Christopher Sunflower hated to admit it when his dad was right.

But his dad was right.

He was currently on the family’s Tri-Star Leashed Tractor 9000, clearing land for potatoes and beans…and sunflowers.

They were now known as ‘The Sunflower’ family by the other farmers. His dad had even commissioned a family crest and submitted it to the government for recordkeeping. And changed their legal names. That part stung a little bit.

Everything was a gimmick with that old man.

Still, the gimmick was working out. They’d made bank off the second harvest after dad’s Sun-flour bread had caught on during the first, and they’d used the money to buy a tractor. Now they were fixing to have a harvest that dwarfed last years. Enough to afford a fleet of tractors.

Dad was planning on getting a cargo truck to ‘cut out the middle man’ on transportation, taking out a loan to buy the vehicle and paying it back with the profit from their third harvest.

It still felt like gambling to Chris, but what did he know?

There was an entire four hundred acres dedicated to breeding new strains of sunflower. Dad wanted to breed a tougher, waxier shell, while retaining a large, fatty interior seed with a pleasing nutty flavor, which would hopefully store better. Years, instead of months.

If they succeeded he was hoping to sell it to the military as rations, and use it for the family during the winter. Dad said the government spent money like there was no tomorrow, and wanted to get in on that ‘pie’.

I swear to God, if I never have to eat another sunflower seed in place of a meal, It’ll be too soon, Chris thought with an inward groan at the thought of another winter spent cracking open giant sunflowers.

Chris had found that he had unwillingly become something of an expert at growing giant sunflowers over the last three years.

He never pictured himself as a farmer, but there were certain benefits.

“Hey, sunflower boy!” Mary, the neighbor’s daughter said, her voice barely audible above the tractor’s huffing and puffing, and the crunching of dry soil.

Chris’s head whipped around, spotting the young woman waving before he put the tractor in neutral and hopped off, sprinting up to their shared fence before leaning against the post as casually as possible.

“Wassup?” he said once he caught his breath.

“Wow. That was fast,” Mary said with a sly smile. The blonde girl had a quick wit, but today she seemed a little tired, with rings under her piercing blue eyes.

Chris felt himself blush from head to toe.

“Well, you know, I was…” Chris shook himself. “Whaddya want?”

“My family is putting up some bird netting on the trees this evening. We need some extra hands to go up and down the ladder. Daddy’s knees hurt and Mom’s too short, and none of my sisters are tall enough either, of course.” She rolled her eyes before returning her pale blue gaze to him.

“Would you like to spend the evening helping me put up nets?”

The neighbor’s new orchard was at least an hour away, and it was HUGE. Evening would turn into night while they worked, and Chris would most likely have to spend the night in order to avoid walking home in the black of night.

“Well, no, I probably wouldn’t enjoy putting up nets, but hanging out with you would be worth it,” he said with a shrug. “So yeah, I’ll go. Just gotta tell my dad where I’ll be tonight.”

“Alright,” Mary said, her face brightening at his honesty. “I hope to see you there. We’ll have peach tea for dinner.” She said as she turned away before stopping and glancing over her shoulder. “Would you like to try my peaches?”

“Uh…”

“We’ve still got a few dried peaches I made last year. Mom’s telling me to get rid of them before they go bad to make some space for this year’s crop. We’re gonna have a lot more this year. I’m so sick of them.”

“Oh.” Chris said, “Sure.”

Did she say that on purpose…? Or am I…

“Okay then. Bye!” Mary said leaving before Chris could drag his jaw off the ground.

“Bye…” Chris’s voice trailed off as he watched Mary leave, her sundress hugging her hips as she walked.

“BRRR!” Chris exhaled and shook his head violently, refocusing on what had to be done. If he wanted to visit Mary’s tonight, two things needed to happen: He needed to finish the day’s clearing post-haste, and he needed to talk to his dad.

Chris sprinted back to the tractor and used the Leashed demon’s elbow as a foothold to haul himself up into the seat. The cost of the demon-fused tractor was more than that of their entire flimsy pop-up house, but as the six-legged demon began pushing the massive lump of steel through the ground, ripping out stumps with impunity and clearing land for next year’s crops, Chris was finally starting to understand exactly how valuable it was to him.

I could clear that hill and set up a little log house right over there for the two of us with this thing…

That idea had merit.

Chris refocused and did a circuit around the edges of the property, expanding the whole farm by a dozen feet in every direction before pulling off to the side when he spotted his dad standing by the road.

“Hey dad, I’m gonna be going to help Mary cover the peach trees this evening. Might not be back until morning. Loots of trees to cover.”

“Eh,” Dad grunted, staring down at The Road.

