Scribner Horror Bundle: Four Horror Novels by Joshua Scribner (87 page)

It’s mostly sharp pain that he feels,
but a couple of the blows hit his head and make him dizzy. Jacob
finally gets his arms above him, only to feel more pressure against
his ribs, where the large piece of metal is driving in.

“Stop!” Jacob says with what little
bit of air he can produce. This only makes the kicks come faster.
But, at least, for the time being, they aren’t as hard.

Jacob feels the feet move away and
hears the heavy breathing of the person who kicked him. Jacob lies
with his pain, afraid to move and afraid to make another sound.
It’s hard for him to breathe, not only because of the pain, but
also because there is limited air in this place. The next thing he
hears are the pleas of the person that is with him.

“Please don’t hurt me anymore! I’ll
get you your money! I don’t want to die!”

Jacob is kicked again as the man
yells.

“Raymond! Help me,
Raymond!”

Jacob shifts what he now knows is a
jagged blade out of his ribs. Then he lifts his hands above him and
grasps until he has one hand on each of the man’s feet. The kicks
continue, but now Jacob guides them away. The man struggles to
escape his grip, but Jacob does not relent. He is still in pain,
but with the blows coming with less velocity and the pressure out
of his ribs, he is able to regain some sense of
reorientation.

“You’re asking for Raymond Mann. He’s
your big brother. You’re Gary Mann, aren’t you? You . .
.”

Jacob refrains from telling this man
his fate, not wanting to panic him anymore than he already
is.

“Jacob Sims,” Gary says in a whiney
voice, so different from the confident voice Jacob used to know.
“Is that you?”

Jacob hesitates before answering.
“Yes, it’s me Gary.”

“Why are you here? Are they going to .
. . Did they take you too?”

“Did who take me? Who’s doing this to
you, Gary?”

“No! I can’t tell, or they’ll hurt me
more.”

“Gary, it’s all right. I won’t let
them hurt you. But you have to tell me who they are.” Jacob feels
the putrid sense of guilt that comes with lying, but when Gary is
silent for a little while, Jacob thinks he might tell him what he
wants to know.

“No! No! No!” Gary finally whines. “I
can’t. You’ll tell them.”

“No, Gary. I won’t tell them. I’m your
friend, remember? We were on the same team. We played in the state
championship game together. We won. I’m your friend.”

Again, Gary is silent. Jacob lets go
of his feet and waits. Gary whimpers some more, then finally speaks
again.

“You’re with them, Jacob. I remember
now.”

“No, Gary. I don’t know what you’re
talking about.”

A shot to the head and Jacob is busy
defending himself again.

“You took me over there. I didn’t want
to go, but you said it would be fun.”

“Gary, no!”

There is another shot. Gary’s voice is
angry now.

“I did it for you. You’re the one who
needed to try something new.”

The memory slowly rises up until it is
clear in Jacob’s mind. He is shocked that this had not connected
before. They had been at Gary’s house. It was a Friday night, and
Gary wanted to go into town. Jacob talked him out of it. Jacob had
been talking earlier that week with Shane Tantenmore. Shane had
told him about this new guy in town that he was buying pot off of.
Shane told him that the guy had other stuff too and that Jacob
should come over with him. Jacob did, and he brought Gary. They met
the older guy that Friday night. He gave them some rocks to try.
Jacob didn’t. Gary did. The older guy’s name was Scar.

Jacob feels a few more of Gary’s angry
kicks before he feels his body fade away. There is the sound of a
key turning in the lock. The metal ceiling rises, and there is
moonlight. In that moonlight stand Shane and Scar.

“Pull that piece of dog shit out of
there!”

Jacob floats from the trunk of the car
and is standing behind them. Gary is screaming.

“No! Help me! Please!”

Jacob moves at their backs. He swings
at Shane. But his arms fly through the body without connecting. He
backs off helplessly.

“Please, I’ll give you the money!
Please don’t hurt me anymore!”

Scar holds Gary’s arms, and Shane
punches him hard across the face.

“We got the money, dick. That’s not
the issue now. Now it’s time to make you pay!”

Shane hits Gary again.

“Help me,” Gary whimpers.

“No one’s gonna help you, dick!” Shane
says as he comes up close to Gary’s face. Gary screams
again.

“Somebody help me! Raymond, help me!
Ja—”

Shane thrusts his fist into Gary’s
stomach. Gary hunches over, and Scar lets him fall to the
ground.

“So Dealer, what do you have in mind
for your little friend?”

Shane is quickly in Scar’s face. “He’s
no friend of mine, and you’ll see soon enough what I have planned
for him!”

Shane reaches into the trunk. There is
the sound of something hitting the ground and then Shane slams the
lid down.

“Get that dick up against the
car!”

Jacob moves in closer as Scar lifts
Gary and places him face down against the back of the car. Jacob
feels his distant body become nauseous, and he knows it’s because
the position Gary is now in reminds him of the position he,
himself, had Sonnie in, earlier that day.

Shane reaches down and grabs a plastic
bag. He places it tightly over Gary’s head.

Gary squirms and screams through the
bag. Shane drills him twice in the back of the head.

“Take your medicine, dick! You don’t
fuck with The Dealer!” Shane turns to Scar. “Hold him
down!”

Scar presses Gary tighter against the
car. Shane picks up the hacksaw—the same one that was in Jacob’s
ribs earlier.

Again, Jacob cannot close his eyes.
Again, he cannot turn away. He is forced to watch it all. Gary Mann
twists and kicks, as he is slowly decapitated by Shane
Tantenmore.

