One Night in Appalachia

There was something vaguely familiar about the intermittent blinking. The green, fluorescent pulsating just within view of the eye. It was familiar, but not recognizable. The blue gray eyes closed slowly. Memories were beginning to fade. Melding into one giant ball of being that could no longer be separated into past and present. The smell of wet leaves filled the heavy air and a strange tingling dampness bit at the fingertips of the girl.

Her head whirred with activity. The sound of nothingness overwhelmed her ears. There had been a car. And a face. And a loud crack just before her hearing failed her. She did not know how long it had been. She did not know where she was, or even who she was. Nothing was retained in her mind, but the image of the dark winding pavement that lay ahead of the rusted-out sedan. Unfurling like a ribbon as they drove. Trees grew menacingly on either side of the lonely county road. Black in the even darker night. Devouring the sedan and its occupants as they traveled with only dim headlights to part the way. Music. She thought to herself. There had been music crackling over the car radio. She struggled to open her eyes. They would not budge. The ground beneath her began to feel as if it was rising, cradling her like a giant mattress. It was then she realized she was lying on it. She was no longer in the car. The traveling had ended some time ago. How long have we been out of the car?

She began to register a distant clanking sound. Her hearing had returned. The clanking grew more persistent, accompanied by short grunts and thuds. The girl began to remember. Fear. It seemed almost too much trouble now to move or think. The ground felt so soft and inviting. She heard a moan, then realized it was coming from her. The noises stopped and she felt herself slipping from consciousness once more.

The world was alive with spring just that morning. Trees and shrubs were budding with new life. The bugs were returning from their winter hibernation. She spent her day as she usually did, first working at the local diner, then it was off to a biker bar in the small Appalachian town for a night of billiards with friends. The scenes in her mind muddled together amid the hazy backdrop of the Smokey Mountains. There had been too many shots of whiskey that night. She fought with her boyfriend of four months. In the end he sped off from the parking lot, the tires of his pickup pelting her with gravel. She was left without a ride. Enveloped in a cloud of humidity and cigarette smoke, the streetlamp she stood beneath bathed her in a warm wash of light. Mosquitos stung at her arms. It was going to be a lonely walk home. Suddenly, a car pulled up behind her, slowing as it approached. Her heart skipped a beat for a moment before the realization that she knew it. The man driving beamed at her, displaying a mouth of yellowed rotting teeth. A particular stench seeped from his unwashed clothes and greasy hair, but she was not yet afraid. He was well known to her. A local. A sometime acquaintance of her father, and in her state, she was grateful for the ride.

The return of her memory jolted her back to awareness. A soft spreading pressure fell on her legs. Splat…splat. The smell of wet Earth hit her nostrils. Slowly her eyes forced themselves open. Up ahead a deeply grooved tree trunk and a scraggly old branch covered with moss. There it was again. The green light moved on the trunk of the tree then flew down to the tip of her nose. The fluorescence drew her gaze in on the form of wings fluttering. She could feel the life draining from her. Slowly as if through a sieve. First would be the feeling in her limbs as the mottling crept up her body, then her vision, her smell and at last her hearing before her heart would stop completely. She was already too weak to move. It occurred to her that perhaps he thought his face would be the last thing her eyes would ever see. She focused, unmoving, on the insignificant bug and the somehow comforting glow it was emitting. Defiant against her predator’s demented goal. The light seemed to grow steadier. Steadier and brighter against the darkness closing in around her. The blue gray eyes stared ahead into eternity. A dirty calloused hand swiped gently across them, closing them. They did not open again.