Epilogue.....

(Or is it?)

Spooner turned the handle and opened the door. As it swung open he stepped in, the stale and nauseating air almost overpowering. A woman stood before him. She was crying.

"Hello Agnes.", Spooner said. "I half expected you to be here."

"I'm sorry it had to be like this.", Spooner's former love cried out as a large man stepped out from the shadows.

"Hello son."

"So you figured it out?", Deaf Jim posed.

"I did. I still haven't processed it yet. I sure could use a good sit."

"Have some tea Spooner.", Agnes said as she placed a chipped china cup into Spooner's trembling hands. "It'll calm your nerves."

Spooner sat and sipped the lukewarm Earl Grey, tasting something acrid and thoroughly unpalatable as the last drops passed his dry lips.

"You knew it would come to this." Deaf Jim roared. "You knew the minute you abandoned me to live in that mine. You could have come for me. You could have saved me from this life."

"I'm sorry son. I wish I could take it all back."

Agnes noticed a subtle loss of upper body tone and shrieked in suprise as Spooner's cup crashed to the ground sending a number of roaches scurrying between some rotten planks of wood. He slumped to one side.

"Forgive me Spooner, forgive me."

"It's not up to me Agnes. It never was. I know that now." Spooner fell to the ground lifeless and Agnes rushed to embrace him. She heard the door slam and an engine start. She made it to the window just in time to see a bulky shape astride a motorcycle she recognized from her past disappearing in the distance. She wept in the silence of the abandoned bed and breakfast, alone with the choices she had made.