Remorse Found Beyond the Grave

After Dad vanished into the parallel dimension, Mom dumped every single penny we had into quantum portal research.

To keep me alive and out of her hair, she bought a nanny bot to handle my daily routine. But Mom's so-called best buddy, Uncle Felix, hacked the robot's system and locked it into pet mode. Every day, it dispensed exactly ten pieces of dry cat kibble for me to eat.

I was so starved I could barely whisper when I finally called Mom begging for help.

Her voice over the phone was sharp and cold. "Can you just grow up for once? You are absolutely useless. You couldn't even keep your own father from leaving!"

"I asked Felix to drop by and check on you every single day! Who is teaching you to tell these disgusting lies?"

Terrified, I hung up the phone and crawled deep into my bedroom closet.

I hid there because the shadows still smelled like Dad.

Just as the last bit of warmth was leaving my body, a strange, echoing voice whispered right into my ear.

[Would you be willing to give up your life in exchange for your father's return?]

I gave a weak, tiny nod.

I would do it. I would do anything as long as Mom and Dad could be happy again.

...

I curled up on the hardwood floor of the closet, desperately burying my face in the flannel shirts Dad left behind, breathing in the scent of cedarwood and old spice. His clothes were still neatly hanging there, and just looking at them made me feel safe.

I kept my head wrapped in his jacket, quietly feeling my life slip away.

The closet was pitch black, exactly like the night Dad disappeared.

Only this time, I wasn't scared at all.

That strange voice promised me. It said that as long as I let go of my life, Dad would come back.

And if Dad came back, Mom wouldn't have to hurt so much anymore.

I closed my eyes, and my mind slowly drifted away into a heavy fog.

By the time I realized what was happening, I was floating in the middle of the living room. The nanny bot was humming in standby mode. I drifted through the air and curiously patted its metal head.

It had a perfectly round dome and spoke with a voice that sounded just like mine, so Mom had named it Orbit.

Mom used to tell me she was going to bring Dad back, so Orbit would be in charge of watching me eat, sleep, and do my homework.

I had been so happy.

With Orbit around, Mom wouldn't have to work herself to the bone anymore.

But the very next day, Orbit changed.

It stopped cooking my favorite meals. Instead, a little hatch on its metallic belly popped open, dropping a few brown pebbles onto a plastic plate.

Orbit's voice was still sickeningly sweet. [Here is your food for today.]

"Orbit, I don't want this. I want Dad's scrambled eggs with the secret sprinkle of sugar."

[Ben, as a little kitty cat, you must only eat your kibble.]

I figured Orbit was just glitching, so I tried pressing the reset button on its back.

But Orbit merely tilted its round head and played a pre-recorded message on a loop.

[Pet mode engaged. Please contact the administrator to adjust settings.]

I called Mom's cell phone.

It rang forever before she finally picked up.

The background noise was deafening. I could hear adults shouting over the roar of massive generators.

Mom's voice was hoarse and dripping with impatience. "Ben, didn't I tell you not to call me unless it's an emergency?"

"Mom, Orbit is broken. It's only giving me..."

Before I could even finish my sentence, she cut me off.

"Didn't I ask Felix to go see you every day? Why are you making up stories, Ben?"

I opened my mouth but the words died in my throat when I heard the sudden crack of a sob in Mom's voice.

Everything went wrong when Dad decided to cross over to the other world. He couldn't stand how close Mom and Uncle Felix were getting.

After that, Mom turned into a completely different person.

She cut ties with Uncle Felix and practically locked herself inside the underground lab. She lost her mind trying to find a way to drag Dad back to our reality.

Uncle Felix didn't take it well. Whenever he came over to check on me, the look in his eyes was pure poison.

And then...

My tiny brain was spinning, trying to piece everything together, when a loud click echoed from the front door.

The heavy deadbolt turned.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway, and my eyes instantly lit up.

Mom was home!

I floated eagerly through the living room, watching her kick off her heels. "Ben?"

"Mom! You're finally back!"

I threw my arms open and lunged at her, only to pass right through her chest.

I stared blankly at my own transparent hands. Right. I forgot I was already dead.

"Ben? I am not in the mood for hide and seek today. Come out right now!"

I pouted, instinctively wanting to argue that I wasn't playing games.

But no matter how loud I screamed, not a single sound reached her ears.

All I could do was watch helplessly as Mom walked over to Orbit to check its system logs.

"Orbit, where is Ben?"

