Wally Moran sat in his ten-year-old sedan, watching half a dozen garage sale shoppers mill about.
       Take a deep breath, he told himself. Just look around.
       He couldn't say what sparked the idea to go to a garage sale. He got too nervous around crowds and strangers.
       The longer he sat, battling within himself whether to leave or stay, the more he felt something calling to him, encouraging him to have a look. So Wally heaved in a breath and stepped out of the car.
       The morning was unusually warm and humid. He wiped a bead of sweat forming on his brow. It might have been from the heat, but it was more likely due to anxiety.
       The driveway was lined with clothing and books that sat upon makeshift tables of saw horses and plywood. A small children's bike with training wheels and superhero stickers stood off to the side. Justin wasn't quite ready for bicycle riding yet, but Wally decided he would pay the eight-dollar asking price. He was sure he could get it for less, but he hated haggling over something that was already so cheap.
       After browsing around and finding nothing else of interest, he handed a ten-dollar bill to a husky woman wearing a tank top and shorts. Her graying hair was tied back, and her forehead glistened. She gave off a hint of morning breath and sweaty armpits.
       "My son loved that bike," she said, a memory smile forming. "Can't believe he's off to college now."
       "Mine is almost three."
       "Great age. Enjoy him every day. It's true what they say, you know... that they grow so fast."
       "I've heard that," Wally replied with a soft smile of his own.
       The cashier pointed to a bag on the table. "Could I interest you in a superhero puzzle for a dollar? It's perfect to go along with the bike. The box is broken, but all the pieces are there."
        How could he refuse a puzzle for a buck? Wally then noticed another bag of puzzle pieces. "I'll take it. What about the one next to it?"
       The cashier placed her hand on the clear plastic bag containing a large amount of much smaller puzzle pieces. "I don't even know what this one is. Found it in the attic. It might have been left by whoever lived here before us... I really have no idea. I was about to throw it out, but you never know who's willing to take something off your hands at a garage sale. It's yours if you want it."
       Wally and his wife Marisa always enjoyed a good mystery. "I'll take it. We'll call it even, so keep the change."
       After stopping at the bakery, Wally returned home. He kept the garage sale items in the trunk of his car. He and Marisa enjoyed their once-weekly fancy coffee and yogurts for breakfast (donut for Justin), and then headed out with a cooler packed with lunch sandwiches, snacks and water. They spent the day at the beach, playing in the sand and chasing waves.
       The fog rolled in by four, so they packed up and headed home. They all showered, and by the time Wally finished, the chicken teriyaki and brown rice dinner was ready.
       After dinner, Wally surprised Justin with the bike and puzzle. Justin wanted to ride the bike, but it was still too big for him.
       "You can ride it when you turn three," Wally promised.
       Justin seemed to think for a moment and held up three fingers. "Three," he said and gave his nod of approval.
       Wally held up three fingers in unison. "Three."
       "Who wants to work on the puzzle?" Marisa interjected, sitting at the kitchen table.
       "Me," Justin said, climbing onto a chair next to his mother.
       The lid to the torn box indicated there were fifty pieces, and Wally dumped them on the table. Justin, kneeling on the chair, grabbed several pieces.
       "This'll be fun," Marisa said. "Can't remember the last time I did a puzzle."
       "Me eeder," Justin chimed in, already trying to snap pieces together.
       Marisa and Wally laughed.
       They had barely gotten the outer edges of the puzzle assembled when Justin lost interest, and he and Marisa went to cuddle on the couch and watch TV.
       Wally seized the opportunity to start on the mystery puzzle. The pieces were much smaller than Justin's puzzle, and there were probably at least a thousand. With no picture to guide him, it would take time and patience. But he enjoyed the challenge. In fact, he enjoyed it so much it was after 2:00 AM by the time he looked at the clock. Justin and Marisa had gone to bed hours ago.
       The puzzle wasn't nearly finished, but the edges were all in place, and he had made good headway on the rest. But he had to get some sleep before work, so Wally retired to bed.
       However, sleep never happened. Wally's mind wouldn't shut down. He was consumed by the puzzle, wondering what the final picture would be. When his alarm went off at six, he groaned.
       Marisa climbed out of bed and headed to the coffee pot. As she waited, she took a look at her husband's work. The puzzle was about thirty inches wide and twenty tall. The outer edges were in place, as was a large portion inside, but the center section was missing. "What is that?" she asked Wally, who had just stumbled into the kitchen.
       Wally studied the incomplete picture. "So far, it looks like a brown field surrounded by trees. Might be some words forming here." He pointed to what looked like the top of a few brown letters.
       "Oh, joy. Bet that was worth staying up for," she said sarcastically. "What time did you finally get to bed?"
       "Around two. Not sure what happened. I totally lost track of time. And I didn't sleep at all. I'm going to be dead today."
       "Well, go take a shower. It'll wake you up. For a moment at least."
       Wally pried himself from the table and the puzzle and headed to the bedroom. A shower would do wonders. But first he dropped onto his bed to close his eyes for just one more minute.

