James Coleman
The Adaptation
“Kids, your grandaunt Susan just passed away. Pack your stuff kids, we’re heading to Gramp's house for the funeral”, sobbed Annie.
Annie called her husband, Steve, to get the kids moving from their phones and games. Their family was a small and cozy one, with Peter, their oldest son, and Charlie, who just got into middle school. Annie snuffle while throwing her suitcase into the trunk. Ever since mom passed away, aunt Susan has taken care of Annie and her family really well, and to her, aunt Susan was like another mom. The trip to the funeral was quiet, too quiet, no one said a word, nor does anyone feels like they have something to, everything was just covered in silence. What was left were just the growl of the old Corona and the howl of the gushing wind among the tree line, and people, quite a few actually. Charlie noticed it, all seemed to be staring straight into her soul, all seemed strange but maybe it wasn’t the best time to talk about that.
They arrived at an old mansion in the middle of the woods, surrounded by dozens of people, some looks familiar, yet there are far too many strange faces, all looked at the Grahams as they were arriving. Everyone came around for the funeral since grandaunt Susan was the oldest in the family of 5, with Annie’s mom being the youngest. Even though they knew there might be a lot of people in the family coming, but no one would imagine a whole front yard full of close or distant relatives. They caught up with a few, but strangely the Grahams don’t actually know many people here besides their great-uncle, Susan’s husband, the old man was devastated over the loss of his wife, he treated everyone so nicely his whole life, but life probably treated him the other way around. He took care of the kids whenever Annie and Steve aren’t home, yet life took away too many things from him, and now his dearest wife. Strangely, there were no tears, there was no crying, everything just seemed silenced, everything just seemed odd. People walked around to see aunt Susan for the last time before closing her casket, it started to rain as they were lowering the casket to the ground, yet those ambient somehow were all gone, leaving the atmosphere just dead quiet. Noone was mourning for Susan, all eyes were on the Grahams.
Next morning, it was time to leave, time to say goodbye to many relatives they probably have never seen in their life. It was the first family gathering in while, for the Grahams, at least, not the most joyful one, but it was something. Charlie again found it weird when everyone stared at the Grahams’ car as they were leaving, or more people standing in the middle of the woods looking at them, but she’s seen too many horror movies to get bothered by that. The kids woke up arrived at their home, and as Annie was putting her things away, she stumbled upon a memory box of her mother, who past away a few years ago. There’s just something off about her mom’s family picture, she can’t catch anything off, she stares harder and harder, looking for something, anything.
“Mom?”- Peter was at the door.
Annie startled, putting the pictures away.
“Can I go to, uh, the school concert? I’m meeting my friends there”, Peter asked.
“You should bring Charlie with you then”.
“I don’t think she likes public places”, Peter grunts.
“Just take her, she needs some fresh air, she can meet her friends there, too”, Annie insists.
“We legit just got back from a trip in the middle of the woods”.
“Charlie, get your coat, you’re going to the school concert with your brother”, yelled Annie across the hallway.
Peter drove them to a house party, where he saw his crush, sitting there all by herself, reading a book on the couch like every romantic movie, with lights dimmed all around with a stream of light shined over her shoulder. He approached her, not knowing what to say, he asked: “Do you, uh, smoke? I have weed”. She brought him upstairs, and to his surprise, she told a few guys in the room: “Boys, Peter here has weed”.
However, little did he know, his sister whom he left downstairs was all by herself, getting a piece of chocolate cake, but something was wrong.
She felt something weird, her throat felt stuck, she couldn’t breathe as struggled her way upstairs to find Peter. “I...I can’t breathe Peter”. “Charlie, what’s wrong?”, he rushed her to the car to get to the hospital. Someone was standing by the window, staring as they go, but Peter has too many things to worry about right now.
