04 Oct The Whistle

📅 Published on October 4, 2025

“The Whistle”

Written by I.D.V.
Edited by Craig Groshek
Thumbnail Art by Craig Groshek
Narrated by N/A

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🎧 Available Audio Adaptations: None Available

⏰ ESTIMATED READING TIME — 16 minutes

Rating: 9.33/10. From 21 votes.

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Ma was a simple woman and I don’t think she would’ve minded the plain wooden cross we put up on her grave a year ago. It was just a two-by-four that we had laying around that we split and nailed back together to make the cross. Every Sunday I’d visit her grave on the edge of our ranch far behind our house after choring and sometimes I’d bring her a flower I found along the way. I stopped bringing her flowers after a month when I realized that she didn’t care for such excess so I switched to trying to weave together a cross made of tallgrass. I dunno how she did it but Ma was able to weave dozens of them with ease but I always ended up breaking the knot halfway through. When I finally arrived at her grave I’d always have a half-assed braid in hand but I’m sure she would’ve appreciated the effort. Especially since I was the one who visited her the most.

A breeze blew over us as I knelt in front of her grave while fiddling with the broken cross in my hands. “Evenin’ Ma. Hope you’re doin’ alright. Sorry that I’m by myself again but I’m sure Pa and Henry miss you. I know I still do.”

I tossed my last try over my shoulder and got to work on another with a couple of tallgrass strands I plucked from nearby. I worked the strands in my hand while thinking about how we still had the crosses Ma made and hung above every door, window, and bed. They stayed right where they were gathering dust just like the bibles she had us keep on our night stands. We stopped reading them after she died and it made me think of how much of a God fearing woman she was, and it made me think of what a shame it was that she didn’t get a proper burial with final rites. Henry and me rushed through digging the grave and Pa didn’t bother putting her in a box and just tossed her in like a bale of hay. Pa was quiet when we shoveled the dirt back onto her and we all stood in silence for only a minute before Pa walked back to the house. Henry ended up saying the final rites for Ma but he stumbled over the words as the tears flowed down his cheeks. I think he did a good enough job but we both knew Ma would’ve boxed his ears for forgetting the words so easy.

The breeze stilled and the whole world went quiet while I stared at the burial cross. The dirt had caved in a bit after a year had passed and I imagined Ma was nothing but bones by now. With a mangled bloody body like that I reckon the worms had gone into a frenzy and ate their fill right quick. I felt the braid in my hand snap again and I sighed, tossing my second try onto her plot and turned to make my way back to help Pa and Henry stable the horses.

I took my time to enjoy the late afternoon and kept my eyes toward the sky to watch the clouds slowly rolling overhead. The setting sun gave the clouds and the humble few acres of our ranch a golden glow and it was during times like these that makes me think that things ain’t so bad. But as soon as my eyes spotted my Pa and brother riding in from the pasture with the herd I couldn’t help it when my jaw clenched.

When I met them at the stables Pa didn’t return my wave as usual but Henry, politely declined me taking the reins off his horse. We guided the horses into their stalls, checking for enough hay and water for them before locking them in. Henry and me slid the stable doors shut and we hefted the two heavy wooden beams into place to barricade them while Pa watched. We waited for Pa’s approval as he used the butt of the shotgun he always carried to give the barricade a few heavy whacks. We heard the horses start inside but Pa gave a nod and led us back to the house to lock up. Henry closed the shutters on the front while Pa did the ones in the back and I did the sides. This was usually Ma’s job and she always had the house ready as soon as the sun touched the tops of the trees in the horizon. When she was here we’d always have a nice hot meal waiting for us like stews or a nice pie, but these days we usually had cold beans and biscuits.

Henry and I waited on either side of the door for Pa to come around front but he stopped at the front steps to look at something. He stared for a good long while before I spoke up, “Pa? You alright?”

When he didn’t reply I turned to Henry.

