Dear Readers,
The creepy group stood in front of us on the other side of the hole. The one Gregg shot with an arrow said they were gonna kill us.
The leader called them Eide, and that he'll do no such thing as it was out of his hands now. Eide continued to complain about it, saying Gregg shot him. The leader said that meant we were even, as the little girl got shot at the other night. Another one of them said sorry about that.
I said you're apologising? and they said it was a bad call, and that they were sorry. I said it was uh... ok and it didn't actually hit me... and then I got right to it... I asked what or who were they?
The leader said they were a buncha of old boys doing their darnedest to protect their own and their neighbours.
I asked them why were they trying to kill me? and one of them was taken aback, saying nobody was gonna kill me. The leader added that all four of us were part of this town, by family relation or just by being hard workers. Contributors.
I said ok... so we could just leave? and the leader said *HE* brought us down here for a reason and *he* wasn't gonna let us leave until *he*'d have his say. I said well *HE*'s already got an arrow through the shoulder and I didn't think *he* was gonna be having much say in whatever.
The leader and another member made ellipses. The leader said wait, and asked if we thought that Eide... and I butted in, saying that *he* kidnapped that kid at Harfest! and that *he* had been in my head somehow! I said I was always tired and had constant headaches! I said *he* had been following me and all of us! I was about to say something else when the leader butted in this time.
The leader said oh little girl, you don't know what this is, do you?
I then realised something. The camera zoomed out, showing a little more of how deep the hole in front of us was. I said I had seen this... or at least I had felt it. Tense, sinister music started playing.
The leader spoke in detail. They said it was Ed Skudder and Jim Dorney who found it, 20 years back or so. They rambled on, saying it was after the west mine closed out past Briddle. Vest Schumacher. Last supervisor. Was out there when the company locked off the entrance. Carved his initials and date in the door. The leader then talked about this mine, the old one. It wasn't even a proper mine. Just a big hole with copper. It was abandoned long before any of us were born. It was too close to water and that water was poison. When the first settlers came out here, the old spring used to be right above where we were standing right now. That water dried up. In 1992 or so, some men from the west mine came back up here to try bootlegging. They practically built a new elevator, got the main tunnel cleared and never found any coal. They just dug deeper and deeper until Ed busted through the wall and found this place. Jim walked right into the hole and never hit the bottom. Ed called down to Jim and Jim didn't answer, but someone else did...
The leader then said they knew I heard that voice. In dreams and in waking times. It was what brought me down here. I asked "What... what is it?" and they said:
Black Goat.
The leader continued, saying not even black like the colour but black like the space between the stars. THIS was who *HE* was. *He* was down there, in this hole, looking up at us right there and then. He doesn't talk to you... he sings.
I asked the leader why they would just do something a hole in a cave told them to? and they said I had to understand that in those days it was the end of the world; jobs gone, their kids were leaving, government didn't care and only wanted their votes, putting in more regulations, sending their jobs overseas, spending their taxes on lazy people and immigrants while they worked themselves to death.
Ugh here we go Bea groaned. Ugh indeed :( she said she hated this crap and called them old dipsticks.
So that's who these guys were...
The leader asked if Bea was finished and she paused before saying yeah sure. The leader continued, saying they prayed and prayed up at the church, but when Ed Skudder came back down here and listened he got answers back. I said "Oh God I think I know..." and the leader said yeah he was already in there singing to me, right? He continued, saying Ed explained it to a few folks, and they didn't believe it but he was persuasive and had the glimmer. I asked what that the glimmer was and another member said it was ones he takes a shining to, that it rubs off on ya (or something I don't understand properly what they said...)
The leader said he'd never seen it, but they said Ed could walk through walls. I said ok... and the leader continued, saying after Ed talked them into all this, after that first time, after they picked one out, then not only was the town holding stable, but it was almost like they were getting younger, and money came along too. There were still a few of them left from back then.
I pressed on the word "picked" and the leader said the first one was Tom Turner who apparently was just pure trash. They got him down here and in the hole he went. The week after that there were flowers blooming all over the hills. Bea said you throw them in the hole? and I made an ellipsis before saying they were feeding *him*...
The leader confirmed this! Saying *he* was hungry like we wouldn't believe! He continued, saying every few months or so *he* starts singing and it's someone's turn to find someone. I asked "Was that what you were doing the other night?" and one of the members said no. The leader said what happened the other night was a shame. One of their number broke the rules and had to pay up. He said that was a hard thing to do. :(
I said I think I'm gonna be sick... :(
The leader said they never picked anyone who was gonna be missed, which was a solid rule of theirs. He listed groups they picked on like drifters, drunks and delinquents...
