The Road Back

The Road Back

When he woke up in his La-Z-Boy he knew something was wrong. Besides the fact that it was dark, it was the blood all over his shirt that shocked him the most.

"What the hell?" he said, as he got up and stumbled into the bathroom. The face he saw in the mirror was wrong. There was a 3-inch cut still slowly bleeding from his left cheek. He washed the cut. It looked clean, like a knife  had sliced him, but he had no recollection where it came from. He heard his phone ring back in the den.

He held a washcloth to his face as he answered. "How ya feeling?" He could sense the malice in the voice. "Who is this?" he asked. There was a long pause. "You don't remember?" the voice laughed. "You should," he said.

Unbelievable, he thought.  "Who is this?" he asked again, with a little malice in his voice as well. 

"Have you cleaned up yet?" 

He looked around the room. The only blood he saw was on him. Then he noticed a few drops of blood that led out of the room. "If you haven't, you have about 10 minutes before the cops get there," the man laughed. "Better hurry." The line went dead.

“Damn,” he said. Then he noticed the display---it had the number of his mystery caller. He didn’t recognize it, but he figured he could call back when he wanted to. Right now he was more concerned about the blood trail…