<Haunted>

Ch. 2; Meeting

It was six months ago that Cody first discovered what was going on with Jared. They’ve known each other for years, but it was never anything like this. 

It was about 2 AM on a Saturday morning in September when Cody drunkenly stumbled into Jared on Main St. downtown. Jared’s dark t-shirt and jeans made him harder to see, but his bright white shoes splattered with what Cody thought was mud, stood out. Jared’s hair was really short then, and Cody tried to keep up with Jared’s eyes as they shifted around in the dark. 

Cody tried to stop and talk with him, but Jared kept saying, “I have to go. I have to go. No, I have to go.” Cody tried asking where he was headed and if he wanted to share a cab. They walked under a streetlight and that’s when Cody realized the splatter on Jared’s sneakers was blood, and that it was also all over his hands and shirt too. 

Cody sobered up quickly, stumbling back, away from Jared and into a parked car. He wanted to run away but he couldn’t move. His brain was screaming at his legs to move, but they wouldn’t listen. Jared grabbed his face and screamed, no words, just screaming; their noses almost touching. 

Cody’s body finally started listening. 

He punched him in the stomach and stumbled backward as Jared slouched against the brick wall behind them. Cody started walking away, but as he did he heard Jared crying, “Wait Cody. Help me. Please.”

He couldn’t stop himself from turning around and facing Jared again. He had never heard Jared cry before in all the time they’d been friends. The literal blood on his hands couldn’t push Cody away. So he sat down next to Jared against the wall. Not like he had anywhere else to be. As he sat down, Jared started talking to him like they were old friends - like they had stayed in touch. In reality, Cody had basically forgotten that they lived in the same town until about 6 minutes ago. 

Jared was still crying, “I don’t know how it happened. I don’t know exactly what happened…” Cody thought he’d stop there, but he didn’t. The more Jared talked, the faster Cody sobered up. 

“All I remember is going to bed. It was 11 o’clock and I was dead tired and high and I went to bed. The next thing I knew I was walking through the park and I was covered in blood and shaking and I was still high. I stopped walking and I just stood there for a minute and then I realized what was on my hands. I looked back the way I had come and there was a trail of blood that had been dripping from my fingertips. I walked back and saw feet sticking out of the hedge a few feet ahead of me. I turned into the opposite bush and puked, and then I ran. I think I killed someone, Cody.”

Jared looked at him with tears welled up in his eyes. 

“Cody, I saw him. I saw what I did to him. I - he was ripped to shreds. What the fuck do I do?”

Cody was still silent. Jared’s eyes stared deep into him as he searched himself for a way to respond. His eyes looked sober, but he was so strung out. There were no cars on the street, but a siren started a few blocks over. Before Cody could come up with a single word, the sirens registered and Jared jumped up and ran off, leaving Cody alone on the empty sidewalk with a small puddle of blood. 

Cody walked home in the cold, the wind pulling at his shirt sleeves. He couldn’t help but think more about Jared. What could possibly make him kill someone without realizing it. Could it just have been a bad trip? I should call the police… It was that final thought that really crept in and wouldn’t leave him. He should call the police. Someone had died, and Jared could do it again. He wanted so badly to call. 

But even as he walked through his front door and pulled out his phone to make the call, he knew he wouldn’t do it - he couldn’t. 

Cody had been alone for too long. He had been spiraling into himself, deep into his own brain for the last few weeks. And he’d been stumbling home from that bar every night for the last week. Really, he hadn’t been okay for a long time. But talking to Jared that night, as weird as it was, he felt better. He started to feel okay. That couldn’t have been for no reason - there had to be an explanation. And he needed more of it, Cody was craving that feeling again. He couldn’t let go of it by calling the cops on Jared.    

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Any and all feedback welcome, I'm trying to work on sticking in the correct tense; I have a tendency to switch and miss it when I go back through the draft. Also, if anyone has any tips on better dialogue, transitions, etc. please let me know!

Thanks!!