The Black Farm

by Elias Witherow

  Ansom paused, one hand on the door knob. “I’m no angel. I was stripped of that when I got assigned here. Like Tolin said, we are flesh and blood just like you. And as for God?” He looked over his shoulder at me, “he weeps for you.”

  “Then why doesn’t he DO SOMETHING!?” I yelled, suddenly angry, “if he loves us so GODDAMN much, then how can he abandon us!?”

  Ansom opened the door, snow howling through the crack. “It was you who abandoned him.” Without waiting for my response, he went outside and slammed the door closed behind him. I stared after him, shaking.

  “He’s so dramatic,” Tolin said rolling his eyes. “He’s always been like that: dramatic and formal.”

  I turned to him, eyes pleading. “Help us…please. Your master must hold great power. Get me out of this place. Get us all out of this place. Destroy the Farm; wipe it out of existence.”

  Tolin shook his head. “My master has no desire to eliminate the Black Farm. After all, The Pig still drives traffic our way, depending on the state of the person it devours. It’s not as much as we’d like, but it’s something.”

  I rattled in my bindings, voice rising. “Then go ask God! I don’t care where you’re from; you seem like a decent person! Show him how much pain and agony we’re in! Show him how we suffer needlessly because of one action!”

  Tolin sighed, leaning back in his chair again. “Oh stop it. You know nothing about the ways of our worlds. And besides, it’s impossible for me to even glimpse at Heaven.”

  “Why!?” I asked, frustrated.

  “Because even though I am composed of skin and bone, these materials were crafted from the darkest evils. I am a vessel of sin and inequity. Just seeing Heaven would corrupt and destroy the very fiber of my being. Heaven is holiness and unending purity. It’s physically and spiritually impossible for me to get near the place.”

  I paused, digesting this new information. My mind felt heavy and overloaded, a corrupted circuit board of disconnected wires and logic. Tolin watched me process everything, and as he did, something began to rise from the mess of confusion and chaos.

  I nodded my head towards the door. “And what about Ansom? Is he the same?”

  “Sure is. He’s my complete opposite. Born of the heavens and filled with the light of the Lord. He is a vessel of complete purity, untainted in any way by the evils of Hell.” Tolin smirked. “It’s a real shame, though…I can’t even touch him. Sometimes I wish I could. If I had a drop of goodness in me…well…that’d be a different story.”

  “What do you mean you can’t touch him?” I asked.

  Tolin rolled his head back, sighing. “We would destroy one another. We are human vessels at the complete opposite ends of judgment. Touching him would destroy me and vice versa. He cannot enter my world, and I cannot enter his. Think of it like this: I am ice and he is fire. If we were to touch, then we would cease to be what we are. We would extinguish our own existences.”

  He suddenly grabbed his own arm, squeezing the flesh. “This? This right here? It is composed of raw sin. Do you get that? Are you starting to understand?”

  I just stared at him, pieces slowly unlocking in my mind, one turn of the key at a time. And then I began to assemble something, questions evolving into answers. Answers I could use.

  Suddenly, from the windows, I saw blue light flair and fill the sky, a burst of color that spilled into the cabin. After a moment, the cobalt glow faded back to dull gray.

  “Bombs away,” Tolin muttered.

  “Why are you telling me all this?” I asked after a moment.

  Tolin stretched his arms, groaning. “Because I get so bored up here. Do you know how long Ansom and I have been stuck on this mountain? It’s nice to converse with a new face. But enough about me. Let’s hear about you, yeah? I’ve been a real gentleman and answered your questions. So what now, huh? What was your plan after reaching the summit of this majestic mountain?”

  I slumped in my chair. “I don’t know…I thought…I thought maybe I would learn something that could help me.”

  “Help you do what exactly?”

  I looked up. “I want to get the hell off the Farm.”

  Tolin folded his hands across his chest, eying me over them. “Mmm, yes, you have been trying quite desperately to escape haven’t you? But there’s something else driving you, too. Perhaps…another person? Someone you care deeply about?”

  “My girlfriend…Jess,” I said quietly. “She came here with me.”

