Reece Ellsworth

Preach all you want but who's gonna save me?

I keep a gun on the book you gave me,

hallelujah, lock and load

Black is the kiss, the touch of the serpent sun

It ain't the mark or the scar that makes you one,

And one,

And one,

And one

You'll never make me leave

I wear this on my sleeve

Give me a reason to believe

So give me all your poison

And give me all your pills

And give me all your hopeless hearts

And make me ill

You're running after something

That you'll never kill

If this is what you want

Then fire at will

***Thank You for the Venom- My Chemical Romance***

## Overview

Reece is the kind of average kid created by carrying the weight of family expectations and reputations and personal tragedy. He’s learned the hard way who he can speak plainly with, and who it’s better to be silent around. His inner thoughts are best defined as conflicted, as he weighs his options for the future against the pressure of the past.

His mother, Emily, used to describe Reece as a cat. He was entirely his own person, slow to make friends but fiercely loyal to the ones he had, a soft-hearted peacekeeper for the most part, but willing to bring out the claws when necessary. His rare bouts of anger often draws the ire of his father, Randall Ellsworth, who threatens Reece is unbecoming of the family name.

Since Emily’s death, Reece has become even more reserved than usual. He’s kept with his circle of close friends: cousins Marilyn Cowan, with whom he shares a love and appreciation of b-horror flicks; Dani Cowan, whose father is Randall’s best friend; and Gray Whittaker, who was always good for a pickup game (until his accident). He’s also made a friend in the school’s astronomy club: Gemma Sands. The two look up and out into the sky, wondering what lies out there.

As a senior, Reece is trying to figure out his own way in the world - whether that means leaving Haper’s Calling or not he’s unsure of. What he does know is that *he* wants to be the one making that decision.

## Physical Appearance

Reece is 5' 7", and having grown rather steadily since 5th grade, never quite “shot up like a weed” as his father seemingly expected. His frame is on the thin side and his muscles don’t show, but he’s stronger than most people give him credit for. He’s not a jock by any means, but neither is he the last one chosen in the pickup games of softball, baseball, and basketball that litter the uneventful nights and weekends in Harper’s Calling. He’ll join in on football games if nothing else is going on, but he’s just not built for it. Once or twice he put on some old ice skates he found in the basement and went out on the frozen pond before his father found out and put an end to it. It’s as if the man had never even heard of hockey . . .

His hair is sandy brown, and has the distinction of always looking slightly dirty and unkempt even right out of the shower. He keeps his hair somewhat short due mainly to the ease of upkeep, though he wonders what it might be like to have hair touching his ears for a change. It’s rarely styled beyond running a comb through it, though his one experiment with his grandfather’s pomade had turned out better than expected. His family didn’t like the spikes, though. His eyes are bluish-grey, and he jokes that they change color depending on the day or how he’s feeling, almost as if they’re a reflection of his mood.

His clothes and appearance reflect his home life: Reece is surviving, but by no means thriving.

## History

***TW: passing mentions to spiritual manipulation, parental death and abuse/neglect, and alcoholism.***

Reece’s father, Randall, had been training to be the town mortician from his own father, Barrett Ellsworth. He enlisted in the army in 1963 almost as soon as talk of the draft made its way to Harper’s Calling, saying it would be better to choose to go on his own terms than attempt to live with the weight of the draft hanging over his head. (From what little Reece has been able to make out, it was also likely a financial decision as well.) In the army he was assigned to the Quartermaster Corps and, though he was eventually deployed to Vietnam itself, did not see any “front-line” action. This has weighed on Randall’s mind in the form of survivor’s guilt. It was while Randall was home on a thirty-days leave that Reece was conceived – an easily deduced fact based on Randall’s military records. With a newborn son at home, Randall declined to reenlist when his tour came to an end. Back in Harper’s Calling, Randall picked up the mortuary practice almost as if he never left, and used the skills the Army taught him to leverage a position as the administrator for the local mine. By 1984, Barrett Ellsworth is mostly retired, leaving Randall the town mortician as well as mine administrator.

Reece’s mother, Emily, was a homemaker and part-time secretary at her brother Arthur Rasmussen’s Methodist church – in addition to raising Reece and his older sister Theresa. Emily loved art and tried to see the beauty in the world around her, and though Randall didn’t always understand Emily’s perspective, neither did he discourage it. When he enlisted, he saved up the money to purchase a new Super 8 movie camera, encouraging Emily to chronicle her life while he was away and promised to watch all her films when he came home – a promise which he kept. Emily continued to film life in the Ellsworth household and Harper’s Calling until she fell ill in late 1979 (to a disease unknown to Reece) and passing in the fall of 1980. Reece misses his mother often, but has taken up her passion for film, continuing to make short films with his mother’s Super 8.

Reece has little to do with his sister, Theresa, though not necessarily out of animosity. Theresa was born in 1957 soon after Randall and Emily were married (though not soon enough for anyone to ask questions). With a ten-year difference (or so) between them, and with Theresa an adult in her own right by the time Reece formed any lasting, meaningful memories of her, they are not close. For her part, Theresa does not blame Reece for spoiling her status as an only child – she was smart enough to blame her parents, particularly Randall. She blamed him for leaving her during her childhood. She blamed him for not getting better help when Emily became sick. And when Emily died, Theresa left Harper’s Calling for good. Reece has not seen or heard from her since, though he often wonders what her life is like now that she’s not here.

Emily’s death changed the Ellsworth home. What light and joy had existed was extinguished. With both Emily and Theresa no longer in the house, Randall found his emotions almost impossible to deal with – and he took his anger and frustration out on Reece, most of the time mentally and emotionally, but also physically on more than one occasion. Though these incidents haven’t happened in several years, Reece is still wary of his father, who now throws himself into his work so that he will not have to deal with himself – which Reece considers ironic, given half his father’s jobs.

For his part, Reece has a few friends. He played pickup ball games (particularly baseball) with Gray Whitaker – at least until Gray was in a terrible car accident last year. He’s found someone else with his taste in movies in his cousin Mar, and the two have spent hours watching and talking about b-grade horror films, particularly enjoying those put out by Hammer Films Production, Ltd. And speaking of cousins, he was once close with his cousin Dani as their fathers were best friends. But since the two have been allowed more independence in their teenage years, the two aren’t as close as they once were, though each still considers the other a good friend. And as he and Gemma Sands gaze at the stars in astronomy club, he wonders what is outside his own small corner of the world. Somewhere along the way Reece learned how to drive a car, though he himself has neither a license nor a car. Now taking up many of the household duties once managed by his mom, Reece has made friends with **Mike Wilcox** down at the local general store/pharmacy/post office. Somewhere in age between Reece and Randall, Mike has become a kind of mentor or adult guide to Reece in the way Randall should have been, had he not begun to shut his son out after his wife’s passing.

Nearing the end of high school, Reece is starting to feel the pressure of life in Harper’s Calling. Both sides of his family have tried since an early age to impress upon him the importance of heritage and tradition. His father wants him to continue the family legacy in Harper’s Calling – he is, after all, the “last of the Ellsworths” – one of the founding families in Harper’s Calling. Randall wants Reece to take over as the town mortician as he himself did, or at the least consider the life of a clergyman like Arthur, Emily’s Methodist minister brother. Uncle Art (Arthur) and Aunt Peggy, having no children of their own, would be thrilled if Reece chose to take up Art’s mantle. But while Reece isn’t necessarily against staying in Harper’s Calling, neither is he set on staying. His family has been there since the beginning, meaning he is related to (almost) everyone. His family has a reputation, and everyone knows everyone else. Reece doesn’t know if this is the life for him, but has made up his mind: whatever he does will be his decision and his alone.

## Summer, 1984

### ***June 16***

Two weeks into summer vacation and Reece had already settled into a routine. Saturdays were for shopping and taking care of household business; lord knows his father would never do it. Randall had thrown himself into both his jobs and even picked up some of Emily’s duties at the church - anything spend time doing anything other than thinking about his loss. Reece hooked up the wagon Gray had made for him - a radio flyer wagon with bicycle tires - to his own bike and made his way down to the store. Mike was kind as always, and after the two discussed the unfairness of paying for stamps to pay the bills (and needing to write checks two weeks in advance so payments were made on time), Mike remembered that Reece had a package of film come in. Thankfully this shipment wasn’t damaged like the last one.

Reece met Mar outside the store just as Gemma whizzed by singing *Total Eclipse of the Heart* at the top of her lungs. Apparently a group of Reece’s friends had gathered at the diner. With his groceries, Reece couldn’t stay but passed his regards on through Mar.

At home, he lit away the groceries, made lunch for himself and Randall, and then spent the afternoon prepping his movie equipment for the evening. An all-teenagers-welcome bonfire was being held at The Pines. He briefly recalled the stories Uncle Adam told him and Dani when they were younger, but put them out of mind as he wasn’t going alone. He made sure he had fresh batteries for his Super 8 and the lighting unit and decided he could use up to two rolls of film, planning to use one roll for b-footage and the other if something interesting started to happen. Grabbing a mason jar of Grandpa Barrett’s finest moonshine (a hobby he devoted more time to know he was retired) and unhitching his wagon, Reece biked out to The Pines where the party was already in progress.