       Wally startled awake when Justin climbed onto the bed and bounced on his stomach.
       The sun shone bright through the window, which didn't make sense. The sun only did that in the early afternoon this time of year. Wally fumbled for his phone lodged underneath him.
       "Three?" He sat up, startled. "Justin, where's your mom?"
       He pointed out toward the hallway. "Kishen."
       "Kitchen? She didn't go to work?"
       Justin looked at his father with bright, innocent eyes, like he didn't know how to answer and didn't want to get his mother in trouble.
       Wally went out to the kitchen, where Marisa sat at the table.
       He placed a hand on his wife's shoulder. "Why didn't you wake me up? Why didn't you go to work?"
       She didn't respond. Wally then noticed the puzzle in front of her. He didn't understand what he was looking at. The puzzle looked completely different. Last night, there had been what looked like a field of brown weeds surrounded by pine trees and some incomplete words. Now, he was looking at a nearly completed puzzle of what appeared to be a distant photograph of an old western town, one you might see in a black-and-white cowboy movie. The image was a bit hazy like the photographer hadn't focused the camera. And there were words in big brown letters that made no sense at all:
       I AM YOUR DEMISE
       "Did you start a different puzzle?" he asked, looking around the table. The superhero puzzle pieces were still off to the side.
       "What?" Marisa's voice caught. "No. I went to finish your--"
       "Where's the one I was working on?"
       "I... I don't know. I just wanted to work on it while I drank my coffee..." She lifted her still-full cup. "I didn't even drink it. What time is it?" she asked, sounding both confused and alarmed.
       "Three. I fell asleep, and Justin just woke me up."
       "Hungy," Justin interrupted, tugging on his mother's shirt.
       "Oh, no. He hasn't eaten all day." The thought of depriving her only child snapped Marisa into motion. She wrapped Justin in her arms. His pajamas were wet, his diaper soaked through. "I'm so sorry, honey. Let's clean you up and get you something to eat."
       Wally and Marisa each contacted their employers, apologized for missing work, and both claimed some sort of emergency because they didn't know what else to say. They ate grilled ham and cheese sandwiches while Justin ate chicken nuggets. They both did their best to ignore the puzzle, but they caught each other glancing at it often. They both knew they needed to talk about it but were afraid to.
       How can a puzzle change?
       In order to get away, Wally suggested the park, where they spent what was left of the day. At home, they had a late snack, and Wally read Justin a story in bed.
       With Justin finally asleep, Wally was determined to finish the puzzle. When he returned to the kitchen, Marisa pushed the last puzzle piece in place. The final product was an old western town in the distance with what appeared to be two people lying on a dirt road. The images were too smeared to make out any details. There looked also to be a person standing and pointing at them.
       However, the most disturbing part was those bold, brown letters above the characters:
       I AM YOUR DEMISE

       The following day, after work and daycare, Wally and Justin finished the superhero puzzle. All the pieces were accounted for, and once complete, they dismantled them together and put them back in the plastic bag. But the Old West puzzle remained on the table. It stayed there the rest of the week as well as the next. He wouldn't admit it, but Wally was waiting for the picture to change. He thought maybe Marisa was, too.
       One day, when Wally came home from work the puzzle was mounted in a picture frame hanging on a wall in the living room. Marisa had placed it where it could be seen from the kitchen table. His initial reaction was to protest the formal treatment given to the strange puzzle. It wasn't nice, not deserving of being displayed for all to see.
       "I don't like it," he said. "Whoever took that picture was lazy and left the character images obscure."
       "That is exactly what makes the piece interesting," Marisa argued. "That is what makes it art."
       He didn't mention how the puzzle had changed, how it scared him just a little.