A glimmer of dread began worming its way through the warm fuzzy anticipation of spending the evening with Mary.

“Dad?”

“Dad?”

“HARV!” Chris shouted.

“Eh, what?” Dad muttered, glancing up.

“I’m going to go help Mary put up netting tonight?” Chris said, eyes narrowed as he studied his dad. The man seemed a bit more listless than usual. There was a bit of dust on his gilded family crest that he wore on his lapel. Polishing it had become a physical tic, so it was odd to see something had distracted his father so thoroughly from his dreams of Legacy.

“Oh. ‘Kay.” Dad said, his gaze returning to the road.

“What are you looking at?” Chris finally asked.

“The road.”

“Why?”

“I think it’s dying.” Dad said.

“It’s a road, dad.”

“It’s THE Road, son. Lifeblood of the empire. It looks a bit grayer than last month. When was the last time you felt it helping you move?”

“Umm… last august, I guess?” Chris said, recalling the trip to the city with a massive load of their product.

“I hear from the family down the road that it’s stopped expanding.” Dad said. “Ever since Tyrannus made the trade deal with Chicago, actually. It’s way above my station to judge, but I think Tyrannus broke a bargain that maybe he shouldn’t’ve.”

That got Chris’s attention.

“Should we do something?”

“I don’t know.” Dad admitted. “I’ll figure something out. I’m thinking about packing up the essentials in the truck in case we need to make a quick getaway, and maybe leaving about half this year’s profit in the bank…just in case we need liquidity.

“Okay. So…can I go?” Chris asked.

“You finish your clearing?” Dad asked, his attention finally fixed on Chris.

“Yessir.”

Dad glanced past him at the cleared land, full of toppled trees that Chris would be hauling to the lumber area tomorrow. Again, with the tractor.

“Sure, have fun.” Dad said, his gaze returning to the road.

“Alright,” Chris said, eyeballing the angle of the sun. It was only a bit after noon, so if he hurried, he could get almost a full day with Mary…

“Chris?” Dad called, his voice solemn.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Yeah?” Chris asked, glancing back.

“Make sure to pull out.”

Chris’s whole body turned hot. “Dunnowhatyou’retalkingabout,laterdad!”

“And Chris?”

“WHAT!?” Chris demanded, rounding on his dad.

“Have you seen Moe?” Dad asked, glancing up at him.

Chris frowned for a moment before shaking his head. He’d kind of assumed that the family dog was out guarding Mabel while she weeded.

“I see.” Dad said, frowning at the road.

“Do you…” Chris gritted, responsibility warring with desire. “Want me to look for him tonight?”

“No, enjoy your evening. Moe will come back.”

“Okay,” Chris said, heading off.

“Or he won’t.” Dad’s voice faded into the distance as Chris left.

The walk over to the Eddertons was twenty minutes along the path Chris had carved between the two families using the tractor the winter before.

Sure it had been miserable and he’d almost gotten frostbite, but no one had been needing the tractor during the winter, and it was paying huge dividends now, what with Mary following the path to visit them every so often.

Chris made the twenty-minute walk in eight, moving at a ground-eating jog, stopping only to catch his breath and straighten his clothes before he walked into eyeshot of the Edderton homestead.

They lived in an identical pop-up home, buried in the woods like the Sunflower’s had been. The tractor was rapidly changing that, but since the Eddertons were a year behind, they hadn’t quite begun the rapid expansion to convert more farmland.

They did, however, own a massive orchard. Chris didn’t know how, but Mary’s father had his own gimmick. He’d managed to secure a line on several hundred peach trees, already several years old, and managed to transplant them all the way out to the end of the Road, where people would do just about anything for a taste of something sweet.

Mary saw him coming and stood from her work mending the bird nets with her sisters, waving with an animated grin as he approached.

“Hi Chris,” she said, taking his hand, which sent a jolt of electricity up his spine. “Let me show you what we’re doing tonight.”

“Mary’s got a boyfriend! Mary’s got a boyfriend!” her siblings looked up from the netting and began shouting obnoxiously, at which point she turned away from Chris.

Chris didn’t see her face, turned away as it was, but he heard the feral snarl, and Mary’s siblings all paled.

When she turned back, she was smiling that lovely smile again.

“Right over here!” she said. “I’ll show you what we’ll be doing today.”

“…Kay,” Chris said, bemused as he allowed himself to be dragged into the woods, taking in the children’s sufficiently terrified expressions.

A minute later, Chris was faced with an ominous sight.

“Um…these trees already have nets on them.” Chris said, scanning the orchard. Indeed, as far as the eye could see, the young peach trees were covered by bird netting, making the slowly ripening peaches that much harder for wild birds to get at.