The road was dark and lonely, there were only grass fields and some broken streetlights on their sides. The wind howl by the car window, blowing dust everywhere, yet Peter stepped on the pedal harder than ever. They were flying through dark and curtains of dust concealing the night sky. Charlie struggled harder and harder every second, she opened the window and gasped for air. Peter’s heart beat faster than ever, knowing his sister life is on his own hand, he couldn’t focus on anything, before he knew it, there was a truck approaching, he turned the fastest he could, the best attempt at dodging it. But Charlie, she was outside the window gasping for air, he heard a soft thump when the truck just flew by the side of the car. He was shaking, not a word out of his mouth, tears started rolling when he looked at the back mirror. Then there was just silence on the drive home.
He couldn’t sleep the whole night. The image of Charlie’s body with blood everywhere on the neck that no longer attached to anything stuck on his head. He stared into the blank wall on the side of his bed, from the silence of the night all by himself, ‘til the morning light shined through his window. Annie was leaving for work, she closed the door, unlocked the car, then silence broke. A scream, filled with terror and sadness, after losing another loved one.
The house once had joy and laughter was now filled with sadness and silence. No one talked during dinner, no one wanted to break the silence, the dreary atmosphere covers everyone. No one has anything to say, especially after everything that happened. Peter felt like all the weight was on his chest, all the blame and mumbles from mom. The look she gave him, the glare in her eyes reminded him of years ago when she was trying to kill him in his sleep. He woke up surrounded by gasoline everywhere and Annie was lighting a match. She kept explaining that she was just sleepwalking, but how can he forget that look in her eyes, the hatreds in her eyes lit up among the fire. It’s still those hatreds in her eyes, and the mumbles in her mouth, she was ready to explode, to speak out her mind. Of how everything happened was just sad and horrible, and only if Peter can fucking admit what he did, but not even a sorry came out of his filthy mouth. But she couldn’t, it was also on her, Peter didn’t want to bring Charlie, nor did she wanted to go, who fault was it then.
Annie has been going to a local support group ever since her mom passed away a few months ago, where she could speak her mind. But now she lost both her lovely aunt and daughter, she needed them more than ever. There were days she told Steve that she was going to the cinema at night, but she needed that mental support. Every time the chairs are filled with different people, some have different stories to be told, but there are always some people are always there every time Annie came. When she was backing her car out to leave, someone stopped her, saying she was Joan from a few session ago. They talked for a bit, exchanging number and said they could go get coffee someday, but Annie couldn’t really remember who that was, she looked familiar, not from one of the sessions, but she definitely saw her somewhere.
Annie came back to her work, which she builds models, small scale but its realisticity scares people sometimes. There are doll houses all around their house, with few that looks just like their own, even with the 4 of them in it. But those models didn’t always contain happy memories. Steve came back to seeing Annie working on her newest one, the one with Peter driving Charlie and the truck, and her lifeless head rolling on the ground. “Jesus Annie, why do you have to do this?” Steve just could take it no more, despite Annie kept fighting back, saying there was nothing wrong, it was nothing more than a neutral view of the scene. He knew for sure that there were more in her mind.
The lost of the Graham’s youngest child didn’t help to connect everyone one bit. Now it’s all arguing, there were no more laughter or joy, only hatreds and blames to one another. Annie’s some-what-friend reached out to her, saying she has something that she really wants to share with her. Though going to a stranger’s house wasn’t the best idea, she didn’t have many friends to talk to anyway, nor was it a bad one either. It was just a small apartment with a small golden locket with some kind of symbol on the door knocker. Joan greeted her and got her some tea. They talked about how she got over her son who died a few months ago, Joan showed her his pictures along with others on the shelves, pictures of her family, but this one picture, of her with a group of others, all wearing golden locket with the symbol on the door knocker, with a few people with their head cut off the picture. Annie knew it somehow, she couldn’t believe in her eyes, so said she should leave to go get some food for tonight. Annie rushed home, images of her mom and aunt kept appearing in her mind. She ran right into the addict, where she put all her old family’s pictures. There it was, that same picture that stood among others at Joan’s house. They were all there, her mom, her aunt, now this new stranger who treated her so kindly and shared the pain with her. They all had the locket, the gold symbol that was bizarre looking. Joan was all there, she knew many of Annie’s family. She was also in the family picture. So she was a family member after all. Even the carpet that said Joan on it, she also had one made by her mother for other people in my community. And her mom’s locket, she hadn’t touched it ever since her mom past away. But how come has Joan hid from her all these time, why did she not tell her about this.
