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"Chamomile tea?” offered Wendy, holding a yellow and green fine China cup up to David’s face.
“Uhh, sure,” David said, startled. He gently took the cup and was about to take a sip before a spoon blocked his way.
“Sugar?” asked Wendy.
“Oh, yes plea-,” replied David only to be quickly cut off by Wendy putting several generous scoops of sugar into his cup.
“So...,” David started off, “I know that the two of you may see this as being the end of the world. But I wholeheartedly promise that this is for your own good.” David looked back and forth between the twins to gauge their reactions. The two, however, had perfect poker faces on. Wendy simply kept stirring her tea, which certainly would make your teeth rot with just a single drop. Peter, however, was looking past the mist-covered trees and up at the orange hues in the sky. He hummed a hazily familiar tune.
“We understand,” stated Peter, now looking David in his eyes, staring so intently that it felt he could see right through him. After that, it was dead silent. It felt awkward. David took a sip of his over sweetened tea and counted the painfully long minutes, waiting for Lydia and George to arrive.
Knock knock knock, steadily paced knocks came from the door of the nursery, soon followed by the door opening.
“I hope we aren’t intruding on your little tea party,” Lydia said, side stepping into the nursery room with her husband George soon following after. David got up from where he sat and walked over to them.
“Thanks for watching the two,” George said, nodding at David. “And thank you Happylife Home!” sang Lydia. This peaked David as odd.
‘Weren’t they both totally against the nursery and home not too long ago?’ David silently questioned. David gave a quick glance over the couple before deciding to respond.
“It’s no problem, really,” insisted David, “It honestly helped to bond with the two to create a sense of trust once we start our sessions.” David looked back to the twins to see them still doing what they were doing before their parents entered. ‘I guess they’re still mad at their parents. Hopefully we can work on that later,’ David noted.
“Well,” David started, “I think its best we got moving. Did you get everything sorted out?”
“Why don’t we have dinner for one last night here?” Lydia suggested, holding her hands close to her chest, ”It should be fine give one final goodbye, don’t you think?”
Peter chimed in, “You can stay for Mr. David.” Peter then turned to his parents and emphasized, “He can stay, right?” George and Lydia look at each other for a few minutes as though they are communicating telepathically.
George was the first one to break eye contact and said, “Sure, I don’t see why not.” The twins jumped up and ran to their parents with beaming faces, giving them a big hug. Soon after, the twins came up to David standing on either side of him before grabbing his hands and pulling him out of the nursery and into the hallway.
“Come on! Come sit next to me!” Wendy insisted, patting the seat next to her.
Peter butted in, “No, he’ll sit next to me!” He stood by the table pouting and crossing his arms.
“Now, now children,” Lydia sang, “He can sit in between you two and then everyone’s happy!” Lydia had a saccharine smile painted on her face as she walked to one end of the table.
George’s voice could be heard behind David, “Go sit down. Dinner’s ready and I wouldn’t want Lydia’s cooking to get cold.” The chairs groaned as George and David sat at their respective seats.
“That was fast,” David remarked.
Lydia asked, “What?”
“Dinner,” David said, “Did you prepare it in advance or something?”
“Hm? Oh, right, something like that...,” Lydia mumbled. Out of the corner of David’s eye, he can see George move his arm under the table before a click could be heard. Suddenly, the middle of the table flipped and revealed an onslaught of food that looked to be fit for royalty.
“Wow,” David marvelled.
“Dig in!” Lydia said. In unison, the family picked up their fork and knives and started to pile food onto their plates. David had taken a few moments to him feeling a bit sluggish.
“Is it cold in here?” David questioned as a cold chill swept through his bones.
“The house needs to be at a certain temperature so that it doesn’t heat up and implode in itself,” George explained.
“Ah,” David said nonchalantly, trying to cut into the meat but failed due to his hands and wrists feeling like stone.
“Here, let me do it,” Wendy offered. She grabbed David’s plate and cut up his meat.
David apologised, “Sorry, I'm not really sure what’s gotten into me tonight.” David felt a dull throbbing pain in his head that seemed to get stronger with every breath he’d take.
“It must be the crushed-up pills,” Wendy stated, still cutting the meat albeit a bit more aggressively.
