Feb. 28, 2025

Beware the Ides of March! Horrors of Vengeance!

Beware the Ides of March! Horrors of Vengeance!

**Beware the Ides of March - A Chilling Compilation** Step into the eerie shadows of "Weekly Spooky," where host Henrique Couto invites you to contemplate the haunting resonance of fate and retribution in this special compilation, "Beware the Ides of...

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**Beware the Ides of March - A Chilling Compilation**

Step into the eerie shadows of "Weekly Spooky," where host Henrique Couto invites you to contemplate the haunting resonance of fate and retribution in this special compilation, "Beware the Ides of March." This captivating episode presents a chilling series of tales that intertwine themes of vengeance, remorse, and the sinister implications of choices made under duress.

As the episode unfolds, listeners are treated to a narrative rich in suspense and dark twists that echo the famous cautionary adage, "Beware the Ides of March." Henrique sets the tone, urging you to dive deep into stories where characters grapple with the consequences of their actions in a wicked and unpredictable world. The compilation promises to chill you to the bone, highlighting the complexity of human morality, the pull of regret, and the tantalizing nature of revenge.

Our first featured tale, **"Dead Ahead" by Joe Solmo,** introduces us to Becca and Tom, a couple caught in a harrowing accident that spirals into a dark descent of bad choices and supernatural consequences. As they struggle with the implications of their actions, the line between guilt and the supernatural blurs when the jogger they thought they buried returns from the grave to exact its revenge. The tension rises as Becca must confront not only the specter of their crime but also a reckoning with her own past.

Next, **“Hell Hath No Fury” by Aaron Cook** draws us into the life of Zelda Mae Darling, a woman trapped in the confines of a disastrous marriage. As she navigates the complexities of love, betrayal, and the haunting effects of her choices, Zelda finds herself entwined in a web of chaos that ultimately leads to her desperate act of self-defense. The chilling twist reveals not only the cost of her actions but the consequences that echo long after her demise.

The momentum continues with **“The Stop Sign Man” by Bryce Gibson,** which amplifies the familiar ritualistic urban legend surrounding a cursed stop sign that leads to untold consequences for a group of teenagers. As Stratton Duke celebrates his 17th birthday, the risks of youthful bravado intertwine with a sinister journey that cost him dearly, setting up a nail-biting exploration of innocence lost and the heavy price of recklessness.

In this mesmerizing compilation, we are also treated to **“The Devil Reaps the Harvest” by John Oak Dalton** and **“Grave Consequences” by Killian Crane**, which expand on the dark depths of desperation, moral collapse, and the harrowing consequences of one’s actions in life and death. Each tale builds on the overarching theme of justice—often delivered in a supernatural form—that awaits those who tread the line between right and wrong.

Finally, **“Dead and Breakfast” by Morgan Moore** closes the episode with a breathless encounter that blends survival and horror in a twisted game of life and death at a seemingly benign bed-and-breakfast. The juxtaposition of warmth and terror unfolds, leading to a shocking climax that leaves listeners questioning the very nature of safety.

🎉 Subscribe to "Weekly Spooky" for more spine-tingling tales that entertain and disturb in equal measure! 📬

Connect with us and entwine your fate with ours:
Twitter: @WeeklySpooky
Facebook: facebook.com/WeeklySpooky
Email: WeeklySpooky@gmail.com

🎵 Music by Ray Mattis. Explore Ray’s captivating artistry here!

👨‍💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Mark Shields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder

As you relish the chills of this compilation, remember: the Ides of March may hold darker secrets yet to be uncovered. Until next time, stay alert and never stray too far from the light.

🎧 LISTEN NOW and subscribe for spine-tingling horror stories every week!

🎉 Unlock exclusive bonus episodes and support the show on Patreon!
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📬 Contact Us / Submit Your Horror Story!


🎵 Music by Ray Mattis 👉 Check out Ray’s incredible work here !
👨‍💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
🌐 Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com
WEBVTT

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Hello, my spookys, it's your host and narrator Enrique Kuto,

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here to bring you a little compilation that makes me

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think beware the IDEs of March. I'm sure you've heard

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that saying, but maybe you're wondering what it means or

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what it could mean in the world of spooky. Well,

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tonight I'm bringing you a very special compilation of Come

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Up Once and Revenge and so much more that gets

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pretty damn devious. So get yourself comfy, get yourself cozy,

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and if you're listening to this on the day of

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release on Friday, February twenty eighth Tomorrow, Saturday, March first,

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we're going live on YouTube and you can check it

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out by going to Weeklyspooky dot com slash Live. From there,

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you can set a reminder to find out when we

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go live to talk about spooky things and play some games.

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But now it's time for the show Dead Ahead by

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Joe Sulmo. Becca, don't come out here with your witchy bullshit,

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Tom yelled as he threw another shovelful of dirt behind him.

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If you want to help, get in here and help

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me dig. It's not witchy bullshit. I'm telling you This

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is bad. A person died. We did it. This is

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going to come back on us threefold. This is a

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lot of negative energy, Becca said, pushing her long brown

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hair behind her ear. Her boyfriend Tom was in a

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hole about three feet deep and getting deeper by the second.

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Come take your turn. I need a break. It's a

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lot harder than they make it look in the movies.

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Tom said, I told you I want no part in this.

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Becca replied, taking a step back into the chilly night.

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You already are a part of this. You're just as

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guilty as I am. This poor bastard died because of

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both of us. Tom retorted, clanging the shovel off the

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corpse laying on the damp ground. I wasn't the one driving,

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Becha said, wiping a tear from her eye. And I

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suppose your next excuse is going to be you had

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your mouth full and couldn't see over the wheel, right,

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Tom sneered. Look, neither of us wanted this, but we

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have to take care of it. Do you know what

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would happen if we went to the cops. Yeah, I

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know we're wanted. Look I don't want to go to

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jail for murder either. Becca argued, murder, Who said anything

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about murder? It was an accident. We might get manslaughter,

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but surely not murder. Tom responded, pulling himself out of

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the hole and wiping his brow, his blonde hair dirty

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with the earth he had been tossing. This will have

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to be deep enough. What if somebody finds the body,

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Becca asked, No one would give a fuck. This is Jersey.

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I think you've watched too many mob movies. Becca said,

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and turned away from the grave. She looked at the car,

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sitting just off the road enough into the pines to

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be hidden from the traffic. Her blue eyes focused on

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the dent in the passenger side bumper and the blood

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that stood out starkly on the white paint. They were

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never going to get away with it, she thought. There

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was just too much evidence. They should have just called

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the cops when they hit that jogger. One thing was

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for sure. It was the last time Tom was going

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to talk her into RoadHead. Becca, Are you even paying attention?

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Tom asked. She turned around and saw him standing there

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with the jogger's arms in his hands. Come on, help

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me swing him into the hole, he finished impatiently. I

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told you I don't want that negative energy, she said,

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crossing her arms in defiance. I told you that, Witchie,

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the bullshit has to go. We have been dating for

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almost a year now and I haven't seen you do

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shit with it. So unless you're going to wiggle your

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nose and lift the corpse into the grave, get your

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ass over here and lift this bastard with me, Tom said,

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tossing the jogger's arms down under the damp earth. Becca

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rolled her eyes with a sigh. She gave in and

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walked around to the jogger's feet. She grabbed his ankles

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and looked at Tom, waiting, Well, are we doing this?

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She asked. Tom grabbed the other end, and together they

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put the jogger into the open grave. She looked at

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the mangled person lying there, wondering what kind of life

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he had before they had taken it from him. Did

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he have a family? Was someone looking for him? Her

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thoughts were interrupted when the jogger's face got a shovel

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full of dirt. She looked up at Tom and saw

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him in a new light. This was too easy for him,

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she wondered if this was the first time he had

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to bury a body. She really didn't know much of

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his past. He never spoke about his life before they

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met last year. She knew he wasn't mister right more

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of a mister right now, one that got her out

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of a bad situation. If she was being honest, he

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was a bit of an asshole. Don't worry, I got this,

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he said, as he continued to throw dirt into the grave.

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We only have one shovel. You want me to use

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my hands, She snipped at him. Why don't you go

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wait in the car? Then Tom responded, I was going

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to say a few words when we were done. Nothing much,

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but something should be said. Tom scoffed, I'll say something.

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Don't worry about it. Sometimes you can be a real jerk,

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you know that, she said, and stormed off sullenly to

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the car. She plopped in the passenger seat, slamming the door.

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You like him so much, maybe you should give him

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head too. I think it's going to get real stiff soon,

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Tom yelled, smacking the corpse again with a shovel. Becca

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could hear it ring out even from the car. She

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reached under the seat and found her bag. She dug

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inside for a cigarette, just to take the edge off.

