Morty 5

2004-06-09

Category: prose

Read Part One Here
Read Part Two Here
Read Part Three Here
Read Part Four Here

The silhouette of the person outside reached for the doorknob. His flashlight danced crazily around the door. The handle jiggled. ?Hey!? he shouted, ?Anybody in there? It?s me, Deputy Walton. Is everything all right??

Morty let out breath he didn?t know he was holding. ?Deputy? Hold on.? He stood and moved to unlatch the door. ?Man, am I glad to see you.?

The deputy shined the light up and down Morty and then settled back on the knife in his hand. ?Hey, Morty. Been cutting something??

Morty furrowed his brow then remembered the knife. ?What? Oh, no, I haven?t been cutting anything. I was just scared. You got to help me.?

?What?s that blood on your forehead??

The fellow reached up to touch the quickly crusting blood. ?Oh that, I ran into a wall a few minutes ago. Can we get out of here? You have a car, right??

Walton stepped back from the door a pace. ?Why don?t you set that knife down then come out here. We?ll have a talk about what?s got you so spooked and figure out what to do from there.?

The knife dropped from Morty?s hand to stick in the hardwood floor. Blinking absently, Morty followed the deputy onto the porch. ?Now then, what?s all the trouble??

Morty looked back at the door. It appeared as a rectangle of shadow now that he was outside. He took a step further from the door, looked again, then stepped off the porch and into the moonlight.

Deputy Walton glanced at the door with some concern and then followed Morty off the porch. ?What?s in there, Morty??

Morty swallowed hard and took a deep breath. He looked at the door again. ?I?m not sure. I don?t know that it?s in there anymore. The back door was open.?

The beam of the flashlight pierced the open door and snooped over the stairs and those furnishings it could reach. The deputy then directed it at the upstairs window and finally at the tree line of the woods around. ?What is it that you thought might have been there??

Morty began shaking. Moonlight glinted off the tears running down his cheeks. ?I?m not sure. I didn?t see it clearly. It was just there.?

?What was just there??

Morty pointed toward the door. ?That.?

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