The Birthday Tradition

It was a cold winter morning in Plainville. It was also Remy's 21st birthday. She awoke in her family's old run-down barn and looked down at the chain and cuff locked around her ankle keeping her from reaching the walls of the barn. "Happy birthday to me," she thought without feeling. Her heart felt as cold as the barn. At least she had wool blankets to keep her warm and the barn provided some shelter from the numbing cold outside. It was just enough to survive, but not enough to be comfortable.

She saw the snowy desolation outside through a hole of the dilapidated barn wall where a small plank of wood was missing. What had been acres of beautiful pear trees, followed by apple trees, cherry trees, strawberry bushes and raspberry bushes, were now all dead. Not just shed of leaf and fruit for winter, they had been burned. The cows had all stopped producing milk and died one by one; the bull she could see through the hole as well, half decomposed and frozen in the snow. No doubt come spring thaw, it'll attract scavengers with it putrid smell.

She pushed the thoughts out of her mind as she remembered her birthdays past, driving into town with her mother and father.

***

Her father behind the wheel cautiously driving down the snow covered roads, through the covered bridge that ran over the frozen pond and was the first marker that they were almost to town. A few minutes later they'd come up to the only stoplight in the entire town. Once the light turned green, they continued to drive a little further and pulled the car parallel to the curb, and walked the rest of the way to Remy's favorite mom and pop bakery. Actually, it was the only bakery in town. They didn't even have a name, it just said "Bakery" outside the shop.

Going to the bakery was a birthday tradition. Remy came here every year with her parents for her birthday and got cream puffs, snickerdoodles, and a piece of chocolate cake.

Otto, the baker, and his son, Aidan, would always have their treats ready for their visit. He'd wish Remy a happy birthday, and placed the chocolate cake with a lit candle in front of her. Her parents would sing happy birthday and tell her to make a wish. Her wish was always the same - let every birthday be as happy as this birthday.

***

Last year on her 18th birthday, there was something nostalgic about coming to the bakery with her parents that brought a sense of peace.

The celebration that year was bittersweet, because she would start at university up north in Chicago, Illinois next Spring, and wouldn't be able to visit for her birthday. They'd just have to celebrate her birthday on Holiday break a couple weeks before her actual birthday. A small thing, but a break from tradition nonetheless. That is, if the bakery was even still here. There had been rumors in town that my parents heard that Otto would be closing shop and moving out of state to take care of his ailing aunt, but Remy's parents didn't want to ask such personal questions of Otto, especially not on Remy's birthday.

Aidan, who was Remy's age, came out from the back of the bakery, dusting the flour off his apron and wished Remy a happy birthday. They talked for a while about school and plans coming up for the future. They weren't close, but living out in the country and homeschooled by her mother, she didn't really have any close friends, just acquaintances that she saw in town now and again. Though even then, she never really fit in with any groups of girls in town. She was very pretty in a delicate way, but given her isolation on the farm, she was also awkward around people and never knew the right thing to say and would end up with people looking at her blinking, not knowing how to reply. After a while, she'd just given up trying. Except with Aidan, who was always kind and never seemed to mind her quirks. He didn't seem to be able to fit in or converse with others their age, which must have been harder for him living in town. At least Remy could tell herself it was because she lived so far from everyone.

She didn't have any siblings either, but not for lack of her parents trying. They had a miscarriage a few years after they'd had Remy, and then were never able to get pregnant again after that. Remy would get lonely and ask why she didn't have brothers or sisters, and they would tell her that they always wanted a big family to help grow the farm, but God decided that Remy was so perfect that they had all the blessings they would ever need. It would warm Remy's heart , but she could see pain in her mother's eyes so she tried not to bring it up anymore. She felt guilty leaving for school instead of helping with their farm, but she had her heart set on going out into the world on her own and meet people, make friends, maybe fall in love, and that wasn't going to happen here. Luckily they had only a small farm to tend, and her parents could afford to pay someone to help when, eventually, they got older and unable to tend it, though they'd have to build a guest house or board them in Remy's room since their farm was so far away from the nearest town and surrounded by forests.

Aidan had given her a bouquet of handpicked daisies with one marigold flower in the center. He told her it was for her birthday since eighteen is a special milestone and gave her a small kiss on the cheek. Remy thought it was very sweet and thanked him. He asked when she would be leaving for college and she told him, she'd be calling a cab to take her to the airport at the end of the week. That would have been 4 days from that moment. "Remy, I know I've never said anything, and I should have sooner. It's just that... Please don't go. I care for you very much and always thought that maybe one day, you and I would eventually settle down together. I've just been too afraid to ask."

