SCREAM: Mother of All Secrets

Chapter 13

Erik has been sitting alone since Sheriff Porcher left. The moment of PsyberCycho killing Mrs. Robertson continuously replays in his mind. The cold blade against her throat. The sound of her screams and flesh being slashed. And blood spewing from the fatal wound.

A knocking release Erik from the tortuous trance. He rapidly blinks and looks toward the door. Standing under the entryway is Rhea Heinrich, Erik's (adoptive)mother.

"Hey." Rhea says.

"Hi." Erik replies.
"Do you mind if I come in?"

"No, not at all."

Rhea walks in and sits in a chair next to Erik's bed. "How are you?" Rhea asks.

"Well, considering that I was chained to a wall and watched a woman dies, I'm better than I thought I'd be." Erik responds. "Even though I was buried alive last night."

"What?!" Rhea exclaims.

"Oh, yeah. You didn't know." Erik says. "Can we just talk about this another time?"

Rhea was about to scream NO. But she inhaled and sighed. "Sure."

"So, why'd you stop by?" Erik asks. "Other than the fact that I'm sitting in a hospital bed and that I've been diagnosed as concussed."

"We haven't spoken in almost a week." Rhea answers. "I wanted to check up on you. And I wanted to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"No, not that." Rhea says. "You don't have to."

"Really?" Erik asks and Rhea nods. "Why not?"

"I don't have to. The past few days have made me reflect on how I was badgering you to give me a reason to why you hadn't told me. I realized that some people keep things secret until they're ready to talk about it. I just want to be supportive of you."

"Okay, so what did you want to talk to me about?"

"I also wanted to tell you the truth."

"The truth about what?" Erik asks.

"Just listen." Rhea requests. "I was already pregnant and I was married to a man named Kenneth Heinrich. It was supposed to be the perfect American family. Then it turned into American Gothic.

"That night I was driving home from the diner. It was a foggy night and I was driving as carefully as anyone possibly could. But that deer jumped out and I lost control of the car and I passed out. I woke up in a hospital and they told me that I lost the baby. I just could stop crying.

"Kenneth and I soon applied to adopt a baby. The social worker said that it would take some time before we were given a baby. But to our surprise, it only took about a month."

"We were given you and we named you Erik. We brought you home, and never took our eyes off you for one moment.

"Even though you were in our lives, it didn't fix what we lost. Kenneth was depressed and he slowly distanced himself from us. Eventually, he was out of the picture completely and it was just you and me.

"He didn't keep in touch with me. I don't know where he went, nor did I try to find him. It was just you and me ever since the day he left." Rhea pauses. "Do you remember when you were seven and I took you to the cemetery?"

"Yeah." Erik says. "Why?"

"That was actually the day of Kenneth's funeral." Rhea replies. "I found out days before in the obituaries. I wanted you to meet him, in a sense, and I wanted the both of us to say goodbye."