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She pulled out a worn paperback payback rituals and spells

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of revenge. She remembered that her friend Amanda let her

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borrow it. They had found it in her mother's items

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after her suicide. That was just before she left town

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with Tom. She thumbed through it while waiting the Revenant

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the dead with a mission bring a recently deceased person

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back to right the wrong of death. This is a

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gray area of balance with nature. On the one hand,

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it disrupts death, but it can help the soul reach

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peace through resolution. The weight of this ritual can be

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heavy on one's soul. Caution should be used while contemplating

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this ritual. Haste will be your enemy. HA would serve

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the asshole right if I brought that jogger back, teach

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him a lesson. I'm the only one stupid enough to

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miss him, and it would absolve my guilt. Becha, said

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to the empty car. Haven't done shit with it, Hey, babe,

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I'm all done. Just going to say a few words.

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Tom yelled as he unzipped his zipper. A steaming stream

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landed on the newly packed earth. Ooh awe, those enough

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words for you, he called over his shoulder. That son

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of a bitch, Becha said, and got out of the car,

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but instead of heading towards him, she went off into

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the woods alone with her bag. Where are you going?

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It was just a joke, he called out as he

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shook out the last drops. Come on, babe. Tom chased

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after her into the woods. Babe. He heard a few

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twigs snap off to his left. He turned in that direction,

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but it was too dark to make anything out. She

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was heading farther into the barrens away from the highway. Okay,

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you made your point, Come back and do a real eulogy.

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I won't interrupt, I promise, Tom called out into the night.

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Was that a flashlight ahead, he sighed, and headed towards

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the light.

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He saw.

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Becca was on her knees in a small clearing, illuminated

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not only by the moonlight above, but by her flashlight

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laying on the dew covered grass in front of her.

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She was saying something over and over again in a

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whisper that Tom couldn't make out. Babe, he said, shining

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his light on her back, casting her shadow on the

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trees around them. It's done. We can leave now. Becca

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opened her eyes and turned her head quickly. She placed

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some objects into her bag before he could see what

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they were. Be right with you, she said, and stood up,

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wiping off her stockings. She reached down for her bag,

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but his hands on hers froze her in place. What

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were you doing out here with your bag, he asked, intensely,

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meeting her gaze. I had to use the bathroom and

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I didn't want to do it close to the highway,

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Becca replied and pulled her hand away from his. She

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clutched her bag to her chest with one hand and

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gestured with the other. Lead the way. She finished sarcastically.

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You know sometimes you can be a real bitch. You'd

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better get that in check before I leave your ass

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for a younger model, he said, as he led the

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way back towards the car. I doubt you could find

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someone that would put up with your shit for very long.

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Tom turned and faced her. I'm serious. Your looks will

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only get you so far. You better drop that attitude

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before I drop you, he threatened. Are you kidding me?

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You're threatening me. It's not a threat, it's a promise,

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he said, and stared at her for a few seconds.

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When she didn't respond, he turned back into the woods

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and continued on, that is the most cliche saying. Becca

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mumbled under her breath, but followed Tom into the night.

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She heard the words Tom spoke again, but this time

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it wasn't his voice, it was her father's. The threats

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and beatings that she had been suppressing came rushing back.

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She remembered the last time he spoke those words to her.

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It was just a little over one year ago. She

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had come home from Amanda's house, where they were studying

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for the history final. She came in through the back

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door into the kitchen. It was seven p m. And

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she had not eaten since lunch. She bumped into the

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dish rack, sending a steak knife onto the floor. She

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closed her eyes and froze, Hoping her father hadn't heard.

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Becca remembered opening her eyes and then rummaging through the

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cabinet for something to eat. Her eyes lit up when

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she found a box of cereal. In her haste to eat,

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she dropped the box, scattering the flakes across the linoleum floor.

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Her father entered the room a second later and saw

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the mess on the floor. What is this? Clean this up,

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he yelled as he made his way to the fridge.

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For another beer. At this time of night, he was

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probably on his fifth. She tried to walk past him

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to get to the broom closet, but her father's large

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hands stopped her. He threw her down to the floor.

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I said clean this up, you clumsy bitch. I was

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getting the broom, she said, looking up at him through

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tear blurred eyes. I didn't say get the broom, I

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said clean this shit up. Her father yelled and kicked

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her arm that she was leaning on. Her face dropped

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down onto the floor among the cereal. She blinked the

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tears away and saw in front of her the knife

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she had dropped earlier. Becca sat up on the floor,

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placing the steak knife under her so that he didn't

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see it. She looked up at her father as he

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cracked open his fresh can of beer. He turned towards her.

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You're so hungry. Eat it off the floor, he said,

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and pushed her back down. Eat it, you pig or.

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I swear to God I'll end you. Are you threatening me?

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That's not a threat, slut, that's a promise, her father said.

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Becca gripped the knife hard and stabbed her father in

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the thigh. He cried out and dropped his beer with

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his other leg. He kicked her. She had the knife

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gripped so tight she pulled it out of him as

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she fell back. What did you do, bitch? I'll kill you,

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she remembered him saying, before she had lost control. The

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next thing she remembered was her father laying in a

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strange pool of blood, cereal, and beer on the floor.

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He was so still. Becca came out of it. As

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they neared the car, Tom threw the shovel and flashlight

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into the trunk and walked around to the driver's side.

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As Becca stood there trying to make the image leave

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her mind. What's wrong with you? Tom asked. Becca looked

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towards the shallow grave with a look of disappointment before

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turning back to Tom. Was she going to actually get

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back into his car after what he said? She looked

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at Tom and saw her father's face. She tried to

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shake that image, but this time it was different. This

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time it wasn't self defense, just Tom being an act hole.

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She had her doubts that he would actually hit her.

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A twig snapped in the woods, and both of them

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turned towards the sound. In the darkness, something stirred who's

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out there? Tom called. The only response was the sound

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of a heavy footfall. Becca's hair started to stand on

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the back of her neck and she got an uneasy feeling.

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She tried to get in the car, but it was locked, Tom,

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she said unevenly. Tom didn't answer, his eyes transfixed on

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the image before him. In the flashing lights from the

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passing cars on the highway, Beca caught a glimpse of

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the man approaching. Another loud footfall from the man as

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he dragged behind him the broken leg inside the bloodstained

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pair of sweatpants. Becca looked on in horror at the

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twisted neck and the head lolling to one side. Did

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it actually work? Tom, open the door. Let's get out

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of here, Becha said, second, guessing what she had done.

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It looked so wrong as it moved towards them. One

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sec Babe, Tom said, and pulled out the pistol he

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kept tucked in the back of his jeans. I think

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this asshole wants to play, Tom, unlock the fucking door,

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she begged, as fear tears started to flow. Her heart

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was pounding in her ears. Tom took a step closer

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to the reanimated jogger, that's far enough, asshole. It was

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00:15:38.120 --> 00:15:41.879
an accident. I'm sure you can appreciate that. Let's go

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get a beer and talk this over, Tom said, aiming

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the pistol at the jogger's head. He won't listen, Becky

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yelled in fear. She ran to the trunk of the car.

250
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Luckily Tom had not shut it, and she grabbed the shovel.

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Beside the shovel in the truck was a hunting knife.

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She tucked the blade into her belt and hefted the shovel.

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As she came around the car, Tom came into view

254
00:16:06.440 --> 00:16:08.279
just in time for her to see the jogger lunge

255
00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:11.879
at him. He fired a shot. They fell to the ground.

256
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The jogger on top his head flopped around as they struggled,

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but its hands were wrapped around Tom's neck. She cried

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out and ran over to help. She swung the shovel

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00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:24.000
and hit the jogger in the back, to little effect.

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A few more swings made no difference. In her frustration,

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she threw down the shovel and kicked the jogger, who

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fell off the side of Tom but didn't let go

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of his neck. Becca could hear Tom trying to gasp prayer.

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She grabbed the jogger's arms and tried to pull them

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off of Tom, but the grip was too strong. Tom

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was going to die. She did this, she called the

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00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:50.639
revenant back from the grave. She should have known better.

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The witchy bullshit was going to kill Tom. He could

269
00:16:55.279 --> 00:16:58.879
no longer say she didn't do shit with it. Just then,

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Becca had an epifot Tom was going to die. The

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thing was busy with Tom. She scrambled into Tom's pants

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pockets and found the car keys. She jumped to her

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feet and ran to the car. She fired up the

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engine and threw it into reverse. With a final look

275
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at Tom, who was now still She punched the gas

276
00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:22.359
and backed towards the highway. Tom never let her drive,

277
00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:25.279
but she had seen it enough to figure it out.

