OoO( 1 )OoO
There he was again. At that same place he had dreamed about when he was a child. Lately, his dreams had been nightmarish hellscapes of the last ten years of his life, over and over, without relenting. Before, his job was his distraction. It was always easy to replace old nightmares with new ones in his line of work. But that option didn't exist anymore, and his skeletons were free to jump out of the closet and dance around his head as much as they liked.
But not this time. This time, it was different. Instead of an ocean of blood, or the haunted familiar faces that screamed at him from the shadows, his surroundings were peaceful. He was a child again, and was walking down a quaint cobbled road, looking down to the multi-colored stones that sparkled in the sunlight. He was back in the town with clean air and green flora that seemed to gush all the way up to the pathway. As he continued strolling down the road, he whistled to himself a familiar tune before coming along a large archway that led to an open sprawling field that had many kinds of livestock roaming to and fro in the grass, as well as wooden buildings that stood out in neat order.
"Wooooah..." he said excitedly as he saw the animals. The boy quickly ran up to one of the cows, but slowed his approach as he got closer, not wanting to spook the creature. When he was finally close enough, he reached out and stroked the bovine's nose, causing him to giggle slightly as it mooed in return.
"I think she likes you." came a scratchy, old voice from behind him. The young boy immediately spun around, terrified, and looked at the man who had snuck up on him. He was rather short for someone of his age, but despite the wispy white hair and wrinkled face, he was stocky and built as sturdy as the brick house behind him. He wore a pair of stained overalls over a dark brown shirt and had a large farming tool in one hand.
Despite the menacing blade at the end of the large scythe, the man had a soft, gentle smile on his face. The boy couldn't really tell what the purpose of the sharp bladed weapon was, but it looked wide enough to cut him in half, something that made him shrink even more underneath the cow for protection.
As if noticing the cause of the boy's agitation, the old man stuck the blade of the tool into the ground and chuckled. "Oh don't worry about that dusty old thing. That's for mowing the grass." he said in a kindly tone. The boy peeked out from under the cow's munching jaws at the man. "My name is Alexander. This here is my farm." he said to the boy. When he didn't receive any response, he continued. "What's your name?"
The young boy, with small bits of grass falling into his dark brown hair from the cow's mouth above simply said, "Jack."
The man smiled widely again at having communication now. "Alright Jack. Would you like to see the chickens as well?" Jack's face lit up immediately at the thought of more animals. "Come out from under there and I'll show them to you." he said, waving for the boy to follow him.
The rest of Jack's day consisted of an animal parade of different farm creatures. He chased the chickens around outside their coop, much to the amusement of the old man. And he got to actually ride on the horse. It was during this exhilarating ride that his parents ran up to the same gateway he had and screeched to a halt as they saw him. He smiled and waved at them, oblivious to the glares he was receiving from the two.
Flit! His dream sped forward. Now he was sitting at the old man's dinner table with his parents, eating a large plate of roast beef drowned in mashed potatoes and gravy. His parents eyed the boy curiously, as instead of begging for sweets, he was devouring the old man's food like a black hole. "I've never seen him eat wholesome food so eagerly." said his father.
"Your farm really is something." said his mother, who sat on the opposite side of the table as Jack and the old man. She chuckled momentarily and pushed her sliding glasses back up onto her nose. "We could probably leave him here and he'd be perfectly content."
Her husband looked at her mischievously. "Dear..." he said, elbowing her playfully.
"I wouldn't mind." came the soft spoken voice of the old man. Both parent's heads shot towards him, with their eyes wide. "I don't really get much company out here by myself. So having him around would actually be a treat." he said with a genuine smile.
The man and woman looked at each other momentarily before they both looked over at the boy. "We were just joking. We don't want to impose on you..." said the woman with a curious look on her face.
The older man waved her concerns off. "Oh nonsense. I've lived on this farm my entire life without a child of my own. It would be a pleasure to watch him for you."
"What about you Jack?" asked the father as he peered at the boy through his thin rimmed glasses. "Would you like to stay with Mr. Alexander?" he asked, raising his eyebrow curiously.
The boy looked up at his father and mother and nodded eagerly. "Yeah! His animals are awesome!" he shouted, then proceeded to shove the remainder of the mashed potatoes in his mouth.
