Created: 1-14-04Jack opened his eyes to the sound of chirping birds. He turned to one side and saw that he was lying on the vast outback of a muddy corn field which was yet to be ploughed. How did he get here? How did he end up on a corn field? How long has he been in here? He distinctively remembered that he was walking home last night after a long day in the factory and was closing in towards the front door of his house when all of a sudden…
Jack groaned as a really sharp headache hit him like a train ramming into his head. Somehow he just couldn’t remember that last part, as if he was blocked out of it and wasn’t meant to recall it. He looked up again and found himself staring at the beautiful clear sky. As he continued to stare and become lost in his own mind trying to figure out what was going on, he heard farmers chattering away as they made their way into the field. He did remember that it was raining heavily last night and that he was soaked to the bone when he was going home. He remembered his dog Zero trotting behind him and barking, like he was trying to warn him about something, and then the door opening abruptly before he had his hand to the doorknob and then something just…
Again, another headache came. He doubled over and held his aching head. Why was he barred from remembering what happened to him? Is there something wrong? Did he suffer a concussion or something that caused him to be unable to see that memory? He was confused. He simply couldn’t understand it. He made a mental note that he was going to see a doctor after he got himself decently cleaned up.
He whistled for Zero and the little cute mutt came bounding towards him. That little sausage dog has always been his companion since he was a puppy. He got that dog when he was about 6 years old as a birthday present and he was with him ever since. He wouldn’t go anywhere without him to tag along, except when he wanted to go to school, that is. He remembered calling him Zero because he loved to jump through his hula hoop and that hula hoop, through time, has somehow shaped itself to become almost like the number zero. Now, as he was older, Zero often followed him everywhere, even to the factory where he worked.
As more and more farmers were coming in to plough the field with their ploughs and rakes and hoes and all their planting gear, he quickly got up and patted himself off the dirt and grime before moving out of the way for the farmers to do their job. He nodded sheepishly at every farmer he passed by but they didn’t seem to mind. In fact, they just passed him by without a word and got right down to business. Probably they thought that he was some drunk who just had a light snooze on the corn field without realizing it until now. He moved a bit faster until his feet touched the solid ground of the road. As soon as he was a good distance away from the field, he turned around to watch the farmers work. He smiled as he remembered some of his friends in the factory saying that the corn season was coming in and that a good hard rain would be a great start for the farmers to start and plough the land and plant the corn before the next dry season arrives.
And speaking of farmers, he suddenly remembered that he could have been away from home for the whole night now. If his father knew that he had been away for the whole night and not there to help him with the start of planting of corn, he’ll definitely be caned for sure.
“Come on, Zero,” Jack said hurriedly as he started to pick up his pace. “We have to go home now! Daddy would be seriously pissed if we don’t get home quick! It’s the corn season!”
Zero barked in reply and took to his heels, following behind his master. As Jack ran to reach his home, he began to wonder what damages his father would do if he weren’t back home on time. He wasn’t his father actually—just his stepfather who came into the family 3 years after his real father passed away. He was pretty much a good-looking man and he had come to like him at first, but his mother didn’t count on him being a drunk and an abuser. He would come home often with a bottle of rum in his hand and started cursing and yelling at him and his mother and would lash out at him whenever he could get his hands on them. His mother had, in a way, died because of him. He and his mother did try to run away from him, but they were caught and a beating was inevitable. His mother was beaten so hard that it was just too severe to be able to heal quickly. She soon caught gangrene and died. After her funeral, he himself did try to run away, but he wasn’t successful either.
He was stuck with this father since then, living everyday with fear and trepidation at one day, he would be killed just like his mother. He, like any other boys who couldn’t really afford an education, worked in a factory making wheels for horse carts and other metallic merchandise required by the customers. He, like his friends, would go down to the corn field early in the morning to help out their fathers with the corn before catching the next ride down town to the factory and work all day long until the sun sets before they would be paid their wages of 3 pounds a day.
If he was lucky not to let his father find it, he would be able to save enough to treat himself to a good meal at his favourite food house and not for his father to waste it all on rum. So far Zero was the only faithful companion who remained by his side through thick and thin and helped him cope with the hard life he was leading now.
