#threw him in the deepfryer

[keo-k]

WHAT THE FUCK IS A KILOMETERRRR

*gunshot noises* MY PRONOUNS ARE U.S.A *eagle caw* *OW MY LEG*

[dixie-wolf]

Home Phone 2005

[James] Hi, you've reached James and Maryann Corenthal. We are not available to take your call because we are out having fun. So please leave a message and we'll call you back. Thank you, and have a great day. Bye bye. [beep] [Adam] James, it's Adam. Wanted to thank you for yet another gift. It's very appreciated. But, listen. You have to do a better job of keeping in touch. I spoke with Maryann. She laughed and told me that she finally broke you down and that you carry the cell phone we got you. Now just use the damn thing and we won't have to be playing this ongoing game of phone tag. [laughs] Hey. Anyway, I hear we have a lunch date with Elizabeth in Lambertville next month. Think you'll get the date? [beep] [Woman's voice, anxious and disjointed] Doctor, we [smelled the?] fires and we had to leave the area. The management [made it?] across the pedestrian bridge before the barricades went up. The police have River Road off - completely cut off and the firetrucks are blocking the bridge. We tried your cell after we realized something was wrong, but... Well... We know how successful that endeavor was. I was wondering if you could make contact with your wife. Anyway, Adam and I are safe, but we're horrendously worried for you. Please, please be safe and contact us as soon as possible. Adam is on edge and telling me we need to get further away and is saying something about a protocol? Please call me if you get the chance. [beep] [William] James, it's William. I just got a call. What the fuck? Call me. Please. [beep] [Elizabeth, playful; sirens play in the background for the duration of the call] Heyyyy, doc. Missed you at the diner. But you sure as hell bit it with me! [laughing, both male and female] Well done! I gotta say, you have been a lot of fun. And, I mean that. But, well, you know what they say. All good things must come to an end. I'll see you at the park, champ. Oh, and Maryann? Be a doll and leave the lights on for me? [beep] [James, panicked; sirens play in the background for the duration of the call] Maryann! It's me. I just - I just saw our son. I saw Evan! I was meeting with Elizabeth in Lambertville. She'd been in contact with Robert. We were all gonna meet at the diner, get a handle on the situation. We could learn so much. W-with her work with missing children, Robert's expertise, and our whole situation? Anyway, we thought that the diner would be the best place to go, we'd be in public, it would be safe. Wrong, wrong goddammit! I made the wrong decision. Before we got there, I was sitting on a bench, and a young man, he approached me. He sat - I, I fuckin' leapt out of my skin, babe. It was him. It was our son. He - He was all grown up. He told me that this would all be over soon enough. I was so fucking scared when I saw that. I didn't - at first - I, I was angry, too. I - I've missed him so - I need to know what happened. I almost started screaming. I was demanding an explanation, but before I could even turn to fully look at him, he was gone, evaporated - like into thin air. [sighs] When I got to the diner, I got a call from Elizabeth. Wait, wait - fuck, what is it? Wait - So, anyway. I got to the diner, and I get a call from Elizabeth, and I heard that telltale bullshit static that we've heard on the phone before, you know what I'm talking about? I could barely understood her. I think I was hearing her tell me that this was a set up. And the diner that they were at, they went to, that they were at a different diner, that apparently I'd been given the slip, or something, I don't know what the fuck she was saying. Anyway, I - I was wrong, I was in the wrong place. After I hung up, I looked around, and everyone in this goddamn diner was looking at me. It was spooky. I gotta tell you, their eyes, man, they weren't even blank, they were just full of hate. Three men closest to me threw down their forks, and they just started coming at me. Alright, and then the whole diner erupted into this... fuck... just coming after me, so I started taking off. I had my gun... And I'm sorry, Maryann, please forgive me, but... I was shooting people, I saw them - they're dying, they're dead - there's a lot of them dead. But it didn't even stop them. There's more coming, I don't even know where the hell they came out of, it's like it was like out of the fucking woodwork, man. Anyway, I ran into the kitchen, and there was a bunch of cooks, that the cooks, that the - everyone in the kitchen was coming after me - the plate washer, the cook, everybody was coming after me. I saw one girl go - her arm went into the deepfryer; she didn't even - she didn't even react, she didn't cry, she wasn't in a shock of pain - she just starting laughing this horrible, freakish laugh. It scared - it chilled me to my bone, I gotta tell you. I snaked through the building as fast as I could. But I - I couldn't find a way to get out. There was smoke, it was building. Bodies were piling up. They were hurting each other, and I was still shooting at them. I could tell that they - the noise and the commotion had spread to the street. Either more of these people were joining the mob, or there were just people walking by wondering what was going on. But everybody was getting hurt. It seemed to me that everybody was coming after me. Anyway, I backed myself into a bathroom, and I thought about what that wicked - that wicked boy on the park bench had said. "This will all be over soon." A small painting of a willow tree hung on the wall. It was crooked. And I remember that made me think back to when all this had started, when we were still in Ohio, when happiness was still a thought, a goal, you, me, our family, something that was within reach, it was tangible, we could touch it, it was happiness, it was joy. Babe. I'm so damn sorry. We never got that. Anyway, I got my way out of the restroom and I took off, and I heard the emergency response sounding, but I knew that they wouldn't be exactly sympathetic. I tried - I tried to stay low and I kept moving. I stumbled through the woods and across the river road. I can hear the sirens, they're getting more distant. But I know that they're gonna find me soon. So I'm at the bottom of a hill, with one long path ahead. I see a tree just like the one in the painting. This is it. He knew it would end up like this. I probably should have also, maybe a long time ago, had I been thinking clearly. I know now that I'm being watched by him, Maryann. At this point, I know that that goddamn spectre, that fucking monster that took our children, and that I've hunted for all these years, he's watching me too. I can feel him. The air is so thick, I can cut it with a knife or shoot it with a gun. Everything, everything has been leading to this point right now. It's do or die. You know what I have to do. I'm going to the tree at the top of the hill. I hope you receive this message. Know that I love you, babe. I always have, and I always will. I hope you will forgive me for dragging you, dragging us, into this mess, into this lifestyle. [sighs] You know, I've only ever wanted to help. I would love to believe that I succeeded.  Maybe, maybe history can avenge me, huh? Maybe it can tell our story. Maybe it will  help erase the monster the authorities paint me as. No matter. You know what you have to do. Follow our protocol. Disappear. Then. Then you know what you need to do if it doesn't work. I love you. Maybe I'll see you again. I sure as hell hope I do. I love you, babe. Bye. [beep]