“The Mystery of Smokey Terrace”

By: Ron564339

E-mail: [email protected]

Chapter 2: Jason

Part 4:

“Jack sure has been in there a long time…” said my cousin Max, shooting a look at the legendary mansion, Smokey Terrace. His cocky, macho friend Jack had gone into Smokey Terrace when we dared him to. I was now standing outside with Max, his friend Kevin, my older brother Mitch, and my annoying little brother, TJ.

“Yeah,” said TJ nervously. “Didn’t we say half an hour? I think it’s been about forty-five already.”

Kevin was looking really worried at this point. I knew that he was younger and he had been pretty freaked out when we had told him, Max and Jack about Smokey Terrace. I have to admit, it is a pretty creepy story, and everybody around our neighborhood had always talked about the story of Mrs. Gremley really seriously. But I guess I had heard it for so long that it didn’t really scare me that much any more.

But Kevin looked at us with fright. He was new to the town, pretty young, and besides, he was sick, with a pretty bad stopped up nose. So all that together made this whole thing a little more scary to him. He said, “You…you don’t think anything happened to him, do you? I mean, you know all of those stories that you told us? What if he…”

“Well, I don’t know…” said Mitch as he lit up ANOTHER cigarette. Both me and mom have continuously gotten on him about smoking…he’s done it for so long now. And it grosses me out.

“I mean,” he said. “Maybe he just got a little lost. It is a big place. And I think it’s pretty dark in there.”

“But what if something DID happen?” asked TJ. “You know everything we’ve heard. What if he…he…”

But I had had enough of all of this. “Give me a break!” I said. “Do you honestly think something happened to that idiot? He’s perfectly fine. And I’m sure he didn’t get lost…how hard could it be to walk through a house? You guys are just scaring Kevin and Max…”

“But what about all of the stories?” asked Max. “If other people disappeared for a while, how do we know Jack didn’t?”

“Look,” I said. “Those are just stories. Yeah, we told ‘em to you guys just to freak you out a little bit. Sure, everybody in town tells them seriously, but that’s just part of the myth of our town, something to make everything exciting. You know how it is…the original story was probably something like someone snuck in here, stayed a few nights, and then came back and acted like they didn’t remember anything. And over time, to make it more interesting, people changed it to say they disappeared. Like I said, they’re just myths.”

“So what about Jack?” asked Mitch. He always seemed to take all of this more seriously than I did.

“Look, I can almost guarantee that that jackass is just sitting right inside that door, thinking it’s a big joke freaking us out. And if we go in he’ll jump out at us to scare us. NOTHING bad happened. Look, I’ll even prove it to you. I’ll go in and I’ll come right back out as soon as I find him. I’ll probably only be about five minutes.”

“Uh, I don’t know if you should…” began TJ.

“TJ, I know you may be scared and just about to wet your pants over this, but I’m not, ok?”

This seemed to set him off. The truth is I always push TJ’s buttons. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s just because he’s my little brother. But I’ve always gotten satisfaction out of picking on him and making him mad. Deep down I love him, but he’s just such an easy target to pick on…I can’t help myself.

I guess I’ve always joked around with people. Whenever I see the opportunity to make a joke or take a jab at someone, before I think about it, I’ve said something. I really don’t mean to hurt anyone, even though sometimes I guess I do. To be completely honest, I think I do it because I can be a little insecure about myself sometimes, and by picking on other people, it gets their attention off of me and my flaws.

Anyway, maybe the pants-wetting line was a little mean, but it really made TJ mad.

“Fine!” he said. “Why don’t you take your brave self inside Smokey Terrace and get him out! And if anything happens to you, I’m glad! Then you won’t be so brave anymore!”

“Hey, calm down TJ,” said Mitch. “You don’t mean that…”

“No, no, he’s right,” I said. “I’m gonna go in right now and show you guys there’s nothing to be scared of.”

Although they still looked apprehensive, the four of them didn’t stop me. They just kind of waved and told me to be careful. So I opened the door that Jack had gone through and entered a small hallway that led into Smokey Terrace.

