“THE RED BARN” (Horror) (Part I)

– Part I –

It was an unseasonably warm night in the middle of October with just days before Halloween.  On this night two boys, Michael and Zachary, were racing home on their bikes before it got too late and they knew that their mothers would start to worry.  This particular day they had been out from their house since early afternoon and traveled nearly ten miles from their home.  The road that they would take was one of the main roads that some people would take from their town to the city of Charlotte, North Carolina.  Knowing that it would take several minutes before they would even reach the town limits of Avalon, they decided to take a short cut through the woods just off the main road.  It was mostly Zachary’s idea to use the unknown short cut while Michael had some reservations about it, but just wanted to get home as soon as possible.  As they entered the woods they found an old bike path that had not been overtaken by the fall leaved trees.  As they travel down this old bike path they start hitting hills and dips that they were not expecting.  At one point during their travels Zachary struck a mound of dirt while coming down a steep hill and went air born.  Michael followed and both landed pretty hard falling off their bikes nearly making their bikes inoperable.

Michael fell the hardest and may have broken his arm in the process of trying to brace his fall.  Zachary however got up and was ready to continue on until he saw his best buddy on the ground holding his arm.  It was getting late and Zachary knew that they needed to get home very soon before their parents would forbid them from going out for a while.  Zachary runs over to Michael and notices that he is holding his arm with tears coming out of his eyes.  He drops to his knees to check on Michael, but was afraid to touch his arm to see how much it hurt.  Michael just looked at Zachary crying still holding his arm not really saying anything.  By this time Zachary knew that they were in trouble now, but had to figure out how to get them home and explain this to their mothers.  As Zachary kept looking at this arm he noticed a slight bulge near Michael’s forearm.  With that sight in mind he knew that Michael had broken his arm and needed to get home so he can be taken care of.  He looks around and attempts to reassure Michael that he will get him home so his mother can take a look at it.  Zachary stands up and begins to look around, but saw nothing but trees and the moonlight peaking through the tree tops.

He crouches down to tell Michael that he will go look for some sticks to use to brace his arm.  All Michael could do was nod his head up and down he was in so much pain.  Zachary began his search around the leave covered ground and was frustrated that he couldn’t find any sticks to use.  The ones that he did find were too weak and too small for the purpose he needed them.  So he began to venture further into the woods to find more sticks, but kept coming across huge logs and down trees.  Zachary had ventured far enough into the woods that Michael couldn’t see him anymore and started to get scared.  Michael began to look around and started hearing noises behind him, but couldn’t see anything in darkness.  So he made the decision to get up and to find Zachary so he wouldn’t be left alone.  As Zachary started to give up his search he looked ahead and saw a big red barn just several feet away.  He stared at the barn as if he never saw one before, but it did seem odd to have one in this particular area.  The closes farmer to the town they live in is approximately twenty-five miles away on the other side of Charlotte.  As he stares at it he hears leaves shuffling and small sticks cracking behind him, which startles him.  Zachary turns around and sees that it was his best friend Michael.  They looked at each other for a brief second and Zachary pointed at the red barn, which looked like the size of a four bedroom, single family house.

They both have never seen a red barn so big and that was the intriguing part of the whole thing.  Michael spoke the first words to Zachary since the accident saying that he wants to go home.  Zachary looks at him and then at the barn as if he was trying to decide whether to either check the barn out or listen to his best buddy.  After several seconds he started to walk towards the barn to see if he could find any sticks around and inside.  He slowly crept his way towards the barn with Michael pleading with him in a whining voice.  Michael started to follow still holding his arm, which started to go numb and began to scare him.  He continued to follow Zachary towards the barn still pleading and sniffing hoping that his best buddy would listen to him.  After navigating over down trees and deep leave humps they reached the exterior of the barn.  Zachary was just amazed of the size of it and kept rubbing his hands across the wooded frame until he caught a splinter.  He yanked his hand away and saw a two inch long piece of wood sticking out of his index finger.  He went to pull it out and broke a small piece of the tip into his finger, which he knew wasn’t a good thing.  Michael asked him was he okay and Zachary responded to Michael reassuring him that he was fine.  Michael continued to plead with him, but it was like Zachary was mesmerized by the size of the red barn.

Michael followed Zachary around the barn until they stumbled across the huge door that leads into the inside.  Zachary attempted to open the door, but noticed it was locked with a shiny silver key lock.  By this time Zachary was disappointed that his curiosity will no longer be fulfilled since he can’t see the inside.  He looks at Michael with a slight disappointed look on his face and then agrees to take Michael home.  At this time their mothers had contacted the county sheriff and town police that their boys were missing.  It took about a half hour before the boys were seen walking down their main street towards their houses.  The mothers of the two boys ran to them to hug them and frantically asked them where they were.  However, their mothers saw the condition of Michael and his arm and got scared that he was hurt worse than he is showing.  Zachary showed his finger to his mother who could see the splinter in his finger, which eventually was removed.

