The Bone Eater

It was a bone eater, the soul reaper. That is what the eerie voice had said. It was a voice not unlike the wind on a gusty cold winter's day. It was a voice I did not wish to ever hear again, but I'm afraid that I will. It has taken my older sister and I want to save her.

Chloe had never been that nice to me. As the little brother, she found that I had too many flaws, the main one being that I was a boy. I was the one dad took to the football games and the one he went hunting and fishing with. For five years she was the baby, the only child, the attention was paid to her until I came along and made her life miserable. Thirteen years later, she was making mine miserable.

I know her body laid at the funeral home, but I know that her soul was located somewhere else and I would find her soul in the caves.

My town was built in and around caves. When the buildings were built more caves were found as the rock was excavated. We lived close to those caves and I explored them often. I know others had ventured into the cave around where it lived, but I believe I'm the only one to ever have seen it. It was the reaper.

After having seen it and seeing what it eats, I came to an understanding. I know where animals go. It was common for our towns' newspaper to list several missing pets each week. None who truly loved their pets ever left them outside alone to be taken. It had not just been the missing pets, it was also the missing wild animals. There was hardly ever a squirrel or a bird in the tree and never a stray cat or dog. Our town has never even had a dog catcher. It was as if all the animals just knew to stay away or where taken away, which after that night I knew was a little of both.

My dad was no exception to keeping his beagles inside and he never left them alone outside. I was the one to take them out, but I didn't mind I liked Abbot and Costello.

It was nearly six months ago, I was letting them out one last time before bed. I was in the back yard; the moon was shinning bright, as full as I had ever noticed it before. Looking up, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something beyond the tree, not in the tree, but just beyond it and in less than a thought; it came down and swooped up Abbot and Costello. I'm not scared of anything, but my dad. It would be my hide if I lost the dogs. As much a reflex as anything, I was running after the thing that had just taken the dogs, it was moving out of the back yard into the woods that led to the caves beyond.

I knew the woods well, but I was still fortunate to have the moon lighting my way. It was all I could do to keep up and after another twenty steps, I had lost site of it and the dogs. Thankfully, the hounds were still barking loud enough that I could follow their sound. Stumbling over the rocks that led to the closest cave, I saw it lift up Costello with its large bone hand. Then with its other one it peeled the fur and flesh from Costello's body and scrapped out its inside. I was then for the first time scared, too scared to do anything as I watched its black hood fall revealing a white skeleton head, almost human, but then not quite, it was too big. Then it began to greedily eat Costello's greasy meaty bones.

It was quick and soon was on Abbot, I screamed, vomiting at the same time. Chunks of dinner coming out of my mouth. I spit out what was left as my fear began to leave me.

It had heard me, and it let Abbot go. Abbot scooted off quickly after he hit the ground. I screamed at Abbot, "Run home, RUN!" He didn't need anymore motivation his legs were pumping as hard as they could.

I was sure I was dead as I turned my back at the thing and began to run, but it was already in front of me, I came to a stop with it just inches from my nose. I thought it was going to pick me up, strip the flesh from my bones, and chew them up just like it had done to Costello.

Then in a flash, faster than I can blink it was gone and back again, but now it had what seemed to be a bloated woman. He held it by her neck in his bony hand, she was moving, she was screaming, but there was no sound. The harder I looked the more I could tell that she was more ghost like, I could see through her. Then it opened its bony jaw and like it had with Costello it began quickly biting, eating the woman like a person eats pizza, except she had depth, and there wasn't any blood even though I could tell there was meat and bone exposed with each bit. After her head went down it disappeared again.

I thought to turn and run, but it was back faster than I could think it, let alone move to do it. This time it was carrying a bloody man, his body was also transparent like a ghost might be. This one didn't scream, but the look in his eyes was one of complete worry as the eyeless skull opened it's jaw and began to eat the man.

When it was finished, it turned to me and spoke. "It was their time, now is not yours. The animal's bones nourish me when the souls are slow to come. This is my lot, take what you have seen, and leave." Then it was back to the entrance of the cave.

I did as I had been told and left. I couldn't ever explain to my dad what had happened to Costello. When I walked out from the woods into the backyard everyone, dad, mom and Chloe had been outside looking for me. I was happy to see Abbot had made it home. I told my family that Abbot and Costello had run off and that I had tried to chase after them, but I couldn't find Costello.

My dad stayed outside searching the wooded area that led off to the fields. I had told him that I had searched down towards the caves, but hadn't seen or heard him there, hoping dad wouldn't go there and get eaten by that thing. Mom patted me on the back and said thanks for trying. Chloe thumped me and called me a "goof" for making her go outside and look for the dogs and me.

I'm back at the cave; it's only two weeks until fall now. This time there is daylight and it's getting colder out. It is disappearing and reappearing at the speed of a thought it seemed. Though, every time it reappears it has another ghostly form in its hand.

Chloe's body is at the funeral home. She was driving home from her after school job at the bowling alley. The Highway Patrol thought she had left the road and that she may have been on her cell phone. The irony was a telephone pole had stopped her car. She had thought it uncool to wear her seat belt and was thrown from her car. She was killed on impact when her body hit the ground. I know "it" has her. I'm going to try and get her back. Dad and mom are too sad without her, I'm too sad without her also.

Stomping over the frosted hill, I stop and scream, demanding "it" to give Chloe back. It meets me before I can take another step and again its cold voice assaults me, the voice that reminds me now of a stone lid being removed from a casket's vault. "It was her time. Her soul has been taken and now belongs to me. Your reunion will have to wait for sixty-two years. LEAVE." Then it was gone back to the cave entrance where it disappeared and reappeared with departing souls.

I was not scared, I didn't listen to it. I was going to get Chloe back. I moved down the other side of the rocky hill and marched up to it, grabbing at the black cloth that surrounded it. However, I grabbed nothing and I began to feel pain in the hand that had grabbed at the cloth, looking down at my hand it was red and blistered, frostbitten. It didn't even notice my presence as it blinks in and out of my sight.

I turn and walk back home, I fight the tears that fill my eyes that are there for Chloe.

As I lay in my hospital bed, I'm thinking about the rest of my life after Chloe. I am seventy-five now, and close to my end. My children surround me. Megan my oldest daughter is crying and I can feel her warm hand on mine. I am unable to see clearly without my glasses, but in only moments I go from the hospital bed surrounded by family, back to the cave. I believe it remembers me, my only reasoning is that it hesitates for the briefest of time. My heart shudders as it begins to devour me. My thoughts are first on my children, but as the last of me - my soul, is crushed between its worn, dry teeth a warmth overwhelms me when I see Chloe.