This little tunnel was pretty dark, with only the light from the outside doorway there to light it up. I soon found that it branched in two directions, with one pathway going left and the other going right. ‘Great,’ I told myself. ‘I haven’t run into him yet, so how do I figure out which way he went?’ I looked for any signs along either passageway, but I found none…there wasn’t anything on the ground that could leave impressions for footprints, and I noticed no signs anywhere. But that made sense, given there really wasn’t anything here anyway.

I sighed, decided to pick one way and come back if and do the other one if I didn’t find Jack. I chose the right one, hoping that it was the way Jack had gone.

Part 5:

As I took this passageway, the light became dimmer and dimmer. I wasn’t really scared…like I said, I didn’t really believe a lot of the stories about this place. I personally guessed that Mrs. Gremley had died years and years ago, and that people just liked to tell spooky stories about this place. I did have to admit that it felt a little creepy, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. Wherever Jack was, I was sure he was just fine.

As I continued to walk, I looked up at the walls, and I saw that there was a number of old-looking paintings. None of them really caught my interest…they just looked like a bunch of old portraits of various people, and I assumed they were all old family members of Mrs. Gremley.

One did catch my eye, however. I looked up and saw a young looking maid, who was smiling nervously in the picture. At first I thought it must have been a really old picture, but I read a small caption underneath it, which said, “Rita Miles, maid of Mrs. Rose Gremley”. ‘That’s weird,’ I thought. ‘Either there was another Rose Gremley other than the latest Mrs. Gremley, or she must have had a maid that I never heard about.’

As I continued to look at the paintings, I saw one of Rufus, which looked a little spooky in the candlelight that provided the only light for this tunnel.

And then I saw one of Mrs. Gremley. It looked kind of recent, and the old woman was wearing a stone-cold look on her face. She seemed to have no life in her. “Stupid old bat,” I said to the picture. “You don’t look so scary, just ugly.”

Continuing down the passageway, I came up to another door, and I opened it. As I walked through it, I took a look at the room I had entered. It was a quaint little entry hall. A grandfather clock stood against one wall, and a glass case full of some weird little statues. A thick rug was on the floor, and I saw two doors, one straight ahead and one to the right. There were also a few more of those old portraits in here, but I wasn’t close enough to see who they were of. Other than that, it looked kinda dumpy…I saw cobwebs around the place, and I could clearly see the dust piling up on the walls and floor. The walls looked like they were crumbling away.

“Yeah,” I told myself. “There is no way anyone has lived here for a long time.”

I stepped forward and called out, “Hey, Jack! You moron! Where are you? I know you’re here, just waiting to jump out and scare me, but the others are worried about you!”

I waited for a response and got none. “Ugh,” I told myself. “Now I’m going to have to hunt that idiot down.” I took a few more steps forward, but then I heard a little scratching sound on the floor. I looked down and saw a mouse running across the room, straight in my direction.

Now, I’ve never really been afraid of mice, but the old house was a little spooky, so I guess I was kind of jumpy. Because I quickly took a few steps back, and I accidentally bumped into the door. This caused it to shut close, and it slammed into place with a loud bang (it was a pretty heavy door). This caused me to jump again and I turned around to look at what made the noise. I turned right around into a cloud of dust. I coughed as I batted it away. But then I looked down and saw that it had gotten all over my shirt. I irritatingly tried to wipe it off of my face and clothes. “Damn you, Jack!” I said. “And damn this old dump!”

I turned back around to see where the mouse had gone, and I saw it right there on the rug, staring straight up at me. I found that really weird…I had never seen a mouse do that before. I kept on looking at it…it felt like it was trying to tell me something…this was really weird…

Then, I started to feel funny. I staggered slightly as I felt my head spinning a little bit and I got dizzy. This caused me to fall to my knees. This caused the mouse to break its trance and scurry off.

Thankfully, soon after that, I went back to normal. As I shook myself back into it, I said, “Ok, that was weird. But I’m not gonna let a little thing like that scare me. I’m going to find Jack and get the hell out of here.”

I called for him again, but to no surprise, there was no answer. So, I decided to take the doorway to the left.

As I did, I walked into a small dining room. There were some old cabinets up against the walls, and a somewhat elegant dining table in the middle of the room surrounded by some matching chairs. There were also a couple of other doorways (this place was big… I began to wonder how I would ever find Jack). As I began to examine the table, I called out for Jack again. I was startled by the sound of one of the doors opening and someone coming through.

