Little Tales

Chapter 8
Little Tales: The Truth Will Out

Chapter Description: Be mindful of the lies you tell

Be mindful of the lies you tell

The truth has a habit of coming to pass

Lying is said to be an art form in itself, to tell the perfect lie is to convince many that the words you speak are the only truth they should be concerned with. Entire nations can be led to ruin with such lies and the gullible are always the ones to fall for them in droves.

Be mindful of the lies you tell, for the truth will out always.

The Truth Will Out

How many lies would you say that you've told throughout your life and how many of them have been believed? Have you lied to save face, to help others or to take what isn't yours while those you have lied to have fallen for your deceit?

How many lies, pray tell, have you uttered? How many have been harmed in the process? How much have you gained?

Your words carry weight, be sure they don't crush you.

~~

There was no ambulance outside which she found unusual considering what her neighbours had posted online less than half an hour ago, such news would have her expecting to see an ambulance tearing down the narrow road of this street in less than half an hour since they implied at a dire emergency.

It has been almost exactly thirty minutes, the nearest hospital is three streets away with an estimated travel time of fifteen minutes in heavy traffic which at this time of the day it isn't, eight minutes when it's a quiet time of the day. The busiest roads are always closer to the town centre, here they are calmer with better parking.

Nothing though, not a single siren, just a quiet day in Niorit Road with the most exciting thing to happen being a cat being outsmarted by a squirrel that had been teasing it. The cat had tried to lunge for it only to miss it's mark and land face first into a pile of leaves, that had been four hours ago.
She saw a lot from her conservatory where she was sitting now, she had been enjoying her weekend after a long week at work so watching the world outside from her cosy conservatory was a treat in itself.

She would also note the world elsewhere via social media even if she didn't say much, she enjoyed reading about the rest of the world as well as her neighbours who used social media. Which was why she was surprised to see a post appear from her next door neighbours.

It had been an update on their pregnancy which they had announced almost three months prior to many congratulations and a very generous amount of gifts in the form of nursery furniture and other items from many people they knew.

The post had said that there had been a problem and an ambulance was called, something to do with the woman who lived there with her husband bleeding heavily and being in a lot of pain. It sounded much like a possible miscarriage, she had suffered one herself in her younger years when she had been in her early twenties and expecting. Sadly it had not been meant to be and she has never been able to have a child since.

So she had sat and waited, concerned, for the ambulance to appear yet no such vehicle has arrived. She knew the streets from the hospital to here were quiet since several of her oldest friends lived in those streets and they had told her that it was quite peaceful, there would be nothing to slow down an ambulance in an emergency.

Half an hour passes and still nothing, the couple don't have a car of their own at this time due to it being in for repairs and no one else has stopped by the house, they haven't left the house all day.

She decides to wait for a little while longer as she tends to other things, listening out for a siren the entire time. Nothing.

After four hours she checks her social media and there's a message from the couple saying that they're at the hospital, suspicious indeed. She looks over to the house and she can see them in there quite clearly, they're sitting at the kitchen quite unaware that she can see them.

Someone is telling porkies, as her mother would say. Her curiosity is piqued, she can smell a mystery with this and she is quite eager to uncover the truth.

Going into full detective mode, she loves her mysteries, Jacqueline Harrison begins to make enquires with her friends.

~~

Three years ago her neighbours Francine Edison and her husband Owen Edison had moved in next door, they were youngish, about late thirties to early forties. They seemed to be reasonably well off with good paying jobs that had allowed them to buy the house next to her own, they made friends quickly enough and were friendly online.

They didn't cause any trouble and were generally quiet neighbours who bothered no one. Almost three months ago they had posted a notice announcing that they were expecting a baby, a wonderful thing to hear which had brought so many people in the area coming over to give them gifts for the coming baby, items ranging from cheap enough to near priceless.
An assortment of furniture for a nursery, supplies and more. People here could be very generous and they had shown that with the gifts. Their child would have quite the start to life it seemed.

Yet several of her friends who worked at the hospital had mentioned never seeing them come in for appointments despite saying that they had such appointments, at least three of those friends worked in the maternity ward where such appointments were held and had access to medical records on an 'As Needed' basis for patients.

There is nothing about the Edison couple, no check up of any kind. Maybe they had gone to other hospitals but the nearest hospital other than the local one was at least a good fifty miles and their maternity ward was just as good as the one here, an enquiry with a few people she knew there had given her the same information as she had gotten here. No records for the couple.

Most interesting.

She pried some more and over the course of the next week she learned that everything the couple was saying was being debunked by everyone she knew, there had been no call for an ambulance, no appointments despite their claims online that they had done such things.

The lies were thick and fast but it didn't confirm her suspicions until she checked with the people who had gifted the couple with the furniture and supplies.

Much of the furniture was generations old, worth a fortune and she is given photos to examine, she memorises each one.

Almost two weeks pass and while browsing on an auction site she sees the furniture being sold online, the exact same furniture. The asking prices are high.
She reports this and is glad to see the sales suspended pending investigation, this gives her time to come up with a way to get the truth from the couple.

First though she needed to talk to an old friend who would be able to supply her with a way to mete out a fitting punishment for such falsehoods and she needed more information on the couple as well, she knew exactly who to get that from.
She hasn't lived this long without being resourceful and having many contacts.

~~

The next day she knocks on their front door and is greeted by Owen, when he sees her he looks nervous for a few seconds before composing himself.

“Yes?” He asks, his voice has a slight shake to it.

