Blue
part 1
aunt vav
Blue Mon 27 Jan 2014 No.14084829 View Quoted By:
My aunt Vav does not believe in natural death. She says that every death happens as a result of the earth reclaiming you (be that for good reasons or bad), curses, or something awful has latched itself onto you (or takes you). She says it doesn't matter whether or not you have a good spirit inside of you, it does not matter about your deeds, sood or bad, for the earth does not think like a person does, and neither do the things that we instinctually fear. When I was four, I met Vav for the first time that I can actually remember her. My mother and I went to stay with her because our neighbors kid had gone missing, and my family, (being hyper vigilant about these kinds of things), took me to Aunt Vav.
Aunt Vav lives in the Northern Territory, on a large property off Stuart highway. Her house is a shed, with concrete floors and corrugated iron walls and roof. She has no ground water or attachment to the mains, so she relies on a large rain water tank for showers/drinking water. Vav has a metric fuckton of guns and stuff, and I'm not entirely sure if it is all legal, but she's a woman living alone with only dogs for company a good amount of the time, so fair enough. Now, Aunt Vav comes from some really old blood of warlocks and druids from Scotland and Wales, but she thoroughly believes in the spirits and creatures of Australia. As far as I know, her husband died when I was a baby, and Vav keeps his ashes on a shelf in the living room, in an urn with the ashes of the two babies they lost. I don't remember much of the visit when I was four, but I do remember that Vav never kept her five large dogs on chains. It caused my mother great distress, for she worried that the Pitbull/Bullmastiffs would harm us. All my life, Vav has ignored her concerns. She has always said that people who chain up their dogs outside are idiots, for a dog doesn't belong on a chain.
She says that they can't protect you on a chain. And sure enough, the dogs never harmed us, instead would often come on walks with us, ever-watching and herding us close to the house. Now, I have visited Vav many times over the years, and as I got older she has given her wisdom to me. I don't particularly give a fuck if you believe me or not, but I am just offering these stories to you because I thought it would be good to share them. Basically, there are several things that I have become sure of; the first is that when Vav dies, I will be the one who inherits the house and land. I'm not particularly sure if I will want it when she does. Secondly, Vav is cursed. She says that her grandparents did awful things that angered the spirits, and it has been passed down to her, as she is the one who has the blood. As apparently, I do as well.
When I was nine, I was sleeping on a mattress at Vav's house in her living room, because my mum was in hospital in Darwin (due to complications with her pregnancy). I went to sleep after watching some rugrats on VHS, when I was woken up by the dogs. Vav had seven dogs at this point, with three of the original five, the rest were younger. I could hear them barking and snarling like crazy. But it was beyond anything I'd ever heard dogs sound like, and I've heard what dogs are like when they're chasing down a wild boar. I was pretty afraid and got up to go look for Aunt Vav, only to find her already sitting at the table by the kitchen door. She was slowly loading a rifle, had the pockets on her belt bulging with ammo, and there was a shotgun and machete on the table across from her. I remember asking her what was wrong with the dogs, and her looking up at me with a smile. "l dunno, Blue. But let's go have a squizz."
She let me hold the machete in its sheath as we left the house, and led me to the edge of the verandah. The area around us was lit up in all directions from her perimeter lights, which she must have put on whenever it was that she woke up from the noises. She propped her shotgun up against one of the beams. I remember her eyes, sharp and bright as she scanned the area. She whistled for the dogs and they came running, whining and snarling with the ruff on their backs raised all the way down their spines. "This is private property! You are trespassing! If you understand, respond immediately, or I will use force to remove you!" Aunt Vav planted one foot a little in front of the other as she held up her rifle, and I simply stood there, being about as useful as a bag of shit, my hand finding anchor on the back of Ripper, who was squirming with his muscles all bunched up under my palm. Now, in this area there are no streetlights, at all, in any direction that you can see. So while the stars seem to be endless in the sky, you cannot see a fucking thing.
We stand there with nothing but the sounds of the dogs whining. Usually you can hear frogs or insects and ambient noise but it was like the whole area was holding its breath. "Vav." I said, trying not to piss my pants. I didn't understand why she wasn't calling the police, when we heard it. There was a thump, then; "rrrrressssspond." A fucking gurgled mess of the word was hissed at us from somewhere beyond the line of light, and there were rustles from grasses in the direction Vav was pointing the rifle. At this point all the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I pissed myself. Vav hissed at me for a torch, so I gave her one of the big yellow ones that were on the ground by the house, fumbling the machete but not totally fucking it up, even as warm urine made my legs itch and my jeans stick to me. "youuuuuu?" Blue Mon 27 Jan 2014 03:51 No.14084860 Quoted By:
She swung the light beam back and forth, but it didn't reach very far at all, and I didn't realize what she was doing. There was a reflection from a pair of fucking eyes out there in the dark. Yellow-green spots that stood a little taller than me. Vav didn't even hesitate. "Sik 'em." Just like that, all seven of the dogs took off into the darkness, their snarls like battle-cries as they went to chase down whatever was out there. I just wanted to go back inside when Vav suddenly tilted her head, listening.
There was a quiet thump from somewhere to the left of us, and Vav handed me the torch and told me to shine it out into the dark. I was nearly crying, and when we saw the eyes, Vav started punching out rounds towards it; I dropped the torch and covered my ears against the sound. There were several thumps that sounded like a frightened rabbit, but so much louder. Bigger. Vav swore, picked up her shotgun and the torch, and ran Off into the dark. She was swallowed into the blue-black night, her torch beam cutting through it. There were more thumps. That's when I saw it. Illuminated for just a moment. It was black; it's back arched like a cat, with a big thick tail, but it was easily half as tall as Vav, with legs built for running on all fours, and a massive head. There were more shots in the dark as the torch beam hit the ground and rolled away from the thing. The thing was screaming, loud, guttural cries.
I could hear the dogs high-tailing it back to the house at the noise. I was frozen against the wall and Vav must have picked up the torch, because the beam was shining sporadically back and forth, searching. "l saw what you had!" Vav was screaming into the dark. "l saw what you had!"
Then Vav let out the strangest moaning sound, like the
type that comes when you're on a rollercoaster and feel ill,
but can't scream.
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