It then was dinner time, they were still arguing about what she was doing, and maybe it’s time for them to move on. But her outraged got worst, she said how she hated this family, how everyone just wanted to leave, even what she wanted to say to Peter, not even a single sorry. Peter teared up a bit, but he hit her with something she was hiding from all those time, how about her, Peter just took off upstairs, leaving the dinner. So did she, despite how much Steve tried to talk her out since it was getting late, but she just want the answer to many questions on her mind then.
There it was, the weird symbol appeared everywhere now, everything seemed matched up so well, that’s why Joan knew so much about Annie and her family. She stepped on her mom’s welcoming mat and knocked on Joan’s door. No reply. Frustrated as it was, Annie stormed out, but just as her about to step out of the building, someone stopped her and brought her back to Joan’s room. It was full of people, not as empty as she thought it would be. Everyone in that room was wearing a gold locket with that symbol on. She walked out of that room a few hours later, not as Annie anymore, though.
She came home later, she knew she was different, she knew they put something in her, she knew she was going to hurt her family. Or else, they will. She could take it no more, maybe if she could end it, it would hurt her anymore. They had a revolver in their safe, but this wasn’t to protect themselves anymore. Steve walked into the living room with Annie facing the fireplace. She startled, her hand was shaking, she warned him not to get close. The gun moved from her chin to Steve, her finger was shaken as she was letting go. She couldn’t, she asked him to do it for her, to end her sufferings. Of course, he couldn’t do so, after all, no matter if she went crazy over the mourn of her lost, it was his loss too, and losing her wouldn’t be an option. Step by step he tried to get closer to her, he just wanted to comfort her. Peter walked in the traumatic scene, Annie’s gun was right on Steve’s forehead. His scream surprised her weak and shaky finger. The blood splatter everywhere as the bullet ricocheted off the mirror, shattering both the mirror and the family picture right next to it. He never got to her.
Peter ran upstairs and locked him up in his room, but there were many people showed up in front of their house. He heard footsteps from his mom coming to his room, but there were more than of just one person. His door was kicked down with a guy pointing a gun at her head, he witnessed his sister’s death, his father’s, now someone pulling the trigger right through his mom’s head. He wished everything was just a dream, he wanted to wake up from this nightmare.
He jumped out of bed the next morning, telling himself it was all just a bad dream. But he wasn’t home, not in his room, there were no blood stains by the door, nor were there anything that resembles his room, it was the gramp’s house, the big family one. A bunch of people rushed in, they brought him down the basement tied him to a chair. He was shown on TV a clip of an advertisement about immortality, about how the mind can be swapped into a new body so one person can live on. Then an old man walked in, it was his dear grand uncle, however, he wasn’t here to comfort him or anything. He was here for him.
“S...So you killed my whole family?”, said Peter with a shaken voice.
“Yes Peter, they would be on my way, and I don’t think they should live after learning about the truth, about our existence”, said the old man.
He showed Peter the group that he led, how every weird thing Peter witnessed, weird people watching him, were all one of the clan’s. He left to get ready for getting a new body, to refresh his soul like a hermit crab switching its shell. One of his cousins approached, with all the needles and meds to get him to sleep, but Peter snatched one of it and stabbed him with it, cut off his ties and tried to escape. However, as soon as he got to the hallway which led to a stairway upstairs, he was surrounded with people he met during the family gathering. They all seemed so nice and friendly, now waiting to kill him. And he saw his family’s body hanging on the wall, surrounding him as well. He saw his headless sister, still wearing that hoodie that she wore that day, and his parents covered in blood stains.