       Justin, now eight years old, sat at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal. "Dad," he said, "why does that picture look different?"
       Marisa had left for work early, so it was just Wally in the kitchen packing Justin's lunch for school. "What?"
       "The puzzle picture is different."
       Wally, waiting six years to see the puzzle change again, rushed to see the framed piece. Expecting a complete scene change, he was disappointed. "Looks the same."
       "It looks closer."
       Wally studied the picture more, and indeed, the town wasn't as far away. He could also see more details of the figures lying on the ground. It was a man in a dark suit and a woman in a long dark skirt and a white blouse. There could have been a pool of blood surrounding them. They might be dead. The man pointing at them had what looked to be a gun in his hand. He stood tall, dressed in what might be jeans and a long-sleeved shirt.
       When Marisa came home, she shrugged it off like it was no big deal. She'd been distant lately and mentally seemed to be somewhere else, but Wally couldn't think of anything more exciting than at least a slight change in the puzzle.
       Baffled that Marisa didn't share his excitement, he studied the picture again.
       I AM YOUR DEMISE
       A line ran from the bottom of the D down to what was likely a puddle of blood.

       Weeks went by without another change. Soon, it was months.
       Marisa drifted further away. She even seemed more distant when it came to Justin. When she left on a sudden weekend getaway, Wally had a stomach-sinking feeling she might be seeing someone else.
       Please don't be seeing someone else.
       The thought burned deep in the pit of his stomach. He could never do that to Marisa, had no desire to be with anyone but her. He questioned her after the trip. Her friend Lisa confirmed the two of them had simply gone to step away from life for a weekend. It wasn't uncommon.
       The next trip Marisa and Lisa headed to Las Vegas. Wally stayed home with Justin, who had just turned nine.
       It wasn't until Sunday morning that he saw the puzzle picture had changed again. The first thing he noticed were the words:
       I AM YOUR DEMISE
       Only now, instead of being written in brown, they were red.
       Blood red.
       From the bottom of the D was a streak of blood that ran down toward the pair on the ground, both definitely lying in a pool of blood. The entire picture was now in color. The woman in the long blue skirt and white blouse had blonde hair. She looked just like Lisa. Her dead brown eyes were open, seemingly staring right at him. The person in the suit was a dead ringer for his wife. Her long auburn hair was pulled back into a ponytail, matted in the blood along with the left side of her face. Her green eyes were looking at him as if pleading for something. The man standing and pointing at them was indeed holding a gun.
       It was Tom, Lisa's husband.

       It had been nine years since Marisa's murder, and Justin was graduating high school. Soon after her death, Wally had learned that Marisa and Lisa had been involved more deeply than just friendship. At least that's what he was told by investigators. He also learned that Tom had been physically abusive toward Lisa. Marisa had been there to comfort her. Tom had thought the two women had snuck off to be with other men, so he had followed them to Las Vegas and then to an Old West ghost town nearby. Tom had thought that Marisa was another man since the girls had wanted to take an old western photo together, one dressed as a man and the other as a woman.
       Tom was now in prison, serving two consecutive twenty-five-year sentences.
       Wally had thought of selling the house and moving away, but he lacked the motivation. What he did do was take apart the puzzle and toss the bagged pieces in the garage. He had intended to throw it away but somehow never got around to it.
       Wally didn't hold it against Marisa for allegedly having an affair with Lisa. How could he? He loved her, and she paid the ultimate price for her betrayal.
       Justin had done well in school, considering his mother had been murdered when he was nine. He could have gone to college, but he decided to join the Marine Corps. "Dad, I just want to go. I miss Mom, and every day that I'm here, I miss her more."
       "If you want to join the Marines, you should go to college first and then go in as an officer. Heck, by the time you get your degree, you might even change your mind," Wally urged.
       "I know, but I'm tired of school, and I want to go. I can always get my degree while I'm in and become an officer. They have great programs for that."
       Wally, being an Army veteran, could not put up a good enough argument to deter his son.

