Forgotten Souls

by Rooster Smith

  “How did you get in here?” he asked the two urchins, but before they could answer, Jimmy fumed, “Go on, get out of here, you brats.”

  The two kids stood up and Jimmy thought they were going to leave, but he was so wrong. They suddenly and violently leapt at him, the girl squeezing his throat and the boy holding his head between his unusually strong young hands and crushing his skull. The girl then put her hand into Jimmy’s mouth, ripped out his tongue, and threw it onto the floor. This was to prevent her prey from screaming.

  Jimmy’s eyes widened in sheer fright and blood spurted from his mouth and ran down his shirt. His skull made a sickening cracking sound, but then the evil boy released his grip and Jimmy slumped down onto the stool as his body relaxed.

  Jimmy was breathing in short, hard gasps. His expression changed from one of fright into blind terror as he saw the fingernails of both of his malicious tormentors grow to about three inches in length and become razor-sharp. His short breaths suddenly stopped as he dreaded to think about what was to happen next, but he didn’t have to wait too long.

  The girl plunged her cold, sharp fingers deep into Jimmy’s stomach and his body became rigid once more with agony as she twisted and turned her hand deep into her victim’s soft, fleshy tissue. A horrific squelching was heard as the girl pulled out her hand, and she was holding some of Jimmy’s intestines and parts of his stomach in her blood-soaked palm. Her accomplice, the foul, vile boy, stood on the stool and placed his left hand on the top of Jimmy’s head, and as he did so he pushed his fingernails into Jimmy’s skull, piercing the very bone. With his free right hand, the brat put the nail of his index finger onto the doomed man’s forehead and, with dreadful ease, like a knife through hot butter, began to move his razor talons around Jimmy’s brow. The cut was deep. It was so deep it sliced the top of Jimmy’s head off, and the boy took great delight in peeling the top of his skull back to reveal a soft, throbbing brain.

  With one last surge of energy Jimmy tried to escape, and he kicked his legs out in front of him, which activated the photo machine and made the camera flash. However, this didn’t help and the twin repulsive infants started to dig at Jimmy’s brain with their sharp fingers. With each flash of the camera they scooped up pieces of brain, and blood jetted up and splashed the ceiling of the photo booth, then rained back down on them all. But this didn’t stop the ghostly offspring and they just carried on tearing at Jimmy’s brain and eating pieces of it. With each flash of light, blood and tissue flew; a razor-hand thrashed at more brain; more meat shoved into small, ghastly mouths; but as the deep red blood ran down their mouths and faces, Jimmy moved no more; his quivering body was already dead.

  The two children then just faded away and left their pathetic victim sitting on the stool with his open head, ripped-apart brain, and intestines spilling out from his stomach which had the King of Clubs playing card sticking out from the gash. Outside, a developed photograph dropped into the tray, waiting to be discovered by some unlucky person later on that day in the arcade.

  ***

  The two evil children then reappeared inside a house just outside Mablethorpe. The sun still shone through the window and it was a beautiful evening, but that was about to change for Lisa, whose home the evil twins were hiding in.

  Lisa was sitting on her sofa reading a book called The Elementals, and she was laughing as it was very funny. During one of her loud fits of laughter she heard a sound coming from the kitchen. Lisa stopped laughing, put down the book and went to investigate the noise.

  She walked into the kitchen and saw that the small side window was open, so without thinking she closed it. Without warning the evil boy appeared, sitting in front of her on the kitchen worktop, Lisa stared at him; then he softly whispered to her, “Hello, Mummy.”

  Lisa shook her head, and without even asking where he had come from replied, “I’m not your mother, and who are you?”

  As she asked this question, she didn’t see the devilish girl kneel down in a ball behind her. The boy then shoved Lisa backwards, making her fall over the curled-up child on the floor, smashing her head as she landed. It was the type of prank you used to play on your mates at school.

  With Lisa now prone on the floor of her kitchen, the two loathsome assassins could begin their dirty work. The malevolent children each grabbed two sharp knives from a block on the kitchen side. They quickly spread the arms and legs of the still-stunned woman and plunged the knives through her hands and feet, pinning her to the floor. Helpless, Lisa screamed in pain.

