PREVIOUS

I went back to my grandfather’s old house early in the morning. I definitely wasn’t going to stay there overnight, that would have been way too creepy and I’ve seen how things like that end. Because of this, when I made my way back down the long dirt driveway it was at a slow pace and in broad daylight. I noticed faint smoke rising into the air from a field in the distance. Though I couldn’t tell whether or not that land was still my grandfathers so I decided not to investigate that. 

However, as I rounded the final bend leading to the house I spotted a coyote sitting beside the road, I stopped and it leered at me for a long moment.  It didn’t seem afraid and eventually got up to slowly walk out of sight. I know this will sound stupid, but I felt as if I needed its permission to continue and that it had somehow granted me that. 

When I reached the house again I noticed immediately that something was different. Someone else had been there overnight. The dining table was cleared and clean of dust with a single chair pulled out as if for me specifically. On it sat two more pages of my grandfather’s writing and a glass of water. That really freaked me out. 

“Hello? Is anyone here?” I called, though far too quietly for it to have been effective, and was relieved when I received no response. Just to be sure, I crept around the place for a few minutes then hesitantly sat down to read the letters. Though I was absolutely not going to drink the water.

​

The letter continued:

When I went outside, well after sunrise, I was surprised to find that the house wasn’t damaged. Unfortunately.. That was the only blessing. The year's crops were destroyed, ripped apart and crushed for hours I supposed. I guess, whatever those things were they took out their vengeance in other ways. Eric went out to investigate the animals, he reported back that the horses were eviscerated and the chickens were dismembered. 

This seemed to have a profound effect on him for he was even more emotionless than usual. “They were just animals.” I assured him, it wasn’t the first lot of animals I had lost and like I said, they were the longest lived since he had been there. 

“No. You warned me to ignore the creature and I disobeyed. This is my fault.” He started calmly, though his gaze was fixated on the forest in a way that made me nervous. 

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. I didn’ explain it well. This kind of thing happens commonly, I should have told you beforehand. It hadn’t happened since you’ve been here until now.” I admitted. 

He paused then, “It happens regularly? How often? And for how long?”

That made me think, “Been going on for decades. It happens every now and then, but more so during harvest season.” 

“And how do you usually defend your property?” He enquired curiously. 

“Bullets.” I answered simply, then I remembered, “My father always insisted we use silver bullets though.” 

“Silver..” He murmured mostly to himself, “I need my cane.” He announced, then began to limp his way back inside. 

I followed after him baffled, what good would his cane do against those things? When I caught up to him, he was seated and twisting the top off the cane. “What are you-“ I started but stopped as I realized he was  pulling a second sword from the inside of the stick. 

“This one is silver. The steel didn’t work because it wasn’t the right substance.” He explained, sounding triumphant. 

“Was that in there the whole time?” I asked, disregarding the rest.

He looked at me then with a slight guilty expression and a sly smile, “Yes.. I also found the one you hid from me within hours. But I allowed you to think I was unarmed, it seemed to make you feel more comfortable.” He admitted.

“Is there anything else you’re keeping from me, you little bastard?” I asked using an annoyed tone to cover my own embarrassment. I supposed if he intended to harm me he would have done it by now. 

“Plenty more.” He teased. He’d picked up my snarky sense of humor it seemed.

“What do you think you can do with that toothpick then?” I demanded. 

“It’s not a toothpick.” He complained, “But it is delicate. So I can’t do too much, we’ll need more silver than this. Do you have any bullets left?” 

“Haven’t had any for years. No one melts down silver these days.” I explained.

My answer seemed to displease him and he began to search on his own. He found a candlestick, a bag of silver dollar coins and pulled the old silver mirror from the barn. I watched as he worked for a couple hours. He polished the mirror and made it into a shield, packed gunpowder with the silver coins into bottles and sharpened the edge of the candlestick. 

“You sure all that silver will work?” I asked skeptically, folding my arms as I rested against the door frame.

“I hope so.” He mused. 

“How do you know how to do all that there, stuff anyway?”