Gray was there with the boombox his father bought him, and he and Dani and Mar seemed to have a six pack or two between them. He started filming while the light held, focusing on the fire and the party in general - - being careful to avoid capturing anything incriminating on film. A shout caught his attention and Reece saw known drug dealer Vincent Donohue roll up. Reece didn’t have anything against the marijuana Vince dealt, but he gave Reece an unsettled feeling.

Despite some tense back-and-forth between Vincent and Gray, Reece still shared the ‘shine with the dealer, who then passed it on to Gray before the jar came back to Reece. Vince then walked over to a girl named Carrie, who seemed interested in getting something or other from him. Receiving the thing, she and her boyfriend Sy went off into the woods. They seemed to be gone for longer than one would expect, and though they were all hesitant about going into the woods after the couple, they decided a kind of search party was in order.

Leaving their bikes and Gray’s boombox in the care of a trusted acquaintance Bruce, they ventured out. Almost immediately the woods seems to swallow all other sounds, and though they could see the large fire plainly, the sound of the party seemed muffled and far away. Soon enough the dense woods left the party a mere glimmer between the trees behind them and it became rather difficult to determine what direction they were heading in. Gray began to point out landmarks to help guide them back.

The woods, already spooky, became downright creepy as a scream split the night air and a figure came rushing at them. Gray stood at the front of the line, and Reese and Gemma jumped out of the way so as not to be run over. Carrie ran straight into Gray’s arms and collapsed, crying that something horrible had happened to Sy and she needed to get away. Gray looked over at Reece and passed Carrie off to him - and Reece was reminded that more than once Gray had described him as “the gentlest person he knew”. Coming from Gray, it was a compliment.

Carrie refused to go further into the woods, so Reese and Dani offered to take her back to the party and come right back. Using her flashlight, Dani guided the three of them back to the clearing, but something was wrong. In fact, nearly everything was wrong: their bikes and Gray’s boombox were there, but there were no partygoers, no fire, no party detritus - nothing. It was as if nothing else had happened that night. Reece started to talk to Carrie to see if she would go back with them rather than stay there alone, but when she went to respond she started to choke.

Lifting her hand to her mouth, Carrie caught a hornet. With a horrified look she started moaning “Oh, no. No no no no no” and began pleading with Dani and Reece to “please help”. She tore off her shirt and turned away from them; her back seemed to undulate with a mass of *something*.

And then Carrie collapsed as a swarm of hornets exited her back as if from a dry, hollow husk. Landing on Carrie, they seemed to spark her body back into a semblance of life and she rose gray of skin and with lifeless eyes repeating the words “not like this - please help me” over and over again.

Dani pulled at Reece’s arm, trying to get him to run back into the woods. Reece’s first though was to try to help Carrie, and it wasn’t until Dani used her childhood nickname - saying “Come on Reece’s Piece’s - we’ve got to go” - that he came to his senses. Hornet Carrie followed them and started Ed to gain on them. It was thanks to Dani’s quick thinking the two of them remembered that hornets hate fire and smoke and they fashioned a fiery mass using Reece’s jacket, Grandpa Barrett’s moonshine, and a lighter Dani had with her. The got it lit just in time, as Hornet Carrie was already upon them. She caught the fire full in the face and fell to the ground, writhing,

Telling her remains “I’m sorry,” Dani and Reece used the opportunity to run toward where Gray and Mar and Gemma should have been, fining them in a smaller clearing over the smoking body of Sy, who had apparently suffered the same fate as Carrie. Gray had stomped the fire out; something Reece and Dani had forgotten to do.

As they regrouped and tried to gather a sense of where, exactly, they were in the woods, they all seemed to find themselves quite close to the railroad tracks, though none of them recalled seeing them earlier. A lone whistle split the air. Certainly it wasn’t two in the afternoon already? But no one could tell what time it was; it was as if their brains refused to read their watches. Then another whistle split the night and a train - it’s engine aglow - screeched to a halt in front of them.

Reece wondered how this could be: trains needed at least a mile or more to come to a stop, and the locomotive had seemed to materialize out of nowhere. Just has this thought brought to mind the story of the Ghost Train Dani’s father told them when they were young, a man in old fashioned clothes disembarked from the train carrying a leather satchel of some kind. He seemed to see the group and looked right at them before saying “best get back to your party; they’re gonna be missing you soon enough.” And so saying, he turned away from them and walked into the woods on the other side of the tracks and disappeared.

They tried to make sense of all they had seen as they navigated black to the clearing in The Pines. Gray was concerned about Hornet Carrie starting a forest fire, but when they failed to find any sign of the fire (not even Reece’s jacket), Gray thought it best they all visit his Grams, whose knowledge of both the forest and folklore might help them. No sooner had they decided this than they came upon the party still in full swing: bonfire burning bright and music blaring (though Bruce had switched out Gray’s tape for one of his own).

Most concerning, though, was Carrie and Sy sitting by the fire next to Bruce with the looks have having done something rather “naughty” (as their parents would say) in the woods without going all the way. Bruce implied they’d only been gone about 10 to 15 minutes, and Carrie seemed to think they’d passed each other in the woods. Everything seemed normal, which made the night even more abnormal.

“Definitely gotta see Grams,” Gray said. “And the sooner, the better.”

They arrived at Lydia and Zechariah Whittaker’s house around 10:30. The two had a reputation for being “Grams and Gramps” to many - even those not closely related by blood , and while Grams was known for her frontier spirit and knowledge of local folklore, Gramps was considered to be more grounded and “down-to-earth”.

What they didn’t expect to find was the Cowan car in the driveway, signaling that Dani’s father  Adam - the sheriff -  was inside. Since the place was (almost) like a second home to Gray, he opened the door. They had a clear view of the dining room table, and while Adam Cohen was dressed as if he was on call, he also appeared to be settling in for a tall glass of lemonade.

The adults could tell something was wrong, and while they all leaned forward in concern, it was Adam that broke the brief silence with “What’s wrong?”. Gray started answered a big vaguely with “well, there was a couple of things happened out at the pines,” but Dani could not lie - even half heartedly - to her father and told everything she could, with the parts when she and Reece were split off being filled in by the others.

Of all the responses, the one that actually happened startled Reece. Mr Cowan had shown mixed emotions through the tale, but as Dani finished up, he leaned back and said “I told you so,” to Grams - who had by now found a leaf to slide into the table os they could all sit face-to-face. Gray and Reece rushed it help, glad of something to do.

When the table had been reset and drinks poured, Grams settled in. “Outside this house and this conversation, you must pretend all is normal unless absolutely necessary. Do you understand?” When they had all affirmed, she continued:

“You all remember the founding story of Harper’s Calling? Well, allow me to fill in a few details you won’t hear repeated during our Bicentennial. You see, Thelonius Harper stopped here for a reason - just it the reason you’ve been told. He really did hear something calling to him, but it wasn’t god. Call it what you will - a hellmouth, a beast, a monster - whatever it is, is a hungert thing in the mountains. And it needs regular feeding. The stories I’ve gathered from a hundred years ago say that at the Centennial, the town became a banquet hall, and over the course of six days its luck turned from growth and prosperity to slowly bleeding out. If today is the start of another cycle, we’ve got five more days to live through. If we can.”

Grams finished, and Gray pressed Adam on his comment of “I told you so.” Grams and Gramps replied they’d been hearing strange noises out back, but knew better than to go check. With Grams knowledge of the land and folklore, their house was protected as could be - something she suggested they all do themselves, and Gray said he would give instructions when they headed home.

With the talk turning to going home, Sheriff Cowan tired to hurry them along and began talking of instituting a curfew. This set off a three heated argument - often in circles - of how to balance “normalcy” with “curfew”. Eventually it was decided to let the party at the Pines wind up naturally, and the following day the Sheriff’s Department would issue a warning about rabid animals in the woods, ensuring folks took caution, or at least went armed and not alone.

Assured that they would all go home in a group, Adam Cowan left. Gramps went out to the garage and came back with wood and small knives. “You need to whittle yourself a totem or talisman,” he said. “Doesn’t matter what, just let your mind wander and let the wood guide you. When you’re done, put it on and never take it off.” Reece ended up holding a fair representation of a black bear.

The friends agreed to go home in a group as they’d promised, with Dani staying over at Gray’s so that no one would be alone. They dropped off Gemma, then Mar, and then Reece. Randall Ellsworth wasn’t home yet, so Reece set about scattering rice and setting up brooms and Gray instructed before falling asleep.

### ***June 17***

Reece awoke the next morning to find his father in the parlor seeping off a lot of booze. It looked like Reece was on his own for church. As he left, Reece took note of his precautions; all were in place.

