Jim Jupitor is a Bald Man

“Everybody knows Jim Jupitor! Hell I’d say he’s the most respected doctor in the county.  Always helping folks out no matter their trouble.  If you’re having problems with your leg you should definitely go on down and see ‘em.”  Nick slid the pack of cigarettes over the counter to Eric Coffman.  

“Well I will.  Where is his office located?”  he asked looking right at Nick’s scruffy gray beard picking the pack off the counter.

“Oh no no. Don’t you worry about that.  It’s Sundee, Jim ain’t at his office today, but he’ll see ya anyway.  He’s been working on a two story apartment just on down the street.  Can’t miss it! The tallest building in Delmsville.”  Nick smiled at that information, exposing his two front teeth.   “Just tell em Nick sent ya and about your leg trouble.  If’n ya need any prescription just come on back and I’ll fill it for ya. I’m here til’ nine”  With that Eric nodded his head.

“Thanks a bunch Nick, I’ll go on down and meet Jim.”  He turned and limped his way outside.  Hearing Nick grumble in pity, but he did not look back.

Eric was new to Delmsville, he had just arrived to help install a fiber network throughout the small community.  A load test site for the wave of the future, high speed internet.  It was one of many going up around Mississippi.  All part of an initiative to push the state forward and drive innovation.  Not that fiber internet would be enough to get someone to uproot themselves and move to the sticks of Montgomery County, but it was a step in the right direction.

Eric’s knee had given him problems since Iraq.  He served two tours over four years, the first in 2003 and then 2006.  He helped establish communication post for the Army and had only fired his rifle a handful of times in his four years there.  When he retired he moved back home to Tennessee and worked with various cable companies until being hired to manage infrastructure installations across the southern region.  

He was the first to arrive in Delmsville and would be spending the rest of the month driving around and surveying the location for future lines.  Getting the plan together before any work could be done, however before that he needed just a little something to relieve the pain from his aching knee.  He had grown a dependency to the pills despite his best efforts, and had the crazy notion that he could just leave them behind in Tennessee and get off of them once and for all, cold turkey.   However, after only a day he decided that having a small supply would be alright.  He would only take it during flair ups and ween himself free.  As he hobbled down the street towards Dr. Jupitor’s building he fixated on the sweet release he hoped to soon have.  He would be out of Delmsville before he knew it.  

Sure enough the building was the tallest in town.  It stood out like a sore thumb, a big grey concrete slab next to a row of red brick storefronts.  On the other side of it was a park with a playground and a little brook trickling through.  

‘Not a bad piece of property for an ugly building.’  Eric thought as he walked towards the front door.  Then he paused before he walked up to it.  A feeling of unease washed over him.  He felt weird walking up to a tall building in the middle of nowhere, to talk to some strange doctor, but then still felt the pleasing hum the tingle in the back of his spine at that possibi…  

Before Eric could finish the thought, the front door sprung wide open and out walked an ogre of a man startling Eric backwards.  The man’s bald head nearly collided with the doorway.  Coming right at Eric like a bull out of a lightless tunnel.  Upon his clean shaven face sat a plastered giant toothy grin under eyes black as coal.

“Well howdy! I saw you comin up the laneway and thought I would come on down and greet ya! Sorry if I startled ya there friend.  Dr. Jim Jupitor.”  The friendly beast extended out his hand, which itself was the size of Eric’s face.  He took a second look at the paw and then up at Jim’s dark eyes the ivory chiclets still beaming beneath.  He grabbed the mitt and felt Jim immediately squeeze with his sausage like digits.

“Hey Dr. Jupitor, I’m Eric…  Eric Coffman.  Your uh pharmacist Nick told me to come talk to you about…”

“About the leg.”  Jim cut him off.  “Like I said I saw you hobbling up the laneway there and figured you were coming to see about my services.  And please just call me Jim.  I am right about that aren’t I?”  

“Uh yeah…. I’ve been having some flair ups with my knee….”  Jim let out a joyous roar, pleased with his deduction of the situation.  “…and that uh pharmacist insisted I come down and talk to you?  I can come by your office this week if you’re too busy.”

“No not at all, not at all! I always have time to see a new patient!  Now come on inside and lets have a look.”  Eric looked at Jim and felt stupid. 

“Nah you know, I uh don’t want to bother ya or nothing.”

“Eric! Eric! Come on in you’re not bothering me at all. I got plenty of time.”  With that he stepped his right foot inside beckoning Eric through the door.  

“…Well alright Jim if you’re not too busy uh I promise won’t take up too much of your time.”   

Inside Eric was surprised to see that it looked very much like the outside, in that it was all gray.  Two doors were on the bottom floor, one in front and one to his left,  a winding staircase led upwards.  A lone lightbulb hanging down from a string on the second floor illuminating the sad foyer.

