Sugar Plum

A Story by Ethan Thompson

In 4 parts. Hope you tell me what you think. Thanks.

1
Dennis cracked his head on the basement floor. He forgot to turn the light off and broke through the bottom step. Martha was upstairs sleeping on the couch.
He laid the concrete a year earlier with his son Andrew. He wanted to teach him a skill he could use in the real world none of that shmancy pantsy college bullshit but a real world skill.
Blood trickled out of his ear and ran across the floor to the other side of the room. He never got the goddamn cement level.
He tried yelling but all that came out was this gurgling sound. It sounded like a drain unclogging.
Dennis died on the floor next to the light switch.
2
Martha woke up a few hours later. The living room was dark and quiet. She hated walking through it at night because it felt like something was going to jump out and grab her.
She dropped the afghan and stood on the couch, then lept over to the fridge. She opened it for it’s light and got a glass of water.
-There was already a light on in the basement.
“Denny?” she said.
A draft blew up her robe and made her shiver.
The basement had old bulbs the kind where you could see the filament, they casted a faint yellow light on the wall at the top of the stairs.
As a joke she thought she’d jump out and say gotcha.
Gray stuff had fallen out of his head. All the blood that was once inside of him had collected into a puddle next to him and it ran down along the dusty floor and into the cobwebbed corners.
Martha hunched over and squinted her eyes. She called for him but he didn’t answer. She put her hand over her mouth.
She couldn’t call an ambulance because they’d take him away from her.
She called Maria.
3
Maria was half asleep when her phone rang, she told Martha to call again in the morning but she wouldn’t let her hang up so Maria gathered all her things and went to Martha’s house.
When she got there she was on the porch waiting. Her eyes were red, and she didn’t say anything at first.
“Please reconsider.”
Martha’s hand cradled a thick roll of twenties in her pocket. Denny kept it in the closet in case there was ever an emergency. It made the loose fabric of her bathrobe look heavy.
“Rethink this.”
She counted it for her.
“Please.”
She handed her half. “You’ll get the rest after you’re done.”
“It’s not what you think it is.”
“Hurry up.” she wiped the snot off her face and dried the corners of her eyes. Maria felt sorry for her.
She went in through the back door and knocked on the floor three times.
“Reconsider?”
“No.” she took the candle and lit it for her.
“Prayer.” Maria said.
She showed her how.
“There.” she said.
“If this is bull s**t I swear to god I’ll-”
“Hush.”
    They walked through the basement door and down the rickety steps. They stepped on the sides so they wouldn’t fall through.
    Maria pulled a tissue out of her purse and gave it to Martha, she took another one out for herself and she wrapped it around her finger. She bent over and dabbed it in Dennis’s blood then drew a circle around his head, Martha flinched.
It smelled like a can of rusty nails.
    “What did you get.” Maria’s silky hands clasped together.
    “What now?”
    “I’m doing this but you were supposed to-”
    “Well.” Martha said.
    “I told you on the phone.”
    “You said I needed to make an offering, lay it in the circle, and say your little word? That’s it isn’t it?” Her eyes were bloodshot.
    Maria watched her. “Yeah.”
    “I’m not forgetting anything am I?”
    “The offering, the circle-”
    “I know, I got all that stuff.”
    She watched her.
    “But that’s it right? There’s nothing else to it?”
    Maria shook her head. “So where is it then?”
    Martha pulled Denny’s handgun out of her pocket. He kept it in the closet with the money. She pointed it at Maria and tried pulling the trigger.
She turned the safety off then aimed it at Maria’s head, Maria tried to run up the stairs but they broke and she tumbled back down into the circle.
    Maria got up and grabbed onto the lowest step, it broke and she fell.
She grabbed the next one up and it broke and she fell, she looked back at Martha. She was pointing the gun at her. She pulled the trigger.
    Martha dragged her by the hair into the circle. She was still twitching.
She said the word Maria told her to say and waited.
    4
Nothing happened.
Martha was on the floor in a puddle of Denny’s blood. Some of it was Maria’s. It was hard to tell the difference. She’d said the word, and made the offering, like Maria told her to. It seeped between her toes. Her eyes were red.
    The concrete started to rumble and the ceiling shook. Martha stood up with the gun in her hand, walls bent inward, and she could feel the floor beneath her feet start to sink in.
She took a step but lost her balance and fell over. Her cotton bathrobe absorbed a lot of the blood and made it heavy. She crawled to the other side of the room for the ladder.
It toppled over on her. She got it to stand and she climbed up and leapt to the doorway over the remaining stairs. The hall wasn't disrupted at all.
The concrete was ripped to pieces and Denny’s body had slipped through the cracks.
She shut the door and sat down in front of it.
She cracked it open.
It was dark inside, she leaned forward and squinted her eyes but she couldn’t see anything. The bottom looked endless.
She took a banana off the counter and threw it in.
“Martha.” it was Denny’s voice, still fresh and alive. “Oohhhh Marthaaaa.”
She fell to her knees in the doorway and began crying.
“Denny.” she said.
“Long time no see.”
“Denny.”
“Why don’t you walk down here Martha.”
She felt relieved to hear his voice again. “You son of a b***h I told you to wait until tomorrow so I could help you but you just had to, didn’t you you b*****d, f**k you.”
“Come down.” it said. “Come down here with me. We can be happy.”
“That isn’t you.”
“Sure it is.”
“Prove it.” she shut the door and sat in front of it.
The door opened and crammed her into the wall.
“Look then.”
She didn’t.
“If you’re so sure I’m not who I am then take a look and see.”
She didn’t move a muscle.
“Fine.”
“Don’t go.” she swung around and looked down into it from the doorway.
“Fine.”
“I miss you.”
“Come down. It’ll be like it was.”
“Where are you, I don’t see you.” She wiped the dust out of her eyes.
“Here, just come, you’ll see. Come.”
She backed away. “Where are you? I don’t see you.”
“If I have to come up there and get you you’ll regret it.”
“Where’s Denny at?”
“Right here, sugar plum.”
“Okay.” she stopped. “How do I know that?”
“I’m right here. Come on. Don’t you trust me sugar plum?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t want me to have to get you do you?”
“No.”
“Come down here so we can be happy.”
She walked down the steps and fell off into the sooty abyss below.