In The Beginning (edited version)

Quintin was only 18 months old. His parent’s had brought him to visit his great-aunt. She was gentle, loving, and adored Quintin. As they were leaving Quintin was being extremely fussy. They were supposed to go Quintin’s grandparent’s for dinner, which was only six miles away. His mother decided that it’d be okay if his father would just hold him in the front seat while they drove there. His father had a recent DUI and couldn’t drive, so he held Quintin as his mother began to drive. Five minutes later, they were waiting at a red light. It was around 4:00P.M. The light turned green and Quintin’s mother took a left. As she accelerated she didn’t notice the black Pontiac Firebird shooting toward them from behind. The driver of the Pontiac was a woman in her early thirties with black stringy hair and so skinny that it was skin on bones. She went right through the red light. Quintin’s mother only saw her at the last split second before crying out.



“Ahh!”



The woman rear ended his mother, sending their car spinning into the grassy field off to the right side of two lane country road. There’d been a book on the dash board that hit Quintin on his upper right lip and split it open. As their car hit the uneven terrain it rolled over twice, and settled with the roof of the car on the ground. The car caught on fire. The driver side window had broken, but on the passenger side it only cracked. Quintin’s father had to wait until his wife crawled out and he handed Quintin to her. He was able to undo the seat belt so he could crawl out himself. When he escaped the car, Quintin’s mother handed him back to her husband. She was nauseated and needed to sit down. The adrenaline rushing through the man caused him to think irrationally. He began to walk toward a hospital that was five miles away.



Luckily the fire department had seen the accident and before the drunk driver had even hit the car Quintin was riding in with his parent’s, they called for an ambulance. Quintin’s mother heard sirens almost immediately when she sat down, but feeling sick she couldn’t bring herself to call out to her husband. When the fire fighters rushed over to help her, she told them that her husband had fled to take Quintin to a hospital. They radioed the ambulance to inform them to look out for the man. They came across him on the way to the scene and picked him and Quintin up. They looked at Quintin and knew right away that the young boy would need stitches.



Back at the scene of the accident, Quintin’s mother watched as the fire fighters put the flames out. It didn’t matter, the car was totaled and all that mattered to her was that her baby boy was still alive. Seeing the drunk woman lay on the ground beside her own car, unconscious, enraged her more than she ever thought possible. She stood up, wobbled a bit, and walked over to the woman. She stared down at her and began sobbing. She screamed out and began stomping at the woman’s stomach. She could only get in two good stomps before the fire fighters grabbed her. They dragged her away as she continued sobbing and kicking to be let go. She heard her son’s cries from the ambulance and turned to see him looking at her.



“Quintin!”





Quintin’s father had gone into a serious depression since the accident. He had gone to a therapist and been given anti-depressants. But, they never worked. When he stopped taking them, Quintin’s mother felt helpless. The man had started drinking again. The man hadn’t gone to the therapist for his other mental disorders. He didn’t know he’d had any. He ignored his symptoms. He decided to just try drinking the depression away. It only made things worse.



One day, while Quintin’s mother was at work, his father was not being his usual self. As a result Quintin was extremely fussy. His father had been drinking heavily and became enraged. The other mental disorders added to the drunkard’s mood, and the man blacked out. He grabbed Quintin, held him by the arm, and dragged him into a room. Quintin wasn’t beaten. He had been dropped as his father collapsed dead. Quintin hit his head when he fell to the floor.



When his mother came home she found her husband dead and Quintin crying in a closet. She grabbed her son and called 9-1-1. When the police arrived, they questioned her about what happened. She couldn’t tell them anything other than how she found her husband dead and her son crying in the closet. The autopsy came back that the man had an aneurism and his blood alcohol level was through the roof.



“Was it the alcohol that killed him?”



“No. It looks like he had a brain aneurism. I believe that your husband died before he ever hit the floor.”



After they got home, Quintin looked at his mother.



“Mommy, they killed daddy.”



The woman looked at her son and just figured that at such a young age that Quintin didn’t understand what death meant.



“No, daddy is gone, honey. Daddy won’t be coming home.”



Quintin nodded and tears began to flow. He crawled into his mother’s lap as she held him. They began to cry together and eventually fell asleep on the couch that night.

…June 24, 1998… 

Quintin Great-Grandmother had recently passed away. He was about seven years old. One night when Quintin was sleeping, some visitors were in his room. They hovered over Quintin as he slept.



“He’s ours. He will do what we want him to do.”



“He will?”



“You’ll see.”



The two visitors began looking around Quintin’s room. The female headed over to the boy’s dresser and transformed into a figure that appeared as Quintin’s Great-Grandmother. Quintin was woken by the strange noise of the two visitors moving around. He sat up in his bed, rubbed his eyes, and looked at the figure across the room. His eyes recognized the figure as his deceased Great-Grandmother. But, he knew better. Had it been the woman he loved so much, Quintin wouldn’t have been afraid. He was terrified. He felt cold. He gasped. The figure looked over at him with a smile.



“I know who you are? You’re not my grammy.”



Faster than a blink of an eye the figure moved across the room and was face to face with Quintin. The female figure returned to her original form and grabbed the collar of Quintin’s pajama top.



“You will see what we want you to see.”



“MOM!!!”



Before Quintin’s mother could come rushing in, the two visitors vanished into thin air. Quintin never knew where they had gone, but he had heard the voices in his head.



“You will see. You will do whatever we want you to do.”



When Quintin’s mother came rushing in, Quintin was trembling in fear and the voices in his head never went away.