The Town Whispers: Season 1

Chapter 11: A Truth of Children Pt.1

The words rang in his mind, rattled his brain, shook the core of what made Tom - Tom. He wasn't particularly bothered. He was... confused - as if he'd just been told that blue was really red, and that blue never existed at all.

First he'd learnt his mother was not his mother and then --- and then the man who looked like walking shadows told him.

At first he could not focus on the words the man spoke, he only stared at his skin - the way it threw the light away from it - the way it repelled illumination - as if wherever he man moved, whatever space he occupied, was but a burnt spot on the fabric of the world, as if an errant ember had been spit from a fire, and landed to burn a single little hole in the world which was the man that spoke to Tom.

THE MAN: Sneaky, Sneaky Boy, quick and quiet you are - I have a secret for you, a pretty little secret tied up nice and tight like- well like a present, would you like to hear it?

Like a present the man had said.

Like a present...

But it wasn't a present, no it was a worm that ate at Tom. It was a pit of worms that Tom felt himself falling deeper and deeper into, and as he tried to shake himself free of the feeling of sinking, he only sunk deeper and deeper until-

Tom felt warm, wet tears well up in his eyes.

One tear,

And then another,

Before Tom knew it his face was home to two tiny rivers running parallel which followed the curves of his face before coalescing at the tip of his chin and dripping to the floor.

All of his feelings which had been locked away for so long came forth, all because the man had said a few simple words.

THE MAN: I know what you did to Ben - you naughty, despicable child. I know why you won't say his name - I know he didn't run away like you and Peggy had told your mother, and I know where he remains to this day. Did you know he still lives? Well, In a manner of speaking - he lives - He isn't quite alive though. You should visit him, and say hello."

Ben...

Ben...

No one spoke of Ben....

Ben was one of those things you just knew not to speak of - not at church, not while out for a walk with friends, and certainly not to the LaPontes....

Ben was not the lighthearted subject of gossip, nor was he the cautionary tale, used to scare children to do as their told. Ben was one of those many little secrets that a town is built upon.

That didn't stop Tom from dreaming of Ben though, or saying his name quietly before bed over and over, afraid he might forget he ever existed.

Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben.

Tom didn't care about anything, Tom was the physical manifestation of apathy for all things.

Except Ben.

Tom had cared about Ben,

Ben was his best friend, Ben was his mentor, Ben was his hero, and Ben was his older, faster, quiet brother.

Ben was what Tom strived to be.

Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben.....

Tom LaPonte had been repeating that name over and over in his mind for years - ever since the day he'd killed him.

It had been summer a few years before when Tom LaPonte wasn't quite the legend he purported himself to be. No matter how quietly Tom stepped, no matter how fast he ran through the woods while playing hide and seek, he was never as good as his older brother Ben - The apple of their father's eye.

Tom was also not as liked as Ben either - Ben who only had to smile, and anyone caught in the gaze of his green eyes would fall in line, willing to follow him anywhere.

Ben was a natural born leader - A kind amongst the school children - destined for greater things.

Tom and Ben had been messing about in the forest out past old man Alfie's farms, out past the well, out past the ear shot and eye sight of any of their parents, they had stepped into the unknown, where the misty hills to the west of town set their feet down to meet the valley where the farms of The Fort stretched wide and unending.

It was in those woods, where the ground turned slightly up as valley turned to craggy hillside, where Tom and Ben found a cave.

BEN: I bet there a bear inside.

BEN: I bet there's a bear sleeping, and slumbering, and waiting to eat some children named Tom.

Tom stood there visibility bothered looking into the black of the cave.