Supernatural Consequence

Larry checked his rear view mirror for the red and blue flashing lights he hoped he’d outrun. He glimpsed a reflection of himself, the baseball cap barely shielding his crazed brown eyes and half-grown, scraggly brown beard. The smell of acrid sweat rose off him like beer mixed with sour cream that had gone bad. 

The wreck he caused by his drunken driving was miles behind him, but he kept running, just in case. He had accidentally swerved into oncoming traffic and then back into his lane at the last minute, but not before an oncoming car had swerved into another one to avoid hitting him. He saw it in his mirror. One of the cars flipped several times, and the other landed in the ditch beside the road before exploding. There was no way anyone survived the wreck.

Larry kept driving and saw a turnoff for a campground. He took the U-turn and headed back the other way, entering the camp. There was no one at the station that late, so he got out of the car and forced the mechanical arm up that prevented people like him from entering without paying. He drove to the furthest part of the grounds, passing campfires on his way. The smell of pine and wood smoke came in through the windows, and he hoped no one would remember his truck later. He was just one among dozens, he figured, and he was probably safe here until morning. Most of the campsites were dark, this being a week night during the fall. The kids were in school, the parents at work, and everyone except the people he killed an hour ago were asleep. ‘Stop it!’ he yelled in his head. ‘You don’t know that they’re dead.’ They could be in the hospital right now, sleeping off Larry’s drunk.

He came to a fork in the road and decided to go right. The lake was to the left. Hoping this was the last entrance to campsites, he went to the end of the road, where he found three deserted cabins. He took the one on the left, which seemed to be further from the tent sites, even though they were unoccupied, too. This cabin was deeper in the woods.

He parked and grabbed a blanket from the back of the truck that he kept for emergencies and moving furniture. He went quietly into the tiny cabin, which was unlocked, laid down on the one of the three cots, and tossed and turned until he fell blissfully asleep.

#

Larry thought he’d only been asleep for a minute when he sensed someone sitting in the cabin with him. He opened his eyes and saw a man in a white coat seated on a chair that hadn’t been in the cabin before. He couldn’t make out more details in the dark. “Shall I step into the moonlight so you can see me better?” the man asked. He stepped into a beam of moonlight that chased the shadows from his charred, bleeding face. 

Larry jumped off the cot. “Who are you?” he asked. “What happened to you?”

“You, Larry. You happened to me. Earlier tonight. Don’t you remember? I was in the car that exploded when you drove mine and another car off the road.”

“How did you get here? How did you find me? Shouldn’t you be at a hospital, or something?”

Larry blinked, and he was standing next to the burnt man in a hospital room. Larry’s muddy work boots and jeans stood in contrast to the sterile environment. “I was a doctor, a heart surgeon. Do you recognize the man in the bed?”

“Is that-”

“Yes, it is. One of the greatest American presidents who ever lived. And I was on my way to perform his surgery when you crossed my path. There are only a few surgeons in the world who could have repaired this man’s heart at his age. Now, he’ll probably be dead within a week. Thanks to you. And that’s not even mentioning my other patients who will be put at risk now. Your actions tonight affected many more people than you could have imagined.”

“Can they see us?” Larry asked. The former first lady looked at the duo, but then looked away. 

“They can sense that there’s something else here, but they can’t see us.”

“I feel terrible. What can I do?” Larry asked. “I can turn myself in. Would that help?”

“Wait until you meet the next two victims. Then you can make an informed decision.”

“The other two victims? I don’t understand. Oh, wait! This is a dream!” Larry smiled.

“If you want to believe that you’re dreaming, that’s fine. But let me give you a small token of my appreciation to assure you that you are wide awake.” The doctor took a scalpel from his pocket and sliced a long, shallow cut down Larry’s arm, tearing the fabric of his flannel shirt in his wake.

“Ahhhh! That shit hurt! You just cut me!”

“And when you wake up, you’ll see the cut and know that you were here with me.”

With that, Larry was back in the cabin, sitting on his cot and holding his bleeding arm. He was alone.

“Holy shit. I have really got to lay off the drinking. I’m hallucinating now.”

