by Joe Zito
Her heart was racing and her palms were moist with nervous sweat. The first thing she saw when the old garage came into view was the large opening in the door. She inhaled a breath of fear at the ugly sight of it and because she knew that beast had busted through it just as it did the barn doors at Eldon’s childhood farm. A rush of emotion hit her when she pulled the truck to a stop and gazed through the windshield at the garage, wondering how it all went down that night in 1974 and if Heather and Angel and their boyfriends ever had a fighting chance. She started to cry. She knew they didn’t.
She turned off the truck.
There’s still time to back out Susan. You don’t have to do this. But I do and I will.
She slowly opened the door and got out. The sound of the night was all around her and the smell of rain hung heavy in the air. Despite the heavy down pour earlier, the air was still muggy and warm even for September. A distant boom of thunder reminded her of the next round of storms coming through. That put her in a heightened state of panic. It motivated her to move quickly before the rain hit. She went behind the truck and pulled out both gas cans and carried them to the front of the truck. She also grabbed the flashlight she had in her jacket pocket. She turned it on and guided herself with it to the garage. After setting the gas cans down, she surveyed the area with the flashlight and then suddenly had a flashback of the dream she had been waking to every morning for the past three years. She didn’t know why it popped into her head. A strong feeling of deja’vu went through her. It scared her. That thunder in the far off distance knocked her out of her daze and she got back to the matter at hand.
She unscrewed the first can of gasoline and began emptying it around the perimeter of the garage. The ground was saturated from the rain earlier so she made sure to drench the bottom half of the garage. She didn’t think too much as she applied the gasoline to the crumbling white brick exterior. This was an evil place and held only horrible and treacherous memories. The can was empty. She made her way back around to the front of the garage to get the other gas can, using the flashlight to guide her. As she turned the corner, the bright light cast itself on the beast standing in the hole of the garage it created twenty three years earlier. Susan screamed and almost dropped the flashlight but was able to hold onto it. The scarecrow roared, belching out its downtuned lion type roar at Susan. She stumbled backwards, lost her footing and fell to the wet ground on her bottom. Still, she had not let go of the flashlight. The beast closed in on her, trudging its way slowly to her. It’s giant black boots plodding the muddy ground. Fear had immobilized Susan. She couldn’t move. Then the heavy stench of gasoline reminded her of her mission and she put her hand in her pocket to retrieve her lighter, but before she could, the beast had its large, rough, scaly hands around her ankle and was pulling her along the wet and muddy ground.
The beast dragged her through the giant hole and into the dark garage. She didn’t even have time to scream. The beast had moved so quickly that by the time they entered the garage and when she was about to release the trapped scream inside of her, the fucker had laid its big boot upon her chest, confining her to the garage floor. It roared again and Susan could hear the rage inside it. Panic tore into her. There’s no way out of this, she thought. The beast’s heavy boot was crushing her chest, making it difficult for her to breath. As horrified as she was, she was angry because she wouldn’t be able to destroy the garage and more importantly the spell book which was tucked away in her front jean pocket. She could feel the beast pressing down on her. A sudden flash of heat lightening lit up the inside of the garage, temporarily illuminating the monster above her and the garage itself. On every flash, thunder would crash, letting her know that the rain was on its way and that her hopes of burning down the garage were falling further away like a lost ship lost at sea.
And on those bright flashes of light, she would get a glimpse of the garage and all its horrors of the past: the hole in the roof, dried blood on the floor and walls that looked aged and rust like, a pair of old metal stools, a battered and bloodied, cobwebbed lined 1950’s jukebox in the corner. She could hear the screams and feel the terror of that night. It was as if the beast was inflicting the bloodshed of that night into her mind. And it was.
She saw Angel standing there covered in blood and screaming and her crying out Heather’s name. She saw her daughter being drug across the garage floor by the bloodbeast. She could hear the jukebox playing ‘The Rumble’ by Link Wray and see the beast licking Angel’s face with its six inch nail tongue.