278
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The car bounced over uneven ground as she sped and

279
00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:31.000
reversed towards the lights behind her. Once she was on

280
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the side of the road, she spun the car around

281
00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:35.799
and threw it into drive. She pulled out onto the highway,

282
00:17:35.799 --> 00:17:43.160
cutting off a truck who blared its hornet. She opened

283
00:17:43.160 --> 00:17:45.839
and energy drink Tom had bought earlier, but left on

284
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the seat unopened, and took a swig. There was going

285
00:17:49.640 --> 00:17:53.240
to be a new Becca, now, one who took no

286
00:17:53.279 --> 00:18:00.160
one's shit. Later that evening, Becca sat at the small

287
00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:03.440
motel table in her room. She was going through the

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00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:07.240
loot they had accumulated over the past year. She found

289
00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:10.119
a bag of cash that she didn't know about and

290
00:18:10.200 --> 00:18:15.000
had just finished counting it. Twelve thousand dollars was a

291
00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:19.200
lot of money, more than she had ever seen. Why

292
00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:22.599
did Tom always tell her they were broke? There was

293
00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:26.000
a bang on the door. It must be the pizza, ordered,

294
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she thought, and rose from the chair. Another bang on

295
00:18:29.799 --> 00:18:32.880
the door before she could reach it. I'm coming, she

296
00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:36.119
called out, grabbing a twenty from the table. She was

297
00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:40.440
going to tip big. Why not share her good fortune?

298
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She opened the door and dropped the cash. Standing on

299
00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:52.759
the other side was her father and the jogger. No,

300
00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:57.640
her mouth formed to say, but no noise came out.

301
00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:00.680
She took a step back in to the room, in

302
00:19:00.759 --> 00:19:04.440
horror of what she was looking at. With arm extended,

303
00:19:04.440 --> 00:19:09.799
they entered grasping for her. No, why are you here?

304
00:19:10.599 --> 00:19:14.440
Tom was driving, she said to the jogger, then looked

305
00:19:14.440 --> 00:19:18.440
into her father's dead eyes. You deserved what you got,

306
00:19:18.440 --> 00:19:21.279
you son of a bitch. There is no revenge for you,

307
00:19:21.960 --> 00:19:25.680
she said in defiance. Becca was a new woman and

308
00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:29.039
wasn't going to take shit from her father, alive or dead.

309
00:19:29.480 --> 00:19:31.640
She reached behind her and pulled the hunting knife out

310
00:19:31.640 --> 00:19:35.519
of her belt. The revenants charged her, knocking her back

311
00:19:35.559 --> 00:19:38.519
onto the double bed with their masts. She could smell

312
00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:40.920
the grave on her father as he climbed on top

313
00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:43.079
of her. There wasn't enough room for her to swing

314
00:19:43.160 --> 00:19:46.240
the knife. In desperation, she moved the blade between them.

315
00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:50.359
She turned the tip downwards towards her own chest and

316
00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:53.279
plunged it in. She didn't want her father to get

317
00:19:53.319 --> 00:19:58.400
his revenge. He should suffer, She smiled. As the pain

318
00:19:58.480 --> 00:20:03.079
flooded her. She felt herself getting weak, and, with a

319
00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:07.519
last act of defiance, spit blood into her father's face

320
00:20:08.519 --> 00:20:24.279
before succumbing to her wound. Hell hath no fury by

321
00:20:24.359 --> 00:20:32.000
Aaron Cook, Oh shoot the cookies. Zelda May Darling had

322
00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:34.559
been in the kitchen all day, and the stress of

323
00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:37.960
hosting a dinner party had caused her to nearly forget

324
00:20:38.200 --> 00:20:42.039
about the chocolate chip treats that were roasting in the oven.

325
00:20:43.160 --> 00:20:46.599
She fitted her dainty hands into mits and plucked her

326
00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:51.440
signature dessert from the sauna. No blemishes of overcooking to

327
00:20:51.480 --> 00:20:55.960
be found. Pulling the elongated trays out, She didn't wait

328
00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:00.720
two minutes before conducting a taste test. Delicious, if she

329
00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:04.400
did say so herself. She treated herself to a second one.

330
00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:08.359
Jake wouldn't approve of the extra snack, but what he

331
00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:11.920
didn't know wouldn't hurt him. There was more than enough food,

332
00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:17.599
she justified with internal guilt. The housewife had been in

333
00:21:17.680 --> 00:21:21.079
domestic bliss for three full years and was still in

334
00:21:21.160 --> 00:21:25.720
her early twenties. Born in smalltown, Arkansas in nineteen fifty,

335
00:21:26.119 --> 00:21:29.240
the bell had left home to attend Texas A and M.

336
00:21:30.359 --> 00:21:33.319
Towards the end of her first year there, she worked

337
00:21:33.319 --> 00:21:37.279
an alumni ball where she met Big Jake Darling, an

338
00:21:37.319 --> 00:21:41.119
oil big wig and generous donor to his old stomping grounds.

339
00:21:41.799 --> 00:21:45.559
Despite the three decade age gap, Jake fell madly in

340
00:21:45.640 --> 00:21:49.119
love with the fair skinned, dark haired server in the

341
00:21:49.160 --> 00:21:52.400
Go Go Boots, and his resources made it pretty easy

342
00:21:52.440 --> 00:21:56.079
for Zelda May to ignore the pot belly, receding hairline,

343
00:21:56.119 --> 00:22:00.880
and uneven mustache. After mere weeks of war arlwind courting,

344
00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:04.079
the pair joined in matrimony in front of a crowd

345
00:22:04.119 --> 00:22:07.599
of hundreds at his ninety acre ranch in the otherwise

346
00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:11.519
modest village of Tumbleweed. Jake was eager to prove to

347
00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:14.119
his new bile bride that he had learned from the

348
00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:18.960
mistakes of his first two marriages. There had been some downs.

349
00:22:19.480 --> 00:22:23.440
Jake was ornery, hypercritical, and mentioned his appreciation for the

350
00:22:23.480 --> 00:22:28.440
anatomy of other women, most even younger than her, quite often.

351
00:22:28.839 --> 00:22:31.640
But he was a man, and oh what a man

352
00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:35.799
he could be. That little wallflower who entered college station

353
00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:40.039
would be surprised at what she became. Prior to her nuptials,

354
00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:44.799
Zelda May's culinary expertise topped out at popping microwave popcorn,

355
00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:49.039
But now she was a regular Julia child. She chuckled

356
00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:51.319
at what her younger self would say if she found

357
00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:54.480
out about the elaborate shindigs she now held on a

358
00:22:54.519 --> 00:22:58.640
regular basis. Tonight she would be hosting a soiree for

359
00:22:58.759 --> 00:23:02.359
Jake's colleagues and their works. It was an important one.

360
00:23:02.839 --> 00:23:07.519
Cattle mogul k l Bandy had accepted an invitation. Joining

361
00:23:07.559 --> 00:23:11.519
his inner circle was a guaranteed ticket to political success,

362
00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:16.240
which the oilman craved. He had been locally beloved on

363
00:23:16.319 --> 00:23:19.279
the village council for a number of years, but he

364
00:23:19.359 --> 00:23:22.240
was sick of judging pie bake offs and attending ribbon

365
00:23:22.279 --> 00:23:27.559
cutting ceremonies for libraries. The state Senate was calling him.

366
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All Bandy had to do was hand him the phone.

367
00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:36.160
Ten minutes had passed since Jake's promised five thirty homecoming.

368
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This worried Zelda May sick. It was a pretty common

369
00:23:40.680 --> 00:23:44.200
occurrence for him to overshoot his eta, but precedent never

370
00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:48.160
made it peaceful. He was a wealthy and powerful man,

371
00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:51.960
which automatically put a target on his back. The poor

372
00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:56.039
wife never knew if her gregarious partner had blown away

373
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the time chatting with an old chum, or had been

374
00:24:00.279 --> 00:24:05.799
assassinated by an envious political opponent. The hypothetical loss of

375
00:24:05.839 --> 00:24:09.319
her paramour made her sick to her stomach, but she

376
00:24:09.400 --> 00:24:14.799
couldn't regress the paranoia. Finally, Jake stumbled in, having gotten

377
00:24:14.799 --> 00:24:19.480
a head start on the spirit embidement of the night. Hi, Honey,

378
00:24:19.920 --> 00:24:24.279
Zelda May lit up, Hey Biscuit. Jake hiccuped his pet

379
00:24:24.359 --> 00:24:27.240
name for her, as his massive jowls jiggled and his

380
00:24:27.400 --> 00:24:31.160
pale white belly cut into his Everything's Bigger in Texas

381
00:24:31.160 --> 00:24:35.319
belt buckle. He stunk of the cheapest gin Brady's bar

382
00:24:35.480 --> 00:24:38.359
had to offer, and the collar of his white Colonel

383
00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:43.279
Sanders' suit was scuffed. In Zelda May's eyes, she was

384
00:24:43.319 --> 00:24:47.680
looking at Paul Newman. The guests should be here soon,

385
00:24:48.680 --> 00:24:52.759
getting there. You need any help, well, actually, if you could.

