In the Moonlight

Sitting on the bus Jill scrolled through her playlist with her head against the window of the bus. It was a cloudy night, but she could still occasionally see the moon appear from behind the clouds. The autumn night displayed wilted leaves on the branches of trees passing by in the moonlight. She was on her way from Rochester to New Orleans, a place she thought that she could get lost and start a new life. Half-way there she thought as she saw the sign stating “Welcome to Tennessee” this was the furthest south she had ever been. A man approached her and tapped on her shoulder; Jill removed her earbud to hear him say “Excuse me; do you mind if I sit here? The guy I’ve been sitting next to…it’s like something crawled in him and died” Jill flashed a quick smile followed by “Sure” and the man took the seat next to him. “Jim” he said extending his hand for her to shake “I’m Jill, nice to meet you”.

“So, what’s your reason for taking a bus across the country?” Jim asked, “I just needed a fresh start, thought I would see the east coast on my way to New Orleans” placing her phone back on her lap “Running from the law?” Jim chuckled; Jill couldn’t help but notice his shiny teeth behind the electric smile. Jim was objectively good looking, even while sitting she could tell he was tall with dark brown curly hair and green eyes. He had a chiseled jaw line and face that looked like it picked from all the best parts, Jill decided to remove her other earbud “No, I just needed to get out of Rochester. Why are you taking the bus?” “I have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease” rolling her eyes towards Jim, Jill asked “Is that contagious?” “Nope I can’t spread it to other people, but I’m stuck with it and it’s a condition that I can’t fly with which is why now, I’m taking the bus. I’m headed to my sister’s wedding in New Orleans. Now I’m the last of my siblings to disappoint our parents” letting out a light chuckle “Don’t worry, I know all too well what it’s like to be a disappointment” Jill clasped the bag in her lap tighter. “Well, what did you do?” Jim asked her, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out a flask. “I took something that didn’t belong to me” she said as Jim opened his flask and took a drink, he handed the flask over to Jill, but she said, “No thank you” and Jim took another drink before screwing the top back onto the flask and placing it in his jacket.

“You have any family down south?” “I don’t really have any family; I had a boyfriend back in New York, but he died.” Jill looked back towards the bus floor. “That’s tough, I’m sorry to hear that” rolling her earbuds in her fingers Jill looked back towards Jim “On second thought I will have that drink” Jim reached back into his pocket to unscrew the flask and handed it over to Jill. “Sorry its not the goods stuff” Jim said as Jill choked on the whiskey from the flask “It’s ok, the cheap stuff still works the same” as she used her sleeve to wipe whiskey from her chin. “Well, what happened to your boyfriend?” Jim asked as Jill handed him back the flask “He was sick… he just dropped dead one day at the kitchen table” Jim turned back towards Jill “Really? Just died at the kitchen table?” Jill felt her heart start to race, she was never a good liar, not from a lack of practice.

Jill’s boyfriend Clint was a long-time addict, he dropped out of high school at 15 and spent much of that year smoking pot with his close circle of troublemakers. It was a year before a friend of a friend offered him some pills while they were hanging outside Rogers’ which was a bowling alley in town, it was the typical place for delinquents into town to go to. He had felt so at peace when he first took those pills, it was as if all his problems in life had melted away and he was picked up by clouds, feeling the sun beaming on his skin. It wasn’t long before those pills started getting harder to come by so he started shooting up, him and his same group of friends did everything they could to feed their habit. When he met Jill, she was 17 and he was 20, she liked his rebellious nature, but he was always good to her. Jill started using with him after they had been dating for three years, partially as a way connect with the man that she loved but also to get a temporary escape from her own life.

Clint and Jill had the idea to rob a gas station back in Rochester, it had been 18 hours since their last fix and they knew there was cash inside that gas station, no one was supposed to get hurt and no one would ever know they did it. Clint had been carrying a nine-millimeter Glock that he had stolen from a house he had broken into about a year ago. He opened the door to the gas station and pulled the Glock from his pocket pointing it at the frightened attendant at the register, Clint’s heart was racing, he had stolen before, but this was another step up, he was so wired from the robbery that he didn’t notice his money clip with his ID falling out. He didn’t even notice how tightly he was holding the gun until it went off firing a round into the attendant’s chest, the register in front of him splattered with a dark red and his body sank to the floor. “That wasn’t supposed to happen” Clint screamed rubbing his hand against his head. Jill made her way over to the register pushing buttons to try to make the machine open and after slamming the keypad for the fourth time the register opened. Jill opened the tray and grabbed two handfuls of money and then ran back towards Clint grabbing his arm “Come on we have to go” pulling him towards the door they ran back towards their apartment after buying a fix. Reaching into his pocket again Clint realized his money clip was gone “Jill I think I messed up, I dropped my money clip somewhere” “Don’t worry about it we still have some leftover cash” “No, its just my ID was in there” Jill sat on the couch in the living room burying her face into her hands “How could you be so stupid? Why is it that you can never do anything right?” “No, it it wassn’t my fafault” Clint’s stutter came up whenever he got flustered. “I can’t go to jail, this wasn’t even my fault, at least I didn’t kill anyone, and that’s exactly what I’ll say” “Yyou can’t” Clint continued pacing around the small living room. “I’m going to get out of here before the cops come” “But baby what about me?” “That’s not my problem right now” Jill picked up her bag and walked towards the door.

“Do you want to confess?” Jim asked Jill “What do you mean? Confess to what?” “You don’t have much time.” Jim had placed the flask back into his pocket, the friendly demeanor he had maintained faded away and face had become sterner “You only have a few minutes left”. “OK, now you’re just being weird” Jill started to place her ear buds back in her ears “Do you remember buying your ticket to the bus?” Jim asked, it wasn’t something Jill thought about before she started talking with Jim, the last thing she really remembered was walking out of her apartment with Clint begging for her help. “I think I’m just tired, but I bought a ticket, its right here on my phone” scrolling through her phone she looked at her bus ticket departing Rochester at 6:00am. “Do you know why your hair is wet?” Jill reached towards her curly black hair, noticing it was damp, and seemed like something was leaking. She looked back at her hand to discover it was painted red, then she remembered her last memory. She had just swung the door open to leave and heard the words “I can’t let you” followed by a bang and darkness, that’s when she remembered looking up at the moon on the bus. “Where am I” her eyes widened, and her mouth went dry “You are on your way, will you confess?” Jim asked again “I don’t have anything to confess to you” Jim stood up and looked down at her grabbing on to the bus railing “That’s a shame” Jill looked around to see that only she and Jim were on the bus, outside there was only darkness, the bright moon had been swallowed up by darkness. “What happened to everyone else?” Jim walked to the front of the bus, looking back at Jill one last time as the clouds completely covered the moon and darkness entered the bus and Jim vanished within it. Jill jumping up into her fought to scream but could barely let out a whimper as tears rolled down her face. Looking out the window as the darkness began to engulf her, for a moment, she remembered shooting up for the first time with Clint, she felt like her body was no longer hers and the darkness rolled over her eyes.