Lewis stood outside the restaurant waiting for Daniel, they were celebrating the first year of Carter’s Creature Comforts going successfully and for Lewis’ promotion to Area Manager. It meant a lot more responsibilities but Lewis was happy that his idea had paid off so well.
By now there were so many Fluffy families that Peterson had to spend most of the summer reconstructing the old bays into new family friendly types, the whole place got a proper deep scrub and clean, technology was updated from the 80s into the modern day and the bio-waste was the lowest it had ever been.
In short, Frederick’ Filthy Fluffy Farm was no longer filthy.
Lewis smiled remembering how he managed to luck out on getting tonight off, he’d come into work to take over from Jennifer and Flynn, only to find them both looking a little dishevelled and slightly embarrassed.
“Hey, what’s up with you two?”
Flynn never jumped at the question. “What? Oh, nothing, nothing just… a little tired y’know.”
Jennifer said nothing, she simply nodded and turned away.
At that point Martha came over to Lewis, a sly grin on her face, and spoke loudly and proudly of the secret she knew.
“Fwiend hab enfies in da bak-woom.”
The noise of shock and horror that came out of Flynn and Jennifer’s mouths was enough to confuse and scare every Fluffy in the room. Lewis waited until they’d calmed them all down before confronting the two frightened youths.
“Well, is what Martha said true?”
They nodded.
“And both of you did this on company time?”
They nodded again, Jennifer was fighting back tears at this point.
You know now that I’m officially management I have to discipline you both, and Flynn in your case that will mean telling your father.”
“Shit Lewis no, you can’t tell dad he’s already gonna throw a fit when I lose this job, you tell him why and he’ll actually kill me.”
Jennifer pleaded with him. “Please Lewis, I can’t lose this job, I love it here, I’m so sorry, we got to talking and one thing led to another and…”
Lewis put his hand out to silence her. “It’s ok Jen, I’m not gonna fire either of you. You’re young and stupid, just try not to do it on company time again.”
Flynn and Jennifer let out an almighty sigh of relief, knowing their work was safe, the two of them turned and hugged each other, not seeing the smirk grow on Lewis’ face.
“HOWEVER!” He cried out to grab their attention again. “If you want this information to stay in this room, then you two have to do something for me. You two have to cover my shift this Friday.”
Flynn and Jennifer looked at Lewis, utterly shocked at what he was saying. Eventually Jennifer broke the silence.
“Are you blackmailing us?”
“No, no think of this more as… actually yes I guess you could say that.”
“But… why?”
“Cause Daniel’s finally got a weekend off for the first time in forever so he was planning on staying over and cooking breakfast, if you two cover my shift then we can go out for dinner beforehand.”
“And if we do that, you won’t tell my dad?”
“Flynn, I will at some point tell your dad this story, the only difference is time. Do you want to make this a ‘Hey Jackson, here’s this dumb thing your son did at his work the other day’ or a ‘Hey Jackson, here’s this funny thing that happened to your kid a while back’?”
“…The second one?”
“Thatta boy.”
Lewis laughed at the memory, he didn’t mean to start abusing his power like that but Flynn and Jennifer did need some form of punishment. They were like Fluffies in a way, if you teach them that something’s bad they’re less likely to do it again.
Finally he spotted Daniel approaching him, the two men met halfway and hugged, Lewis giving Danny a peck on the cheek.
“Sorry I’m late Lou, wee bastard on the road didnae understand what third gear was.”
“Don’t worry about it, you’re here now, that’s all that matters.”
Daniel smiled and gave Lewis another kiss before they slowly walked towards the restaurant.
“You ever been here before?” Lewis asked the fill the silence.
“Naw, seen it a bunch a times but never had the time tae check it out. Shame too, love a wee bit of Italian food.”
“I came here once with my sister for her birthday, their carbonara is the creamiest I’ve ever had.”
“Might gies that a shot.”
The couple walked in, took their seats and ordered their drinks, Lewis had taken the bus from his work so he could finally have a long-needed stiff drink so he splashed out on a G&T, Daniel grabbed an orange juice.
Lewis let out a contented sigh at his first sip. “It’s been too long since I’ve had nothing to worry about. I’m sorry work’s been hectic, you met me at a very strange time in my life.”
“Dinnae worry Lou, we’ve done alright, so far. It’s part a growing up, you dinnae have the time ya did as a teenager.”