“I was taught.” 

“You were taught how to make all of that, but you weren’t taught what a gun is?” 

“They don’t use guns.” He stated vaguely.

“But they use gunpowder?” 

“They don’t call it ‘gunpowder’.”

“What do ‘they’ call it?” 

He hesitated for a moment before answering, “…Serpentine.” He murmured quietly. I was sure that it was a different language. 

“Who exactly were these people that taught you?” I asked, trying to sound casual. 

“It doesn’t matter who they were.” He responded with some hostility. 

“Boy. I might not know much. But I know a beat dog flinches the same way you do.” 

“I’m not a dog.” He snapped back and I knew I had pushed the issue too far.

“Alright alright. I don’t mean to offend you.” I assured, putting my hands up innocently.

“Then stop asking.” He stated with venom. 

“Look, I ain’t one to give much advice.. But if you keep carrying that anger and hate inside, it’ll eat away at you until you don’t know who you are anymore. Believe me. There are better solutions…”  I felt as awkward saying it as I’m sure he did hearing it, but it seemed to calm him.

He sighed though was still clearly irritated. “I’m fine, and you don’t need to say things like that. I’m going to go find those creatures now though. Stay here, I’ll be back soon.”

Eric stood then and when he did he no longer had a limp. Rather, he seemed to have an energy around him that I could just feel radiating off him.  I made my decision then, “You’re not going alone, I ain’t gonna just sit here.” 

“You’re too weak to face them.” 

“Alright, you shit. You might be younger and stronger but I still have some life left in these old bones.” I retorted ruefully. 

“Not much life left if you come with me.” He stated flatly. 

“Well, we’ll just see then won’t we.” And with that I grabbed my shotgun. Admittedly I felt rather underprepared comparatively. I didn’t have no silver with me or anything. But I was sure being pumped with lead would still hurt ‘em. He looked at me exasperated then after some hesitation handed me the mirror-shield and candlestick. 

“Let’s at least pretend you’ll make it.” He taunted.

“You have an attitude about you, did you know that?” I muttered, taking the equipment as I did. 

“It’s been mentioned before.” 

We set off on foot toward the forest and Eric led the way. It seemed as if he was tracking something, though I couldn’t say what, when he stopped. In the near distance was a coyote. It made eye contact with us then hurried over the hill and to my surprise Eric ran after it. 

“That’s a coyote, boy!” I called after him as I scrambled to keep up. 

“No! It’s one of them!” He shouted back without slowing. 

Eric chased the thing into the forest and I caught only a few glimpses of him moving agilely through the trees before I lost sight of them. I was beginning to regret my decision to come along then. I was out of breath and deep in the forest. The sun was dimmer beneath the foliage and the eerie sound of inhuman screams echoed through the woods. 

Against my better judgment, those sounds were exactly what I chose to follow and as I drew closer the voices became clearer. Though the sentences were disjointed and variations in tone and pitch also made it difficult to differentiate one speaker from another. However, one voice stood out more clearly above the rest.

“Enough. Speak one at a time or don’t talk to me at all.” Eric said firmly.

I entered the clearing to find him standing reasonably close to the creatures. Each one towered over him, their skins draping loosely over their forms. Though the largest of the was crouched submissively and the others lingered close by in a semicircle around him. His silver sword was coated in blood which seemed to boil on the blade, creating a slowly rising trail of steam. 

The large creature had a matching wound to its shoulder that steamed and I recognised it as the one he had fought with the night before. Though the chest injury seemed healed. When they noticed me a new commotion erupted, a disorganized outcry of vicious rage and Eric was quick to react. 

“Stop.” He commanded, raising the sword again slightly and they quieted, “Never mind him, tell me what it is you want with his farmlands.” 

“Stolen. Land! We want, it, Back.” I think it was the large one that spoke, though each word was in a different voice and its mouth didn’t seem to move.  

“This farm has been in my family for generations.” I responded in my own defense. Truthfully I was trembling like a leaf, I forgot I even had a gun in the face of these things.

