Barns, Blood and Rock and Roll

by Joe Zito

  When Jeanie woke her vision was blurry. Everything was hazy as if she was looking through an out of focus camera lens. All she could hear was that awful screeching of the bird man and the screams of his brothers. May they die an awful death, she thought. Jeanie did not hear Ella and that’s when the terrible reality and memory of what happened minutes ago hit her. Amongst the screaming and bad vision she felt a wave a sadness and pain wash over her. “Ella’s gone,” Jeanie said softly.

  Something soft and white floated downward from out of nowhere in front of Jeanie’s face. She thought ‘snow’ I’m losing my mind. It’s snowing in this cabin born of hell. More white shapes began falling all around her. She put her tongue out to catch a piece of snow. It wasn’t snow. And she wasn’t losing her mind. They were feathers. The hideous bird man’s feathers. Now within all the screaming was a racket of banging and glass breaking. Her vision became clearer and she could see to her horror that it was the bird man who was losing its mind rather than her. The large table (the one the greasy men raped her and Ella on) had been broken in half. A window was broken. The bird man had decided to take its frustrations out on the cabin. Then he would tear apart his Kentucky brethren.

  The remaining brothers lay on their backs, one in each corner of the cabin with their hands up pleading for their lives as the bird man destroyed the cabin in a feathery rage. Once the creature was finished with its fit of rage, it stood between its brothers as if pondering which one to kill first. Jeanie’s sight had come back fully and she saw Ella lying on the floor. She had died from the nail gun wounds. The bird man took Ella by her arm and lifted her dead body over its shoulder. Then Jeanie heard a voice coming from behind her. “She’s gone kid. I’m so sorry but your sister is dead. Get out of here now. Go on, save yourself. Go, go!” The shit stained man chained to the floor spoke wearily with his eyes closed and his head leaning against the wall. He sounded out of breath like he ran ten miles straight. Hyperventilation took over his body because he knew he was next on the bird man’s list. In unbelievable shock, Jeanie slowly stood up and almost buckled over but she kept her balance. She crept to the door. She gave one last look at Ella hanging like a sack of potatoes over the angry creatures shoulder. She covered her mouth in grief and cried. As she sobbed the bird man went in for the fat man and that’s when she made her move. She had to get out of there. Ella was dead, but Jeanie could make it out alive. You’ll have a lifetime of nightmares honey, but you will be alive. The bird man was to occupied and hungry to even notice or hear her stepping through the demolished doorway. She stepped out of hell and into the forest.

  She started down what looked to be a makeshift dirt path. Probably made by the fucks that had brought her and Ella to the cabin to be raped and made into dinner for their inbred bird brother. She walked awkwardly with her arms spread out to keep her balance. She looked like a drunken girl leaving the bar, confident that she is ok. Behind her the sound of screaming, screeching and glass shattering filled the forest. She never once turned around.

  Jeanie stumbled through the woods finally making her way up a hill filled with heavy weeds and thorny shrubbery. Her ankles were scratched and bleeding. At the top of the hill she could see blackened pavement through the trees. It didn’t seem near as sunny as earlier because of increasing clouds, but it was still very hot. She felt a surge of relief at the sight of the road and let out a much needed cry, for she hadn’t shed a tear since escaping from the cabin in hell. Breathing heavily she exited the forest and stood on the edge of the road with a solid white line at her feet. Everything was so very quiet except for the distant sound of some birds singing, (normal birds, not the horrific bird man). She felt cold all of a sudden and then realized she was naked from the waist down. She only had her cream colored white top on. Shock had numbed all her senses. It was as if she was just now coming around, truly realizing her predicament. She covered her pubic area and began walking still unsteadily on the side of the road in the grass. Her body language and the way she walked suggested she had just gotten out of the shower and was traipsing embarrassingly in front of her dad, trying to get a towel.

  A soft voice from somewhere in her mind suddenly spoke to her. It said: “The falls will lead us to a better place.” Somehow Jeanie knew she was on the same road that her and her parents were on earlier; the road leading to Merskashitonia Falls. She had known this road since she was a kid. The curves gave it away. She felt a little relieved knowing where she was at and then remembered the Motley Crue song she was listening to, God bless the children of the beast as her parents drove along the winding road and how she looked at Ella sitting next to her with eyes that said, “I love you Jeanie.” But things were becoming foggy. A black fear went through her when she remembered the screeching bird man thing and the atrocious things done to her and Ella by the hands of the bird man’s brothers. It all came rushing toward her like a cold and mean tidal wave of unfairness and pain. She moaned out loud and came to a stop. The world in front of her started spinning and spinning and spinning. She collapsed, falling face down in the grass on the side of the road, ending her strange and tragic afternoon.

