Dad Eats People Read online

  It felt like one of those books I read about espionage or something. I always wished to live that kind of life, the adventure, the thrill , maybe getting out of this place one day... but no, that's not for me. A good woman has to stay home, take care of the family first, then maybe think about her dreams - that’s a big maybe.

  I followed the same path Elena took, she didn't turn around once which made her an easy person to follow. I would let her know later. Both Elena and I were hidden when Father turned around once again, he pulled out a cigarette, used a lighter to turn it on and continued towards the barn which I could now see in the distance.

  It was this wooden structure that looked made with rotten wood, so old and creepy. Saw Elena settled in behind a tree, her head facing the barn, the place was quite dark but the moonlight was strong and would illuminate things more than usual so I could pretty much see her. I hid in a bush not far from her, I could see everything, I could hear some noise coming from the barn, but nothing piggerish - just some screams, I couldn't tell what animal it was.

  Then Father came out, he lit himself another cigarette, and stood there looking at the moon, blowing smoke from his nose and mouth. He then looked at Elena, she was hidden but he noticed her. How?

  He signed for her to come out. He grabbed her by her neck?! I wanted to go and stop that, but Father looked scary, my legs were paralysed.

  With nothing to call the authorities all I could do was, cover my mouth to prevent a scream. He then threw poor Elena to the ground like a sack of potatoes, he told her something and then walked in the barn again, Elena sat there in silence for a whole. I saw her stand up and I ran back home, it was already morning, I didn't realise we had been there that long.

  When I saw her coming back, I pretended to be making breakfast. I joked around pretending it was all ok but she seemed too traumatized to react. She went upstairs, I laid the table for her and Father. Talking about the devil. He came in, all sweaty.

  He smiled ‘Goodmorning Dolce Bambina.’ he always called me that - it means sweet child in Italian.

  He sat at the table and ate in silence, then she walked in, my sister, she looked cleaner than before, she didn't look at him, he barely acknowledged her too. There was something going on, and I believed it involved Leo, so I sat down and asked Father straight up 'What Happened to Leo?'

  6

  Elena answered for him, ‘I don't know, we'll go and look for him today.’ Their father didn't say anything. He ate quietly, after he finished eating, he went out and back working on the farm before disappearing into the woods when the sky was getting orange. Me and Elena spent the day around town again, asking people if they saw him, I didn't say a word of what I saw and she didn't tell me how she got the mark on her neck. As they expected, nobody knew a damn about what happened to their brother so they went back home.

  Father wasn’t there when they got home. Elena asked Clarissa 'Do you want some soup?’

  She replied ‘Yes… look... we need to talk...' Elena listened attentively as she always did 'I saw you with Father this morning.'

  Elena’s face became very serious and alert, she looked around herself, she opened the door to check whether her Father was about to be back.' How do you know about that?!' she yelled.

  ‘I followed you...'

  Elena put her hands on her head in desperation 'What did you see?'

  'EVERYTHING.'

  Elena put herself together, ‘I don't want you to get into this but now that you know, I think I have to tell you everything. Come...' they went up to their room.

  Elena explained she thought Leo was in the barn. Clarissa couldn't believe it, she asked 'Did you see him?'

  Almost in tears, Elena answered 'I...I.. I saw a figure in the barn, without an arm laid on the floor, I'm not sure if it was him,’

  Elena continued ‘We've gotta go see ourselves.’

  ‘Yeah, good luck with that,' Shrugged Clarissa 'Father is always there and then he's not there watching to see if you or I go there. It's his most precious treasure.

  They decided to go when their Father was least careful about the hidden barn: when he went to sell crops at the market. The crops buyer only came once a week and was in town for a couple of hours so if you missed him, you've missed out on selling your stuff. They decided to lie to their Father. They waited until he came back home.

  They told their Father, the buyer was in town a couple days early - he was supposed to come on a Saturday but he would come on a Thursday, the next day.

  Their Father surprisingly said 'I've known Alberto for 20 years, he's never been early, he's not the type...' he was looking at them scrutinising '... well, maybe there's something going on. I’ll go see him tomorrow’

  He believed them, the next morning he ventured for the market in his rusty old ford pickup van filled with fruits and vegetables. They waited until he was far gone until they ventured into the forest.

  7

  It was relatively early in the morning, the tree-leaves were still wet from the night, this was the best time to view the hills that surrounded the farm. There was no time to enjoy that the sisters had to accomplish the mission. They were sure Father would be coming back furious and they had planned to be gone by the time he arrived. Clarissa had already told her boyfriend to be there by 7.30 with his car. Elena didn't really trust the guy to come in time but, what other option did they have? If Leo was really in the cabin, they needed to get going ASAP. They got to the barn in record time.

  Elena was scared to go first but as the elder sister she believed it was up to her to open the wooden, little house. So she did and they were blinded by the smell coming from the inside - like when you open an oven and how the hot air hits you in the face.

  Clarissa couldn't bear it, she had to turn away and try to resist the urge to vomit, Elena resisted, her curiosity was stronger than the terrible smell. and there, he was asleep, bloody, dirty, in a corner.

