The Reaping
Harvest of the Hallowed Souls
1939
Sebastian & Anita Corcoran uprooted their young lives from a small town in Iowa & ventured down to an old parcel of farm land where a dilapidated cottage stood empty that Sebastian’s great uncle, Samuel Haine, had left to the family after his untimely passing.
Hesitant at first to move across the country, the young farmer felt this could be a fresh start for the newly weds after years of severe drought conditions and economic turmoil had left them penniless.
The Corcoran's arrived in the early months of Spring and began to acquaint their new lives of living on the rustic farm, all while rushing to plant this season's crops for their first Fall harvest. With all new trades, there are learning curves, but Sebi was naturally quick on his feet & unlike the bean fields he was used to harvesting up north, him & Anita decided to give growing sweet corn & pumpkins a shot for their first Harvest in the new climate down south.
One evening in late June, as the sun was setting, Sebastian was walking his fields to see how his crops were coming along. The corn was about waist high at this point in the season and looking promising for a healthy, Fall harvest. He got about half way down the long row of corn, playing his ol' Harmonica, when something caught his eye. As he looked down towards the base of his crop, he began to notice small pieces of paper that looked like they had spread across his field. The shrapnel looking pages were sticking just above the soil with ashy, burnt, edges. Corcoran, rather curious at first, pulled a half torn page out of the ground himself to try to decipher it. Puzzled at first glance, the piece had faded red letters, covered in soot with splattered stains that almost looked like it resembled blood.
The sun was almost set when Sebastian put it in his overalls and began tracking back to his rustic home. To his surprise, on his way back he began to notice more & more pieces of these pages emerging from the ground. Confused and almost concerned, he paced faster until finally making it to the edge of his field. Yet, just as he pushed past the last set of stalks, he began to hear whisperings behind him to what sounded like the calling of his name? As he turned, the scare crow he had planted weeks ago now towered several feet in front of him, staring back from his towering perch, with Black beady eyes from a weathered feed bag that seemed to pierce right through him. Completely startled, he turned and fled for the cottage in silence as the sun had officially set on the Corcoran farm.
As he walked inside the house, Sebi found Anita staining shelves to the sound of the radio… Anita loved that beaten up radio & would have it playing in the background anytime she could. Sebastian stood distant at first as she finished up the last stroke of her brush and when she finished, Sebastian pulled Anita into the living room to show her what he had discovered out in the field, along with an explanation to the eery happenings he had experienced that evening. He pulled the slivers of paper out of the front pocket of his overalls and began to piece them together the best he could.
Anita’s eyes grew large as she went to put the final corner piece together, realizing what the page depicted. As she set the final piece into place, the radio in the background went dead silent and the lights in their small cottage flickered off. Seconds felt like minutes, but moments later, the lights stuttered back on and as Sebastian & Anita looked at one another with concern in the dead silence, they looked down at the tattered scripture, when suddenly the radio came back on to the sound of shuffling channels, until finally, resting on the sound of white static. Anita went over to unplug the radio immediately and as both were startled over what they had just witnessed, decided that it was time to turn in for the night.
Lying in bed that evening, neither one of them could seem to fall asleep. Even throughout the night, the couple would hear light banging on pipes in the walls, and even the sounds of crows flocking in the fields behind their home. As Sebastian laid there in his bed, listening to all the strange sounds, he was for the first time, starting to think that the stories his family would secretly talk about and the tragedies that took place in this small town, his home in particular, and how deranged his great uncle was... could all possibly be true?
The next morning, Sebastian headed into town to pick up some items from the local Farm n Fleet. Along the way, he saw the next door neighbors out by the ditch grabbing their mail when he decided to stop. Jim and Michelle Birdman were born & raised in Winter Garden, and knew of the stories that had happened to the young Corcoran's family in their town. Sebastian explained to Jay the whispers he thought he heard out in the field the night before, along with the radio cutting out, and the lights flickering... he even pulled out the page he taped together earlier that morning for reference. Jim looked at it in it's great detail and after a glance, handed it back to the young Corcoran. He told Sebastian that if he saw anything like that in his field he would let him know. As he drove off, Jay and Michelle knew exactly what they just held in there hand, and knew that if it was true, something awful was brewing...
As the Fall winds began to blow upon the harvested fields of the Corcoran’s delapidated abode, the small, quaint town can’t help but recollect the terror that seems to seep into it’s veins each and every October. Yet, to offset the unsettling and unexplainable on the farm, and to celebrate the first full harvest of their new lives in central Florida, the Corcoran's decided to host their first ever Halloween Party on Halloween night. The neighbors, along with some friends from all around town were invited. The Laynes, who owned the chicken farm down the road, the Baskaya's, Iachello's, Hoves, Colleges, and even the towns caretaker, Oscar O' Reilly & his wife were going to stop by. As the moon set high on that All Hallows Eve night, the guests all began to arrive to the Corcoran farm.... and little did they know, it would be the last time they were ever seen... ALIVE.
Dressed in their festive attire, one by one Anita and Sebastian welcomed their lovely guests as they arrived into their home. The home was well adorned with brightly lit, fresh carved Pumpkins from the patch Sebastian had planted out back, that sat neatly atop barrels of hay on the front porch. As guests entered, they would hear Anita's radio playing in the back ground, with a few home brewed spirits and spooky treats that laced the kitchen table, and Anita, being an avid fan of games, had bobbing for apples and other skills of chance set out around the lit pumpkins for everyone.
