HAUNTING STURGEONS: Chapter Twenty-Two

Previously in this blog serial...

(Click here to read Chapter Twenty-One) 

Now the HAUNTING continues...

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    I am driving through the empty streets of Sturgeons.  Dawn is slowly breaking around me, casting the town in a faint grey light.  A dog barks somewhere in the distance and I wonder if this is what it was like for them.  For Tommy and Tracy as they drove to their sunrise breakfast.  Was the town this peaceful that morning?  Maybe too peaceful. 

    An occasional glow from a house shines as bright as the passing streetlights.  I imagine early risers waking up to coffee, maybe thinking of starting breakfast while gazing out the window.  Surely there are suspicious eyes watching from behind curtains, wondering who I am and where I’m going.  Did anyone wonder about Tommy and Tracy?  Perhaps anyone who saw them just shook their heads, thankful it wasn’t their own kids sneaking off for a tryst. 

    According to the lawman’s questionable book, there had only been one reported disappearance before Tommy.  There was no reason for people to panic yet, no reason for anyone to call the police on them for their protection.  I wonder if Tommy and Tracy knew about that first incident as they drove through town.  Did they sense something wrong in Sturgeons or were they too busy being in love or lust?  Too young to care?  I wish I could be that kind of young.  If I was, I would still be in bed with Eddie.  

    I shake my head at the thought, knowing what needs to be done, for my parents and for Tommy.  I imagine my brother sitting in the passenger seat, his expression set firm in determination.  He is staring straight ahead, the pavement disappearing beneath my car.  An inclined dirt road stretches out, houses becoming sporadic as the trees thicken.  Not the fresh young ones from in town, but old trees.  The silent witnesses to what happened ten years ago. 

    Taking a left, I leave the dirt road for more of a path, just a couple of tire ruts with grass in between.  I am in Stickler Woods and it’s as unsettling as I remember.  The densely packed trees strangle the breaking dawn while my car’s headlights throw malformed shadows into motion.  No wonder I thought these woods were haunted when I was a kid.  

    Slowing down, I focus on what’s unfolding on the path in front of me.  A small animal suddenly comes into view and I hit the brakes.  The rough-looking possum stares at my car, like it’s sizing up an intruder.  I watch the rodent as it raises a claw, poised for attack.  After a few minutes, the possum puts its claw down and scurries away.  Maybe it sensed I’m not a threat.  Well, at least not an immediate one.  I continue driving, but stop again when what I’ve been searching for appears in my headlights.

    A dark pick-up truck is parked several feet ahead, its out-of-state plates matching the information given to me by Harold Newcastle.  The vehicle definitely belongs to Straker and I question if he is sitting in there.  It’s hard to see inside, but I need to make sure.  I turn and imagine Tommy glancing at my duffel bag in the backseat and then facing me.  Giving my brother a nod, I grab what I need and leave my car.

    I slowly approach the lawman’s truck, preparing for a confrontation.  Using my phone’s flashlight, I cautiously peer into the passenger side window.  The cab is empty, except for a half-eaten bag of chips and an old paperback of Crime and Punishment.  Signs of life, but how much life?  Is he alone?  Harold Newcastle said, He’s in town, but it was dark.  Maybe he missed something.  Did the lawman bring his husband or his former police partner with him?  Whether he is alone or not, I’ve come too far to turn back now.  

    Turning away from the truck, I stare at the surrounding trees.  Even as hazy light begins struggling through the branches, a foreboding atmosphere persists.  This is where my brother experienced his final moments of joy and terror, his final moments of life.  This is where I need to be.  I imagine Tommy walking deeper into Stickler Woods, pausing briefly to look back at me.  Taking a deep breath, I follow him, knowing he will lead me to 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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Click the pic ⤵️ for more about me… 

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 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Click the pic ⤵️ for more about my… 

HAUNTING STURGEONS: Chapter Twenty

Previously in this blog serial...

(Click here to read Chapter Nineteen) 

Now the HAUNTING continues...

