Works / Short Stories
Black Bear Bleeding
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During a winter thunderstorm, an elderly widower named Will accidentally shoots a trespasser named Rant, mistaking him for a bear. Instead of seeking medical care, the wounded Rant convinces Will to help him retrieve a buried metal box from the property containing his late son's severed childhood finger. They embark on a dark journey to Kentucky and Cincinnati, where Rant fatally poisons a drug dealer in retaliation for his son's fentanyl overdose, then buries the finger at his son's grave to make him "whole" in the afterlife. Before fleeing into the night to die, Rant fires a gun next to Will's face to provide him with a forced-at-gunpoint alibi. Will ultimately returns to a local gas station, processing the trauma while finding a small moment of human connection and healing by offering his late wife's clothes to the cashier.