The last thing he saw was a bright light, with the golden symbol that he saw his grandma and relatives wore.
And he woke up, only it’s not Peter.
Annie called her husband, Steve, to get the kids moving from their phones and games. Their family was a small and cozy one, with Peter, their oldest son, and Charlie, who just got into middle school. Annie snuffle while throwing her suitcase into the trunk. Ever since mom passed away, aunt Susan has taken care of Annie and her family really well, and to her, aunt Susan was like another mom. The trip to the funeral was quiet, too quiet, no one said a word, nor does anyone feels like they have something to, everything was just covered in silence. What was left were just the growl of the old Corona and the howl of the gushing wind among the tree line, and people, quite a few actually. Charlie noticed it, all seemed to be staring straight into her soul, all seemed strange but maybe it wasn’t the best time to talk about that.
They arrived at an old mansion in the middle of the woods, surrounded by dozens of people, some looks familiar, yet there are far too many strange faces, all looked at the Grahams as they were arriving. Everyone came around for the funeral since grandaunt Susan was the oldest in the family of 5, with Annie’s mom being the youngest. Even though they knew there might be a lot of people in the family coming, but no one would imagine a whole front yard full of close or distant relatives. They caught up with a few, but strangely the Grahams don’t actually know many people here besides their great-uncle, Susan’s husband, the old man was devastated over the loss of his wife, he treated everyone so nicely his whole life, but life probably treated him the other way around. He took care of the kids whenever Annie and Steve aren’t home, yet life took away too many things from him, and now his dearest wife. Strangely, there were no tears, there was no crying, everything just seemed silenced, everything just seemed odd. People walked around to see aunt Susan for the last time before closing her casket, it started to rain as they were lowering the casket to the ground, yet those ambient somehow were all gone, leaving the atmosphere just dead quiet. Noone was mourning for Susan, all eyes were on the Grahams.
Next morning, it was time to leave, time to say goodbye to many relatives they probably have never seen in their life. It was the first family gathering in while, for the Grahams, at least, not the most joyful one, but it was something. Charlie again found it weird when everyone stared at the Grahams’ car as they were leaving, or more people standing in the middle of the woods looking at them, but she’s seen too many horror movies to get bothered by that. The kids woke up arrived at their home, and as Annie was putting her things away, she stumbled upon a memory box of her mother, who past away a few years ago. There’s just something off about her mom’s family picture, she can’t catch anything off, she stares harder and harder, looking for something, anything.
“Mom?”- Peter was at the door.
Annie startled, putting the pictures away.
“Can I go to, uh, the school concert? I’m meeting my friends there”, Peter asked.
“You should bring Charlie with you then”.
“I don’t think she likes public places”, Peter grunts.
“Just take her, she needs some fresh air, she can meet her friends there, too”, Annie insists.
“We legit just got back from a trip in the middle of the woods”.
“Charlie, get your coat, you’re going to the school concert with your brother”, yelled Annie across the hallway.
Peter drove them to a house party, where he saw his crush, sitting there all by herself, reading a book on the couch like every romantic movie, with lights dimmed all around with a stream of light shined over her shoulder. He approached her, not knowing what to say, he asked: “Do you, uh, smoke? I have weed”. She brought him upstairs, and to his surprise, she told a few guys in the room: “Boys, Peter here has weed”.
However, little did he know, his sister whom he left downstairs was all by herself, getting a piece of chocolate cake, but something was wrong.
She felt something weird, her throat felt stuck, she couldn’t breathe as struggled her way upstairs to find Peter. “I...I can’t breathe Peter”. “Charlie, what’s wrong?”, he rushed her to the car to get to the hospital. Someone was standing by the window, staring as they go, but Peter has too many things to worry about right now.
