancing across the page, writing that entailed care and passion for his Mother.

Jayden and Iris had gotten to know Jeff's biological parents Lionel and Joyce, and Sheri, his step-mother, before they had all passed away. They learned a great deal about Jeff from them and received childhood and yearbook photos, letters, and most importantly, Jeffrey's urn. Which was placed in a cemetery and protected by a Mausoleum not long after his death.

Jeffrey's death was of course tearing Iris apart as well. It was painful for her to tell Jayden that his father had gone to Heaven when he was growing up, telling him that he was in the clouds when he was little, and explaining further on what happened in the later years. Why Jeffrey killed so many men and explaining to him that the universe had most definitely forgiven him, as Jeff expressed guilt when he was convicted. It comforted Jayden to hear that his father yearned for forgiveness; getting baptized during a solar eclipse was no coincidence to Jayden or his mother, Iris. Iris told Jayden that in the moment of his Baptism, she fell to her knees in the backyard grass of their home, looking up to the sky as the Solar Eclipse shadowed over and passed a few moments later, the light of the sun heating her pregnant body as she cried, knowing and telling the unborn Jayden in her belly that Jeffrey would return to them someday.

After Jayden was born, Iris took him to the Mausoleum where Jeffrey's ashes were, Nuns accompanying her.

"Hold him in a way that Jeffrey can see him." One of the nuns said, Iris doing so. At first, she didn't think it would work. But she would feel Jeffrey in the air as it would change with the wind, the clouds parting and letting the heat of the sun's rays warm her and their son. Just as he did on the day of the solar eclipse.

This is how she knew he was there and very, very much alive. Excited to see their baby boy.

Through the tears she wept, she managed to speak to the nuns, "He's there, I can feel him."

This story was far from over and she knew it. They all knew it. A prophecy was being forged and they could see it before their very eyes. Prophecies aren't formed often, but when they are, they will manifest themselves.

And so every time Jayden would come home from school, doubting whether or not his father was present, she would take him into the restroom and make him look into the mirror with her, and remind him that his father, the other half of his face, lived in him.

"He Lives in You."