You see, the problem with the world is… it’s messy. Very messy.
That’s why when someone in my country (which will remain nameless for reasons you’ll find out as you read) came up with the idea of a peace-making implant, people were thrilled. The science behind it was that it suppresses the chemical reactions in the brain that causes violence and in turn, it makes ‘people’ more peaceful.
The people were overjoyed. Can you imagine how much of a better place it would be when you take violence out of the equation? No more small petty crimes, no more muggings, and more importantly, no more creature wars.
But things don’t always go as planned when you mess with the brain. The brain is a powerful independent machine that we have yet to uncover 99% of the mechanics behind it.
The chip implant didn’t work on all test subjects, and the results have shown themselves months after the chip was released to a small percentage of the public. Apparently some are born with certain chemicals in their brain that already make them more peaceful, more reluctant to choose violence, and the chip worked adversely on them, triggering violence over the silliest of disputes, and more dangerously, it created psychopaths who thrived on the silent kills. Psychopaths who, due to their previous peaceful nature, lacked the impulsiveness of violence. They were more dangerous, for their heinous acts were thought out and they knew how to properly cover their tracks. To the world, they were perfect citizens, but no one is who they seem to be. I should know.
Of course, like any faulty product, the chips were recalled and removed, and after a few months, the whole thing was a distant memory.
That was years and years ago. Our country had been hush hush about it since and any news of it had been completely erased from the media. Imagine the disgrace if this went public in this day and age.
Anyway, enough about that.
I’ve had a food blog for a little over ten years. It’s not a huge blog like what is supposed to be after all these years, but I’ve never been consistent with it and I used to neglect it for months at a time. For anyone in the blogging business, you know that these things require a lot of commitment and work, and you have to be always on top of it if you want it to turn into anything good.
Lately, however, I’ve been giving it more and more care. I took courses and spent resources to learn how to get it off the ground, and after a few months of putting in the work, it’s starting to show some promise. I’ve been more excited and hopeful about the blog more than ever. So, naturally, when Natalie, my absolute favourite food blogger, got in touch with me for a collaboration, I was over the moon. We exchanged emails for a while before meeting in a café to discuss business and we hit it off! She’s very funny and as charming as she always seemed in her videos. We became instant best friends that day. We started hanging out and recipe testing often, and it was always fun to bounce ideas off each other while working, and both of our blogs thrived as a result of that.
I’ve met her family - her husband and son - on more than one occasion but, since I live alone while my parents and sister live in another city, she never got to meet them. That is until we decided to all go to the cabin for a weekend.
It was Natalie’s idea. We were to create some camping inspired recipes and take loads of beautiful pictures for our next collaboration. I absolutely loved the idea and instantly suggested my aunt’s cabin that Natalie knew about from my many stories about my childhood.
I took my parents and my sister, and Natalie followed us in her car with her husband and son. My family were thrilled to finally meet my new best friend who I’ve been talking nonstop about, and Natalie and her family were ever so nice to them, which made that first day a huge success.
Everything was going according to plan and we overachieved, shooting more recipes than we originally planned, and even went ahead and scheduled them to go live simultaneously on both our websites for the next few weeks.
We had a lovely dinner and sat down around the fireplace, enjoying nice cups of hot chocolate.
I don’t know exactly how, but the topic of the peace-making chips was brought up. Natalie came from a country with a background of war and apparently the subject was striking a nerve for her. I tried to change the subject many times, but she always brought it back. In fact, now that I think about it, I think it was her who brought it up in the first place.
“It’s not safe for everybody, Natalie, it’s why they had it recalled,” I said slowly for what seemed the umpteenth time.
“That’s just what they want us to believe. Can’t you see how many industries will go out of business if everybody had the chip? The weapon’s industry will become obsolete! It’s all political, if you think about it.”
I gave her a small awkward smile, not sure how to placate her.
“People who came from war backgrounds understand more, and witnessing violence creates tendencies for violence,” she insisted.
“Nat, people are not built the same. My parents’ country had an ongoing war with the neighbouring country for years, but you don’t see them being violent every time they see someone from that country. Peace was made,” I said.
The idea of those chips were especially dangerous for a family like my family. We’re not exactly wired like humans, even though we look exactly the same. We don’t want to think of the kind of horrors these chips will unleash if one comes across us. We’ve made sure to steer clear of it all these years, and were eternally grateful when the project went to shit before it was mandatory, which was in the project’s plan. They were going to make it as important and mandatory as vaccines.