Looking up, I expected it to be Jack. But instead, to my surprise, it was the maid in the picture I had seen! I think I startled her much more than she did me, though, because she let out a small scream as I came through.

As we both regained our composure, she said, “Oh, I’m sorry! You scared me! I heard someone calling out something, but I thought I was just hearing things. I wasn’t aware Mrs. Gremley was having a guest today.”

This was crazy! So Mrs. Gremley never died at all! And she had a maid! Funnily enough, the first thing that entered my mind was, ‘Wait until Mitch and TJ hear this!”

I was a little too shocked to say anything, so the maid kept going. “My name is Rita and I’m Mrs. Gremley’s maid. I’m sure she would want her guests to have something to eat, so you just take a seat right there while I go fetch you a snack.”

Before I could say anything else, Rita left the room out of the door that I had come in. My head was swimming a little bit from this new information…I had been so sure that Mrs. Gremley had died and that people just made up scary stories about this place. But no, she must have been alive and well…Rita talked about her like any other person.

My initial reaction was to get up and follow her. But she said that she would be back, so I decided to wait, get my thoughts together, and then I could ask her some questions about everything.

It was weird though…why was this place such a dump if Mrs. Gremley still lived here? And it was dirty too…Rita must not have been very good. This whole thing was really strange…

‘What am I thinking?’ I asked myself suddenly. ‘Here I am wondering why Mrs. Gremley’s house is dirty when I should be thinking about finding Jack! I’ll have to ask Rita when she gets back…surely either she or Mrs. Gremley must have seen him. But come to think about it, maybe we shouldn’t be in such a hurry to leave…it might be interesting to sit down and talk with the old woman and see what she has to say. I bet she’s a really nice old lady who people told stories about, just to be mean. Poor woman even lost a grandchild…’

My thoughts were cut short by Rita re-entering the room, carrying a tray. I saw that it had a pitcher of milk on it along with what looked to be apple slices.

Now this probably sounds stupid, but the first thought that entered my head was “Yuck!” It’s just that those were the absolute worst two things that could have been on that tray…for some reason I absolutely couldn’t stand milk, and I hated apples too (I actually didn’t really like any kind of fruit, really, I know that’s a little weird, but that’s the way I am). So I eyed the tray with a little disgust as Rita set it down on the table, smiled and said, “There you go. Eat up!”

I definitely didn’t want to eat any of it, but that didn’t matter anyway…I was mainly interested in talking to Rita. So I then said, “Uh, excuse me, but uh…Rita? Does Mrs. Gremley really still live here?”

“Why, of course she does! Why wouldn’t she?”

“Well, it’s just that there have been rumors all around town that she died many years ago, and…”

Rita nervously laughed and said, “Why, people sure can be cruel! Making fun of poor Mrs. Gremley. That’s a horrible thing to say, that she’s dead! Now, come on, eat your apple slices! Here, let me pour you a nice glass of milk…”

I ignored her request and then said, “But why is this place so dirty and run down, then? If she’s lived here for years…”

“Now young man, I know you’re a guest here but that doesn’t mean you can insult Mrs. Gremley by talking about her house like that, not to mention insult my work. Now don’t you worry about such things.

“What’s important is that you drink your milk and eat your apple slices,” she said with a bit more nervousness I noticed. “Mrs. Gremley would be AWFULLY upset if you didn’t eat up…”

There was no way I was eating that nasty crap, though. And something wasn’t right here…

Brushing aside Rita’s request, I asked, “Uh, ok then…I have another question. One of my friends…his name is Jack…he came in here about maybe an hour ago, and I’m looking for him. He’s about seventeen, kind of big, talks a lot…”

“Why, of course not! You’re the only one who’s been in this house all day! I certainly would have noticed if Mrs. Gremley had any other guests arrive. Now, please, young man, you must eat…”

“No!” I said maybe a little louder than I had meant to. “Listen, lady, I’m not eating this stuff…I hate it!” I didn’t mean to come off so rude, but I was getting pretty fed up with this maid and how she didn’t answer my questions and couldn’t shut up about the food.

