Hunt of the Ladybugs

A goats head effigy hangs in the shadows. It watches me from above, mounted into the barn wall. Crack. I wish I couldn't still hear it. The hammer striking down on my skull. The sickly squish as it's pulled back from the blood caking above my ear. A ribbon of scarlet before everything goes black. The blood is waterfalling down my face, pooling around me. The straw soaks it up, thirsty. 

I can no longer see where it went. He? It? I'm questioning everything I knew. Cold, I lay crumpled like an old sack across the concrete floor. Everything is silent, but I don't dare try to crawl away. I've learned my lesson, ankle screaming. I had snapped like a twig. Fragile as a swallow.

Without warning, I felt a breath against my gasping lips. Something, someone is right above my soaked ear. Pausing to inhale after every two words it whispers, "Ladybug ladybug fly away home. Your house is on fire and your children are gone. All except one and that's..."