Forever Changed

 FOREVER CHANGED

  “Shit!” Jerry gasped as he stepped out of the small electronics shop. It was a cool twenty-eight degree night in Barre Vermont. His fingers already stiffened as he fumbled for the keys, locking up for the day.

Silently now, he cursed the walk between work and home. Although it was only about three blocks to his cramped studio apartment, it would be a cold and miserable journey. Grunting, he started his shuffle home. 

 “Don’t buy a car you said. You don’t need one three blocks from work.” He grumbled, “Wish I had one now.” Marching on, face tucked low in his jacket, he watched his breath smoke upward from his mouth with each breath. Just as the thought crossed his mind that his toes were going numb, he stumbled over something. 

 “What the fuck! Assholes always littering in the damn streets, no wonder no-one wants to live in this crappy town.” He turned to see what he had tripped over. 

 “Is that a damn Yeezy?” He bent down to pick up the shoe and examined it. It was muddy, but could be cleaned up. “Shoot! These things are like four hundred dollars.”

He searched about the sidewalk for a match, forgetful of why such a shoe would lie on the sidewalk. After several freezing minutes of searching, he gave up and turned to continue home, but stopped as he saw a small black notebook in the shadows nearby.

On impulse, he scooped up the book and examined it. It was small and seemed to be black leather or at least faux leather. He flipped through the pages, squinting in the streetlight. The pages were packed top to bottom with small hand print. Except the first page, with large letters that had been scribbled over so many times they almost tore through the page.

“Read! Learn the truth!” He read aloud. Mildly intrigued, Jerry stuffed the book in his pocket, tucked the shoe under one arm and finished the trek home. 

Back in his small, but blessedly warm apartment, he made and ate a PB&J sandwich while a kettle for hot tea warmed up. Once comfortable in his pajamas, he crashed on the futon, tea and book in hand. Then he read.

  If you’re reading this, these are most likely my final frantic thoughts. I cannot continue to run or I’ve finally lost my mind to a point I can no longer continue. I want to at least struggle to describe my story of the last few days. If I can control my hysteria at least.

It all started in Greenville, North Carolina. I was walking downtown to meet my dearest friend Jessica. I turned down an alley, a shortcut to the restaurant we were going to meet at.

Next to a dumpster with bags of trash overflowing onto the ground, I saw it. A backpack, like a fool I picked it up. Because It looked new, I guess. I should have just dismissed it as trash and minded my fucking business. For fuck’s sake, I’m not even the type of person to care about another persons trash. Bull shit one persons trash is another persons treasure. The thing is, it was actually true for me that day. 

I opened the bag and remember my hand snapping to my mouth in shock. It was filled with cash. I’m talking brand new crisp bands. I would later count twenty-thousand dollars’ worth. Anyway, I made my next mistake. 

I turned and sped home, texting Jess franticly to meet me there instead of the restaurant. In hind sight I should have gone the other direction straight to the police station, but it was so much money! 

My broke college life ass should have just listened to my inner voice. Leave it alone my mind said, turn it in. No good person throws out twenty-thousand dollars next to a dumpster in a shady back ally. 

I didn’t even look over my shoulder once on the way home. Fuck, I’ve seen enough CSI and NCIS shows to know better and even worse, I had Jess meeting me at the house.

At home with Jess, we counted the money. My hands shaking as I explained for the tenth time how I had found the money. Then I made my next stupid decision. We discussed turning it in and where it could have come from, but I… WE made the choice. 

Time to party. We jumped in the car and drove straight to Raleigh. Jesus, it took us twenty minutes to make this idiotic plan to just go shopping! To be honest, it was the best day of my life! I had never had that much money at one time to squander. We spent almost ten thousand dollars at the mall on shit. I mean, who uses a shopping cart when they’re at the mall.

After shopping and then choosing to get a hotel for the night, we partied at one of the ritziest clubs in town. I threw out money like I was a millionaire. I think I paid seven bills just for drinks. And they took their toll on us. 

We blacked out at the hotel sometime early in the morning. I recall getting up and running to the bathroom, and throwing up so much my balls were sore. When I finally came out of the bathroom, I realized Jess wasn’t in the room.

Panic washed over me, along with a feeling of dread. Had she even come back to the room with me? Had I lost her and left her at the club? Then I saw her purse. I thought maybe she had just gone to get us coffee or something. Searched for my phone to call her but couldn’t find it. I looked in her purse, maybe she had held it for me. I dumped its contents out on the bed. Wait, I’m an idiot why would she go for coffee without her purse. Stupid bitch, not Jess, me. She’s the best friend ever. 