He laid down, careful to avoid his wounded arm. Before he could get fully asleep, he saw a woman sitting on the side of his bed. Her head was bashed in on one side, and it was at an odd angle. Larry jumped up again. 

“Don’t tell me, you’re the spirit of Christmas present, right?”

“Don’t be glib, Larry. We’re trying to teach a lesson here. You killed three people tonight, and we’re not happy about it. Now shut the fuck up and come with me,” the woman said. “Honestly, if I had my way, we could have skipped all the dramatics and just sent you to straight to hell.”

“Wait, someone could have sent me to hell? Who? God?”

“Not even close, smart boy.”

This time, Larry was in a suburban home with the woman. She was watching herself make two sack lunches for the blonde-haired little girl and lanky tween boy who were sitting at the breakfast bar eating breakfast.

“See that sweet boy? He’s going to get to experience the foster system because of you. I was a single mom. My husband died four years ago in Iraq and left me with the kids. I was an only child, so there are no aunts or uncles or grandparents for him to live with. He’s on honor roll at his middle school and plays soccer. He’s a good kid. And now his life will be ruined.

“And my sweet baby girl right there? Well, you’ll hear from her later tonight. What a stupid, long-reaching mistake you’ve made. We are so self-centered in thinking that our actions don’t matter, but the effects are infinite. Even the small ones. As humans, we are social creatures. You have set in motion the Butterfly Effect.”

“What do I do? I can’t take it back, can I?”

“Wait until you talk to my daughter, and maybe some things will become clear,” the woman said.

And then she was gone. Larry was back in the cabin, on his dirty cot under his dirty blanket. He decided to take a walk, maybe that would chase off the dreams. He was rounding a bend in the trail he was taking, using his phone as a flashlight when he saw a little blond girl with blood trickling from her nose, ears, and eyes.

“Hello, Larry,” she said in a voice that sounded much older than her apparent age. She took his hand. It was cold, like a slab of marble. Larry did everything he could to keep from jerking his hand out of the grip of this small, dead thing. 

Without a word, the forest transformed to a lab where a group of scientists in white coats were performing experiments on plants. “This is my future bio-tech lab,” the little girl said. “See that woman over there?” She pointed to a pretty blonde woman with a ponytail and glasses. “That would have been me in thirty years. I’m working on a special technology that will grow fruits and vegetables in an arid climate. Do you understand what that means, Larry? It means that food could grow in a desert. And this…” she swept her arm, and they were transported to a third-world village. “…This is the result.”

The people in the village lived in straw huts in the desert, but they were happy, and the children were eating carrots and apples. “All the vitamin C a body needs to avoid malnutrition or scurvy can be found in two oranges a week,” she explained. “My technology would have been a breakthrough in solving the world’s hunger crisis. See how the children don’t have distended stomachs? That’s my future work. The ramifications of your actions tonight were worldwide. And all you had to do was call an Uber or a friend for a ride home.”

“But what can I do now? I can’t change it. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. Especially for you. You had your whole life ahead of you,” Larry sobbed.

“Wait until you hear from the next one. Then maybe you’ll have an idea. I was just instructed to show you the consequences of your actions,” she said. The little girl let go of Larry’s hand, and he found himself in the forest again.

Larry ran. He ran to his truck, jumped in, and turned it on. He slammed it in reverse and sped out of the campsite. Remembering that reckless driving was what got him into this mess, he slowed down to a respectable 30 MPH. It was getting hot in his truck. He turned on the AC, but it didn’t seem to work. He just wanted to go home. He’d go straight to the police in the morning and turn himself in. He’d probably get involuntary manslaughter and spend some time in prison, but wasn’t that what he deserved? 

He turned the radio on, and Guns N Roses was singing their remake about the Devil introducing himself. A clawed, reptilian hand reached for Larry’s arm. Larry jumped and swerved the truck off the two-lane road, into a ditch and bounced out. It crashed head-first into a tree. Larry screamed.

“You can call me, ‘Lucifer.’ I’m pleased to meet you, Larry.” The devil laughed and laughed. Larry screamed and screamed as the truck’s engine caught fire and spread up Larry’s legs.