Uncanny Tales

Black-Eyed Girl

"The days remind me of my morality, and the nights bring me howls of agony, wishing she would've lasted forever," thought the farmer as he blinked his eyes into the start of another new, dreary day.

His sheets reeked of hard liquor, and the taste of the bottle was still fresh against his lips and tongue. As he rose out of his empty bed he began feeling lightheaded, winded solely by the effort it took to sit up. He toppled back, striking his head onto the dresser beside his bed. He feels blood trickling down the back of his head where he'd made impact, and reaches his arms up towards something that's not there.

"Catherine!" He screams, "Cath..."

He stops himself from calling her name again, looking down at the floor where the blood began to land. A framed picture had landed flat on the ground, small red droplets covering the frame and covering the face of a young girl. She stood between her mother and father, the three of them looking as happy as a horse in a haystack. It was his family's portrait, from when they had seen better days, and... When the family was still complete.

He gazes at the picture for a short amount of time, entranced and enamored, before sitting up and turning his gaze out beyond his bedroom window. There, some ways off in the distance, he sees a single lone gravestone laying dormant in the center of the field. His heartfelt smile from seeing the portrait faded, replaced instead with the look of despair that he'd worn every single day since he'd lost his only child.

"Catherine..." He looks back down at the portrait hopelessly, and then gets up onto his feet and cleans up the blood all over his body and bedroom.

It was time for another day without her...

The drive back from a long day in town brought nothing but some malicious looking clouds and miles upon miles of rural landscape. It would be getting dark soon, and he wanted to get home soon - even though he had nothing and no one waiting for him any longer. He felt the need to tend to his field of liquor in the pantry as soon as he could, and drink himself to sleep yet again. As he sped down the neverending stretch of dirt road before him, he heard a sudden "POP", and he immediately loses control of his pickup truck for a split second. He regains control of the wheel and slams down on the brakes firmly, quickly climbing out of the driver's seat after the truck slows to a halt.

"Crap," he groans, glaring down at the flat front driver's side tire, "Now I have to fix this damned rust bucket again."

He heads towards the truck bed, where he keeps spare, and begins to get his truck back into working order, eager to get home and sate his dried tongue. He starts the hassle of replacing the spare tire impatiently, not bothering to keep an eye on any parts he lost in the process, and ignoring the pain when he cut open a scratch on the back of his hand accidentally. After he's certain the tire is ready to come off, he grabs it by the sides and yanks, and then growls angrily when he realizes that he forgot to remove a single screw attached to the rim. He yells, yanking the tire clean off of its hinges in his frustration, using so much force that the tire slams against his forehead and cuts that open too. He sees the lone screw roll down under the truck, and he leans down to retrieve it.

He freezes as he looks out beyond the truck, seeing a pair of small legs wearing dress shoes and socks. The legs belonged to a girl no older than perhaps eight or nine, by the looks of it. The girl stood still, only moving when uncomfortable from standing still for too long. He blinks, and the legs are gone. He sighs and mutters beneath his breath as he grabs the screw and starts to screw the replacement tire on. Over the sound of him screwing the tire back on, he hears the shuffling of rocks and asphalt, but when he looks he still sees nothing.

He hurriedly finishes his repairs and throws the flat and the toolbox back in the truck bed. One of his wrenches falls out of the toolbox and lands in the dirt, and he kneels down to retrieve it. In the process, he looks over and sees that the legs are back, this time standing directly behind the truck. He stands up, and once again - nothing there. He nervously, and briskly, opens the truck door and climbs inside, but as he starts to close his door the truck roars to life without the keys being anywhere near the ignition.