Chapter 22
It was a few days after Jake had dealt with the trucker. He felt no remorse at all, because in his mind, he had done nothing wrong, nothing at all. In fact, he believed that he again had done the world a favor because the trucker had turned against him, Jake who wouldn’t hurt a fly or any living thing.
It seems strange that Jake could think like this, knowing how he dealt with Mr. Jacobs, various vagrants, and countless cats unfortunate enough to be within his reach. As a matter of fact, Jake again had repressed all these memories.
Jake had been day dreaming, collecting his thoughts, not really paying attention to where he was going. All of a sudden, images of death and destruction came roaring into his vision. Thoughts of mutilated cats came rushing to him, vivid in every detail. Blood and gore were everywhere. Then just as quickly, the images faded.
He gave a muffled scream and pulled over to the side of the road. He was breathing hard, breaking out into a cold sweat.
“What the Hell was that?” Jake gasped. “I must be tired. I’ve got to get some rest.”
He sat there for a few more moments and was just about ready to leave when images again bombarded his senses. This time, his mother was there, smiling nicely at him, and in the next instance, she was still there, but this time she smiled through broken, shattered teeth, the left side of her face not recognizable. He could see her left cheek bone beneath a flap of bloodied skin. She pointed an accusatory finger at him.
“Jake Alexander Caulder, how could you?” his mother, but no longer his mother asked him in an accusatory tone. “All I wanted was to be your friend, and this is how you treat me.”
Jake recoiled from the macabre scene that seemed to him to be only too real. Almost as quickly as it had appeared, it faded only to be replaced by Jacobs’s bloodied and crushed face.
“You’re fired Caulder” the apparition smirked, blood and spittle running out the opening of his destroyed face. Jake also thought he saw worms crawling there and maggots inside his mouth. They made a not too pleasant sound as they fed upon the rotting remains.
This image also faded but not as quickly as that of his mother. He opened the door, threw up on the side of the road, tasting bile for what seemed like an eternity. His vision started to dim, and he felt dizzy. He couldn’t take in what he had just seen, not wanting to believe it. After a few moments, he started to weep, at last, the full impact of what he had done and become came only too clear to him.
He felt like he was going to be sick again, but managed to holdback the gorge rising in his throat. He wept for quite a while until he had nothing left. How could he have sunk to such depravity? How could he have become such a despicable creature to have caused such death and hurt to loved ones and close working acquaintances? The realization of all the chaos he had caused was almost too much to bear. His mind again began to block out the details once more until he no longer remembered his sordid past.
And so once again, Jake thought that he had done nothing wrong, that he was all-around Mr. Nice guy. It was his way of coping with the truth. How soon would he be confronted with it was any one’s guess. All I know is that every time he remembered, the details seemed to be more gruesome and more frequent than the times before. Madness was slowly closing its grip on Jake’s sanity. Soon, he would find it difficult to distinguish reality from his delusions.
Jake continued on his trek, still unaware exactly where he was, or when he had made a wrong turn somewhere along the way. He was once again driving down the dirt covered road, looking with anticipation to start his new life. Little did he suspect that his life was going to change, but not for the better. Only too soon was he going to find out how wrong he was.
In the distance, lightning lit up the ever darkening sky. Storm clouds came rolling in. Jake was not the least concerned. He liked the rain. It made him feel refreshed, almost like a child once again. He hummed a tune and drove to meet his fate that waited for him up around the bend, like a wild animal hiding in the bushes, ready to pounce on some unsuspecting prey.
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