There it was, in all its horryfing existence.
No one was sure who the father was, the mother however, was lying on the floor.
There was no blood, since the woman on the floor, instead of skin had some kind of tweed-looking fabric as body covering and instead of abdominal organs, she seemed to be stuffed with some cotton-like material, she was like a human size rag doll, thread people they were called.
She was almost cut in half and the cotton-like stuff was spread all over the room, they had put a cloth on her face.
Edith looked away, covered her face with her white apron and left the room, Arthur and Clayton looked at each other.
-“You know we have to do it”- Arthur whispered.
Clayton scratched the back of his neck.
-“It is ugly alright but I don’t know…”-
-“Ugly?!... Clayton for the love of god!… My sister Irene is ugly, this thing is an abomination!”-
-“Hey! Don’t you talk about my wife!-“
-“Give me that!”-
Arthur snatched the gun from Clayton and pushed him aside, he shot the writhing small body on the floor, it might have been called a baby, since it has just been born.
Other than that there was nothing resembling a baby in the being revolting on the floor; the four branch-looking limbs sticking out of what looked like a small tweed bag stuffed with cotton kept moving after Arthur shot it, he shot at it again.
The small humanoid “head” fell all the way back and the middle part of the “face” opened wide, showing small tusk-looking fangs.
They looked away disgusted and left the room, when they step outside the wooden old house, several men and some women were holding torches.
-“It’s done, fire it!”
-“No! Sandy!”- Ava run to the house but Thatcher grabbed her.
-“Sandy is gone! There’s nothing we can do”-
Ava wept and fell to her knees.
Later that same night, some men were drinking in the local tabern.
-“I can’t take it away from my head”- Clayton gulped his beer.
-“It was quite a scene…”- Arthur said looking at his beer jar.
-“I don’t understand how did Sandy give birth to that… thing…”- Thatcher grabbed his hair.
-“I wouldn’t say she gave birth it was more like that thing cut her belly open and crawled out”-
A gesture of repulsion distorted his face.
-“Well, she wasn’t human anyway…”-
Thatcher shushed Clayton.
-“Don’t say those things, she was a very good friend of Ava”- he looked around as if to check if someone had heard Clayton’s comment.
-“You know…”- Arthur got his chair closer to the table and lowered his voice.
-“Irene heard from the witch of the town that this kind of thing is only produced by evil and wrongness, that Sandy… may she rest in peace… might have had… you know… something to do with a human man”-
The other two men gasped in horror.
-“But… she was a thread woman, there is no way!… Humans and threads do not mix, it’s forbidden … “-
-“Well, now you know why”- Arthur took his jar and drank it to the bottom.
On his way home, Thatcher remembered the last time she saw Sandy, it was right after her husband’s funeral, Tom was a nice thread man, shame he caught and infection caused by some fabric-eating parasites.
Sandy didn’t go out much, she was mourning they said, until one day Ava went to her house to bring her some food and other things and she didn’t find her.
Some people helped Ava and Thatcher look for Sandy but she wasn’t found; until that day when someone told them, screamings came from a shack in the woods.
Sandy was a nice, caring young thread woman that made the best pies in town, blueberry, cheese, pumpkin… hers were the best pies hands down, and she always had a smile and a slice of pie ready to give for free to those who she knew couldn’t afford to buy the whole pie.
That´s why nobody made coments about why she “gave birth” to that thing when her husband had been dead for almost a year, “she was a nice woman” that’s what everybody said when her name came up.
Thatcher was caught in his toughts when he heard something moving from behind some bushes.
He hid behind a tree and looked around, he saw a wild pig jump from behind the bushes, he hugged the trunk of the tree as if he wanted to blend with it, the pig tried to run but fell down, it contorted in agony and soon stopped moving.
Thatcher aproached to the animal and made sure it was dead before touching it, he noticed a branch was coming out from the animal’s neck, the pig must have fell on it.
He covered his mouth with his both hands when he realized the "branch" was not a branch, it looked exactly like the “limbs” sticking from that thing that came out of Sandy.
How could it be? The thing was shot by Clayton and he saw the shack burn to the ground, they all saw it burn down.
An insect-like sound came from behind him, he turned around slowly.
It was standing tall on its two black and pointy “legs” that looked like thick spider legs, it had only one “arm” that looked the same as the “legs” and in the place where the other one had been torn off, was a bleeding spot.
The thing took a step towards Thatcher, the eyeless prune-like head moved from left to right while it opened and close a ragged hole in the middle that showed two curved blunt fangs.
Thatcher squeezed his eyes shut and fell to his knees.
The sound of a fire gun made him open his eyes.
He saw the thing lying on the floor and Arthur still pointing his gun at it, the fabric-like body of the being had two bleeding spots.
