Hellfire Farms

Hellfire Farms was a haunted farmhouse in the middle of Fucking Nowhere, Michigan that was always bustling with city and small town folk every spooky season. Its elements rocked horror fans to their cores with its odd, not-quite-Southern charm, killer cannibal farmer, and of course, the chainsaw guy.

On the 6ish acres of land that the attraction lives on, behind the farmhouse and down a winding path, there was “the toolshed” where a grotesque looking farm hand would occasionally step in from the shadows, separate one of the group members and pull them by the arm to the cellar stairs, shut them inside, and said group member was supposed to walk by themselves to the exit, enclosed in darkness, the sounds of clanking, screaming, and other horrifying things coming from all directions.

Ferrah Blankman was a typical atypical fifteen year old girl, whose eclectic taste in hobbies ranged from making parkour videos to learning sea shanties, to knowing everything there was to be known about exotic birds. Her hair was the color of caramel, and she always kept it short to keep it out of her face, though she did wear a pair of large, round glasses across her hazel eyes. She was sweet, though a little odd, and also had an affinity for haunted houses and being scared.

Ferrah, along with Emma, Tyrell, Cece, and Ben from her choir class, made their way in Cece’s van down the winding back roads to Hellfire Farms on a warm evening in October. They got their tickets and waited in the line by the gates where rock music played over the speakers, covering the distant sounds of screams and grinding metal. There was an electric feeling in the air that made the small group giddy with anticipation.

Slowly but surely, the five scuttled closer and closer towards the dark, old wooden fence gate where a man in a Hannibal Lecter style mask and prison jumpsuit stood looming over them, acting as a bouncer to the entrance of the house.

“How scary is this place, like actually?” Cece asked the prisoner/bouncer in a voice that was wavering too much for it to sound unconcerned.

He didn’t answer, just stared at her with his harsh eyes, then pushed the wooden gate open in a way that seemed to say ‘find out for yourself’.

And with a harmonized squeal of excitement, the five sauntered in with a mission to do just that.

The farmhouse started out with a bang, as one of the farmer’s children ran out at them immediately after a few moments of eerie silence, startling them all. It was a perfect haunted house, complete with several rooms to go through, actors behind walls and under tables, guts and gore galore, and just enough moments of stillness that always kept them on their toes. Soon enough, however, they were on their way out the back door when the farmer’s mother, a withering looking old woman, told them that her son was hungry, and he loved a good chase. The five were laughing, though fearful, and they all pushed each other out of the back door towards the cornfield behind the house where the scares would continue.

First, however, they came upon the toolshed.

The space was actually too large to be called a shed, but it was an okay name for it, considering it appeared to be filled with various weapons and machinery. It was once again quiet for the group as they shuffled anxiously across the creaky wood floor. Only the sounds of distant screams signaled that they were not alone in the vicinity, until of course, they came to a corner, and out of the darkness, a tall, lanky, malformed looking man seemed to float towards them all.

Emma and Ben screamed immediately and jumped back into Tyrell and the other two girls, but the man seemed unphased. Instead, he looked toward Ferrah, and in that moment, she understood what was about to happen to her. She pushed away from her friends, but the man was faster. He grabbed onto her arm and began to yank her away from her group of screaming, laughing friends, who also understood that Ferrah was the unfortunate one who had to be separated.

The farmhand hauled young Ferrah towards the cellar door, and guided her inside before shutting her in near complete darkness. In her mind she was cursing her friends for bringing her along, though a small part of her quite enjoyed the thrill of having to navigate alone. She was the type of girl to watch horror movies alone in her room after dark, knowing she would be too frightened to sleep soundly, but being too excited to stop.

Would using my phone light be cheating? She pondered as she held her arms out in front of her body to try and feel around. They’d probably kick me out for being a baby. Ferrah snickered to herself, and continued forward into seemingly nothing.

The cellar, if it could really be called that, seemed quite literally to go on forever with nothing to deter her. No sounds, no light, like a sensory deprivation experiment gone horribly wrong. She could smell dust, she could feel the ground beneath her Converse shoes, but nothing else, which made the place more unnerving as the time went on. After a few minutes, Ferrah’s anxiety was beginning to rise, but she tried to swallow it down with the knowledge that once they were all done here, they were going to the 24 hour diner up the road for food and milkshakes. Holding on to that small amount of normalcy was enough to drive her to keep going, though she could feel her body shaking.

Before she could even think about anything else, like a switch had been flipped, the room seemed to explode with furious green light, and Ferrah screamed, shielded her eyes, and fell to the hard concrete floor. When her eyes were done burning with the change, she opened them slowly, and looked up toward the source.