Oren - the associate pastor - greeted Reece by name at the foyer. He seemed happy with a twinge of melancholy as Reece explained Randall was “feeling poorly” this morning and would not be in attendance. Oren expressed sympathy, though Reece knew his father’s alcoholism was a rather open secret. As Oren mentioned that the beams in his foundation seemed to be bad and would need replacing soon, Reece went inside and found an empty seat next to Gray - who had been somewhat forced to attend against his will.

Soon enough the tell rang to order and Arthur Rasmussen entered the sanctuary from his study in the back. Reece thought he looked tired and worn out - almost like he had heat exhaustion. Oren began with the scripture reading as usual, but then Arthur stood up and whispered something that caused Oren to step back in confusion. Arthur reached into is breast pocket and pulled out a hanky. Wiping his brow, he began speaking.

“We are moved by the spirit in unorthodox ways,” he began (with a knowing look to his wife, Peggy, who returned the look with a sly smile). “My good neighbors,” he began again, “I want to talk about something unusual that happened to me last night.”

Now, Arthur Rasmussen was a preacher who knew his audience, and while he assured his congregation that he wasn’t a heretic or blasphemer, he also told a story that  - after thinking his uncle had “gone full Pentecostal” - set Reece on edge (and Gray too, from the looks of it.”

The long and short was that Arthur saw a figure in the backyard. A beautiful woman with a divine presence that called him by name with a voice like bells and singing and filled with truth. He entered into a sacrilegious call and response:

“There are dark times ahead of us, and yet we are also in a time of blessed revelations. The days will be dark until the moment is upon us that we can - we will - we must - cleanse this town. I have seen her - our Lord - and she comes not from the air above, but from the fertile soil below . . .”

As he spoke, Arthur looked more and more strained, and Reece feared he might collapse. he began to move toward the pulpit.

Arthur saw him and though he was coming forward as at an altar call. “See? One comes forward to joint the saints!” To which Reece immediately replied, “No, Uncle Art - you ain’t right in the head.”

“Reece! I would have thought you of all people would understand truth when you heard it,” Arthur protested - and finished his proclamation with “If I’m lying, may  God strike me dead” - and immediately collapsed, coughing and clutching his chest. Reece caught his as he fell, and Gray right behind him kept Peggy back.

Reece had a clear view of his uncle as Arthur’s eyes went all black and he began speaking in tongues, though his voice and demeanor remained unchanged.

Oren had rushed to the pastor’s study and brought back Arthur’s heart medication - just in time for Arthur to calmly lose consciousness.   With Arthur now in Oren’s care, Reese ran next door to call for help, but there was only the silence of a dead phone.

Arthur Cowan placed him in the police car and drove off with the siren wailing. Nearly the entire church watched them drive off, and with services for the day definitely cancelled, Gray and Reece decided to go to the diner and catch up with Gemma and wait for Dani (who stayed home with a headache) and Mar to come to lunch.

But they didn’t even make it to the diner before they saw Sheriff Cowan driving back the other way. He slowed down, and they could see he was disheveled and the car was empty apart from him. From his point of view, he’d been gone for three hours, making it to the foot of the mountain before experiencing car trouble. It was only when he decided to return to Harper’s Calling that the car started again, and as both Peggy and Arthur insisted that all he needed was rest, he dropped them off at home. Apparently it had been quite the ordeal.

Finally making it to their destination, they ordered food while catching up with Gemma. Gemma had seen the sheriff’s car go by - followed by a large herd of jet-black deer - and return a few minutes later going the opposite way.

As they talked a stranger came in the diner, wearing an old fashioned hat and carrying what seemed to be a rather heavy suitcase. He began talking to Mrs. Sands, introducing himself as Reverend Sawyer Goodnight and inquiring about a place to stay; she mentioned speaking with Mike down at the store. He ordered some food and while he sat there waiting, Mar walked in.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Mar said to Gray and Reece. As they filled Mar and Gemma in about the goings-on at the church, Rev. Goodnight politely yet deliberately injected himself in the conversation. The tried to determine if he was the man from the train, but he remained vague in his answers, though he did seem to be unfazed by the tale Reece and Gray relayed, and when Mar told how her own protections had been disturbed and his brothers had said “whistling from the woods” kept them up all night, he seemed concerned.

Finishing his meal, he asked if he would see the group at the town meeting that had been called and then excused himself. He passed Dani coming in the door.

Dani had also experienced something unusual: dreams-within-dreams that she saw/spoke to herself that were more than unpleasant.

They made their way to the meeting, where they saw Rev. Goodnight helping Mike set up. With his sleeves rolled up, they could tell he had some kind of a tattoo, but could not make out what it was. Randall Ellsworth was also there helping, and Reece went over and convinced him to offer their spare room to the man.

Though the friends had agreed to make the funeral home their “base of operations,” Reece and the rest also felt they should keep a close eye on this newcomer - specially when it seemed that for all intents and purposes Harper’s Calling was cut off from the rest of the world. He could think of nowhere closer than in his own home. But also, Reece believed in hospitality. If the Reverend intended him harm, it would be harm most foul, indeed to break hospitality. The town would not let him go unpunished should something happen. For is part, Reece was more inclined to think kindly of the man and wait for a reason not to trust him rather than the other way around.

Reece awoke the next morning to find his father in the parlor seeping off a lot of booze. It looked like Reece was on his own for church. As he left, Reece took note of his precautions; all were in place.

Oren - the associate pastor - greeted Reece by name at the foyer. He seemed happy with a twinge of melancholy as Reece explained Randall was “feeling poorly” this morning and would not be in attendance. Oren expressed sympathy, though Reece knew his father’s alcoholism was a rather open secret. As Oren mentioned that the beams in his foundation seemed to be bad and would need replacing soon, Reece went inside and found an empty seat next to Gray - who had been somewhat forced to attend against his will.

Soon enough the tell rang to order and Arthur Rasmussen entered the sanctuary from his study in the back. Reece thought he looked tired and worn out - almost like he had heat exhaustion. Oren began with the scripture reading as usual, but then Arthur stood up and whispered something that caused Oren to step back in confusion. Arthur reached into is breast pocket and pulled out a hanky. Wiping his brow, he began speaking.

“We are moved by the spirit in unorthodox ways,” he began (with a knowing look to his wife, Peggy, who returned the look with a sly smile). “My good neighbors,” he began again, “I want to talk about something unusual that happened to me last night.”

Now, Arthur Rasmussen was a preacher who knew his audience, and while he assured his congregation that he wasn’t a heretic or blasphemer, he also told a story that  - after thinking his uncle had “gone full Pentecostal” - set Reece on edge (and Gray too, from the looks of it.”

The long and short was that Arthur saw a figure in the backyard. A beautiful woman with a divine presence that called him by name with a voice like bells and singing and filled with truth. He entered into a sacrilegious call and response:

“There are dark times ahead of us, and yet we are also in a time of blessed revelations. The days will be dark until the moment is upon us that we can - we will - we must - cleanse this town. I have seen her - our Lord - and she comes not from the air above, but from the fertile soil below . . .”

As he spoke, Arthur looked more and more strained, and Reece feared he might collapse. he began to move toward the pulpit.

Arthur saw him and though he was coming forward as at an altar call. “See? One comes forward to joint the saints!” To which Reece immediately replied, “No, Uncle Art - you ain’t right in the head.”

“Reece! I would have thought you of all people would understand truth when you heard it,” Arthur protested - and finished his proclamation with “If I’m lying, may  God strike me dead” - and immediately collapsed, coughing and clutching his chest. Reece caught his as he fell, and Gray right behind him kept Peggy back.

Reece had a clear view of his uncle as Arthur’s eyes went all black and he began speaking in tongues, though his voice and demeanor remained unchanged.

Oren had rushed to the pastor’s study and brought back Arthur’s heart medication - just in time for Arthur to calmly lose consciousness.   With Arthur now in Oren’s care, Reese ran next door to call for help, but there was only the silence of a dead phone.

Arthur Cowan placed him in the police car and drove off with the siren wailing. Nearly the entire church watched them drive off, and with services for the day definitely cancelled, Gray and Reece decided to go to the diner and catch up with Gemma and wait for Dani (who stayed home with a headache) and Mar to come to lunch.

But they didn’t even make it to the diner before they saw Sheriff Cowan driving back the other way. He slowed down, and they could see he was disheveled and the car was empty apart from him. From his point of view, he’d been gone for three hours, making it to the foot of the mountain before experiencing car trouble. It was only when he decided to return to Harper’s Calling that the car started again, and as both Peggy and Arthur insisted that all he needed was rest, he dropped them off at home. Apparently it had been quite the ordeal.

Finally making it to their destination, they ordered food while catching up with Gemma. Gemma had seen the sheriff’s car go by - followed by a large herd of jet-black deer - and return a few minutes later going the opposite way.

