Men of Oak

What a hellish night it had been so far, and the worst was yet to come. Daniel stole a quick glance out the window of his family’s sturdy stone home. The sun had gone down hours ago, and darkness cloaked the land in full. There was no rain. No wind. No ominous clouds drifting across a full moon.

As Daniel watched, there was nothing to suggest that merciless evil roamed the countryside. All he saw was the lush green land of his native Ireland glowing under the moon. He saw no sign of the Men of Oak, although he knew they could appear over the far hill at any moment. No one knew where they would go tonight, when all things dark and malevolent ruled the island, but they always appeared somewhere. There was no escape if they came to your door. No way to escape the fear and pain. It was only a matter of degree. It would be bad, or it would be worse.

Daniel’s wife, Peggy, came up behind him. She placed her hand on his shoulder. He nearly cried out in fright. He threw her a reproachful look.

“Sorry,” she said.

“It’s all right,” Daniel said, feeling foolish in spite of the fact that there were no brave men to be found on the Night of Fire.

“Are the candles out?” he asked.

Peggy nodded yes.

“Would you please make sure?”

Leaving candles lit on this night of all nights could be a fatal error. Lord knows what they might attract. Peggy left to check the house again.

Daniel had no idea what time it might be. No idea how much longer they must endure. Several times his heart stopped as he thought he saw the flickering orange glow of torches approaching from beyond the hill.

He thought of Declan. Declan had been the unfortunate one last year. When faced with his choice, he had offered his youngest daughter. Despite such a despicable and cowardly act, no one in the village would have viewed him with anything but sympathy. However, the Men of Oak had not been pleased with his offering, and . . .

Daniel shuddered and tried to refocus his thoughts.

The sound of Peggy’s panicked voice gripped his heart in terror. It was not her tone of voice that frightened him, but the words he heard her saying.

“Jenny, what are you doing? Put it out! Put it out right now!”

Daniel raced through the house toward his daughters’ room. He felt a leaden sense of dread as he spotted the shimmering flame on the head of a candle on a high shelf. Peggy stumbled over the bed in a frantic attempt to reach the light. Daniel stepped up on the bed, clutched the candle and ground it out on his palm. He didn’t notice the pain, nor did he notice the heavy, wood-bound book that tumbled behind the bed. Nor did he notice the strange design scratched onto the floor.

He slumped on the bed, drenched in sweat. Peggy tried to catch her breath, her hand resting on her bosom as she struggled to breathe normally. Eight-year-old Jenny stood watching them. Tears welled up in her frightened eyes at the sight of her parents so panicked. The younger daughter Colleen sat up in bed, still bleary-eyed and not quite comprehending.

“I’m sorry, Daddy,” Jennifer said pitifully.

Daniel waved his daughter over.

“It’s all right, Precious. Do you understand we can’t burn candles on this night?” he asked as she sat on his lap.

“No,” Jennifer said. “Why are candles bad tonight?”

Daniel and Peggy exchanged an apprehensive glance.

“Jennifer, the world is made up of pairs. Do you understand?”

Jennifer nodded yes.

“Boy and girl, dogs and cats, day and night . . . and good and evil. Do you know what evil is?”

“Yes. Mrs. McKay at church says that’s when Ol’ Scratch tries to get us to do bad things.”

“Right, but in this world, evil must be allowed to exist as well as good.”

“And tonight is the night evil gets to roam?”

“Yes.”

Daniel was relieved that Jennifer was able to fill in the blanks, but still unnerved to hear her last response.

“Why are you and Mommy scared? Is evil going to get us tonight?”

“No,” Daniel said, hoping his uncertainty didn’t show. “Of course not.”

“But it does get some people. Doesn’t it?”

“Sometimes.”

“Why? I thought God protected everyone.”

“The ways of God are not for us to understand.”

“It’s okay. I won’t let the evil get us.”

Daniel reached up and patted Jennifer on the head.

“Good girl.”

Daniel sat slumped on a chair, resting his head in his arms as they rested on the windowsill. He tried to fight sleep, but every few seconds he would flinch awake in terror, only to calm himself by the sight of the empty, dark countryside.

Then he heard it.

“No!” he whispered to himself.

It was almost undetectable to the ear. Almost. Daniel knew the sound of deep voices chanting as well as anyone. Most everyone had heard the chanting before when the Men of Oak ventured to a neighboring house.

“Peggy!”

His wife came running to him with a face that glowed white under the combination of her fear and moonlight.

“What is it?” she asked, praying her fear was unfounded.

“Listen,” Daniel said. “Do you hear that?”

Peggy listened, and after a few seconds she heard the chanting herself.

“Oh, Lord!” she sobbed.

This time a flickering glow did appear on the other side of the hill. It grew brighter until it became a group of shimmering torches carried by shadowy figures in black hooded robes that hid their faces. Their chanting was deep and guttural, as if otherworldly creatures were using their mouths to speak the unspeakable. Daniel estimated they were about thirty in number. Not that it mattered. Even one of them was more powerful than a hundred mortal men.

“They’re not coming here,” Peggy said hopefully. “They look like they are going to the Kinney’s.”