To my surprise, she didn’t get angry at me, but she began to cry. She buried her hands in her face and sobbed. I felt horrible…I didn’t mean to sound so rude to make her cry.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to sound so rude…”

“It’s not that!” she said looking up at me through her tears. “It’s just that if you don’t eat, Mrs. Gremley will be awfully angry, and she will take it out on you! You might even end up like the other boy who came in here a little while ago…”

“So Jack DID come in here!” I said. “I knew it! Please, tell me where he is!”

“I…c…can’t!” she blubbered. And with that, before I could do anything else, she ran out of the room through the door I had come in, still crying.

“Wait!” I said, as I got up to go after her. I ran through the door, but as I entered the main entrance room again, there was no sign of her. How could I have missed her? She was just here!

I began to make my way through the other door in the room, but as I walked over to it, I took a glance at the portraits that I had ignored earlier. At first I quickly glanced at them with the intention of walking right by, but what I saw captured my attention.

I couldn’t believe it; these were pictures of various men and women, but they all had one thing in common…they were dressed up as…babies. And they were doing baby things. It was really weird. One full-grown woman was wearing a frilly pink dress with white socks and black little shoes. It looked like the outfit of a three year old. And she was smiling gleefully as she drug a baby doll behind her. I then saw this man wearing a footed baby sleeper, sucking his thumb and clutching a blanket. Another woman was sitting in a high chair wearing a bib, with some glop smeared all over her face. Another guy was in a crib, holding a baby bottle with both hands and drinking it. Another woman was crawling on her hands and knees wearing a little baby gown with a look of childlike curiosity on her face. Probably the second most disturbing one was a man wearing nothing but a diaper (though later I realized they probably all were wearing diapers underneath their clothes) and lying on the floor crying and shaking a baby rattle.

I say the last one was the second most disturbing because then I caught sight of one that almost made me faint. It was of JACK. He was sitting on the floor in a small T-shirt and a DIAPER, playing happily with some toy cars. If the circumstances had been a little different, I would have surely found the picture to be hilarious, and maybe even a little cute. But given that he was somewhere in this house and I had just had that weird conversation with Rita, this picture really bothered me.

For the first time in the house, I was truly spooked. I decided it would be best to go out, tell the other guys about what I saw, and convince at least one of them to come in here, take a look at this, and then help me find Jack. There was no way I was gonna do it on my own.

I raced over to the door leading to the tunnel I had taken to get into the house. I grabbed the doorknob, turned it and pulled, but the door wouldn’t budge. I pulled again, but got the same result. I frantically tugged at the door and tried turning the knob in all directions, but still, it didn’t move. I couldn’t help but feel like now I was trapped in this place.

For a second I panicked and felt like I was going to have a fit. At the moment I didn’t want to be here, and the fact that I was trapped really scared me. But after a second, I regained my cool, took a deep breath and calmed down. “It’s ok,” I said to myself. “That’s fine. I’ll just find a window and get out that way. Then we can figure out how to get back in.”

Realizing that my choices were limited, I decided to take the other door that was in this room. As I walked through it, I found myself in a kitchen. It had yellow tiles and yellow wallpaper, and there was a counter with a sink, an old stove, and an old refrigerator up against the walls. There was also a small table with two regular chairs, and also a high chair (which if I wasn’t in such a frazzled mood I probably would have realized was big enough to fit me…).

But what struck me the most was that there were no windows in this room, and even more surprising, no doors. I stepped further into the room to make sure that this was the case, but I found no doors anywhere. ‘Now that doesn’t make any sense,’ I thought. ‘Rita had to have come through this door…there was no other way. But there’s no way she could have gotten out. Unless…maybe she went through door leading outside and then made it where it wouldn’t move! But how could she have done that so fast?’

I was frustrated enough that I yelled out, “Damn it! I hate this stupid fucking house!”

“I would appreciate it if you would watch your mouth while you are a guest in my house, young man,” I heard a decrepit old voice say from behind me.

Part 6:

Turning around in surprise, I saw myself staring right at Mrs. Gremley herself, who was leaning on an old, gnarled walking stick and standing right in the doorway. She was smiling, but I could tell immediately that it wasn’t the type of smile that made me feel like she was a nice little old lady.

“Mrs. Gremley!” I said. “You’re alive!”

“Alive and quite disturbed to hear a handsome little boy such as yourself uttering such filthy language. Why, I would have raised my poor little grandson to not even think of saying such nasty words.”

