Watch Your Back

Chapter 25

"I was in a small apartment with Jones and the baby. Jones was making coffee, and I was putting the baby to sleep. All of a sudden, I heard a pounding on the door. Dr. Harrison, he was outside. I didn't have any idea that he arrived. Jones opened the door before I could tell him not to. I saw Harrison standing there with a can of beer. He had been drinking again. I ran over to try and close the door, but he already seen Jones and the baby. I froze. The baby wouldn't stop cooing. He slammed the door, and left. I was...crushed. I thought that he would be madder, and I couldn't comprehend it because it had happened so fast. I didn't cry, though. So Jones told me to go and put the baby to sleep because he had to work the night shift at the police station." She paused. Aaron had propped his head onto his elbows and had leaned halfway across the table. His mom dabbed at her eyes with a tissue she had magically got from somewhere. She cleared her throat and began again. 

"The baby had slept really well that night. I was sleeping, too. but I woke up when I felt cold air on my face. I looked and saw that the window was open. But I saw someone standing by the crib. The baby's crib. And I-I realized...it was Harrison." She choked on her tears. "He was holding the baby. She was cooing at him. She sounded...really happy." His mom had began to cry now. "He had t-taken a needle... He s-s-stuck it in her neck and" More tears quickly rolled down her pale cheeks. She covered her face with her hands and cried. Her shoulders were shaking. "He killed her! Harrison killed the baby! He killed her! She was so little! I sat up and yelled 'What the hell are you doing, Harrison?!' I started crying. I jumped out of the bed and tried to run after Harrison. I grabbed his lab coat and scratched his face with my nails. He kicked my ankle and jumped out the window. I tried to run after him, but when I got out the front door, he had already disappeared. It was cold. Really cold." Aaron's mom had a blank stare in her eyes and looked somewhere past Aaron, near the oven or the sink. Aaron felt terrible. He had-well, would have had a sister. Or a step-sister?

"What was her name?" Aaron asked.

"Her name...was Sarah. She was only one." His mom looked childish and small with the clear, salty tears running down her chin like blood. Aaron felt a sudden rage, watching how one incident could bring his mom down to this sad, child like girl sitting at a table. It had happened years ago, but the impact was still as strong, like it had happened only minutes ago. Aaron suddenly felt anger towards Dr. Harrison. He wanted Dr. Harrison to be hurt. To feel pain. A new idea suddenly appeared in Aaron's mind. A hateful idea. A revenge filled idea. Aaron jumped up from the table and ran to the knife rack. He selected the biggest, sharpest knife he could find.

"Aaron, what are you doing?" His mom asked. Aaron looked back at her. His green eyes were filled with hate and shone in the afternoon light. 

"I'm going to do what's right." And Aaron ran out the front door, knife in hand. 

                                                                                         ~~~~~

Dr. Harrison was running down the halls of the jail he was forced into. He could hear several men's voices behind him, getting closer and closer. Officer Jones's especially.

"Hey! What do they pay you for?! Stop that bastard!"

Dr. Harrison had sped down the hall and kicked open the doors to a bright, cold afternoon. He had just remembered Aaron at the asylum. So that's where Harrison headed.

"Aaron?" Dr. Harrison pushed open the creaky doors to the cold asylum, looking for Aaron. The door closed quickly behind him. It was quiet. Until Dr. Harrison heard someone sniffing. Shit. Harrison thought. It must had been colder than hell in there for Aaron. No, wait. That was crying. Harrison saw a crumpled figure in the corner of the lobby that must have been Aaron. "Aaron?" He asked again. He slowly crept up to Aaron's huddled figure. "What's wrong?" Harrison bent down to put his arm around Aaron's shoulder.

"How could you?" Aaron whispered.

"What?" Harrison asked. Aaron twisted his head around to watch Harrison with his tear-streaked face.

"How could you? Kill her?"

"Kill who? Aaron, what are you talking about?" Harrison asked.

"Sarah!" Dr. Harrison froze at the mention of the baby's name. "You killed her. And now it's time for me to return the favor." Harrison froze as he realized what Aaron meant. He felt a pinch in his stomach. He looked down to see a pool of crimson blood pooling around an outrageously big knife. Aaron had stuck the knife in Dr. Harrison's stomach. He twisted the knife and quickly jumped up, only to kick the knife deeper into the left side of Harrison's stomach. Harrison gasped and fell down, before he could stop Aaron from running out the asylum doors back home. Harrison lay on the cold concrete floors in a pool of his own blood.

When Aaron arrived back home, he saw his mom still crying at the table. Only his dad was there, his arm draped protectively over her shoulder.

"I did it. Dr. Harrison's dead. You don't need to worry about him anymore." Aaron said.

"Oh no, Aaron--"

"What?" Aaron asked.

"When you were born we weren't sure who's child you were. So we had the doctors perform a DNA test." His mom took his hand in hers.

"Mom, what are you saying?" Aaron asked nervously. His voice had an edge of fear in it. His mom looks over at Aaron's dad. He nods. She took a deep breath and sighed. 

"Aaron, Dr. Harrison was your father."