Zeke [Excerpt]

The following is an excerpt from Alexandrine J. Ogundimu’s novella Zeke, which you can download for free on itch.io.

We headed up to Milwaulkee after that, why I don’t know. I guess we just needed a place to go. I hated Milwaulkee when I lived there, not that I like Kentucky any more. Both of them suck in different ways.

I was kind of annoyed that Ben didn’t believe me when I said I was a killer, and so I kept thinking of ways I could prove it to him. It just bothered me that he thought I was a liar or crazy or something like that, when really I was totally sane. Eventually a plan started to come together, of a way that I could show that I wasn’t insane and that I was capable of murder..

We drove around all day and I showed him my old school and some places I had some sentimental feeling towards. I showed him my favorite place to get ice cream and so we stopped and got some as a treat. I got mint chip in a waffle cone and he got two scoops of coffee with chocolate shell and we sat in the truck and ate and I had some on  my nose so he licked it off.

I turned my phone back on and it blew up with missed calls and texts that I ignored. I redownloaded Grindr and I made a profile and before long I had a bunch of messages and more dick pics than I ever wanted to see. I messaged some of them back, mostly at random, though I definitely went for the oldest guys first. But what I did differently this time is that I outed myself. I told them how old I was, which I knew put me at risk of getting banned, but before long I found a guy.

I’m 14.

I don’t care

He gave me an address and a time to meet him at and right after that I got banned from the app, which was fine because I had gotten what I needed.

We went to an under-21 nightclub and because it was like the middle of the week they let us in without even checking to see if we were 18 or not. We danced a little which was nice, Ben is a surprisingly good dancer even if I’m not. There was definitely at least one guy there checking us out which of course bothered me, I hate being ogled no matter the context. 

Ben went to the bathroom and left me sitting at a table near the bar, but he was gone a really long time so I went to check and see if he was smoking. I found him outside on the patio in a corner with the guy who was checking us out, sharing a joint. 

“What the fuck?” I said.

Ben’s eyes got really wide and he quickly handed it back to the guy. I pushed the guy on the shoulder who didn’t do anything, just kind of looked at me in stoned wonderment. He was a really faggy type too, and kind of creepy even though he was young, like who goes to a nightclub alone during the week? 

Ben got between us cause he was obviously afraid I was gonna start a fight but the guy just shrugged and walked off, didn’t say nothing. He clearly didn’t want to get involved in whatever was going on between us.

“What was that?” I asked Ben.

“I can smoke if I want,” he said to me, half mumbled cause he was stoned. 

“Yeah, but with that creep?”

Ben turned away from me and looked like he was going to cry, but instead he just said “Ok,” and he let me hug him and the whole thing kind of blew over.

He said he wanted to sleep in a bed again so we should go to a motel, and I said that was fine, but I was worried about money. He told me not to worry about it, which was fine. I checked my phone and I could see it was almost time. 

“Hey,” I said, “Let’s go. I’ll show you where I grew up and we can get a motel room.”

“Fine.”

We went back to his truck. I gave him the address and as he drove I opened his glove compartment and rooted around in it. 

“What are you looking for in there?”

I found a pocketknife and slipped it into my jeans. “Nothing. Just curious.”

The neighborhood started to get sketchy and I would have been worried except I was so hyped up on adrenaline my ears were pounding. Ben got quiet and I could tell he was starting to get scared. The houses we passed by were mostly boarded up and there was almost no one on the streets. There weren’t many streetlights so it was super dark.  

“Here,” I said. Ben pulled the truck over and we looked out the window. 

“You grew up here?”

The address the guy had given me was for a house that wasn’t boarded up but was clearly abandoned, which I thought was super weird and I hadn’t been planning on. 

“It was nicer back then.” I got out of the truck. “You coming or going?”

He got out too and together we walked up the porch and to the front door, which was hanging open. We let ourselves inside. There wasn’t much in the way of furniture of course, and there were holes in the floor and rats crawling around everywhere, it was gross. Suddenly there came a voice, calling out to us. 

In the living room there was a man, the 45 year old man I’d picked up on the app, his lower half completely naked, on all fours, his hairy asshole in the air staring at me. His sad wrinkled balls hung below and I smelled something pungent that I suddenly realized was him. 

“Zeke, what the shit?”

“It’s okay.”

The guy grunted. “Oh, you brought a friend. That’s cool. Just hurry up and fuck me.” 

Ben said nothing, just stared at me in fear and loathing. I smiled and pulled the pocketknife out of my jeans.

“No.” Ben reached out and grabbed my hand. I pulled and pushed and tried to shake him off but he was surprisingly strong. But I was stronger. I threw him off and sent him sprawling. I turned to the guy’s asshole and stabbed the knife into it. 

I can’t really describe the sound the guy made, but I still think about it sometimes. He twisted, yanking the knife out of my hand, and jumped up with it still between his cheeks. He reached around to pull it out and honestly it was so funny, watching the guy trying to yank a knife out of his hole, that I started laughing. Which pissed him off and he made a move as if to chase me but I was faster and I grabbed Ben and pulled him to his feet and we dived into the truck as the guy hobbled after us, half naked with a knife still sticking out of his ass, onto the lawn and as Ben drove away, cursing me out to the ends of the Earth, I laughed and laughed until I cried.