Apple Pie

“Are you sure this is okay, just going in when the place is closed?” Jenny looked at her boyfriend for 6 months hesitantly.

Adam snorted; Jenny had gotten cold feet a moment ago, but she’d been okay about the plan.

“What harm could it do? The place is gonna be empty. We’ll have it to ourselves. Jen, we wanted to go to an apple-picking orchard; okay, this one is not what I was expecting, but it was something we could get into. And who knows what else is in there that we can use? Perhaps we’ll find some nice pears.” Adam asked reasonably as he slowly parked the car.

It was a beautiful day outside, the sun shone through the browning and yellowing leaves on the trees, casting a gorgeous golden glow over the surroundings.

It was October, and the woods were clearly showing the ambience of autumn.

“Besides,” Adam finished parking the car, “you wanted to do some apple picking with your sister.”

“Yeah, there was that,” Jenny cast a look into the rearview mirror, where her little sister Caitlyn was bouncing in her seat, relieved and grateful that Adam was thoughtful enough to let her come while some of the boyfriends she’d had in her life would never, ever consider it, and while the gulf between their ages meant Jenny didn’t normally want to do the sort of things Caitlyn often wanted.

The girl had been enthusiastic about going apple picking since she wanted to celebrate the upcoming Halloween.

And if they got enough apples they could do other things with them.

Jenny looked around as she got out of the car. They lived in a town with a fairly rural surrounding, so there were a number of orchards for them to choose from. Jenny had been the one who had chosen which orchard they should head to, and they’d left the house dressed warmly and carrying a number of bags for the apples, they hadn’t had much trouble with traffic, and on the rural roads they had only passed two cars in just 45 minutes.

Good time.

They had found this orchard and it was half way to the one Jenny had wanted to go to originally.

Intrigued by the possibilities, especially since neither Adam nor Jenny, never mind Caitlyn had never heard of this one, the trio had stopped and reversed and turned down a dirt road, and they’d found a rather rundown house.

The place looked deserted.

There were no cars.

There wasn’t even a stand selling fruit, eggs, vegetables, the kind of thing you’d expect to find at a farm.

The whole place had a rather eerie feeling.

It looked like nobody had ever been there for years.

That was why Jenny had cold feet, but Adam and Caitlyn had been excited. Her sister knew no fear.

The whole place looked like nature was reclaiming it, but they saw there was an abundance of apples in some of the trees. If it wasn’t for the poorly kept house, to say nothing of the former car park which looked like it should have had a hundred cars in it at this time of year, then Jenny would have said the place wasn’t open to the public full stop.

Jenny had a feeling that her boyfriend was intrigued at the possibilities of getting some free fruit, and personally that was okay with her. But she wasn’t going to give up without a fight. She turned to look at Adam, who after taking a closer look, appeared uncomfortable. “You don’t like it, either, do you?” She whispered.

“Not really, not now I’ve parked. It does have a weird feeling to it.” Adam shook his head. “But we may as well take a look around. How are you doing, Caitlyn?” He asked the little girl gently.

Caitlyn was nearly 11 years old, but she looked around the place with wide eyes. “I don’t like this place,” she whispered. “Its too quiet.”

Jenny bit her lip, worried.

She agreed with Caitlyn.

A moment ago she’d reflected her sister wasn’t the type easily scared or startled, but now clearly the place was so worrying even Caitlyn felt it. “Lets have a quick look around,” she suggested at last. “If we do meet someone, then we go off to the other orchard.”

Adam nodded instantly, not liking the suggestion and was regretting even coming here now. “Okay. Caitlyn, stay close to us. Don’t wander off.”

“Oh, no fear,” the girl replied, the younger girl nodded emphatically, casting worried glances around.

The trio walked towards the farm house. As they did they didn’t see any signs the house was occupied. The windows were filthy, covered in a thick layer of dirt that had Jenny cringing, but bravely she knocked on them gently.

“Hello?” She called. “Hello? Is there somebody there?”

Adam stood protectively in front of the two girls, keeping between Caitlyn and Jenny and the door, looking around for signs of movement or sound. Jenny’s voice was deliberately loudenough to carry; if there was anyone within earshot, someone would have called back.

Wouldn’t they?

But no.

The orchards was so silent that you could cut the silence with a knife.

Jenny was standing close to the door, her ear close to it so she could listen in to the slightest sounds. She clearly heard nothing because she shook her head.

“Nothing,” she said.

“I’m starting to think this place was abandoned, that it lost business somehow,” Adam said.

“How can that be, you saw the number of fresh and ripe apples on the trees as we came in?” Jenny said.

Adam nodded before Caitlyn added her own thoughts to the mix.

“But if that was true, then surely there would be a sign, but there’s nothing,” Caitlyn pointed out.

Adam had had enough of the orchard. “Come on, lets get back to the car, and try the other place.”

