Darkwood Falls Paranormal Investigators Book One: The Dead Truth

Chapter Four

"It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at the bottom." Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

     The rest of my first day on the job didn't go any smoother.  After lunch, I returned to find an even grouchier Nick, which I didn't even think was possible.  He snapped at almost every single sound or movement I made as he went through all the letters I had looked at that morning. 

     As we were about to leave, I heard him muttering to himself as he was slipping his jacket back on.  "I can't believe I have to work with someone so incompetent."

     "I am not incompetent!  I can't help it if we have a difference in opinion on what's real or not," I said, trying to get up in his face to look intimidating.  It didn't seem to work considering he towered over me by a whole foot. It was actually kind of pathetic.

     "You are so blind to the truth.  Some people will do anything to rationalize things they've seen or heard because they don't want to believe.  You are one of those people.  I don't know why Richard hired you, but you are in for a rude awakening.  There's a whole other world out there and you're about to be thrown face first into it.  I can't wait to see the sense knocked into you."

     He was much better at being intimidating than I was, and I felt myself shrink back from him.  I opened my mouth to retort, but I couldn't think of anything clever to say.  He gave me a smug look, obviously knowing he had won the argument.  It really made me want to smack him, but I didn't feel like being fired for assaulting a co-worker on the first day of the job.

     He then turned and strode away as I glared at the back of his stupid arrogant head.  Feeling angry and exhausted, I picked up my coat and slowly slipped it on.  The throbbing in my head had seemed to increase as the day had gone on, but after that last argument, it seemed to be worse than ever.  Being around that jerk all day had really taken a toll on me. 

     I made my way to the door to the outer office, my whole body feeling heavy and sluggish.  Richard, Axl, and Brandon were already gathered around Ruby's desk chatting and laughing with her.  They all seemed so carefree, and I felt a twinge of jealousy.  Their days had obviously been a lot better than mine.

     "Hey, Shawn!" Brandon greeted cheerfully.  "Are you okay?"

     I guess he noticed the miserable look on my face.  I wanted to tell him how shitty my first day had been, but Richard was standing right next to me.  I didn't want to seem ungrateful or appear to be the constantly disgruntled new girl.

     "Oh, yeah. I'm fine, " I said, forcing a smile.  "I just still have a headache."

     "Well, we were all talking about going out to grab a few drinks if you want to come," Axl offered.

     I glanced at Brandon, who had a hopeful look on his face.  I just couldn't say no to him; not after everything he had done for me in just the last twenty-four hours.  About half an hour later, I found myself seated at a table at the bar I had seen in the strip mall earlier that morning.

     Upon entering the Darkwood Falls Tavern, there was a long bar on the right to sit at, which was already overcrowded with customers.  To the left were several small, wooden, round tables, on of which we had chosen to sit at.  A couple of pool tables sat nearby that were taken by drunk people trying to maneuver a pool stick, which can be quite dangerous sometimes.  In the left-hand corner of the room, there was a small stage where a set of drums sat abandoned.  It looked like where a live band would normally play, but there didn't seem to be one there that night.  Instead, the music provided was coming from a jukebox placed right next to the entrance to the bathrooms.  Classy.  Unfortunately, the music it was playing at the time was some country twang about eating cornbread, drinking beer, and walking a dirt road.  It is one of the great misfortunes of living in Kentucky that if you hate country music, you are considered odd, which is what I was.  I could tell that not many Nirvana fans made their way around the sticky floors of that bar.