Matt thought of his mother in Old Town.

That’s right, Matthew. Darkness isn’t always a bad thing. For you Matthew, I think it may be a very good thing.

He glared out the window at his old pickup and clenched his fists. He’d worked his ass off to get those weights and now he was relegated to the shack.

Matt slumped onto the lower bunk and closed his eyes. He did not dream. An hour later he creaked open the massive door and peeked outside. Satisfied, he took a brown paper bag and limped outside, making a conscious effort not to go near the truck, instead heading up the path to the northwest corner of the orchard. Here the neglected apple trees grew thickest. Bushels of tart apples in various stages of decay punctuated the orchard grass. In one patch he found a big pile of bear shit complete with silky covering and buzzing fly groupies. He hoped whatever bear left this gift hadn’t been killed by the Being. He had a hunch the Being didn’t much care for intruders into its territory. Bears loved the orchard and the apples were an easy meal. They dwelled in the shadows of the neglected trees, their fat rumps high in the air, furry faces soaked with tart apple juice. Now he needed to feast on the apples. In the end, he wasn’t all that different from the bears. He wondered if the bear that slept by his side in the bog feasted from the orchard.

One by one he snatched the tart apples from their grassy lairs and loaded them into the brown paper bag. He emptied the bag inside the shack and returned to fill it once again.

His work finished, he sat on the bunk and bit into one of the green monsters. His mouth puckered and his cheekbones sucked in. All moisture abandoned his mouth. Grimacing, he swallowed the torturous creation and washed it down with water, amplifying the sourness. And it didn’t help that the apples stunk up the shack, too.

Matt looked out the door, frustrated. And then, for the first time since the bog, he contemplated suicide. It wasn’t a long, drawn-out moody thing. Just a quick flash, a clown’s giggle.