Chapter 3: It’s Gone

Bad day, after bad day. Moon after moon. Star after star. And hope after hope, rain begins to kiss the forest, but it stays until it dries up. The Cascades of shadows roam the village at night. And in between all of that is I. Just plain old I. But ‘plain old I’ isn’t just I. There is another me under my skin. The things I’d do for my family.

But behind all that, is a place for regrets. Things I have already done, things that I would do again… they fit my cases. Something that no sane person is capable of. Here’s why what happens really happens to me.

When I was five, my mom and dad were just the best things to happen to me. Symptoms from my ‘revanchist’ identity began to show. I was a kid with teeth as sharp as needles and as tall as claws. My mom tried to give me a chip, it was movie night.

As she grew towards me to feed me the chip, everything else started to slide out of my sight and I felt like I was being pulled into the wall behind. I open my mouth for the chip. As soon as the chip entered my mouth, my teeth grew the way they are right now and they sliced her wrists off.

I have to live with that, worst part of it is my family doesn’t know.

This ‘unusual’ detective work, I do for me. Every day that it pours, I taste the rain, for the flavor reminds me of greed. Every case for me is a carnival of rust. I like it even though I shouldn’t. I look for a puzzle, not a solution. It’s all a game of avoiding failure. That is only till my true colors will bleed.

So now, back to the case. I had to follow the trails of dents on the bushes. These are made by something heavy. Only as heavy as a young human or heavier. So, I get to the trail on foot and begin my chase. The trail just disappears into the green and yellow.

My only audience being the revanchist, I move on, backtrack my way, and come across a little hut in the middle of nowhere. There is someone snoring inside… in their deep slumber which I try to interrupt but fail.

So, I drag him all the way back to the village. With mud paved on his back and hair, I set him in my cabin. As I did, I noticed that everyone looked at him will ill still eyes.

I just need some information from him, then I will put him back—Hold on. I think I found it. It is pierced onto the right ear of his. I take it out. Then the locals barge into my cabin. They all shuffle in, squeeze me into the walls, and make their way to him. “YOU sent it. I know YOU sent it!” Screams every man and woman. Then, he finally wakes up underneath a waterfall of accusations, heavy breath and cussing.

They drag him by his feet to the center of the village and I sprint after them trying to stop them from whatever sinister deed that they may do to him.

They lay him down on a stump, grab spears and scream at him in Portuguese. Then, I get a clear vision of what is happening. There is a spear jammed into his gut. He then replies screaming, “I swear I didn’t do it.”

Then, all hell breaks loose and seven more spears get raised and put into his gut. Except, they remove it and stab it in again and again until the squirting fountain of blood covers all of the front row’s faces in red. Then, the men using the spears, chop the head of the old man off and stab it onto the spear.

Vines of blood wiggle down the handle and the blade. The earth drinks it all up. And there it is, another soul evicted. The blood shoots from the rest of his headless body and hits the lakeshore a foot away, with red foam sitting on top of a crimson river being drunk by the lake itself.

I hear the rumble of a truck behind me… a familiar truck. I turn around and see it, a brown-peach-colored Sherriff’s SUV, or my partner, Lopez's SUV. It comes rumbling slowly towards me. Then, the breaks screech to a halt.

He steps out of the truck and doesn’t say anything as his eyes are locked on the ‘sticked’ head. His brain runs around, tries to stack up as many clues it can.

I tell him that it wasn’t supposed to happen. But he’s frozen. I back out of his bubble and resume my investigation. That’s when I remember the letter I plucked out of the old man’s earlobe. I unroll it and it reads, “In the night all shall be released. In the night, the creature in the dark will strike… away with a splash.”

“So, a creature in the waters, huh?” asks Lopez. “Hey, partner! You okay?” I ask him, on my toes. He nods and we get back to work. Wait… he doesn’t know about all of this. He should stay out. Or… maybe I could expose him to the other side.—No. Not a good idea.

As we set off to investigate, I look around for more clues. None show up. On foot for the last nine hours, searching and nothing pops out.

Then, my thinking bubble blows out, passing a disgustingly spectacular idea. The letter from the ear mentioned ‘splash’. It could’ve implied to the lake. What if I try to kill it? I could lure it out of the lake once it is dark. I have maybe an hour of daylight left. I decide to do just so by borrowing my partner’s rifle and revolver, buying a bunch of spears from the men. And that’s all. Lopez should be asleep at that time.

So, I go to the cabin with him, get an hour of sleep, and then it was ‘rise and confine’ in the little cabin.

I close my eyes. Then, tiny splashes in the water wake me up. The fishing net then begins to move. It must be something heavy in there.

I gear up, take half a million short breaths, and shuffle towards the shore. I push one foot forward, then the other, repeating it until the water had just crossed my hip-level.

That’s when I begin shaking around, making tiny vibrations in the water. I watch for ripples in the water and nothing happens.

All of a sudden, my phone rings and Lopez wakes up. He must not see. So I run back out of the water towards the cabin, drop the gear under the porch, and barge into the cabin. I tell him that the lake was compromised as a bathroom by me. After all, I did wet myself in the wet. On the way, I must have knocked over the ‘sticked’ head. It is in the lake right now, floating in the water abandoning its blade. Lopez notices it too.

I turn around and pick up the phone. It is a voicemail from my wife, “Hey honey, please pick up. I miss you. I just wish—” I stop the voicemail as I have no time for my personal life right now. I turn back around to look at the head on the water. It is still there. But then, Lopez points at it as he sees ripples that even I begin to see right under the head. Then, within a blink, something plunges out of the water and pulls the head in.

It’s gone.