“What seems to be the trouble, Officer?”
I winced internally as Ruby said the words, both because I knew from her tone that she was being sarcastic and because I still had this growing panic that something was really wrong here. There was this strange sense of unreality and fear that didn’t make sense given the situation. Yes, we had gotten pulled over by the police without knowing why, and yeah, it was pretty weird that they appeared to be twins. That’s enough to make you a little jumpy or apprehensive. But I was bathed in a cold sweat, and as I tried to give a casual smile and roll down my window at the second officer’s approach, I realized my hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
I winced as a beam of light hit my eyes.
“How are you doing tonight, sir?”
Turning away from the light, I nodded. “Doing fine, Officer. Just ready to get home.”
The flashlight had been shifted so it was still glaring into my peripheral vision. “I see, I see. And where is home, sir?”
I blinked as I realized I was having trouble remembering the right answer. “Um, it’s not too far. About thirty minutes away I guess.” Swallowing thickly, I added. “Down in the city.” I wanted to hear what Ruby and the other officer were talking about, but it was taking all my focus to try and talk to this asshole who just kept standing there silently, as though waiting for another, more satisfactory, answer. After several more seconds, he finally went on.
“Oh really? I thought I remembered you. And I thought you lived out in the country. Way out in the country, if I recollect.” His voice shifted as he talked to his twin partner across the roof of the car. “Don’t you remember this fella living way out in the woods? You know the place.”
The other officer responded. “Chip, I think you’re right. I remember this cat pretty well. He’s not giving you the runaround, is he?”
Officer Chip leaned down, his face like a shadowed moon in the ambient glow of his flashlight. “You’re not fucking with me, are you, guy? Trying to tell me you live somewhere you don’t?”
Feeling a flush of nervous anger, I turned and met his eyes. “No, I’m not fucking with you. Why did you stop us?”
Officer Chip’s eyebrows knitted together as the smile he’d been wearing fell away. “You seem very nervous tonight, guy. Why are you so nervous?”
Heart thudding in my ears, I shook my head slightly. “No, answer my question please. Why did you stop us?”
The light clicked off as Officer Chip stepped back from the door. “Please step out of the car, sir.”
“Look, I just w…”
“Sir, ma’am, please step out of the car now without further incident.” This was Chip’s partner, and as I looked past Ruby, I saw the officer had stepped back with his gun pulled out and pointed downward.
“Jesus, okay okay.” Ruby gave me a scared look before stepping out on her side. Not wanting to make things worse, I stepped out as well. The officers directed us to opposite rear corners of Ruby’s car and patted us down before telling us that we were under arrest.
Ruby’s eyes widened as she looked between the two of them. “For fucking what?”
Chip’s partner smiled thinly as he took a step toward her. “Well, what have you done wrong?”
I moved between them. “Nothing. We haven’t done anything that we know of. Will you please just talk to us and explain what’s going on?”
Chip was moving to pull me back, but the other officer raised his hand to stop him. The man’s eyes flicked between my face and Ruby’s. “Do either of you know a man by the name of George Thurman?”
“Champ, this is a waste of good…” The man, apparently Officer Champ, cut his eyes towards his twin and Officer Chip fell silent. Looking satisfied, he cut his eyes back to us.
“Well?”
I had felt a strange twist in my stomach when he said the name, but no, I didn’t remember anyone named George Thurman. Maybe I had met them before somewhere, but if so, it didn’t make much of an impact. I told him so and his gaze shifted to Ruby.
She shook her head. “No, we don’t know him, or not well enough to remember his name if we do.”
Officer Champ studied her for a moment before nodding. “I see, I see. Well, maybe this is a misunderstanding then.” He glanced at Officer Chip before pointing to the back of Ruby’s car. “Mind if I check your trunk, ma’am? It would help speed this whole thing along.”
Ruby started to argue, but I reached over and gave her arm a squeeze. “Let’s let them look. We don’t have anything to hide and maybe this can clear…whatever this is…up.” She frowned at me before giving a resigned nod and handing Officer Champ the keys.
Gesturing for us to step back, he approached and opened the trunk, his expression never changing as he saw what was inside. That didn’t seem that odd, as I wasn’t expecting anything to be back there beyond a jack and maybe jumper cables or a blanket. It was only when I heard Ruby start screaming that I looked down and saw the bloody ruin of a man’s body, twisted and stuffed into the trunk.
