Deep Blue

by Yolanda Olson

  Clearing my throat, I grabbed his plate and scrubbed it clean, then the fork, then the knife. The same as I had done with mine. It was weird not to have him hover over me. He literally dropped his stuff in the sink and walked away from me.

  What’s his deal?

  “Hey,” I called out, turning off the faucet. I walked quickly out of the kitchen into the living room, to find him halfway out the door. He stopped at the sound of my voice and turned part way to look at me.

  “What’s up?” I asked him tilting my head and crossing my arms over my chest.

  “Nothing. I was just gonna go for a walk in the fields. Make sure everything’s growing the way it’s supposed to,” he replied with a shrug.

  “Oh,” I replied suspiciously.

  “I’ll be back in a few hours. The place is bigger than it looks,” he said, letting the door slam shut behind him.

  I ran back into the kitchen and glanced out the window. I knew that if he was telling the truth, at some point I would see him from where I was.

  It couldn’t have been mere seconds that passed by before he walked past the window and disappeared into the fields. The stalks of corn were so high up and plentiful, that it left me wondering where the hell the barley was that he had talked about.

  When I couldn’t seem him anymore I got frustrated. I don’t know why; it just felt like if I couldn’t keep my eyes on him he might leave and not come back. I know that sounds childish, but in a sick and twisted way, Troy was my safe place.

  I slapped the windowsill angrily and walked out of the house. I couldn’t understand what was coming over me, but I didn’t want to be alone anymore and seeing him would calm me down. I walked outside and toward the back of the house because I remembered a ladder being propped against the backside of the house.

  I gripped it on either side and made sure it was firmly planted and began to climb up. Even though it was a one level farm house and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to see him too well, I knew I’d be able to see him somewhat and that was better than not at all.

  Once I made it to the top, I almost lost my footing and accidentally kicked the ladder to the ground. Fuck! Now how am I going to get down?

  I’d worry about that later I decided as I moved to the center of the roof. I turned in all directions, glancing around the farm land trying to catch a glimpse of Troy. Like clockwork, the irrigation systems started up all over his land.

  And that’s what got my attention honestly. I looked around at each one and noticed one moving, like it was being pushed by something, or someone.

  What the hell? I thought squinting at it. I put a hand over my brow to rid myself of the sun’s glare as it continued to move. But what was moving it and why?

  Suddenly as it started to slowly come out of the shadows of the field, I felt myself becoming sick. I wasn’t exactly sure if I was seeing what I thought I was, but it looked like people were hanging from that one. Not by their necks, by their wrists being bound together and hooked on.

  As it moved closer and closer to an old, large seemingly abandoned building, I counted one, two, three, four, five, people hanging from it. And they were all wearing sundresses just like me. As the first one started to disappear into the structure, I saw something that made me swallow a scream.

  Troy was pushing the irrigation machine into the old building. He was the reason it was moving and I had no way of getting down without him knowing that I saw him.

  Eighteen

  Troy

  “You ladies doing okay?” I asked them once I got them safely inside. It was going to be an exceptionally hot day and I didn’t want any of them to suffer unnecessarily in the heat. They had already suffered enough, I had reasoned to myself.

  I went over to the old water pump I had in here and placed a bucket underneath it. I made sure that if anything in this old horse stable worked, it would be this. If it didn’t I don’t think I’d find the time or compassion in myself to drive my tractor back and forth just to bring them all water.

  I went down the line to each one; Rose, Violet, Daisy, Lily, and Ivy. My own personal Garden of Eden, each plucked from their last owners to take their places on my farm.

  I smiled as I held the wooden ladle to Rose’s mouth thinking of how beautiful Posy would look among my flowers.

  Of all of the girls I had so far, I liked her the most. She wasn’t as complacent as they were and I was always looking for a challenge. Rose folded almost immediately. Violet and Daisy did as well. Lily almost put up a fight, but a night under my stables turned her into a terrified mouse. Ivy was the one that surprised me the most; too many times at the corral, I figured. She was the only one that cared about pleasing me no matter what I asked of her or made her do.

  It was nice at first, but it got to be boring and she ended up here with the others.

  “Troy?” Lily said tiredly. “I think my shoulder’s dislocating.”

  “Can’t have that, can we?” I asked with a smile. I dropped the ladle into the bucket and moved over to her, pushing my cap up so I could take a better look at her shoulders. The right one seemed fine, but the left one was turning purple.

  “Fuck,” I said with a sigh. “Alright, I’ll get you down for a while, but don’t try anything okay?” She nodded in agreement and I put my arms around her waist, hoisting her off the hook.

  I laid her partially on the ground while keeping the upper part of her body carefully propped up on my leg. Damn. That looks like shit, I thought unhappily.

  “Guess I’m gonna have to leave you down for a while. At least till that starts looking better,” I said to her. “Here have some water.”

  I pulled the bucket closer to us and held the ladle up to her mouth, giving her more than I would normally give. But with a bruised joint like that I figured it couldn’t hurt and it would probably help.

