A Penny Down the Well: A Short Story Collection of Horrifying Events (3 page)

Jared’s heart beat faster
than he thought possible. He put the hammer down beside him and
slapped his face twice. “I’m dreaming. I’m dreaming.” If he was,
the quick blows didn’t wake him. He gripped the hammer again.
“What?” He shook his head and the tongue withdraw into the
pipe.

Jared rolled onto his
knees. The pain in his hand shot through his arm as he crawled
forward. He kept the hammer handy. “H-Hello?” Jared asked. He
realized the absurdity of the question. With gnashed teeth, Jared
stared into the hole where the tongue hid away.
He leaned toward it and stopped a few feet away. “Hel—“ He
stopped as an eye emerged against the pipe, as an eye would peer
through a keyhole. The eye had a sickly green iris and it rolled
around until it settled on Jared, fleshy lid narrowing over the
harrowing, glossy sphere.

Jared screamed and dropped
the hammer. He shot back from the pipe. The eye withdrew and lips,
purple and green, came forward. They spoke and revealed rotting,
green teeth.

“
Give… me… your… metal.”
The voice whispered from the pipe. The lips smiled, withdrew, and
the eye reemerged.

“
W-What are you?” Jared
said, frightened.

It repeated as the eye
withdrew and the lips came forward. “Give… me… your… metal.” The
eye came forth again, watched Jared and rolled around in its metal
socket. It turned its gaze to the ring that fell from the broken
pipe.

Jared looked to his ring
and shook his head. “No. No, you can’t have that. You hear me? You
can’t have that!” He lifted the hammer from his side and moved
toward the pipe. As Jared swung the hammer at the eye, it withdrew
leaving only darkness inside the pipe. He held the hammer back and
waited, but the eye didn’t return.

Jared put a hand to his
head in disbelief before he snatched his ring up with his good
hand. He grabbed a rag from a drawer and sprayed it with bleach
from a spray bottle. He stuffed the rag into the open pipe. He
backed away and examined his ring. Muck covered the ring. It
smelled of mold. Jared understood the thick liquid here, the
mirrors, the walls was the saliva of creeping tongue. He rose to
his feet, kept his hammer with him and returned to his room. He
looked at his phone. 3 A.M. He considered calling the police, then
he thought about what he would say.
Yes,
officer, there’s a monster in my drain.
Jared closed and locked the door of his room and closed the
vents. He sat up in bed that night with the hammer and waited to
see if it would come again. It didn’t.

Jared had fallen asleep
against his will. When he woke up, he immediately lifted his
hammer, prepared to strike in the case that something had sprung on
him. As he lifted the hammer, he felt an intense pain shoot through
his hand and arm. He looked at his hand in shock. It was red and
irritated, with a circular imprint in the middle of his palm where
his ring was. His ring, however, was missing.

He cradled his freshly
damaged hand close to his body, Jared moved from the bed and toward
the door of his bedroom. It was no longer locked. The door was
cracked open. Jared pulled the door open and inspected the living
area. The walls bore smeared streaks along their bases. “How?” His
jaw fell before he stepped out into the living room. His foot came
down on something and he leapt back toward the bedroom door. His
ring sat on the ground in front of the bedroom door. Jared’s eyes
shot around before he bent over and lifted the ring in front of his
eyes. A thick, moldy mucus covered the ring. Jared whispered as he
eyed the golden band, “Give me your metal.” He glanced to the walls
then the ring. “Lead-based paint.” His eyes narrowed. “That fucking
tongue is trying to get to the walls!” Jared went into the bathroom
and watched the mirror. “Silver? Mirrors have silver. It’s eating—“
Jared stepped back and shook his head. “Impossible.” Jared’s eyes
glazed over and he tried to process everything that had happened
the night before. He heard the familiar ring tone of his phone. He
left the bathroom, went into his bedroom, and lifted the phone.
Emily. He answered.

“
H-Hello?” Jared shook
out.

“
Jared, it’s Emily.
Everything alright?” She asked.

