Choice and Consequence of Caring for Another (Chapters 1 - 3)

Chapter 1 – Dangerous Condition

Hillside City is not only comprised of a city, hills, and an island. There is a small suburban town called Hillfall Town not too far from its more infamous counterpart. It’s quiet, calm, and relatively peaceful, but it doesn’t mean that crazy things don’t happen in it. People mysteriously disappear and rarely turn up dead and half buried in the hills. Despite this happening every so often in a month, the people here act like nothing’s happening since they can’t do anything about nor does it adversely affect them. Some say it might be one of the gangs from the city or it could be a monster who take away people at midnight. None of these theories have any credible evidence behind them so it’s all speculation. Besides that, life here is good.

Here enters a family of three. Francesco is the father and he works at home as he writes mystery/horror novels and programs for his job. Abby is the mother. She works as a nurse in town and both take care of Mabel, their one-year old baby daughter. They live in a small one-story house that’s big and affordable enough for them. Though they may not seem like it, their family is more than normal just like everyone else who lives around Hillside City.

This morning is just another morning for the family. Abby makes breakfast today and makes pancakes for her and Francesco and gives Mabel her baby food.

“You think Mabel is getting bored of eating that stuff? She’s looking at me eat with hungry eyes,” Francesco says.

“This is what she’s supposed to eat, and that’s what’s she’s going to eat until she’s old enough to eat normal food,” Abby says while feeding Mabel and herself.

Mabel grunts and jolts up and down in response.

“See? She’s gets me. Can you say pancakes? Pa-n-ca-ke-s.”

“Pa-pan-caks,” Mabel utters.

“There you go. Before you know it, she’ll be helping me write my stories.”

“If that’s what she wants to do. She might want to follow in her mother’s footsteps.”

“And get all the debt associated with your nursing degree? I don’t think so. I think she’d rather learn everything on her own like her daddy and get a job by showing her skills to the world.”

“We’ll see. I have to go.”

Abby kisses her husband and child goodbye.

“Make sure daddy behaves.”

Francesco and Abby chuckle which also makes Mabel do the same. As soon as Abby leaves, Francesco takes Mabel to his workroom. It’s a medium-sized room with a wide big window in front of the desk to let the light shine in the entire room. Various covers of Francesco’s work along with his programming achievements are framed on the walls. There’s a small fridge in the corner of the room where Francesco keeps food and drinks for both him and Mabel. On the opposite side of the room, is Mabel’s little play area with all her little toys. Francesco also has a TV in the room in case Mabel starts to get tired of her toys though Francesco will have politics on TV sometimes. Mabel doesn’t mind since politics can be cartoony at times. While going through his emails, he sees that there’s not much work to be done for his programming job. He calls his business partner Charles to see what’s up.

“Hey Charlie, we got a slow week ahead of us?”

“It looks like it Cesco. That is unless you want to respond to those requests from those hentai game developers.”

“I’d have to be incredibly desperate to especially since we have contracts with bigger companies. Video games do sound like a good project to do next even though we haven’t done many.”

“That’s what happens when you have a small business like ours.”

“I guess I’ll work on my writing then. What are your plans?”

“I was thinking about writing a book about programming, but you beat me to that. I might just be doing some advertising for us or relax or just a little of both.”

“Gotcha. I’ll talk to you later then.”

“Later.”

