Scribner Horror Bundle: Four Horror Novels by Joshua Scribner (86 page)

For a little while, Jacob thought
about the content of that picture. Then he thought about Dr.
Ross.

“Oh my God! Sonnie!”

When the phone started up again, Jacob
knew who it was. He went over to the chair and picked it
up.

“Ya . . . Ya . . . Ya . . .
Yaaahob.”

#

Jacob walked into the room and found
both old women sleeping. He went slowly past Sara and around the
curtain to his grandmother. He shook her shoulder until he saw her
eyes creep open.

“Ya.”

“Yes, Grandma. I’m here. I heard you.”
Jacob laid the picture on top of her covers. “It’s you. You’re
standing beside a horse. There’s a mountain in the background. It’s
New Mexico isn’t it?”

Oletta Putman whispered
something.

“What?” Jacob lowered his ear to her
mouth.

“Yes.”

Jacob looked into her half-open
eyes.

“You wanted me to find
this?”

Her response was even more labored
this time. He put his ear to her mouth again and heard,
“Yes.”

“They’re race horses, aren’t
they?”

He put his ear to her mouth but
couldn’t hear her this time. He backed away. “Just a second. I’ll
be right back.”

Jacob went out into the hall. He
looked over to the nurses’ station. One of the aids was sitting
there. She looked at him and smiled, then went back to the magazine
in front of her. Jacob stood outside the door and waited, hoping
she wouldn’t notice anything out of place.

One of the lights above the doors came
on down the hall. Then there was the beeping sound. The aide at the
station looked up at him again. She sighed and got up. Jacob waited
until she was inside the room. He walked down the hall until he was
even with the station. Checking over his shoulder to make sure the
aide had not come out yet, he reached over the desk and took a
stethoscope. He walked quickly back to his grandmother’s
room.

She was asleep again. Jacob nudged her
shoulder and she came right to. He put the earpieces in and put the
end up to her mouth.

“Now, all I need is a small whisper.
Tell me. Did you love those horses?”

“Yes.” It was a whispery voice, but it
was loud and clear.

“Did grandpa know that?”

“Yes.”

“Is that why he was out in the
panhandle? Do you think he was going to New Mexico to get you one
of those horses? Is that why he got caught up in the
storm?”

There was a short pause this time, and
though her voice was still loud and clear coming through the
earpieces, he could tell it was quieter.

“Yes.”

Jacob stood up straight and looked
away. “Nobody knew that. All my life I’ve heard this story about
how he mysteriously took off one day. But I suppose he didn’t tell
anybody where he was going because he wanted it to be a surprise.”
Jacob looked down and saw the tear coming out of her eye. “And you
never told anybody, because you knew what would happen if you
did.”

Jacob didn’t want to ask any more
questions. He didn’t want to know. But he knew he had to, on the
slight chance that there was something he could do. “Did grandpa
die because he knew what was going on with you?”

Again there was a pause, and this time
there was a clear break in her voice when she whispered back to
him. “Yes, Yahob.”

“Oh my God, Sonnie! I have to get to
her!”

Jacob turned right on time to see the
aide walk in the door. She looked at him and smiled.

“Old stethoscope trick, huh? How’d you
know to do that?”

“I think I saw you do it once. But
listen—”

“You couldn’t have seen me do it. At
least, not recently. Your grandma has not spoken for months, until
today.”

“Maybe I saw you use it with someone
else.”

“Yeah. I guess that’s
possible.”

“You said she talked
today.”

“Yeah, she was making a pretty big
fuss. Kept saying Ya, and she was shaking and breathing heavy.
Finally, I put one of those things up to her mouth.”

“What did she say?”

“She said a bunch of things, but I
could only make out a few words. She said dresser drawer and
picture book.”

The aide laughed. Jacob half-smiled,
reminding himself that this gleeful young girl in front of him had
no way of knowing the seriousness of his situation.

“I went through her dresser and found
several old photo albums. I flipped through each one, a picture at
a time. Each time she would say no. Then when I came to this one
she said yes.” The aide held out a black and white photograph as
old as the one Jacob had found earlier. “I asked her what she
wanted to do with it, and she just said, Yahob. I think that’s
you.”

Jacob took the picture. “Yeah, I’m
Yahob. Thanks.”

The picture was of his grandmother. In
this one, she was next to a boy who looked about the same age as
her. His arm was around her shoulder.

The aide whistled. “You go,
Oletta.”

Jacob looked at his grandmother who
was fast asleep again. He looked back at the aide. “Tell me . .
.”

“Lacey.”

“Lacey, are you always so nice to the
residents? I mean, do you always give them such special
attention.”

Lacey looked at him a little smugly.
“Truth be known, not really. We don’t have that kind of
time.”

“So why did you do that for
her?”

Lacey looked over at his grandmother
and smiled affectionately. “I don’t know why we’re all so nice to
her. There’s just something about her.”

Jacob looked back at the sleeping old
woman one last time. “I guess so.”

He handed the stethoscope to the aide
and went to be with Sonnie.

#

Jacob pulled off Main Street and
parked amongst the several dirt encrusted farm vehicles that lined
the lot outside of Ledbetter Bar. He got out and walked quickly to
the entrance, but he stopped right in front of the door.

“Not right now.”

He looked around. Something had
changed, but he didn’t know what. On the inside, it had been just a
twinge of anticipation.

“Not right now.”

He walked into the bar, seemingly
without drawing too much attention. At the bar, several old men
continued with their beer and conversation. Off to the side,
another group was engaged in a game of dominos.

