Emily went to the farm every year.
She had done for almost as long as she could remember. The owners of the farm were family friends, and so each summer, once the holidays began, Emily and her family would travel out of the city and high into the dales to stay with them. Her parents would stay for a couple of weeks, and then have to return to their jobs, but Emily could choose to stay until the end of the holidays, and she always did.
Most of the time was spent helping the farmer and his family with the endless jobs that needed doing around the farm, bringing the cows in for milking, looking after the chickens or helping the farmers wife around the house. None of these things seemed like a chore to Emily, she found a strange satisfaction in seeing a job well done, in helping the farm, and in the tiredness that comes from a day spent working hard, when the fruits of your labour are spread out in splendor before you. The farmers wife was always grateful for the help around the house too. The farmers family had no daughters, just 3 sons, and like most young men, they had little interest in hanging around inside.
But Emily had seen the farmers sons grow, summer by summer, from little boys to young men, just as she herself had become a young woman. All 3 had grown broad and strong, and they moved with an ease and sureness that comes from a life spent wrestling sheep and cattle, long days spent cutting and baling hay, and winters looking after livestock on the high moors. Still, though they were in their early 20's now, she couldn't help but still see them a little as the boys she had grown up with, giggling and shoving each other, fighting over the rods when they went fishing, and tipping each other into the river.
She too, in many ways, hadn't yet seen the change in herself, from the quiet red-haired child she had been when she first came, to now, at 18, a beautiful young woman. The summers spent on the farm had toned her, and she had become tall and long limbed, not slim, but healthy and full, and definitely now more woman than girl. She was developing a shapely figure many women would envy. Though Emily herself may not have truly appreciated the changes, you can be sure that other people had...
Something that Emily had noticed however, was how the personalities of each of the farmers sons had developed as they got older. Edward, the eldest, had always been more thoughtful and introverted as a child, while the younger two, David and Michael, had always been more boisterous and playful. Now the three of them almost seemed a unit for much of the time, working in unison. Edward was clearly the brains, and he did most of the talking. There was a light in his eyes that betrayed a cool intelligence. He was not in any sense small, but he was both a little shorter and slimmer than his younger brothers. David and Michael then, were the brawn, and both had grown into massive men, already gaining a reputation as drinkers in the local pubs, and they weren't averse to fight before closing time either. But when they were with Edward, which was most of the time, they were happy to follow his lead.
Emily thought nothing of it when Edward came into the house early one evening and asked her if she could come and help them in the barn. She was in the kitchen with the farmer and his wife. The farmer had his boots off and his feet up on the big trestle table while he chatted to his wife. Emily washed the flour from the cakes she had been making, off her hands, and dried them. She popped the tray of cakes into the oven and took off her apron as she headed for the door. As she closed it behind her she could still see the farmer and his wife chatting away contentedly, the days main work done, and tea an hour or two away.
They walked across the yard and out onto the fields, headed for the barn half a mile or so away on the hillside. As they did, Emily closed her eyes and felt the early evening sunlight warm her face, while Edward explained that a load of the bales in the hay loft of the barn had been tied together, and neither he nor his brothers thick fingers had been able to untie them. Her nimble fingers might have better luck. As he did so he looked at her from under thick eyebrows. Emily was barely listening, but she lazily replied that she'd have a go. It was hot work walking up the hill in the sunshine and she was glad she had chosen to wear a simple light dress, though the inevitable wellies she was wearing were getting a bit sweaty, and she was glad of the cool breeze blowing steadily down the valley.
When they got to the barn Edward opened the door for her and they went inside. After the outside air, the barn was strangely both warm and cool, with still air, and very quiet after the wind outside. The bales of hay stacked around seemed to deaden all sound. Edward climbed up the ladder to the hay loft. Emily, grateful for the opportunity, took a moment to take off her wellies and followed him.
The hay loft, when empty, was a long, massive room that ran the entire length of the barn roof. But now, getting near to the end of the summer it was almost full, a wall of hay filling almost the entire length of it. All that was left now was a "room" at one end, made up of stone walls on 3 sides and a wall of hay bales on the other, with a small hatchway on one corner of the floor for entry. The ceiling was vaulted, with eyes on the beams for hauling the hay bales around. Aside from the rolls of baling twine in the corner, the only other thing in the room were a few spare bales of hay on the floor scattered around. David and Michael, who'd obviously been waiting for some time while Edward walked to the house and back, were sitting on one of them with their backs to the wall, while Edward stood leaning against one of the wooden pillars holding up the ceiling.
"Hello!" said Emily brightly to the two younger brothers as she climbed up into the loft, "Lets have a look at the knots that have defeated the big boys then!". She stuck out her tongue as she went past. She strode over to the wall of bales and bent to find the string binding them together. She spent a good 20 seconds looking more and more confused before straightening. There wasn't any.
"What's going on?" she demanded, turning to face them. "There isn't any string on these bales at all."
"No, there isn't." Edward replied calmly, looking into her eyes as he spoke.
"So what? You drag me all the way up here from the house for a joke?" As she spoke, she noticed that David and Michael were no longer sitting down, but had stood and leant against the wall on opposite sides of the barn, and there was a strange look in their slightly hooded eyes. Edward's own eyes betrayed nothing as he spoke.
"No. It wasn't a joke. We really do want your help with something. But its not the hay bales."
"Well what then?" Emily demanded again. This was getting weird.
"Perhaps its easiest to think of it as an experiment. An experiment into potential."
"What potential? What are you talking about?"
"The potential of willpower in changing things to the way you want them. The potential of punishment and reward as a way of getting what you want. The potential of forcing your will over that of another." Edward chose his words carefully.
"And what is the subject of this experiment?" Emily asked, still confused. She was not prepared for the reply.
"You."
Emily didn't reply for a moment while she took this in. She still didn't really understand what was going on, but she had uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. She decided to be firm.
"Look, this is just getting silly. I'm not going to be an experiment for you or anyone else. Now if you don't mind, I've got things to be getting on with." With that, she started for the hatch in the floor.
The only response that this seemed to achieve was that the two younger brothers stopped leaning against the walls. They were large enough that this effectively blocked her exit. Then Edward's voice came from behind her.
"I'm afraid that this will be taking place with your consent or without it. The possibility of your reluctance has already been considered. It is unfortunate, but we'll just have to see how things go. You never know, you may find you even enjoy yourself a little."
