A Penny Down the Well: A Short Story Collection of Horrifying Events (13 page)

“
We should have done
something.” Jacob said, as he always said after it was all over
with.

“
Like what? Say something
and get beat up?” Harry said, running his arm across his
nose.

“
I don’t
know! We can’t keep taking this all the time, Harry! How long is it
going to be before these guys do something
really
bad, huh? You
think all of this is bad? This is nothing compared to what they can
do. Harry, some people say Gassy actually killed some people!
Killed them!” Jacob shouted as they neared the door. He shook his
head in defeat as they arrived.

The two stopped in front
of the door. Jacob looked back to Ms. Holly, who was still looking
over the rope and the tree that it was tied to with skepticism.
Eventually, Jacob’s eyes settled on Harry, who still wore a tall
spire of hair atop his head, one that formed with the hair ties
they were forced to wear.

“
Well?” Jacob
asked.

“
I just don’t know what to
do, Jake. If I knew, I would’ve done it.” Harry sighed, pushing the
door open. The second the door came open, hands flew from the
opening, viciously snagging a hold of the two boys. They were
slammed against the walls, Jacob left to face Brain, Harry in front
of Gassy. Terror came over the eyes of the two, hoping the gang
hadn’t overheard their conversation.

Barker spoke up with a
sickly grin. “How many times did he trip?

Crater replied. “Four.”
Toothy, satisfied smile at his face.

Barker nodded. “Well, two
for you!” And as Brain held Jacob still, Barker slammed a clenched
fist into Jacob’s gut twice.

Harry’s eyes went wide as
he realized what was happening. Their attempts at going along with
the humiliating act in the quad didn’t save them from what was
coming; it just delayed it. Barker stepped over toward Harry as
Jacob doubled over when Brain let him go, allowing him to slide
down the wall and to the floor, gasping for air.

Barker stopped in front of
Harry. “Willing to take two for your girlfriend, Harry, or should
we give him the other two?”

Harry began to move into
his normal ritual, where he disconnected. Harry didn’t give an
answer.

“
Answer me, fucktard,
before I do it anyway! No objection means you’re alright with him
getting beat a little more, huh?” Barker grabbed Harry’s chin,
staring him in the eyes. “Don’t care about your girlfriend, Harry?”
Barker asked in a mock-sweet voice that didn’t seem compassionate
in the least, despite the pitiful act. Barker pat Harry’s chin
softly and gestured for Brain to lift Jacob up again. Still barely
able to breath, Jacob was lifted and pushed against the wall
again.

“
Get this over with quick.
We have to get out of here.” Brain said, keeping with his normal
level of awareness.

Barker nodded with a
smile. “Oh, this won’t take long.” And he paused in front of Jacob.
“Seems your boyfriend here isn’t willing to take your shots. Ain’t
a very good friend you got, Jake. Well...” And Barker shrugged,
almost as if he really had no choice in his own actions. He slammed
another fist into Jacob’s stomach, causing him to reel forward. The
last words Jacob heard were “Night, night, buddy.” And the last
swing sailed violently into Jacob’s head, bringing on the darkness
of unconsciousness.

Jacob woke up in the
school nurse’s office. Harry sat a short distance away from him, in
a waiting chair, his head hung low in shame. As Jacob’s eyes
adjusted to the bright, florescent light, the images of a few
worried faces became clear. Jacob’s mothers looked him over
speculatively, trying to see all of the damage. A question was sent
from his mother Irene, or “Ima” as Jake called her, reserving “Mom”
for Madeline, equally concerned.

“
So, another kid did
this?” Ima asked.

The sound came through a
distorted filter as consciousness flooded back into Jacob. The
group looked down to him.

“
Jacob! Jacob, baby, are
you alright?” Madeline leaned down to him, kissing him softly on
the forehead.

Then Ima, a moment later,
“Did someone do this to you, Jake? Did someone hurt
you?”

Jacob didn’t reply
immediately. He looked off toward Harry, who obviously hadn’t said
anything about the incident. It was “policy” for the two to keep
the scuffles to themselves. There was a time when they brought the
bullying up to the faculty and it managed to intensify the
situation tenfold. Since then, the two reacted by maintaining the
secret of their abuse in confidence.

