“Hey dicktard, are you deaf or just fucking
stupid?” Steven yelled.
“I know you aren’t ignoring me, so it has to be one or the other!”
Eli heard a chorus of
laughter behind him and was overcome with a
feeling a dread when he realized that Steven wasn’t alone. He was always
an asshole in general but he was twice as bad when he had an audience
to show off in front of. Eli took a deep breath and mouthed a silent
prayer that Dallas and Rex weren’t the ones with Steven (as both of them
were almost as bad as he was) before he turned around slowly, just
wanting to get the inevitable ass kicking he was most likely about to
receive over with so he could get on with his day. God seemed to ignore
his prayer as when he turned around he saw Dallas and Rex standing with
Steven with huge smirks on their faces.
Steven picked on pretty much
everybody, but for some reason he
enjoyed tormenting Eli the most. He started picking on him when they
were in the second grade and it had continued for five long years.
During that time Steven had beaten him up more times than Eli could
remember, had stolen countless amounts of money from him, demolished
several of his personal items, tripped him in the hallway, and forced
him to eat part of a urinal cake while everyone else in the restroom
that day watched and made fun of him. Needless to say Steven had made
Eli’s life a living Hell and there was not a damn thing he could do
about it to make him stop torturing him on a daily basis.
“Hey cock knocker, whatcha
doing?” Steven asked in a friendly tone
that made Eli shiver.
“Nothing.” He answered quietly, wishing that it
would be at that
exact moment that another country dropped a nuclear bomb on them or
aliens from outer space fired a death beam at the planet that destroyed
everything on Earth.
“Glad you’re here, you can help us settle an
argument we’re having.”
“What kind of argument?” Eli asked nervously.
“I said that it wouldn’t be
hard to find a needle in a haystack and
Rex and Dallas here disagreed with me. What do you think?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“I…I don’t know!” Rex said
in a mocking tone, making Dallas burst
into a fit of loud, obnoxious laughter.
“Well, I do know. As a
matter of fact I bet these two dumbasses
twenty bucks that it isn’t that hard,” Steven explained, “you’re going
to help me prove them wrong.”
“How am I going to help?” Eli croaked, barely
recognizing his own
voice he was so scared that at any given second Steven was going to
start using him as his personal punching bag.
“See that haystack over
there? Rex threw a needle in it just a little
while ago and you’re going to get your scrawny little ass in there and
find it.”
“I
don’t know, I have to-“
“I’m not asking you, jerkoff, I’m TELLING you.
Now get in there and
find it before I break my foot off in your ass!” Steven snapped, making
Rex and Dallas howl with laughter.
“You’ve got three minutes to find it starting
right now.” Dallas
announced, consulting the watch on his wrist that he’d stolen from
another student days earlier.
“There’s no way I’m going to be able to find it
in there!” Eli
whined.
“You
better hurry up and get in there; you’ve just wasted ten
seconds. The clock’s ticking!” Rex snorted.
“Go, or it’s your ass!”
Steven threatened.
Eli rushed over to where the pile of hay was
waiting for him and
started digging through it as quickly as he could. It smelled putrid as a
cow or pig had recently taken a shit in it (or Steven may have himself
just to add to the fun) and the stench made him gag. He tried to ignore
the smell and focus on finding the needle so his ordeal would be over.
He started digging faster and faster and began to panic when he still
hadn’t come across it a couple of minutes later.
“Two minutes!” Dallas
chirped. “You better get the lead out,
asshole!”
“He
will if he knows what’s good for him.” Steven said, staring
daggers in Eli’s direction.
Eli felt his heart pounding in his ear as he
continued to search with
no success. In his rush he started frantically throwing handfuls of hay
over his shoulder and then worried that maybe the needle had been
hiding in one of the large clumps that he’d thrown behind him.
“One minute!” Dallas
reported.
“Hurry
up, you little bitch. It’ll be a real shame if you don’t find
it.” Steven shouted.
Eli felt his heart jump up into his throat and
had to restrain
himself from crying (though he didn’t know why he even bothered as
Steven had seen him cry many times before). He grabbed as many handfuls
of hay as possible and sifted through them desperately but still the
needle refused to make a cameo appearance.
“Thirty seconds!” Dallas
stated.
“If
you don’t find it Eli I swear to God I’m going to kill you and
bury you in that fucking haystack!” Steven growled.
“I’m trying!” Eli replied,
grabbing another handful of hay and
realizing to his disgust that he’d unearthed a large turd that without a
doubt was human in nature.
“You should probably try harder!” Rex laughed
before he put coughed
up a loogie and spat it in Eli’s direction.