“
Um.”
No, everything was not
alright,
he thought. “Yeah. What’s going
on?” His eyes shifted this way then that. He expected anything at
any moment.

“
I was wondering if you
wouldn’t mind maybe having dinner tonight instead of tomorrow.
I’d—“ she paused, “—I’d like to talk to you, if you wouldn’t mind.
Is that alright?” She asked.

“
Tonight?” Jared said as
he peeked out of the bathroom to the living area, toward the sink.
“Any reason for the rush?” He tried to delay. He searched for the
unordinary.

“
I just have a couple
things I want to talk to you about while they’re fresh on my mind.
You know how things get when everything becomes busy. You forget
about the points you want to make, things like that. So?” Emily
asked again.

“
Um.” He paused. “Yeah,
tonight will work just fine. How about eight? I’ll call you if
anything shows up, alright?” He said, not realizing he spoke out of
context.

“
Shows up? What do you
mean?” She seemed confused.

“
Comes up, rather. Comes
up. That’s what I meant. See you tonight. I’ll text you the
address, okay?” He hung up the phone as she began to
reply.

Jared felt his plans were
falling apart. He didn’t want to seem like a crazy person. He had
to get Emily back tonight if ever. Tonight had to be perfect.
Nothing could go wrong. He did the only thing he thought he could
do. He made an offer to the unknown.

Jared called out from the
middle of the kitchen. His hands pulsed with pain from having
touched the phone. “Alright. Whatever you are. Listen, I know what
you want. You want metal, right? You like metal? You like gold and
silver? I’m going to make you a deal, okay? This one time, you and
me.” He paused. He heard a groan from the building, as if it
shifted on its foundation. “Okay. Listen, you stay out of my
business tonight and I’ll give you gold. Okay? When she comes here,
you stay away!” He cried out again to no response. Jared had no
idea what he was doing, but it was his best shot. He wanted Emily
to see the place. He wanted to make her feel sorry for his living
conditions. He wanted to make the best impression he could and he
couldn’t deal with a tongue-filled drain. It had to
work.

Jared took a shower and
stood a distance from the drain. He washed his hair with his eyes
open and felt the sting of the soap as it dripped into his eyes. He
stared at the black little hole and waited for a tongue to fling
out when unprepared. Nothing came. He dressed and repainted the
walls of the apartment. They were white again.
Not white enough
, he thought. Jared
prepared simple meal. He fetched his water from the bathroom sink.
He thought it safer, as it was a distance from the kitchen
pipes.

There was a knock on the
door. Jared looked at his watch. It was too early for Emily. He
opened the door to Matt. Jared’s gauze-wrapped hands caught Matt’s
attention.

“
Doorknob get you?” Matt
laughed, unsympathetic.

“
What do you want?” Jared
asked with blunt force. He tried not to seem impatient.

“
Heard noise coming from
your apartment last night. Wanted to see if everything was
alright.” Matt said. He seemed genuinely concerned. Matt’s eyes
darted over Jared’s shoulder. It was obvious to Jared he was merely
curious, not concerned.

“
Everything’s fine. My
wife is coming out tonight. I was just doing some last minute...
cleaning.” Jared said, with little confidence after the short
pause.

“
Wife? I didn’t know you
were married.” Matt said with surprise.

“
It’s complicated. Still,
everything’s fine. I’m hoping it’ll be a nice night.” Jared smiled.
“I do have a lot of things to do. Was there anything
else?”

Matt shook his head. “No,
man. Have fun with ‘the wife.’” Matt grinned and stepped back from
the door. He bopped his head as he waded toward the pulsing sound
of his apartment.

Jared called out as he was
walking away. “Matt, do you think you could turn down the music
tonight? I’d like to have a nice night and the music’s
distracting.” Jared tried to reason with Matt.

“
Sure, man. I’ll turn it
down.” Matt lifted his chin toward Jared, in a nondescript sign of
“getting it.” Jared nodded and stepped out of the apartment. He
headed to the jewelry store.

