by Sage Hunter
“I don’t need to know where you are every second of the day, but when you’re staying out late, not telling me where you are, I start to wonder, you know? And, on top of everything, you’re acting…I don’t know, different.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded.
“And look at that,” she said, pointing at the lawn beyond the kitchen window to Lucas’s latest sculpture- a tall, human-shaped figure of bent and shaped wrought-iron. “You haven’t touched your work in months. I thought that the whole point of getting out of the city was so we could have time and peace to focus on our art.”
“Don’t worry about how I spent my time,” he said, his voice rising.
Tessa stepped back and extended her hand as if gesturing to something on display.
“And this!” she said. “You’re angry and impatient all the time. You barely talk to me anymore and when we make love, it’s like you’re not even there!”
“It’s all in your head,” he said.
“Don’t tell me I’m imagining it or that I’m crazy or something. I know what I see.”
Tessa watched as the red flush of anger spread across Lucas’s face.
“You don’t know a goddamn thing,” he said, his voice rising as he stepped towards Tessa.
He shook his head and Tessa noticed with shock that he was clenching and unclenching his right fist.
“You’ve got some fucking nerve to accuse me of whatever the hell you’re accusing me of, telling me my friends are ‘weirdos,’ that I’m acting ‘different,’ that I have to check in with you like you’re my goddamn mother!”
He closed the distance between himself and Tessa, until his six-three frame was looming over her.
“This is the end of this conversation,” he said. “And I don’t want to hear another goddamn word about the subject.”
Then, at that moment, Tessa felt something that she’d never before felt in the presence of her husband: fear.
Tessa stood her ground, trying to appear calm and undisturbed, but inside she felt as scared as a child.
Lucas looked her over one last time, glowering at her with hot, angry eyes. Then, he turned and began stomping out of the kitchen, his bare feet slapping against the linoleum floor. Part of Tessa wanted to let the conversation end there, to not risk having it blow up into something more. But another part of her, one that was desperate for answers, one that wanted to know more than anything what had gotten into her husband, began to well in her.
“No!” she exclaimed, her voice high and shrill, stopping Lucas in his tracks.
“What?” he asked, not turning around.
“I said ‘no,’” she said, her voice quivering slightly. “I’m your wife. And you don’t get to dismiss this conversation just because you don’t feel like it. That’s not how this works.”
Lucas said nothing as he turned around to face her, his expression red with anger, with impatience, with frustration. Tessa didn’t know how he was going to react; for the first time in the 15 years of her marriage, she felt scared and unsafe around her own husband. Then, with slow, measured steps, he walked towards the small, two-seat wooden table near the bay windows that looked out onto the front yard. He picked up the glass vase that held two purple flowers, tossed it in his hand as if measuring it for heft, and with a quick jutting of his arm, threw it against the wall on the far side of the room, the vase exploding in a crash of glass, water, and flowers.
Tessa watched this unfolding in horror, shocked that her husband would do such a thing. Any feeling of protestation was now gone; she couldn’t think of a word to say.
Lucas, feeling that his point was made, strode out of the kitchen and into the bedroom. Noisily rummaging through the room, he emerged seconds later, now wearing a black t-shirt with his jeans and a pair of heavy boots, his stomping sounding through the home. He then stormed out the front door, followed soon after by the revving of his motorcycle. Tessa watched him as he peeled off down the winding road in front of their home, leaving her in stunned silence.
CHAPTER 3
Tessa picked up the broken pieces of glass with careful fingers, tossing the shards into a plastic grocery bag from their recycling. She had felt a strange mixture of emotions swirl through her since Lucas sped off. She was fearful, certainly but above all, she wanted to get to the bottom of what was happening with her husband. Months of slow, building tension in the household had finally exploded; it was as if him throwing the vase in a fit of anger was just the thing she needed to see to be able to accept that things might never be the same between her and Lucas. But, either way, she needed to know what was going on with the man she loved, the man she thought she knew so well.
Once the kitchen was finally clean, she considered what her next step would be. After some deliberation, she decided that the only course of action was to find out just what Lucas was doing, and just who he’d been doing it with. Tessa decided that she’d wait until the evening arrived before setting out on her new mission, and she decided to spend the rest of the daylight working on her latest art project.
Taking one last look over the kitchen to make certain that no stray shards remained, Tessa set off for the small studio reserved for work. The room was as sunny and cheerful as always, the many windows of the room looking out onto the long, green stretch of the backyard, the trees beyond swaying in the gentle morning breeze.
Tessa stepped in front of her latest piece, a still-life done in the hyperrealism style that she had been perfecting over the last decade. The painting of the bowl of wax fruit on the table beyond was starting to come together in a way that she was mostly happy with, the fruit on the canvas drawn with such clarity and detail that it almost seemed to be real, and that was exactly what she was hoping for.
Her photorealistic style had found many admirers over the last few years, with buyers everywhere from the Upper East Side to Shibuya who were eager to pay hand-over-fist for her latest work. As she looked over the painting, paying special attention to a draping pineapple leaf, she couldn’t help but wonder if Lucas’s relative lack of success was factoring into his change in behavior. He still had patrons, but his drive had seemed to peter out over the last few years, and the sales of his work reflected it. He just didn’t seem to have the same hungry ambition that she fell in love with so many years ago.
