2 Chapter 2 - The Dangers and Rewards (1/2)

I sat unceremoniously on the dirt as I gazed up at the sickly neon green trunk of the Neglism as sweat poured off of me like a faucet.

With a groan I closed my eyes in a vain attempt to stop the visions. It didn't work, I knew it wouldn't, but I was a little hopeful. With my hope dashed into pieces I resigned myself to the visions.

While there were warnings about the Neglism in the information I had been given, and I had taken those warnings seriously, I was completely unprepared for how effectively the Neglism invoked my negative emotions.

Truthfully I thought I would have to feed the emotions to the plant. Think them through and allow myself to feel the emotions that came with the memories rather than keeping them bottled up like I usually did.

That wasn't the case. The Neglism was slurping up my negative emotions through a straw with a big happy smile like a kid given its favorite milkshake. I had absolutely no power to stop it either. The entire 'farm' was in the range of the plant. I had already tried to run from it. Completely pointless. The walls of the shack did nothing to stop or even slow the extraction of my worst memories, making me relive them, then magnifying my emotions to make them more tasty.

I could guide the memories I was willing to experience. I had started out small, or at least what I considered small. How I got here. There wasn't much to it. Or at least that was what I had thought.

I had just gotten out of work, I had spotted my ex girlfriend on my way out. That was abnormal as we both worked for the same company and had caused more than a few awkward moments. The Neglism wanted to latch unto those uncomfortable feelings and suck them all out but I pushed it away, proving that I could guide the memories, but scaring me a bit in the process. Despite that I kept going. I had plans to meet a friend, for a drink. I showed up at the bar we had agreed to meet. He had texted that he was running late and told me to order without him. I wasn't a big drinker, and only went to bars with friends. Sitting alone at the bar sipping a drink, by myself, made me feel really uncomfortable. Like a alcoholic that couldn't wait to get his next drink. Probably just an overreaction, but I had been struggling against the urges to drink myself into a drunken stupor at the time, so I felt it was a very real possibility.

Just as I was finishing my second drink and about to call my 'friend' and see what the hell was taking him so long or if he had just decided to blow me off. I had seen her. Kind of hard not too. She was gorgeous. Maybe it was the alcohol, but I thought my tolerance was better than that, but she was even prettier than my ex. Long midnight black hair that curled in small rings down her back. A pair of enchanting dark blue eyes set into a angelic face, and a killer body encased in a tight yet modest pale blue dress. More importantly she was staring straight at me as she approached.

Of course I was sure that it was all a coincidence and I wasn't what she was coming over for. Until I glanced around. Despite having finished my second drink, it was still early. The bar was nowhere near packed so while I was at the bar, there was plenty of empty space if she wanted to place an order. On top of that I had set myself apart from the rest of the patrons and my melancholy attitude had convinced those few near me not to get any closer. If she was coming towards me then it had to be because she wanted to speak to me.

I wasn't wrong. The beauty walked right up to me and looked me over just as intensely as everyone else in the bar was gazing at her. ”Hello Jason Nellis, you will do just fine.” she told me with a brilliant smile that caused my mind to stop working for a moment. Then just as I was beginning to be able to think again and wondered how the hell she knew my name everything went dark. When I woke up I was here on this tiny little farm prison.

I didn't think that there was a lot of negative emotions tied into this memory besides the anger that I had been targeted to be brought here, and a bit of shame that I thought she might actually have been interested in me. That was what I thought. I was incredibly wrong. So very wrong. I had been stuffing all of my unhappy emotions into a lock box and ignoring them, for so long that I didn't even register the emotions anymore. Of course I stated I had been melancholy, that is caused by emotions, yet I completely ignored that fact. There were reasons and emotions that caused me to have already finished my second drink rather than just nursing the first. Emotions that went along with the fact that I was drinking alone, and most importantly there were a lot of emotions that went with finding myself trapped in a tiny little farm growing things I have never heard of in a place without a sun, moon, or even stars. Lots of them. Didn't think of any of that. Call it a comping method. Didn't matter, the stupid plant didn't miss them. It forced me to recall every moment of it, magnified the emotions so I couldn't miss them and their effect on me, then slurped them up as happily as a fat kid in a candy store with a free pass to everything it could grab.