Storyteller's Cabin
And so each day was just like the last. Sam worked hard on the farm, and then would head to the restaurant for another massive dinner. And as the weeks passed, Sam's thin physique began to grow more and more plump. He simply couldn't stop himself from eating that delicious food.
But when he would return to the barn at night, he'd awaken to that same strange sound. Eerie, unintelligible whispers drifting from the darkness, growling louder as they surrounded him, then vanishing as quickly as they came. Sam figured something in that food was giving him crazy dreams, but it seemed a small price to pay.
Sam followed this same routine day after day until he turned into quite a chubby man. It took all his strength just to do the simple farm chores he had done so many times before. Rivers of sweat would pour down his shirt, and he constantly had to plop down under a shady tree and rest, his chest heaving with each pained breath.
One night, he was awoken again by whispering, but this time the voices weren't coming from the woods. He looked out the window and saw a light on in the farmhouse kitchen. Through the curtain, he saw the shadows of three men sitting around the table. It was quite unusual for his boss to be up so late at night - and with company, no less. Curious, Sam crept out of the barn and over to the window, eavesdropping on the hushed conversation inside.
"That boy's getting sicker every day," he heard his boss say. "We wait much longer, he'll be too sickly for us to eat."
"He's gotten plenty big by now," said another. "You seen the size of him lately? We'll get two, maybe three, good meals out of him."
"Just lookin' at him work them fields makes me hungry," answered another.
Sam's boss then replied, "Alright then, I'll kill him tomorrow. But you boys gotta help me out this time. I ain't stayin' up all night cookin' him like I did the last one."
Sam's stomach turned, his head spinning so hard he had to lean against the house. Now he knew why there wasn't a graveyard in Burning Springs. He had been eating the bodies of the dead. And what's worse, he was next!
