Bogleech.com's 2014 Horror Write-off:

"The Hillbilly Horror "

Submitted by Sam Miller

"So I was just driving through these woods to get to my house, since I was down at my parents house a whiles away from here, and my car broke down! Could I just come in to call somebody on your phone or something like that?" I say to the big and bulky man standing in the doorway of this small house in the middle of the woods of southern Ohio. He gestures me inside with a bumpy and calloused hand, and then tells me, "We don't got no telephone fer ya to use, but ya can stay 'ere fer the night and we can 'elp ya tomorrow." He grabs the straps on his overalls as I say, "What! It's okay, I don't have to stay here!" He then says, with a grunt, "Well, I don't see whah not, and weh don't want to be mean to ya, now do weh?" He brings me over to the staircase that goes up to the second floor, and I walk up the creaking wooden structure. Once we get to the top, he brings me over to an ajar door and brings me inside. Within sit a short bed, probably filled with straw, a tall shelf, and a squat desk. The floor is a simple wooden one, with no carpet or cover of any kind, and a rough woolen blanket lies on the bed. He says "Don't worry about yer stuff. Well get 'em fer ya in the morinin'." I get under the itchy blanket and slowly fall asleep.

In the morning wake up and slowly get out of the bed. I hear talking in the floor below me, and I also hear a strange scratching from the floor above, or the roof. I didn't remember there being a third floor when I got here. I walk down the creaking stairs and see a woman with the large man from before. She turns to look at me and says, "Hello." in a voice very quiet and faint. She then turns back around and whispers something to the man. Afterwards, she walks into the kitchen and begins cooking something. The man says, "Good mornin' to ya! How did ya sleep?" "I slept well, thank you. I have a question though. I heard a scratching noise come from the roof or third floor or attic or whatever, would you have any idea about what that was?" The man seems nervous, and his eyes dart back and forth "It was probabl' just some 'coons er squirrels. Don't worry." The woman then walks in as I say, "Why, I didn't ask for your names!" I turn to the man, "What is your name?" He says, "Mah name us James." He points towards the woman, "She's Joyce, mah wife." Joyce places plates filled with food on the table and all of us sit down.

We eat a great meal, and I begin a conversation with them, "So, what do you guys do?" Joyce is about to say something when James pipes in, overcoming her, and says, "We don't 'do' nothin'. We just live out here. I hunt and do some other stuff, while Joyce takes care of the children." "Children? I didn't see any children." "That's because their room be on the fird floor. Don't worry about 'em, though. They be just nasty little bundles o' annoyingness. That's whah I didn't let 'em out when ya appeared. I don't like 'em around other people." "Well, they can't be that bad." We continue our conversation, and eventually we begin to talk about our ideas and opinions. They hate the current president, because they just do. They don't like any foriegners. They don't like modern technology. They don't really like modern times, really. After finishing breakfast, I go out to my car to get my stuff to bring in. When I get to the car, I hear a huge SLAM and collapse to the ground, unconsious.

I awaken tied up in a chair inside of James' and Joyce's house. Both James and Joyce stand above me, sillhoutted against very strong light shining on me from somewhere. James says, in a voice not at all like his before, "We don't much like your opinions." He bangs on the door to the third floor, and I hear a mass of scratching and hissing from within. "Get ready to eat, kiddos!" After that, I hear a sound like ripping cloth, and both James and Joyce are gone. In their place stand two fat, scaly creatures, skin like a lizard, with masses of eyes of an insectile kind all bunched together in their two eye sockets. Their mouths are filled with a whole conglomeration of slavering fangs, bulging and pushing at each other. While two of their arms are just like very thin human arms, covered in scales, they also have multitudes of tumorous and vestigial arms dotting the sides of their bodies. Their short and squat legs support the tall and fat bodies, and tumors, skin tags, warts, and hairs coat their scaly skin in uneven amounts. On the sides of their heads sit two giant, cat-like ears, torn and ripped, standing straight up. Giant furry antennae stand on their long, sloping foreheads, and they twitch and jiggle randomly. The creature that was where Joyce was walks over to the door and opens it, yelling, "FEEDING TIME!". Swarms of small creatures fall out of the door, fat and scaly, just like their parents, but with vastly different features. Some have puffy black fur, while others are coated in sticky resin, with eight spiderlike legs radiating out. They immediately swarm towards me, and when they get to me, they begin to chew. Horrible pain seeps through my entire body, as the parental monsters look on with joy at seeing their children.

After the man is gone, Joyce and I approach our children. We pat some of them on the head or heads, and examine the chair. The ropes are torn into bits, and the chair is covered in bone shards and sticky goop. Sitting in the center of the seat are 3 teeth, and one of our babies rushes up to it and begins to nibble on it. After a while, we bundle up the babies in their little tiny blankets and read them a little story, told to me by my grandfather. After they are all asleep, we close the door quietly and get into our bed to have a good night's sleep. Life with a family is hard, but enjoyable.