by Dr Harper
◆◆◆
“Oh, I got you something!”
Through a mouthful of cake, Noah handed me a small wrapped gift that he had been hiding under his jacket.
I reluctantly took it from him and started unwrapping. Inside, I was surprised to find a framed photograph of us.
I raised my eyebrows “Did you… print this out from our company website – on the Staff page?”
“Yeah, it’s the only picture of us together!” he said brightly. “I hope you like it.”
“Thanks,” I said. “This is really thoughtful.”
“Wait, where does this go!” Noah jumped up from his seat, running over to the spiral staircase by the living room.
“To the roof,” I said. “It’s supposed to be an observation deck. I really like stars and constellations, and the skies are very clear out here–”
“Cool!” he said. “Can we go up?”
“Noah, it’s freezing out.”
“Just for a few minutes!”
“Okay,” I said, leaving behind my empty plate. “Alexa, unlock observation deck.”
“Okay, unlocking observation deck.”
“It’s like we’re in Star Trek!” said Noah, hurrying up the stairs.
I trailed after him and joined him on the deck.
“Woah…” He leaned against the railing and gazed out across the night sky. “Is that the big dipper?”
“Yes,” I said, walking up next to him.
“Is that the biggest constellation?”
“No,” I said, pointing to the south. “See that line of faint stars, zigzagging back and forth?”
He squinted for a few moments and then nodded. “I think so!”
“That’s the hydra,” I said. “It’s the largest – and longest – constellation. From Greek mythology.”
For the next ten minutes, Noah asked questions and I pointed across the sky to find answers for him.
Somehow, we started talking about past patients – the good ones. The ones who inspired us, challenged us, and gave us hope.
Before I knew it, the “few minutes” had once again turned into much more than that.
Then Noah turned his focus from the stars to me. “Doc, what’s your dream in life?”
“My dream?” I laughed.
“Yeah, like what would make you the happiest?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “To keep helping people, I guess. But sometimes it feels like the hydra… You solve one problem, then you accidentally create two more in its place.”
“Yeah, you work with some really scary people,” he said. “Doesn’t it ever get to you? Always wondering if they’re trying to trick you… Always living on edge?”
“That’s the job.”
“But wouldn’t it feel good to have someone take care of you for once?” he asked quietly. “To be with someone who just wants you to be happy – where you know you’re totally safe? That way you can finally relax?”
“I don’t know,” I said again. The idea of someone taking care of me made me extremely uncomfortable, so I changed the subject. “What’s your dream?”
“A home in the mountains,” he said instantly. His eyes lit up. “One kitten and two shelter dogs – so they can raise the kitten as a dog. And family dinners for sure. Then after dinner, tucking the kids into bed with a story. Oh! And a big bubble bath on the back deck, to watch the sunset over the mountains”
When he spoke, it was almost as if he painted the stars with his dreams. He was so full of life and energy.
“Your dream is a lot better than mine,” I mumbled.
“You can share it with me if you want.”
His face immediately went red as he realized what that sounded like.
“Sorry–” he said. “I didn’t mean–”
I blushed too. We stood there for a while without speaking.
And then he turned to me, his breath fading to crystals in the cold night air. He gave me a nervous smile and stammered, “Can I– Can I kiss you?”
Suddenly, I felt that old nostalgic warmth come flooding through my heart. Like the breaking of a dam that somehow wiped out all of my rigid defenses.
“Okay,” I said awkwardly.
He leaned in, and his soft lips met mine. His kiss was so gentle, and so caring. In that moment, I felt like I didn’t have to be Dr. Harper anymore. I could just be Elliot.
I opened my eyes just as he opened his. He gave me an anxious smile, and I smiled back.
But then behind him, I saw a flicker of light from the garage window. My body went cold. What the hell. They shouldn’t have access to the lights.
And just like that, all of my old defenses came rushing back. What the fuck was I doing? Noah trusted me, and I kept all of these secrets and lies from him. I was just another monster in his life.
I stepped back. “Noah, you need to leave.”
His face sank. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Did I– Did I do something wrong?”
My phone started buzzing from my pocket.
“No,” I said quickly. “It’s not you. Please, you just need to go.”
He winced, almost as if my words had physically pained him.
I felt more buzzing, so I opened my phone and saw a bunch of security alerts: SOFTWARE BREACH. I checked the video feed quickly – Kierra and Officer Donahue were still there. Thank God. But something still felt very wrong.
I practically shoved Noah down the spiral staircase and out my front door.
He turned to me one last time.
“Doc, I– I’m really sorry.” His eyes were burning red. “If there’s something I did wrong, please tell me. I promise I can fix it–”
“Noah, go.”
“Can I still work for you?” he asked desperately, eyes pleading.
“I don’t know,” I said hastily. My phone buzzed with more alerts. “You need to leave. Now.”
I didn’t even realize how awful that sounded, until I saw the light leave his eyes as he walked away.
And that was my last memory of Noah.
But I didn’t have time to ruminate about that. Something was going on in my garage, and I needed to make sure everything was safe. I closed the door and said, “Alexa, lock all doors.”
