Twisted

Reason's Hurt

"When we really want something, we usually do all we can to get it. It's human nature, right? But sometimes there are things that people want so desperately, they will do anything they can to get it. Sometimes the things we desire most should not be attained, because it could affect not only ourselves, but the people around us...''

-S.P. April 14, 1981.

She quickly shut the door and slouched down against the frame. All the windows and doors were locked. She stared at her hands, stained with blood. She started to sob and held her head in her bloody hands. Her sobbing intensified as sirens got closer and louder.

On February 19, 1965, Jamie Jones and David Wend had their first child, Stacy Maria Jones. David left Jamie when Stacy was one and Jamie married Carl Resoun, who had Down syndrome. Struggling to afford treatment for him, she took a dead end job to try to make ends meet, causing them to live in a less than ideal neighbourhood. Jamie wasn't very socially aware and accepted a job soon after being qualified. Despite that though, she greatly loved her second husband as well as Stacy, who looked almost exactly like her mother with her light brown skin, brown hair and large pretty brown eyes.

6 months later, on August 9, 1965, Thomas Benjamin Jameson was born to Melissa and Earl Jameson. They were both incredibly successful, achieving it by carrying out several discrete murders in their hometown, before going into hiding, and by obviously changing their names.

They were retired, rich and incredibly sophisticated and their facade came to new heights when they had the idea of having their son. They had Thomas as a way of showing the world they were regular people, but that couldn't be further from the truth. When Thomas was 1, he was diagnosed with many, minor psychological disorders. Many doctors pleaded with his parents that he had problems that needed to be looked into, that could become a much larger issue in the future. The thought of having a child that wasn't normal, in their eyes, made them resent Thomas. A few months after Thomas was 1 and a half, Melissa tried to get pregnant again and planned to abandon Thomas somewhere, with the approval of her husband. After taking a quick test, it was discovered that after having Thomas, she couldn't have any more children. Both of his parents were filled with rage and couldn't stand the thought of being stuck with their "freak of a son." Even though he was a combination of both their looks, both his parents' blonde hair, his father's deep blue eyes and his mother's strength, from that day forward, they never considered him their true son. So they did the only thing they knew how to do. From the time he was 2 years old to 5 years of age, they used subtly hurtful remarks in the hope of teaching him to be sophisticated like they were. But it never worked, because he had already begun to fear their presence and couldn't comprehend what they were telling him to do, which greatly infuriated them to a higher degree.

One day, in the summer of 1969, they found out that many parents allowed their children to go outside to play and that it was a very common thing. Hoping to fit in with the others, they let Thomas go out to play with the neighbourhood kids. Most parents looked happy to see their kids playing with other kids, but Earl and Melissa just kept praying that he wouldn't do or say anything weird. Thomas wasn't very successful at playing with the other boys, so he sadly started to walk back to his parents, until he saw a girl walking towards him. The most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on and her name was Stacy. She complimented him, stating she really liked his red shirt and from that day on, whenever he was ever with her, he wore something that was red. They got along great until Stacy had to go. Thomas for the first time, felt a little warm, something he would later identify as love.

That night he had a dream about her, and it actually made him almost forget about his parents because of how it made him feel. He never had a dream that made him forget about his life and would let him live in his own fantasy, something he had never felt until that night. Unfortunately, finding Stacy didn't improve things back at his home. He was about to start school, a year later than everyone else and both his parents could no longer stand the sight of their failure. They were losing control in keeping their negative feelings of him inside, and they started to openly insult him. When they felt that wasn't getting through to him enough, they started to physically punish him if he even spoke a word or spilled anything. The first slap they ever gave him gave them both a feeling they had never felt before, like they had finally gotten through to him and they knew they couldn't stop. Thomas didn't go outside much after that and his mental state was no longer oblivious and ignorant, he was now silent all the time and broken on the outside and inside.

On Thomas' first day of school, he had a large bruise on his arm, but he already knew at the age of 6 that it needed to be hidden. He walked in with his head down, until he saw Stacy and he completely lit up. She went up to him and they got along great. Unfortunately, that didn't help him from becoming the main target of bullying from Patrick Kartaridge. He also came from a poor home life and took it out on Thomas, who looked well off in his eyes. He used to call him the Dumpboy and slapped him if Thomas told him to stop. He also targeted Thomas for his slightly chubby body and the fact that Thomas also looked around a year younger than he actually was, which made look smaller than everyone else. Thomas also wasn't exactly the typical boy though. Due to his feelings for Stacy, he did very odd things for her, like standing on a table and singing to her in front of the whole cafeteria, or speaking very loudly around her when he was excited.

Despite her friends' reactions and comments, Stacy acted flattered. She found his actions as a sign of a strong friendship. Then when Thomas was almost 6, he noticed at lunch that everyone ate at the same time at noon and that he never did. When he came home, he used all his courage to ask his dad if he could bring lunch to school. Melissa came in and told him a hard no, stating that a diet would do him good. From that day, Thomas ate one small meal a day and this made him much less likely to spill what was happening to him, since he was weak and tired all the time.

When Stacy would meet up with him, she would sometimes stare into his deep, blue eyes that showed so much, yet showed so little. She had a small, uneasy feeling that he was desperately hurting, but at the same time she had no idea to what degree and remained in the dark. To ensure no one found out, Thomas would constantly try to hide his feelings if he felt like they had slipped, and would act with confidence and happiness around her, because that's how she made him feel. Stacy wasn't the most socially aware person, thanks to her mother. She never learned to pick up obvious social cues.

One day in December of 1971, Thomas was sitting in class when one of Patrick's friends threw a paper ball at him. Thomas tried his best to ignore him and the teacher told him to stop. She then pulled Thomas outside while the kids were still throwing balls at him. She closed the door and told him she was very disappointed in him for not standing up for himself and he just stared at the ground, offering no response. Suddenly, a kid appeared through the classroom door window and joked that the teacher was now his mom and was going to feed him. The teacher told the kid to go away and she asked him why he would say that, because it was the third time this week she heard someone make that joke. He told her that his mom was putting him on a "diet" to help him lose weight. The teacher looked slightly relieved and sent him back inside the classroom, telling him she would talk to them. Before he went inside, she smacked the back of his head and told him to stand up for himself next time. But she never spoke to his parents and never knew that he was on some "diet" alright.

This continued to add to his stress, as his parents started to invite more people over to their house to show they weren't "hiding anything" and they acted like the sweetest hosts, and left Thomas alone.

No one ever realizing that while he wore his suit, he had an army of bruises all over his back. With all of this in mind, he just remained quiet and reserved throughout his youth. But Stacy was there to always cheer him up, even bringing him along with her friends when they hung out.

Even though she never stopped getting whispers in her ear about him like, "my friend from his old school said he was crazy" or "he's creepy and very weird, why do you hang out with him?''but Stacy would always ignore them and defend him.

Even during Thomas' youth with Stacy, he had acquired some of his parents' intellect, which made him painfully aware of his surroundings. He was fully aware of when he was hated or unwelcome somewhere. It also was what made him endure his parents' early "training" for him from the ages of 3 to 6 years old. Sometimes coming to school with the biggest bruise on his back, he still showed the world he was confident and shameless, just shy to explain the constant silence.

Combined with his psychological problems, his emotional health and growth were happening much slower than everyone else, which made it easier for his parents to keep the whole thing under wraps.