Chapter 3

Aftershock

“That’s what I looked like? Oh my god, I think I’m gonna throw up.” I gagged a couple of times before swallowing my regurgitated breakfast.

“Yes, that is your body, Samuel Heppin Draga.” Fortuna said matter-of-factly.

“That’s quite unfortunate, honey.” Rhea rubbed her hand on my back to comfort me, but I could tell she wasn’t that bothered by the state of my dead body. She had seen worse. My hands were having some tremors, but I tried to steel myself.

“We have now caught up to current events. Time on Earth has only passed a half second since you have died. I will now synchronize our time with Earth’s.” Fortuna's eyes turned into clocks and glowed, she held out her hand and the image on the magic viewport changed. Both Earth and Zaria were facing each other. Giant golden holographic clocks appeared in front of each, Zaria’s second hand was moving normally while the planet rotated, while Earth’s clock and rotation was still. Fortuna centered Earth’s clock behind her palm, grabbed its second hand, and forced it forward. There was a slight screeching, like rusted metal resisting movement, and then it snapped forward and accelerated until it caught up with Zaria’s clock.

“There we go, Earth’s time is now synchronized to Zaria’s time. Ready to resume?” Fortuna’s eyes glowed.

“I’m ready,” Rhea answered.

I held out my palm, “Wait a second.” I breathed in deeply, held it for a moment, then breathed out. “Okay I’m ready.”

Fortuna nodded and the window into spacetime changed to show the accident sight once again. She then snapped her fingers.

#

“Sir, are you alright?” A distant voice spoke to Bud Bringer, who was sitting on the curbside in front of Max’s.

“...”

“Sir? Can you hear me?” The voice became clear as Bud held his head up to the source.

“What?” He responded.

“Are you okay?” A police officer put her hand on his shoulder, which was covered with a small blanket to give him a feeling of safety. He looked like a cat under a bed. Bud looked up at her, and she was holding a water bottle towards him. Bud took it and drank a sip.

“You’re the officer from earlier? From the traffic stop?” Bud’s voice was unsure.

“Yes, that’s me. My name is Amy Tarmigan. But you can call me Amy.” She nodded at him.

“Amy…” Bud trailed off.

“What is your name, sir?” Amy asked.

Bud regained eye-contact, “B-Bud. Bud Bringer.” Officer Amy Tarmigan was a 5’8”, blonde-haired woman with a lob cut peeking out from underneath her police hat. She looked to be in her thirties. Her eyes showed a look of concern, duty, and experience.

“Mr. Bringer, may I call you Bud?” She asked.

“Yes, ma’am.” He responded.

“May I have your license and registration?” The officer stuck out her hand. Bud handed her his license from his wallet. “Registration?” Amy continued.

“It’s in the truck, in the passenger storage.” Bud nodded weakly over to the truck, avoiding eye contact with the blood stains on the ground, and the chalk marks drawn where the body was.

“Hm. Well we can get it later. Well Bud, can you give me your account of the incident? You are the semi-truck driver correct?” Amy asked. Bud looked over to see the student and store owner answering questions to their own set of officers, then back at Amy in front of him. She had a notepad in one hand and a pen in the other. He nodded his head.

“As you know I took the detour from the closed road nearby and found myself on this one.” His tone was low.

“What was your destination?” Amy asked.

“Oh, um the Lucky Delivery Company headquarters.” Bud pointed to his hat, “I took an overtime request to deliver some goods internally from our warehouse back to HQ.”

“Thank you.” The officer continued writing, “Please continue with your account.”

“Anyway, I found myself on this road, and while I was driving I noticed two people in what looked like an altercation, over a shattered bottle on the floor. I rolled down my window to get a closer look.”

“Can you point them out to me?” Amy tilted her head.

Bud pointed at the student with short brown spiky hair and a vomit stain on his clothing, he was talking to the other cop. The student looked at Bud briefly with saddened eyes and gave a look like he was trying to remember who he was. Bud however, didn’t know him.

“What about the other one? You said there were two?” The officer inquired.

Bud looked around the scene for a moment, then remembered the annoyed look on the man’s face as he ran away. “He’s not here. He ran off.”

“I see. Can you describe him?”

