Five Finger Fillet

The sweet chirping of the birds in the park kept the mind of Agnes busy while she was taking her evening walk along the park’s pond, she was constantly watching the actions of a cute and chubby duck in the pond when suddenly, “Ouch!”, Agnes collided with someone and fell down, “I am sorry! Did I hurt you”, the stranger said stretching out his hand. Agnes looked up and saw a boy was stretching his hand towards her, the boy was a teenager like her. “Oh! No, I am okay it is not your fault I was thinking of something else while walking”, Agnes replied with a smile taking the stranger’s hand and getting up. “Agnes? Is that you? ”, the stranger said. Agnes looked at him with suspicion and said, “Yes, I am Agnes, How do you know me I can’t recall you”. “How are you, Agnes? I am Jack”. Agnes replied, “Sorry….?”, Jack replied, “Oh! You must have forgotten me, we used to be neighbours when you and I were around the age of 6 and we lived in Salzburg until one day your family shifted to Berlin. I shifted here a week ago due to my father’s transfer. What a coincidence it is that I met you within a week of me coming here”. Agnes looked confused, she said, “I am sorry you must have mistaken me for someone else. I am living in Berlin since I was born I have never been to Salzburg”. Jack replied in a serious tone, “I have done no mistake, I clearly remember you, my memory is very good, try to remember, storm your brain, I am sure that you will remember”. Agnes felt a bit strange she said to herself in her mind what the boy was talking about, she had never seen Salzburg in her life how come she would have been living there. “I am sorry I cannot recall now but I will try my best to remember, sorry I have to go now I have my piano lessons, see ya”, saying this Agnes waved her hand and started walking away, “I know that you don’t have any piano lesson today and also none is there tomorrow, even it is not there the day after tomorrow, but I will not stop you, fate has made us meet today, it will make us do the same again.” On hearing this Agnes stopped and turned towards the boy, they looked at each other eye to eye for a few seconds then Jack smiled, waved his hand, turned and slowly walked away. Agnes was still standing there, to her horror whatever Jack had said was completely true, she had no piano classes for the rest of that month as her teacher was on a vacation. She said to herself, “How can he know that…who was he???, he must have guessed it, he also seems like a lunatic”. She smiled to herself and went home. That night she could not sleep, she kept thinking about Jack, Who was he? How come he knew about her? What did he mean by ‘fate’?

The next day Agnes woke up tired as she barely had any sleep last night, she quickly got ready and went to school. She felt sleepy all day. The recess bell rang, Agnes went out of the class, she thought that some fresh air from outside would help her, so she was going to the playground, she was looking around when suddenly her sight fell on a classroom, there was no teacher, the children were constantly chatting, some were running here and there, she looked around and saw one boy who was quietly sitting in his bench and was constantly watching the trees outside through the window. Agnes further inspected him, she felt a bit uneasy, she could see only the back of his head, suddenly the boy started to turn his head slowly, Agnes swallowed although she was not chewing anything. Agnes constantly gazed at him when suddenly a whisper came from her behind, “So here we meet again…” Agnes turned around and to her horror it was JACK! “See I told you that fate will make us meet again,” Jack said with a smile. Agnes tried to say something but words struggled to come out. She ran as fast as she could and went straight to her class she did not look back even once. She was breathing heavily, some of her classmates asked, “What happened Agnes, why are you so horrified? ”, but she did not say anything she just closed her eyes and put her head down…

The whole day at school she did not utter a single syllable. She went home, had lunch and went straight into her room. Her mother was confused about her strange behaviour, she knocked on the former’s door quite a few times but no answer came. Agnes stayed there the whole evening and came out only to have her dinner. Her father and mother were worried about what had happened to their daughter, but whenever they tried to talk to her she would just go away.