Jacob shook his head. “No.
I tripped.” Short and without much detail. It allowed him to survey
the potential questions better, without having to fabricate a
difficult lie.

The nurse smirked, seeming
to know better. She didn’t say anything to interfere with Jacob’s
parent’s questions.

“
You fell on your eye?”
Ima didn’t seem very convinced. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen
Jacob in this state, but never did she have to come to the school
to respond to a situation like this. “You need to tell me if
someone did this to you, Jacob, so we can fix it.”

Jacob’s eyes welled with
tears as he sat up suddenly, causing the small audience to take a
step back in unison. “I told you I tripped!” He shouted, unwilling
to fold.

Ima looked to Madeline. A
long sigh left her. “Com’on, I’m taking you home.” Ima put a hand
to Jacob’s shoulder as he hopped down from the small bed. As the
three of them walked toward the door, Jacob looked toward Harry,
who glanced up quickly to Jacob, then back to the
ground.

Harry mumbled, “See ya,
Jake.”

Jacob didn’t respond. He
continued to watch Harry as he was ushered out of the door and to
the car.

That evening, Ima and
Madeline ensured Jacob was in attendance for dinner. Dinner began
quiet, with the small group feeling one another out. Ima gave the
occasional look to Madeline, unsure if she wanted to start the
conversation or not. Eventually, Madeline, a bit more “motherly” in
her general demeanor, spoke up. “Jacob, we really want to talk to
you about what happened today. Do you understand how important this
is?”

Jacob shuffled a bit of
broccoli from one side of his plate to the other, like a hockey
puck in an ice rink. He let out a long, begrudged sigh. He didn’t
answer. He knew the attempt at talking was coming.

Madeline turned her
attention then to Ima, whom was a bit more firm. Ima nodded softly,
as if understanding, nonverbally, that it was her turn to
speak.

“
Jacob, we’re going to
take care of this situation whether you tell us or not. I’ve
already spoken with Principal Henderson and he says he knows what
happened. Some kids were bullying you in the quad today, weren’t
they? He said he spoke with Ms. Holly. What were their names,
Jake?” The quizzing continued, but Jacob continued to be reluctant.
Instead of feeling good about their efforts to change things, Jacob
felt concerned that they were probing at all, for fear that any
effort to stop the kids (though he would have loved for them to
stop) was going to infuriate them into more violent
action.

“
I don’t want to talk
about it.” Jacob whispered.

“
You don’t have a choice,
Jake.” Ima returned quickly.

“
I don’t want to talk
about it!” Jacob yelled, slamming his fork down onto his plate.
Both Ima and Madeline shot back in their seats, surprised. Jacob
prior to that moment had never acted so brashly. Jacob turned on
his heel and stomped his way toward his room, abandoning the
conflict but for a call out from the table.

“
Jacob! We’re not done!”
Ima shouted desperately. It didn’t make a difference. A second
later, Jacob entered his room, slammed the door and ended the
conversation forcefully.

Ima and Madeline made no
further effort that evening to get through to Jacob. They decide
the best thing they could do was try to resolve the issue through
their own channels, unaware of the potential danger in doing just
that. The communication block between Jacob and his mothers made it
impossible to prevent the worst; the worst manifested itself a
couple of days later.

“
Why didn’t you say
anything?” Jacob asked, walking beside Harry. He’d lifted a small
stone from the ground and sent it sailing off into the trees at
their right. To their left, cars zoomed by on the
highway.

Harry, still beating
himself up over the incident, shrugged. “I-I’m sorry, Jake. I just
froze. You know I didn’t want him to hit you again! I would have
taken the punches for you... but...” And he fell quiet.

“
But? You didn’t. And he
knocked me out. And now my moms are on my case about ‘who did it’
and ‘how they’re going to get everything fixed’ and stuff. We’re in
trouble, Harry. When they find out...” And large semi flew by the
two, creating the passing vacuum that drew them toward the
road.

