Page 23 of Tenebrous

Jesus, I'm exhausted. Now that everything has calmed a little, the effects of crashing my car into the equivalent of a brick wall are starting to make themselves known. Pretty sure I have whiplash. The cuts on my arms from shattering glass burn like hell, too. A few slices cover my cheek, and blood coats my face.

“Maybe we should call animal control,” Manny suggests, chewing on his bottom lip.

I huff out a dry laugh. “Sure, go ahead. Radio the sheriff and see what happens.”

Determination sparks in my coworker's eyes. He snatches the radio and twists the dial before speaking into the receiver. “Hey, Sheriff. This is Manuel over at the mill. Do you copy?”

A few moments of static pass, then an answer comes through. “This is Earl, go ahead.”

Manny holds my gaze. “We encountered something on the road over here. Smashed up Benji's car all to hell. Some kind of large animal. Figured I'd call it in.”

Silence stretches heavily on the other end.

“Sheriff? Do you copy?”

A crackle finally answers back. “Anyone hurt?”

“ Cuts and bruises. Nothing serious.”

“Good.” The sheriff speaks low to someone else there with him before getting back on the radio. “Stay in the shack, keep the doors locked. We've been getting calls about a rabid bear around town.”

“Oh, come on,” I snarl, jumping to my feet with a wince as I yank the radio out of Manny's hands. “There isn't a bear and we both fucking know it. Stop with all the bullshit. It nearly killed me, Sheriff.”

The only response I get is dead silence. We both stare at each other as we wait. When Earl speaks again, his voice sounds dangerously calm. “I'll be up there shortly. Wait in the shack until I arrive.”

The line fizzles out and for several seconds, neither of us moves. Slowly, I hang the radio back on the wall. “Well, he sounds pissed.”

Manny laughs nervously. “You called him a liar over county radio.”

“I called him a liar to his face, too.”

That earns me a snort, but Manny's smile fades in the blink of an eye when he turns his attention to the dark windows. “I honestly thought that Dennis lost his mind. I mean, the kid was constantly rambling about eyes in the trees before he disappeared. Thought maybe this job was finally getting to him…” My coworker trails off before glancing at me sideways. “I never told anyone this, but the night before he vanished, I told him to face his fears. The way he was talking made me think he was afraid of the dark, and I told him nothing was out there. That he should see for himself, if it… stopped whatever the fuck he was going on about. I only wanted to help him.”

The confession hangs between us thickly.

I study the torment on Manny's face as I heave a heavy sigh. “You didn't kill Dennis, man.”

“Didn't say I did.”

“I know guilt when I see it.”

A short huff leaves his nostrils. “Yeah? You an expert or something?”

My gaze drops to the cuts on my skin, and the wind whispers through the trees outside like ghosts from my past. “When my mom died… she was trying to stop me from killing myself.”

Manny stills, only widening his eyes briefly and waiting for me to continue.

“I did something really dumb. Something I shouldn't have, and it broke my family apart. There was so much fighting... I just couldn't handle it anymore. When she and my brother broke into the bathroom, I was sitting in the bathtub with the barrel of my dad's shotgun in my mouth. We wrestled for the gun, and… it went off…”

All of the walls I'd carefully constructed around myself come crashing down at the phantom sound of the gunshot echoing in my head. The look on my mother's face when she realized what happened still makes me gag. How she'd tried comforting me when she was the one bleeding out in my arms.

And then my father was so distraught that his heart gave out. In a matter of hours, my brother and I were orphans, all because of me.

Manny doesn't respond for a long time. We sit with nothing but the sound of rain pattering against the windows and cold air chilling me down to my bones.

Eventually, he draws in a deep breath. “How long ago was this?”

“Little over two years ago.”