“He’s been doing that all day,” he said while adjusting the sling of the rifle on his back. He looked up in the direction that Pa was staring and I found that they were eyeing the treeline in the distance. The woods and the hills beyond them were dark as though the afternoon sun refused to touch them and we knew well to stay out of them. “He just told me to keep an eye out. I’m thinkin’ it might be coyotes again.”

I shook my head at that. Coyotes weren’t that much of a problem for us and would usually run off after the first shot fired in the air if they happened to show up during the day. I stuffed my hands into my pockets and leaned against the front door waiting for Pa to be satisfied with his glare at the horizon. He had that way about him and whenever that glare landed on either of us we’d jump to whatever he wanted us to do. I bet if he glared hard enough at the treeline all the coyotes would vanish off the face of the earth.

Pa huffed and we followed him into the house where I bolted the door shut and slid the two-by-four across it. Henry lit the oil lamp hanging above the mantle and started up the fireplace while Pa made his rounds through the house to check on the windows. I got to setting out plates and divvying up our last loaf of bread for the three of us while Henry, thankfully, reheated the pot of beans we had for lunch earlier that day. I was just about to take my seat across the extra chair we kept at the supper table when Pa came stomping down the stairs.

“Don’t forget to close your shutters,” he gruffed as he took his seat next to the extra chair.

I raised my eyebrows, “What for?”

Pa thumped his shotgun hard onto the table causing me to jump. I felt his eyes glaring into me while I lowered my head to stare at my plate and my small portion of bread. I nodded just like I was supposed to and mumbled, “Yessir. Sorry sir.”

I kept my eyes on my plate while we waited for Henry to serve up supper. I thought of Ma again and how she always had our plates ready. More often than not my plate would be set out empty as a punishment for something I did wrong when I was a kid. Ma would make me sit there while everyone else ate and would hee and haw about how obeying thine mother and father would get you closer to God. She’d also make me gather the plates and had me wash them, hee-ing and haw-ing about how cleanliness is close to godliness. Then she’d tuck me into bed while hee-ing and haw-ing me to sleep with words from the good book.

“You need to be better,” I remember Ma telling me one night. “You can’t keep acting the way you do, honey. You be well to remember the rules.”

Ma’s lectures weren’t so bad and I did enjoy the extra attention. When I was a kid she always favored Henry and told me I should learn to be more like him, despite me being the first born son. I didn’t understand what I was doing wrong because I felt that I behaved just as good as my brother. I followed the rules and I did what they told me, but for some reason I was always at the rear end of their punishments. Was it because I sometimes left my bedroom shutters open? I just wanted to get a glance of the stars or maybe the moon while I went to sleep, that’s all.

Henry ladled out a hot serving of beans for each of us and I was brought back from my memories. He kept his head down as he took his seat next to me after laying his rifle on the table next to Pa’s shotgun. We didn’t say grace, tucking right into our meals in silence. I do miss saying grace sometimes but we ain’t done that since Ma died. I did notice that Henry waited a second before eating and I reckoned he missed it too.

Henry was the same since she passed but he did lose some of his luster though. Stopped smiling as much and didn’t joke as much like he used to. Stopped talking about how he’d build his own farm down the holler and start a family with that pretty blonde girl from town he was always so sweet on. He just kept keeping on just like me and Pa were and things were easier that way. We had our duties and we all knew the rules and we knew how things were.

We finished eating in silence and it was Pa’s turn to clear the table so me and Henry left him to it while we went upstairs to head to bed. I approached my open window that filled my room with that nice golden glow and after glancing up and the cross Ma put above the sill, I watched the sky slowly darken from purple to blue. I’ve seen the same view my whole life and wondered if it was what I’d see when I die. The same little fucking window, on the same fucking ranch, with the same fucking family and I didn’t want that. I wanted to at least see a sky full of stars before I go just like Ma did. She was so lucky…

I didn’t bother changing out of my dirty chore clothes and sprawled out on my bed to stare at the ceiling, imagining a big wide open sky filled with twinkling light. It wasn’t long until I drifted off to sleep.