  With a sigh, I glanced around the old stables to think of where I could put Lily until her arm started to heal itself. I wasn’t sure if the doors still locked on the stalls and I didn’t want to give her the chance to try to get out. This one was my runner, but one shotgun blast toward the sky stopped her the night she tried to run. I wouldn’t put it past her to try it again though.

  I stood up, cradling her against my chest, and carried her to the far end of the stables. There had to be some place I could put her for now.

  “Just put me where you did last time,” she said with a cough.

  Oh yeah. I forgot about that.

  I went to the last stall and used my foot to open the door. Inside I had an old freezer that didn’t work because I just never got around to fixing it. Lily was terrified of enclosed places and after she had tried to run, this is where I put her to better think about her choices.

  I used my knee to lift the top half of the freezer doors open and grunted as I shifted her again, so I could repeat the same movement with the other one. Once they were both open, I leaned down and put her in as gently as I could.

  She closed her eyes tightly and I watched as tears started to stream down her pretty face.

  “Don’t cry, Lily. We both know this is the only place to keep you for now. Once you’re all nice and healed up, I’ll put you back where you belong,” I said as soothingly as I could.

  She nodded, her eyes still closed, as I brought down the lower door of the freezer, locking it tightly in place. I reached for the top door and looked down at her, trembling and afraid and felt a pang of consciousness hit me.

  “I won’t close the top half if you promise you’ll be good,” I said to her.

  “Thank you,” she whispered in response, opening her eyes again. I always did like her eyes. They reminded me of milk chocolate candy.

  I gave her a quick nod and walked out of the stall. I kicked the door closed behind me and was walking back to the rest of my hanging gardens when I saw Posy. She was standing in the doorway looking at the rest of the gals with a look of absolute horror on her face. I couldn’t help but smile.

  Fear was the emotion t
hat she wore the most beautifully and it was so rare to see on her. It was almost gossamer when she did show it though, until now that was.

  Now I could finally see the full mask of fear on her face and I felt like everything was the way it should be again.

  I was in control and I was going to make her learn everything she would have to do not to end up like the others.

  Nineteen

  Posy

  My eyes drifted slowly from one girl to the other. My curiosity had always been my undoing in one way or another, but I never thought in my life that I would come across something like this.

  What disturbed me the most was that the girls were so well kept. They looked clean, unharmed, and in a weird way, safe. I was sure that hanging by their wrists must have been extremely painful, but they didn’t exactly look unhappy. Just tired, almost as if they were all on the verge of giving up.

  I jumped when I heard the wooden stall door slam and looked down the beaten doors to see Troy standing there with his arms crossed over his chest. The look he was giving me was a mixture of satisfaction and anxiousness.

  I took a step back and Troy shook his head as he started to walk toward me.

  “Remember what I told you about the runners, pretty girl,” he said softly as he approached.

  I felt my heart jump into my throat as my eyes cut back toward the girls. I dug my feet into the wooden planks I was standing on and willed myself to not run from the old building.

  My body was trembling so badly that I was sure he could see it. If he noticed, he either brushed it off or was too much of a gentleman to make mention of it. Instead, he stopped next to the girl closest to him and ran a hand down her side.

  “Pretty, right?” he asked me with a half grin.

  I nodded. At this point, I knew that telling him anything other than what he wanted to hear would probably result in me being tied up and placed on a hook.

  I should’ve stayed on that damn roof.

  “It’s my own garden,” he explained. “See, I renamed all of them after I met you. Posy is a flower and they didn’t have flower names, and I just liked the idea of having flowers on the farm. Ones that I picked myself, you know?”

  “What?” I asked in a shaky voice.

  “Well, this one here is Daisy,” he said patting the girl’s side. “I can’t remember what her name used to be and I don’t care, but after you that’s what her name became.”

  “Oh.”

  Troy looked at me and his grin faltered. He looked like a hurt little boy all of a sudden and I wondered how the hell he could switch gears as quickly as he did.

  “Don’t you like my idea?” he asked in a small voice.

  “It’s great!” I chirped. The only thing I could see in my head, was the possible aftermath of me telling him that this was the most deranged thing I had ever seen.

  Each girl getting shot in the face and buried under the tree with Scout. I wasn’t going to have another unnecessary death on my hands, let alone five.

  Wait. Where’s the other girl?

  “Her arms hurt so I pulled her down for a bit,” Troy said in response to the confused look on my face. “I don’t use them anymore. I haven’t for a few years now. I just wanted to keep them, I guess.”

  I glanced at the girls again and wondered when it would be my turn. Obviously if Troy was making a garden of his very own, and I was the reason behind it, eventually I would end up in his hanging garden.

  “Don’t worry. None of these empty spots are for you. I wouldn’t do that to my pretty Posy,” he said reassuringly.

  Gee. Thanks.

