Maggie looked out the kitchen window and saw the last day of summer vacation was here. She looked back at the kitchen table and Mikey coloring in his coloring book. She smiled and said, “Are you ready for your first day of school, honey?” Mikey smiled and nodded. The rest of the night, they got his things ready by putting his book together. It was bittersweet; her little boy was growing up.

The next morning, she woke to her alarm. She wanted to get a big breakfast ready for her big boy for his first day. She made her way down to the kitchen, made some coffee, and got started on some eggs and toast, his favorites.

She had finished the food, and Mikey still hadn’t come downstairs, so she went upstairs to get him going. When she opened the door to his room, she saw him standing before the mirror, just staring. She looked at him and asked, “Are you okay, Mikey? Are you feeling nervous?” “No, Mommy. I’m just hoping the kids like me.” Maggie smiled and told him he would make a lot of new friends and learn a lot of things. She put her arm around him and guided him down for breakfast.

The rest of the morning, the house seemed so quiet. Her and Mikey had been the only ones in her house since her husband had passed away last year. She missed the noises of him playing with his toys, so she turned on one of his favorite shows for background noise and kept herself busy cleaning around the house. Quickly, she began to appreciate some of the silence and being able to take a nap without being bothered to make a sandwich or do things to keep Mikey entertained, but it was only half days this first year, so around noon, she began making a sandwich for him when he returned.

Around noon, the bus pulled up to the house, and Mikey walked off the bus smiling the biggest smile she had ever seen on his face. ‘Apparently, he really enjoyed his first day,’ she thought to herself and opened the front door for him to come in, and he walked directly to the kitchen table and began eating his lunch.

“How was the first day?”, he laughed and said, “It was really good, Mom. The kids did everything I told them to do, and the teachers were super.”. This sounded kind of funny, but she ruffled his hair and turned back to wash some dishes in the sink.

The rest of the week seemed to go really well for Mikey. He was smiling every day he came home, and for a five-year-old, he seemed like he had found his confidence. Maggie decided to do something special for Mikey after completing a week of school and took him out to his favorite pizza place. He was really excited and said that some of his friends would be there. She wasn’t sure how he knew that, but kids did talk, and it was a popular place, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see some of his classmates there and told him to get ready to go.

When they got to the pizza place, Mikey ran to the games where a bunch of kids were playing video games. Maggie assumed these were some of his classmates, and then he saw some adults walk over by them. They all seemed to be fawning over Mikey. This seemed extremely weird, and she kept watching them until the food came, and then she called Mike over to eat.

Maggie put the pizza on his plate and kept thinking about what she saw, and it was eating at her. She had to ask what it was all about and did just that. “Why were those kids and teachers hanging out with you, honey?”, Mikey shrugged and said, “Because I told them to.”, “What does that mean?”, she asked. Mikey explained that they always do what he says. This seemed really disturbing to Maggie, and then Mikey said, “We are going to the park afterwards, all of us are going to the park.”, and he pointed at the group of kids and adults at the other table.

Maggie smiled over at the other people and said “Okay.”

When they were done eating, the kids and adults at the other table walked over and told Maggie they were ready to go if Mikey was. Mikey nodded, and Maggie cleaned their table, and they headed to the local park with the others following them. She had no idea why they were going to the park, but when they got there, she sat on a bench and watched as all of the people went and got on the swings and began playing on the other rides.

Sitting and staring, she admired the sunset and watched Mikey climb onto a swing and watch everyone else, and that is when she said to herself, “Oh my god, my son is evil, and I think these people are under his control…What the Fuck.”.