Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-28428152-20181007064441

Chapter V

A little over two months had passed since Ben had been sent to the Emergency Room. He still had trouble with movement, but his recovery had been remarkably quick, astonishing his doctors.

It had been only a few moments that Penny had been knocked out by the bat, and while he was occupied by his merciless beating of Ben, she had stumbled her way down the stairs to the phone and called the police, who arrive within minutes and arrested Dave, an image Ben wouldn’t be soon to forget.

Immediately after getting his father out of the way, the paramedics rushed both Penny and her son to the hospital, where they were shown to have broken several bones. Luckily, Ben only had a concussion on top of the broken bones, with no brain damage, as his mother had been terrified of being the case. While there, legal custody of him was handed over to his grandparents, who were more than willing to take him in. But ben was a little sad to say goodbye to the owl that lived in a tree by the window next to his bed. She had been his greatest source of comfort throughout the long, boring days.

But his grandparents’ house was a cozy one, nestled on the outskirts of Maysburg amidst a rather large swath of forest. At first, he had difficulty adjusting to the new environment, away from what he had become used to. The friendly home was a strange, yet wonderful place. It was here that he finally felt truly loved. And though he remained largely friendless when he started going to Maysburg Middle, he felt content. Somehow, despite the rather cruel clique of the popular kids that liked to endlessly torment the outsiders, he managed to fly under their radar. His therapist helped, too.

Ben was the happiest he had ever been.

“Ben, your mother called today,” Charlie told him one Wednesday afternoon in early February. “She said she wants to talk to you about something.”

“About what?” he asked.

Charlie shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno. She wouldn’t tell me. Just that she wants to see you tomorrow. I told her I’d ask you about it.”

Ben frowned. There was a lot he was still resentful about towards his mother. The idea of seeing her, of a piece of that hell coming here to this sanctuary, disturbed him.

Charlie sighed. “I get it, Ben. But she is your mother, and she did save your life. She might not be the best mother in the world, but she does care about you. And it sounded to me today like she’s been doing a lot of thinking. And it would be here, where you’d be safe. And D… David won’t be here to… to keep everyone down.”

Ben nodded his head heavily. “Okay. I guess I’m okay with it. Do you know if Dad’s going to prison yet?”

“Can’t say I do, son,” he said. “He won’t talk to me, your mother’s the only one who knows right now. And I’m sorry, Ben.”

“Why are you sorry?” he asked.

“Because… because I feel like it’s partly my fault.”

“How is it your fault?”

“Well, I did raise the man. And… sure, I wasn’t the perfect parent. I could’ve been more involved in his life, but I don’t know what I did for him to turn out this way. And, I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. You didn’t make him beat me and mom up.”

Charlie smiled. “Yeah. You know what, Ben? You’re a good kid. Best kid there is. It’s just unfortunate that you haven’t had the life you deserve. But, I hope Helen and I can turn things around for you, give you a good home.”

“Yeah,” Ben said, not sure what to say.

“Ah, hell,” he cried, throwing his arms up playfully.

“What is it?”

Charlie gave him a look of frustration, but Ben knew immediately that he was just messing with him.

“I’ve gotta start saving up to put you in college!”

“Already?”

“Shit, college is expensive, Ben. And it’s only getting more expensive every year.”

Ben laughed, and for that afternoon, Charlie took him out back to shoot targets with his revolver, something they hadn’t done in years.

The next day dragged on, Ben both looking forward and dreading Penny’s scheduled visit that afternoon. He looked forward to the possible realities of fantasies he held about the outcome but dreaded the dark likelihoods.

When he came home from school, his grandparents acted as though nothing was out of the ordinary, but Ben could see a certain hesitation in their eyes. At last, the sound of tires rubbing over gravel met their ears, and soon to follow was a timid knock upon the front door.

“Well, guess that’s her,” Charlie said as he stood up and went over to the door.