Once the search of the boys were called off and Michael was taken to the hospital by his parents the local police questioned Zachary.  During their questioning they asked him where their bikes were and Zachary gave them a general description of where they were.  After they were given the general location police officers started to search the area and couldn’t find them anywhere.  One officer knew of an old bike path that many took for short cuts and many have injured themselves in the process.  As he made his way down the path he saw their bikes lying on the ground undisturbed.  He radios to dispatch that he found the bikes and that he will need another officer to assist him in retrieving them.  The officer made his way down and grabbed Michael’s bike first and attempted to contact dispatch once again.  This time his radio just returned with a lot of static, which confused him.  He then attempted two more times and couldn’t get through with the same result of just static being heard.  The officer began to think it was the location of where he was and couldn’t use his phone since he left it in the cruiser.  So he started to walk Michael’s bike up the old bike path and after several minutes finally reached the road.  When he hit the pavement another cruiser pulled up to assist him in retrieving the boys’ bikes.  Once he stepped out of the cruiser the first officer directed him to go down the old bike path to retrieve Zachary’s bike.

The second officer pulled out his flashlight and started down the path, which it was his first time.  Several minutes later he found Zachary’s bike lying on the ground with a cracked frame.  As he went to go pick up the bike he heard leaves shuffling behind him, which made him quickly turn around with his flashlight.  When he turned around he saw nothing but trees and leaves falling down as the winds blew through the landscape.  After shining his flashlight around for a minute he felt comfortable and attempted to pick up Zachary’s bike.  This time he heard a child’s voice and he quickly turned around once again.  His flashlight struck the image of a black five year old girl standing in the middle of some leaves wearing a dark red dress with a white bow around her waist.  The officer was shocked to see her out there and attempted to talk on his radio, but his response was static as well.  For some though his radio also gave ear piercing feedback that made him grab his ear from the noise.  The little black girl then ran back further into the woods towards the red barn.  The second officer yelled at her to wait as he shined his flashlight to keep an eye on her, but lost her in the thick brush.  He continued to try his radio, but with no avail.  He continued to pursue the little girl, which he found by the oversized red barn, which amazed him as well.  As he looked up and looked back down at her she had ran around the side of the barn.  He attempted to follow her still calling out to her until he twisted his ankle in a pile of leaves that was camouflaging a log.  The officer went down dropping his flashlight and grabbing his ankle immediately in pain.

He started grimacing clutching his teeth together as the pain shot up through his lower leg.  As he lay there on the ground he attempted one more time with his radio, but this time nothing but dead silence.  By this time the first officer was wondering what was taking so long and started to walk down the path again.  He attempted to reach the second officer by radio, but quickly remembered that the radio reception mysteriously doesn’t work.  The second officer was finally able to get himself up and used the side of the barn to brace himself as he continued around the barn.  He then came across the front door, which was amazingly huge and surprised him of how big it was.  When he looked at the door he noticed that the lock on it was unlocked.  That struck him as odd and attempted to open the door while hoping on one foot, which proved to be difficult.  After he opened the door he used his flashlight to look inside and saw nothing by the wooded interior floor and walls.  Just as he started to enter the barn he was a few feet inside when the doors slammed shut loudly behind him.  He tried to turn around quickly, but being in too much pain he couldn’t and nearly fell again.  He used his flashlight to look around for the little black girl and found her several feet in front of him.

He tried to talk to her, but she wouldn’t respond to his statements except just stare at him.  The officer started moving towards her and notices that his flashlight is starting to fade and suddenly it goes completely out.  He starts cussing and hitting it to come back on, but that takes a couple of minutes.  Once he was able to get the flashlight back on he looked in front of him and saw the little girl was gone.  He got confused and turned around to check behind him and got startled of what he saw.  With the flashlight all he saw was a ten foot creature with skin the color of Chinese red, angel like wings that expanded beyond the flashlights circumference, thirteen horns on top of its head, seven eyes, and teeth sharper than canine.  The officer was frozen with so much fear that he couldn’t go for his service weapon quick enough before he heard the words uttered to him in a deep, dark evil voice, “MANKIND HAS COME TO AN END!”  At this point the first officer heard the screams of his fellow officer and yelled out his name.  When he didn’t answer he pulled out his service weapon and ran towards the sound of the scream.  He came upon the red barn and started to tactically maneuver around the side of the barn.  He heard a loud thump inside the barn and thought it was his fellow officer.  He ran to the front of the barn and found the door locked.  He stood there looking confused with his service weapon pointed up by head as he tried to figure out his next move.  Suddenly the doors flew open and a huge gust of wind escaped the barn at the same time.  The same Devil’s angel that his fellow officer saw came out and grabbed him yanking him inside the barn.  Shots were fired, he screamed,   and the door loudly slammed shut.  Once the doors were sealed the little black girl crawled from underneath the barn and turned around smiling as if she was pleased of the events that took place.  She then headed down through the woods towards the town of Avalon skipping and singing with joy.

To Be Continued…