Down on the farm.

[Anansi]

Ezra sat staring at the letter with shaking hands. He'd not believed it the first six times he read it. His ink stained trembling fingers clenched the paper as though he could squeeze it till it changed to say what he wanted. The small pool of tears at his feet from a rivulet running down his clean shaven mildly boyish face was still growing five minutes later. Just a foot away on the hardwood floor sat a death certificate for an Ezekiel Hewlit aged 47 at time of death. The letter kept saying the same thing. "We are sorry to notify you that soon after his departure your uncle passed away at his farm." Trailing his fingers through his silken black hair he closed his deep blue eyes as if to shut out the pain of the statement. Two days, he was going to visit in two days.

He looked over at the typewriter on the desk and remembered five years earlier when the man had given it to him for a graduation present. It was old and heavy, its pieces glistened in even the slightest light though. Months of work replacing and polishing and refitting pieces had made it still the greatest gift he'd ever gotten. He wrote and wrote and wrote but now he just wanted to wrap his arms about it. Somehow it would make it ok, or bring him back, or make... He lost his train of thought as he ran his fingers along the keys. The tall young man ran his fingers along his face smearing ink from the ribbon he had been changing down along his cheeks. His muscular stomach and chest were similarly streaked, his pale brown skin was marked with a number of tattoos but lacked any piercings or scars.

Making his way to a phone he muttered a few words about settling accounts and a death in the family. He mumbled about needing time away and such. He hung up without small talk. His eyes ran across the letter once more. Farm, his uncle did have a farm. He hadn't been there in almost ten years, when his parents had died his uncle had simply come to stay with him. He'd gone back while the boy was in school, but every break, every vacation he would come back to the apartment the week before and tidy up then get it ready for his nephew. Now he sat there looking around the three bed room upper west side apartment and feeling lonely for he first time in years. He had spoken to him just three days before when he was leaving the hospital.

That was the plan, give him 5 days to get settled back in at his farm and then go spend some time with him. He didn't remember packing, or much of anything else over the next couple of days. However he soon found himself standing outside a small airport staring at a bright red car he'd had delivered. Hours of being lost, then asking for directions, then turning this way and that later and he pulled up to a gate. He used the remote he'd been given long before to open it. He didn't even think to look about, or to announce himself. It was now well past night fall and though he stood on a lit porch the concept of possibly being shot for trespassing didn't dawn on him. He fumbled through the ring of keys that had come with the letter dropping them finally by accident and stooping to pick them up when the door opened.

 

[The Succubus]

Amber bobbed her head, slightly nodding off in the chair she was sitting in, she had been waiting or days for this so-called nephew to arrive and claim his late uncle's farm. Some of the family members had asked her to house sit while the will was still being sorted though but Amber certainly did nt expect it to take close to a week. At first she was mre than happy to watch the house and farm all until the family members instructed her to stay away from the barn. They acted as if the was some sort of curse within it, a dark secret never to be revealed to innocent eyes such as hers, but when she mustered up enough courage to ask as to why, all they told her was that it was written within his will for only his nephew to enter the barn. Curiousity had struck her a few times, causing her eyes to drift towards the barn and wonder what was inside.

Perhaps a peek wouldn't hurt?

Well, that thought was certainly cleared from her mind on the first night she slept at the house - if you could call it sleeping. In fact, since she had begun to watch the house, she hadn't even had a single wink of sleep. She kept hearing noises, like someone crying out or whaling from the barn. She could only just imagine what was inside. Was it some sort of twisted creature created from lightning and pieces of dead people? Was there some sort of underground sex scandal going on within the barn? Or was he a murder and had one of his victims locked up within the barn? Or perhaps it was just haunted? To lighten herself up, she attempting to convince herself it was just the wind. It was an old barn and the wind was just howling through it.

Still, she did not manage to get one wink of sleep. She felt like a child again, scared of monsters under her bed but this time they were in the barn. The only time she felt remotely comfortable was when the sun was out. But just as she was about to nod off into a long awaited slumber, she heard footsteps and her tired eyes shot open. Okay, this time she knew it was no wind. She jolted from her seat, driven mad by her exhaustion and moved quickly to the door. She could not stay in this house a moment later. Practically sprinting to the door, she snatched at the doorknob and pulled, yanking it open to see someone before her. She almost yelped at her surprise but contained herself, somehow, looking down at the young man fumbling at a pair if keys.

"Oh," she chimed. "You must be his nephew. I'm Amber, I live next door down the way. I, um, watched the house for you."

Her eyes had clearly been lacking sleep and her mentality struggled, even for her to keep proper manner. She was just overwhelmed with relief that he had arrived to take this burden away from her. "I'd love to stay and chat but now that you're here, I have to go. But I'll be by sometime to check on you, I promise. If you need anything, I'm just down the road. Oh, and I don't know if your family members told you it was okay to now open the barn or if t was in the will or anything but if not, don't do it. That's all I know. Bye!"

Then she dashed off, not even letting him get a breath out to speak to her. She was just gone in a flash, her ginger hair whipping about behind her as she sprinted home before she passed out on the dirt road.

 

[Anansi]

He stared at the girl not expecting anyone to be about. He only had distant family in these parts, those being the family of his uncle's deceased wife. He eyed her as she spoke to him, she seemed extremely jittery. As she ran down the road he shrugged and slipped inside. He looked at the walls, unchanged from when he was small. He didn't know why he'd stopped coming. Walking up and down he stretched slowly before he placed his bags into the guest room. He'd sort out everything else in time. His somwhat large frame hung over the edges of the child sized bed as he plopped onto it.
Staring at the ceiling covered in tiny glow in the dark stars he wondered why the room had never been changed. He pondered on how many other things were the same, soon he was asleep. The jet lag along with the recent stress and length of his trip knocked him out. The wailing didn't wake him at all, having grown up in a large city he'd long since learned to block out noise as he slept. Waking later as the sun was setting he pulled off his shirt. Intent to take a shower he heard it. "What?..." He spun about briefly before making his way to the door.

He found a baseball bat tucked into a closet and walked outside. He was by no means a small man per say, his muscular body wasn't unused to fights or physical exertion but he shuddered slightly as he approached the barn. Was it a wild beast? A squatter? Some kids playing a joke? His sneakers ground into the dirt as he suddenly pushed the door open and raised the bat ready to strike if need be. Peering in his eyes went wide and he dropped the intended weapon. "A..." He began before he fell backwards as he tried to turn but found his legs wouldn't work properly.