Gone to See the River Man

by Kristopher Triana

What did you expect? He kills people. He did this. He did this and you’re obsessed with him.

Everybody knew somebody that done made a deal with him, and they got their wish but ended up doin’ terrible things too; not because they owed it to him, but because he sorta, ya know, inspired them.”

There was such fear there. Lori loved to witness it. It meant Abby wasn’t unbreakable after all. The beauty and popularity could not help her here. Her good luck had just run out, and it was about damn time.

This made things even. And when Abby couldn’t right herself, she reached out for Lori in one last effort to escape her fate. Lori lifted one hand, but only to wave goodbye.

With Pete dead and Abby mentally challenged as a result of her injury, no one knew all the terrible things she had done. They were her private hells to be shared only in intimate discussion with the man she’d grown to love, and only to show him he wasn’t evil, that he had merely acted upon sinister urges, just as she had.

“No, probably not at that. But I’ll be seein’ you, I’m sure. In the papers, like the others.”