As it was in the beginning

As it was in the Beginning 

A Short Story by Anthony Booker 

AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING

Joel understood now that hate was a living thing. It held you, encompassed you, bolstered you and tore you down. You could live it, die by it, and him standing there…..over the body of his best friend.....kill by it. Yes, hate was a living thing, because it whispered to him, “......he deserved no less, thus so it is, in the end”

A few hours earlier

The boys rode their bikes through their small town on roads as familiar as every corner in their uncleaned bedrooms at home. Joel and Jason, J&J, were the typical Middle America boys who had little choice but to become best friends. They lived on the same street and were the only boys on said street. Their fathers worked at the same mill, their mothers went to the same church, and the boys were born in the same year and they attended the same schools. 

Hell, they liked the same things! Joel was the more brooding of the two and at times he wondered if they liked the same things really, or was it just that as young boys a small town, there was only so much to keep you occupied that would not have you derided in high school? Or it could be that Jason liked these things and so Joel had to? Because it was also clear……Jason was the leader.

Jason was bigger, stronger, better looking and got better grades. The girls loved him, and sports were natural to him. Though their fathers worked in the same mill, somehow Jason’s dad had made his salary do more for his family. Jason’s dad was also not an abusive drunk.... that may be the subtle difference, Joel thought. 

Joel always wondered also, when Jason would trade up for a better “best friend”. Joel realized daily that the gap between them was widening. Jason however was loyal to a fault. Joel was not sure when it happened but he had become the unwieldy nerd, laughed at by many and dismissed as irrelevant by most, while Jason had become the resident worshipped “hot” guy. 

Joel also did not know when he stopped seeing Jason as a friend and started seeing him as a man. A man he liked, more than a boy should like a man. Jason was not weighed by thoughts like these, Joel was sure. And though Jason’s crowd was equally the jocks and geniuses, he always came back to, and made time for Joel. And Joel thought that maybe this meant something. Well…..he hoped. 

The boys would also soon give up bikes for cars, soon reaching that age to drive. Joel knew however, that he’d miss riding through town, with his best friend, close enough to touch, the power of the machine under him, being pumped by him. He’d miss seeing Jason riding the bike in front of him and how that made him feel. He knew cars would be different and he also knew that his family would not be able to provide him with a car in any event, while Jason’s mom had just gotten a new second hand car so her old second hand car, was waiting to be Jason’s hand me down. Joel knew that in every way, that gap was becoming a canyon. 

Knowing this, Joel was determined to make this ride long and memorable. He planned to ride further and longer and deeper into the old parts of town. Jason seemed not to mind and Joel again thought that this meant something…..that Jason understood what Joel was doing. 

Their town was a mill town and a mining town, but the mining sector had been destroyed by the tree hugging Democrats, Joel’s father had repeatedly said and then the accidents had not helped. And not just the mining accidents……….cave-ins with miners getting trapped or the usual disasters that claimed lives…..no. The incident where a group of kids had been last seen wondering into a mine and never being seen again! Yea…that incident helped kill the mining sector. 

These mines were notoriously off limits to everyone and anyone. It did have one advantage that was appealing to Joel though. Its very nature kept people far away. For miles around there was no one, and Joel would prefer that he did not have an audience, and when he had asked where he should do it, he was told that there would be the best place. 

You see, Joel had traded down and found someone to talk to when Jason was off playing sports or in math club, or chess club or whatever other smart people group he was in. Joel had taken too talking to himself when he was alone waiting for Jason to make time for him and Joel could not recall exactly when answers started coming back to his questions……even though no one was there. 

Joel also did not think too much on the strange nature of this and it just became par for the course. It also helped that the voice that answered him was sensible and understanding, wise and funny. Serious when needed and a comfort in the loneliness. Point of fact, recently Joel had been the one to blow off Jason to stay and speak with his new nameless friend, the voice. This in and of itself was maybe the only thing that concerned Joel and once or twice, after he had told Jason he was busy, he almost faced what was happening…..but the voice told him that it was not necessary, and as it was becoming so much easier to do, Joel listened. 

