Silent Treatment

by David James

  The wood began to clear slightly and he knew he was close as the light shining now seemed to have the intensity of a lighthouse.

  He pushed aside the last of the branches and he was thankfully looking across at the village. The light was indeed coming from their house. Perhaps he was right that she had left it on to guide him. He set off cautiously across the grass. He was now appreciative of the darkness as it gave him some cover. Cover from what he wasn't sure.

  The house was now only a few yards away from him. He took a last look around. As far as he could tell it was all the same as when he had left.

  All the curtains were shut in the house. Odd. He couldn't remember them having done that before.

  It meant that he had no option, he would have to open the door without knowing what was behind it.

  He leant forward to see if he could hear anything from behind the door. He strained to hear but it was silent. He was going in blind then.

  He braced himself and slowly turned the handle and pushed the door open.

  He couldn't possibly have prepared himself for what he saw.

  Inside the room Sarah sat calmly on a chair, an expression of what he would almost describe as serenity on her face.

  He began to smile at her, but he stopped dead as he looked to the side of her.

  Standing either side of Sarah were two children.

  Chapter Sixty Eight

  Ben stood in the doorway, unable to move or even think.

  No introductions were necessary; he knew he was looking at Nathan and Emily.

  To all intents and purposes the scene in front of him resembled a happy family scene. Proud mother flanked by adoring children.

  But he was painfully aware that this was no normal family scene. With a bit more imagination, Sarah could resemble a hostage and the children her captors.

  Seeing the children that he only knew about through the journals standing here was the biggest shock. Nathan seemed to match what he had read in the journals perfectly. His expression was one of confidence and malice.

  Emily looked less charming than he had expected, as he looked at her he felt that she would be perfectly capable of changing her current pleasant demeanour into something altogether more frightening.

  Ben realised that he was the most privileged journalist in the world right now. He knew that the story unfolding in front of him would make or break him.

  He had no idea what to say. He would just have to take his lead from Sarah.

  'The children have explained everything to me Ben,' said Sarah in a faraway voice. ‘It’s all clear now.’

  She still had the faint smile on her face and a look of serenity.

  'And they've explained what we must do. And it's for the best.'

  She paused momentarily and this seemed to emphasise her next statement.

  'For all of us.'

  Ben's first instinct was to grab Sarah and run out of the house. But as he looked at her face there was no hint of fear; no hint of her being upset. In fact she looked more contented than he had ever seen her.

  Besides, he could see that Nathan's hand which rested on her shoulder seemed to be tensed. It may be his imagination, but it looked like Nathan wasn't entirely convinced that Ben wouldn’t try to rescue her.

  But his other instinct began to cut in. He was standing in what would be the biggest story of his life, no question. He could almost write the headlines himself. But he could feel the hint of menace in the air, even if Sarah clearly couldn't. He knew he would have to be careful. All he had to do was look at Nathan's expression to emphasise that. He decided that he would play along, at least for now.

  Sarah turned and looked up at Emily and said ‘I’m sure I will be okay with Ben on my own.’

  Nathan and Emily exchanged glances with each other, seemingly conferring between themselves, and apparently satisfied they moved away from Sarah and went upstairs.

  'I'm sure, like me, you will feel better when I tell you what the children have told me,' said Sarah, before she indicated for Ben to sit down opposite her.

  Ben sat down and leant in close to her and whispered urgently ‘Listen Sarah, If we go now I think I can remember the way. If we go now, they won’t have time to get downstairs before we have gone.’

  He expected her to be pleased by his idea, but she sat back and said in a voice that seemed way too loud to Ben ‘Leave? Why would I want to leave Ben?’

  ‘But I thought–’ said Ben.

  ‘I have everything I want here Ben, a house, the children and my father. Why would I leave?’

  He looked deeply into Sarah’s eyes. He had hoped that she was saying this for effect, so that the children would hear it and be reassured and then they would bolt for the door. But her expression told him that she meant it.

  ‘But you can’t possibly stay here Sarah, I mean, it’s not normal here!’

  Sarah had a half smile on her face as she said ‘And out there is normal is it Ben? If that’s normal, then I don’t think I want to be part of it.’

  He was at a loss now, he was desperately trying to think of some word, some phrase that would break her out of this stupor. Something to drag her back to reality.

  ‘But what about the institute, your job?’ He was about to remind her about the children, but he realised that he couldn’t use that anymore.

  ‘I don’t need them anymore Ben,’ she said.

  He had clearly failed, he wished he knew more about her, knew something that would open her eyes. But the truth was that he didn’t know her well enough.

  Sarah leant even closer to him. Maybe this was the moment that she would tell him that they should escape, that she would follow him, that it was all an act. Her mouth was inches away from him as she spoke.

  ‘Anyway, I have unfinished business here. The experiment isn’t over yet. Remember?’

  Her tone had changed completely. It was as if her voice was coming from a different place. Any hope of them suddenly running to the door was gone.

  She sat back again and said, ‘I said I would explain things for you didn’t I Ben. If you want me to of course?’