386
00:24:53.400 --> 00:24:56.880
Jake's sobering snooze began the second it was even implied

387
00:24:57.200 --> 00:24:59.759
there was a way he could streamline the toil of

388
00:24:59.799 --> 00:25:03.160
his labored spouse. It was no big deal. She was

389
00:25:03.200 --> 00:25:07.240
pretty sure she liked doing housework. There were still several

390
00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:10.680
dishes she needed to magically conjure before nine o'clock. Then

391
00:25:10.839 --> 00:25:14.400
she needed to wash up the feast worked up a sweat,

392
00:25:14.599 --> 00:25:17.279
and it would be unladylike to not present herself as

393
00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:22.319
immaculate as possible. Not that long ago, the looming threat

394
00:25:22.359 --> 00:25:25.720
of the deadline would have scared her something fierce, but

395
00:25:25.799 --> 00:25:29.839
not anymore. Sure Enough, the spread was laid out, and

396
00:25:29.880 --> 00:25:33.240
she emerged from the powder room, renewed in her pearls

397
00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:37.319
and heels, mere minutes before the first ring of the doorbell,

398
00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:41.920
the sound of which revived her downed bow, who quickly

399
00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:48.000
wiped the drool from his face. Harvey Lois the Learners

400
00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:50.960
were the beneficiaries of the death of the mister's father,

401
00:25:51.480 --> 00:25:54.480
which granted them control over one of the state's largest

402
00:25:54.480 --> 00:25:58.680
construction firms. Harvey had never actually seen a pile of rubble,

403
00:25:58.839 --> 00:26:02.079
and Lois, all so from old money, was prone to

404
00:26:02.119 --> 00:26:05.960
making statements that made her formerly modest friend feel insecure

405
00:26:06.400 --> 00:26:11.039
about her background. Up next were the Duprees. Don had

406
00:26:11.079 --> 00:26:15.079
recently acquired controlling interest in the popular, inexpensive and small

407
00:26:15.160 --> 00:26:19.359
chain Selman's Department Store, which he was eagerly licking his

408
00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:23.400
lips to merge with a larger company. Flonetta and Ducky

409
00:26:23.480 --> 00:26:27.640
Perry arrived shortly after years of entertaining them hadn't shed

410
00:26:27.640 --> 00:26:30.359
a light on what they did for a living. All

411
00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:35.400
Zelda May knew was they were filthy rich. Just when

412
00:26:35.480 --> 00:26:38.240
Zelda May was about to shepherd her company into the

413
00:26:38.319 --> 00:26:41.839
dining room for their banquet, a limousine pulled up to

414
00:26:41.880 --> 00:26:46.240
the Darling residence. The driver exited his position to release

415
00:26:46.279 --> 00:26:50.440
an invitee that Zelda May had forgotten about, but Jake

416
00:26:50.680 --> 00:26:55.519
certainly hadn't. K l Bandy. Everybody stopped what they were

417
00:26:55.559 --> 00:26:58.640
doing to gaze upon the richest man in the lone

418
00:26:58.680 --> 00:27:02.359
star state, which which angered Lois Learner, who had only

419
00:27:02.400 --> 00:27:04.880
belted out a stanza and a half as she cooed

420
00:27:04.920 --> 00:27:09.200
and curled over the piano. The vip looked nothing like

421
00:27:09.240 --> 00:27:11.759
the image Zelda May had cooked up in her head.

422
00:27:12.720 --> 00:27:15.319
She had pictured a good old boy with roughly the

423
00:27:15.359 --> 00:27:19.680
same features as her beloved and his colleagues. Instead, a

424
00:27:19.720 --> 00:27:23.920
decrepit skeleton shambled up to her porch, escorted on each

425
00:27:23.960 --> 00:27:27.960
shoulder by a Miss Texas contender. The man half as

426
00:27:28.039 --> 00:27:31.720
old as the Earth and his gal pals glacially meandered

427
00:27:31.720 --> 00:27:36.400
towards his admirers. Inside, an irate jake furiously barked at

428
00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:39.319
Zelda May to stop daydreaming and open the door for

429
00:27:39.400 --> 00:27:42.559
the guest of honor, long before he reached the welcome mat.

430
00:27:43.119 --> 00:27:46.640
How do mister Brandy and excited Don Dupree powered through

431
00:27:46.680 --> 00:27:49.240
the crowd to win the race. To determine the old

432
00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:54.640
man's inaugural conversation, Dupree firmly grasped Bandy's hand in a

433
00:27:54.680 --> 00:27:59.960
shake which cracked the methuselah of Meat's worn joints. Embarrassed

434
00:28:00.359 --> 00:28:06.200
Double d frantically apologized to the unoffended baron. Despite his assurance,

435
00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:10.640
Don replayed the moment in his head over and over,

436
00:28:11.400 --> 00:28:16.440
removing himself from the camaraderie to self flagellate. Hello, mister Bandy,

437
00:28:16.799 --> 00:28:19.960
beamed Zelda May. Jake has told me so much about

438
00:28:20.319 --> 00:28:23.160
can we get you anything? Mister Bandy? The King of

439
00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:26.640
the castle stifled his wife. He shot her a dirty look.

440
00:28:26.680 --> 00:28:30.799
As the ancient one declined, Jake pulled Zelde May aside

441
00:28:31.160 --> 00:28:34.640
and mentioned his distaste for the comment. When Bandy was

442
00:28:34.680 --> 00:28:38.759
out of earshot. What things was she implying? He had mentioned?

443
00:28:39.440 --> 00:28:43.000
Did he look suspicious? Just now she was going to

444
00:28:43.039 --> 00:28:47.240
blow his big shot. Sorry, honey, just don't talk to

445
00:28:47.319 --> 00:28:50.720
him or look at him. The convoy entered the pure

446
00:28:50.759 --> 00:28:54.640
white dining room. Effusive scores were given to Zelda May's

447
00:28:54.680 --> 00:28:58.880
creations before a bite was even taken, including many from

448
00:28:58.880 --> 00:29:02.039
the treasured newcomer, who sat in the head chair after

449
00:29:02.079 --> 00:29:06.000
the usual alpha seated his territory for this one night only.

450
00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:10.640
Convival talk among the boys followed as the women chatted

451
00:29:10.680 --> 00:29:14.759
about past and future dinner parties, although a rattled Don

452
00:29:14.920 --> 00:29:18.920
mostly just nodded in agreement, too worried about throwing another

453
00:29:19.279 --> 00:29:23.599
boneheaded interception. This was their one chance to impress a

454
00:29:23.640 --> 00:29:28.839
man that could fatten their portfolios. Ducky Perry fantasized about

455
00:29:28.839 --> 00:29:31.880
his soon to be new best friend handing over the

456
00:29:31.960 --> 00:29:35.799
deed to one of his tremendous golf courses. Jake took

457
00:29:35.839 --> 00:29:39.680
every inch to bring up his steakhouse concept. Tired of

458
00:29:39.720 --> 00:29:43.039
all beef all the time, the gazillionaire never offered much

459
00:29:43.079 --> 00:29:47.400
response to the proposal. Did this guy even know anything

460
00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:52.519
about running a restaurant? Further incessant, half baked hypotheticals continued

461
00:29:52.519 --> 00:29:56.759
to line dance on the geezer's already feeble nerves. The

462
00:29:56.799 --> 00:30:00.759
brisket was excellent, the corn was phenomenal, and the apple

463
00:30:00.839 --> 00:30:03.400
pie had been some of the best he had tasted

464
00:30:03.559 --> 00:30:07.240
in his countless years on this planet. But another round

465
00:30:07.240 --> 00:30:12.640
of rump kissers had left Bandy exasperated. Zelda may quit

466
00:30:12.680 --> 00:30:16.599
staring at mister Bandy. Jake reprimanded his adult wife as

467
00:30:16.640 --> 00:30:20.160
if she was a toddler with a tattling habit. I wasn't,

468
00:30:20.640 --> 00:30:24.359
She defended herself. Another round of tupperware talk had been

469
00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:27.400
her limit for the past ten minutes. She had been

470
00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:31.519
zoned out affixed on nothing in particular. Yes, you was,

471
00:30:31.640 --> 00:30:37.200
now apologize. It's quite all right, Bandy foolishly said, in

472
00:30:37.279 --> 00:30:40.319
an agitation that seemed to imply he was more irritated

473
00:30:40.319 --> 00:30:46.039
by him than her. Sometimes she gets like this, like what,

474
00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:50.480
Zelda May countered, now more anxious to hear her fictional

475
00:30:50.519 --> 00:30:56.799
shortcomings than appearing demure. Don't start you started it, folks.