Thinking what to write next, he looks at his books on the walls and picks up a book on his desk titled The Man-Made Monster. It’s about a man along with his family and loved ones are punished for a crime they did not commit. The man is the only one who survives and is thrown into the garbage. With nothing and no one to live for, he turns into a monster and kills those who killed his family. These people had blood on their hands that could not be washed away, so it was easy for him to find the right people. After this, he kills himself after seeing that he was a monster. It’s a short story in a collection of short stories by his favorite author, Edmund Lebensretter. He even got it signed by him and got the inspiration to continue being an author set by Edmund’s example. The two even exchanged contact information and mailing addresses to keep in contact. Edmund, however, hasn’t been seen in years though he does release free stories on his website every now and then. They’ve been increasingly morbid and philosophical for some reason. Nobody seems to know what the deal is with him and people close to Edmund aren’t able to contact or see him. It’s as if the man died and is writing through technology to keep his legacy alive. Although this story and Edmund’s many other stories could provide inspiration, Francesco looks over to his daughter’s smiling face and decides to write a story for her. He doesn’t exactly have the details for it yet, but it’s something that he wants to do. At this point in time, it occurs to Francesco that he hasn’t written a story for his wife nor has he had characters inspired by her. He sets that as his next task and hopefully she won’t be offended by him not thinking of her in his stories.

Meanwhile, at the local hospital, Abby gives the last patient their morning medication and checkup then goes to take a break. She isn’t too friendly with the other nurses and doctors. Abby will exchange small talk with them and talk about the past, but she never goes out with them or invites them over. This is probably due to her childhood and how she secluded herself from the other kids. She almost viewed them as aliens because of their behavior as she was raised in a posh environment. The only reason why she got to know Francesco was because he used to talk to her at his first job as a cashier. He worked part-time at a retail store that she used to like to go to along with doing his other two jobs he does now. After getting to know each other within half a month, they married, left Hillside City, and settled down in the suburban part of it. They thought it would be a better environment for their daughter and they were able to find the jobs they wanted to support their living. Abby eventually grew out of her anti-social nature since the people of Hillfall Town are much more welcoming, but she still secludes herself and just concentrates on her family. In her seclusion, she writes little stories or descriptions about the weird things people do, a carryover from her childhood. These little stories and descriptions even help Francesco make stories of his own though some weird him out. Abby has the tendency to write very weird things like she is doing today.

She writes, “She finally exposes the love she hides from him. In his deep coma, she tastes his face, body, and other appendages as her lust takes control of her. The woman thinks to herself, ‘Why couldn’t I show my feelings to him when he was awake?! Am I possessed? A coward? A mouse in the light has more courage than me!’ She then takes the man and steals him from his relatives so that he can be forever hers.”

Abby chuckles to herself while she writes this then puts it away as one of her coworkers sits by her, so they can have lunch together.

All of these events are what Francesco and Abby’s days consist of. The money they make together allows them to live comfortably with enough to spare in savings for vacations and trips. They do these jobs, have dinner together by five thirty, relax for a bit, then go to bed, but tonight is different. As Francesco sleeps, he awakens in his dream. A dream where he is on side of a thick piece of glass and Abby is on the other. His side of the room is rusty and decaying while her room is mostly clean with a few dirty parts here and there.

“Abby?” Francesco calls out as he bangs his hand on the glass, “Abby!”

Abby looks around the room in confusion as if she could hear him but not see him. She walks into the next room and Francesco follows. This next room has four sets of rotating blades that go from one end of Abby’s room to the other. Francesco’s side has a computer that has certain values that dictate how fast the blades go and at what height. He thinks fast as he works to help Abby as she carefully goes through the room. When she’s halfway through, the computer Francesco is working on begins to glitch and change the values for the blades, which make the blades act frantically. Both Abby and Francesco act just as frantically to ensure that Abby is safe. Abby moves fast, but careful as she moves through the blades as Francesco fixes and adjusts the constantly changing values. Eventually, Abby gets out of the room with only minor tearing to her clothes. Fearing what the next room will hold, Francesco quickly follows her to find her in yet another dangerous room. This room has floor tiles that randomly disappear to reveal deadly saw blades below it. Again, there is a computer that Francesco must use to help Abby. This one has convoluted code that changes the room as the code is rewritten. Some of the room changes color and decays as the Francesco fixes the disappearing floor tiles and put back the missing ones. This goes well for the most part, but some of the tiles disappear without Francesco’s input, so Abby uses patience and reaction to judge which tiles to walk on and which ones to skip. The room becomes inpatient in a sort of way as a monstrous scream is let out and the room shakes. The ceiling is revealed to have saw blades that fall from it and appear to be aiming for Abby. She quickly makes her way through the room and only receives minor cuts. Francesco quickly follows as he thinks that the next room will be deadlier than the previous.