* * * * * *

A single buckshot woke me in the early morning. I held my breath as the rattling scream of one of the horses erupted in the distance but was immediately cut short by another buckshot. Cold sweat soaked through my shirt and I turned my head toward the window where the light of early dawn began to turn the sky a deep blue. I didn’t dare move until I heard the thumping of Pa’s boots from somewhere in the house. Slowly I sat up, leaving my bed to get a better look outside. I frowned when I saw the dim glow of a lantern lighting up the awning beneath and lit up a small portion of our yard. We never had a lantern out after dark and never this early in the morning. My breath hitched when the light went out and I felt the house shake as the front door slammed shut followed by my Pa’s footsteps charging up the stairs.

I whirled around as Pa barged into my room shotgun in hand with Henry on his heels. Pa said nothing as he shoved me aside to slam the shutters closed on my window. I looked to Henry who stood in the corner with the lantern. He stared back at me with wide eyes and was breathing all ragged and when I opened my mouth to speak, he shook his head furiously. All three of us stood there not moving. Waiting.

Another thump shook the house followed by the strangest groan that came from something outside. It sounded like a horse trying to scream again but it was all wrong. It was all high pitched and ended with this god awful gurgling sound. We held our breath as the house rattled and heard the thundering crack of wood splintering outside. Something thrashed downstairs on the porch and continued to scream something awful.

It wasn’t until a few minutes after that everything went still. The thing thrashing and shrieking outside moved on and we all stayed in place even when the screams disappeared into the distance. We stayed right where we was for what felt like hours and we didn’t move until morning light finally broke through the cracks of my shutters. Pa got up to take a peek through my window and Henry and I followed him when he turned to go back downstairs.

We found the front door buckled in its frame and Pa wasted no time in kicking it out from its hinges. I felt something cold splash against my cheek and found my palm smeared with red when I wiped it off. I gaped as I followed them outside to see that part of the awning had collapsed onto the porch and one of its support beams had been torn out right from underneath it. The thing had left smears of blood everywhere and Pa, Henry, and I gathered around a small puddle of the stuff right by our front steps. It wasn’t until a few moments later when Henry finally spoke up.

“I didn’t know it wasn’t ours,” he said.

Pa’s fist shot out and got Henry right in the nose, causing him to reel back and fall on his ass causing him to drop the lantern that he still held. Pa handed me the shotgun so he could continue to beat on my brother. I wasn’t sure what to do so I just watched. This ain’t ever happened before and that was usually me taking the hits but a beating like this hadn’t happened in years, not since I was little. The last time Pa did a beating like this was that one afternoon I came home late. I had gotten my first glimpse of a star that appeared once the sun had set and I kept my eyes on it while I took my time walking back to the house. Pa was waiting for me at the front door and beat me so badly that night that my nose didn’t heal right and it ended up all crooked. Ma did stay by my bedside for days though and I appreciated her company despite the severe sermons she read from her bible, asking for God to heal my body and soul of the evil that somehow found its way into me.

I watched as Henry took his beating with dignity and I fucking hated him for it and I hated myself worse for enjoying it. I set the shotgun aside to wrestle Pa off of my brother. I wasn’t no little boy anymore and I took some satisfaction in staring into his face as I held him by the collar. What was I ever afraid of? This old fuck who now stood on his toes as I held him up like he weighed nothing?

Pa glared at me, wrenching himself away. “You god damn stupid idiot! You could have died! All of us! Dead! All because you didn’t know it wasn’t ours? Have you lost your fucking mind?“

Pa managed to kick Henry in the face then took up the shotgun to stalk off toward the stables. I stood over my brother as he groaned in pain, struggling to turn himself onto his back. Nose wasn’t broken but it did bleed pretty bad and coated his mouth and chin bright red. It was something else being the one watching but I kept myself from smiling when I knelt down to ask him what the hell happened.