The robot's oversized digital eyes flashed blue, and its mechanical voice chimed through the quiet room. [Administrator voice recognized. The kitty cat is currently napping in the bedroom closet.]

[Breathing is steady. Sleep mode engaged.]

Mom paused, letting out a heavy sigh before turning toward the bedroom hallway.

My heart felt like it was going to beat right out of my invisible chest.

I wanted her to find me, but I didn't want her to know I was dead just yet.

Dad wasn't back yet.

I couldn't let Mom's heart break all over again.

Just as her fingers brushed the bedroom doorknob, her cell phone suddenly started screaming in her pocket.

"Professor Sarah! We are getting massive energy spikes from the multiverse grid! The experiment is stabilizing!"

Mom yanked her hand back from the door, spun around, and practically ran out of the house.

Watching the door slam shut behind her, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

Mom and Dad were going to be together soon. That was a good thing.

I looked down at my pale, shriveled body lying in the closet and realized how ugly I looked.

If Dad saw me looking like a pile of bones, he would be so upset.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and floated back to the living room.

A massive portrait of our family of three hung right in the center of the wall. Mom had specifically framed it after Dad left.

I had asked her why she put it up.

She just looked at me with those hollow, haunted eyes and kept whispering that it was all her fault.

Mom thought I was too young to understand.

But I remembered everything. I remembered how Mom took down all our family photos just because Uncle Felix casually mentioned he didn't like looking at them.

Dad and Mom had a screaming match over it, throwing things until I burst into tears.

When Dad heard me crying, all the fight drained out of him. He looked utterly defeated.

"If it weren't for you, Ben, I would have walked out on your mother a long time ago."

"But nobody should be caged like this."

I didn't really understand what being caged meant, but being buried in Dad's warm chest always made the scary things go away.

I floated up to the gallery wall, looking at the smiles frozen in time. We looked so happy back then.

Mom's eyes were bright, and she looked like she was glowing from the inside out.

Dad was grinning like a teenager, wrapping his big arms around both of us as if we were his entire world.

I remembered that specific day so clearly. Dad made me his famous scrambled eggs with that secret sprinkle of sugar.

Mom sat on the couch with me, binge-watching The Powerpuff Girls until midnight, and then she helped Dad wash the dishes while humming a silly pop song.

I reached out, wanting to touch Dad's smiling face one last time.

My phantom fingertips slipped right through the glass. I couldn't feel a thing.

Right at that moment, Orbit whirred to life.

Its blue eyes blinked, and Mom's voice suddenly crackled from its built-in speakers.

[Ben.]

[Mommy didn't see you when she came home. If you hear this message, please call me back, okay?]

[I know it gets lonely being in that big house all by yourself. I know you're such a good boy and you never want to cause trouble.]

[I'm going to bring Dad home to see you. We'll all go out and get those giant strawberry milkshakes you love, okay? Mommy promises. I won't flake on you this time.]

[Ben, Mom and Dad love you so much.]

The living room fell dead silent.

I just floated there, staring blankly at Orbit's shiny shell, my mind completely empty.

Mom must have noticed that the message had been played, and when I didn't immediately call her back, her voice echoed from the robot again.

[Ben? Are you still mad at me?]

The house was completely still. No echoes. No footsteps.

Mom's voice grew frantic. I could hear her typing furiously, trying to manually override Orbit's camera.

[Orbit, locate Ben.]

Seeing the robot pivot its wheels toward the bedroom hallway, I panicked and threw myself in front of it.

But I was already a ghost.

If Mom saw my dead body now, Dad would never come back!

Orbit rolled right through my transparent chest, its mechanical voice chanting like a metronome.

[Locating kitty cat. Locating kitty cat.]

I focused every ounce of energy I had, desperately mashing my ghostly fingers against the callback button on Orbit's interface.

Come on, Ben! Just push it!

You can't let it go into the bedroom!

Maybe the universe took pity on me, because for a split second, I felt the cold, hard plastic against my fingertips.

Without wasting a breath, I slammed the call button.

Instantly, Orbit froze in place.

[Kitty cat located. Override sequence cancelled.]

On the other end of the line, I heard Mom let out a shaky exhale.

[Ben, you scared me half to death.]

She let out a long, exhausted sigh and cut the connection.

I drifted over to the living room window, staring up at the night sky.

The stars were popping out one by one, twinkling brightly. They looked exactly like Dad's eyes when he smiled.

Dad used to tell me that when people pass away, they turn into stars so they can watch over the people they love.