The next day at school was OK, there was nothing to worry about. The day after also was fine, nothing happened for the next week, soon Agnes became normal again. She considered the experience like just a bad dream. Her parents also had stopped worrying about seeing her normal again. One fine evening she was walking in the park, listening to the chirping of birds, watching the chubby duck, when she noticed that far away someone was waving and running towards her. She stood there and gazed at it constantly, slowly the face became visible, it was none other than Jack. However this time Agnes did not run away she stood there.

“Hey! Agnes! How are you?”, Jack was constantly shouting as he came towards her. He halted at a few feet from Agnes, he was breathing very heavily. He was trying to say something but was not able to say it. “What the hell do you want! Answer me you idiot! Why are you following me! Leave me alone!!! ”. Jack panted a few more times and started speaking, “Those are the same words you used to call me when we played together”, “What on earth is wrong with you! You have completely lost your mind”. “My mind is in perfect condition listen to what I am telling you. You never told me why you shifted from Salzburg, what went wrong, why you did not even consider meeting me for the last time before moving, I chased your truck and shouted as much as I could but you never even looked back, tell me how could you do that to me, was it my fault tell me please… please…”, Jack pleaded constantly. “How many times do I have to tell you that I have never even been to Salzburg how am I supposed to know you, please stop disturbing me I am begging you. Please”. Agnes started walking away from Jack when suddenly he spoke, “How was the grilled steak your mother cooked yesterday? Didn’t it lack a bit of salt at first? But the sauce was amazing”, Agnes was stunned on hearing this, her mother did cook steak yesterday and also it lacked a bit of salt initially, with a trembling voice she said, “Who are you? How do you know this? ”. Jacked laughed a little and then said, “I am someone who knows about you more than you know yourself, fate has made me know you that well and also fate wants you to know me so follow me, come along, let me show you something.” Agnes hesitated at first but finally agreed on a repeated request from Jack. Jack told her to follow him and she did so while going Agnes secretly took off her necklace and tied it around her fist to use it in case of emergency. While walking she asked Jack, “But you were telling me that we had already met each other in Salzburg but I never went to Salzburg, then how is it possible?”. Jack smiled and said, “Today when you get home, go and check your family album and try to find your childhood picture, you might find something interesting”. Agnes nodded her head and kept walking. After a while of walking, Jack stopped.

“We have reached our destination, welcome to my house”. Agnes lifted her head and saw a beautiful villa. “Come in, have some tea”. Agnes had never seen such a beautiful villa, she went inside, the furniture was set in the most appropriate manner, it could not be any more perfect. Jack said, “Sit on the couch, let me bring you some tea and biscuits, my mother is out for work”. Agnes smiled and nodded and sat on the couch. After about 10 minutes, Jack came with tea and biscuits but besides those he had a big book, he kept the tea on the table and handed the book to Agnes and said, “Open it, you will find something interesting”. Agnes looked at the book, it was an album, and with a beautiful font the words ‘Sweet Memories ’ was written on the cover she carefully opened the album. Jack said, “This has the memories of my childhood, turn to page 36, and see the second picture”, Agnes turned the pages and opened page 36, she looked at the second picture, it was a picture of a family in front of a small wooden cabin, there was a man, his wife and two children, a boy and a girl. Jack said, “See here the boy is me and this little cute girl is you, this is a picture of my family with you”. “It is me? How can it be me?” Agnes replied. Jack replied with a bold tone, “Do you even know how you looked like as a child! Have you ever seen any of your childhood photos! ”. The expression on the face of Agnes changed instantly, she got lost in her thoughts for a while. “I can’t remember me as a child I am not even able to remember seeing any of my childhood photos”, Agnes replied in a monotonous soft voice. Jack smiled and said, “Go home and check your albums”. Agnes got up and dashed out of the room, Jack on seeing Agnes going started laughing and said, “Goodbye! Fate will make us meet again! ”. Agnes heard that but did not stop or turn back, she ran straight home.