  “Ahhhh,” Tolin smiled, “a woman. Of course, it was a woman. Who else could ignite such fierce will in a man’s heart? Love is a powerful thing, is it not? It can build us up and tear us down with the force of a thousand suns. It is an elusive idea and a fantasy that so many strive their whole lives to feel…while others are left devastated by the ruin it can leave in its wake. Love is both good and evil. It is the antidote and the poison of your entire species. And you know what’s funny about it?”

  I stared at him, unblinking.

  Tolin rubbed his fingers together. “You can’t feel love. You can’t see it, you can’t taste it…you can’t hold it in your hands. You can’t buy it and you can’t sell it. Love is an idea that has to grow in the individual’s mind, fertilized and cared for with great tenderness.” Tolin spread his arms. “For a race obsessed with material objects, isn’t it funny that the most desired possession of the human heart…is love?”

  Silence filled the room as Tolin’s words sank deep into my chest. I cleared my throat to speak, but before I could, Ansom pushed his way back into the cabin, snow roaring around him. He shut the door at his back and shook snow out of his golden hair.

  “All set?” Tolin asked.

  Ansom stomped his boots, shivering, “Report sent.” He walked around me and stood by the fire, rubbing his hands. “What about him? Did he fess up to what he’s been doing?”

  “More or less,” Tolin said. “Nothing we didn’t already know. He hasn’t mentioned his little voyage yet, but I’d be pretty embarrassed about that, too.”

  “Wait a second,” I said, wrestling against the rope, “you knew about me?”

  Ansom snorted, “Of course we did. We’ve been watching you ever since you came here. Not as closely as we should have been, but we’ve seen the trouble you’ve stirred up. Burning down the Temple, braving the ocean, trying to slip past the Keepers. You’ve been relentless.”

  “So what’s all this back and forth bullshit?” I asked.

  Ansom turned his back to me, hands warming over the fire. “Don’t ask me. It wasn’t my idea to bring you here.”

  Tolin rolled his eye., “Oh, must everything be so serious all the time? Do we really need answers for everything? Why can’t you just go with the flow and live in the moment? You people are so set in your ways: always making plans, setting up schedules weeks in advance, your entire lives one big boring predestined blur or normality. Just…just go with things; allow yourself to get lost in the rush!”

  Ansom looked over his shoulder at his companion. “Are you trying to tell me you don’t know what we’re going to do with him?”

  Tolin chuckled, “Not a fucking clue.”

  “Oh brother,” Ansom groaned, “he’s not even supposed to be here. We are dangerously close to breaking code.”

  “There we go again,” Tolin muttered.

  I started to hear a clock tick in the back of my mind. I knew that this conversation was drawing to a close and I didn’t want to find out what fate awaited me on the other side of it. My eyes quickly scanned the room, sucking in the location of every object. The fragmented ideas that I had unearthed earlier began to take form and cement, a desperate, insane plan blooming across my scattered mind.

  “Why don’t you just get permission to send him to Hell?” Ansom was saying. “I don’t want him here and it’s not like we can release him back to the Farm.”

  “Why not?” Tolin asked, “Who cares?”

  “He’s been exposed to too much,” Ansom continued, “al
l thanks to you and those loose lips of yours.”

  Nick, this is madness, my mind cautioned, what you’re thinking is crazy. I know your options are limited, but what you’re planning is an impossible stretch.

  I tested my wrists once again, sliding my boots along the floor. My legs weren’t tied to the chair so I knew I could stand. I glanced at Ansom, his back still to me, and then to the shotgun on the mantle.

  You don’t even know if it’ll work. You’re not thinking this through.

  I didn’t have time to think. I silently tested the chair I was bound to, the flimsy wood creaking as I shifted my weight. I glanced at Tolin and then at Ansom’s back. My heart began to race as I took a deep breath. It was now or never.

  Ansom was mid-sentence when I made my move. I bolted upright, still strapped to the chair, and plowed into him as hard as I could. He cried out in shocked surprise and then screamed as he fell into the fire. Without pausing, I swung myself around and smashed the chair against the brick fireplace, sending splinters flying.