“Okay, locking all doors.”
Then I sat down in the kitchen and opened up my laptop. The screen was a lot bigger, so it was easier to see what was going on. Officer Donahue was sitting and eating in his corner. And–
Suddenly, I felt the blood leave my body.
Kierra was gone.
“Oh my god, Noah…” I whispered out loud. I sprinted to the window to see if his car was still in the driveway.
It wasn’t.
I took out my phone and called him.
Then I heard a ring from the living room. I ran over and saw Noah’s phone sitting on the couch, right where he had left it.
“Fuck.” I kicked over a nearby lamp. “FUCK!”
I opened up my phone and dialed 911 as I hurried to find my car keys. I knew I’d be arrested, but that didn’t matter. They had to find Kierra before she got to Noah. I had left him in such a horrible, vulnerable state.
“Sir, if you’re calling about The Zombie news, we cannot provide any additional details at this time,” said the operator. “All we know is that a suspect has been taken into custody, and the Police Department is confident that the community is now safe.”
What the fuck?
If The Zombie had been captured, then who the hell was in my garage?
I looked back to the security feed and saw Officer Donahue slowly look up at the hidden camera, almost as if he knew exactly where it was. Then he held the locket to his mouth and muttered something inaudible.
And then, without my prompting, Alexa began speaking from my phone.
“Okay, turning lights off.”
“Okay, unlocking all doors.”
PART TWO
The lights in my house went dark.
Trying not to panic, I spoke into my
phone: “Alexa, turn on lights and lock all doors.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t recognize your voice profile,” she responded. “Please login to your account and–”
“Useless fucking garbage,” I snapped. I locked my phone and ran upstairs to get my gun. I’ve lived here long enough to navigate without the lights.
But just as I got to the bedside table, I felt a sharp prick in my neck, followed by a sudden dizzy feeling. Then a woman’s voice whispered into my ears:
“You need to be quieter, doctor.”
It wasn’t Kierra.
◆◆◆
My eyes struggled to open and I couldn’t move my body.
I saw three figures wandering around the bed.
“Elliot,” spoke Officer Donahue. “Good, you’re awake.”
“What the hell is going on?” I said groggily.
“Elliot, it’s been a while!”
My stomach lurched as the moonlight illuminated the two other figures in my bedroom.
Anne and Rose…
The stabbing sisters from the My Happy Family cult – the ones who brainwashed Phil.
I shut my eyes. What in the name of God was happening?
“Oh, don’t be shy,” Anne spoke. “We’re just here to say thank you.”
“Officer Donahue,” I whispered desperately. “I’m sorry I accused you of being The Zombie. I was wrong. But you have to listen to me, these women are not who you think they are.”
He let out a booming laugh. “Elliot, for once in your career, would you stop jumping to conclusions and listen?”
“Dr. Harper, you reported our forum to the site administrator last year!” Rose swooped over and kissed Officer Donahue on the forehead. “My husband!”
I thought back to when I first reported the cult. Officer Donahue was the one who took my call and interviewed me. I told him everything – except the messages I posted encouraging Anne and Rose to keep stabbing each other.
“After we talked, I started going through our forum logs,” he said. “I noticed an unusual pattern of posts from brand new members – all of them telling my wife and her sister to hurt each other.”
“How strange,” I said.
“Nasty liar!” shouted Rose, digging through a bag on the ground.
“Needless to say, I stopped them from further harm,” Officer Donahue continued. “And we moved the forum, just to be safe. But never in a million years would I have guessed that a therapist was posting those messages.”
I let out a sigh. “How did you find out?”
“That cow patient,” he said. “When I was searching your property, I found a familiar pair of shoes on your garage stairs. I tried to go upstairs, but it was locked up like a goddamn bank vault. Soundproof too. And then I started wondering… what if you were the one who kept screwing with our community?”
I tilted my head. “Kierra is your daughter?”
“Yes, in a way…” he said. “Years ago, Rose and I were having trouble conceiving–”
“Oh, come on…” My head was spinning. “Don’t tell me she’s your fucking investment?”
“That’s right,” he said proudly. “Kierra was the reason we founded My Happy Family – to share our success with others. And now people around the world can use our methods to build relationships with friends, children, and romantic partners.”
“Success?” I repeated. “All you did was brainwash a child.”
“When Kierra turned 18, we told her the truth,” he said. “She wasn’t even angry with us. She was proud to be a part of our family.”
“That’s because the alternative would be to face the truth of what you did to her,” I said, feeling pity for Kierra for the first time in ages. “That kind of cognitive dissonance would destroy anyone.”
“Kierra admires what we do,” he said. “In fact, she decided to build a family of her own.”
I leaned back into the bed. “You’re all fucking insane.”
“I must say, her grooming technique is unique,” he continued, ignoring me. “It doesn’t involve any physical violence. It’s purely psychological.”
“Wait a minute,” I said. “The girl in your locket couldn’t have been any older than 12. Kierra is in her 20’s.”
“It was an old photo – from when we first picked her up,” he said simply.