The Bludenhale Massacre of 1974 was alive in her mind’s eye, but then a violent thrash of lightning struck the garage and a blast of thunder brought her back to the present. The scarecrow was still confining her to the floor. It began heaving itself forward at her, looking like it was chocking and gagging. Petrified beyond hell, Susan was determined to stay alive and finish what she started, but it all seemed like a distant memory now. Her anger of failing to burn down the garage was elevated when she remembered the spell book in her pocket. Just pull it out and set the damn thing on fire. But she couldn’t lift herself up far enough to reach into her pocket to get it. The scarecrow’s boot was too heavy on her chest to move. It was still heaving itself forward like it was getting ready to throw up and then Susan thankfully was able to put her hand inside her jacket pocket and grab her lighter. She grasped it with two fingers and pulled it out with some effort. Once it was out she began flicking it as fast as she could to light it. The flame shot up. Lightning and thunder crashed all around her when she put the flame close to her jean pocket where she would set herself on fire in order to burn the spell book. The flame touched her jeans but then she felt rain drops hitting her in the face. Her soul was crushed. She was too late. The beast and the spell book and the garage would live on forever. The rain extinguished the flame from the lighter. There was complete darkness inside the garage.
She kept trying to light it but it wouldn’t work. Panic attacked her when the idea of dying in complete darkness shrouded her. She was persistent and kept flicking the lighter until miraculously it came on. But only to reveal her hand which was dripping with blood. There was no rain insight. She raised the lighter to the beast and from its metal mouth, came a rush of blood into her face. Instinctively she opened her mouth to scream and the beast’s blood vomit forced its way into her mouth. She tried to scream but only gagged and waved her arms wildly in front of her. She still had a hold of the lighter which had gone out when the scarecrow vomited Eldon’s blood all over her. She knew whose blood it was. She remembered seeing the beast’s mouth clenched tight around Eldon’s neck hours ago at the barn. She also remembered Angel’s tale of the same beast vomiting Heather’s blood down on her. I bathed in her blood was all Susan could think as the blood shower assault continued. It seemed endless. The sound of blood hitting the garage floor was almost painful to Susan’s ears. It was sharp and piercing. Then finally it came to an end. There in the darkness she could feel the blood soaking into her clothes. She panicked again when she thought of the spell book becoming wet with blood and not being able to burn it. Horrified, disgusted and in shock, she had to try. And she did when she put her blood drenched hand near her pocket. She suddenly felt a feeling of relief like a throbbing pressure subsiding. The beast had removed its giant boot from her chest. She sucked in a much needed breath but then the crushing weight was back on her. She put her hands of the boot, feeling its large, rough shape. It moved again. Susan didn’t know what was happening. She flicked the lighter on and saw the bottom of the boot (which was covered in blood) coming straight at her. The will to stay alive and the good old fashion brain reaction to move out of the way of an oncoming object at your face kicked on and she flipped her sixty three year old body over as fast as she could. Just as she did a big boom crashed down and she knew it wasn’t thunder. The impact of the beast’s boot slamming down vibrated and cracked the garage floor. Susan screamed when she heard the crash and her stay alive mode went into full effect
.
She crawled towards the hole in the garage door as fast as she could, clawing at the floor as she did. Her fingernail cracked and broke off as she scraped her hands on the floor, trying like hell to get out of the garage. She could hear the scarecrow behind her stomping its boot, almost mockingly as if to scare her. It was working. She was almost to the opening. When she reached it, half her body was in the garage while the other half was outside. She turned over on her back and pulled out the spell book from her pocket. She cried when she saw that it was completely dry. The beast roared and she flicked the lighter and put the flame up to its evil pages. It caught fire with ease and she threw it. It landed at the bottom of her feet. She didn’t have the strength to throw very far. The wall of the garage erupted into flames. Susan sat up and scooted backwards away from the fire; her burning eyes of hate and revenge never leaving the scarecrow. A wall of fire surrounded the beast. Susan was sure that it would bust through the rising flames and drag her back into the garage so she could burn with it. But the scarecrow only stood there roaring at the flames as if confused or maybe even a little afraid of its deadly heat. Susan pursed her lips together in an angry scowl as the flames got closer to the beast. But then through the crackling roar of the fire, she heard something in distance. She looked up and saw a fluttering in the night sky. It looked like black balls running into each other. It was a wild swarm. The sound became louder and was sharp and piercing. Susan realized what the sound was and what those black shaped were.
