Noon
Milo Black sat in the motel room with Paul. He stared out the window and watched as the rain started to fall again just outside of Stewart Hollow.
Paul Hilton sat on the edge of the only bed in the room. He looked at his son, “So do you think you’d want to move with me to California?”
Milo shook his head. His mother had just been killed and he was sitting in the motel room with a father who he’d only met on a handful of occasions.
“I’m sorry about your mom,” Paul said. Milo didn’t respond. “We need to figure something out, Milo, because I have to be out of this room by tomorrow. Do you want to run back into town and get some of your things?”
“Why did this have to happen?” Milo asked, mostly rhetorical.
Paul didn’t have an answer for his son. There was a knock at the door and Milo quickly looked at it.
“Who is it?” Paul asked Milo, who was still by the window.
“I don’t know,” the ten-year old responded.
“Well, didn’t you see someone walk by the window to the door?” Paul asked, standing up and reaching for the knob. He opened the door and a gust of heavy wind blew in hard and knocked Paul to the ground. Milo backed into the corner of the room and he watched as three black-hooded figures entered the room. One was tall, roughly six foot, and the others were significantly smaller, standing on either side of the taller one. The three figures seemed to hauntingly hover just above the floor.
The two smaller ones slowly approached Milo and reached out for him. Milo squirmed as he tried to make out faces under the hoods, but he couldn’t; under the hoods were too dark.
Paul stood to his feet and faced the tall figure. “What do you want?” Paul squealed.
The tall figure raised one of it’s arms and held its’ hand in a tightly clenched fist. The fist began to shake and then one finger shot out and pointed directed at Paul’s face, and with that, Paul head burst into flames. He grabbed his head and stumbled backwards into the dresser where he collapsed, screaming like hell.
With one swift move, the two smaller cloaked figures snatched Milo as he screamed and vanished into a twisting puff of black smoke. The taller figure vanished as well, leaving Paul Hilton laying on the floor, burning.
Dart hung the phone up hard at his desk after another call to Officer Donald Rains’ went straight to voicemail. Dart sat at the desk angrily for a moment. He was having a hard time accepting what might be going on in Stewart Hollow; it seemed impossible – surreal and impossible.
The phone then started to ring, and he picked it up. “Sheriff’s Department. This is Deputy Jamie Dart.”
“Hi Deputy,” a man’s voice said on the other line. “My name is Chief Ray Harris from the Lake County Police Department.”
Dart was listening. “How can I help you, Chief Harris?”
“We have a huge problem here. The house that our records tell us was a safe house for a family from your town has burned down. Two people are dead and three people are missing.”
Dart was stunned, but his gut told him not to be surprised. Chief Harris continued:
“The deceased have been identified as an officer from your department, Donald Rains, and a man in his forties, Jeffrey Ferguson. We understand it was the Ferguson family who were in protective custody. The woman, Sharon, and her two daughters are missing.”
The search was on. Dart raced all over town, looking for anything out of the ordinary. He now believed Sharon Ferguson and her daughters were in Stewart Hollow, and in that case, the Lores family had indeed returned. His worry now – what were they capable of, and what exactly could he expect to happen? More bodies? More fires?
Dart returned to the Police Department around 5:00 PM. He turned his engine off and entered the building. The darkness and the silence immediately caught his attention. He stood in the lobby – it was empty and the lights were out. He flipped the switch by Dana’s desk – nothing. The power seemed to have been cut.
He noticed a faint, flickering light coming from down the hall. He slowly made his way down it and to the Sheriff’s office. The door was open and he glanced in, seeing the source of the flickering light.
The office had become a sort of shrine; carved and lit pumpkins sat everywhere, lighting up what was otherwise a dark room. The desk had been shoved off to the side and in the center of the room was a chair, which sat Eddie Wong – the forensic expert. He was strapped to the chair by duct tape, and his mouth was tapped shut as well. He had a cut to the top of his head, which was bleed profusely, and the look in his eyes was one of sheer terror. Standing behind Eddie Wong was the main attraction…
Dana, with her eyes glazed in a haunting stare, stood behind the chair, holding a fire axe. Dart immediately drew his gun and aimed it at Dana.
