Hunted: Rusty Nail

Mistakes

You woke with a jump as you heard a loud knocking on your room's door. Fuller had already been up and was on his way to answer it. You looked around for Lewis but judged by the sound of the shower, you already knew where he was.

Fuller stepped outside and you jumped up to get dressed properly. You could hear him talking to some man.

"Morinin. How are you today?"

"I'm doing pretty good."

"Where you guys from?"

"Well, originally New Jersey, shes from s/n."

"Uh huh. What you doing here?"

"Uh, we're driving across country. My brother-"

"Your brother?"

"Yeah, Lewis."

"Where is he?"

"In the room? I don't know."

"Well, we had a little incident last night. Did you hear any sounds or anything out of the ordinary?" You glanced over at Fuller and nudged him.

"Yeah, actually, uh..."

"Uh huh?"

"Next door we heard some sounds."

"Next door?"

"Yeah."

"Could you describe those sounds?"

"Yeah, sure. They were like, uh...now wait. They were like uhhhh, no wait. Eughhhh, no. Erhhhhh-"

You turned back to see Lewis walking up next to you and Fuller. "What's going on?" Fuller nodded to the police officer. "Uh, this is Lewis. Uh, there was sitchyation last night, that's all I know."

"So after you heard these sounds did you look out your window? Did you open your door?"

"No, sir." Lewis frowned a bit. "What happened?"

"After you closed you door, around 10:15 PM, you didn't see anybody else until I knocked on your door this morning?" Fuller glanced between you and Lewis.

"That's right." Lewis cut in after Fuller. "But we did call the night manager after we heard the sounds, uh, concerned, right?" You and Fuller both nodded with a "yeah."

"Oh, yeah, yeah. He did mention that. And he also said that one of you had an altercation with the victim. Which one of you was that?" Lewis frowned and looked at the ground. Fuller paused.

"Wait. The night manager said what?"

"Apparently one of you had words with the victim in the motel office. When you were checking in?"

"No, no. We never...met..." Fuller stopped and looked between you two.
The police officer tilted his head, eyeing all three of you.

"Wait....what?"

"Ronald. Ronald Ellinghouse. He was staying in room 17."

"The huge guy? Yeah. I met him but he's not the one who-"

"What happened to him?" You stopped and looked at Lewis.

"It wasn't comely." Fuller squinted at him. "I'm sorry, I don't know what that means."

"He was found. Early this morning. Lying face down in the highway medium."

"So...you're saying that...that the huge guys the victim?"

"So you have no idea who might have visited Mr. Ellinghouse's room last night?"

"No, sir. I wish we could be more helpful but I- I-" Lewis looked up from the ground. "Is he dead?"

"Coma." Your eyes widened and you covered your mouth. Fuller's face dropped and Lewis hung his head.

"You know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking a little look see might refresh your memory."

"Take a look see at what?"

*
*
*

It felt like forever until you reached the hospital hallway. You followed the police officer to a glass window, that faced to look inside the room.

Fuller's mouth hung open as he looked in the room. Lewis shook his head and you couldn't help but turn away as your heart sank into the put of your stomach.

"Ripped his jaw off..."

The man lying there had his whole head wrapped in bandages. He was right. His whole bottom jaw had been completely removed. You were now looking at the roof of his mouth and a gaping hole in his neck. You could see every one of his top teeth and the pipes leading down his throat.

"Ripped clean off..."

*
*
*

The sheriff slammed down a stack of papers onto the surface of his desk, placing his hands on his hips.

"That is the pain in my ass. My own personal file of on-going shit that I got to deal with. And now guess what. Now, I got me another one. Mr. Ronald Ellinghouse, laying 2 inches near dead in my jurisdiction." He looked in between you three who now sat in chairs in front of his desk.

"Why? Because you sorry ass punks thought you would have some fun. Fuck!" You jumped a bit but kept your head down.

"I'd keep you retards in custody if I thought it would help answer one of the hundreds of new questions I got! But no. All you know is his damn CB handle and maybe he drives a truck."
The sheriff paused a moment, looking between you.

"Do you understand the kinds of shit I got to grapple with now?! Because of what you assholes did?!"

"You!" Fuller looked up with a look of shame on his face. "You got out of jail when? Yesterday?!" He turned to Lewis next. "And you even let him do this? When you're the one paying bail for his sorry ass?!" Lewis hung his head again. He turned to you this time.

"But you." You looked up a bit. "I would have expected you to at least to talk some sense into them! Not act as their main fucking star!" Fuller looked up. "Its not her fa-"

"Shut up!" You all looked down again. The sheriff's tone got extremely low.

"I want you gone. This is like an old fashioned western. I want you out of Wyoming before the sun goes down."

*
*
*

It was getting dark by the time the police dropped you back off at the motel. Fuller shook his head at Lewis as you all walked back.

"I can't believe it. I can't believe you told them we invited Rusty Nail back. That could've got me thrown back in jail!"

"Yeah do you know what that would mean? A man is half dead because of what we did." You sighed and kicked a rock.

"Oh bullshit. God..." He scoffed at Lewis. "Bullshit. Oh, what? You order 10 pizzas for your neighbor, delivery guy gets there,and your neighbor opens up with an AK-47. Is that your fault?"

"Yeah, maybe it is." Fuller rolled his eyes.

"Fine. Be the murderer all you want."

"No, that's not what I'm doing! I'm just trying to figure out how I'm gonna drive away from this place after what we've done." You gave him a somewhat sad look.

"Just do what I do. Just remind yourself that in a hundred years, you'll be dead. It's the closest thing I've got to a philosophy." You frowned.

"Oh, nice." Fuller shrugged.

"No. You know what? I'm taking you to Denver and that's it." Lewis walked away and straight into the hotel room.

"Great." You ran to catch up with Lewis. "Guys, no."