Scribner Horror Bundle: Four Horror Novels by Joshua Scribner (54 page)

***

Toby lay in bed Wednesday night. He
was a little frustrated. With this week, there had come an urge for
meat. That urge had something to do with the heat inside him. It
burned all over his body, especially in his stomach, and begged him
to eat.

He did eat, and he only ate meat. His
mother said that was fine for now, that it would change as soon as
the novelty wore off. Soon, he would crave other foods again and
could balance his diet. Toby suspected that was wrong. It was more
than the novelty. With the meat, came new sensations. While he
chewed the food and put it in his stomach the heat would kind of
localize, all of it going to his stomach. Then he would feel it
dwindle as if it was being absorbed by the food. The heat would
return, but in a new way. Instead of hunger, it came as energy. He
felt more alive, more quick, and stronger than he ever
had.

But he still felt small. The problem
was that he couldn’t eat that much. His food intake still paled in
comparison to what his brother and his father took in. Even his
mother outdid him. With just a little bit of meat in his stomach, a
few slices of bacon or one hamburger patty, the repulsion would
return and he had to stop eating immediately.

Toby knew there was more to be had, so
much more. He just had to wait until Saturday.

***

The nights were bad. James found it
hard to sleep with all the anxious thoughts in his head. He was a
murderer now, and he hadn’t even had his freedom for two weeks. In
his mind, he saw scenarios of police tracing his steps from the
victims’ home to his basement. Then they would put him in a cell.
Trapped inside he’d be, just as he’d already been for so many
years.

During the day he found escape. On his
hill, all the anxiety went away as he sat there and waited, hoping
for another spirit. He dreaded the thought of a rainy day, when he
would have worry during the day and night, without solace. It was
Thursday afternoon when he felt the next spirit enter him. He took
that spirit home.

In his basement, there wasn’t anxiety
now. As he sat alone, he wasn’t really alone. He focused on the
spirit inside him, which, like the one before, wasn’t immediately
ready to move. He wondered if the spirit knew he felt it. Did it
really think it was hiding from him?

James went out to dinner with his
parents that night. He enjoyed it, his mood festive, making small
talk with his parents as they ate in a public restaurant. He felt
neither the fear of being captured, nor the containment of being
inside for a while, because, though he talked with his parents, a
bigger part of him focused inside, on the spirit he would soon
meet.

At home, James waited for his parents
to go to bed. Then he waited another hour. Then he communicated
with the new spirit. “What would you like to do?” he
asked.

***

One of the servers had called in sick.
Tiffany wasn’t able to find a replacement, and Celeste was glad.
She was able to pick up the slack with ease. She had gone out alone
after work last night. She got out of the downtown area and went to
a meat-market of a dance club on the main stretch. There she met
some younger guy who was glad to take her back to his place. There
was little foreplay. He had turned her around and lifted her skirt.
She hadn’t worn panties. A little concern arose when she felt him
pressing into the wrong hole. She didn’t try to stop him, though.
It hurt but felt good at the same time. The end result was more
energy, and she wasn’t sore today.

Celeste cleared two-hundred dollars on
Friday night, but she wasn’t real concerned about the money. She
was just amazed about what she could do now. She loved sex and what
it did for her.

After close, Kendra came to her
section. “Wow!” she said. “Somebody’s in high spirits this
evening.”

“Well, somebody got some last
night.”

“Again?”

“Again.”

“My God, girl, you’re becoming a first
class ho!”

Celeste laughed at the comment. Yes,
she was a little loose now, but she thought the novelty would wear
off soon and she’d calm down.

“Anybody we know?” Kendra
asked.

“Nope, just some kid who picked me
up.”

A look of concern came over Kendra’s
face. “You did use protection, right?”

“Yeah,” Celeste lied. She, somehow,
wasn’t too worried about that. There was no getting pregnant
through the place he put it in. She knew disease was something she
would have to start worrying about, though. It was just that, in
the moment, when she wanted that heat so bad, she just couldn’t
bother herself with protection.

“I just love the heat,” Celeste
said.

“Yeah, it’s great,” Kendra
agreed.

“And I love the energy it leaves you
with. I feel like I can do anything afterward.”

Kendra looked confused. “Wow! I guess
I never really got that. I mean, after an orgasm I feel real
relaxed and all, and I might be in a good mood the next day, but I
don’t feel like I could conquer the world or anything.”

Orgasm, Kendra had said. That was
something Celeste had heard her friends describe. She had yet to
have one of those, but she didn’t really care. How could an orgasm
match the heat?

Kendra went to cleaning up. Celeste
finished cleaning early. She went to the bar to get a drink. Paul
came out of the kitchen.

“You scored again, didn’t you,” Paul
said.

Celeste was shocked and looked hard at
him. It wasn’t that she would mind discussing her sex life. But
Paul’s tone was accusatory.

“Well, since you asked, I did score
again.”

Paul’s face turned beet red. Celeste
had never seen him like this. It was kind of scary.

“Did you zap him?”

Celeste laughed. “What?”

Paul studied her for a few seconds and
then said, “Parker Swinson has not been to his office the last
three days. I called his house earlier today, pretending to be a
tele-marketer. He answered, but he sounded real tired.”

“Okay,” Celeste said. “What does that
have to do with me?”

“You did it to him, Celeste. I don’t
know if you know it or not, but when you have sex with someone, it
does something to him.”

Celeste could only stare in response
to the accusation.

Paul calmed down a bit, his face
turning a lighter shade of red. “Listen. The guy you had last
night. Did he fall asleep when you were done?”

