Blackbirds

Jeremy and Anthony had the habit of going hunting together. Like all best friends in Colorado, they would climb up the Rockies, spot birds, and fire. The mountains were covered in cold blankets of fresh winter snow even during the summer. But, something was off. The birds were circling around in the sky in a perfect circle in an oddly geometric motion. Excited, Anthony suggested they trot down there to shoot the birds, because the avian motions would be easy to predict. When they arrived, however, they saw the most horrible sight.

It was a creature. The creature's body seemed humanoid, but its legs and arms had their bones extruding out of the skin. Its skin had rotting cuts in the shape of birds that smothered it like a tattoo addict. The monster's only orifice was its moist mouth; the spongy tongue stuck out like a man in a suit at Woodstock. Jeremy's throat began to swell and his palms started to sweat as he belched out a tremendous scream.

Anthony whipped out his rifle and shot the thing straight in the forehead as it lunged towards them. BAM! The monster was down. They stood in silence; an earth-shattering, mind-bending, unholy, horrific silence.

Bam! A block of wood was launched straight at Anthony's head. While watching blood flow out of his brain like yolk out of a cracked egg, a second block hit Jeremy in the back. As Jeremy faded out of consciousness, he heard the footsteps of a light foot-tapping. Then suddenly, he awoke to the face of a child. She was a cold, colorless looking thing. Incredibly malnourished, her stomach was bulbous with water weight. She was completely naked except for part of her skin which was covered by a leafy bandage. Her long orange hair covered her eyes. She grunted and squawked excited noises while leaning over him.

As soon as Jeremy was awake, she hit him with another block of wood. He awoke on a table, covered in a mixture of human and animal remains. Smothered in this same viscous organic-concoction was the little girl. She brandished a sharpened piece of stone and told him "Sing a song of Sixpence." She followed it up with "a pocket full of rye," as she cut his mouth open side to side. His tongue was force to flop out like a wet sponge. She sang "Four and twenty black birds" as she slowly carved deep avian-markings all over his body.

She continued "baked in a pie" as she slowly threw the skin from the cuts into a pot. She sang on "When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing." Then blackbirds flew and ate the skin from the pot. "Wasn't that a dainty dish set before the king" she sang as she slurped up the remaining skin. "The king was in his counting house, counting out his money" she sang while her stone slashed the hairs off his legs. "The queen was in the parlor, eating bread and honey" as she cropped the hair from his chest. "The maid was in the garden, hanging out the clothes." She cut the hair off his head. Finally, she sang "When down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose." She slashed out his nose, ears, and broke both of his limbs. She shoved him down a short hill, and he immediately charged for the woods. He saw two men and ran to ask them for help. One screamed while the other whipped out his rifle and...