  She slowly regained her composure and yelled as the agony of her horizontal crucifixion started to kick in. However, her ordeal had only just started. Lisa could hear the kettle boiling, and while the two demonic brats waited, they both began to violently kick Lisa in the head and stomach.

  Lisa screamed with each kick, but managed to yell, “Who are you? Why are you doing this to me?”

  The kettle clicked to indicate that it had boiled, and the girl picked it up. She stood over the head of her victim and muttered, in a soft and somewhat sad voice, “Mummy.”

  This puzzled Lisa and made her angry. “Mummy, I’m not your mummy!” she screamed at the child.

  Then the boy stood by Lisa’s side and looked down at her. “No, you’re not, but you should’ve been.”

  He nodded to his twin sister and she knew exactly what to do. Without any hesitation at all, the black-hearted girl slowly poured the boiling water from the kettle all over Lisa’s head and face. Lisa squealed in agony as the unnaturally hot water melted away her flesh. Her skin slowly and painfully peeled away, leaving behind tender red blotches all over her scalded and blistering face. The pain was so great that when she tried to scream, no sound was forced from her mouth.

  The evil boy then grabbed an electric knife from the wall and knelt down beside the helpless woman. With a sinister grin he turned on the knife and started to cut Lisa in half with the pulsating blade.

  Blood spurted out from the gash and sinew was flung into the air as the blade cut away at Lisa’s torso, pushed by the child from her right side further along her waistline, getting closer and closer to her belly button. The girl tipped more boiling water onto the red-raw face of her sacrifice to the Entertainer, and Lisa could only force out a pathetic yelp as her agony intensified. With her face steaming and melting with the boiling heat from the water, and her body being sliced in half, she knew that she was doomed.

  She became confused, but was a bit relieved, when the boy suddenly stopped cutting her when he reached her belly button. He threw the knife across the floor and looked around the kitchen.

  Lisa managed to utter, “You don’t have to do this. Please get me help.”

  The stone-cold boy then picked up the electric whisk from its wall placing and again knelt down by Lisa’s side. He turned the whisk on and shoved it into her open stomach wound, holding it deep inside as the whisk spun around, cutting and chopping into Lisa’s innards.

  Blood was spat out from the near-dead woman’s mouth, and the evil girl just laughed as her brother moved the whisk around inside his victim.

  Lisa’s guts and entrails were sent spinning around the kitchen and blood splattered everywhere. Pieces of her liver smashed onto the window and slid down the glass, leaving a deep red smear as her entire contents were spread around the room. Lisa’s eyes were wide open; she was dead but this didn’t stop the boy as he moved the whisk inside her stomach from side to side, slicing every piece of her until she was severed completely in half.

  The vicious child turned off the whisk and stood up beside his sister. The girl produced the symbolic King of Clubs playing card from her pocket and placed it on Lisa’s blood-soaked chest. The two demonic twins then held hands and vanished, leaving the devastating and gruesome scene, and yet another victim of these ghastly, forgotten souls.

  Midway

  Maggie was tossing and turning in her bed as she w
as having a bad dream which made the sleeping psychic sweat in her turmoil. Her illusion brought forth visions of a humble village, long forgotten with the passing of time.

  She saw the name Midway scribbled on a jagged piece of old timber; this was obviously the name of the village. In her dream she noticed that Midway was on the coast road between Mablethorpe and Ingoldmells, as she seemed to sense that she knew exactly where she was. She then realised that she was a girl, about twelve years old and a resident of the village, which was a primitive-looking place with small, quaint houses with straw roofs and thin streams of smoke rising from crude chimneys. Ducks and chickens ran around the street and horses and carts were tied in front of their owners’ homes. Maggie was an avid historian and knew it must have been about 700 AD, though the exact date was not known, and the people of Midway were all walking towards a large canvas tent at the end of the main street. It looked similar to a modern day circus big top.