I don’t know if it was because I was so distraught over my situation, or if I was irritated by Mrs. Gremley calling me a “handsome little boy”, especially with her annoying little old lady voice. Either way, before I could stop myself, I said, “Look, lady, I don’t care about you or your little house rules. What have you done with Jack?!”

I knew immediately that I had struck a nerve. Mrs. Gremley’s smile immediately changed to that look of stone cold seriousness that I had seen in the portrait.

“Never you mind about him. He’ll be along, I’m sure. I’m more concerned with you. You were a naughty little boy…you didn’t accept my gracious offer of apples and milk.”

“Yeah, because I hate them! There’s no way I would ever eat it!”

“My my my,” she said. “You poor boy…it is obvious that you have been making poor decisions about your nutrition. I doubt your parents raised you correctly in making these choices. So I believe I will have to assist you in sitting down and having a nice, nutritious snack.”

“Don’t you say anything about my parents!” I yelled. “And I’m getting out of here right now! If you think I’m going to stop and sit down to eat your crap, you’re crazy.”

“Ah, but my dear, you are ALREADY sitting,” she said with a devious smile.

I was puzzled at first, but then I looked down. I couldn’t believe it…she was right! I was sitting in one the chairs with the table right in front of me. My attention had been completely on Mrs. Gremley, so I didn’t notice how I got in the chair. How did she do that?! How could I have not noticed walking over here and sitting down?

But as she continued to look at me and smile, I didn’t get up. It was like she was casting a spell on me…I felt like I could move freely, but that the thought of getting up out the chair never even entered my mind, like it was something that was as crazy as me sprouting wings and flying.

Mrs. Gremley continued to smile as she said, “Now, since you have behaved like a child in your eating habits, I think it is appropriate that you drink your milk like a child.”

I could do nothing but watch as Mrs. Gremley made it over to the refrigerator and pulled out a sippy cup (like little kids drink out of) that was filled with milk out of the refrigerator.

“Now, sweetie, drink up the whole thing like a good boy,” she said as she set it down on the table in front of me.

Even though it seemed impossible for me to get up, I still had my temper and I was going to give this crazy old witch a piece of my mind. “I told you, I hate milk! And even if I liked it, there’s no way I would drink it out of a damn baby cup! I’m almost a grown man.”

But to my fright, as I said these words, I noticed that my hand had already grabbed the cup and it pushing the opening of it towards my mouth. Again, it wasn’t as though I was trying to resist doing so and trying to push it back down to the table, it was more like my arm was moving on its own accord and that it was someone else’s arm that I didn’t have any control over.

Likewise, almost as if it was natural, my hand pushed the cup to my mouth and I began to drink the disgusting dairy drink. It still tasted nasty, and part of me felt like gagging, but again, I kept on drinking. And to make things worse, my other hand was now gripping the cup, and I felt a huge loss of dignity as I realized I was guzzling down milk exactly like a two-year old.

“Yes, that’s right,” said Mrs. Gremley in her horrible old voice. “Drink up the whole thing, sweetie.”

I don’t know if it was this statement, the nastiness of the milk, or my overall anger at how childlike I was feeling, what with drinking from a sippy cup and having Mrs. Gremley constantly talk to me that way, but all of a sudden, I felt like everything was back to normal, and with a quick action of rage, I pulled the cup out of my mouth and threw the stupid sippy cup across the room, causing the remaining milk to spill all over the floor.

I then got up and said, “I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re doing, BITCH, but I am out of here!”

I began to walk to the door, but then all of a sudden, my body froze. This was unlike the other time…now I honestly did feel paralyzed, like I was stuck and physically couldn’t move. I tried to, but it was of no use…I felt like I was forcibly pinned in place.

“Why you foolish little boy,” said Mrs. Gremley from behind me. “I thought that we were going to fix this problem the easy way. But since you had to throw a little tantrum, it looks as though we’ll have to do it the hard way. I was mistaken…you’re not a little boy who can’t make the right choices about what he eats…you are a little BABY boy who needs someone else to feed him for him.”

