Hush Little Baby

Chapter 9: Daddy

The knocking on the floor persisted as Scott stood in the middle of the room with the hanging bodies surrounding him. The subtle knocking was coming from right beneath his feet. Was it listening, could it be afraid of me. The knocking eventually stopped as Scott's muscles started to relax.

These silent moments seemed to be his only opportunity to get out of the slaughterhouse. Lifting his leg, the pressure it on the board released, forcing the wood to creak and disrupt the fresh silence in the room.

Almost immediately the knocking on the floor resumed. This time, more aggressive than then before. The boards were practically jumping from the floor as something beneath it continued hammering away, trying to get Scott's attention.

He didn't have time for this, he needed something to protect himself. Looking around the blood-soaked floor. There just happened to be a meat hook resting underneath one of the bodies that must have fallen. Pulling it out from underneath they burlap sack with the body inside, he examined it. It was made of steel and had a hefty weight in his hands, and overall looked brand new. On the hook was still some pierced flesh impaled on it, but Scott had no interest in removing it.

Now as ready as he could ever be, he crouched down on the floor, his face only inches away from where the knocking was coming from. Scott struggled to see where the boards opened, forcing him to brush away some of the blood and viscera that was scattered about.

A moment passed as Scott tried to withstand the sickness toiling in him as he finally uncovered the trapdoor. Swiping away a few more chunks of meat, he could see something carved into the floor.

Brushing away more of the blood, he could clearly make out the Crimson dyed scratches in the wood. Daddy. On the one side of the trap door was a silver latch with a metal tab attached to the wooden boards of the floor. A human bone was stuck through the latch, ultimately stopping the metal tab from lifting up.

The knocking stopped again, as Scott kept staring at the only thing separating him from whatever was underneath the floorboards. Reaching for the latch with one hand, he removed the bone with the other. The latch now squealing out as he lifted up the metal tab and fell back quickly, keeping the hook at the ready.

"Well are you coming out or what?"

A few moments passed, but it felt like an eternity to Scott as he kept the meat hook armed over his shoulder like a baseball bat. Suddenly the trapdoor began to shake and then slowly creaked open. Unsettlingly slow, Scott didn't let his guard down. Still sweating bullets, he waited to see the creature, as a human hand gripped the edge of the trapdoor and guided it open.

The closer it got to ninety degrees, the more intense the squeaking of the rusted hinges pierced the veil of silence causing Scott to grab his ears and close his eyes in pain.

Thud. The trapdoor fell to the blood-soaked floor, now exposing a man-sized hole in the floorboards. Two hands were now jutting out of the hole grabbing onto either side as someone began to lift themselves out.

A set of arms extended out of the hole following the hands, they looked like they were malnourished, the skin practically clinging onto the bone of the person's arms. Not long after a scraggly grey beard rose from the hole, as the individuals silver hair draped down off his head and continued back down into the hole. It appeared to be an old man, who had been down there for years. His body continued to rise out of the hole, and just like his arms, there was not a trace of fat or muscle left on his body.

Observing all of this, Scott lowered the meat hook, not seeing this man as a threat. He walked over to the trapdoor where the old man was now sitting with his feet dangling into the pit that he had just escaped from.

"Who are you?"

Scott asked the old man, as he looked up. His eyes were white, with no colour left in them, just sadness. The room was still dark, but Scott could make out the old man's tainted red skin, from all the blood that must have seeped down between the floorboards and inevitably covered him for however long he had been down there.

The man still looked up at Scott as he tried to speak. Opening his mouth, a forced breath of air followed but nothing else. The man couldn't talk. Pointing at his mouth, Scott looked inside only to see that his tongue was completely gone. Taking a step back the old man closed his mouth and looked back at the hole, thinking he had offended Scott.

Noticing this, Scott moved closer to the old man and crouched down beside him. The old man looked at him with tears in his eyes before looking around the slaughterhouse.

"Listen to me, I have questions and you might be able to help. All I need you to do is nod. okay?"

The old man nodded.

"Okay, first question did you do all of this?"

The old man shook his head.

"Okay, then who did?"

The man seemed confused but tried his best to describe the individual. He started by pointing at himself making sure Scott got that and then raised his hand a few feet off the ground. Over and over again as Scott tried to make sense of it.

"Little you?"

The old man shook his head but then nodded.

"So someone little but not you, but they're close to you."

The old man nodded again.

"Like a little girl?"

The old man's eyes lit up as the words left Scott's mouth. Something had triggered in the old man mind as the once warm room heated by all the bodies was now cold. The scent of rotting flesh suddenly disappeared, and all that was left was the musty smell of dust.

Out of nowhere, the floorboards suddenly creaked at the entrance to the room, forcing Scott and the Old man to look behind them, as the little girl stood in the doorway glaring back. The old man quickly pointed at her in fear, while looking up at Scott with horror in his eyes. As Scott clenched the hook and prepared to attack her.

However she had other plans, without even touching the door, it slammed shut, and the little girl's footsteps could be heard running across the floorboards in the other room. Scott ran to the door seeing a small crack he swung the hook into it and pulled back. The boards broke in half. Keeping up his attack, he slowly chipped away at the door.

Taking one last mighty swing, the board snapped and opened wide enough for them to get out. Scott stared into the other room for a moment, only to see the girl had vanished again. Growling under his breath, Scott returned to the old man and helped him to his feet. However It was no use, the man was too weak and couldn't stand on his own when he suddenly insisted on getting the meat hook from Scott.

Reluctant to follow through with the old man's plan, Scott took a deep breath and reassured himself that the weak individual wasn't a threat.  Handing the man the hook as he eyed up the tip, touching it to see if it was still sharp when a weak smile came across his face, and he nodded toward Scott, before lifting up his shirt.

"Wait, what are you doing? I need answers, where did the little girl go?"

The old man struggled to answer Scott, as he used the hook to carve out the words Inn on the floorboards with an arrow pointing in the direction of its location, relative to the slaughterhouse.

"Thank you, I'll be back to help you."

The old man merely raised a hand to Scott, insisting he didn't need help as he lifted his shirt again, and Scott was able to make out the word Liar carved into the flesh of his stomach. Then in one swift movement, the man stabbed himself in the abdomen with the point of the hook and dragged it across the word, and in a metaphorical sense, he was crossing it out altogether. He was no longer a Liar.

Scott couldn't move as he watched the old man's internals escape the cavities opening, followed by his body falling head over heels into the hole that he had emerged from. Scott was still concerned and hopeless as he watched the body disappear into the darkness. However, Scott now had all the information he needed, and he was going to go get his friends back, or so he hoped.