Remy was mortified and hoped it didn't show on her face. "I... I'm so sorry, Aidan... I just don't... I don't know what to say. I appreciate your friendship, and the flowers were very kind, and I don't want to hurt you, but I can't stay here. I have so many plans, and I'm already enrolled in school and have already taken out loans."

"It's okay, I have some money saved up, and my dad is likely going to leave me the bakery when he moves to take care of my great aunt, I could help pay whatever we can" -- Remy held up her hands to stop him before he could say more.

"I'm sorry Aidan. I just don't think of you that way. I want to go to Chicago for school; I've been looking forward to it for some time. I was hoping you would accept me leaving because of school and bills without me having to be so direct, but that's just how I feel." Remy wrung her hands together staring at her shoes not knowing what else to say and unsure how to end the conversation.

"It's fine. I wish you would have been more direct before I kept rambling on. I'm a little embarrassed. Good luck at school." Aidan turned around quickly and walked to the back room with his shoulders hunched in defeat.

As Remy and her parents were leaving, she looked back and saw Aidan standing in the doorway of the back room looking back with sorrow in his eyes. She had always known that Aidan had a crush on her, but she never felt the same, so she had always avoided any deep conversations when she'd visit town, and kept to talking about school plans and weather as much as she could. She never would have thought he'd get the courage to say something about it. She was content to just have nice visits when she was in town, since he was the only person her age she ever spoke with. She waved to him one last time, an apologetic smile on her face, and walked out the door. As the door closed, she thought she'd seen something shift in Aidan's demeanor. Did he look angry? Remy didn't think she ever saw Aidan angry, but she could understand why he would be. Everyone processes their feelings differently.

***

At home, Remy and her parents sat in their cozy living room in front of the fireplace. Then she opened her birthday gifts. It was mostly things she could use in her dorm room, other than the essentials, which she already had packed. Things like picture frames with pictures of the three of them, some soft fuzzy slippers and matching robe, and a mug that said "Country Girls Rule."

Her mother told stories of her birthdays when she was little while she sat in their big comfy overstuffed chair feeling content in the moment and excited for the future. Then her mother's voice started to squeak and Remy looked up to see tears in her eyes. Her mother apologized at being so emotional and excused herself to bed. Remy looked up as her mother bent down and planted a light kiss on her forehead, gave her father's shoulder a squeeze, and then went upstairs.

Remy and her father sat quietly in the living room for another 20 minutes until her dad called it a night too.

When Remy was sure her parents were asleep, she grabbed some snow pants and a heavy coat and quietly as possible snuck out past the barn halfway between the trees on the farm and the trees of the forest on the outer perimeter of their land. She had done this for as long as she could remember on her birthday. Out in the country the stars twinkled bright. Even on cold nights like that night had been, she always loved to flop back on the snow like a kid and just stare up at the stars for a few hours. She'd be leaving in a few days, and she wanted to soak it in one last time before her next step into adulthood.

Then she heard a bang. She shot straight up in the snow and looked around. Was someone hunting in the middle of the night? That sounded like it came from their property. Remy looked around in a frenzy and decided she better get back to the house. If her parents had heard it too, they'd be checking on her and would be frantic if they didn't find her in her bed or where they'd last seen her. As was getting up to run to the house, she heard a second bang. That definitely came from the direction of her house, but who would be hunting this late and in this neck of the woods? Remy scrambled to the side door of the house shouting, "Mom?! Dad?! Did you hear those blasts?"

Remy came to an abrupt stop at the threshold of her parents room. Her father was laying on the bed, her mother on the floor, both covered in blood from the gunshot wounds that looked like someone had used buckshot.

"Hello Remy." At the monotonous, emotionless tone of that familiar voice behind her, Remy twisted around to come face to face with Aidan. Then everything went dark.

***

When Remy came to, she was sitting in a dining room chair with each arm and each leg tied down. Her mouth was covered with duct tape, and she had a throbbing on the side of her head.

"Don't say anything yet! Just hear me out," as Remy mumbled an angry retort from behind her duct tape. She couldn't believe he'd think she would hear him out after he killed her parents. Her blood was pumping through her body at a rate five times faster than it should. Her breathing was rapid and she tried to steady her breathing to bring down her heart rate before she passed out. "I'll take the tape off your mouth if you promise to be calm."

Remy nodded her concession, and Aidan slowly peeled off the tape. She felt some of the skin tear from her lips as he pulled the tape.

