Horror Stories • Volume 1 •

He Wanted To Know

I walked into the adoption agency in my city feeling apprehensive. It sounds weird when I say it, but I truly was anxious to go back there. I was still shaken up from the last boy decided to adopt.

One thing I kept in mind ever since I was old enough to know about the issues of the world, were those poor kids who'd lose their families because of war, abusive households or circumstances. Empathy and pity were the emotions I would feel for those children, as some of them never really got lucky enough to get a second chance in life. That's when I wanted to have a family with my own kids, and I would make sure to treat them with the love and care that they deserved.

Unfortunately, my husband was infertile, so we decided to to adopt a boy when I was 24. He unfortunately passed away 5 years after we adopted Jason, when he was only 8 years old. Jason was an 8 year old, special child to me, I wanted to do everything I could to give him a good life, to ensure that, even without a father, he would still be happy. I just wish I wasn't so naive with my decision.

Jason had a certain issue that I always found odd. He repeatedly wanted to know everything about what he would see, hear or talk about. It sounds even more bizarre typing it out and it deserves an explanation. If Jason saw a bird in the sky, he demanded to know its breed, where it was flying, why it was flying there, why its colour is the way it is, basically every question there was to ask, he wanted to know the answer, and if he didnt get it, he'd ask and be moody about it for the rest of the day. Me and my husband attributed the cause to his past, as Jason was abandoned when he was just 3 years old.

At first, me and my husband thought nothing of it, just a little boy who wants to learn about the world that he's growing up in with a new family, but then, it started to become more prominent. He wanted to know everything about me, my husband, cars, cats, dogs, frogs, everything that he would see of the outside world. We ended up buying him several books about the things he wanted to know about, more than we could count. At the time, we were intrigued with our son, dreaming about him going into the fields of science with the things he learned because of those books.

Then, one particular incident turned that dream into concern. It was a hot summer day in our neighbourhood, my husband had taken the day off to spend time with us and also catch a break from the blistering hot sun. I was in the kitchen, cooking for my family when I heard a knock on the counter behind me. I turned and I saw my husband, a worried look on his face, as if he had heard or saw something that shook him up.

Without a pause, my husband grabbed me by arm and dragged me outside to where Jason was playing in the garden. Except, my son was crouched in a corner, looking at a white clump of fur on the floor. When I walked up, I saw it was a dead cat.

I was horrified, I had no idea how a dead cat made it's way in our yard but it was certainly something I didn't want Jason to look at. I grabbed him by the arm and went to gently pull him away, but he wouldn't budge.

"Jason sweetie, that's not something nice to look at."

I said, tugging him a bit.

"How did it die mummy?"

Me and my husband froze. We both shared  a glance at each other.

"What was that Jason?"

"How did it die? And why is it like that?"

The confused expression on our faces turned into horror when he reached over to grab a stick, poking at it with it. Jason poked it too deep and the stick pierced the skin, a trickle of blood coming out.

"Mummy, what's that? Is that from inside it? What's inside it mummy?"

I quickly scooped Jason up and took him inside against his protest, leaving my husband to get rid of the cadaver.