The Darkness of His Gift

It was a fine day for family and food. Adam was just a young boy on a farm in Texas. He understood the importance of food, but did not yet understand the importance of family. This particular day of the year there was plenty of family in that little house. The smell of home cooked food filled the noses of all. The day known as Thanksgiving was upon the Verdejo family.

Little Adam was proud of his striped, collared shirt and khakis. He had shined his shoes to be extra sparkly. He had combed his black hair and even put gel in it so that it would stay nice. He was so excited to see his family, for he did not have any siblings. Once he was sure that he looked his best, Adam ran out of his room to greet everyone. 

When Adam saw his grandfather, he ran towards him and gave his a big hug. “¡Hola, abuelo!” he shouted to his grandfather. His grandfather looked down at Adam and hugged him back. He did not say much, and Adam knew this. He continued running through the house and giving his relatives hugs.

“Adam, what did I tell you about running in the house?” his mother scolded him when he had reached the kitchen.

“Sorry, Mama,” Adam replied. “Hola, Auntie Luisa!”

His aunt, who was aiding Adam’s mother in the kitchen, looked at Adam from behind the stove and said, “Hola, chico. ¿Qué hora es?” 

“It’s almost four, Luisa,” Adam’s father replied as he walked up to them.

“Perfect timing,” Adam’s mother said. “It looks like we are all finished, Luisa!”

“Sí, Veronica,” Luisa replied. “Adam, sobrino, help me set the table. 

Everyone enjoyed the feast provided by the two sisters. Everyone tried everything. The family was won over by the food the moment it was put on the table. Had it not been that dessert was to follow, there would have not been any leftovers. Once everyone got a whiff of the pumpkin pie that Veronica had made and the pound cake that Luisa had made, they all made room in their stomachs for the dessert.

The family enjoyed their time together, but as the clock ticked away the hours, they started to file out. Adam was tired and was on his way to bed when his father stopped him. “Adam,” he said, “let’s go i’to the livin room. I got something I wanna show ya.” Adam simply nodded his head and followed his father. 

Adam’s father sat down on the couch and Adam sat down next to him. “Now Adam, you understand today is about what we thankful for,” Adam’s father began, “and we’re most thankful for this family. Well, this land that we are on right now has been in our family for many generations.”

“Knowing this,” Adam’s father continued as he reached for bag next to the couch. “I went down into the old well outside to see if there was anything worth keeping down there. I found this.” He pulled a leather-wrapped knife. It was too short to be a sword, but too long to be a dagger. It was about the size of machete.

Adam’s eyes widened when he saw it. He reached out his arm to touch the knife, but his father pulled it out of his reach. “It will be yours some day,” his father said. Adam’s father took notice of Adam’s pouting. “I’ll make you deal. When you are tall enough to be able to get the knife off of the cabinet without any help or support, you can have it,” he said as he put the knife on top of a tall cabinet. 

After three more Thanksgivings, Adam was able to jump and grab the knife off the cabinet as he fell. He looked back at his father, who nodded in approval. Adam then proceeded to unsheathe the sword. The blade was very dark grey. “It’s pretty,” Adam said. 

“I had it cleaned up the moment I was outta that well,” his father said. “It’s yours now, but it ain’t a toy so don’t let me catch you playin with it.”

“You won’t, Papa,” Adam responded as he sheathed the knife and ran to his room.

That night as Adam was sleeping, fear dripped out of the knife like water drips out of a leaky faucet. There was a tap on Adam’s window. He stirred in his sleep. Another tap on the window. Adam awoke but did not rise. There was yet another tap on the window. Adam tried to ignore the noise and turned over. One last tap was all it took to annoy Adam enough to get him to rise. 

Adam walked to his window and was faced with a grim sight. The thing tapping at the window was a toe! Because he was tired, all this managed to do was confuse Adam, until he saw what was throwing the toe. It was thin, grey creature with chunks of flesh missing from its bones. It shrieked at Adam ad charged toward the window. Adam fell down screaming at the top of his lungs. 

He heard footsteps above him and started crying. His door was slammed open and he screamed, “DON’T EAT ME!” 

In ran his father, mother, and grandfather. His father was carrying a gun and his grandfather was waving his cane and shouting, “Exorcise the demons!” 

“Go back to bed, Dad,” Adam’s father grumbled.

Veronica wrapped her arms around Adam and started asking questions, “Is everything okay? Are you hurt?”

Adam pointed to the window and said, “Zombie.”

Veronica looked at her husband and sighed in relief. “It was just a nightmare, baby” she said to Adam. She tucked him back into bed and everyone went to sleep within fifteen minutes. Everyone, that is, except Adam. He kept staring at the window, hoping that he had simply had a nightmare. 

The window fogged up and eventually Adam could see nothing out of it. He was about to turn over and go back to sleep when something happened. What appeared to be a finger started writing on the window. Four letters were spelled out on the glass: A-D-A-M. Like a soft whisper in the ear, Adam heard a voice say his name. “Adam,” it quietly said. It almost seemed to be calling out to him. “Adam,” it repeated. That was Adam’s last memory for the night.