"Why did you do it? How could you?" Remy couldn't process what had happened. Hadn't Aidan just professed feelings for her earlier this same day?

"I needed to keep you from leaving for school. Your parents wouldn't have understood, and I couldn't take care of three of you."

"What do you mean "take care of?"" Remy couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"I'm going to take care of you from now on. You won't be leaving for school. You're going to be with me from now on. We're going to be together, just like we always wanted."

"Are you out of your mind? You're a murderer, you killed my parents; I'll never be with you! And what do you mean like we always wanted? I never wanted this. I just told you today that I didn't think about you like that!"

"Don't you remember all the talks we had the last couple years? Remember how you said that it's lonely on the farm and you would love to be closer to someone that you could fall in love with and marry? You were talking about me, I know you were. And your parents were trying to push you away to school and you had to tell me that you weren't interested because they were right there."

"Aidan, I. Never. Said. I wanted. To be. With you. You misunderstood. My parents were not forcing me into college; I chose to go. Please just let me go."

"I know you don't mean that. You just need time to adjust to your new freedom from you parents."

"Someone will come. Your father will wonder where you are. The school will try to get in contact. Someone in town will start asking questions."

"Oh Remy, no one will come. Your family barely has acquaintances; no one ever comes from town to visit you. Except me, but I didn't want to disturb you or your family while I was here, because I was raised to be polite. Even when your parents are ill and don't come on their normal days, no one bats an eye. My dad just left earlier in a rush to go live with my aunt when he got a call that her health took a turn for the worse. With you planning to leave in a few days, and him leaving, it was now or never that I came to save you. And I'll just tell everyone that your parents have taken ill and I decided to move in to help you with the farm after you decided not to go to college to take care of them. They won't question why you don't come to town, because I'll still be working the bakery during the day a couple times a week, and there's no reason for you to have to come all the way to town when I'm already here and can run all our errands."

"He's insane," Remy's mind raced. She pulled at the ties on her arms and legs. She rocked her body trying to free herself from the chair. She slammed sideways to the floor and she was able to free her legs by pushing her legs further to get the tie around the bottom of the chair leg. Before she could get to her feed with the chair on her back, still tied to her wrists, Aidan came up behind her, and everything went dark again.

***

Bitterness at the memory crept into her emotions, her eyes squinting, her face pinching, her lips purse. Her time was spent oscillating between bitterness and despair the last 3 years. She was fed and given water frequently. He always brought her fully cooked meals, telling her it would be so nice if she would just stop trying to betray him and leave, and they could have nice meals like that all the time at the dinner table like two adults. He told her he didn't understand why she was still so ungrateful after years of providing for her.

In stories she would read when she was younger, it was always the shy boy that turned out to be the girl's true love that would come to her rescue. In this case, the shy boy turned out to be the monster, and she was going to have to save herself. Just how in the hell she was going to do that, she didn't know. She'd always been meek and delicate. She would tend to the fruit trees and care for the animals, but her father had always taken care of the bulk of physical labor. What she wouldn't give right now to know how to use all this equipment. She mentally kicked herself for not being more hands on and helping her father, especially knowing there wasn't anyone else to help. Well, hindsight and all that...

It's not that she hadn't tried to get away, but she had never really tried with her wits about her. At first she fought like a rabid animal, kicking and flailing, seething and screaming, but her mind was in such a panic that she couldn't formulate any kind of plan. Her survival instincts kicked in and all her mind and body told her was "Fight! Fight! Fight!" then FLIGHT. She hadn't really had the time or composure to think how she would or could do that.

He used to keep her in the house, but after a few almost successful attempts to break loose, and a few beatings as punishment, he had cemented a chain and lock in the barn and she'd been there ever since, except when the weather got too extreme. Then, he would tie her legs together and handcuff her to the plumbing pipes in the bathroom where he'd ripped out some drywall. The dry cold air stung her lungs and she knew one of those days would be coming soon and that would be her best chance.

With a new resolve, she straightened her shoulders and made plans to be her own hero. "Even if I can just get something heavy to deck him over the head," she thought. There was no way she could physically overpower him. That was evident from experience. She may not be able to outrun him or get to town for help quickly, but she knew this land better than anyone, and she could outsmart him. If she could just get free of the restraints and get him indisposed for even just 5 minutes, she could find her way into the forest at the east side of the farm, and start her way a couple towns over. It'd be a few days walk, maybe more than a week with all the roots and pits to navigate in the forest, but better than going to town where everyone knew Aidan as the baker's shy boy.

