Jason grew up on his father’s farm and helped him get around since he was only 6. The boy loved doing farm work growing up. He would arrive at school with mud and a big grin on his face almost every day as a kid. The time he spent with his old man was everything to him. The promise that Jason would one day own his old man’s farm kept him going. His own farm, man what a dream.

Jason was 18 now and slowly saw the promise unfold into reality. He was practically able to run his dad’s farm already. Nevertheless, he still enjoyed every second he spent working with his old-timer. Now it was time for him to take care of his dad as he had done for him all his life.

One day his father was harvesting the corn fields and considering Jason’s work was all done for the day, he decided to join him in the passenger seat of the tractor.

Halfway through, it got stuck. The engine failed. After hours of trying to fix it, the duo gave up. They decided it was a task for the next morning and cracked open a cold six-pack. It was a Friday after all.

After they poured the second six-pack down their throats, they called it a night. It was getting late. Jason went to bed and so did his pa.

A few hours later, Jason woke up to a rumbling mechanic noise. He rubbed his eyes, still weary, and sat up to check the time. 3:36 it read. His pa was an early riser, but never this early. Had he fixed the engine already? At this time of night? He went out of bed to check up on his old man.

His father wasn’t in bed, so Jason figured it had to be him causing that noise outside. He tried to open the front door, which to his surprise was still locked, and stepped outside.

Jason could not believe what he saw next. An entire field of corn, reaching at least 2.5 meters into the sky. Half of the corn they had harvested in the afternoon had grown back in just a time span of 12 hours, and the rest of the corn that was still left untouched was far from 2,5 meters.

The noise came from the cornfield, somewhere in the middle, Jason figured. He could tell it was the engine of the tractor now that he was standing close to the field. As startled as Jason was, he went into the cornfield to look for his dad.

Jason ran towards the noise; he was so panicked now that he felt a little disoriented. But he knew where to go, and how far to run to get there, he had been in this cornfield ever since he could remember after all. After a minute of running, it felt like he was almost there. But the noise had not grown louder. Jason could not see the tractor either due to the height of the corn, so he had no idea how close he was.

He felt like he was running forever. 2 minutes in, Jason looked back to see how much distance had gotten in between him and his house. To his amazement, he laid eyes on an ocean of corn. All he could see was corn. He could not see his house at all. Then again, Jason was not 2,5 meters tall either. But he figured he should at least be able to see the roof sticking out.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Jason started to question his reality. Was the field bigger than he could remember? Was he still drunk by any chance?

The 18-year-old kept on running, now screaming for his dad without any response.

There was no change of scenery; the engine sound still running on the same tone height as before, and the corn surrounding him. Jason felt like he was drowning.

10 minutes later he started to panic and decided to run back and call for help.

After running 15 minutes back to where he came from, he realized the sound was still as near and far away as it had ever been. It was almost as if the tractor was driving away from him when he was running towards it and following him from a distance while he was running towards home.

He had to check twice if he was dreaming but twice wasn’t enough for a situation like this. It was a never-ending nightmare. Everywhere he went, no matter for how long he walked, there was corn.

A few hours had passed, the sun had risen, and Jason was starting to give up. And then he finally saw his dad, at least he thought he did. He ran towards the silhouette. Only to find out it was a mirage created by the shadow of just another stalk.

The sky was clear, there was not a cloud to be found in the big blue. It was getting warmer as the sun slowly moved its way up into the middle of the sky. Jason was limping by now, he was exhausted. He still thought he was in the middle of a very intense fever-like dream. The engine sound was still very much the same. That monotone engine sound made him wish that once this was over, he would never want to see a tractor again. But the only thing on his mind for now was that tractor, and the man operating it of course.

As what appeared to be the sunlight of noon shone on his head, he collapsed. He finally lay down after hours and hours of trying to find anything. Anything at all would suffice at this moment. He finally gave in. Jason closed his eyes with the hope of waking up in some sort of hospital bed, hoping that this would be the aftermath of a concussion.

And so he did. The first thing he noticed when opening his eyes was the soft hand of his father on the left side of his bed. His father noticed Jason was moving again and burst into tears of joy. Jason hugged him tightly and told him that he loved him.

His father told him that he was hit by the tractor in the field, which led to a concussion. Jason said that he could remember sitting next to him, but according to his dad he never got in the tractor with him.

A few minutes later he was telling him of his experience, and in the middle of the conversation, his father didn’t respond. Did not respond at all, like he was in some state of shock. He just froze. Jason got up to get a nurse and was surprised to find himself feeling fine, like he was unharmed. Only for some reason, he could still hear that damned engine running in his mind like some people hear voices in theirs.

He rushed towards the door to the hallway to get someone, and the moment he opened that door he was devastated. There he was, in the middle of the same fucking cornfield he had been in for hours before waking up in a hospital bed, laying on the ground in the same position he appeared to be in on the bed. The realization came to him as quickly as salt dissolving in water. The never-ending cornfield wasn’t a dream, but the hospital was.

As the monotone sound went on with its original pace, Jason got up, threw his hands far up into the air, and let out a long, agonizing, primal scream.