MAD

Yeah, perhaps the devil has something to do with this

Mrs. Pine clutches her purse tightly as she explains what happened last night. The speed at which she was rambling about the old crazy man and the sudden reappearance of sound was almost impressive for a woman her age. Mrs. Pine isn't a particularly out spoken woman. She wakes up at 8, stays up all day reading the Bible again and again and again and would call up her daughter every now and then if not to just hear her voice or to feel less alone. In all honestly, she was like Tim, a lonely nobody drifting in the vast empty cosmos. Everyone in this small miserable town is like that. A lonely soul who keeps lying to themselves that they are fine when they are far from it. One small inconvenience could set anyone off in this measly place. It's like gravity. All they need is a little push, and the incident last night was that push that sent Mrs. Pine over the edge. Her mouth is almost foaming as a small drop of saliva falls from the corner of her  lips.

" I knew that old drunk was crazy, but I never knew he was suicidal ! ", Mrs. Pine exclaimed.

The bearded officer took one last glance at Mrs. Pine and nodded, not because he agreed with the woman, but because he just wanted all of this to be over. He knew for a fact that a suicidal man could not have died from a heart attack.  But that was precisely the cause of Tim Barringen's death. No shotgun wound. No external injuries. It was as if his heart just stopped working. And maybe that's what happened, maybe not. But what's certain is he didn't die because he wanted to end it all, he died because his fucking heart exploded.

Mrs. Pine called the police station in the morning about a guy who lived at the edge of town. Apparently, he had gone out into the cornfield alone last night and never came back out. She told the officers that she had heard two gun shots that night, and the old geezer had probably shot himself. She told them he wasn't a particularly happy man. And she told them she would probably need to get out of town for a couple of days after this. Obviously, this has caused great concern among the officers in town since Hensenville is one of those places where nothing really happens. It's a quiet community in the middle of nowhere, a place where everyone knows everyone. A place where everyone knows how to mind their own business. To put it simply, a death like this might just be another number in New York, but in Hensenville, it's never heard of. 

The officer rubs his temple and lets out a sigh. Mrs. Pine keeps on rambling about how unusually silent last night was. She keeps droning on and on and on. Pete has worked as a cop for nearly a decade in Hensenville. He's only 40 but he feels much older than that. He doesn't quite know why either, but it probably has something to do with the fact that the entire town is mostly made out of people who can kick the bucket at any moment. He had wanted to go away from this place, but his father was an officer in Hensenville, and as he laid in his death bed, his last words were " protect this family, protect this town." Pete could not ignore those words, which is why he's here now listening to an old crazy lady talking about the devil taking away the voice of Hensenville the night prior. 

Perhaps, the devil did have something to do with this. Even Pete, a man whose faith in science is unquestionable,  fails to come up with a satisfying conclusion to what Tim Barringen saw that frightened him so much, his heart stopped working.

" And I'm telling you, that man was insane. We were lucky he didn't try to take others with him to the grav-" Mrs. Pine is suddenly cut off by Pete who promptly says," again, Mrs. Pine he didn't commit suicide. His heart freaking exploded. The man saw or experienced something so intense, it literally ripped his heart open. "

Mrs. Pine stops talking . Her bottom lip quivers and she begins to shake ever so slightly. 

" The devil, I tell you. " She whispers as she points her slender finger towards the cornfield, " and there lies hell." 

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