These things grew all the way up until Jacob hit the outskirts of Nescata. Then all but the light disappeared. Jacob stopped outside the gate. He looked over the vacant parking lot, the well-lit but dormant field, and the empty bleachers. Then he floated through the roof of his car.
#
Jacob lands in the middle of the football field where he once played. There are a few moments where things around him grow and sounds arise out of nowhere. Soon, it has all changed. It’s still a football field, but not the same one. The stands are much larger. People are in them, but they are not nearly filled to capacity. The turf is artificial instead of grass. Down the field, players from two teams are huddled up. On the sidelines, there are coaches and more players.
Jacob realizes that he’s on the field the Oklahoma Sooners play on. That same field plays host to the high school state championships every year. It’s all reminiscent of when Jacob played in that game, but it’s different too. It’s not his team. The Nescata Pride is one of the teams on the field, but even from the distance, he can easily tell that it’s not his teammates. And the coaches on the sideline are not his coaches.
With this recognition, Jacob is taken up again. He is lifted into the stands, over the people and then over the empty seats. He is taken all the way up to the press box. Then, he is taken inside, where he stays.
In front of him are two men with microphones attached to their heads. They sit in front of small television monitors. Jacob watches those monitors as he listens to the two men call the game.
“The pass is complete. First down, Nescata Pride.”
“Wow! What a pass! The quarterback was flushed out of the pocket. He looked like he would be sacked for sure. But he got that pass off somehow.”
“Yeah Dave, what a play! This kid’s got talent. You know there are number of scouts looking at him tonight.”
“And what an amazing story, Barry. This young man lost his father to a heart attack almost a year ago.”
“An amazing story, indeed. His coach says he’s the hardest working player on the team.”
“And he credits all that to his late father, Larry Confad Senior.”
Jacob watches the next play on the monitor. Larry Confad’s son takes the ball from center and hands it to the fullback who is tackled after a couple of yards. Jacob talks out loud to nobody.
“No, you didn’t have a dad. He died of a heart attack many years before you were thought of. I killed him before he could make you.”
The players on the field huddle up. Jacob looks at the men in front of him. He reads the back of one of their shirts.
“KXWY. They announced our game.”
Jacob walks forward and looks at the faces of the radio announcers. One is familiar. It’s the same man Jacob had talked to after the game, but he’s much older now.
“All right. Second down and eight. Working out of the I formation. Confad takes the snap from center. He fakes to the upback. He’s looking downfield. Got a man open! He lets it go! And it’s caught at the ten-yard line and taken in for a touchdown!”
Jacob watches the crowd below. People are jumping in their seats. The band begins to play the same fight song they used to play when Jacob was on the team.
“I got to tell you Dave, Stan Wayne has really turned this Pride team around. Who would have thought four years ago, when Nescata suffered through its second straight winless season, that they would be here in the state championship game four years later?”
Most of the monitors stay on the field, all showing the same pictures. But there is one that flashes off. Jacob turns to it, knowing that he’s the only one that sees it change. When it blinks back on, there is a close up of a person he knows never made it to the age of twenty-two. But now Stan Wayne is standing on the sideline. He’s wearing a big blue coat with a huge “N” on one side and “Head Coach” written on the other. His face is covered with a mixture of gray and black stubble. Underneath that stubble is an aged face.
“You’re right Barry, it reminds me of the Pride team years ago, when Coach Brian Shaw led them to glory.”
“And you have to give credit where credit’s due. How about the decision of Superintendent, Gary Mann, to hire his old teammate for the job?”
Now the monitor that only Jacob can see goes in for a close up of another older man. Gary stands alone. On his face is the stern look Jacob remembers from when Gary led them to the championship. It almost makes Jacob forget the way Gary looked the last time he saw him, right before Shane Tantenmore beheaded him.
Jacob listens to the commentators for just a few seconds longer as it all begins to fade away.
“Boy, Barry. I never thought I’d see the day they would be this dominant again.”
“Yeah, but they’re here.”
“You’re right. It’s like the old Nescata all over again.”
#
When Jacob comes to, he has his usual disorientation. Then he remembers that he traveled into Nescata. But the sounds of the crickets and the feel of a cool breeze touching his sweaty skin tell him he’s outside. When he opens his eyes, he sees the stars and knows that he is flat on his back. After he looks around and sees the shadows of trees and the dark hill behind him, he realizes that he has not left the shale pit.
Jacob feels the excitement rise in him. Wicked thoughts flash through his mind. Suddenly, he does want to go home. He does want to kill his family. Then he will go to town and wait in the apartment for Sonnie.
When she comes up, I’ll be waiting. Then I’ll . . .
There is a sudden jolt of pain, like there is something moving inside of him. It’s like a rock that has formed inside and stretched out to cover his whole body. Jacob becomes blind.