“Well, only temporarily,” her son quipped. “It’s only a matter of time before people snap again. It’s human nature.”
“Let’s just agree to disagree,” I said with a half laugh, not sure why things have taken such a serious turn.
I had settled into bed when someone knocked on my door.
“Hey,” Natalie said softly, coming into the room. My sister had fallen asleep in the bed next to mine. “Sorry about earlier. It’s a touchy subject. My husband had worked on that project and knows the ins and outs of it, so he knows firsthand the positive effects it has.”
“Oh,” I said. I didn’t know that. I knew her husband was a medical engineer but I was never interested to know more. It’s none of my business.
“Yeah. It’s supposed to be a big secret, especially with the downfall of the project, so we don’t tell anyone,” she continued and I nodded slowly. “Anyway, I brought you a peace offering.” She extended her hand with two muffins. “One for you and one for your sister.”
“Oh, thank you. You didn’t have to. I’ll save it for breakfast.”
“No,” she said, pushing it towards me. “Eat it now.. while it’s still warm.”
I frowned as she made her way to wake up my sister to give her the muffin.
“Nat, it’s not really necessary, we weren’t offende-” My words fell on deaf ears because she had already woken my sister up.
My sister looked at me all confused as she accepted the muffin.
“Eat it now. It’s better while it’s warm,” Natalie repeated as she got out of the room.
The muffin smelled delicious so I dug into it.
It took me only a couple of bites before my teeth hit something hard that contrasted all the softness and chewiness of the muffin. Something so small and tiny that it was supposed to inconspicuously stick itself to the roof of my mouth. I cursed under my breath and sprang out of bed, reaching my sister just as her hand reached her mouth with the muffin. I smacked her hand hard and the muffin flew to the floor.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!” she shrieked, incredulous.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be this hard,” I apologised quickly. “A chip. There is a chip in the muffin. She couldn’t convince us so she’s tricking us…”
“Mum and dad,” my sister whispered just as the thought made its way to my mind.
Suddenly we were both running towards the door in a panic, our hearts pounding so loudly it could wake up the dead, hurrying towards our parents’ room. Mum was still disoriented from sleep and hadn’t eaten hers but dad’s was already half eaten.
“No, no, no,” I said as I went over quickly, trying to grab his hand, but he thought I was playfully trying to take his muffin away and popped the rest of it in his mouth, giving me a wide grin.
“Dad, no,” my sister whispered. “There’s something in those muffins. A chip.”
My dad frowned and mum was suddenly alert now, she squished hers and sure enough, she found the tiny chip.
“Dad, open your mouth, maybe we can still remove it,” I said softly, reaching with my hands, but my dad pushed me away.
“I felt nothing. There’s nothing stuck to my mouth. I ate it all.”
“Just let me look, alright-”
“No!” he half shouted, pushing me away.
I stood there, stunned, and exchanged puzzled looks with my mother and sister.
“Dad, it’s so small you might’ve missed it. Let me look,” I said as I stepped closer once more but he suddenly sprang to his feet and pushed me against the wall, his hand wrapping around my throat.
Tears filled my eyes as I tried to push my father away, already seeing glimpses of his real face with each blink. His hold on his transformation weakened as he saw me as a threat, not his first born daughter that he loved so much.
“Dad,” I choked, tears flooding my face. “It’s me.”
He snarled and tightened his grip, unable to see me as nothing but the threat who’s trying to hurt him and his family.
A shadow crossed his eyes and his grip loosened on me before he fell to the floor. Mum had hit him in the right spot that rendered him unconscious.
I doubled over and took big gulps of air, barely aware that my own hold on my transformation had weakened and that you can see my real hands and feet. I assumed my real face was visible, too, since my mother was looking at me with concern and my sister had locked the door and was pushing the heavy dresser against it.
We propped dad up and, together, we took turns to try to get the chip out of his mouth. It took some time but we finally managed to remove it, leaving a big wound on the roof of his mouth. I knew whatever damage we’ll cause will heal in a minute, but that didn’t stop me from crying the entire time we tried to remove it. I felt so terrible for hurting my father like that, for him trying to hurt me, even though I know he didn’t mean it, but above all, I was absolutely gutted that Natalie could betray me like that. It was one thing if she tried this with only me, but to go after my family? That was taking it way too far.
I made sure they were alright and that I had returned completely to my human form before I pushed the dresser and went out to find Natalie.
She was in the sitting room sitting by the fireplace and looked up as soon as she heard footsteps; she was expecting me.
