Fish Out Of Water

As Madik entered the house Zahara ran over and hugged him, only to be instantly pushed away, "don't touch me!" He said gruffly as he walked into the kitchen and started to cook up a meal. The boys heard their fathers bluster of words and walked out of the room quietly. Zahara looked around curiously, "where's mama?" She whispered to Beckett and Thatcher. Beckett shrugged with a concerned face as Thatcher walked hastily to the living room window. Moving the tattered curtains out of the way Thatcher stared out the window, "where's mom AND the car?" He asked. Madik shook his head, all he could hear was white noise; his vision kept fading, almost as if someone else was blinking for him. Out of frustration he threw the pan he was holding onto the ground. The metal came into contact with the hardwood floor, creating an irritating harmony that caused Zahara to jump. With his gravelled voice, rumbling with pain and anger, he yelled at his kids to go to their rooms. He ensured they would get their answers sometime tonight before bed. "Now git! Or none of you will be receiving any dinner." He huffed and bent over picking up the pan, and the children hurried away; Zahara being the only one to hesitate. She never enjoyed conflict, and was a very sensitive child. Even though she understood her father was upset for a different reason, she couldn't help but feel like she was at fault, or that she was the one he was angry with. Beckett turned around before heading into his room, and motioned for Zahara to come over. Crossing her arms over her chest, she walked over and whispered; "yes?" Beckett kneeled down and put his hand gently on his sister's shoulder. Whispering back he said, "I think you and I both know that dad is not going to be giving us the best news, so if you want to sleep in bed with me tonight for comfort just ask ok?" She nodded, giving a small smile. "Get your ass in here already, I don't need you pissing dad off anymore." Thatcher ordered from inside the bedroom where he was pacing anxiously. Beckett sighed and smiled at his little sister as he stood up and stepped back into their bedroom. Zahara walked down to her bedroom after Beckett closed the door, she sat down on her bed hugging one of her big stuffies that her auntie Judith bought her for her 6th birthday. Even though she was 14 now, her toys still made her happy; especially in this life where she had been sheltered and never was forced to mature.

A few days went past and everyone was avoiding one another. Zahara spent most of her time outside, in her room, or visiting the elderly women who owned a small bakery in town. Her brothers hogged the living room most of the time, and as usual only spoke to each other. Nothing was going back to normal anytime soon now that Denali was gone and Madik was lost. His urges gowing more every time he thought about his wife, he just had to have her corpse. It was driving him so crazy. He went faint once just imagining what he could do to it, so many ideas, so many possibilities! His lower regions tingled with excitement, and he sat up from the bed, "I must have her!" Madik paused for a moment, hearing a knock on his bedroom door, "what?" He hissed through gritted teeth. Beckett answered, informing him that an officer was here to talk to him. Madik rolled his eyes, and got up out of bed. Grabbing his dirty red house coat, he walked out of his room while tying the soft belt around his waist. The father winced his eyes from the daylight shining through the house's old dust filled windows, and then met eye to eye with a kind faced officer. He was previously being entertained by Zahara, who sounded to be rambling to the man about how she lost one of her teeth while climbing a tree, "dad! Look The tooth fairy is going to come tonight!" She said with a bright smile, and held up her adult front tooth. Madik just sighed in response then proceeded to tell her to go play.

At that order, Beckett took Zahara to the bathroom to get the tooth wrapped up and cleaned. "Your family is quite a lovely bunch, Mr. Ollibee." The officer chuckled. Madik nodded, then motioned with his hand for the officer to sit down on the old teal sofa. The officer did so as Madik sat down in his slightly torn chair. Everything in this house was more vintage than modern, even though Denali and Madik worked well and lived comfortably, Madik never sought it necessary to have anything fixed. Even when something as simple as curtains turned to nothing but fabric and holes, he would just replace it with a sheet or light weight blanket. He was taught sternly in his adolescence to use money only when necessary, but was never taught that spare cash could be used to make one's life more enjoyable to live with.

The two adults sat in silence for longer than needed, and the officer finally spoke with a cough to clear the gruffness from his voice, "so I would like to start off with my apologies for what happened to your wife, I lost my daughter a few months ago to a similar accident and it still ways heavy on my heart" the officer smiled. Madik did not react to this statement, and the officer awkwardly moved the conversation along. "So I know this might be hard, but I have a few questions to ask about the night of the accident. Your answers will help me to determine what legal route you might be needing to take in the future." Madik again kept quiet as the conversation kept going, the officer asked him many questions to which he gave very vague responses too. The officer clenched his fist growing aggravated with the obvious lack of care, "Mr. Ollibee, as I said before, I understand your pain but this information is also quite important for me to know, because right now at this moment my boss is wanting you to be sent to court then locked up for manslaughter of two civilians.