“No, no,” Mary said, leaning into his shoulder. “There’s still a bunch left, and we’ll have to come back out here after dinner to finish up. Could take a couple hours.” She turned toward him, her face intimately close, breath tickling the fine hairs on his cheek. “Right?”

“R-Right.” Chris said, nodding.

They got to work and finished netting the last of the trees just before dinner, and Chris joined the Edderton family for dinner.

It did not go as planned.

“Did you think I didn’t notice you put up netting last night?” Mary’s Dad asked. “It’s my orchard, and our primary source of income over the next few decades. Why wouldn’t I check on it regularly? You two need the rest of the day? I don’t buy it. You, young lady, can cool your heels and get some actual sleep, and hopefully make better decisions about telling your family the truth going forward. And you, young man…”

Chris’s chili hung on the end of his spoon, frozen under the Edderton patriarch’s focused gaze.

“Thanks for the help. You can borrow one of our lanterns to make your way home.”

Objectively, it wasn’t nearly as harsh a dismissal as Chris had been expecting from Mary’s father, Which he took as a good sign, but Mary burst into tears and fled up to her room.

“Harold…” Mary’s Mom gave an exasperated sigh, leaning on her palm and staring at Mary’s dad while the rest of the children devoured their food without paying the drama a moment’s attention.

“What?”

“Umm…okay,” Chris said, finishing his chili in the deafening silence that followed, punctuated only by Mary’s siblings animalistically devouring their soup.

A few minutes later, Chris was walking back home, the lantern in his hands casting a pool of light around him, barely strong enough to see the ground in front of his feet.

Add that to the list of things I miss from the city: Street lamps. The dark of the wilderness put the city’s shade to shame. It was deep, impenetrable blackness that only peeled back slightly under lamplight, leaving more questions than answers.

Such as:

What was that shape?

Probably a tree.

Probably.

Was it moving?

Probably not.

What was that sound approaching behind him?

Probably a small nocturnal animal rustling leaves.

Probably.

“Chris.”

“AIIIIII!” Chris shrieked and spun to find Mary catching up with him, wearing her nightgown, which was basically a gigantic t-shirt.

Mary’s puffy-eyed face broke into a genuine smile as Chris desperately tried to recover.

“What are you doing here?” He demanded quietly.

“I snuck out,” She whispered back. They were far enough from either house that they could speak at full volume and no one would ever hear them, but something about the pervading darkness demanded that they speak in whispers.

“Well sneak back, I don’t want you getting in trouble,” He responded.

“Not until I get what I came for,” Mary whispered, her expression set in stone as she took the lantern away from him and held it aloft.

“There’s a spot this way I’d like to show you,” She said, holding the lamp up to the north and taking a few steps off the path before glancing over her shoulder.

“Are you coming?” she asked, seemingly unaware of the lamplight rendering her nightgown see-through.

Chris swallowed and nodded, all thoughts of ‘getting in trouble’ completely forgotten. “Yep.”

Long story short: She got what she came for.

Later, Chris was walking her back to her home, the two of them holding hands until they got to the edge of the cleared land.

“Put out the lantern,” She whispered. “They’ll see us coming.”

Chris obliged and was pleased to discover that the moon had come out, and he could still barely see Mary’s face in the pale light.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget it, Chris thought as the two of them snuck up to the side of her home, where a ladder led up to the slanted roof just outside her bedroom window.

“Was that there before dinner?” Chris whispered. Did she have a backup plan this entire time? Was the lantern/nightgown combo on purpose?

“Maybe,” Mary said with a shrug, her expression innocent.

“Are you smarter than me?”

“Maybe.” Mary shrugged again. “You’re pretty clever when I’m not around, I hear.”

“You should take that as a complement. If we get married, promise you won’t make me look like an idiot.”

“Maybe.”

Chris rolled his eyes and peeked into her bedroom window.

“Looks like the coast is clear.” He whispered.

Mary peeked in and nodded before grabbing his face and planting a kiss right on his lips. It shouldn’t’ve been surprising given what they were doing only a few minutes ago, but it still made him go weak in the knees.

“I’ll see you tom-“

Knock knock knock.

Through the window, they could make out the sound of knocking, and they both crouched down as the door opened.

“Mary?” his voice barely registered through the window.

“Crap.” Mary whispered.

Light spilled into the room as her father entered, peering down at the decoy lump of bedding in her bed.

To look at Mary’s bed in the corner of the room was to face away from the window, so they found the courage to raise their heads and look again, staring at the back of her dad’s head as he pulled a chair over and began apologizing to the decoy that he thought was his daughter.