“Why?” I said hollowly, my face still streaked with tears. “I trusted you.”
“This is for peace. It’s not like I tried to poison you, this will make you a better person!”
It was at this moment that it dawned on me that she knew all along. She knew all along who I am and what me and my family are. Creatures who are violent by nature. That was not us, though. We’ve made our peace long ago with the humans, we’re no more danger to them than they’re a danger to us. My family in particular were so against violence, they’ve made it their life’s mission to educate our kind and to maintain the peace with the humans.
I stared at her while the pieces of the puzzle fit together. Oh, how could I’ve been so stupid! It was her who reached out to me. Natalie the famous food blogger reached out to me even when my own blog was barely there in the first page search results. I didn’t find it suspicious at the time and I jumped at the opportunity. It was her who suggested I bring my family to this fabulous getaway… my family who she was so interested in knowing more about. My family means the world to me, so I didn’t find it suspicious when she found them interesting and was very courteous to them.
“You had no right,” I said slowly. “I thought you were my friend.”
“I have to protect myself and others. Your secret is safe with me for as long as I trust you… And I can only trust you if you maintain the peace,” she said, gesturing to my hand still wrapped tightly around the chip.
I could snap her neck in a split second if I wanted to, and she knew that. She should’ve been scared of me at that moment but I was shocked that it was the other way around. I’ve never been so scared to be in the company of a human before, a human I thought to be my friend, nonetheless.
My father let out a wail upstairs as he regained consciousness; it was unmistakingly not human. She looked as if her point was proven.
She took a step towards me and I flinched involuntarily, but I remained in place.
“You know this could only end one way or the other,” she said menacingly. “Take it or else.” As she moved, I could see the glint of the silver knife she was hiding behind her back, and I could hear her husband as he moved stealthily behind me.
Oh, and they called us the monsters.
I could dart to the door, but my family were upstairs helpless and weak, their powers significantly weakened by the protection we’ve placed on the cabin we’ve used countless times to escape the world and protect the humans from us over the centuries. Now this cabin became our personal trap. She was going to finish me off and lure them one by one.
She took another step forward and I held firmly in place. Natalie who looked and acted like an angel had never looked so menacing.
I knew people on social media aren’t always who they seem to be but…
I took a deep breath and stood straighter, forcefully wiping the tears away.
“Fine,” I said. “You want proof of peace with your kind? Fine. But after this, you leave me and my family alone.”
Natalie smirked triumphantly. She never cared about our friendship. She never cared about me.
I shoved the chip into my mouth and stuck it to the top.
She doesn’t know how stupid this was. She doesn’t know the repercussions of the chip on my kind. The repercussions I’ve just seen with my own father as his own powers not only overpowered the protection, but triggered a raw primal reaction so severe he attacked his own daughter. I already know how the chip affects me. I was one of the test subjects, after all.
“There,” I said with a smirk, already feeling my brain work, combining my anger with the chip. “Happy?”
“Happy.”
After my ‘conversation’ with Natalie, I drove around and around looking for a good spot to unload. It took me some time but I finally found a good place that was a bit far from the cabin but still within a walking distance. A half an hour’s trek, maybe.
Ok, so maybe it was a bit too far, but it was the perfect spot for what I wanted to do uninterrupted.
When I came back to the cabin, all sweaty and breathless from my walk, my mother sprang to her feet.
“Dad is alright. I’ve prepared breakfast and tea,” she said, gesturing to the tray of food and the still steaming tea next to her on the kitchen counter. “Have you seen them? Their rooms are empty.”
I sat down and grabbed a scone. Natalie made these, and they were frankly quite delicious.
“They’re gone,” I said to my mother. “They took their car and went back to civilisation, apparently. Or to wherever they think they’ll find ‘peace’.”
“Gone?”
“Yes. Gone.”
Gone for good.
I may be a predator, I may be violent by nature, but those are parts of me I have long suppressed. There is one rule I live by: no one messes with my family.
I trust no one now. No one but them.
I’m telling you this because my conscience has been weighing heavily on me. To my family, I told them I cut off all ties with Natalie and her family. She scheduled posts months in advance so it would be a while before people will start to notice something amiss. My family and I moved to a new country and started a new life.. again.
That’s not my problem, though..
The problem is…
Well, I still have the chip.
I’m enjoying the thrill it’s giving me.. but it’s making me wonder why I suppress the predator part of me.
My family knows nothing about this, and I’m afraid of what it would make me do.