“Mom, where did you keep our family album?”, Agnes asked her mother on reaching home. Her mother was working in the kitchen, she got a bit tense on the sudden behaviour of Agnes, she asked, “Why do you want the album? You can ask me if there anything you need to know”. Agnes replied, “No Mom I want to see it myself, just give me the album”. “Ok you may see it, you will find it in the attic”, her mom replied and saying this she went to her room immediately. Agnes without thinking went up the attic. She searched for a while and found a dusty cardboard box and within it, the album was kept she cleaned the dust on it and started looking the photos she found her birth photo from the hospital, “Huh! Here is my childhood Jack is surely a lunatic”, she said to herself as she turned the page, “Wait what? In this picture I am 10 where are my other childhood images! ”. She turned more and more pages but in each of them she was 10 years or older, she started feeling a bit dizzy, the album fell from her hands, “How can this be true, how is that possible, is what Jack was saying was true, no this can’t be true”, she held her head and sat down, after a while, she decided to ask her mother what the matter was, so she went down straight to her mother’s room.

Her mother was talking to someone on her phone. Agnes stepped in and immediately asked, “Mom, where are my other childhood photos! Tell me! Where are they! ”, her mom looked worried she said, “Listen, Honey, we have to go somewhere, get dressed, we have to leave now or we will be late”. Agnes angrily replied, “No I will not listen to anything else, first answer my question, do you know anyone named JACK, is there anything about me that I don’t know?”. Her mother took her hand and gripping it tightly she said, “Listen to me honey, I will tell you everything but first come with me or else it might be too late”. Agnes hastily snatched her hand away, she started screaming at her mother, “If you will not answer me, I will find the answer myself”, saying so she dashed out of the house. Her mother shouted a lot of times but Agnes just ignored her and kept running, her mother tried chasing but after running about a block she could not find Agnes anywhere so she hurriedly came back to her house, she did not even close the front door and went straight to her room and took her phone, she was weeping, she dialled a number, on the other end a woman picked up and said, “Hello…”, Agnes’ mother answered while weeping, “Hello It’s me, Martha, Agnes’ mother, whatever you had predicted was happening, she might find the TRUTH! Please tell me what should I do? ”. There was no answer from the other side just the sound of Martha crying was there. After some time an answer came from the other side, “I am coming to your place, everything will be ok, be strong”, saying this she hung up the call.

Agnes stopped running, she was standing in front of Jack’s villa, she knocked on the door, nobody opened the door, she knocked again this time shouting, “Jack! Open the door Jack! ”, this time also nobody opened the door. She was about to knock it for the third time when a whisper came from behind, “See, fate has made us meet once again on the same day…”, Agnes turned around and saw Jack was standing there. “I need to talk to you for a second can we go to your house? ”, asked Agnes. Jack replied, “Sure! Why not! After all, everything is for you and it is what your fate has decided, who am I to stop you”, Agnes did not pay attention to the words, they went in. The whole house was dark, only a candle was lit on the tea table in front of the couch. They went and sat on the couch. “Would you like some tea? ”, Jack asked Agnes who replied, “No, thanks I have something urgent”. Jack smiled and asked Agnes to go on, Agnes started to speak.

