What comes from Within

The Old Barn was dark and creaky. You could smell the rotting wood and hear the distant dripping of a leak from the roof.

I kept myself tense and weary of what could lurk around any of the corners or in any of the shadows. My knife was drawn and all I needed was a sign of hostility for me to pull my gun.

I walk past old, bloodied horse stalls, the shadows creating a more horrific scene then the blood alone. The carcass of the horses remain in the stalls but something has already stripped them of anything useful.

I can smell the rot of more than just the wood now. And more than just the horses. I continue past the horses stalls and see a series of pens for what looks like pig and sheep.

The carcasses of the pig and sheep are cleaner than that of the horses. The sheep were sheared before they were slaughtered, but not very successfully. Patches of the sheep's flesh remain along with clumps of wool hanging by a hair.

Bloodied sheers are laying all along the barn floor. A mix of blood and old hay. There is no indication that these are what was used to kill the animals, however, it could be the case.

I continue past the pens and I come to a dark, empty room. It doesn't appear to have held any animals. I step into the doorway and I can feel the vast, emptiness of the room. It's quite a large room. I can't see the walls, but I can feel the space.

I can also feel another presence.

I pick up a handful of dried hay and gather it into a neat bunch. I take an extra piece of twine from my pocket and wrap it around the bunch of hay. I take out a match and strike it off the wood. I light the end of the hay and the shadows begin to dance.

Random walls are all through the room. Positioned at odd angles, varying in heights and lengths. The ceiling seems higher in this room then it did in the main part of the barn. I feel uneasy and turn to leave.

The doorway is gone.

I feel panic rise in my throat as I hear someone shuffling to my left. I turn and see nothing. I feel a hand on my shoulder. Heavy, callused. I turn and position my knife to their throat.

"Woah, woah. Easy. I'm just as lost as you." He said with a different kind of caution. Almost curious.

He's tall and tan. His hair is black and his eyes are the shape of an almond. His skin is fair and his nose looks like it was broken a few times. A little crooked along the bridge. Otherwise, straight. He has high defined cheekbones and perfectly shaped eyebrows. He has full lips with a few cuts along the bottom.

"Did I scare you?"

"What is this?" I ask, trying to hide the shake in my voice.

"No idea. I've been stuck here for maybe a day. Can't find a door, a window, or a hole."

"Have you run into anyone or anything? Do you think the only way out is through the maze?" My voice almost sounds accusing. He won't help me if I begin to accuse him.

"I keep hearing other people but I've never seen anyone. How do you know it's a maze?" He seems even more curious now.

"The positioning of the walls. We should try to go through it. It seems like the only way out." I try to hide my fear. I see him smirk.

"Lead the way."

We walk in silence. No need to give ourselves away to whatever is lurking in the shadows. He nods left or right, indicating which way we should go.

Occasionally, we hear the echo's of children's screams or laughter, coming from no where in particular. It bounces off the walls. We come to a cove made by the walls.

"We could sleep here." He says with a certain hesitation.

I only nod and begin to lay down my coat.

"I have actual blankets." He pulls a backpack from around his shoulder. I hadn't noticed it before so I was shocked when he said he had blankets.

He laid down one big blanket and folded up a coat for a pillow. He grabbed my coat from my hands and did the same. He pulled out two other thin blankets and laid them side by side.

I become uncomfortable. I get down to where my coat is and lay down, trying not to appear stiff. He eases himself down with a laid back sigh.

I face away from him and eventually hear his breathing become a rhythmic, gentle sound. Slowly, I fall asleep myself.

I wake up feeling him pressed against me, his arm around my stomach. It's comforting and I don't want to move but this is weird. I don't even know his name and we are trapped in a psychopathic barn full of death. I get up suddenly.

I turn fast enough to see him jolt awake. He rubs the sleep from his eyes and his sleepy expression is replaced with confusion.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't even know your name."

"Kosto." He says with a certain shame.

"Were your parents Finnish?" He looks up in surprise.

"That's Finnish for revenge."

"What's your name?" He asks me, changing the subject.

"Rein."

"Hmm. French for queen and German for pure." He says. I can feel his curiosity growing.

"We should keep going." I say sharply.

He nods.

Kosto. It's a beautiful name. There is just something familiar and special about it. It's quite intriguing if you know the language it came from.

Suddenly, there's a loud bang. Then a scream. We run towards it. It was close. We keep running until finally. The end of the maze.

We run out into another big, open room. Across from us is a tall man dressed in a leather coat that goes to his knees. His dark hair is in patches on his pale head. His boots are big and black. He turns to us and I gasp.

His face. His pupils take up the majority of his eyes. They're bloodshot. As if he has never slept.

His mouth is almost non-existent. His lips are gone. Rubbed raw off his face. There are sizable holes where his cheeks should be. His teeth are rotted and pointed. As if created for tearing flesh.

There is a child hanging limp in his hand. He's holding her by her throat, blood pouring from an open wound on her neck. A cry escapes my lips.

His attention snaps to me and he throws the child to the ground. In an instant, he is in front of me. Snarling and foaming, as if infected with rabies.

He slashes his nails into my chest and I fall backwards. Kosto is yelling and stabs the guy a number of different times. I feel my head hit the wood of the barn and I struggle to get back up. I see the man fall finally. Kosto keeps stabbing until there is almost nothing left to stab.

"We have to get you out of here. I can't let you die." He sounds desperate. Like there is something I don't know.

I pass out.

I am dreaming. I am a little kid again and I am playing with a young boy. I have had this dream a million times before and have never been able to understand. We are running in a field. The little boys dark hair appearing brighter in the sun. His face is round and happy. He's pulling me along by my hand. He stops running and looks around, as if he heard someone call his name. "Kosto." He disappears.

I wake up with a start. I see Kosto's face in front of me, worried. We're in the field, the sky above is dark with rain.

"We made it-"

I press my mouth to his, feeling the pain in my chest.

I finally figured it out.

"That day that I disappeared, I went to the barn to help my mom. She had called me so I went to look. I was walking through and all the animals were still alive. Everything felt fine. I went to the back room and I heard her call me again. This time it was different. I ran through the room and there she was, dying on the floor. She had the slashes along her chest, neck, and stomach. She was pregnant but that didn't matter anymore. The last thing she said to me was run. So I ran. I got to the end of the room and turned to look one last time and he was standing over her."

I felt the pain in his voice when he was telling this story. He wasn't crying, he wasn't yelling.

"He only ever killed girls." He sounded angry when he said this.

"We made it out. He's dead." I didn't believe the certainty in my voice.

Kosto lays down beside me in the field and gently grabs my hand. We lay there listening to each others breathing. Mine is more labored than his and I can tell that he hears it too.

After feeling one, two, three drops, it starts to rain. We just lay there, feeling the rain on our skin. A new sense of relief.