  He sat back, defeated, for the moment at least. If he couldn’t persuade her to run with him away from here, at least he could reengage the journalist side of him. He still had the story to unravel at least.

  Sarah continued. 'Some of it you may have already guessed, some of it I'm sure you haven't. But forgive me if I tell you things that you already know. The home you are sitting in was, is, the children’s home from when they were here. It had been for many months when they were being treated.'

  Ben felt as if he should be taking notes.

  'You know by now that my father was in charge. And that the institute instigated the experiment. But as I'm sure you understand it needed to be kept quiet. People wouldn’t understand what was happening here.'

  Ben nodded, he had learnt this from the journals.

  Sarah hesitated for a second, ‘The children were brought here as a last resort. All other normal treatments had failed.’

  Ben felt like he was in an interview situation and his training and experience began to kick in.

  ‘How were the children selected?’ said Ben.

  ‘They had already exhibited certain character traits that were potentially disturbing. As I say other treatments had been tried.’

  ‘But why these particular children, there must be many other children who have problems?’

  Sarah shuffled uncomfortably, but Ben was not going to waste this opportunity, he wasn’t sure if he would get another one.

  ‘These children exhibited especially problematical issues; oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were some of them,’ said Sarah.

  Ben was being fobbed off with terminology, people had tried it before with him, usually the ones that had something to hide.

  ‘Yes Sarah, but I’m sure that other children are treated for these in a more normal way, they aren’t whisked
away to a phoney village are they.’

  Ben could see that Sarah was getting more uncomfortable. He had a choice here and it might be fleeting. He could either let his friend Sarah off and stop questioning her; or he could push harder with no idea what effect it may have on her. He didn’t need to be a psychologist to know that Sarah wasn’t particularly stable at the moment; if nothing else she seemed to be talking about her father as if he was still here.

  He made his decision.

  ‘There must be some reason they are here and not the others Sarah.’

  Sarah shifted again in her seat and looked up the stairs. Ben couldn’t be sure if she was worried that the children would come down and interrupt her, or if she was looking for the children to rescue her.

  Eventually Sarah said ‘They seemed to share certain, characteristics of behaviour.’

  ‘Such as?’ said Ben.

  Sarah leant forward, her previous attempt at a professional demeanour now cleanly abandoned.

  Her voice was low enough that no one else would be able to hear it.

  ‘Dark visions Ben. And violent behaviour, almost psychopathic behaviour. Controlling behaviour. Inability to distinguish reality and separate imagination from reality. Without treatment who knows what it could lead to when they are older.’

  Sarah had sounded as if she was reading from a psychological report card. And Ben realised that she must be quoting from one of the documents that she hadn’t allowed him to see.

  ‘That’s all very well,’ said Ben, ‘but, I mean, where did the idea of transferring all their demons into imaginary monsters come from?’

  Ben watched as Sarah seemed to be debating with herself. Eventually, she took a deep breath and began to speak.

  ‘My father had tried it before,’ she said.

  ‘At the institute? With some patients there?’ said Ben incredulously.

  Sarah's expression became almost pained as she said ‘No, not at the institute, closer to home.’

  To Ben she seemed to be willing him to guess what she meant so she didn’t have to explicitly say it. But he couldn’t help her, he didn’t know what she meant.

  She waited for him to guess, but realising he wasn't going to Sarah steadied herself and said in a low voice ‘The patient he treated was me.’

  Ben sat back heavily in his chair.

  Sarah continued, almost feeling as if she wanted to unburden herself after all these years. ‘There was a special room in the house,’ the image of the studded door came into her mind, ‘that’s where he treated me, that’s where the monsters were.’ And still are she thought.

  ‘He treated his own child as a guinea pig then?’ said Ben.

  ‘You don’t know what life was like for me when I was younger!’ she said defiantly.

  Ben stared at Sarah. He was beginning to understand more about this place and about her.

  He lowered his voice and said ‘Did it work then?’

  ‘Well, I managed to go to university and get a pretty good job, so I’ll let you be the judge,’ she said.

  ‘I guess it did work then,’ said Ben, he was regretting his harsh tone, he had been too much a journalist and not enough a friend.

  They sat there in silence for a few moments, before Ben said ‘There’s one more thing that puzzles me. How did the children end up at the institute. I mean, it’s a bit of a coincidence that they ended up being trusted to you?’

  Sarah almost smiled as she said ‘Oh, that was no coincidence, they knew all about me from what my father had said. They knew they wanted to go to the institute and they knew I would be there.’

  He supposed he should have guessed that. But an idea was forming in his mind and eventually he said tentatively ‘So the children, they knew you were there, they knew about the treatment, so why did they want to see you when they had already escaped from here?’

  Sarah looked directly at Ben and said ‘Oh, that’s an easy one, they wanted to bring me back here.’

  ‘Why?’ said Ben.

  Sarah replied ‘To continue the experiment of course.’

  There was a cracking sound from upstairs and Sarah stood up suddenly before Ben could reply and in a loud voice said 'I’ll put the things you brought in the kitchen.'

