Read Madunc :: So Who Is He

(Warning: Cringey Content, Mentions of Death and Disection)

[Previously: I’m not ready to process any of this. I feel horrible snatching up the grieving lizard, but the others comfort it at least.

With a loud crack the door breaks open.]

I tense. Then turn slowly. The madman lowers his boot. I’m scared. I’ve never seen him this angry. He looks around and then at the moved corpse and then surprisingly softens. Maybe it’s because I closed the doors to the cages. Maybe he doesn’t think I let them all out. He nods his head towards the door for me to get out. I scoot around him quickly, cage behind my back.

But he’s looking at something else. He pulls his papers together, making sure it’s all there, I feel disgusted.

I rush the cage outside scanning the woods and leave it open under a bush. Flinching to look up at the woods every ten seconds. I need to hurry back.

“I…I didn’t touch your papers so where is the bird?” I ask Hopefully they’ll get to safety.

“Why do you keep calling it that?” He mutters. He picks up the corpse dangling it in front of me.

“Does this look like a real lizard?” I cover my mouth with my good hand. He looks at the newest bite and claw marks all over my other one. I look down and that's when I see the bird. It's laying on the floor limply. I lean down to pick it up and snarl at him.

“You promised!” I struggle to form the next sentence. “You’re a monster and a liar!” I flinch when he approaches me thinking he’ll hit me again but I’m still pissed. He grabs my wrist and drags me to the kitchen. I struggle. I hit him and he just stops to look at me.

“You’re weaker than I thought you would be.” Is all he says before he throws me against the kitchen island. I remember the first day I arrived when he made me a peanut butter and honey sandwich. I was too heart broken and empty to really taste it as he watched me eat. He thought that meant I didn’t like it.

I flip around and try to defend myself but he walks around me getting the medkit out of the cabinet.

I flinch away trying to run but he quickly follows and grabs me again, this time yanking me against the kitchen counter so hard I get my breath knocked out of me.

I double over tensing as I try to gasp, struggling to breathe in.

I cough gasping in loudly as finally my lungs fill. My arm is pinned down. He calmly gets stuff out of the medkit .

In my defense I didn’t think he wanted to help me. I just saw how much violence he was capable of and there was way more in the kit that could hurt then heal. I wince as he starts cleaning the cuts. I glare at him and then slowly look down at the bird in my other hand. I hold onto it silently, planning on burying it with the lizard and rodent later if I have time. I tremble as he continues to silently, gently sterilize and then put bandaids on my very roughly pinned hand.

“Did you manage to release them all?” He asks, sounding disappointed and I don’t respond. “You’re lucky you don’t need stitches.” He lets me go.

I rub my bruised wrist before returning to the bathroom. I guess he was surprised to see me carrying the rodent cause he asks, “What are you doing with that?”

“Burying it.” I mumble and go to grab the carcass in the lab as well. He laughs at me and finishes packing up the medkit to take with us. “Well be quick about it, once I pack up everything, I’m leaving with or without you.”

It was a depressing burial. I place them underneath the same bush, all of the creatures are gone thank goodness and put as many flowers over them as possible. He loads up the car inhumanely fast and I have to cut things short to catch up to him.

He gets in just as I open the back door.

Suddenly I stop, realizing I could run. I could just sprint down the road, why was I actually agreeing to go with this crazy man?! Surely what I saw was a new species. I turn glancing at the woods and freeze in terror.

I can see the towering outline clearly now. It’s hunched and its skin looks like wood. I’d almost think it was a tree if it wasn’t shifting, breathing heavily, its yellow eyes focused directly on me.

“I told you that you could stay.” The man says calmly, not noticing the creature yet. “It’s up to you.” I only unfreeze once it takes a step out of the woods then I jump into the car slamming the door, forcing it to lock I pant in terror.

The man adjusts his mirror and then makes a laughing noise in his throat. “Damn it got close.” He looks back at me and then calmly drops, “You have those creatures' dead scent on you, it’s going to hunt you down, just like me, for the rest of your life.” He starts the car and it runs towards us.

I scream.

The car’s tires spin not catching on the gravel driveway and then finally find traction, taking off. I throw myself against the far door watching the creature reach for me.

The madman waits until he leaves it behind before mentioning, “That would have torn you limb from limb. It doesn’t care that you tried to save a few of them, they never repay favors. As soon as they saw you with me they, well…you just saw.” He chuckles again, very happy with himself.

