The Caged Man

I was taking care of a foster child until his real mother and father would come and pick him up. The boy's name was Edith and he was six years old. His father was in jail. They told me he was 'unfit' to raise him. I didn't know what happened to the wife, though; the people at the adoption community were quite vague. I had to take care of him only for a while until they claimed him.

I, of course have never seen a picture of the parents. The boy never worked a day in his life, so I had him help me on the farm. I was what everyone called an 'old fart'. I had worked on a damn farm my whole life, I even planned to die working on it. I raised a bunch of chickens and sold them off, I also did the same with deer. Edith told me that he was the son of a 'very special man' and that he would be very mad if he found a hair on his head missing.

I heard the phone ringing, "Ya betta pick it up, deary," I heard Betty call to me. I then picked it up; we had an old rotary dial.

"We need some pieces of venison, Martin. Only one pound," I heard Mark say on the other end.

"Coming right up," I told him, smiling even though it was nothing but a phone.

I saw Edith walk away and run outside, maybe he was chasing after his imaginary friend. I didn't have time to yell at him because I got stuck in a pointless conversation I had with Mark about his best friend Carl and how he got to know me. "I really have to leave now, Mark, I'm sorry. It's a young boy I'm taking care of... he just ran off," I told him, hanging up in mid sentence. Edith didn't just walk out, he ran out.

I pulled the door open and looked for him. I was a bit frantic. My hands shook, I didn't know where he went at all, he just simply disappeared. Then it hit me and I laughed, more than likely he was playing in the background with some of the deer and chickens. So I looked in the backyard. There were nothing but guts and severed parts around. I saw Edith talking to one of the heads, and he was talking in a mumbled whisper. The deer head was wrapped in his tiny arms. He pressed his cheek against the deer's with a smile.

He acted like it was his best friend. I was speechless at this point, but I imagined to stutter out his name, "E-E-E-Edith?" He slowly looked up to me with a smile, "Doug-y is talking to me. He says that he wants me to help him." I sighed. The smell of the death filled my nose, it made me sick to my stomach. I swallowed it down as it burned. "Edith get over here!" I yelled, I started to get angry now but I didn't know why.

He kept looking at me with a childish smile, my neck and face became red now. "Edith, get over here, if you don't I'll..." I stopped, he dropped the head and ran to me with a hug.

His hands and arms were all bloody. He put his hand on his cheek to wipe off the blood on his hand. I promised to clean up everything later.

Deer blood didn't scare me, it was how the boy acted. I knew it was a childish act of confusion, but still. I planned to have a long talk with Edith about death. I took him inside while he held my hand and was close to me.

I started to tell Betty about everything I saw outside. "Almost all of them were mutilated," I told her. She sighed, "That kind of ruined my appetite," she laughed, trying to lighten the mood. "Why don't you put bear traps around the area? We do have a lot of coyotes and creatures around here in Michigan," she told me.

"I don't think it was a bear, Betty."

I had to go down to the local shop to get the bear traps. I set them up near the farm and the house, I had the highest of hopes. Fucking thing mutilated my money, I'd have to breed or buy more deer. I didn't know what would have the energy to kill something, tore my bucks to pieces. What kind of animal would do that? I didn't care what it was, I just wanted to kill it, I wouldn't even care if it was a person. If a person had the heart to do that, they needed to die. My face became red with anger every single time I thought about that horrible massacre. My money, I lost it all.

I set up all the traps and went straight to bed. My eyes were tired, I liked to sleep a good night's sleep but, I still wanted that creature to be found. I sat in my bed with Betty by my side, I had my eyes open the whole time. I couldn't sleep a wink. Nothing snapped the trap, nothing at all.

It had been the second night, nothing important happened in the day time. Still didn't sleep very much.

I woke up, well, not really woke up, I wasn't really sleeping. I woke up to find Edith lying next to me, his head on my chest, snuggling up to me. "Please don't," I told him, I didn't have the heart to pull him away though.

I smiled, "You're only going to be with me for a while," I said.

"I don't care. I just want to see Steven, Jason, Jack, Daddy, and Mommy," he said.