This next room is indeed deadlier from Francesco’s point of view as he sees two large monsters in a small labyrinth. One looks like the main character from The Man-Made Monster story with the creature having the appearance of a tortured man with blades sticking out of his body, hands, and legs. The other monster is female-like with large breasts and feminine hair, but it is bloated, phallic shaped, and in pain with spikes in its skin. Abby doesn’t appear to see the monsters, nor does she know what to expect from this room. Francesco goes for the computer in his room and controls which path Abby and the monsters take. The walls rotate and each of them move as a new way is presented to them. It is a wonder to Francesco as he can see through the entire maze and yet, Abby seems to be perplexed by it as if she only sees solid walls, which is what she sees in actuality. The tortured man gets to one point of the wall where he is directly parallel to Abby. He sniffs the wall then breaks through it which startles Abby. The perverted monster then rams its way through the maze, breaking down all the walls in a deranged panic. Abby also runs through the maze in a panic as the tortured man chases her and appears to want to hold her. The exit is near for Abby as Francesco quickly fixes the walls, so she has a straight path there. The tortured man reaches for Abby, but is rammed by the perverted monster into the wall of the room. Once Abby reaches the exit, both Francesco and Abby wake up in the daylight hours of the morning. They look at each other with disbelief.

“Wa-was that real?” Abby asks Francesco.

“I was just about to ask you the same thing.”

Chapter 2 – Together Through the Toughest Challenges

“Do you remember the blades? The monsters?” Abby asks.

“I remember all of it even though I wish it fades away like most dreams,” Francesco answers.

“We have that condition, don’t we? The Human Mirror.”

“I’d hate to say it, but we do.”

“Maybe they’ve just discovered a cure for it! We have to look-”

“There isn’t. I would’ve heard of it by now and I’m sure one of the doctors you know would’ve been talking about it.”

“…Damn it. Damn it all! Why now of all times?!”

A silence falls on them as Francesco thinks about what to do while Abby thinks about the consequences of having the infamous Human Mirror condition.

“The only thing I know that helps are good amounts of relaxation, so we should take the day off and see what happens tonight.”

“Right. I’ll call one of the people I know from the hospital, so they can take care of Mabel.”

“Are you sure you want to do that? Having Mabel with us could help us relax.”

“Did you not hear the stories of people with the Human Mirror? A soldier who didn’t know they had sex with the dead body of their husband, a doctor killing an entire building of criminals, a comedian who commits suicide over and over again but doesn’t. Do I need to continue on?”

“No, but we don’t exactly know what’s going to happen. Maybe Mabel can help us.”

Abby thinks about it before answering, “I guess she might help, but if something happens to her because of us then she’ll have to stay with a different family.”

“What?”

“If we can’t trust our own actions, then she shouldn’t be anywhere near us.”

“I know that, but…I don’t know about just giving her away like that even if it’s for a short amount of time.”

“We have to do it to keep her safe in case something happens.”

“Right. If it happens. I know how you feel about this, so let’s just try to control it as best as possible.”

“Okay…”

“Hey,” Francesco says as he holds his wife, “We’re going to get through this.”

The two kiss then take Mabel out to somewhere to relax. Along the way, they call their bosses and tell them they’ll be off for the day, but don’t tell them they are affected by the Human Mirror. They think of a good place to rest their minds and they decide to go to a nearby park where they used to hang out as kids. The family rests underneath a special tree Francesco and Abby marked in the past and enjoy the nice weather. A soft breeze and the warm temperature set the nice mood while they watch other people go for walks with their families and pets.