  Maggie seemed to be caught up in the activity and found that she was walking along with the crowd. Before she knew it she was at the entrance of the marquee. To all those who could read, the sign outside read, Come inside and experience the fantastic shows of the Entertainer. This must have been a very popular show as all of the people seemed excited. Maggie heard one man say to his wife, “I think I’ll have a go at one of them today; I feel lucky.”

  His wife just smiled and they hurriedly entered the tent. Maggie followed them, and inside it was very similar to what could only be described as an olden-day circus with wooden benches all around a sawdust-covered ring in the centre.

  There was a musty, wet smell in the air as Maggie sat down near to the entrance, and within minutes the place was full of people. Two assistants then closed the tent flaps and the candles all around the tent were put out leaving the place in near-darkness, but you could still see what was happening as the large candles on the tables around the ring were still lit.

  Suddenly, the opening to the ring itself was ablaze with fire as a candle mysteriously shot its flame high into the air. The audience all gasped with surprise and then clapped and cheered as the form of a man stood in the light. He walked forward into the centre of the ring, raised his arms and announced, in a loud, bellowing voice, “I am Bartholomew Smith, the Entertainer!”

  The crowd went wild as the Entertainer continued, “Welcome to my show. Who will be first to earn lots of money?”

  Everyone in the audience rose to their feet and held their hands high in the hope that they would be picked by this strange man, who was wearing a top hat with the King of Clubs playing card tucked into the silk band and holding a silver-topped cane. This man seemed very comfortable in his surroundings and he gave the impression that he was a lot cleverer than most and he had an air of great confidence which the audience loved.

  “You all know the rules,” Bartholomew exclaimed. “If you survive my challenges, then you keep the money; if you don’t…” He shrugged his shoulders, to the delight of the crowd, and Maggie knew that these challenges were a life-or-death gamble. This must be the entertainment they all craved.

  A large wooden cage was dragged into the centre of the ring by two burly women. Three pigs were then put into the cage and the Entertainer shouted, “Who can survive three minutes in the cage with these three hungry pigs?”

  Hands were thrust up into the air again, and Bartholomew pointed to a man in the crowd. The people cheered and clapped as the man walked into the ring and faced the Entertainer. The crowd fell silent as Bartholomew Smith said to the man, “What’s your name, sir?”

  “I am Seth, the blacksmith’s son,” the nervous but happy man replied.

  “Well, Seth, all you have to do is stay in the cage for three minutes to win this.”

  He pointed to the ring’s entrance, and a very large bag, obviously full of coins, was wheeled out. The crowd cheered as the Entertainer continued, “Do you accept the challenge and the rules?”

  Seth looked all around the tent at his cheering fans, and with a broad grin shouted, “Yes, I do!”

  The seated flock were silent as one of the strong women opened the cage door and Seth stood before it.

  The Entertainer put his hand on Seth’s shoulder and said, “These swine haven’t been fed for three days so they will snap and bite, but I’m sure you can cope.”

  Seth nodded and walked into the cage and the Entertainer himself closed the door.

  As soon as the door shut, the three pigs ran towards Seth, and in a hurried panic he began to run around the cage. Every few seconds a pig would nip at Seth’s legs and draw blood, but it was an acceptable discomfort and Seth even began to smile at how easy this challenge was as he carried on his running. A pig jumped a bit higher and bit him in the thigh making Seth squeal in pain, so he kicked the pig across the cage, which made the watching throng cheer in delight.

  Seth then saw a way to see out the remaining minutes with ease, and he climbed up the cage bars so he was out of the jumping range of the pigs. He began to punch the air in triumph, but his arrogance was to be short-lived.

  The Entertainer nodded towards the entrance and four large, hungry and ferocious wild boars were led into the ring by the two women assistants. To gasps from the crowd, Bartholomew opened the cage door and the four vicious beasts were let loose inside the cage. There was a look of dread and fear on Seth’s face as the door was shut and the four raging boars looked up at him. He didn’t even have time to scream as they all leapt up and began their feast.