The party was a hit and as the night went on everything was going so well, everyone was having a ball, but that was ALL about to change. The clock on the living room wall struck 10:31pm when Sebastian, along with Oscar, Bob Baskaya, & Jay excused themselves to step out back on the patio to get away from the fun to smoke a cigar. As the boys gazed over the field in front of them, Sebastian asked if they had ever heard of the dark stories about his family... about the land. They stood in silence as they puffed from their cigars, and as soon as Oscar was going to spout out a word, a loud crash was heard from inside the barn. The men jumped off the porch to inspect what they had just heard. Walking past the white linen sheets that hung out to dry, they pushed through them to approach the edge of the barn.
Sebastian slipped past the front of the barn door.. the lantern he held, gently lit the dark crevasses of the barn. As the men moved deeper and deeper into the silenced barn, Sebastian was leading the way when all of a sudden, they heard the barn door slam closed behind them. Oscar and Bob with the look of shock peered at one another as their cigars fell out of their mouths landing on the hay covered ground. Sebastian heard small child like whispers coming from deep around the corner of the small stable. He reared his head around the corner with the lantern in hand and just as Oscar spoke the words "What do you se..." Sebastian's lantern shattered as it hit the ground and the horrifying shriek that sounded from Sebastians mouth as his body was drug around the dark corner of the barn. Fierce rattling of chains and screams were heard through out the barn & back towards the farm house. Oscar O'Reilly couldn't believe what he had just witnessed and turned to run straight for the doors. He pounded and yelled as loud as he could... with his head & shoulders were pressed against the doors, using all his weight, he yelled back for Basaka to help him press the doors open. He persisted and pleaded for Bob to come and help him as sweat poured down his adrenaline filled face with no answer. O'Reilly finally turned around and to his surprise, saw Bob with a hatchet in his hands and bright white eyes.... Standing ice cold, completely paralyzed, basaka's eyes began to bleed through his sockets as his white eyes seizuring left to right. Oscar, absolutely terrified knew he had to get out. The moment he turned around Basaka's lifeless corpse lifted the sharp edged hatchet above his head and with one fierce swipe, purged the head clean off Oscar's body. Blood gushed out of the severe gouges in his body as the deranged man hacked & hacked until O'reilly laid in pieces at his feet below him. White eyed and covered with blood dripping down his sunken face, Bob Baskaya,with an axe in hand, slowly hobbled his way up towards the Corcoran house...
Inside, the clocks broken hands hung lifeless at 10:31pm on that horrifying Hallow Eve's night and little did we know, the demonic spirits that had uprooted themselves from the cold, dense soil outback in Corcoran's barn, had also unleashed their presence inside. As the axe wielding Baskaya sludged into the front door, the once spirited Fall Festival hosted by the young Corcoran's now was a scene of horrendous murder. Anita's radio was heard through out the house, a cold, loud white noise pierced the silence of the home... Bodies laid frozen in puddles of blood, heads of the innocent party goers spread on the table, with the only movement coming from in the house was that of Mrs. Anita Corcoran herself.
Baskaya possessed his way toward the gray gown'd Anita, whom was piercing at the body of a young villager, whom had been gruesomely tacked up on the living room wall. Unbothered from the rumblings of the demonic Baskaya, she continued to stab into her victim with such lulling satisfaction, that the moment had come when Baskaya crept up behind her. She snapped around & with her bright yellow eyes and pale face, she gazed at his empty eyes, as her right arm wielded a butcher knife across his throat. As blood seeped out of the gauging hole in his neck, his white, blood shed eyes noticed Anita's face; lined with dark black veins, bright yellow cat like eyes, and her long tongue that seemed to have been seared into two pieces at the tip of it. As he hit his knees and face planted onto the blood shed wooden floors, lights in the dilapidated farm home flickered off, never to turn on again...
Day's went by until authorities were tipped from fellow family members of the victims to the whereabouts of their missing loved ones. When investigators arrived onto the scene of the Corcoran's old farm that brisk November morning, they had never seen such a heinous sight in all their lives. Authorities found Mr. Corcoran hanging in the barn with meat hooks piercing through his chest and his jaw ripped clean off his face. His limbs hung by arteries from the barn ceiling. Next to old man Corcoran, the town's Caretaker, Oscar O'Reilly was found chopped into pieces and thrown in the steel trash can's along the barns interior walls. Heads of the unfortunate party goers were found strung in the linen sheets that hung out to dry. Police had to fire off at 13 or so vultures that were found pecking at the disceased corpse of next door neighbor Jim Birdman, whom was tacked up with barbwire to the scare crow post in Sebastians sour soiled field.
Inside the home, it reaked of fresh, ironed blood smell. Investigators found the remains of over a dozen party goers displayed all over the home. Smeared heads lay next to the decaying meats that were on display, bodies posed on the stained furniture with missing limbs, and even the unfortunate corpse tacked open with insides exposed in the hallway... Every one accounted for.... except for Anita Corcoran that is. Her body was never found, and some say that on certain nights in the early morning hours, you can hear her radio faintly playing from inside the decayed farm home.
Now, 80 years later... the Corcoran farm home still stands, planted upon the same demonic land that has haunted the small town of Winter Garden for years. Some still say, that the body of Anita Corcoran roams the halls of the abandoned farm house on those spooky Fall evenings.
So we invite you if you dare, THIS Halloween season to join us BACK at The Corcoran's dilapidated farm to experience the horror's that unfolded on that gruesome Halloween night. The harvest is primed yet again and this year, the only thing that will be harvested.... is YOU.