Madik sat up straight and with a slow and calm voice he finally reacted, "did you see her, your daughter, after her passing?" This caught the officer off guard. "I don't believe my-" the officer was cut off abruptly, "to be completely blunt with you, I don't relate to how I feel about the loss of my wife. I wish to see her cleanly mangled corpse layed about on a metal table. Not because I disliked her but because I feel the need to see her again, in a better version than what I had of her before'' Madik leaned back again against his chair, and started to bounce his leg. the officer blinked a few times, absolutely dumbfounded by what he had just heard, "Mr..no, Madik, are you mentally unwell?" He stuttered the question while getting chills up his arms. "Well I suppose I haven't been seeing my therapist in a few months now, but I wouldn't say I'm unwell. In fact I am personally very happy with myself and my life." Madik paused for a moment. He felt like he was being stared at from behind. however he knew all there was behind him was a wall. "Besides a few annoyances and troubles, everything is fine with me and my life, I just wish to see my wife." The officer rubbed his knee shifting some of his weight onto it. He thought for a moment about how to respond, then looked at the time, "Ok, well Madik, I don't believe you will be able to see her again unless you have an open casket funeral but with how her body turned out after the crash I don't suggest doing that to your kids, it could trouble them...now since I believe I have my answers, please come to court on Wednesday next week. For your kids sake, I hope you can fight your way out of a life sentence or two." The man stood up uneasy with the conversation he had just had, and tilted his head as a way to say goodbye, then walked to the door. Before leaving through the door the officer looked back and down the hall seeing Zahara peering out from her room, she waved at the Officer and he forced a smile, waved back, then left. Once the cop left Madik began to think about the conversation, and what the cop said. Thatcher walked into the doorway of the living room "uh, dad?" Madik hushed him "I'm thinking, speak to me later" Thatcher rolled his eyes then walked off.

That night Madik had locked himself in the basement. Walking down the steep creaky stairs Madik inhaled and through his nose, taking in the smell of rotting woods and rat shit. The basement was probably one of Madik's favourite places to be, and was also the one least taken care of. The concrete flooring was broken and eroded in most places around the edges of the rooms, while many bricks and boards in the walls were mossy and rotten. The harsh Canadian winters and unpredictable summers have caused much damage to this old house over the years, but Madik loved it.. He hated modern architecture, and was inspired by the fact this home had stood for so long; withstanding all the abuse and still being liveable. Pulling a metal stool over to one of the empty wooden counters Madik grabbed a few papers, a pencil, and an old eraser. He began to draw, brainstorming designs for what he could make his wife into. He wanted her so badly. After a few hours of drawing after drawing, failure after failure, Madik put his forehead to the counter surface and let out a loud sigh of defeat. "Who am I kidding, just like that cop said, I can't get her back. A simple man like me doesn't even know how to pick a lock, so even if I tried to break her out of the ice box I would fail and land myself in jail." Madik sat up and looked at the roof. He could hear footsteps walking by upstairs, and as they passed dust fell from the beams in the ceiling landing in his eye. He winced and shut his eyes as he hunched over and started to rub his eyes "Fuck!" He yelled in pain and after the pain subsided he paused for a moment, Madik had a new idea.

