Ghost Stories by Ron Ripley

Author:Ron Ripley [Ripley, Ron]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Horror
Publisher: ScareStreet.com
Published: 2016-06-24T23:00:00+00:00

The Shepherd

For three months, David had listened to his parents talk about the killings.

Two sheep in March. Three in April. Another pair in May. Seven sheep out of forty-three. Not much for some of the bigger farms, but for David’s family, seven was a lot.

David lay in his bed in the loft and wondered why his parents didn’t believe. At fifteen years old, David knew a lot. And yet, he understood there was a great deal more, he didn’t. A rare trait, Ms. Holmes said. He was one of the few students who didn’t sass her. She liked how he wanted to learn, and how he loved to read. And because of his politeness, she had happily gotten him the curious books he had requested. The fairy tales about the bad things, the dark things, which hunted men, as well as beasts.

David believed he knew what sought out his father’s sheep, just as he learned what had to be done to save them. He doubted Ms. Holmes would have agreed with him, though. As smart as she was, she was still an adult. And most adults didn’t believe in fairy tales or boogeymen. David thought of the sheep, the way they’d been torn apart and devoured. Little more than fur and bones had remained.

His thoughts were interrupted as his father came into the house. David peered over the side of the loft and down into the main room. His mother sat by the fire and mended a tear in his pants. He watched as his father stepped over to her, bent and kissed her swiftly. She looked up and smiled. “Did you have any luck?”

“No,” his father said, shaking his head. He put his shotgun in its corner to the left of the chimney, took off his light coat, hung it on a hook by the pantry cabinet, and sighed.

“Coffee?” his mother asked.

“I’ll get it, Love,” his father said. David watched his father get some of the strong, dark, brew the man enjoyed so much. With a grunt, his father took his chair opposite his mother, who put her mending down and looked at him.

“Are you alright?” she asked. He shook his head. “No. I’ve checked the pasture, made sure the new fence is secure and herded the sheep into one corner. Like every night, we can only hope all of our sheep will be safe when morning comes.”

“Isaac,” she said, “does anyone know what it is, yet?”

David listened carefully. “No,” his father said, “we don’t have enough tracks to go by. Some say a wolf, others say a coy-dog, some overlarge offspring of a dog and coyote. It doesn’t matter, though. I just wish we had a way to stop it.”

“Perhaps, it will move on,” his mother said. “It wasn’t here before the end of the year. We can hope it will find greener pastures.”

David’s father grunted his approval, took a clay pipe from its mug on the mantle and packed himself a full bowl. He reached out, took a match from a small shelf and struck it on the stone of the fireplace.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.