Was I going to turn into a star now?

Would Mom and Dad look up, recognize me, and wave hello?

I looked down at my fading, see-through hands and managed a small smile.

As long as Dad came back, Mom wouldn't have to lock herself in that freezing lab anymore, staring at Dad's photos until her eyes bled.

She would smile exactly like she did in the pictures. She would take me and Dad to the diner for those strawberry milkshakes.

She would sit on the rug and watch The Powerpuff Girls with me over and over again.

She would...

I stopped my own thoughts. Right. I was dead.

There was no more Ben.

I let out a soft giggle. It was totally fine.

As long as Mom and Dad were happy, everything was perfectly fine.

I lost track of how long I drifted around the empty house. Orbit dispensed my rations two more times.

I hovered over the brown kibble, sniffing at it, but I couldn't smell a thing.

Finally, the heavy thud of boots echoed from the stairwell.

My heart leaped into my throat.

It had to be Mom bringing Dad home!

I zoomed toward the entryway, staring intensely at the heavy security door.

Dad, are you really back?

But as the voice outside grew louder, a wave of crushing disappointment washed over me.

It was Uncle Felix.

"Sarah acts like I'm a freaking burglar. Changing the passcode every damn day. What a joke!"

"Spending all her time on that bullshit research. Does she really think playing mad scientist is going to bring a dead guy back to life?"

That's a lie!

Dad isn't dead!

He's coming back!

Uncle Felix is the bad guy!

Every time he showed up, Mom and Dad would end up screaming at each other.

He always wore these stiff white dress shirts, practically bathing in cheap, overpowering cologne.

Whenever Mom was around, he would flash this perfect smile and say, "You must be Ben. You're just as cute as your mom said."

But the second Mom turned her back, Uncle Felix would secretly pinch my arms until they bruised. When I finally burst into tears and screamed that I hated him, he would look at Mom with these big, victimized eyes.

That was the first time Mom ever yelled at me.

"Why are you acting exactly like your father? So jealous and petty! I've told you a million times, Felix and I are just friends!"

"If you can't behave around adults, you can just stay in your room!"

Mom dragged me to the lab that night, and I didn't see Dad for an entire month.

When I finally saw Dad again, something inside him had broken.

The light in his eyes was completely gone.

Uncle Felix finished scrolling through Orbit's app data on his phone. He scooped up the uneaten cat kibble from the plate and dumped it straight into the trash.

Then he flopped onto our living room couch, pulled a black marker from his pocket, and started scribbling over Dad's face on the framed family photo. He wiped it off, then did it again.

"A big worthless loser raises a little worthless loser. Once the little brat is out of the picture, this whole house, and Sarah, will be mine."

He was humming a cheerful tune when his phone started buzzing. His whole demeanor instantly shifted.

"Felix, is Ben okay?"

It was Mom!

Uncle Felix's voice melted into a pool of sickening sweetness. "Ben is doing fantastic, Sarah. I just cooked him a big plate of scrambled eggs. He even told me it tasted exactly like the way Arthur used to make it."

Liar!

Uncle Felix is a dirty liar!

I put my hands on my hips, glaring daggers at his smug face.

Ever since Mom locked me in the lab that time, the whole vibe in our house had rotted away.

Dad stopped smiling altogether. Mom started coming home later and later.

Meanwhile, Uncle Felix basically made himself at home.

He would bring me cheap plastic toys, smiling that greasy smile while squeezing my cheeks way too hard.

Dad just watched it all happen from the kitchen counter, his eyes filled with an emotion I was too young to understand.

It wasn't until much later that I realized what I had seen. It was the absolute, crushing despair of a man watching his family tear itself apart from the inside.

And then came the day Dad triggered the portal and vanished from our world.

Nobody knew where he ended up.

Mom absolutely lost her mind, harassing everyone we knew, tearing the city apart looking for clues.

Uncle Felix was the first one at our door. He pulled Mom into a tight hug as she sobbed, whispering, "Don't do this to yourself, Sarah. Arthur is probably fine."

Back then, I thought Uncle Felix was genuinely sad.

I thought he actually cared about Dad.

Now, just thinking about it made me want to throw up.

Uncle Felix opened his mouth to say something else to Mom, but she abruptly hung up the phone.

"If that bastard hadn't shown up, Sarah would have been mine years ago."

He muttered under his breath, his face twisting into an ugly scowl. He yanked his phone out, spitefully adjusted Orbit's pet mode down to just five pieces of kibble, and stormed out the door.