“True, but I miss being able to spend time with you, Christ I’ve known you almost a year and this is what, our seventh, eighth proper date? Doesn’t seem right.”
“Oh we make up for the nights oot with the nights in.”
Lewis laughed, knowing Daniel was right, they did spend a lot of their free time together at either of their homes, usually Lewis’ since Daniel lived in a flat with neighbours who complained.
“Still, there is a lot I feel I don’t know about you, clearly it’s enough to love you but… I wanna know more.”
Daniel looked around the room. “Well, it’s a wee bit busy the now. Might be a while on our food, whit ya wanna know?”
“You serious?”
“Aye, hit me, I’m an open book.”
“Ok… um. Where did you grow up?”
“Stirling, but spent a few years in Edinburgh as a student.”
“You close with your family?”
“Dad’s deed, mum’s a loon but still love her, ma wee sister Nikki lives with her husband not tae far from here, just a couple hours drive. Still try tae see her when I can.”
“That’s nice, me and Hannah don’t have the best of relationships, she’s always been big on loving Fluffies, I couldn’t have cared less about them at the time. When I got the job at The Farm we got into a big argument and our relationship took a hit, we still talk but I don’t think the air’s as clear as we want it to be. I have told her about this new direction but still…”
“You wanna go see her?”
“What?”
“Next time we’ve got some time off together, let’s stop by for a coffee, I’m sure she’d love tae see ya. And if no then she’ll love tae see me.”
“Pretty big step isn’t it, meeting the family?”
“Family’s important, need to know if yer sister likes me before we get real serious.”
“Oh, and do you want to get real serious?”
“Maybe aye, maybe naw. I’ll tell you over eggs in the morning.
The couple chuckled again and shared a kiss just as their food arrived, Daniel took Lewis’ advice and got the carbonara, Lewis opted for the Piccante Paste with meat balls. Through the night they chatted away, sharing funny stories about their youths, Daniel had more than a few tales about what he’d seen driving up and down the country.
For the first time in forever, Lewis felt like he could relax, he was comfortable, he was happy.
Sadly, happiness only lasted until dessert. Lewis was just about to order when his phone rang, he quickly checked caller I.D. and felt something turn when he saw it was Flynn.
“Sorry, I gotta take this, make sure Flynn hasn’t done anything stupid.”
“It’s fine Lou, go for it.”
Reluctantly, Lewis answered the phone. “This better be important Flynn… ok, ok, OK, slow down… what happened? WHAT? How did… Goddamn it I’ll be there within the hour, just keep everyone calm and don’t touch anything.”
Lewis hung up the phone, his eyes staring into the void until he finally looked up at Daniel.
“What happened?”
“Code 3. Foal murder.”
Earlier That Day.
Patrick watched as Jennifer picked up his last two sisters and placed them in a box before handing them to a man who took them away. Now there was just him and his parents, Janet and Kane, Janet was waving goodbye to her last two daughters and crying while Kane was hugging her.
Confused, Patrick walked up to his mother’s teats and went to take a comforting drink, only to find there was no milk to give.
“Mummah? Wai no hab miwkies? Sistah’s need miwkies wen come bak.”
Janet looked down at her last son, this was her second litter with Kane but it still hurt her to watch her foals leave. Patrick was a champion though, the combined family genes from Darcy & Dave and Eric & Emma had provided the most impressive foals of the group, with Janet and Kane’s first litter being sold within the hour of being put on sale and their second litter going even faster. Lewis had chosen to keep Patrick since he was an Alicorn – and Alicorn stallions were less picky about who they humped – but also because his gradient blue, peace and silver Fluff with glossy finish gave him a beach sunset appearance.
To put simply, had Patrick been put on sale, he would’ve sold for at least 10 grand, keeping him would make the company millions.
Janet hugged her remaining son. “Nu hab miwkies anee-mowe, babbehs am big babbeh nyo, gu tu nyu mummehs an daddehs. Hab gud homesies an own speciaw-fwiends, mummah hab heawt huwties bu su happy tu see babbehs gwow up.”
“Bu… wai Patwick nu gu as weww?”
“Hoomins wike Patwick, wan hab yu stay, gib yu speciaw-fwiend, su Patwick babbehs can be tot how be gud babbehs an find nyu mummahs an daddehs.”