“Please ignore the drab downstairs, I’ve been trying to get this place together.  Been kind of a weekend project when I get a chance.  Come on in the upstairs is where I spend most my time.”  Jim placed his hand near Eric as he walked by, hovering it just behind his neck, but Eric quickly ascended the stairs.

“Yeah uh I was gonna say.  It’s uh pretty bleak.  How long have you been working on the place?”  

Two stairs behind, Jim stared intently at the top of Eric’s head.  

“Well once I get the wiring all done on the downstairs, I aim to get my wife down here to spruce the place up.  Give it that women’s touch.”  Eric reached the top the only door was wide open into a large loft apartment.  “I’ve had it for a little over a year.  I’ve only been able to work on  so much.  The town keeps me pretty busy.”  Jim brushed by Eric into the apartment.  “This is kinda my home away from home, everyone in town knows I’m here though which is why they sent you.”  He turned with a crooked grin.  

“Well.. I uh like I said I can come by your office during regular hours.”

“Eric I’m just messing with ya!  Come on in, tell me about this leg.”

Inside the apartment there were multiple rugs.   There corners stacked on top of one another.  All were of various colorations and patterns and didn’t quite go together.  The apartment was wide open except for a tall running bar which separated what looked to be the living area from the kitchen.  The living area had a lone leather couch that sat bathed in the pale light of a big screen TV, which rested on a white plastic ice chest.  The apartment stretched out about 2000 square feet until it met with concrete.  Dividing the room past the pantry, which stood alone in the center of the kitchen, was a translucent tarp that extended to the wall.   

“Nice uh place a lot of space.”

“It’s not bad.  I plan on renting it out once it’s all finished.  Start making some money on it.”  Jim moved into the living room.  Eric could only see three windows in the place, one to his immediate right facing the park outside, one over the kitchen sink facing the same direction, and finally one at the very end of the long floor.  More sunlight illuminated the place from the back it seemed there were more, in the other half of the house that the tarp did not allow.  The living area was completely dark and a lone door sat on the far left side of the wall.  

“Interesting layout.”

“What do you mean?”  Jim snapped with wide eyes.

“Oh ah man I was just commenting on the tarp and such.  It’s all unfinished huh?”

“Oh that.”  Jim relaxed and looked around letting a chuckle out.  “I keep forgetting how much work I have to do around this place.  Yeah that tarp come on I’ll show ya.”  Jim walked past the couch and pushed back the tarp, a ray of light spit into the living area.  Inside this section of house was an inflatable mattress plopped in the center, where Jim had presumably been sleeping.  The entire back wall was one large panel of glass.   

“I love natural light.  Really makes the place shine!  Took a lotta coax’ing to get that son of a bitch in there though.”  He let the tarp fall hitting Eric lightly on the face.  “Now come on tell me about this leg.”  Eric stepped back and sat on the couch.  Jim stood with his arms crossed in front of the TV as Eric settled down.  

“Well the service was hell on my knees, I shredded my ACL bad over there.  Even after I healed well it only got worse.  Other doctors have said I have shards lodged in them from when I had to kneel in glass and rocks for hours at a time.  Hell you can feel it especially in my right knee.”  Eric pulled his shorts back exposing the cap, which was permanently red.  Jim stepped forward to grab the exposed flesh.  

“Didn’t you wear knee protectors over there?  I mean a bum knee is an easy excuse I hear from Grandmothers Eric.”  he kneeled down placing his palm upon Eric’s leg.  

“I know I know, but I really fucked it up over there.  Like I said the torn ACL was a major problem took me out for over six months.”  Jim’s hand strengthened on Eric’s knee.  He squeezed until Eric let out a shout.  “Fuck man!  I told you my knee was busted.”  Jim smiled and released tension.

“Just checking.  Definitely felt something rattling around in there.”  Jim stood up and walked to the kitchen.  Eric held his knee and rubbed it repeatedly.  

“I just need to get a prescription for the pain.  Think you can help me out?” he shouted at Jim.

“Oh sure thing!  Do you remember what you were on before?  I can write you up a prescription.”  Eric smiled and looked over the kitchen table not seeing Jim anymore.

“Demetrol.  That stuff seemed to work the best when dealing with the discomfort.”  

“Demetrol huh.”  The reply came from the back of the house.  “Alright lemme just get my prescription pad we’ll get you set up Mr. Coffield.  Always happy to help a vet.” 

‘That was easy.’  He turned back and his eyes fixated on the TV for the first time.  