As they talked a stranger came in the diner, wearing an old fashioned hat and carrying what seemed to be a rather heavy suitcase. He began talking to Mrs. Sands, introducing himself as Reverend Sawyer Goodnight and inquiring about a place to stay; she mentioned speaking with Mike down at the store. He ordered some food and while he sat there waiting, Mar walked in.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Mar said to Gray and Reece. As they filled Mar and Gemma in about the goings-on at the church, Rev. Goodnight politely yet deliberately injected himself in the conversation. The tried to determine if he was the man from the train, but he remained vague in his answers, though he did seem to be unfazed by the tale Reece and Gray relayed, and when Mar told how her own protections had been disturbed and his brothers had said “whistling from the woods” kept them up all night, he seemed concerned.

Finishing his meal, he asked if he would see the group at the town meeting that had been called and then excused himself. He passed Dani coming in the door.

Dani had also experienced something unusual: dreams-within-dreams that she saw/spoke to herself that were more than unpleasant.

They made their way to the meeting, where they saw Rev. Goodnight helping Mike set up. With his sleeves rolled up, they could tell he had some kind of a tattoo, but could not make out what it was. Randall Ellsworth was also there helping, and Reece went over and convinced him to offer their spare room to the man.

Though the friends had agreed to make the funeral home their “base of operations,” Reece and the rest also felt they should keep a close eye on this newcomer - specially when it seemed that for all intents and purposes Harper’s Calling was cut off from the rest of the world. He could think of nowhere closer than in his own home. But also, Reece believed in hospitality. If the Reverend intended him harm, it would be harm most foul, indeed to break hospitality. The town would not let him go unpunished should something happen. For is part, Reece was more inclined to think kindly of the man and wait for a reason not to trust him rather than the other way around.

Mayor Eugene Lancaster (Gray’s uncle) called the meeting to order. He didn’t beat around the bush as he got right to the point and said that Pastor Rasmussen had been taken ill by a fever. Looking around, Reece realized Oren wasn’t their either; no sooner did he realize this than Eugene continued by saying that Arthur was resting at home boing looked after by his wife, Peggy, and his associate pastor, Oren Valentine.

He then went to explain that, due to some unusual geographic occurrence, it appeared that the roads out of Harper’s Calling were closed and the phones calling out were likewise out of service. Reports seemed to indicate that calling to others within the town limits was hit-or-miss. While this was not unusual in winter, it was unheard of in summer. Eugene proposed sending a volunteer party to hike up to the radio tower to see if they could make contact that way.

Gray asked if the disturbance had affected the local wildlife, and Mayor Lancaster repeated the excuse they had come up with the night before and warned folks to be careful in the woods.

Gemma asked if folks could still get in the town, somewhat awkwardly pointing out he arrival of Rev. Goodnight, but no one could answer her question.

The meeting ended with the declaration that the celebrations for the Bicentennial were still on and would kick off that evening with a showing of “An American Werewolf in London” right here in the same space.

The group decided to stock up at Mike’s and then head to Reece’s to set up “shop”; those that hadn’t ridden bikes into town got a ride from Sheriff Cowan.

They each did what they could to protect their own homes before meeting up with Reece at his house. Making the rounds, Reece thought he saw someone in the freezer. Perhaps unwisely, he called out “hello” while turning the light on and off again. It disappeared in the light but was visible ion the dark: someone or something standing about 5’2” or 5’3” and smiling. He walked backwards out of the freezer and locked it.

“Let’s set up in the receiving parlor,” he told the rest as they gathered, telling them of what he’d seen in the freezer. They set up a “fort” and worked on setting up folk wards around the rest of the house.

Rev. Goodnight arrived and seemed genuinely appreciative of the Ellsworth’s offer. Reece gave him a quick tour and then handed him a spare key. “If you’re going to stay here, you shouldn’t be worried about if one of us is home or not,” he said, truthfully.

While Goodnight settled in, they went to help Mikey set up for the movie as promised. The reverend showed up just before the movie started; it was a good thing they’d saved him a seat.

About an hour and forty-five minutes into the film, Reece started to hear something “wild” sounding outside. Nudging Reece, Gray glanced over and saw something covered in shadow looking in at the assembled moviegoers. Goodnight seemed oblivious, and Reece noticed Dani covering her eyes and peeking out into the darkness. Gray tried to get Goodnight’s attention, but no one else seemed to notice as a wet growl begann moving counter-clockwise outside.

And then a came a second set of growls, and Reece heard Goodnight mutter “sounds like a big son of a bitch” right before a wet hunk of something hit the projector. It knocked the stand over and the machine tumbled to the floor, covered in something that started eating away at it.

For a split second Reece thought of what it would cost Mike to replace the projector and pay for the ruined movie and then he was brought back to reality as teens started screaming and running. Above their terror he heard a steady voice shouting “Rec Hall - NOW!” It was Gray, and as Reece joined in, people started to listen.

Reverend Goodnight now stood with the friends against - whatever it was - unarmed. But then again, so were they. Or so Reece thought, until the sounds of Gray’s Desert Eagle cracked the thing’s head like a melon, spilling black ichor onto the ground and deflating the monster into a puddle of goo. Another howl split the air, and by Reece’s count there were now four of the creatures.

One of them charged Gray while another went after the fleeing teens; Reece watched in both horror and relief as many of them dodged the attacks.

Gemma threw a protractor she pulled from somewhere; it bounced off and did nothing. Mar looked around for something to fight back with.

The third creature now came to attack Gray while the fourth and final creature focused on Bruce, the boy who’d brought the boombox to the bonfire, as he stumbled toward the Rec Hall.

Goodnight charged the beast towering over Bruce and, barehanded, grappled it to the ground.

Dani slammed a chair into one of the things - Reece now thought they looked like werewolves, though more wolf than man - and Reece kicked at the one Goodnight had grappled. He didn’t see the one that missed a lunge at Dani until it was latched onto his arm.

Gemma slapped at it like it was a bad puppy, and Mar now focused on beating the crap out of the thing between Gray and Dani.

One was now grappled, one was biting into Reece, and one still focused on Gray. The other now turned and bit into Gemma with more force than Reece thought a person could withstand. It seemed the very jaws of the thing kept Gemma together, and that she would fall apart if it let go.

Goodnight let go his grapple and ran towards Gemma while holding out the cross he wore around his neck.

“You’ve got this!” he called out to her before commanding the thing to release her. To Reece’s astonishment, it oozed away. It looked to him like Gemma had lost a lot of blood but also appeared to have all her bits still attached. “Are you an angel?” he heard her ask, staring up at Goodnight, before they both passed out.

Gray now twisted to help Reece, tossing him a knife. “Pick on someone your own size!”

With his good hand, Reece stabbed the thing.

It howled, and all three remaining creatures fled into the night with Gray shooting after them, possibly hitting one - though if it was killed our merely wounded none could say.

With the teens in the Rec Hall, Mikey now came running over. Seeing Gemma, he went to get his car, but it refused to turn over. “Looks like our technology’s going out,” Gray observed.

They triaged the injured. Gray went to Goodnight first; when he came to he tried attacking Gray but soon calmed down. To Reece, the goop was concerning. Both he and Gemma had significant contact with it, and it was very much in their bloodstream.

Grams arrived on her bike, and it seemed to Reece she may have momentarily recognized Goodnight. He caught a bit of conversation with her and Gray, and thought he heard the word “pupalien” thrown about. Grams looked Reece over and didn’t mince words. “Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?” she asked.

“Whichever is fastest” Reece replied. No sooner had he said this than Grams said “Hard it is then,” and slapped a mixture of what smelled like gasoline and lavender on his skin. It entered his wounds and crawled through his veins and his entire body felt a bone-deep pain. He felt his brain make a conscious decision to pass out, retreating into a kind of “off-mode”. Reece remembered little else until his brain now focused in on Gray’s voice and waking up in Mar’s arms - the pain still there but considerable lessened.

“Jesus Christ,” he swore.

Goodnight had now turned to Gemma, who was waking up. Gram’s face fell when she saw her, but then grew perplexed and maybe irritated(?) as Gemma described what she remembered happening and who she thought saved her. They talked, but Reece’s brain was still fuzzy and he didn’t quite make out what was being said.

Realizing that they had been caught with their guard down, they all went to Gram’s house where Gramps helped them secure knives and guns and ammunition and blunt instruments. He had amassed a veritable armory over the years in Harper’s Calling, and now Gray and the others understood why.

”bBest if you start treating every story you’ve ever heard as the gospel truth,” was the advice Grams and Gramps gave to them all.

Bruce tagged along with them - there was no stopping him since he had also been attacked by the creatures - and Reece made sure Gramps helped him whittle his own charm.

Gray had to go home that night on his dad’s orders; they resolved to keep in contact with Walkie-Talkies.

While the group settled in at Reece’s they listed in as Gray’s dad attacked him for apparently no reason and Gray fought back. On their end, it sounded awful. Gray ended up coming to Reece’s bruised and bloodied, and then he told them his dad had been possessed by something that came out of the fire and crawled backwards up the chimney.

Reece glanced nervously at his own chimney flue. He realized much more needed to be done to help keep them safe. The group helped Reece fortify the Ellsworth home even more. When they finished, Goodnight shared part of his story..

