I Don't Believe in Ghosts.....

The Woodcutter's House

The Woodcutter's House

- By Alasdair

It was just another ordinary day. The Kane family was driving through America, along a desert road. As they were driving past some cornfields, Grandpa Kane needed to go to the bathroom.

"I'll see if I can find a place to stop", the father said. "Hang on........there's a house up there. How 'bout you go and ask the owner if you could use his bathroom." A very old wooden house stood quite some distance away in the cornfields. Even in the broad daylight, the house looked spooky.

Grandpa Kane got out of the car and waded through the cornfields towards the house. "I'm not too sure, Dad", said one of the kids. "Whoever lives here, he doesn't seem like the sought of guy who likes tresspassers."

The father turned to look at them. "You've been hearing too many scary stories, haven't you. I'm sure the owner of the house won't mind."

Twenty minutes passed. Grandpa Kane hadn't returned. "Do you think something might have held him up?" the mother asked.

"Nah", the father replied, shaking his head. "He takes his time, that's all."

"But he never takes more than 10 minutes!"

The father thought for a moment. "Alright then. Kids. Go in and check on him, will you?"

The kids exited the car and scurried towards the house. An hour passed and daylight was melting into dusk. The grandpa, nor the kids had returned. "We should go in after them", the mother said, pointing towards the sunset. "They've had way to much time."

As the mom and dad were walking towards the house, they noticed that a lot of tree stumps were around that area. The mom was about to step onto the threshold, but then she caught a glimpse of orange light out of the corner of her eye. She turned to see a small, blazing fire in the cornfields.

"Oh my gosh!" she said. "There'll be an inferno if I don't put out that fire! You go on ahead dear, and I'll try to put that fire out." The mom ran up to the fire. She looked around desperately for something to put it out with. Then she noticed a bucket of water. She picked it up, and emptied it onto the fire.

It made no difference. Then, with a gasp of pure horror, she realised that it wasn't water at all. It was.............blood! But the bucket wasn't empty. A golden ring rolled out of the upturned bucket and landed softly on the ground. It was Grandpa Kane's ring.

*************

The father stood on the threshold and rung the doorbell. All it did was it caused a gallon of dust to fall off the verander and shower him in it. He grunted, and opened the door. The house was dark and abandoned. He was standing in a small hallway with a few wooden doors, leading off to various rooms. A wooden staircase lead to the upstairs rooms. Everything was covered in dust and cobwebs. The house looked like it had been there for centuries.

Someone else came through the front door. It was the mom. Together, they went searching through the house for the two kids. When they came into the kitchen, they heard creaking footsteps. The dad raised a carving knife in defence. One of the kids stumbled through the oppisite door.

"Thank goodness I found y-" the mom began to say, but she hesitated when she saw what state her child was in. His arms had been sliced off and blood was gushing out of the stumps. He had a large, horrorfying cut on his neck. And with that, his head rolled off his shoulders and hit the ground with a >thud!<

The dad went looking for the other kid and the mom grieved for her child. The dad went outside to the garage. When he opened the door, something rolled out. It was the top part of his son's head and by the looks of it, it had been sliced off. He went through the garage, looking for what was left of the child's body. Then he heard a sound: >rip!<, >munch!<, >rip!<, >munch!<

He turned a corner and nearly slipped on the blood-covered floor. His son's body lay on the floor, the top part of his head missing. A large hound was lying their, ripping internal organs out of the kid's head and eating them. It was the owner of the house's dog.

A loud whistling noise came from the house and the dog sat bolt upright. Then it sprinted towards the place where the whistle had come from. The dad bolted after it. He pursued it back into the house, and he stopped dead in his tracks. He and the mom were standing in the dusty hallway, staring at the other side of the room.

There stood the owner of the house, the dog at his heels. He had skin that was as white as chalk, red eyes and a dozen scars on his face. He held a chainsaw with a blade covered in blood. He turned the chainsaw on, gave a mad yell and ran towards the mom and dad.

The dad sprinted through the house, away from the mindless killer. He ran for his dear life. He reached the door to the cellar and flung it wide open, thinking that it would be a good hiding place. He slammed the door behind him and descended the stairs. It was pitch black. The only thing he could hear was his nervous breathing. He took some steps backwards and bumped into something. He spun around and saw a pair of red eyes, gleaming in the darkness. The last thing he ever saw was the blade of an axe.....

*************

The mom was running through the house. Eventually, she got tired and stopped in the living room. She looked up and saw the woodcutter standing in the doorway, the dog at his side. Vroom!, vroom! went the chainsaw. The mom stood her ground. The two of them seemed to stare into each others eyes. The determined blue eyes of the mother, and the hungry red eyes of the killer. Then the woodcutter gave a yell of madness and ran towards the mom.

She acted by instinct. She grabbed the bottle of apple cider on a nearby table and emptied it onto the open fire in the fireplace. BOOOM! The house exploded. Bits of debris skattered the cornfields. The mother of the Kane family died, taking the blood-thirsty murderer with her.

Nobody knows why she commited suicide, but their best guess was that she didn't want to die the horrible way that her family did.