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THE TEMPERATURE IN Barton Hollow was close to 86° F when she arrived.
Jude tried to forget about what she'd seen at the gas station last night every time a fly buzzed near her. She just about hid underneath the covers of her motel room bed once she checked in, choosing to turn both locks and place a chair underneath the door handle just in case. She dreamed about those crimson eyes; she saw them as she daydreamed while driving. They had almost hypnotized her, but it wasn't like they were real, right? Demons, the devil, evil spirits ... they didn't exist, no matter how many times her father tried drilling it in her head. Jude stopped at the red light right before the Barton Hollow welcome sign. The red eyes could've been anything ... a red light on top of a cellphone tower, perhaps?
She drove forward, past the town line, and felt her breath still. Initially, she wondered how it would feel to be back home again, and the last thing she expected was to feel like she couldn't breathe. She took a deep inhale, breathing in the cold air from her shitty air conditioner. Her eyes wandered as she drove into town: recognizing all the paint-chipped shingles on old houses, the cracked Virgin Mary statues sitting outside gardens full of sun-dried flowers and grass. Teenagers walked home from school in the blazing heat, tugging on their uniform ties and wiping the sweat from their foreheads. Younger kids played on the front lawn, drinking from the hose and splashing their friends with water. Only a handful of houses had enough money to afford a sprinkler, and most kids in town took advantage of those families or headed down to the town's water fountain. There was an ice cream truck parked outside the local hardware store. Jude sighed. This was the typical start of summer in Barton Hollow. Some things never changed, no matter how old you got.
The house she used to play at in middle school was now abandoned. The only playground in town was full of kids, but the equipment looked like it was about to fall apart or completely rust over. On the right, her dad's church was closed due to excessive heat, per the sign posted on the large wooden doors. The church looked like the nicest place in town; it must've gotten a fresh paint job recently, and the clock at the top of the roof had to be placed there within the past couple of years.