He was indeed the figure from the train, he said, but wasn’t sure if that had happened for him yet. It seemed time worked differently for him.

He had been born in 1764 and was supposed to go on Thelonius Harper’s expedition into the frontier. But when he fell ill, his older brother Robert had gone instead. He discovered (eventually) that his brother had died under somewhat mysterious circumstances, and determined to find out what really happened to him.

“The woods takes things when it gives ‘blessing’” he said, and he explained that he nearly gave up hope in a snowfall in a pine clearing when a woman appeared. From his description, it did not seem to be the Lady of the Pines, but nevertheless Goodnight followed this woman and found himself boarding a train.

And now he seemed to find himself in Harper’s Calling when it “needed help,” and then boarding the train again when it had passed. He even let slip that he might have visited a future Harper’s Calling, but nobody pushed the issue.

It seemed Reverend Goodnight - who carried several dime store novels in his suitcase - might be a kind of protector of the town.

They listened to the wind blow outside, half convinced the sounds were those of someone trying to break in. It was decided they would sleep in shifts to keep watch/guard, with Bruce volunteering for the first watch. The rest of the night passed uneventfully; Randall Ellsworth did not return home.

### ***June 18***

The next morning Reece woke up to the sounds of Gemma rummaging in the kitchen. Everyone was hungry; they made chicken and waffles for breakfast.

Gemma wanted to look for Goodnight’s box of books, and while the man had shared his story with them, some were still undecided. Upstairs they found Goodnight in his room. A white powder burned in a bowl and his unbuttoned shirt showed significant scarring. They chose to let him be.

The group of friends headed into town, passing the Meeks’ house as they did so. The house was old and had been abandoned for years; it was a wonder it hadn’t caved in on itself already.

Maybe it was a trick of the light, but Reece thought he saw a figure standing in the window. Pausing for a better look, he realized it was a person banging on the windows as if trying to get out. Their skin was pale white backlit with a glow from something. It took another second for Reece to place the face: Cole Young, a recent graduate and former classmate of Gray’s. He had been in a few Gen Ed classes with the group, and had something of an artistic bent to him. Despite the banging, Reece heard no sound coming from the house.

“Holy shit, I think that’s Cole!” he exclaimed, drawing the other’s attention as the figure disappeared from the window.

They walked onto the property and saw two bikes that appeared - somehow - to be melted or fused together with grass and weeds growing up and around and through them. Approaching the house Reece glanced in the window at which he’d seen Cole: he could swear it looked like winter inside, with the glow from a fireplace looking very much like the glow from the burning train. Cole was nowhere to be seen.

Gray got the door open, and inside was a different matter entirely. It looked like a perfect 1940s household. Music filtered through the air: Bing Crosby’s “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” on vinyl.

Reece looked back. The door was shut and Dani and Gemma weren’t there. It was him, Bruce, Mar, and Gray. Just then a person entered the entryway. “Oh, you must be friends of Cole and Landon!” she exclaimed. “My name’s Madalyn, but you can call me Maddie. Maddie Meeks, that is. Breakfast is just about ready!”

Murmuring apologies for intruding and trying to figure out what the hell had just happened, they followed the woman into the kitchen, where a table had been set for breakfast.

Cole was there, dressed in 1980s clothes (as opposed to Maddie’s 1940s fashions), but Landon . . . Landon was no longer among the living; his skin had been burned away. Nevertheless, his body “sat politely” as if waited to be served.

With sideways glances to Cole, they picked up that it would be better to go along with Maddie Meek’s instructions. Reece took her offer of coffee only to discover a piping hot mug of thing, rancid mud. A large plate of “pink bacon” was placed before them - it wouldn’t take a genius to determine its origins. It’s what some folks called “long pork.”

Gray tried to BS their way out, but mentioned the name Goodnight, which seemed to set Meeks off. They used the slight distraction to shoot her in the head, but she simply pushed the bullet back out, said “now, that wasn’t very nice. I’ll have to take that gun until you get back from work”, and then pluck the piece from Gray’s hand.

“If she says you’ll get it back, you’ll get it back,” whispered Cole as Meeks took out a set of keys.

“Now, the boys are off to work in the basement, while you can stay here and help me clean with Landon,” she said to Mar.

Glancing over her shoulder, Reece saw Dani and Gemma. When did they get here, he wondered.

“Oh, you know Landon’s feeling poorly,” Bruce said. “Why don’t I stay and help you and the girls he?” offered. Meeks accepted and then Cole and Reese and Gray were ushered through the basement door, which locked behind them. The stairs went down, farther down than basement stairs had a right to go. It seemed they were at the entrance to a mine. Next to him, Reece heard Gray praying for safety.

From down below came the sounds of miners at work. The cellar steps seemed to defy logic; Reece counted twenty steps, yet it seemed they had travelled two hundred feet into the earth. The bottom of the stairs deposited them into a landing or staging area with the miners filing past an overseer. Reece was shocked to see he had no face! The worker’s clothes were threadbare and their skin showed they had long been exposed to hard labor. There was no modern lighting; lanterns were required down here.

Reece had a moment when he thought the weirdness of it all would get to him, but it passed. Gray was not so lucky and he seemed to be hyperventilating. Together, Reece and Cole caught Gray before he went out like a light.

Cole seemed to know what he was about, and Reece allowed him to lead around the back of the stairs to a storage area with shovels and picks and other mining paraphernalia. It seemed cooler here; Reece thought it felt “more real” than the mine. They lay Gray out flat to recover in the cooler temperature. Patting his pockets, Reece found smelling salts  - likely left over from a funeral some time ago. Cole knew how to use them and soon Gray came around - - along with his fist, which caught Cole square on the jaw. And then Gray’s hands were at his own throat, tearing at his shirt buttons as if it was choking him.

And there in the cellar under the stairs, they tried to make sense of what was happening. Between the three of them they wracked their brains for every story of the Meek’s house they had heard. None of them could ever recall hearing the Maddie Meeks had died.

“She’s a tulpa, isn’t she?” Gray asked, half to himself.

“A what?” Reece and Cole asked together.

“A tulpa is a creature of the mind. Remember we were told to treat all the stories we’d heard as true? A tulpa is the perfect example of that. Maddie Meeks has become more real as her story’s evolved of the years.”

At this point the three of them realized they were not alone. A boy stood in the doorway, dressed in clothes of a long time ago. Though it seemed he was looking right at them, his eyes seemed blind from lack of light. “You’re taking about the lady upstairs,” he said.

“Ye-es,” Gray said slowly. “What is she to you?”

“She’s the one who speaks with a voice like a fine shadow. I think she needs more bodies for the work down here below.”

The boy gave a name Reece could not afterwards remember, but he seemed trustworthy enough for someone they had just encountered down here in the earth.

“Speaking of work,” Cole interjected, “the overseer will be missing us soon enough.”

Grabbing shovels and axes, the four of them returned to the overseer, who - though faceless - seemed to look with disdain on them.

“And just what do you think you’re going to do?” Gray taunted. “You’re not even real. And by the way, we’re on strike as of right now.”

“Strike. Strike. Strike.” Cole started chanting. Reece started pounding his pickaxe in time with Cole. “Strike. Strike. Strike.”

The ghost boy ran to spread the word among the other miners.

The overseer tried to hit Gray, but his arm whiffed right through as if it were made of nothing but mist (or shadow).

“Witness me” it growled, as chants of “strike. Strike. STRIKE!” came from throughout the mine.

The mountain began to rumble like fire and the sound of explosions came from deep in the earth. They boys felt heat rushing toward them, and Cole had the presence of mind to push them up the stairs as the explosions ripped through the unfortunate workers and the blast forced them upwards toward the cellar door and the Meeks house.

Reece was unharmed and Gray liked like he might have bruised an arm, but Cole was still on the stairwell when it broke apart under him as he was only halfway up. But his legs kept moving, and to Reece it looked like he was supported by a fine shadow as he leapt and reached for the lowest surviving tread, landing on the half fallen stair and handing on for dear life.

Gray rushed to help him up, and Reece held on to Gray. Either they were all coming back up or they would go down together.

They made it, catching their breath on the landing before making short work of the door with the pickaxes they had been carrying. They heard sounds coming from upstairs, and rushed into one of the upper rooms to find the fiery corpse of Landon Parks attacking Mar and Dani.

*Player’s Note: The other PCs had spent this time “cleaning” for Maddie Meeks while also trying to find ways to sabotage her. Bruce noticed that Landon seemed to be moving, and just as they were about to execute their plan, Landon sat bolt upright and attacked the group. One of them set him on fire. This was the scene Cole and Gray and Reece came in on.*

No sooner had they arrived than Maddie Meeks appeared, screaming “What have you done?!”

Mar split her skull with her axe, but Maddie Meeks knit herself right back together. Bullets, knives, and fists all seemed to have similar non-effects.

“You all just won’t play by the rules, will you?” Maddie asked with a mix of disdain and despair.

“There’s a new rule,” Reece said. “You lose.”

