Sacrifice (Dylan Hart Odyssey of the Occult)

by Gilmore, RM

  I sat for a few minutes hoping memories would come back to me like they did before. Nothing happened. The last thing I remembered completely after I’d changed was watching Garret cry while he walked back to the house. After that it’s like someone turned off a light. There was nothing.

  After a little while of sitting in the dirt and watching the sun come up through the trees a started thinking how I’d make it home naked as a jaybird. Garret should be at work, I thought. Unless he was so worried about me that he’d stayed home. Or I’d killed him. No, I shook my head wildly at the thought. No, I told myself, no it’s just not possible. He’s fine. He went home wondering where the hell I went off to and that’s all. I told myself this over and over again until I believed it.

  “Lynnie?!” I damn near jumped out of my skin when I heard Hattie’s voice screaming in the woods. “Lynnie you out here?” She called out.

  Where’s Garret? I asked myself. Maybe he went off to work, I thought. I hoped. I prayed.

  I sat very still. I didn’t even breathe. I knew there would be questions. Most of them I couldn’t answer without giving myself up to the law. Or starting a damn witch hunt.

  “You see anything?” Garret asked her.

  Damn, I thought. Garret had stayed home from work. Then I thanked God he was alive, twice before I started worrying about what I did do. Lord knows what happened to me after Garret left me in the woods. Maybe I done something worse than kill Rusty. What if I sliced up some babies and puppies while I was that damn green dog and they were looking for the thing that done it?

  I hated myself then. I couldn’t imagine feeling any lower than I did sitting in the woods, naked, and wondering if I’d killed some babies.

  “Damn it, Lynnie!” Garret yelled out in a voice I knew was about to cry.

  I thought maybe I could tell him. He would help me. But then he would know what I done to Rusty. He’d never forgive me. I felt helpless and alone.

  Lord, I need you, I thought. Please help me. I don’t wanna die. I don’t wanna break my brother’s heart. Please help me. Please, Lord, please.

  I was crying again. But I was silent, only tears. I pulled my knees to my chest and buried my face into my legs and waited for a miracle.

  Courage built in me. It started at my toes, moved up through my legs, into my heart, and on up to my head. I jumped to my feet and started running without looking. I ran on legs that didn’t feel like mine. My feet hit the ground so fast they nearly didn’t make a sound when they flapped onto the dirt and leaves. My heart beat like a drum in my chest. I never looked back. I ran until I could see my old doublewide through the trees. I ran right over the paw tracks I’d made the night before and leapt through the broken window.

  I collapsed on my bed the second my feet hit the mattress. I could hear Garret and Hattie talking far away in the woods behind the trailer. They didn’t see me. I had time. I left the comfort of my bed and grabbed some jeans and a T-shirt from my closet. I was pulling on my jeans while I ran out the front door. I’d gotten my keys from the table by the door before I let the screen door slam shut behind me.

  I didn’t know where I was going but I knew I couldn’t stay there.

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