Dead Souls
Page 32
It picked its head up and made a weak barking sound.
Tears squirted from Johnny's eyes. One more…
He took a deep, nausea-filled breath, then slammed the nail deep into the bare heart of the dead dog.
"Enjoy the afterlife," he uttered, then paced out of the barn, into the welcoming warmth of Wellfield's morning daylight.
He dreams of light, white light, and it is good. It shows him the future, and in it there is a family: He, the patriarch, his wife, and his son and daughter. They attend church every Sunday, spending all their times together, both good and bad. Sunshine rains down on the Petrie family, and goodness abounds. All of them look ahead to a bright future under God's watchful eye.
But, there is a growing shadow in that white light. It represents the temptation to look back. It becomes a secret, one that he keeps from his family. It exists as a cardboard box that sits in the attic of his home. The temptation grows stronger and stronger, and quite soon it begins to eat at him and begs him to explore the mysteries within—the mysteries of his past that will never leave him, because no matter how long he denies the want to look back, it will remain with him, always and forever, growing stronger and stronger…