“Your mom told me what was going on, and I’m sorry about ruining your…plans...for the night. I just didn’t think you were that age yet. Hah. I guess I haven’t been paying attention. I should’ve waited until after he was gone to tell you off for lying. I’m sorry about that.”

“If it’s any consolation, I think he’s a great kid,” Harold said, his body unfolding as fleshy pulsating limbs began to grow out of his shoulders, tipped with claws that shimmered black in the faint moonlight.

“What the…” Chris mouthed as Mary gave a silent gasp.

“Hard working, Responsible…and smart when you’re not around.” Harold’s voice was the only thing that stayed the same as his ribs silently spread open, wiggling like grasping fingers, his still-talking head hanging on by a thread.

“I can definitely see him joining our family…I’m sorry about all this, Mary. I’m just…”

“…Too hungry…”

The monstrosity lunged forward and sank its rib-teeth into the bed, sending fluff up into the air as it seized the empty roll of pillows in a predatory grip designed to pacify struggling prey.

Upon finding its prey missing, the monstrous creature gave a howl of rage and spun on its feet, locking it’s gaze on the two gawkers staring at it from the window.

“Well, this is awkward,” Mary’s Dad’s head said from where it hung off the creature’s shoulder like an ornament.

I think it’s time to pull out now. Chris thought, reeling away from the window.

Chris heard the sound of shattering glass as he tumbled back off the roof, getting a glimpse of writhing flesh tendrils emerging out into the night air for a moment before he hit the ground.

There was a sickly POP as Chris hit the ground, and he lunged to his feet, surprised to find himself relatively whole.

Mary on the other hand, gave a faint gasp of pain, clutching an ankle that should not bend that way.

“Fuck it!” Chris yelled, snatching Mary up and bolting towards the path leading back home. To safety. To his dad’s Prawn gun.

Could he do a five-minute sprint home in the dead of night carrying a hundred and twenty pounds?

He didn’t even need to think about it. It wasn’t a matter of could. He had to.

“It’s catching up.” Mary said less than a minute later, her voice emotionless in his ear as he struggled to put one foot in front of the other, every ounce of focus on the ground. One tree root could kill them both.

“Set me down. Just set me down and go on,” she said, her voice still devoid of life.

Chris gritted his teeth and ran harder, his lung on fire as the eerie howling grew closer and closer, breathing down his neck.

The fire spread from his lungs to his veins, then to his limbs as Chris kept running. His legs wouldn’t take another step, and Chris bit his lip till it bled, ekeing out another, and another, never stopping, never slowing.

Still it kept gaining.

Faster. Faster. I gotta go FASTER.

There, at that moment, the universe itself seemed to take notice of him, and for an instant, he felt like there was nothing else besides him and Mary. The trail faded away, leaving nothing but a star-studded Abyss as the weight of…something began to bear down on him from every direction.

Then he was going FAST.

Chris blazed down the path. Suddenly he could see in the dark like it was midday, and Mary’s weight on his shoulder was no longer the burden it had been.

A heartbeat later, Chris came to a halt outside his home, heels digging long furrows into the ground as he desperately tried to halt their forward momentum.

“Ugh, what happened?” Mary asked from his shoulder.

“I…I don’t know,” Chris murmured as he studied their surroundings. They were at his home, with a man-eating monster that had taken her father’s shape a few minutes down the trail.

Prawn gun, Chris thought, orienting on his home’s front door, only to come to another screeching halt.

Moe was lying down on the front porch, and the family dog raised his head from his forelimbs when Chris arrived, cocking his head curiously.

There was the faintest glimmer of calculation in the way Moe watched him. The way the dog was positioned so perfectly to intercept them at the front door. Something about it just felt wrong.

“Aw, nah. Fuck that.” Chris muttered, taking a step back. Fool me once.

Moe bolted after him as Chris turned on his heel and ran. The dog’s legs lengthened as it chased after him. Whatever magic had supported Chris’s sprint home seemed to have run its course, rendering his limbs leaden.

He just barely managed to make it to the family truck and throw Mary and himself in before the family dog landed on the hood, sprouting extra limbs to hold on as Chris threw the vehicle into gear.

The truck roared to life and Chris laid into the horn as he did a violent spin in family’s front driveway, dislodging the mutated dog, which fell away with a screech of tortured sheet metal as it ripped away parts of the hood.

Hopefully if any of his family were still…

Chris clenched his fists around the steering wheel and shook his head. Moe dislodged, Chris turned the truck towards the road and began blazing towards the city, kicking up a wave of dirt behind him as he peeled out of his home’s driveway.

This needed to be reported to the Acolytes.

Yesterday.