Behest
by
Sara Bourgeois
Chapter One
“What the hell are you doing?” the woman yelled at me before throwing her coupons in my face. It was fitting that this was my ten-year anniversary at the Pic-n-Shop.
“Ma’am, these coupons have been expired for months. The register scans all the coupons. I can’t input them by hand,” I said and waited for the tirade to begin again.
“I need to speak to your manager.”
I heard the groan of everyone behind her in line. I wasn’t the only one this bitch was affecting. It was the busiest time of the weekend and five or six customers were lined up at every register.
I was feeling light-headed by the time I finally got my break. Since I’d woken up fifteen minutes before I had to be at work, I hadn’t had any breakfast. My blood sugar had to have plummeted at some point, but break times were pushed back an hour.
There was no way I was going to buy something from the store for lunch. It would take my whole break to wait in line. Of course, I hadn’t brought anything either. My mother barely kept any food in the house, and I hadn’t gotten up early enough to throw something together anyway.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a loser. I’m a checkout boy at a shitty grocery store, and I live in my mother’s basement.
I call it my apartment, but it’s just a basement. The washer and dryer are at the bottom of the stairs, and every time she stomps down the rickety wooden staircase, I get a lecture about how I’ve done nothing with my life.
But the few times I’ve tried to do better, mother always finds a way to keep me from moving on. I let her convince me that using some of the money I’d saved from working at the grocery store to pay for community college was a waste. By the way, she withdrew all of it the next day and blew it on bingo.
Yeah, I’m a twenty-eight-year-old guy whose mommy is on his bank account. She’d throw a fit if I took her off or opened another account, and it’s just too much hassle.
I tried to join the Army too, but she said I’d be abandoning her. I’d temporarily convinced her that it was a good idea by telling her I’d send her my pay, but the day I was supposed to sign the papers, she tried to kill herself.
Where was I? Oh right. So, my blood sugar was low, and I needed something to eat. When I opened the fridge, and rifled through the lunches, I only found one that seemed alright.
Lindsey had a roast beef sandwich, baby carrots with ranch dressing, and what looked like a homemade banana bread muffin. Now, I knew what people would think if I stole it and got caught. What kind of loser asshole monster takes a pregnant lady’s lunch, but I was really hungry. I was also down to fifteen minutes. I knew Lindsey was working the middle shift between the day and night shifts, so she had just come on. She wouldn’t be taking her lunch for hours.
It was a good lunch too. Lindsey was going to be an excellent mother. She made a great sandwich and was obviously a good baker. I put the bag back in the fridge with a five-dollar bill inside because I’m not an actual monster.
That left me with just enough time to go outside and suck down a cigarette before I had to be back at my register. Outside the back door, I couldn’t believe my luck. Carrie was out back having a smoke too.
I’d wanted to ask her out for ages. I knew there was no way she’d ever say yes to a loser like me, but I had to at least try. Besides, women liked when men asked them out, right? Even if she didn’t like me, I knew she’d feel better about herself knowing that she had an admirer.
I stood stupefied for a moment, watching Carrie pull her cigarette away from her lips. Her scarlet lipstick left a ring around the butt, and I couldn’t help but imagine where else she could leave that lovely ring of color.
“What’s up, Billy the Kid?” she said with a congenial smile.
“Not much, Carrie Berry. How’s it hangin?” I asked and pulled my pack of Marlboros out of my apron.
“A little to the left today,” she said and took a puff. “Good job handling that psycho hose beast.” Carrie held in the smoke while she said this and then exhaled a long column of smoke into the air when she was done speaking.
“Thanks. I’ve gotten used to it. I get one every week or so,” I said.
“I’m surprised it’s not more often. Can you believe the freaks that come in here?”
“I can,” I said with a laugh.
“What time are you off?” she asked, and I couldn’t believe my luck.
“I’m off at four. What about you? Do you have any big plans tonight?” I asked as casually as I could.
“Off at four too,” she said and stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray. “I’d better get back. My break was over five minutes ago.”
“Okay,” I said, but I knew I would hate myself if I let the opportunity pass. “Hey, Carrie?”
“Yeah?” she asked, with the door held halfway open.
“Since we’re off at the same time, would you like to grab some dinner or maybe a drink tonight?”
“Seriously, Will? It’s not like that at all. Please don’t make it awkward,” Carrie said and slammed the door behind her when she went inside. I wanted to fall into a hole.
Chapter Two
Before I left for the day, we had a team meeting about how HR was going to put cameras in the breakroom due to the epidemic of food stealing. I wasn’t quite sure if they meant the lunches being lifted every now and again or if someone else was stealing food from the store and taking it into the breakroom. Either way, I felt like a complete loser.
I mean, I was almost there after Carrie’s thorough takedown of my last scrap of self-esteem, but when I grabbed my jacket from the breakroom on the way out, Lindsey was crying. One of the other girls was comforting her.
“Only a complete psycho would steal a pregnant woman’s lunch.”
That stung. At the time, I had my share of problems. Some of them were mental health issues like anxiety and ADD, but I wasn’t a complete psycho. I hadn’t stolen her lunch either. I’d paid for it.