I sighed and repeated what I told him. Obviously, I was getting a bit tired, I couldn't be able to sleep even if I tried though. I smiled again as he got up and walked to the dining room for breakfast. It smelt like buttered biscuits and fresh blood sausage. Damn, I was hungry and breakfast was just what I needed. I slowly crept out of bed in my nighties, and almost ran down to the dining room to get breakfast. I saw my wife, Betty serving the sausage and the wrinkles in her face curving in a smile. I waved to her, "Good mornin' Betty," I said.

She looked to me with the same smile and waved. She gave Edith a very tiny sausage on his plate and walked up to me. She gave me a kiss, "we found something in the bear trap, sadly, it was just a rabbit. I was thinking about cooking that rabbit for dinner tonight, what you think?" She asked, "That's fine by me."

We were eating dinner when I came up with the question, "why don't you get more traps for me? Rabbits are useless," the tone of my voice had a hint of anger in it. "I'll try," she said, "Of course, you always try, you are a infertile bitch!" I yelled at her, "You are never successful at anything, you can't even be able to have a child!" I screamed, she looked as though she was about to cry.

She pushed Edith out of the way and told to him to go away into his bedroom. "It's something I can't control, Martin. Don't bring this into it!"

She yelled back at me, tears started coming down from her eyes, "I used to love you, I knew you never trusted me!" She cried, she got up, and left through the front door.

I slept in my bed, alone. I then heard loud screaming from outside. It was clearly a man's scream, he was in pure pain. It woke me up immediately as I heard it. I grabbed my shotgun near my bed and went out into the cold night. I had a big smile on my face though part of me didn't want it to be.

I was just about to walk out the door but Betty came back in. "Get whatever is in that trap, drug it, and lock it up in the basement," I ordered her as I handed her the gun. She looked confused but took it anyway. I took a seat on a chair and waited for her to leave. She sighed and went back outside.

I had fallen asleep on that chair. "I did it, Martin. I did it," she started laugh while waking me up. I opened my eyes to see her face. She had a horrible smile and a large gash on her cheek. She didn't look like the woman I called my wife any more. Betty had the face of a person that was surely not sane. Her eyes were wild and her smile urked me. The wound on her cheek was deep and fresh. "I locked him up. I did what you said," she laughed. She stuck a finger into her cut and twisted it around. "He's in the basement, he's in a cage." She said putting her hand down and stopping the rubbing. My hands shook now; sweat was dripping down the side of my face.

I stumbled out of my chair and walked downstairs. It was damp and warm down in the basement. The large cage in the basement sat next to the stairs. I could only see his back. He had long black hair and a suit. I walked closer, I could hear him breathing. His breaths were heavy and shaky. The closer I came to him, the more I could see him. He was hunched over in an 'Indian Style Sit'. "Don't think I can't hear you," he said. His voice too was shaky, he had a brittish accent and a deep voice. I came the closest I would come up to him and sat in from of the cage. He turned to me, his face in a horrible smile. "Hello, Martin. I quite like your eyes, though you need to rest them. Take care of your wife," I could see all of the teeth in his mouth as he smiled like that. They were all grey, tiny, razor-sharp teeth, his whole face curled as he did this horrible smile. I couldn't think about the fact he knew my name, I was just so interested in his smile. His face was slightly feminine, eyes were brown and perfectly normal. He wore an Alice Cooper t-shirt underneath his suit and a silver cross necklace, but I still didn't care.

"Was I really worth it, Matin? I was just doing what came naturally; whatever I see, I kill."

All the colours from my face were drained of life, I couldn't even emote because my face was stuck in awe. He then got up and put his hands on the bars of the cage. His smile started to disappear until it diappeared entirely. "You bloody bastard! Let me go, what am I going to do with my foot?" He yelled at me, grabbing at me like an animal. I looked down at his foot, bloody, mutilated, must have gotten it stuck in the bear-trap. His foot was cleanly cut off but still horrible looking and gruesome. I then heard the door opening behind me from up the stairs, "is that you, Daddy?" He looked away, and then turned back to me. "Was I? I'm just simply, not like you."