The trio returned to the car without any arguments, and they drove off more than happy to be far from the place as they could get. It didn’t stop Caitlyn and Jenny from watching the place quietly from their seats to see if there was anyone there, but the foilage was so dense the sisters saw nothing.

But luck was not on their side when they arrived at the next orchard, they were disappointed to find the place closed as well.

But there was a difference to the last one.

This one at least had a closed sign on it with times on it.

The trio were torn and disappointed. They had wanted to go apple picking today as it was the perfect time to do it, but the orchard they’d planned to pick them was closed.

The good thing was there were dates and times when the place would be open and closed; the orchard and the farm were open today, but they wouldn’t be open for business for another two hours, and Adam and Jenny didn’t want to hang around here for ages. They hadn’t brought any books or magazines with them to read, and while they had their phones they didn’t want to spend the day playing games.

The trio reached a decision that they didn’t really like, but they had no alternative.

They had to go back to the original eerie orchard.

“Do we have to?” Caitlyn asked, looking between her sister and her sister’s boyfriend, biting her lip worriedly. That orchard had given her a bad feeling.

“I can’t see any other option, Caitlyn,” Adam said apologetically. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to hanging around here for…,” he checked the opening times again and checked his watch, “another two hours.”

Jenny was forced to admit defeat, “We might as well go back.”

Adam mulled it over in his mind, as did Caitlyn. “Well, at least we’d be doing something,” Adam said. “And besides, if we go back to the other orchard, then we won’t have to pay. And if we find we need something that place doesn’t have, then we can come back here.”

“Sounds okay,” Caitlyn smiled, but Jenny could see the unease there.

She felt it as well.

Xxx

The orchard was just as eerie as they had left it before. Since there was nobody around and because you couldn’t see the place from the road, Adam saw no reason why they shouldn’t use the public car park, and so he parked the car right there and the trio got out, taking the bags with them, and they went deep the orchard.

The trees were rich in fruit, but the neglect was there for the three of them to see.

The trio collected some really great apples, which had been left to flourish without any human interference for….god knew how long the place had been virtually empty, and abandoned for. The orchard had been left to rot without farmers in the area to nurture the trees, and so the branches had interlaced with each other freely.

Everywhere Adam, Jenny, and Caitlyn walked, they came across dozens of fallen apples, and while they picked up a few of the fresher looking ones, they came across quite a few which were in varying stages of decay.

Some of them were already being nibbled away at by the worms and wasps teeming in the orchard.

It made Jenny jump, when she had picked up an apple that had fallen into thick green grass which reached Adam and Jenny’s knees, and came up to Caitlyn’s chest, and she found that the apple was full of wasps and she dropped it in fright, startling Adam and Caitlyn.

Like her sister, Caitlyn was quite small, but would very likely reach her elder sister’s height at her age, but for now the adults had to keep a close watch over her in this grass.

Thick grass, rotting fruit…This wasn’t something you’d find in a open to the public orchard/farm since the workers there would keep the place clean and free from rotting fruit. The stench of the fermenting juices from the rotting fruit had attracted wasps, flies, and worms, which fed on them.

While the trio hadn’t forgotten the eerie feeling that permeated the place like a terrible stink, they found it easier to relax and almost forget their concerns about the place as they got down to their task.

Like most orchards, this one had rows of apple trees which made it easier for pickers to do their work, and the trio picked the best apples they could find, and as they got in their stride the trio began having fun; they threw apples into the air, and Caitlyn became mischievous. She picked up two apples, and chucked them close to her sister, and Adam.

Eventually they had a small apple fight, laughing all the way. They didn’t throw the fruit at themselves, but away from them to not get hurt.

And then everything changed.

Adam picked up an apple, and aimed at Jenny, but his girlfriend ran off, yelling “Stop! And “Don’t you dare!” Or “Cut it out!” And she ran off, taking a laughing Caitlyn along with her.

And then Adam was left on his own, laughing, as he watched the two girls leave him. He saw them run to a different part of the orchard, cutting through to a different row of trees, but they were swallowed up by the grass and the overgrown trees.

Still caught up in the joke, Adam needed a few minutes to stop laughing, but after he got over his wheezing fit he yelled out, “Caitlyn! Jenny! Where are you two?”

“We’re picking our own apples!” Jenny yelled back. She sounded a little bit closer than he’d thought, but he shrugged it off.

“I’m sorry I went too far,” Adam called.

“No you’re not. Shut up and get on with it!”

“Suit yourself! I won’t do it again!” Adam called, waiting for a reply.

But no reply came back, and after a few minutes of getting worried, Adam went off looking for the two girls, his ears pricked so he could pick up the smallest sounds. Or so he thought. He picked up a few apples along the way, but he didn’t see any signs of Jenny or Caitlyn, and after a few more minutes of looking for them, he began to grow worried.

Adam was about to call for them, and he opened his mouth -

THUD!