As he continued down the road towards his house, praying for dear life that his father have not awaken yet and discovered his absence, he suddenly felt the headache that he had experienced just now at the corn field coming back to him. It was really small and not so bothering at first, but as he carried on running, it grew worse than ever. Finally the pain was so unbearable that he doubled over and his knees gave way. It felt so bad indeed, like his head was being stabbed with a thousand nails from the inside of his brain. He fell onto the floor below and had his hands on his head, clutching it and trying to rub the pain off.
That’s when he realized that he wasn’t being noticed at all. He was actually lying in the middle of the road with a serious migraine attack and no one seemed to care. They were all walking past him and doing their own things, as if he wasn’t there at all and that they were too caught up with their own schedule of life. They didn’t seem to care of the little teenage boy named Jack lying on the floor in need of medical help for his seriously painful head. He tried to call for help but none of them seemed to hear him. Even when he call out a bit louder none of them even turned their heads to look at him.
‘What’s going on?’ Jack thought as he tried to bring himself to stand. ‘Why isn’t anybody trying to help me? Why don’t they notice me? Why doesn’t someone come up and save me? Can’t they even see me? What’s going on?’
As he tried to make sense of it all, he noticed that he was lying beside a house that was being halfway constructed. He stared and stared at that building and looked at the workers toiling their backs early in the morning trying to finish the house of the new village mayor, Mr. Brimstone, who came from another town with his family of 5. He had heard much about Mr. Brimstone during his days in the factory. The older boys and the bosses have been talking about him being very influential and very interesting, which earned him the title of the Village Mayor. He never actually seen him before because he was pretty much tied up with his work and his mind being wandering off to places like what would his father do if he found his secret savings, but he had heard wind that Mr. Brimstone paid a visit to the factory once. Too bad he didn’t get to notice him.
He inched his way closer and closer towards the house, staring intently at some of the workers who were mixing the cement for the house. He couldn’t help feeling that there was something wrong with the cement. It was as if he had been to this place before. It was as if he belonged to this house right here, right now. He didn’t know why, but he kept having the feeling that the sudden migraines he was getting had something to do with the house. He ignored his increasingly painful headache as he brought himself closer and closer towards the unfinished house. He had to know. He had to find out what was so interesting about this house. He staggered and moved closer and closer towards the workers who were still mixing the cement. It was obvious by the way they were so engrossed in their work that they didn’t notice him. He wanted to call out to them but his headache was too much for him to even utter a word. Finally, his splitting headache and his weak knees gave way, sending him plummeting towards the cement in front of him. He fell and fell until his body felt the soft, lush wet cement mixed with tiny stones on his face.
Suddenly, the headache rammed through his head again, and this time, it brought with it a sudden realization and a huge flashback. Jack found himself plummeting further down into the cement into the depths of his subconscious mind. He began to remember every detail of what had happened and what had caused his sudden headaches now. It was all coming back to him and getting clearer by the minute…
“Quick, Zero! We have to get home quick! Daddy will be so displeased!”
Jack was running and running under the pouring rain trying to get as fast as he could back home, with a few brown bags under one of his armpits. He was forced to stay behind to clean up after the mess and rubble left by his fellow workers in the factory. They often left him alone in the factory to pick up after them just because he was the most timid one among them and would agree to cooperate without arguing or questioning anything. Well, thanks to his stepfather’s treatment towards him.
Zero barked as he followed behind his master. He had to get home quick, because besides being the housekeeper, he was also the breadwinner and food-provider. If his stepfather were to find out that he wasn’t home with the dinner, which were in those brown bags, he’s going to be in for a heavy load of beating.
His home was almost in sight now. He could see through the pouring rain the light of the dining room of his house lit. He expected that his stepfather was in the dining room, waiting for dinner to be served. He hoped that at the sight of the food, he wouldn’t be so upset about him being late and spare the beating. He moved a little of his fringe that covered his eyes and moved as quickly as possible towards the gate.
