A Penny Down the Well: A Short Story Collection of Horrifying Events (4 page)

Jared stopped her.
“No. I wanted you to be alright. I can’t have you
living like this, so I want you to have everything. Really.” Jared
smiled, but an unknown feeling weakened it. It was enough for Emily
to see.

“
Why, Jared? After all of
this? Why aren’t you upset with me? Why aren’t you mad, or
spiteful?” Emily asked, confused. She sounded like she wanted anger
and spite.

Jared served the steak and
sat down across from her. He poured two glassed of wine and avoided
the question. The silence created a thickness in the air. She
waited for his answer in suspense. He cut into his steak and Emily
chimed up.

“
Are your hands getting
worse?” She pointed to the bandages that were over his hands. She
didn’t notice them before.

“
Yeah, I think so. I’m not
sure. It might be some sort of reaction to a chemical I used, or
the paint or something. I don’t know. I’m sure it’ll clear up.”
Jared said. He put a fork-full of steak into his mouth and
chewed.

“
Don’t you think you
should go to the hospital?” Emily asked with her brows
knotted

“
I don’t
think it’s that big of a deal, Emily. I’m sure it’s going to be
just fine. I don’t have anything else to paint.”
Until that thing decides it wants to come out and
lick toward the lead
, Jared thought. He
continued to chew and kept his expression cheerful against the
odds. He wanted everything to work. “Why don’t you try it? It’s
really good. I left it rare, the way you like it.”

Emily looked down to the
steak. She stared at it like a dead pet. She cut into it and smiled
after mouthing a “thank you.” She took her first bite and closed
her eyes in gentle bliss. “Mm.”

Jared knew that Emily
loved great steak. She kept a great form, exercised compulsively,
but when she sat down and indulged, she was in heaven. Emily opened
her eyes and nodded to Jared with a wide, satisfied
smile.

“
It’s delicious.” Her
mouth still full of the rare steak. He remembered their brand of
comfort.

“
I’m glad. So, did you get
the new car?” Jared asked. He cut into the asparagus.

“
Yes. A new sedan.
Keyless-entry, automatic everything. A real sharp gunmetal
color.”

As she stated the color,
the pipes in the apartment groaned. Jared’s eyes shot to the sink.
Emily wasn’t the only one that enjoyed her meals.

Jared stuttered a
response, “Oh yeah? That’s great. I’m glad you found something you
liked.” He tried to be happy about the purchase, but he
wasn’t.

“
I am too.” She said. She
put her fork down on the plate.

Jared’s brows rose.
“Something wrong?”

“
I’ve had trouble lately.
I feel so lost, Jared. I feel like everything is changing so
quickly.” She stared at her fork. Her hands came to the table and
she kept quiet after her confession.

Jared listened in the
silence.

“
The past few nights when
I’ve been in bed, alone, I just think... did this all have to
happen this way? Why is everything so complicated right now?” She
confessed. She drank a large swig of wine and asked for a
refill.

Jared filled the glass and
kept his eyes on hers.
“Emily, I thought
this is what you wanted. You said you weren’t sure you were ready.”
He felt a twinge of anger saying it aloud. “You said you were
confused. I thought it would be best if you had space, you know?
Comfortable space, space your own.” He missed their
space.

“
Yeah.” Emily sighed. Her
eyes were on Jared’s, but he knew she didn’t see him.

“
Emily...” Jared paused
and placed a hand on his thigh. He felt the necklace case in his
pocket. “It doesn’t have to be this way, you know? We can still
work this out. We can get counseling. We can start over. Get to
know each other again. Date, maybe, like the old days?” Jared
smiled. He placed his hands over Emily’s. Her hands shook under
his.

“
Jared, I...” She lowered
her head and her eyes glossed with tears.

Jared stood from his seat
and stepped around the table. He pulled the necklace case from his
pocket and opened it. In the dim light of the kitchen, it shined
like a star. “I got you something I thought you’d like.” He smiled.
He didn’t want her to go any further without seeing it.

