The Black Farm

by Elias Witherow

  I tore my eyes from the heavens to be greeted by an immense mountain to my left, the snowy peak kissing the sky. I traced the titanic formation to its base and then ran my eyes across a hilly plain to finally end at a beach that ran parallel to us on my right. In the distant waters, I spotted a Keeper pulling itself across the waves, its cross-head towering towards the clouds like a skyscraper.

  “Hey Nick, you with me?”

  I closed my open mouth, feeling the weight of sensory overload scatter my mind. I wiped the rain from my face and blinked, turning to Megan.

  “I-I’m good,” I whispered. That dead sun pulled at my attention like strings on a puppet. I traced the black that dripped from it, shaking my head.

  “Megan, what is that?” I asked.

  She followed my eyes to the sky, the black broken orb dangling just below the cloud cover. “A long time ago, before I was here, The Pig tried to mimic God and his creations. What you’re seeing is its attempt at conjuring a star,” She wriggled closer, her voice dropping. “But The Pig is evil…that shell of a sun is all it could summon. It just sits there, like a boil in the sky, dripping its infectious innards into the ocean. That’s why the water is black.”

  I let her words wash over me, the cracked, splintered sun filling my head. It was horrible and wondrous at the same time, its alien construction birthing both awe and disgust. Just what were the limits of The Pig’s powers?

  Megan directed my attention to the mountain, its colossal slopes rising sharply like the blades of a razor,

  “Muck lives at the base of the mountain. You’ll know you’re getting close when you hit the Needle Fields.”

  “What are those?” I asked, not sure I wanted to know the answer.

  Megan shook her head. “You’ll see when you get there. Best you just get through them as quickly as possible. Can you see those tiny spires along the base of the mountain?”

  I squinted in the gloom and strained my eyes. I thought I could make out…something, a scattering of thin vertical lines littering the very edge of my sight.

  “Those are the fields. You make it through those and you’ll find his hole. You can’t miss it. Once you see the Temple of the Pig, you’ll know you’re close.”

  I began to feel a suffocating weight choke me. “How the hell am I supposed to do this…”

  Megan shrugged, looking downcast, “I’m sorry, Nick.”

  My eyes absorbed the expanse before me, the shoreline, the black ocean, the Keeper, the dead star, the great mountain and its snowy peak…I sighed.

  “She’s out there somewhere…I can feel her.”

  Megan smiled sadly, “I hope you find her.”

  I turned to her. “Do you have to go?”

  “I’m afraid so. I don’t dare go near the Needle Fields.”

  I frowned, “Where can I find you when I retrieve Jess?”

  Megan grunted at my optimism. “Most of us Suicidals hide in the forest. That’s where I’ll be.”

  “Until next time, then,” I said grimly, “and thank you.”

  As she crawled to her feet, we froze in unison as something shook the foliage behind us. I met Megan’s eyes, wide and terrified as the earth beneath us began to vibrate, the sound of thunderous feet racing towards us. Branches snapped and dirt flew as something of great weight crashed from the wall of undergrowth.

  “Run!” Megan yelled, pulling me to my feet, her voice hysteric; our cover was blown.

  But it was too late.

  My breath was knocked from me as something tall and meaty slammed into my chest. I went sprawling, vision swimming, gasping for air. Megan was screaming and through the distortion of shaking color, I saw someone advancing on her.

  Our assailant was naked and covered in ugly scabs that peppered his flabby rolls. A burlap bag was pulled over his head, hiding his features save for a single bloodshot eye that glared at us through a crude cut in the cloth.

  I tried to stand, but I was so shaken I found that I couldn’t. The naked man had Megan by the throat, lifting her off her feet. Her eyes rolled wildly as she choked and fought to free herself, but it didn’t do much good.

  Groaning, I managed to pull myself to my knees just as the fat man slugged Megan in the face, knocking her unconscious. Blood erupted from her nose as she went limp in his grasp.

  “Leave her alone!” I cried weakly, standing.

  The man grunted, his breath rippling the sack over his head, and dropped her. He turned, his one visible eye settling over me. I took a step back, his revolting state shaking me. He stepped towards me, his size terrifying. He was tall, his meaty legs like twin tree trunks. His belly quivered and sloped away from him, stopping just short of his exposed penis.

