Family Secrets, Nathaniel H. Champlin [best management books of all time TXT] 📗

Chapter 1


“Run away!” is the last thing I remember hearing from my mother. That is just before she screamed as she was being murdered by something. I remember hearing everything up to where I am now.
I awoke to hearing her scream as she jumped out of her room into the hallway. I jumped from my bed and was in the hallway before she even got to leave her room. I watched her fall into the wall as she ran out. She looked at me and I remember seeing fear and disbelief in her eyes. She told me to run as she pushed me to turn around. I was never even able to ask what was going on or what happened. I started running with her I turned to look back. “Do not look back! Just keep running!” she yelled. We get to the living room just before we get to the door. I see something moving fast and I was able to see just a glimpse of what it is. I think of it now and I realize it was the mouth. It was smiling. It had an almost ecstatic smile as it came after us. It smashed into her and she went flying. I felt the wind as it went by. I felt cold, alone, and almost dead inside as it brushed past me. My mother is lying on the floor, she looks at it and her eyes grow in shock and without looking at me she tells me to run in an almost calming voice. I get to the door and as soon as I get it open I swing it as hard as I can opening it and stumble out. I am standing, waiting, not knowing how to act, feel, or even know what I should do. I am standing on the sidewalk off of our porch just looking at the house trying to find where this thing broke in. I hear my mother scream again only this time not in fright but in agony. I look at the door frame and see a dark shadow moving toward it fast . I freeze not knowing what to do. My mother appears, running as fast as she can as she stumbles, tripping over her feet. Her shirt sleeve is ripped all the way down her left arm. I now know why she was screaming in such pain. Blood is running down her arm almost like it was thrown onto it. She isn’t moving it or holding it. I can’t stop looking at it then I hear her yell to me. “Run, please run!” I look up at her and see her face with spats of blood on it and tears running down her cheeks. I start to shake and she yells to me again. “God dammit run!” so I do, I turn around as fast as I can and run not looking back. She screams one last time before I hear her die in our front lawn. “Run away!” is what she says and as soon as she says that I feel the cold night air brushing by my face almost drowning out the sound of her dying but not loud enough. She drowns in her own blood. I can tell by the gurgling noise she makes.
I wake up in a panic and after a few minutes I get a hold of myself and realize I’m not outside anymore. I ended up going to a Mental Hospital to see if I can get help to forget everything that happened. I didn’t need to see what was going on, I could just imagine from hearing everything. I could imagine her fighting trying to get away, maybe on the ground on her back trying to push whatever it was off. Maybe she was standing, fighting it and it just happened to grab her by the throat, smile wickedly as it dragged its thumb nail across and into her neck. Then threw her down and watched… I grab and shake my head as I hold back tears from thinking too much about what could have happened. I get up from the bed and go to my only window I have. They put me in a room by myself because I sometimes will scream in my sleep. They say it’s because I didn’t scream or anything when I watched. I had even put some cracks into the walls during my sleep. I wouldn’t ever wake up with cuts or bruises so I can’t be too sure about that those are things the doctors and nurses have said to each other as they walk by me.
While I stare out the window a rock is thrown up to it. I watch it drop and as it does I see two kids standing out there. I don’t know them and if I am right they don’t know me. They are laughing and smiling as they continue to throw rocks at other windows. A nurse from the Hospital goes out the door and yells at them to stop. They look at her as she points her finger at them telling them to leave us alone. She comes back in and the kids look up at my window again and just turn around and walk away. I walk to my door and open it slowly. The halls are not too crowded this morning so I decide to go for a quick walk around the square that they give us. I am just looking around into the rooms to see who is in there room and who might be in the recreation room.
“Hey Alex, how are you doing this morning?” I am asked by one of the nurses. She checks on me more than the other nurses do. Her name is Adalia; she looks almost as beautiful as her name. Her hair was always up in a ponytail. It was a light brown with highlights of a darker brown. Her ponytail always seemed to swing and sort of bounce as she walked and at the end it seemed to almost curl up and away from her neck. Her eyes were a light brown almost a golden color. Her smile, which she always had, was a small but cheery one. She was only probably about one hundred and fifteen pounds about five feet three to four inches tall. Yes you could say I enjoyed being there just to be around her. She always seemed to brighten my day when she showed up.
When she asked me that I couldn’t hide how my morning was. She could tell I had a dream of it all again. It doesn’t help that I am jumper and will turn my head slightly or all the way when I hear a noise then I am not ready for. She looked at me kindly.
“Would you like to go sit and talk about it for a while? I’m on a little brake since I have most of my work down already.” I look at her and force a slight smile.
“I’m okay for now but, if I get worse I wouldn’t mind being around someone if you can do that?” She nods her head and smiles then hurries off to where ever she was going. As she went by I happened to catch a scent of her perfume, it was sweet and calming and just that made me turn my head slightly and look back to watch her walk off saying hi to the other nurses and doctors. After standing still for a few seconds I continue to walk down the hall to the windows to see out to the city. The one good thing about these windows is there is a city but there is also a lake in the distance.
Another nurse, one of the older ones, shows up. “Good morning Alex, did you get your breakfast and medicine this morning?”
“No ma’am sorry I haven’t been that far yet.” I say calmly. She smiles and starts to walk so I walk with her and she just asks the usual while we walk. How have you been, how have you been sleeping, and are you feeling better. I just answer her questions seeing she is a nurse and deserves to know. We first stop at the counter to get my water and pills they are giving me. They are supposed to help with my sleep but they don’t do much from what I can say. We then head to the cafeteria and before we get there she wishes me a good day and goes on her way.
It was pancakes and sausage this morning for breakfast. I just had the pancakes, or at least what I could eat of them. I didn’t really talk to anyone, some were afraid of me and others made me feel uncomfortable. The rest of the day I sat in the recreation room either reading or looking out the window dreaming of being out of this place.
Night came around about a half hour before we had to be in our rooms and I was already in mine trying to get myself ready for the night.
Adalia comes in “You okay Alex?” she asks sweetly.
I look at her then set my head down sort of looking at where the floor and the wall come together. She sits down next to me and looks at me.
“I am not leaving until you talk to me.” I look at her, looking into her eyes.
I start to shake a little and lightly say “I am so afraid of sleeping now. They seem to feel more and more real each night I have them. They have been coming more and the medicine isn’t helping or at least it doesn’t seem like it is.” I start shaking more and quietly cry. She moves closer and sort of in a way holds me to try and calm me down. I hold her back and start crying more.
“I will be honest Alex, I don’t really know what to say or do for you. You are already on the strongest you can be. I really wish I could do more I'm sorry.” That is all she can say before she hugs me tightly and lets go slowly and walks to the door. She turns around and looks at me and smiles and I smile back and I become calm as she smiles. When she leaves I decide I should go to bed since she put me in the good mood I am in.
Half way through the night I wake up to alarms. One of the nights I’m getting a good night sleep something goes wrong. People are not really making any noise some might still be a sleep but I have been on edge ever since that all happened thinking it would come after me. I get out of my bed and go over to my bed. The lights are going off and the nurses are looking around for who left or came in. The older nurse that I walked with is still here. I think she takes double shifts on her days she doesn’t want to go home. She sees that I am out of my bed and at the door. She smiles at me and continues walking on. I hear screaming from the direction she went in. I jump and look down the hall in that direction and with the lights flashing I was only able to see a little of what was going on. It was a fast moving person almost like they were speed walking or running. The ladies body went