When Night Breaks

“Well, I’m pretty sure you left off with something about DNA.”

“Ah yes. First, I have to ask you: are you familiar with the foster care system? How it works and everything?” I knew my question wouldn’t make sense to her at first, but I hoped she would listen long enough for it to.

“Uhm, no not really. Why?”

As my heart flew, my palms sweated, and my throat tightened, I made the conscience decision to disclose my deepest secret to a girl I barely knew. Without much more thought, I began to tell her my story.

“I was born out of wedlock, and my mother was very young. She was only 18 when she gave birth, and I had an older brother. She was 16 when she had him. Two kids for a young single mom would have been hard, and I guess somewhere between labor and taking me home, she changed her mind on wanting to keep me. Me or my brother. We then became children of the state,” I paused, looked down and uttered words I hadn’t said aloud in a long time, “I was an orphan.” I seen the sympathy in Samantha’s eyes, but the last thing I wanted was pity.

“I’m so sorry.” She said, sincerely.

“It’s okay. I got moved around a lot, from family to family, until I finally went to the McKenzie’s. I was around 6 then, and there were about 6 more children in the home. They took kids in and kept them for a while and then they’d go to a new home. Me and Jeremy, my brother, were two of the more permanent kids for the McKenzie’s. We always hoped we’d find a new family, but hope was all we had.”

“Why did you want to leave?”

“The McKenzie’s were terrible people. They didn’t start that way though. Margaret was a teacher, so she was around kids 24/7, and Nathan was a scientist of sorts.”

“Of sorts?” She asked.

“I wouldn’t call him a real scientist, but he worked for some pharmaceutical company. That’s where things went wrong.” I stopped. I didn’t know how to tell her the rest of the story, nor could I imagine how she would react.

“What happened?”

“Well, I guess Margaret got tried of the kids, at school and at home. Nathan lost his job, and so money became tight. They started taking in more children, and ---- “

Before I could finish Samantha asked a question, “If money was tight then why did they take in more kids?”

“That’s why I asked if you knew anything about foster care. When a couple takes in a child, the state pays them. It’s money that’s supposed to be used for the care of the child. But since the McKenzies were slowly going bankrupt on Margaret’s teacher salary, they used the money for other things, and therefore the care of the kids in the home diminished. They stopped sending us to school, we stopped having full meals, and weren’t allowed anything extra. It was actually pretty terrible.” I glanced into Samantha’s eyes and seen an honest concern and interest in what I was saying. As the night drew on, I became more relaxed in confiding to Samantha. It slowly became easier to open up; it was almost a relief to finally tell someone my secrets - secrets I have kept for years.

“They both went mad. They lost their minds, and became evil. The stress of no money, too many kids, whatever it was that caused them to break, caused them to do something unimaginable. Nathan still had a stock pile of old drugs and chemicals from when we worked at Blanchard Pharmaceutical. Some of the kids, me and Jeremy included, started acting out. Just normal kid stuff, but Margaret and Nathan would get so mad. They started giving us drugs.”

She gasped, “Drugs?”

“It started out as just stuff to keep us calm. And then when they wore off, they increased the dosage, and then moved to harsher medicine. Eventually, Nathan began making batches of stuff and giving it to us through needles. It was meant to control us. To give them full power. If they could perfect the children that meant the more kids they could foster, and the more money they’d receive.”

“But -- you were just kids. How long did this go on? Didn’t the foster care agency step in?”

“They didn’t know. The McKenzies were able to hide it good. They put on a good front, so no one ever found out.”

“Jay, how old were you?”

“It started when I was 8. It was right after my 12th birthday it all ended.” I paused, looked out on the balcony. The lights in the city were still out, and the moon was bright as ever.

“The drugs, they quit working. More than just quit working, it backfired. As we grew up, and our hormones changed and all that, the drugs messed with our DNA. Since no batch of drugs was completely the same because Nathan was always experimenting, most of the kids were affected differently. We started lashing out; we became stronger, faster, and angrier. I couldn’t tell you the science behind a lot of it, but all I know is that the medicine corrupted my DNA, and I became this thing I am now. They tried to reverse it, but anything they attempted just made things worse.”

“What happened then?”

“They killed them.” I said matter-of-factly. I saw the horror in Samantha’s face.

“Killed them?!? How?!”

“They murdered them. Each was a little different. The older kids had to be either shot or beaten. The younger ones, well, it was a little easier. They set the house on fire, to stage it. They faked their own deaths. The papers said an intruder broke in, killed the kids, and tried to cover their tracks.”

“And the police bought it?”

“They staged it good. And it was back when I was 12; investigating skills weren’t what they are now.”

“But wait, how did you escape? And your brother, did he ---”

“We hid that night. Somehow Jeremy found a way to keep us concealed from Nathan and Margaret. He helped me climb out a window. He let me go first, and was supposed to be right behind me. He told me to just keep running and no matter what don’t stop. I ran and ran and ran, but when I looked back he wasn’t there.” I felt a lump form in my throat and I had to stand up. I walked out to the balcony rail and leaned against it. Samantha followed, and put a hand on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry.”

“He was supposed to make it out too, but they caught him. And he never even made it out of the window. He died, because he knew only one of us had time to escape. That’s when I left Chicago. I went to Detroit, because I knew the McKenzies would be looking for me.”

“So you were just out there alone?”

“Until I met Leo. He found me one night, and helped me. I hadn’t learned to keep my raging under control yet, and was still changing. He helped me, and became like a brother to me.”

Just then, the power came back on in Samantha’s apartment. With the light now making me visible, I turned away from her. “I better go.”

“Don’t.” she said softly.

“Samantha, I’ve just told you a story that I’ve only told a couple people in my entire life. I’m a creature that two lunatics created, and yet you still tell me to stay?” I asked her without turning to look at her.

“Your story is insane. It’s hard to fathom, but I believe you. And I trust you. You are not some creature, you’re a person, Jay. A person I want to get to know; insane story or not.”

She touched my face, and made me look into her eyes. “Do you understand that?” I didn’t have the strength in that moment to utter any words, I was so overwhelmed. I simply nodded and stayed fixated on her beauty.

After a moment, I asked her: “How can you stand to even look at me?”
With the most sincere and honest words, she said something to me that left me speechless and shaking.

“How could I not? You‘re beautiful”