Amid the Recesses: A Short Story Collection of Fear (18 page)

Jared opened the door to the fat,
sweaty building manager. He seemed impatient and prepared to knock
again as the door opened.

Jared answered with an irritated,
“Yes?”

“
Ah, Jared. Hey! How’re
you? How are you liking the new place, huh?” The manager began with
small talk, peering a bit over Jared’s shoulder to see the new
paint. “Painted the place, huh? Looks better. Well, that’ll make my
job a little easier.”

“
I’m fine.” Jared wasn’t
fine. He could hardly pay attention to the building manager. He
thought about his wedding ring sitting in the old, murky trap of
the sink pipes, and he considered the irony of it all. “What job?”
He assumed the visit concerned the maintenance visit or the damaged
walls.

“
Well, seems to be some
apartments in the building that have, you know, some problems.” He
paused and scratched his hairy neck.

Jared grimaced as the manager’s Vienna
sausage fingers slid through damp, curly hair. “Problems?” Jared
looked back over the apartment. He thought there were plenty of
problems. “Like?”

“
Well, Jared—“ still
delaying, “—You know these damn Chinese bastards, always sending
out things with things in them that shouldn’t be and so.” The
manager said without saying much.

Jared stepped in. “Tell me what’s
wrong with the place. I don’t have time for this right now.” More
assertively.

“
Alright, kid, calm it
down. There’s some apartments that have lead-based paint in them.
Some cocky inspector came through and found some of it. So, we’re
gonna have to do some work to stay in ‘code.’” It’s gonna be a
hassle, but since you painted the place, I think we can wait a
while before we get into this one.” The manager said, as if the
paint rid the place of poison.

“
Lead-based paint?
Seriously?” Jared said in disbelief. He asked immediately, “I heard
there were some maintenance people in my apartment the other day.”
Jared kept quiet about the unexpected maintenance visit. “Did they
do anything? Tear away paint from the base of the wall?”

“
What? No. All I heard was
that they walked in, saw the place freshly painted and walked out.”
The manager said.

“
They didn’t do anything at
all?” Jared didn’t believe him.

The manager shook his head. “Jared, we
wouldn’t do anything to damage any of your stuff. We’re respectable
people, we like to take care of our community. They’re like our
family, you know?” The manager gave Jared a smile seemed
fake.

Jared rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I
have to get back to business.” He stepped back from the
door.

“
Listen, Jared, twenty
dollars off this month’s rent, for all of your trouble.” The smile
widened on the manager’s face.

Jared stared at the man in
his doorway and 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 sprang 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 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 eating—“
Jared stepped back and shook his head. “Impossible.” Jared’s eyes
glazed over and he tried to process everything that had happened
the night before. He heard the familiar ring tone of his phone. He
left the bathroom, went into his bedroom, and lifted the phone.
Emily. He answered.

“
H-Hello?” Jared shook
out.

“
Jared, it’s Emily.
Everything alright?” She asked.

“
Um.”
No, everything was not
alright,
he thought. “Yeah. What’s going
on?” His eyes shifted this way then that. He expected anything at
any moment.

“
I was wondering if you
wouldn’t mind maybe having dinner tonight instead of tomorrow.
I’d—“ she paused, “—I’d like to talk to you, if you wouldn’t mind.
Is that alright?” She asked.

“
Tonight?” Jared said as he
peeked out of the bathroom to the living area, toward the sink.
“Any reason for the rush?” He tried to delay. He searched for the
unordinary.

“
I just have a couple
things I want to talk to you about while they’re fresh on my mind.
You know how things get when everything becomes busy. You forget
about the points you want to make, things like that. So?” Emily
asked again.

“
Um.” He paused. “Yeah,
tonight will work just fine. How about eight? I’ll call you if
anything shows up, alright?” He said, not realizing he spoke out of
context.

“
Shows up? What do you
mean?” She seemed confused.

“
Comes up, rather. Comes
up. That’s what I meant. See you tonight. I’ll text you the
address, okay?” He hung up the phone as she began to
reply.

Jared felt his plans were falling
apart. He didn’t want to seem like a crazy person. He had to get
Emily back tonight if ever. Tonight had to be perfect. Nothing
could go wrong. He did the only thing he thought he could do. He
made an offer to the unknown.

Jared called out from the middle of
the kitchen. His hands pulsed with pain from having touched the
phone. “Alright. Whatever you are. Listen, I know what you want.
You want metal, right? You like metal? You like gold and silver?
I’m going to make you a deal, okay? This one time, you and me.” He
paused. He heard a groan from the building, as if it shifted on its
foundation. “Okay. Listen, you stay out of my business tonight and
I’ll give you gold. Okay? When she comes here, you stay away!” He
cried out again to no response. Jared had no idea what he was
doing, but it was his best shot. He wanted Emily to see the place.
He wanted to make her feel sorry for his living conditions. He
wanted to make the best impression he could and he couldn’t deal
with a tongue-filled drain. It had to work.