The Boy in Black

T W E N T Y - E I G H T

She drove for a full hour and a half in a straight line after leaving the doctor's office, her body and mind almost completely still with shock and fear.

She was six months pregnant. Six. She sat wondering how the hell she couldn't  have known for that amount of time and began trying to remember what her doctor told her about how there are cases where many women don't even find out they're pregnant until contractions begin.

She was simply so against the idea that it never even was a thought in her mind. Not once. That's how much trust she had in Jaxson.

After Dr. Pilgrim explained her options with disappointment very clear on his tone, it left her silent. Silent, yes. However, her head was screaming:

"You're an idiot," it hollered, "your life is ruined!"

Mattie squeezed the steering wheel until her fists were blood red, and the thought of Jaxson and what he had told her left her dizzy and confused.

Her head and the blood-curdling screams coming from it finally caused her to pull over with horrible anxiety scratching at her chest. Her body began to shake as she put Jaxson's vehicle in park, and finally, she let the tears take over.

They spilled over her cheeks and burned the skin as it left its trail, marking that her mind had won the fight against her. She believed that she was an idiot, an idiot for believing Jaxson and his lie that she should have known was false from the start.

Any boy that didn't want to wear a condom would have said the same thing, she thought. But risk getting their girlfriend pregnant at such a young age? Impossible.

Her mind raced with thoughts as she cried into her trembling hands, and not even the feeling of her phone vibrating on her lap would stop her.

It had to be Jaxson, she knew of that already. For her mother didn't call her anymore out of worry like she used too, she just continued to sit in silence, the only sound being her growling stomach that she also continued to ignore.

Mattie swallowed the painful lump in her throat before picking up her phone, seeing that there were fifteen missed calls. Fifteen.

She cursed under her breath, never reviving that many calls from him before. She could imagine him at his house, pacing back and forth across his living room floor whilst cautiously awaiting her arrival back to him.

A shiver raked down her spine as she was reminded of a fly getting trapped in a spider web. She was free now, but for how long exactly?

Text message after text message flooded through her phone. Two quickly turned into five, and five into ten, and when it finally stopped a new phone call would erupt until she couldn't take it anymore. She quickly got out of the car and slammed it against the gravel road. She stomped on it as well, over and over while screaming until there were no more tears left in her. Now, there was only anger.

Her face was beet red by that point, for she was meeting a whole new side of Jaxson that she never thought existed. It scared her that he would lie to her about something as serious as a baby. A living breathing child of both of their blood for god's sake, she thought with a trembling bottom lip that she had to forcibly gnaw on to stop.

Her heart was going so fast it was skipping beats, and even when she got back into the car it felt as if it would explode at any given moment. But you see it wasn't as bad because her feelings of shock, sadness, and anxiety quickly turned into a firing anger that had her trembling.

Then, she finally took a breath after holding it in for what felt like days. It was a relieving breath, for she knew that she wasn't going to let him control her any longer.

Mattie wiped away her last few tears then before starting up the car, all until a drop was heard from the back seat, causing her to jump in fright. She turned around and saw a black book on the floor board that must have fallen from the seats.

She wasted no time and grabbed it, feeling the black leather against her fingertips. She trailed her thumb down it, afraid to open a notebook that clearly was Jaxson's. 

Mattie took in a deep, shaky breath, before opening it to reveal the worn yellow pages with black scribbles filling each page. The corners and edges were bent and ripped, showing her how old and overused this book was.

She then began to read.

It seemed to be every single horror movie put into one book, she thought.

Was it stories? Was he writing scary stories? Her mind raced and raced until familiar names appeared. Including her own.

Her hands began to shake as she forced herself to continue to read the foul stories, each one becoming more real. 

For they were real, and this was a diary.  Each date matched up to each bad day things would happen, including that blonde girl Janine's death. She quickly learned it was no accident, and it was done with rope, as he said in the book. It was in so much detail, so much that it caused a shiver to race down her spine.

"I tied the rope around her neck so tight that I even heard another crack, I loved hearing that. -J"

"The look in her eyes as I snapped her skinny neck was probably the sexiest I've ever seen her. They were full of shock and helplessness, and the fact that her parents were sleeping peacefully and had no idea made it even better. -J"

"Her lifeless eyes remained open as I pulled her higher at the top of the closet, making it the perfect suicide. She stared at me, and I stared back, even smiling as if she could actually see me. She's with death now. -J"

Her tears came back, and the anger that had her feelings so powerful vanished into the silenced car. The fear slithered back like a venomous snake, biting her instantly.

Tear drops fell onto his book with each page she turned, and she found out from the next "story" that she herself was a part of a plan. A devilish plan.

"She will carry my child, and we will vanish together, away from this horrid town and away from her mother that knows too much."

Mattie's breaths turned into sobs, but she forced herself to continue.

"I'll tighten my hands around her neck so fast if she becomes a problem. I dream about seeing her eyes bulge out of her skull sometimes, and it's pretty equivalent to a wet dream. God, I could get off on it. -J"

Mattie finally had to stop, the words he said about Janine, herself, her mother and god knows who else was too much for her. Her shaky hands were too unstable to drive, but she had to get to her mother and tell about Jaxson and find out what she knew that was, in his words, "too much."

Mattie finally started the car, the car that she wanted to scream in knowing that Jaxson sat exactly where she did after a handful of these horrid stories.

But, no matter what, she promised herself that he would get what he deserved.

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