The next knock from Dani laid her flat, and as she rose back up Reece shouted, “did you hear me? I said YOU LOSE, BITCH!” And while Meeks still got to her feet, she didn’t look quit as up to par as she had been.

Cole had used their fight as a distraction. He had found portraits of Maddie and hr husband - who Reece now remembered had gone to war and not returned. “Go fetch,” he said, tossing them into the burning fireplace.

Maddie screamed as she turned to ash and dust in the wind, and the house took on the heat of an early summer afternoon.

The left the house. According to their watches - which hadn’t worked inside - it was now 11:00 am. What had seemed like an hour or so to them had been four hours on the outside. Mentioning this, Cole said it seemed to him like he had been inside for three weeks. Three weeks of that hideous torture.

They went back to Reece’s and took turns getting showers. Reece took the opportunity to leave a note for Randall:

“Things are happening around town and I’ve taken precautions to protect the house. Don’t touch anything or open any windows. If you have any questions, talk to the sheriff.”

He then used the Walkie-Talkie to contact Gramps, asking him to bring over some more whittling wood. It turned out he and Grams were already on the way; strange things had been going on with Mar’s mom and they were going to try to see what was going on. Mar got on and, with glances to Reese to make sure it was okay, invited her brothers over so they wouldn’t have to see whatever went on.

At this point Gemma was in the shower - the last one - and someone in the kitchen commented that the water pressure seemed off. Seconds later, they heard Gemma screaming from upstairs. They rushed upstairs and found Gemma on the bathroom floor, wrapped in the shower curtain, and the shower head ripped off at the wall. It had been a detachable shower head, but it wasn’t designed to do that. Water was everywhere.

Reece and Gray entered, keeping their eyes modestly off of Gemma. Reece focused on turning off the water; as he did so, he called back to Mar and Dani: “Go down to the linen closet and grab towels for the floor and blankets for Gemma.”

Unfortunately, none of the clothes in Reece’s house would fit Gemma; they were all comically too large or too small. But Mar and Dani between them found clothes for her to wear. She told them a story of seeing a shadow in the bathroom, of trying to fight it with the shower head but getting tangled up instead, of falling and ripping out the pipes and hitting her head and breaking her neck - - only to see a large black wold with blue, human-like eyes pull her out of the shower and onto the floor, painfully nudging her head back into position, and then her bones cracking back into place leaving her with little more that a headache.

Mar’s brother - Allen and the twins Ron and John - arrived. They seemed unconcerned about what was going on at home and were more interested in the fact that “the backyard ghost” had shown back up.

Wait what?

Didn’t everyone have a ghost in the backyard? They wanted to know. She wasn’t scary, just dressed old-fashioned like, and appeared near the oak tree where the tire swing had been until it fell down last year.

“Let’s put a pin in that,” Gray said, as Grams and Gramps showed up.

“Town’s going nuts” they told the group. “The youngest Carroll girl, Millie, has gone missing. And when we went to check on Gideon, he wasn’t there,” they told Gray.

Cole whittled is own talisman as Reece added to his father’s note: “There was an incident in the bathroom. Baths only until I get it fixed” and Gemma asked about werewolves.

They decided to go down and see if they could help look for Millie, but though Mar’s brothers should stay behind. Bruce volunteered to babysit, and after some instructions from Reece and plenty of threats from Mar, off they went.

They found Millie’s sister, Becky, down at Mike’s. She’s seemed to be in shock. She and Millie had been walking home after the movie, and as their friends broke off to their respective homes, it was just the two of them walking hand-in-hand until suddenly Millie just wasn’t there. They had just crossed the creek at the bridge and . . .

Reece and Gray looked at each other and then at Becky. Reece noticed the edge of her skirt was torn and muddy. Gray called him over and pointed to the back of Becky’s head; tiny knots had been woven into her hair.

Reece was put in mind of the fact that stories shifted over time, but at one point there had been tales of fey creatures living in the water, of wee folk in the trees, who would like nothing more than to take a human child for uncertain but definitely nefarious reasons.

“Stay-Below” he whispered to Gray.

“Fetch,” Gray whispered back.

And then, louder, Gray talked to Becky. “We’re going to go look for Millie now. But you need to stay here with Mike until we come back, all right?”

Securing her promise, they all went outside, where Gray and Reece relayed their thoughts. They had a choice: go to the river or to the Carroll house. Reece suggested they start with Millie’s last known location: the Creek Crossing  Bridge.

As they neared the bridge, the sky grew dark as a summer thunderstorm sprang up, soaking them all to the bone and turning what should have been a relatively dry creek bed into a raging stream. Muddy footprints came up out of the water and went into the woods.

They followed the tracks. The storm subsided, the sun returned, and their clothes dried - perhaps quicker than might be expected. They stepped out of the woods and into the Carroll’s backyard. Sounds of a party seemed to be coming from inside.

Led by Dani, they tried to sneak up to peek in the window. Mar nearly stepped on a large, dry twig - which would certainly have let anyone listening know they were there - but Gemma kicked it away just in time.

Dani peeked inside and then turned back, horrified. She quietly explained that while things seemed “normal” inside, they weren’t. Millie’s parents were throwing a birthday party, with Millie in the place of honor and surrounded by eight other kids. But then something shifted and the cake and food appeared rotten, crawling to mold, and giving off a repugnant petrichor. The kids’ expressions were blank, like carved mannequins, except for “Millie” who now looked like a creature made of mud and sticks and fungus in a perverted perfection of decay. She had a bright smile and dead eyes.

Reece and the others recalled hearing stories of the construction of a nearby reservoir. Some workers had been killed and buried - a tragedy, but not unheard of - and for a while some folks claimed they had seem them in the woods. Some who had gotten close gave similar descriptions of bark and twigs and mud. And then one day, the stories just . . . stopped.

After a brief, quiet discussion, they decided to go up and knock on the front door, pretending they were here for the party.

Reece knocked and Mr. Carroll answered. Reece made up a story about hearing the singing and wanting to lend their voices to the small choir. This seemed good enough for Mr. Carroll, though he was worried they wouldn’t have enough food to go around. From inside, Mrs. Carroll called out not to worry and to have them all come in.

They walked through the door and turned into the sitting room, which had been laid out for the party. They heard the door to the outside being locked behind them - include the deadbolt, which had its key removed and placed into someone’s pocket.

In the room the kids were eating and giggling and laughing. Mrs. Carroll apologized for the lack of chairs, but they all said they were fine standing. Dani commented on Millie’s dress - the same one she was wearing in the photo on her “Missing” flier, and Gray asked her about her birthday.

The dress was her favorite, she said, and she wore it for lots of things. And yes, it was her birthday, and she already got what she wished for: lots of new friends. The way she said “friends” was very disconcerting. Millie was obsessed with herself, but perhaps that was usual for a girl turning eight. She didn’t know where her sister was; maybe she was out getting something for the party.

“She better not be alone,” Gemma said, “don’t want to get attacked by a werewolf.”

“And have you seen a werewolf?” Millie asked.

“Of course! You were at the movie, too.”

“No. No, I think you’ve seen something else.”

Millie tried pressing Gemma to unsettle her, and the more Gemma tried to deflect the more it seemed she revealed about what they’d been doing the last few days.

“shut up shut up shut up” Dani and Gray said under their breath, not unkindly but out of concern.

The other kid’s were now paying attention to the group. If their creepiness could be quantified on a scale of 1 to 10, it would be at an 8.

Mercifully, they were interrupted by Mrs. Carroll. “Time for cake!”

Some politely refused, Reece managed to “accidentally” drop a small piece on the floor (followed by a sting of kid-friendly “swearing”), but Gemma actually took a bite.

She closed her eyes in what seemed to Reece a look of appreciation, as if she found it the best thing she had ever tasted, before they flow open in terror as she started screaming.

Dani tried to comfort Gemma, who in rapid breaths stammered that the kids would kill us all and could she get a hug from Dani to prove she was real?

Gray turned to confront Millie, but before anything could be said the abomination opened her mouth and screamed. They saw her open her mouth and went to cover their ears - all except Mar. Gray saw this and instead of covering his own covered hers.

Reece saw Gray’s face go slack and he rushed to catch his friend. But there was nothing to be done. Blood poured from Gray’s nose and ears and eyes and mouth as if everything in his head had liquified.

Dani screamed and, pulling out a lighter, improvised a blowtorch against Millie. Mar and Gemma and Cole attacked the “children” nearest them.

From the ground, Reece stabbed at the one nearest him and then everything seemed to move in slow motion. He realized they were still in danger. What if Millie screamed again? What if one of these things could do the same? What if they all could?

The door - which had been locked - opened.

In walked Rev. Goodnight.

He surveyed the scene quickly before looking directly at Reece.

“A gift for your hospitality,” he said sincerely and soberly, “what is it you wish?”

Something clicked in Reece’s mind. He knew that no matter his answer, things were going to change. But for the first time in a very long time, someone was giving him a choice.

A choice he made. It was time to stop playing.