The door hinges on my 1999 Toyota Corolla creaked loudly when I got in. My car didn’t look so great anymore, but it still ran like a champ. I changed the oil religiously. It’s the one thing my dad taught me before he split on my mom and me.
Back at home, my mother stood in the middle of the kitchen waiting for me. I always knew it was going to be a bad night when she waited for me right there in that certain spot. The lights were off too. It was as if she were trying to scare me. Like she was waiting to pounce.
I was afraid of her, but I had no idea why. She could yell like nobody’s business, but I couldn’t remember her ever hitting me. That was probably the reason it was so terrifying. If she had beat me in the past, it was so bad that I blocked it out. I couldn’t come up with another reason why I was so irrationally afraid of a woman that was half my size.
“Did you get fired or something?” she asked when I flicked on the light.
“No, Mom. I worked the early shift. “
“When do you get paid? They’re going to shut the water off on Thursday.”
“Mom, I gave you money for the water bill last week,” I said, and my heart sank. She’d probably used it to play online bingo instead of paying the bill.
“No, you didn’t,” she said in that go ahead and challenge me voice that meant things would get ugly.
“Yes, I did, Mom. I gave you seventy-five dollars last week.”
“Are you calling me a liar? You ungrateful little piece of shit. How dare you treat me this way? I give you a roof over your head and this is how you repay me?”
“Mom, you don’t give me a roof over my head. I’ve been paying most of the rent here for years. I also gave you money for the utilities.”
“Fuck you!”
she screamed and turned around to pick up a dirty pot from the stove. “You’re just like your father!” she said and threw the pot at my head.
I ducked and opened the door to the basement. “I’ll pay the bill on my way to work tomorrow.”
“You need to give me the money!” she shrieked.
I halfway expected her to follow me down the stairs so she could continue screaming at me until I agreed to give her the cash for the water bill. But, if I did that, the bill wouldn’t get paid, and I didn’t have enough money left to pay the utilities three times a month. I had to figure out something fast. I’d never get the money together to get out of there if I kept letting her piss it away on bingo and whatever else she spent it on instead of bills.
When I got to the bottom of the steps and flipped on the basement light, I just about pissed my pants. The man sitting in my computer chair turned around slowly and smiled, revealing a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.
Chapter Three
“Don’t be alarmed, William,” he said, and I could swear that his tongue looked reptilian.
“Who are you? What the fuck are you doing in my room?” I hollered.
“Hush now, Billy the Kid. I’d hate for you to draw your mother down here. I’d have to dispatch her in a most unpleasant manner,” he hissed.
I let out a huge sigh. “I’m not sure that would bother me much, mister.” I said.
I probably should have been more frightened, but after he’d spoken to me and threatened to dispatch my mother, I figured he wasn’t going to pounce on me and rip my throat out with his jagged teeth. If he was going to do that, why bother saying anything at all? Why not just hide in the shadows and be done with it? But from the looks of it, he’d been playing Call of Duty before I got down there.
“See, you’re very clever, William. That’s why I’ve chosen you,” he said and stood up. It was as if he’d heard my thoughts.
“Oh, I see.” I said to no one in particular. “I’ve finally snapped. You’re a hallucination. I’m supposed to be too old to come down with schizophrenia, but I assume there are people who get it later.”
“Listen to me.” His voice boomed and suddenly he stood right in front of me.
“I thought you were worried about my mom coming down here,” I said sarcastically. The pants-shitting effect of seeing him when I’d first walked downstairs had worn off completely. I think that I was just too broken inside to care that much.
“Mooooom!!! I’ve got the cash for you,” the creature man called out in my voice.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
I heard the basement door open. “What’s that, Billy?”
“I have money for you, Mom,” the creature said in my voice. “I’m so sorry, Mom. I was being a jerk.”
“Mom, no,” I tried to say, but no sound came out.
She practically ran down the stairs, and my mother never moved fast. It would have been hilarious if not for what happened next.
Mother was halfway to us before she realized that I wasn’t alone. “What is this about?” she asked. “You didn’t tell me you were having company.” She could barely hide her contempt, but it was obvious she didn’t want to embarrass herself until she knew if the man was a loser like me.
“Carol Ann, it’s so good to finally meet you,” the creature said in a voice that was no longer mine. “I’ve had my eye on your son for a long time. He is exactly what I need.”
“Oh, you’re a faggot,” my mother said and then turned to me. “Jesus Christ, Billy. I always kinda expected that you were a queer, but I never thought you’d be dumb enough to bring another faggot into my house.”
She raised her hand to strike me. All pretense of being a normal person dropped now that she thought the man was gay and thus inferior.
Before she could hit me, his hand shot up and grabbed her by the wrist. My mother made a tiny whimpering sound before the creature man ripped her arm right off the socket.
Mother looked stunned for a moment as all of the color drained from her face. The creature man—I’d decided then to call him Kevin because he looked like a monster version of Kevin Spacey—handed her arm back to her. If not for the blood and gore, it would have been a bit comical.
