Logline: A husband and the wife adopt a child, which gradually makes them unusually angry, so angry that they might kill someone.
__________
Donald and Regina Burke were married two years ago and had been trying to have a child since then. After a year and a half of trying to have a child the traditional way, nothing but frustration and sadness resulted. With two miscarriages and constantly struggling to get pregnant, they decided that adoption would be the best way to start a family.
After visiting several orphanages, attending numerous foster parent gatherings, and even spending a few weekends with foster children, Donald and Regina have not yet found a match. Donald sometimes has to travel to Chicago for his work, which is around an hour's drive. On his way back one afternoon, he took an alternative route to escape traffic and found himself in even more traffic, but stopped in front of an orphanage he had never seen before, named Haversham. Feeling it was a sign, he parked his car and walked in.
As soon as Donald entered, three strange adults were there; they seemed afraid of something and would not greet Donald. There was something off about them, but Donald could get beyond it when a charming, precocious, six-year-old boy named Prince ran up to him and hugged him.
"You're a cool dad, will you teach me baseball?" Prince said.
The three adults were alarmed and tried to rip the boy off of Donald, but he said it was okay. Donald brought Regina back the next day to meet Prince; he was impressive, clearly intelligent, and independent. Donald will never admit this, but the fact that he didn't have to change diapers, deal with the terrible twos, and he could teach him baseball, which he played in college, was appealing to him. Donald and Regina didn't need a lot of time, within a couple of weeks, they had adopted Prince. Prince was everything that they had dreamed; in the beginning, everything was fun and exciting; they finally had their family.
One day, Prince was playing on Donald's computer, an ABC's game that he liked to play, but he exited the game and was putting files into Donald's recycling bin and taking out the trash. When Donald turned into the room, he saw this right away,
"Hey, what what you doing, bud? Oh my God, no, Prince, stop doing that," Donald said. Prince kept on deleting the files, Donald went over the computer, and a strange sense of anger came to him, he pushed Prince out of the chair, and the child fell to the ground and started to cry.
"What the hell did you think you were doing, all those files are gone now, I could kill you!" Donald screamed. Regina came in from the other room,
"What are you doing? Why are you getting so angry at a six-year-old?" Regina said. Donald took a breath; the strange sensation went away,
"I don't know; something just came over me," Donald says as he turns to Prince. "I'm sorry, daddy didn't mean to yell," Donald says.
Donald felt the sensation of anger more and more; it got to a point where he was angry most of the day, he didn't understand what was going on and would try to keep his distance from Prince, that seemed to help him calm down.
Occasionally, Prince would get into trouble by doing strange things. One time, he found some matches and started lighting paper towel rolls on fire in the kitchen, Regina had to use the fire extinguisher. Another time, Prince had taken some kitchen knives and was throwing them, Regina almost was stabbed until there were no more knives to throw. Donald and Regina we're also concerned about his treatment of animals, he had a pet goldfish, which they told him, it needed water to live, they found the fish at the end of the driveway baking in the hot sun. Another time, Prince was petting their dog Sadie, and when Regina and Donald weren't looking, punched the dog instead of pet the dog, the dog squealed.
Prince's treatment of animals, along with Donald's developing anger and Regina's frustration, prompted them to research who Prince's birth parents were. In their research, they found that Prince's mother was in an insane asylum, but his birth father was alive and well, living in Jacksonville. Donald reached out and eventually received a letter in return.
"We must meet, I do not want to put anything in writing or say anything over the phone, we have to meet in person." Harlan Gomez wrote in his letter.
So, the next weekend he had off, Donald made his way to Jacksonville to visit Harlan. Harlan lived in a very secluded part, not easily found. From the time he parked his car, it was another five-minute walk to the front door. He rang the doorbell, Harlan answered.
"Where's your wife?" Harlan asked, giving Donald strange vibes right from the start.
"She's at home, watching Prince, why?" Donald said. Harlan waived Donald into the house,
"Quick, come in before someone sees you," Harlan says as he looks out the front window. Donald quickly got the impression that Harlan was afraid of something; it's like he didn't want to get too close to him for some reason.
"What's going on, Harlan, your letter was very cryptic, it scared my wife and me," Donald said. For the first time, Harlan got into Donald's face,
"I hope you should be afraid, I can tell, you already have the infection, early stages, but you're infected, no doubt," Harlan said.