The father chuckled and patted the wife on the shoulder. "Well dear, I guess we don't need to look for a babysitter."
Flit! Forward again. This time, several times. He was in the field playing with the sheep, pressing his face into their woolly hides. Flit! He was riding the horse alone this time, but with the old man watching. He had learned to ride! Flit! He was swimming in the pond, diving to the bottom to grab smooth stones in the crystal clear water. Flit! He was laying back in a small field on the side of the largest hill on the island, watching as clouds as lazy as he was drifted by in the sky above. Suddenly, the snapping of a twig alerted him, and made him sit up.
As he sat up, his eyes locked onto a pretty girl wearing a summer dress with pink flowers all over it. Her hair was tied into twin pigtails, and her face showed brow-furrowing annoyance as she yanked the dress up to walk properly. But, her expression vanished as she finally saw him. Moving her feet hurriedly, she stopped in front of him and looked down at him with curiosity in her wide eyes. "What's your name?" she asked as she plopped down in the grass next to him, dress and all..
He cocked an eyebrow back at her. "I don't know, what's your name?" he asked suspiciously.
She glared at him and put her hands on her hips. "I don't know, what's your name!?" she shouted, sticking her tongue out at him afterwards.
Jack returned the gesture, his own tongue sticking out before he spoke. "I dunno! Watt's yur nabe!" shouted the young boy, his tongue warping his words. The girl stared at him briefly, then covered her mouth. His tongue returned, and his eyes narrowed as he looked at her curiously. Then he noticed her giggling at him. Before long, they were both laughing together.
When she recovered from her laughing fit, the girl smiled at him. "Wanna play?" she asked. Jack nodded eagerly, and they ran off together towards the large hill. It was hours later when they sat, tired and worn out with bruises, scrapes, and dirty clothes covering them. They sat in front of what the villagers called the Goddess Pond, and Jack was serene again as the girl sat next to him and they joked with one another. Soon, she fell asleep with her head in his lap, just as something suddenly caught his eye.
Turning his head, he saw a strange beam of darkness shining in the center of the pond. Like a plague, it swept over the surface of the cool, clean water until the beautiful spring was nothing but darkness, from edge to edge. Feeling a tingling in his spine, he slowly pulled away from the sleeping girl and crawled towards the edge. He couldn't have said why; he should have been running instead. But finally, he knelt down at the cobbled barrier and stared down into the abyss. And what he saw made him gasp in shock.
Instead of the calm, serene pool that he was used to, the inside of it was now a storming maelstrom, spiralling like a twister of death. He fell backwards in fright as a hand shot out from the darkness and grabbed the stone edge of the pond. Thinking someone might need rescuing, he shuffled forward again and saw her, trying to pull herself free. She was tall and curved, her body very much adult in ways his mother said he wasn't supposed to know yet. Her hair was green and wild, like vines of ivy, with flowers blossoming from it. And last of all, her clothes weren't even clothes. Instead of conventional clothing, she wore blooms and folds of plants and flowers that curved naturally to her body and made her look like she was some kind of festival dancer.
The boy shook his head, however, as his eyes met her beautiful emerald ones. For he saw in them a terror so powerful that he nearly fled. Instead, he reached down and grabbed her arm with his own small hands. "Please…!" she shouted from the depths. But no matter how hard he pulled, the swirl of the dark cyclone was too strong. Her fingers began slipping from the edge, her body now submerged up to her neck. He strained with everything he had, but it was no use. "Please...you must help me! Come back!" she shouted, then reached up and touched his forehead with her free hand. The single touch felt warm, comforting even. "Please Jack...help me!" she begged. Then her hand lost its grip. She was pulled away from him so violently that he was nearly sent rolling backwards as her majestic arm was yanked away from him. It was only seconds before the beautiful woman was sucked beneath the darkness fully, leaving Jack to stand at the edge of the pond and yell as he reached out for her again.
OoOoO
Jack sat up, rigidly, his body covered in cold sweat, and his heart pounding wildly. He shook his head, trying to calm his breathing and clear the dream from his brain, but the image of the woman being sucked into the abyss kept replaying itself in his mind. "What the hell is wrong with me?" he asked, before snorting in angered amusement. "What isn't wrong with me?" he asked as he stood up. His feet made contact with the carpet in his dingy room, and he stood fully and stretched as he walked over to the bathroom. Without even turning the light on, he twisted the handle for the cold water on the sink, causing it to spray out of the faucet.