“Help,” she started to scream. “Help meeeeeee!!!!”
“Well, that will be about enough of that, Carol Ann,” Kevin said.
A moment later, he’d separated her head from the rest of her body.
Chapter Four
“Now you owe me a favor,” Kevin said.
“What?” I couldn’t believe what I’d just seen. I felt the bile rise in my stomach as I looked down at the decapitated body of my dead mother. “What have you done?”
“I’ve set you free, William. Please don’t try to tell me that you haven’t thought of killing that crazy cunt a few thousand times.” Kevin said and rubbed his hands together as if he were washing them. The blood disappeared from his skin, and I began to think of running. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. I think it’s pretty obvious what I am capable of, and while I’ve done you a favor to earn your trust, I’m not above inflicting a little pain as incentive,” he said and retook his seat at my computer.
“What do you want?” I asked. I no longer felt dead inside, and I wasn’t cocksure that my life couldn’t get any worse either.
“Ah, glad we’re finally getting down to the nitty-gritty,” Kevin said and shook my mouse to wake up my PC. “I’ve got a job for you. It’s one that you can’t refuse.”
Over the next half hour, Kevin showed me a Craigslist ad for a cabin that I was to rent. Then, he went to the Hartland Middle School website and showed me the pictures of three boys who I was to kill. Evan Little, Lyle Johnson, and Chris Harding all had to die, and in that particular order too.
“You want me to rent a cabin and murder three kids.”
“Ah, you’re a quick study.”
“Let’s say that I did agree to go along with this scheme. How am I supposed to rent the cabin? I don’t have that kind of money laying around.”
“But, William, you do. You see, your mother does occasionally win at bingo. More so lately because I’ve helped things along. She just doesn’t tell you. If she did, you’d stop handing over most of your paycheck to her. So, she stashes the money. I happen to know where that stash is.”
“Okay.”
“Let’s clear something else up too, William. You still seem to think that you have a choice in this matter. You have no idea what I will do to you and everyone you care about if you don’t do what I say.”
“That’s where you’ve gone astray. I don’t care about anyone,” I said with a dismissive shrug.
Kevin turned back to the computer and pulled up Facebook. He typed something else in and brought up Carrie’s profile. “Billy the Kid, I will skin her alive and make her march around the tree in her backyard with one end of her intestines nailed to the bark. Then, I will defile her dying body in every orifice while her little sister watches.”
“Where is the bingo money hidden?”
Chapter Five
Evan Little
“I said get me a Pepsi,” Evan barked at his mother. “I didn’t say I wanted a fucking Coke. God, Mom, you are such a bitch sometimes.”
The other boys snickered at this, and Linda Little walked back into the house with her head hung low. She wished she could find the strength to discipline Evan, but she didn’t have it.
It was her fault that he acted that way. Evan was only speaking to her the way that he’d seen his father talk to his mother a thousand times before. She was the one who stood back while Evan Sr. took the belt to his son. It had been her job to protect him, and she’d done nothing. Her father had always said she was weak and stupid, and Linda guessed that it was true.
Evan had been such a sweet boy too. He’d pick her flowers and help her bake. That all changed the day that Evan Sr. came home from work early and found them in the kitchen making cookies.
He’d beat the bo
y until he was black and blue for being a “pussy”. Linda guessed that even if she found a way to escape her husband, it was too late for her son. There was something dark and twisted about the boy.
The truth was that she had become as afraid of him as she was of his father. That fear was quickly turning to contempt, no matter how hard she tried to stop it.
Linda wanted to feel bad for her son, but some of the things he’d been in trouble for lately made it hard to feel empathy. Not to mention that Evan Sr. had become afraid of his son as well, so he took his anger at the situation out on Linda.
She began to cry softly when the realization hit that her only hope was to escape them both. The opportunity was just days away, and Linda knew that it was now or never.
Evan and his friends were going on a camping trip with Evan Sr. Her husband had choked the boy out when he’d said that he didn’t want to go, and that settled the matter. They would be gone all weekend, and she could get away. By the time her husband got back and realized what she had done, Linda would be so far away that neither of them would ever find her. She’d make a new life without her abusive husband and psychotic son.
Outside in the barn, Evan, Lyle, Chris, and a younger boy named Hunter were gathered around a pile of old magazines and rags. Evan had a box of matches in his hand.
“Won’t your mom get mad?” Hunter asked.
“Naw. She’s going to have to go to the store to get Pepsi. I told her Saturday before she went to the grocery store that I wanted Coke, so there’s no Pepsi in the house. She’ll be gone for a while,” Evan said and struck a match.
“I wish my mom was that nice to me. She almost never lets me have Pepsi,” Hunter said.
“That’s because you’re a retard,” Evan said and threw the match onto the pile of magazines and rags.
What Hunter hadn’t noticed was that Lyle and Chris had moved behind him. The bigger boys were waiting for the signal from their leader.
Once the fire was roaring, Evan gave his friends the thumbs-up. He waited on the other side of the fire to ensure that the smaller boy couldn’t escape the flames right away.
Behest Page 1