#

The world came back, and Jacob could
feel the swelling in his skin. With each pulse, he could feel the
afterthought of being kicked and the sensation of blood trickling
from his ribcage. His head was spinning, and Jacob was glad for it,
because it distracted him from the memory of what he had just
witnessed.

It occurred to Jacob that he didn’t
know where he was. He opened his eyes and saw red dirt right beside
him and yellow-green grass a little further away. He stood up,
feeling each wound stabbing at him, as if they were all just now
being inflicted.

Jacob could see the skin under his
eyes swelled out in front of him. The side of his shirt was soaked
with blood. Around him were fields of plowed dirt. Off in the
distance was Nescata. Jacob recognized where he was. He had walked
straight down Main Street and right out of town.

Jacob moved into the ditch, feeling
his wounds protest, but not caring. He recklessly ducked between
the barbed wires of the fence, tearing open more skin on his back
and on his stomach. At the end of the field was a small cluster of
trees. Jacob moved toward them, knowing that his physical wounds
would heal soon enough. He just wanted to be unconscious and out of
sight.

Chapter 11

His classmates are now as they were.
They are young, like Jacob. And they sit in the science room and
wait. The bell rings and the door swings open.

There are five of them that enter the
room. Three are girls. Two are boys. They are all young, the oldest
maybe just out of high school, the youngest just in high school.
Their color stands out against all else in the room. They are black
and white, like they came out of an old movie.

One by one, they line up behind the
podiums at the front of the room. Jacob’s attention goes to the
person in the middle. She is the tallest and seems to be the leader
of this group. The kids on either side of her begin to sort through
notebooks that are on their respective podiums. When they are
finished, the one in the middle nods her head ceremoniously to the
class.

Jacob watches as every other student
in the class reaches down beside his or her desk. Each one takes
out a book and a notebook. All of their books are red. Jacob looks
at his own, which is black.

After the shuffling is done, the
person at the middle podium looks around the room for a second. She
smiles as if satisfied. Then, she turns and nods to the boy on her
right. The boy nods back and then turns to the class. He begins to
address the class. His voice is not his own. It’s much older and
very familiar to Jacob.

“Who among you can tell me one of the
three characteristics of the perfect process?”

All around Jacob, hands fly into the
air and eager students lean forward in their desks. Jacob ducks
down.

“Young Adam Masters.”

Adam stands up and says, “Thank you,
sir. The first characteristic of the perfect process is the
products it is designed to create.”

“Yes, Mr. Masters. That is correct.
Who can tell me the second characteristic?”

Again, there are many hands raised
around the classroom. Then there are a few seconds while the boy
behind the podium selects among them.

“Irwin Check. Please stand and
enlighten us.”

Near the front of the room, Irwin
Check stands. “The second characteristic of the perfect process is
that it has a built in mechanism to cancel out its own unwanted
byproducts.”

“Very good, Mr. Check. I would expect
nothing less from you. But now, who will tell me the third
characteristic?”

The boy looks right at Jacob. Jacob
looks away, but still feels his stare.

“Well then, Ilene Johnson, can you
tell us the third characteristic?”

Ilene Johnson stands. All eyes turn to
her, but not like they used to. These eyes are fascinated, not
covetous.

“The third characteristic of the
perfect process is that it regenerates itself.”

“Excellent. All of you have done a
wonderful job. But we are not through yet.”

The students in the classroom begin to
look around at each other. Several are going through their
notebooks.

“You will not find it in your notes.
It is something that we have not reviewed yet. But there is one
last characteristic to the perfect process.”

Now all eyes are fixed up front
again.

“I would like for one of you to try to
reason, and tell me what that characteristic could be.”

Not all are eager this time. But there
are a few hands that rise hesitantly.

“No, there is no need for any of you
to guess. I have a particular person in mind.”

Jacob looks down, directly at his
desk. He can almost feel it happening before it happens. He thinks
of leaving, but does not dare move.

“Young Jacob Sims, would you please
stand?”

Jacob slowly moves to his feet. He
feels naked with everybody looking at him.

“Mr. Sims, please do not feel ashamed
that you have not brought your clothes.”

Jacob looks down and sees himself
dangling there for all to see. He cups his hands down
low.

“Now, Mr. Sims, think for a moment,
and then tell us all the fourth characteristic of the perfect
process.”

Jacob looks around and confirms that
they are all looking at him. Then he looks up front. “I don’t
know.”

“Oh, Mr. Sims. I think you do know.
You just need to put it all together. Now tell us the fourth and
final characteristic.”

Jacob’s mind is blank. He just wants
them to stop looking at him. “I really don’t know.”

“But Mr. Sims. It is imperative that
you do know.”

The look on the young boy’s face is
very stern. For the moment, Jacob forgets his nakedness. He somehow
knows the boy is right. He does need to know.

“Tell me! I don’t know!”

“I cannot tell you, Mr. Sims. You must
find out on your own.”

“But I can’t. I have no way of
knowing.”

“And why not?”

Jacob lifts the black book off his
desk. “Because I can’t understand this. I don’t understand
Astrology.”

The boy smiles and then begins to
laugh. The other people at the podium start to laugh too. Then the
students join in.

“What’s so funny?” Jacob yells, ending
the laughter.

The boy at the front looks at him,
still smiling. The last thing he says before Jacob wakes up in the
trees is, “Why Jacob, this is not Astrology at all. It’s simple
Chemistry.”

#

Jacob found Sonnie’s door open. He
walked in and found her wide-awake on the couch.

She started to speak but then just got
up and left the room. Jacob stood in the living room and waited.
After a little while, he heard the shower running. Then Sonnie came
back out.