Reaper - The Curse

|Eighteen|

June 15th, 2015
Fair Lane
Fairview, Pennsylvania

Mr. Carters' choice of a meeting place was unconventional. Just to reach the far end of Fair Lane was a forty-five minute- drive. The dirt road was bumpy and unkempt, and if there was a house at the end of the lane, it was the only building near the way. Every piece of land along the road was made up of wildflowers and long grass. It was a beautiful area that had somehow been overlooked when the town was constructed.

Neil wiped the sweat from his forehead against the back his hand and shook his head at the blood that stained the sleeves on his dress shirt. What was once white and perfect was sullied with pink blotches that had seeped through the fabric. He didn't come prepared enough. He didn't have a change of clothing, so his blood-stained outfit would have to do.

He slowed to a stop along the side to the road and turned the engine off. A few feet in front of his car was Mr. Carter's, Neil could see the silhouette of his head through his back window. Neil looked to his watch again, 12:50 pm.

He got out of the car and walked over to Leonard's passenger side. He tapped upon the window to announce his arrival, which made Mr. Carter jump and throw his hard-cover novel to the floor.

Neil opened the door and sat down. There was a calmness while Mr. Carter caught his breath.

"What's this all about, sir?"

Leonard grabbed his book from the floor and put it in the compartment under his seat. "What did your parents tell you about the curse?"

"They told me it was just a story, but then my mother didn't seem to think that was the case."

Mr. Carter's facial expression didn't change from stone-cold serious, "Your mother was right. Your father has spent his life in denial."

Neil's jaw hung open. He had never been in contact with anyone who knew any specific details about the so-called curse.

"I told you previously that I knew Daniel Jr. He was a good man. If not for his heartless uncle, Jed Morrison, your family would be happily intact." As he talked, Leonard stared toward the house he warned Neil about.

"So the curse is real? How do you know for sure?" Neil moistened his lips and clenched his hands together in his lap.

"Daniel Jr. was an older man when we met, nearly in his sixties. He was a timid man. He had been warned about the curse by his mother, Catherine. Though he always blamed himself for his father's death. Daniel was born, and seconds later, his father passed away while still holding his newborn son. I understood why he would think that, but his mother made sure to tell him often that his uncle Jed was responsible for her husband's passing."

Neil placed his hands over his face and leaned forward. He focused on each breath and the rise and fall of his chest. The break from Mr. Carter's honesty was welcomed. He needed to collect himself and hear what this man was saying.

"I was only a young man. I knew nothing of the world, and he had no one to talk to after being widowed twice. He stayed in a senior group home on the other side of town. He brought me here once when I was ten, he told me about his family and the horrific deaths of them all. Catherine, his mother, was crushed beneath the hooves of a stampede. His father's body was unscathed and unharmed on the outside, his internal organs—," he grimaced, "They were," he closed his eyes, "Not found intact, to put it nicely." He opened his eyes and watched Neil's face drain of colour, "I don't mean to upset you, son. I don't know how much longer I have. I'm an old man, you know, and you might be the only person who can bring this life of misery to an end."