So when the voice told him that the best place to have that romantic first kiss was in its home, Joel thought nothing of it really. It seemed ok to him and a good suggestion. Their first time should be private and only later should they share their love with the world…..Joel thought. So on that ride to romance, Joel was the most happy he had been in a long time, and Jason sensing that his best friend had been down for some time, was glad that Joel seemed more his old self and so Jason was willing to ride to the edge of the world to keep his best friend in his good mood. He had missed Joel. 

When they reached the edge of town, they kept going and Jason was glad that Joel had the stamina to keep the ride going. Jason, as an avid sports man, had no trouble, but had noticed that Joel was becoming more and more unfit and Jason kept telling himself that he had to make more time for them to work out together. He wished Joel was into sports though, that would have just made it easier to stay fit and healthy. Jason knew however that sports were not Joel’s thing but Jason did not mind, he liked Joel how he was, his best friend from young and one he meant to keep for the rest of his life. 

Joel would be the best man in Jason’s wedding…..and that would be when Jason married Jessica…only the hottest girl in school, as everyone expected.  Joel would be the god father to Jason and Jessica’s kids and the two best friends would grow old and fat together and long rides like this would be a far distant memory. Thinking about that, Jason came back to the present and realized where they were, close to the abandoned and forbidden mine. He was going to comment, but he glanced across and saw the smile on Joel’s face, and decided what ever real and imagined terrors it had out here, it was ok because he was with his best friend. Jason smiled and pedalled on. 

When they reached the main mine shaft, Jason could have sworn he heard Joel talking with someone. Jason knew the cell service out here was none existence, he had checked, so he knew Joel was not on his phone and was definitely not talking to him. Three times recently Jason had passed Joel and noted that he seemed to be having a very active conversation with himself, and people in school had been talking. Jason had been minded to talk to Joel about it, but knew his friend had a vibrant imagination so he was maybe just mapping out one of his stories in his mind and so Jason was just not sure how to broach the topic. Jason thought however, them being alone out here, that this was as good a time as any. 

Joel came up to Jason and said, 

“Hey let’s walk down into the mine shaft”

Jason stopped and watched his friend, perplexed. Now though Jason “thought” he was not afraid of any imagined monsters that may live out here, he had to admit that the eerie quiet, and absence of any sort of life or sound or movement, had him on edge. Jason was slow to admit that he was a bit unbalanced out here, his bravado slipping and that he was almost to the point of saying, “let’s head back to where it is safe.” 

Jason paused just then as the thought entered his mind. Why did he think, “Safe?” It was then that Jason realised that no, he did not feel safe out here at all. There was a part of him quietly but increasingly nudging him, ever more loudly,telling him that out here was anything but safe. Jason was beginning to listen more and more to that part of himself. 

After Joel had said where he wanted to go, he had passed Jason and continued on to the mine shaft, expecting his best friend just to follow. He always had. He was a bit put off, when he turned to talk to Jason, expecting him right at his shoulder and found that his best friend had not moved. That was strange, Joel thought. “Jason was not behaving like a best friend”, the voice whispered. Joel felt the gap becoming unbridgeable.

Jason stepped forward and then instinctively stepped back. 

“Joe, I don’t think we should be here. Maybe we should head back, ok”

Joel looked at Jason, and almost did not recognise him. Jason looked afraid, and it was a look Joel had never seen on Jason. So he did not recognise him….but it was more than that. Jason was not, “his Jason”. Jason was starting to look like everyone else. And the look in Jason’s eyes started to resemble how everyone one else looked at Joel. The gap was now too wide to even see the other side.

Joel would not have seen how he looked. Jason saw though. Joel seemed somehow……taller….maybe bigger? Joel seemed to somehow fill up the space more, or perhaps the background fell away more. Somehow Joel was changing. Jason noticed mostly the way Joel’s mouth was wider than seemed possible. His teeth…….sharper?

