It was one of those days when Cameron woke up and was all alone. A few days ago, there was a person coming to babysit Cameron’s little sister and when Cameron came back home, she was gone.

The first few days, Cameron’s family had no idea who took her, but the day after, they saw a video of their babysitter putting a fist at his five-year-old sister.

Today Cameron was going to get her back. He still had no idea where she was, but he had a clue. In the video, he saw she was in a little cottage deep inside the woods. So that’s where he was headed.

After he finished gathering the stuff he needed, he set out into the woods. When he got into the woods, he couldn’t see any cottages in plain view, but he knew it was further into the woods.

* * *

“Please don’t hurt me,” Cameron’s younger sister, Emma, pleaded to her babysitter.

“I will, you moron,” the babysitter said with a malicious grin.

BANG!

They heard a noise outside. After that, the babysitter took out his machete and headed for the door.

Two minutes later the babysitter hadn’t come back, but her brother did. “Cameron! You came to save me,” Emma whispered.

“Or try,” the babysitter said as he entered the room.

The babysitter took out two little daggers.

“I will kill you!” Cameron yelled at the babysitter.

“But you won’t.”

Then Cameron took out two katanas. Then they started to duel.

Cameron then lunged at the babysitter and tried to get a good shot at the arm. But the babysitter used the daggers and pushed both katanas to the side and badly hurt Cameron’s arms, which led to death.

“NOOO!” Emma yelled at the top of her lungs. Then the babysitter took both daggers and chopped off the ropes. “I’ll let you live, on one condition. You kill your dad.”

Emma nodded glumly. She stared at the babysitter and asked, “Why do you want me to do that?”

“I want you to hurt and/or kill your parents.”

“But why do you want to do that.”

“Let me tell you a story. When I was in high school, I had a huge crush on your mom, but your mom married some other kid. So I’m getting revenge for her marrying the kid which was Joe right, yeah. So you are going to get your dad to divorce your mom.”

“Why would you want to do such horrible things. And I wouldn’t do such a thing.”

“Because I just do. Now go do what I said.”

Emma didn’t have a choice and walked right out of the cabin. But instead of doing what the babysitter said, whose name Emma found out was was Mike, she ran to her house and told her mom as fast as she could, but while Emma was talking, her mom was crying from joy.

“So that’s where you were all this time,” Emma’s mom said with more tears in her eyes. “But where’s Cameron?” Emma’s mom asked worriedly.

“Um, let’s just say he’s not alive,” Emma said hesitantly.

Emma’s mom picked up the phone with a face like she has seen a ghost and rapidly dialed 911. After she finished talking to the police she ran upstairs and started to cry hysterically for hours.

Emma then started to run to the cottage to find Mike and lie to him. She said, “I did it.” She entered and called for Mike but there was no answer.

* * *

After Mike heard the police sirens outside of his “secret” hideout, he ran out of his emergency door and ran to his parents’ house for the first time in his whole life. When he was right at the door, he hesitantly knocked.

The door opened and a middle-aged woman appeared. “Is that you, Mike?” the middle-aged woman asked.

“Yes, it’s me,” Mike replied childishly and sheepishly. Then then middle-aged woman grabbed Mike and pulled him inside her house. “Mike, you came back, but why?”

Mike knew the middle-aged woman was his mom, Margaret. At first, Mike had no clue who this woman was because he thought he could ask one of his neighbors where his family moved. But apparently they just moved to a different town two minutes away from the their old one. Now he found his parents and had a happy, sad, angry feeling inside him. His mom hugged him and let him stay for the night. But Mike didn’t feel like he deserved that, and a sliver of guilt ran down his back. Then his old childhood memories came flooding back

* * *

I was sitting in the living room watching TV (as usual) on a Saturday, and then out of the blue, my mom came in and said,” Pack up your things! We’re moving out of here.” That sentence turned my brain into mush. “No, NO! Dad, you can’t do that to me. We’ve lived in this town for 12 years and I have made a bunch of new friends and I won’t abandon them and go somewhere else,” I yelled with tears on the verge. “I’m sorry, but we can’t afford to live here anymore.”

“But I’m not going anywhere.”

“Excuse me, young man, you are my son and you do as I say.”

“Make me.”

“Mike, I won’t take any of this foolishness. Go and pack up.”

“I said I’m not going anywhere, you hear that?”

“MIKE HAMILTON, YOU GO UPSTAIRS AND PACK YOUR THINGS UP! YOU HEAR THAT? OR ELSE YOU ARE GROUNDED FOREVER,” boomed my father.

“No, I won’t leave.”

