The scientist, who implanted the memories, was named Ian Craft. Ian Craft touched the front of the brain with gloved index and middle fingers, and this activated the false memories, and so the brain imagined that he was Jake Connors.
Connors sat at the kitchen table with his wife, Barb, and his son, Bobby, who looked up at his father and addressed him softly: “Dad, I got another D on my report card this quarter.”
“I see,’’ said Jake. “Aren’t you upset?’’ Bobby asked. “Not at all my boy,” his father said as he shoveled a forkful of mashed potatoes into his mouth. “I don’t know how to feel anything son,” Jake said stoically.
Bobby laughed outright. “Are you kidding me dad?” “Nope. I’m very serious.”
Bobby and Barb looked at one another and shook their heads. After dinner Bobby went to his bedroom to play a computer game; Barb sat down next to her husband at the kitchen table and spoke softly to him.
“I want a divorce,” Barb said. “Ok.” Jake said. “I’m taking Bobby with me.” “I see.” “Aren’t you upset?” “Why should I be upset? I am still healthy and alive aren’t I?”
“Are you insane?” Barb growled. “I do not know what being upset is,” Jake said, “Because I've never experienced it.”
Jake picked up a butcher knife and lunged at his wife. She screamed, “Why are you doing this?!” “I don’t know why I’m doing this,” Jake said calmly.
The knife pierced Barb’s breast; she let out a terrible scream as blood poured from the knife wound. Jake stabbed his wife sixteen more times before she was finally dead. He was soon arrested and sent to an asylum just on the outskirts of the imaginary town where he lived.
A guard peeked in at Jake through the bars of his cell and smiled weakly. “You know the mind creates its own prisons,’’ the guard said.
“Yes it does,” Jake replied.
His voice sounded cold in the darkness of his cell and mind.
Doug attends Wittenberg University where he majors in English. He grew up in Springfield but now lives in an apartment in Enon with his two cats Autumn and Jade. His horror collection, Holiday Hell, is available for purchase at Amazon and Createspace.
