Reborn

Chapter 15
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Jack had been attempting to hide his excitement all morning. Sophie was going to babysit him in the afternoon and he thought that he would finally be able to summon help.

As he sat in his high chair eating breakfast he ran through the possibilities of what he might say to her. He doubted that she would believe that he was a grown man, but if he could convince her to take him to the police then he thought that he might be separated from Emma. He planned to ask the police to contact Doctor Palmer, who would be able to verify his story.

He occasionally caught himself staring off into space and he had to remind himself to keep up the act. After breakfast he played enthusiastically with his toys, occasionally stopping to watch television. He wasn’t sure exactly how much time had passed, but he felt sure that Sophie would be arriving soon.

He watched one children’s television show after another, feigning interest to the best of his ability until it seemed like a long time had passed since breakfast. He felt anxious, he was expecting a knock at the door at any moment. He wanted to look at the clock on the wall to check the time, but Emma rarely left him on his own and he was worried that she would see him looking.

Soon he was back in his high chair eating lunch and Sophie still hadn’t arrived. He could recall Sophie saying that she would be arriving at twelve and although he didn’t know exactly what the time was, he remembered that lunch was usually eaten at about twelve.

After lunch Jack resumed playing with his toys and wondered whether Sophie might be late. He soiled his diaper whilst he was playing and Emma changed him on the floor, then she went to the bathroom to wash her hands. Jack sensed an opportunity to check the time whilst she was gone.

He turned around to make sure that she had definitely left the room, then he began to stare impatiently at the clock on the wall. This clock was different to the strange clock in the dining room, he could recognize some of the numbers on this clock.

He could remember that the position of the hands on the face of the clock symbolized what time it was. He knew that one of the hands represented hours and that another of the hands represented minutes, but he couldn’t remember what the third hand represented. Two of the hands appeared to stand still whilst the third hand moved rhythmically around the clock face.

He studied the numbers on the clock carefully, trying to determine which one was the number twelve.

Instinctively he looked at the top of the clock face and thought that he might find twelve there, but something didn’t seem quite right about the number he was looking at. He recognized the numbers one, two and three on the right hand side of the clock, but their position seemed oddly placed to him. He knew that twelve was bigger than one, so he concluded that the number at the top of the clock couldn’t be the number twelve because it came before the number one on the clock face.

Twelve come after one, he thought.

He tried counting forwards using the numbers on the clock, but when he reached the number eight he didn’t recognize the next number in the sequence. He decided that the number twelve must be on the top left hand side of the clock. The big hand was pointing at the number four and the little hand was pointing at the number two, so he decided that it was either two o’clock or four o’clock.

He instinctively knew that twelve o’clock was early on in the day and he felt as though Sophie should have already arrived. But the numbers on the clock suggested that his feelings were mistaken, he knew that the number twelve came after the numbers two and four, so he wondered whether Sophie would be arriving later on in the day.

He continued to rack his brain until his train of thought was interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps. He quickly looked away from the clock and back down at his toys.

“Jack, it’s time for your nap, you must be feeling sleepy by now.” Emma announced.

Naptime!?! Something is wrong, he thought.

He knew that naptime came after lunch, then after naptime it would be time for dinner. He was sure that Sophie should have arrived earlier on in the day. Jack started to play with his toy truck and tried to buy himself more time to think about the situation.

“Mommy, no,” he whimpered, rolling the toy truck along the floor.

“But it’s sleepy time now Jack, you can play again after you’ve had a little nap.” Emma explained.

Jack contemplated mentioning Sophie’s name in order to find out whether she was still coming, but he knew that it would be risky. He was worried that Emma might become suspicious of him if he questioned Sophie’s absence. He didn’t want Emma to realize that he was tricking her, but he was also conscious of the possibility that Emma might be tricking him. He thought that if Emma had changed her plans, then he needed to know about it so that he could alter his own plans. He ultimately concluded that it was worth the risk and he decided to raise the subject with Emma.