Leaning forward, the man cupped his hands under the water, then splashed the chilled liquid against his face. He did this several more times before finally grabbing a towel and wiping it off of himself. As he stood up, he looked into the mirror above the sink and cringed lightly. The low light from the bedroom cast on his left side, showing in the mirror a tired, beaten, worn down, almost husk of a human. Brown, tattered hair lay on his head, and his chin showing a five o'clock shadow that nearly made him look homeless. This was someone who felt the weight of the world.
Then, his tired eyes turned to the right side of the figure, the side without the light. The darkness left a lot to the imagination, but it almost seemed to contort his face, making him look maniacal. With the shadows dancing from the crappy lamp in the bedroom, his other half looked like a madman ready to unleash a torrent of suffering on the world.
He wanted to look away, but refused. This was what he was now, and there was no point in trying to avoid it. The only thing that could be done was to fix himself. And that's exactly what he intended to do. Reaching down, he grabbed a packaged razor and ripped it from the plastic. Not bothering with shaving cream, he went to work on cleaning himself up. But even as he scraped away the last remaining scruff with the blade, he didn't notice any improvement in either of the figures.
It was then that a distraction enabled him to break his gaze away from the haunting reflection. His burner cell phone was ringing. He immediately wiped his face clean and dropped the towel in the sink, then walked over to the mobile and answered it. "Yeah?" he asked as he sat on the bed and lit a cigarette from a cheap pack he had gotten from a corner store.
"I know you told me only to use this for emergencies, but this is something I think you might want to hear." said the disembodied voice over the receiver.
Jack cocked an eyebrow as he puffed on the Natsume brand smoke, exhaling deeply. "What is it?" he asked, curious as to what could make his one contact in the world use this number.
"Old man Alexander passed away last week." said the voice, it's filter making the caller sound neither male nor female. As the words hit Jack, the cigarette fell from his lips onto the carpeted floor below.
Jack sat there for almost a full minute before finally responding. "How?" he asked, almost sharply.
"Natural causes. He was old when you were young, it shouldn't be a surprise that he only had a few good years left in him." said the voice. "I'm sorry if that was harsh...it's just...I knew how much he meant to you. I thought you'd have wanted to know."
"I did..." said Jack as he picked the cigarette back up and puffed it back to life. "What's going to happen to the farm?" he asked as he began to pull on a pair of socks.
"That's the thing. He had no kids, nor grandchildren. Hell, he didn't even have siblings. So he had nobody to leave it to. But the old man's will was sent to your address where I picked it up before anyone else could get to it. It turns out that he left the entire farm to you." said the disembodied figure in an amused tone.
Jack stopped, mid stride as he was fastening on one of his boots. The revelation was now running through his head at light speed. "Me?" he asked, almost unbelieving.
"I know. Imagine you, working on a..." it started, but was cut off immediately.
"I'll take it..." said Jack instantly.
"Wait...are you serious?" asked the disembodied voice. "Jack, you don't know the first thing about running a farm!"
"I've told you not to use my goddamned name on the phone." he snapped harshly.
"Alright, sorry. It's just, farming isn't exactly something I'd expect to see on your resume." said the voice, coming off sounding confused.
"That's because my resume consists of thousands of..." he said, but halted, a pained look now on his face as he put the cigarette out in the nearby ashtray. "Nevermind. The doctor said that in order to fix myself, I need peace. I need to relax, and I need to be as far away from my old life as possible. Besides, soil washes off the hands much easier than blood, right?"
"Huh...didn't think of it like that. Alright then. I'll go ahead and set everything up for you. I'll give you a call back when everything is ready." said the voice as they disconnected the line. Jack finished dressing himself, his last article being his remaining boot. When he was finally ready, he packed all of his things into a plastic bag, which he slid into a duffle bag, before pulling out a bottle of bleach and a rag. When he finally left an hour later, he walked out of the cheap hotel room and tossed the phone into a sewer opening in the street, where it was flooded with water from the heavy rains of the day.
