Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),
Hi! I'm here to leave a quick review!!
First Impression: Well this was a bit of a different direction from what I was initially expecting and in very much a good way. You really do a very good job of capturing the emotions in a situation that's quite this complex and showcasing the proper overarching theme.
Anyway let's get right to it,
Harriet Madison sat in her rocking chair, a withered old woman, wearing a violet shawl over a deep red dress. Eugene was chopping up a Christmas tree. She told him not to do it, but he insisted on going. He said that he would do it until the end of his time.
It was Christmas Eve. Years ago, their son, Jack Madison, died of yellow fever. He was only seven, the poor child. Years ago, Harriet made a deal with the devil. He promised to give Jack a new life, one where he would never get sick.
She wondered where he was. If he was happy with his new life. Did Lucifer make him an angel? A being of light? That would make sense. Angels couldn’t be harmed.
Well that's an interesting visit to go to there. I was expecting to see maybe a bit more of Jack and exactly what became of him but this is also really nicely done here. A look at exactly what the effect was on his family and what they think really does make for a nice window in this.
Neither could demons.
Harriet shook off the thought. There was no way Lucifer would do that. He may have been the devil, but he was reasonable.
In the middle of the room, a black smoke cloud formed. Harriet stared at, intrigued. She hadn’t seen much in her life since Jack’s death.
It stopped and became a monochromatic black and white clown, head almost touching the ceiling, shaggy black hair almost covering his pale eyes.
Oooh well that's quite the place to drop into right there wow. It seems that maybe we're going to get a little look at Jack after all here. There's definitely something to be looked at here especially with regards to what kind of reactions we're going to see.
“Jack?” Harriet asked. He didn’t look anything like her son, but she felt that it was him, deep in her veins.
“Yes, Mom. It’s me, Jack.” He said. His throat sounded scratchy, like he cried for hours and got a demonic hoarse quality to his voice.
“I remembered everything when I was left to rot in a box. I was made into a Jack-in-the-box for a child named Isaac. He played with me until he left. I started to get strange dreams. I started to see you.”
Jack’s eyes filled with tears, tears that were gooey, gray, glittery liquid.
Well looks like things certainly went very far downhill there and Lucifer did a proper number on him and then some. This definitely tells us a lot about exactly what he was turned into and how all of that probably sends him down the path to becoming that demon who is capable of doing so much.
“Why didn’t you let me die? Those thirteen years trapped in a box were the most miserable years of my life. When Isaac came back, he was…different. He started to…to kill people…and I liked it! I still like it! It’s better than having to think about the box…it’s so dark…so cold…”
“I’m different. I’m a monster. I’m Laughing Jack. That’s my new name now. Laughing Jack.” Jack said.
“No, you’re my son and you’ll always be my son.” Harriet said earnestly.
He walked up to Harriet and held her in his arms. The expression on his face was a mixture of sorrow, regret, and insanity. He didn’t know who to be anymore.
Well I do love this little moment. You can see even in his deteriorating state where he's clearly lost all sense of humanity and is approaching being a full demon there's some love there for his mother although I can't imagine this is going to end up too well here.
“I love you, Mom. I love you even though you made me this way. You didn’t mean it. I know that you didn’t.”
“I…I never meant for this. I just thought that you deserved to live.” Harriet said. It hurt her to see him in pain, to see him so broken.
“Mom, I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill Dad too. I don’t want you to be suffering anymore. I don’t want Dad to suffer either.”
Kill her? Kill her? But he would never kill any living thing, not even a bug!
With a slash of his claw, he sliced the back of her head. Harriet could feel the blood spewing from her brain, but could still see her child.
“I’m so sorry, Mom. I love you.” Jack said.
“I…love…you…too…” Harriet said through bleeding gasps.
Well that is most definitely an end, a final one that. I really love the way the mother's realizations kick in there and how despite all of that in the end its very clear there's still a lot of love there and perhaps some amount of acceptance too.
Aaaaand that's it for this one.
Overall: Overall I think its really nice done here. You capture the descent of Laughing Jack really well and how Jack start to get mere an more crazed as things went by but of course the best part is all the realizations and assurations on the mother and that love that lasts right to the very end. I really liked that ending there.
As always remember to take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.
Stay Safe
Kate
I hope my review was helpful to you.
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