"Let's see how long it takes for you to starve!"

I watched the door click shut and scoffed.

Mom and Dad love each other!

A slimeball like you could never break them apart!

The living room slowly faded into pitch darkness, leaving only Orbit's glowing blue eyes illuminating the dust in the air.

Eventually, even the robot powered down, its eyes fading to black.

I drifted aimlessly through the shadows of the house. Whenever I got tired, I would curl up inside the closet, trying to breathe in Dad's scent.

But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't smell a thing anymore.

...

As my consciousness started to blur, I hallucinated Mom running around the lab.

She and a dozen other scientists were glued to a massive bank of monitors, sweating, waiting for something big.

I stared greedily at her face. I couldn't remember the last time she actually slept.

The dark circles under her eyes looked like something out of a comic book.

"Professor Sarah! We finally locked onto Arthur's energy signature! It's him!"

Mom's lips trembled, but no sound came out.

The wavelengths on the giant screen hitched for a second before spiking violently into the red zone.

Suddenly, the glass containment pod hissed open, and the man lying inside gasped for air. His eyes snapped open.

Dad!

It was really Dad!

I practically did backflips in the air, zooming around his pod in circles.

"Dad, you're finally back!"

"Dad, are you going to make me scrambled eggs? Don't forget the sugar, please!"

"Dad, you and Mom have to stop fighting now, okay? You have to take care of each other. Don't miss me too much!"

Maybe my endless rambling actually reached him.

Dad blinked against the harsh fluorescent lights, his chest heaving, and spoke his very first words since crossing back over.

"Where's Ben?"

Mom froze. She stared at Dad's pale face as he repeated himself, louder this time. "Where is my son?"

She instinctively blurted out, "Ben is waiting for you at home."

"At home?"

Dad chewed on those two words, a deep crease forming between his brows. "You left a little boy in that house all by himself?"

"He's not by himself."

Mom rushed to explain, her words stumbling over each other. "He has the nanny bot. And Felix is checking on him... Ben literally just called me a little while ago. He said he misses you so much."

Dad took a slow, agonizingly deep breath.

When he opened his eyes again, the warmth I remembered was completely gone. The look in his eyes was like freezing rain. "Take me home."

I tagged along right behind Dad, completely oblivious to the suffocating tension radiating between them.

My head was spinning with nothing but pure joy. Dad was back.

Neither of them said a single word during the entire drive.

The cramped interior of the car was filled with nothing but my ghostly chatter.

"Mom, Dad is back now! You better not bring up Uncle Felix ever again."

"Dad, Mom knows she messed up. You guys have to be good to each other now!"

"But hey, Dad, if Mom breaks your heart again, I totally support you doing whatever makes you happy! I won't hold you back anymore!"

Mom kept stealing nervous glances at Dad in the rearview mirror. She opened her mouth to speak a dozen times but always swallowed the words.

She kept telling herself that once they walked through the front door and saw Ben, everything would fix itself.

The house would go back to being a home.

They would be a happy family again.

Yes, everything will be fine once Arthur sees Ben.

Mom slammed her foot on the gas pedal, the SUV speeding through the empty streets toward our apartment complex.

Out of nowhere, Dad broke the silence.

"Did Ben grow any taller?"

Mom's knuckles turned stark white as she gripped the steering wheel. "Yeah. He grew a little."

Liar!

Ever since Dad left, she hadn't bothered to measure my height against the kitchen doorframe once.

"Did he cry a lot while I was gone?"

Mom choked on the air. She didn't answer.

The car lurched to a halt in front of our building. Mom and Dad both stared up at the familiar brick facade.

It was eight o'clock at night. Every single window in the building was glowing with warm, yellow light.

Except ours. Our windows were dead black.

They walked up the stairs, Dad a few paces behind Mom.

Mom reached out, her hands shaking slightly as she punched the code into the electronic lock.

Feeling Dad's heavy gaze burning into her back, she rushed to justify herself. "I change the passcode every single day. Felix only comes over when I specifically give him permission."

"Ever since you left, I never let him"

"Just open the door," Dad cut her off sharply, pushing past her into the suffocating darkness of the hallway.

The apartment was terrifyingly quiet. There was no soft, excited voice screaming "Daddy!" from the living room.

Dad furrowed his brows. He opened his mouth to call my name.

But then, he froze. A faint, sickeningly sweet stench of rotting meat was wafting through the stale air...