476
00:30:57.400 --> 00:31:00.480
I think I'm gonna call it a night, the steamed

477
00:31:00.519 --> 00:31:03.200
mogul said, as he gestured for his twins to help

478
00:31:03.240 --> 00:31:05.960
him up and out. Part of him felt bad for

479
00:31:06.039 --> 00:31:09.559
his dogpiled host, but most of him wanted to thank

480
00:31:09.599 --> 00:31:12.680
her for giving him an excuse to escape this never

481
00:31:12.799 --> 00:31:18.279
ending assault of false praise. Say what you did, Jake blared,

482
00:31:18.319 --> 00:31:20.880
to a degree that the heart of hearing Bandy heard

483
00:31:20.920 --> 00:31:26.039
from a room away Zelda May Honey Floetta's fake accent

484
00:31:26.119 --> 00:31:30.240
permeated with a passive aggressiveness that elicited a cold draft

485
00:31:30.359 --> 00:31:35.359
down the pariah's spine. I hope you're happy. I almost

486
00:31:35.359 --> 00:31:40.000
had a third car dealership, Don whined. The grumbling gaggle

487
00:31:40.039 --> 00:31:44.279
emotionally and wordlessly returned to their vehicles, leaving Zelda May

488
00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:49.480
alone to face Jake's wrath in addition to Tonight's alleged

489
00:31:49.559 --> 00:31:53.480
staring gaff. He found nitpicks in the food he scarfed down,

490
00:31:53.880 --> 00:31:58.319
and found flaws with her hair, makeup and chubby cheeks.

491
00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:01.839
If she kept letting her herself go, that girl he

492
00:32:01.920 --> 00:32:04.359
saw today after work might just have to move in.

493
00:32:05.160 --> 00:32:08.640
Jake continued his relentless attack, which would have driven Zelda

494
00:32:08.680 --> 00:32:11.480
May to tears if she hadn't cried them all out

495
00:32:11.519 --> 00:32:15.240
over the years. As a compulsion, she started to work

496
00:32:15.240 --> 00:32:18.759
on the everest of dishes. Of course, the supposed clean

497
00:32:18.799 --> 00:32:22.200
freak didn't offer her a modicum of help. At least

498
00:32:22.200 --> 00:32:25.119
he was talking to her. That was a refreshing change

499
00:32:25.119 --> 00:32:28.839
of pace. She began scrubbing the tainted plates in a

500
00:32:28.880 --> 00:32:33.279
fury as Jake continued his verbal bulrush a sutty mess,

501
00:32:33.559 --> 00:32:36.680
Zelda May pulled the dishwasher rack out and marched to

502
00:32:36.720 --> 00:32:40.359
the fridge for some chardonnay, which she elected to down

503
00:32:40.559 --> 00:32:43.920
straight from the bottle. Jake scoffed at the lush she

504
00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:47.400
could be and attempted to pry the bottle loose. Much

505
00:32:47.440 --> 00:32:51.839
bigger his stripsack was overpowering, spiking and staining the kitchen

506
00:32:51.880 --> 00:32:55.640
floor with wet glass. Naturally, this was seen as purely

507
00:32:55.759 --> 00:32:59.920
Zelda May's error, which resulted in a final flurry of condescension.

508
00:33:00.880 --> 00:33:04.000
Sick of hearing these judgments, the harried housewife gave her

509
00:33:04.079 --> 00:33:08.799
husband a shove, her anger, propelling her strength to unprecedented levels.

510
00:33:09.839 --> 00:33:13.839
The back of Jake's boots skidded over the edge of spillage.

511
00:33:13.920 --> 00:33:17.160
The hoss tried to compose his balance, which only caused

512
00:33:17.240 --> 00:33:20.640
him to dance more erratically before he fell over backwards

513
00:33:20.960 --> 00:33:25.200
in a heap, cracking his neck on the still exposed dishwasher.

514
00:33:26.279 --> 00:33:29.240
The crunch was louder than the snap of the wishbone

515
00:33:29.519 --> 00:33:35.880
of her famous Thanksgiving turkey. No choking, no throes, no

516
00:33:36.039 --> 00:33:44.720
mournful departing apology, instant death, don't go away, weakly spooky,

517
00:33:44.759 --> 00:33:54.640
will be right back. Stunned, the accidental killer stared back

518
00:33:54.720 --> 00:33:58.519
at her unintentional victim. The eyes that had been full

519
00:33:58.559 --> 00:34:03.200
of fire just seconds before were now ghostly white. She

520
00:34:03.279 --> 00:34:07.279
didn't blame herself. It was a self induced accident, a

521
00:34:07.319 --> 00:34:12.000
fatal folly caused by his own foolishness. Now single part

522
00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:14.320
of her felt sad about the loss of her partner,

523
00:34:15.119 --> 00:34:18.119
but more of her felt relieved that there was finally

524
00:34:18.159 --> 00:34:22.079
some quiet in here. Now she could tidy this mess

525
00:34:22.119 --> 00:34:26.159
in piece calm as could be. Zelda May grabbed the

526
00:34:26.239 --> 00:34:30.159
mop and dust pan and commenced the arduous clean up,

527
00:34:30.679 --> 00:34:33.599
a chore that was made more difficult by the two

528
00:34:33.639 --> 00:34:37.199
hundred and fifty pound hindrance that blocked some of the puddle.

529
00:34:38.119 --> 00:34:44.119
Manslaughter was no excuse for a dirty home. My husband

530
00:34:44.199 --> 00:34:47.800
is dead, she phoned the cops. As hard as she

531
00:34:47.880 --> 00:34:52.519
tried to appear hysterical, she was no actress. The death

532
00:34:52.559 --> 00:34:56.320
of Big Jake Darling sent shockwaves through the local community.

533
00:34:56.840 --> 00:34:59.840
Although Zelda May figured she would be spending the foreseeable

534
00:34:59.840 --> 00:35:03.360
thing future playing the part of the sympathetic widow, her

535
00:35:03.400 --> 00:35:07.239
adopted home quickly made her a female Peter Sellers and

536
00:35:07.400 --> 00:35:11.760
cast her in many roles, a bloodthirsty harpie, a cold

537
00:35:11.800 --> 00:35:16.280
blooded Jezebel, and an unscrupulous gold digger who pulled out

538
00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:20.760
the ultimate gambit to collect Jake's money, which, unbeknownst to them,

539
00:35:21.400 --> 00:35:24.559
was sealed off by the prenup he convinced her to sign.

540
00:35:25.400 --> 00:35:29.079
Many claimed they saw this coming years ago. There was

541
00:35:29.119 --> 00:35:34.639
always something off about that Darling woman, even with forensic experts,

542
00:35:34.719 --> 00:35:38.679
confirming the death by misadventure theory. The late's buddy won

543
00:35:38.880 --> 00:35:42.480
Sheriff Zeke Hitchins, decided to treat this as what they

544
00:35:42.519 --> 00:35:48.239
all knew. It was a heartless murder. That year's Trial

545
00:35:48.320 --> 00:35:51.760
of the Century followed. Soon everyone with access to a

546
00:35:51.800 --> 00:35:57.079
newspaper had an opinion on Zelda May Darling. Jake's financial accomplishments,

547
00:35:57.360 --> 00:36:01.519
subjective platitudes, and status as a local leader were broadcasted

548
00:36:01.599 --> 00:36:06.480
non stop, with no mention of his tantrums or philandering proclivities.

549
00:36:07.119 --> 00:36:10.199
On the other side of the token, any assumed character

550
00:36:10.280 --> 00:36:13.800
defect of Zelda May was taken with a tower of salt.

551
00:36:14.519 --> 00:36:18.400
Don dupre mentioned the foaming madness he witnessed first hand

552
00:36:18.440 --> 00:36:21.920
at the dinner party, and wondered aloud how he narrowly

553
00:36:22.079 --> 00:36:27.079
escaped the massacre. The defendant was powerless and unable to

554
00:36:27.079 --> 00:36:30.199
bring up the drunken not so nice words Harvey Lerner

555
00:36:30.239 --> 00:36:33.519
had to say about Jake that a similarly inebriated Lois

556
00:36:33.719 --> 00:36:38.079
had blurted to her during an avon social Zelda May

557
00:36:38.320 --> 00:36:42.239
was without any support. Even her own mother had severed ties,

558
00:36:42.599 --> 00:36:46.440
fearful of what having a cozy relationship with her criminally

559
00:36:46.480 --> 00:36:50.800
insane daughter would have on her own reputation. I didn't

560
00:36:50.920 --> 00:36:54.039
raise her that way, you know. Mamma Darling made sure

561
00:36:54.079 --> 00:36:59.159
to alert everyone in the courthouse. The judgment was swift.

562
00:36:59.760 --> 00:37:03.599
Zeelda May Darling was going to fry. The poor girl

563
00:37:03.639 --> 00:37:07.639
had made the mistake of bagging a lofty and influential trophy.

564
00:37:08.400 --> 00:37:12.039
Twenty million dollars of leverage had been the difference between

565
00:37:12.039 --> 00:37:17.920
life without parole and the electric chair. The consensus was euphoric.

566
00:37:18.400 --> 00:37:21.880
Some felt even the most damning conviction was still too

567
00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:26.039
lenient for that bitch. Too bad they couldn't personally summon

568
00:37:26.079 --> 00:37:29.159
Satan to drag her to the nether world where she belonged.