  “There was just something about you the first time I saw you. The way you weren’t afraid of me when I sat down next to you? I’ve never experienced that before. I’ve always intimidated everyone for some reason and you just weren’t scared of me. I liked that. That’s part of the reason I’ve let you roam more freely than I ever let them,” he said nodding as his hanging garden. “I may have been a little harsh on you today, but they were put through worse. Oh and look! None of them have my brand on them!”

  Troy went down the line and pulled up the shirt of each girl and showed me their flawless bodies. No markings of any kind were on either of the four.

  “What about the other one?” I asked curiously.

  “Her either,” he said with a smile. “Just you. I liked you the best of all, Posy.”

  It was a backhanded compliment and I hated it. He branded me because I was his favorite? What sense did that make?

  “And there’s something else,” he said, coming over to take my hands in his. I looked up into his deep blue eyes which seemed to be sparkling suddenly. “I wanted to know if you’d help me pot them. I don’t really need them anymore now that I have you.”

  “Pot them?” I asked in confusion.

  “You know. Put them in the earth where they belong,” he said softly.

  I gripped Troy’s hands tightly to steady myself. It finally became clear what he wanted me to do. He wanted me to help him kill and bury them.

  Twenty

  Troy

  Posy was pulling the front end of the irrigation machine back out into the field with me pushing the other side out. I promised her that I would make it quick, that I’d put them down like I had Scout and that we could bury them together. That they would be the seeds of our new life here and everything would be okay in the end.

  I wasn’t sure she believed me, but I think she understood that if she didn’t help, I’d string her up and leave her out in the hot sun with the rest of them. And I really didn’t want to do that. I wanted nothing more than to keep Posy alive and on my farm with me.

  She was a little spitfire and that was something I desperately needed in my mundane life. Not to mention, I hadn’t gotten to fuck her the way I wanted to yet, but that would happen after we were done potting the flowers. I’d take her inside and get her in the shower. I’d wash the dirt off of her, pull her close, kiss her the way I had been dying too, then fuck her like no one ever had before.

  She couldn’t tell me no; I already told her she had used her only no, but I knew I wouldn’t force her either. Posy wasn’t the kind of girl you forced. She was the kind of girl you savored and I couldn’t fucking wait to get to savoring.

  “Here’s good,” I called out to her, coming back to the present moment.

  We had managed to wheel them back out to where I usually kept them and now I had to convince her that this was for the best, but I also had to give her a warning.

  “Here’s what’s gonna happen,” I said, leaning on the machine, wiping the sweat from my forehead. “You’re gonna let them down when I tell you to and they’re gonna run. It’s the natural instinct they’ll feel since they know what we’re planning to do. I want you to stand behind me when they run and just watch, okay? Then we’ll pot them afterwards.”

  Posy nodded and walked over to me. I smile down at her before I turned around and went back into the building. I was pretty sure I had a hunting rifle in there somewhere since I hid guns all over my property. You could never be too careful when you lived alone and were usually not in your house for the better part of the day, so I liked to make sure I’d always be armed or know where to go if I needed to.

  I went over all the way to the back where I was keeping Lily and glanced around on the floor. Aha! I crouched down and pulled up the loose floorboard and grabbed my rifle. I checked it to make sure it was loaded, then I went over and unlocked the bottom door of the freezer.

  “Up you go,” I said, leaning down and pulling her by the arm. I half dragged her out of the stall and down the empty rows of broken stall doors until we were outside. By the time we reached Posy, Lily was crying. I think it was the gun that scared her but I didn’t really care. I didn’t need her around anymore. I just needed Posy and I was going to have her after I got rid of the rest of them.

  There she stood, looking beautiful as ever, wringing her hands, as tears streamed down her face.

  Do
n’t cry pretty girl. I’d never hurt you, I thought as I nodded at her. She immediately came over and took her spot behind me like I had told her to.

  I cleared my throat and let go of Lily’s arm. Raising the rifle, I glanced at Posy one more time, before I turned my attention to Lily again.

  I raised the rifle and said one word.

  “Run.”

  After It Happened

  Twenty One

  Posy

  It’s been three years since we planted our seeds and tomorrow is Troy’s thirty second birthday. It wasn’t really so bad on the farm these days after the other flowers had been potted. He seemed to stay preoccupied with things that needed to be done on his farm, I still wasn’t allowed to leave the property, but I also hadn’t been subjected to any more corrals.

  I guess it was quite true to say that things were peaceful, and despite my situation, going really well.

  I let out a sigh as I sat on the wooden stairs and glanced toward the tree. The roots must’ve grown over everything in there by now and held them close together so they’d never feel alone again, like I still felt.

  Troy was good to me, yes, but I felt like he did it because he was trying too hard to be kind. Not because it was something he wanted to do. I could’ve been wrong, but I didn’t know because I wasn’t brave enough to ask him.

  I did, however, have the courage in me to finally make a simple request. I had thought long and hard about what to get Troy for his birthday and I would need to be able to go into town to get it.

  Behind me, the screen door opened and closed as Troy came out and dropped down next to me on the stairs.

  “Here,” he said, holding out a glass of water.