[ IP ] `` This is practice : they have to live '' - from /r/sketchdaily

`` Mary?'' I cried out her name as I walked across the farm. She was supposed to be watching Sam, and I could n't find either of them. She was a quiet teenager, usually spending her time alone in the house reading a book or watching TV. It was n't like her to just take off. 
 
 I heard some noise coming from the barn and decided to check on it. When I opened the door, I was shocked at the sight. There were dozens of dead chickens piled on the ground, completely dismembered. One was hanging from a chain on the ceiling. One chicken was staggering across the floor, half of it's skin and muscles missing. I could actually see it's internal organs. It twitched, then fell to the ground and died. I almost vomited. 
 
 `` Mary.. what.. what are you doing?'' I could n't believe what I was seeing. My daughter was standing with a knife in one hand and a chicken in the other. It had been cut open, and her hands were bloody. 
 
 `` This is practice. They have to live.'' Mary said as the chicken in her hands breathed it's last breath. 
 
 `` Mary, it just died.'' 
 
 `` Not the chickens, dad. The others.'' She spoke casually as she dropped the chicken in her hand, reached into the chicken cage and took out another. She carried it over to the table and slapped it down. 
 
 I just watched, wordless, as she held down the chicken and cut it open down the center. 
 
 `` Mary, what are you talking about'' 
 
 The chicken beat it's wings wildly as she spread it's abdomen open and began peering at it's insides. 
 
 `` The dark people. They got into some people. I need to take them out.'' She poked around at the bird's internal organs with her fingers. Eventually the wild beating of the bird's wings stopped as it died. She continued ``.. I already tried with Sam, but he died.'' 
 
 `` Sam!? Where is Sam!?'' I looked around the room frantically. 
 
 Mary casually glanced over her shoulder and returned her attention to the dead chicken. `` I got the dark people out of him, but he died. That's why I need more practice.'' 
 
 I looked to see my six year old son Sam collapsed in a corner, surrounded by dead chickens. His abdomen had been cut wide open. He had been disemboweled. It was hard to tell where his organs ended and the chickens began. I threw up. 
 
 -- - 
 
 Mary ended up being proven innocent of the murder charges for reasons of insanity. It's difficult, but I still visit her at the institution. The medications she's on now help a lot, but she still has her good days and bad days. 

