We Both Go Down Together
(Based off of the original Short Story.)
Disclaimer: I do not own Children of the corn in any way, this was a homework assignment and I thought I should share it with everyone.
Watching Malachi walk into the corn, never to return to me, was almost just too much for me to bear. I knew that one day he would have to join He Who Walks Behind The Rows but I didn't think it would have to happen this soon.
Since Isaac had announced that our Age of Favor had been lowered to eighteen as punishment, Malachi said nothing past than what he was told to speak. He hadn't spoken a word to me, nothing at all even as he walked away to his death. While I bid him good-bye all I receive was silence; he didn't even turn to acknowledge me.
We all were going to suffer this loss, most of our community was populated by the those only a year or month away from being nineteen. These adults, as they no longer considered children, were the last remaining children of the corn. The rest of us, either too young to have joined them twelve years ago or are the newest offspring, were just their legacy. The rest of us had never killed our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, or sisters; the remaining children, like me, were simply raised into this world of sacrifice.
The other children muttered about the two outlanders, the man and his wife, cursing them for disrupting our world. I too cursed the outlanders but only for a brief moment. The culprit to blame was not the couple who innocently were trying to live their lives but our god, He Who Walks Behind The Rows.
I moved my hands from my tearing eyes, silently glaring at the corn. Yes, He Who Walks Behind The Rows was the one to blame for our misfortune. Had he never showed up, had he not convinced the generation before us to slaughter the adults, we would all be fine.
I've always had this secret hatred for He Who Walks Behind The Rows; what everyone saw as our savior, I saw as our deceiver. He took everything from me, my parents, my caretakers, and now my lover.
As everyone walked away from the corn, intending on leaving before He Who Walks Behind The Rows confuses all of us as his sacrifices. I followed behind them, placing a hand on my bulging belly carrying Malachi's first and only child. How deeply I longed to walk into the corn with two torches in both of my hands, setting the corn, his domain, ablaze. I wanted this nightmare to end, I wanted to be a part of the world outside of Gatlin.
Shaking my head, I knew that it would be impossible for me to do anything against him though. With all honesty, I once thought that he didn't exist, that he was just a figment of our imagination but I realized that he truly did live among us. And he is something to be feared. He Who Walks Behind The Rows can see everything in Gatlin, he can even see the secrets inside the human heart.