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    I am lying awake in the comfortable motel bed.  Comfortable because Eddie is next to me, his body against mine.  His arm is draped over my side and I feel the steady rhythm of his breath against my neck.  Gently pressing his hand against my chest, I wish I could join him in deep slumber.  Nothing sounds better than to drift into unconsciousness with Eddie beside me, our bodies entangled in the sweet calm of afterglow, but I can’t.   

    All I can think about is what brought me back to Sturgeons.  It would be so much easier if the man curled up next to me was the only reason.  There would be no reason to leave this bed.  No reason to get dressed and turn on my phone.  No reason to sit down at the writing desk and pull out a blank piece of paper.  No reason to explain my actions, to confess to being a liar.  Lies born to hide my pain and anger from others, from myself.  

    My mother keeps to herself these days, rarely leaving her home.  That’s what I told Eddie, but I didn’t explain that her home is in a psychiatric ward.  Between dealing with my father and her overwhelming grief over Tommy, my mother slowly withdrew into her own mind.  Watching her fade away from us, from me, was excruciating.  Even the doctors stopped pretending there was any chance of recovery.  I just hope that my mother has found Tommy in whatever mental world she created for herself.  

    My father died last year.  That much is true, but I lied to Eddie about the heart attack.  He had been drinking more and more, fueling his rage against the lawman.  Not a day went by without my father blaming Straker for everything. Tommy’s disappearance.  The destruction of Sturgeons.  My mother’s deteriorating mental state.  After she was committed, my father couldn’t take it anymore.  I came home one day and found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  He was finally at peace, his anger and pain forever silenced, but mine continued. 

    There’s more I should tell Eddie, but maybe It doesn’t matter.  No matter how much I explain, he will have questions.  Questions with answers that he doesn’t need to be burdened with.  Even though I can claim I’m protecting Eddie, I know that deep down I’m a selfish man.  I just hope, no matter what happens, he believes I care.

    I don’t want Eddie waking up to think our night together meant nothing, that he was just a warm body.  This time together, although brief, has been life.  A sweet breath filling my lungs, turning our old friendship into something deeper, more meaningful.  At least this is what I tell myself as I gently slide his arm from around me.  

    Slowly sitting up, I quietly leave the bed and walk to the bathroom.  The harsh lighting is almost blinding, but I stare at my guilty reflection in the mirror.  I tell myself Eddie will try to understand because that’s who he is, who he has always been.  Eddie Newcastle is a thoughtful man who will forgive me, even though forgiveness will be the last thing I deserve.

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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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I’m John from Nebraska.🌽 

The JLH Collective is my ridiculously named online home.🏠 

A home where you can find…

My books…📚 

My blogs…💻 

My videos…📼 

& 

Way too much about me and my half-blind eyes.🤓

(click the pic to explore ⤵️)

freakboy muses music: BRICKLAYER BOSH - “CURSEBREAKER”

It’s been a long couple of years, so the dropping of new music from BRICKLAYER BOSH was like a reward for surviving the madness and chaos.  Their first two albums reverberate with a fun vibe, like The B-52’s churned and filtered through a goth-punk-rockabilly spirit box.  So, I was in for a dose of intense, and oh so sweet, shock treatment when I listened to CURSEBREAKER! ⚡️ 

Deeper music!

Darker lyrics!

Angrier attitude! 

And damn, I loved it! 

BRICKLAYER BOSH takes the listener on a tumultuous transmission trip through flipping off the haters to ditching the jerks you’ve wasted too much of your life on.  The electric energy and bulldozing beats in CURSEBREAKER culminate into the hard-won power of finding your voice, but learning that it’s your choice to either fly with your inner music or fall into a deadly pit of silence.  A lesson we all need reminding of from time to time. 

In conclusion, if you crave a jolt in the new year, plug your mindscape into the magnetic pull of CURSEBREAKER from the rock-sharp core of BRICKLAYER BOSH! 😎

Find CURSEBREAKER on…

Check out this awesome 2021 interview with BRICKLAYER BOSH… ⤵️

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

Freak Out, 

JLH 

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My blog serial will return soon, so stay tuned and click the pic to catch up…