Daniel said nothing. This was the closest look at the Men of Oak he had ever suffered through. Were they going to move past? He watched for a few more seconds. They turned up the small path that led to their front door. They were not moving on to the Kinney’s.

“Go into the back room. Take the girls and lock the door.”

“What?” Peggy asked in disbelief. “You are not going to defy them are you?”

“I am. I will not hand over one of the girls to those beasts.”

Peggy could not believe nor understand.

“Daniel, I want you to come to your senses.”

“It is my option to resist. Is it not? Those monsters cannot force their way into a Christian home.”

“But the demons they summon can! You know the consequences of defying them. They will unleash a demon that will kill one or all of us through fear, the worst kind of death.”

“We are thinking human beings of faith, are we not? We can use our faith to defeat the fear.”

“Remember what you told Jennifer? It is a world of pairs, where evil must be allowed to exist. You know that. How can there be good without evil?”

“I will not send one of our daughters out there to face those creatures alone!”

The chanting grew louder. They could hear their footfalls on the ground.

“You have no right to condemn us all,” Peggy said, furious.

“How can you expect me to send one of our children out there to be ravaged, tortured or God-knows-what-else? They are here for a sacrifice, Peggy. Don’t you understand that?”

“All I understand is that it is useless to resist them. People have tried to find ways to defeat them for thousands of years. What makes you think you can win?”

The dark voices of the Men of Oak grew louder still, and they could hear the crackling of the fiery torches.

“If you are so determined to offer them a sacrifice from this family, then step outside and be done with it. Otherwise, go to the back room and lock yourselves in with our children.”

With angry, bitter defeat on her face, Peggy stood and fled into the back room as Daniel heard the Men assembling before his front door.

“Daniel Conroy.”

Daniel flinched in fear at the sound of the booming growl of the Man’s voice.

“Tonight a sacrifice is required of thee. Send forth your offering.”

Daniel crouched by the window, his clothing soaked in perspiration. The hoods obscured most of their faces, but he could see their thick beards and the rough, wrinkled textures of their skin. The faces looked as though they had been carved out of a tree trunk. They stood silent, waiting for him to act.

“No!” Daniel found himself shouting out, frightened by how loud his voice sounded.

The man who spoke turned to one of his companions. This second man held two items: a hollowed out gourd and a bucket. The gourd contained a candle made from the fat of a human. He also knew the contents of the bucket. The bucket was used on those who resisted. People rarely resisted, but sometimes, people got foolish.

The Man with the two items dashed the gourd to the ground, where the vegetable and its grisly contents splattered across the grass. He raised the bucket and placed his hand into the dark liquid.

Daniel could not see what the man was doing; he didn’t have to. He heard the man’s hand scraping along the door.

Peggy appeared from the rear of the house.

“Daniel,” she nearly hissed. “What on earth is going on? Did I hear you tell them no?”

Daniel said nothing. Peggy heard the scrapes on the door. She put her hand to her mouth, her eyes wide in fear.

“My, God, Daniel, do you know what you’ve done?”

Daniel merely watched her.

“You’ve killed us all. You know the legends!”

“Perhaps that what they are. No more than legends. Maybe it is nothing more than superstition,” Daniel said quietly.

Peggy pointed to the front door, where the scraping sounded for a few more seconds and then stopped.

“You call that superstition?”

Daniel looked outside. The men were leaving. They resumed their chants and set out to find another house. They would keep going until they found a household that would give them what they wanted.

Peggy pulled the door open. Daniel looked at her as if she were a crazy woman.

“Peggy! What are you doing? Shut that this very instant!”

Ignoring him, Peggy ran out of the house.

“Wait! Wait! We will give you what you want! Come back!”

Daniel ran out after her, surprised his legs could move in such a state of absolute fear.

Peggy continued to call out to the Men of Oak. They ignored her. The Conroy house had its chance to obey, and one chance was all anyone ever got. Daniel tackled his wife before she got too far from the house. Lord knows what they might have done had she reached their group. She struggled mightily, almost escaping a couple of times, but Daniel was finally able to pull her back to the house. When they approached the door, they saw the symbol: an upside-down five-pointed star surrounded by a circle. Daniel did not have to guess the dark liquid substance that was used to create this most unholy work of art. Peggy noticed the symbol, and nearly broke free of Daniel’s grasp in a tantrum of panic.

“Let me go! That’s the sign! Satan will kill us tonight! Let me go! Let me go!”

Daniel got her inside and shut and barred the door.

“Enough of this! No one will kill us tonight! We will survive this night by using our minds.”

Daniel looked out the window.

“They’re gone,” he said.

“Only in body are they gone,” she said. Her voice a monotone of defeat and fatigue.

She got to her feet, and began to walk toward the children’s room. Daniel watched her walk away, wishing he could think of something to say that would raise her spirits. She stopped and turned to face him.

“One of us—perhaps all of us—will be dead by morning. You know that,” she said.

“I know only what the legends say.”

“How can you call it merely a legend? You’ve seen it proven true every year. Those who do not offer a sacrifice to the Men of Oak will have their home invaded by a demon of fear.”