Through a mouth full of blood he said, “I was just gonna get breakfast started when I saw the horse standing out in the yard. I thought it got loose somehow and I went outside with the light to check on it. It was getting close to daybreak anyway. The horse…the thing looked like one of ours. I didn’t know it until I stepped outside. The fucking thing charged at me! Pa was right behind me and stopped it with a couple of shots.”

I stared at him. He definitely deserved that beating.

Both of us started when we heard a loud whistle off in the distance. I turned to see Pa standing right by the pasture fence looking towards the treeline. Pa never whistled. Ever. But I watched in horror as he set his shotgun down, put two fingers to his lips and let out another long loud whistle.

A long moment passed.

Then another.

Pa turned heel and stalked towards us. He yanked my brother to his feet and he grabbed my arm to drag us towards the house. “Fix the damn door. Board up everything and get your guns ready.”

We obeyed, working in silence well into midday. Henry didn’t bother washing the blood off his face and he kept on working, hammering the front door back into shape with some scraps of wood we found out back in the shed. I had nothing left to do after repairing the beams that held up the awning and cleaning up the shingles that were scattered everywhere so I made myself lunch and brought a second plate of beans out to Pa who had pulled up a chair in front of the stables. He declined the food and declined my offer to get the barricade down so the horses can go out to graze. He didn’t look up at me, just kept his eyes on the treeline with the shotgun gripped tight in his hands.

I shrugged and brought the plate back to Henry who took it graciously. He sat on the porch and I sat next to him while he ate and we watched Pa together.

“You alright?” he asked.

I sighed. Henry was always the nicest of us and I sometimes hated him for that. That was the reason why he was Ma’s favorite and Pa didn’t hit him. I didn’t have a scratch on me but here this fucker was asking if I was alright. I looked at him with the blood all caked on his face and falling off in flakes with my eyebrows raised.

“You stupid?” I asked.

Henry chuckled, finishing off his plate and setting it down. He used his sleeve to scrape the dried blood off his face then looked back at Pa. We sat there quietly for a while when I noticed that the whole ranch was quiet. No rustle of tallgrass. No bugs buzzing or chirping. No breeze. Nothing. Gooseflesh rippled over my skin while my ears began to ring. I turned to Henry and he sat up straight and alert, noticing the sudden stillness. I turned my gaze to Pa and it seemed like he felt the change too. He had gotten up from his chair and was making his way back towards the house with his shotgun aimed at the woods.

“I lied,” Henry said softly in the dead silence. “I knew exactly what that thing was. It was the thing that got Ma. I thought I could kill it. I tried but…”

I quickly went into the house to bring out our rifles and by the time I handed one to Henry, Pa was standing at the front step of the porch. We stayed outside with him watching and waiting for….something. Henry and I occasionally exchanged glances but we stayed right where we were long into the afternoon. When the sun touched the top of the trees we stayed and said nothing when Pa picked up the lantern to turn it on, leaving it at the top step of our porch.

We stayed out there for what must’ve been hours not saying a word and I found myself staring up at the sky at the evening star and watched the sky grow darker and darker and was amazed at the stars that began to fill the sky. It was the most beautiful thing…

I continued to watch the sky waiting to see if the moon would arrive but it never did. It must’ve been midnight when the low whistle coming from Pa startled me. It was a long, low sound and I shot Henry a look. In the dim light of the lantern and the starlight I saw he was staring at Pa with fear in his eyes. Pa took another deep breath, letting out another long whistle.

Henry took up the rifle and pointed it out towards the dimly lit yard and I followed suit. “Pa! Pa, no!” Henry pleaded in a hoarse whisper.

The old man stood tall and put two fingers to his lips and let out the loudest shrillest whistle lasting several seconds. The silence that followed was deafening. Pa adjusted the shotgun in his hands to take aim at the darkness.

That was when we heard it in the distance. A long high pitched whistle.

I felt my skin crawl as another whistle sliced the air and sounded closer. My finger trembled against the trigger when the third whistle came from just a few yards in front of us, just beyond the light that filled the yard.

