Excerpt: The Hunting of Jack Owens

The air conditioner was broke down, and the house was warming dramatically quick it seemed, or at least it seemed so to Jack. Sweat was beading on his face, and he felt it streaming and dampening his hair. Soon afterward his hair was darkened with dampness and clinging to his forehead as if in the same desperate attempt to hold to on to everything that had once seemed normal. The sleep that awaited him that night was one that would battle him, he was exhausted though, and soon as he crawled under the remaining covers left after his rampage, he drifted off to sleep. With sleep a dream greeted him.

His dream was vivid, purely a relief after the day he had experienced. Almost like an old recognizable friend the memories of the girl he had dated at fifteen crept in, and she met him. She stood afar though in a field of sunflowers, and he realized he was at the edge of the city.

Jack quickly viewed back around, and realized that the surroundings had dissolved and he now had an ocean as the backdrop, and a mysterious lit cave was before him. The girl’s hair had drifted around her face, and the strands of hair covered her eyes. The breezed began to transform into a roaring wind, and when her eyes were revealed again they glowed, and the night befell them both. As the wind continued to try to rip him from shore, the woman, once his old girlfriend, drifted toward him.

As she drew nearer he recognized she was Victoria. A grin was frozen on her face, and her skinny frame was now fit perfectly to her skeletal outline. The glow of her eyes embraced his gaze though, and he felt as if he was still standing by no strength of his own. Jack slowly began to take a few steps back letting the water surround him up to his knees. His reflection in the water was terrifying; the mask of the horrific beating he had received at the age of 15 was there. Jack was screaming, and suddenly Victoria took his face, and pulled him nearer. Automatically he stopped, and she began whispering. For a moment he could not understand her until she whispered into his ear.

“Jack.” She whispered so silently it blended with the wind. Maybe it was an echo he heard, but her voice seemed carry. Her face drew away, and then she kissed him. At first Jack was unaware at the event happening, and he could not help but relax as he did. She pulled away after only a few moments, and backed weakly away toward the cave. Jack’s eyes squinted in confusion watching her drift further away. He could feel his lip quivering in terror as he noticed she was now a skeleton her eyes still glowing in the darkness, and hair flowing around her face. Jack suddenly felt strange and glanced toward his hands, they were now only skeletons. Mechanically he began to feel his face, and the structure felt the same. He glanced to the water, and screamed at the prospect of him, now a skeleton with glowing eyes.

Jack woke startled from his sleep, and his screams dissipated in the stifled warm air.