Lies in the Fog
3
And so we never spoke of it again. But somehow we were all changed. Jeremy just drank more. We all still hung out, but it was like none of us ever really talked to each other. It was only a few months before Josh and I had broken up, and he had become… reserved. He stopped hanging out with any of us. The incident was never brought up, until tonight.
It had typically been another weekend spent in Jeremy’s garage- an old abandoned barn that stored his car; his baby. We never went out to Mackenzie Lake anymore. So, we hung out here. We had been there a few hours. Ben was talking about leaving for school in the fall; escaping. I wanted nothing more than to go with him- to get away from this place. The few drinks had already taken their effect when Josh stormed in with his father’s handgun and pointed it at his brother. We all froze, mine and Ben’s eyes fixed on Josh- unable to say anything, the words getting caught even then. I should have said something.
“It’s all our faults,” he said. “We could have saved her if we had called the cops- If you hadn’t covered it all up!”
“Josh- she was already dead!”
“No- you saw what it said in the reports. We could have saved her! It’s all your fault!”
Jeremy’s desperate argument was redundant as Josh continued, “We covered it up, for a whole year!”
“What did you want me to do, turn myself in? They would lock me away, you know that Josh," Jeremy said. “Would you really send your own brother away?”
Josh’s gaze was uneasy. Rain and tears stained his face, his clothes. Small droplets fell off his dark hair and onto the wooden floor, where there would soon me a puddle of dark, fresh blood. He shook his head, and small gasps of breath fell from his mouth. Whispers no one could hear. We should’ve done something.
It had typically been another weekend spent in Jeremy’s garage- an old abandoned barn that stored his car; his baby. We never went out to Mackenzie Lake anymore. So, we hung out here. We had been there a few hours. Ben was talking about leaving for school in the fall; escaping. I wanted nothing more than to go with him- to get away from this place. The few drinks had already taken their effect when Josh stormed in with his father’s handgun and pointed it at his brother. We all froze, mine and Ben’s eyes fixed on Josh- unable to say anything, the words getting caught even then. I should have said something.
“It’s all our faults,” he said. “We could have saved her if we had called the cops- If you hadn’t covered it all up!”
“Josh- she was already dead!”
“No- you saw what it said in the reports. We could have saved her! It’s all your fault!”
Jeremy’s desperate argument was redundant as Josh continued, “We covered it up, for a whole year!”
“What did you want me to do, turn myself in? They would lock me away, you know that Josh," Jeremy said. “Would you really send your own brother away?”
Josh’s gaze was uneasy. Rain and tears stained his face, his clothes. Small droplets fell off his dark hair and onto the wooden floor, where there would soon me a puddle of dark, fresh blood. He shook his head, and small gasps of breath fell from his mouth. Whispers no one could hear. We should’ve done something.