“Do you remember the day we got married?” Abby asks.

“I think I asked for your hand in marriage underneath this tree.”

“That’s right. I wonder if it’s still marked.”

They get up and check to see that’s still there on the tree.

“Wow. That’s amazing,” Francesco says with a smile.

“We should get Mabel and her boyfriend to mark the tree. You know, make it a family tradition.”

“I’d like to see that. Maybe we should get our parents from Hillside City to sign it, so it looks like a more authentic tradition.”

“That doesn’t sound half bad, but we should probably call them after we’re better.”

“Agreed. I wouldn’t want to worry them especially since we haven’t talked to them in a while. ‘Hey mom and dad, how are ya doing? Me? I’ve got the Human Mirror condition, but besides that, I’m doing great!’.”

“Haha!”

Francesco takes Abby’s hands.

“We’ll make it through this Abby. I promise you. Nothing bad will happen to Mabel and we’ll be laughing about it before you know it.”

A small colorful butterfly lands on Mabel’s face. The little girl smiles and giggles at the small insect. It flies off, which makes Mabel get up from her stroller to chase it. She falls at first, but her parents help her up. It’s taken Mabel about eleven or so months, but when she gets up, she’s able to finally walk. Francesco and Abby cheer and clap at their daughter’s accomplishment. As Mabel approaches the tree, a swarm full of butterflies fly from its branches into the sky for a beautiful display of nature.

“This is a good sign Abby. Don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” she says with a smile, “It is.”

The two lovers kiss as they affirm their support for each other during these tough times. Mabel goes over to them to hug them and the family embrace together. Later in the day, Francesco takes Abby and Mabel out for dinner then relax back at home. They felt enough was said and done for them to get rid of or at least lessen the effects of the Human Mirror. Tonight, will have the answer.

Once they fall asleep, Francesco wakes up in a dream again to see that they’re in the same situation as before. They’re separated by a thick glass wall with Francesco on the decaying side of the room and Abby on the clean side. With their fingers crossed, they enter the next room to see an unusual sight. The two monsters from before are dancing together in the center of a dance hall that looks like the one they had their marriage party at. There are people sitting at the tables that look like their relatives and loved one and their looks appear closer to what Francesco thinks of them than what they actually look like. Some are ugly while others are angelic or human. Francesco appears to be on the side of danger while Abby is on the other to help him. There’s not much on her side to help except for a couple buttons with dancing motions. This appears to be the only room since there is no exit and the entrance they went through is now a wall. Both of them think to themselves that they’ve helped lessen the condition in some way, so they think this might be the last dream with the Human Condition.

Francesco doesn’t exactly know what to do, so he just waits for Abby to decide what to do. It takes her about a minute and a half to decide which movements to take. What the dream appears to be telling her is that she should replicate the way her and her husband danced on their wedding day. She inputs the movements to the best of her memory and hopes for the best as she hits what looks to be the enter button. After hitting the button, Francesco takes the place of the tortured man and Abby takes the place of the perverted. Both are wearing what they wore on their wedding day and both are now being used as puppets with barb wire in their skin. They dance in the way that Abby inputted as the crowd of people watch. The dance goes well and once they finish, the crowd cheer and the dream ends.

Waking up still tired, Francesco looks around his dark room and sees that it’s two in the morning. It’s only been a few hours since they fell asleep. What’s weird now is that Abby is gone from the bed. There isn’t even an impression on the bed to indicate she was previously there. Feeling uneasy, he gets out of bed to see if Abby is Mabel’s room, but not even Mabel is in her room. Mabel’s bed, like his, is undisturbed.

“Am I still in a dream?” Francesco asks himself.

There’s a knock at the door and Francesco quickly goes to the door to answer it. He opens the door to a cold chill and nothing else. He steps on a letter that was not previously there. Curious, he picks it up and sees that it’s for him. After he closes the door, Francesco opens the letter and the letter reads, “Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for your family? Write your answer on this letter and put it in the mailbox at the end of the block.”