Arthur looked at Thatcher with fear drenched eyes.
-“I… I shot the thing back in that shack… it burnt down…”- he said with trembling voice.
Thatcher stood up slowly, unable to take his eyes from the thing.
-“It has to be a different one, this one is bleeding… and is almost as tall as me…”-
He grabbed Arthur from his vest.
-“We have to go Arthur, maybe there’s more”-
Arthur seemed to be in shock, so Thatcher dragged him to Clayton´s house.
-“No, I tell you it was another one”- Arthur told Clayton.
There was a knock on the door, Clayton opened the door and a tall husky man got in the house.
-“ ‘Night gentleman”-
- “Good night chief”- Arthur pulled a chair for the sheriff to sit.
He sat heavily and combed his thick black moustache with his hand.
-“We have to go to the forest area, we had an… incident…”- Arthur stopped talking and looked at Thatcher.
-“We saw another one of those things… the one in the shack… the one that Sandy…”-
-“I am aware of what happened in that thread woman’s house”- he interrupted Thatcher –“I have a dozen of men outside, let’s go get that thing and burn it too”-
-“… Now?”- Clayton asked.
-“Well, yes, there is no time to waste”- He stood up and headed to the door, the three men looked at him in disbelief.
-“Are you coming?”-
None of them wanted to go, but the look in the sheriff´s eyes let them know they had no choice.
The sky was pitch black, the men carried torches to light the way.
-“I think there’s something wrong”- Arthur whispered.
-“You think?”- said Thatcher with a tone.
-“No, Arthur is right, if that thing is already dead and we are going to burn it, why are there a dozen men carrying guns?... ”- said Clayton.
Thatcher looked around, the men were looking around and their guns were ponting to random points.
-“It’s right there”- Arthur pointed at a spot on the ground, a figure was lying on the floor.
When they got closer, they put the torches near to see the thing clearly, the body was ripped off.
-“It looks like some animal tried to eat it or something”- said the sheriff.
-“I don’t know chief, it looks like it was tore from inside out”- a man said while it poked the thing with a branch.
The sheriff knelt down to look at it closer when they heard an insect-like sound.
Arthur’s blood ran cold; it was the same noise he heard before.
Everyone turned around trying to identify where the sound was coming from.
It was coming from different places.
A muffled scream made everyone look at a spot in the back, they saw how one of the men was dragged in the bushes by a spider- legged thing, another one fell from above and took a man with it.
The chaos was uncanny; the firearms were shot at any moving thing, Arthur grabbed one torch from the floor and fought off one the the beings; the screams of men and the things mixed in a grouling discordance.
Arthur saw Clayton running with a firearm he took from a dead man.
Something stroke Arthur from behind and he fell to the floor his eyes wide shut waiting for the final blow; it didn’t come.
He opened his eyes and saw a thread man fighting one of the things.
The thing stabbed the thread man with its long spider leg-like arm, it went through the thread man’s chest causing no harm, the thread man grabed the monster with his twig fingers and tore it open, cloths of blood and drenched cotton fell on Arthur.
One of the cloths started growing spider-like legs.
Arthur stood up, took the torch and hit the revolting monster on the floor.
He looked around and saw the sheriff and some men trying to catch their breath, a few thread men were also there.
-“Put the fallen men on the horses”- one of the thread men instructed the other two.
The sheriff wiped the mud and blood from his face and talked to the broaded shoulder thread man.
-“That was some good timing Carl”-
-“I’d say it was chief, I ran into Ava, she told me some men had come to look for one of those monsters… but I had seen two of them running up the Hangman’s hill… I thought we might be of help”-
A cry made them point their weapons to a near point.
They saw Thatcher and Arthur kneeling next to a body.
-“God damn it Clayton!!”-
Two thread men came closer.
-“No! We’ll do it”- Arthur wiped his face and helped Thatcher put Clayton on one of the horses.
Four thread men walked ahead holding the horses harnesses.
-“We need to hunt down those things, all of them”- said Carl, the sheriff nodded as he lit up a cigar.
-“I’d offer you one but…”- the sheriff grinned at the concerned look Carl gave to the fire.
-“You got some bad scratches there chief”- Carl pointed at the sheriff’s chest, that showed some scarlet lines oh his white shirt.
-“Well, I was luckier than them”- he looked at the men being carried by the horses.
He realized another thread man was walking next to him, and another behind him.
-“Is there something you want to tell me Carl?”- he threw the cigar to the wet muddy grass and stepped on it.
The four men kept walking in silence for some time.
-“I hope you told me the truth back then chief… when I asked you about your visits to Sandy”-
The sheriff looked at Carl and got closer to him.