Then my dad took me by the ear and dragged me to my room. He yelled at me to start  packing. So I did, but when they were busy talking, I slipped out the door with my belongings and ran away from my home. When I got far enough, I chopped down some wood and  built a little cottage that I learned in Boy Scouts. After that, I went to get more wood and made a little fire in the house. Unfortunately, I had no furniture at all so I had to sit on the hard wooden floor. I decided to carve some furniture out of the spare wood. Now I have completed my mission. But 5 years later I saw a newspaper that said that the search for me was “over.” I was half happy and half sad. My parents don’t care about me now. Seriously they stopped caring for me? So I decided to get revenge later on in their life to pay back for canceling the search for me.

* * *

“So… can I stay for a while? Five days max.”

“Sure, anything for my son. But why?”

“Oh, because I haven’t seen you in 12 years.”

“O-kay…”

Mike felt very guilty because of how his mother was acting to him. Part of him was very happy because now he could finally get revenge. However, at this point, his guilt was taking control over his other feelings, so he couldn’t get revenge, not yet.

It was 10:00 o’clock already, so everyone was getting ready for bed. Mike already had the best dinner in his life and watched TV shows he wasn’t allowed to before. After what just happened, Mike couldn’t get any revenge again.

CREAK, CREAK!

Mike was walking very slowly down the stairs of his parents house because he didn’t want to stay another night, otherwise all his secrets would spill out and his parents would hate him for life. When he got down to the stairs, he secretly installed a little camera in all the rooms that can go 360 degrees around so he could see his parents. He still didn’t want to abandon them, at least not yet.

* * *

Go to mom and dad and tell them about everything and then you throw yourself into a cell. No, just leave and forget about everything. Yes, because they have been too nice to me. Okay, if I just forget about this and go they’re going to think somethings up. And if I throw myself into jail by confessing the things to my mom, she would be unpredictable.

* * *

Not wanting to disappoint his mom by lying, he put his hand on the doorknob, but his mind was processing totally different. His mind was taking him back up to his mom and dad’s room and confessing. And that’s what he did. “Mom, Dad, wake up. I need to tell you something very important.”

His mom shot up first and then a few seconds later his dad shot up later very groggily. “What do you want to tell us?”

“You know how I used to be a babysitter?”

“Yeah, you were babysitting, ummm… a girl named Emma, right?”

“Yeah, I killed her brother.”

Mike’s dad fainted.

“YOU WHAT?”

“I wasn’t in the right mind, Mom.”

Now her face was the color of a fresh tomato and her eyes were giving Mike an angry regretful expression, wishing she had a different son. And her hands were clenched into a strong hardy fist.

“No, excuses! I am ashamed to be your mom!”

“Mom, I’m really, really sorry. And I’ll show you by turning myself in.”

After that he ran downstairs, threw open the door and ran outside towards the police station.

When Mike got to the police station, he ran up to the counter and said, “I found the suspect to the murder of Cameron.”

“Yes, yes, who was it?”

“You might find this hard to believe…” I can’t believe that I’m doing this. But I shouldn’t do this. No, just do it  for mom. No, I would never do this. No, but I have to. “It was… me.”

The police’s face was very angry and shocked at the same time.

“Sir, you are going to go into one of those cells right now!!”

And after the police yelled that, another officer came running out of nowhere and threw handcuffs over his hands. He didn’t fight against it. He learned that paying his wrongdoings by throwing himself into jail was the least he could do. But he knew one thing, he would never be able to get his mom’s trust back. But he thought it was the right result to his actions.

Five Years Later

Now Mike and his parents, were at a facility in Trenton, New Jersey. Ready for Mike’s execution.

“Mike you know I always love you, but you must pay for your wrongdoings,” Mike’s mom said, holding back dramatic tears. “And I would always regret this, but the government has asked to do this.”

“Yes, I know and I always wanted to say that.”

After that, the police put the gun up to Mike’s face, but then Emma burst through the room and said, “Wait, he deserves to live because everyone needs another chance to change. He can’t die. Mike deserves to have another chance to have a new improved family and have a fresh start to a new improved life. And he’s already paid for five years.”

“Ma’am do you know who this man is?”

“Yes I do. He was my babysitter, so he’s not that evil.”

Mike and his mom were in shock. A little girl about ten years old just burst into the room and stopped an execution. Mike was in so much shock that you could blow a bull horn at his face and he wouldn’t notice at all.

“I’m sorry, but we already signed the papers.”

Then the other two police held him up by the arms. And then there was the sound of a gun fire.

Epilogue: Mom

At that time when my son was about to get executed I was so, so sad. I thought about the time when I yelled at him harshly and said those things I never should have said. And now I never got to apologize to him. I also had wished we had given him more love and appreciation. After he got executed, I cried so hard and my face was so hot you can cook an egg on it. My husband, he cried with me. That little girl, Emma, came to my house and told me the times where Mike babysat her. Those stories reminded me of him. But his debt to society was paid off.

The end