I still can't live down the horrors that unfolded that night ten years ago. I can't fully explain how it happened, or what inevitably caused the event, but still no one understood. It was winter and the road conditions were poor, and no matter how hard I had slammed on the breaks, or tried to steer clear, the mother and her daughter still managed to end up under my car.
It was my nineteenth birthday, I admit I did have a bit too much to drink, however I'm the type of person who wouldn't do something knowing I wasn't capable of doing it, so I must have been in the right mind. There is no excuse to as why I was driving drunk, in which resulted in the lives of a thirty one year old women, and her five year old daughter. They were rapid volunteers and were well known throughout the community, the father of the child was a firefighter, on the force for six years, her hero. To whom she idolized and the town greatly respected, so you could only imagine the shock once everyone had found out about the accident. People from all over grieved and mourned, paying their respects at the wake, and sending sincere cards and flowers to the widower. It wasn't until long when people started giving me odd looks, and making hissing sounds as I passed. My house had been vandalized countless times, and when I went to the police they said they'd handle it, only to disclaim any of my reports. I was a pariah, so my only initial thought was to leave town. Leave everything behind. The pain, the grief and guilt, my childhood. Halle way Grove was my hometown, I was born and raised in the warmth's of it's streets, and molded into the man I was by the brawly lumberman my father worked for. It was heart breaking to see the towns lights filter away behind me as I sped down highway forty two, never knowing if that was the last time I was ever going to see it again, until now.
The ten year anniversary of the event is approaching quickly, as is my twenty-ninth birthday. Just a few months ago, after living in New York for the past couple of years I've moved back to Halle way Grove, in the efforts to make amends for the event. I managed to buy back my old house from the bank which oddly remained unoccupied ever since I left. After settling in I asked around town where he had lived and if he still worked at the fire hall. Many ushered away in terror and scurried down the streets away from me. Some people avoided me completely, holding their bags in their hands so I couldn't see their faces. Finally after asking around and being dodged from countless townsfolk I got an answer. An old women approached me, with long grey hair who wore tattered rags and was covered in dirt. She had told me that the man who I was looking for had taken his life prior to my departure. The unsettling thing about it was he had hung himself in the dinning room of my of my old house. Many believe it was a showcase of a reminder as to what happened and what the man who once lived there had caused. I felt sick. Guilt had flooded me. Not only had I destroyed a mans life, but I destroyed the town he lived in. She also said there have been claims of seeing the man walk about in the streets, looking for his wife and daughter, so that they can reunite in death. Many believe in something darker. They say he is on the hunt to claim revenge on the one who took away his life, his ability to love and feel anything but hate, that he was looking for me.
It wasn't until long that shops closed and went up for sale. People fleeing in the middle of the night and abandoning their homes, taking only what they could carry in their cars. The only way out of town was through the road my house stood facing, but since people started disappearing, I've never seen a car past my house ever. It was almost as if they vanished or ran through the forest to find asylum someplace else, risking the dangerous trek, deeming it worth it to rid themselves from the ominous town behind. Considering I had put all my expenses into moving back I couldn't afford to leave again, so I was stuck, alone and abandoned.
My birthday is tomorrow so I was having an early celebration of my own, due to the fact that I had to work tomorrow anyway, so I wasn't going to be able to have the day to myself. It was 11pm and I was already two quarters down in the bottle of Jack Daniels 2/6, buzzed out of my mind. I was watching the newest episode of The Bing Bang Theory when I heard what sounding like someone running across my porch. At first I thought it was my cat who usually would escape from the upstairs bathroom window, until he jumped up on my lap. I ran my fingers through his orange fur when I heard the footsteps again, this time it came from my kitchen. I stood up fiercely, startled my cat jumped off of my lap and ran to the other side of the room. I stared into the black of the kitchen, still the footsteps continued. My heart began to race and I began to sweat rapidly. Panicked I reached for my cellphone to call for help, until I realized I was alone and the nearest town was about an hours drive from here. The quick darting of whatever was in the shadows grew louder, and more frequent. I turned on the flashlight on my phone and aimed it into the doorway, anxiously waiting to see whatever it was making the noise. For a moment there was nothing. No sound, no creaking of the floorboards, only the muffled voices of Sheldon and Lenard arguing about nonsense from the TV, and my quick shallow breaths.
I crept forward the floors creaking underneath my feet. I took a deep breath, my hands and legs shaking with fear. I reached for the closest thing there was to use as a weapon, which happened to be the bible. Oddly it felt right to have in my hands, like it was not only a weapon, buy a shield of some sort. Two minutes past, I was close enough to see well into the kitchen and that's when I saw it. There was this thing sitting in the corner facing the doorway I stood in. It looked like an animal that had been hit by car, however it had human hands and feet, and was perched like a dog. Its face was veiled by thick black hair that hung over like vines. There were bald spots all over it, and was covered in blood. Some of its bones were sticking out and many of its fingers were broken and mangled. It just stood there, not moving, not even when it was clear I could see it did it move a muscle, or show any sign of emotion towards me. It only sat there facing me in utter silence. I was paralyzed by fear, the air was sucked out of my lungs, and due to being in shock I dropped my phone to the floor, plunging this thing into darkness once again.
All I could see was the shape of its head and part of its shoulders, considering that there was a ray of light peeking in from the window. Suddenly it stood up slowly, allowing its bones to crack and click back into place. Its head still slouched over so I couldn't see its face. That's when I realised this thing was a women. Out of nowhere, almost as if I had been oblivious she was about a foot away from me in less than a second. She reached out to grab me, but I was already running for the door. That's when I saw the other, standing outside my window looking in. It was a little girl, the one I had killed ten years ago, her head split open, with her brains hanging out. I screamed and reached for the door knob when I realized, it was gone. I looked up in confusion, however the door was gone too, it was just a plain white wall. I turned to see the pair, the mother and her daughter standing there, broken with their bones hanging out, and joints dislocated. I closed my eyes I fell to the floor.
Covering my face I began to cry. I could hear their bones cracking as they made their way towards me. I just sat there and cried, afraid to open my eyes, I knew if I did I would see them. I would see what I did, all of the pain, all of the guilt that I had caused, I would see those I had killed. I didn't want to see it, not again. In the darkness behind my eyes all I could see was their faces in front of mine, only inches away. Followed by small blips of the night I had hit them roll on replay. I knew if I had opened my eyes I would see everything. I just had to keep my eyes closed, for as long as I was sat here. Just keep them closed and they will leave. Just keep them closed, and I will be ok.