“I wish Gray was here to help us beat these fuckers. I would give my life for this town; what do you think I would do for my friends?”

Goodnight looked as if he was sizing Reece up, not unpleasantly, but as if he was taking the measure of his words.

“And what will you do in the coming days when you will be asked to take ownership of things you would rather put aside? What will you do when faced with greater threats than this small skirmish? Will you commit?”

Reece felt the blood rise in him, not against Goodnight, but against the things that threatened Harper’s Calling and would dare to kill his friends. His uncle wanted Reece to guide the living, his father wanted him to tend the dead. Reece chose to be a soldier.

If he had time to think of a response he may have quoted the prophet Isaiah: “and I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then said I ‘hear am I, send me.’”

But in that moment all he could think about was how unprepared they had all been. He looked Goodnight in the eye as he answered with resolve: “Give me a weapon and point me toward the enemy.”

It would be wrong to say Goodnight look pleased or satisfied, but that’s the closet Reece could describe the look Goodnight gave him before he told Reece; “Very well.” And nodding to Reece in acknowledgement, Goodnight turned his attention to the rest of the room.

Touching each of Reece’s friends, Goodnight moved them each backwards in time to just before Gemma had eaten the cake. He turned to leave and stopped at the door before turning to Reece one last time and saying, “I trust you will not waste this opportunity, Master of Death. Now, you best be getting back to your party.”

(*Reece couldn’t help but think that was the second time Goodnight had said that.*)

The door click shut behind him - locked again - and time started again.

It seemed they each had their memories of what had happened: Cole reached out and slapped the cake away from Gemma, and Gray simply leveled his desert eagle at Millie and fired. She splintered like dry wood. Dani, once more with the makeshift blowtorch, set her on fire, which soon spread to the walls of the house.

Dying, the fake Millie coughed and gestured and the glamours on the rest of the children fell away.

“Keep away from their mouths!” Gemma shouted as she lit her own sketchbook on fire and threw it defensively in front of her. It landed between two of the kids, who promptly burst into flame.

Cole grabbed a char, broke it on the ground, and starting beating one with a leg. They made short work of the now-leaderless monstrosities.

But the fire continued to spread.

“We’ve got to find Millie!” Gray shouted.

They found the door to the root cellar and opened it; the rush of oxygen took off their eyebrows. Millie wasn’t there, but the Carrolls were, smiles plastered on their faces and singing “Happy Birthday” while digging with bloody hands though the foundation. Reece was about to attack when Dani and Gray stopped him. “They’re them”

With no time to think about who was upstairs, they tried to get the Carroll’s attention by asking “didn’t they want to go see their daughters?”

“Oh but we know where Millie is; she’s down below and we must go to her.”

Dani and Gray tried their best to get the Carroll’s to leave. “Can’t leave my baby girl alone on her birthday,” Mr. Carroll said as he returned to digging. But Mrs Carroll seemed to come around. Gray passed her off to Reece, who took her in his arms as they escaped the burning, collapsing house.

It was a close thing too; the falling joists supporting the second floor nearly came down right on top of Mar, but she dodged just in time.

Returning to the General Store, Reece gently sat Mrs. Carrol down by Becky as Dani and Gemma gently explained that Mrs Carroll would be sick for a little while, and she’d need Becky to look after her. Mr. Carroll had decided to stay with Millie so she wouldn’t be alone.

As the reality of what was being said sank in, Becky collapsed in tears on Gray’s shoulder, but Mar switched places so Gray could talk to Mikey. Mikey had the space and Gray and Reece had some money; the Carrolls would be looked after until they could get back on their feet.

They returned to the funeral home. Walking in the front door, he got the feeling he should stop. Just then, Reece was nearly impaled by a cue stick coming from the sitting room and across the hall.

“Who goes there!?” Bruce called out.

“It us - Reece and the rest,” Reece replied hastily.

The boys had booby-trapped the house, and while Mar seemed upset, Reece had to admit they had done a decent job and had taken their warnings seriously.

Settling into parlor after getting cleaned up (again!) with no one going alone, Gray revealed that he had died and had gone to a place that felt familiar from his accident.

He’d been in a cabin with a lantern. Voices outside called for him to share so their own lights wouldn’t go out. He thought he recognized Millie’s voice among them. And when it seemed they were about to break the cabin apart, Goodnight appeared and took him back.

“I saw Rev. Goodnight too,” Reece said. “I tried to catch you when you . . . but it was too late. Then everything slowed and . . .”  he began, relaying what had happened, leaving nothing out.

“If it makes you feel any better, Reece, I was gone before you caught me.” He paused. “What was it the good Reverend called you, Reece?” Gray asked.

“The Master of Death”

“Sounds ominous”

“Ominous . . . and somewhat fitting considering . . .” Reece said, gesturing all around him at the funeral home.

The door opened and Rev. Goodnight entered, placing his hat on the stand. “Ah. I thought I would find you all here.”

“Hello, Goodnight,” Gray said pleasantly - if also very weakly after his ordeal. “Might I ask - when are you?”

“A question I’d be glad to answer,” Goodnight said, “but not before you’ve all had a chance to rest. I know you’ve been going nonstop, and you’ll need to keep going before this is all over. I’m not saying you need to sleep, but some space to just be would not be out of line.”

Reece spent the next hour focusing his mind. He determined to take his responsibility seriously - but what that meant, he wasn’t sure. He looked through several closets before coming across something he thought would help: his father’s army helmet. Grabbing some white paint he went back to the kitchen, where Gemma asked for some paper. Opening the junk drawer, Reece pulled out several pads and told her to help herself. Gemma was planning to re-draw her lost sketchbook; which gave Reece another idea.

First, he took the paint and began decorating the helmet. On one side he painted what might pass for a stylizing bear claw, reflecting the totem he wore on his neck. On the other he carefully lettered the words “NO ONE GOES ALONE”. If this was war, he determined to play his part.

Then he took paper and wrote title cards, as if preparing to shoot a silent movie. Which, in fact, he was. He thought of Landon and Millie and Mr. Carroll and even of Gray. There was a good chance someone else would die before this was over. And even though Gray came back, and even though Goodnight had called him “master of death” (whatever that might mean), he’d be damned if anyone forgot the sacrifice that was being made to protect this town. He was going to take a moment to film this group, and so he wrote: ***June 18, 1984 | If anything good remains of Harper’s Calling, it is because of the folks in this room.***

And then a third thought came to him and, taking another piece of paper, wrote himself a list:

Notes of Important Things:

- Uncle Art

- search party to radio tower

- backyard ghost

Reece looked up and realized the there were filing back into the living room. Goodnight began speaking, and in his own way -at times vague and at times with great detail - gave his story. Reece wished he could have recorded it, but the main facts were:

* This was the fifth time he had this conversation with them
* This was the fifth time he’s met them all
* This was the sixth time he hoped things would turn out differently.
* He was stuck in a loop of sorts, with the Bicentennial being a brawl of sorts for the soul of the town, and he wasn’t sure how many attempts he had left.
* His experience s had been . . . messy, with his failure a hundred years ago causing him to jump the train in the first place. The train itself could lead to (heaven?) (hell?) depending on the direction one rode it.

Reece caught the mismatched counts and asked Goodnight about it.

“Telling you your mistakes didn’t help, and sometimes turned out worse. I tried once to leave you all out of it and that was the worst attempt yet. It needs to be the five of you. Maybe seven (he looked at Cole and Bryce). When you’re all involved, things turn out better, even if it hasn’t worked.”

“So you’re not a preacher?” Gemma asked.

“Oh I am a preacher. My mistress is the Lady of the Pines, the primordial protector of the forest, is Al'ashjar, the ward.”

“So what are you?”

“Well, I’m not a werewolf, but my lady has given gifts, such as a memory like a finely-tuned needle.” He paused before continuing.

“There are others as well. Alzilal, the shadow hag, takes the side of darkness. Alniryan, the fire song, is of, well, fire. That’s who Gray’s father aligned with..”

“And possibly my uncle . . .” Reece said.

“So what you’re saying is that we’re stand ins for these . . . these things,” Gray began, before Goodnight cut him off.

“No, you’re not exactly stand-ins. I used to think that, too. I’m not sure what, exactly, you all are - only that the fate of Harper’s Calling rises and falls with you. You’ve all been touched in some way. Gray by Fire, Mar by Shadow, Dani by Time, Reece by Death, and Gemma . . .”

He trailed off as Gemma was staring hard at him.

“Have you figured it out yet, pup?”

“Am I a werewolf?” Gemma finally asked, feeling her mouth for any changes to her teeth.

“No, but you do bear powerful gifts from my lady. The powers here are eternally trying to control the town. Fire won lost time.”

They knew there was only so much information  Goodnight could give them without causing harm. They talked about what they might have tried last time: helping the Lady win, trying to balance the three forces, and the like.

Gray liked thoughtful and then tried the phone - a nice speakerphone purchased for the Home - and somehow managed to reach his grandfather in Miskatonic. The words he was saying seemed to go over Reece’s head - they involved a folklore and mythology outside Reece’s experience - but the end result was that Goodnight produced a Black Book that Gray’s granddad said might help them.

