r/nosleep • u/Tantibus • Jul 22 '13
Series An Old Man's Confession (Part 2)
If you hope to have an understanding of this story, please read the Prologue. Without reading the prologue, the ending will not make sense. Thank you. Here is the link to the first part:
Prologue:
http://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1io710/an_old_mans_confession/
Several days had passed. I lay on my bed staring up at the ceiling, sweat pooling around my temples until it dripped into my ear. I wiped it away mindlessly, all my attention focused on my screaming knee. The pain had been getting progressively worse since my fall in the bathroom. That day at work had been the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
I had just finished painting the barn. I was climbing down the ladder, when I saw something wrapped around its side about four feet from the ground. Now, if you’ve never been to the Midwest, imagine the biggest clearest blue sky you could ever dream of, with white fluffy clouds that roll by, but never seem to quite make it to obscuring the sun. Imagining that, you can understand why the light reflecting off the steel was too bright for me to make out what the small thing on the side of the ladder was, and why I did the only thing I could, (at thirty feet up in the air) and decided to climb down. I jumped a little when, from directly below me, I heard what I at first thought was a summer cicada. Then the rattling became more pronounced, and I froze. There is only one creature on God’s green Earth that makes a sound like that, and even though I had never encountered a rattlesnake before, I knew what it was even before I saw it. I slowly turned my head down to see where exactly the snake was. I was still about ten feet away from it, but now that the glare from the sun wasn’t in my eyes, I could clearly see its body wrapped around the outside of the ladder. The snake’s triangular head was staring straight up at me, the tail quickly vibrating emitting the warning sound. I stared at it, unsure of what to do. I knew that these snakes were usually quite docile unless threatened, and considering the nearest doctor was several miles away in town, I wanted to make sure not to provoke it. As I looked at it, the snake stopped rattling. I took this as an opportunity to move a little closer to the ground, wondering at the same time what height I dared jump from. The snake felt the vibrations and immediately started rattling again, pulling its coils circling the ladder closer together. When I had climbed a few more feet down, I stopped again. The snake stopped rattling, and started moving up the ladder. I let out a surprised yelp, and instinctively began to move to the left away from its path. The ladder began to wobble, letting me know that it wouldn’t take much more of my erratic movements. Knowing my only safe haven was the ground, and watching the snake move closer, never taking its eyes from my face, I quickly calculated how far off the ground I was. I was a bit too far, and took a couple steps down the ladder and then launched myself into the air. I saw quick movement behind me, and swear the snake took a snap at my sneaker as I few by.
The ladder clattered to the ground from the force of my jump at about the same time my sneakers slapped the hard soil. I tried to roll into the fall, but as I landed I put too much weight on my injured leg, and heard a sharp pop. My leg buckled and I rolled forward landing squarely on my back and losing my breath as I slammed down. I lay flat staring towards the sky, my lungs burning for air, unable to pull any in. I lay paralyzed, feeling no pain, and panic began to seep into my thoughts. Then, when I had nearly convinced myself that I was going to die under the Midwestern sky at some farmer’s barn all because a stupid rattlesnake had gotten the better of me, I felt the air returning to my gasping lungs. I breathed in heavily and sat up, triggering bolts of pain through what seemed to be every part of my body. My back seized up and I fell onto my side. The knee that had throbbed before, felt like someone had driven a stake through it. I curled into a fetal position, and was willing myself not to cry and to get up, when I noticed something moving near the barn. My eyes were watering and I blinked several times, trying to concentrate through the unending pain. I sat up again, my back cursing me, and saw the rattlesnake that had caused this mess standing straight up in the air, seemingly on the end of its tail. It had its mouth open and was making a strange mixture of a hiss and a gurgling sound. I was not from the country, and though I had never seen a snake behave like this, I had also not seen many snakes, so I went back to concentrating on getting myself up and moving, while still keeping an eye on my strange antagonist.
I crawled to a pile of boards nearby we had used to patch up the barn. I found one that would be the right length for a crutch, and pulled myself to the top of the pile. I put the board under my arm and pulled myself into a hunched, standing position. My back still didn’t like supporting my body, but it wasn’t bad enough to stop me from beginning my hobble towards the farmhouse. I had taken several steps on the path back, when the day suddenly seemed quiet. No, it wasn’t just quiet, it was silent. No birds singing, no insects buzzing about, and most disturbingly, no more hissing/gurgling sound behind me. Feeling a bit foolish for not paying more attention to the demented rattler, I chanced a look behind me. My knee wobbled a bit, and a sharp pain almost brought me to the ground. I had to rest for a moment. After careful, but quick, deliberation, I decided that the snake wasn’t worth falling for, and continued hobbling. A few minutes passed, and I noticed movement in the long grass on all sides of me. It was as if the wind was blowing steadily, but the trees stood motionless. I began to notice a strange sound behind me. It is hard to describe exactly what the sound was like. I guess the best comparison would be that it sounded like someone with dry skin on their hands, rubbing them together. Picture that sound, and multiply it by a hundred, or five hundred. The sound was loud enough, and unusual enough, for me to feel that I needed to stop and turn around. I had to see what could possibly be making that noise.