"What are you talking about, infection, I feel perfectly fine," Donald said.
"You haven't been feeling a little angry these days?" Harlan asked.
"Maybe a little, but that's just stress of normal life," Donald says.
"It's the boy, he infects other people until they rage out of control in a murderous spree," Harlan says.
"I can't believe I came out here for some crazy story, why couldn't you just tell me this in writing or over the phone?" Donald asks.
"And risk the boy hearing or reading about me, where I am, he would hunt me down and kill me, finish the infection he already started," Harlan says.
"This is crazy; he's just a boy, he can't infect people with rage, that doesn't exist," Donald says.
"Why don't you just ask my wife, she's locked up in a sanitarium," Harlan says.
"I read that, what happened?" Donald asks.
"My poor Cecilia, we were so happy, until we had our first child, slowly but surely turning us mad, until my wife, murdered 39 people at a department store, it was the child, the child infected her with his rage virus," Harlan said.
"It must have been in her all along; people don't change like that," Donald said as Harlan put a DVD on, and it's a recording of their wedding, Cecilia is beautiful, kind, and sweet person, it doesn't seem like she would harm anything. Harlan then switches the DVDs,
"Did you see that sweet girl, this is what she turned into," Harlan says as he presses play on the DVD player. It's Cecilia, restrained at the sanitarium, directly after her arrest for shooting 39 people at a department store. She looks like she hasn't slept in days, she's angry, dehydrated, and crazy.
"If I ever get out of here, I will come down to your house when you're sleeping, and I will take your children, and I will torture and murder them, and then I will mail you body parts, one at a time until you get them all of them back," Cecilia says in the DVD.
"Oh my goodness, that's the same person?" Donald asked.
"Yes, infected by the boy," Harlan said.
"How long did this take to happen?" Donald asked.
"We were together from the child's birth to when he was three years old. We both developed anger issues, but it was manageable, like yourself. But then my brother passed away in New York, and I needed to spend a weekend away from Cecilia. That's when the infection takes hold; when the boy is alone with one of the parents overnight, the child strikes," Harlan says.
"If that's the case, my wife has been alone with the child since yesterday afternoon, what are you implying?" Donald asks.
"It's already too late; your wife is gone, I wouldn't be surprised if she already murdered someone," Harlan says.
"That's insane," Donald says as he pulls out his phone and calls up Regina, there's no answer. Donald then calls up one of his neighbors,
"Hey Richard, it's Donald from next door, I'm trying to reach Regina, but she's not picking up, have you seen her around or do you mind stopping by for me? Great, thanks, Richard, I appreciate it," Donald says into the phone.
"See, my neighbor's going over there, everything's fine," Donald says.
"You've just sent your neighbor to his death," Harlan says.
"That's it, I came all this way for some dumb story, it was nice to meet you, Harlan, I'm sorry about your wife, but I have to be getting home," Donald says.
"There's no home to go to, if you go back there, only death and murder lie ahead for you," Harlan says.
"Bye, Harlan."
With that, Donald makes the trip back to Chicago, as he turned onto his street, police vehicles are everywhere, the entire block was a crime scene, Donald quickly parked as close as he could drive and runs to the police tape cordoning off the block.
"Sir, you can't go in there," a police officer shouts at Donald.
"Why not, what happened?" Donald says.
"You haven't seen the news, the woman who lives there, a Regina Burke, went on a murder spree and killed all of her neighbors in their sleep, 15 people murdered," the police officer says.
"Oh my God, I'm her husband, what's going on?" Donald asks.
"You're the husband, we've got your kid in the back of the squad car, he's holding up pretty well, given the circumstances," said the police officer. Donald and the police officer approach the squad car, Harlan's words haunt him as he gets closer to the car, he sees Prince staring out of the back window, and stops,
"What's wrong, it is your son, right?" asked the police officer.
"No, I can't, I can't get close to him, he's contagious," Donald says as he starts to run away from the scene of the crime.
It's a month later; Prince is back in an orphanage, three adults are huddled together; they've discovered early on that there's power in numbers; they're being held hostage by Prince. A husband and the wife walked into the orphanage; Prince ran out of another room and hugged the wife,
"You are so beautiful, are you going to be my mom?"
[link] [comments]
No comments:
Post a Comment