***Trigger warning for brief violence.***

Start the song. It's Weeds by Joshua James.

Being in the cellar was in no way a burden to Jim so far. He happily dug holes in the sections of the floor that hadn't been covered with concrete. He had plenty of things to sniff, and he was more than happy to just lie beside Josh and Tyler as the two boys slipped in and out of dreams or talked to each other using the notebook.

At the moment, they were doing the latter. Josh was starting to like the choking noise Tyler made when he laughed, and he felt a lot less anxious down here when Tyler was keeping him distracted.

"What do you usually do down here all day?" Josh asked curiously. "It has to get pretty boring living in a cellar with no electricity in a town with no cell service."

Tyler smiled, pointing at a wooden apple crate that was tucked into a corner in the middle of one of the shelves. Josh smirked at him.

"You're going to make me stand up?" He asked, pretending to be offended.

The boy beside him shrugged, dropping a hand over the edge of his cot to stroke Jim's back. He smirked right back at Josh, who chuckled and climbed off of the cot. He heard that familiar choking sound behind himself as he walked over to the crate and took it off the shelf before walking back over to the cots. He set it down in front of Tyler and let him choose what to show Josh.

There were an impressive number of paperback books, all of which looked incredibly worn. There was a sketchbook and enough pencils and coloured pencils to build a small village. An old Gameboy Colour with a Super Mario game was tucked inside the crate beside a baseball and a jigsaw puzzle. All in all, Josh had no idea how Tyler hadn't been bored to death down here.

"Dude, this sucks," Josh commented, making Tyler smile and shrug. "This is all you have to do?"

Tyler shrugged, grabbing his notebook and scribbling in it before handing it to Josh. It said, "I really only have to be distracted until school gets out. Then Jenna or her friends come see me. I steal her dad's moonshine sometimes too, but I can't do that very often."

A smirk tugged at Josh's lips. "Moonshine?"

Tyler grinned back at him, nodding. "Moonshine," he mouthed.

Josh laughed, handing the notebook back to Tyler. "This place is so fucking weird."

Tyler shrugged, still grinning widely.

"So basically you spend your whole day waiting for Jenna to come down so you can fuck," Josh stated bluntly, making Tyler laugh again and shake his head frantically. Josh snickered. "Hey, man. I'm not judging. I just don't want to have to see it."

For some reason, Tyler suddenly seemed confused. He looked at Josh for a moment before opening his notebook to a fresh page and writing something. He handed the notebook to Josh.

"They didn't tell you anything about the cellar?" Tyler had asked him.

Josh looked at Tyler with a confused smile as he handed him the notebook again. "That I'm stuck down here so that scarecrow bitch doesn't kill us? Yeah, I gathered that much."

The expression on Tyler's face didn't change though as he slowly started to write something before tearing the page away and discarding it and starting over. He did this several times, looking more and more anxious and frustrated with every fresh page.

When he finally handed one to Josh, it simply said, "You aren't allowed to judge me if I tell you this."

Josh's eyebrows raised, but he nodded as he handed the notebook back. "Okay."

Tyler studied his eyes warily for a moment before scribbling on the same page. He paused a few times while writing before handing Josh the finished statement, "They have to give Gefjon something she can't get for herself by the Harvest or else all the crops are going to die, and the girls will too."

"What kind of something?" Josh asked, a knot forming in his stomach.

The other boy hesitated before writing something down and holding it up for Josh to see. "She turns over the earth, but seldom looks beneath."

Josh read that statement a few times before finally asking, "What the fuck does that mean?"

Tyler wrote quickly this time. "Gefjon needs the girls to give her a baby, but they have to be virgins when they give it to her. It has to be theirs, but it has to be a virgin birth."

Once again, Josh had to read Tyler's words a few times before he could ask, "What the fuck?"

Tyler looked nervous, not writing anything.

"So Jenna can't give her that because she's not a virgin, and the other girls can't because it's not even physically possible?" Josh asked, trying to figure out why this was relevant information.

Tyler sighed inaudibly before holding up the notebook and pointing to the section that said, "She turns over the earth, but seldom looks beneath."

When it was clear that Josh was in no way following what Tyler was trying to tell him, the other boy huffed irritably and started writing again. What he wrote was much easier for Josh to understand, but nearly impossible to wrap his mind around.

"Gefjon is the Norse goddess who plowed the fields to make them fertile. She can plow the fields, but she can't see underground. She can't see us down here. She's blind down here. That's why she doesn't know the baby won't come from a virgin."

Josh stared at the words for at least a full minute before asking, "So we're being held hostage underground until you can get Jenna pregnant and give the baby to a mythical being from Scandinavia?"

Tyler's jaw tightened as he wrote again before holding up the notebook for Josh to see. Josh felt sick. "It doesn't have to be Jenna."