The road was dark and lonely, there were only grass fields and some broken streetlights on their sides. The wind howl by the car window, blowing dust everywhere, yet Peter stepped on the pedal harder than ever. They were flying through dark and curtains of dust concealing the night sky. Charlie struggled harder and harder every second, she opened the window and gasped for air. Peter’s heart beat faster than ever, knowing his sister life is on his own hand, he couldn’t focus on anything, before he knew it, there was a truck approaching, he turned the fastest he could, the best attempt at dodging it. But Charlie, she was outside the window gasping for air, he heard a soft thump when the truck just flew by the side of the car. He was shaking, not a word out of his mouth, tears started rolling when he looked at the back mirror. Then there was just silence on the drive home.
He couldn’t sleep the whole night. The image of Charlie’s body with blood everywhere on the neck that no longer attached to anything stuck on his head. He stared into the blank wall on the side of his bed, from the silence of the night all by himself, ‘til the morning light shined through his window. Annie was leaving for work, she closed the door, unlocked the car, then silence broke. A scream, filled with terror and sadness, after losing another loved one.
The house once had joy and laughter was now filled with sadness and silence. No one talked during dinner, no one wanted to break the silence, the dreary atmosphere covers everyone. No one has anything to say, especially after everything that happened. Peter felt like all the weight was on his chest, all the blame and mumbles from mom. The look she gave him, the glare in her eyes reminded him of years ago when she was trying to kill him in his sleep. He woke up surrounded by gasoline everywhere and Annie was lighting a match. She kept explaining that she was just sleepwalking, but how can he forget that look in her eyes, the hatreds in her eyes lit up among the fire. It’s still those hatreds in her eyes, and the mumbles in her mouth, she was ready to explode, to speak out her mind. Of how everything happened was just sad and horrible, and only if Peter can fucking admit what he did, but not even a sorry came out of his filthy mouth. But she couldn’t, it was also on her, Peter didn’t want to bring Charlie, nor did she wanted to go, who fault was it then.
Annie has been going to a local support group ever since her mom passed away a few months ago, where she could speak her mind. But now she lost both her lovely aunt and daughter, she needed them more than ever. There were days she told Steve that she was going to the cinema at night, but she needed that mental support. Every time the chairs are filled with different people, some have different stories to be told, but there are always some people are always there every time Annie came. When she was backing her car out to leave, someone stopped her, saying she was Joan from a few session ago. They talked for a bit, exchanging number and said they could go get coffee someday, but Annie couldn’t really remember who that was, she looked familiar, not from one of the sessions, but she definitely saw her somewhere.
Annie came back to her work, which she builds models, small scale but its realisticity scares people sometimes. There are doll houses all around their house, with few that looks just like their own, even with the 4 of them in it. But those models didn’t always contain happy memories. Steve came back to seeing Annie working on her newest one, the one with Peter driving Charlie and the truck, and her lifeless head rolling on the ground. “Jesus Annie, why do you have to do this?” Steve just could take it no more, despite Annie kept fighting back, saying there was nothing wrong, it was nothing more than a neutral view of the scene. He knew for sure that there were more in her mind.
The lost of the Graham’s youngest child didn’t help to connect everyone one bit. Now it’s all arguing, there were no more laughter or joy, only hatreds and blames to one another. Annie’s some-what-friend reached out to her, saying she has something that she really wants to share with her. Though going to a stranger’s house wasn’t the best idea, she didn’t have many friends to talk to anyway, nor was it a bad one either. It was just a small apartment with a small golden locket with some kind of symbol on the door knocker. Joan greeted her and got her some tea. They talked about how she got over her son who died a few months ago, Joan showed her his pictures along with others on the shelves, pictures of her family, but this one picture, of her with a group of others, all wearing golden locket with the symbol on the door knocker, with a few people with their head cut off the picture. Annie knew it somehow, she couldn’t believe in her eyes, so said she should leave to go get some food for tonight. Annie rushed home, images of her mom and aunt kept appearing in her mind. She ran right into the addict, where she put all her old family’s pictures. There it was, that same picture that stood among others at Joan’s house. They were all there, her mom, her aunt, now this new stranger who treated her so kindly and shared the pain with her. They all had the locket, the gold symbol that was bizarre looking. Joan was all there, she knew many of Annie’s family. She was also in the family picture. So she was a family member after all. Even the carpet that said Joan on it, she also had one made by her mother for other people in my community. And her mom’s locket, she hadn’t touched it ever since her mom past away. But how come has Joan hid from her all these time, why did she not tell her about this.