I don’t know which was scarier: the fact that I couldn’t move, or Mrs. Gremley’s words. But I was completely helpless as I felt my body walk over to the high chair next to the table. Now I did notice that it was big enough to fit me, and I pushed as hard as I could to keep myself from going over and sitting in it. But of course it was of no use…I soon found myself sitting in it with Mrs. Gremley standing right in front of me.

She smiled at me and lowered the little table part of the high chair. I noticed that this pinned my arms firmly to my sides. Then, with a sigh of relief, I found that I was once again in control of my body. But my happiness soon disappeared as I realized that I was trapped in this horrible high chair…I couldn’t move my arms, my body was trapped by the table, and it wouldn’t budge from the floor. All I could do was helpless kick my legs out, which to my annoyance I had to admit looked a lot like a little baby squirming in its high chair.

I began to yell out as I turned my head and noticed that Mrs. Gremley was getting some kind of jars out of a cupboard in an upper corner of the room. “HELP!” I yelled. “Somebody! Get me out of here!” I continued to frantically struggle as I continued to yell, and I began to freak out a little.

Through my yells, Mrs. Gremley turned around carrying a few small jars, a spoon, and a cloth like material. “Be quiet, you foolish boy!” she said. “You’re giving me a mighty headache. You are reminding me more and more of a little baby with your childish squeals.”

But this didn’t stop me. I continued to scream for help. What did stop me was the shock I got when I opened my mouth to scream and out came a high pitched, actual baby scream! It sounded just like those annoying sound effects you hear on the radio and see on TV.

If I could have moved my hands I would have covered my mouth out of shock and embarrassment. Mrs. Gremley simply shot me another evil smile as she set down the jars, the spoon, and the cloth onto the table. “Now then, now you truly DO sound like a little baby squealing, my dear.”

I tried talking again, saying, “What did you do to me, you witch?” I was very relieved to find out that my voice still sounded normal.

“I did nothing. I just allowed you to see what you truly sound like when your voice reaches a certain volume.”

As Mrs. Gremley opened one of the jars, I noticed that they were, to no surprise, filled with baby food. And the one she opened looked like it was filled with…yuck…APPLESAUCE.

Part 7:

I tried to yell again but like before, it was that horrible baby screech. I found that I was almost crying at my situation. This was worsened when I saw that Mrs. Gremley pick up the cloth and unfold it in front of me.

“Now, I know the little baby will only make a mess on his nice clothes if we forget to put his bib on him!”

I struggled and yelled some more at the sound of this (which still sounded like a baby), and I continued to do so as I was helpless to stop Mrs. Gremley from tightly tying the wretched baby bib around my neck. I had seen that it had a babyish design of light blue teddy bears on it, and it would have been fitting on a little baby boy. On me I found it disgusting.

“Now,” she said as she got a spoonful of the applesauce. “It’s time for the baby boy to have his yummy applesauce.”

There was no way I could stop the spoon from going to my mouth, so I tried to close my lips tightly to keep it from coming in. But I don’t know whether it was her physical strength and spoon-feeding ability, my lack of ability to resist it, or another spell she was casting on me, but I found that the spoon made it past my lips and when she pulled it out, there was applesauce in my mouth.

It was a weird sensation…like with the milk, it tasted utterly disgusting (and even worse since being spoon-fed something makes it taste even worse, in my opinion). But part of me was trying to swallow it and another part was trying to spit it out. As a result, some of it went down my throat, but some dribbled back out of my mouth. But Mrs. Gremley must not have cared, because she took another spoonful and shoved it into my mouth, seemingly happy. The same thing happened again, and I could feel the nasty gunk oozing down my chin. But she kept on going. It tasted so horrible that I actually began to cry, with tears streaming down my cheeks. I also thrashed wildly in the high chair and continued to yell through the nasty spoonfuls of applesauce, losing all sense of dignity. But the applesauce kept coming, and as a result of my struggling, it not only ended up on my chin, but all over my cheeks, the bib I was wearing, and the table part of the high chair.

And Mrs. Gremley’s comments made the whole thing even worse. She kept spitting out baby talk to me, telling me to be a good boy and eat my applesauce, and making comments about how much of a messy eater I was. As this horrible situation continued, I honestly felt I would have died if anyone I knew could have seen me…me, a seventeen year old guy, sitting in a highchair wearing a baby bib, being spoon-fed baby applesauce by a woman who kept chiding me with baby talk, with the applesauce smeared all over my face and bib while I let out actual baby screams and kicked my legs out like an extremely upset little baby.

