Shafts: A Narrative Fiction

Shafts of light shot through the windows on the otherwise still night, neatly silhouetting Dean and Rob in the front seats. Jack watched them, silently tracing their shadows from the backseat. The only sound was the humming of the engine, a gentle serenade to the void outside their car. He supposed this quiet was, in part, due to the circumstances they’d found themselves in. “So,” Rob murmured from his place behind the wheel, “who wants to pick up the gasoline?” He’d pulled the car up beside his house, and refused to divert his gaze from the road ahead. The lights in the house were off. Rob’s grandfather had likely believed his grandson was at home and not sitting in a car outside it. “It’s your house,” Dean replied in a simultaneously …show more content…
When Dean his head to give the house a second look, Jack noticed the cigarette balanced neatly between his lips. Dean pulled it away, exhaled smoke, and then prepared to say something. “J--” “I’ll go,” Jack volunteered before Dean could finish volunteering for him, and with the faint light the cigarette provided, Jack could see Dean quirk an eyebrow. He reached into the front for the flashlight, earning a disgruntled look from Rob and an irritated huff from Dean. “The can should be out by the garage,” Rob told Jack as he opened the car door. He left it open as he slid out of his seat, sprinted through the grass, ducked around to the driveway, and halted as the flashlight beam fell upon the gasoline can. Jack picked it up, squeezing the handle tight enough that if he’d shined the beam upon his own hand, his knuckles would’ve been white. He carried it the way one carries a fallen tissue, delicate but disgusted, and darted back to the vehicle. The time on the clock read 12:59. Dean’s cigarette was growing shorter. “What’s the plan now, Jack?” Rob asked as Jack set the can down on the floorboard and closed the door behind