“Hey,” Penny muttered, obscured by Ben’s grandfather.

“Hey.”

There was a moment’s silence, the cold from outside creeping into the warm home.

“Um, may I come in?”

“Yeah. Ben’s right over there,” he gestured, stepping away from the door frame.

She smiled at Ben, taking off her black gloves and stuffing them into her purse.

“Hi, sweetie. How’re you doing?”

“I’m okay,” he returned, giving her a polite smile.

“That’s good. How are you, Helen?”

“Suppose I’m doing alright,” she said kindly, returning to her book.

“You want a drink or anything?” Charlie asked after closing the door. “We got water, coffee, Pepsi, milk. Might still have some almond milk, too.”

“A coffee would be nice,” Penny smiled. "Black is fine."

“One coffee comin’ up. You want a Pepsi, Ben?”

“Yes, sir.” He set down the book they’d been reading in class, Lord of the Flies. The savagery of the children made him uneasy, though he couldn’t quite put words to why.

“Still reading just as much as ever, huh?” she asked as she slowly took a seat one of the extra chairs.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“What book is that?”

“Lord of the Flies.”

“Oh, that’s a good one. Do you like it?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty good. Gotta write a paper about it soon, though.”

“Oh, you reading it for school?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Charlie came back into the living room and said, “Hey, I know you probably want some privacy, Penny. You can use Ben’s room, if you want.”

“That’d be great, Charlie."

“Alright, Ben can show you the way. Oh, and here’s your Pepsi. Coffee will be ready in a few minutes.”

Ben got up and led her to his room, which was a little smaller than his old room, but the brown walls and view of the trees behind the house made it feel more homely.

“I like the room,” she said as she closed the door behind them. “Do you like it?”

Ben nodded his head and sat down on his bed. Penny pulled up an old antique dining chair from the corner that Ben liked to read in so that she could face him. They stared at each other awkwardly for a minute or so, Penny’s grey eyes scanning the room sporadically, sometimes scratching at her auburn hair.

“So…um… how’s school going?”

“It’s good.”

“Grades okay?”

“Yeah. A’s and B’s for the most part.”

She smiled and said, “Yeah, you’re a smart kid.”

There was a knock on the door, followed by Charlie easing in with a steaming mug of coffee.

“Thanks.”

“Everything okay? Need anything?”

“No, but thank you,” Penny answered.

Charlie gave a thumbs up and left the room, closing the door softly behind him. Penny took a brief sip before recoiling from the heat of it.

“Wooh, that’s hot. So… I’m sure you’re wondering why I wanted to talk to you, and I know you probably have a lot of questions about your dad.”

“Is he going to prison?” he asked quickly.

She blinked her eyes and set down the mug.

“It’ll be another six months before his hearing, but… probably so. I’d be surprised if he didn’t go to prison.”

Ben nodded and looked down at his shoes. She leaned over and tried to put her hand on his leg, but he recoiled involuntarily, and she retracted her hand. Ben wished he hadn’t done so. It had felt nice for the brief moment it had been there.

“I know, it’s hard, Ben. Believe me, it’s hard on me, too. I mean, I’ve known him for years… since high school. I didn’t like having him arrested. But… he was out of control. He could’ve killed you. Could’ve killed both of us.”

Ben nodded his head, his eyes still fixated on his shoes, observing every fiber and splash of mud.

“And now, I’ve lost my son, too. But… it’s probably best for you here. I can’t afford to pay for both of us. Besides… there’s a lot of… heaviness there. No place to be happy. But I do want you to know, Ben, that I do love you.”

He looked up and saw her wiping tears away from her eyes, gripping her purse tightly in her lap. He looked back down, made uncomfortable by the strangeness of the sight.

“And I’ve been thinking a lot since everything happened. And I… I just want to say that I’m sorry, sweetie. I’ve always loved you more than anything in the world, but… I guess I never knew I never showed it. I should’ve been there for you.”