That was when he realized that Zero has been barking frantically, refusing to take another step towards the house. He kept barking and barking, his face showing slight signs of terror and horror, as if there was something out there to get his master and he was trying to ward him away from it.
“What is it, Zero? Something wrong?” Jack asked, curious. Zero continued to bark and inch his way slowly away from the house. Something surely scared him, but Jack couldn’t put a finger to it.
“It’s alright, Zero. Nothing’s wrong here. What are you so scared about? Hush, Zero. You’re going to alert Daddy. He’ll definitely send you in the rain for this…”
As his hand reached out for the doorknob, the door opened abruptly and there stood his stepfather, his face flushed. Jack, through experience, could see that his stepfather has been drinking again. In his right hand was a bottle of rum and in the other hand was his hoe. Before Jack could say anything, his stepfather had raised the hoe above his head and sent it down onto him. Jack yelled in pain as the hoe hit him hard. He backed away, trying to get out of his drunken stepfather’s way but the intoxicated stepfather continued to come closer towards him, all the while sending the hoe down on him over and over again. He could feel his bones breaking, cracking and splitting as the hoe went down on him painfully. It was as if the pain wouldn’t stop. It just wouldn’t go away. His screams were drowned out by the loud thunder that boomed in the horizon. Every drop of rain that hit his wound seared through him until he finally lost his senses altogether…
When he opened his eyes as he realized the pain has finally stopped, he saw his stepfather in front of his eyes, standing before his dead body. His eyes shifted to the hoe which was embedded on Zero’s neck as it cut halfway through his jugular and his head severed from his neck. He saw his stepfather staring at his body, looking pretty much de-toxicated now and very confused. His stepfather looked around to see if anyone was looking and it was obvious that he couldn’t see Jack hovering in front of him.
He then saw his stepfather going back into the house and came out in a thrice with a large sack. He took out the hoe stuck in Zero’s neck and stuffed both Jack’s body and Zero’s body into the sack. He followed him as his stepfather staggered and dragged the sack in one hand and carrying the hoe with the other. He was surprised to see him dragging the sack all the way towards the unfinished house of Mr. Brimstone.
As he continued to watch, his stepfather emptied the sack off Jack and Zero’s body. He looked around again to see if anyone was watching before raising the hoe high above his head and brought it down again onto Jack’s body. Jack watched in horror as his stepfather cut him again and again in tiny chunks and did the same towards Zero after stopping for a second for breath. When he was done, Jack couldn’t differentiate which one was his body and which one was Zero’s. His stepfather then quickly picked up the body chunks and dumped them all into the cement mixture which was just right beside the heap of bricks. He grabbed a shovel and, while adding more cement mixture, mixed Jack and Zero’s body together with the cement mix. While he was doing it, he kept a wary eye of his surroundings to make sure there was exactly no one looking.
Finally, after mixing and adding more cement mix for almost an hour, he used the shovel to mix it one last time before he gave the mix a pat, threw away the shovel, picked up his hoe and the sack and left the house the new mayor Mr. Brimstone…
Jack finally found the strength to open his eyes once more. His headache was miraculously gone, like as if it had never happened before. He saw himself surrounded in some sort of darkness he had never seen before. He couldn’t see his hands and he couldn’t see where he was. His body felt as if it was being tied up in heavy chains, holding him down to the ground. His whole body also felt really sticky, like he was wallowing in very, very thick glue. From the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something blinking in red.
“Zero…?” he breathed out, trying to move and find his way out of this endless darkness. Every inch upward that he tried to move was really hard and slow. It felt like both being sucked into the quicksand while being wrapped up in a thick layer of glue and held into place with nowhere else to go. Every inch he moved was with great effort and was heavy. It was like playing tug-of-war with himself. When he finally took in the fresh air again, he realized that he was actually oozing out of the cement mixture. He found his body covered in grey ooze of cement and his clothes were seriously in need of laundry service. His hair was matted to his face with the half-hardening cement. He looked grey everywhere, like a walking zombie or someone who hasn’t been under the sun for the last century.
