Scribner Horror Bundle: Four Horror Novels by Joshua Scribner (49 page)

James turned to his
parents.

“Are you all right, dear?” his mother
asked.

“Yes,” James struggled to say. He went
to sit, and there he was able to calm down. With his parents still
standing there, he said, “Next week, I’ll go outside. I’m sure of
it.”

Chapter 9

Celeste spoke vaguely about
improvements. That she was vague was not surprising, giving the
nature of her problem. She wouldn’t want to discuss progress out
loud, especially with James and Toby in the room. But that was
fine. Dr. Porter could measure her success by her high level of
enthusiasm.

Toby said he thought he might have
improved, but wasn’t sure, because his optimism might have clouded
his judgment. Dr. Porter trusted the assessment of this bright
seventeen-year-old kid. Toby hadn’t broken through the barrier last
week, which probably meant his improvements were not real. He was
drawing his hope from hearing that James had broken through and
found rewards.

Then there was James, whose opening a
door to the outside world was a huge breakthrough. James even
suggested that the next appointment be held at Dr. Porter’s office.
He noted that the only times he would be outside were from his
parents’ house to the car and then from the car to Dr. Porter’s
office. Dr. Porter agreed that it would be an adequate test for
next week, so long as James made more progress on the barrier
today.

Then they got started.

Dr. Porter looked at them as they were
deep in their trances. Right now, they were all they ever were, but
in their experience, they were nothing more than nameless drones,
responding to the simple command to break away at the barrier. And,
like last time, they weren’t under long before the progress
stopped. Dr. Porter pulled them up.

Toby was first. He said, “I broke
through! I felt the heat too! I broke through!”

Dr. Porter smiled at Toby, who had
stood up in his excitement. Suddenly, this kid had the countenance
of a kid.

“I can’t wait to see what happens,”
Toby said.

Next, it was Celeste, who turned her
smile from the excited teen to Dr. Porter. “I made progress,” was
all she said.

James then said, “And it gets better.
I’ll bet the gap in my barrier is five times bigger now. It’s like
the more I chip into it, the more unstable it becomes.”

Dr. Porter nodded and said, “Yes, and
the work you do during the week will cause the barrier to weaken
further. But let me remind you, if you do go overboard and try to
take too much at once, I suspect the barrier with solidify. So, for
next week, try to do just a little better than the week
before.”

Dr. Porter wasn’t sure that this was
the case. He suspected that there was a chance the barrier might
not solidify at all. But he thought it was good to proceed with at
least that level of caution.

All three heads nodded.

***

Randy Pollard had gone from a star at
Pious High to a star at the statewide level, at least in class A
football. He had thrown two touchdowns and ran one in the Friday
night upset. Now, for the first time in over twenty years, Pious
would probably be ranked number one in the state.

Last night, Robert had discussed the
possibility of Randy going to a bigger high school next year, maybe
to one of the schools in Green Pastures or Arabuke, where he was
more likely to be recruited out of high school at a nationwide
level. But he had only brought it up with Janet. He didn’t want
Randy or his teammates thinking about that while the season was
still on. Robert still stressed over it, though. Randy was a great
athlete and an exceptional roll model at Pious. He would be a big
loss. But, at the same time, they would have to think of what was
best for their son, who might be good enough to make a living
playing football someday. He was looking that good.

On Sunday, they went out to dinner to
celebrate two things: Randy’s success as a quarterback and Toby’s
success at what he called, “breaking through.” Toby usually stayed
home when they went out. But this time it was actually his
suggestion. They went to a steakhouse in Green Pastures.

Robert and Randy both got steaks.
Janet got shrimp. Toby settled for the salad bar. Janet watched
from the table as Toby surveyed the various containers. He seemed
to study the food there, and it took him several minutes to return
with the little plate.

Randy and Robert had also been to the
salad bar, but didn’t seem too interested in their plates, once
Toby sat down. Janet hoped their nonchalant stairs didn’t bother
Toby. Then Toby sat them all at ease.

“Go ahead and watch to see how I do,”
he said with a smile, and then the three stares were not
nonchalant.

First, Toby tried a couple of grapes.
He stuck them in his mouth and held them there for a few seconds.
He then slowly began to chew. A few seconds later, he swallowed,
the look on his face hard to read.

“Not bad,” he said.

Janet gasped with excitement, and then
noticed when Randy and Robert looked at her with
surprise.

Toby tried a few more things, all
plain fruits and vegetables. He said they weren’t exactly good, but
they weren’t repulsive either. Janet couldn’t believe it. It looked
as if something might be working for her son.

***

On Tuesday, James made his way onto
the back porch. This was his morning ritual for this week. On
Sunday he’d stayed there five minutes and on Monday ten. Monday had
been hard, a lot harder than Sunday, so James thought that maybe he
should just max out there for the week, ten minutes.

Dr. Porter had said at the end of the
session on Saturday that James could back out of his offer to
travel to the Green Pastures office if he felt it necessary. But
James thought he would make it. He figured riding in the car
wouldn’t be as hard as sitting out in the open, especially if he
closed his eyes when he felt overwhelmed.

But on Tuesday, as James sat on the
porch swing and looked out into the back yard and into the alley,
something was different. Ten minutes rolled by and James didn’t
feel anxious enough. His anxiety level was not rising at near the
level it should have. James thought he knew why.