       Two months after graduating high school, Justin went off to boot camp, leaving Wally alone.
       Wally never remarried and had no desire to do so. He'd been on a few dates, but nothing felt right, so he gave up long ago and decided he would finish raising his son on his own.
       Justin had only been gone a week, and Wally was already in the garage, cleaning it out. It was something he had wanted to do for a long time. Between work and garage cleaning, the week passed quickly. He found his old army fatigues and tried them on. The shirts fit him okay, but the pants were too tight. He started wearing the shirts around the house for cleaning and yard work. It wasn't until the weekend that he found the puzzle that had somehow predicted his wife's death years before it happened. He had never told anyone about it, and Justin had never questioned him.
       For some peculiar reason he brought the bag of puzzle pieces in the house and tossed the bag on the kitchen table. He felt like a junkie, knowing that putting the puzzle together was wrong. He should have gotten rid of it years ago, and he should get rid of it now. Yet here it was, in his house, calling to him to be assembled.
       Throw it away. Shred it. Burn it!
       No! Assemble it.
       His internal war raged on. He tried everything to ignore the calling to put the puzzle back together. He went out for a bike ride and then to the gym. He even stopped by the bakery that he hadn't been to in years. And as he sat sipping coffee, he realized he had no friends, no life.
       When Tom killed Marisa, he killed me, too.
       So he went back home and started on the puzzle. As he worked, he began to realize the picture wasn't forming into the Old West scene. Instead, the same empty field the puzzle had initially formed when he began putting it together over fifteen years ago started to take shape.
       By morning, the puzzle was complete: an empty field of dried weeds surrounded by trees. The image of the trees and the field of weeds were clear and focused. It was just the center image that was a huge dark glob, a smudge. Written across the top were those same words:
       I AM YOUR DEMISE
       He studied the picture, and the words, trying to figure out what it could all mean. But it was Sunday, and he was tired, so he went to bed without an answer and slept until early afternoon.
       He made coffee and looked over the picture again. It was still the same, still meaningless.
       A month went by before he decided to frame and hang the finished puzzle.

        Wally drove the eight-hour journey south to San Diego for Justin's boot camp graduation. He and Justin spent a couple of days together before Justin's training continued, and he made it to his assigned duty station at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California, attached to a Combat Logistics Battalion.
       Wally returned home, concerned for his son, hoping he wouldn't get deployed to some unnecessary war.

       Nearly four years went by, and Justin was going to get out of the Marine Corps unscathed. He had been on a few missions he couldn't talk about, but he had survived.
       Wally sat at his kitchen table enjoying a cup of afternoon coffee when he caught movement from the corner of his eye.
       The puzzle.
       The most obvious change was the trees at the top were on fire. Also, the smear in the center of the weed field looked like it was possibly forming a cluster of people.
       His phone rang, snagging his attention. Justin. He moved to the kitchen so he would stop looking at the puzzle. "Ready to come home?"
       "I'm not supposed to get out for another month, Dad. But that's why I'm calling. I'm extending for two years."
       "What? Why? I thought you were coming back home to finish up college. I thought we--"
       "Dad. I'm twenty-two. Moving home isn't exactly for me. I'm more independent now. And I like what I do."
       They talked some more, but Wally was too saddened by the news to really pay attention. The call ended with Wally thinking about his wife and Justin as a little boy, how they were a family, and how he and Marisa at one time had even talked about having another child.
       With Marisa gone and Justin no longer coming home, the mysterious words hammered into him.
       I am your demise.
       He had felt a void in his soul from the day the love of his life had died. He never dwelled on the fact that she had most likely been involved with someone else. He would always love her. Justin would come home every now and then, but he would always be alone. Maybe it was time to move on, to date someone.