“It’s okay,” Ben whispered, looking back up, this time keeping his eyes on hers.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “No, it’s not okay. I should have been there. And I was never there, not even when your friend died. It was just…. I didn’t want to admit that anything was wrong. I wanted to have the perfect family. To have the perfect husband. To be the perfect wife and the perfect mother. I just didn’t know… what it meant. What the perfect husband actually was, or the perfect mother was. To me, it only mattered that it looked like we had the perfect lives. I never thought about reality.”

Ben, still thinking of the momentary touch of his mother’s hand, put his own hand on hers. She gripped it tightly and sniffled, wearing a sad smile.

“I should’ve made him leave a long time ago. He wasn’t fit to be a father or a husband. He never was. If he was, he never would have… done the things he did. He never would have hit you or treated you the way he did. But… I let it happen. I went along, afraid of what would happen if I didn’t. And sometimes I believed he was right. Like when he made you eat that bologna, or when we… you know…. Tricked you. In the attic.”

“Did Dad hit you?” Ben asked. The question had been in his mind ever since she had been sporting the bruise on her cheek the morning after they lured him into the attic, but he’d never had the courage to ask.

She took a sharp breath, surprised by the directness of the question. She delicately reached for the coffee and raised it to her lips, taking a shallow sip.

“Yes. Yes, he did Ben.”

A fury rose within Ben that he had never felt before, s sort of protective rage.

“I tried to keep it from you. I didn’t want to worry you. That’s why I would only argue with him in the bedroom. And usually, he did a good job of not leaving visible marks. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” he said. “It wasn’t your fault.”

She stared him in the eyes, with a look that at once conveyed pride, joy, and… was it fear?

“You’ve always been so mature,” she said. “I don’t know what it is about you, but you probably have the oldest soul I’ve ever seen.”

Ben didn’t know what that meant, but her praise made his chest flutter. For the first time in his life, he had tears of joy.

“Oh, sweetie, come here. Momma’s got you.”

She took a seat beside him, and Ben hugged her tightly, and they both cried. For how long, Ben didn’t know. All he knew was that he didn’t want it to end. He was the happiest he had ever been.

A few minutes later, he felt her head lift away, and he looked up to see Charlie standing in the doorway.

“Uh, hey, just wanted to say we’re about to have dinner if you wanted to stay,” he said.

Ben’s mother wiped her eyes and checked her cell phone.

“Oh, I wish I could. But I have to get going,” she said. “I’ve had to take up another job to keep up with the bills, and I have to be there at nine.”

“Alright, well, if you ever want to stop by, feel free. You can always make yourself at home here.”

“Thank you, I’ll try to come back soon. Maybe next week?”

“Any day. Ben gets home around four, and Helen and I are both home by three.”

“Alright. Well, Ben, I guess I’ll come back as soon as I can. That okay with you?”

He nodded his head, his eyes heavy.

They all got up, and Ben walked with her to the car.

“Call me, okay?”

“Yeah.”

She smiled and kissed him on the head. Ben watched from the driveway as she drove away, staring at the spot where the car disappeared for long while.

Dinner that night was the best he’d had in a long time, and by the time he was about to get into bed, pajamas soft and warm, he felt exhausted but content. It had been a good day.

But as he was putting The Lord of the Flies back into his bag for the next day, he noticed that there seemed to be an extra book in there. Confused, he picked it out and froze, his limbs prickling with dread.

It was The Book of Agony.

He remembered what the Nameless had told him, from that dark night in December. How the Nameless had told him to read it a second time, standing amidst the burnt ashes of what was now his bedroom.

Fingers trembling, he slowly sifted through the sewn-together pages, speeding up as he went along, desperate to put it away again. And to his twisted relief, nothing seemed to have changed other than the pages having been reattached. Until he reached the last page, the ink bright red and reeking of iron.

The painting was of Ben, chained to a wall, trapped behind bars and staring at two corpses on the other side. 