“From what I could see, he was a large, bulky man with a fancy suit and shoes on. He had an expensive looking watch too. Oh, he was also bald. He was intimidating the kid over there.”

“Then what happened?”

“The man uppercutted the kid in the stomach, and he collapsed.”

Officer Tarmigan raised an eyebrow, then wrote down what she had heard. “Assault. What about the other student?”

“I believe he was sitting at the table. I didn’t see what happened next, though.”

“Why not?”

“A dragonfly or some bug as big as one flew into my eye from my open window. This caused me to make a knee jerk reaction and lose control of the truck, so I braked. Unfortunately, the bug left my eyes a second too late as right after I opened them, I heard a scream and then a thud. I wasn’t able to react in time, I didn’t even see the kid!” Bud’s eyes widened.

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The officer frowned at this with a hint of surprise. “That’s… really unlucky, I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

Bud sniffled, “Thanks, officer.” He collected himself, “I got out of my vehicle and saw the body. The shop owner, I think, called 911.”

“Thank you for the information, Bud.” Officer Amy flipped the notebook closed with a smile and handed his license back. “The other officers will get your information and we’ll contact you at a later date. Do you need a ride home?”

Bud nodded his head yes.

“Okay. I’ll arrange for it.” She responded.

“You are not a normal officer are you?” Bud asked.

“Oh no, I’m a detective.” She smiled. “By the way, we will be searching your truck.”

“That’s fine, it’s the companies’ anyway.” Bud shrugged. “All I got is some water, snacks, a pillow and a blanket.”

“Do you know what’s in the trailer in the back?”

“No. They didn’t tell me anything, just the pickup and drop off location. But they did give me the key. Why?”

“Standard procedure. Do you mind opening it for us? Just makes our lives easier.”

“Uhh. Okay.” Bud got up and followed the detective to the back of the semi. There were some cones on the road to divert traffic around the incident. There was an officer there making sure nobody else got too close. He noticed Bud walking with Amy and let them through.

“Okay go ahead and open it for us.” The detective said. Bud nodded and placed the key into the back to unlock it. He then grabbed the handle and lifted the door up, making a loud metallic sound.

A gust of air blew out of the back of the trailer, blowing Bud’s hat off of his head showcasing his bald spot. Amy’s hair just folded upward.

“Is that? Glitter?” Bud thought. The air looked like it had a hint of color, and it sparkled. Once it cleared they could see clearly.

“Nothing?” Bud stated. “No wonder it steered light.”

Amy turned on a flashlight and pointed it inside. Bud was right, there was nothing in here. “Does this happen often?” She asked Bud.

“Not to my knowledge. Unless I was delivering the trailer itself.”

“Hm. Well, I’ll have forensics check this out just in case.” Amy called in the forensics team on her radio. “Now, let’s get you that ride home.”

#

The drive home was quiet. The detective shot the occasional glance at her rear-view mirror to look at Bud, who was looking out the back-seat window.

“He’s probably still in shock.” Amy thought. Her eyes returned to the road. An apartment complex was coming up in front of her. A stone sign in front of the parking lot read ‘Sunshine Apartments’.

“Is this it?” Amy asked.

“Yes, building four, please.” Bud responded. The police car pulled up in front of the corresponding building, and the back doors unlocked. “Thank you for the ride, detective.” Bud opened up the back door.

“Wait a second, Bud.” Amy stopped him, then reached out with a card. “Here’s my card, call me if you remember anything else, okay? Though, I can’t promise you that we won’t reach out first. Most likely you’ll be brought in for more questioning.”

“Okay, I kind of anticipated that.” Bud took the card out of her hand.

“Alright then, stay safe.” Amy waved at him.

“Thank you.” Bud got out of the car. Amy watched him as he went inside his apartment on the second floor. She sighed.

“Now to go notify the parents.” Amy put the car in drive and rode off.

#

Bud closed his apartment door behind him and locked it. He looked forward at the living room engulfed in shadow, moonlight shone through a window to illuminate the table. Bud walked into his kitchen and looked at the various items in his refrigerator. The yellow light reflected off of his face and showed him eggs, cooked maple bacon, milk, peppers, onion, skirt steak, and leftover chicken alfredo.