Emily’s eyes widened and
her hands shot to her mouth. “Jared! Oh. It’s so beautiful!” She
squealed. She looked up at him and shook her head as a tear broke
from her bright eyes and ran down her cheek. “You bought this for
me?” Her mouth kept wide in awe.

“
Yes.” He knelt down
beside her chair. “I don’t want to give up on us. I know that
you’re confused. I know that you’re unsure about us, but think
about how great we are together. Think about how much we trusted
each other and how comfortable everything was. We were perfect,
Emily. You’re perfect. I want you to have this as a symbol of how
much I love you. I want you to really know.” He pulled the necklace
from the case, unclasped it, and moved around behind
her.

Emily sat silent. Beneath
Jared’s fidgeting fingers, he felt her tremble. When he finished,
he moved to the front of her and admired the diamond hanging near
her breast. “Emily, it’s—“ But she cut him off.

“
I cheated, Jared. I slept
with someone else. I fell in love with him and that’s why all of
this happened!” She shouted out and burst into tears.

Jared’s eyes went wide.
His mouth fell open and he shook his head. He felt he didn’t hear
her right.

“
I don’t know, I was just
so confused about everything. I didn’t know what to do! He just
swept in and changed everything and...” Emily paused and looked up
to Jared. She saw only shock. “Jared?”

The pipes
groaned.

“
Jared. I’m so sorry. I
know you’ll never forgive me.”

“
You love him?” Jared
broke his silence, his words glossed with a spiteful
hiss.

“
I... Jared, I’m so
sorry.” Emily plead behind a voice mangled by tears.

Jared took a deep breath.
He heard a sound. The rhythmic beat of music rose from down the
hall. The beat penetrated the walls and intervened in a moment that
deserved silence. There was something industrious about the sound.
Jared lifted Emily’s plate from the table and dumped the remaining
food onto the table’s surface. He swung it the plate into her head
and knocked her to the ground, unconscious. Emily laid there in
front of him with her head at his feet. He clutched the broken
plate in his hand. The necklace hung on the old wooden floor and
the pipes groaned. A rattle came from beneath the sink, a grunt.
Jared knew something stirred.

“
You did this, Emily. We
had everything and you didn’t think it was enough.” Jared stared
down at his unconscious wife, entranced with madness.

A voice came from below
the sink. “Give… me… your… metal.” A grainy rasp.

Jared looked back to the
sink. He leaned down and grasped both of her wrists with his gauzed
hands. Jared dragged her to the thumping beat of Matt’s music. The
date was over. Jared didn’t care. He dragged Emily across the
stained floor until he reached the cabinets below the sink. Jared
opened the cabinets and was hit by the harsh smell of the bleach
that he soaked the rag in. Jared leaned down to Emily and looked
her over. Blood trickled down the right side of her bruised head.
Jared’s lips neared the wound and he whispered. “I loved you.” He
pulled away. Jared shoved Emily’s head beneath the sink, where the
diamond necklace caught the dim light of the kitchen for the last
time. He pulled the rag out of the pipe, uncorking it. A foul must
filled the space.

Jared left her there, with
her head stuffed beneath the kitchen sink. He walked into his
bedroom, turned off the light, locked his door and went to sleep.
He slept to a serenade of crunching.

RETURN TO THE TABLE OF
CONTENTS

Their Last Ride

“
You can get anything on
the internet these days, can’t you?” Clint Baxter browsed the
classified ads in amusement.

“
Almost anything.” Kaylie
replied, sitting in the seat beside him at the local library, a
place the two of them, long-time friends, came to visit and enjoy
mindless browsing of the world wide web, a marvel yet after having
been available for such a long time. So was the way of a medium of
endless possibilities, both good and bad, moral and immoral, but
always full of something fresh and new, or unavoidably
provocative.

Clint clicked on the link
that said simply said “cars.” He saw a wide array of used vehicles,
from classics to modern muscle, smart and inefficient. He sighed,
glancing the way of Kaylie, who was already snooping the screen he
was navigating.