The light was still almost blinding, but discernible enough that she could see the shape. The light and surrounding dust seemed to swirl around in an oval shape, like a window or a mirror, and the middle of it was still pitch black. Ferrah was terrified of it, though it was as if she could not stop herself from slowly getting to her feet and walking ever so slowly towards the glow.

For a fleeting moment she felt like Princess Aurora, walking towards a spinning wheel in a castle tower, knowing she shouldn’t touch it but not being able to walk away. A voice in her head, seemingly not her own, telling her to reach out, and not being able to shake the devil off of her back. Ferrah stepped as close as she dared towards the swirling looking glass, and gasped loudly in fright when she realized that the other side of the center wasn’t darkness at all.

It was like a television screen, or a magic mirror. On the other side, Ferrah could see a familiar street in daylight, the sun shining down on the houses and cars, and she immediately knew where the vision was showing her.

“What the fuck?” Ferrah cried out in a voice that was husky from the scream.

The room around her seemed to vibrate with the energy coming off of the portal mirror. Ferrah couldn’t stop herself from creeping forward to stare down the rabbit hole, her heart beating a powwow drum beat against her ribcage.

She once again found herself staring at the scene of Oakwood Dr, a street she lived on several years ago. She recognized the light blue house in front of her, and was surprised. It was her old house from Kindergarten, before they moved away. It took a moment to dawn on her what she was watching, but when it did, her blood suddenly felt like iron.

“Please,” she near begged. “I don’t want to remember this.”

But the light never changed. Ferrah couldn’t pull herself away. She watched the scene unfold before her eyes, for the second time. Once too many.

Connor Mackenzie, six years old. Same Kindergarten class as Ferrah. He was playing innocently out by the side of his yard a few houses down from where she lived. His full head of orange hair was visible even from down the street. She could see him walking closer and closer to the street, his mother nowhere in sight. She then watched in horror as a blue Ford Taurus came barreling too fast down the street, driver distracted and not paying attention, and even when she closed her eyes, she could still hear the loud thump as the Taurus connected with Connor’s small body. The sound sent a horrible wave of nausea through her stomach, because she could still picture it in her head from when she had seen it the first time, just as vivid, just as horrifying.

She opened her eyes just in time to see the driver get out, panicking and jumping around, and when the man turned around, Ferrah could feel little five year old her go cold at the sight of High School Principal David Strauss. She watched as he quickly and quietly dragged little Connor’s lifeless form around to the back of the car and hauled him into the trunk. She saw Principal Stauss run back to his side of the car and peel off into the distance before it turned right, and disappeared.

And just as it disappeared, the light swirled down into nothingness, the darkness overcoming her as quickly as it had left. Ferrah was left standing in the cellar of the toolshed, but an open door to the outside stood only feet in front of her, where she could once again see flashing lights and hear rock music. She began to walk forward, suddenly determined to get out.

While she walked, she remembered how after what she saw, she looked away, unable to process it. She remembered how only minutes later, Elaine Mackenzie came running outside, screaming about her son being gone. She remembered the police coming by and her mother ushering her inside, not allowing her to go out again, especially after Connor’s body was discovered in the river in another county. She remembered hearing about the case every time they talked about stranger danger, because the killer had never been found. She remembered Principal Strauss hugging Elaine Mackenzie at Connor’s funeral, expressing his condolences for the loss. She remembered how sick she felt because she had never told.

She doesn’t know how long walked until her legs carried her outside into the fog filled haunted cornfield, surrounded by people in costume and patrons. Ferrah forced herself to look around for a recognizable face, and she was quickly spotted by Emma, who screeched loudly in excitement to see her, her face happy as she and the other three friends ran to surround their friend.

“Fae, holy shit we’ve been waiting for you!” Emma shouted over the music.

“You missed the chainsaw guy!” Ben’s voice came from her left.

“Where did you go? We didn’t see you anywhere?” Tyrell chimed in.

Ferrah tried to force herself to smile, but she couldn’t think of a single thing to say. To her left, behind Ben, a police officer was standing by the parking lot, watching over the crowds, and Ferrah felt her stomach flutter.

“Dude, you alright?” Ben asked, touching her arm.

Ferrah quickly nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She quickly pushed past him, ignoring her friends calling her name as she approached the cop slowly.

He glanced over at her in a confused way, angling his body towards her. “Are you okay, miss?” He asked her.

“I need to tell you something. It’s important.” She pleaded with him, her resolve breaking. “Please.”

The officer was instantly alert. “I’m listening, ma’am.”

“I know who killed Connor Mackenzie.”