Beckett: Worms (Short Story)

Tim felt really good about the brief altercation with the clipboard guy. He’s never just gone off and told someone to screw off before. Normally, he was kinder than that, afraid of any confrontation. But he’s had enough of being nice all the time. Nobody appreciates the nice guy, and being nice never stops you from being bullied.

So, screw it, he thought. From now on, I do things my way.

Before he knew it, he was in the driveway. He walked in the house and realized he was hungry. Going to the fridge, he saw the cake—the cake that he so desired. He promised his mom he wouldn’t eat any until after dinner that night, but that was back when he was Mr. Nice Guy. So, he grabbed the cake and ate three pieces.

Afterwards, he sat at the table staring off into space, not thinking about anything in particular. He stared across the table, thinking about nothing, as if he achieved a state of enlightenment that Buddhists try so arduously to achieve.

He hadn’t realized that he had been sitting there staring off into space until he heard a knock at the door. He looked at the clock on the stove. He had been sitting there for nine hours straight.

He heard the knock on the door again and walked to it, opening it to see his girlfriend, Danielle. Her brown curls flowed in the summer breeze, her face bedecked with freckles on her suntanned skin, illuminated by her deep blue eyes. A farm girl, she was dressed in overalls over a red t-shirt. Somehow, she had a way of making overalls look exquisite.

“Hey, babe!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him. Tim stood there like a board and Danielle let go, looked at him, and said, “You’re not hugging back. You okay?”

“I’m fine, Dany,” Tim said.

“Then why aren’t you hugging me back?”

“Because I don’t feel like it?”

“Why are you being such a jerk? This isn’t like you.”

“All I did was answer your question.”

She rolled her eyes. “Ugh, whatever. Listen, I know a giant rock just fell out of the sky and everything, but today you promised we’d go to breakfast together.”

Tim had totally forgotten. “Ah, did I? I guess we should go then. Nothing better than breakfast for dinner!”

“You okay? You look a little pale.” Dany said, worried.

“I’m fine. Let’s go.”

They got in her Ford Focus. Everything was quiet on their drive, just the way Tim liked it.

Fifteen minutes into the drive, Dany looked at him awkwardly and said, “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not acting like yourself. You seem… aloof.”

Tim didn’t say anything to her annoying observation. Of course he was being aloof. He didn’t want to talk about anything. He didn’t even want to be here with her. He just wanted to be alone.

“Tim?”

No one ever leaves him alone. People are always asking him to do things for them. Why can’t he ever do things for himself for a change? He’s deserved the chance to be selfish for a change. He no longer cares.

“Tim!”

“Do you even know what I care about?” Tim asked.

“What?” Dany said, bewildered.

“Nothing…”

“Um, what—”

Without warning, Tim leaps onto Dany, sinking his teeth into her neck. Dany screams, swerving the car into every lane as Tim sucks every fluid from her body. Dany loses more control of the car as her life is being drained.

Finally, her life is gone, her corpse a pale white like an albino vegetable, and the car crashes into a brick wall in the downtown area, knocking Tim out.