The mother-thing let Ned go for a moment and then grabbed him by his arms and pulled him close. Her putrid breath enveloped him. “I lay on the ground dying while animals fed on me!”

            Ned managed to turn his face toward Bobby.

            Bobby watched passively.

            “You got to help me boy! You got to help me! I’m your pa!”

            Bobby let a little giggle escape his lips. Reality had invaded his mind for a brief moment and he saw the decomposed monster holding his father. His own twisted reality told him not to care. His father wasn’t worth it.

            “Boy you help me!” Ned was pleading now.

            Bobby watched as his mother began to squeeze and push his father’s arms together at the biceps. Her perfect nails pushed into his flesh, blood began to spill over and his father began to scream. A loud crack invaded Bobby’s brain as his father’s arms snapped at the biceps. He could hear his father whimpering like a baby.

            “Does it hurt pa? Does it hurt!” Bobby screamed suddenly.

            “N-no. N-no,” Ned whispered as he shuttered from the long dead grasp of his wife. Bobby watched as a dark stain covered his father’s pants.

            Ned Burns was lowered carefully to the ground.

            “Shhhh! Don’t’ squirm. It will hurt more if you squirm,” the mother-thing said. It pushed Ned down lower into the ground. The rain fell down on his face. The creature pushed him lower and lower into the ground. It opened and enveloped him. He inhaled once, mud and dirt slid into his mouth. Ned squirmed as his breath left him.

            Only the man’s arms were visible. They flopped uselessly, and then were still.

            Bobby stood for a moment transfixed by the sight of his father’s arms sticking out of the ground like weird tree roots bent at even weirder angles.

            “Bobby?” The mother-thing said.

            Bobby turned then.

            “Mama?” Bobby whispered.

            Bobby’s mother reached for him. She caressed his face and hugged him close. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He laid his head on her breast and heard no heartbeat. Something in him screamed that this wasn’t his mother. Another part of him screamed at him to ignore the decayed-dead smell coming from her and let it be his mother.

            They parted and his mother squatted down and looked at him. Her eyes glowed red. “We’re going into the woods now.”

            “I have school-”

            “No. You come with me.”

            She stood up and took his hand. They walked into the woods reunited once more.

The End