Moth's Frayed Threads

The sun was setting. We’d been hitchhiking on the side of the road for what felt like hours, but had probably only been fifteen minutes. It didn’t matter either way. We were all starving and needed this lift. Moth was barely clinging onto consciousness, his head bobbing up and down with each car that passed us by.

Ray paced back and forth on the shoulder, keeping an eye out for cars and muttering to himself. I kept my gaze straight ahead, watching the horizon. The last thing we needed was to look desperate. Not that it mattered how desperate we looked – there weren’t any cars coming in our direction anyway.

I turned around and shuffled over to Moth, who sat slumped against a tree trunk. “How you holding up?”

He turned to me and shrugged, “Half of me wants to die, the other half just wants to sleep forever.”

I laughed at this, even though I knew he wasn’t joking, “I wish I could help more man, but I don’t know what else to do.”

Moth shrugged again and tried to stand up. The dry ground beneath us made a rustling sound as he shifted position. He took a step forward then fell to one knee, using his hand to brace himself against the ground; he took another step forward and fell once more. He continued this process until he was standing upright and staring at Ray with wide eyes full of fear and dread.

Ray had stopped pacing and was walking towards us slowly, his face flushed red from anger and exertion. His hands were raised in front of him, clenched into fists so tight that his knuckles had turned bloodless white. He pointed at Moth and yelled out with a voice full of rage: “You motherfucker! You fucking piece of shit! How could you do this?! You said you loved her! You said you would never hurt her! You fucking liar!” He lunged forward just as I flung myself between them and caught him in mid-air before both of us crashed into the ground below us.

I rolled off of Ray and faced Moth while scrambling back on my hands and feet away from both of them; they were now circling each other like animals preparing for a fight. “Calm down guys! I don’t want anyone getting hurt here! Just…just calm down!” My words seemed to have little effect on either of them – they continued their aggressive posturing as if I hadn’t spoken at all. I looked over at Elora who sat cross-legged against the tree trunk with her arms wrapped tightly around herself; she stared at the ground in front of her with wide eyes filled with regret and sadness as tears began flowing down her cheeks – she knew what was going to happen next: a violent confrontation that could escalate to disastrous consequences.

Before any of us could react, Ray punched Moth square in the jaw, causing Moth’s head to whip backward so violently that he stumbled and fell to the ground. Ray charged toward him again and landed a devastating kick to Moth's chest, which sent him sliding back until he hit a tree, gasping for air. As Ray moved in for another attack, Moth managed to rise and threw himself into Ray, sending both men crashing through the air until they accidentally knocked into Elora in the process, causing her to cry out and fall to the ground along with them, leaving her disoriented and horrified.

Ray and Moth's attention now turned to Elora, who slowly pulled herself back onto her feet. Moth grabbed hold of Elora by the arm, brutally struck her across the jaw, and rendered her unconscious before slinging her over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing. He then faced Ray once more, charging towards him with an unstoppable force that sent both men barreling backward, colliding with me and ultimately causing all three of us to crash down onto the hard, dry earth once more. We lay there in chaotic disarray, our bodies tangled like the branches of fallen trees, under an ominous sky with an eerie yellow-brown hue that seemed to foretell the collective punishment meted out as a result of our ill-fated choices and actions.