No cable, but instead a waffle grid of various rooms.  Rooms with labels like ”laneway”,  Jim had called it that when he burst from the building.  Now that he was sitting on the couch facing the wall in which the street would be, there wasn’t a window in sight.  How else could he have known Eric was walking to the building?  Besides “laneway” the top row had every corner of the house covered, even the little park with the brook running through.  The middle row covered the apartment he was sitting in.  He leaned forward and saw himself lean as well on the TV in the middle screen.  One showed the large panel glass behind Eric, and the other faced towards the main entry through the kitchen.  Neither one had a large Jim within the frame.  The bottom row was completely dark but there were three rooms that still registered with names on the top right corner of the screen.  Rooms completely in the dark.  He was fixated on the bottom right corner named “Tan_1” when the beast walked through the tarp behind Eric.  

He didn’t feel the needle enter his neck, but the second he felt whatever was being injected he spun around pulling the needle free, the contents spraying all over the wall as Jim pushed the plunger down.  Eric fell hitting the TV nearly knocking it off the ice chest.  Jim towered above him needle raised.  Eric stared at the giants heaving chest, and realized Jim was completely naked.  His legs bowed underneath his massive frame, his member pointing at Eric.  He looked down at his crotch and then back at Eric. 

“Don’t worry Eric, I’m not going to fuck you!  It’s just the thrill…. The thrill of it all.”  Eric’s vision began to blur, but he remained conscious.  Conscious enough to throw his left foot upwards into Jim’s bulge.  The ogre grabbed himself and reeled with a twisted groan.  Eric found his feet and ran towards the nearest door he could, the one in the living room.  Jim grabbed hold of his pants and jerked his feet out from under him.  Eric kicked as hard as he could connecting with Jim’s shin tumbling the mountain.  He fell forward right alongside Eric’s abdomen.  Eric used this moment to elbow him the face.  Feeling the nose crunching as it connected.  Jim howled and Eric fell further in a haze, but gathered himself upright.  He latched on to the handle then fell directly through the door into a dark abyss.  He crashed down stairs tumbling over his body, and landing in a foamy substance.  There he lay flat on his back looking up into the stairs from which he fell.  In his decreasing vision he could only make out a rectangle of light, as it slowly filled with the towering form of Jim Jupitor.  Eric tried to get to his feet, but he was no longer able to move the muscles in his legs.  

He moaned as he tried but his spine wouldn’t contort appropriately.  Finally his head fell back thumping against the wood step.

“Bad news Eric.”  The blurry form said from the top of the stairs. “No exit down there.”  Eric heard the sound of rapidly expanding pats, like small footsteps marching abruptly down the stairs.  He felt the warm liquid pelt his face, but even that couldn’t stir him from his increasing slumber.

“Catch ya later Eric.” 

When Eric came around he would’ve thought he died except for the smell now surrounding him.  He began to gag and puked next next to himself rolling over on his hands in the dark.  He could feel the slime push through the gaps in his fingers, like cold mashed potatoes.  He lifted his hand and sniffed, the pungent odor was even more displeasing that close.  He got up on shaky legs propping himself against a wall behind him.  The only thing he could see was a sliver of sunlight from the door at the top of the stairs.  He remembered what Jim had said when he plummeted down.

“No exit down there.”

He thought about the monstrous man sitting on the couch right outside the door.  Waiting patiently for Eric to climb up.  Waiting to do whatever he was going to do to him.  

‘What in the fuck.’  Eric thought and started feeling his way deeper in the room.  As he walked he felt the spongy floor squish under his boot.  It’s repulsive smell emanating up as more gas bubbles were broken with each step.  Eric put his nose in the crook of his arm and with the other  felt along the side of the wall.  His hand came in contact with a small metal box.  He found a steel lever on its side, and pulled it down.  Two lights lit up from strings on the ceiling.  The same style of lights in the foyer.  The goo he had been walking was a pink slimy substance.  It was high in some places like sea foam, but congealed on the concrete in others.  Against the wall stood two large drums turned on their side connected to spits.  One drum spun slowly with bits of pink dripping from its square door.  Next to the drums sat another large device with two steel roller pins, and a lever on it’s side.  Pink goop was also sprayed in front and it clicked in Eric’s mind what he was staring at.  

”Jesus Christ…“ he muttered under his breath as he remembered as a teenager going deer hunting with his dad.  Killing his first deer and his dad wanting to have it mounted.  They went to the taxidermist, and the man showed him the process to make the deer skin svelte and clean.  He placed it in a tanning machine, only one you had to turn by hand.  

Eric rubbed his forehead with tense fingers staring at the spinning machine letting out panic’d gasp.  As he looked between both machines, the spinning rack, his boots covered in the pink goo,  then noticed the back wall with strips of pink and brown hides hanging on hooks.

“Fuck!” 

‘No exit down there’ Jim’s voice rang back in his head.  Eric ran towards the stairs.  He had to get out go this house.  If Jim was there he would have to fight back.  There was no other way.  