  “J-just leave us alone,” I begged weakly, fear rising in my chest.

  The man howled, a guttural animalistic cry that made my knees shake. In one quick motion, he leaped forward and tackled me to the ground, his immense weight pinning me beneath him.

  I screamed, pushing, clawing, slowly being crushed under his bulk. Something slammed into the side of my head and I felt all the fight drain from me. Stars exploded like dynamite in my head and pain shot through my body like an electric volt.

  Another blow and I was out cold.

  I was swimming in painful darkness. I could hear myself breathing but couldn’t seem to find my eyes. A sour, earthy aroma filled my nostrils as I tried to move. I couldn’t. My head was pounding, a knotted fist of pain pulsing through my skull. Slowly, everything began to come back, the world filling like a swirl of dirty paint.

  I groaned and heard a dry rattle escape my lips. I found my face in agony and willed my eyes to flutter open. A dim brown light filled my sight and slowly bloomed into dirty yellow. I turned my head and saw that I was in a cage.

  No, no, no, my mind cried, panic waking once again.

  It looked like I was in a cave, a fire crackling in the center of the hollowed out space. The ceiling was low, nine or ten feet high, its dirt packed walls lined with similar cages to the one I was in. They were filled with bones, pale white skeletons lying motionless against the bars.

  Heart racing, I sat up, pain shaking my head. I placed a hand on my brow and wiped dirt and sweat from my skin, hand trembling. The entrance to the cave was directly across from me, a dark hole that burrowed away from the cages lining the walls.

  The fire pit cast shadows across the cave floor, stretching and pulling my eyes to soak in this new horror. A crude bench sat against the wall by the entrance, dull metal tools catching the light and sparking my already burning imagination.

  “What is this place?” I croaked to myself.

  “Nick?”

  I turned to look at the opposite wall and my heart slammed to a halt. Megan was chained to the floor, a loop of metal coiling around her throat to connect with a spike that had been driven into the packed earth beneath her feet.

  She had been stripped of her clothing and sat huddled against the wall, tears pouring from her terrified eyes.

  “Megan!” I cried, standing in my cage and pressing my face against the cold bars. “Are you ok?!”

  The firelight reflected in her wet eyes as she shook her head. “N-no…no I’m not. He has us Nick…he has us.”

  “Who!? Where are we!?” I hissed, watching the entrance with caution.

  “Muck,” Megan sobbed, bringing her knees up and hiding her nakedness. “He got the drop on us…” She started to become hysteric, her voice rising, “Nick, he’s going to hurt us! He’s going to hurt me!” She grabbed the chain around her throat, throttling it, screaming now, “I can’t do this again! I CAN’T!”

  My heart was pounding, her cries igniting my own fear. I tried to shush her, begging to keep her voice down, but she was lost in her own terror. My fingers traced the iron I was contained in, searching for a door, a weakness, anything. I could feel my heart throbbing in my throat, an urgent drum fueled by Megan’s all-knowing terror.

  Her cries ringing in my ears, I traced a thi
ck chain coiled around a seam in the cage. I grasped it, pulled on it, but it was no use. I was locked in, helpless to await whatever horror this place had in store for me. A bead of sweat trickled down my cheek and I wiped it away, searching the floor for something, anything to pry the chain. But all I found was barren dirt, empty of use.

  “Don’t bother,” a voice called from my left.

  I spun, searching for the source. A man hung on the wall opposite Megan, naked and chained in a similar fashion. He was old, his face worn and sporting a filthy gray beard. His skin was tight against his bones, stretching across a beaten ribcage. His dull eyes met mine and I swallowed hard. He looked like a corpse.

  Megan quieted, turning her attention to this new inhabitant of our dismal prison. Her face was stained with silent tears, her lip quivering.

  “Where is he?” she asked.

  The man blinked slowly. “I don’t know…but he’ll be back…he always comes back…”

  “There has to be a way out of here!” I cried, rattling my bars, unwilling to accept my position.

  The man snorted, his mouth pulled into a humorless smile to reveal broken teeth, “There’s no way out of here, son…not until he’s done with you.”

