The Morrison Farm

My friend Johnny and I run our own general contracting company. We specialize in waste removal and general repairs. We have an absolute work horse mentality. No job was too big or too dirty for us. That was until the Morrison farm. The job that left both physical and psychological scars on both of us. The place that changed us forever.

The Morrison farm had existed for over 150 years and to be honest it should have been torn down decades ago. Lord knows enough developers had made old man Morrison more than generous offers over the years and yet he refused to sell. He always said “There are more good things to grow here.” None of us knew what the hell he was talking about. He barely grew enough crops for a cookout. There were rumors that the land was cursed. There were also a great many rumors about the old man himself.

There were multiple accounts of him shooting trespassers on site. That one I believe and I heard enough gunshots around here to know it was true. There were rumors that he set up bear traps around the place to catch not animals but people. Rumors of cults, vampirism and just about every other thing you can imagine spread like wildfire. Every town needed a boogeyman and Morrison fit the bill.

That was until just last week when he died alone in his home. The man had no family or next of kin so the house was turned over to the county. We all thought for sure it would be torn down but to everyone’s surprise an investor wanted the house. The other odd thing was that Johnny and I were given the contract. We may have thought they were nuts but if you pay we play.

We showed up to the farm one sunny afternoon. The temperature was pushing 30 and that’s not factoring in the brutal humidity. We decided to work on the lower parts of the house first and do the insulation in the attic as it got dark so that we didn’t pass out from heat exhaustion. The place was eerily quiet and with only a gentle breeze blowing through the small patch of corn outside. Maybe it was the stories I had been listening to since childhood but the whole place gave me the creeps.

“Feels like he is still here doesn’t it?” Johnny asked. “Yeah I keep expecting him to burst through that door and pull a shotgun on us.” I replied. We stared at the old house. It was made of old rotted wood that looked like a well placed sneeze would take it down. The windows were all boarded up and sealed tightly. The old man liked his privacy, that’s for sure. The whole house had a living quality as if it was watching us. “Come on man, let’s get this work done and get paid.” I said. Johnny nodded and went forward. We walked through the front door and all at once every one of our senses were assaulted.

With the windows completely boarded up the place was pitch black. The heat was instantly overwhelming with the humidity stifling. There was a horrible smell of mold and rot permeating the area, a smell you could taste. There was also a strange sound we couldn’t identify at the time. A minor but persistent hum that was disorienting.

We threw on our flashlights trying to get our bearings however the light did nothing to help the situation. The house was in complete and utter disarray. The walls weren’t just covered in mold, they were oozing it like blood. Flies buzzed around everywhere in large clusters. “Jesus, has the man ever cleaned this place?” Johnny asked. I shook my head because I highly doubted it. The smell was becoming stronger and almost unbearable. We hadn’t wanted to use our respirators with the heat but we had no choice.

With our masks on the smell was diluted a bit but still very strong. Johnny sniffed a bit and stared at me in alarm. “Do you smell that underneath the rot?” He asked. I took a deep whiff and nodded. “Sulfur. I don’t know where it is coming from but it is definitely there. We need to be careful and try not to strike any sparks or this whole place could go up.” I replied.

We ventured around and found the place to be extremely plain. No television, no radio, not even a book shelf. How did the old man spend his days because it sure as hell wasn’t cleaning or maintaining his farm. We came into the kitchen where a small table with a single chair sat. There was a plate on the table with some food on it. “Old man must have passed very suddenly. Must have been in the middle of lunch.” I said simply trying to break the eerie silence.

Johnny turned his flashlight towards the plate and I saw his face turn pale. I followed the beam and almost vomited in my mask. Sitting on the plate was a gutted raccoon. The flies buzzed around it incessantly. I thought for a moment that maybe an animal had brought it in but the teeth marks in its belly were entirely human. I happened to notice another disturbing fact. “Notice anything missing?” I asked Johnny. “Salt?” He joked. I sighed and shook my head. “No fork or knife. Also even worse it wasn’t even skinned or cooked. He was just eating this raw, like an animal.” Johnny grimaced. “Well I’m going to take a stab that might have played a role in his death. Let’s get the hell out of this room before I give the flies more to feed on.”

I didn’t waste time arguing with him and kept moving on. We walked past a door and that strange humming noise was louder. I opened the door and the sound instantly became almost deafening. The stairs led down into the cellar. The floor was almost as bare as the rest of the house. There was a large red carpet and surrounding it were four massive air conditioning units. The units were all pointed straight at the center of the room.

“Did they know we were coming?” I asked. “No, no one has been in the house beyond the paramedics. Besides, we don’t even have any work assigned down here.” Johnny replied. “It would be nice to take breaks down here though.” I said as I made my way down the stairs. I was about to step onto the carpet when Johnny grabbed my shoulder. “Come on dude. We have a lot of work to get done and we really are not supposed to be down here.” He said. I nodded and went back upstairs. I go back to that simple moment a lot and I wonder how different my fate would be had he not reached out for me in that moment. I realize that no amount of gratitude towards Johnny will ever be enough.