       A year passed, and Wally still hadn't been on a date. The puzzle on the wall had zoomed in some more. He was certain now that there was not a cluster of people but just one. The image was still dark and too fuzzy for details.
       His phone rang, and he answered quickly. "Justin."
       "Hey, Dad."
       "You okay?"
       "I'm fine. Just wanted to tell you I'm deploying. I can't say where, but we're leaving in the morning. I'll let you know more later."
       Wally looked at the puzzle, at the image in the center and the burning trees. "No. You can't go," he pleaded. A dark blanket of doom threatened to suffocate him.
       Although Justin had seen the mystery puzzle that predicted his mother's death, he never asked about it, and Wally never offered him any information. How could he when he didn't understand it himself?
       "I don't have a choice, Dad. You know that. I'll come see you when I get back."
       The call ended, and Wally crumbled to the floor. Justin is going to die.
       Every day for three months, Wally looked at the picture in the morning and evening and many times in between. Nothing changed. He talked to his son once a week.
       Justin wasn't allowed to say where he was, but he assured his father that he was safe.
       One morning, Wally looked at the picture, and the first thing he saw were those words:
       I AM YOUR DEMISE
       The letters were blood red now, but the line of blood ran from the bottom of the D to a man in a fatigue shirt, his face contorted in horror. It was impossible to see the face clearly, but Wally was certain it was Justin. And if that wasn't proof enough, the first three letters of the last name were visible on the shirt:
       MOR
       Justin Moran.
       Terror seized Wally.
       He tried to call Justin, but after two rings, he went to voicemail. "Call me!" he desperately cried. He tried again. Nothing. With shaky hands, he called the emergency contact at Camp Pendleton, begging for answers, but they claimed there was nothing to tell him, nothing that they knew about.
       For two days, he suffered looking at the picture, and still, he had not heard from Justin.
       Justin is dead.
       He panicked at the thought of those military men coming to his door and giving him the news of his son's death, so he took out the revolver he kept in his nightstand for home defense. He grabbed his shovel and pickaxe. He didn't want to do it inside of the house. After Justin, the house would go to his niece, who he hadn't seen since Marisa's funeral. That was okay. The house would be kept in the family.
       He walked with purpose through the backyard and the rear gate that led to property owned by the city. It was just an open field. He found a random spot far enough from his house to not be associated with it. He started to dig a hole in the hard, nearly concrete-like soil. It would take forever to dig his grave, but he had all day, all night.
       A huge rumble in the air and a tremble in the ground barely fazed him. He didn't know what it was, but a football field away the trees were on fire. He was focused on his mission and ignored the fire. He used his pickaxe to break through the hard ground. It was working, and he finally broke through to some softer dirt. He dug out the broken earth with the shovel and went back to the pickaxe. He hit something several feet down. It was solid, and there was a hiss.
       Time froze for Wally. He thought back to the day of the garage sale, where he bought the bike and puzzles. He remembered working on the mystery puzzle and how it had formed a field surrounded by trees. He never finished because Marisa took over the puzzle, which changed the picture. She had assembled that puzzle and died the way the puzzle predicted. Now, his death was going just the way the puzzle prophesied. It was never about Justin being in danger.
       Justin is going to be okay!
       He smiled as the explosion ripped him apart.

       Justin came home from his deployment early when he was notified that his father had been killed in a tragic accident. The first day was spent dealing with the police and the morgue. There wasn't enough left of Wally to have a viewing.
       Justin was assured that his father was dead before he even knew what happened to him.
       The report indicated that Wally had been digging out back, beyond his property line. A quarter mile away, there had been a natural gas line rupture underground that caused a massive fire. Wally had struck a vein of that main pipeline while digging. As gas escaped, the fire from the still-burning main line followed the path, causing another explosion. That explosion killed Wally. A handgun registered to Wally was found at the scene, but it had not been fired.
       Not until late that evening did Justin notice the picture on the wall. It was a framed puzzle. He remembered something similar back when his mother had died. It had been a picture of an old western town. She had been killed in a ghost town near Las Vegas. He remembered his dad freaking out about the puzzle and ripping it off the wall. Mostly, he remembered those words:
       I AM YOUR DEMISE
       Just like in the other puzzle, those words were scrawled in blood. From the D, a stream leaked down to a lone figure of a man literally blown apart, his limbs separated from his torso. The man's body had been destroyed by what appeared to be an explosion coming from the ground. The torso clearly belonged to his father, who was wearing an army fatigue shirt with the first three letters of his last name: MOR.
       Justin had read the police report, which stated that his father's remains had been found in an old army shirt.
       Perhaps most odd was the peaceful smile etched on his father's face.