If Looks Could Kill

Chapter 5: The Body Farm

The next stop on my map isn't received well when I tell everyone what it is.

"What the hell is a 'Body Farm'?" Reggie asks.

"I'm not too sure, but we're going to find out," I tell him.

I mean, let's be real, how can you not want to go and find out what a Body Farm is? You have to be at least a little curious.

It doesn't take us too long to get to Knoxville, Tennessee where the Body Farm is.

"Hey Trevor, are you from Tennessee, because..."

We all know I'd never let Reggie finish that one.

When we get there, none of us move to exit the van. I think they're all a little unsettled at the idea of a Body Farm. In my defense, I wasn't considering other people when putting this map together.

"Before we get out, I just want to say that there aren't any tours that go through here. This place is for research through the University of Tennessee, so once we get inside, follow my lead," I tell them, and they look even more confused than when they found out where we were going.

"I think I'll wait in the car," Beth says applying hand sanitizer as she looks at the building.

After a small pause, Reggie says he'll stay with her.

With that, Blake and I exit the van and head into the Forensic Anthropology building. As we head inside, I grab onto his arm.

"What are you doing?" Blake asks followed by me shushing him.

I lead him up to the front desk where a lady is sitting.

"Excuse me," I put the saddest look I can muster up onto my face, "my friend Blake here doesn't have much time left. We wanted to get here before he lost his sight, but we just couldn't make it. He just wanted a chance to visit the place he planned to donate his body when...when the time came." I don't know how I did it, but I managed to muster up a couple tears to add to the effect.

"You poor things," the lady says, "hold on just a second."

She makes a couple of calls before someone comes to take the two of us to the Farm.

When we get outside, we're incased in fence and surrounded by bodies. You can see what I assume to be students observing a decomposing body in the ground.

"You can take a look around," the man says before heading off into the direction of the students.

I keep my hands wrapped around Blake's arm as I show him around the farm. There are bodies with clothes on, in cars, face up, face down, really just in all different states of dead.

"This is extremely unsettling. Whose idea was this," I ask Blake with a small smile on my face.

He smiles back, "You're a real comedian, Trevor."

Looking at all of these dead bodies, I finally ask the question that's been sitting in my head for a bit.

"Blake, why'd you want to come if you can't...you know...see all of the things?" I ask him, wanting to know how he's able to enjoy it.

His smile almost melts my heart.

"I like spending time with Reggie, and Beth, and...you," he tells me.

I look at him after that one. You know when you want to be able to say something, but just...can't? That's what's happening right now. I have all of these feelings that I wish I could put together into a comprehensible thought. Why would he say something like that? What angle is he playing? Was it just a nice comment that I'm over thinking?