The Clockwork Project

Once upon a time in my home town, I lived across an old, odd man named Olaf.

I never knew of Olaf's last name, but he was a fishy, smelly, odd and grumpy looking man, he had greasy brown hair, balding in the middle, with a droopy, brown set of handlebars running down his face, a scrawny, boney face.

He was a lanky structure but had some muscle on him. Everyday, he'd go into his barn and work on something, nobody knew of what it was, nobody asked him, myths and legends said that anybody that had seen his projects were never seen again.

I am a very curious boy, at the age of 12. So I just had to find out what Olaf was hiding in that barn of his.

After months rolled by, incidents have taken place near our street, missing people, odd reoccuring things have happened. Hell, sometimes I can barely sleep to the sound of the wailing sirens of the police mobiles, they always question Olaf, but Olaf seems as if he had no clue of what was going on at the time.

So, the summer rolled around and I decided to take up some jobs for local residents around my street, then a revelating thought hit me, I should take a job up with Olaf.

I was still dying to see what was in that barn.

I asked him if he needed me to clean out his barn. He said to me, "There are personal things in that barn, young man. Some tools that could... You could get hurt."

After saying this to me, he laughed silently to his final comment. Insist that I must do work for him and he offered to do backyard work. I accepted his offer swiftly, taking myself back over to the backyard, on my way there, the barn caught my eyes.

I thought to myself, "I must, I must, I have to go in there, like nobody else has!" Saying this, I'd encouraged myself to enter the barn. Walking over to the barn with caution, my body had a dark aura from being around this door now.

I opened the barn door, as the sun illuminated the darkness of the barn, a crack of light shined across the barn. Barely revealing the innards of this creepy atmosphere.

The streak of light lead me to a little chain hinging from the ceiling, pulling the chain down with little force here, a small crackle came from a bulb from above, the barn would be somewhat lightened from the bulb, then suddenly, the barn door slammed loudly.

I ran over to it, trying to push through, but something on the other side was holding it in place. Searching for a way out, I realised nothing was going to get me out of here, this barn was sealed, even the windows were blocked from the outside and the inside. I began to research around the barn, only finding clatter on the desk and various vials of odd specimens.

I began to examine the ceiling, I noticed that a trapdoor was near the door, maybe there's a way out of here after all, I opened the trapdoor without caution. A ladder quickly assembled and crashed through the floor. I go down with the floor, landing hard on the stone ground. From above I heard laughter and weezing.

Olaf came in with a large lantern and a devilish grin on his face. "I told you not to fiddle around my barn, boy, now you may roam down in this place, I'd love to stay and chat, my son, but I must awake Ulysses now."

Olaf went over to what I assumed his desk, I'd hear him grunting in effort, then I heard a creak, the stone walls began to creak and grind loudly. It sounded as if gears were grinding upon the walls, then at this point I thought my ears were bleeding. I heard a screech, so high in pitch that it could even break mirrors. It sounded as if whatever this thing is, it had just arrived from Hell after whatever came into place. It stopped and the stone halls were silent, then Olaf began to laugh. He left the barn, locking it.

I had no intention of going down that hall. I wanted to curl up and stay in this corner, where the little beam of light shot down, after sitting down here for five minutes, trying to wonder what is down in these halls, a large, screeching noise began to ride down the walls, it sounded as if blades were scratching loudly across the walls now.

As soon as it hit my ears, I rose myself from the ground, running into a random hall out of fear, the darkness began to plague my sight, I had no clue where I was going, no direction, no plans, fear consumed my body at this point, after running out of fear for a long while, I came across a door, broken off its hinges.

I ran inside to see if there was an exit. All there was in the center of this circular room was an iron maiden that was constructed oddly. It looked as if it was to hold something into place, candles were illuminating the room somewhat and the maiden was surrounded by a water stream that circled around that one platform, mucky water came from the ventilation system near the right side of the room. This room was somewhat soothing.

Till I heard that sharp screeching again. I panicked and fell over, landing in the water. The water began to splash loudly as my clumsy self hit the floor, then I heard a little dark screech now that sounded demonic, whatever the hell was after me.

It knows I am here. Then I heard blades scraping across the walls loudly, it got louder as the thing moved closer. I quickly grabbed a plank that broke off from the door, shielding myself. I awaited the challenge that was about to enter this room. The blades stopped, the screeching and demonic noises stopped, I lowered my plank at this point.

I turned around to examinate the iron maiden, nothing special was decorated on here, just engraved numbers and greek symbols. Then I heard footsteps. I quickly turned around. There it was, the thing that followed me throughout this endless stone hall.

It was terrifying. The monster had two large blades that were wrapped around his hand, secured by rusty chains. Its body was coated in muscle, it looked unbreakable, its face concealed by a large, what seemed to be a iron mask with little slits in it to let him breath. The mask was terrible-looking, it seemed as if it was crafted to resemble a demon. He had little mechanisms throughout his body, gears were spinning slowly in the mechanisms. The monster had pieces of cloth on him, beige, it seemed as if he was wearing a sack around his crotch area.

It breathed heavily, it knew I was in front of him. He took a step towards me, the blood on his blades slowly dripped down as he moved, I rose my plank now, getting ready for his attack, he stopped, about two inches away from me.

My fear became courage, I sent the plank towards his head. He quickly swiped the plank with his blades, sending it into three pieces, and grabbing my throat with the other hand, he slammed me across the wall, dragging me throughout the area. He tossed me over to the water, my body was coated in scars and scrapes, and my clothes were tattered from my defeat, but even though I was defeated, he was not done.

He grabbed me with a grip of strength here, shoving me into the iron maiden, he closed the maiden now. I heard a little mechanism go off, then the maiden began to enter me. I let out a cry, it was painful. I felt the steel pieces entering my flesh, it began to tear into my bone, grinding me into a bloody, gore mess.

The monster released the mechanism, the maiden opened up. The boy spilled out of the maiden as a gore mess, his innards were hung upon the sharp pieces of steel in the maiden. The monster took his remains to the room in the back. He put them in a leather sack, hanging it on the ceiling, with the other racks of the dead bodies.

The moral of the story is, ladies and gentlemen, when somebody doesn't want you in their barn, do not go in it, there are a lot of tools that can get you hurt in there.