I look at him in horror, ‘how could he be so calm?’ Curling in on myself, pulling my headphones over my ears, and burying my face in the seat of the car I try to be as silent as possible as I have a panic attack. I finally stop when I just get so tired I pass out.

The man adjusted the mirror again watching as the boy apparently managed to fall asleep. He looks back to the endless road ahead and sets the course. Stopping at the only gas station for miles he fills up the tank and eats something small.

‘I should have packed food for the trip.’ He thinks disgusted. Buying an armful of snacks and drinks he hesitates then picks out something only the boy would like. He didn’t really care about his “nephew” that much and he’s still annoyed he couldn’t finish off all the experiments. He was really looking forward to killing them all. But he knows it’d be a pain if the boy came to hate and despise him completely.

‘It’d be better to confuse him.’

I wake up slowly once my body realizes the car isn’t moving. It’s pitch black now. I sit up panicking that the monster would be able to catch up. I check that the doors are locked and get angry at myself for feeling relief as I see the madman heading back to the car with some bags.

He notices that I’m awake and just silently hands me one.

“That’s for you.” He says after sitting in the driver's seat, tapping his finger on the steering wheel, “How long were you awake?”

“Just now, why?”

He turns his head slightly, “You should probably use the restroom and maybe get something to eat in there while you’re at it.” I shake my head no even though I probably did need to pee. He gets out of the car and I tense remembering how rough he’d been with me before. My wrist and probably ribs are bruised. He opens the back door and I flinch away violently. “Go to the bathroom, it’s a long ride.” He orders monotone with those dead eyes. I refuse to say anything but don't move either. He reaches in and I wince but then he’s giving me something. I look and when I realize it's a green plushie bird, I tear up and turn away.

“You’re cruel, you know that.” I push past him and hurry to the bathroom.

The madman is still bent over shocked at getting the opposite reaction he expected. He looks down at the plush birdie in his hand.

‘I thought he liked birds?’ Stuffing it in the trash he leans on the car waiting to see if the boy actually comes back or if he tries to make a break for it.

It’d be amusing at least if he ran. Only woods for miles he’d be found dead and they’d call it a bear attack. What else would maul his corpse like that?

I keep my head low as I stalk into the gas station, ‘how could he?’

I try to hide my face in my hood close to tears. Using the bathroom I wash my hands thoroughly as if they were covered in blood.

‘And so soon after it all, he’s a literal psycho! Did he think it was funny?’ I leave the bathroom and look at the snacks, taking my time now. I pocket a few items knowing the person as the desk wouldn’t give two shits if I stole something.

I hear the bell ring and peek around the corner freezing when I see a police officer.

‘I could tell him I’ve been kidnaped.’ I think before remembering, ‘You’ll be hunted your whole life just like me.’

I wait for an excruciating moment and then walk past saying nothing. ‘How am I supposed to tell anyone a monster was hunting me? No one would believe me and the madman knows how to survive it because he’s obviously still alive.’

“Surprised you came back.” The madman smirks.

“I thought you were supposed to be smart?” I snap back and somehow notice the bird shoved in the trash. I feel my mouth left open for a second and then shut it feeling annoyed that it bothered me. Maybe because other than necessities it was the first thing bought for me in a long time. I don’t check if the madman isn’t watching. I pull its dirty, soft body from the trash and get back into the car silently.

I keep my head down as we drive and then finally feeling incredibly thirsty, start going through the bag. He bought a bunch of random snacks and drinks, like he wanted one of everything.

'He doesn’t know anything about me at all.’ I pull out some sort of rehydration electrolyte drink and sip on it. It tastes nasty so I guess it would actually do what it said on the bottle. I adjust in the seats laying longways looking out the window. He had grabbed my blankets and pillow. I guess that was nice to lay against, versus my backpack. I hate how much I mess with the stupid plush bird, cleaning it up the best I can.

“I'm glad you like it.” He says eyes in the mirror. I look away feeling annoyed and grumpy being cooped up for so many hours.

“It’s not the same.” I mutter. I purposefully put the plush somewhere safe and roll over to try to get some sleep. He makes that dark throaty laugh that he does whenever I let him get under my skin, ‘which is all the time.’

“I wish you hadn’t killed it,” I feel my throat squeeze and close my eyes tightly. He doesn't move or say anything so I just close my eyes tighter before relaxing, begging sleep to come take me and let me momentarily forget about all my problems.