Patrick’s little mind tried to process what his mother was saying, he’d seen a bunch of foals being taken away over the last few days as they all reached the point where they didn’t need their mothers anymore. And his siblings had went faster than any of the others, that must mean they had the prettiest colours – and looking at his reflection in the water bowl, he knew that was true – and since he was allowed to stay and have his own special-friend, that must mean he was the most important babbehs, the most loved babbeh.
The bestesh babbeh.
With a sense of pride coursing through him, Patrick marched out of his home and sauntered over the play area where the other foals were playing. Where once he saw other friends, now he saw subjects, peasants waiting to be ruled over by a smarter Fluffy, a Fluffy like him.
He stormed over to where Rachel (Felicity’s granddaughter) and Nathan (Barry and Betty’s grandson) were passing a ball back and forth between them and giggling away, Patrick sneered at the sight of Rachel, no longer his brown and black friend she was now a poopie filly, something to be looked down upon and bullied for being lesser than him.
He felt a strange sensation in his special-lumps looking at her, not love but lust, lust for control over the lesser Fluffies. He made a note to try and give the poopie mare enfies later on.
Rachel and Nathan waved at Patrick as he approached. “Hewwo Patwick, wan pway baww wib Wachew an Nate-han?”
“Nu, gib baww nyo dummehs.”
Both Rachel and Nathan were shocked at Patrick’s outburst but they figured he was having a hard day losing his last siblings so Nathan gently pushed the ball towards Patrick, hoping it would cheer him up.
Patrick kicked the ball as hard as he could and smacked Nathan in the face, busting his nose open.
“HUUUUU!!! WAI MEANIE PATWICK GIB SMEWW-PWACE HUWTIES? Nat-han onwy wan pway baww wiv fwiends?”
In an instant Flynn and Jennifer were over them, Flynn took Nathan to clean the blood off his face while Jennifer consoled a crying Rachel, both their parents soon arrived to help their weeping foals.
Jennifer scowled at Patrick. “Patrick, that wasn’t very nice, you know better than to play rough like that. Say sorry to Nathan.”
To everyone’s horror, Patrick puffed out his cheeks and snorted. “Dummeh babbehs nu pway wight, dey nu wisten tu bestesh babbeh.”
As soon as the B word left Patrick’s mouth, the whole room went stone dead, you could feel the tension building with every shocked breath until finally, Martha bounded forward and knocked Patrick down, holding his little body in place with her one leg.
“NU BESTSH!” She screamed at him with a fury that nobody had ever seen from the usually quaint Martha before. “DEWE AM NU BESTESH BABBEHS! AWW BABBEHS AM GUD BABBEHS!”
“Wet bestesh babbeh gu, yu nu tweat Smawty wike dis.”
Martha’s eyes went wide and she punched Patrick in the head, Flynn had to run over and pull her off before she hit him again.
“MARTHA! Martha stop, it’s ok.”
“Nu ok, Smawty’s bad, Smawty’s huwt udda Fwuffies, need gib fowebe sweepies.”
“You can’t, we need to help him first.”
Martha stopped struggling and fell apart weeping in Flynn’s eyes, Janet and Kane looked over at the son in shock, both torn between leaving him alone and crying as punishment and rushing over to console him.
“MUMMAH! Mummah hewp bestesh babbeh, need huggies, meanie Mawtha gib wowstesh sowwy-hoofies. Wai mummah nu wub bestesh babbeh?”
Janet desperately wanted to give her son huggies to make him feel better but Kane stopped her, he knew the pit his son had fallen into.
With a little luck, it wasn’t too late to pull him out.
“So neither of you ever called him ‘bestesh’ or favoured him in anyway?”
Both Janet and Kane nodded at Jennifer’s question, Janet kept stealing glances at the sorry-box Patrick had been put into, her maternal instincts in overdrive.
Jennifer looked over at Martha who confirmed what they said. “Fwuffies nu gib betta tweatment tu Patwick, nu knyo wai he fink he ‘smawty’ nyo.”
“I don’t know either Martha, but thank you for telling me. I need to discuss with Flynn what we need to do.”
Jennifer pulled Flynn to the corner. “What the fuck do we do?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never had to deal with a Smarty before?”
“Me neither, how did this happen, did we miss something?”