Pulling up the collar on his duster, he walked off into the dark, rainy night.
OoOoO
A few days later, Jack found himself outside again. It was raining once more, and the hoodie he was currently wearing to cover up his dark hair was getting soaked thoroughly. He stood on the docks of a very out of the way boathouse, one which looked to have been out of business for a very long time. The building was in poor condition, with one extremely dirty window that looked like it had been sealed shut by years of grime buildup. The door was held closed only by a rusty padlock, and the entire structure's paint job was chipped away from age.
Regardless of how old it looked however, the outside showed multiple signs of life. There were crates stacked up taller than he was, filled with supplies that were no doubt going to the same place as him. He stood next to the old boat house as he looked out into the waters of the sea, where a heavy blanket of mist seemed to swallow anything and everything that strayed too far out into the water.
It was another twenty minutes of standing in the heavy rain before the object he had been waiting for finally came into view out of the foggy mire. It was a small barge, powered by motor, and had what looked like a small rickety shack in one corner of it, no doubt the pilot's seat. At the edge of the large water craft was a large man, taller than even him. He wore a thick jacket meant to keep out the rain, but had nothing on his head, showing a very military-esque buzz cut. Jack could also see from the fit of the man's jacket that he was extremely muscular beneath the covering.
After a few more minutes, the boat docked at the pier and the man jumped off, tying the craft onto the jetty before walking over to the crates. He began to lift them and load them onto the craft, seemingly ignoring the rain. Jack walked over as the man returned for another box. "Need any help?" he asked curiously.
The man looked at him, eyeing him up and down briefly. Up close, he could see that the man had a matching mustache to his hair, tightly trimmed, so that it only covered a small amount of space on his upper lip. "You looking for a free ride? Or food?" he asked as he eyed the stranger.
"Neither actually. I just want off this dock and across those waters as soon as possible. Already have a ticket purchased." said Jack as he flashed the man his ticket.
The boatsman donned a look of understanding as he scanned the ticket. "You'll be Jack then?" After getting a nod from the stranger, he just smiled. "Ah, my name is Zack. I help with the ferry's cargo." he said pointing a thumb in the direction of the barge. "I'll take you up on that offer. The sooner I get this done, the sooner we can get back." he said as he grabbed another crate with ease. "Be careful though, they're a bit..." he said, then watched, stunned as Jack grabbed one and lifted it onto his shoulder with ease. "Heavy..." he finished. The stranger just walked over to the barge and set the crate next to the others.
As Jack returned for another crate, he noticed a small amount of movement through the rain coming from the bushes. He tensed slightly, wondering if he had been followed. But his stance eased once more as he saw it was a small pup of some kind. It didn't look like a domesticated breed, more like a pure wolf pup. But it ran up to the crates and began sniffing around greedily. After watching it for a moment, he noticed that the poor creature's fur had sunken into its ribs, showing each crevice between the rib bones clearly. Reaching down, Jack picked the small creature up, causing it to yip in terror.
But, the stranger silenced the small puppy by pulling a piece of beef jerky out of his pocket and sliding it into the creature's mouth. The pup began to greedily yank and tear at the meat as Jack watched in amusement. He set the creature back on the ground underneath one of the awnings of the rickety old boathouse where it was still somewhat dry, then dropped a few more pieces onto the ground.
Afterwards, he returned to the crates and helped stack them all up onto the water craft. "Ready to go?" Zack asked as the new guy watched the small creature from the edge of the boat.
"As ready as I'll ever be." said Jack, walking away from the edge to go to the underside where the rain couldn't reach him. But his footsteps stopped as he heard the patter of paws behind him. The small puppy had dashed over to him, beef jerky still in its mouth, and bounded over the gap between the craft and the dock. It skidded to a halt in front of the man, just staring up at him with its large crystal blue eyes, causing him to smile.
"Friend o' yours?" asked Zack as he approached again, carrying the docking rope with him. Jack reached down and picked up the small creature, who began to tear once again into the meat.
"Guess he is now." he said as he walked to the edge of the barge. It had started moving once more away from the dock, and into the mist. "Mineral Town, here I come..." he said, closing his eyes and feeling the water in the air wrap around them as they too vanished from the known world.