We went back upstairs and set out to work. We left the front door open to both air out the area and give us a little light. Exploration of the house was relatively uneventful. He had a mattress on the floor upstairs a closet with a few pairs of overalls in it. The bathroom had a toilet and a small heavily rusted bathtub. Well I guess we knew how the old man managed to get by. This was a man with no true comfort or entertainment of any kind.

Our list of chores was fairly simple overall. Remove any personal items and debris of the previous owner. Spray any mold on the walls and make sure that there were no unsavory animals inside. The last task would be to go into the attic and remove any insulation. Normally Johnny and I would work side by side, joking and jabbering away. However we believed divide and conquer was the best way to go about things. The sun was sinking and I don’t think either of us wanted to be here after dark.

We got to work with Johnny taking the leftover stuff to the truck for a dump run and I got to work blasting the hell out of all the mold. The whole time things felt off to me. It felt like someone was in the room with me. There were a few times I thought I heard footsteps in the house but when I radioed Johnny he said he was outside. I’ve never felt alone and I could almost swear that I heard whispering throughout walls. It was a very unnerving couple of hours.

Finally we made our way through and the attic was the last thing to do. Since I took care of the mold Johnny offered to go into the attic. He would toss down insulation and I would bag it up. We took a look at the floor and decided to equip our harness system. This way if the ceiling broke my weight would stop Johnny from plummeting to the floor. Yet another moment I am eternally grateful for.

Johnny climbed up and I could hear him gasp. “Man, it’s massive up here. It’s almost like a small apartment, you know except for the insulation and dust.” I shook my head. “Dude just get this done, I don’t like being down here alone!” I shouted. “Aww the little baby is afraid of the dark.” He joked. Normally I would have been pissed at him but he wasn’t entirely wrong. I didn’t like being down here. It wasn’t just the darkness but there was a silence here that I didn’t like. Something felt different up here and it was putting me on edge.

Johnny began tossing down moldy pieces of insulation and I bagged them up. For a bit it was normal but then something changed. The sun had officially set. I don’t know how I knew that in this pitch black house but I knew it with all my soul. That was when my flashlight, with fresh batteries I might add, started to flicker. “Oh no you son of a bitch! Don’t you play these games with me!” I shouted at my light.

That was when I heard them. Before I got the impression of footsteps but these were clear as day. Loud booming footsteps echoed from down the hallway by the stairs and they were getting closer. I began smacking my light trying to get it to work. It flashed for a second and I thought I saw the silhouette of a tall figure standing down the hall. I hit it again and the flash revealed the figure was now closer. I screamed loudly and gave my flashlight one final smack bringing it back to life. The light blasted revealing the hallway was empty.

“What the hell was that about man?” Johnny asked from above me. I shook my head. “Nothing, my light malfunctioned and it creeped me out.” I waited for a smart ass comment from Johnny but none came. He stared at me with full seriousness. “You need to come up here. There is something you need to see.” He said sternly. I half wondered if he was leading me into a prank but the starkness in his voice banished that fear.

I climbed up and Johnny wasn’t kidding, the attic was massive and tall. It really could have been a whole apartment with some fixing up. There was a new smell that felt oddly familiar but I couldn’t place it at the time. Once again I wonder what would have happened if I did. I followed Johnny across the floor and we came up to an opening with a ladder going down. “There is a whole other room down here.” Johnny told me.

We descended the ladder without a word. The room was fairly small and one of the few rooms with furniture. There was an actual bed in here and a small table with a book upon it. We walked slowly towards the book. The cover was a pentagram with a horned demon head in the center. I reached out and turned the pages with a shaking hand. The pages were filled with some type of ancient language and various pictures ranging from dark creatures to intense human suffering.

“What the fuck is this?” I asked out loud. I turned to Johnny whose gaze was transfixed at the other side of the room. “Did the old man have a kid?” He asked me. “No, no kids or wife, you know that.” I replied. “Then what the fuck is that?” He pointed to the other side of the room and there stood a crib. It was extremely old and cracked. Above it was a homemade mobile. However instead of cute smiling characters there were real dead animals and small bones that I knew were human.

Johnny and I stared in silence for a moment until finally he grabbed my shoulder. “That is it, we are getting the fuck out of here now!” He yelled. “Were you expecting an argument?” I asked. He smiled at that and we climbed out of the room. We crawled across that attic floor as fast as we could and I jumped down.

“Okay move buddy I need to…” Johnny started to say but that was when he was pulled by some unseen force. The rope connecting us pulled tight and actually started to lift me from the ground. I could hear Johnny screaming in both pain and absolute terror screaming “what is that?” at the top of his lungs. I debated on unhooking myself and running but I couldn’t leave my best friend behind. I gripped the rope with all my might and gave a hard pull. The rope gave way and I could hear him shuffling across the floor. He leaped from the attic and sat on the floor panting.

“What was it?” Was all I could think to ask. “I only got glimpses of it but I would swear to you on all I have that it was a giant bat. It was the size of a god damned German shepherd.” Johnny said between pants. I was prepared to argue the impossibility of that but that was when the mystery odor came to me. It was guano, I remember the smell from my one time spelunking. “We definitely need to get out. We need to get you to the hospital.” I commanded. Johnny merely nodded and we made our way to the stairs.

