Scribner Horror Bundle: Four Horror Novels by Joshua Scribner (92 page)

“I didn’t think you were
coming.”

“I wasn’t so sure myself.”

There was a pause.

“What made you come?”

“I’m not sure, but I think it’s all
over now.”

“What?”

“Everything.”

Jacob put his hand on her shoulder and
she took hold of it. He decided to wait just a while longer. He
fell asleep with Sonnie in his arms.

#

This time, things are different. Jacob
is not a kid. He's himself, and he's clothed. The teachers at the
front of the class are also as he remembered them, not from the
dream, but how they were when they taught him and his classmates.
And his classmates are his classmates, just as he remembers them
too.

The whole class is focusing on Jacob.
The stares don’t bother him, and he is not overwhelmed by a feeling
of helplessness. This time, he knows the answer.

“Well, Mr. Sims,” The older version of
Mr. Tomsak says. “Do you want to tell us what the fourth
characteristic is?”

“Yes, the fourth and final
characteristic of the perfect process is that, when the time comes
for the process to end, the same mechanism that destroys the
byproducts of the process is responsible for making sure the
process never recycles again. In short, I killed Gary Mann, Stan
Wayne, and Larry Confad, and that was enough to keep the process
from recycling again.”

Mr. Tomsak smiles. “Yes, Mr. Sims.
That is correct. The process comes to an end.”

Jacob looks around the room. His
classmates stare at him in awe.

“No, thank you, Mr. Tomsak. Now I have
a couple of questions.”

“Yes, Mr. Sims, you may
ask.”

“First, why does the process end?
Second, why did Tommy Carmichael have to die?”

Mr. Tomsak smiles again. Then he looks
around the room. “I believe that the person who can answer these
questions is among us right now.”

Jacob turns to his classmates and
tries to find whom Mr. Tomsak is staring at.

“Yes, that person is with us. Would
that person like to speak now?”

There is silence for nearly a minute.
Then it is Jacob who breaks this silence. “Come on! Speak up!
Whoever it is, answer my questions.”

Again, there is only
silence.

“It does not sound like the person is
ready to speak. But don’t worry, Jacob. You will all meet again.
And when that day comes, this person will tell you what you want to
know.”

“No! I want to know now! Speak
up!”

“Mr. Sims, this is not
appropriate.”

Jacob looks and sees that it’s the
person at the middle podium, Principal Cindy Hogaboom. The look on
her face is very stern, sterner than he has ever seen on her,
almost desperate.

“Mr. Sims, it is not necessary that
you know these things at this time. The most important thing is
that you understand that the process must come to an end now, and
that it must come to an end in its entirety.”

Ms. Hogaboom steps to a side. Behind
her, there is a message written on the chalkboard.

End line. Don’t
make.

“Do you understand, Mr.
Sims?”

“No! I don’t understand!”

“You must. It’s very
important.”

“Then tell me.”

Cindy Hogaboom looks at him for a few
seconds. She starts to open her mouth, but then there is the sound
of the ringing phone and she freezes. The second time it rings, the
classroom and all the people in it disappear.

#

When Jacob awoke, there was the
aftereffect of the ringing in his head. He moved away from Sonnie
and jumped out of the bed.

“Jacob? Where are you going? Is it
happening again?”

“No, I just thought I heard
something.”

“What?”

Jacob looked down at the clock beside
Sonnie’s bed. 3:09 AM. He crawled back into bed. “I’m sure it was
just nothing. Let’s go back to sleep.”

Jacob kissed Sonnie on the lips. He
kissed her a second time. He pulled her closer and began caressing
her hair. He pulled away.

“What?”

“I think we’re safe now.”

They made love.

#

The next time the phone rang, it was
real. Jacob knew this because Sonnie got out of bed. He watched her
naked rump as she walked away.

“Damn, I forgot to put the portable in
here last night.”

“And that’s a bad thing,
because?”

Sonnie turned and looked at him
questioningly, then she seemed to catch on. She gave him a wink
before disappearing out of the room. Jacob heard her voice from the
other room.

“Yeah, he’s here. Just a
second.”

Sonnie came back into the room
carrying the portable phone. The look on her face told Jacob
something wasn’t right.

“Who is it?”

“It’s your mom. I think she’s
crying.”

Sonnie handed him the phone and sat
down at the foot of the bed.

“Hello, Mom?”

“Jacob.”

“Yeah, Mom. What’s wrong?”

“You need to come home.”

“Why Mom? What’s wrong?”

Jacob heard his mother gasp, then
there was silence on the other side of the line. After a few
seconds, Tyla was on the phone.

“Jacob?”

“Yes, what’s going on?”

“Grandma’s dead.”

“What?”

“We got the call early this morning.
The nurse said she had just checked her and Sara a few minutes
earlier. She said they were fine then. Then she heard Grandma
moving around and moaning. She said she went in the room and found
Grandma lying there, not breathing.”

Jacob remembered waking up from the
dream the night before. “Tyla?”

“Yeah.”

“What time did she die?”

“I think it was like a little bit
after three o’clock.”

Jacob took a few seconds to gather
himself. “Are you okay, Tyla?”

“Yeah. But Mom’s not.”

“I know. And I’ll be there in a few
minutes.”

“Okay.”

