[ ★ ] chet turned slow, like the world had thickened around him. every step dragged, boots crunching through gravel sticky with spilled beer and caramel apples gone soft in the dirt. the sirens painted everything red and blue — a fever dream of light, flashing across his jaw, across the sweat that clung to his collar. smelled like burnt sugar and copper and fear. his hand went to his hat, more habit than sense, thumb brushing the brim as his bleary eyes tried to focus on the figure hollering through the noise.
“...back off?” chet echoed, words slurred, vowels tangled. “hell, son, i am backin’ off. just—” he waved vaguely, nearly losing his balance. “—just ain’t sure which way’s off no more.”
the man in front of him came clearer when he blinked hard — young face, too clean, too sharp at the edges. a boy playin’ at calm but buzzin’ under it. “that you, talbot?” chet rasped, voice gravel scraped thin. “thought i recognized them eyes. always dartin’ round like a rabbit waitin’ on the hawk.” he took a step closer, uneven. “guess you seen your hawk tonight, huh? tore her clean open.” behind him, the fair looked wrong — rides frozen mid motion, lights still spinning, music choking out of the speakers like a dying thing. somewhere, a woman was crying. somewhere else, a deputy shouted for folks to stay back.
chet didn’t move. he just swayed there, bourbon sweet breath thick in the air, eyes glassy and wet at the corners. “saw you standin’ there before the sirens,” he muttered, pointing toward the taped-off grass. his finger shook. “right there where she’s lyin’ now. can’t tell if you moved too fast or not at all. maybe ghosts got a hold of you, huh?”
a stumble, a half step forward. the words were falling out of him now, unfiltered, blurred by drink and something darker. “don’t gimme that back off shit, kid. i been round since before you learned how to piss straight. i seen—” he trailed off, squinting at nothing. “seen a lotta throats cut cleaner’n that. army, pit lane, hell— even the circuit had vultures sharper’n you.”
his gaze drifted, unfocused, to the blur of a deputy’s flashlight cutting through the dark. “— they don’t forget you for it, either,” he slurred, voice dropping to a whisper. “ghosts don’t. they follow you home. sit in your damn passenger seat. talk to you while you drive.” then his stare snapped back to nathan, sudden and sharp through the drunk, rambling haze. “you ain’t supposed to be here,” he said again, quieter, like it hurt to say it. “i saw you. i know i did.”
he swallowed hard, the liquor turning bitter on his tongue. somewhere deep in his chest, grief twisted — a name he didn’t say, a little girl’s face that didn’t belong to the one dead on the ground. chet’s breath came rough, uneven. “you best start talkin’, boy,” he muttered, shoulders heavy, eyes gone glassy. “’cause i ain’t drunk enough to pretend i didn’t see what i saw.”