The crows had come home to feed
The swarm grew larger and louder and then a black shadow against the night sky descended down over the garage. Angry crows began swooping through the hole in the roof. Unafraid by the now raging fire in the garage, the crows attacked the scarecrow beast with a vicious, violent force. Their thick and pointy beaks pierced and ripped at the beast. The onslaught was brutal and endless as hundreds of crows flew into the garage with bloody intent. Susan gawked at the violence in awe feeling sick by its brutality and relentlessness, but yet vindicated. The scarecrow roared but it was weak and had a certain dying like tone to it. It fell to its knees as the black swarm covered its entire body. Through the fluttering blackness, Susan could see spurts of blood shooting out. She clenched her teeth and watched, feeling less overwhelmed and more powerful. The attack lasted about five minutes. Short but deadly. The beast had fallen over completely with its horrid face buried into the garage floor. The crows began to cease their attack and the hot flames took over. The crows were gone and the entire garage was on fire. Susan was sitting roughly twelve feet away. She watched the beast burn to death; its great hulking mass burning before her eyes. She hissed through clenched teeth, “Die you fucker, die!”
And then something was beginning to happen to the beast as it burned. A black dust rose up from its giant body. It was disintegrating, turning to dust, leaving the world forever. It was something that Susan needed to see and she’s glad she did. She knew without a doubt that the beast was dead and gone and would never again destroy anyone’s life. Like a dark kind of magic, the beast burned itself away in a cloud of black dust; a black haze rising up into the orange flames and out the hole in the roof. The garage was drowned in flames.
Susan sat and cried as she watched the walls fall in on one another and then the roof collapse to the ground. A flash of lighting struck out in the cornfield and then the rain hit, coming down hard.
Coming out of her daze of blood and death and a twenty three year old nightmare finally put to rest, she pulled herself up and limped back to her truck where she got in and watched the rain put out the fire.
A heavy torrent of rain came down hard. The sound of it hitting the roof of the truck was deafening.
It had already rained in Bludenhale.
In the end a new day will dawn
1997
October
The house was quiet. But the heat kicked on and blew a cozy seventy two degrees throughout the living room, kitchen and bedrooms. Susan Smith lay in her bed, snuggled deep in a large comforter. It was the middle of October and the early mornings were starting to get colder. Susan didn’t mind the brisk, cool morning. Fall was her favorite time of year. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at the clock on her nightstand. It was just too damn early to get up. She turned over, pulling the comforter over her shoulder and slept for an hour and a half longer.
That hour and a half went my rather quickly. She got up, got dressed, brushed her teeth, half assed combed her hair and went downstairs to start her day. She made coffee and was going to have some toast with jelly but saw that she was out of bread. She sighed when she realized she would have to go into town to get some groceries for herself even though it was just her living alone at the old farmhouse. She still had to buy food even if she did only cook twice a week. The coffee was done brewing. She poured herself a cup and sat down at the kitchen table and lit up a Virginia slim and began reading the morning paper. As she sipped her coffee and flipped through the paper, a peculiar feeling came over her. She lowered the newspaper and gazed at the line of secondhand smoke sifting up from her cigarette sitting in an ashtray. Then it all came together in her mind. The smell of smoke had triggered it.