  She awoke three hours later in a hospital bed. The flickering of light by a doctor flashing a light in her eyes rattled her senses and she woke abruptly. Her parents were standing at the side of her bed holding her hands. Their eyes were red and puffy from crying. Jeanie noticed this first when she finally started to wake up. At first she was groggy with confusion and then Ella’s innocent face popped into her mind. Then the hysterics came. She bolted up in her bed and began screaming for Ella. “Ella, Ella! Where’s Ella!’ The on call doctor had to page another doctor to help subdue her. Jeanie’s mother burst into tears at the sight of her manic daughter. She herself had her own hysterics episode. Her husband went to her and she buried her grief stricken face into his chest and screamed. A nurse entered the room and quickly ushered her parents out assuring them that their daughter would be ok. As far as the fate of their other daughter Ella, police had told the terrified parents upon arriving at the hospital that she was missing. Her body was nowhere to be found. You know what happened to your little sister don’t you Jeanie. That thing swung her over its shoulder and probably took her back to its cave to eat her dead young body. Back in the room Jeanie was being held down by two doctors and a nurse. The on call doctor manually and forcefully gave her a strong sedative. They held her down until she stopped fighting and became drowsy. She drifted away in a dark and silent sleep.

  It was dark, total dark. Jeanie was on her back but she was not afraid. The smell of sex was all around her. She could feel the soft skin of another human on top of her. Still she couldn’t see a thing because of the pitch blackness surrounding her. Am I dreaming? Or is this is this another real life nightmare? She thought. Then like a fading in scene of a movie, a creamy white buttocks and the slit of a female was right in front of Jeanie’s face. The rich odor of sex seemed to hang in the air like a damp blanket on a clothes line in spring. She heard moaning sounds from somewhere far off. She recognized them as being Ella’s. Without hesitation Jeanie devoured the female in front of her knowing that it was her sister. She suctioned her mouth over her vagina and drove her tongue deep inside her. A gush of warm sex rushed down her throat. It tasted sweet. It was ecstasy. But all good things must come to an end they say and good dreams shall turn to nightmares. Jeanie removed her face from her sister. From Ella’s rectum arced a narrow line of blood sprouting out like a weak water fountain. The thin line of blood splashed onto Jeanie’s nose and dripped down over her lips and onto her neck. The arc of blood became wider and more forceful until it was a full on gush of blood rushing out of Ella’s anus. The blood flood splattered Jeanie in the face drenching it entirely. As the anal bloodbath continued Jeanie saw something exit from Ella’s rectum. It looked to be worms as there were four or five tubular looking objects coming out of her. But they weren’t worms. They were fingers. It was a hand. It grabbed a chunk of Ella’s bloodied rump and pul
led itself out farther. Soon there was an arm and then a head and then and entire naked, bloody body; Ella’s body. Jeanie screamed but was immobilized to the floor unable to move. She had no choice but to witness this nightmare. Ella, who was coated entirely in warm blood, stood and faced Jeanie. She spoke. “Why did you let that thing take me away Jeanie? Why didn’t you save me Jeanie?” Then Ella pulled a three inch nail from her stomach and then lowered her head to her chest making her hair fall in front of her like a bloody curtain. She raised her arms, stretching them outward. Big, black wings sprung out from her back. Her head rose up and her bloody brown hair fell away from her face revealing the witches face that terrorized Jeanie during the hatefuck rape at the cabin. An explosion of fire blew up behind Ella as she flapped her black wings. Her eyes fell back into her head and she spoke the words: “The falls will lead us to a better place!” It was wretched and sounded more like a slow, agonizing scream. A voice boomed from somewhere. “Come and get yer dinner junior!” Jeanie, still stuck to the floor in her nightmare, clearly saw the old man from the cabin dragging the bird man from a chain that was wrapped tight around its neck. He was pulling it closer to her so the hideous thing could feed. Ella opened her mouth wide and vomited feces on her blood soaked sister and that’s when Jeanie woke up from her nightmare with the bed sheets wet with sweat. She sat up quickly but her scream was trapped in her throat. She covered her mouth and started to hyperventilate. She glanced around the dark room and saw her mother sleeping in the giant guest chair. Jeanie was relieved to see her mother but still had that cold chill after effect from her nightmare. She sat there in her wet bed sheets for about ten minutes scared to even move. Her heart rate finally slowed down and she felt a little better. She covered her face but did not cry, only rubbed her forehead as to relieve tension from her nightmare. She looked again around the dark room. On the wall a big red digital clock displayed 2a.m. She laid herself back down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Somehow she had forgotten about those greasy men from the forest and their stink and crooked yellow teeth. Amazingly she had forgotten about the rapes also, and the degrading acts she and her sister were put through. She had forgotten about these things because she was sure that the thing she saw in the cabin- man, bird, beast, thing, whatever the fuck it was- was there to kill her for what she and Ella had done two days before while their parents were gone. It was the same as the demon in her mind chasing her through the shadowy kingdom of trees with blood dripping from its axe, trying to kill her. She turned to her side and pulled the covers up close to her chin. She couldn’t sleep. She was to afraid even though her mom was right there in the room with her, sleeping and lightly snoring in the guest chair. But there was something else in the room too. Is there Jeanie? Or is it just in your head? She heard the awful hell screech of the bird man playing like a continuous record in her mind. That tune of horror would become her lullaby. She cupped her ears and squint her teary eyes as she laid frozen stiff in her bed. She slept with one eye open that night and would for the next three years. She thought of Ella speaking the words, “The falls will lead us to a better place Jeanie,” and she felt a shade safer, but yet the sound of death was so close and the sound of the falls was so very far away.

