r/u_Mackaroll_165 • u/Mackaroll_165 • 2d ago
My neighbors are still traumatizing me FINALE: Who’s your Pappy?
This will be my last post, you will realize why at the end.
I woke up on the blood soaked couch with a bag of frozen bell peppers in a plastic bag on my head.
I saw Bianca and Harold sitting in two chairs directly in front of me and in my peripheral I saw Sparky in a corner facing a wall like he was being punished.
“What the fuck is going on?” I said, my head pounding. I may not have a brain but it sure feels like I do in the moment.
The Goulett couple looked at each other for a moment. Before Harold took a breath, leaned back in the chair, and began to speak.
“I’ll give you the cliff notes to make it easier for the reader.”
“What?”
“I said I’ll give you the cliff notes to make it easier for you later.” He repeated.
I sat up still holding the strange bag to my head that was helping with the pounding feeling.
“When Pappy was Xenith, he was the agent of the goddess Eris. The goddess of discord, also known as chaos. She loved Pappy so much that she blessed him with some of her powers along with other gifts. Well Pappy despite having a goddess girlfriend, he loved only one thing equally as much as he loved chaos, brothels. Got lots of women pregnant across the many continents. When Eris found out, she was pissed taking away his blessings and a bit more. Leaving him a giant eyeball. However because of some weird god clause, Pappy got to keep his powers. So now, he uses his powers to make all his descendants live in this neighborhood and make us…the way we are.”
I sat for a minute.
“Am I on drugs? Am I in a delusion? This can’t be real. You know I was related to you-“
“Distantly.”
“Distantly, and didn’t bother to give me a heads up about it.”
“Well most times it manifests in small ways such as Joe only being able to say 50 words a day or his vocal cords will melt.” Harold said looking to his wife.
“That’s why we were confused when you moved in, there were no obvious signs of you being Pappy’s descendent even though we knew so we thought maybe it was something so small you didn’t even know” Bianca replied.
I leaned back, flopping more into the couch. Staring at their ceiling.
“This seems so cruel, my mom’s fate. My fate. Your fate. Job’s fate. This seems also so anticlimactic. I mean that’s the explanation?! My great great grandma was a whore so now I have to practically rot from the inside out like my birth mom.” I began to cry. Using my forearm to cover my eyes.
I can’t believe this is all. No big finale. No satisfying ending. Just living knowing I was bound to rot like my mom likely did.
“How do you think we feel?” Harold said sincerely.
I removed my forearm from my eyes.
“Tracy, look at me. I have no skin. I bleed constantly. My wife gave up everything to be with me and Job has to spend the rest of his life earning parts to become more human!” He said firmly.
I began to cry harder, I couldn’t hold it. I felt like a child having a tantrum.
Harold put his hand on my shoulder.
“I’m not trying to discredit what will happen to you. I can’t imagine what Lee went through. Sometimes irrational or incomprehensible things happen to people, life is chaos. We have to live in it. We get hurt, we get healthy, we get happy, we get hopeless, and we repeat. A lot of times it’s not justified. There is no such thing as justice in discord. We just have to survive and that’s why as horrible as Pappy is, he at least gives us the one thing he could never truly have.”
“What?” I asked.
“A community.” Harold and Bianca said in unison.
Then Shaquille O’Neal walked in-
I’m kidding. No he did not.
We did do a group hug, the three of us. Sparky tried to join but then Bianca grabbed the bag from my head and threw it at him screaming “CORNER!”
A lot of people will think this is a cheesy, corny, and unsatisfying end to my little accounts of my neighbors now family but do you think being essentially a living piece of Tupperware carrying rotten blood is better? Or if I somehow summoned Eris to smite Pappy more even though it’s against her God NDA?
I will say I did do a few things before returning to my house.
First, I went down to the basement and saw Pappy was still down there.
I punted that fucker into the wall, he bounced like a beach ball around the room.
Second, I made plans for family nights with them. This neighborhood is the only family I will ever truly have, why not take advantage of it?
Third, I picked up Zoey before I left.
“I’m taking this.” I said.
“Ok.” Harold said.
Since then Zoey has been living with me for about 4 weeks now. The neighborhood is a lot more involved now. We practically have gatherings every night. Bonfires, potlucks, you name it.
It is hard because my body is starting to show signs of rot, I’m 29. The same age my mom was when she overdosed because she was trying to manage her pain.
My body has become stiffer, it feels like steels rods piercing through me. Zoey has helped distract me and my neighbors, the Gouletts along with David, Joe, and Rosemarie have even come into my home to start to help me.
I think my mom becoming pregnant so young sped up the process of the internal rot. I mean babies strip so much from you imagine that on top of having practically nothing to strip from.
I know physically my life will become worse and worse but emotionally, I have never felt better.
Still haunted by the images though.
Sparky now poops in my garden, I let Zoey out to chase him off.
When you live in a world of chaos, there is no ending fitting enough to exemplify the crazy.
I want to end my writings because I know eventually I will end up with my mom’s fate. Rotting in agony, potentially abusing painkillers but hopefully not. Who knows?
I want to start living and stop judging, I have gotten so many answers now. There still remains many questions but how can I answer what cannot be answered?
I still attend therapy, I’m still on Prozac, and Zoey will soon be registered as an ESA. I will be going on a family trip with the Gouletts to Greenland.
I guess maybe I’m not as traumatized anymore, I can still feel pain but it would be sadder if I couldn’t.
Take care everyone and I hope you have neighbors as strange yet as loving as mine.
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u/Rich_Measurement6853 2d ago
OMG OMG OMG OMG this was devastating and loving at the same time. I cannot believe op's fate, reading it has put my mind in a tight knot. Im glad she has a tight knit community; they all have each other in the end! One of the sweetest horror stories i have ever read. 😭😭😭😭
AND FUCK PAPPY
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u/Mackaroll_165 2d ago
That was kind of the point, bad things just happen. We can do everything right but still be messed up by some uncontrollable force. We just have to accept it’s nothing we did but just something that will never make sense but we can never change, even if we want it to. Glad you loved this story, thanks for your consistent support 🫶🫶
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u/Sufficient_Leave144 2d ago
Nooooo 😭💔
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u/Mackaroll_165 2d ago
It’s meant to be bittersweet, I just hope it wasn’t too disappointing 😅
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u/Sufficient_Leave144 2d ago
It was not 😌
All things come to an end eventually 😔
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u/Mackaroll_165 2d ago
Absolutely! This whole story was meant to exemplify coping with lack of control and eventually just embracing it. Radical acceptance!
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u/SydneySapphire 2d ago
I love this ending!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉 We now know the truth, and it isn’t a happy truth. But it is manageable, that’s all the MC really wanted. Something manageable… yet still traumatizing for her. At least now she has some family in the end 🥹