“I’m not convinced that this evil force is more than the work of powerful imaginations!”

“Imagination or reality, what’s the difference? Those people are just as dead, just as surely as any one of us will be.”

Daniel did not have the energy to debate further.

“I’m going to the girls’ room,” she said as she turned away.

Daniel went to the bedroom and lay down to sleep. Although he felt unprotected by the empty space next to him where Peggy usually lay, he refused to let his mind be used as a weapon. How many of those other poor ignoramuses simply envisioned all the demonic assaults from the black corners of their minds until their overworked hearts simply gave out? Daniel Conroy had an education. He had been taught in the basics of science, mathematics and history, knowledge that he taught to the schoolchildren in his school in the hopes of turning them into people with reason, not emotion.

He looked at Peggy’s place in the bed. She would probably stay with the children all night. Finally, mercifully, he fell asleep.

Daniel sat up suddenly, wrenched from his sleep by something he could not identify. He looked around the room quickly, his breathing hurried. The unexplained reservoir of bravery that had fortified him in his confrontation with the Men of Oak had emptied. He was afraid again.

“Peggy?” His voice boomed in the darkness. A heavy blanket of silence gave him his only answer.

A noise came from the children’s bedroom. He threw back the covers and ran to the hall. The house was bathed in inky blackness. Not a candle burned anywhere. He tread lightly to the children’s bedroom, hoping to see his family sleeping soundly.

He sighed gratefully when he detected the outline of their bodies lying still on the floor. Peggy had a child under each arm. He smiled as he watched his family sleep.

His eyes began to adjust to the blackness as he watched them. As their shapes began to become more defined, he frowned.

“Peggy?”

He hoped to wake only her and not the children. Peggy did not respond. What was that on their clothes? He reached down to shake his wife awake. He jerked his hand back when it touched something wet. He didn’t have to see it in the light to know what it was.

“Oh, my God!”

Peggy’s eyes opened, and a faint red glow replaced her beautiful brown eyes.

“I’m sorry, He’s not here!” The sound coming out of his wife’s mouth sounded like a thousand raspy voices speaking underwater.

Daniel backed out of the room as his wife began to rise up. As he turned to run, he noticed the two girls stirring.

“It’s your imagination.” Daniel said, not quite believing himself.

Although determined not to let his imagination get the better of him, he found it hard to believe that his senses of sight, hearing and touch could all be conspiring against him.

“Only a dream, only a dream,” he said to himself as he ran down the hall. He pounded his fist against the walls as he ran, hoping to jar himself awake.

He had to run. Run! Anywhere! He collided with the door; the bar still securing it shut. He swore and desperately yanked the bar out of its rest. He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see his beloved family slowly marching toward him.

“Daniel!”

He flinched at the sound of the awful voice coming out of Peggy’s mouth. He ignored it and pulled the door open. A surge of relief swelled through him as the liberating cool air swirled around him.

He didn’t know where he was going. He just had to run. Only until daylight must he endure. At sunrise, evil’s playtime would be over. He glanced behind as he ran, seeing the bloody trio growing fainter as they continued to walk after him at their demonically confident pace.

The grass grew taller and trees surrounded him as he entered the woods. Here he could hide. The Men of Oak were no doubt down near the village, demanding their hideous sacrifice.

He leaned against a tree to rest and listen. The woods were quiet, which worried him. Normally, the woods would be alive with sound. He heard soft footsteps again.

Their eyes glowed red in the darkness. He held his breath and waited, hoping they would not see him. They walked in his direction as if they knew where he hid.

Daniel did not panic. He only need run for a little while longer. The Sun would save him soon.

He took three steps and found himself swept up into the air in a large net. He thrashed about, trying to escape, only to find himself more entangled. He gave up and looked about. He dangled about eight feet off the ground. Peggy and the girls stood still, staring straight ahead.

“Peggy!” he screamed, hoping to snap her out of her possession.

Peggy continued to stare straight ahead.

He opened his mouth to scream again, when the forest started to move. The sounds were familiar—wood creaking and groaning, as if the trees were stretching awake from a deep sleep. Several of the surrounding trees began to shrink and change their shape. Their sinister limbs drew in closer to the trunk until they vanished. Some of the limbs did not vanish. They began to look like . . .

“Arms!” Daniel squinted to make sure he was not hallucinating.

The trees were changing their shape, quickly now they became men in black robes.

Daniel began to struggle even more desperately than before in a futile attempt to escape the netting that held him.

The Men stepped forward until they formed a circle. In the center of the circle, Daniel’s wife and children stood directly under him. Knowing that escape was impossible, he collapsed in exhaustion and waited to see what happened next. Sunrise had to come at any moment.

The Men began to chant, and seconds later a searing column of flame burst through the ground. Daniel cried out, begging his family to run away. They did not move. They stood calmly and quietly as the flames consumed their clothing, then their flesh. The intense heat soon reduced his wife and daughters to a smoldering pile of charred bones.

Daniel wept in his roped cage. He felt himself being lowered toward the flames. He struggled harder than ever before, as the heat and smoke choked his lungs. He prayed desperately for sunrise. It had to come soon.

It had to.