It was 10:35 pm, Madik peaked into Zaharas room, glow in the dark butterflies glewed off of the wall just barely illuminating Zaharas bed, just enough to see the patterns on her blanket and the outline of her head on her pillow. She was sleeping before Madik could even tuck her in and he was rather relieved at that. Closing his daughter's door Madik stood there in the hallway, where it was dimly lit, the light only being exposed from the kitchen stove. Madik listened quietly for his sons, since they were older they didn't have to go to bed till 11pm, the boys bedroom door opened and out walked Thatcher, "oh, hey dad" he said. Madik tied his hair back with a thin elastic he had on hand "I was just checking on your sister." Thatcher nodded and walked past him to the bathroom that was over by the front door, this was Madiks chance, he quietly walked over to their bedroom and peaked in to see Beckett watching some late night tv on the small tv Madik and Denali had provided for them, as he cleared his throat Beckett turned and looked at the door way "hello Dad, i'll be headed to bed soon, sorry was the tv to loud?" Beckett turned the volume down and sat up "No, it wasn't, I actually came to check on you two but also I need some help with something" Madik explained and motioned his hand for Beckett to follow him. The two of them walked down the hall and into the living room "what do you need help with dad?" Beckett asked as Madik walked over to the basement door and unlocked it "I've started a new project for myself Beckett but I'm still sore from the crash and need help" the door unlocked and Madik opened it, a cool breeze of air escaped into the living room rubbing up against the hairs on their skin, Beckett shivered "ok but can I get a sweater first?" Madik shook his head and walked down the stairs "close and locked the door behind you, you know how I feel about people wandering down here." Madik said as he made it all the way down, Beckett sighed and did as he was told before walking the rest of the way down the stairs. "So what am I doing?" Beckett asked but he didn't receive a response "Dad?" Still no response, Beckett poked his shoulder and Madik snapped out of his trance "Huh? Oh, fetch me my nail gun please, it's over there" Madik pointed to his tool stand and Beckett walked over looking for it. Suddenly Madik hit Beckett on the side of the head with the gun, not hard enough to disorient him, Madik had a lifeless expression to him like the life had been sucked from his body, not even a hint of shine from the moonlight was to be seen in his eyes. Beckett fell to the side landing on his knees and Madik kicked him down causing him to smash his nose off the concrete floor. The boy let out a bellow of pain and started to cry, "What are you doing?!" Beckett yelled his voice cracking in the process Madik didn't respond and wacked him in the back of the head, he tied Beckett's arms behind his back. Beckett kept quiet trying not to even cry, he didn't want to be hurt anymore he started to feel the shock kicking into his system from this quick moment of abuse and the fear that came with it. Madik stood Beckett up and forced him to walk over to a dog crate, there were 3 in a row, the perfect number for all the children that lived in the house, Beckett began to panic and crawled into the cage "no this can't be happening, he is unwell, this isn't right!" He thought to himself as Madik padlocked him in, Madik paused as knocking was suddenly heard on the basement door. A muffled voice passed through the cracks in the door "Dad? Sorry to uh bother ya but Beckett isn't inside...do you know where he is?" It was Thatcher, he sounded confused and worried, Madik stared up the stairs as he walked over to one of his work benches and grabbed a X-acto knife. Beckett Kicked at the cage and yelled "Thatcher go get out of here! Please don't let him hurt you!" Beckett sobbed as Madik walked up the stairs "Dad? I, do I hear Beckett down there with you?" Thatcher could hear the faint yelling but couldn't make out the words. Without a word Madik swung the door open hitting Thatcher and as the boy stumbled back Madik stabbed him in the side and as Thatcher was still processing what had just happened he snuck behind his son and kicked him down the stairs. Colliding with the railing of the stairs and rolling down to the concrete at the bottom caused Thatcher to become unconscious, giving Madik an opportunity to get started.

Many hours passed by as Madik set up his work station and got all the animal corpses he needed for his first attempt. Madik walked over to a box and opened it revealing 5 Chinook salmon, with the air around the box becoming suffocating Madik quickly picked up one of the salmon and brought it to his work bench. He cut off the head and carefully sliced the belly open, he removed the organs and put them in a bucket, after that he would then proceed to carefully remove the bigger, more visible bones from the fish and place them in neat lines. He then proceeded to repeat that with the other 4 salmon but this time saving the fins from two of them and the eyes from the last. Once this was done he cleaned up and walked over to the 3 cages that were against the wall across from the stairs. In two of the cages was Beckett and Thatcher, the third one was empty but I'm sure we could all guess whose cage that is for. Madik crouched down in front of the cages and shook Becketts cage "wake up." Madik ordered and Beckett drowsily awoke, the boy immediately got a rush of anxiety and started frantically looking around, Beckett was struggling to see his vision was blurred and other senses were numb. Madik grumbled, "quit moving around you idiot." he reached out to the lock on the cage and used a key from his back pocket to unlock it "dad?" Beckett questioned knowing who it was but more than being confused by the series of events that were happening before him Madik only raised his eyebrow in response, took the lock off and grabbed Beckett by the collar of his shirt pulling him out. As Beckett was crawling out of the cage Thatcher woke up and his reaction was to immediately get into a deffense mode, "Hey you fuck! What is happening here? Let me out!" Thatcher demanded while kicking at the door of the cage. Beckett looked over at his brother and before his half awake mind could react Madik roughly grabbed Beckett by the shoulders and shoved him onto a metal table, Beckett let out a little shriek and a small sob, "Dad no please what are you doing?!" Becket whimpered in a pleading tone, he was nothing without his brother, hardly even knowing how to react all he knew was THIS isn't normal and Thatcher was aggressive so whatever was happening, wasn't good.