He instinctively grabbed the leftover alfredo in the plastic container, and put it on a plate he got from the cabinet above. With a touch of water from his refrigerator’s filter, he placed it in the microwave and turned it on for two minutes. MMMMMMM. The microwave made a low buzz as Bud’s eyes followed the rotation of the plate inside. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. Bud opened the microwave and placed the plate on the table, grabbing a fork along the way. He pulled out a chair and sat down staring at the food in the moonlight. He spun his fork into the pasta, the steam still coming off of it, and poked it into his mouth.

Bud gagged. He dropped the fork onto his plate and ran over to his toilet and vomited. It came out of his mouth like sewer runoff and spewed out of his nose like a bunch of baby spiders breaking out of an egg. Bud took a couple deep breaths before standing up and washing his mouth out with sink water.

Bud immediately walked into his bedroom to grab his pajamas, then went back into the bathroom and took a shower to get all of the sweat and vomit off of him. This time the shower was short, about five minutes. He got out and dried off with a towel, putting on his pajamas in the process. He felt refreshed on the outside but he needed to feel it on the inside too. His throat stung due to the spray of gastric acid from earlier, so he brushed his teeth, spitting out the hard to reach sour chunks of vomit still in there.

Bud walked across the hall into his room and jumped onto his bed, laying his head down on the pillow. He wanted to go to sleep but he couldn’t, the events from earlier were keeping him up. It was like he had another cup of coffee. His phone buzzed on his nightstand but he didn’t bother answering. He turned to face the plain white ceiling, the fan overhead spun clockwise and he followed the blades with his eyes. It almost looked like they were slowing down as he tracked them. He did this for an hour.

The sound of keys jingled behind the front door. A deep thrust into the keyhole echoed, as the tumbler turned. The door opened and closed, and a sigh was heard from the living room.

“Dad?” A feminine voice questioned Bud’s location. Footsteps walked toward Bud’s bedroom, and a figure appeared in the doorway. It reached for the light and turned it on, causing Bud’s to cover his eyes with his arm.

“Ughh, turn that off please, May.” Bud groaned and put his face into his pillow.

“Well, you should have answered me! I’ve been trying to message and call you for an hour now!” May sounded worried. She was Bud’s daughter, a twenty year old in her second year of college. She had long brown hair, brown eyes, and liked to wear cat related items. Her t-shirt had a cartoon version of a black cat sleeping on a burger. “Rob told me he got into an accident, one of his close friends’ died, and he thought you were there!”

“What? Who is this Rob you are talking about?” Bud sat up on his bed.

“...” May stood in the doorway quietly.

“May?”

“My boyfriend,” she said in an embarrassed tone.

“I see. Is he a good guy, does he treat you well, do you love him?” Bud asked.

“All of the above, of course.” May crossed her arms.

“Okay, that’s all that matters.” Bud nodded.

“And before you ask, here’s a photo.” May walked up to Bud and showed him her phone’s lock screen. It had a photo of May and what was presumably Rob, in swimwear with arms around each other, smiling and with the beach behind them.

Bud remembered the other student at the scene, the one talking to the cops. He thought, “Oh, him. No wonder why he looked at me funny.”

“Enough about my boyfriend. He thought he recognized you after the accident. Were you there? Are you okay?” May sat on the bed.

“Yes, I was there.” Bud looked down.

“What happened?”

“I-I killed him.” Tears started to form in Bud’s eyes, his voice cracked in despair. “I killed his friend, May. I drove my truck into him.” Bud started crying into his pillow, full blown sobbing, making groans and muffled yells. He grabbed at the pillow, showcasing his frustration that he couldn't do anything in time.

“Oh my god.” May was astonished. It was the first time in her life that she ever saw her father cry. She didn’t know what to do, so she tried imitating what her father did to her when she was younger and feeling down. She took her father’s hand into hers and spoke softly, “It’s okay Dad, it’s okay. Rob told me it was an accident. Some guy had pushed Sam into the truck as you were passing by.”

Rob stifled a sniff for a moment as if a blink of light came to relieve his soul, “Really?”

“Yes really. It wasn’t your fault.” May cupped her other hand around her father’s, but it wasn’t completely enough.

“It doesn’t change the fact that I killed him!” Bud's soul fell back into the depths, as May sat there until her dad finally cried himself to sleep.