Thankfully, the jar was finally empty, and Mrs. Gremley was satisfied. “Now, my dear,” she said as she wiped my face off with the bib. “I hope you’ve realized how important it is to eat right. Little babies like yourself don’t know what they need to eat, so you must be fed properly by grown-ups like me who know what is best for you. I’ll give you some time to think this over now.”

She untied the bib, carried the baby food, spoon and bib over to the sink and put them in it. She then made her way back across the room using her walking stick for support and then left through the door.

I sat there crying uncontrollably for a few minutes. It did feel good to have my face clean (though it was still kind of sticky), but I had just been scared and humiliated out of my wits. I wanted nothing more than to be out of this horrible mansion this instant.

That’s why I was filled with a sudden hope as I realized that the highchair table was now loose, and as I struggled, I found that it lifted up with only the slightest push from me. I frantically climbed out the horrible chair and ran straight across the room as fast as I could. I yanked open the door, ran into the entrance hall room, and ran straight to the door leading to the exit tunnel.

But as soon as I yanked on the doorknob, I found that the door still wouldn’t move the slightest bit. I once again burst into tears as I pulled and tugged as hard as I could. Realizing that it would do no good, I simply collapsed on the floor in a small heap, still crying.

I continued to do so for a few minutes, not knowing what else to do. I was completely scared and distraught, wanting only to escape this place.

That’s why once again I jumped with surprise when I heard a voice say, “Jason? Is that you?”

I looked up suddenly and to my extreme shock I saw none other that Jack standing in the doorway leading to the dining room.

Part 8:

A smile instantly crossed my face as I yelled, “Jack! It’s you!” Before I knew it, I stood up and ran straight to him. I ran right into him and threw my arms around him, which must have caught him off guard because I knocked him back onto his butt and against the wall. But I didn’t care…I buried my face in his shoulder and cried into it with my arms around him as we both lay there on the floor up against the wall. It was a true sign of how much of a wreck that I was…that’s the only way I’d want to get that close to another guy, especially JACK, out of all guys. But I didn’t care one bit at the time…after what I had been through, I was so happy just to see a friendly face.

He just put his arms around me and held me tightly, saying calmly, “Hey, calm down now. It’s ok. It’s all okay. I’m here, and you’re safe now.”

I still continued to cry, even though I felt so safe in his arms as I listened to him say those comforting words. He was a lot bigger than me, and it was like when my dad used to hold me tightly when I was scared as a little kid. Through a muffled voice, I managed to say, “Jack, I’m so happy to see you. It was awful! So awful!”

He sounded puzzled when he said, “What was awful? What happened to you?”

“Oh, it was so horrible!” I said. “Mrs. Gremley…she’s still alive, and she’s here! She told me I was a little baby because I didn’t want to eat apples or drink milk, and she…like…took control of me, and she made me sit in a high chair, and she shoved applesauce down my throat, and I was trapped, and my voice sounded like a baby screaming, and…”

“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” he responded. “Don’t worry about it now. Mrs. Gremley’s not going to hurt you now.”

I didn’t even want to say anything else. So I just continued to sob Jack’s shoulder some more. My face was still buried there, so I couldn’t see anything, but I began to sense something a little funny. It seemed like I couldn’t quite get my arms around his body, and it felt like my shoes weren’t on. But I ignored the feelings…I felt so safe and happy that I didn’t want to think about it.

“You see, Jason,” said Jack. “Mrs. Gremley won’t hurt you now. Because she’s not that kind of person. She would never try to hurt you.”

“What?” I asked, my face still in his shoulder. “Jack, you don’t know the crazy witch! She has horrible powers and made me…”

“Shh, shh,” he said. “Don’t you worry. Mrs. Gremley wasn’t trying to hurt you…she was just trying to help you. You see, she helped me, too, Jason. She showed me things that I had never felt or seen before…and it was WONDERFUL.”