-“Be careful Carl… it was my duty to present my respects to the widow…and don’t forget I am still the law”-
-“Everything okay chief?”- said Thatcher looking at the thread men.
-“See you tomorrow, my condolences on your fallen men”- said Carl, then he told one of the other thread men:
-“Julius, help them take the men down, then bring the horses back to the stables”-
The other thread man nodded and went ahead.
Carl tipped his hat and walked into the woods.
The next day, after the service for the fallen men, the sheriff left the church and went to the witch doctor.
The old woman slightly opened the door but the sheriff pushed it open, got in and closed the door.
-“You need to help me”- he said and got closer to the fireplace.
-“I already helped you, I hid that woman for as long as I could”-
-“You let her go and she spawned that creature!! And they multiplied or something, I saw how one of them crawled out from a dead monster and started growing legs…they killed seven of my men!!”-
His eyes were on fire but the woman didn’t blink twice.
-“I told you to burn the house when she was still alive”-
-“I… I couldn´t… I was going to but that Ava woman came looking for her and… then it was too late…”
The sheriff sat heavily on the wooden chair and sank his head in his hands.
-“I think that thread man knows something… “- he said in a faint voice.
-“No one will hear what he has to say”- she turned around and plucked some dry flowers.
-“This is what you’ll do”- she said.
He listened to the witch doctor and then left to Thatcher’s house.
-“So we’ll take these to the thread people”-
said Thatcher holdign a black wooden vest with a golden star on it.
-“Yes, be sure to deliver one in each of the thread people houses”- said the sheriff.
-“All of them?”-
-“Yes, all of them… we must be grateful, they are willing to help us end with these monsters, we cannot do it alone…you saw how they were inmune of the attacks of these things”-
-“Well, yes, but made them members of the highest condecorations? Sheriff, I…”-
-“My men will help deliver the vests”- The sheriff interrupted Arthur and pointed at the window, several men were outside on their horses, carrying sacks full of vests.
The vests were delivered as instructed, and at dawn, several thread men wearing the vests went looking for the monsters.
The sheriff, Arthur, Thatcher along with three more men helped the thread men look for and kill all the remaining monsters until they were no more to be found.
Everybody in town celebrated the victory and the spirits were uplifted.
That is, until the thread people started falling ill, there seemed to be an outbrake of fabric-eating parasites.
The sheriff knocked on the door of the doctor witch, got in the old wooden shack and closed the door shut.
-“It’s done”- his grim voice startled the witch that was in some sort of trance.
-“Almost…”- she whispered.
Tell everyone to do what I told you, when one of those rag people die, stitch the eyes and the mouth shut before burying them.
-“But…”-
Although he wanted his secrets kept, the thread people had always been loyal comrades, and having given them the infected vests wasn’t the end of it.
-“Use this thread, I cursed it”-
The witch showed him several bobbins of black thick sewing thread.
-“What… why?!”…-
-“These creatures are different from us, you saw how they were not hurt by the monsters attacks, hell knows what they are capable of.”-
The sheriff puzzled and afraid look didn’t bother her.
-“This monsters are capable to end with us humans, and in any given moment there can be more of them”- she said as she used her cane to walk closer to him.
-“That won’t happen again, there’s no…”-
-“Yes, it will”- she interrupted him.
-“Men are incapable of controlling themselves... when your father came to me for help, “to heal his sick wife at home” I said no to his advances but well... here you are… and when that thread woman said no to you… you did as you pleased and hell almost uleashed…”-
The sheriff had the appearance of a dog that had the tail between the legs.
-“Take the thread and do as I say, but be sure not to use it in any piece of clothing humans may use, the curse is a strong one”-
He took the bobbins of sewing thread and left.
Years after, he was walking in a lonely and dry land with a young boy, he used a stick to dig in the dirt.
-“Grandpa look!”- the little boy pointed at the ground.
The sheriff’s blood ran cold when he saw a half buried rag face, the eyes and mouth stitched shut.
-“Dont touch it!”- he grabbed the kid by the arm and pulled him away.
-“Is that thing like the tweed-fabric man my dad put on the corn field?”
-“Yes… he… he shouldn’t have done that, I told your dad…”- The sheriff closed his eyes and ran his hand through his shaggy white hair.
-“My dad said they did something bad”-
The sheriff kicked some dirt with his foot and covered the face on the ground.
-“He said that’s why they have their eyes and mouths stitched, so they won’t ever give an evil eye or say something wicked”-
-“Yes, he told you that”-
-“Yes! And he also told me how you helped and
became a hero!”- the little boy continued.
He put his little arms around the man’s neck.
-“Thanks grandpa! Thanks for saving us from the monsters!”-
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