Our tracks were completely stopped when a new series of sounds could be heard. There were footsteps downstairs and these ones were undeniable. What was worse was that there was the sound of someone whistling a tune. I remember sneaking onto the property when I was a child and old man Morrison was whistling that exact same song.

The footsteps started making their way towards the stairs. Johnny and I had no idea what to do so we ran towards the farthest corner and killed our lights. The footsteps echoed up the stairs. Each one sent my heartbeat into a deeper frenzy. We saw an arm holding an electric lantern come into view and after it was old man Marrison in the flesh. Though I suppose “in the flesh” may be a little complimentary. His skin was the dull gray of a corpse with large chunks of rotted flesh exposed. There were no iris’ in his eyes and he seemed to be smoking all over.

He made his way towards the bedroom and we silently prayed that he wouldn’t see us. Suddenly he stopped in the doorway and smiled. “Good evening boys. You know you really shouldn’t leave the door open, you never know what will come in.” Then he turned to us and gave us a toothy grin with a mouth full of blood. “Although to those of us who know about the shortcuts, a front door isn’t necessary. Want to know what is on the other side?” He asked us. His voice had a layered quality. The second voice was much deeper and much darker.

“I thought I would have to go out hunting but instead here you are. Supper time boy!” He shouted. What happened next is beyond explanation. A column of darkness appeared behind the old man. Out of the darkness stepped a creature beyond the darkest of nightmares. It’s skin was black but completely soaked in dark red blood. The creature’s shoulders were a pair of human faces frozen in agony. The top of his head was adorned in massive horns made from twisted human arms. I could actually see fingers wrapped around them. His stomach was thin and I could see imprints of hands poking through, still being digested. This fiend was a monolith of suffering.

Before we knew how to react the beast lunged at us. Johnny and I moved in pure instinct and the beast missed us by mere inches. We wasted absolutely no time and rushed down the stairs. We were in a panic, I forgot the layout of the house. I ran into the first door I found hoping for the sweet smell of the outdoors. However it instead led to the basement stairs. Johnny tried to yell for me to stop but I was too panicked to listen. I rushed down the stairs and put my foot down on the carpet. Before I could even think, the carpet gave way from under my feet.

Have you ever jumped from a large height? For the first couple of seconds time slows down and you just kind of seemingly float there for a moment. That is what happened to me when I fell through the floor. The mystery of the air conditioners was solved instantly in the worst way. I was in a long tunnel of fire. The heat was unbearable and I was sure I was going to pass out. I wish more than anything that I did but fate can be a cruel bitch.

I did not lose consciousness but instead continued to fall. As I fell I began to pick up speed. I looked down and saw the shadow of a great serpent’s head at the bottom of the pit. I tried to scream but no sound came from my lips. The great snake opened its mouth revealing a gate of flame. I flew into the mouth and went past the flames.

Throughout this story I have spoken in great detail about the events that have transpired. However, at this moment I’m afraid that I must be extremely vague. This is both for your protection and mine. Trying to describe what I witnessed beyond the fire is like a 2 dimensional character being told what the third dimension is like. We as mortals can not truly understand the depths of true horror and despair. All I will tell you is that whatever vision you have of the wrong side of the afterlife, your vision is horribly watered down.

I felt my sanity slip as I stared. That was when I felt a strong pull at my waist. It took me a moment to realize that I was still wearing the harness. I was being yanked backwards to the world of the living. I closed my eyes and the next thing I knew I was on the basement floor of the Morrison farm. Johnny stared at me in disbelief. I simply sat in silence for a moment.

“Did you see it?” I finally managed to get out. He shrugged. “I saw a bright red light and you fell through. I yanked you right away before you got more than a foot in the hole.” He replied. I was stunned into silence. I fell for meters, miles even. But how could I have? The harness was only a matter of feet long. I suppose what fell was something else, something inside. I looked at the floor but the hole was gone, only the wiped remnants of a pentagram remained.

I was about to thank Johnny when we heard a clatter from upstairs. With the fresh horrors witnessed I forgot all about the beast that was chasing us. I was waiting for the basement door to burst open but it never did. We heard the front door slam instead. We looked at each other and rushed upstairs. We burst through the outer door and managed to catch a brief glimpse of something moving through the cornfield and into the woods.

Johnny and I stood there for a moment wondering what to do next but there was only one thing to do. We forgot all about our equipment inside, we didn’t think we would need it any more anyway. I stood in the doorway and lit a match. I debated on saying “go to hell” but what would be the point? The house was already there. I threw the match inside and watched as the house was engulfed instantly. We didn’t leave until the place was nothing but ashes.

We told the county that the fire started when one of our tools struck a spark and the whole thing was an accident. They were not happy about the situation but they don’t seem to be looking to sue us at the moment. Johnny and I are now looking for new jobs. Preferably something with Sundays off as both of us have become regulars at church. There is one aspect that is still a mystery to me. Who the hell was the mysterious buyer and what did they want with the place?

Credit: Tenac