The 5000 Fingers of Bob, pt XV
Howie sprang up from the floor and was suddenly across the room pressing Ed against the wall.
"Whose blood do you believe this is, huh?" Howie said. "How long before it's somebody else's? How long before it's Marcie's? Then will it be right?
Ed squirmed away from Howie, muttering to himself and wiping at his clothes.
"I don't want no part of it," he said, turning back to us. "You go on, you killers. Kill him. But nobody can say Edward A. Paris had a hand in it, no sir!"
"We agreed," Jack said. "We agreed," he reemphasized pointing to all of us. "However the vote came, we agreed to abide by it."
"I ain't abidin' by no killin' of no man. He's a retard for chrissake, he couldn't have been behind this. There ain't no way!"
"You doubtin' your own eyes already?" Jack said, winding a dirty strip of shirt around his hand. "You know what you saw, just like everyone in town does. We agreed we had to do somethin' about it. Now, I admit, I wanted to kill Bob outright, save us some trouble. But no, we voted because it was the only way to have all five of us on board. We voted that if burnin' down that house would stop whatever the hell craziness gat hold of this town, it would end right there. We'd let Bob go. You think it's over after what we saw go on in that basement? Bob may not be the end of it, but it's a helluva good start. I don't want to see him lookin' at my daughter the way he does knowin' he can do even a tenth of what we seen. And I'm not turnin' a blind eye like everyone else in this town no more. Glenn is dead probably because you wanted to vote. Now it's time for you to stand with us on somethin' you don't want."
I felt the hairs on the back of my neck prickle when Jack mentioned his daughter. He hadn't heard Howie's tale. Ed waved his hand like Jack's words had attached themselves to him and he was tossing them off.
"Can I go home now?" I heard a muffled voice say. "Ma'Dear gon' be mad if I'm late for supper." We all turned and looked at Bob, sitting there like he had sprung another head.
I felt hate surge through me and before I knew it I had the coil around his neck, strangling him. Jack had the presence of mind to push me aside, throw the coil over the support beam and hoist him up. Bob kicked helplessly with the wire binding his feet cutting into his ankles. Jack wrapped the coil around an anchor built into the wall and bent, picking up the jumper cables. He attached them to that coil and jumped back, looking back up to Bob.
As deserved as it was, I don't think we were prepared for what happened next. Bob's whole body spasmed as the electricity surged through him, his arms worrying at the wire binding his wrists like he was trying to free himself. Sparks jumped off him, one of them so bright I had to turn my head. I saw Ed, pressed against the wall like a gun was pointed at him, staring at Bob in horror with his head half-turned. A rapid metallic drumming began building in speed and I realized it was his feet in the bucket, sloshing the water out he kicked so violently.
A scream rose up over the loud hum of the generator; a scream Bob shouldn't have been able to make. Worse yet, it sounded like several screams all wrapped up in one, hollering in one wicked chorus. One was impossibly high, another so low I almost couldn't hear it. The generator began to kick and sputter and Jack pressed himself as far against the wall opposite Ed's as he could. I glanced around, looking for Howard and saw him slowly approaching the coil.