569
00:37:30.079 --> 00:37:34.360
State endorsed killing is a lengthy process. Although scheduled for

570
00:37:34.440 --> 00:37:38.960
a nineteen seventy two execution, Zelda May's lawyers appealed and

571
00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:42.400
petitioned as much as they could, much to the chagrin

572
00:37:42.480 --> 00:37:46.800
of the mob. Years passed. No longer was she a

573
00:37:46.800 --> 00:37:51.280
bubbly socialite or an angelic homecoming queen. She had grown

574
00:37:51.440 --> 00:37:55.960
hardened by the prison system. Unkempt hair, a haggard face,

575
00:37:56.280 --> 00:38:00.159
a perpetual scowl were all that remained. A New Who

576
00:38:00.239 --> 00:38:03.360
charity believed they had found a loophole to prevent her

577
00:38:03.440 --> 00:38:06.639
death from being a crispy one, which earned them hatred

578
00:38:07.079 --> 00:38:13.920
and mockery. It was too late anyway, she wanted to die. Finally,

579
00:38:14.519 --> 00:38:18.079
on the hottest day of nineteen eighty three, Zelda May

580
00:38:18.280 --> 00:38:21.840
was ushered to the chamber. Her last meal the previous

581
00:38:21.960 --> 00:38:27.079
night was two cookies, one more than Jake permitted her

582
00:38:27.119 --> 00:38:31.280
to have. The condemned was placed in the sparky fairy

583
00:38:31.480 --> 00:38:35.960
and asked if she had any final words. She had none.

584
00:38:36.440 --> 00:38:39.239
A guard walked to the lever. He had been a

585
00:38:39.280 --> 00:38:43.239
mere child during Zelda May's trial. His mother and father

586
00:38:43.320 --> 00:38:45.840
made her out to be a boogie woman, but there

587
00:38:45.880 --> 00:38:50.239
was a sadness in her wild eyes, a story only

588
00:38:50.320 --> 00:38:55.400
she knew. Still, this is what the people of Texas craved.

589
00:38:56.199 --> 00:38:58.280
If there was a way to move her demise to

590
00:38:58.320 --> 00:39:01.639
a packed house at the Astrodome, few would protest it.

591
00:39:02.679 --> 00:39:07.760
The guards swung the switch. Zelda May's pupils bulged and

592
00:39:07.800 --> 00:39:11.639
her limbs thrashed. The watts coursing through her veins were

593
00:39:11.679 --> 00:39:15.719
nothing compared to the hatred flowing inside her vengeful brain.

594
00:39:17.199 --> 00:39:21.840
She outlasted the average survival time by ten agonizing seconds

595
00:39:21.880 --> 00:39:25.760
out of pure spite. Even when public Enemy number one

596
00:39:25.800 --> 00:39:29.400
had been reduced to a charred hunk of flesh, the

597
00:39:29.480 --> 00:39:33.000
overseers were fearful she had even more fight to give.

598
00:39:34.119 --> 00:39:39.199
She's Hell's problem now, boys, the warden congratulated the elimination

599
00:39:39.360 --> 00:39:50.239
of the menace. Let's hope they keep her. Hope, you

600
00:39:50.280 --> 00:39:53.960
bitches are having a good sleigh. Delaney Parker and her

601
00:39:54.000 --> 00:39:58.679
flamboyant co host Chet screamed their popular trademark greeting before

602
00:39:58.719 --> 00:40:02.400
they launched into the exposi of their latest vlog. A

603
00:40:02.440 --> 00:40:07.159
consummate influencer, Delaney insisted on fourteen more takes before she

604
00:40:07.239 --> 00:40:11.719
was satisfied. Chet and Delaney were the team behind Booze

605
00:40:11.760 --> 00:40:15.719
and Bludgeonings, a lifestyle brand they had started together four

606
00:40:15.800 --> 00:40:20.400
years prior while attending UCLA. What started off as an

607
00:40:20.400 --> 00:40:23.760
online channel devoted to their mutual interest in both true

608
00:40:23.800 --> 00:40:28.039
crime and alcohol blossomed into a multi level brand that

609
00:40:28.159 --> 00:40:32.440
included a podcast, t shirts, and of course, their very

610
00:40:32.480 --> 00:40:36.880
own IPA. The duo was most famous for their broadcasts

611
00:40:36.920 --> 00:40:40.239
from murder sites. Their most popular episode up to this

612
00:40:40.360 --> 00:40:43.480
point had been the night they braved the Lizzie Borden inn.

613
00:40:44.239 --> 00:40:46.679
Although it was a bit intimidating to be on the

614
00:40:46.719 --> 00:40:50.119
grounds of one of the most infamous slayings ever, neither

615
00:40:50.199 --> 00:40:53.679
talking had believed in the supernatural. Contrary to what their

616
00:40:53.679 --> 00:40:58.039
subscribers believed. Chet had added those orbs and moans and

617
00:40:58.159 --> 00:41:01.679
post right after they filmed their forty minutes worth than bolted.

618
00:41:02.599 --> 00:41:06.079
Their fans lapped that slop up B and B was

619
00:41:06.079 --> 00:41:10.840
a polarizing empire. Many felt their content was crass and exploitive,

620
00:41:11.239 --> 00:41:15.719
not to mention derivative. However, those critics were drowned out

621
00:41:15.800 --> 00:41:19.800
by their adoring acolytes, who loved to live vicariously through

622
00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:23.039
the pair's Instagram page just as much as they enjoyed

623
00:41:23.079 --> 00:41:27.679
the journey into the macabre. Their latest stunt was sure

624
00:41:27.719 --> 00:41:31.960
to be their biggest hit yet, a live midnight broadcast

625
00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:37.119
from the grave of Zelda May Darling, a Southern bell

626
00:41:37.280 --> 00:41:40.440
who rang for the last time in nineteen eighty two.

627
00:41:41.239 --> 00:41:44.679
In the forty years since Zelda May's death, Tumbleweed had

628
00:41:44.679 --> 00:41:48.199
grown up to a fair sized city of sixty thousand,

629
00:41:48.719 --> 00:41:51.559
several miles from the pauper's grave. They had given their

630
00:41:51.599 --> 00:41:55.920
most notorious former resident. Despite the shame of her now

631
00:41:56.039 --> 00:41:59.960
dead or senile dammers. The terror of Tumbleweed had been

632
00:42:00.199 --> 00:42:04.519
given a forgiving retrospective thanks to countless televised re enactments

633
00:42:04.920 --> 00:42:07.960
which elaborated on the kangaroo court in justice she had

634
00:42:07.960 --> 00:42:11.920
been forced to endure, as well as revelatory evidence Jake

635
00:42:12.000 --> 00:42:15.400
Darling may not have been a nice man. A museum

636
00:42:15.440 --> 00:42:18.079
in her honor now stood not far from the very

637
00:42:18.159 --> 00:42:22.360
same court house she had been mortally punished. Cheap paperbacks

638
00:42:22.400 --> 00:42:26.559
inspired by her saga littered bookstores. A street fair sold

639
00:42:26.639 --> 00:42:29.679
nachos and cotton candy. On the weekend closest to the

640
00:42:29.719 --> 00:42:35.199
anniversary of the night she lost her innocence. Tourists, mostly

641
00:42:35.239 --> 00:42:37.920
women who occasionally had half the mind to butcher their

642
00:42:37.960 --> 00:42:41.039
own dufus husbands, flooded the streets of the town that

643
00:42:41.119 --> 00:42:45.000
had ostracized her. Zelda May was forced to watch it

644
00:42:45.079 --> 00:42:51.880
all somewhere, Every cheap trinket, every hollow word of support,

645
00:42:52.199 --> 00:42:57.320
every dollar made on her trauma, a montage of retribution

646
00:42:57.480 --> 00:43:02.679
against her, a cosmic decree for an unpremeditated act. No

647
00:43:02.760 --> 00:43:06.199
longer human, she still felt the pain of her penance

648
00:43:06.480 --> 00:43:10.960
burn across her changed image. She pleaded for her unseen

649
00:43:11.000 --> 00:43:15.960
tormentor to stop, which only intensified the noise. Four decades

650
00:43:16.000 --> 00:43:19.760
of torture had felt like four eons. Where was this

651
00:43:19.920 --> 00:43:24.280
adulation back in her own day? These parasites worshiping her

652
00:43:24.480 --> 00:43:27.119
were no better than the cocksuckers who put her away.

653
00:43:27.760 --> 00:43:31.360
The cycle flipped back to rage as she gnashed and snarled,

654
00:43:32.000 --> 00:43:37.840
vowing to break free. Halfway across town, two of those

655
00:43:37.920 --> 00:43:41.679
profiteers had taken up shelter at the lone Star Motel.