Recently, her nights have been dream free ever since she took a stand and came face to face with that creature from hell or somewhere. But now as she sat at the table and smelled the smoke, she remembered those early morning dreams she had been having where she was lost in a cornfield and the heavy stench of smoke was all around her. It gave her a chill. Had there been a connection between her dreams and the burning garage? Had she dreamed its fiery fate? Something inside of her was telling her that she did and it was scaring the hell out of her.
Susan cracked the window a little on her truck as she drove down and old gravel backroad on her way to Bludenhale to pick up some groceries. It was fifty three degrees but she like that little bit of cool air coming in through the window, mixing with the warmth from the heater. She thought about the dreams again and the smoke and the fire in the garage. That doesn’t happen. It can’t, she thought. She laughed when she thought her herself being physic or having premonitions. I wonder if Heather or Amy knew things or had dreams like mine or about the future. Dear God, I hope not. She had tried not to think too much about everything that happened. But sometimes it was difficult not to. It was all very traumatic but she knew she was safe now and that she had avenged her daughter and in some way Angel as well. There was one thing though she didn’t understand. There had not been a single mention of the garage burning down; not in the paper or news or any gossip around town. Maybe folks in this town are just as happy to see it gone as much as I am.
She was driving down the road, pondering all of these thoughts when she saw a car up ahead, pulled to the side of the road. From what she could see there was a woman and a man sitting on the hood of their car. Not every day you see someone stranded on the side of the road out here. She slowed her truck as she got a little closer. She drove past them slowly and thought, just keep going Susan, you don’t need any more drama in your life from strangers. But then in her rear view mirror she saw the woman stand up with her hands in her back pockets and kick the back tire in frustration. But you’re gonna see if they need some help anyway aren’t you, because that’s what us country folk do I guess. Susan smirked and rolled her eyes as she put the truck in reverse. She pulled up to the car which was an older looking Buick. A woman who seemed older but didn’t look it was standing next to a tall twenty something kid.
Susan rolled the passenger side window down. “Hi there, ya’ll need some help?”
The woman looked embarrassed and the looked at the kid who Susan assumed was her son.
The kid said, “Well, we got ourselves a flat but no spare. Some luck huh.”
“Oh, that’s a problem I reckon,” Susan said.
She pulled over to the side of the road in front of the Buick. She got out and walked over them. Susan lost her breath for a moment when
she saw the woman’s long, sandy blonde hair, and how pretty she was which made pinpointing her age an impossible task. She saw a load of luggage on top of the Buick.
“Headin’ out for vacation?” She said.
“Oh, no. My son and I are moving. Making a new start I guess you could say,” the woman said feeling awkward.
“Your son?” Susan said sounding surprised.
“Yeah,” the woman said feeling her face warm up because she knew what the nice country lady was thinking. “This is Michael. He’s twenty one. I’m Lauren Hill.”
She extended her hand to Susan who accepted her politeness with her hand. Susan almost wanted to cry because this woman reminded her a little of her daughter.
“You ok, ma’am?” Lauren asked.
Susan looked deep into her eyes. She could have sworn she saw Heather somewhere in there. Get it together Susan. This gal ain’t your daughter. Finally she responded with, “I’m sorry, I just….well, you remind me of someone.”
Lauren smiled. “That’s all right.”
A moment of strange silence fell between all of them for about ten seconds but the awkwardness of the situation made it feel like ten minutes.
“Well, I suppose ya’ll would like a ride into town for a new tire?” Susan said.
“That would be great, if that’s ok,” Lauren said suddenly feeling like she was seventeen instead of thirty seven.
“That wouldn’t be a problem, “Susan said.
They all got inside the truck.
‘So where are you moving, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Oh, that’s ok,” Lauren said. “We have family up in northern Indiana. But we’re just playing it by ear for now I guess. You never know, we may get there and decide to keep going. No matter what we do, there has to be better days ahead.”