{"id":2901,"date":"2017-11-07T17:30:35","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T01:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/?p=2901"},"modified":"2017-11-07T17:30:35","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T01:30:35","slug":"the-valley-of-the-damned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/?p=2901","title":{"rendered":"The Valley Of The Damned"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Valley Of The Damned<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He came back home all excited.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>Come with me. Don’t fight it.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>Let’s go on a little hiking trip.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>Something to show you that will be a hit.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We packed up and went on our way.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

3 of us, and a dog named Stray.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We were hiking through the woods.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Whatever it is had better be good.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We finally reached a high ridge & stopped.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He got binoculars to look from this spot.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Soon, he gave the binoculars to me.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>Take a look. Tell me what you see.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>A valley with trees, lake, and a river.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>What don’t you see.” He said with a quiver.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>What do you mean?” I asked him.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>No sign of \u00a0man.” He said on a whim.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>A pristine valley where no one is.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He said it like it was a quiz.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>Doesn’t that seem strange to you?”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>Maybe, but what’s this leading to?”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>Let’s go down and look around.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>There must be something to be found.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We headed down a deer trail.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It kept going down, without fail.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Then, it veered to the left and started back up.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I got a funny feeling in my gut.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>Why does that deer trail turn off?”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>It should have gone on down.”\u009d I coughed.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>I don’t know. Let’s keep going down.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Soon, we saw a bare spot on the ground.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As we went by we all felt a chill.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A mild jolt. Not much of a thrill.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>What was that weird feeling?”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>I have no idea”\u009d the others said, reeling.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>Look, Stray won’t go past that spot.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>I’ll get him.” I didn’t like it a lot.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I had the same weird feeling.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I grabbed the dog. He was squealing<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I picked him up to carry him back.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0At that spot he began \u00a0to yap.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I passed over as quick as I could.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Once past, he was acting like he should.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We had no answers, so kept on going.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We reached the river, with water flowing.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We followed the river up the valley floor.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It looked as vacant as it did before.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Then, up ahead, we saw a small town.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There was absolutely no one around.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>I could see this spot from the ridge.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>There was nothing here. Not even a bridge.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We started exploring the town.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>Who are you”\u009d We jumped & turned around.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A shaggy man in his 70’s stood there.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He seemed to come right out of nowhere.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>We are just hikers looking around.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>Do you live here in this town?”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>Yes, I am the only one left.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Once I’m gone, there will only be death.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u02dcJust like it told us years ago.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>I was the youngest. I’ll be the last to go.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>What are you saying?” We hadn’t a clue.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>O.K., I’ll tell the story to you.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He told us 65 years ago it came.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

An alien, a beast, a monster by name.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It spoke and said it needed this valley.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

About 100+ lived here & we did rally.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It said it had something to do.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>I will return, but not for you.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By then, it said we would all be dead.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We would die of old age, it said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It said it felt kindly today.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So it wouldn’t kill anyone right away.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It said a barrier will isolate us here.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>There is no escape, I fear.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We can live out our days.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We couldn’t reproduce in any way.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When it gets back we would all be dead.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>Don’t think I am talking out of my head.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>I was 10 when it was here.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>I am now 75, I fear.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>When I am gone it will come”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>Where did you boys come from”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>Outside the valley. There was no barrier.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>There was a spot that felt weird there.”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I said “Apparently, the barrier is failing.”\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>We had better get out while it is ailing”\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We packed him up and headed out.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Back out on the very same route.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We came to the spot that was weird.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>The barrier was right here.” He feared.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I carried Stray across and the others went too.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The same weird feeling. We hadn’t a clue.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A short distance away, the old man stopped.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/i><\/b>I was afraid of this” He said, shocked.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Then, he disappeared right before our eyes.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We knew for sure, his story wasn’t lies.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Later, after we all got home.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We all knew we weren’t alone.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But, we never spoke of it to any man.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We never went back to The Valley Of The Damned.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

———————————————R.W. Johnson—–(2017)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Valley Of The Damned He came back home all excited. “Come with me. Don’t fight it.”\u009d “Let’s go on a little hiking trip.”\u009d “Something to show you that will be a hit.”\u009d We packed up and went on our way. 3 of us, and a dog named Stray. We were hiking through the … Continue reading The Valley Of The Damned<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,16,15,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-free-bird-poetry","category-horror","category-random"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2902,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2901\/revisions\/2902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordsmithwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}