The Permutation

Results (Part 6) Vergil

Monday 2 p.m. October 3rd

"Hey, aren't you going to card me?" Vergil asked.

"We only gotta card you if you look under thirty, so you're good to go boss." said the new cashier scratching flakes of dry skin off of his face.

"Lucky me," Vergil said with a sigh.

He swiped the brown paper bag containing a plastic bottle of green apple Vodka and retreated towards the door with his head hung low. He'd never managed to shake that feeling of guilt mixed with a dash of shame that resulted from buying hard alcohol in a seedy liquor store. He could still hear her voice in his head, Vergil, my daddy and his daddy before him were both alcoholics and I'll be gosh darned if I see you go down that path. He knew wherever she was she'd be looking down on him with disapproval, but he'd hit rock bottom in his pit of self-loathing quite some time ago.

Vergil stepped outside to be assaulted by a blast of cold air. He rubbed his hands together and blew into them. This brief injection of heat seemed to travel through his body and settle inside him pooling with the rest of the lilac energy. The first time he noticed it was in the shower, but it had even started before that. The omelette this morning, the light of the morning sun, and the heat from this morning's shower had all gathered inside of his body. It had started in his ankles, but now he could feel it stored all the way from the soles of his feet to his pelvis. The way he thought of it was the little indicator on a phone that shows someone how much battery they have when they're charging their phone except the color wasn't green, it was a vibrant violet color. Beyond that, he didn't put too much thought into it. His body felt great, why question a good thing?

Lancet Street, the main street of Lancet Falls, sprawled out before Vergil. The grass strip that ran along its length was populated with trees undergoing the first transformations of autumn. He didn't understand why everyone thought that was so beautiful. Yeah, watching something full of life and color turn a sickly yellow and die was so goddamn beautiful. What a miracle of nature. Luke and Quinn had been there with him when these trees were first planted. At six years old, they'd been so excited to watch them grow and thrive, and now Vergil was watching them die alone. God, I'm thirsty.

Vergil twisted off the cap and took a long pull right out of the bottle still nestled in its brown paper bag. The stinging warmth added itself to roiling pool of violet power. Fueled by the fire in his body, Vergil hopped on his bike and pedaled as fast as he could away from memory lane, but it was never something he would leave behind.

Familiar houses whizzed by, snapshots of days long gone. He scrunched his eyes shut straining his body to pedal even faster. The full weight of his memories was too much to handle with a clear mind. Even with his eyes closed, he knew every nook and cranny of the town all too well, and it was killing him. The left turn of Lancet Street onto Falls Avenue, and another left a half mile down the road onto Jackson Street, were as familiar to him as his own two hands.

"Well, I'll be tickled pink, if it isn't Vergil Wilson!" a voice that could only be Trudy Studebaker shouted in glee.

Tires squealed against pavement as Vergil slammed on his brakes. "Hi, there Mrs. S." he panted.

"You been keeping yourself busy? You look like you've been burning the candle at both ends!"

Without getting off of his bike, he replied, "You bet. I've been living the American Dream."

Trudy stood there smiling trying to think of some small talk to fill the silence of things better left unsaid that gaped between them. A light bulb may as well have shone over her head the way her eyes lit up when she thought of something.