THE CLICK

It was then he realized he was lost. His boot was stuck in the cold sloppy mud and he could not get it loose from the suction beneath. He pulled at it with his hands and finally got it pulled free. Careful not to step in the mud again he moved on. It was getting dark now. Sean had been out there for a long time...half a day easy. there was no sign of that puppy. It was as good as dead as far as he knew. How can a puppy just vanish so quickly? Regardless... it was gone .. and he had to get back before the sun went down if he didnt want to be stuck out in the forest after dark.
The sun was crawling slowly toward the treeline and it appeared that the forest was more dense here. Sean pulled at the twigs and sticks that drug against him as if to slow his progress and he broke into a clearing with a rise before him. He thought for a moment, The road back to the village is this way?...yet.. evidently it wasnt ,he shrugged and began to climb the rise upward to its crest. As he reached the top he saw before him an old Farm and its grounds which seemed abandoned and forgotten for sometime. An old muddy dirt road passed by nearby and a very gnarled and twisted looking dead tree hung over it as if to shelter it from the rain. The fields were thick with growth and weeds, and the fround was hard like it was frozen over. In the distance, an old farmhouseloomed.
Where am I?.. Sean pondered and rubbed his head as he stepped onto the road. The old tree hung over him. Looking upward he saw something move within the depths of the tree. A dark shape came from the black and walked along the lowest branch. Two green eyes stared at him as he stood there. A large beautiful black cat sat upon its haunches and licked at its paw as it watched him. He shook his head and grinned...well look at that... hes fat off of the mice here no doubt. Looking toward the Farm again,Sean stepped down the road and started along its winding path toward the home. He wondered then if there would be anyone home, or if the place was all but abandoned.
The sun crawled even lower into the skyline and the fields on the farm grew dim. Sean was staring upward at the house as it inched closer. The roof was showing weather damage and the shingles were gone. The sides of the house were in need of paint and it was obvious the house was abandoned now as there were boards over the windows and the door itself was nailed by planks of various sizes. Looking around Sean noticed that the equipment was not stored and it had been left in the fields to be spoiled by the rains.He was almost at the house now, and he was feeling a bit uneasy. This place was very strange,he thought.
The old steps were all but rotting. The weather had did the job of breaking them down and to step on one was asking for trouble. The porch was also as decrepit as the house itself. An old flower pot was sitting on a table that was faded and had dirt on its top. The flower within the pot was nothing more than a little plumb of yellowish growth long dead. The other chairs were turned on their backs or their sides tossed by wind and weather no doubt. An old swing was at the other end and it was only hanging by one rope support as the other had long since broken. The rope was frayed and swung slowly in the breeze. Here.. at the top of the stairs.. was the old door boarded and sealed.
It was about the time Sean was deciding what he would do next that he heard it. A strange sound..coming fron within the house. The steps were far to dangerous to use and he wasnt about to take a chance and sprain an ankle. Yet the sound...he knew he heard it...and it was very peculiar. Could it have been the puppy wanting to be found...? Or just the old house maybe..making sounds as old houses do? He listened again...silently..holding his breath.....and yes..there... he heard it again... the sound was clear and ditinct as he listened...click...click....click.......... and silence. This was not funny and he was going to find out what he was hearing.
Sean had stepped to the right side of the house and was observing the walls and windows. The second floor windows on this side were boarded up as well as the lower ones. If the sound being made was the puppy he needed to find the place where it went in. Walking the distance to the back of the house he turned and noticed the old outhouse was all but in ruin. The only thing left was the roof covering the old latrine inside itself. How long had the place been abandoned he thought? The place seemed to have been left all of a suddedn..like a death had left the place empty..or the owners had moved away.Regardless...the sooner he was gone from this strange place the better.
The backdoor was boarded up as tight as the others and there were no windows free of secured beams that he could see from the ground. The way the place looked, it was as if the boards were there to keep something in instead of out. As he eyed the house for clues of entry he noticed a spot before him that looked like a freshly dug hole. The hole was empty and the growth down the sides looked as if it were dug long ago and never filled in again. A small pile of soil was to its side and the dirt had settled...the hole was dug a long time ago. This became stranger as he continued to explore.
Cick...click...click...there ..again from the back of the house..inside....yes..it was a clicking sound once more. Click...Click...Click..again..he became alarmed a little at the second time and became unearved. Maybe I need to get away from here,he thought. Sean had always had the creeps in spooky places and the farm was no exception. Ghosts and spooks gave him the willys and he was getting them right now. He began to slowly walk toward the far end of the house now..to the side he had not seen. As he rounded the corner he froze.... Before him there was a little side porch that had collapsed. The walls here had rotted and the whole frame of the door had come down and left nothing but debri... he could see a dark spot there and knew he had found entry... Did he really want to enter, that was a completely different matter?