The next day Adam went on a walk outside. He took the knife with him in case the zombie was still lurking about. He scoured the land in search for monsters. What he did not see was what was following him. As he approached the well, he became aware of footsteps following him. He was reaching for the knife when whatever it was that was following him reached out its arm and—

“Hey there!” said a girl behind Adam as she touched his shoulder. “Lovely day today ain’t it?”

“Um… hello,” Adam replied. The girl’s presence and appearance had shocked him. She was wearing jeans, a flannel shirt, boots, and and a cowboy hat. She had dark brown hair and tan skin. “Where did you come from?” he asked.

“Yonder and not far,” the girl replied. She looked down at Adam with a frown and said, “You seem kinda young to be carryin’ around a knife like that. How old are you?”

“I’m nine and I’m more than old enough to carry a knife,” Adam argued as he puffed out his chest. “What about YOU? How old are you?”

The girl shrugged and frowned, “I don’t really bother with keepin up with my age,” she sighed. 

She noticed Adam carefully put the knife back on his belt, but he did not take his hand off of the hilt. The girl grinned and grabbed Adam by the shoulders. “Hey! What’re you—”

He was not able to finish his sentence, for Adam was thrust to the side of the well. He would have gone tumbling to the bottom had he not caught himself. “Stop it!” Adam yelled. “What’re you doing?!” 

“You seem mighty fond of that knife,” the girl yelled back. “Don’t ya wanna see where it’s been livin for the past few centuries?!” She laughed maniacally and kept pushing. 

Adam kept shouting and protesting against his situation. “Adam! Get away from the well!” he heard his father shout at him. Suddenly Adam no longer felt any force on his shoulders. He jumped away from the well and was turned around to face his father. “What were doing, young man?” Adam’s father shouted at him. “ You could have fallen into the well and died.”

“There was a girl trying to push me in!” Adam cried.

“Don’t lie to me, young man,” his father said angrily. “Go back to the house and get inside. We’ll discuss this later.”

As Adam was walking away, his father saw the knife on Adam’s belt. “Adam, why are you carryin the knife around? I told you it’s not a toy. If you can’t handle a weapon responsibly, then I’ll have to take it away from you.”

At this Adam turned around and protested, “But you gave it to me as a gift, Papa! You can’t take back a gift!”

“Don’t talk back to me! Now get to the house.”

Before Adam went to bed that night, he told his grandfather what had happened earlier. All his grandfather said was, “Heh, probably a demon. Might have to get you exorcised, nieto.” Adam did not believe in his grandfather’s demonic possession stories, so he just went to bed. That night Adam put the knife on his nightstand, for he felt safer with it nearby. 

All was well and quiet on the Verdejo farm until Adam awoke at midnight. He would have screamed, but he covered his mouth so as not to awaken the beast within his room. Blocking his door was the largest wolf Adam had ever seen. He quietly grabbed the knife and got out of bed. He opened his window as silently as he could and hopped outside. As he was closing the window, the wolf awakened and stared at Adam. In his fear, Adam forgot to close the window and started running. As he ran he heard a howl break the silence of night.

He kept running and running, but as he ran the monsters ran too. From the earth came the once dead. From the sky came shriekers and ghouls. From behind came the big bad wolf. As Adam ran he could not escape. As he ran he could not hide. As he ran he was using his breath to breathe instead of scream. 

Adam reached the well and stopped to catch his breath, but he was quickly surrounded. Adam unsheathed the knife and held it out before him. “Get back!” he screamed. “Stay away!” 

From out of the crowd of monsters came a lone zombie. It was not the one from the night before, but it terrified him. None of the other monsters were approaching him, just this one. As tears rolled down his cheeks, Adam started to shout again. “Stay away! I’m not afraid to kill you monsters!” 

The zombie was two feet away from Adam. He closed his eyes and rushed the zombie, but as the blade cut through flesh, he heard it say, “… just a nightmare… Adam.”

Adam’s eyes widened. “M-mama?” he whimpered. As blood flowed onto Adam’s hands, all the monsters faded away like a mirage. He looked into his mother’s shocked eyes. The blade had gone straight through her and seemed to be enjoying itself as it bathed in blood. 

Blood leaked out of Veronica’s mouth. The last word that came out of her mouth was, “A-adam…?” Her body went limp and slid off of the blade. The ground drank her blood and accepted it as an offering. Adam backed up as he sobbed in grief. He took one too many steps and tumbled into the well.

Adam had broken both his arms and his legs when he hit the bottom, but the knife was still in his hand. Around him eyes lit up like little lightbulbs. “Heya, Adam,” the voice of a girl said, “you made it just in time for supper.” Outside of the well you could hear the screams of a boy being torn apart and devoured by hundreds of monsters, but you could not hear the monsters.

The next day Adam’s father and grandfather arrived at the well to find the skewered body of Veronica and the little bit of what was left of Adam and the knife at the bottom of the well. “I knew we needed an exorcism, but nobody listened to me,” the grandfather said. 

The father of the dead child fell on his knees and sobbed. In his chest was a cavity that could only be filled with the fine cooking of his wife and the sound of his son’s footsteps running through the little house. He picked up his shotgun and blew out his brains, for he could not withstand the darkness of his gift.