While he tried to comprehend what was going on with him, the cement mix churned and moved slightly and a whine was heard inside the mixture. Jack realized that his pooch Zero could be still in there. He stuck his hand into the cement mixture and slowly pulled his dog out of the muck. The first thing he saw when he pulled Zero out was his flashing red nose.
“What the heck…?” Jack reached out and touched the flashing red nose and realized that it was beating like a heart would beat in your chest, and every beat was a red flash. He was like Rudolph, only a different species. Suddenly the thunder boomed and the rain began to fall. The increasing rain slowly washed off the cement from his body. He tried to clean his hair off the cement with the pouring rain but was shocked to find out that the more he tugged at his hair—no matter how lightly he did it—his hair came off greatly.
As he stared in horror at the amount of hair he lost, his eyes turned to the half-done window of the kitchen of Mr. Brimstone’s home. That was when he saw the most horrifying sight ever—his skin was actually washed away together with the cement on his body, slowly revealing the bones of his body. The clothes he was wearing seemed so tattered and so loose that it made it seem like he had lost a great deal of pounds over the years. His eyeballs have sunken until they weren’t in existence anymore. He looked at his hands and saw the skin slowly coming off the flesh, and the flesh slowly disintegrating and revealing its bones. Jack was scared and shocked and with mixed feelings altogether. His whole body went weak and he slumped onto the floor trying to handle all the mixed feelings that came to him at once.
He tried to comprehend what was going on with him. He couldn’t understand the fact that his whole body was reduced to that of a skeleton. It was awful. It was terrible. It was horrible. How could he end up so alive yet so dead at the same time? Why was this happening? Why was this happening to him?
It was clear to him, but hard for him to take.
He was dead.
He was murdered cold-bloodedly and he was dead.
As he continued to be blank, trying to accept every fibre of the fact that has befallen him, Zero came towards him and whined. Jack shifted his gaze absentmindedly towards his dog and noticed that Zero’s whole body was nothing but a piece of billowing white skin, like a sheet or a curtain blown by the wind. He touched his dog and could feel the skin so thin, like a piece of film, only thinner. Zero whined and floated into Jack’s arms. Jack stared in silence for a while before his empty sockets actually started to trickle with tears. He cried and cried and thought that he would never stop. He had never felt so sad before in his entire life and he was already feeling like he had lived a miserable, meaningless life and died a horrible, unjust and meaningless death.
When he finally stopped, his empty sockets began to look scarier and eerier than it should as his hatred and anger began to build and mound like a fire being added extra fuel.
“He will pay, Zero…He will pay for what he had did to us…He will pay!!!”
Meanwhile, at Jack’s little home where he and his stepfather lived, Jack’s stepfather, Ignatius, was having a nightmare about being chased by a skeletal figure and a floating white animal. The nightmare was so realistic and terrifying that he had scared himself awake. He sat up abruptly and looked frantically around before realizing that he was having a nightmare. He heaved a sigh of relief and wiped away the cold sweat that drenched his face.
“Keep your horses down, Ignatius,” he said to himself. “It’s just a dream. It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t mean to kill that boy. You were drunk. You didn’t know what you were doing. Keep your horses down.”
It has been quite a long while—maybe a week or so—since that terrible incident. He couldn’t quite get over the fact that he had actually hacked his stepson to death. Whether it was the cold rain or the blood splattering all over his face that got him out of his booze, it sure shocked him a great deal to see his stepson in pieces with the dog. He didn’t know what to do. He had a record for creating havoc in the barhouse because of his booze and he sure didn’t want to be caught by the authorities again for murder. It would mean the gallows for him. Mixing his stepson and the mutt in the cement, disgusting as it may seem, was the only way to cover up the evidence. When people asked questions about not seeing Jack and Zero around, he pretended to be angry and lied to them that the ‘lil’ son of a gun’ has left his ol’ Daddy for a woman somewhere up south. No one asked him after that for they weren’t surprised that sooner or later Jack would leave this child abuser, whatever the reasons, lucky for him.