Chapter 15

Jacob woke up alone early Friday
morning. It had been two days since his grandma died. For two days
he had been with family. He had been there when they cried. He had
listened to them talk about her life. He had listened to them talk
about her end. All the while, he'd felt separated from them all.
They didn’t really understand what the end meant. They didn’t know
what her life was for.

But he sat with them anyway. And
Sonnie was there too. And they together knew that more than a life
had ended. And for them, it didn’t seem like death at all. It was a
new beginning. So in between the crying sessions, in the moments
when nobody could hear or see them, they began to move on with
their lives. For two days, they both bounced between discussion of
loss, where they pretended to mourn just like everyone else, and
discussions of the future, where they celebrated alone.

When Jacob woke up Friday morning, the
day of the funeral, he smiled to himself, because he knew it would
soon be done. To him, it was a ceremonious time, marking the end of
his hell that had ended two days before.

It was still dark outside when Jacob
got out of bed. But when he walked out into the dining room to get
the phone, he could hear his mother stirring around in the next
room. He took the phone out of the nook and went back into his
room. He hesitated, then called Sonnie anyway. She answered on the
first ring.

“Hello.”

“Hi.”

“Hi. You’re up early.”

“And so are you.”

“Yeah. So?”

“So, did you think about what we
talked about?”

“Well, yeah I did, for about ten
seconds.”

“And?”

“Do you really even have to ask,
Jacob? Of course I will.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’ve never been so sure of anything
in my life. What about you?”

“What do you mean? I’m the one who
asked you.”

“I know, but I want you to be sure
about this too.”

“I’m sure. I’m thrilled. I can’t wait
for you to get there. How much time will you need?”

“Well, two weeks ought to do
it.”

“You can get everything settled in two
weeks?”

“Yeah. I got this cousin who lives in
Enid. He’s been begging Dad for years to let him buy the bar. I
called him last night. He’s driving over Monday with a
check.”

“Great!”

“Yeah. I’ll take a week to break him
into the business. It’s not all that complicated. Then, I’m on the
next plane out.”

“Two weeks.”

“Two weeks. That is, unless you come
to your senses and decide you really don’t want me
there.”

“Not a chance.”

They were silent for a few seconds.
Jacob savored the thought of having his new roommate arrive. He
thought about picking her up at the airport. He saw her coming out
of the corridor and running up to him.

“Jacob?”

“Yeah.”

“I can’t wait to be with you
again.”

“Me neither. I think I should be able
to sneak out of here tonight.”

“Are you going to stay with me until
you go home Sunday?”

“Is that an invitation?”

“No, that’s more of a
demand.”

Jacob laughed.

“What time is the service?”

“It starts at ten. I might stop by
before that, though.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, I have to see about Mom first.
I want to make sure she’s all right.”

“Well yeah, you should be with
her.”

“We’ll see. She’s been doing better.
And I really want to see you.”

Sonnie paused, then said, “All right.
You do what you need to do. I’ll put some coffee on for you, just
in case. And if you don’t show up, then I’ll see you at the
service.”

“All right.”

“Goodbye, Jacob.”

“Bye.”

Jacob hung up the line. He walked out
and found his mother sitting at the table. Her face was
expressionless and her eyes looked dry, like the eyes of a person
who had spent all of her tears. Jacob walked up and hugged
her.

“I love you, son.”

“I love you too, Mom. Are you
okay?”

“Oh, I don’t know, honey. I guess it’s
going to take some getting used to.”

“Yeah. I know.”

Jacob stayed with her.

#

His mother wanted to go in early, to
be the first one there, to get things ready. Jacob went with her.
They passed by Ledbetter Bar and Sonnie’s apartment on the way to
the church. Jacob tried not to look. He didn’t want his mother to
think his mind was elsewhere. But he looked anyway.

Jacob and his mother walked into the
church alone. His mother sat down at the front. She began to cry.
Jacob comforted for a little while. Then he noticed the third
guest.

He walked along the side of the pews,
looking at the stained-glass windows as he went by, whistling sadly
all the while. He exited through a door at the front of the room.
Jacob got up and followed.

On the other side of the door was a
reception area. There were three cafeteria-sized tables set out.
The two closest to Jacob were empty. At the third, sat the man in
white.

Jacob walked up slowly, the man in
white not once looking up at him. Jacob sat down right across from
the ominous figure. For a while, Jacob was silent. The man in white
continued to whistle. Jacob looked at the man’s eyes. Then he was
able to tell. This man was dying.

“What are you doing here?”

The man in white stopped whistling,
but he still would not look at Jacob. “Why Jacob, I’ve come to say
goodbye.”

The man’s voice was weak. He was
fading. Jacob did not fear him now.

“Why? You’re not close to me. You
don’t have to say goodbye.”

Now the man in white smiled gently,
but condescendingly. “Oh Jacob, I’m much closer to you than you’d
like to think.”

Jacob laughed. “You’re dying, aren’t
you? The process ends, and you have to end with it.”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Now the dying man looked at Jacob. But
it was only for a second, and it was not the look Jacob expected.
It was proud. Jacob looked away.

“I didn’t kill Tommy Carmichael. You
did.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Now the man’s voice was nearly
indifferent. “Because I could. I don’t think anyone expects that I
did it. Do you?”