Crops are replaceable but humans are not. Slowly over time with enough patience they can be replaced but humans cannot. I learned this lesson over the duration of one week. It seems easy enough to remember but it took me a while to recall it. The forest reminded me of it.
…
The Collector was coming soon. If all the red circles on the calendar weren’t enough of a reminder, then my father’s yelling and mother’s sobbing would have definitely reminded me of it. The tension in the house was thick enough to be cut with a knife. My father’s temper grew so unbearable that even my brothers started avoiding the house. Knowing that he would take out all his anger on me, I kept well out of his way too. Somehow everything was my fault, after all I was the one who always stood against him.
The sound of shattering glass followed by cursing drew me away from my musing, I rushed downstairs to see what all the commotion was about.
“Boys! Boys!! Get in here, dammit!” my father yelled as he kicked away a broken shard of glass with his boots, his hand was oozing blood from a cut sluggishly. I stood in the corner and watched him quietly.
“My god Mason, what happened?!” my mother gasped as she came running in.
“Nothing,” my father snapped, “The damned glass broke in my hand but never mind that! Look at this!” he gestured towards a letter.
“What is it?” my mother whispered fearfully.
“It’s from the collector. He’s arriving next week!” my father growled and threw the letter towards us.
“Next week?! Bu… but we have nothing! Everything…it’s damaged!” my mother cried out, her face growing pale.
“How can that be dad? He’s a week early.” I heard my brother’s chime in as they entered together.
“Surprise?” my father chuckled humorlessly, “Don’t you all know already? He doesn’t care, if he’s here, he’s here. It doesn’t matter anyways; all we know is that he’s coming, and we have to be ready. Boys you both will scour every inch of this land and harvest all that you can along with me, including looking over the animal pens. Beth, start to pack what we have. Olivia, help your mother!”
We all dispersed as soon as my father gave the command, it was going to be a long day.
…
For the next two days mom and I just filled jar after jar of honey, jam and crates of fruits. This was the least count we had ever presented but mom kept saying that at least we are giving something, this will tide us over for now, I doubted it somehow. The collector demanded unrelenting perfection and right now we were as far from it as we could be.
“Olivia?! Beth?!” fathers voice boomed out in the hallway.
“In here!” mom cried out as she quickly wiped her hand on her jeans and got up. She hurried down the hallway as I followed her slowly.
“Yes?” she said breathlessly.
“Have you seen the boys?” he asked.
“No.” my mother replied.
“And what about you?” he questioned me, and I shook my head in response. Sighing he sat down on the couch.
“They went to check on the animals a couple of hours ago and I haven’t seen them since. I finished doing rounds on the fields and when I came back, I thought they’d be there, but they were not. Then I thought maybe they came home.” He trailed off looking worried for the first time.
“Don’t worry,” my mother soothed continuing, “maybe one of the animals gave them some trouble, they’ll get back soon.”
“That’s the thing, I checked on the animals, they are fine in fact it didn’t even look as though the boys had been there at all.” My father finished, looking troubled.
My mind went back to the disturbing scene few weeks ago, where the animals had surrounded me, what if…?
A crash sounded in the kitchen startling us all.
“What in the…?” my father jumped to his feet confused and he slowly moved towards the kitchen, we trailed behind him.
…
Silence reigned in the kitchen as we took in the sight, it was a raccoon, covered in blood looking at us. It did not look happy to see us, if anything, the way it was looking at us reminded me of that day in the forest. Lifeless and detached.
“Oh god! What is that?!” my mother shrieked, clutching at my father in fear.
“It’s a racoon but why is it covered in blood.” My father replied grimly as he reached out for the broomstick nearby.
“Whose blood could it be?” I asked quietly. We were all thinking of it but none of us wanted to voice it.
“Olivia be quiet! Go help your father and open the back door.” My mother snapped at me looking frayed. I acquiesced and edged around the raccoon gingerly and opened the door. Ten or maybe fifteen raccoons stood there crowding the door and staring in the same lifeless manner, drenched in blood. Yelping I almost fell back and shut the door.
“Wh… what’s going on? Why are there so many of them?!” My father yelled in panic and shut the remaining windows. My mother looked as pale as a ghost.
“I don’t know.” I whispered looking at the door steadily, expecting them to break in at any point.
“What happened to my sons?” my mother asked in a small voice. Neither of us could answer her but somehow, I felt all of us knew. Her sobs punctuated the air as me and my dad avoided looking at her.
Suddenly persistent scratching noise surrounded us, something was trying to crawl in. The raccoon before us started growling, looking rabid almost in it’s anger. We rushed out of the kitchen and slammed the door shut just as it reached it. A dull thud sounded as it hit the door, it began scratching against it.
“Beth, Olivia, get all the doors and window upstairs, make sure nothing is unlocked. I’ll look at everything down here.” My father said and rushed to check everything. Me and mom went upstairs and checked all the windows. We finished checking the last one as dad made his way upstairs.
“It’s better to stay here for now. We don’t know how of them are out there. Worst comes to worse, we hole up in the attic, there’s no windows there.” My father whispered as he looked at us grimly.
…
The scratching noises grew louder as the day went on, at one point it seemed as though it was coming from inside my head. My parents were faring no better; my mother grew paler by the minute and my usually stoic father looked fearful.
“It can’t be my sons. They are fine, they must have just gotten lost.” My mother kept whispering as she rocked back and forth.
“Enough Beth! Stop doing this to yourself.” My father said worriedly but my mother paid no mind to him.
The scratching and scraping noises grew louder and louder until my mother begged to make it stop, and it suddenly did. Until a loud boom sounded and as we scrambled to our feet to see what it was.
Growling noises filled the air as we looked down the corridor, a large shadow appeared on the stairway, wolves. Yelling we scrambled towards the stairs leading to the attic barely making it inside before my father slammed the door shut. The beast slammed against the door over and over again howling madly, I almost thought the door would give under its immense weight.
Until it suddenly stopped.
My mother sobbed in relief as my father soothed her, “Calm down Beth, we are going to be fine.”
Our heartbeats had just calmed down when a low humming noise sounded or wait… was it buzzing?
“Dad!” I whispered urgently.
“What?” He replied distractedly.
“We forgot the vents.”
The vents slammed open, and a swarm surrounded us.
