Episode 244: Plotting (Thayer)

It was a long night, longer than most nights. In the boys room, Thayer almost always got a set night’s sleep. They went to bed and the lights didn’t come back for seven and a half hours. His body was used to it.

Here, at least Thayer didn’t wake up afraid of where he was. He was up again and again, startled by the crying of the baby Adele had brought back with her. His eyes burned and his head felt like it was going to explode.

He rocked the baby, Isaac, in his arms, and promised he would do anything it took to get him out of here, to a life where he wasn’t afraid like Thayer was.

He had no idea how to kill someone who came home from being murdered with a newborn and less annoyance than Mikail when the shower was cold.

“Good morning,” Adele rang out. His girlfriend, wife, something monster. She’s come back the night before covered in blood, insisting Isaac was their son.

“Good morning, beautiful.” He kissed her. Part of him wanted to puke, but he refrained. “Do you feel rested at all?”

“No.” She stretched her shoulders back. “Zac is worth it. Did you?”

She ran her clawed finger down his torso. He was still naked, not allowed clothes. He shivered, because he wanted her to stop.

“Rested enough.” He wished Cecil had taught them how to handle real exhaustion. Everything before was a cruel representation of literal hell. After one night without sleep he wasn’t sure he had the strength to go on.

“I had an idea,” he told her.

“You did?” She withdrew his hand, just as he wanted, but she took Isaac.

Thayer tried not to breathe much at all. “My idea is I want to be a family. A real family.” if Adele could un-die, maybe Asa could too. “Asa is my best friend, and he’s part of this place too.”

Adele tensed, and Thayer wanted to tell her she was holding Isaac too tight. He was tiny, frail, he couldn’t even hold his own head up.

He breathed, a normal breath. “I want Asa to know where I stand, with you, and to know we’re still best friends.” He worked his way to the end game. It was a couples activity, something to draw Adele closer to him. “What if we made dinner for them? And I can give him dad advice when he needs it.”

Adele sighed. “Asa is gone. I tried to save him for you.” She looked up at him, her eyes twinkling like she hoped she made him feel things.

He felt things, but they were the wrong things: Grossed out things, angry things. It confirmed what Cecil had said.

Thayer locked his jaw. “Yeah?” He turned away, and walked to the kitchen so he could get Isaac a bottle. It was a good excuse to not be near her anymore. “Dinner with you would be nice. Can you cook or are we learning together?”

She smiled and joined him in the kitchen. “Together.”

He took another minute away, to heat the bottle. He turned back to her, fake in love. “In want to take care of you. You work hard, you deserve someone who can be here when you get home. I can give you massages.”

“Can I admit something?”

“Yeah.” The more she trusted him, the easier it would be to find out how to kill her for real and how to escape.

She stepped closer, Isaac pressed between them. “I’ve loved you for a really long time. I have cameras everywhere.”

“I want to know you, so I can mean it when I tell you,” Thayer made up. “Can I massage your legs while you tell me about yourself?”

Her face grew into an oversized smile. “Yes. And then…I want to show you what I accomplished last night.”

Thayer kissed her and handed her the bottle. The three of them got comfortable on the couch. “What do you like to do?” Thayer asked.

She considered it, while Isaac drank the bottle and he massaged her calves.

“I like to be a mommy most of all. That’s new,” Adele mused. “No. I have other children. But this is my first that I get to keep.”

Brendan.

“He’s special,” Thayer agreed.

“He’s yours,” Adele reminded him. It was the kind of thing someone did with a lie: Repeated until it stuck.

“I like glitter,” she continued. “I like knives. Last night I got to play with sandpaper.”

Thayer shivered. Knives. Sandpaper. He didn’t want to know.

“Is that what you plan to show me?” he asked.

“It was amazing. Do you like power?”

Not really. He liked calm and supporting his friend and games that didn’t involve death.

“Yeah,” he lied, because he bet she wanted him to say yes. “Did the person scream?”

“Not as much as I hoped he would.” She picked up the remote and turned the tv on. While she flipped through channels she told him every detail, about the different angles she recorded, about how he died and came back.

She started the video. He had a decision to make: Tell her he didn’t want Zac exposed to that, so he wouldn’t have to watch it, or watch it so he could see how reviving someone worked.

He looked at the man on the screen, grey beige hair, dropped against a wall.

He smiled at Adele, and kept massaging her leg. If he was getting out, he had to know what revival entailed.

He hated himself.

It wasn’t about his own survival. He didn’t deserve it. It was about Isaac, getting him safe. Getting all the kids safe.

He watched the guy get tortured. He took notes.

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