Goodnight explained that while his Lady was not a jealous patron, she did have certain limits. And while he would not prevent them from using the book he could neither help them nor be present while they used it. He did confirm that consulting the book was not something they’d done before.

Gray explained his idea: the book might be used to find and summon a power greater than those they were dealing with. They fire and shadow and land, though in opposition to each other, were also three parts of a whole. They needed someone or something greater than the sum of their parts. Gray also knew that using the book was dangerous; Reece suggested the read it together.

The first part of the book seemed harmless; it was an encyclopedia of gods. Gray determined they needed an Outer God, best even for an Elder God, and splitting the pages they eliminated those that would destroy the earth with their very presence, or were unfriendly towards humans, or that were already overly-friendly with the three. They needed a deific babysitter, and they settled on Bast, the Queen of Cats and Chewer of Corpses. This irony was not lost on Reece.

And now the truly dangerous part: finding a summoning spell. They thought they found one, but as they looked at it Reece’s brain went a bit fuzzy, and when he refocused he saw Gray falling toward the floor. Instinctively Reece went to catch him, but he was not the only one. Mar and Cole were there, too.

He passed out and then started thrashing. Reece had seen this before in the mine under the Meeks House and changed his support into a friendly grapple of sorts to keep Gray and everyone around him safe.

When he came to, Gray pulled down his shirt; another burning handprint had appeared on him. Shaking, Gray explained that he saw the Fire Song here in the house. That she had walked toward him burning with an intense heat that had burned the rest of us to smoke.

“Your father is waiting. Be his prodigal son” she said , touching him and waking him up.

Reece was concerned the wards were failing, but Goodnight (who had returned due to the commotion) explained it sounded more like a vision. That Gray had seen the Fire Song in his mind, but that what had happed had physical effects on Gray.

“We need to get help sooner rather than later,” Gray said, and so they began their preparations. Bruce and the triplets went to find sugary snacks, Dani and Gemma went to Mike’s for supplies and decorations, Gray and Cole and Goodnight went to get more weapons, and Mar and Reece stayed behind to cook the best recipes from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.

After the others had left, Mar and Reece were elbows-deep in cooking when they started to hear shuffling front the basement morgue. They looked at each other for a moment before asking nearly simultaneously. “You hear that too?”

Looking at the door, they decided to lock and barricade it, feeling it was better to wait and tackle whatever was down there with more than just the two of them. They went into the living room for a couch and were surprised to see Oren Valentine there.

Reece went to speak to him but it seemed Oren didn’t know they were there. He spread his arms as if a crucifix and then, slowly shuffling his feet, turned to look at them.

“I’m sorry; this is as far as I can go. This is it.”

Smoke started billowing at his feet and then he went up in flames. A prayer formed on his lips that Reece could not understand. There was no scream, but in a flash he was gone - with no ash, no smoke, no burned furniture.

No other sounds filled the house and it was as if nothing was ever there.

Mar and Reece talked it over and decided to tell the others the first chance they got; it wouldn’t do to keep this information waiting, especially since they were detailing with what may be the end not just of Harper’s Calling, but also the world.

They had just finished their dishes when Dani and Gemma returned, looking like they’d seen a ghost, following closely by Gray and Cole, soaking wet but wearing different (dry) clothes, and finally Goodnight.

Mar and Reece weren’t the only ones that had something strange happen, and as the others filled them in on what happened, it became clear they had got off easy.

Dani had tried using the phone down at Mike’s to make a call. At first getting no answer, she then got an operator with a creepy voice (when had Harper’s Calling last had an operator!?) who connected Dani with herself. Trying a third time, Gemma was told all lines were disconnected before she hung up. Then the operator called back, admonishing Dani and Gemma for not wanting to talk to her. Dani explained she was looking for her parents, to which the operator said she could likely find them in the Dark Places, and did she want to know where that was? Dani declined, and the operator, sadly and sternly, told her not to look to the stars for help.

Going home to resupply, Gray was concerned to see the house was not as either he nor Grams and Gramps left it. Going upstairs he was ambushed in the bathroom and separated from Cole and Goodnight. Apparently he faced down his father in the bathroom mirror, and found the Black Book had given him some sort of aquatic magic that helped him survive the encounter.

Mar and Reece shared what had happened with them, and they all realized things were worse than they thought. The Fire Song and Shadow Hag were actively trying to dissuade them for seeking outside help.

“We need more people, and we need to help Oren,” Gray said.

“Let’s move the party to the Pines,” Dani suggested.

“Oh, that reminds me that Mike told me some folks were gathering at the church, and maybe Goodnight would go by as no one has seen either of the pastors. Maybe we should see if they showed up anyway?”

Sending Bruce and the Triplets back out to spread the word the party’d been moved, they prepared to head out. Reece checked the house wards. They’d clearly been holding but also been tested. Reece remade them and Gray reinforced them with cloves.

They saw the church  - and went right on past it. A large bonfire had been built and was being sustained by a group on miners who - by the fire reflected in their eyes - were being puppeted by the Fire Song.

The went instead to Mike’s. If they were going to fight they’d need to stash their stuff and party supplies. Mikey tried talking them out of it, since with the pastors and mayor not seen in some time he was de fact responsible for the town. But Reece and Gray pointed out that kids their age were asked to go to war, so they could certainly handle a bonfire, he let them go. But he did say he’d be looking out for trouble while grabbing his rifle and stationing himself in the doorway.

Sneaking around the back of the church and away from the fire, they planned to sneak in and see if Oren was there. Suddenly, Dani cried out and shoved Gray. He went tumbling as Dani stepped into a bear trap, crunching her ankle.

Knowing this would attract others, Mar stepped up by Dani and motioned the others back into darkness, which they did very, very carefully. Two guards who had been by the back door came over and, releasing Dani from the trap, offered to take them inside to Reverend Rasmussen, who was more than on the mend. Dani told them they’d been looking for her parents (not a lie) and what was a bear trap doing out here anyway?

As they entered the church, Reece heard them remind her that the Mayor had said there were dangerous things in the woods and they were only taking precautions.

Waiting a few moments, the others (Reece, Gemma, Gray, Cole) entered the church. Reese saw his Uncle Art talking rather animatedly with Dani and Mar. He did not notice them. To Reece’s right was the basement door with the lock engaged and the “spare key” missing from its hook.

“Take Ownership” rang in his mind as Reece decided to stick with the plan. He trusted Dani and Mar, and if worse came to worse he hoped they’d be in a position to launch a surprise attack.

Cole quietly picked the lock and they allowed the door to shut behind them before turning on their flashlights. Heading down the stairs with Reece in the lead, they heard the sound of chains dragging and the scurrying of feet. Waving his light around he saw the chain coming for his head but not in time to dodge as it wrapped around his neck. Behind him he heard Gemma yelp in surprise and Grayson grunt before someone had the idea to reach for the light - revealing Oren and Grams and Gramps.

There was some conversation as they quickly caught each other up on what had been happening before they headed back up the stairs (with everyone armed) - just in time to see Arthur Rasmussen reach out and immolate a man, saying “We respect women in Harper’s Calling.” It looked just like Oren had in the vision Mar and Reece had shared.

Behind him, Reece could feel a power coming off Gray. He made sure to position himself at the front of everyone. Arthur Rasmussen was his uncle, and in some ways, his problem. He would give Gray a chance to do whatever is was he was planning to do. As the power grew, Reece felt something enter his mind, a single word: Mindblast.

Just then Arthur Rasmussen made eye contact with Reece, and Reece let that power flow through him. It hit Arthur like a blast, and his eyes changed from a fiery certainty to a certainty of a different kind: a sad resignation that not only had he been deceived, but also that the god to which he’d previously been pledged no longer wanted him. Arthur seemed to take a step when Reece felt another surge of power - not from Gray but from Gemma. As his foot came down, Arthur’s ankle twisted. As Arthur Rasmussen tried to stay upright, Reece saw Mar tackle Dani to the ground - an act of protection as another wave of power passed by Reece and Grays aquatic magic - whatever it might do - washed over Arthur Rasmussen and his followers (including Peggy and her Hen Club) and the bonfire outside. The fire went out, casting the night into further darkness, and Reece wondered if the fire wasn’t the only thing extinguished. He felt just a little bad for his uncle, even given everything he’d done, and stepped forward as if to go check on him.

[end of record]

## Errata

* When they first met Goodnight in the diner, Gemma indicated to Rev. Goodnight that she was deaf - a misdirection that was kept up until Goodnight arrived at Reece’s.
* Gemma was also convinced Rev. Goodnight was a vampire. On their first return to the house after his arrival, she wanted to put garlic all through his clothes and under his pillow. Reece talked her out of it.
* Several times Reece has handed out “grandpa Barrett’s finest” as liquid resolve. Most notably, Gemma took hers straight and unmixed after her encounter in the shower.