  As the chair and rope fell away from me, Tolin stood, mouth open, eyes wide, one hand outstretched towards Ansom who was desperately trying to pull himself from the blaze. Like lightning, I wriggled the rope from my hands and snatched the shotgun from the mantle.

  I spun and around toward Tolin and saw that the red ribbons flowing off his shoulders were growing in color and frequency like he was readying some power, some cry for help from his master.

  I whipped the shotgun around and pointed it at his face. “Not a fucking word! Sit down! SIT THE FUCK DOWN!”

  Still dazed by my aggression, Tolin slumped into his chair, his face going white. Ansom was at my feet clawing, still screaming as tongues of flame licked at his clothes and hair. I looked down at him and then flipped my shotgun around.

  I swung it as hard as I could, like a baseball bat, and smashed the butt into the side of his face. Ansom didn’t even cry out as he collapsed, body going limp.

  “No! Stop it!” Tolin yelled, half standing, the red ribbons glowing hot.

  I shoved the gun in his face, a vein pulsing in my neck. “I TOLD YOU NOT TO FUCKING TALK GODDAMN IT!”

  Adrenaline coursing through my veins, my body fueled with roaring anger and I kicked the table into his chest. He fell backward in his chair, grunting as the wind was knocked out of him. I leaped over the table and fell onto him, snarling, “Good thing you’ve been cursed with a human body or you wouldn’t feel this at all.”

  I grabbed him by the shirt and crunched my forehead into his nose, headbutting him hard. Blood exploded across his face and his eyes rolled from the blow.

  I gripped his throat, fingers tightening. “If this red shit is how you communicate with your master, then I don’t want to see it. Do you understand? If you raise the alarm, I will cut Ansom’s fucking head off and dribble his blood onto your face, one drop at a time. GOT THAT?!” I screamed shaking him. Tolin mumbled something under a waterfall of blood and I noticed that the smokey ribbons were far less bright now.

  I leaned in close, voice hissing between my teeth, “Does that mean you’re complying? Or is it the pain that’s doing that? Hmm? Which is it?”

  I punched him in the face, knuckles plowing into his mouth, and I saw the red glow fade even more.

  “Ahhhh,” I said satisfied, shaking my stinging fist, “seems like when I beat the ever-living shit out of you, your abilities diminish.” I stood up over him, “I’m not going to pretend to know how you function or what exactly you’re capable of, but I do know that you bleed and that’s good enough for now.”

  I grabbed him by the hair and pulled him upright, back into his chair. I scooted him tight against the table, whispering into his ear.

  “I’m going to need you to pay attention in a little bit. But while I get things set up, why don’t you take a little nap, yeah?” I slammed his face into the tabletop and his body went limp. I released him and went over to Ansom, smacking the lingering flames from his suit. When they were extinguished, I surveyed the two men.

  “Let’s do this,” I muttered darkly.

  16

  I sat across from Tolin, drumming my fingers on the table as he stirred. It had been at least twenty minutes since I knocked him out. The hatchet I had found out back by the wood pile was planted in front of me, the blade biting deep into the wood. I looked over it at my prisoner. Tolin groaned and his eyes fluttered open. I could see pain start to creep into his consciousness and I grinned. I had used the rope to bind him to his chair and then driven a broken chair leg through his hands, pinning them together behind his back.

  Tolin looked at me and I saw everything flood back. His eyes went wide as he saw Ansom stretched out on the table between us, still unconscious.

  “W-what the hell is this!?” he cried. He winced as he tried to get up, the wood skewering his hands and cutting deep.

  I ran a finger down the length of the hatchet. “I’m getting out of here, one way or another. And you’re going to watch me do it.”

  Tolin blinked, his face streaked with blood. “What are you talking about? Are you insane? You can’t escape the Black Farm! How many times do you have to fail for you to understand that!?”

  I stared death at him. “That’s what everyone keeps telling me…and you’re mostly right. After everything I’ve been through, after everything I’ve seen…I’ve come to realize that there’s only one way out of here.” I gripped the hatchet. “And that would be The Pig.”

