I know I've been gone a while.
But I'm back now. Enjoy this appetizer as i come back to this platform.
The farm life wasnt easy. I grew up helping with the animals and moving hay bales after school, and before id have to leave for the bus. So when i graduated high school and left for the big city, it was.. a lot. I knew precisely no one, and i sat in a lonely apartment i could just afford to keep food and heat in, playing games with some of my friends from high school, now all off in college or working full time jobs to save up. Like them, this was relaxing time. For me it was the only social activity i got in my day. No girlfriend, no pets or friends in the complex. Not even a fish. That went on for a few years. Then my dad got sick. Mom called me, said she'd need my help keeping the farm running. Dad refused to hire hands, ever. Maybe just some summer stuff for high school kids. I went home, packed up my meager stuff, gave the landlord the months rent i owed and left the next day for home, three hours away.
When i got there, Dad was waiting for me at the door, even though he wasn't supposed to be out of bed. Insisted on helping me with my things. I moved back in, two years after id left, and thought id never be back like this again. Life moved on.We kept the chickens fed and comfortable, our couple of cows didnt need much, and Pumpkin, the burnt orange horse id grown up with and learned to ride forever ago was just happy to see me again. Dad slowly got better, but he wasn't the same. Then... it all went sour again.
We were all woken in the night by a horrific screaming from the barn, a cow scream of pain and fear. Our two other cows mooed in fear too, and Pumpkin was equally spooked. I was downstairs first, grabbing the shotgun off the mantle. I ran to the barn, the door only slightly ajar, and quickly found Anna, our oldest dairy cow, laying on the barn floor. Immediately i could tell something was off. She was barely breathing. I went closer, and found an entry wound. I looked at the wound, and it wasnt very big, but something was wrong. Anna couldn't move. Except for the eyes. Her eyes were looking at me, wide with terror and pain. That's when i heard it. An awful squelch sound, and the stomach emptying visual of.. something moving under our cows fur and flesh. It made its way towards the entry, so i took several steps back. It came out of her like a bullet, right at my ankles. i fired both barrels at this grey blur of teeth and lanky flesh, and must've hit it and hurt it, as it hissed and dashed out the back door. I sighed, ears still ringing from the blasts. Anna.. something was wrong. Her skin was changing color, awful impossible shades of brown and yellow. She was already dead. Between my mom, dad and i we decided to call the vet and the cops in the morning.
The cops left, thinking us a bunch of psychos. The cold morning air bit at us as they drove off and the vets truck pulled in. He came into the barn, immediately saw Anna in the stable and came right back out. He asked us if this was a joke. If we were screwing with him. We hadnt seen her since last night, so we weren't sure what all these people were on about. We finally went into the stable where she was, and saw her. Anna had turned completely to stone. The vet came back in, and only when we urged him to look closer did he see the wound. He seemed stumped. Told us he had no clue what caused this, but that whatever it was would almost certainly come back, and to lock up the barn and coop completely. The day passed, and after the vet left with what was left of Anna in the bed of his truck, we tried our best to just go about our day. It was difficult, especially considering mom and I had to stop Dad from grabbing the shotgun and heading into the woods to find.. whatever the hell this thing is. Night fell, and we locked the barn and coop completely, like the vet suggested. We went to bed, and it all seemed fine. Until we were woken at 4 am by the shattering of glass.
Dad was first there, as hed woken up moments before, as he usually did to get work started. He went downstairs as the glass broke. Mom went down after a good five minutes went by and there was no sound. I followed shortly after, running when i heard my mother scream. I turned the corner, and saw something straight out of my nightmares: A long, sort of reptilian thing, but on two legs and with a head like a chickens. It stood on Dad, picking at his insides with its beak full of teeth, dad horribly discolored much like Anna had been. Parts of him were already beginning to turn to stone. My mother all but shoved me out the front door, my keys by the door in my hand already. She closed the door in my face and told me to run, to get help, or just to run. Run far away. Still partly asleep and definitely scared out of my mind, i just did what i said, starting my rickety little thing and speeding off the property, a place id never come back to.
It's been four years since that night. I've never heard from my mom since, i assume she died to whatever that thing was. Died protecting me. Ive never told anyone the truth. Why would I? Who would believe me? I talk to a therapist about the nightmares that night gave me, but i dont tell them what really happened. I just go with the story that was released by the media about it. Some freak guy broke in, killed dad and encased him in cement as a grotesque statue to keep as a prize. Took mom as some sadistic prize to violate and then do something similar. But a search has yielded no leads, no body, nothing. I've been telling me this same story for years, and am actually starting to believe it. But i still have nightmares, i see my dad getting his guts torn out. I see Annas life fade from her eyes as she looked at me. Maybe ill go back one day, see if i can find that monster. Kill it. Or die trying. Best case, i avenge Anna and my father. Worst case... i get to see them all again. One things for sure, though. I am never eating chicken again.