I was completely puzzled by his statement, and I had no idea what he was talking about. But I was still upset enough not to uncover my face…it just felt so good up against his father-like chest and I needed security at the moment. But I also ignored the feeling that my clothes felt kind of loose and my hands were now near the front of his body, not the back…

“Jason, Mrs. Gremley DOES have amazing powers. And she used them to help me. She showed me things about me, and she made me so happy. And you will be too. Once you realize these things, you’ll be so happy too…”

Jack was really, really starting to freak me out. I couldn’t help but pull my face away from him, and I looked up at his. He was wearing a sly smile. But not only that, but his face looked huge! I then realized that his entire body was huge! In fact, I realized now that my entire body was lying in his LAP.

“There, there now Jason,” he said with a smile. “It will all be okay. You see, Mrs. Gremley was right…you are really a little baby boy. And now you’ll see how wonderful it will be once you accept this.”

I just lay there in surprised as I realized that my clothes were, much, much too big for me. I was utterly shocked, and terrified. I had shrunk down the size of an actual BABY!

Jack wrapped my shirt around my entire body and cradled me in his big, masculine arms. He held me gently but also tightly, with my head pressed up against his chest and resting on the bend of his elbow.

He began to carry me through various rooms, though it was all a blur to me, partly because I couldn’t believe what was happening, but also because I felt physically disoriented, which I thought was because of my new babyish state. As we walked, he looked down at me and smiled. He took the arm that wasn’t supporting me and pushed a big finger toward me.

“Why, you’re the most adorable little baby that I’ve ever seen!” he babyishly cooed me as he softly played with me with his huge finger. “I always did want a little baby brother, but I think you’re even better!”

I don’t know if it was this statement or a sudden realization of what was happening, but once again I screamed out as loud as I could, and out came that same babyish screech.

“Aw, don’t cwy wittle baby,” he said through a smile as he laid me on my back on a soft surface. “I know, I know…you’re upset because you’re not dressed right. I don’t know too much about babies, but I do know that they wear diapers. And until today I didn’t know anything about how to take care of a baby, but now I feel like I’m pretty good with diapers.”

I wasn’t really paying attention to what he was saying, but I continued to cry as he removed my oversized clothes from me. I was ashamed to be naked in front of him, but even more ashamed of him dumping baby powder on my privates, which he was now doing.

But as he did so, it was funny…as the sweet smell of the powder hit my nose, the scent seemed to make me…happy. I stopped crying and completely forgot the shame that I had felt of Jack seeing me naked.

“Yes, the little baby does enjoy his baby powder, doesn’t he?” he asked.

I began to giggle slightly as I felt Jack take a big cloth, fold it underneath me, and then start to wrap it around my waist. I immediately got a strong sense of comfort and security as I felt the soft, thick material snugly enclose my waist, butt and private area. I saw Jack take two metal pins and tightly fasten the cloth to me, and for a split second I completely understood that it was a diaper and I needed it to protect everything in case I peed myself.

But that thought soon escaped me as I now only knew the diaper was a soft cloth that was there to make me feel safe and secure. Jack smiled at me and said, “The little baby is so cute in his diapy! I just want to eat you all up, baby Jason!” he added as he once again wrapped me in my huge clothes.

My sense of babyish bliss and security was thrown off when I felt a small pain and emptiness in my stomach. I knew something was wrong, but at the time I didn’t realize that it was called hunger…I just knew it felt bad, and as a result, I started to babyishly wail again.

As I did so, I heard Jack say, “Aww, there there wittle baby. I know what you need,” as I felt him sit down with me in his arms.

“I do too,” said another voice to the side, one that sounded much scratchier, and…older, than Jack’s. “Our little baby needs a baby bottle. A baby bottle filled with MILK.”

At the time I didn’t even bother to look to see who the voice belonged to. I just cried and cried until I felt Jack slip a soft nipple of a baby bottle into my mouth. I began sucking almost out of instinct, and I greedily nursed and swallowed the cool, thick liquid that was inside, listening to Jack saying, “There’s my good little baby.” I was so satisfied with my hunger being satisfied that I ignored the tiniest two thoughts in the back of my mind…the one telling me that this was the first time I could actually remember me drinking milk and enjoying it, and the other one that hinted at me that the other voice could have only belonged to Mrs. Gremley.

But these thoughts meant nothing to me. I just continued to happily nurse on the bottle until I either blacked out or simply fell asleep in Jack’s strong, comforting arms. And that’s all I can remember.