Bonez Dubb's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Bonez Dubb sat in his parked car with the engine off. His tattooed hands gripped the wheel. Six months without Amber. Six months of songs that sounded like someone else wearing his voice. He had driven through two states already. He had called every number. Today he was going to try again, because saying sorry was the only thing left that felt real. He flipped down the sun visor and a folded paper dropped into his lap. He opened it slow. A bright dragon curled across the page in her colors, her patterns, her hand. In the corner, faded pencil: a date from three years back, and an address scrawled near a place she once called the worst stop in the state. He read it twice. His chest went tight. She had left this for him long before she vanished. She had known. Bonez started the engine. He drove until the road thinned and the fields opened up. A leaning red barn sat at the end of a gravel lot, paint peeling, a hand-painted sign warning tourists to keep out. On the door, taped under cracked plastic, was another small drawing in her colors — a wild little creature with a painted coat, eyes pointed straight at him. Bonez stepped out. The wind pulled the paper loose. He caught it before it flew. The address matched. She had marked this spot for him years ago. He was standing where she wanted him to stand. He walked closer. Behind the barn, a deep sinkhole gaped in the dirt, its edges crumbling, a rusted fence half-swallowed inside it. A second sign hung crooked: DANGER. KEEP BACK. His stomach dropped. She had sent him toward something that could break under his feet. He pressed the folded dragon to his chest and stepped past the warning. Whatever she wanted him to find was on the other side of that drop.