Sonnie came running from behind the
bar. She jumped into him, and he caught her. Almost reflexively, he
stroked her hair. Then he stopped. It hurt too badly when he
thought of the danger she was in.

“Jacob, where have you been? I called
all over looking for you.”

Jacob only shook his head.

“I called out to your house several
times. I called your dad’s shop. I even called your sister’s
work.”

Jacob pushed her out in front of him
so she was standing at the end of his extended arms. He held her
tight there.

“What did you tell them?” he asked
loudly. Then he saw the stunned, hurt look on her face. He looked
around the bar. Amazingly, not a head had turned toward
them.

“Sonnie, I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right. I understand. I
didn’t tell them anything.”

Jacob let her go. He noticed her eyes
move to his hand, where he held the picture.

“What is that?”

He handed it to her. “It’s my grandma.
I don’t know who the boy is.”

Sonnie looked it over.

“I don’t know either, but I can find
out.”

Just then, what had happened outside,
happened again.

“Sonnie, did it just get a little
darker in here?”

She looked sideways and then back at
Jacob. “I don’t think so.”

Jacob looked around, but could not
find a window. He turned to the entrance, where the daylight shined
in through the corridor.

“There’s less of it.”

“Less what?”

“Less light.”

Sonnie stepped beside him and stared
at what he was staring at. “I don’t think so, Jacob.”

“Okay, maybe there isn’t.”

Jacob turned his attention back to
Sonnie.

“What?”

He tried to speak but
couldn’t.

“What is it Jacob?” Her eyes begged
him to tell her.

“I don’t know, Sonnie. I don’t know
what to say to you right now. I rushed to get here without even
knowing what I wanted to say.”

She took one of his hands. “Then just
say what’s on your mind.”

He
thought of it. It seemed like there should be something to say to
her. There should be some way to say,
“You’re in trouble, but if you do this and that, you’ll be
okay.”

“Why did my grandma tell me now? What
good does it do me now?”

“What? What did your grandma tell you?
What does she have to do with anything?”

Jacob dropped his head. “My grandma
was like me, I think. She went through some of the same
bullshit.”

Sonnie looked at him for a moment
longer. Then she looked down at the picture in her hand. “Jacob,
what did your grandma tell you? Please tell me what’s going
on.”

Again, there was the change. Jacob
looked at the entryway and saw that the last of the light had left.
“Sonnie, I have to go.”

“Jacob! No! Wait!”

He walked through her hands. “I’ll be
back later.”

“Jacob, stay here.”

He turned at the entrance. “I can’t
resist it. I have to go.”

Sonnie said something else, but her
voice faded too much for him to hear. Jacob walked out.

#

Jacob walks in the night. At first,
it’s the shadows of downtown Nescata that surround him, and he can
still feel the concrete sidewalk under his feet. After a few steps,
new shadows arise in place of the old ones. These are shadows of
trees.

Jacob continues to walk, but now it’s
sand he feels under him. Then, after a few more steps, he feels
nothing under his feet at all.

But he continues to move in the same
direction as before. There are two sounds in the air now. One is
water flowing into water. This sound seems to surround him. The
other comes from one direction and guides him. It’s the sound of a
muffled voice, pleading for something, but Jacob can’t make out the
words.

Jacob moves into trees and walks
through them. In a matter of seconds, he's on the other side. Now
the starlight shines down and reflects off the marshy ground in
front of him. Up ahead is another group of trees.

Without disturbing what he passes
through, Jacob continues ahead. He crosses the marshy soil and the
group of trees, all the while hearing the voice grow louder and
more frantic.

At the end of the trees is an opening.
Forest surrounds this opening. Behind him is what he just passed
through. In front of him, it is thinner, and he thinks he can see
the lake on the other side. To the left, it’s very thick. To the
right it’s thick, except for where a narrow road runs in. Near the
center of the road is the dark shape of a car. This is where the
voice comes from.

The voice fades out as Jacob
approaches the car. He looks in the cab. After he sees nothing in
the front, he looks in the back, only to find it empty too. Jacob
decides to enter for a closer look.

With the surety of someone who has
done this before, Jacob throws his body at the door. But to his
surprise, he hits hard, head first, and bounces back. Through a
daze, Jacob can hear the man pleading again. In his last few
seconds of consciousness, Jacob has an uncanny sense of reason. He
remembers the cave and the future Nescata. There, he could feel
pain, and he affected what he touched.

Is this the
future?

There is a breeze that seems to react
to his voice. It rolls over him, and Jacob can smell the decaying
scent of an Oklahoma lake.

He smiles.

No. The
future has no scent.
Moments later, he
passes out.

#

Jacob awakes in closed quarters. The
light from the moon and stars is gone. There is neither the fresh
smell of the trees, nor the rotten smell of the lake. In their
place is the smell of dust and oil.

In his ribs is a sharp pain coming
from a piece of metal. Against his neck, rising into his cheek, is
more pressure. But this pressure is not hard like the metal. It’s
cold and flexible. When Jacob moves his face into it, it inflects
with him. Then it withdraws. Jacob realizes that it’s
alive.

Jacob is suddenly hit with an
onslaught of blows. The first hits across his face, and Jacob
tastes the dry skin. The second hits his shoulder. Jacob tries to
move away, only to find there is nowhere to move to. He hits the
top of the metal compartment and falls back down. He moves back,
only to find more metal. All the while, feet are hitting the top of
his body.