656
00:43:42.679 --> 00:43:46.039
Surveying her outfit for the big show, Delaney was assured

657
00:43:46.079 --> 00:43:50.199
by her boyfriend that she looked banging as he cradled

658
00:43:50.199 --> 00:43:55.320
her body, which earned a push. No macho bullshit. Chet

659
00:43:55.360 --> 00:43:58.719
needed to focus and stay in the caricature they had created.

660
00:43:59.280 --> 00:44:02.840
It was funnier, and the demographics suggested their male viewership

661
00:44:02.920 --> 00:44:05.280
might take a hit if they found out she was

662
00:44:05.320 --> 00:44:08.679
off the market. This was a big night and he

663
00:44:08.800 --> 00:44:13.760
wasn't going to ruin it. Neither were the haters online. Tonight,

664
00:44:13.840 --> 00:44:18.639
she was going to break the Internet. Fuck I keep

665
00:44:18.679 --> 00:44:22.920
losing service. It was now eleven fifty eight and the

666
00:44:23.000 --> 00:44:27.960
event seemed on thin ice due to spotty reception. Chet

667
00:44:28.039 --> 00:44:31.719
was getting fed up with Delaney's devinus. The Hicks had

668
00:44:31.760 --> 00:44:34.599
buried Zelda May so far out in the boonies that

669
00:44:34.639 --> 00:44:39.199
Delaney feared they wouldn't make it on time. Finally, right

670
00:44:39.199 --> 00:44:43.719
over top the only recently installed marker, two bars lit up.

671
00:44:44.400 --> 00:44:48.000
It was gonna happen. Zelda May's reputation had allowed them

672
00:44:48.000 --> 00:44:53.320
to become innovators. Cemeteries usually frowned on trifling among the graves.

673
00:44:53.920 --> 00:44:57.599
Delaney learned that the hard way. She took a deep

674
00:44:57.639 --> 00:45:01.599
breath and visualized the viral hitch she had on her hands.

675
00:45:02.159 --> 00:45:06.039
The countdown hit zero, the red light went on. The

676
00:45:06.079 --> 00:45:12.199
marshy ground began to open up. What the fuck Chet

677
00:45:12.239 --> 00:45:15.559
said in his natural gruff accent, which broke there no

678
00:45:15.840 --> 00:45:22.039
unbleaped swearing rule, Chet girl, we're live, Delaney sternly reminded

679
00:45:22.239 --> 00:45:25.119
as she panned the camera, just as her lover was

680
00:45:25.199 --> 00:45:30.039
forcefully snatched by a bony hand, first by the leg

681
00:45:30.519 --> 00:45:34.360
and then quickly by the throat. Fuck all of you,

682
00:45:35.199 --> 00:45:39.320
the revenant hissed as she smashed another man's neck on

683
00:45:39.440 --> 00:45:42.719
purpose this time. Oh my god, Oh my god, oh

684
00:45:42.760 --> 00:45:47.280
my god. Delaney took off, half in fear, half in amazement.

685
00:45:47.840 --> 00:45:50.360
All she had to do was outrun this old bag

686
00:45:50.400 --> 00:45:54.519
of bones, and she'd have the most watched video of

687
00:45:54.559 --> 00:45:59.079
all time. Forty years of rust and rod had not slowed.

688
00:45:59.199 --> 00:46:02.800
Zelda May, the former track star, let her prey have

689
00:46:02.880 --> 00:46:06.320
a head start, just to give her some false hope,

690
00:46:06.360 --> 00:46:10.480
and then sicked her the bones of her malformed legs,

691
00:46:10.519 --> 00:46:13.840
twisting and bending with each stride until she pounced on

692
00:46:13.920 --> 00:46:17.360
this intruder, pinning her against the side of the vehicle

693
00:46:17.400 --> 00:46:21.119
they had violated her resting place with. She was a

694
00:46:21.159 --> 00:46:24.320
pretty girl, roughly the same age she had been the

695
00:46:24.440 --> 00:46:29.519
night she really died. Zelda May looked at the ghastly

696
00:46:29.639 --> 00:46:34.239
visage in the rearview window, gasped, and with one violent tug,

697
00:46:35.400 --> 00:46:40.239
ripped Delaney's face clean off. She needed it more than

698
00:46:40.280 --> 00:46:45.320
her The triple homicider realized she had crudely applied the

699
00:46:45.400 --> 00:46:50.800
mask and adjusted it over the exposed rottage, shewing away

700
00:46:50.840 --> 00:46:55.119
a few worms as well. She was young and beautiful again,

701
00:46:55.440 --> 00:47:00.679
with a whole town to paint red. Zelda May reset

702
00:47:00.719 --> 00:47:07.880
her lower body and made her way towards Tumbleweed. The

703
00:47:07.960 --> 00:47:12.360
audience couldn't believe the sheer tackiness of this spectacle, Booze

704
00:47:12.360 --> 00:47:17.239
and bludgeonings faking their own deaths, a phony monster, never

705
00:47:17.400 --> 00:47:21.599
ending footage of dirt. The channel had truly jumped the shark.

706
00:47:22.519 --> 00:47:26.119
Even their most loyal followers logged off the live stream

707
00:47:26.159 --> 00:47:29.639
in droves. By the time the battery had ran out,

708
00:47:30.280 --> 00:47:33.920
the incident was so panned Chet and Delaney never made

709
00:47:33.920 --> 00:47:52.880
another video or public appearance ever again. The Stop Signed

710
00:47:52.920 --> 00:48:00.599
Man by Bryce Gibson one for guys that grow up

711
00:48:00.599 --> 00:48:04.440
around this part of South Carolina. Stealing stop signs is

712
00:48:04.480 --> 00:48:07.440
a rite of passage, all for the sake of an

713
00:48:07.480 --> 00:48:10.880
old urban legend. It is something some of us do

714
00:48:11.039 --> 00:48:14.800
on our seventeenth birthday. If you choose to do it,

715
00:48:14.880 --> 00:48:21.800
there are three rules to follow. One do it alone. Two,

716
00:48:22.360 --> 00:48:26.119
don't tell a soul about what you see, and three,

717
00:48:26.880 --> 00:48:30.559
the most important rule of them all, never get caught.

718
00:48:31.400 --> 00:48:34.960
If you do, the stop sign Man will make your

719
00:48:35.039 --> 00:48:41.639
life a living hell. I Stratton Duke failed at number three,

720
00:48:43.119 --> 00:48:50.719
and the folklore is right, my life sucks. Two. Most

721
00:48:50.760 --> 00:48:53.880
everybody around here has heard the legend at some time

722
00:48:54.000 --> 00:48:58.000
or another. If you haven't, you're either too young or

723
00:48:58.039 --> 00:49:02.159
you've been living under a rock. It goes something like this.

724
00:49:03.400 --> 00:49:07.599
On the night of your seventeenth birthday, steal a County

725
00:49:07.639 --> 00:49:11.079
stop sign. Take it out to the old Williamson Barn

726
00:49:11.800 --> 00:49:16.519
and you will see him for yourself. The first time

727
00:49:16.559 --> 00:49:19.400
I ever heard the story, I was seven years old.

728
00:49:19.559 --> 00:49:21.639
I was sitting with Dad at the barber shop on

729
00:49:21.760 --> 00:49:24.519
Main Street. It was mid afternoon and I had just

730
00:49:24.559 --> 00:49:27.719
gotten out of school for the day. Halloween was right

731
00:49:27.719 --> 00:49:31.519
around the corner. Mister Perry, the barber, had the shop

732
00:49:31.599 --> 00:49:35.320
decorated with paper jack o lanterns, green faced witches, and

733
00:49:35.440 --> 00:49:39.519
spooky black cats. After telling Dad that he'd heard a

734
00:49:39.559 --> 00:49:42.639
stop sign had been stolen the night before, the two

735
00:49:42.639 --> 00:49:44.880
of them discussed the fact that it had been so

736
00:49:45.079 --> 00:49:48.760
and so's birthday. None of it made sense to me

737
00:49:49.199 --> 00:49:53.079
at the time. Then mister Perry looked at me and asked,

738
00:49:53.920 --> 00:49:58.039
do you know about the stop sign man? I told

739
00:49:58.079 --> 00:50:04.199
him I had no idea. Well, the barber continued, he

740
00:50:04.280 --> 00:50:08.920
has eyes shaped like octagons. They glow red and twirl

741
00:50:09.000 --> 00:50:13.239
around and around. After we got home and I was

742
00:50:13.320 --> 00:50:15.800
lying in bed with the blanket pulled up to my chin,

743
00:50:16.519 --> 00:50:19.440
I asked Dad if mister Perry was just saying those

744
00:50:19.480 --> 00:50:23.440
things to scare me with it being Halloween. I figured

745
00:50:23.480 --> 00:50:27.880
it was possible. It's just an urban legend, Dad said,

746
00:50:28.400 --> 00:50:31.400
a ghost story. It's something that gets passed down and