“Who gave it to your family?” Eric asked me now calmly. 

Honestly I didn’t know, I only knew that my grandfather settled the land, “No one, I mean, grandfather settled it or bought it.” 

“Stole. It.” The thing hissed. 

Eric looked annoyed now, “Even if it is stolen. You cannot expect this man to pay for his family’s mistakes.” 

“He, leaves. We will, stop.” Another of them spoke, though I could only tell it was a different one because it came from a new direction as they both used a combination of different voices.  

“He stays, we, will kill.” The first agreed.

“You won’t kill anything if I kill you all instead.” Eric reminded them calmly. “Find a compromise.”  

In response they howled and screamed again, it was a resounding no I was sure. That made me nervous, I couldn’t see how Eric could defeat them all. Especially not if they decided to attack all at once. 

“Enough!” He repeated, “You behave as if you’re not cursed. You’re corrupted by the very energy you sought to use. You’re lucky the land itself doesn’t reject you.”  

An uncomfortable silence followed his words and I took the opportunity to speak, “What do they mean by they want me to leave?” 

“They say your ancestors stole their tribe’s land. They don’t like you using it the way you are, they say their dead are buried beneath the corn fields.” Eric explained without emotion. 

I felt strongly ill then. As a young boy I remembered collecting bones from the fields, it was a game of sorts that my father encouraged and we would burn them all in large bonfires.. We weren’t supposed to talk about it, but the crops always grew especially well in that area. 

“The bones..” I murmured. 

“Yes.” The creature responded bitterly. 

“And if I leave the farm, all of this will stop. Ain’t nobody gonna follow me.” I asked skeptically. 

This seemed to give them pause. I felt as though they wanted to say no, that they would hunt me for an eternity as retribution for the sins of my family. “Yes.” The word came as a reluctant hiss. 

“You don’t have to.” Eric reminded me. 

“No boy, I don’t have to. But this farm is nothing but misery and sometimes you just have to do the right thing when the opportunity presents itself.”

He seemed surprised with me then, but seemed to agree, “If that’s the case. Will that satisfy you if he leaves within the following days?” Eric asked now. 

“He, leaves, now.” One of them demanded.

“Be reasonable. He may need time to collect his belongings.” 

“No it’s alright. I can leave today, I only need to take care of a few things.” I assured. It was a strangely easy choice. Actually, it felt like one of the best decisions I ever made. 

This farm held so much misery. For my father, his father before him and for me. I had no family left to speak of and a lot of regrets, this felt like one small piece of redemption. We left the forest with an uncomfortable escort though the hovered back from the house as I packed up the few things I wanted to take with me. 

Eric helped me load the car and kept a careful watch on the things as they watched us from a distance. He explained to me that those things were human once, but that blinded by their desires they had touched an energy they weren’t meant to and it destroyed them. They would spend the rest of their unnatural lives caught in a state between living and death for their sins. 

I didn’t envy them, if leaving my home was the penance I would pay that was alright. I would go to Josie, I should have asked that woman to marry me years ago. I left with not more than I could carry. I’ll leave the farm to its rightful owners in my will. That should protect the land. As for Eric, saying goodbye to him was more difficult than I would like to admit.  

He chose not to come with me into town, instead I believe he intended to head west. I’m grateful for the opportunities he gave me, and I hope I helped him on his way. Perhaps I’ll see him again one day before I die. 

I’ll leave these letters here, so that others may read them. But I ask that once you are done, you respectfully leave this place. 

Signed,

• Robert Lisugh 

*** 

I finished reading and decided to take the advice given. I think, I hope, my grandfather found peace. I’ll try and see if I can find anything about Josie but I doubt I will. When I left I saw the same coyote watching me again and I couldn’t help but feel like it was one of the creatures my grandfather described. 

The only strange thing is that I have a cousin up in Maine and she’s complained to me before about one of her intermittent coworkers. I’m not sure why I thought of it just now, but his name is Eric and he uses a walking cane as well.

More

.xXx.