Under the matress

The sun had set with streaks of crimson and violet, leaving behind only the passing of light expanding from beneath the dash.1

Why is it so red2

rthematre3

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d       s5

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A level of silence left the car feeling lonely. Roy was busy trying his best to focus on the yellow lines of the road and avoid thoughts of the west wing, while Jacob tapped his fingers steadily against the plastic dash enveloped in memories of Jasmine and a hatred for the Sparkler twins.8

Perched in a tree an owls eyes flickered when exposed to the glow of headlights, it let out a sole hoot barely audible from the car, then flew into the night.9

Never before had the memories been so pristine, not even directly after the incident, life had begun to wear down on him like water onto bedrock and had helped things blur.10

Now jacob could see Jasmine's torn off jaw, the sad face of Lester, the wicked grin of Simeon, and the Sparkler Twin's shadows pressing across grass.11

"How far did you say the gas station is?" the moments, the memories, the loneliness shattered and the pieces spread out across the floor of the car eager to once again clump together, angry at Roy's rough voice because the pieces themselves were lonely to.12

"Should be up here not too far away now. Haven't really been this way in oh a good ten years."13

Roy wasn't particulary eager to hear another story espescialy one to do with the Sparkler Twins but he stuck with it because14

1) An emptiness was filled with the vibrations of another's voice that couldn't be fulfilled with just their presence. (It is hard to be alone espescially with such painful memories, minutes can turn to hours, hours to days, the hourglass of life helplessly trickles on and the glass of misery continues to fill.)15

2) He didn't want to offend Jacob, he had never been good with teamwork and was trying his best.16

"I tried to settle down like that once it didn't work too well, always wished it would have." (Still am wishing)17

"I think there's a time for it, later on, but it wasn't working too well for me either, tell the truth I'm glad you came along, if you hadn't I probably wuold have stayed back there, rotted away. Either that or gone crazy. They never stopped crying but it's getting louder now, I think maybe they're, maybe they're...drying." It came out with hesitation. Roy nodded his head.18

"I've been livin' back there for too long it feels good to be back on the road, smelling the fresh air, hey can I roll the window down?"19

Roy nodded his head and the car hummed before becoming overwhelmed with the rattle of wind.20

"Do you think they'll know how to kill the twins?"21

Why is it so red.22

Underneath23

the24

matress?25

"Can I tell you a little story Roy?"26

Roy paused as if considering it then nodded his head up and down.27

"I've been working back there for thirteen years, no doubt they don't sound long, but thirteen years can break a man's soul. I've gotten to know the drunks, the hookers, the buisness men. Now, usually I didn't bother asking for I.D's, as long as they paid in cash, which with a roadside motel is usually the case. Most people, even the ones in trouble with the law, don't want to cause trouble anyways. But one day a guy came in and i got a feeling something deep in the gut and ready to pull out intestines. The guy who stepped in was dressed to kill, a buisness suit that probably cost a thousand dollars, shiny black shoes. As soon as he had stepped up to the counter he had his buisness card flipped out and was extending his hand. 'Hey I'm in a real hurry and don't really want to go digging through my wallet, I gotta make a phone call in five minutes and my girl' he gestured back to a sleek car, the girl behind the glass she wasn't attractive but she wasn't ugly either, turned my directoin, 'my girl she's really got to go'. Nope I told him, it could have been the fact his buisness card only had his first name but it wasn't, I usually wouldn't have asked for that from most costumers. It could have been that when he smiled he looked kind of like the Sparkler Twin's but it wasn't, I have learned enough to know when people laugh they are usually laughing at you not with you. No it was just the feeling in the pit of my stomach."28

Roy, for an instant, saw shards of glass smothering a plate and shuddered, then broke himself out.29

"And I said no sir just because the feeling was so warm, so deep. He reluctantly pulls it out and I give him the key. For a week that's that. Then one day a resident comes in weeping, she flipped over the matress and spotted a pool of dried red and crusted blood mixed with traces of white semen. Well guess who rented room 12 last week. If I hadn't had that feeling, so strong in the pit of my stomach, I would have never remembered him, that's why he dressed so sharp so people would remember the suit not his face, and after a wekk his face was a blur but I knew his name Richard Moore. So I called the police department, for the first time since I last saw the Sparkler twins I felt sick to my stomach. And of course I went into the room, there's always curiosuty with something horrible and there's also something darker, deeper, humor. That's why when the towers crashed we all held in our half hysterical laugh before the tears, whether we realize it or not. And we all watched replays, over and over secretly longing it, a love/hate relationship like a priest to sex, something tucked underneath his robe, something he tries his best to pretend doesn't get hard. And the laugh came then faded to disgust as I stared down at the dried and scabby mixture of blood and semen."30

"Richard Moore was just the man the police had been looking for. he had killed thirteen girls, probably hookers, although I never bothered to ask, because you never really want to know about the crimes you solved, you only want to forget. Would he have been caught if I hadn't checked his I.D. yes by that point he wanted to be caught, anyone who goes into a hotel, gives their I.D. and murders a girl inside wants to be, but it would have taken longer, it would have been a couple lives down the road. Most places like that don't ask for I.D."31

"But the main point is not that I caught a murderer although it made me prou for fleeting moments but that feeling. I have that same kind of feeling now, it's something that runs so far down you know it's true. If you don't trust me on the feelings speech though I can go ahead and offer you plenty of evidence just as their was plenty of evidence against Richard but the bottom line is that isn't why I trust it."32

"No, no, I believe you. There's been times when I've had that feeling myself. But why do you think they ran from the twins?"33

"Hold on a sec, look up there." Jacob pointed into the distance. "What do you suppose that is?"34