"Rosie! Check it out!"
Fern swooped down to swipe up two sticks that she planted on either side of her long brown hair, giggling.
"I'm a deer!"
I laugh with her, watching her prance around.
I bent over to pick up two of my own and press them above my temples to chase after her.
Squealing in laughter, we raced through the long, dry grass further from home.
The barbed wire fence slipped behind the grass when we strayed further. I could still see the top of our red roof, but not much else.
The house in the distance bobbed up into view.
Both of us stopped to stare at it on its hill, knowing it was forbidden to approach it.
It looked like a normal house too. There were figures of horses running free in the massive land he had fenced off. The light blue walls almost matched the sky. I could make out white poles ringing the verandah a shadow stood on.
It stretched up a stick arm to wave. We didn't return it, just staring.
"Dad says he's a bit weird" Fern almost whispered, like he could hear us "he says that he's always smiling when he gets his mail."
"Smiling?" I frowned back "that's not weird."
"Yeah, but, we smiles big" she glanced up at the shadow still standing there "too big."
Fern's dad was the mailman around here. He knew people well from his trips to their homes three times a week. For some reason, the guy on the hill always had something coming in, whether it be junk mail or small packages. Fern got to see the man from the front passenger seat on the way through to our house. Her dad dropped her off here so we could play as he did the run up the mountain roads behind us. Back down, she'd leave again until the next time the man had mail.
"I heard his name was Mr Bartrude. It was on his package. Dad calls him Ethan."
There was nothing odd about that at all. He had a normal name and a normal house. He even owned a heap of horses too. Fern was just being paranoid.
We both stopped and let the branches drop down into the grass. Turning back, our feet followed the path we had cut through the field in our play.
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Fern was back two days later. She slid from the truck and balanced her way over the cattle grid to meet me.
It wasn't deep enough to be disastrous if I fell, but a slip between the metal poles and into the overgrown grass gaps wouldn't leave me unscathed if I rushed across it.
Dad met Fern's and chattered to him while we both edged along the fence and over the grid. Reaching the other side, Fern's dad walked over with ease as he headed back to his truck with a wave.
We lined up beside it, ready to race it.
"Stay where I can see you both!" Dad warned us.
"We will!" I chimed back
The truck took off and we ran alongside it. At first it looked like we were going to win and that we were actually pulling ahead, until it gathered speed to leave us in a plume of dust.
When we stopped to try and choke in a breath of fresh air, I realized we were a few more metres further from our house than last time.
Turning, the one on the hill had more features. I could see the colours of the brown and black horses circling their field and how the white pillars kind of looked like they had a darker paint underneath.
The frozen grinning face of the man in the window had my heart racing again before I turned Fern around to quickly hurry back into the safe boundaries.
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Each time Fern visited, we raced the truck again and found ourselves a little further out each time.
First it was a few meters. Then it became a few more on top of that. Soon, we were walking back home at the bottom of the hill the house sat on.
The horses were a nice distraction on the way back. Their wooden fencing ran back towards safety and always had the curious creatures trotting up to the sides to follow us on the way back.
We snuck little touches of their velvet noses or scratched their crisp heads. Their eyes glistened as they watched our movements past them. They followed as far as the fence ran, circling the corner when we quickly ran home once more.
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The man never approached us when we fawned over his horses, until one day.
We were walking back once more, exhausted from the thrill of the chase. Walking alongside the fence line, the front door swung open behind us and had us startled.
I didn't know whether to run or stay frozen. Fern was the same, thinking we were in trouble for being so far out of our own bounds.
"They don't bite!" the man called as he hobbled down his front stairs and approached us "actually, Beauty might. She's a bit feisty."
He pointed to the black one I was scuffing the nose of, smiling.
"She's pretty, sir" Fern mumbled back, still checking on my house in the distance.
"She's one of my favorites" he adored the horse he ran his hand over "but don't tell the others."
I smiled, not sure to chuckle or not.
"You're Cedric's little girl" the man grinned to Fern now "I see you when he delivers my parcels!"
He pointed to the front where the empty gravel road was.
Fern nodded, forcing a smile.
"Don't be shy, I won't bite" he smiled again "any time you girls want to give some love to the ladies you can" he gestured to them now "they won't say no to new friends. I even got the foals out the back too. They're gorgeous."
"Thank you" I replied now and started to turn from the man "we should get back. My dad will be wondering where we are."