He got off his bed and went over to the larder to get himself a bottle of rum. Despite the fact that the rum has caused him to kill his stepson, he still hadn’t learnt his lesson about drinking. He got out into the front porch and checked to see if the rain was still pouring. Since the corn season came there has been plenty of sunshine in the morning and plenty of rain in the evening. After making sure that the sky was high and dry, he got off the front porch and walked into the corn field he had just ploughed.
As he took a swig of rum from the bottle, he suddenly felt a sudden gust of cold wind blowing through the corn field. It wasn’t the normal gust of wind you get on the aftermath of rain, but the kind that was icy cold and brought an aura of evil with it. Ignatius shivered. A little of him felt as if he should leave the corn field and get inside the house, but his arrogance and pride got the better of him.
“Who goes there?” he yelled, looking around to see who was playing this sick joke on him. “Come out and don’t hide! Come out and fight like a man!”
“You asked for it!”
Without warning, a hoe swished past his head, barely scalping him. He yelled as he ducked, dropping the bottle of rum in the process. Before he could make sense of what had happened, the mysterious hoe came again, and this time it skinned his shoulder. Ignatius yelled in pain and struggled to get up. He took to his heels, forgetting his rum, and dashed towards the direction of his home. But weirdly, no matter how fast and desperate he ran and how much he wanted to get into the safety of the house, he just couldn’t get there. It was as if the field stretched out further the more he ran.
Suddenly, the whole ground shook. The mysterious earthquake shook under his feet and long shoots of corn plants shot out of the earth abruptly. Within seconds, the whole corn field which was just ploughed and yet to be sown was filled with corn everywhere. The weirdest thing is that the corn stood taller than any other normal corn. In fact, it stood almost as tall as a tree and stood over Ignatius’ head frightfully high. Ignatius shivered with fear at the oddity before him.
“What is this?! What’s going on here?? What’s happening to this corn field?!”
“You know exactly why this is going on, Daddy!!”
Ignatius turned around to face the owner of the voice. His eyes widened in horror at the sight a skeleton dressed in rags holding a hoe and a dog-like ghostly figure standing behind him, both of them glaring at him with hatred so great in their eyes.
“Who…Who are you…?”
“Oh, don’t tell me you don’t remember the little Jack Sterling whom you tortured and abused. You do remember the Jack Sterling whom you beaten his mother to death now, don’t you?”
“J…Jack…? Jack boy?” Ignatius gasped in fear and horror. “What…What is the meaning of this…? What kind of a sick joke is this…?! I thought I…”
“Killed me, yes. Killed me and dumped me into the cement mix of Mr. Brimstone’s new home. What a ‘great’ burial you’ve given me. Now let me give you the funeral you deserve!”
“No! NO~!!!” Ignatius yelled as he took to his heels again, pushing and racing his way through the thick corns trying to get to the house. He had to get out of here. He had to get back into the house immediately. He was sure that this was all just a bad dream and once he was in the house, this will all be over. No skeletons, no weird tree-high corns, no ghastly ghost figures, no hoe, no nothing. All safe and sound.
“No one is going to save you now, Daddy!” Jack hissed as he jumped from his spot and found himself flying towards Ignatius who was running towards the direction of the house. How did he have this ability to jump so far out, he didn’t know. But he sure knew one thing: that his stepfather’s deed will not go unpunished. Within seconds, he was soon pouncing on top of Ignatius’ body and Zero was standing right in front of his face, growling angrily at him.
“Please~ Please, Jack boy~! Please leave me alone~!” Ignatius begged, his whole body shivering and his face screwed up, hoping that Zero won’t bite it off.
“Your life is not worth begging, Daddy! You deserve to die!” Jack hissed.
“Please, I didn’t mean to kill you~! I was drunk…I didn’t know…I…”
“It’s because you’re drunk that got me into this whole mess in the first place!!!” Jack roared as he raised the hoe in his hand high above his head and brought it down onto Ignatius’ back. A bloodcurdling yell of agony rang throughout the corn field that probably could be heard from miles away. Jack let out a tiny breath of satisfaction to hear his stepfather’s yell and the hoe stuck on his back. He raised the hoe high again above his head and with every blow, he roared with vengeance and hate.
