Free Bottled Abyss by Benjamin Kane Ethridge

making these sounds. One of his eyes went oblong from the pressure. The quivering orb finally burst and jetted across his arm in a warm slime. It was the last thing the Ferryman felt before a searing hot curtain of dark fell on everything.

6

    Janet had her head pressed into the leather headrest and felt forever stuck there. Two days in the hospital and this house was alien. Looking at the façade was like bearing witness to one of those human zoo exhibits in a Twilight Zone episode. Here is where they live, folks. They’re shy right now, but keep watching and perhaps they may come out to get the mail, or better, we can peer through a window and see them inside, eating, shitting, fucking, drinking themselves to death. Such a noble animal, the human beast is.
    A strain of Lester’s rapid fire barking came from the backyard. Janet missed her dog. She needed to go be with him, cuddle up and go to sleep. Just sleep.
    Faye was on the phone with Evan. They’d been talking for a few minutes now but Janet hadn’t processed any of the conversation. She guessed they were still concerned about Herman. As long as they’d known him, they still didn’t know her husband the way she did. He was a good guy. He tried to be a good guy, for all his faults. However, when things got difficult, he left her alone. He ran. Even before Melody died, Herman became ghostlike when a burden weighed on those big shoulders of his.
    “The truck is still here, like you said. How much longer do we need to wait before we call the police?” Faye asked, the phone pressed hard to her dainty pink ear.
    Janet had heard enough. She popped the door open and put her hand out for the house keys. Evan had them earlier when he came to check on house again. Now Faye had them but she wouldn’t hand them over. Instead, she got out of the car herself, still talking to Evan.
    It’s my friggin’ house, thought Janet. She pushed the passenger door closed and its metal frame shocked her. “Ouch.”
    Faye froze, eyes widening as they appraised her. “What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing, the door.”
    Faye’s brow furrowed and she continued with Evan, “We’re going inside now…she’s okay. Sure, like we said, it all goes. I’m going to throw everything away, just like—yes, okay, when will you be here? Sure. Love you.” She put her phone into her sweatshirt pocket and gave three compulsive shakes of her key ring. “We’re going to get you cleaned up, get you back into fighting shape, babe.”
    “Thanks,” mumbled Janet.
    “Don’t thank me yet.”
    Addressing the crisis boldly, that was the new Faye. Janet supposed she was partly to blame. Faye had been sort of a lost soul through much of her young adult years and had taken direction from Janet ever since meeting her in college. Now she was looking at a copy of the woman Faye thought Janet used to be, when by all accounts Faye had more nervous energy than Janet ever had. Everything was a mission that had to be carefully tasked out and pragmatically resolved. It was a silent competition that none but Faye could ever possibly enjoy the fruits of victory, if she even did.
    Despite loving and appreciating her friend dearly, Janet just wanted her gone. Faye was part of a world removed from the primary players in her life. Herman and Melody, even Evan all perched like protective gargoyles on the gothic skyscraper of her life. Little Faye, she was merely a pigeon that, while determined to keep busy and left its mark everywhere, could never have permanent residence with the other stone fixtures.
    Janet felt like a bitch for thinking this way, but she just wanted to curl up and be left alone. Hopefully Herman would return and she could wake up and…
    Thinking that mattered was a ruse. Janet didn’t know where to go from here. There had been a way out before but right now the thought of alcohol made her burp something up that tasted like the bottom of a barbecue pit. She would be lying to herself, after so many tries