Chapter Eight: Baby Boy:

There was another child before Danielle.

Mr. Takahashi was a nobody back in the 90’s. He tried to keep to himself and barely left his apartment. The neighbors knew of his existence, but didn’t say anything about him. There was a good reason for that. What that was will become apparent later on. Back to the main story.

Mr. Takahashi had intended to stay in his apartment for the rest of his life. Maybe he knew about his family curse. Or maybe it was how he was brought up. Either way, he intended on staying in his apartment until he died.

But then one night in July changed everything.

He lived across the street from a nightclub at the time. The music pounded and the lights flashed. Mr. Takahashi couldn’t sleep. He tried for weeks to ignore it. One night, the man started to reach his breaking point. Mr. Takahashi threw back his curtains. Below, there was a woman taking a smoke. When he saw her, he found that he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. The distance from his line of vision wasn’t really good, but he had strange senses like that.

She looked like a walking doll. The light purple lights looked great over her long black wavy hair. This woman looked around as if she was up to no good. She was dressed like burlesque dancer with her red and gold costume. Mr. Takahashi’s heart raised as he watched her smoking and looking around. He began to make up stories around this woman. She probably was struggling to make money. Cute little country with big dreams came out to Okinawa. Maybe came from a big family. She looked enticing from the outside world. He could never have her. It was probably best that way.

But, fate has a funny way of changing things.

For weeks, Mr. Takahashi had been watching this woman taking a smoke outside. The more he watched, the more found himself drawn in. To watch her was enough. She would one day leave and he would move on. But, tonight changed everything.

A group of sailors surrounded the woman below. Already, Mr. Takahashi didn’t like where this was headed.

“What was this?” he wondered. “That can’t be good.” One of the main sailors walked up to the woman and stroked her on the cheek. She clenched her teeth and tried to back away. Another sailor pushed her back into place. The others circled her. Mr. Takahashi trembled.

“She’s in trouble,” he said. He felt like he needed to act. Before Mr. Takahashi knew it, he ran out of his apartment.

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“Mr. Takahashi met and fell in love with a local showgirl in Okinawa,” Dr. Pao said. “He saved her from a group of American sailors that had been harassing her. As the story goes, Mr. Takahashi got beat up, the victim showed him pity, they fell in love, and got married.”

“And then something happened?” Dr. Carta asked.

“Yes,” the boss said. “She became pregnant.”

“And what was wrong with the child?”

“The curse.”

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There was trouble when his wife told him those two words he dreaded.

“I’m pregnant.”

He should’ve just walked away after those sailors beat him up. Mr. Takahashi did the one thing that he feared. This curse wouldn’t die now. His wife couldn’t understand why he distanced himself from her and their baby.

“What’s wrong, dear?” she would ask. Her husband would get up and walk away. It didn’t help that the distance grew wider as the wife’s belly grew bigger. She ended up going to the hospital for check-ups alone. Meanwhile, Mr. Takahashi was plotting how to find the problem before it got out of hand. He remembered this was what happened with himself and his father. The old man looked the child in the eye.

“I’m sorry, son,” he said. “But I have to do this.” The old man came at his son with a rock.

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“His father tried to kill him when he was ten,” Dr. Pao said. “Took a rock to the boy’s head.”

“What happened to him?” Dr. Carta asked.

“The demon killed him,” the boss said.

“Did the demon kill the baby too?”

“No.”

Dr. Carta gave him a strange look. “No? Then who killed the baby?”

“Mr. Takahashi himself.”

The Italian therapist covered her mouth as she gasped. “No…” Dr. Pao had a cold look on his face.

“He felt that he had no choice,” he said. “Mr. Takahashi felt that he had to try and end the curse with him. It only took him one hand to end his son’s life. He thought that the curse was over.”

“How did he get away with filicide?” Dr. Carta asked.

“I don’t have all of the details of that case,” Dr. Pao said. “My guess is that it was part of the cover-up.”

“Cover-up?”

“The military got involved when they found out about Mr. Takahashi. How that happened, I can’t say. After the Air Force took him into custody, Mrs. Takahashi found out that she was pregnant again and left Okinawa. The rest of the story is all in Danielle’s file.”

“And does the patient know about any of this?” she asked.

“We’ve tried telling her,” Dr. Pao said. “But the last psychiatrist that tried to talk to her ended up dead in the room.”

“So you’ve been keeping this a secret from her?”

“We’re sure that the patient is starting to figure it out herself.”

“But you have to tell her!”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“But she has to know.”

“We don’t know what else to do. Our hands are tied.”

Dr. Carta wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “This is unacceptable. Danielle has to know the truth! I’m going to tell her everything!” She rose to her feet and marched out of the office.

“Dr. Carta, wait!” Dr. Pao shouted. “Stop! You don’t know what you are doing! You could end up getting killed! Wait, stop! Don’t do it!” The door swung closed behind her.

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Three hours later, Dr. Carta walked back into the room. Danielle woke up and lifted her head.

“Have you calmed down enough to talk?” the therapist asked.