The Last Harvest(12)

I force myself to step forward, slow and steady. The closer I get to the breeding barn, the more intense the sound grows. It’s more than one voice. It sounds like people are whispering … in unison. And there’s a beat, a low thud that feels like it’s reverberating up from the soil.

The glow I saw from my bedroom window is candlelight. I can tell by the way it softly flickers through the gaps in the wood of the barn, but I’ve never smelled candles like these. There’s a strange odor in the air … maybe some kind of flower, but with a strong scent of decay, like rotting meat.

I creep around the back of the barn and peek through one of the cracks in the wood. I don’t see anyone, but I hear them, that soft chanting along with the steady boom, like they’re stomping their feet.

A hulking form stretches along the breeding platform, covered by a dingy tarp the police must’ve left behind.

A figure approaches the breeding platform. He’s wearing jeans and a hoodie. When he grabs the edge of the tarp, I notice the symbol on his wrist—the upside-down U with two dots above and below. Fucking Tyler. I should’ve known.

Three other people move into view and my heart picks up speed. I crane my neck to see Ben, Tammy, and Jimmy—all the Preservation Society kids. Everyone except Ali. Thank God she’s not involved in whatever this is, but why would she ask me to meet her here? Did she want me to see this? Maybe she wanted me to stop it. Maybe this was the only way she could tell me they’re messing with me, or Tyler put her up to it. Either way, I’m not having it.

Just as I open my mouth to holler at them, tell them the joke’s over, Tyler pulls off the tarp to reveal a dead cow. Must be at least twelve hundred pounds, split right down the middle. My stomach lurches; bile rises in my throat. Is this where the calf came from? Did they cut it out of her stomach? But the cow’s stomach looks full, bloated even.

I’m trying to get control of my breath when I see something roil inside the cow’s stomach. I clamp my hand tight over my mouth, my eyes beginning to water.

Something’s alive in there.

My knees buckle. I press my forehead against the splintery wood to steady myself.

A hand thrusts out from the cow’s stomach.

A human hand, fingers outstretched.

Tyler steps into my line of sight, blocking my view, and I take off running down the length of the barn to get a better look.

The next gap in the dilapidated wood reveals the crown of a head emerging from the cow, dark hair slick with blood.

The chanting and stomping grow louder, more frenetic, but I can hardly hear a word over the siren-like ringing in my ears. Tyler and the others are circling the cow like a sick merry-go-round, creepy smiles plastered on their glowing faces. Dizziness washes over me. I only catch glimpses, slivers of movement inside the circle.

I sprint for the next gap in the wood to see arms and a torso rise from the cow’s stomach. A girl. My heart’s beating so hard I’m afraid it’ll burst. I can’t stop staring at her chest. I know I should feel repulsed, but the sharp curve from her waist to her hip bone fills me with something ancient and primal. Sick and wrong.

My gut is screaming at me to look away, but I can’t stop.

The warm, sticky sound as she crawls out of the carcass seeps deep inside of me, making me woozy.

Tyler and the others sink to their knees before her.

She stands, towering over them, her perfect body glistening with blood and viscera in the golden glow of candlelight.

Slowly, she raises her head.

When I finally see her face, it feels like all the air has been punched from my lungs.

Chin lowered, lips slightly parted, the rise and fall of her chest.

Ali peeks out of her long, slick dark hair.

The air returns to me all at once, and I suck in a rasping breath.

The corners of her mouth curl into a seductive smile. “He’s coming.”

They all turn toward me, their mouths stretched open, letting out a chorus of guttural moans.





8

I STAGGER back, my head spinning, every nerve ending on fire as I take off running into the wheat.

The crops lash my arms. The night swallows me. No moon or stars to guide me, but I know these fields.

I listen for the sounds of them crashing through the wheat behind me, but they don’t come. I’m trying to concentrate on the air going in and out of my lungs, the relentless pounding of my heart, but my mind keeps going back to the breeding barn—nothing but blood, limbs, and pure black eyes. I don’t know what’s happening, but I have to pull myself together, for Ali’s sake. I have to be smart about this. I don’t want to get her in trouble, but I saw her bare chest … her naked body. I saw her crawl out of a dead cow, for Christ’s sake! I know Tyler put her up to this. He must be controlling her in some way. Whether it’s drugs or some kind of prank, she’s in way over her head. She needs help.

When I glimpse the light shining down from the equipment shed onto my truck, I know what I have to do. Same thing I did after I found my dad. I have to get Sheriff Ely. He and Dad were friends. He’s not part of the Preservation Society. He’ll have to hear me out this time.

I roll down the windows and listen closely as I ease down the drive toward Route 17. It’s eerily quiet, the same way it gets right before the weather turns. No insects scrabbling over the wheat, no wind rustling the crops. It’s like Mother Nature knows something’s coming. I can’t take my eyes off the wheat. I’m not even sure what I’m looking for … monsters.