4. The Jarvey Farm

Mickey quickly ran back to the haybarn, noticing the blown out doors of the shed Lenny and he had heard the boar making noises from earlier. Mickey ascended the steps to the hayloft and grabbed the hooded lantern that had been the light source and returned to the group just as Jimmy arrived with Manny and his belongings. The men moved down the path through the wheat fields back towards Blacwater Creek in the dark, stormy night by the meager light of the lantern.

As the group made their way into the swollen, oversized corn stalks, the crops blew in the stormy winds, drooping further into the path. As the corn sways and moves, a faint sound can be heard amid the occasional crack of thunder and rustle of the corn.

As Mickey shines the light across the path and the swaying corn, Manny sees a foot sticking out from the base of the cornstalks into the path.

The bare foot looks to be caked in mud and at an angle that would imply the person is laying face down amidst the stalks of corn.

Manny sees the foot is from that of a female as he approaches. He can barely make out a slumped form nested in the stalks of corn. The woman is clothed in a white robe that has mud stains all over it. She appears to be laying down amidst the corn.

Jimmy hears what sounds like a beehive above the storm and swaying corn, but unlike a beehive the sound doesn’t appear to be all the same insect. Jimmy can identify a grasshopper trill, a katydid chirp, the thrum of a bee and the rattle of cicadas all issuing in a din. What’s more is Jimmy can distinctly hear the sound of the insects getting closer.

Manny reaches to touch the woman’s shoulder and the body rolls over. Manny sees half the face of Adelaide Jarvey. The other half and a good portion of her torso appears to have beaten eaten away by small rodents and insects. A mass of ants and centipedes skitter from the corpse seeking darker places. Where they were consuming the poor woman a black viscous ichor remains, as Manny pulls his hand back he sees some of the goo on his hand.In the distance, above the beating rain a shriek calls out that sends shivers down everyone’s spine.

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Waves crashing against the shore. A warm summer breeze tickling the hair on the back of Manny’s neck. The warm embrace of a woman with her arm around his waist. Lazy clouds gently drifting across an azure blue sky. Perfection. Manny knows there’s a wonderful polish dinner and a glass of fine scotch, the stuff that’s been aged properly waiting back at the cabin.

Euphoria expressed in everything Manny ever wanted. His entire body tingles with anticipation. He knows the start to his journey that ends in this heaven is close… so very close. He can hear the clarion call of the summons calling him home

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Manny stands amidst the swaying corn on a dark, stormy night. Who are these people with him? Oh, yes. They were his colleagues.

The group stares in horror and indecision as the buzzing sound approaches. It seems as if the corn picks up its swaying tempo in the blowing rain as lightning cracks overhead and a rumbling thunder rolls across the fields. Abruptly, the corn stops moving and stands straight and rigid in defiance of the wind. A stillness seems to hang over the path as the air itself tingles with a palpable static electricity.

Suddenly a mass of rodents, snakes, raccoons and insects rolls out of the corn towards the group in a black tide. Manny’s instinct tells him to run to the northwest. To his destiny.