Eyes Shut

Elias pulled the old Eldorado to the side of the road just inside the city limits of Marrow Creek, Texas. The paint was peeling in spots, but in his mind, the old gal was still as gorgeous as the day he bought her. He draped his suit jacket across the passenger seat, popped the hood, and stepped out into the dry Texas heat. Steam billowed from beneath the hood, and Elias cursed under his breath as he retrieved a towel from the trunk to remove the radiator cap.

Deputy Marcus Cole had been on patrol for a little over an hour when he spotted the vintage Cadillac stranded on Junction 10. The out-of-state plates and the well-dressed Black man bent under the hood quickly caught his attention. Marcus made a U-turn and pulled up behind the car.

"You lost?" he asked, his tone brisk but not unkind.
Elias straightened, wiping his hands on the towel. "Just a busted radiator, I fear. Hoping to fix it before sundown."

Marcus hopped out of his cruiser, exhaling deeply and rolling up his sleeves, revealing a Ranger tab tattoo on his forearm.

"A veteran?" Elias smiled. "Me too—well, sort of," Elias replied with a shrug.

As they inspected the engine, Marcus noticed the radiator drain screw had been loosened, leaking coolant. "Stay here, better yet just sit in your car," he ordered. "I’ll grab some coolant from Gibsons."

Elias gave him a three-fingered Scout’s salute. "I’ll be right here, deputy."

Fifteen minutes later, Marcus returned with coolant. Together, they sealed the valve and refilled the radiator. Just as they shut the hood, a green pickup screeched to a halt beside them. Jeb Carter, the mayor’s son and local hooligan, stepped out with three other men. "Well, look what we have here. Ain’t you got rules to enforce, Deputy?" Jeb sneered, his eyes locked on Elias. Marcus rested a hand on his holster. "What rules are those, Jeb?" Elias stood silent, watching the confrontation unfold. He’d seen this dance before. "You know damn well," Jeb spat. "The kind about what element we allow in town after dark."

Before Marcus could react, one of Jeb’s men grabbed him and threw him to the ground.
"You think we care about your badge or your Army past?" Jeb cackled. "That don’t mean shit here, hero." The fourth man, a hulking brute of a human, snuck behind Elias and lifted him off his feet. Jeb grabbed a tire iron from the truck bed and grinned.

"Seems like you've found yourself on the wrong side of Texas, boy."

"I was just passing through," Elias stated calmly.

"Well, it don't seem you were passing through fast enough."

CRACK.

The tire iron struck Elias in the side of the head, sending blood cascading down his face. Marcus struggled against his captors. "Stop this shit, Jeb!" he screamed. "Just let him go—I’ll make sure he leaves!"

Jeb turned, scowling. "Why would I believe a word you say, deputy? We all saw you, giving this jiggaboo a helping hand." He leaned in, sneering. "Ain’t that right, nigger boy?"							

Elias’ head hung low, blood dripping down around his feet. Jeb raised his shirt, revealing a hunting knife.

"But, now it's too late, and an example has to be made, ain't that right, deputy." Jeb flashed a maniacal grin at the restrained Marcus.  

The blade plunged into Elias’ midsection—once, twice, three times. The brute holding Elias dropped him to the dirt, laughing. Jeb ordered the men to fetch rope from the truck.			

"Let this be a reminder to you, deputy—that badge ain't as scary as you think it is, and heroes don't last long around here."

The man closest to Jeb fashioned a quick noose with the rope and tightened it around Elias’ neck. They continued to punch and kick the man as they dragged him into the trees, all the while howling with laughter. When the men returned, Jeb smirked. "Well now, that's done."

He knelt beside Marcus. "These niggers, they ain’t like us. They’re animals. And just because a few of them wear a fancy suit or use fancy words don't mean shit". Jeb's words were full of venom and hatred. " It's up to good folks like us to show them that their place is beneath us and no matter how hard they try, that's where they'll stay."

Then, from out of the trees and brush, echoed a low, guttural growl. .

The five men froze in their tracks. None of them had ever heard anything that could make a sound like that.

A few moments later the men all readied themselves as they heard leaves and brush crunching under footsteps. Elias emerged from the trees, brushing dirt off his ruined shirt.

"Do you know how much a Zegna shirt costs?" he muttered, frowning. Then he looked up—and smiled.  The men recoiled. Allen and Davey Chase bolted first—only to collapse, screaming. Their legs were gone. Shadow like creatures were gnawing on their severed limbs. Robbie Goggins drew his pistol, firing wildly. One bullet struck Jeb in the shin. Another one of the creatures, seeming to appear from thin air, ripped Robbie’s head clean off of his shoulders. Jeb writhed on the ground, howling, as Marcus scrambled for his service weapon. He aimed at Elias, who merely sighed and lowered the barrel with his index finger. "What the hell are you?" Jeb whimpered. Elias peeled back his shredded shirt—no wounds. "Just a man." He stroked the massive head of one of the creatures closest to him, its form a nightmare amalgamation of wolf, bear and otherworldly nightmare beast. "But these... these are born of all that hatred that you aimed at me, just for being here."
 
Marcus gaped. "How—?"

"When I was a I was a young man back in 1904, I was lynched for no reason other than the color of my skin," Elias said softly. "and for having the audacity to ask a white man a question. As I hung there, life quickly leaving my body, a voice asked what I would do to end this hate—not just for today, not for a century, but forever." His eyes darkened. "I swore that I would do anything."  The creature tore into Jeb’s arm.

"These beasts feed on pure hatred," Elias continued. "When my life is taken in hate, they cleanse the area of that hatreds source." He offered Marcus a hand. "You, on the other hand, you showed kindness." Elias stated. "I could tell what type of person you were the moment you pulled up. I could tell your past and how you treated other people just by the way you treated me. You helped me, even at the peril of your own safety. So therefore, your life is spared."

Marcus stumbled to his feet, trembling. "So, you pick and choose where to go, where to bring those... things?"

Elias’ smile was grim. “Fate chooses”, he said.  "I'm just the vessel in which it chooses to travel". He turned and rubbed the hood of his car. "Well, me and this old girl". 

As Marcus stood to his feet, he could hear more and more screams erupting throughout Marrow Creek. "Best bet, is to get as far away from here as possible, deputy." Elias opened the drivers door to the Cadillac. "It's gonna be hard to explain away the events of this night when the sun comes up and someone happens to stop for gas or something."  Marcus fled to his cruiser and sped home, all the while thinking about what he had just witnessed not even and hour ago. Once he got home, he threw a bunch of clothes into a bag, and frantically roared down the dark street on his way away from this nightmare that was happening all around him. Before he got to far, he could see the Eldorado’s taillights glowing red in his rearview mirror, as it headed deeper into the dying town.

After driving for what seemed like hours, Marcus finally pulled over and wept. He was still trying to wrap his brain around what he had witnessed tonight. In the back of his mind, he knew that him being kind to a stranger was not the only reason he survived Marrow Creeks fate. He slid to the ground as he thought about the only person outside of his family that he called "brother", and how he had lost him half a world away while fighting in another country, and how much the man in that old Cadillac reminded him so much of Donnie. Marcus slowly rose to his feet, wiped the tears from his eyes, pulled out his cell phone, and called his sister in Houston, letting her know that he would be in town for a few days, not giving her any other details. 

And as the night slowly turned into dawn, the creatures faded back into the darkness from which they were born,  and the town of Marrow Creek lay quiet, it's life extinguished by the very hate that thrived in it's homes and streets for far too long.