He gets a pen and answers “Yes” on the letter. With a quick slip on of his shoes, he goes out in the cool weather to the mailbox. The neighborhood is ominously quiet tonight for some reason even though Hillfall town is usually pleasantly quiet. Something in the air appears to be wrong. Francesco can feel eyes watching him from the darkness, but he can’t see the eyes of his watchers. Once he puts the letter in the mailbox, a blade spears its way through the opening and through Francesco’s head, waking him up in the morning along with Abby.
“We…we didn’t get better, did we?” Abby asks while not wanting an answer.

Chapter 3 – My Life in Your Hands

At the table, the family, not counting Mabel, think of what to do next.

Sensing Abby’s panic, Francesco says, “This dream wasn’t as bad as the past one. There weren’t as many dangerous challenges.”

“Being killed isn’t a dangerous challenge?”

“We’re still alive, aren’t we?”

“But what could that dream possibly mean?”

“It could be for another dream coming up maybe or just to test us. You chose to sacrifice yourself?”

“So that part was the same for you too. Yes, I did. And-”

“I sacrificed myself too. Why would I choose differently?”

He kisses his wife and she kisses back with a smile.

“What are we going to do now?” Abby asks.

“We should just go back to our normal life, but take it easy. We’ll see what happens tonight then decide if we should take a vacation or see a doctor for help.”

“I guess that would be best. Since I’m going to work, I’d better hurry up and get changed. You don’t mind cleaning up?”

“Not at all.”

Once Abby gets to work, she does her usual job, but can’t get her mind off the present situation. What could happen to her or the people around her? Is what she seeing now even real? Could something happen at a moment’s notice? The Human Mirror is something that is largely unknown and uncontrollable even to people that study it. Needing to get every drop of information on it, Abby asks one of the doctor’s if she can access the medical database on information on the Human Mirror.

She uses the excuse that, “My husband is writing a book that’s inspired by it and he’d like to know more about it. I’m sure he’ll cite you as his source in the book.”

“You can see it for that though I doubt it’ll show you more information than what’s available to the public. Tell your husband he doesn’t need to cite me because of it.”

“Thank you so much!”

The doctor smiles and nods then gets back to his work. As Abby goes through the information on the Human Mirror, she doesn’t find much that she doesn’t already know or figure out. Few medical and psychology experts are jumping off this subject while the rest are stuck on it. This is because it was recently found out that every human being experiences the Human Mirror. Abby feels a heavy weight be lifted from her as she reads this. What’s found is that most people estimated around eighty percent experience the Human Mirror through dreams that will always remember. The dreams don’t always seem like nightmares, but they always have to do with their life or a future event in it whether the dreamer knows it or not. Once the person’s life changes for the better or worse, then the dreams stop unless their life comes to another changing point. The more interesting estimated twenty percent is where reality seemingly changes, teleportation occurs, people are unknowingly/knowingly killed, and other such events occur because of the Human Mirror. There doesn’t seem to be any known explanation for it all except for paranormal forces at work. Even when there is twenty-four-hour surveillance of willing subjects, nothing else can be concluded from. After reading through this, Abby stops and gets back to work with a happy heart.

One of her coworkers catch her and tell Abby that, “A strange man was asking about you. He’s at the front desk waiting for you.”

Abby watches the man from a distance before approaching him. He’s wearing normal clothes, but he has an odd symbol on his hat. It’s a symbol of a featureless person coming out of their own skin like a butterfly with accompanying wings.

“Hello, did you ask for me?”

“Yes, I did Abby. Would you be willing to die for your husband?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m sorry. Please don’t take any offense to my question. I’m conducting surveys on how people answer this question. It’s for a research group I’m a part of.”

“I would definitely die for my husband. It’s an obvious answer for me.”

“Thank you for your answer. Your husband is lucky to have you.”

The man leaves the hospital and Abby shrugs off his appearance.