  My knuckles turned white as I gripped the iron. “Don’t say that…”

  The man shook his head sadly. “Just pray he gets bored of you quickly. Pray he kills you. Pray he doesn’t stick you in the Needle Fields.”

  I licked my lips, shooting a quick glance at Megan. “What are the Needle Fields?”

  The old man started to cry, “Acres and acres…endless…”

  “Tell me!” I shouted, heart racing.

  He was sniveling now, hope long since taken from him. “Rows and rows of needles as thick as your finger. He drives them into the earth like stakes and then impales you on them, one on top of the other like pieces of meat…” His eyes went wide. “And then he leaves you there for days…bleeding…dying…begging for death…sometimes you starve…sometimes the elements kill you…sometimes Pig Born come to feed…” he collapsed his head onto his shallow chest, weeping.

  I felt an icy hand reach into my body and squeeze the breath from my lungs. I stepped away from the bars and realized my hands were shaking. I turned to Megan and saw she was crying silently, her nakedness a grim reminder at how helpless we were.

  Suddenly, the man’s head shot up, eyes bulging, “He’s coming…he’s coming!”

  Megan began to thrash in her chains, howling, her hysteria sparking a contagion in me. I collapsed to the ground and pushed myself into the far corner of the cage, huddling into myself. I trained my eyes on the tunnel.

  It wasn’t long before a naked, obese man entered the dim space. It was the same man who had attacked us in the woods. The burlap bag shuddered over his head as he sucked in wet breaths, his bloodshot eye roaming around the cave from the cut in the cloth.

  As soon as Megan saw him, she began to shriek, a deep bellowing recognition that shook my skull. I heard myself whimpering, my unknown fate spooling out in my imagination like bloody film.

  The man, Muck, walked over to the old man chained to the wall. Without slowing, he grabbed him by the face and ripped his head from his shoulders in one brutal motion. My mouth dropped open and I felt a scream burning up my throat but nothing came out. Muck tossed the decapitated head into the fire pit and turned away from the corpse as blood erupted from the stump like a bubbling brook.

  Unaffected by the violence, Muck rubbed his massive stomach, wiping his hands across the greasy folds as if to rid himself of the act. Megan’s screams were constant, but the massive man didn’t seem to notice. He walked over to my cage and stared down at me.

  I felt my bladder release as his looming nudity pressed against the bars, molding his stomach around them.

  “Pretty man,” Muck grunted, his voice a guttural snarl. “I like.”

  “P-please,” I croaked, a mess of tears and terror, “Please don’t hurt me. I haven’t done anything to you…”

  Muck reached down and grasped his flaccid penis, squeezing it tightly, “Let’s see how the man feels.”

  He reached out and snatched a ring of rusty keys that had been hanging against the wall. He fumbled with them for a moment before selecting one, working the lock. As the chains slid away, I began to scream, a helpless cry that tore at my throat like burning coals.

  Muck opened the cage door and reached inside, grabbing me by the throat. With a grunt, he dragged me across the dirt and into the middle of the cave, his footsteps like thunder. I dug my hands into the earth, kicked and screamed, my body dumping adrenaline and horror through my blood stream like a broken dam.

  This isn’t happening, my mind screamed, Jesus Christ this isn’t happening, please God, not this.

  With a thud, Muck dropped me and grabbed my pants, tearing them away with a sickening r-i-i-i-p! My heart was racing, I tasted bile on my tongue and every ounce of my being begged to wake up.

  Muck flipped me onto my stomach with a sharp kick. I gasped, eyes bulging as pain crunched through me. I wanted to gag but found I didn’t have the breath. My eyes watered as I sunk my fingers into the dirt, vision swimming as Muck got down on his knees behind me. Through my blurry eyes, I saw Megan across the cave, screaming for all this to stop.

  I tried to get up, but something heavy thudded into my shoulders and I went sprawling back onto my stomach, heaving. My nakedness was terrifying, my thighs scraping roughly into the earth as Muck held me in place.

  “Don’t do this,” I gasped, spittle exploding from my lips, “Please Jesus, don’t do this to me.”

  A great weight settled over me and I felt meaty fingers pry my legs apart. I struggled and squealed, the dawning anticipation crushing me with overwhelming horror.

