A Penny Down the Well: A Short Story Collection of Horrifying Events Read Free Page A

shut the door in his face. He left the manager
standing an inch or two from solid wood. Jared turned around and
looked the room over. “Lead-based paint. Pests. Creaking floors.
Loud neighbors. I fucking feel like family here, alright.” He pushed from the
door and head back into the kitchen sink.
    Jared assessed the pipes
under the sink. He knocked on the curved trap and listened for
rattling metal. Nothing. Jared had no tools. He tugged with his
hands and tried to pull the pipes apart. They didn’t give. He
thought about kicking the pipes off but considered the damage it
could cause. He decided to wait until morning.
    Jared took a long shower
that night and thought about the day. He was a day closer to
divorce. He thought about his wedding band sitting in the
disgusting drain of the decrepit apartment. He felt like he’d
abandoned a friend. He knew there was nothing he could do. He’d be
patient. As Jared got out of the shower, he heard his phone ring.
He wrapped a towel around his body and ran toward the sound.
Emily.
    “ Hello?”
    “ Jared?” Her voice
shook.
    “ Yeah. What’s up?” He’d
known her well enough to understand something was wrong. There was
a hurt in her voice he knew. Jared loved this deep understanding of
her.
    “ Jared.” Emily began to
cry. “Jared, I’m so sorry. I know this has been difficult. It’s
been difficult for me too. I wish things hadn’t turned out this
way. I just…” She paused.
    “ What is it?” Jared asked.
He slid down against the wall.
    “ Is this all a mistake?
Should we try harder to work this out? I think maybe I’m just
confused. This seems so dumb, you know? But…” She paused
again.
    “ But?”
    “ I don’t know. I just
don’t know what to do. How to make it right again.
    Jared felt hope. “How
about you come over in a couple days? We’ll have dinner. I’ll show
you the new place? Maybe we can talk?” He suggested. Jared thought
that if she saw the place, she’d understand his capacity for
sacrifice. He wanted a chance to talk to her in person. It may have
been his last chance to fix their problems or to understand what
went wrong.
    Emily whispered,
“Okay.”
    “ Okay. Get some sleep.
Everything’s going to be alright.” Jared said. He thought of the
ring in the sink. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
    “ Goodnight.” She
said.
    “ Goodnight.”
     
    That’s when something
unexpected occurred.
     
    Clink. Clink
clink.
     
    Jared sat up in bed. The
sound came from the kitchen. He threw his legs off of the bed and stood. He
rubbed his sleepy eyes and tried to make sense of the apartment in
darkness.
     
    Clink clink.
     
    Jared moved into the
kitchen. He picked up a hammer he’d bought in a few days earlier to
replace the sticky film with nails. “Alright, you little bastard.”
He expected a rat. Jared moved around the
counter partition between the living area and the kitchen and
waited. There was silence for a long time before he heard it again,
from near the sink. He twisted and held the hammer high in his
hand. He crept toward the kitchen sink, one foot in front of
another. ‘Don’t worry, little guy.” He whispered as he neared the
sink. He stopped and waited. There was a different sound that came,
which sounded like a guttural grunt. Jared’s head cocked to the
side in bewilderment.
     
    Clink clink
clink.
     
    The sound came from the
sink. He thought about his ring. Jared sprung into action, afraid
that if he didn’t act quickly, the pest in the drain might try to
scurry off with his ring. He flipped on the kitchen light and
pulled open the cabinets under the sink. The drain trap was
dripping with what looked like water, but after quick inspection,
it was thicker. Jared took a deep breath and squeezed the hammer in
his hand, ready to kill. “Alright, fucker, time to die!” He smashed
the hammer across the trap pipe and knocked it clear off. Jared
shot backwards and crawled toward the refrigerator. His ring fell
from the broken