The Darkest Web by John A. Russo

Author:John A. Russo [Russo, John A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781639779307
Published: 2022-03-22T16:00:00+00:00

22

After the first rabbit the children caught, they continued setting traps and torturing, maiming and killing the animals that were sent to them, mostly in the guise of squirrels, possums rabbits or an occasional stray dog or cat. It became a challenge to see who could devise the most ingenious, painful ways to deal with these enemies. The children grew callous about performing amputations and decapitations, searing live flesh with fire, gouging or poking out eyes, or mutilating genitals. No amount of cruelty was too extreme for the evil spirits embodied by these outwardly harmless creatures. Luke and Abraham did most of the killing. Cynthia presided over the ritualistic aspects of their activities and Cyrus played the role of undertaker, preparing the corpses for burial.

One day the inevitable happened: a human was caught. Or at least it looked like a human. Outwardly. They didn’t see it at first. They only heard its screams as they walked along the dusty road about a hundred yards from their house. Stopped in her tracks, Cynthia excitedly realized that the screams were coming from out in the field at a spot where they had set several of the biggest traps. This was truly awesome—potentially the biggest thing they had yet caught. Cynthia began praying to Tetragrammaton, to protect them.

The boys seemed as afraid as she was of what they might find, because they were taking their time heading into the field—but all of a sudden Luke grabbed Cyrus’s shovel and took off running. Whatever it was they had caught, it was behind some tall weeds. Luke went crashing through the weeds, Cyrus huffing and puffing behind him.

Cynthia heard a loud whomp. And the screaming died.

Breaking through the weeds, she saw Luke standing over the body of a boy. There was a lot of blood. The steel jaws of the trap had nearly severed the boy’s leg, and Luke had split his skull open with Cyrus’s shovel.

“Is he…is he dead?” Abraham managed to gasp out.

Luke was still breathing hard. “Don’t know.” He took a rapid series of deep breaths. “No, I guess not. Look! He’s still breathing!”

Cyrus chortled for no apparent reason.

Luke raised the shovel over his head to hit the boy one more time.

“Wait! That’s Jimmy Peterson!” Cynthia cried.

They all came around to look at the boy’s face, trying to discern his features through the smeary mask of fresh blood. Jimmy Peterson was the son of the man who operated the country store. Mama and her children didn’t hold any love for the Petersons because both father and son, and even Jimmy’s little sister, liked to poke fun at Cyrus, calling him “dum-dum” or “weirdo.” Luke had fought with Jimmy once, and Jimmy had won by giving Luke a bloody nose.

“It’s him all right,” Abraham said.

Cyrus nodded his head, his eyes wide.

“Wonder how long he’s been caught,” Abraham mused.

“But it ain’t really him, is it?” Luke said.

“Don’t make no difference no more,” Abraham said. “He done stopped breathin’.”

They all looked and saw that the boy was dead.

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