"Of course" he looked to my house in the distance "stay safe out there."
"We will!" I called, walking as quickly as I could away from him.
"He didn't seem that bad" Fern whispered beside me, stealing a look "and he didn't yell at us."
"There's something up with him" I glanced now too, seeing him wave back that I meekly returned "just be careful."
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Months later, we were galloping up to the corner of the fence line.
Gone were games of pretending to be deer with big stick antlers. We wanted to be horses, just like the ones awaiting us.
Beauty was by far the favourite. With the darkest coat and only a smudge of white on her head, she stood out against the others. She was always the most keen on seeing us, pushing to the front to accept her pats.
Now that the sight of the man didn't startle us, we hung off the fence to get a better reach for the animals. Mr Bartie, as we called him, liked the attention his animals were getting. Usually he watched from his shaded verandah, offering cold water as we stood out in the sun.
Today, instead of two plastic cups of cold water, it was bubbling lemonade.
Fern gasped at the surprise, taking her cup eagerly.
Mr Bartie only watched and smiled as I saw Fern take a long gulp, her nose wrinkling.
"How is it?" Mr Bartie prompted "I made it myself. It might be a tad bitter. I'm not sure if I added enough sugar. I ran out."
"It's...." Fern looked over to me "....good. It's just a little sour, that's all."
"Oh dear" Mr Bartie sighed sadly "I'll tip it out if you don't want it?"
"It's fine!" Fern gulped down the rest, puckering her lips and forcing a smile "so good, Mr Bartie, that's really nice."
His eyes turned to mine looking down at the bubbling cup.
"Don't you like lemonade?"
"Oh" I felt my heart lurch uncomfortably at having his attention suddenly on me "uh, it's ok."
Taking a little sip, the cold liquid was almost bitter. It tasted like lemonade but one that was made with the rinds of lemons instead of the more refreshing pulp.
My lips tingled from the sourness I tried to wipe away.
"It really is good, Mr Bartie" I forced a smile "I'll have some more later."
"Don't let it go hot" he nodded and started his journey back to his house.
"I won't!" I called, quickly tipping the rest into the grass when his back was turned.
He reached the verandah and I raised the empty cup to my lips, pretending to drink while smiling back.
He disappeared inside and I gave up the act.
"It's horrible" I whispered to Fern, giggling.
"Way too many lemons" she replied, laughing back from her place hanging off the fence.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'd rather water."
Fern chuckled, heartily agreeing.
"At least we didn't hurt his feelings. It sounded like he really tried."
Looking at the house, I just agreed.
He lived alone. He probably didn't make things very often for himself, let alone anyone else. With time, maybe he'd get better...
"Should we head back?" I offered "you are starting to burn."
Fern glanced down at her exposed shoulders, twisting herself to check her legs.
"I'm not that bad...."
She straightened, wobbling from doing it so quickly.
"Careful" I snorted "you'll fall if you do that."
"It's not that..." she climbed off the fence to look at her hands "they feel like they're buzzing. My legs are weird."
"Probably from standing up there all day" I rolled my eyes at her "come on. I don't want to get burnt."
I started to walk but saw Fern wasn't following. Turning back around, she forced herself to take a shaking step that wobbled beneath her.
Her frightened eyes locked onto mine when the next step buckled her into the ground. She tried to clamp her hands around my shirt when I dropped down beside her in panic, but they fell into the dirt.
My chest tightened when I saw my tipped lemonade still fizzing in the grass. Glancing up, Mr Bartie's grin stared from the verandah.
"Come on, Fern, get up!" I shook her as her eyes fluttered and rolled "come on!"
She moaned out, trying to form a sentence.
"What's happened, girls?" Mr Bartie sang out as his shoes thudded down each step "did the heatstroke get you?"
"Fern" i whimpered, trying to haul her weight upwards with no luck.
Mr Bartie stopped at the side of his house, just watching me.
I dragged myself to my own feet, stumbling to find my footing as I began to run alongside the fence.
"Don't go running off in this heat!" Mr Bartie called calmly "you'll only make it worse!"
"Get away frogh megh!" I whimpered, feeling my tingling lips swell and slur my speech.
Touching them, my fingers felt like they were fat with water. The bones in my legs suddenly disappeared, causing me to stumble and fall onto the grass.
Hauling myself up, I staggered sideways and collapsed again. Using my hands to steady myself for another attempt, I only lurched forward to hit my head on the ground.