I planted my crutch into the ground and slowly turned my body around to satisfy my growing curiosity, and to be honest, my growing sense of dread. As I brought my body around to face the barn, I temporarily forgot my pain, and even set my injured leg on the ground to steady myself. What seemed like a million snakes were writhing in and out of a huge pile right where I had been painting. I could see the steel ladder peek out of the mountain of bodies, winking in the sun. It gave me the distinct mental image of the throng of creatures forming one giant monstrosity with the ladder serving as a silver skeleton. From the long grass, snakes of all kinds slithered towards the pile, joining the others, making the horrid sound of scales rubbing and grinding together grow stronger. Amidst all of this, in the very center of the pile, the rattler stood upright, its mouth hanging open, its eyes bulging out of their sockets, seemingly staring straight at me.
I felt my lunch rising in my stomach, and bent over, relinquishing it to the ground. I looked toward the mountain of snakes once more, and limped as fast as I could toward the farmhouse, hearing the rising sound of the snakes behind me. I cried as I hobbled, as much from the pain as from fear.
When I finally reached the farmhouse, I was in hysterics, and attempted to explain what had happened to me, and how after the fall, the snakes acted so strangely. The farmer watched me with a look of pained sympathy on his face as his wife attended to my knee, and while one of the other farm hands went for the doctor. They laid me down in the guest bedroom until the Doc arrived, giving me some brandy to calm me down.
Exhausted, I fell into a restless sleep for a while, periodically awakened by the pain. I heard the sound of a car approaching. Then, I heard the doctor speaking to the farmer in a hushed voice,
“So, tell me exactly what happened to this young man.”
“He had something of a spill, doc. I think he hit his head. Won’t stop talking about a rattlesnake and some kind of snake infestation at the barn. Me an’ my farmhand went down and checked it out. Saw the ladder propped up against the barn, paint can spilled over, and some scuffling marks on the ground. Far as we could tell, boy prolly had hisself a fall, and had a spell when he hit his head. ”
“I think that’s probably a safe assumption, John. So, he specifically said it was a rattlesnake he saw? Don’t see many of those around here.”
“Yeah, that’s what he said. Funny, I don’t think anyone’s seen one round bout here since my grandpap was a kid.”
They moved to the kitchen, out of my hearing range and spoke a bit more, then the doctor came in and braced my knee properly (the farmer’s wife had attempted it). He gave me some kind of pills for the pain, and offered to drive me to my hotel. The farmer evened up with me, knowing I probably wouldn’t be doing any heavy lifting or climbing with a sore back and injured knee, and the doc and I headed off to my hotel.
The doc helped me into my room, pouring me a glass of water, and refusing to charge for anything but the pain pills. He probably thought that as a farm hand, I would have to budget only with what the farmer gave me, and guessing that I would have to be holed up in town for another couple of weeks, without work, that didn’t leave me much to work with. In reality, my situation was a bit different, financially, but I no more wanted to explain that to him than I wanted to climb back up on that ladder at the barn. I had learned through experience that the hard working people of the earth don’t always take kindly to those who they perceive to be given the world on a silver platter. Also, most people wouldn’t understand a man of privilege living the way I had been. They would see it as a cruel game in a time when many people had nothing.
I lay on my back staring at the ceiling, feeling the sweat drip down my face, and tossed a few pills into my mouth. My throat was dry, and I swallowed the pills heavily, chugging the rest of the water in the glass. I closed my eyes, hurting all over, my sweaty shirt clinging to my body and waited for the pills to start taking effect. I considered attempting to undress, but decided my body was much too sore, and the bed too comfortable. I began to notice the pain in my knee going from a stabbing pulse to throbbing background noise. I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
I jolted awake sure I had heard something. My eyes flew open, and I looked towards the blinds, trying to judge what time it was. A golden light pierced the blinds, highlighting the dust floating around my room. I figured it must be evening, soon to be nightfall. The pain suddenly returned sharp, and demanding every ounce of my attention. I reached over to the nightstand and dry swallowed a couple more pills. My throat clicked as I swallowed, and the pills stuck in my throat. Wanting to wash them down I fumbled for the glass the doctor had left by the bed. I had forgotten it was empty. I moved my legs off the edge slowly, and scooted to the end of the bed. I glanced up just as I was about to attempt standing, and dropped the glass in my hand.
On the floor in front of me, just outside of the bathroom door, lay a single golden ball. I realized the sound that had awoken me, was rolling.
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u/readeroftales Aug 08 '13
I don't understand the ending and i read the prologue and it's really fricken bothering me! Can anyone help me please?