Horror Stories - "What Lurks in the Fields"

was only a few weeks ago that
the hay bales started
slowly moving away from my house.

Every morning, when I woke up,
I checked and saw that each one had
moved several dozen meters from
its original spot.

I assumed it was a prank by
people who had nothing better to do,
so I let it go.

A few days later, the bales were closer
to the farm's boundary. By
then I'd had enough of the game and
decided to move them back.

It took me a long hour to place them near
the house, and by the time I was finished,
I felt capable of snapping the neck
of any fool who tried
to mess with me.

The next morning I came across
a terrible scene. All my horses
had been decapitated. I woke up to
the smell of blood.

Each one lay motionless at one end of
their stable, with no trace of their
heads. It took me a whole day to clean up
that mess and bury the bodies.

It wasn't until I'd finished that
I realized all of Eno's
bales were back where they'd been
dragged the day before, scattered
across the fields. That's where I left them this
time.

That night I kept watch on the
porch with my shotgun at the ready and
a thermos full of coffee. I stood there
for hours, watching the fields to see
if I could spot who was moving my
bales. Finally, sleep began
to overtake me, and I would have fallen asleep,
if it hadn't been for a noise
followed by the creaking of trees in the
nearby woods.

I stood up. My heart was pounding
with excitement. I was finally going to
capture the son of a bitch. I aimed the
gun, patiently waiting for whoever
was approaching.

Only when the creature
came close enough for me to make out its
silhouette in the darkness did I
freeze, unsure how to react.

The thing that came from the woods and
stalked my fields, I hadn't known
was there.

I followed it across the field, like a stealthy
thief.

I might have mistaken that thing
for something fragile if it weren't for the fact that, still hunched over, it must have been
at least 3 meters tall.

Its extremely
thin arms and legs, and the skeletal, sunken appearance of its abdomen made me think of
a hungry animal. However, and
unbelievably, this creature was very
strong.

I saw him lift a bale in each arm and
lower them again a few meters ahead with
utmost care, covering a
considerable distance in just two steps.
He moved the bales with extreme caution and
every few minutes he looked up to check the
position of the others.

Before leaving, he glanced at the house. I felt
his eyes on me from the shadows. Although
whether he actually noticed me or not, I
cannot say for sure.
He turned silently to go back
the way he had come, vanishing
into the strange shadows of the forest.

It took me an hour to gather the courage
to move from where I was. I went inside a
while later, but I couldn't sleep that
night.

And it wasn't until dawn that I
dared to go out onto the porch and head towards the
fields.

Eno's cows were still where he had placed them, and, oddly enough, he hadn't moved them as far away as he would have on previous days. Among the fields, they formed an invisible shape, and as I observed them, I realized they were drawing something like a line. In fact, walking around the house, I realized that what they formed was a circle, and I was in the center.

I had thought they had been moved randomly at first, but now it was clear they were marking some kind of boundary. The creature wanted to give me a message. I couldn't sleep that night, and if I did manage to, it was only because I was exhausted.

In the morning, the bales were still in their place. In fact, they didn't move for the rest of the week. They were finally where the creature wanted them.

I went crazy trying to make sense of it. Why was that thing so intent on moving my bales and why would it threaten me so violently if I tried to intervene? That was murdering my horses. A threat, a very clever one; it knew I would be afraid and understand the implications.

One morning I felt a thrill when I heard the sound of a car driving along the road to the farm. I had planned to leave ever since I saw the creature, but I thought it might be risky to do it on foot, and that the creature might decapitate me like it did the horses.

If I could just jump into whoever's car
coming up the road, maybe I could
make it before they noticed.

I didn't know who it was, and I didn't care.

The instant they stopped,
I would run to the passenger seat and tell them
we had to get out of there, but
I didn't get the chance.

The car moved slowly along the
path, rattling with the rough terrain. I silently begged them
to hurry, and as we passed between two bales of hay
that lined both sides of the
path, I heard a sharp sound coming
from the woods. The creature emerged from the
trees, galloping on its four
skeletal legs toward the car. It reached
it in two seconds and attacked it.
It was a huge cat. It tossed it and
wrecked the vehicle with ease.

And the driver, whoever it was, screamed; I could hear his agony
despite the metal and glass
shattering. It only stopped when the thing trapped it in its claw and tore it apart.
It flung it away and stood up,
allowing me to get a good look at it. In the
daylight, I saw how inhuman it was. It was made of something living and
abominable, joined to an aberrant
simulation of the human figure.
Whatever it was
made of was so hard and polished that, if
it weren't for the way it moved,
I would have thought it was granite.

The creature retreated toward the
trees, leaving me stunned. My gaze
was still fixed on the car. Its engine
was still sputtering between the two
bales of land. Then I
understood.

The message was obvious. I was a prisoner of
this thing, and visitors were forbidden.

Nothing could cross the boundaries that had been
set. I was captive there because of
the thing that lurked in the fields and it didn't
demand anything more than that I could never leave. Despite everything, I'm not sure
I can bear being that creature's slave. I haven't stopped thinking about it these
days since I saw it tear apart that man's body. If I went beyond the
bales, perhaps I would suffer the same fate.
It would crush my head before I could
even protect myself.

Then it would go in search of a new
pet, probably one that had
the courage to know what was out there,
watching it day and night with those
bright insect eyes of its.

It's something I've been pondering
these past few days. Maybe I'll try
to escape.