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“Hey John,” the deputy’s voice rang out over his radio. He paused his cooking and turned to look at it. Since she’d tried to arrest Joseph almost two months ago, the deputy (whose name they still hadn’t found out) had refused to respond to any of the calls Eden’s Gate had given them. Radio silence across the board.
Her voice rang out again, “Are you there John?” A giggle then, “Jooooooohn.”
“Yes Deputy? Come to confess?”
“Nah, just needed to talk to you and I found this really great moonshine in the woods so I figured it was time. Hope your brother doesn’t mind me taking it though.”
John snorted, Jacob’s moonshine was many things but he’d never heard it called great.
“Are you drunk then, Deputy? Confessions can’t be done unless you truly mean them.”
“Not really? But like I’m going to tell you a story, and afterwards we can talk of confessions and sin.”
“Oh?”
“You can consider this a confessions of it works for you.”
“Go on.” A savage smile grew across John’s face. He could feel it, she was so close to saying ‘yes’ to him. And this story would give him the foothold into her life that he needed.
“Growing up, my best friend was this boy. I’ve never met a prettier man. Haven’t seen him in years though. But I digress, my best friend was my parent’s friends’ only child. And for some awful reason they thought he was evil, cursed. They beat him, we bonded over mutual trauma. His parents were shit and mine were shit and honestly, no one else seemed to care.” Her voice shakes as she begins to talk about her childhood, so similar to his own, a mirror image, and he hears her take a drink.
Her voice is steadier as she continues. “My parents didn’t accept anything but perfection. And his family gave off that feel, so I got to see him all the time at least. The highlight of my childhood. Went to prom with him. He could have taken any girl at the school he wanted, and most of the boys, but he asked me. My first kiss, my first crush, he meant everything to me. Still love him, think I always will. We figured out how to patch each other up and even when he fell into drugs, and alcohol, and sex, I helped with that. Couldn’t stop him though. Two broken children trying to keep one another together as best we could. His parents got him an apartment and when I ran away from home, he let me stay with him.” She pauses again to drink.
John keeps silent, somehow he knows that it he speaks, the spell she’s woven will break and she’ll stop talking all together. And something about this feels too close to him, like she’s showing him a picture but he can’t make out all the details yet. A familiar one, one that’s he’s seen before but can’t remember.
“My parents didn’t even report me missing. I mean I know they didn’t really love me but that really drove it home. But he let me stay with him. And they didn’t have a will soooo it didn’t matter in the end anyways. It was a car crash, terrible accident. And I got everything. Best thing they ever did for me. And when his parents died, I stood by him at the funeral.” He can hear the grin in her voice at that.
“But I haven’t seen him since he went to find his biological family, since the Duncan’s adopted him. But then again,” John freezes as the Duncan’s name rolls over him, and the mirror image of her tale becomes his own and he sees, “here you are. Nice to hear from you, old friend.” And the radio silent as his childhood friend’s voice fades. Waiting.
And he unfreezes as a different smile crawls up his face.
“Don’t worry darling. You can run and run, but don’t worry I’ll catch you.” He croons over the radio. He has her name now and he knows her. His friend, his to save.
There’s no way he’ll let her get away now, the two of them will walk through Eden’s Gate together.