“You're dead to me.”
He growled at Dan, through a grimace, his lower teeth locked against his upper lip. Dan just stared past me, with that annoying, sour look he always had. Even when we were boys, he would just stare with that dumb, blank gaze- disapproving of everything in the world, and disapproving of anything I did. Well even now, some two decades later, that sour gaze hasn't blinked...except now it seemed to be just empty.
“Say something!”
But he held his gaze past me.
“ The least you could do is look me in the eyes!”
At best his condescension was aimed at an old floorboard.
It was quiet. You could practically hear the dust floating down from the beams. Kind of like that stuff you see in those videos of deep ocean vents-where all those weird fish hide. The fish with the big creepy teeth. Me and Dan watched one of those shows; I thought they were fascinating-Dan just thought they were creepy. I don't know, I kinda of always felt bad for them...hiding in the dark and all that.
Not a sound came from the room. All I could hear was that low whoosh your ears hear when there's absolutely nothing else to hear. That “whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...” where if you listen long enough and closely enough, it starts to almost form words. Maybe it's blood rushing through your head something.
“Why...why...why...why.” It seemed to say as it pulsed in steady rising and falling waves.
“ I don't know why! It's your fault-not mine!” The last part was directed at Dan, as I looked down at him. He hadn't moved from that spot in the corner. An empty beam of dying sunlight crept through a lone oval window, the really old kind where the glass is just a bit thicker near the bottom; It illuminated his auburn highlights as it faded into the stale floorboards. Shadows were beginning to form around the empty room and I half expected one of those weird fish to come swimming out of the darkening corners.
He glanced over his shoulder and then back at Dan.
“I guess our friendship's over...too bad it couldn't have ended on better terms...” I looked for anything, anything to indicate Dan understood from where I was coming, or what I was thinking. Nothing. Not even a nod of acceptance.
“ I guess this is goodbye.” he said as he rolled Dan's body into an empty space in the wall.
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