It then was dinner time, they were still arguing about what she was doing, and maybe it’s time for them to move on. But her outraged got worst, she said how she hated this family, how everyone just wanted to leave, even what she wanted to say to Peter, not even a single sorry. Peter teared up a bit, but he hit her with something she was hiding from all those time, how about her, Peter just took off upstairs, leaving the dinner. So did she, despite how much Steve tried to talk her out since it was getting late, but she just want the answer to many questions on her mind then.
There it was, the weird symbol appeared everywhere now, everything seemed matched up so well, that’s why Joan knew so much about Annie and her family. She stepped on her mom’s welcoming mat and knocked on Joan’s door. No reply. Frustrated as it was, Annie stormed out, but just as her about to step out of the building, someone stopped her and brought her back to Joan’s room. It was full of people, not as empty as she thought it would be. Everyone in that room was wearing a gold locket with that symbol on. She walked out of that room a few hours later, not as Annie anymore, though.
She came home later, she knew she was different, she knew they put something in her, she knew she was going to hurt her family. Or else, they will. She could take it no more, maybe if she could end it, it would hurt her anymore. They had a revolver in their safe, but this wasn’t to protect themselves anymore. Steve walked into the living room with Annie facing the fireplace. She startled, her hand was shaking, she warned him not to get close. The gun moved from her chin to Steve, her finger was shaken as she was letting go. She couldn’t, she asked him to do it for her, to end her sufferings. Of course, he couldn’t do so, after all, no matter if she went crazy over the mourn of her lost, it was his loss too, and losing her wouldn’t be an option. Step by step he tried to get closer to her, he just wanted to comfort her. Peter walked in the traumatic scene, Annie’s gun was right on Steve’s forehead. His scream surprised her weak and shaky finger. The blood splatter everywhere as the bullet ricocheted off the mirror, shattering both the mirror and the family picture right next to it. He never got to her.
Peter ran upstairs and locked him up in his room, but there were many people showed up in front of their house. He heard footsteps from his mom coming to his room, but there were more than of just one person. His door was kicked down with a guy pointing a gun at her head, he witnessed his sister’s death, his father’s, now someone pulling the trigger right through his mom’s head. He wished everything was just a dream, he wanted to wake up from this nightmare.
He jumped out of bed the next morning, telling himself it was all just a bad dream. But he wasn’t home, not in his room, there were no blood stains by the door, nor were there anything that resembles his room, it was the gramp’s house, the big family one. A bunch of people rushed in, they brought him down the basement tied him to a chair. He was shown on TV a clip of an advertisement about immortality, about how the mind can be swapped into a new body so one person can live on. Then an old man walked in, it was his dear grand uncle, however, he wasn’t here to comfort him or anything. He was here for him.
“S...So you killed my whole family?”, said Peter with a shaken voice.
“Yes Peter, they would be on my way, and I don’t think they should live after learning about the truth, about our existence”, said the old man.
He showed Peter the group that he led, how every weird thing Peter witnessed, weird people watching him, were all one of the clan’s. He left to get ready for getting a new body, to refresh his soul like a hermit crab switching its shell. One of his cousins approached, with all the needles and meds to get him to sleep, but Peter snatched one of it and stabbed him with it, cut off his ties and tried to escape. However, as soon as he got to the hallway which led to a stairway upstairs, he was surrounded with people he met during the family gathering. They all seemed so nice and friendly, now waiting to kill him. And he saw his family’s body hanging on the wall, surrounding him as well. He saw his headless sister, still wearing that hoodie that she wore that day, and his parents covered in blood stains.
The last thing he saw was a bright light, with the golden symbol that he saw his grandma and relatives wore.
And he woke up, only it’s not Peter.