Like a flipped beetle, I flailed to try and find something to grab onto. The grass slid through my fingers and my shoulders melted into the grass I tried to roll onto.
Shade fell over me and Mr Bartie's grin seared into my mind when he stood there with Fern hung limply over one shoulder like fresh kill.
"Heatstroke is a hell of a thing" he tutted as he dragged up my dead arm and flung my melting body over his other shoulder "you can cool off inside."
Tears ran down my dirty cheeks when I tried to scream for my father. I flailed and slapped my hands uselessly over Mr Bartie's shirt, barely touching him.
Everything was blurring now that the blood was running to my head. I tried to fight the spinning earth that pulled me into the void rushing up to devour me whole.
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Coldness ran down my arms and tingled at the hair. It burned into my bones and face, threatening to choke me when my first breath rattled back through me.
I was on the ground. I was facing a concrete wall. The floor and air around me was unusually cold and smelled like the dust of concrete mixture and the burning iron of blood.
I didn't want to move without listening. If he was here, I'd be throwing myself back into his arms if I tried to fumble for an exit blindly.
We had to be underground, underneath his house. It was too warm outside for this to be a room on the ground floor.
Shoes on the hard concrete echoed from my left, getting closer. I quickly closed my eyes and forced myself to go limp again, trying to steady my quivering breath.
The shoes thudded closer until they stopped a few meters behind me.
"Still asleep?" I heard Mr Bartie mutter "barely drank a thing too...."
I heard him cough and beat his hands on his clothing, the shoes thudding on the other side of a wall right by my head.
They scraped their way upwards, confirming my theory we were underneath the house.
As soon as the door above me slammed shut, I snapped open my eyes and pushed myself to my feet.
With feeling now pulsing through them, I hobbled down the side of the wall through the empty room to the doorframe.
There was no door here to hide me. Checking for sounds upstairs, I turned right and shuffled through a hallway.
Doorless rooms peeled off to my left and right with nothing in them.
The further I scuffed along the concrete hall, the more stained it became.
Soon, dried brown blood had smeared the floor and was leading down to the end room on the right.
This one had a white door with a little window. The whole bottom of it was painted in blood. Fresh glistened over the dry, making my breath catch in my throat.
Then, I heard it.
A wet slapping from the other side. A rasping gurgle and weak moan of someone dragging themselves towards the door.
Footsteps pounded across the roof above. They circled for another room instead of the cellar door I frantically looked in the direction of.
The slapping and dragging continued. Whatever was in there didn't have much life left.
With shaking fingers, I forced both my hands around the knob to rattle it open. Then, instantly looking down, I saw what was trying to escape.
Fern was on the ground, heaving her body along the cold concrete with tumbling arms. Her mangled hands, soaked in blood, slapped a path from the metal table she had tumbled from.
Her guts slid along the ground she heaved herself along. They painted the floor, her exposed spinal cord twitching as it registered every movement she was trying to send to her legs.
Her legs had been butchered and skewered through hooks to be hung above the table. The dangling head and neck of an eyeless black foal was gushing on the ground in the corner.
Fern moaned weakly, dragging the limp torso of the foal with her. It had been stitched onto her broken body to try and create some sort of majestic centaur. With her naked torso scraping it's skin raw, the metres of tangled guts knotting around the spinal cord, and the dead body of the butchered foal tethered to her own, it looked like a pure nightmare.
In utter fear, I stumbled back, covering my mouth I choked into.
The scream was stuck somewhere in my aching throat. Panic pulsed through me when i kicked out at the reaching hand trying to grab my feet.
Turning to run, my body hit Mr Bartie's.
In my frozen state, I had gone numb to my surroundings. There was no way around him. He stood proudly, knowing this.
"Isn't she a beauty?" he breathed down at Fern gasping for breath in her own blood "she's a real wonder. I've got something people would only dream about."
I pressed myself to the wall behind me, looking for an exit. Even my tears couldn't blind me to the drill Mr Bartie carried in his smothered hand as he advanced towards me.
The drill whined as it was tested and teased, lurching closer to my huddled body pressed to the corner of the drenched hallway. Fern's hand scraped my foot, trying to latch around it desperately.
I wanted us to be deer with stick antlers again. I wanted to forget about ever seeing the horses up on the hill. I wanted to stay on the other side of the cattle grid where my dad was.131Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk9B56ovWBQ
"Let's make you beautiful too" Mr Bartie smiled.
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