“I'm just checking in with you, that recent news two weeks ago sounded quite bad. How is she?” She has never cared for liars, she has seen the consequence of lies far too often throughout her life and has suffered such consequences herself when lies have been used on her when she was younger.

“Oh s-she's fine, just resting” Mild stammer, interesting.

“Who's that?” A woman's voice calls out from inside the house, Francine. Owen seems to curse internally at the bad timing.

“Just our neighbour from next door!” So much for resting.

“May I come in? The cold air doesn't do my old bones any favours” Owen seems to be ready to say no but a slight glance from Jacqueline makes him just nod and step back to let her in, the cold air isn't really bothering her though, she just wanted to get inside so that she could do what she has come here to do.

“Such a lovely house, the previous neighbours who lived here before you loved this house so it was sad when they left. Do you like it here?” She waits until they're in the living room before she takes out a small bottle from her handbag, Owen isn't paying attention.

Francine is there on the sofa, the TV is on and she uses the remote to lower the volume.

“It's nice” Owen sits down next to his wife while Jacqueline sits down just across from them, how much their lies have given them it seems with such a nice house.

“So how are you feeling, Francine? From experience I know how a miscarriage can be. It took me a long time to stop blaming myself for something that wasn't my fault when it happened to me, I still carry some misplaced guilt to this day though and it has been many decades since it happened” As she speaks she presses down on the top of the bottle and waits for her moment, it was quick acting.

“I'm fine, it was painful but I'm managing” Such a practised liar for sure, both of them are from everything she's learned about them recently.

Owen is looking nervous as if he knows that their lies are starting to catch up on them, his left leg is fidgeting a little and he is wringing his hands.

“That's good. Now tell me something, how much of the money is left that you've swindled from people over the past fifteen years? It can't be much or you wouldn't have made up your most recent lies, they reeked of desperation” The spray kicks in as expressions of surprise appear on their faces, they would have to answer her questions now with no way to stop themselves.

“Less than a few hundred, we had hoped to sell the furniture we were given but our auctions were suspended” Owen remarks without realising what he's saying, Francine doesn't stop him, she's as compelled to tell the truth as he is.

“We had thought that playing on people's gullibility would net us easy money but we screwed up somewhere” Francine replies.

“Yes, you did. I suspected something was off and did some digging, your names aren't even real. You aren't even married, you're brother and sister. A pair of con artists from a family of con artists. Your real names are Gertrude and Garry Andrews, twins and the last of your family line after your parent's lies got them killed when a gang they tried to extort from caught up to them, you ran and have been going from country to country lying and cheating everyone you meet.
So many lies in the past fifteen years and now they are finally catching up to you, all your deeds laid bare. Don't try to resist the truth spray since you can't, an old friend of mine invented it and was looking for a chance to test the new formula they had come up with recently. You can't even move since it has a slight paralysing agent which will wear off, I'm immune to it thanks to taking a little immunisation before coming here.

Now I'm going to dish out your punishment and it will be a long one, you are going to be making good use of everything you were given. You will be trapped within yourselves as you do with no way of freeing yourselves, I'll take good care of both of you. I'm not as old as I appear to be, well I am but I can adjust my physical age at will. I only look this old for a change of pace.
I've been alive for a long time, a good three hundred years give or take, a mutation in my genes lets me keep living and being able to adjust my physical age at will. Even my physical appearance in places if need be to ensure that no one gets suspicious, however it renders me infertile which is why I had a miscarriage. I had hoped to be able to have children but sadly my body rejected the developing bundle of cells within my womb, I have tried adoption but the paperwork is murder. Now though I can have something I've dreamed of for so long, a chance to care for children”

Taking out a pair of buttons from her handbag, Jacqueline gets up from the sofa and goes over to the paralysed couple. She lightly applies the buttons to their foreheads and returns to her seat.

“Welcome to your new lives, little ones, I'll make sure that you never lie again” The buttons sink into their foreheads and this is followed a moment later by the couple beginning to shrink as their clothes change into more babyish attire, thick nappies and all.

“Consequences, children, have a habit of eventually catching up with you and you are finding that out. You will be trapped within yourselves with no way out, no way to speak, you will live new lives and eventually over time you will fade away as your new lives take over completely. That will take a while though, you will feel it happen.
As this happens the world will change slightly to reflect your return to infancy, people will see you as the orphans I adopted and have no idea about the con artists you were, it will be as if you never existed as anything other than a pair of infant twins who needed a home.
Welcome to your comeuppance.”

~~

She has missed the feeling of firm breasts and no creaks as she tends to the wiggling infants, it has been a week since she delivered their punishment and made small alterations. As far as everyone is concerned she is a young woman in her near mid twenties who has adopted two healthy, happy babies who were in need of a home, their parents having died shortly not long after they had been born.

The nursery had appeared as part of those alterations, as had many other little changes around the house. She even had her conservatory.

“There we go, two little wigglers cleaned up and thickly padded. Now why don't you both play while mummy cleans up, okay? She sets the two babies, a boy and a girl, down into the crib for the time being before cleaning up, they watch her and are all smiles and babbling. Deep inside a dark part of their minds their originals selves are screaming to be let out as the slow hand of oblivion wraps around them, it will be a while until they disappear but they will feel it as they are made to suffer for their actions of years past.

Cruel perhaps but fitting enough, had they continued on their path they would have met with a much more brutal end. This way was better.

She finishes cleaning up and her children reach up for her to pick them up and take them back downstairs to their play pen, her two beautiful babies.

Maybe this long life wouldn't be so bad after all.

Be mindful of the lies you tell

They may be your undoing.