The Scottsville Vampire Invasion

Chapter 40

Chapter 40

I roll my car up in front of the department, take a deep breath, open the door and walk in.  Nikki is sitting at the front.  She keeps her head down and doesn't acknowledge me.  I go to my office, sit at my desk and open my e-mail.

"You're a Disgrace," is the subject line of the first e-mail. 

"I always knew you were a scumbag," is the next one. 

"How do you live with yourself?" follows that.  They're all the same: questions and statements I should have asked myself a long time ago.

"Clark?" I hear from my doorway and see Josh standing in front of me with the newspaper in his hand.  "Can you believe the bullshit that Glenn said about you in the paper?  He's such an asshole." He picks it up and points at the front page.  "I mean, look at this.  He says that you're a drug addict or something.  He's really gone too far this time."

"Josh, sit down."  He comes over to the chair in front of me.  "We've been friends for almost our whole lives.  We've seen each other through grade school, high school, college and the academy.  We've been together through girlfriends, marriage and each of us having our own families.  Until the last few years I never kept anything a secret between us, but I've hidden things from you.  This report, it's all true."  When I say the words they sound like they should be coming from someone else's mouth, but I feel a burden being lifted off of my chest.  I've been carrying these sins around with me for so long I've become accustom to them. 

"What?" he says with a look of a cross of confusion and unbelief. 

"It's true.  You know that I really hurt my back bad a few years ago when I herniated three disks in my car accident.  I was in terrible pain for months and the doctor's gave me pain medication.  I noticed when I took them, they didn't just take away the pain from my back. I wasn't stressed or worried; they made me feel great.  When the discomfort went away, I convinced the doctor that I was still in pain.  I was only taking one or two a day but the funny thing about those drugs is your body builds up an immunity to them so you have to keep taking more and more.  At first they just let me relax, but as I continued to take them, they would give me energy.  I was able to work long shifts, pound a few down and then be back in business for the next day.  Eventually, the amount the doctor was giving me wasn't enough so I reached out to the one person who I knew could hook me up."

I feel like I'm in Confession and Josh is the Priest.  He doesn't say anything, just sits there and stares at me.  "As far as Nikki goes, I don't have any long story or excuse.  My marriage sucks, and a lot of that is my fault, and I was working one day and we were the only ones here.  She invited me back to her place and I accepted."

Josh takes his eyes off of me and looks at the floor.  "I'm sorry, Josh.  I let you, the department, the town and my family down.  I'm glad you're here because I'm sure I'll be gone, and you're the one I'm going to recommend taking over. 

"I don't want the job," he says in as low of a voice as he can.

"I know this isn't the way we wanted this to end, but eventually this was going to come out.  I'm sorry I'm leaving you in such a bad place, but you're a great guy and a really great officer and you'll be an even better Sheriff.  Think about all the stupid stuff I do that you've always wanted to do your way?"