Blink. Blink. “Styx, I… I?—”
He sprayed my shoes’ soles.
His large form approaching again had me stepping back, one foot shifting weight to the other, just like Dale told me to.
“Don’t overanalyze needed actions.” He tapped his temple while his other hand sprayed more bleach. “Can make a one-percenter go a little batty.” He reached around me to open the door. “Can you get in, please? Bleach can only make so much,” he gestured to my human form, “disappear.” When I didn’t budge, he rolled his eyes. “So, we gotta go?”
Dumfounded, I slipped into the car.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Styx buckled me in. “Hold tight. I have some wipes.” Then he simply shut the door.
Wipes?
Jaw unhinged, as was my new caregiver, I observed him checking his surroundings while walking past the hood and to the driver’s side door. “Still in the clear.” Tossing the bleach in the back seat, he got in. In between us were some Lysol wipes in a Walmart bag. He pulled them out and opened the container. “Clean up. All dirty ones back in the bag. Capeesh?” Then, as if there wasn’t a corpse—of my doing—being left behind, he started the engine and drove us off.
I didn’t move. Possibly frozen in a state of shock.
Styx had no time for it. “Seriously, wipe yourself or I’ll do it and won’t be nice about it.”
The amount of blood the wipes were covered in had me wondering how long I had blacked out for. How long had the man been dead before I rejoined my body?
With a Walmart bag full of soiled wipes, I was handed a fresh set of clothes. “Change.” I was handed another empty bag. “Dirty clothes in here.”
While we passed through a bigger city, I tried not to focus on how soaked my clothes had been as I removed them and shoved them in a bag about to burst. I wasn’t in dry clothes long when Styx celebrated seeing some homeless guys cooking hot dogs over a barrel of fire. “Gotta appreciate the timing here.” He pulled over and parked. After stuffing gray hair in a ball cap, he said, “Stay put.” Then he got out, snagging the two full Walmart bags along the way.
I tilted my head, noticing Styx suddenly walking with a limp as he approached the homeless. He said something I couldn’t hear due to being parked too far away, then after nods, threw the bags in the barrel of fire. Each man received some cash, then Styx limped back to the car, hot dogs being cooked over frying blood beneath them.
This man being nothing like the uncle that used to visit me and Noma, I asked, “Who are you?”
With the engine running, we pulled from the spot. He was focused on the road, but admitted, “The man who can handle your crazy ass. Ain’t my first rodeo.”
Dad.
Styx smirked as if my murdering ways were amusing. “Apparently, you remember and saw more than I thought.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing as he drove. I was suddenly exhausted in a way I had never experienced. My head dropped back against the headrest.
As if some sort of mind reader, Styx nodded. “We call it The Release.”
Lazily, my head lulled in his direction to see him, questioning what the fuck he was talking about now.
Styx shrugged. “Sex or kills, always brings on a much-needed release.”
Jesus. I felt like I had joined some sort of twisted circus. To shut it all out, I closed my eyes.
I must have dozed off because when my eyes reopened, the car was coming to a stop and, even though it was dark, the moon shined enough light for me to see pink walls…
I jolted up. I was back at Noma’s.
Even though I thought I was mad at her, I suddenly wanted nothing more but to go back in time and hold her.
Rushing out of the car, I was at the front door in no time. Then, I leaned my forehead against it when realizing I was tricking myself about what was on the other side. “Is she in there? Did I dream her death?” If Styx could reappear, maybe, just maybe…
Styx was no longer playful. His tone expressed deep sorrow. “No. She’s gone.”
I nodded. I knew that, I guess. I held her when she passed. But a baby boy can dream.
Styx disappeared around the corner of the house, then reappeared with keys in his hand. My chest imploded. There was no denying he knew where Noma and I had hidden them.