He tries to scream, but his voice is gone. The feeling inside him expands. Then it suddenly stops hurting and begins to draw back into itself. As the feeling condenses, Jacob begins to sense what it is. It’s the rage, the thing that made him want to burn Sonnie, the same thing that made him like watching the blood spill from the helpless girl who fell from the building. It condenses all the way into the pit of his stomach, and there it burns. Then it nauseates him.
The burn and nausea disappear into nothingness. Jacob is left with just a presence. That presence moves into the air and takes him with it.
Jacob rises into the sky. This time, he has no fear. He just moves higher and higher, half knowing what to expect. Soon, he hits the wall and feels himself being separated from what is with him. Vision comes and Jacob can see the dark earth below. In that darkness he spots the shadow of his own figure.
Jacob is turned upside down in the sky, as the last of the other presence is stripped from him. With one last painful jolt, it’s gone and he is tumbling through the air.
Chapter 14
Though he wanted to, Jacob did not leave the shale pit immediately. Not believing that he felt the way he felt, he sat and waited to see what would come up in him. Nothing did. At least, nothing that felt inhuman did. He felt pain again. And it wasn’t in the background. It was now a part of him.
There was no anticipation, and there was no wickedness. Nor was there the tension that he’d had for so long. After several hours of waiting, Jacob became more confident, but he still wasn’t sure. He still had one more test. He got in his car and drove.
By the time he got to town, the bar was closed. He pulled up into the lot, wondering if he would be locked out. Sonnie had looked so afraid the last time he saw her. He wondered how she had made it this far.
But still, Jacob checked the door downstairs and found it open. Then he checked the door to her apartment and found the same thing. He found Sonnie in her room, asleep on the bed.
Jacob crawled in with her as quietly as he could. Still, she stirred and awoke.
“Jacob? Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t think you were coming.”
“I wasn’t so sure myself.”
There was a pause.
“What made you com
e?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it’s all over now.”
“What?”
“Everything.”
Jacob put his hand on her shoulder and she took hold of it. He decided to wait just a while longer. He fell asleep with Sonnie in his arms.
#
This time, things are different. Jacob is not a kid. He's himself, and he's clothed. The teachers at the front of the class are also as he remembered them, not from the dream, but how they were when they taught him and his classmates. And his classmates are his classmates, just as he remembers them too.
The whole class is focusing on Jacob. The stares don’t bother him, and he is not overwhelmed by a feeling of helplessness. This time, he knows the answer.
“Well, Mr. Sims,” The older version of Mr. Tomsak says. “Do you want to tell us what the fourth characteristic is?”
“Yes, the fourth and final characteristic of the perfect process is that, when the time comes for the process to end, the same mechanism that destroys the byproducts of the process is responsible for making sure the process never recycles again. In short, I killed Gary Mann, Stan Wayne, and Larry Confad, and that was enough to keep the process from recycling again.”
Mr. Tomsak smiles. “Yes, Mr. Sims. That is correct. The process comes to an end.”
Jacob looks around the room. His classmates stare at him in awe.
“No, thank you, Mr. Tomsak. Now I have a couple of questions.”
“Yes, Mr. Sims, you may ask.”
“First, why does the process end? Second, why did Tommy Carmichael have to die?”
Mr. Tomsak smiles again. Then he looks around the room. “I believe that the person who can answer these questions is among us right now.”
Jacob turns to his classmates and tries to find whom Mr. Tomsak is staring at.
“Yes, that person is with us. Would that person like to speak now?”
There is silence for nearly a minute. Then it is Jacob who breaks this silence. “Come on! Speak up! Whoever it is, answer my questions.”
Again, there is only silence.
“It does not sound like the person is ready to speak. But don’t worry, Jacob. You will all meet again. And when that day comes, this person will tell you what you want to know.”
“No! I want to know now! Speak up!”
“Mr. Sims, this is not appropriate.”
Jacob looks and sees that it’s the person at the middle podium, Principal Cindy Hogaboom. The look on her face is very stern, sterner than he has ever seen on her, almost desperate.
“Mr. Sims, it is not necessary that you know these things at this time. The most important thing is that you understand that the process must come to an end now, and that it must come to an end in its entirety.”
Ms. Hogaboom steps to a side. Behind her, there is a message written on the chalkboard.
End line. Don’t make.
“Do you understand, Mr. Sims?”
“No! I don’t understand!”
“You must. It’s very important.”
“Then tell me.”
Cindy Hogaboom looks at him for a few seconds. She starts to open her mouth, but then there is the sound of the ringing phone and she freezes. The second time it rings, the classroom and all the people in it disappear.
#
When Jacob awoke, there was the aftereffect of the ringing in his head. He moved away from Sonnie and jumped out of the bed.
“Jacob? Where are you going? Is it happening again?”
“No, I just thought I heard something.”
“What?”
Jacob looked down at the clock beside Sonnie’s bed. 3:09 AM. He crawled back into bed. “I’m sure it was just nothing. Let’s go back to sleep.”