“Fluffies are still programming, all it would is the right buzzword to set him off, could have been anything.”
“Shit. You know of any way to stop it.”
“None that work, I know abusers like electro-therapy but that does nothing. It’s still early, we might be able to break him out of it.”
“How? We’re a breeding mill, not a therapy centre.”
“Ex-coose hoomin fwiends.”
Jennifer and Flynn looked down to see Kane had walked up next to them, clearly having heard some of their conversation.
“Kane habe finkie-pwan tu hewp babbeh.”
Flynn knelt down to look at Kane closer. “Ok, what you thinking?”
“Babbeh need see dat bein Smawty am bad, fink he need be scawed.”
Kane took a deep breath, he’d only heard rumours of the place but if there was any truth to them, it be the place to scare his son straight.
“Babbeh need tu see Bay Fouw.”
Alan led Flynn down towards Bay 4 whilst Jennifer stayed with the other Fluffies. In Flynn’s arms was a box with Kane and Patrick inside, Patrick still pouting about his treatment, thinking everyone around him was a dummeh for not recognising him as the Smarty.
Even his father was an idiot.
“I can’t believe this place is still open.” Flynn said with more than a little disgust.
Alan nodded his head in agreement. “It take some time breaking this place down, but we still got thousands of Fluffies we need to finish with first before we can close up the shop. This is the dark side of Carter’s plan, the Fluffies he didn’t want are still in here, keeping the company afloat while we sort out the profits from the hugboxer farm.”
“I had no idea.”
“Neither does Lewis, if he found out Bay 4 was still running he’d likely burn the place down.”
Alan opened the door and led Flynn inside, he almost instantly threw up at the smell of shit and rotten flesh. For the much more sensitive Fluffies it was like they’d stumbled into Fluffy Hell.
“Wha nu smeww pwetty?” Patrick asked, wafting his nose.
“Dat am da smeww of bad Smawties.” Kane explained.
Flynn stepped further into the bay, avoiding the stares of Tommy and Sammy – both of whom knew their days were numbered so they’d taken to half-assing their work as a ‘Fuck you’ to Peterson – and allowed Kane and Patrick to see the pens.
While there wasn’t as many Fluffies as the year before when Lewis had to spend his time in Bay 4, there was still a large number of drugged-up stallions and traumatised mares all crying about their lost babbehs and limbs. Patrick watched as a red Pegasus stallion was lifted out of his cage by a metal arm and forced into the pen of a blue unicorn mare. The mare screamed as the doped stallion starting enfing her without warning, he was so drugged up that he didn’t even cry out ‘Good Feels’, he simply shivered and drooled to signal he was done.
Kane had heard the stories about Bay 4 from his parents and the other older Fluffies who were born before Lewis took over, seeing it in the flesh scared the hell out of him but he stayed strong, hoping the horrors would work for his son.
“Dis wha happen tu Smawties babbeh, Smawties am nu smawta dan Fwuffies, dey jus fink dey awe. Smawties am bad fow fwiends, gib fwiends wowstesh huwties, even foweba sweepies. Hoomin knyo dis, dey nu wan Smawties wib fwiends, Smawties am put hewe, aww dey du is enf, neba feew wub, neba see babbehs, tuu bwoken in finkie-pwace tu knyo betta.”
Kane turned Patrick around so he was looking at him. “Kane knyo Patwick am nu smawtie. Am gud babbeh, can hewp Patwick be gud babbeh gain.”
Patrick looked into his father’s eyes, rolling over what he said, and ignored all of it.
“Dummeh daddeh, Patwick am bestesh Smawty, nu wet hoomin gib bestesh babbehs away. Gun wun away, hab bestesh hewd and be bestesh Smawty eba.”
“Babbeh nu, dat am bad finkie-pwace pwan, onwy wead tu huwties an foweba sweepies, wai babbeh nu undastan.”
“Patwick undastan. Undastan dat daddeh am dummeh, wet hoomins teww yu wha du, yu am embawwassment. Patwick hatchu daddeh, gun gib yu wowstesh huwties, den gib aww dummeh babbehs wowstesh sowwy-hoofies, den gib poopie Wachew sowwy-enfies an…”
Kane smacked Patrick so hard one of his eyes popped a blood vessel, Patrick was too in shock to start crying, he held his bruised face and stared at the rage in Kane’s eyes.