  They clamped their powerful jaws onto Seth’s legs and pulled him, with great ease, down to the ground. There was a ripping of flesh and the sound of cracking bone as the boars were relentless in their onslaught. Seth’s mouth was wide open, and a muffled yell was forced from his lips. A tear formed in his eye as he knew his end was near. The four wild beasts were mauling his arms, legs and torso, and the skin was being pulled and shredded away from his body and quickly eaten by the hungry brutes. Sharp fangs bit down hard into Seth’s leg, spurting thin trails of his blood into the air as it was ripped completely away from his waist, and as Seth lay dying, his dismembered limb was the focus of a tug of war between two of the boars.

  Deep red blood was being splashed all over the shocked audience by the two wild pigs tugging at the severed leg. One woman stood up and stumbled into the ring. She fainted and fell close to the cage. A boar saw this and lunged at her. He pushed his powerful dripping snout through the bars of the cage and bit hard into the woman’s skull making her head cave in with a sickening crunch. Her eyes shot out and even more blood covered the audience. One boar won the tug of war and was eating the detached leg, while the boar with the woman pulled her closer to the cage and began to chew away at her stomach. The animal bit a large gash in the woman’s torso and started to eat her intestines, and as he did so, he shook his head from side to side, making her guts and liver fly out and land with a splat on the reddened sawdust floor.

  The two beasts gnawing at Seth were even more vicious with their prey, and they ripped off both of his arms and flung them out over the top of the cage and into the crowd, who were morbidly cheering this carnage. Seth was long dead by now, and with razor teeth the boars devoured every part of his innards they could feast on. Blood, guts, and body parts were all strewn across the ring and tossed into the crowd, and with one last strong tug, the beasts tore Seth completely in half. The crowd screamed in horror at this bloody and violent scene, and then the Entertainer spoke.

  “Enough, my pets!” he shouted, and the well-trained boars all stopped their attack and walked out of the ring, each with a body part to finish devouring outside. The two women assistants quickly brushed down the ring and all was now set for the next life-or-death challenge. Bartholomew smiled.

  “Who’s next for the chance of winning the money?”

  Still cheering but a little less enthusiastically due to the horror they had just experienced, some members of the
crowd again raised their hands, but there were a lot fewer of them than before.

  “Who can skip?” Bartholomew asked, and then instantly pointed to a young girl. “Can you?”

  The girl jumped eagerly into the arena as the skipping challenge was set up in the centre of the ring. There were two wooden poles about three feet high which had a skipping rope attached to them. With the pulling of a nearby wooden lever which went into the ground, the skipping rope somehow began to turn automatically.

  “So you can skip, then?” he asked the girl.

  She nodded, but as she didn’t say anything, Bartholomew continued, “You know the rules; if you survive the skipping test you win the money on the table. Do you accept the challenge?”

  The girl saw the rope turning slowly and smiled at the thought of how easy it seemed. She thought that even if the rope spun faster, she would still cope. She looked around at the cheering crowd, turned to the Entertainer and said, “Yes, I accept.”

  To a clapping audience, Bartholomew Smith hollered, “Let the challenge begin.”

  He looked at the girl and explained the conditions of the test. “All you have to do is to skip for three minutes to win; it’s that easy.”

  The girl nodded and walked up to the turning rope. She jumped in and started to skip. She found it easy and after about one minute the crowd were getting a little bored as nothing was happening, but then things started to change.

  The Entertainer announced, “My people, I forgot to tell you that it isn’t actually a skipping rope; it is a skipping wire.”

  The crowd gasped and wondered what was planned for this young victim.

  “Now, now,” the Entertainer said in a confident manner, “The rules are still the same; all she has to do is to skip.”

  The watching mob then noticed that the two wooden poles to which the wire was fixed had begun to rise. There must have been an underground mechanism causing this to happen but no one seemed to question this advanced machinery. The poles rose higher and higher up out of the ground, which made the wire a lot higher as well. This made skipping more difficult, and the young girl began to struggle to keep her rhythm as she had to jump higher and higher to avoid the razor-sharp wire. The wire then started to turn faster and faster, and the girl was trapped. With the wire rising higher and the rope spinning faster, she began to tire and could not continue.