  It was Leo, he looked up and looked at her like she was a hallucination, unable to believe what he was seeing 'Elena...?'

  She looked around, noticed there was a light switch on one side and she turned it on. Elena wished she hadn't. What she saw was viscerally disgusting, the floor was composed of pieces of human bones, blood - lots of it - shit, and human feces. There was a pool of piss in one corner - where Leo sat - it was the cleanest part of the room.

  He stood up, trembling, then Elena noticed. Clarissa behind her had just put herself back together when she gasped 'Oh my god!’ she covered her eyes, she couldn't believe her eyes, it couldn't be, she had seen her brother healthy just a couple days before, how could this be him? He was missing an arm, his face swelled up from being beaten, both his eyes black and all swelled up, he had no shoes on, his denim overalls dirty and torn, he could barely stand up. They noticed that the cut arm still had dry blood stains left on the flannel shirt he was wearing. Clarissa turned back again, she couldn't bear to look.

  Elena somehow found the courage to look, he was her brother and she thought it was better to see him in these conditions than dead. She thought to herself that this was her Father's doing, the man she slept under the same roof with all her life was capable of this horror.

  She didn't dare go in, courage can only go so far so she told him to come. He limped his way out 'I'm looking better than ever, right?' he smiled and laughed to himself. He stopped laughing when he realised his sisters didn't find that funny.

  Clarissa would have hugged him but he just couldn't get over the stench emanating from him, he smelled like he shit himself, maybe he did.

  8

  Elena remembered they had to leave fast, she told them 'Let's go, we have to run away!’ Leo, confused, asked 'How?'

  Elena started running and told him 'You'll see, no time to explain...’ Clarissa started running too, then they both realised, their brother couldn't run so they both walked back, and let him use them to stand on his feet, they were almost dragging him along - not an easy task, Leo was 6 foot and packed w
ith muscles developed working in the farm during sweaty summer days.

  They got to the house after what felt like an infinity, Clarissa and Elena had already packed their things so they could leave swiftly, Clarissa's boyfriend wasn't there yet. She complained and went in upstairs to grab some of Leo's clothes for him.

  Leo was sat at the dinner table, Elena noticed he was staring at the leftover bowl of meat soup on the table and she said, we should get some we can cook, when we ge-’

  Leo interrupted her, 'No...' he looked scared, '...no more meat...'

  Elena was weirded out but she understood he had been through some things in the last couple days and she didn't say a thing.

  Clarissa ‘s boyfriend's car arrived, they heard it's motor stopping.

  Elena looked outside, a very handsome blonde man tall, chiselled jawline, looked like greek god, Clarissa hit the jackpot.

  Clarissa went out, smiled when she saw her boyfriend, they kissed for an inappropriate amount of time, then Elena said 'Are we going or not...?' they separated, she blushed, he smiled. Leo was visibly irritated. The car was a Porsche 911 painted in a light blue glossy finish.

  Elena helped Leo get in, Clarissa's boyfriend, Valerio, looked weirded out with the whole situation going on with his arm, he looked at him with disgust then never looked at him again. Elena and Leo sat at the back, Clarissa and Valerio at the front.

  They saw Father coming in the distance on his old truck, he had that same vehicle since he was a teenager and still had it. 'It works, why should I fix it? ' he used to say.

  Clarissa told Valerio to sprint faster, he pressed the accelerator, we passed Father. Elena and him locked eyes for a split second, he looked furious. She turned back to see what he did, he was turning around the truck and following them.

  His decrepit truck couldn't catch up with the Porsche in a million years. In a few minutes they were so far from him, they just couldn't even see him again but they still didn’t feel safe.

  The road to the city was mainly a forest, narrow and barely one car could be on the road at once, in fact when the farmers came along with their tractors, the road was officially closed. Luckily, no car passed by.

  Leo asked again 'Wh-where are we heading to?’

  Elena told him 'We're on our way to Valerio’s place, he has a small shack in his residence and we can be there for a bit until... until we find a place to stay.' There was insecurity in her voice.

  Leo understood they hadn't thought this through, he wondered how life was going to be from then on, he wondered what would be of his sisters who apparently sacrificed a peaceful life to save him from that horror.

  Regardless, he didn't want to tell them what he saw, what he did. He was never a devout christian, but he knew that if there was a God watching, he would send Leo to hell for what he had done...

  9

  They reached Castelletto, the little village had barely 5000 inhabitants (mainly farmers, their wives and their hookers.) Once in a while some merchants used to sell some interesting things but in general, nothing ever happened.

  They went past the village. Clarissa and her man, exchanging looks quietly from time to time, at every look she would blush, giggle and her face would go all red.

  Elena was happy for her sister but worried this wouldn’t last long. Leo didn't like that as much - as a brother, being protective was in his nature. When he would catch them looking at each other he would say 'Look at the street please...' Valerio would execute (Leo was clearly bigger and stronger than him), then go back into some kind of romantic staring contest with his little sister after a while.

