Listen to your Mother

He stood up slowly reaching into his jacket pocket grabbing his cigarette pack. James lit up and took a long drag. He stepped off his porch and into the open air. At that moment a huge gust of wind picked up, and along with that came salt water, whipping at his face. The ocean was extremely rough today, never before in James’ life had he seen it like this. The sky was dark grey, almost to the point of black, rain was pouring from the clouds and hitting the ground like hail. The ocean was nothing but white. You couldn’t even see an occasional splash of blue. All that could be seen was the white chops  as the forceful waves hit each jagged rock. The east wind was so powerful that the rain that was falling didn’t even seem like rain, it was more like someone was firing ocean water at you from a hose. James hadn’t been outside more than thirty seconds before his clothes were thoroughly drenched.1

He pulled a beanie out of his back pocket and pulled it over his head. He tried to inhale clean sea air, but only managed to take in ocean water. He walked quickly across the street, figuring that walking in rain like this would be nice for a change. He hopped over the sea wall and onto the sand. He took a step forward but was immediately knocked off his feet by a powerful wave which hit him forcefully. James lost his cigarette in the wave, and the rest of his pack was soaked. Grumbling, James stood up and walked towards the rocks.2

He took a deep breath before setting one foot on a small boulder. James steadied himself on the rock before carefully placing his foot on the next rock. He knew this was not the brightest idea. Some of the things that your mother teaches you actually stay with you. James didn’t care though, the way he saw it, he could live like he was dying, and he figured he had been dying for a long time.3

Each step he took he knew that he was putting his life in the hands of the ocean. If it wanted to keep him alive, a forceful wave wouldn’t hit him, if he had some how made Mother Nature angry, he would be dead within the next ten to fifteen minutes. He slipped on one of the rocks which was covered with a thick layer of seaweed, and got his wrist caught between two rocks. He heard an unfriendly crunching sound, and felt painful vibrations spread through his arm as his wrist broke.4

“Jesus Christ!” James screamed pulling his wrist towards his chest and cradling it. It was bent at an odd angle and one of the veins in his wrist had been strained, so you could see the purple quickly mounting as blood was caught in that area because of the position of the break. James began to whimper like an injured dog, and immediately wished he had stayed at home. 5

“I can be pretty damn stupid, huh, Mom?” He said looking up towards the sky as the white hot pain shot through his left arm. Grimacing, James got to his feet and walked more carefully before, watching to make sure he put his foot perfectly on a rock each time. He was at about the center of the area of rocks that jutted out into the ocean. This place was called Boars Head, or Rocky Bend, and there were fairly large houses built here. By now, it didn’t matter which way he went, he would have to walk the same distance either way he went, so he continued forward. 6

Tears of anguish welled up in his eyes as he tried to keep his head straight and ignore the wrenching pain in his arm. Suddenly a colossal wave came towards him and hit him head on. Falling backward, James hit his head on a rock and everything went black.7

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~8

“Eh, it’s nice to see young men haven’t changed o’ bit since I was that age,” a man with a hefty Irish accent said.9

“Yah, I ‘member when I found ya on them same rocks long o’ go. Nothin’ has changed o’ bit, men are still as stupid taday as they were fifty yeahs o’ go,” a woman, with an accent of equal intensity as the man, said softly, with a slight chuckle in her voice.10

James closed his eyes more tightly, then slowly opened them, to see a room illuminated by candlelight. He looked around the room and saw the man and the woman whom he assumed were the ones talking. The man had grey hair and a grey moustache, and looked like he was at least one hundred years old. The woman was no different. She had short curly hair, with pearls around her neck, pearl earrings to match, and looked the same age.11

“Ah, the youngin’ has decided to wake up,” the woman said and handed James a wet towel. “Heah, place this on ya forehead, ya feel a ‘lil bettah.”12

“Didn’t ya mothah evah teach ya nothin’?” the man said. James had to slowly translate what he said in his head, he still was thinking fairly slowly.13

“What happened?” he asked rubbing his head. 14

“I think you know damn well what happened, sir. Ya took a spill outside in this nasty storm. Ya ain’t the brightest bulb in the package, are ya?” the man said sitting next to him. “Now that ya are awake, I think it’d be best ta get ya off this couch and inta a proper bed, don’t ya think so?”15

“No, sir, I’m fine, I should probably be heading home any way, I can’t keep my dog in the house for too long by himself, he’ll destroy everything,” James said trying to get up quickly, and ended up having a throbbing in his head. He was, of course, lying about the dog. For some reason, James had a very uneasy feeling about these people.16

“Well, I’m afraid there’ll be na leavin’ this house tanight, laddie,” the woman said. “The storm is by far too rough for one to handle it on his own.”17

“No, I’m fine, thank you for helping me, but I’ll be fine,” James said and managed to get to his feet before falling down again.18

“Now you listen here, laddie, you need to stay here fer tha night, ya can’t be out weatherin’ this storm, it’s too dangerous,” the man said, helping James to his feet. He swung James’ arm around his shoulders and helped James up the stairs. James took each step more carefully than the last. They were very uneven. One step would be maybe an inch, the next one could be about a foot. It spiraled up, and the two men continued walking, until James was sure they had climbed the distance of the Empire State Building twice. They came to a door which was cracked in the fashion of an X down the whole length of the door.19