“Joe, what’s going on?” Jason asked, not moving from his seemingly rooted spot. 

“Nothing bro, just thought we’d take a walk…..together……” Joel answered with too much smile and teeth showing than required, and to Jason, more than natural……..were his teeth pointed???

“Joel, it’s time for us to go.” Joel noticed that Jason, who had called him Joe since they were in kindergarten, had called him, “Joel…..” 

Soon he’ll start calling you, “Gay ward…or 40 Watts, or Crapper like the rest….” The voice told Joel. The kids at school had a few names for Joel. Gay ward………they saw how he watched the boys, 40 watt….they said he was not too bright and Crapper….he had had an incident in school where he messed up his pants. The part of Joel that was always defending Jason against the inferences of the voice, was finding it harder to do so. Jason was staring to take on the persona of “stranger.”

When Jason noticed that Joel……or the thing that looked somewhat like Joel, did not move, he buried his fear and walked forward to pull his friend to their bikes to leave. Joel had never really ever told him “No” to acts like that. Joel had always gone along with where Jason had led. Jason knew deep down that something very wrong was happening here and the scared part of him was telling him that his friend was no longer his friend and that he, Jason, should run away from this place as fast as he could.

Jason however, pushed this advice aside. This was Joe! His friend from before he knew what a friend was. This was the guy Jason knew he’d be sitting with on that porch, sixty years from now having a beer and talking about grandkids. The thought of that gave him the push to move through his internal screaming caution, move to his friend and pull them back to a world that made sense, to a place of safety. Jason reached Joel and yes, his friend, who was always a head shorter than him, was bigger………Joel could now watch Jason face to face.

As Joel saw Jason approach, the voice told Joel that Jason was coming to hit him, strike him, hurt him. But just as Jason had pushed through his fear to come to Joel, Joel now pushed through the claims of the voice to do what he came here to do. Joel smiled and reached out to his friend. 

Jason noticed when Joel reached out to him and Jason noticed that just then, for a second, Joel looked like Joe, and Jason let his guard down. In approaching Joel however, Jason noticed that just behind Joel, just over his shoulder, in the gaping maw of the mine, there was something there. Something with greedy, waiting, haunting, hungry eyes. Something evil. When Jason saw it, his face twisted in all too rational fear and he stopped and involuntarily stepped back. 

Joel of course did not know what Jason had seen and assumed his friend’s reaction was to his reaching for Jason. The last shred of sanity thus started slipping from Joel and Jason saw when the entity with the eyes in the mine, smiled in the dark and flew out and embodied his once upon a time best friend. Jason knew that time was past. 

Joel, in his last attempt at salvation reached out and tried to kiss Jason, and he felt, deeply, when Jason pushed him off and pushed him down in the dirt of the forest floor. The feeling overwhelmed him and broke his heart, it crippled him but the voice told him it would be ok. The voice told Joel to let him take over and he’d make the pain go away. Joel relented and let the voice take control. The two boys looked at each other just then and what each saw was a stranger dressed in the clothes of someone they once knew. 

When Joel got up, Jason turned around to run. Jason knew this was going to turn into the scene of another……..disappearance. Before Jason turned to make good on his escape, he knew that he saw the children who had gone missing standing with grotesque smiles just inside the mouth of the mine.

Joel did not know where he had gotten the rock, or how he had reached up so quickly on his once much faster friend. Joel knew however that he had to stop this stranger from getting away and telling people what had happened here today. The voice urged him on, his new friend, his new best friend, his only friend. Jason did feel the first hit, and it was the last thing he ever would feel. When he fell, he had enough in him, to turn around and look up at what had once been the guy he trusted the most, his confidant, his greatest fan, and his brother. Joel knew that the thing that stood over him was neither Joe nor Joel, for that matter. 

This thing was the thing in the cave, and Jason realised that this was the thing that had always haunted their town, existed in the shadows and stolen their children. There was nothing of Joel left. Just as the rock came towards him again, Jason wished he had had the courage to tell Joel that he loved him, more than a man should love another man.