  Meanwhile Elena was mending to Leo's multiple cuts and bruises, and every one she wondered what kind of pain he must have been through and wondered why... Why would a father do this to his own son? Their father had always been a very quiet and reserved man, who had very few friends, showed very little emotions and who clearly loved only 2 people in the world, his wife and Clarissa.

  They finally got to Valerio's residence, and Elena's jaw dropped. This guy wasn't joking, he was rich. Clarissa went 'Oh, my god you place looks amazing!' he proudly responded 'Yeah, babe, I've wanted to show you for a while.’

  There was a large gate and there was a man, who came up behind the gate and opened it slowly - it was no Beverly Hills Mansion, it would be considered just a high middle class residence with 3 floors and a lot of rooms by outsiders but for the village’s standards it was a villa.

  He parked in front of a staircase, he went out of the car, swooped all the way around the vehicle to open Clarissa's door. Men always behaved like that at the beginning of a relationship, a few months in, he would have never done that. He grabbed her hand and helped her out of the car.

  Elena helped Leo get up the stairs after the lovebirds rushed inside forgetting they came with 2 other people.

  The man who was at the gates, showed up and helped Elena with Leo. He held his breath. Leo's stink was unbearable for him too.

  They got inside and the man told Leo 'I'll show you to a bath sir.’ he turned,and started walking, Leo followed him waving at Elena ‘See you later!’

  Elena thought 'This feels safe...' she would soon learn, it wasn't.

  10

  The house looked just as good on the inside as it did on the outside. Paintings on every wall.

  Elena went to the kitchen straight away. She loved cooking and she was smelling cake coming from the kitchen. She saw a couple maids handling stuff there and chatted with them all day.

  Clarissa? Nowhere to be found. She ran upstairs to Valerio's part of the residence and she didn't come out until dinner time. That was about the same time Valerio's parent's came back too.

  Even Leo was gone, she supposed he needed some time alone.

  The Roscani family. a family that owned most of the land surrounding the village, their wine world famous and their jewellery expensive. They say money makes everyone look better. When Elena saw the Roscani wife and husband come in, she could have confirmed that claim whole heartedly.

  Mr Roscani's hair suggested he was in his 50 but his chiselled jaw, and perfect fitting suit, made her wonder if he was Velerio's brother. And Mrs Roscani looked even better, she wore a red dress with a v-neck so deep it was exposing too much of her clearly fake boobs.

  She didn’t tell them about her Father and what happened but she pretended to be joyfully surprised when Mr Roscani said he used to be good friends with her Father and that they went to the same school as teenagers. He was a very charming man, cracking jokes here and there but his relationship with Valerio didn't look good: everytime he tried to speak with Valerio, the son would barely say anything back. Although, he was behaving and talking normally with his mom.

  We all sat at the dinner table, Leo hadn't come back yet, there was a lot to clean, he probably took 2 baths she thought.

  It was a very large oval-shaped dining table, the plates looked amazing with flowery painting on all of them. She was blown away by the cups even, which were made with glass and had golden paint strokes here and there.

  All this wealth was unusual to her, for a second she wondered why Valerio would help them this way after being with Clarissa for just so little time but it went off her mind pretty quick, after Mr Roscani engaged in conversation with her again. He asked about her study of medicine and he said he liked that women were now getting into those male dominated fields and that he thought men are way smarter than men.

  He made Elena laugh when he mentioned that he'd rather a woman touch him than a man - his wife slapped his shoulder saying 'Don't make those kinds of gilded honey...'

  Worried, Elena needed to go check up on Leo. She gave a nasty look at Clarissa who was all caught up in spoon feeding her maybe future husband. Elena told them she was leaving for the toilet.

  She had no idea where the toilet was and the house was a luxurious labyrinth, but she remembered the corridor where the gatekeeper took Leo.

  The entire house was well lit but that corridor in
particular was dark, very dark. She could see at the end of the corridor a door, semi-open with light on. She supposed Leo was there so she called, ‘Leo! Leo!' no response. She heard the sound of water filling a bath.

  She knocked and opened the door, the bathtub was filled with water but nobody was in it. She went in, and fully opened the door. Then she felt a hand on her mouth, the arm moved down to her neck, choking her with strong big arms, it was Leo. She could barely breathe or emit any sound. Her mouth was moving trying to scream ‘Why? Why? Why?’ she soon got to her limit, she just couldn't breathe anymore. Elena died.

  Leo was crying, he let her go, her corpse fell down. He didn't want to kill his sister, he loved her but he just couldn't resist the urge anymore. He closed the door. Cleaned the tears off his face.

  That night, he was going to have dinner in the bathroom.

  ,

  Author’s Note

  Dear Reader,

  It’s Drina again.

  This is not the end. Father is still on his way. What did he do to his son? How his Leo going to manage his “urge”?

  In the next book we’ll follow the story of the Father…

  - What does it take to get a man to eat another man?

  - How’s is the Roscani family secretly involved?

  - What are Father’s true intentions with Clarissa?