Emma lifted Jack up from the floor and into her arms. He whined and put up a brief protest as he pointed towards his toys on the floor.

“It’s sleepy time, you can play with your toys later.” Emma insisted.

As Emma carried Jack towards his bedroom he considered the possibility of mentioning Sophie before he went to sleep. He could no longer resist the urge to ask about her, he needed to know.

“Sophie?” Jack said.

Emma didn’t reply straight away and Jack waited nervously for her to respond.

“Sophie? No, not today. Sophie is going to look after you at the weekend, remember?” Emma replied.

Jack’s heart sank. He was sure that Emma had arranged for Sophie to babysit him today, but now she seemed to be suggesting that he was mistaken. She hadn’t just changed her plans, she was refusing to acknowledge that she had changed them. Jack thought that she might be deliberately attempting to confuse him.

As Emma lowered Jack into his crib he groaned softly. He decided against asking anymore questions about Sophie.

“Mommy, no sleep,” he protested.

“You need sleep Jack, you’re tired, have a little nap and then we can have some dinner.” Emma asserted.

Jack snuggled under a blanket and closed his eyes. He began to ponder why Emma had changed her plans. He considered the possibility that she knew that he was deceiving her. He wondered whether she might be testing him or trying to lure him into a trap. He worried for several minutes before he lost his focus and drifted off into a comfortable sleep.

When he woke up the house was eerily silent. He could usually hear Emma moving from room to room performing her daily routine, or the sound of the television. But now he could only hear the sound of birds chirping in the garden. Light shone into the room through the curtains, so he knew that it was still daytime. He gathered his thoughts and the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach returned.

Emma had said that Sophie would now be babysitting him at the weekend, but the possibility had occurred to him that she was lying about that too. There was nothing to stop her from cancelling that plan and he had no way of knowing whether he would ever see Sophie again. He started to wonder whether Emma had ever genuinely intended to hire a babysitter, or whether this was just a game that she was playing.

Jack sighed and rolled over in his crib. As he scanned his surroundings something caught his eye in the corner of the room. He could see a pair of keys sat on top of a pile of folded clothes on the floor. Emma usually kept the door keys in her possession or out of his reach, so he was surprised to see them left so conspicuously in the open.

The pile of clothes appeared to be freshly washed and he couldn’t remember them being there when he went to sleep, so it was possible that she had accidentally left her keys there whilst she was doing the laundry. He also weighed up the possibility that it was a carefully designed trap.

He now had two potential avenues of escape. He could wait for the weekend and hope that Sophie really was going to babysit him. Or he could attempt to reach the front door and unlock it with the keys, then run out into the street and ask a passing stranger for help.

The problem with the first escape plan now seemed obvious to him. He had no way of knowing that Emma really would hire a babysitter and as the days went by his chances of escaping would grow slimmer.

The problem with the second escape plan seemed almost insurmountable. Emma was bigger and faster than him, if she saw him with the keys she would easily be able to stop him from reaching the door.

But the unusual silence that filled the air gave Jack hope. He thought that if Emma were awake, he would have heard her moving by now. He decided that he couldn’t afford to wait any longer and that if Emma was asleep, then he needed to take the chance to escape now.

Jack scaled the bars of his crib and climbed over the side before clambering down onto the floor. He tiptoed quietly across the room and out into the hallway, the house was still silent. He peered carefully into Emma’s room and saw her asleep on her bed. Jack’s heart began to beat faster as he sensed his first real opportunity to escape. He decided that he couldn’t wait until the weekend and hope that Emma was telling the truth about the babysitter, he knew that he needed to act immediately.

He crept back into his room and took the keys off of the clothes pile, taking care not to jingle them as he carried them out of his room. He moved slowly through the house towards the front door, pausing at intervals to listen for signs of movement. As he approached the door it dawned on him that he might not have the strength in his hands to be able to turn the key in the lock. The door handle was above his head height and he realized that he would need to reach upwards to use the key, making coordination more difficult.