  Tolin struggled in his chair, blood running down the legs and onto the floor. “What the hell does that have to do with us?”

  I jerked the hatchet free and tapped Ansom’s unconscious body with it. “From what you told me, Ansom was given this human body. It was molded and created out of God’s holiness. He is a walking incarnation of purity.”

  “So WHAT!?” Tolin shrieked. The red ribbons wafting from his body flared slightly but remained dim, almost invisible. I would have to keep an eye on that.

  “So,” I said, standing, “nothing so pure could enter Hell. You said so yourself. You told me that neither of you can come in contact with one another. You said that you can’t even look at Heaven because it would destroy the very fabric of your being. I’m going to assume the same applies to Ansom here.”

  Tolin bared his teeth at me, blood dribbling down his chin. “What the fuck are you going on about? What do you plan to do?”

  I went and stood at the end of the table, hatchet in hand, and tapped on Ansom’s head. “Well, I know that The Pig either sends souls to Hell or back to Earth for a second chance. I’ve done some pretty bad things here, so I’m a little worried about where he’d send me.”

  “You’re damn right he’d send you to Hell,” Tolin snarled.

  I smiled grimly. “That’s why I’m going to eat Ansom.”

  Tolin’s eyes grew wide, his face paling. “W-what the fuck are you saying?”

  I hefted the hatchet. “Well, if I consume the purity of God, how could The Pig possibly damn me to Hell?”

  “I-I…well—” Tolin stuttered, shaking his head, “t-that’s madness! You’ve lost your fucking mind!”

  I nodded. “I know. But it just might work.” I leaned over Ansom and gripped Tolin’s face, my eyes growing dark. “And you’re going to sit there and fucking watch me cannibalize your friend. You’re going to watch me rip him apart just like you watched the Suicidals get ripped apart for all these years. And if you so much as blink or try to call for help, I will show you the extent of pain the human body can endure,” my voice dripped with hatred, “and then I’ll show you what lies past that. Do you understand me?”

  Tolin jerked his head away from my grasp, breathing heavily. I saw him fighting with himself, anger and fear mixing in his mind like acid. I knew I was playing a dangerous game with him, the mystery of his powers still hidden from my understanding. But he hadn’t done anything yet. Maybe he couldn’t.

  After a second, Tolin looked up at me, eyes burning. “You don’t k
now what you’re fucking with. The careful balance we represent here is teetering on a knife’s edge and you are seriously testing that. If you go through with this and kill Ansom…I can’t promise the armies of Heaven won’t swarm us. These waters you’re testing have never undergone such contamination. You could undo everything.”

  I took my place by Ansom again, his head hanging off the lip of the table.

  I raised the hatchet. “Well, let’s find out then.” I brought the blade down into Ansom’s neck. Blood spewed from the wound and onto my face. I closed my eyes, licking it from my lips. Tolin began to squirm, horrified, but I ignored him, wrenching the blade free and bringing it down again.

  Two more chops and Ansom’s head dropped to the floor. Blood gushed from the stump and I cupped my hands underneath the flow. I watched as my palms filled and then I raised them to my lips and drank deeply.

  The blood hit my gag reflex hard, but I managed to get it all down, sucking on my fingers and sighing. I looked at Tolin and saw the smokey red around him gaining intensity.

  “Don’t even think about calling for help,” I growled. I reached out and wiped a bloody finger across his forehead. The reaction was immediate. Tolin buckled under my touch, howling as his skin sizzled like acid. I stood watching him scream, bucking and thrashing in his chair until the seizure passed.

  He fell into a whimper and I placed my hands on the table. “If I see you flaring up again, I won’t be so gentle next time.”

  Tolin’s voice rattled in his throat. “I’m going to send the entirety of Hell after you, you deprived motherfucker.”

  I hefted the hatchet. “Funny thing about the human body—something you might not completely understand yet—but we die. Our bodies rot and bleed and shit. And seeing as how your master stuffed you inside one to keep your ego in check, I’d watch your mouth. Because if I bury this blade in your face, then that’s it for you. You’re done.”

  “You don’t know anything about me,” Tolin growled, chest heaving.