Prompt: Someone witnesses something they aren’t supposed to

There was no going back once she’d seen those messages. To feign ignorance would go against everything she stood for, but her pulse quickened at the idea of coming forward with what she knew.

“Mom,” Jacob called as he entered the kitchen. “Can I go over to Tyler’s?”

A lump formed in her throat and she swallowed, not wanting her tone to betray her fear and horror. White knuckles against white counters, she answered him as she gripped the bar top to steady herself.

“Not tonight, honey,” she said, flinching at her honeyed tone. He moaned and she could feel her stoic exterior crumbling. She dared a glance in his direction, studying his face and wondering where she went wrong and what she had missed.

She turned toward the fridge and opened it, blinking back water in her eyes as she pretended to search for some unknown item.

“Why don’t you go play video games in the front room for a bit,” she said, pulling out a seltzer so she wouldn’t return from the fridge empty handed. Jacob cocked his head sideways opening his mouth to say something but then closing it. They both knew he’d already used his video game hours for the week.

“Yes, I know. We can make an exception.” He spun around, not wanting to test his luck and she watched him disappear into the next room.

She pulled back the drink’s tab, a crisp crack breaking the silence he left her in.

She didn’t want to believe her son could be a monster. And maybe she wouldn’t have had she not seen the texts herself. Blue messages joining a chorus of others, pushing and pushing.
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And now Samuel’s mother no longer has her son. While hers plays video games in the living room.