  It was said in such a normal way that Ben was taken aback. It was as if the past few minutes had never happened. He was swept along and replied as normally 'I’ll give you a hand.' But he was still trying to process what Sarah had told him. And the more he thought about it the more he realised that the children now had sway over Sarah. He wasn’t sure whether he would get another chance to talk to her before the children’s influence on her grew too strong.

  Sarah stood up, and headed towards the kitchen.

  Ben sat back in his chair and as he did so he caught sight of Nathan crouched at the top of the stairs. He wondered how long he had been there.

  Nathan’s stare was directed straight at Ben and the look sent a chill down his spine. He couldn’t take his eyes away from Nathan’s expression. His expression seemed so cold to Ben as his eyes seemed to bore into Ben’s head.

  Eventually it was Nathan who broke the trance as he turned around and went away.

  Ben slumped backwards, it was as if he had been released. He wondered if he would have been able to release himself if Nathan hadn’t.

  He stood up, grabbed his overburdened rucksack and walked, almost unsteadily, into the kitchen.

  Ben lifted the rucksack onto the kitchen table and Sarah began to unpack it.

  Then she said casually ‘I’ve given Nathan your room and Emily has taken the other room. They were theirs after all in the first place. Hope you don’t mind.’

  ‘No, fine,’ said Ben. ‘I can take the couch in the front room.’

  ‘Whatever you think is best,’ said Sarah.

  Her tone wasn’t exactly welcoming. Ben wondered what she meant. Did she mean that he shouldn’t stay in the house at all?

  There was the sound of something being moved upstairs.

  Sarah turned to Ben and said ‘Nathan has got your things out of his room, I’ll just go get them for you,’ and with that she walked up the stairs and returned with his meagre possessions from what had been his room. If he needed a sign that things had suddenly changed around here, then his belongings sitting on the floor of the kitchen would do it.

  There was still so much he wanted to ask Sarah.

  'When did the children arrive?' said Ben trying to make it sound like a perfectly normal question.

  'I went for a walk and then they arrived just after I got back.'

  Ben nodded.

  'And how did they, well, manage to get away, from where they were staying?'

  Sarah's voice lowered slightly, as if she didn't want anyone else to hear.

  'They had some help from a friend at the institute.'

  He checked that they were still alone and said 'Can't we just leave now Sarah?'

  Sarah's expression turned to one of incredulity.

  'Leave? No! We have so much work to do,' she looked genuinely shocked that he had asked.

  Before he could think of a reply she said 'We must finish his work. They still need our help.'

  'Work?' said Ben.

  'Oh yes, I told you the experiment isn't over yet Ben.'

  Before Ben could pursue the point Sarah said 'It's getting late now. Perhaps we should call it a night as well.' She turned to go upstairs, But Ben had to ask her one more thing, he wasn’t sure if he might get the chance to ask her again.

  'There's been something troubling me Sarah.'

  Ben moved his head closer to Sarah and said in a low voice 'When you say continue the experiment, what did you have in mind?'

  Sarah didn't hesitate to reply, with a serious expression on her face she leaned closer to Ben.

  'Oh, that's easy, kill the monsters.'

  Chapter Sixty Nine

  As he tried to fashion some sort of a bed out of the sofa, he almost had to shake his head to realise that he
wasn't in a normal family house. Nothing about this was normal. Nothing had ever been normal about this place. Was he the only one that could see that?

  He thought about leaving.

  He could just sneak across the room and leave by the front door. Run. Run as he had never run before. And he could have his old life back.

  But he couldn't do it, surely? Leave Sarah, to what fate exactly? That look from Nathan was enough to tell him that he hadn't got 'happy families' in mind.

  And what about the story?

  Here, he was part of the story. He could even shape the narrative, maybe. If he ran away he would just be the person that ran away from the story. He would be yesterday’s news inside a week. Worse he would be the journalist that could have broken the story, but ran away instead.

  He wondered which scenario was most troubling to him – Sarah's possible danger or losing the story. He felt uncomfortable with himself that he hadn't got a ready answer.

  But could he really trust Sarah any longer? He had to. If he didn't then he really was truly alone here, him against the three of them.

  He fashioned some bedding out of the covers of the sofa, pulled them up tightly over his head, and wondered what morning would bring.

  He slept fitfully at best. At times he thought he could hear voices coming from upstairs. His natural instinct was to go up and see if he was right; but he already felt apprehensive about confronting Sarah, let alone the children.

  As he awoke yet again he turned towards the window to see the light flooding in. As his eyes adjusted he realised that it wasn't morning light filtering into the front room, rather it was a flickering light.

  He sat bolt upright as he realised what it was.

  His first thought was of Sarah. He rushed up the stairs and shouted 'Fire, fire!' as loud as he could.

  There was no response.

  Through the window in the hallway he could see it getting brighter outside, but not naturally. He burst through Sarah’s door and as the light illuminated the room he could see that she was sat bolt upright in bed.