Emily was a fan of
jewelry. Jared thought jewelry was an enormous waste of money. He
never understood the symbolism. He conceded from his own ideas to
do whatever he could in the last try at getting Emily back. He’d
hold nothing back.

“
That gold one there, with
the diamond? How much is that?” Jared asked the salesperson as
Jared’s reflection stared at him in the glass. The jewelry case’s
lights glowed in a way that made the diamonds inside
glimmer.

“
That one there?” The man
reached into the case after he unlocked it. He lifted the small
display toward Jared and showed it off before he gave the price.
“One-thousand for that one, Sir, but I could give it to you for
nine-hundred?”

“
Nine-hundred?” Jared didn’t have that kind of money, but he
had a credit card.
All the
stops.
Jared thought about it and lifted
the necklace with gauzed fingers. He thought of the voice from the
kitchen pipes, “give me your metal.” He shuddered then nodded.
“I’ll take it.”

The salesperson clapped
with a delighted smile. “Wonderful. Let me package it up for you,
Sir.” Then he did, in a ribbon-strewn, decorative box.

On the drive home, Jared
popped open the case of the necklace. He glanced at it in the
passenger seat as he drove along. The necklace was a symbol of a
new beginning. It meant that him and Emily could put everything
behind them, move on. It seemed simple to Jared. He wanted to
remind her of his love and his willingness to sacrifice. He
imagined Emily would feel pity when she saw the apartment and be
mesmerized by the necklace. Everything was going to work. It had
to.

When Jared arrived at his
apartment, the music was down. He and he called out a quick
“thanks” as he passed by. There was no response. Inside, Jared
cooked the meal he’d prepared and dressed in his best clothes. He
put the necklace and case inside of pocket of his slacks. Jared
cooked the meal then stood over the sink with both gauzed hands on
the sides of the metal basin.

“
Listen. I know you want
metal and I have it, alright? You just stay in there and out of
view until we’re done here and you can have every bit of metal you
want. I don’t imagine I’ll be staying at the apartment long.” Jared
said into the drain’s abyss.

He heard the building’s
pipes groan in response. Taps and ticks echoed through the
emptiness. The pipes below his feet and above his head sounded as
though they were twisting and contorting. Jared accepted it as a
response—maybe even an agreement.

The knock came. Jared
tugged on his collar, ensured it was crisp, lit a couple of candles
at the table, and made it to the door when the second knock came.
He opened the door to Emily, who looked solemn, and then disturbed
by the apartment behind him.

“
My God, Jared, what is
this place?” She said, concerned while looking over his shoulder as
Matt had earlier. Matt, too, stood in the hallway. He chewed on
potato chips and stared at Emily. Emily peeked over her shoulder to
Matt.

“
Come in.” Jared escorted
her in and he narrowed his eyes on Matt, who returned a wide,
greasy grin.

Inside of the apartment,
Jared removed Emily’s coat and placed on the couch’s back. He
presented the space with a swing of his arms.

“
So, what do you think?
It’s not much. I just painted.” Jared said.

Emily looked around the
room for a long time. She didn’t smile or frown. Her face was still
like a doll.

Jared intervened. “I made
us steak and asparagus. Our favorite.” He dashed off toward the
kitchen to bring back the pan of asparagus first. The plates were
already at the small table at the edge of the kitchen. With a pair
of tongs, he placed the asparagus on the plates.

Emily migrated from the
center of the bleak living room. She ran a hand along the old,
Salvation Army couch and her red lips rose at one end. He knew that
she disapproved. She wore a simple white dress, white always a
color that Emily wore well and one that Jared thought highlighted
her purity. Glossy white heels made her perfection.
White enough
, he
thought.

“
Why don’t you come and
sit down?” Jared asked after he placed the pan down. He pulled a
seat out for her at the table and waited for her to finish her
inspection of Jared’s furniture.

Emily looked up to him
with a smile, her eyes glossed in the dim candlelight. She nodded
and stepped toward the seat and sat. “I’m sorry, Jared, if I had
realized—“