“This is for Mother and her bruises! This is for Mother’s death! This is for all the wounds you’ve inflicted on me for the past few years! This is for all the money I’ve earned through all my hard work that you stole from me! This is for all the useless rum you have bought! This is for Zero’s death! And this is for my death!!!”
He brought the hoe down onto his stepfather again and again, just like the way he was killed that fateful rainy night when he least expected it. His stepfather yelled again and again in agony and pain as the hoe came down on him, and Jack could hear it over and over again. And when he had finally stopped yelling and Jack had finally stopped roaring out his pent-up hate, he continued to bring the hoe down on his already mangled and mutilated body, not sure when he was going to stop. He continued to chop him with the hoe over and over and over again…
Jack opened his eyes again, finding himself lying on the front porch of his home. He had never felt so relaxed, like he had just had a really, really good night’s sleep. He couldn’t recall any other day that he had slept so well. Most of his days, he recalled, were filled with tenseness, fear and rushing about. His whole body felt as if it was almost as light as air itself. Deep inside him he felt a sort of peace and satisfaction in his heart. He had never felt this peaceful for a very, very long time.
As he tried to get on his feet, he caught a glimpse of his hand and saw that the skeletal form of his fingers was still there. He stood up abruptly and saw Zero yawning and stretching his body, his nose still beating red and his body a floating sheet of skin. He was still dead. After everything that was happening, he was still dead. Somehow, he should’ve known that killing his stepfather wouldn’t bring himself back to life…
“Hey, Zero…? What did I just do last night?”
Zero pricked his ears and immediately glided towards the corn field. Jack followed suite. He remembered being really pissed off at his stepfather and wanting to wreck him into pieces. He just wasn’t really exactly sure how he did it. He had to make sure what he had done last night before he jumped into any conclusions.
When he got into the corn field, he was surprised to see a lot of people gathering around at something bloody on the floor. He could’ve guessed that no one could see him, so he just weaved his way past all the people just to get a good glimpse at what they were looking at. And sure enough, there he was, his stepfather in the middle of the corn field, being chopped into pieces and all mangled and mutilated like he just went through a blender or something. He stared at the mutilated body with a sort of blankness in his eyes for a moment there in the midst of the people’s horrified comments and talk before it finally came to his head that he actually did this. He actually killed his stepfather cold-bloodedly just like the way his stepfather did to him.
An eye for an eye.
“What has happened to ol’ Iggy??”
“He’s turned to meat loaf, no, hash, for crying out loud!”
“Who could’ve done this to him?”
“I bet it has to be that young boy of his.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised!”
As the people continued to comment and talk and exclaim about his stepfather’s horribly chopped up body, Jack continued to stare at his body for a while and only left when he noticed the sheriff and deputy sheriff coming with a quite well-dressed man. He could only guess that this well-dressed man could be Mr. Brimstone. This was the first time he had laid eyes on the new mayor ever since he was elected. Finally, he got to see him.
Silently, he moved out of the crowd and walked away from the corn field and away from the home he used to live.
“What am I doing here again, Zero?”
The sun was beginning to set and Jack had let his feet lead him to the corn field he first found himself lying on. It was freshly ploughed and from the smell of the land, it was all set and ready to be sown. He knows this by experience. Zero barked at Jack’s question—obviously he was also clueless about what they were doing here; he only followed wherever his master went, no questions asked.
Just when Jack tried to figure out what was he actually doing coming back to this corn field, he heard a distant sound coming from the middle of the vast corn field. More like music, to be exact. It sounded pretty cheerful yet eerie at the same time. Jack could only make out certain words like ‘fun’ and ‘dead’ and ‘Halloween Town’. His curiosity was aroused.
“Did you hear that, Zero? What do you suppose it might be?”
Zero barked in reply.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. You won’t know it until you find out what it is. Come on, Zero, let’s go check it out.”
Trying to move as fast as they could down the ploughed field, Jack and Zero ran towards the sound of the distant music and disappeared mysteriously in the middle of the corn field, leaving no trace behind their wake.
No comments:
Post a Comment