Black Water

Interlude

Jerry said his goodbyes to Jared the next day. It was a surprisingly sad farewell - despite having lost his job and his friends, it would be a lie to say that Jerry had no positive outcomes from the experience. He regarded Jared as a friend - after all, there were some things which you couldn't go through without becoming friends. And trying to understand something as perplexing and mysterious as the well was one of those things.

"Alright, we'll be going now..." said Jerry from the shotgun seat - on the driver's seat, Aaron looked quite uncomfortable, as if he wanted to leave this cursed city forever, "Thanks for having us, Mr. Irwin. We're sorry for everything that happened here."

"There's nothing to apologize for." Jared scratched the back of his head a little, "I guess we were all fools for trying to tackle that well."

"Yeah," Jerry shrugged a little, "This is going to sound rude...but I hope I never see you ever again."

Jared could only grin at that, "I'm sure you do think that way," he said slyly, "it doesn't matter though...I hope I never see you again either. Goodbye, Jerry."

Both of them exchanged a laugh, before Jerry signalled to Aaron, and the car began to move. Soon enough, it was driving at far above the speed limit towards Albion, its headlights slowly disappearing into the afternoon haze. Jared watched them vanish with a sense of foreboding and sadness. There they went, leaving his home forever. Never to come back. Never to wake up in the Lodge ever again.

The private investigations were over.

It was startlingly unceremonious. One moment, they were talking, and the next moment, they were speeding away at well over 70 miles per hour on a 35 miles per hour road. It didn't make Jared sad. At least he could work in isolation now. Without the bustle and distraction of other people.

He gave Jenny a phone call later that day. He told her that the investigation team had just left, and that he was going to stay for one more night at the Lodge. When Jenny disputed this, he stood his ground and refused to budge, "I'm going to stay," he said solidly, "I'm sorry, Jenny. I'm going to stay for one more night."

"But you're alone."

"I have dennis with me. He's responsible, and he'll be able to take care of the house with me. Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything stupid."

After much convincing, Jenny finally allowed it to slide. "Fine," she muttered through the phone, "but tomorrow, you better be back here. I want no excuses. Got it?"

"Alright, fine..."

Dennis arrived right before dinner that night, and appeared quite surprised at how empty the Lodge was. "This place was filled with people just a few days ago," he muttered, "crazy, isn't it? How much a single well can do?"

"Yeah..." Jared gulped down some coffee - his eyes were just slightly bloodshot, "I'm glad that they left, to be honest...they wouldn't be able to solve the problem of the well, even if they brought the best scientists and best divers in the world."

"Agreed." Dennis took note of the dinner that Jared was eating - an entire crumbcake, with two bowls of rice and beef stew. It was a massive meal for a single person, "you ought to stop thinking about the well, Jared. It'll do you no good. It won't give you a penny. It won't give you anything."

"I understand that," muttered Jared, "I've given up on the well, Dennis, don't worry. It's just...can you really forget about it? Something like the well...it's not something that you can just ignore, you know what I'm saying?"

"Jared, don't do anything stupid."

"I won't..." Jared lied easily, "but don't tell me that you're just going to head back home and fall asleep tonight and just forget about everything that has to do with the well. That thing killed people. That thing cannot be explained."