“You were right Jack, I don’t have any childhood photos and also my parents are keeping something from me, you tell me what it is”, Jack’s smile now turned into a huge scary grin, he said, “It is a game, our favourite game, we used to play it as a child, they never liked it so they did their best to separate us but our fate wants us to play it so who are they to stop us… huh?  ”. Agnes became curious, she asked, “What game?”, Jack smiled in an awkward manner and said, “It is known as FIVE FINGER FILLET”, Agnes replied, “What is that? ”, Jack replied, “It is a really easy and fun game, you have to place your palm on the table, stretching out your fingers as wide as you can, while I will take a knife a stab between the gaps between your fingers, one stab is equal to one point, I will go on stabbing until I miss the gap and stab your palm instead then my game would be over, then we will switch places, I will keep my palm and you will stab, one with the most points will win, so do you want to play? ”. Agnes looked at Jack, she was terrified, she said, “No I am not risking my palm, you have completely lost your mind, we will end up killing each other, so get rid of your idea”. The smile on Jack slowly faded, he looked straight into Agnes’ eyes with rage and said in a very bold and strong scary voice, “If fate wants you to die then you must DIE! Nothing can save you, if fate wants you to live the CONGRATULATIONS you win your damn life!”, saying so Jack started laughing loudly. Agnes was constantly staring at Jack, her face was expressionless, she replied in a monotonous voice like a robot, “You are right, If fate wants me to die then I must DIE! ”, saying so she placed her hand on the table and said, “Go on Jack, Hit me as hard as you can! ”, Jack was constantly laughing, he took out a knife, “So here we go, STAB!! ”, he stabbed with all his might in the gap between Agnes’ thumb and index finger, “STAB!! ”, Jack stabbed again, he continued to stab and stab and stab, he was constantly laughing loudly and shouted ‘STAB!’ whenever he stabbed the knife. Agnes just sat there without any expression on her face, she was constantly looking at Jack. Jack’s stabbing speed was getting faster and faster then suddenly, “STAB! Oh shit I lost! No! ”, Jack was shouted. Agnes looked at her palm, the knife was stabbed right through her palm, she did not give any reaction, instead looked at Jack, smiled and said, “Looks like it’s my turn”, saying so she pulled the knife out of her palm, blood oozed like a fountain, she just looked and smiled for a while and then asked Jack to place his palm there as it was her turn now.

She took Jack’s palm and placed it on the table, She looked at Jack with an awkward and scary smile, “You scored 46 as you missed on the 47th stab, let us see if I can reach 50, I think I may score even a 100”, saying this Agnes started to laugh uncontrollably loud, in the same manner, Jack was laughing, she laughed constantly for a while. When the laugh was over, the expression on her face became completely serious, She took the knife and started the game, she landed the first blow, “ONE!.. TWO!.. THREE!... ”. Agnes constantly shouted her score after each stab, initially, Jack was also smiling at her but as Agnes started to score more and more his smile slowly change into an ugly frown. Agnes continued stabbing and counting, she laughed hysterically as she played the game. “FORTY-FIVE! FORTY-SIX! FORTY-SEVEN! YES I HAVE WON!!... BUT LET US SEE HOW FAR I CAN GO! ”, saying so she continued to stab more and more. Now Jack’s frown changed into his scary smile once again, he again started his awkward laughing. Both were laughing very loudly and hysterically. Jack screamed, “GO ON! GO ON! I LIKE IT! FASTER!”, “As you wish Sir…”, saying so Agnes started stabbing even faster. The faster Agnes went the louder Jack laughed

“NINETY-SEVEN! NINETY-EIGHT! NINETY-NINE! AAAAANNND ……”

“STOP THERE AGNES!!”

“HUND…. OH SHIT! JESUS CHRIST I MISSED MY HUNDREDTH! WHY GOD WHY! NOO…”

Agnes was about to stab her hundredth blow when a voice from behind distracted her and she stabbed right through Jack’s palm, Jack saw something behind Agnes and got worried, he tried to get up but his hand was stuck to the table with the knife so he just pulled his hand away, which caused it to cut really bad and the blood was spilt all over the place, he did not pay attention to his hand and ran away somewhere into the dark.

“Where are you going, Jack? Don’t leave me!”, Agnes got up hurriedly, she started to run towards Jack but tripped over something and fell down straight on her head, she heard a few footsteps running towards her, she tried to look but failed and slowly she passed out.