I shook my head in disbelief. “But… you were punching yourself.”
“Elliot, your ego knows no bounds,” he said. “All I had to do was pretend to be The Zombie. I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist the idea of single-handedly stopping the country’s most notorious serial killer.”
My heart sank. “You’re a cop,” I said. “Why didn’t you just get a warrant to go into my garage?”
“Because of your nasty patient files!” Rose shrieked. “All of your evil little notes… They make our darling Kierra – and our entire community – sound like a bunch of sick freaks. It’s a smear campaign!”
“Is it really a smear campaign if it’s true…?” I muttered.
“Nasty!” She slapped me across the face. “We wiped your assistant’s iPad, but my husband noticed you kept a physical folder on you at all times.”
I groaned as I saw her flip through the patient files that I kept locked away in my home office.
Officer Donahue handed my phone to Anne and spoke quietly. “Delete all of the old security footage from your time with Phil. We can’t have anyone tracing this back to us.”
Then he turned to me.
“I have to hand it to you, it was unusually difficult to get in here,” he said. “We’re actually quite good at circumventing security, but we couldn’t even make it past your firewall. Your whole network is disconnected from the public internet. It’s pretty clever actually.”
“Well…” I said dully. “Clearly not clever enough.”
“Not against this little doohickey.” He waved the locket in my face. He flipped it open and revealed some sort of circuit board under the photo. “Alexa, turn the stove up to high.”
Suddenly, I heard my voice speak from the locket: “Alexa, turn the stove up to high.”
“Okay, turning the stove up to high.”
“Fantastic…” I grumbled. People already think I have a problem with women, so it’s almost poetic that Alexa would be my fucking downfall.
“These are cute doodles, Dr. Harper!” exclaimed Rose, holding my patient files out to me. “Is this what you do when your patients are asking for your help?”
“I do help,” I hissed. “I helped Lucas escape from your bitch of a fake daughter–”
“NASTY!” Rose slapped me again, this time much harder. “And did you say… Lucas? Don’t you mean Noah?”
My eyes went wide. Rose noticed and smiled.
“That’s right, Dr. Harper,” she said. “Tonight, Kierra reclaims her investment.”
I felt a sudden burst of adrenaline and bolted up from the bed. I tried to hit Rose in the face, but I stumbled from the drugs and accidentally punched her in the boob. She screamed in a strangely erotic way.
Officer Donahue restrained me and shoved me back down to the bed. He injected another dose – of whatever the hell that was – into my neck.
I felt my body go limp again.
“Enough, Elliot…” said Officer Donahue calmly. “Enough.”
I watched in horror as Rose and Anne lifted two huge butcher’s knives from their bags.
“Are you going to kill me?” I croaked, trying to keep my eyes open.
“No, you’re not getting off that easy,” said Officer Donahue. “You’ve been a real pain in the ass, Elliot. First you took their investment, then you took our daughter and her investment… And do you have any idea how long it took me to move the website?”
“So… What are you going to do to me?” I said weakly.
He looked at me one last time before walking out of the room. “Ladies, get started.”
And then, just like a Facebook year-in-review video, Anne and Rose lifted
their knives and started driving the blades into each other’s torsos.
The last thing I remember from that night was laughing. Yes, laughing. Maybe it was the drugs, but I’m pretty sure my mental state was fine.
I had a chance at real happiness tonight, and I sabotaged it with my own reckless decisions. I don’t believe in karma, but I do believe in logic. And logically speaking, if you do enough bad things, one of them is bound to catch up with you in the end. So because of logic, I had no one to blame but myself for whatever was about to happen next.
As they continued stabbing each other, my eyes quivered shut in defeat. But before losing consciousness, I managed to hum to myself:
“Happy birthday, Elliot.”
PART THREE
“This was my son, Alex.” The school shooter’s sobbing mother shared photos with the jury of her dead son’s body draped over mine. “He sought help from Dr. Harper, and this is what happened to him.”
Moments later, the television at the front of the courtroom started playing home security footage of me kissing my younger male assistant.
“Oh, what the hell does that have to do with anything?” I snapped.
“Doctor, be quiet,” my lawyer whispered urgently. “Please.”
I settled back into my chair, heart racing.
And for the next two hours, I watched a steady stream of videos, evidence, and testimony that made my practice look like something out of a horror movie.
Next up was Officer Donahue, talking about how I accused him of being The Zombie and locked him above my garage with his missing daughter. He started crying as he told the courtroom that her ex-husband – the assistant I kissed – had kidnapped his beautiful daughter.
“I think Dr. Harper and Lucas – or Noah – fell in love,” Officer Donahue spoke tearfully. “So they decided to get rid of Kierra, that way they could take her life insurance payout and start a new life together, hence the name change.”
“For fuck’s sake–”
“Doctor, be quiet.” Something about the way my lawyer said that made me question if she was even on my side.
There was unending video footage showing Kierra locked above my garage, sometimes soiling herself from those goddamn gummy bears. Someone in the jury let out a sob. There was also video footage of Officer Donahue in captivity, but none with the locket.