We pointed our guns at the horse that suddenly appeared in the dark and I felt my stomach drop at the sight of the thing. It had a gaping wound in its neck and face where Pa had shot it and its chestnut coat was still smeared with streaks of blood from its thrashing earlier this morning. Its hooves made no sound as it pawed at the grass. It nickered and shook its head and I felt nauseous at the gore being flung off its lathered coat. It stared at us with its remaining eye glowing an eerie green and when it pulled back its lips it somehow let out a high pitched whistle.

Pa raised his shotgun and fired off a shot right at the green eye that stared at us and the creature’s whistle turned into a gurgling scream. It twitched and reeled back with its forehooves thrashing at the air and we watched in horror when it remained on its hindlegs–towering over us in the dark. Pa shot it again and it swayed back wildly but refused to go down. Its front legs went limp and what remained of its head twitched and jerked–its tongue hanging out and lolling every which way.

Pa backed up and gestured for Henry to take his spot. He whispered, “Finish it off boy.”

Henry fired off a few rounds at the thing but it just took ‘em. It didn’t go down at all–just twitched with each hit of the bullet. I took aim but Pa held his hand up to signal me to stay still. Henry took a look at us over his shoulder, eyes wide and fearful and brow coated in sweat. Henry fumbled while reloading his rifle while me and Pa kept our eyes on the creature.

I watched as my brother dropped his bullets and the creature toddled right up to him, towering over him with its hideous maw dripping gore onto his head. Henry stared up at the thing frozen stiff.

BANG!

Pa fired a shot that blew off what was left of the thing’s head. Henry fell backwards and began to scream when the monster reared again, its forelegs punching the air and landing down hard onto my brother’s torso with the sickening crunch of ribs being snapped. I ran into the house, slamming the door behind me and jamming the two-by-four beam onto it. I heard Henry scream in agony, the heavy thumps of the thing stomping my brother to death, the sounds of my Pa cursing my name and firing a few more rounds at the monster. I ignored all of it and I ran up to my room–throwing open my shutters to watch the hell unfolding below.

I watched as the monster crushed my brother’s head under its hoof, popping it like a boil. I stared as it pawed at my brother’s limp body on the lawn, continuing to move despite it having nothing more than a mangled mess of flesh where its head used to be.

Pa reloaded his shotgun and fired at it again. It fell onto its back with its legs kicking the air furiously and Pa charged at it–ramming the barrel into its chest firing into it until his shotgun clicked empty. The thing jerked one last time and finally went limp.

Panting hard, Pa turned to glare up at the house and his gaze landed on my window and I thought back on how Ma had done the same thing and had stared up at me in the window with wide terrified eyes lit by the lantern she held in her hand. I had no idea how long she was standing there in front of the horse standing in our yard. I had no idea that it was fine for her to break the rules but I knew damn sure it wasn’t fair.

I slid the window open, craning my neck up to glance up at the starry night sky and then I turned my gaze down to Ma who stood frozen in place. I remembered how she silently pleaded up at me with wide fearful eyes. What the hell did she expect me to do? I thought back on her lectures and prayers for me to be better and how she didn’t stop Pa from hitting me and would always be standing back and watching. So I stood there and watched her from the window. I let out a quick low whistle and I stood and watched as the horse reared back and trampled onto her, the lantern tumbling off to the side and going out. I heard the soft snap of Ma’s neck breaking and I watched as the monster opened its muzzle wide and began tearing hunks of flesh off her face and body in the starlight. It wasn’t long until Pa came charging out the house with shotgun in hand and the monster bolted off into the night, leaving its meal half eaten.

When Pa finally turned his back to the house I slid the window open and watched as he knelt by Henry’s broken body, just like he did when he found Ma that night a year ago. I heard a sob come from the old man and wondered if he would’ve cried if that was me all twisted up in the grass instead. I glanced over at the carcass of the monster that lay a few feet away and wondered something else.

I looked out into the starry night and put two fingers to my lips to let out a long whistle and waited. I looked down at Pa who stared up at me in horror and I waited.

I grinned at him when I heard another whistle answer me from the darkness.