Agnes opened her eyes, she looked around, she was lying on a bed, it seemed like a hospital, she turned to her left, a nurse was sitting there and reading something, the nurse got upon seeing that the Agnes was awake, she went to the door and called someone. Agnes got up and sat on the bed. A lady entered the room, she seemed like the doctor, she sat beside Agnes and rubbed her hand gently on Agnes’ hair and said, “Are you feeling alright? How are your hands now? Let me see them…”, Agnes lifted her hand and on seeing them she started screaming, “AAAAHH.. My hands, they are hurting so bad…. Why are they in bandage… What happened to my Hands? It hurts baaadd…”. Agnes started crying out loudly, the doctor hugged Agnes and said, “They were badly hurt with a knife, both of them, It is lucky that we found you on time or else you might have lost both your hands, now we have managed to save them”. Agnes wiped her tears and looked towards the doctor and said, “What happened to me? Where was I? I can’t recall”. The Doctor took a deep breath and started to say something…..

“Your father and mother are waiting outside let me call them in first”, she got out of the room and called Agnes’ father and mother, there were tears in Agnes’ mother’s eyes, she rushed towards Agnes and hugged her tightly and said, “My eyes are glad seeing you OK honey”. Her father also wiped his tears and said, “It’s a miracle that you are alright, we had almost lost hope”, Agnes was still confused about what was going on so she asked, “What I the matter, I want to know, please tell me”. Her mother wiped her tears and said, “Last night after you stormed out of the house, I called your father and Miss Muller, they came shortly”, “Who is Miss Muller?”, asked Agnes, her mother replied looking towards the doctor, “She is Miss Muller, our family psychiatrist”, Agnes looked at Miss Muller, Miss Muller smiled, Agnes turned to her mother and said, “But I have never met her”, her mother replied, “You have, you just don’t remember, honey, let me finish my tale you will get all your answers”. Agnes kept quiet, her mother smiled and continued, “We went to search for you, we searched the entire neighbourhood but failed, so we went to the police station, there they tracked down your mobile. We reached the location, it was an old abandoned broken villa, we went in and saw that you were sitting there in a candle flame and doing something, we shouted your name, suddenly you started screaming your lungs out, to our horror, we saw that you had stabbed the knife right through your palm and through the table, it was fixed there, we told you to calm down but you forcefully pulled your hand out and blood spilt all over the place, you tried to run somewhere but tripped over and fell down, we rushed but when we reached there you were unconscious, we hurried you to a hospital, we are lucky that we found you in time”.

Agnes was spooked, she got goosebumps all over her body, she said in a trembling voice, “Yes, I do remember something, I ran out of the house to Jack’s place, he let me into his house and was talking about a game with your palm and knife, it is called something like FIVE FINGER FILLET, I knew it was dangerous to play such a game, so I denied but he got really angry and said something to me which I can’t remember now and after that, I do not remember anything…… I just remember waking up here”.

Everyone was staring at Agnes, they did not have any words, the place was having pin-drop silence till Miss Muller broke the silence, “Dear Agnes, can you tell us who is Jack? I think you even mentioned him once to your mother”, Agnes replied, “He is a boy around my age, I met him while walking in the park, he lived in a beautiful villa, there was something strange about him, he always had a strange smile, he kept talking about me living in Salzburg, I repeatedly denied but he kept on insisting on that fact. The most astonishing thing was that he happened to know all the things that were taking place in my life, I never understood how he knew all that, he was right about my piano lessons, he was right about mom’s dinner, he was even right that I did not have any childhood photos, he knew everything about me but I never got to know who he was, also there is another strange thing about her that he always was talking about some ‘fate’ thing, I never understood that either”. Miss Muller took a deep breath, and exhaled, then she said, “I am about to tell something very important and I think that now it is time you should know this”. Miss Muller looked towards Agnes’ parents and gestured them to leave them alone, they nodded and got up, hugged Agnes, and went out of the room, Miss Muller held Agnes’ hand and started to speak….

