HAUNTING STURGEONS: Chapter Twenty-One

 Previously in this blog serial...

(Click here to read Chapter Twenty) 

Now the HAUNTING continues...

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    I am standing in front of the window, staring into the early morning darkness.  Somewhere out there, beyond this motel room, waits Stickler Hill.  I can feel its presence pulling at me, but I need to wait.  Wait until I receive the text telling me it’s time.  I look down at the silent phone clutched in my hand and then I turn and glance at the bed.  

    Eddie is still sound asleep, a distant streetlight faintly illuminating his serene face.  The white envelope resting on the nightstand beside him seems to glow.  He will eventually read how much he means to me while I admit to lying about my parents.  I also apologize for leaving him, writing that I need to enter Stickler Woods to face what happened to my brother.  It’s not a lie, more of a lack of complete truth.  What I don’t say in my letter weighs heavy on me, the guilt gnawing at my mind.  How can I fully explain who brought me back to Sturgeons and how my return was set in motion after my father’s funeral?  I close my eyes, standing in memories.  

    Silence assaulted my ears as I walked through my parents’ empty house.  My mother was safely in the psychiatric ward a few miles away, but her crying still echoed through the rooms.  My father was buried in the nearby cemetery, but his rage was still prominent in the dried blood I had yet to clean up.  I tapped a polished dress shoe against an empty bottle of booze, its transparency marred by a splatter of crimson.  He had emptied the bottle before he shot himself, but that wasn’t a surprise.

    The surprise came from a dull chime on the other side of my father’s brown recliner.  I stepped carefully around the stains in the carpet and found his cell phone.  The bloodied tech was face down and I just stared at it, unsure what to do.  Did my father’s right to privacy die with him?  Curiosity got the best of me and I picked it up and checked the notification.

    There was a text, just a simple message asking my father how he was doing.  I was confused to see the question was from Harold Newcastle.  Had my parents ever mentioned him in their countless conversations and arguments?  They mentioned Eddie on several occasions, but never his dad, at least not while I was eavesdropping.  I scrolled back through the texts between Harold and my father and it quickly became apparent that hatred over Benjamin Straker fueled their friendship.

    Multiple texts called the lawman incompetent, blaming him for not stopping the disappearances.  They even accused Straker of willfully allowing the fall of Sturgeons.  There were also exchanges about how Tracy, her parents and Tommy would be here if Lawrence had still been sheriff back then, how he had been a good, solid man who would’ve set things right if he hadn’t also disappeared.  Then one message caught my eye.  It was a reminder for my father that Straker returns to Sturgeons on the anniversary of its destruction and how it would be a good time to confront the bastard.  

    The angry words blazed before my eyes, igniting a vague notion in my mind.  My fingers hovered above the screen for what seemed like hours before I started to type.  It was a short message, stating it was me and that my father was dead.  He immediately expressed condolences and placed the blame on the lawman.  In that moment, surrounded by painful memories and dried blood, I agreed with Harold Newcastle.  

    I open my eyes, standing in the motel room.  My phone silently vibrates in my hand, but I focus on Eddie instead.  I don’t know if I’ll see him again, so I want to remember him this way.  Sleeping peacefully, his dark hair mussed up and a gentle smile forming his lips.  Handsome and happy because he is unaware of my lies and what his father just texted me.

He’s in town  

    I type a quick acknowledgement and then shove the necessary evil into my pocket.  Grabbing up my duffel bag, I look out the window and imagine Tommy standing there in the faint hint of dawn.  He gives me a beckoning wave as he turns away, walking in the direction of Stickler Hill.  It’s time.  Time to leave Eddie and this temporary home.  Time to follow my brother into those haunted woods.  Time to finally face the lawman.

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The HAUNTING continues in…

   

Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words! 

Freak Out, 

JLH 

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