“
If they find out, huh?” A
voice from behind them came through, horribly familiar.

Slowly, Harry and Jacob
looked over their shoulder to find the source. The gang walked up
beside them, three of them followed by a more distracted Gassy.
Jacob swallowed hard, feeling the “fight or flight” instincts
within himself kicking in.

Harry glanced to Jacob
with a deep frown, knowing the situation wasn’t good.

“
Did you tell on us, ass
hats?” Barker circled the two boys, the two of them completely
paralyzed in fear, unsure of how much was heard. “Seems a little
weird Henderson called us into his office for a chat. Seems, um...”
And Barker leaned into the ear of Jacob. “...suspicious.” And he
rounded toward Harry. “Your dike moms aren’t trying to save you
from the ‘big bad wolf,’ are they?” And Barker sounded a prompt to
laughter with his own, causing a stir in the rest of the gang.
“Maybe... Gassy needs to pay them a little visit when they’re
sleepin’ at night, huh?” A terrible threat.

“
You stay away from them.”
Jacob said, with little confidence, but one of the few expressions
of defiance against the intimidation.

“
Or
what?” Barker barked. “You gonna
tell
on me, faggot?” Standing
between the highway and Harry.

“
Or I’ll kick your ass!”
Harry shouted, suddenly, shoving Barker toward the road. A car came
flying directly for him, only barely swerving out of the way to
avoid hitting him. Honks of rage rang down the road as the car
continued off. Harry didn’t wait to see the result of almost having
killed Barker with the sudden outburst, instead he shouted his own
prompt: “Run!”

Jacob wasted no time,
splitting from Harry and speeding into the thick forest of trees on
the side of the highway, hoping he’d be able to lose the group if
he was chased. Chances, of course, were slim.

The group, surprised and
stunned by the response, stood puzzled and confused for a moment,
waiting for Barker’s orders before doing anything, which gave the
boys some time to get on their way, Harry along the road, Jacob
into the trees. Barker, after regaining his composure, shouted
furiously, “Go after him!” And he pointed to Harry, a distance down
the road now, being carried by his long, thin legs, giving him a
particular advantage.

All three of the others
began quickly after Harry. Barker, instead, turned his sights on
the trees and to Jacob who was still in view. “I’m gonna kill you!”
And there was a good possibility he would do just that, in the
woods, and leave the body there where no one would find it—except
for maybe a pack of animals, that would systematically tear it to
shreds, leaving nothing but a rotting bone memorial of what he once
was.

Jacob, in that moment, ran
faster than he ever did. He avoided potholes, trees, snagging
vines, all the things he’d seen in horror movies that caused the
poor, fleeing souls to get tripped up, allowing the chasing evil to
get closer, or to reach them. Barker pursued Jacob, avoiding the
same obstacles, though a little bigger and a little less agile than
the smaller boy he chased, his strength and speed allowed Barker to
keep up. Jacob scrambled through the repetitive scenery in front of
his eyes, trees, limbs, leaves, brush, everything was the same, and
nowhere seemed a reliable place to play it safe; until he found the
well.

There, in a small ravine,
sat the old, abandoned stone well, a sharp contrast to the rest of
the forest. A wooden, hinged top closed the opening of the well off
to sunlight and obstruction. Knowing Barker was getting closer,
Jacob did the only thing he thought he could do to get away. He ran
over to the well and opened the heavy, wooden lid. He swung his
legs over the edge of the wooden surface and stared down into the
abysmal pit, and was stricken with a sudden fear—though it wasn’t
one strong enough to outweigh the threatening fear that still
approached. Slowly, Jacob lowered himself down into the well,
keeping his hands and fingers firmly gripped to the mortared stone,
allowing himself to hang helplessly into the well. Falling was
potentially deadly, the possibility only further pronounced as a
small stone went sailing down from the top of the well into it, not
offering affirmation of a bottom with the splashing of water or a
tap to a hard surface. There was simply silence, as if it fell on
forever. Jacob held firm to the stone, hoping that the well would
hide him. Then he heard footsteps near the ravine, rustling the
forest brush. It stopped. More brush moved, then silence
again.