Eric cracked the door open and was blinded by the little light that poured through.  The sun was setting, but its light shined through the window at the back of the apartment, obscured by the clear tarp.  He took a moment to scan the room, but Jim was nowhere to be seen.  Not a single sound could be heard in the apartment.  The TV was off, and the living area was only getting darker.  He had just enough light to crawl towards the glowing blue aura of the window next to the front door.  He was now thankful for the rugs as he never made a sound.  He grabbed the handle of the front door and took a breath as the bolt gave way under his torque.  Eric sprung to his feet and burst through the door, right into the iron bars.  In his excitement he didn’t see them, until his head made contact.  

He turned looking back into the apartment, but Jim was still nowhere in sight.  Eric  grabbed the bars and rattled them, but they were solid.  He looked down at their base which extended into holes in the floorboards.  He tried to pull one of them out but it wouldn’t budge as it’s point made contact with the ceiling.  Even shoved one down, but again it wouldn’t give way.  

“Fuck you Jim!” As he shook the solid bar in his hand. Then screamed at the top of his lungs listening to it echo downstairs until it completely ceased.  

“Now why you making all that noise?”  The deep voice joyfully boomed behind him.  Eric turned around to see Jim Jupitor standing in the kitchen holding a rubber mallet with a long wooden handle.  Still completely nude and dried blood streamed across his face and down his chest from the broken nose earlier.  He twirled the mallet around and around in his hand and that crooked smile returned.  Eric felt a bolt of terror shoot through his body, but it passed. ’it’s him or you’ and he rushed directly at Jim’s towering frame.  Jupitor let out a hollar.

“There he is!!! There he is!! Come on Coffield!!”  He squatted down readying the mallet.  Eric ran in full blitz as Jim prepared to bring the hammer upon his head.  Eric grabbed the brutes wrist, but he couldn’t stop it fully only delayed it just enough to get his head out of the way and right into Jim’s chest.  It was like running full speed into a wall as Jim didn’t move an inch.  The mallet collided against the small of Eric’s back.  Eric’s bad knee jolted in pain, but he quickly found its footing beneath him again pushing the pain down.  He reeled backwards and threw his fist as hard as he could against Jim’s jaw.  Like punching a tree, but the impact was enough to rattle Jupitor’s head.  Eric then used his left hand to repeatedly rap against Jim’s solar plexus, letting go three quick jabs before striking again with his right hand to Jim’s kidney.  Jim let out a gasp and dropped the mallet.   He drew a rapid breath through his nostrils.    Under that breath the sounds of an animal growl seeped out.

Eric took another shot at his left kidney this time, but Jim grabbed his arm before it made contact.  Then grabbed his right arm before Eric could retaliate.  Eric went to throw his knee into Jupitor’s groin, but it never connected.  Eric found himself thrown across the kitchen and over the island table into the living room.  His face smashed against the sofa pushing it away from him.  

Eric smelt the blood in his nose.  As he got to his hands he saw that under the couch there was a steak knife resting upon a dirty plate.  It still had bits of meat wedged in the blades Jim must’ve  forgotten he left it after dinner.  Eric grabbed it and pulled it to his chest.  

“Oh Eric!”  The ‘oh’ was more of a growl then an actual word.  Eric heard him pick the hammer up and saw his enormous frame walking around the bar.  As Jim came around into the living area Eric burst forward off the ground stabbing the knife into Jim’s heart and then retracting it and jabbing again and again in the beast chest.  Blood spattered out of the wound and across Eric’s face.  He looked up and made eye contact with Jim.  The wild black eyes focused into Erics as he lets out grunts between his teeth still fixated in a maddening scowl.  Eric stabbed with the knife now screaming in Jim’s face.   Jim at last let out a wet grunt as blood spit up from his mouth and down his lower lip.  He fell backwards crashing to the floor in a thunderous collapse.  

Eric panted heavily holding the steak knife.  Now completely covered in blood. 

He walked back to the bedroom, to the large window that Jim had shown off.  He brought along with him the ice chest the TV had sat upon and prepared to throw it through the window.  After wards he would have to make some sort of rope and repel himself down, but he had done that before in the military.  Holding the two handles he crashed it as hard as he could muster against the window, but as it connected the handles snapped off sending the ice chest falling to the floor behind him.  

“God Dammit” he muttered.  Not even a chunk or crack had formed in the window.  He leaned forward to look down at the crease of it and realized just how thick the window was.  The “glass” had to be 2 inches at least.  As he stared at wondering why anyone would install a glass that thick,  his ears filled with a low guttural growl of the animal rushing behind him.  Before he even had a second to react, Jim’s bloodied hand grabbed Eric’s head and slammed it with an even greater force against the window.

Outside a wren flew above the large window resting on its ledge with a twig in it’s mouth.  No cries echoed out from the gray building, no sound of the hammer as it connected repeatedly against bone.  The wren was entirely undisturbed.  It was going to be a long winter this year and if it was going to make it, then it needed the perfect place to set up its nest.