  Devilshine

  Daniel never believed in the devil, even when his reverend uncle had him locked up in his barn in the summer of 1954 beating him with a brown leather strap, screaming in his face, “You got the devil shine in ya’ boy. Your glowin’ black all over. I can see it. Jesus Christ lord! Cast this devil out and far away!”

  Twenty years later Daniel stood in front of his bathroom mirror in the dark long after midnight with a blood smeared chest and his family slaughtered out in the living room; an arm here, a leg there. The moon peeked through the curtains shining its ghost like shine on their blood shine and Daniels black devil shine whirled around him as the truth of his uncle’s words shown through his coal black eyes.

  The flesh and blood of John Henry

  John Henry watched his daughter kill a horse with her bare hands and then tear its stomach open and feast on its innards. He’d been stumped as to whom or what was killing his horses the past two Sundays. His mind drifted back to the conversation he had with local Sheriff Fred Connor two weeks ago over coffee and a feeling of urgency.

  “I suppose it could be anything,” Connor said and took sip of coffee. “You wouldn’t have any enemies would you John?”

  “C’mon Fred, this is serious now,” John told him in a troubled voice.

  Sheriff Connor knew better than to ask his longtime friend a ridiculous question like that, knowing the kind of man John was. The truth was Sheriff Connor was just as stumped as John.

  “Well, I’ll write up a report and put it on file. You want me to send one of our guys over tonight? Ya know, just to keep an eye on things.” Connor asked.

  “No, no that’ll be all right Fred but thanks,” John said as he rubbed his forehead in a stressful manner.

  The Sheriff took a sip of coffee and stood up. “Look John, it’s probably just some punk kids messing around. Kids around here just go off the fringes sometimes for no reason. Sounds crazy but it happens.” Just then John’s daughter walked in the kitchen. “Now this one you don’t have to worry about.” Conner smiled and lowered his hat to John’s long, brown haired seventeen year old daughter Grace. John made a hush sound to the Sheriff and walked him to the door.

  “Do you really think it could be a gang or something?” John sounded like a man on his last string of hope when he asked the Sheriff.

  Connor nodded his head, “To be honest John, I don’t know. I mean it’s possible but it would take one heck of a bull strong kid to rip open a horse like that.” The Sheriff made a shivering ‘brrr’ sound like he’d seen a gross out blood scene in some late night horror flick. John quietly hushed Fred again so his daughter wouldn’t hear what they were saying. Fred left.

  John smiled at his daughter as he walked back into the kitchen. She smiled back. She didn’t have to say anything because she knew that another one of her Father’s horses had been killed. She was just as stumped as her Father and the Sheriff.

  The next week crept slowly by like a haunted, old grandfather clock ticking in a dark room, and John was revisited every night by his reoccurring nightmare; one that involved his barn completely blood-soaked and on fire with hung upside down horse corpses dripping with blood. He would wake up in a bed of nightmare sweat and the horrific images of his dream would follow him all day long.

  Now to his horror as he hid behind a bale of hay at the break of dawn on the third Sunday of May-1934, the twisted truth was revealed as he watched his daughter scoop handfuls of horse intestines into her mouth. Long tubes stinking of rotten cornmeal and feces squished between her fingers as she sucked the vile mixture down her throat. With each squeeze, blood extracted out of the intestines she was holding in her bloody hands. It trailed down her wrist like snakes crisscrossing her veins, soaking her arm and sleeve of her white night gown. Her face was a swirling mess of dark red and brown. John held his hand to his mouth trying to keep from vomiting at the sight. She stood up and began sucking and licking the gore off her fingers in a satisfied manner. Her arms rose above her head and her bloody palms came together. She began twirling around the barn doing some mad dance. John followed her as she exited the barn. He kept his distance trying not to be seen. She seemed to float across the fog covered ground as she spread out her arms and danced ballerina like across the grass. This particular image would haunt Henry’s dreams for years to come; the frightening sight of his only daughter dancing around at dawn in her bloody night gown.

  She whirled herself into the wooded area behind their house and then down to the creek at the bottom of a hill. This was the same creek she and her Father would skip rocks into when she was a little girl, and where he taught her how to fish. John watched in sickening horror from behind a tree as his daughter bathed naked in the creek, ridding her body of horse excrement and blood. W
hen she was done, she drifted back up the hill, walked through the woods, and then finally made her way up to their farmhouse where she quietly went inside, only to go upstairs and slip into her warm bed completely unaware of what she had done. John stood at the back door of the house with his hand shaking on the door handle. He stared down at the puddle of vomit that had finally made its way out of him.

  His daughter woke to the sound of her door being slammed open. John came charging at her. She sat up quick in her new white night gown she had put on and screamed at the sight of her Father racing towards; his hands outstretched.

  “Daddy, what are you doing?” She screamed.

  “Why’d you do it? What would make you do that?” He yelled at the top of his lungs.

  “Do what Daddy. What are you talking about?” She lay beneath him as he towered over her with his hands holding her shoulders down on the bed.