Celeste hesitated. Then she feigned a
look of incredulity. “No,” she lied.

At that, Paul nodded. He took a few
seconds, then he said, “I’m sorry. I guess I shouldn’t assume
anything. It’s just that last week it was as if my energy was just
taken from me. And it seemed to happen right after having sex with
you.”

Celeste tried to hide what was going
on in her. The kid last night had been like Parker. He had
basically passed out. “It’s all right,” Celeste said. She hugged
Paul. She wondered what was going on. She thought she might discuss
it with Dr. Porter. But she wasn’t sure.

***

They sat in the darkness of a utility
room. Even this room, with its high tech laundry machines,
reflected the wealth of its owner. It was the only room, right now,
that was safe to wait in.

“I’m amazed at how prepared you are,”
James commented and then relinquished control for a
response.

“In this state, there’s not much else
to do. You look at scenarios for revenge.”

This spirit had known what to do.
They’d not had to travel far from James’s basement this time. The
big house was in Arabuke. James was a little familiar with the
owner of this house. He had been a big wig in the administration at
Arabuke University for a few years. He was also a prosperous
businessman, owning a few different businesses in Arabuke and Green
Pastures.

The spirit had gotten them inside the
house using a keyboard outside that disengaged the security system
and opened the front door. Once inside, they gathered needed
supplies, stored them in the master bedroom, and then went to the
back of the house, where there was another keyboard. With a series
of strokes, they had reengaged the alarm system everywhere except
for the utility room.

“You don’t have to tell me if you
don’t want to,” James said. “But I’m curious as to why you want to
kill this guy.”

“Not just this guy,” the spirit said.
“I want to kill his wife too.”

James didn’t respond. He just waited
for elaboration, which the spirit eventually provided.

“Well, you’ve taken me this far, so I
guess it’s safe to let you in on a few things. Mark Bremmer was my
brother. We were business partners. Ten years ago I was engaged to
be married when I had a car accident. Mark had known that I loved
my fiancée. He’d known I’d at least want her taken care of, if not
to take over my share of our business endeavors. But instead, he
gave her nothing and made sure she was ostracized from our family.
Within six months of my death, she left town in complete squalor
and depression. I know because I watched the whole thing. I had
suspected my brother might pull such a stunt. I guess that’s why I
stuck around.”

James could feel a part of the emotion
there, the sadness and hate the spirit felt in telling the story,
and those emotions made James want for the spirit. He was all the
more excited about what was to come. James had seen the supplies
the spirit had gathered. He had some idea about the plan, but
didn’t know exactly. He didn’t want to know. It was like a movie in
a way, except with way more feeling. He had put a few pieces
together but had to wait for the exact ending to reveal
itself.

They must have been there an hour
longer before the occupants of the house arrived. They entered
through the front door and the sounds of their drunken laughter
echoed through the large house.

“We wait just a little while longer,”
the spirit whispered.

“What if they come back here?” James
whispered.

“Don’t worry. I’ve been watching their
Friday nights for years. They never do.”

A few minutes later, the sound of
water running echoed through the pipes.

“Like clockwork,” the spirit said.
“This is the only night they go out together. They always drink. My
brother takes a shower, and then they may or may not have sex,
depending on how tired they are.”

James hadn’t realized how predictable
people were. In a way, they were like he had always been, trapped
in a routine.

“It’s time to go,” the spirit said,
and they were quickly up. They went to just outside the back door
and made one last entry on that keyboard. “That will keep us dry,”
the spirit commented.

They moved through the house with
urgency, but with quiet steps. They went up the stairs, where,
someone, Mark Bremmer, if the spirit was right, was taking a shower
in a hallway bathroom. They went into a master bedroom, which James
was surprised to see empty. Then he noticed a closed door off to
the side and heard a facet come on from inside that door. Mrs.
Bremmer was in the master bathroom.

They gathered a few of the items they
had stored underneath the king-sized bed. Then they waited at the
side of the bathroom door. James was very aware of the sound of the
shower from the other room. He wasn’t sure of the spirit’s exact
plan, but he knew timing was of the essence. About a minute later,
the shower still running in the hall bathroom, Mrs. Bremmer came
out of the master bathroom. James never got a good look at the
naked woman’s face. Before she had time to look their way, the
spirit was on her. The woman was slender and not very strong. She
put up little fight as a thin rope was wrapped tightly around her
head. The spirit left a gap only around her nose. Then he tossed
her on the bed and turned her on her stomach. He used another rope
to tie her hands behind her back and then the last rope to tie her
feet together. James doubted, with the way the rope was tied around
her face, that the woman could make much of a sound. But the spirit
warned her anyway.

“Make a noise, and I’ll kill you
both!”

They grabbed a claw hammer and a sharp
knife from beside the bed and then moved to the wall, beside the
bedroom door, where they waited.

James looked at the naked woman. Her
buttocks were clenched, like she was trying to hide part of herself
or was just that tense. He was guessing she was a little older than
him, but way more fit. But he couldn’t feel lust for her. He
suspected that was because he could feel what the spirit wanted.
This woman was a pawn in a game of vengeance.

The shower finally stopped in the hall
bathroom. A couple of minutes later, there was the sound of the
door opening, and then Mark Bremmer made his way down the hall,
drunkenly humming some unfamiliar tune. He walked into the room,
wearing only a towel. He had just a second to take in the picture
of what was on the bed. He shook his head in confusion and then
seemed to notice something in his peripheral vision. He turned to
them, and that was when they brought the blunt end of the hammer
against his jaw.