Champ was already grabbing Ruby even as Chip came up behind me and yanked my hands behind my back. I was in shock, and didn’t even think of pulling away until I heard the ratcheting click of the handcuffs going on my wrists. As the bands tightened down, Chip leaned forward, his voice almost jolly as he whispered in my ear.
“It looks like you knew poor ol’ George better than you care to admit.”
“We didn’t do that. I swear, we would never do anything like that.” I had my hand on Ruby’s back as she tried to reason with the officers through the metal mesh separating the backseat from the front of the patrol car. Her whole body was trembling, and I knew mine was too. The odd thought occurred to me that the two of us were like dueling tectonic plates, shaking against each other until we tore the world apart.
And whether it was us doing it or something else, everything was falling apart just the same.
Officer Chip turned back to us as we drove on, his face twitching as he looked at Ruby. “Ma’am, as you were told, you may want to keep quiet. And if you want to give a statement, you can do it at the station.”
A thought occurred to me and I leaned forward. “Aren’t you going the wrong way for the police station? The precinct for this part of town is in the other direction.” I saw Officer Champ’s eyes glance up at me in the rearview and I shrugged at him. “I did contract work for the city a few years ago and I had installations at all the precincts. And I don’t remember one out the way we’re heading.”
Champ’s eyes cut to his partner and then back up to me. “It’s a new office. A satellite office. We use it for more sensitive cases, like when a fella gets butchered by his best friends and such.”
“He was not our fucking friend! We didn’t know him and we didn’t fucking hurt him!”
Chip leaned closer to the metal mesh. “So you say, but it sure looks funny, doesn’t it? Maybe you’ll be more honest when we reach the Farm.”
Ruby had already sat back in resignation, and now I joined her, holding her hand tightly as I watched our journey through the windows of the patrol car. I really didn’t remember any kind of police station out here, or much of anything, to be honest. A couple of factories, a county dump, and then miles of woods. So where were they taking us?
Everything about this was wrong, but I didn’t know enough to know how to react. Was this all a dream? Was the pill still distorting our reality and making us hallucinate? Or…maybe this was still part of our second night of the True Horror Movie Experience. Yes, that made sense! That was the only thing that made sense. They were fucking with us, making us think it was over when it wasn’t. Suppressing a relieved smile, I leaned over to whisper to Ruby.
“I think…I think this is all part of it. The horror experience thing. I think they’re putting us on.” I looked at Ruby’s face and it looked just as shell-shocked and terrified as before. She wouldn’t even meet my eyes. She just kept staring ahead as she spoke.
“Maybe so…but I think I do remember that man. I think I knew him. I think we both did.” A tear formed at the corner of her eye and began trailing down her cheek. “I think I loved him.”
Gripping her hand harder, I fought to keep my voice low. “That’s bullshit. We love each other. We’ve been together since college, remember? And I think we’d both remember if you loved somebody else.” I let go of her hand and touched her chin, turning her face toward me gently. “It’s the pill, Ruby. It’s still fucking with us. They’re freaking us out and making us believe shit that isn’t true. That’s all it is.”
Ruby let me turn her head, but her eyes were still fixed on the windows as she gave a slight nod. “Maybe so. Maybe it’s all a part of their game. Maybe that explains that, too.” I followed her gaze, sucking in a breath as I realized what I was looking at.
The trees on both sides of the road…they were all filled with webs. Thick, ropey strands trailed from branch to branch and tree to tree, and in several places, I could dimly make out the silken canopy that crisscrossed over the road itself, silver and ghostly in the dim moonlight.
“Oh…oh God. What is this? What the fuck is this? W-what happened here? Where are we?”
Chip and Chomp…no, Champ…Officers Chip and Champ chortled together, but didn’t answer my questions. I was going to ask again, but then we were turning into a driveway blocked by a massive wrought-iron gate. As the car slowed, the gate began to open.
I glanced around for any sign of where we actually were, and in the moments before we started moving through the gate, I finally glimpsed a tarnished metal sign on one of the brick gate posts. I only had a moment, and the green sheen of the metal made it harder to read, but as we drove on toward a massive lawn and the shadowed hulking buildings that lay beyond it, I kept turning over in my mind what I thought I’d read. Not something about a police station, or even a place nicknamed “the Farm”. Instead, the sign had simply said:
“Welcome to Greenheart Home. We hope you enjoy your stay.”
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Credits
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