What Lies Beneath

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Ben

Nobody really likes the truth. Benjamin Hemmings had learned that at a very young age. Ever since he could remember he had always had the ability to know things. Things that nobody should know. For instance, when he was five years old, he knew that his next-door neighbors' wife was having an affair with the mail man. One day when he was over at their house, he accidentally let this information slip. Everyone thought that he was a peeping tom and well, his neighbor assaulted the mail man during his next visit.

Since that day, Benjamin had learned to keep sensitive information like that to himself. However, because of his gift he had figured out a way to beat the system. He learned how to use his knowledge to his advantage. He never failed a test or homework assignment, nor was he ever surprised by a pop quiz. He was always able to avoid the bullies, which there was a lot of, and he never had to worry about getting surprised.

Most people in his town thought that he was a very strange kid, especially since he had skipped several grades. Most people thought that he was a genius, but Ben knew the truth. In fact, he knew everyone's truths. The secrets that they would try and hide, all of the dirty little lies that people told. There was no escape for him. For every upside that he could find for or about his gift, there was an even greater downside.

With his gift he knew everything and with all that forbidden knowledge swirling around in his head, he was never able to get close to anyone. There was no secret that he wasn't privy to, not even his own. He knew everything, every single bad thought that everyone he had ever met had. When little Joey Johnson from down the street went missing, he knew that he had run away because his father had been molesting him. When Angela Mackasey killed herself, he knew that it was because she thought that no one would ever love her.

At one point in his life, Benjamin thought that he could use his knowledge to help save some of these people like the heroes in his comic books did, but there was nothing he could do. Whenever he would try to talk to them, the words that would come out of their mouths were always hateful. Meanwhile he could hear them pleading with him from the inside. Still the voices got to be too much. After he finished high school at the age of fourteen, he locked himself away in his room. He didn't want to know anymore. He wanted his mind to himself. He wanted quiet.

By the time that he was sixteen, he was known as the town shut-in, though no one would have ever said it to his face. Even behind his walls in his second story bedroom, he still knew everything that was happening in his town. He knew when his parents decided to split up and why. Even when they told him that it wasn't his fault, he knew that they were lying. He knew when his father started to drown out his pain with a bottle of whiskey, or three or four after he had moved out. He knew everything and above all else, he knew that he was the reason that people were in pain. His very existence had been the cause of so much irreparable pain.

His letter arrived a week before his seventeenth birthday, but it was too late. The day of its arrival was the same day that his mother found him hanging from his bedroom ceiling fan. He knew the moment that the letter arrived in his town and he knew exactly what it said, but he couldn't go. Not physically anyway. He knew everything that that letter did and didn't say, for when the post man first brought it to the post office he could see into the mind of the house and he couldn't take it. No more noise, no more information, no more secrets. That poisonous envelope which contained a letter written by Agatha, was the last piece of truth that he ever wanted to know.

*I HOPE YOU'VE ENJOYED READING THIS CHAPTER AND ALL THOSE THAT CAME BEFORE. THERE IS STILL MORE STORY TO TELL. THE CONCLUSION OF PART TWO COMES WITH CHAPTER FORTY: UNBURIED. IF YOU LIKED THIS CHAPTER PLEASE REMEMBER TO VOTE, COMMENT ON YOUR FAVORITE PART (OR WHAT YOU THINK CAN BE IMPROVED), AND/OR SHARE WITH YOUR FELLOW WATTPADDERS SO THAT THEY MAY EMBARK ON THE JOURNEY THAT IS WHAT LIES BENEATH. THANK YOU ALL FOR READING AND REMEMBER, THERE IS A LOT MORE STORY TO TELL AS THERE WILL BE A PART THREE.*