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

pipe, but from the pipe that remained, a long,
salivating tongue rolled around in circles and searched for the
ring. Grunts came from the pipe.
    Jared’s heart beat faster
than he thought possible. He put the hammer down beside him and
slapped his face twice. “I’m dreaming. I’m dreaming.” If he was,
the quick blows didn’t wake him. He gripped the hammer again.
“What?” He shook his head and the tongue withdraw into the
pipe.
    Jared rolled onto his
knees. The pain in his hand shot through his arm as he crawled
forward. He kept the hammer handy. “H-Hello?” Jared asked. He
realized the absurdity of the question. With gnashed teeth, Jared
stared into the hole where the tongue hid away. He leaned toward it and stopped a few feet away. “Hel—“ He
stopped as an eye emerged against the pipe, as an eye would peer
through a keyhole. The eye had a sickly green iris and it rolled
around until it settled on Jared, fleshy lid narrowing over the
harrowing, glossy sphere.
    Jared screamed and dropped
the hammer. He shot back from the pipe. The eye withdrew and lips,
purple and green, came forward. They spoke and revealed rotting,
green teeth.
    “ Give… me… your… metal.”
The voice whispered from the pipe. The lips smiled, withdrew, and
the eye reemerged.
    “ W-What are you?” Jared
said, frightened.
    It repeated as the eye
withdrew and the lips came forward. “Give… me… your… metal.” The
eye came forth again, watched Jared and rolled around in its metal
socket. It turned its gaze to the ring that fell from the broken
pipe.
    Jared looked to his ring
and shook his head. “No. No, you can’t have that. You hear me? You
can’t have that!” He lifted the hammer from his side and moved
toward the pipe. As Jared swung the hammer at the eye, it withdrew
leaving only darkness inside the pipe. He held the hammer back and
waited, but the eye didn’t return.
    Jared put a hand to his
head in disbelief before he snatched his ring up with his good
hand. He grabbed a rag from a drawer and sprayed it with bleach
from a spray bottle. He stuffed the rag into the open pipe. He
backed away and examined his ring. Muck covered the ring. It
smelled of mold. Jared understood the thick liquid here, the
mirrors, the walls was the saliva of creeping tongue. He rose to
his feet, kept his hammer with him and returned to his room. He
looked at his phone. 3 A.M. He considered calling the police, then
he thought about what he would say. Yes,
officer, there’s a monster in my drain. Jared closed and locked the door of his room and closed the
vents. He sat up in bed that night with the hammer and waited to
see if it would come again. It didn’t.
     
    Jared had fallen asleep
against his will. When he woke up, he immediately lifted his
hammer, prepared to strike in the case that something had sprung on
him. As he lifted the hammer, he felt an intense pain shoot through
his hand and arm. He looked at his hand in shock. It was red and
irritated, with a circular imprint in the middle of his palm where
his ring was. His ring, however, was missing.
    He cradled his freshly
damaged hand close to his body, Jared moved from the bed and toward
the door of his bedroom. It was no longer locked. The door was
cracked open. Jared pulled the door open and inspected the living
area. The walls bore smeared streaks along their bases. “How?” His
jaw fell before he stepped out into the living room. His foot came
down on something and he leapt back toward the bedroom door. His
ring sat on the ground in front of the bedroom door. Jared’s eyes
shot around before he bent over and lifted the ring in front of his
eyes. A thick, moldy mucus covered the ring. Jared whispered as he
eyed the golden band, “Give me your metal.” He glanced to the walls
then the ring. “Lead-based paint.” His eyes narrowed. “That fucking
tongue is trying to get to the walls!” Jared went into the bathroom
and watched the mirror. “Silver? Mirrors have silver. It’s