OK, you need to act fast, before the cultists do whatever they're planning.you could call the police. Although Sheriff Buckly is one of the only cops in town, if you called the State Troopers, there's a good chance they'd be able to arrive and clear this place out.


You could also sneak back to the trucks and steal some of the weapons that Drake brought, and force a confrontation and end this.


Then again, you know where the location of Drake's keys are for the RV. You know the RV's highly explosive, and with that you could easily disrupt the ritual and do a lot more.


Then, there are the more... dangerous solutions. You could use the Dead Man. That terrifying spirit no doubt has some rage toward the town locals such as the cultists. Perhaps he could be bartered with.

You attempt to barter with the Dead Man

"So what's our plan?"


"The Dead Man."


"What? The ghost?"


"Yeah. We could use him."


"Ghosts aren't real, Hazel. Maybe you should sit down."


"I saw him."


"Ghosts aren't..."


"Becca, our friends have been kidnapped by demon-summoning cultists, and you don't belief in ghosts at the moment?"


"I... I guess."


"Yeah. Let's go pay him a visit."


You turn and lead Becca off towards the Dead Man's Barn. After about five minutes of jogging, you reach the empty field that's brightened in the moonlight, with the large, old abandoned barn standing there.


"Come on!" you say.


You reach the barn, and begin prying plywood out of the way. You pause, remembering the Dead Man's hatred of Becca, pause.


"I'll go inside alone," you say.


"Are you sure?"


"Yeah," you say.


Becca shrugs, pulling the plywood out of the way and clambering inside. You are immediately engulfed in darkness. The soft rustle of the grass ceases as the entire barn is filled with a silence. Then, a whistle breaks out. The Dead Man begins whistling a slow, soft tune, the only thing that breaks the silence. Each note is mixed with the wet squelching you heard the last time. You see him leaning on a large wooden beam, his long, cut open grin staring back at you. The whistling stops as shadows seem to enrapture him. He disappears from his position leaning on the beam, and you feel hot breath on the back of your neck.


"I didn't think you'd come around here, darlin'. I was certain you'd be smarter," you hear him whisper from directly behind you.


A gloved hand begins to stroke your hair as you feel a metal blade press against your throat.


"No bother. I won't mind cutting you up a little."


"Wait! I want to make a deal with you!"


The blade stops and twists so that the flat of the blade is rubbing your neck.


"Alright... you bought yourself a minute. Explain."


"I want to help you get revenge."


"No you don't.You want something that coincides with me getting my revenge. What?"


"I need Mrs Jordan, Alison, Sheriff Buckly and Doctor Kessel."


"Alison. What's her last name."


"Parker."


"Oh yeah, Parker... Damn right I want my revenge. But it seems you're far more desperate than I am."


"I..."


"I want something. The Montgomery girl."


"What?"


"I want you to bring me her."


"I don't have her. She left..."


The Dead Man smiles as his grin is elongated once again because of the cuts as a wave of blood spills down his cheeks. He leans forward, running a hand against your cheek and down your neck.


"Bring me the girl... and I will help you kill every last person you want dead."

You agree

You take a deep breath, and nod.


"OK. Fine," you say.


It's for the best. It's the only way to safe your friends. If you don't sacrifice one, you all die.


"Call her, then."


"Becca!" you shout.


"Yes?"


"Come in here!"


"I though you said..."


"Just do it!"


You see the Dead Man disappear, and seconds later, Becca climbs through the hole in the wall. 


"What do you need?"


"I'm so, so sorry," you whimper.


"What...?"


The Dead Man is formed from the shadows directly behind Becca, leaning against the wall. He raises an old-fashioned revolver, and points it at the back of her head.


"Tell your ancestors I sent you," he says.


The Dead Man fires his gun and the revolver explodes with a thunderous roar, as does Becca's face. The front of her face explodes, sending blood, bits of flesh and grey matter onto the floor. You scream in horror as your friend collapses on the floor as all the life flows from her eyes and her face takes a dull expression.


"Ah... you can't imagine how good that felt."


You choke back a cry, as tears stream down your face.


"You have to kill everyone I mentioned."


"How the fuck am I supposed to do that?"


"What? You said you could! You promised."


"I promised I would try. You bring those people into this barn, I'll kill 'em all and leave you alive."


"How the fuck am I supposed to do that?" you shout, echoing the Dead Man's complaint.


The Dead Man grins, and fades into the background and is absorbed by shadows once again. You sigh, and walk out. You climb out of the barn, your mind racing. Then, you have an idea. The one thing any of them care about is the Key-Bearer. If you can get that,or it, or whatever the fuck the creature is, you can lure them into the barn. You begin walking back towards the camp.

Five Minutes Later...

You stare at the camp, watching the cultists work.They all pile stones in a large circle. You hear horrified moans from inside the RV, and you can vaguely see the horrified shapes of the failed attempts to birth a Key-Bearer inside the RV, the monstrous, contorting shapes howling desperately. Still, you see what you're looking for. Doctor Kessel holds a large bundle of contorting tentacles You look around the earthen floor of the woods, finding a large tree branch with suitable weight and length. You pick it up, and begin creeping towards Doctor Kessel. You silently creep forward, aas he watches the circle being formed, oblivious to anything else. You take a deep breath, and raise the tree branch. You swing it with as much strength as you can muster, and it smacks into the back of his head. It slams into his head and he collapses forward, the Key-Bearer flying onto the floor. You spot your friends in the cage, Sheriff Buckly watching over you, but know you don't have time to rescue them. You grab the Key-Bearer and get your first real look at it. A seething mass of tentacles, with at the base a small, spherical body. You shiver in terror as you notice the creature has a single, bright blue eye, the same color as yours. You grab it, wrapping in the blanket Doctor Kessel has been coddling it, and turn.