Tessa was still shaken up from her fight with Lucas, but she needed to pass the time somehow, and she knew that art was the best way for her to burn off any built-up energy or tension. Besides, it was either that or pace around the house until the sun set. Getting her equipment together, she set to work.
And just as she intended, the hours flew by, with the morning shifting into afternoon, then finally into evening. Tessa only took breaks for a quick snack or to use the restroom. Eventually, after nearly a day’s worth of work, she felt a little less stressed out about the fight with Lucas, her fear being replaced more and more by a desire to get to the bottom of what was going on with her husband. And as she predicted, Lucas hadn’t come back home.
Setting her painting tools on the long, L-shaped desk in the workroom, she took one last look at her painting and a feeling of satisfaction spread through her. She cleaned up in the wash basin, put her things back in order, and shut the lights off in the workroom.
As soon as she flicked the switch, a feeling of determination took hold; she was ready to get to the bottom of things. Grabbing her keys, she stepped out into the cool evening air, the lights along their front walkway were small pools of illumination against the pitch black of the forest that surrounded them. Tessa was happy that they decided to move out into the woods because-she could focus on her work here in a way that she never could with the constant noise of the city streets outside of their old apartment in Brooklyn. The darkness, however, was something she never grew used to. She always relied on Lucas to feel safe, but now that things between them were strained, standing in the still, quiet air of the woods, the silver sliver of moon above bright that only
source of light beyond those of her home, she had an acute sense of just how dark the woods were.
Her keys in hand, she made a fist around them, letting one stick out from between her middle and ring finger. She knew how silly it was to think this would provide a defense against whoever, or whatever, was lurking in the darkness beyond the property lights, but it made her feel a little bit better.
She walked along the path towards the gravel driveway where the car was parked. But just as she approached the black Roadster, a rustling sounded from the woods on the other side of the driveway.
Tessa stopped in her tracks, standing stone still next to the car as she listened to the noise. It was a gentle noise at first, like a small critter running through foliage, but over the course of the next few seconds, it grew in volume and intensity. Tessa realized quickly that it wasn’t just one animal causing the sound, but many. And they were all growing closer by the second.
Then, the stomping of heavy footfalls could be heard. These, too, grew closer and louder by the second. She caught the glint of a pair of yellow eyes in the darkness, then another, then another. The snorting of breath cut through the air, hot puffs of exhalation forming and dissipating in the night.
Tessa’s heart raced as the animals moved closer, and as they stepped out of the darkness and into the small pools of light, she saw that these weren’t just any animals- they were a large pack of black bears, their eyes all on Tessa as she stood frozen.
Her body locked up as the animals stared at her impassively, looking her over as if they didn’t know what to make of her…or if they hadn’t yet decided what to do with her. As they all emerged from the shadows, Tessa saw that there were six in total, the two largest in the middle and flanked at both sides by the smaller members of the pack, their fur nearly as dark and black as the shadowed night behind them.
Tessa’s fight-or-flight instinct seemed to have short-circuited and all she could do was stare at the animals as they stood in a row on the other side of the car. Though she was gripped with fear, she knew that there was nothing she could do. If she ran, they’d chase her down; if she fought, she’d be dead in seconds. So, instead, she chose to stay still, hoping that they’d see she wasn’t a threat.
After a moment, the largest bear broke from the pack, and moved on all four paws around the car, its muscles shifting as it walked, its smooth, coal-black fur catching the moonlight as it approached Tessa. It closed the distance between them quickly, coming to a stop only a few feet from her. Tessa looked into the deep, brown eyes of the animal, which was close enough that she could feel the heat radiating from its massive body. She knew that if it wanted to kill her, it could do so in a split-second. Tessa’s body was perfectly still, aside from her right hand, which shook rapidly, the keys jingling as they dangled from her fist.
The bear looked at her hand before turning his gaze back to her. Then, it walked around Tessa in a slow, lazy circle, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end as it moved directly behind her. It completed its loop around her, the gravel crunching under its massive paws. It took one last, appraising look at Tessa before, to her surprise, it turned and walked back to the rest of the pack. Lifting his head up in a quick, nodding motion, it gestured to the other bears before walking back into the woods, disappearing into the shadowed foliage. The other bears followed, and in seconds, Tessa was once again alone, rustling branches the only evidence of the bear’s former presence.
Tessa, finally able to move, stumbled over to the car, her heart pounding in her chest. She leaned forward against the car, catching her breath and letting the adrenaline finish rushing through her body.
The experience left her shaken, but what she considered most disturbing of all, was when the bear looked at her, something about its eyes didn’t seem like the cold, empty eyes of a beast. It seemed…human.
CHAPTER 4
Tessa sped down the narrow, gravel road that led to Branlen, the encounter with the bear pack still racing through her mind. She knew that she should’ve been dead; any other pack of bears would’ve attacked her within seconds if she had approached them that closely. But this pack was different. She couldn’t shake the face of the bear that approached her from her thoughts. It was just a bear, but the way it looked at her, it was almost as if it was taking a closer look out of its own sense of curiosity, to see what she looked like up close.