Back at home, Francesco is writing his new story while Mabel is having fun walking around even in her little space. He thinks about Abby’s concern and looks up information on the Human Mirror on the internet. He finds information similar to what Abby found in the hospital and is glad to see that they should be fine. Francesco does find additional information that some researchers slightly regret showing the public this information since it has caused some to be afraid and/or delusional. With this behind him, he looks out the window in relief and watches the clouds pass by. After a few seconds, his reflection catches his eye and he looks at his face. When he looks at his face, his appearance is normal, but when he looks away, it turns to something different. In his side vision, his reflection appears to have no clothes with black scars on it. It’s almost like it’s another him. A knock at the door changes the appearance in his side vision to go to back to what it’s supposed to look like. Francesco goes to answer it and a woman wearing a business outfit is standing at the front door. She has the same symbol that the man who visited Abby on her vest.

The woman says, “Good afternoon Francesco. I’m a fan of your books and I’d like to ask you a question.”

“Let me ask you a question first. How did you find me?”

“I’m a friend of Edmund Lebensretter. He told me that you were a good person to contact for my survey. It’s for a research group I’m a part of.”

“Edmund told you? He hasn’t talked to anyone in ages and yet, he told you that I’m a good person to contact?”

“Yes. May I ask you my question?”

“Sure.”

“Would you be willing to die for your wife?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m sorry. Please don’t take any offense, it’s just for a survey.”

“I’d die for my wife no questions asked.”

“Thank you for your answer. Your wife is lucky to have you.”

“When you talk to Edmund, can you tell him to call me? I’d love to talk to him again.”

“Will do.”

The woman walks away and doesn’t go to the other houses on the block. Francesco thinks this is strange for a survey taker, but then again, he thinks that the woman is just looking for people with a reputation to survey. He goes back to the window to inspect it then chalks up what he saw to his imagination. When Abby gets back from work and they’re eating dinner, both bring up the strange person that visited them. They talked about the symbol they noticed and the odd way the people acted.

Abby says, “But why did they choose us?”

“The woman did say that Edmund Lebensretter told her that I was a good person to go to for this survey question.”

“She did?”

“Yeah. The man probably went to you since you’re my wife.”

“The life of being the wife of a famous author.”

The two then go over what they found about the Human Mirror.

“So we’re normal. Safe. And so is Mabel,” Francesco says.

“I hope it passes soon.”

“It usually passes after something important happens. Maybe it’s preparing us for Mabel when she’s able to talk.”

“I honestly hope that’s it.”

With today’s events out of the way, Abby and Francesco go to sleep, a few minutes early tonight to dream and see what the Human Mirror has in store for them tonight. Both Francesco and Abby wake up in a seemingly sickly room that’s not separated by a one-way mirror. They’re blindfolded, muffled, and their hands are cuffed. They can barely see through their blindfolds though they’re still in an uncomfortable situation. Before they even react to the situation a voice whispers in their ear.

A man or a woman sounding exactly them says, “You’ve done it before now do it again. Show how much you care for your spouse.”

The tortured monster melts from the wall and tries attacking the two. Abby tries to take the slashes and does, but nothing happens after she gets hit several times. Francesco then forces Abby out of the way to get hit himself which cuts the tortured monster. He notices this, but she doesn’t. From that moment onwards, Francesco takes each painful slash after another to somehow kill the monster along with himself. The most challenging part for him is keeping Abby away who’s solely focused on protecting her husband as that’s distracting her from seeing what he’s doing. Eventually she takes a slash for Francesco then sees the slashes on the monster. Wanting a quicker end, Francesco knocks Abby out of the way and gets the monster to slash his neck. Both choke on their own blood until Francesco wakes up in his room. He coughs a bit then gets himself to breath normally. Abby wakes up soon after in a similar way.

Abby asks him, “How can you live with a wife like me?”

“Happily,” he says as he kisses her.