"Fuck! Get her!" Doctor Kessel screams.


Sheriff Buckly turns and raises his gun, but Doctor Kessel screams at him to stop.


"No, no! For god's sake, don't fire! You could hit the key-bearer and ruin everything!" Doctor Kessel screams later.


You break into a run, as you see Alison open the RV.


"Children! Go, go track down your brother and the girl!"


You see demented figures emerge from the RV. There's a pair of small legs that waddle forward, although everything above the waist is a seething mass of tentacles. There's an armless child who's eyes are just two empty caverns that are blacker the pure darkness. There's a small girl, each limb replaced with a long coil of muscles that it uses to crawl along the ground. They all see you, eyes filled with pain and angst, and begin to follow you. You turn and begin running as fast as you can towards the Dead Man's barn. You run as fast as your feet will carry you for several minutes, hearing the howls of the monsters behind you grow louder as the cultists follow just behind you.


"Stop running! We won't hurt you!" Doctor Kessel screams.


You feel the Key-Bearer writhe under the blanket in your arms and you wince, but don't dare stop runnign. Eventually, you break free from the trees, into the field under the moonlight. You spot the hole in the boarded up barn, and begin desperately running towards it. After a minute of running as fast as you can, you dive through it, into the darkness of the barn. Seconds later, you hear a slithering, shivering sound as those monsters enter. You stay perfectly quiet, and begin crawling under a small gap in the fence, into a horse stall.


"Hazel... you better come out now..." Sheriff Buckly whispers. "It's better we find you then one of the kids..."


You try not to breath and stay perfectly silent as you hear figures wandering around the room.


"Oh, there you ar... what's this?"


"Ah, look who it is. A Buckly... I always did know your family was a generation of snakes and government cocksuckers..."


"How... what the fuck are yo...?"


"I'm the Grim fuckin' Reaper."


"No! Wait! Please, don't!"


"Tell ol' grandaddy Buckly you died beggin' me!"


There's a gunshot, and Sheriff Buckly falls silent.


"Well, look at this... the Kessel family's newest generation are all pig-fuck ugly monsters. See ya, kids."


There's a series of gun shots as you hear the knife whistle through the air.


"Jesus fuck! What's...?"


"A Parker. Your gran' daddy had the dumbest horse grin I'd ever seen."


There's the noise of a knife, slicing through the air and the squelching sound of blood.


"Oops, there goes a Jordan and a O'Riley. Huh, your grand daddies on your mom and dad's sides were fiddling, only makes sense their kids would have kids."


There's a series of gunshots and squelches from knife stabs, before you hear a single, solitary voice.


"Hazel? Whatever you've done, stop this... please..." Doctor Kessel whimpers.


You hear a gunshot, and the thud of a body hitting the floor. Then, silence. Suddenly, the Dead Man stands, staring at you.


"Alright, darling. You never said there'd be a dozen monsters in tow."


"I didn't think they'd release them."


"Alright. Well, I reckon we're about even." 


You nod, before the bundle wiggles in your arms again. The Dead Man raises his gun and shoots the wiggling bundle twice. You scream as blood flies up, before throwing the dying monster off you.


"There. Now we're sure as fuck even."


The Dead Man is absorbed by the darkness once more, and you're left alone in the darkness. You stand, walking out into the carnage. Corpses lie everywhere, shriveled tentacles and bleeding bodies around the room. You find Sheriff Buckly, lying on the floor in a growing puddle of blood. You search his pockets, pulling out the keys to the rusted cage. You leave the barn, and begin walking off to rescue your friends,  just as the sky begins to rise.

One Year Later...

Death and Vengeance


You're surprised how quickly and eagerly the media pick up on this. A tale of a bunch of kids discovering what a cult. Of course, the story gets botched considerably. The cult is said to be Satanist, the monster-children are claimed to be simply malformed or mutilated, any and all super-natural presence is rationalized, and its claimed that you and Becca made a stand against the cultists, leading to Becca's death in the fire fight. You don't disagree with them, because you know you'd come off as crazy. The Dead Man is happy to stay hidden every time they investigate the barn, knowing the difference between picking off a few trespassers and ambushing a police investigation, and not wanting his barn covered in police tape for any longer than needs be. Still, it does turn Dawnwood into a media hotspot for some time and turns you into somewhat of a celebrity some time. Still, it doesn't take long for the media to move on. With celebrity pregnancies, terrorist attacks in the Middle East and an endless amount of mass shootings, things move on. You continue living in Dawnwood, staying with your friends. You still have serious guilt over what happened to Becca, and any and all attempts to rationalize it lead to you just wallowing in self-depreciation and depression. Time passes, you settle down in the town and for the first time you're glad you moved to the town. Sure, you still have many unanswered questions about what happened and still wake up with phantom pains in your stomach and nightmares of that night, and nightmares of Becca's corpse slumped over in front of you, but you're able to move past it somewhat. You're looking forward to your future in Dawnwood.