The Old Barn

That old barn. I did not previously go there since early childhood. It was always my favorite place though. It lies near the heart of the woods. I never wondered what it was doing in a place like that; the trees were old there, the barn must have been built at a later time. By the time I arrived at that old place, the sun was in the center of the sky, its rays piercing through the leaves. It was very hot, and very humid, but that never really stopped me from a nice hike. The barn looked more rotten than I remembered, but the astonishing size was just as I recalled. The large, unpainted door creaked as a opened it, slowly and cautiously. Sunlight beamed through the broken windows and rotted holes. There were several crows flapping their wings wildly, but they went nowhere. It was as if the air itself grabbed a hold of them and refused to let go. The previously nonexistent wind outside became furious. The barn creaked, the doors swung wildly, and the crows began screeching. Just as I ran outside, the wind stopped, the sound stopped, and there was not a crow to be heard. I left, uncertain of what to believe. Uncertain of what happened.

Two days passed, surprisingly enough, my head was not crowded with thoughts about the old barn. I wasn’t shocked, or fascinated about it. I took it in as if it were an everyday occurrence. As if it didn’t matter. As if I didn’t happen. On the third night after the incident, I dreamt for the first time in a long time. I dreamt of that old place. I was walking through the doorway, just as I did in reality. This time it was night. It was night, and it was dark, but it did not effect my vision. Nothing was illuminated, but I could see shapes and colors just as well as I could otherwise. There were no crows, and no wind this time, but there were several bats. They crawled on the floor like mice. Not a single bat was airborne. They screeched, cried, and died. All at once they fell. The noise they made died with them. A man stood in the middle of the room. He was very tall; I’m uncertain how I did not notice him immediately. Although I could see well in the dark, I see him very faintly. Although I was uncertain who he was or what he looked like, there was no doubt in my mind that he was starring directly at me. He seemed to be wearing a dark black cape. It was not long until I realized it was really a some sort of blanket or sheet. He curled up on the ground and put the sheet over his body, it was like a young child’s attempt to hide. As the day went on I forgot the dream. I could only remember an image of a tall man in a black cape.

The next day, I found myself walking to the old barn again. When I went there, I was uncertain. I knew however, that the sun was high in the sky. How I got there, was also an uncertainty. My guess is that I walked. ‘Why?’ is the question I should have been asking, however. There was no particular reason. I simply felt like it, but such an answer is never good enough. When I walked in, I found nothing particularly interesting. No crows. No wind. No man in a black cape. Of course not! What was I expecting? Oddly enough, this was the encounter I found eerie. I began to search the area. The barn itself, although large, was only one room. One very large room that seemed to be, at one time, two floors. I did notice small holes in the wooden floor. I tried looking through one of the holes, to see if there was anything down there. It was too dark, but I felt cold air rising through the hole, into my eye. That was when I knew there was another room down there. Soon, curiosity got the best of me.

Along the back wall, the boards on the floor were chipped away, just enough to slide my fingers around them. One board at a time, I ripped them apart until I created a whole large enough to slide my body through. Under the boards, however, were steps. Each step was length of the entire barn. I crawled down the steps until I was capable of standing. I continued downward, the only source of light was the few of the sun’s rays that made it through the holes in the floor above. I pulled my lighter from my pocket, and lit a flame. The stone steps, and stone walls flickered around me. To no surprise, there was a door in front of me. I was probably not under the barn anymore, I guessed.

The door led to a tunnel, made from the same material of the steps. I walked through it slowly and cautiously. No matter how much effort I put into preventing it, my steps created an echo that could be heard until my next step, and the step after. After a few steps, it seemed to create a smooth, ongoing rhythm. I fell to my knees, dropping my lighter. I could not take the sound any longer. My head felts as if it were going to implode, and I clenched my jaw so tight, I’m almost positive I came close to shattering my teeth. The sound was maddening. I sat there, waiting for to go away, but it did not. I stood up, ran across the tunnel and darted through the door at the other end. The sound was gone. I sat there for almost a minute, enjoying the quiet. Finally, I looked up at the room. At the center was a table with a black sheet folded neatly on its surface. I had no doubt that it was the same cape the tall man wore. I grabbed it and put it over my shoulders as I walked back to the barn. There I stood, in the middle of the room. The sun was gone, I wondered how long I spent under the floor. Suddenly, fire broke out. The barn was not on fire, nor was I. It was everything else. The whole world was burning. The barn and I were going to be the only survivors. I curled up on the ground and put the sheet over my body, just as the tall man demonstrated. Soon everything was gone, but me.

Epilogue:

The next morning, a search party investigated a fire in the middle of a forest that broke out the previous night. The fire department could not reach it because of the overall density and darkness (which lead to confusion) of the forest. Luckily, it did not spread. The search party found one body in the middle of the remains of an old barn. The body was covered in a black sheet. The suspected cause of the fire was a opened lighter, twenty three inches away from the body.