Jacob kissed Sonnie on the lips. He kissed her a second time. He pulled her closer and began caressing her hair. He pulled away.
“What?”
“I think we’re safe now.”
They made love.
#
The next time the phone rang, it was real. Jacob knew this because Sonnie got out of bed. He watched her naked rump as she walked away.
“Damn, I forgot to put the portable in here last night.”
“And that’s a bad thing, because?”
Sonnie turned and looked at him questioningly, then she seemed to catch on. She gave him a wink before disappearing out of the room. Jacob heard her voice from the other room.
“Yeah, he’s here. Just a second.”
Sonnie came back into the room carrying the portable phone. The look on her face told Jacob something wasn’t right.
“Who is it?”
“It’s your mom. I think she’s crying.”
Sonnie handed him the phone and sat down at the foot of the bed.
“Hello, Mom?”
“Jacob.”
“Yeah, Mom. What’s wrong?”
“You need to come home.”
“Why Mom? What’s wrong?”
Jacob heard his mother gasp, then there was silence on the other side of the line. After a few seconds, Tyla was on the phone.
“Jacob?”
“Yes, what’s going on?”
“Grandma’s dead.”
“What?”
“We got the call early this morning. The nurse said she had just checked her and Sara a few minutes earlier. She said they were fine then. Then she heard Grandma moving around and moaning. She said she went in the room and found Grandma lying there, not breathing.”
Jacob remembered waking up from the dream the night before. “Tyla?”
“Yeah.”
“What time did she die?”
“I think it was like a little bit after three o’clock.”
Jacob took a few seconds to gather himself. “Are you okay, Tyla?”
“Yeah. But Mom’s not.”
“I know. And I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Okay.”
Chapter 15
Jacob woke up alone early Friday morning. It had been two days since his grandma died. For two days he had been with family. He had been there when they cried. He had listened to them talk about her life. He had listened to them talk about her end. All the while, he'd felt separated from them all. They didn’t really understand what the end meant. They didn’t know what her life was for.
But he sat with them anyway. And Sonnie was there too. And they together knew that more than a life had ended. And for them, it didn’t seem like death at all. It was a new beginning. So in between the crying sessions, in the moments when nobody could hear or see them, they began to move on with their lives. For two days, they both bounced between discussion of loss, where they pretended to mourn just like everyone else, and discussions of the future, where they celebrated alone.
When Jacob woke up Friday morning, the day of the funeral, he smiled to himself, because he knew it would soon be done. To him, it was a ceremonious time, marking the end of his hell that had ended two days before.
It was still dark outside when Jacob got out of bed. But when he walked out into the dining room to get the phone, he could hear his mother stirring around in the next room. He took the phone out of the nook and went back into his room. He hesitated, then called Sonnie anyway. She answered on the first ring.
“Hello.”
“Hi.”
“Hi. You’re up early.”
“And so are you.”
“Yeah. So?”
“So, did you think about what we talked about?”
“Well, yeah I did, for about ten seconds.”
“And?”
“Do you really even have to ask, Jacob? Of course I will.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life. What about you?”
“What do you mean? I’m the one who asked you.”
“I know, but I want you to be sure about this too.”
“I’m sure. I’m thrilled. I can’t wait for you to get there. How much time will you n
eed?”
“Well, two weeks ought to do it.”
“You can get everything settled in two weeks?”
“Yeah. I got this cousin who lives in Enid. He’s been begging Dad for years to let him buy the bar. I called him last night. He’s driving over Monday with a check.”
“Great!”
“Yeah. I’ll take a week to break him into the business. It’s not all that complicated. Then, I’m on the next plane out.”
“Two weeks.”
“Two weeks. That is, unless you come to your senses and decide you really don’t want me there.”
“Not a chance.”
They were silent for a few seconds. Jacob savored the thought of having his new roommate arrive. He thought about picking her up at the airport. He saw her coming out of the corridor and running up to him.
“Jacob?”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t wait to be with you again.”
“Me neither. I think I should be able to sneak out of here tonight.”
“Are you going to stay with me until you go home Sunday?”
“Is that an invitation?”
“No, that’s more of a demand.”
Jacob laughed.
“What time is the service?”
“It starts at ten. I might stop by before that, though.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, I have to see about Mom first. I want to make sure she’s all right.”
“Well yeah, you should be with her.”
“We’ll see. She’s been doing better. And I really want to see you.”
Sonnie paused, then said, “All right. You do what you need to do. I’ll put some coffee on for you, just in case. And if you don’t show up, then I’ll see you at the service.”
“All right.”
“Goodbye, Jacob.”
“Bye.”
Jacob hung up the line. He walked out and found his mother sitting at the table. Her face was expressionless and her eyes looked dry, like the eyes of a person who had spent all of her tears. Jacob walked up and hugged her.
Scribner Horror Bundle: Four Horror Novels by Joshua Scribner Page 64
