The Godsend Backfire: The Beginning by Harold Straugh (best e reader for academics TXT) 📗

stayed clear of the black grass about as much as they stayed clear of us.  I finally broke the ice, so to speak and asked someone about the hut.

“What’s going on with this hut?” I asked a villager who was staring at me. She said nothing, the color drained from her already white skin and she stared at me, blankly, “Are you dumb, or mute?”

“Neither,” she finally spit the words out, “I’m not fond of outsiders, none of us are,” she said.  The woman I was talking to was in her forties, I would say.  Her hair was long and blonde, and she had blue-grey eyes. She wore a robe of sorts, a tunic maybe, as did most people there.  The fabric seemed light though, not the heavy garments that we were wearing, “That place is cursed, has been ever since my grandparents can remember.  My grandparents said they tried putting a garden there and nothing would grow. They put a hut there and everything rotted and anyone who lived inside, would go mad.  They burned it, but as you can see, it didn’t burn.”

“Hmm,” after all the stuff she told me, that was the best I could come up with. I look over Mylicious, “I think that’s where his head is at.”

“I can smell a stench of rot, I think you’re probably right.”

I looked back at the woman, “What if I told you, I could remove this curse.”

“We would be forever indebted to you,” she said, some of the other villagers heard me and they to stopped and listened.

“Give me a little bit and I will remove the curse,” I told them.

I walked on top of the black grass and people gasped.  I could feel a difference in the atmosphere, it was dreadful. I walked up to the door and touched it and an image of Derium’s head, flashed in my head.  I tried to open the door, but there was resistance and when I pushed harder, the hut moaned, yes, moaned.  More villagers stopped and looked.  I pushed harder and the wood gave under pressure, splintering into a hundred pieces.

I walked inside and even though it was broad daylight outside, inside the hut was pitch black. I was hesitant to take another step, but what was I afraid of? I caused the darkness.   I took a few more steps and the dreadful feeling was overwhelming, it was there, with my bare hands, that I started digging.

The soil was soggy and smelled of death a thousand times over, but I was there and wasn’t giving up for the sake of Mylicious.  With each hand full, the putrefied earth, oozed between my fingers. It felt as if I wasn’t getting anywhere with digging. I started to wonder why Mylicious and Yura weren’t helping me, but I focused back on the task of digging.

My speed was pointless to use, it had to be slow and steady.  After what felt like a few hours, I finally felt, the bane of my existence, in my hands. I couldn’t see it at all, but I could feel it. I made my ascent up the sludgy, side of the hole and exited out of the hut and cheers arose.

Yura and Mylicious came rushing to me, even though I was covered in the foulness of the earth, “You act as if I have been gone for days, even though with some help, it could have gone faster.” I said and realized it was dark out.

“You were gone for days and we tried to help.  The door sealed up the minute you went in,” Yura said as tears filled her eyes.

I stopped for a second to look at the skull of Derium, or thought it was a skull.  His head was still intact, and the son-of-a-bitch was smiling.  I tossed the head to Mylicous, “He’s all yours, I mean I could accompany you on the way to the mountains,” I offered.

“That would be great!” Mylicous gleamed and put Derium’s head in a burlap-like sack.

Yura smiled as well and gave me a hug, but it was then I noticed, my horse was gone, “Where is my horse?”

“A strange thing happened,” the lady I talked to earlier spoke, “It just fell over dead the day after you entered the hut, but we can get you another one….if this lifts the curse.”

Suddenly, there came a great rumble and the hut folded in on itself.  The putrefied earth acted like quicksand and swallowed the hut whole.  Instantly, the black grass started to fade, and green grass started to appear.

I looked back at the lady, “I think that took care of it.”

The village was ecstatic, Mylicous was happy and even though I felt, as if I had done a good thing, I was not happy. I should have been though, but I wasn’t, I just kept staring at the sack with head of Derium in it.  I wanted to take it and smash it. I didn’t understand why I didn’t do it in the first place. I didn’t though and there I was, making everyone else happy except myself.

As a token of their appreciation, the villagers, firstly, got me a horse, secondly, cooked up a feast. It was great, the food was great and finally, after years, I had potatoes for the first time in a long time.

“I’ve never seen you eat so much,” Yura said.

“Have you ever had these?” I asked, excitingly.

“I can’t say that I have…” she started to say, but I shoved a piece in her mouth before she could finish talking. She looked appalled at first, then slowly started chewing up the potato.  She half-smiled, “That is really good!”

“You should try it,” I said to Mylicious, who took a bite and spat it out.

“That tastes like dirt!”

I was baffled, “You eat raw animals and you think it tastes bad?”

“I’d rather