Jack gripped the key tightly in his hands and carefully maneuvered it upwards towards the lock. He bungled his first attempt at sliding it into the lock and the key merely scraped against the door. However on the second attempt he was successful and the key slotted in perfectly.

Turning the key would prove to be more difficult. On his first attempt at turning it he met stiff resistance and the lock wouldn’t budge. He then attempted to pull the door handle down with one hand whilst using his other hand to turn the key, but the key still wouldn’t turn. He was about to make a third attempt when he was suddenly startled by the sound of footsteps behind him.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” Emma said.

Jack froze. His mind raced as he struggled to come up with an explanation. Emma stood over him with her arms folded.

“M...mo...mommy”? he stuttered.

“Don’t give me that , I knew you were faking it Jack, you honestly thought you could fool me didn’t you?” Emma said sternly.

Jack tried to compose himself so that he could muster an adequate response, he was trying to think of something that he could say to her that would convince her that she was wrong.

“I...mommy...no,” he stammered.

“You were planning on telling Sophie that you’re a grown up weren’t you? You were pretending to be a baby so that you would have a chance to escape?” Emma said.

“No...I...” Jack mumbled.

“You turned beet red when Sophie started talking about your full diaper, did you think I wouldn’t notice?” Emma scoffed.

Jack’s heart sank as it dawned on him that he had been tricked. His plan had failed and his dreams of escape had been crushed. He felt utterly powerless.

“I cancelled the babysitting appointment and left the house keys in your room to test how you would react, you did exactly what I thought you would,” Emma revealed.

Jack looked down at his feet dejectedly.

“Please...” he whimpered.

“You messed up, the next time you see Sophie you won’t be able to say more than a few words.” Emma taunted.

“Next time?” Jack queried.

“Sophie will be your babysitter...eventually,” she revealed, “once you lose the last of your adult memories, I’ll hire her again. You put on such a good act yesterday that she won’t be able to tell the difference,” she continued.

In that moment, Jack felt like all hope of escape had evaporated. He knew that Emma was going to win and that he was going to lose, it was just a matter of time. He sensed that his mind was slipping away and that in his present state he had no hope of outsmarting her. He was growing weary of the struggle and part of him just wanted to know when it was going to be over.

“Please...don’t...please don’t do it.” Jack stuttered.

Emma unfolded her arms and smirked.

“I’ve already made up my mind, it’s done,” she asserted.

Jack continued to stare at the floor. The idea of losing his mind frightened him, but it was Emma’s relentless determination to do this to him that truly horrified him.

“Why do this? Are you happy now?” he muttered.

“You bet I am, I can’t wait to have a baby,” she replied, “but I won’t forget about you Jack, I’ll always remember that I turned my cheating boyfriend into a helpless toddler,” she added.

Jack struggled to suppress his growing sense of dread. He knew that what she had said would come to pass. Emma would carry on with her life, knowing that she had beaten him and he would never be able to exact revenge on her. Even if he grew up again physically, his memories of his old life would be gone. He would never even know that he had been wronged.

“What about me?” Jack asked quietly.

“You’ll be happy as well pumpkin. We’ll both be happy. You won’t know what you’ve lost but I’ll know that you’ve lost everything.” Emma explained.

Jack looked up at Emma with pleading eyes and his lip started to quiver. He could feel warm tears rolling down his cheeks and he started to sob uncontrollably. Emma bent down and lifted him into her arms, then held him closely to her chest.

“It will be over soon honey, I promise. You just need to stop fighting it.” Emma said softly.

Jack screamed in anguish. He felt like hitting her, but he knew that it would be pointless. He had tried everything that he could think of to escape and each time he had failed. He couldn’t reason with her, he couldn’t overpower her, he couldn’t outrun her and he couldn’t outsmart her. All he could do was cry out in frustration and wait for the inevitable to happen.