Madik restrained his son to the table with rope tying it so tight it was even hard for Beckett to breath, there was no escaping. Beckett started to hyperventilate, "dad i cant breath, please tell me what's going please, please, please" Beckett managed to beg through short breaths and stutters. Madik dragged his fingers along Becketts arm and let out a sigh, he felt relieved, this was finally happening, the very thing that was missing from his life, a hole finally being filled after years and years of being empty and deserted. Madik had no intention of explaining himself to Beckett, so he started over to the wooden work bench where all the fish bones, eyes and head were, placed them on a trolley and put some extra tools on it as well then rolled it on over back to Beckett. Madik picked up his X-ACTO knife and stared down at Beckett "do. Not. move." Madik ordered calmly, struck with fear Beckett froze petrified from fear as his father who he once thought would never hurt him, who would always protect him and who he could trust brought the tip of his knife to Becketts eyes and cut them out, Beckett screamed and shrieked in pain his body shook. His arms and legs began to bruise at the pressure Beckett was pushing on them trying to get out of the restraints. It was a wonder how Zahara hadn't been awoken by the noises but I suppose any child with a sleeping condition would sleep heavily in a home they thought as safe.

In the background Thatcher was trying so hard to escape the cage but all he was really doing was bending the metal bars. Thatcher was filled with rage and an overwhelming feeling of betrayal, Madik chuckled as he plucked one of Becketts eyes off the knife and placed it in the bucket with the fish organs "seeing red are we boys?" Madik directed this to Thatcher, humored by his struggle to try and save his brother "Fuck you!" is all he could yell in response at his father, he was far too overwhelmed to think of a better response. Hell in Thatcher's eyes, Madik didn't even deserve a better response, it's not like he cared anyway, nothing Thatcher could say would get them out of this situation. To his knowledge the only way out would be through brute force.

Madik moved his attention back to his weeping son on the table, he grabbed the fish head and placed it onto Becketts face "be still." Madik said and Beckett merely responded in whimpers and sobs of utter pain the sounds sent shivers down Madiks spine, barely able to get out his please for his father to stop "I don't care what you want Beckett, this is what i want" Madik used a marker and traced the shape of the fish around Becketts face, it almost fit perfectly as a mask. Putting the fish head back down Madik took his knife and started to cut open Becketts skin, following the line he had traced, he was not merciful and cut right down to the bone, once the line was cut Madik moved the blade inside the ring by about just under half an inch, then followed the outer line and then proceeded to cleanly cut out the ring, Madik shivered as he held up the skin "it's like a halo" Madik thought to himself while letting out a humoured chuckle "everything...hurts" Beckett slurred not being able to move his facial muscles correctly. Madik attached the fish head to his face with a big curved needle and fishing wire, once he was done with that, he cut open the fish heads eyeholes to stylize the design a little. Madik wanted to be able to see Becketts eye sockets "you know I was going to replace your eyes with these little fish eyes but...I think I like the emptiness better, don't you?" Madik asked that question not anticipating a response, he swiftly moved onto Becketts neck, grabbing two fins and burying them inside the sides of his neck with his knife and some brute force "you're a goddamn monster!" yelled Thatcher "oh shut up Thatcher your turn will come eventually" Madik teased.

An hour or so passed by as Madik continued to attach fish bones to Becketts arms, Madik was so joyous by the outcome so far that he even stood up and did a spin in celebration "oh my boy my beautiful boy look at yourself! You truly are one of my creations now!" Madik wiped his sweat soaked forehead and slicked back his wet hair, absolutely proud of himself. Beckett shaking in pain turned his head to the side, it felt heavier and whatever was attached to his face pulled at his skin "what did you do to me?" he mumbled, Madik ignored him and started cleaning up his tools, Thatcher let out a sigh, trying not to throw up from the sight of his mutilated brother "he turned you into a monster!" Thatcher yelled "he combined your body with the remnants of those fish he brought out..." Madik then took the restraints off of Beckett and picked him up under his arms, dragged him off the table and over back to his dog cage "I'll get you some water soon my boy, just don't die on me ok?" He kissed Beckett's head and shoved him back in the cage, locking him back up "Ok well I'm exhausted, we will continue this in the morning" Madik took off his gloves and walked back up the stairs, Thatcher screaming at him demanding to be set free. As Madik exited the basement he chuckled to himself "did that boy just say his brother had to go to the hospital?" he shook his head "no never, he doesn't need to go there" stretching as he walked to his room Madik felt his feet become heavy, he walked over to his bed and layed down, it didn't even take more than seven minutes for him to pass out till late morning.