“YU NU GIB WACHEW ANEE ENFIES! Bad enfies am nu fow yu ow anee fwiend, wai babbeh fink wike dat.”
Patrick’s eyes welled up with tears and he spat at Kane. “Coz Wachew am poopie mawe, onwy gud-for enfies an numming poopies.”
“Mummah an Daddeh nu teech babbeh dat, wai babbeh say dat.”
“COZ IT DA TWUTH!”
Kane slumped down, he knew there was nothing to be done, Patrick’s Smarty syndrome was too far gone, his son was lost.
“Du babbeh stiww fink am bestesh?”
Patrick nodded. “Am pwettiest babbeh of pwettiest famiwy, hab tu be bestesh, wai ewse babbeh stay.”
“Daddeh nu wan bestesh babbeh, bu yu am stiww Kane babbeh. Can babbeh gib daddeh wun wast huggies?”
Kane opened his arms, hoping for a final embrace with his son, Patrick resisted, but the Fluffy programming for hugs overrode his reluctance and he embraced his father for what he believed to be the last time.
Kane held onto Patrick, tears falling from his eyes over his inability to save his son from becoming a Smarty, slowly he pulled himself from Patrick, held his son’s head between his hoofs and smiled at him.
Then with a sudden jolt he twisted Patrick’s head and broke his neck, killing him instanty.
“WHAT THE FU…!!!” Flynn literally jumped back in shock, Alan was stunned silent at the sight he just saw. Kane looked up at both of them, cradling his son’s body in his arms.
“Aww babbehs am gud babbehs.”
Lewis had arrived and gotten caught up on everything, Kane was sitting on the bed in the back office while Martha and the other mothers tried to console a wailing Janet over the loss of her son.
Lewis shook his head, still reeling from what Flynn told him. “Jesus, did he say why he did it?”
“He knew Patrick had to die, said it was his duty as a father to do it. Said he failed his son’s life by making him a Smarty, I think he wanted to make up for that with his son’s death.”
“Christ this is fucked. How did we miss this?”
Flynn shrugged his shoulder. “From what I could gather, it was a very quick process for Patrick, like someone switched the Smarty switch in his brain. After that we had no chance.”
Lewis dropped his head into his hands, feeling the start of a migraine coming on. Flynn put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“You have any idea what to do?”
“No, but I think I know where to start.”
Lewis entered the back office and approached Kane, the stallion hadn’t moved since he was brought in.
“Hey Kane, I trust you understand why I’m here?”
Kane nodded. “Kane gib babbeh foweba sweepies.”
“That’s right. But I want you to listen to me very carefully now, you were right that Patrick needed to be punished, he has turned Smarty and that was very dangerous, he had to go forever sleepies. But you were wrong to give those sleepies yourself, you should’ve told one of us and we would’ve done it for you. I don’t want you to give yourself heart-hurties trying to do the right thing, anything tough like that is for us humans to deal with. Ok?”
Kane said nothing, he simply nodded.
“Ok then, since you did kill Patrick I do have to punish you, so you’ll be spending the night in the sorry-box, when you come out in the morning you have to make sure and tell everyone what I told you.
“Kane wiww, fank yu Woo-Ish.”
“No worries buddy.”
Lewis gave Kane a quick scratch and turned to Flynn.
“You ok to finish up here, I need to go.”
“Sure, you want me to call you in the morning?”
“Honestly? Please don’t.”
And with that, Lewis left the bay and the building, finding Daniel waiting by the car outside, he noticed the exhausted look on Lewis’ face.
“You wanna talk about it?”
Lewis shook his head. “I just wanna go to bed, I am exhausted.”
“Sure thing, hop in.”
The two men got into the car, Lewis immediately resting his head on the window.
“I’ll still stay over if ya want.” Daniel tried to fill in the silence. “I’m happy tae make ye those braw wee eggs in the morning, or something else if ya…”
Daniel stopped when he saw Lewis was asleep, he decided to let him rest there and take the weight of responsibility off his shoulders for a moment.
This was one of the hardest night of Lewis’ career, Daniel prayed that it didn’t get any worse for him after this.
Next chapter is going to be a big of a bigger time-jump to catch the series up closer to the main time-line. I’ll try and keep everything up to date and informed but we will be moving to the end of this story in about 2 or 3 chapters.