I open my eyes aware that I’ve been nodding off a lot, the psychopath is completely silent. He seems determined to drive through the night. I yawn and stretch sitting up to look around. I can barely see anything with how dark it is, only what the high beams light up. I lay my head on the passenger seat looking out the front windshield as I start to wake up more and process everything.

“How can you be so calm about that...thing?” I say softly. He looks over a little and then pushes me back a little bit.

“Shouldn’t you be wearing a seat belt or something.” He presses coldly.

“You plan on hitting the breaks really hard?” I ask annoyed.

“It’d be funny to see you fly through the window.” He grins. ‘Click.’ He hears as I secure the seat belt snorting, “Have it your way.”

“Answer my question.” I say starting to get a headache from him. Loosening my seat belt so I can reach where I was before.

“If you’re talking about being stalked and hunted it doesn’t bother me.” He says coolly. Then reaching into the snack bag opens a granola bar eating it. I don’t think I've ever seen him eat normal food before. I guess he is a human.

I turn back to the road and then reach for the radio, I tense as he gets weirdly still. I hit the button and wait as the radio turns to the last station that was on before. He turns his head a little bit as I scroll through the channels until I find the only available rock station.

It’s strangely quiet though so the radio tower must be far away. I lean my head on the passenger seat again playing with whatever caught my attention. A string coming loose from the seat, my hoodie strings, a tag.

“Do you have to constantly be stimulated?” He asks bored.

I make a face and move away from him back into the backseat. “It’s nothing, just normal kid shit. I am a kid, remember.”

“You're like what, 14?” He glances in the mirror to see my annoyed expression when he intentionally guesses too low.

“Yeah.” I say to annoy him back sarcasm dripping from my voice. “I’m just big for my age.”

He frowns and then goes, “Oh.” The radio picks up a little bit and then goes quiet again.

“Why did you show up?” I ask gritting my teeth.

“Hm?” He digs in the bag again and starts eating an energy bar.

“When my social worker called you, why did you pick up? Why did you show up and go through the whole process to adopt me?!” I exclaim.

“I was just committing to the part.” He smiles, clenching the wheel tighter for a second.

“You-”

“And it looks better.” He continues, “Hiding out in the woods all day people think you’re suspicious, but showing up to court to adopt a kid, enrolling it in school, taking care of it. People think you’re normal.”

“It.” I scoff. “So I’m your cover story.” He nods. I look away, then on a whim I blurt, “You forgot to enroll me in therapy.” He doesn’t immediately respond. “You want to play the part of a totally not psychotic animal-murdering piece of shit? Then you gotta enroll me in therapy, my parents died and I was in the foster care system for years, a normal uncle would make sure to put me in therapy as well.”

He keeps driving and then says, “I know.” I don’t know why but that pisses me off more. I feel my heart racing from anger and have to lay back down turning away from him.

“You think I’m a psychopath.” He says it slowly like a statement. “But you keep trying to get an emotional reaction out of me.” He looks back to see if I was capable of hearing him. My headphones are down around my neck. Apparently that was all he was going to say. I curl up tighter.

“You’re an animal murderer too.” I mutter.

“I enjoy killing them, yes.” He says straight faced. “But they aren’t animals.” I frown remembering the confusing “skin” of the creature in the woods.

“Why?” I clutch my bird plushie torn from wanting to know but also scared about what his answer is. He doesn’t answer and I close my eyes letting out my breath. I want to ask if he also killed people and that reminds me of my real uncle, who died even before my parents did.

“How did you find him? Dead or did you…kill him?”

The man sighs and reminds me, “I already told you I didn’t kill him. I had seen him in town and went to his home to find him already dead.”

“That’s really convenient.” I interrupt unconvinced.

“I followed a lot of the town people. I was looking for an identity to take on at the time.” He gestures vaguely, “Imagine my surprise when he doesn’t come back down during his monthly food restocks.” He slows down a little bit as the road becomes more serpentine.

“If he wasn’t already dead would you have killed him?”

“Maybe…maybe not…there’re plenty of empty houses in the mountains and woods.” He stretches his back out a little, apparently able to get stiff. “I just lucked out, that's all.”

“I won’t hurt you unless you put me or my work in danger.”

This content is intended for mature audiences for the following reasons.