  Hot breath blasted on the back of my neck as Muck settled himself into position, one hand pressing my shoulders to the ground, the other fiddling with his now erect penis. I gritted my teeth, world shaking, fingers clenched into fists.

  And then Muck began to rape me.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, my mouth stretched into an empty scream. I felt like I was being torn in two, the burning heat splitting me in half. I scraped my teeth across the floor and pounded my fists into the dirt, feeling Muck’s great weight rock over me again…and again….and again…

  Until it was over…

  As he pulled himself off with a satisfied grunt, I felt darkness press in around me. I couldn’t move; pain was driven deep inside me like a blazing stake. I vomited into the dirt, feeling the hot bile pool around my cheek.

  The world swam and all I knew was pain.

  I became dimly aware that Muck was dragging me over to Megan. I sucked in the puke-soaked air and blinked dimly in a growing haze. I felt myself tossed to the ground where I lay motionless, my brain begging to shut off. Muck came into view and I watched as he grabbed Megan by the hair and dragged her to her feet.

  She bit at him, clawing and scratching, knowing what was coming. Effortlessly, Muck stood her up and slammed her against the wall with one hand. He was already bringing his dripping cock back to life. I watched all this from the floor, broken and bloody, begging to die.

  Muck positioned himself behind her and sniffed along her neck as he spread her. I turned away, shutting my eyes, quivering.

  Suddenly, a hand was pulling my head up and I was staring into Muck’s infected eye through the bag.

  “Watch!” he growled. I tried to pull away from him, squeezing my eyes shut tighter, the fight drained from my corrupted body.

  “Watch!” he howled, shaking my head in his hand. I tried to open my eyes, but my brain wasn’t working, pain shutting my systems down one by one into darkness.

  Snarling with frustration, Muck dropped me and went to the bench by the cave entrance. My head collapsed to the dirt where I lay, watching, as Megan curled into herself, sobbing, lost in her own terror.

  Then Muck was back, pulling my head up again. I blinked in agony and saw he had some
thing in his hand.

  It was a long thin knife, the blade glinting in the firelight.

  “Watch!” Muck repeated, bringing the knife towards my face. I tried to pull myself away, a cry finding its way to my lips.

  The tip of the blade extended closer and closer to my right eye and I was suddenly lost in hot fire as Muck sliced my eyelid off, the knife twisting expertly through my skin. I howled, the scream shaking my already exhausted body, blood pouring into my eye and down my cheek.

  And then he cut off the other one.

  He dropped my head and pressed a thick hand into my face, turning my now exposed eyes towards Megan. I whimpered and sobbed, my nose soon soaked in my own blood as it poured from my face.

  Satisfied, Muck tossed the knife aside and went back to Megan, stroking himself in anticipation. I lay beaten and watched him work her over through my bleeding eyes. Drool and blood leaked from my lips onto the floor, pooling around my face. My chest rose and fell with labored agony as Megan’s screams echoed around me.

  At some point, I passed out.

  When I awoke I was back in my cage. My damaged eyes burned and I felt blood dripping down my thighs. I didn’t move, letting my miserable existence slowly bloom back into focus. My mouth tasted like copper and dirt and I was terribly thirsty. I didn’t want to move for fear of igniting my resting pain. But I knew it was there, waiting for me.

  I didn’t hear Megan screaming and hoped, horribly, that she had been murdered and reborn somewhere far from Muck’s cave. I tried to blink, but found I didn’t have the capability anymore. Tears flowed down my cheeks. What misery was this?

  In the dirt, I cried quietly. How could I make this stop? What did I have to do? At that moment in time, I gave up hope entirely. I would never find Jess. I would never know happiness again. My life had been a steady march toward worse and worse fates, why should it stop now? I was going to stagnate into a husk, a walking corpse who would be victimized and brutalized for the rest of time. I couldn’t fight back against such evil, against such violence. Not when such horror opposed me.

  I felt the familiar pangs of suicide rattle my mind. If I had the strength, I would have laughed. A lot of good that had done. The worst part was that all my earthly problems were still very present in my mind, a chuckling reminder veiled by the passage of death. Every mistake I had ever made, every drop of sadness, every heartbreaking event…they were all still there. With the added weight of the Black Farm and my unforeseen future here…hopelessness didn’t even begin to describe the ocean inside me.