She did her best to shake these thoughts from her mind as she made her way towards the town. Not knowing exactly how to begin her mission of finding out where Lucas was, or what he was doing, she figured Hannagan’s, the dive bar where they most often went for drinks, was the best place to start. The small town appeared down the road, a dome of light in the distance marking it as a beacon of civilization in the woods. She felt the road change from gravel to paved asphalt, a sure sign that she was nearly there.
After a time, she arrived at Hannagan’s, which was a squat, gray building decorated with neon signs, motorcycles and cars parked haphazardly out front. She scanned the vehicles for Lucas’s bike, but couldn’t spot it. Figuring that he likely was here at some point, she pulled into a spot and got out of the car.
Throwing open the door to the bar, she was greeted with rock music playing loudly over the speakers and the sort of raucous commotion that’d she’d grown to expect from the small-town clientele that was currently packed into the place. Sidling through the crowd, she slipped into an empty barstool. Within seconds, the owner Henry, a tall, heavy-set man with a head of silver hair and a beard tied in a small braid at his chin, came over to Tessa with a smile on his face.
“Hey, Tess,” he said, leaning against the bar with both hands.
“Hey, Henry,” she replied.
“No Lukey tonight?” he asked, looking around Tessa, as though he might find Lucas hiding behind her.
“No,” said Tessa, disappointed that Henry evidently hadn’t seen Lucas. “I was actually hoping that you’d seen him.”
“Nope, I haven’t seen him in a few days, actually. What can I get ya?”
“Just a Bud,” she said.
Within seconds, he produced an ice-cold bottle of beer and set it on the bar in front of her, popping the top open with a hiss. Tessa took a slow drink, the cool beer was delicious and just the thing for her frazzled nerves.
“Boy’s nowhere to be found?” asked Henry.
“He, uh, left on his bike earlier today,” she said, not wanting to share the exact details of her situation. “I hadn’t heard from him and saw he left his damn phone at home.”
Henry shook his head.
“Dumbass,” he said.
“No kidding,” said Tessa. “I figured he probably stopped by here at some point.”
“That’s a safe bet,” said Henry. “You know what, I did just get here; Julianne’s been here all day. Let me see if she’s seen hide or hair of that young man.”
“Thanks, Henry,” Tessa said, taking another sip of her beer.
Henry nodded and stepped away and within seconds he was replaced by Julianne, a skinny, black-haired girl with arms covered in colorful, elaborate tattoos. She wore a skin-tight t-shirt that showed off her taut, toned stomach.
“Hey, baby!” she said, her gaunt, yet pretty face breaking out into a wide smile as she leaned across the bar to give Tessa a hug.
“Hey, Jules!” said Tessa.
A sly smile crossed Julianne’s face as she slipped two shot glasses out from behind the bar and filled them with Goldschlager, the golden flakes of the liquor catching the dim light of the bar as they fluttered in the liquid. She pushed a glass over to Tessa and with a cheer, the two threw back their shots, the sweet, cinnamon drink burning Tessa’s throat as she swallowed it.
“So, you’re looking for your man?” asked Julianne, her hands on her hips.
“Yeah,” she said, before filling Julianne in on the rest of the fabricated details.
“Oh, shoot, I’m always leaving my phone at home,” she said before furrowing her brow in thought
. “Well, he was in here, but that was hours ago. He met with…umm, Kevin and Mike.”
Tessa let out an involuntary shudder at hearing the names of two of Lucas’s newest, and scuzziest, friends.
“They were here? Where’d they go after that?”
“Hmm, let me think,” said Julianne, cocking her hips to the side. “They got good and tore up here, then they said they were...hmm, oh, that’s right- they said they were going to Dusty’s place down on Whitehall Lane. You know, the big farm?”
Tessa knew what she was talking about- she and Lucas had been to a few parties there over the years. And from that experience, she knew the shindigs there could get pretty out of hand.
“I’m surprised he didn’t come back to get you if that’s where he went. I’d never let my man run off to a party like that without me watching him like a damn hawk; too many drugs, and too much temptation, if you know what I mean.”
Tessa knew exactly what she meant. She finished her beer, determined to go find Lucas and get things settled between them before they got out of hand.
“You want another?” asked Julianne, pointing towards the beer with a finger looped with a gaudy, silver ring.
“Nah, I’m gonna go find Luke and make sure he doesn’t get up to anything he shouldn’t,” she said with a smile.
“Oh, good idea. Later, Tess.”
Tessa pushed herself away from the bar and rose to leave, but before she left, a question popped into her mind.
“Hey, Jules,” said Tessa.
“Yeah?”
“This is kind of a weird question, but have you ever seen any bears around this area? Like, big black bears?”
“Black bears?” asked Julianne, her face in a quizzical expression. “Not that I know of.”
Henry, overhearing the conversation, stepped in.
“There used to be bears around these parts, but since civilization moved in, we haven’t seen them for, oh, decades. Not since I was a kid. Why?”
“Oh, just had some critter go through my trash the other day,” said Tessa. “Though it might’ve been a bear.”