Tainted: Origins of a Psycho

A Friend and A Visitor

July 4, 1998

Vincent:

Five months have passed since Grandma took me into her home, and I have been more happy than I could have imagined. The fear of being beaten and ridiculed by my family was gone, and in it's place was the wonderful feeling of being loved and cared for by someone.

Ever since I moved in Grandma has gone out of her way to make sure that all of my needs were met. She pulled me out of my regular school and hired a really nice private teacher to help me with my studies for the rest of the school year, which greatly improved my grades.

She made sure that we attended church every Sunday, where I made a few new friends. They were super nice kids who never poked fun at me for being different.

Grandma was so happy I had friends that she let them come over to the house every week after church. The kids loved her because she always made us cheese pizzas for lunch with big bowls of chocolate ice cream for dessert.

For the first time in my life I felt like a real kid, and that was something that I wouldn't trade for all of the chocolate ice cream in the world.

"Vincent, are you almost ready?" Grandma called from the kitchen.  "We have to go!"

"Yes ma'am!  I'm coming right now!"  I called back, running down the stairs with a baseball cap in my hand. 

Today was the Fourth of July, and we had been invited to go watch fireworks at the church. I was excited because there was going to be a lot of delicious food there. Grandma was excited because the old people were gonna play bingo.

We arrived at the church, and when we walked inside my eyes widened in amazement because of all of the food in the kitchen.  There were hot dogs, hamburgers, cakes, cookies, and enough bags of chips to feed an entire army!

Grandma noticed the hungry look in my eyes and immediately fixed me a huge plate.  "Go join your friends outside.  I'll be out there in a little while."

"Yes ma'am." I said, kissing her on the cheek before going outside to hang out with the other kids. They called me over to eat my lunch with them, and when we were done we started an intense round of freeze tag.

I ran as fast as my feet could carry me, but it wasn't long before I was roughly pushed down to the ground.  The impact sent waves of shock through me, and my eyes scanned the crowd to see which kid tagged me. 

It was a little girl I'd never met before. She had blonde hair that was pulled into pigtails, and bright blue eyes that reminded me of the sky.

There was a wide smile on her face as she stood above me. She noticed how stunned I was and reached her hand out to help me off of the ground.  "Sorry, kid. I didn't mean to tag you so hard." She paused for a moment, staring at me thoughtfully before grabbing my hand and shaking it. "My name is Katherine by the way."

I returned the smile. "I'm Vincent."

Katherine giggled and tightened her grasp on my hand.  "You wanna be my new best friend?"

"S-sure."

"Cool!" She cried excitedly, the smile on her face widening. "Let's go grab some cookies from the kitchen and find a cool place to hang out. I wanna know all about my new BFF!"

We spent the next couple of hours talking underneath a big oak tree.  She told me that her family had just moved here from Rhode Island, and that she was glad to make a new friend.  I shared a little about myself as well, nothing too personal, mainly just my likes and dislikes. Katherine was easy to talk to.

I usually don't feel comfortable hanging out with girls for more than five minutes, but she was different. There was a connection between us, one that made me feel like we have already been best friends for our whole lives.

We talked to each other until it was time for the fireworks. Katherine grabbed my hand and pulled me to the front of the crowd, holding me close as we watched the beautiful display.

I was having such a good time that I hated to see it come to an end. When Grandma told me that it was time to go home I asked her if we could stay for just five more minutes, but she said that it was past my bed time.  She watched with a smile on her face as I said goodnight to Katherine, and as soon as we got to the car she looked at me and said, "You seemed like you were having a nice time with your new friend. You should invite her over for dinner one day."

"Really!?" I asked, a little more excitedly than I meant to. "I mean, that would be cool."

"She's cute." Grandma said, nudging me with a wink. "I think she'd make a nice girlfriend."

My face started burning. "Awww come on, Grandma. It's not like that." I insisted, leaning my head on my hand. "We're just friends."

"I'm just teasing, kiddo." She laughed, "But I am very happy that you met someone nice."

"Thanks. Me too."

We listened to the radio for the rest of the ride home, and when we reached the house I saw a dark figure standing on Grandma's porch. My heart started pounding rapidly, and I clasped on to her arm.

"W-were you expecting a visitor, Grandma?"

Grandma switched off the engine and shook her head. "No." She answered, unbuckling her seatbelt. "Stay here while I go see who it is."

She started to open the door, but the mystery person slowly began walking toward the car.

My breath caught in my throat and I held on to Grandma's arm even tighter. Who in the world would be here so late at night, and why were they just standing around in the dark!?

Grandma reached for the pistol stashed inside of her purse until the person was close enough for us to see. Both of us sighed in relief when we saw a very familiar face staring at us through the windshield.

It was Mommy!

I immediately opened my door and ran over to her, wrapping my arms around her tiny waist as tears of happiness began pouring down my face. "Mommy! I've missed you so much!!"

"I've missed you too, baby." She said, placing her hand on my cheek. "More than you know."

Grandma watched us from the car for a while, then she climbed out and folded her arms across her chest. "What are you doing here, Vera?" She asked, clearly unhappy. "You know that we had an agreement."

"You and Victor had an agreement." Mommy answered, "I was just caught in the middle."

Heavy tension flowed between them as they stared at each other in silence. Grandma shook her head with a frown and started walking into the house. "Fine, come in and I'll fix you a cup of tea. I'm sure you want to talk to Vincent."

"Thank you, Millicent." Mommy said. "I really appreciate it."

I followed Mommy into the living room and sat down on the couch, while Grandma went into the kitchen. When Mommy was certain that she could speak freely, she placed her hands on my face and looked at me wearily. "Vincent, I know that you're happy living with Grandma, but..."

She paused for a moment, tears filling her eyes before she said, "I want you to come home."