Chapter 1: Welcome to DarkWater (Patreon)

I hitchhiked from the middle of the country, midland Texas, all over our great nation. I’d been to small towns and big cities, burgs, and burrows, villes and dales. You name the town; I’d probably been there, or at least passed through, as I Cris-crossed the country searching for…something.

My Dad and I never saw eye-to-eye on anything. I didn’t hate the guy, don’t get me wrong, he just never stepped up in any way. He’d never been a role model and never gave me any sage advice. Never beat me, never lied, never stole from me. He wasn’t a bad guy; he just wasn’t—

I dunno something. Does that make any sense? Everyone seems to have a story about their dad; the best I could come up with is he was at least there. He fed us, kept us in clothes, and took us to school. We never went hungry, never were on the street, and I always knew he was either at home or at the Store.

He managed a Safelane Grocery store. It kept him busy stocking, hiring, and firing staff, unloading trucks, whatever. He knew every inch of that store from managing it for the past twenty years.

Hell, he’d even given me a job, my first, when I was fifteen. I bagged groceries, took out the trash, and unloaded box after box after box…you can unload a lot of boxes in an eight-hour shift, believe me. And you had another eight-hour shift the next day to look forward to, and guess what the day after? That’s right, another eight-hour shift.

To say I couldn’t wait to graduate and get the hell out of Midland was, to say the least. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, but working in a Safelane grocery sure wasn’t one of them.

Dad died my senior year. I had just turned 18, so luckily, I hadn’t been turned over to CPS, so I’d finished school on my own. The house we lived in all those years was a rental that I couldn’t keep paying on, so I packed everything into my backpack and camped out in the woods for the next three months while I finished high school.

After I graduated, I decided to hitchhike. I know that seems dangerous, but hell, you could be shot or hit by a bus or have a heart attack too.

That’s how I came to be in DarkWater.

I’d found the name on a map and decided that was my next destination. It was up in the mountains and I decided I’d see what the place was like. I had forty bucks in my pocket after the bus ticket, so I’d have to find a job quickly.

I picked up my backpack and shrugged it on. It had seen better days, but it suited me fine, at least for a little longer. The terrain outside of DarkWater was at least pleasant and cool, which was welcome relief from the stink of the bus. I think all buses share a common smell of sweat, urine, and dreams long lost and never found.

I walked past the convenience store to a set of dank portables where I made use. The bathroom on the bus was horrid, and these were slightly less so. Facilities in general when hitchhiking should be taken advantage of. I also pawed through the trash and found a sandwich still in its wrapper that I saved for later. Never knew when the food, money, or facilities might run out in a strange town in a strange place, so I liked to take advantage when I could.

The town seemed nice, if quiet. A little too quiet, as if something lurked in the back of the dark streets of DarkWater. I had saved up so many jokes over the bus trip and was dying to try them out on someone. As I made my way through the streets, the smell of pizza beckoned me into its cheesy embrace, and I followed. Rounding a corner, I spied a pizza restaurant and decided a little treat was in order for lasting three days on the uncomfortable bench seat of the diesel-belching bus. Maybe there’d be someone there I could lay my DarkWater joke material on.

The waitress was dressed as if she dropped from the nineteen fifties with a red rockabilly hairdo and paisley print flouncy dress. She grinned at me as I entered.

“Well, hey there darlin’, and welcome to Mary-Beth’s pizza!”

“Hey,” I said. Pretty girls always made me feel awkward.

“What can I do ya for?”

I glanced up at the menu illuminated on the wall behind her. Basically, they had pizza, pizza and a drink, pizza and a salad (why waste the time), and pizza with Mary-Beth’s special hot wings.”

“Mary-Beth’s special hot wings?” I said.

“Oooh, yeah honey. It’ll put your mouth on fire, I promise you that.”

“I’ll give the pizza and hot wings a shot,” I said.

“Comin’ right up, darlin’!”

I watched as she turned to prepare the food.

“Don’t think I’ve seen you around these parts,” she said. “What brings you to DarkWater?”

I shrugged. “I thought it sounded interesting on a map.”

Her eyes regarded me intently. “Really? That’s all you did? Saw our little town on a map, liked the name of it and you decided to come here?”

I nodded. “Yep. Took me three days on a bus to get here.”

“Order up!” The cook said, from the back and dinged a little bell on the counter.

“Jesus, Earl, I’m right here. You don’t have to ring that damn thing every time an order comes in. Only if I happen to be away from the counter.”

“Yes, Mary-Beth,” the guy said.

She set the slice of pizza and the wings on the counter. “Want anything to drink with that, honey?”

“Cola if you got it.”

“Cola, root beer, lemon-lime, orange, you name it we probably got it.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said as she came around the counter and set it down.

“Any idea what you want to do here?” Mary-Beth said. “Lookin’ for a job, gonna write the Great American Novel, or are you just gonna lurk in the dark shadows of DarkWater?” She giggled.

I gave her a smile. “What do you suggest?”

She looked down at my backpack and smiled. “From the looks of that pack, you been camping out a night or two.”

“Might say that,” I said.

“So you’re gonna need a job right?”

I shrugged. “I don’t suppose forty bucks in my pocket will buy even a night at a hotel.”

She giggled. “Depends on the hotel, here in DarkWater, honey.”

I blinked at that. “Really? They have a hotel here that I could pay for a room with forty bucks?”

“Well, you can stay there for free, actually. But the price is usually a lot more than money, honey.”

I frowned at that. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…” she glanced back to the kitchen and lowered her voice. “DarkWater ain’t your normal small town.”

“It isn’t?” I said, feeling a nervous tremor in my stomach.

She shook her head. “Just remember, nothing is as it seems in DarkWater.”

“I don’t follow.”

She moved in close and I could smell her perfume. It was very pungent, and for some reason made me feel a little dizzy.”

“Best thing for you to do, honey, unless you want to be snared in DarkWater forever…”

Something came over her at that moment, something dark, and I felt the air grow cold as the feeling of pins and needles swept over me. Her visage changed too, gone was the fire-red hair, shifting to blue-black to match the color of her eyes. I couldn’t help but notice her teeth had extended into fangs.

“Is to go right back where you came from and move along.”