“What I am saying might feel unreal but it is the truth and this will answer all your doubts, when we reached the villa you were all alone, there was no one else, the police searched all over the place, the Jack you are talking about is not real and the beautiful villa is completely a creation of your mind, he is, in reality, you yourself, he is your IMAGINARY ALTER EGO, he does not exist in reality, you suffer a mental disease known as PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIA”. Agnes was astounded on hearing this, she could not believe it, she said, “This is not true, I have met him in person, he has to be real, he is.. ”, Miss Muller cut Agnes short by saying, “Jack is not the first imaginary alter ego you had, you also had one when you were a child”, Agnes was shocked on hearing that, she said, “What! I don’t remember having any such alter ego”, Miss Muller smiled and said, “There is something you DO know but don’t remember, Jack was that hidden knowledge, whatever he said about you was completely true, you and your family did use to live in Salzburg”, Agnes felt as if the ground moved underneath her feet, she said, “Are you lying to me? I don’t believe you”. Miss Muller smiled and said, “I told you, you don’t know everything about you, let me tell you your past….”

“You were born in Salzburg, your family lived there, they lived in a neighbourhood where there were no children of your age and also you were their only child, so you had to grow up completely alone, as you had no one to play with you developed an imaginary alter ego named Tiffany who was a little girl of your age, your parent first noticed your imaginary alter ego when you were playing tea party with Tiffany, they were suspicious on seeing you talking to someone in spite of being alone, they contacted a local psychiatrist who examined you and said that it was pretty normal for you to have an imaginary alter ego because you grew up all alone, but he also told to keep an eye on you, about a year passed, one day you were playing in your room with Tiffany, your mother was watching you when somebody knocked the door, your mother went to the door and when she returned you were gone, she searched all neighbourhood but couldn’t find you, she asked door to door, soon all the neighbourhood was searching for you, finally you were found but in a very horrific condition, you were about to HANG YOURSELF WITH A ROPE. After you were found, you were taken to the psychiatrist, he tried to talk to you but you were not ready to speak, the psychiatrist recommended your parents to see me in Berlin and so they did. You hadn’t spoken to anyone till then but you felt safe with me, you said that Tiffany had told you to play a game in which both will hang together, whoever could hang for a longer period of time will win. I was shocked on hearing that, I had never dealt with such a case, I was confused about what to do. After a lot of thinking I decided that there was only one way, I need to make you forget all about Tiffany, so I asked your parent's consent and started the procedure, First I asked your Parents to shift somewhere else from Salzburg as Tiffany existed there, we did not let you see any of your photos until you were completely OK, you were slowly starting to forget Tiffany, around the age of ten you almost recovered, so I did the final procedure, I use hypnosis to make you forget your childhood and it worked, you recovered, I told your parents to take away all your childhood photos to ensure that there was no chance of Tiffany returning. Everything was normal again but I had only one fear still in me, I knew that Tiffany could still return and it did! It returned in the form of Jack, it again tried to harm you, you played the knife game with you yourself, you might have died by excessive bleeding if we hadn’t found you. Jack would have tried again but now as you know the truth, Jack can no longer control you, even there is a very less chance of him returning but still, I have to keep an eye on you for a while”.

Agnes listened to all that quietly, she would have never sensed such a thing her mind was making her do. She felt devastated. She felt sorry for shouting at her mother, she started to weep slowly. Miss Muller hugged Agnes and said, “Don’t worry, the situation is completely under control, no one can hurt you now”.

Soon Agnes recovered from the shock, her hands were also now fine, it was like she was reborn.

…

Many years passed since that incident, Agnes passed school with flying colours. She also graduated and was now working as an assistant manager in a really good company. One Sunday evening, she was taking her walk in the park listening to the sweet chirping of the birds and watching a chubby duck bathing in the newly built fountain over the pond when suddenly someone touched her shoulder she turned and saw a very pretty woman who looked around her age.

 The woman smiled and said, “Hi Agnes, How are you?, Agnes looked curious, she asked, “I am fine but sorry I couldn’t recognize you, The woman smiled and said, “Well I am Jill, ‘Fate works in mysterious ways, who knew that it was in our fate that we would be meeting today in the park………