“Ten seconds!” Dallas said
with a grin, happy that he was mere
moments away from seeing Steven kick the holy living shit out of Eli.
Rex and Dallas counted down
backward from ten in unison as if they
were watching a space ship launch into orbit, but Eli didn’t really hear
them. He kneeled down in the haystack tossing as much hay as possible
to the side and praying to anyone that was listening that he would find
the needle so he wouldn’t have to suffer Steven’s wraith.
“Time!” Dallas yelled before
erupting into a fit of laughter.
“Alright you piece of shit, did you find it or
not?” Steven asked,
taking a menacing step in Eli’s direction with his hands balled into
fists.
“No.”
Eli whimpered in a barely audible voice. “Are you sure it’s in
there?”
“Of
course it’s in there you stupid bastard! You calling us liars?
Rex roared, also taking a step forward as if he was going to pounce on
Eli as well.
“No,
of course not, I’m not saying that,” Eli stuttered, “It’s just
that-“
“Just
what, cocksucker” Steven demanded, cutting him off.
“I just couldn’t find it!”
“I just couldn’t find it
because I’m fucking retarded!” Rex said,
once again in a mocking tone.
“I think he’s going to cry! What a pussy!”
Dallas said with a laugh.
“You just cost me twenty dollars you
son-of-a-bitch!” Steven snarled,
his face turning blood red with anger.
“I’m sorry!” Eli said as he
took a step back, knowing in the back of
his mind that it wasn’t going to do him any good and that he was on the
verge of having his ass thoroughly kicked.
“I’m not!” Steven replied
happily before he reached over and punched
him in the face as hard as he could.
Eli fell back on the ground seeing stars, and
before he knew what was
happening Steven kicked him hard in the stomach, knocking the wind out
of him. He followed it up with an even stronger kick to the side of his
head that nearly rendered him unconscious. As he lay there wishing that
he’d been lucky enough to have been knocked out cold he braced for the
next volley of blows and kicks while Rex and Dallas laughed and urged
Steven on.
“You
let me down you little bitch, so you can’t say you don’t deserve
this!” Steven spat as he straddled him, pinning him down so he couldn’t
escape.
He
closed his eyes and tried to prepare himself for what was about to
happen. Steven pummeled him with a series of punches to the face, each
one a little harder than the one before it. It was around the seventh or
eighth blow that he felt his nose shatter and after the tenth one that
one of his front teeth broke in half and he tasted blood.
He’s going to kill me
this time and there’s nothing I can do
about it. He’s really going to beat me to death and no one is
going to stop him. Eli thought to himself.
The brutal beating continued
and right before he was lucky enough to
black out Eli heard Dallas shouting for Steven to stop. He didn’t know
if he actually felt bad about the whole thing or if he was worried that
he would be convicted as an accessory to murder if Eli died but he did
his best to make Steven stop verbally before he actually grabbed him by
the shoulders and tried to pull him away.
Steven responded by elbowing
him hard in the face, knocking him
backward to the ground. He hit the back of his head hard on the sidewalk
and joined Eli in unconsciousness. Rex just stood there looking on in
terror, scared to death to say or do anything because he didn’t want to
become the target of Steven’s rage. After backing away slowly he turned
to run away and was struck right between the eyes with a tire iron by
the skinny man that had snuck up behind him, knocking him out cold as
well.
Steven
got off of Eli and spat on him. He was so engulfed with rage
that he didn’t notice the man was standing behind him. He blasted Steven
in the back of the head with the tire iron and made him fall forward,
landing on top of Eli’s prone body. He was merely dazed and attempted to
get back up so the man struck him several more times until he collapsed
in a heap and stopped moving.
Even though the man was a scrawny, skinny guy
with very little muscle
definition he was surprisingly strong so he didn’t have much difficulty
dragging Steven’s limp body to his Dodge Omni. He wasn’t too concerned
about someone seeing him pulling an unconscious middle school student
down the sidewalk toward his car in broad daylight since it was a pretty
dead section of town with hardly any traffic or pedestrians on it.
Still, he moved as quickly as possible just to be on the safe side. You
never knew when a jogger or someone walking his or her dog might pop up
at the worst possible time, and the last thing he wanted to do was to
kill an innocent person who didn’t’ deserve it. Steven, on the other
hand, wasn’t innocent and deserved everything that was going to happen
to him.
After
cramming Steven in the backseat he looked over at Eli and
considered calling an ambulance for him since he looked like he was in
pretty bad shape. He thought it over for a bit and decided against it,
telling himself that they could trace the call back to his cell phone
and he didn’t want to take the slightest chance that he could be
possibly be connected to what was about to happen to Steven. He did a
quick check to make sure that Eli was at least breathing before he
hopped behind the wheel of his Omni and sped away, telling himself that
someone would find him sooner or later and would take him to the
hospital.