I was horrified. I said "How many people have died down here???" and the leader said 3 dozen, give or take. Another gave an exact number, 39 and asked if they were the only one keeping a steady count. The leader said he did now, saying that early on he thought they all wanted to forget. Another member said they still had a feeling heart and that it still hurt.
Another member talked about a dirtbag kid from the spring... and Gregg said C...C...Casey? The leader said the Hartley kid? and that all he was gonna contribute to society besides a bunch of kids growing up with no dad was a rap sheet a mile long before whatever sad end he'd wind up at. The leader said they did him a favour. Oh no :(
Gregg said you...k-killed... Casey? to them. Angus said oh my god... The leader then said they didn't use that word. He said you know he was taking up business with his cousin, right? and asked us if we knew what happened to his cousin? He got burned alive when his little trailer lab exploded and they had to wear hazmat suits when they cleaned him up. The leader said that was where Casey was headed. Gregg said again that they killed Casey.
The leader spoke back, asking Gregg if he wanted to act like they didn't do Casey and the whole town a favour. I said oh god... Casey had been down here the whole time and his parents put up posters! To this the leader said maybe they should've cared more about him before it came to this. :(
The music stopped. Gregg raised his crossbow and demanded to know which one of them did it!!! Bea tried to say something to him but he continued, saying Casey was his friend!!!! One of the members said to throw the crossbow down right then or they would shoot. It was only then I noticed they were pointing a gun at us. Gregg laughed, saying what if he got them first? With a bolt sticking right out of their eye? He made noises, saying *bang!* *baaaang!*
Angus said they brought guns down here? and the member answered that it was dangerous this far out in the woods at night, that it was basic safety. Gregg hesitated and the member again said to throw down the weapon. Bea tried to speak to Gregg again... and after a pause he said dangit, before dropping his crossbow with a loud clatter. The tense, sinister music started up again.
I called them monsters and said none of this was happening. Things got blurry. My silhouette went red and started blinking round in a circle. They said they weren't monsters. They said they were doing this because they loved their home. They said as long as they kept doing this, Possum Springs would survive. They said things could get better, that these mines were gonna be humming again someday, old mills puffing smoke and how we kids didn't understand that they lost what their world was built around. They said it used to be that you provided for a family, bought a house but now you were stocking shelves at the grocery store, kids leaving more than they were staying... no opportunity here. Old people dying, houses left empty... They asked if we ever saw any of that? A home becoming a tumbled-in pile of wood and plaster? A job becoming a burned out brick box or a hole in the ground? They then said that they could change that, that they could put this place back together, where it wouldn't be just...
...and I added with the word shapes.
I then said I was going to die down here.
Things stopped being blurry and it was back to the scene. I asked them why were they telling us all this? The leader said it was because they were getting old and even with the fringe benefit of good health, they needed new blood to carry this on when they were gone. Bea said really? they were pitching us on this? She asked if any of them were miners back in the day? Were any of them hurting now financially? Or was this just some big costume party murder club for someone's crappy boss who was afraid of dying?
After a pause the leader said that didn't matter. Bea snorted and said it did! Angus said this was real bad. Gregg said this was insane. I said "Why should we help you?" and the leader said if no one was here to do this... and asked if we remembered the flood a few years back? if we remembered the blizzard of 2010? and then said that's what would happen. And beyond that, the jobs would never come back, the kids would never come back, everything would crumble. Possum Springs would bleed to death and soon we would all be dead. And this town would just be fields and trees.
I said I'd seen it... The leader said he knew I had.
There was a pause.
The leader then said he'd understand if we needed some time to think it over. Bea asked if we could leave and the leader said no one was gonna stop us but also chillingly added that we were to understand that we didn't know who they were, out there, but they knew who we all were.
Eide piped up again, saying it wasn't fair we got to leave and he probably got permanent damage. The leader told him to shut it! Eide said we didn't know a thing about what *he* wanted! What *he* was! The leader then said he swore to god...
Bea said let's go. Gregg said yeah, let's seriously get out of here. The leader told him to leave the crossbow. He said what? Why? The leader said he could BS us but the truth was that he just didn't trust us. Gregg said fine whatever, that it was a piece of crap anyway. The leader laughed a little.
I said I couldn't move. Angus said he'd carry me.
The scene shifted to us walking to the elevator, Angus carrying me. Gregg said his brain was in pieces right now and I said it was all just empty, that everything was empty. What were we going to do?
No comments:
Post a Comment