Eye of the Storm

*The year is 1985, the place New England. More specifically, Rhode Island. The home of Mercy Brown, America's first vampire, the site of many dark and lurid tales from the mind of H.P. Lovecraft, and the home of the infamously haunted Perron family. And now the site of one of the largest government research facilities in the world: The Loop.*

It is a dark and storm day and the kids, Jojo, Fish, and Danne are sitting in their hideout. Fish reads a comic book, while Jojo sits at the desk putting new bearings on his skateboard. Danne is reading an article in the newspaper about his new favorite movie, The Karate Kid. Some noted items in the room are two gold coins, a creepy drawing of a goateed man, their depiction of Mr. Lebail, and a drawing of the strange device they saw on the roof of the school.

On the front page of the newspaper Danne holds we see the headline about Hurricane Gloria arriving on the New England coast. Thunder crashes as the storm has arrived and it starts pouring. There is some teasing about whether or not Swedish kids can swim, and the likelihood of getting in trouble for getting wet. Fish has the great idea for going out to play in the rain. Hijinks and child tom foolery ensue! Since it's a **literal fucking hurricane** the wet warrior escapades don't last long and they head back inside. They can hear the sounds of rain from inside the mill and a crash of thunder and lightning sends a tree through the window of their office. Wary of the worsening storm they decide to hunker down and wait it out. Through the window they can see the power is out in the city of Glenbrook.

The camera cuts to Component Video, the video store owned by the Wheelers. Today the desk is manned by Elliot and his sister Ellie. Elliot is up in a room on the second floor. He sits in front of two monitors and is rewinding video tapes. Down in the store he can hear his sister talking with a customer and then the buzzer goes off on the dumbwaiter. Elliot goes to grab the tapes Ellie has sent up for him but he quickly sees something is off.

Inside the dumbwaiter are three tapes with no cases or identifiable labels. One is red, one is yellow, and one is green. Elliot puts the green tape in his VCR and hits play. On the screen he sees a video of a young girl and two boys playing in the rain. It's clearly Fish, Jojo, and Danne from earlier but he doesn't know them. Confused, Elliot goes to talk to Ellie but she is no where to be found. He sees the power is out in the other stores on Main Street.

He returns to his station and puts in the red tape. The tracking is off and he can't get a clear image until he presses pause. The still frame is crystal clear, full definition. It's a sci-fi looking laboratory with banks of huge computers, scientists in white coats, a logo on the wall of two crescent moons, and what looks like a large drill.

When the green tape finishes rewinding he puts it back in. He sees, shot movie style, the events of Carnival of Screams. He doesn't know the kids and he admires the special effects. He tries to watch the yellow tape but for some reason the tape will not properly rewind; no matter what he does it's always at the end of the reel, so he sits back and watches the green tape in full. After the spooky carnival adventure he watches a movie depiction of Birthday Bash, and then Going in Circles. When the third one starts Elliot recognizes Nipsachuk Valley High School, then vice principal Gleeson, and recalls two blocked toilets that week at school. He is confused and critiques the decisions of the characters and the poor writing. After the events on the school rooftop, the next anthology starts and it shows the kids playing in the rain during a bad storm. Then he watches the kids take a quick nap then jump on their bikes and ride out into the storm. The "movie" camera follows them until they stop at a shop. Elliot sees the sign for Component Video. Startled, Elliot tests things by throwing a book into the street and retracing the steps the movie kids took on his bike. He finds the "set" in the old mill and returns to the video store.

Pressing play again on the green tape Elliot sees the kids approach the Component Video door and knock. Elliot hears a knock from downstairs. Bewildered he goes to answer it. Standing outside the door in the rain are Jojo, Fish, and Danne. The three kids have no idea how they got to Component Video. The last thing they remember is being in their hideout. There are two very strange things they notice here; when you're standing outside everything looks closed. When Elliot opens the door they see the lights are on inside. This is the same the other way around. Elliot doesn't see anyone outside until he opens the door.

There is much confusion among the four kids. Tempers flare a little bit as they try to figure out what's going on. Jojo, Fish, and Danne try to convince Elliot the events actually happened but he thinks they're all actors in a movie. They try to make the yellow tape work and finally figure out they can only watch the tape in reverse. They see a man they immediately recognize as Mr. Labail wearing an old style suit from the 60's. Danne fiddles with the buttons on the VCR and the machine jams, badly damaging the film. Elliot manages to salvage the tape, and they can finish watching the yellow tape but Lebail's face is messed up.

The kids watch Lebail walk through a town talking to various people, one of those people being the principal of Nipsachuk Valley High School. Lebail then gets into his black Chrysler Lebaron and drives to a facility, then goes into a room with people wearing work shirts similar to the one Fish wears. They recognize the crescent moon logo as the same one sewn on her shirt.

The kids argue some more about how strange happen in Glenbrook and the boys point out that Fish is the common denominator among all these events. She doesn't like being singled out and looks worried. They hear something loose inside the tape so Jojo breaks it open with his skateboard. Inside they find another gold coin.

Elliot believes in true movie fashion there needs to be a dramatic ending to solve the mystery they're in. He suggests destroying the tapes. Jojo, Fish, and Danne agree. They go up onto the roof of the building and tie the tapes to an antenna with cables. They need to get lightning to strike so Fish flicks the gold coin at the movies.

Energy charges the air, and the kids feel electricity course through their bodies.

They are no longer on the roof but lying on the floor in Component Video being worked on by EMTs. They're told lightning struck the building, started a fire on the upper levels, and they were electrocuted.

As they're being loaded onto the ambulance they see the roof has been burnt out, the tapes destroyed. One of the EMTs tries to console a sad Fish by giving her something he says she was clutching in her hands when they arrived on scene. It's a black VHS tape that clinks like something is inside. There are no identifying marks except for a label on the cassette head that reads *"For Fish".*

## Corruption Bar

1. The tree breaking through the window of the hideout
2. The VCR breaking and damaging the film of the yellow tape