XXX
Steven woke up some time
later with a splitting headache. He didn’t
know where he was since the room he was in was pitch dark and instantly
he started to feel scared (he’d been afraid of the dark ever since he
was a little kid and never grew out of it). He tried to get up out of
the chair that he was sitting in and discovered to his horror that
someone had strapped him to it with several thick leather restraints. As
he felt the panic wash over him he started screaming for help a few
seconds before the lights flicked on, momentarily blinding him with
their brightness.
“You’re
wasting your time. Trust me, no one can hear you.” The man
standing across the room from him said in a matter-of-fact-tone.
“What is all this? Where am
I?” Steven asked, trying his best to hide
the fact that he was terrified.
“I saw what you did to the other young man. It
wasn’t right. I don’t
like bullies.”
“I
wasn’t bullying him, I was just messing with him! He likes it!”
“I don’t think that he
would agree with you. It didn’t look like he
was having fun or enjoying it to me.”
“Who gives a rat’s ass? What’s it to you anyway?
Who are you and why
do you give a shit about what I do to Eli?”
“It’s not important who I am
or why I care. What is important is that
what you were doing to him was wrong and I’m here to make sure that you
are properly punished for you actions.”
“What the fuck are you
talking about? What punishment? You gonna
spank me? I bet you’d like that wouldn’t you? You’d probably get a boner
while you were doing it wouldn’t you, you fucking perv?”
“It’s easier if I just show
you.” The man sighed, ignoring Steven’s
insults as he walked across the room toward a curtained area.
He’s not that big, I
could take him. Steven thought as he
looked on. He’s just a scrawny nerd with Coke bottle glasses and a
pizza face. I’ve kicked the shit out of guys like him my entire life.
The man pulled the
curtain back and made his way back
toward Steven’s direction. The chair that he was strapped to had wheels
on it and the man got behind him and started pushing him toward the
curtain.
“What
are you doing?” Steven demanded, trying to sound tough and
failing miserably.
“You behaved inappropriately toward the other
young man. You left him
beaten and battered in a pool of his own blood. I’m going to make sure
that you get what you deserve for your actions.”
“You’re crazy, man. Fucking
batshit, out of your mind crazy!”
“Perhaps. I’ve been told that many times before,
sometimes even from
medical professionals. I should be inclined to believe it but I don’t. I
like to think of myself as being enlightened, not insane.”
The man pushed him up to
the curtain and stopped. He motioned for
Steven to look down and when he did he wished that he hadn’t.
There was a drop off in
front of him, and he could see that several
feet down at the bottom of it was a huge pile of needles. There were
thousands of them and when he saw them he whimpered because along with
being afraid of the dark he also had an ungodly phobia of needles. Just
looking at them made him sweat and the very thought of them penetrating
his skin made him want to cry like a little baby.
“What…what are those for,
man?” he stammered in a shaky voice,
fighting the urge to throw up everywhere.
“They’re for you my friend!
All of them are just for you!”
“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s simple. I saw you
force the other boy to try and find a needle
in a haystack, so you get to do something similar.”
“What do I get to do?”
“I’ve hidden a piece of hay
in the stack of needles down there and
you have to find it. You find it and I’ll let you go free. You don’t
find it and well, let’s just hope that you find it.”
“No! You can’t do this! It
isn’t fair!” Steven yelled.
“Sure it is. It’s pretty much the same thing you
made your victim do,
only a tad bit different. It’s completely fair.” The man replied,
undoing the straps on the chair that held Steven in place.
“You can’t do this to me!
Please! Just stop! I’ll do anything!”
“You have three minutes to find it. I believe
that was the time limit
you allocated for the other young man, correct?”
“I’ll leave him alone! I
won’t ever go near him again! Just don’t
make me do this! Please! I’m begging you!”
“Now you know how he feels
every time you torment him, don’t you?
That’s good, but it doesn’t take back all of the pain and suffering he’s
had to endure because of you.”
“I’m sorry!”
“It’s too late to be sorry now.” The man
scowled. “Your time starts
as soon as you make contact with the pile down there.”
With that the man undid the
last strap and tilted the chair forward.
Steven screamed all the way down as he fell and as a result his tongue
and the inside of his mouth were punctured by countless needles as he
landed in the stack headfirst with this mouth wide open.
“Two minutes and fifty
seconds to go, you better get a move on!” the
man said, but Steven didn’t hear him over the sound of his own screams
as he dug through the pile, feeling the tip of each and every needle as
it stuck into his flesh.
From:
http://www.shortnscarystories.com/needle-in-a-haystack/