She hunkered down in her wool blankets to warm herself enough to think more clearly and set about making her plan, but she couldn't figure out how she would ever reach anything to use against Aidan to incapacitate him enough to get the key to free herself and get away before he could react. She didn't even know if he always had the key on him or not, or if it was somewhere in the house. She just had to hope it would be on him.

***

The sun was starting to set in the early evening when she heard the hinges of barn door squeal open and Aidan stepped in.

"Happy Birthday, my love," said Aidan as he walked closer but still out of Remy's reach. On the barn floor, he set down a plate with a piece of chocolate cake, and a small vase with a marigold flower. He did this every year on her birthday. It was like a cruel joke. If she got out of here alive, she was never going to each chocolate cake again. In fact, this whole experience turned her off of sweets completely, she didn't think she would ever step foot in a bakery again. So much for nostalgia.

Then, from his pocket, Aidan produced a small box from his flannel pocket and placed it next to the cake and flower. "Another milestone birthday, and a gift for you. I know you and I have not seen eye to eye these last few years Remy, but I was hoping we could start fresh. If you would accept my gift, I could start to trust you again. Then --maybe, we could think about you moving back into the house. Into our room with me. And soon enough, once you see the way things should have been all along, we won't need to use the restraints anymore."

Remy stared at the suspicious package wrapped in brown paper. "Way to spring for the nice gift wrap," she thought; "He must be out of his mind."

He pushed the box forward with his shoe. "Go on, open it." With a sigh of frustration, she moved towards him carefully and picked up the box. It wasn't heavy but she could feel something rolling around in it. Once the paper was off, she gently loosened the lid off the top of the box and looked inside. A wave of nausea overcame her, and her adrenaline started pumping. Her ears heard no sound except a dull buzz, and through dizziness, everything started to look black and white - completely drained of color. In the box was her mother's wedding ring. The one her father proposed with that had been in his family for generations. "I remember your mother saying that your father's family said it brings good luck." With shock and horror, Remy just stared in the box at the ring... still attached to a dismembered finger. Her mother's severed, shriveled finger. "Well go ahead, put it on! Actually let me." Aidan swiped the box from Remy's hands, picked the finger up out of the box, pulled the ring off and tossed the finger over his shoulder. He kneeled down on one knee, grabbed Remy's left hand and roughly placed the family wedding ring on Remy's ring finger. "There, now we are official. You'll see this is what makes you the most happy. You just need some time to get it through your head." Remy turned to her side and vomited all over the straw covered floor. "I'll leave you to enjoy your cake and start thinking of our future together. I have to run to town for some essentials, and when I get back, if you promise to be good to your new husband, I may bring you in the house for the night."

After Aidan left and she heard the faint sound of his car fading away, she kicked the cake and flowers away as hard as she could and threw herself onto her makeshift bed of straw and wool. She sobbed into the rough blankets, sparing a few minutes to think about her parents and how they haven't been properly laid to rest after their brutal end. Then it dawned on her. Aidan handed her the weapons she needed to be free. She searched around wildly to find the plate and vase she'd kicked away. They were near the barn door. She ran to them and stopped about a foot short, twisted her ankle and fell forward to the ground. The chain around her leg would not let her move far enough as she cursed herself for not thinking and kicking it away earlier. She grabbed the wool blanket and wrapped into into a makeshift rope, holding one end trying to get the blanket over the plate or the vase to pull towards her reach. While she was doing this, she heard the car pulling up to the house crunching over the snow. She raced to get the vase to her hands. She heard the car door open then close. She almost had it, as she heard feet crunching on the packed snow towards her. One more toss and ... got it! As the barn door squealed on it's rusty hinges she slammed the vase down to break into pieces. Aidan saw her hand was bloody and ran over to see what had happened. At that moment she lashed out with a glass shard, ending Aidan as quickly as he had ended her parents. Before he slid to the ground, he kicked her away. As he went to reach for her to instill more punishment, his skin went pail as more blood drained from his body.

Remy waited an hour before going near him to be safe. She crawled over and frantically started looking through is pockets and in his shoes for the key. After a frustrated hour practically stripping Aidan's body of everything, Remy beat her fists on his chest out of frustration. He didn't have the key on him. She was trapped in the barn until --IF, someone came to find her. She had no water except when it wasn't below freezing and some snow melted down straw that was long enough to reach her from the window. She had no food except the discarded chocolate cake that was now out of reach on the ground... and Aidan.