The previous two days had been sunny
and clear. Today, the rain was coming down pretty hard. James
decided to do a little experiment. He stayed out for another ten
minutes, making the total twenty. His anxiety seemed to be rising,
but very slowly. He estimated that, if things didn’t change, he’d
be able to stay out for about an hour. But then the rain began to
slow down. As it slowed, the rate at which his anxiety rose
increased. He suspected the rain was like a barrier to whatever it
was his subconscious feared. James thought that if he tried to wait
outside until it completely stopped, he’d feel his anxiety rise at
an even faster rate.

He wasn’t sure, though. Was the rain
the barrier, the clouds or both? What was blocked? He could think
of no way of knowing just yet. But he didn’t wait around to see. He
went in, content to try again tomorrow.

***

On Sunday, the urges had arrived. And
they were foreign to Celeste. She kept thinking back to when she
had been in the theater with Paul. She remembered him putting his
arm around her. She imagined him doing more. She thought of what it
would have been like if he’d moved his hand a little and touched
one of her breasts. For a little while, after imagining that,
Celeste felt more new sensations. Her skin goosebumped, and her
nipples hardened a little. But then the repulsion fought back and
she felt sickened. She repeated this sequence several times, with
the same ending.

Celeste thought of what it must be
like for other women, to get the urge, feel the sensations and then
be able to hold onto them. She knew it was just a matter of time
for her. But for now, this week, she had work to do.

She wanted to use Paul again. But, at
the same time, she didn’t want to confuse him. He hadn’t said
anything about the theater, and Celeste suspected he didn’t think
too much about it. She doubted that when she was able to develop a
healthy sexual desire, Paul would be someone she’d go for. They
just had too much history as friends, something she didn’t want to
spoil with dating. And she didn’t want to spoil it by leading him
on either. She had to find another person to work with. On Tuesday,
not long after coming to work, she found him.

Parker Swinson was a local attorney
who’d been coming in for years. He had, like many, taken an
interest in Celeste soon after she started. Then he’d learned the
rules.

Celeste liked Parker. He was a young
defense attorney with a caustic wit. She’d heard him in discussions
with closed minded people and enjoyed the biting sarcasm he used to
rip them apart. She supposed he was attractive to most women: lean,
dark hair, blue eyes.

On Tuesday, Parker came in alone and
sat out on the patio in back. He usually ate inside, but
occasionally went out there if he was studying something. Today, he
had a stack of papers in his hand, maybe a contract, and appeared
to be deep in focus. Celeste knew he was in Kendra’s section and
that Kendra had done well to make sure he had all he needed, but
she decided to feign ignorance to all of this.

She walked outside. It was a cool day
and had been raining earlier, so nobody else was on the patio.
Parker looked up and nodded slightly as she came out. She knew what
she wanted to do and was quite nervous. She didn’t really have
urges now, and was just trying to be a bit braver than last week.
Before she could think too much about it, she sat down squarely on
Parker’s lap.

“You been waited on, hon?” Celeste
said, nervously, unnaturally.

“Well, yeah,” Parker said in a shocked
voice.

Celeste briefly pressed her butt into
his midsection as she got to her feet. She thought she felt a
swell. She went back inside without looking back.

***

On Wednesday, James waited to go
outside. It wasn’t until well after dark that he went out and sat
on the porch swing. It was a clear night, not a cloud in the sky.
He felt his anxiety rise at a steady rate. He lasted ten minutes
before he was overwhelmed and had to go in.

James went downstairs and sat in the
middle of his speakers. He turned the music on and absorbed it.
After calming down, James was able to reflect on his
experiment.

The day before, the anxiety had been
less with the rain. After reflecting today, he had thought that
possibly due to the clouds blocking out the sun; maybe it was the
sun that triggered his anxiety. But he had feared both night and
day before he started Dr. Porter’s new therapy.

Still, he’d reasoned that maybe the
sun was at the base of his fear, and that the fear of the outside
in general had developed out of that. In turn, because being
outside at night, without the sun, was a mere secondary fear, it
would be less resistant to therapy.

It had seemed like a reasonable
hypothesis. But now he knew that his hypothesis was wrong. The
night sky wasn’t a secondary fear. He feared the night as much as
he feared the day. So the sun wasn’t to blame. Still, the rainy
weather had acted as some kind of barrier for the anxiety. What was
in the sky?

***

Celeste came home from work Wednesday
night and went to bed. As far as she could tell, Parker hadn’t said
anything to the other staff about what she’d done the previous day.
Celeste was glad, not wanting to answer a lot of
questions.

When she had done it, there had been
little in the way of sexual sensation. It was afterward, thinking
about it, that she got aroused. She imagined that swell up against
her. She added him reaching around and touching her breasts. As it
was before, she would think this, become somewhat aroused, and then
have the feelings fade into repulsion. But she thought it was
progress.

She had thought little of her imagined
friend this week. But that didn’t seem like a big deal. Right now,
she was caught up in the sensations. She was learning to like
physical contact. That was the gateway to having that forever
friend.

Then there was the James factor. She
loved that James was ahead of her. He allowed her to see that it
was only going to get better.

Chapter 10

The car ride hadn’t been that much
different from being inside his house, at least anxiety wise.
Otherwise, it was great. James loved the feeling of being inside
something and moving down the road, the way the pavement, the trees
and the other cars seemed to come at him so fast. He absorbed the
rhythm of the vehicle moving and found it very relaxing. The only
anxiety came in walking to the car and walking to Dr. Porter’s
office from the car, and that anxiety was minimal, as the exposure
to the outside was brief.

Inside Dr. Porter’s office, James felt
like a star. He was like the guest of honor, arriving for a rare
appearance. He found Dr. Porter in the lobby.

“How was your trip?” the doctor
asked.

“Excellent,” James replied.