Chapter 1: The Farm

A farm. An empty farm. A land left by ancestors. So empty, so… odd. Cliff stared at the farm, wondering who it belonged to. Next to the barn, which was located on the empty farm, was a man. An odd man. His looks, long black hair, down to what Cliff guessed to be his waist, and dark purple eyes, were not what was strange. What was strange was is aura. There was a sense of mystery around him. A sense of… not belonging. Cliff walked up to the man, and said in a very slow voice, for he was feeling quite tired, “ Do you know who owns this here farm, mister?” The man answered in a slow, heavily accented voice, “Now see here, little boy. No one calls me mister, I repeat NO ONE! My name is Robby, and that is what you will call me, OK?” Cliff responded, as if he was expecting this scenario, “Ok Robby. I understand.” Cliff replied, after Robby’s little ‘speech’, “Now to this here matter of the farm, it’s M.Y Sterie’s. It’s his farm, and no one messes with him… do yah here me boy, NO ONE!” A bit annoyed with Robby, as Cliff didn’t particularly like being yelled at, answered the angered man, “ M. Y Sterie huh? Well, I gotta go over to my… "place" yah see, I’ve gotta little businesses to deal with.” Cliff walked away, pondering what the man had said, and thought to himself, “ M.Y Sterie… Mystery.” Cliff slowly walked down to his "place" as he had described it to Robby. He thought about ‘M.Y Sterie.’ A coincidence? He thought not… a man owns an empty farm, a lonely farm, his name sounds out to be mystery, it sounded like a best-seller mystery novel to Cliff. He thought something was going on, something very strange.
Cliff walked into his room, and laid his head down on a soft, satin,pillow generously provided by the hotel manager. So many things were going through his head, he didn’t know what to do. He HAD to find out about that farm, HE MUST!
Cliff prowled around the farm like a cat. Anybody looking in from the neighbors house would have laughed hysterically. Cliff jumped over wooden fence, and landed in the soft green pasture. He lurked around, and finally decided to enter the ominous barn.. As he walked into the barn, he felt that something was wrong. He slowly walked over to the control box, which was hardly visible in the dim moonlight, and flipped on the light.
Cliff was amazed by what he saw in the barn. 9 people, tied and bound to chairs. Cliff ran over to a chair, and started to untie an man, who was very nicely dressed. Before Cliff could finish untying the man, he felt a hand on his back. Cliff turned around, and saw a huge man in front of him. In the man’s left hand was a knife, a shining, glimmering knife. Cliff tried to run, but the strange man grabbed him with his free arm. He put the knife to Cliff’s neck, and said “Listen here. If you move even one step, I will slit your throat.” “What have I gotten myself into?” Cliff thought to himself. The man picked Cliff up, and bound him to a chair.
Cliff fell asleep while he was tied to the wooden chair. When he woke up, he heard some voices, and what they said scared the living daylights out of him. “ We have our 10th prisoner, a stupid little boy who fell into a trap we set up” “I’m not a little boy, I’m 13!” Cliff thought to himself. “ We can now put our plan into action.” As Cliff heard this, he wondered where the other 9 people had come from. They could have fallen into a trap like him, or been kidnapped. The only way he would ever find out is if he asked, and they answered. Cliff laid his head onto the scratchy surface of the chair. He hoped with all of his heart that the plan wasn’t what he thought it was. Would they shoot them? Would they torture them, and then kill them? With these menacing thoughts, Cliff fell asleep. When he awoke the next morning, he realized that he was no longer in the barn. The man from last night stood in front if the ‘captives’, and spoke “ Welcome to your new home, ye landlubbers. Ye will stay here, until ye die. Mister M.Y Sterie will allow you the island, over to the right, all to yourself, no one except for you and your other captives….. If you can make it.” The ‘evil’ man finished off his little speech with an evil laugh.. Another man walked into the room, but he was very nicely dressed. He said only four words “ My name is Jake.” The two men worked together, untied all the prisoners, and threw them out to sea.
Cliff was blinded by the ocean water in his eyes. He knew one thing. He had to get to the island. He swam in a random direction, and was lucky enough to reach the island. When he reached the shore, he stood around for a couple of minutes, allowing the sea water to get out of his eyes. He looked around, and saw the other 9 captives. Their clothes were messed up, a bit faded, and their hair was incredibly wet. He went over to the ‘huddle’ as you might call it, and tried to get into the conversation. “Where are we?” “Who threw us out here?” “Is this a prank?” “How will we survive?” “ Can we go back?” “I want to go home!” “I miss my kids” “I hope we live” “If we survive, I could be really rich!” That was what Cliff heard, each comment coming from a different person. He said one thing, and tried to lift the mood of the people. “While were here, why don’t we get to know each other?” His comment was put off by smirks and rude responses. He felt down on his luck, as if no one even wanted to try and get and know him. He figured that maybe once they got ‘settled’, things would run a bit smoother.

Cliff walked around the island, and looked like he was looking for food. In truth, he had a lot of things on his mind, and he wanted some time only to think about it. He walked around, and muttered to himself. “Why must this happen to me? I have never seriously harmed anyone, so this isn’t really fair. Maybe…naw, that couldn’t be it. Everyone knows I really didn’t mean to do that….. Or did I? I’m confused….. This is getting to my head, and I don’t like it! Not at all.”