“What are you doing?” he asked calmly but nervously.
Dana took a minute to respond, and when she did, she spoke in a slow, monotone voice. “They’ve returned.”
“Who?”
“The one’s this town should have always been afraid of. The founding family of the Blood Coven…the Lores.”
“Dana, put the axe down. You’re not right.”
“It’s a simple message they want me to send, Deputy.”
Dart could tell Dana wasn’t herself. It was almost like her mind had been taken over, making her act in a way that was unlike her - like she was possessed. Could Tom Parson’s have been possessed? He claimed something was wrong with him, and that he couldn’t help himself.
“Dana, is Sharon Ferguson making you do this?”
Dana didn’t respond. She stood still and stared straight ahead, gripping tighter and tighter onto the fire axe.
“Dana…”
“It’s a simple message. She wants you to know that everyone will die, and the Lores will finally be done. Everyone will burn…”
Dart took a step forward, and Dana raised the axe in response to it. “Dana, drop it or I’ll shoot!”
He noticed her eyes turned bloodshot in an instant. She spoke, with the axe raised high above her head: “A child will be sacrificed tonight, and this town will not see another Halloween.”
Eddie Wong grunted under the duct tape. Dart saw the fear in his eyes.
Dana smiled maliciously. “Happy Halloween…”
Dana slammed the axe down hard, slipping Eddie Wong’s head wide open. Blood poured out onto the floor and Dart fired shot after shot into Dana until she hit the wall behind her and collapsed to the ground.
Dart looked away from the gory sight and tried to regain his composure. A loud shriek from a woman outside caught his attention and he raced back down the hallway and outside into the pouring rain.
A block away from the station, Dart saw a small crowd of people standing outside of an old church. They were all looking up and screaming. Dart ran through the puddles and to the crowd of onlookers. He looked up to the roof of the church, at the bell tower.
Three hooded figures stood there, two smaller than the one in the middle. The tall one in the middle held on tightly to a young boy. Dart immediately recognized the boy – Milo Black. He was crying and screaming. Dart aimed his gun up to the roof.
“Let the boy go!” he shouted.
The three figures ominously stood there motionless, their draping black cloaks blowing in the gusting and rainy winds.
Dart tried to wipe the rain from his face and eyes to get a better look at what he was dealing with. The crowd below the church was growing uneasy and scared. Dart frantically looked around. He saw Jessica and Sean rush up from down the street and join him.
“What’s going on?” Jessica screamed through the storm.
Dart pointed up to the roof. “I just don’t know what to do,” he cried, defeated. “None of this should be happening. None of it!”
The crowd gasped as the taller figure reached up and removed its’ hood. Dart shook his head as he saw it was indeed Sharon Ferguson. She looked older - her eyes glowing a dull yellow.
“This town…” she spoke loudly over the rain, “this town was our creation; our foundation. It is our town; our family’s town only!”
As the crowd below the church started to grow with curious and terrified residents of Stewart Hollow, Dart lowered his weapon. What was he suppose to do? Everything seemed to be out of his hands.
“We will indeed take this town back and start all over,” Sharon Ferguson shouted. With that, the other two figures removed their hoods, revealing two young girls; Sharon’s daughters.
“Consider this boy’s fate, the town’s future,” Sharon said. With a quick and unexpected shove of Milo, he was launched off of the roof. The crowd screamed; some racing to try and catch him. Milo, in mid-air, burst into flames and hit the pavement hard – he didn’t move.
Dart raced to the burning child, shoving away the gathering people. “Move! Move!” he shouted. He looked down and watched as Milo was burning. Dart looked back up to the bell tower and aimed his gun. Sharon and her daughters were gone.
“The church is on fire!” someone shouted. Dart looked down to the front doors of the church and saw a fire burning inside. The stained glass windows busted out and showered the crowd with sharp shards of glass. The fire quickly climbed up the building and took over everything.
Dart frantically turned around and saw Sean and Jessica standing before him.
“What do we do?” Jessica screamed.
“We have to get help. We have to leave town!” Dart shouted. “Follow me.”
Sean and Jessica followed Dart as he raced back towards the police station.