"Does that mean that you're...?" Josh trailed off, not really wanting to ask the question in his mind. He didn't want to know the answer. Tyler was writing again though, so he braced himself.

"Yes," was all Tyler had written.

"You don't even know what I was going to-" Josh began, but before he could finish his sentence, Tyler had scribbled on the page and help up a new sentence that confirmed exactly what Josh was afraid of.

"I'm sleeping with all of them."

Josh didn't say anything to that. He looked down at the concrete floor, avoiding the insecurity on Tyler's face as he watched Josh try to process that. His pen remained still in his hand as he waited for any kind of reaction from Josh, but he didn't get anything for a long time. They sat together in a heavy silence for at least five minutes before Josh finally spoke.

"So they all lied to me," Josh stated. "Solána lied to me. Jenna lied. They all lied, and I got locked down here for being with Solána when Jenna has had you down here fucking her and her friends this whole time. That's fucked up."

Tyler didn't write anything, staring at the blankets on their cots dejectedly. He looked frustrated too, but Josh didn't think that made sense. What did he have to be frustrated over? He chose to be down here even though he knew it meant getting fucked by five girls in a dirty cellar for several months on the off chance that it appeased some supposed goddess.

"This is bullshit," Josh decided finally. "I'm not staying here."

Fear crossed Tyler's features, but Josh couldn't bring himself to feel bad for him. He'd known what he signed up for when he agreed to be Gefjon's sperm donor. Josh hadn't agreed to any of this. All he'd wanted was to go home. This didn't make any sense. It was all Jenna trying to freak him out and manipulate him like she was doing to Tyler.

Tyler started scribbling immediately before practically shoving the notebook into Josh's hands. "You don't have to sleep with them. I'll do it. Just don't leave. She'll kill me if you leave, and she'll make Solána kill you. Please stay. I can't be down here alone anymore, but I'll die if either of us leave. I don't want this either, but we can leave as soon as one of the girls is pregnant. Gefjon will move on to a different town, and we'll be okay again. If we end this, my brothers will never have to do what we're doing. This has been going on for so long. It needs to be done. She needs to leave, but she won't go without a baby."

"I didn't sign up for this," Josh told Tyler simply.

Tyler looked furious as he scribbled so hard it tore the page before slamming the notebook against Josh's chest. He left his cot and stormed over to his chair, collapsing into it and pulling his knees up to his chest so he could bury his face against them. Josh had to flick through the pages to find what Tyler had written. It took him a minute, but he found it.

"You think I asked for this? I can't even talk because of that bitch. I haven't seen my family in months, and I haven't had a real bed or been outside either. Why the fuck would I want to do this? You think I'm desperate enough for sex to let five girls lock me in a cellar just so they'll sleep with me? I'm doing this so my sister doesn't have to be one of them and so my brothers never have to do what I'm doing. I'm doing this because my dad had to do this too, and his dad did before him. I want this to be over. That's why I'm doing this. I'm doing this so that bitch will leave Applecrest and stop forcing teenagers to do this every Harvest season."

Josh looked up from the notebook at Tyler, who was still curled up, his shoulders trembling as he cried. Guilt shot through him as he watched his service dog hurry over to Tyler, resting his head on the seat beside him. Tyler made no move to touch Jim, continuing to sob silently.

"Tyler-" Josh began as he started toward the other boy.

Tyler had tears on his face as he stood back up and started signing furiously, still glaring at Josh. None of the movements meant anything to Josh except for the one that was repeated several times. He'd seen it be signed to Jenna not long ago.

"Tyler, I didn't-"

Josh was cut off when Tyler shoved him backwards before signing at him again. Every time he tried to say anything, Tyler shoved him again. He shoved Josh over and over again until Josh's back slammed against the dirt wall, causing a little shower of sediment to fall off of the wall on top of Josh's head.

"Stop pushing me!" Josh yelled finally, shoving Tyler back so hard that he fell to the floor.

That was when it started. That was when Tyler threw the first punch, and suddenly everything was moving too quickly. Josh didn't register the pain of Tyler's fists against his skin as his own pounded into Tyler's as well. Josh knew he wasn't really angry at Tyler, and he wasn't sure if Tyler was really mad at him, but they still beat the shit out of each other until the cellar door opened. Ashley hesitated on the steps when she saw that Josh had Tyler pinned down on the ground, and they were both dripping blood. Jim was hysterical as he tried to figure out if he should help Josh, Tyler, or get help.

Tyler shoved Josh off of himself, glaring at him as he walked over to Ashley, who met him at the bottom of the steps. She set her backpack down on the floor before holding his face in her hands and studying it closely.

"Did he hurt you?" She asked him.

He shook his head, shrugging her off of himself before going back to his chair. Ashley glanced nervously at Josh, who had returned to his own chair. She looked him over for injuries from afar before walking over to Tyler and climbing into his lap.