Both our phones fell out onto the bed, her phone screen was crushed. Then my phone chimed with a text notification. “Have a fun night?” I read. I didn't recognize the number. Then it chimed again, a picture this time. My heart rate felt as if it skipped. It was a picture of Jess, passed out in the back seat of a car.

Another message appeared, a long text this time. “You got yourself into some shit now. I’m going to need you to follow my every command from here on out. If you try to alert anyone or go to anyone for help, I will kill your friend, then you. Slowly and painfully.”

I couldn’t figure out what the actual fuck was going on. Then I noticed the date on my phone. It had been two days since we had partied at the club. I think we were roofed. I just thought we blacked out after a long night drinking.

The phone chimed again. “The money in the bag means nothing to us. However, it contains something else we need. Now you will deliver it to us.” I thought back to the backpack. It was in the trunk of my car, which we had driven to Raleigh. I didn’t understand, why take Jess? Why didn’t they just break into my car? It wasn’t until later did I realize why. They needed us. 

They needed subjects, and we had given them two college kids away from home. We wouldn’t be missed from our families for a while. I could never recover from the sight I witnessed later. 

I received several more texts. Ding, ding, ding, fucking ding. Each time it went off, I wanted to scream. Instructions to drive up to Vermont and what not to do. I thought about going to the police, but the fear of what would happen to Jess gripped me. All I could do was follow instructions. I looked through the bag and found it. A small padded pocket of the pack held a vial with pus looking liquid in it. Pocketing it, I drove. 

The long trip north was tiring. My anxiety grew crippling as I neared the address they had given me. Turning off the major highway, I traveled down a long winding gravel road. Hills have eyes dueling banjos fucking forest road. No lights, just pitch dark woods. I drove up to a dilapidated house, overgrown with weeds. I couldn’t see any car tracks or trace of people. I didn’t know how Jess could be in that house, but that’s where my phone’s GPS had taken me.

I crashed through weeds and briers to enter the house. I used my phone’s light to illuminate the interior. The living room was old and rotting. I stepped to a door leading deeper into the house. When I opened it, white light blinded me. Then I saw her. There were several hospital beds in the room. Strapped to one of them, unconscious was Jess.

I ran to her, shaking her forcefully. Her eyes flicked open. Yellow, they were a murky yellow with bloody veins streaking through them. Then she snatched at the restraints of her bed, snapping at my face with jagged teeth. As if she had cracked them to pieces, biting down on her own fucking tongue in hunger. I turned and ran; I jumped in the car and drove. Didn’t know or care where. I just drove. 

I ended up outside Barre, a flat tire on the car. Sure seems convenient to me now. Standing on the side of the road looking at the tire, I realized my leg hurt. Reached in my pocket. When I pulled out my hand, it was covered in blood… and the pus like substance from the vial. I must have broken the bottle in my pocket while running to the car. The glass had cut my leg.

Fear kept outweighing my fatigue. I climbed back in the car, deciding to drive it on the flat tire until I could find help. I saw the sign that read Barre, ten miles. Stopped at the town's edge, at a gas station, although it appeared closed. It seemed abandoned this late at night. I tried getting out of my car.

My legs won’t move, I feel paralyzed and feverish. My mind keeps flashing back to Jess, the horrific sight of her gnashing her own tongue and teeth to pieces. I know the substance in that vial had done this to us. So I grabbed this notebook from my console and here I am writing. I just don’t understand how this happened or what’s really going on. Now of course I thought to use my phone for help. It doesn’t matter though; it is as dead as I think Jess is. I’m so tired now. I just need to rest. BUT DAMN THESE YEEZYS’ ARE FLY!

 Jerry looked up from the small notebook. His tea cup still full, its contents now cold. “What the fuck did I just read?”

He glanced over to the floor next to the front door at the Yeezy he had tossed there. He eased over and picked it up. Inspecting it in the kitchen light. He now noticed inside the shoe was sticky, as if blood had run down into it. He dropped it in disgust. Hurrying to the kitchen sink, he scrubbed at his hands. Then he heard it. A grunting and shuffling of feet in the hall outside. 

A pang of fear ran through him. “Get yourself together man. That book has got you shook.” He grabbed a knife from the block anyway and went to step to the eyeglass in the front door. 

But his legs would not move.