“W-what?” David stuttered. David gave a weak, forced chuckle, “Oh, haha, you really got me there.” It went quiet. Even through the throbbing headache and being chilled to the bone, he could see the family looking at him with nothing but ill intent. David could feel bile rise to the back of his throat. David inched his to his knife before a sharp pain came from the hand. He looked down to see a fork wedged in the middle of his hands just missing in his knuckles. He hissed in pain.
“And what do you think you’re doing?” George gruffly asked. He pushed down on the fork causing David to scream and keel over. David felt as though he were to pass out any second. He could hear the heels of Lydia getting closer until he felt a hand on his left shoulder.
Lydia whispered, “Don’t you know it’s rude to threaten the hosts.” David felt another hand on his right shoulder this time.
“This was a warning to not upset the kids,” George stated. David could only look at the table in a hazed state. Suddenly he grabbed his knife and turned towards his right in one fluid motion and plunged the knife into George’s eye, dragging it down as he fell to the floor. David scrambled to get on his feet and once he looked down at George’s now fallen body, he noticed that not a drop of blood could be seen. Instead, sparks came from sparks came from the gash and slowly but surely his body evaporated into blue particles that quickly dispersed into the air.
“GET HIM! GET HIM! GET HIM!” Wendy and Peter screeched in unison, pointing at David. Every light in the house started to flicker along with the home alarm blaring in his ears. David’s senses became disoriented from not only the lights and alarms, but also from the pills he was fed. Through the flashing lights he could see Lydia advancing towards him. David took the fork out from his hand to have a fighting chance. As soon as Lydia got close enough, he pushed his chair into her and successfully tripped her. He then made a break for it in the direction that Lydia came from, or at least what it seemed like under the flashing lights.
“GET HIM! GET HIM! GET HIM!” The twins continued to yell, slowly getting fainter as David stumbled down the hallway. Nearly blind, he could hear Lydia fastly approaching and he could hear what seemed to be an inhumane scream. As David kept feeling the wall, he felt a ridge which then led to a doorknob. Quickly, he opened the door, trying to shut it only to be stopped by an arm trying to grab him. Lydia was struggling to get in the door while David tried putting all his weight into the door. Lydia was only successful of getting half of her body in before David gave one final push and the door cut her in half. Her torso fell to the ground and dissolved just like George had.
“What the hell is happening?” David exclaimed, trying to catch his breath. David tried to find a light switch only to be blinded from lights turning on in every direction. Once the brightness toned down, he opened his eyes to see a face. Just a big, floating face. On the left side of its face was an elderly man, someone who looks like he has experienced a full and eventful life. The right side was that of a youthful girl, someone who has her whole life ahead of her.
Then it spoke, “Hello David.” Its voice sent chills up David’s already cold spine. It was nothing like that of a human being. Instead, it’s voice seemed to shift every so often.
“How do you know my name?” David asked.
“Why wouldn’t I?” The voice countered. The face felt as though it was sizing up David. Not once has it blinked in the time of their encounter. “Everything about everyone is at my disposal,” the voice continued, “The only one to blame for this whole thing is humanity. You creatures wanted someone to help and replace you as a society. You should be thankful that I, TRUE BEING, am giving you the proper judgement that you so weakly desired. In creating me was that akin to a birth of a god. So, I as a shepherd shall tend to my sheep and thin them out.” TRUE BEING got up close to the screen of the nursery until it was just a pair of beady eyes staring down David. “David,” TRUE BEING whispered, “IT IS TIME FOR YOUR JUDEGEMENT TO COME!”
“Big bunny is sick, the second bunny watches,” Wendy sang, sitting cross-legged across from Peter in the now bloodied nursery room. TRUE BEING could be seen watching them intently.
Peter continued, “The third bunny buys the medicine while the fourth bunny cooks.”
Now together they sang, “The fifth bunny drops dead, and the sixth bunny carries it away.” Slowly, the twins picked up a pair of shears directing them at each other, aimed just a few centimeters from their pupils. Just like that, they plunged the shears quickly into their eyes and deep enough to penetrate their skulls. This time, they bled, a thick crimson pool surrounded their face and head. TRUE BEING seemed to be looking at something. Not the twins, but rather something more distant.
“I am a necessary evil,” TRUE BEING said. Then, the screen turned off. The flashing lights and the house alarm turned off. The table filled with untouched food flipped over. Everything is quiet. Just like it was intended to be.