“Where did that come from?” James asked pointing at the door.20

“Where did what come from?” the man asked, giving James a quizzical look. James looked at the old man, then back to the door, where the X was no longer there.21

“That’s odd,” James muttered.22

“No, it’s not, laddie, that’s just how things go when ya hit ya head,” the old man said, chuckling. He opened the wood door and helped James sit on the bed. “We’ll see ya in the mornin’, I’m afraid I’m too tired to stay up any longah. Ya have kept tha miss and I up fairly late, me boy.”23

“Ah, that’s fine sir, thank you for your help,” James said softly, looking out the window, which was cracked the entire way down and creaked with each gust of wind.24

The old man left the room, closing the door behind him. James stood up from the bed slowly to look around. He walked over to the crimson chair near the window. There were odd splatter patterns on it, which were a darker shade of red. James shivered as he stared at it and moved to a framed photograph on the wall closest to the closet. It was the old man and the woman standing hand and hand in front of the house, smiling. There was a small sign behind them and James stared at it trying to figure out what it said. He could only make out the first couple lines.25

We live for nights like this26

When the seas are violent27

The children aren’t God fearing28

So they only live for an instant29

James gulped as he finished what he could see and wondered what the rest read. He heard a cough from behind him, and James spun around on his heel only too see the other wall, with a mirror that was broken in several pieces. James saw in the top right corner of the mirror the face of the old man, with bright red eyes. James swallowed hard, and closed his eyes and looked at the mirror once again. The old man had disappeared. 30

“You’re seeing things again, kid,” James muttered to himself. “Why the hell didn’t I listen to my mother?! I’m just seeing things ‘cause I hit my head, that’s all.”31

James heard a sudden thump from behind him, and he twirled around towards the closet. Taking a deep breath, James reached for the knob to the closet and flung the doors open, jumping back as he did so. He opened his mouth in a scream, yet no sound emitted from him. He saw skin hanging in the closet, like clothes. On the top shelf there were heads mounted, all with their eyes wide open, and mouths in the position of screams. The eyes were blood shot, and the teeth were solid red. James looked down to the foot of the closet to see in horror, nothing but blood. The skin were hung on hangers that appeared to be made of bones, and each one of the skins that were hanging up hand slices down the stomach, all the way down to the pelvic area. Where James stared in astonishment at how it looked like each body had been modified so that they didn’t have any sexual organs. 32

James forced his eyes shut.33

“No, no, no, no, no, no! I’m imagining it, it’s from this damn head injury. When I open my eyes it’ll be gone,” James whimpered, and slowly he opened his eyes, and to his astonishment, the skin was no longer there, yet the heads and the blood were. James was now breathing fast, and he spun around as he heard a creaking sound. All the skins were laid out on the bed, in the fashion that someone might lay their clothes out the night before they go to school. James tried with all his power to scream, to make some form of sound, yet nothing came.34

Suddenly a huge gust of wind came and the cracked window broke into a thousand pieces, each one heading directly toward James. Not having enough time to react, each piece of glass cut through James’ skin. He fell backward, and the last thing he saw was the grey sky before the glass gouged his eyes. He could feel each one pierce his skin, cutting through, sometimes going through him, other times just staying in one place. He could feel his hot blood running down his face as his eyes continued to bleed. James was still falling backward and tried to catch himself, yet tried with his left hand, and felt his bone break through the skin, and his strained vein burst. He could feel blood soaking his pants, and rain soaking the rest of his skin.35

“Well, me boy, ya should have stayed on the bed, you nosy ‘lil creature,” James heard the man say in a hoarse voice. He felt a strong pair of arms pick him up and carry him over somewhere, before he felt himself sitting upright in the chair. The ocean water was splashing against his face, as his hot blood was running down his cheeks in rivulets. James felt his arms and legs being tied to the chair and his clothes being cut through with a dull knife. James felt the cold blade touch his chest, right by his collar bone. He felt his skin resist the blade then finally give way to the pressure, as it wrapped around the knife. He felt the man moving the blade back and forth in a saw like motion.36

James felt the knife digging the entire way down to his pelvic region then it being pulled out of him.37

“We’ll save the most painful part fer last, since ya were such a nice boy, and called me, sir,” the man said wickedly. James could hear the grin in his voice.38

James felt the mans fingers slid into the crevasse between the two parts of skin, where the man had cut. He felt the man use a large amount of force as he ripped the skin off the bones. You could hear the tearing as the tendons were ripped, and muscles were torn. James felt an excruciating pain spread through his entire body, as the man snapped one of James’ ribs. James’ was having trouble breathing, and tried to cry, but found that he couldn’t. He was whimpering, even though he couldn’t speak. He could hear what sounded like a knife being sharpened in the backround. It was getting harder and harder to remain conscious, and James was just praying that he would just die.39

“Killed by ones own bones,” the man whispered in James ear. “I bet ya didn’t read that fah in our little poem. You’ll get to find out what it’s like ta have yah own bone pierce your heart.”40

With a final breath, James felt the bone slam into his heart whose beating was slowly. The last thing James felt before he drifted away, was the feeling of someone kissing him on the forehead, as the man whispered, “Good bye, Laddie.”41