"Jenna and Solána aren't talking to each other. Gefjon is unhappy about it. I can feel it. We all can. Have you heard from Gefjon since?" Ashley asked Tyler quietly.

He shook his head, seeming to be concerned by this information as well. He signed something to her, and she shrugged.

"No. I haven't told them yet. If it's a false alarm, I don't want them to get their hopes up," Ashley replied quietly. Josh didn't even have to ask what they were talking about because Ashley tucked her wild curls behind her ear before telling Tyler, "I still haven't gotten my period though. It's four days late."

Tyler signed something to her again, looking serious. Josh wished he knew sign language more than he'd ever wished for anything. He wanted to know what was going on down here, but the only person who could tell him was mute and angry with him.

"I know Jenna was unhappy with me coming over today because she thinks we're all going to start sleeping with Josh now, but she's not really mad at you. I think she's surprised that you went off on her like that, but she'll get over it," Ashley informed him, running her fingers through his messy hair as she spoke. "I'm honestly kind of afraid of how Jenna will react if she's not the one who gets pregnant. I don't think even Gefjon could keep her at bay at that point."

Tyler shrugged, watching Jim start to dig another hole by a shelf of canned vegetables. He sighed, glancing at Josh before signing something to Ashley. Her eyes flickered to Josh as well, but she didn't address him.

"I'll talk to the girls about it," Ashley told him, and Josh was curious to know what had been said that made Tyler's muscles relax instantly. She sighed. "But hey, at least you get a break for now since I might already be pregnant. You don't have to try to knock someone up until school gets out."

Tyler smiled, but it was forced. Josh didn't blame him. He looked exhausted, especially after he and Josh has thrown a few punches. There was no way in hell that Josh would want to get laid if he was as tired as Tyler looked.

"Well, I brought you guys some lunch," Ashley said as she climbed out of Tyler's lap and went over to her backpack. She pulled out a grocery bag from Granny Smith's Marketplace and brought it over to Tyler. "I need to go back to school though, so I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay," Tyler mouthed as he untied the knot on the grocery bag.

He let Ashley kiss his cheek before leaving the cellar. The doors closed with a definitive thud, and then there was just the two boys and Jim left in the cold. Tyler spread a blanket out on the ground before unpacking all of their food out onto it. They had fried chicken, salads, fruit, mashed potatoes, iced tea, jello, and potato chips. The two boys looked at each other for a tense second, Josh still sitting in his chair.

Tyler sighed before holding an apple out to Josh. It was a peace offering. Josh's stomach grumbled, making his decision for him as he climbed off of his chair and sat down beside Tyler on the blanket. They ate in silence, not that Tyler really had a choice.

"So if she's knocked up, we can go home?" Josh asked after ten minutes of excruciating silence.

The boy beside him nodded, wiping at his tired eyes before opening his bottle of iced tea.

"Does that mean I'm going to have to start sleeping with all of them too?" Josh asked through gritted teeth.

Tyler looked around the basement before grabbing his notebook and pen off of their makeshift beds. He scribbled down a response before showing it to Josh. "I'll handle that. Don't worry about it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Josh asked worriedly.

Tyler scribbled again, before showing Josh, "As long as you don't tell them yes, they won't sleep with you. Don't tell them yes. I've been doing this for two months. I can handle it."

Josh hesitated before blurting out, "I don't want you to sleep with Solána anymore."

That didn't seem to surprise Tyler. He nodded as he fed a little piece of chicken to Jim. Then he was writing again. "I guess I don't have to tell you that I don't want you to sleep with Jenna?"

"Believe me. The last thing I want to do is touch her. She's evil in a human form," Josh replied, surprising a choking laugh out of Tyler.

Tyler smirked before writing in all capital letters, "YOU HAVE NO IDEA!"

Josh couldn't help but smirk back at Tyler. "Sorry I hit you, dude."

Tyler shrugged. "Me too," he mouthed.

"We should probably learn to get along if we're going to be down here for a while," Josh proposed.

Tyler looked like he was trying not to laugh as he wrote on his notebook. Josh grinned when Tyler held up a page that said, "Dude I'm not going to sleep with you."

"We'll see about that, smart ass," Josh replied amusedly, making Tyler laugh again. "There isn't a lot to do down here. It's only a matter of time before you get bored and try to do me."

Choked out laughs filled the air as Tyler wrote in his notebook before handing Josh a page that simply said, "I, Tyler Joseph, do solemnly swear to only sleep with you as a last resort."

Josh laughed, holding a hand out for Tyler to shake. "Deal," he agreed.

They shook on it before tucking back into their lunch. Josh really did feel bad for hitting Tyler. He seemed like a good guy despite the situation they had found themselves in.