10
October 14th-20th
The following seven days proved to be less violent, but more surreal. Someone was making it their number one priority to induce fear and anxiety throughout Stewart Hollow. After the general store’s video footage was brought to the public’s attention, similar reports began flooding the Sheriff’s department.
People were calling in reporting sightings of a strange, hooded figure walking through their farms at night, setting off their floodlights. He’d always disappear into the dark before being approached.
Residents would awake to find words written on their garage doors, driveways and cars. It was always the same report: dark red paint spelling out frightening and vulgar statements. It was truly the work of a psychopath.
Store owners reported small, carved, and lit pumpkins sitting in front of their businesses when they arrived in the morning on several occasions. The mysterious culprit was really trying to get inside the heads of everyone, and plucking at their nerve endings one at a time. Families were afraid to leave their homes at night or let their children play outside.
By the middle of the week, a handful of residents had been targeted by a series of sinister phone calls that repeated the ‘Legend of Stewart Hollow’ as many times as possible before being hung up on. Even though a few of the residents were called multiple times, no one was able to identify the whispering voice of the madman.
The Harvest Slashers’ game was flawless. The clues were few and far between, and the fingerprints at every crime scene were non-existent. Every incoming tip from the public, no matter how bizarre it seemed, was being followed up on.
By the end of the week, the daunting sightings and occurrences had dwindled down to a quiet and uneventful weekend. But as the final eleven days of October crept in, an unexpected phone call reignited the panic.