“
A car? Seriously? You
don’t even have a job, Clint. Speaking of which, when you do intend
to get on that? You know...” She pointed to a link on her screen.
It read in blue “job listings.”

“
My car is such a piece of
shit. Maybe I can get approved for a cheap car-loan or something.
No point in getting a job if I can’t guarantee I’ll make it there
every day.” His mouth hung open as he looked at vehicles far out of
his price-range.

Kaylie shook her head, and
though she agreed with his rationale, it was important to have an
income if one had a loan. She went back to her own browsing,
settling for the “missed connections” link on the page and said,
softly, “I wonder if anyone is longing for me after a seeing me at
a stoplight or chewing on my morning bagel.” And it made her laugh.
Still, the postings were amusing.

Clint browsed to a Chevy
Nova in a metallic, mustard yellow. He’d always wanted a sexy car,
one that even he’d openly admit to using as a method of
compensating for his simplicity. Clint was a thin man, the kind of
thin person that couldn’t put a pound on if he ate one-half of a
burger stand. In high school, he would eat jars of peanut butter
until he couldn’t move or was sick, because all of the
weight-lifters on the football team assured him that it would help
him put on weight. All of Clint’s attempts were in vain. He didn’t
gain a pound; in fact he lost weight because of how often it made
him sick. Clint thought an old, shiny muscle car would add muscle
to him, impress women and make him a ladies man all in one shot. Of
course, at almost twenty grand, Clint was going to remain without
muscle for the time being. It was then that he came across a
strange ad.

“
1976 Cadillac Hearse.
You’ve got to be kidding.” He laughed, slapping at Kaylie to catch
her attention. Kaylie tore herself away from a particularly creepy
(likely fake) “missed connection” involving a man that said he saw
a woman through her window. Kaylie looked over the ad.

“
Um. Creepy?” She said,
lifting a thin brow.

“
Yeah. I wonder how many
dead people were pulled around in that thing.” And Clint went on
reading the description.

1976 Cadillac Hearse, in
great running condition with minor aesthetic damage to the leather
interior. Belonged to my father who recently passed and have no
will to keep it. Please respond. Looking for $500 dollars OBO.
First come, first serve. - Posted Today

“
Five-hundred dollars?
That’s incredible!” And Clint leaned back in his seat as the cogs
started turning. “Five-hundred dollars for a 1976 luxury that runs
great.” And the cogs kept spinning.

Kaylie chimed in with the
obvious response, one most people would have brought up.
“Five-hundred dollars for a luxury vehicle that hauled a ton of
dead bodies to cemeteries. I think the guy should be paying to get
rid of it. Who’s going to want something like that?” And she bit
her bottom lip, staring at the short ad thoughtfully. She looked
over at Clint then, who had a look so devious he might as well have
grown devil horns atop his head. “You’re not considering buying
this thing, are you?”

Clint nearly burst out.
“Com’on, Kaylie! Why shouldn’t I? It’s a steal! $500 dollars for an
old car that runs great? My car is newer, but it’s going to break
down on me at any moment here. Shit, I barely made it to the
Library.” He gestured toward the door of the Library and toward the
parking lot outside. Clint knew that if his car was a patient in a
hospital, it wouldn’t be the type that would receive a quick
response when it flat-lined. It had so many problems, from the
engine, to the radiator, to the electrical system, that fixing the
thing would cost more than getting a replacement. In the case of a
five-hundred dollar replacement, the replacement was a better
decision hands down, even if it
was
a hearse.

Kaylie shuddered, thinking
about the car. “Aren’t you the least bit creeped out that it used
to haul dead bodies around? What if there’s something in the car?”
She asked, without being very specific.

The question prompted
Clint to ask, “Like what?”

“
I don’t know. A finger.
Dead... stuff.” She was reaching. “Or something else...” And she
trailed off, suddenly a bit embarrassed.