METANOIA

THE VESSEL

Barry was surprised at how well he could drive, given he had an omelet for a brain.

Lucy was helping him as his navigator, a pretty terrible one at that, but it was all he had left. The remaining fingers on his burned hand were useless and driving with one hand had become quite the challenge. He was getting restless again.

His pain was reduced by what he had taken last. Some of it was aspirin.

"Wait for the call," Lucy's metallic voice rung in his ears. His face constantly morphed into progressively scarier. It was now hard to make out from all the thorns that covered his body.

Breathe in, hold, release.

He took another aspirin just in case.

Barry drove back to Columbus toward Taylor's house. He wondered if the authorities hadn't yet caught on to his murdering spree. He wanted to get caught now. He had given up on being able to kill himself. Getting caught was as good an alternative. The third was to kill Silas and be done with it perhaps.

"No, Barry; we must finish what we started. Otherwise, this will all be nothing." If he had a free hand, he would punch Lucy.

Barry parked a few blocks away from Taylor's house. Just in case the authorities were there. From a distance, he saw the cops outside Taylor's house; they had only now arrived. He saw one of the cops pulling a crime scene tape around the house.

This was just another sign that a point of no return had been long crossed. He looked at the phone Seth had given him. It was on, yet there were no missed calls or messages. He pocketed the phone.

He wasn't sure if the family Toyota had been made yet, but he would have to get rid of it. He stopped in the middle of the road, picked up his gun and ditched the car.

He was still hungry.

Breathe in, hold, release.

He walked the rest of the way to Melinda's house.

To his dismay, there were cops there yet again. They were probably onto him for the family he killed, or perhaps it was the poker players.

He felt an invisible noose tightening around his neck.

In the commotion, Barry saw Melinda from behind and her ex-fiancé's arm around her waist. Mapping out her infidelity perhaps. Either way, she took no time to bury him. Barry didn't want to think about it too much. It only served to remove some of the shame he had from having hooked up with Taylor so quickly.

Barry moved a few more houses down the road.

He drove past her house one last time but couldn't catch a glimpse of her.

Breathe in, hold, release.