747
00:50:31.480 --> 00:50:36.079
told again and again. After that day, the legend was

748
00:50:36.280 --> 00:50:39.760
ingrained deep in my mind. Even though I didn't know

749
00:50:39.880 --> 00:50:43.760
many details. I thought about it often, and it wasn't

750
00:50:43.880 --> 00:50:47.840
just me who fell under the spell. Soon I realized

751
00:50:47.880 --> 00:50:51.440
the other kids at school knew about it too. Sometimes

752
00:50:51.440 --> 00:50:54.440
at recess we'd play a game we called stop the

753
00:50:54.519 --> 00:50:58.360
Stop Sign Man. One of us would be him and

754
00:50:58.480 --> 00:51:01.760
the others would be his advert series. We played the

755
00:51:01.800 --> 00:51:04.679
game on the wobbly roundabout, from which we tried to

756
00:51:04.760 --> 00:51:08.400
fling the stop sign Man off of Octagons play a

757
00:51:08.440 --> 00:51:12.239
big part in the weird mythology, from the signs themselves

758
00:51:12.320 --> 00:51:16.119
to the strange locale. Over the years, I'd seen the

759
00:51:16.159 --> 00:51:20.880
Williamson Barn many times in passing. I always knew something

760
00:51:21.039 --> 00:51:24.519
was a little off kilter about the construction, but I

761
00:51:24.599 --> 00:51:29.239
couldn't pinpoint what the building stands on a stretch of

762
00:51:29.280 --> 00:51:32.880
overgrown land next to a cow pasture and dense woods.

763
00:51:33.800 --> 00:51:36.519
Not long after learning about the stop sign Man, I

764
00:51:36.559 --> 00:51:42.039
realized the truth. The barn has eight sides of equal

765
00:51:42.119 --> 00:51:47.480
length an octagon. Needless to say, with the knowledge of

766
00:51:47.519 --> 00:51:51.440
the story, I was terrified to go anywhere near that place.

767
00:51:52.920 --> 00:51:58.039
Three boy, how things change between the ages of seven

768
00:51:58.119 --> 00:52:02.199
and sixteen. I became a completely different person. My body

769
00:52:02.239 --> 00:52:05.679
grew in ways I never imagined over those years. I

770
00:52:05.760 --> 00:52:09.679
shot up like a weed. Now I'm nearly six feet tall.

771
00:52:10.199 --> 00:52:13.159
I don't fit in with any particular group at school.

772
00:52:13.760 --> 00:52:16.000
That's not to say I don't have friends. I do,

773
00:52:16.599 --> 00:52:19.079
but for the most part I linger on the outside

774
00:52:19.519 --> 00:52:23.760
looking in. Ten years ago, nobody would have been able

775
00:52:23.760 --> 00:52:26.960
to drag my skinny ass anywhere near the Williamson Barn.

776
00:52:27.679 --> 00:52:31.239
And now I'm sitting here offering myself up like it's

777
00:52:31.320 --> 00:52:35.960
the great sacrifice that will save all of humanity. And

778
00:52:36.079 --> 00:52:41.119
really it's about a girl. Her name is Alison Weaving,

779
00:52:41.639 --> 00:52:44.119
new to our part of Crow County at the beginning

780
00:52:44.119 --> 00:52:47.000
of senior year. From the moment I saw her, with

781
00:52:47.039 --> 00:52:51.400
her long blonde hair and perfect body, she was everything

782
00:52:51.440 --> 00:52:54.800
I wanted to put it simply, I would have done

783
00:52:55.079 --> 00:52:59.119
almost anything to have a chance with her. Unfortunately, what

784
00:52:59.199 --> 00:53:02.159
Alison wanted was far removed from the likes of me.

785
00:53:03.159 --> 00:53:07.400
Right off the bat, she became besties with Becca Mansfield. Becca,

786
00:53:07.960 --> 00:53:11.039
a literal beauty queen, liked to hang out with a

787
00:53:11.079 --> 00:53:14.159
slightly rougher crowd than the atmosphere me and my friend

788
00:53:14.159 --> 00:53:18.880
Greg Collins could provide. The group was led by Mark Taylor.

789
00:53:19.840 --> 00:53:22.800
Every day after school, Mark and his gang liked to

790
00:53:22.800 --> 00:53:26.960
congregate behind the Big Courthouse on the town square. There

791
00:53:27.039 --> 00:53:31.880
they smoked stolen cigarettes, drew half asked graffiti on trash cans,

792
00:53:32.320 --> 00:53:35.320
and dared each other to do stupid shit like flipping

793
00:53:35.360 --> 00:53:39.360
mid air from a picnic table. One Friday night in

794
00:53:39.480 --> 00:53:42.400
early fall, I dragged Greg to a party at Mark's

795
00:53:42.440 --> 00:53:46.840
house because I knew Alison would be there. Mark's parents

796
00:53:46.840 --> 00:53:49.760
were out of town and the place was slammed. Greg

797
00:53:49.800 --> 00:53:52.880
and I pushed our way through the crowd. We found

798
00:53:52.920 --> 00:53:56.119
Allison and Becca sitting on the countertop in the kitchen.

799
00:53:56.719 --> 00:53:59.159
They were watching Mark and his friends do the latest

800
00:53:59.280 --> 00:54:02.880
viral challenge, placing a penny on the prongs of a

801
00:54:02.920 --> 00:54:07.320
halfway plugged in phone charger. As sparks flew, I couldn't

802
00:54:07.360 --> 00:54:10.800
help but to notice how both Alison and Becca laughed

803
00:54:10.840 --> 00:54:15.000
at what they were witnessing. At that moment, one thing

804
00:54:15.079 --> 00:54:19.960
became glaringly clear to me. For Alison Weaving to notice me,

805
00:54:21.079 --> 00:54:26.880
I needed more of an edge four I'm gonna do it,

806
00:54:27.159 --> 00:54:31.880
I say, Thursday night. It's on my seventeenth birthday, is

807
00:54:31.920 --> 00:54:35.480
only three days away. According to the legend, you only

808
00:54:35.519 --> 00:54:38.760
get one shot. If I don't do it, I might

809
00:54:38.800 --> 00:54:42.480
regret it later, I add. Greg and I are sitting

810
00:54:42.559 --> 00:54:44.719
in one of the study rooms at the library, which

811
00:54:44.760 --> 00:54:47.360
is located in a flat brick building on the square.

812
00:54:48.280 --> 00:54:51.440
He's on one side of the wide wooden table and

813
00:54:51.480 --> 00:54:54.480
me on the other. Greg throws a pencil and it

814
00:54:54.559 --> 00:54:57.280
hits me upside the head. You could have put my

815
00:54:57.400 --> 00:54:59.960
eye out, I yell out and retrieve the yellow night

816
00:55:00.039 --> 00:55:03.119
number two from the floor, promptly flinging it back in

817
00:55:03.199 --> 00:55:07.039
his direction. Greg ducks out of the way. The pencil

818
00:55:07.079 --> 00:55:09.800
bounces off the cinder block wall behind him and rolls

819
00:55:09.880 --> 00:55:13.840
underneath the radiator heater. Greg sits up straight and stares

820
00:55:13.880 --> 00:55:17.000
at me. The stop sign. Man is just a lame

821
00:55:17.119 --> 00:55:21.480
ghost story. You know that, He says, you need to

822
00:55:21.519 --> 00:55:22.000
grow up.

823
00:55:22.039 --> 00:55:23.159
Man.

824
00:55:23.360 --> 00:55:27.199
We pack up our belongings and walk outside. Greg reaches

825
00:55:27.239 --> 00:55:29.679
into the front pocket of his book bag and pulls

826
00:55:29.679 --> 00:55:32.320
out a pack of cigarettes he'd lifted from his older brother.

827
00:55:33.119 --> 00:55:36.519
Without asking. He hands one to me. I just don't

828
00:55:36.519 --> 00:55:40.199
want you to get in trouble. He says, Chip Wagner

829
00:55:40.280 --> 00:55:42.760
is the most recent guy we know of to perform

830
00:55:42.800 --> 00:55:47.280
the ritual, and that was ten years ago. Chip was

831
00:55:47.360 --> 00:55:51.199
caught and charged with theft. With the common knowledge of

832
00:55:51.239 --> 00:55:54.000
the legend, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure

833
00:55:54.000 --> 00:55:57.239
out who to bring in for questioning. After all, it

834
00:55:57.440 --> 00:56:01.519
was Chip's birthday. I placed the cigarette between my lips,

835
00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:05.599
light the tip with Gregg's lighter, and inhale. The smoke

836
00:56:05.719 --> 00:56:11.039
makes me cough, and Greg laughs at my lack of experience. Besides,

837
00:56:11.239 --> 00:56:14.519
if you're that desperate for some action, I'm sure Roxy

838
00:56:14.679 --> 00:56:17.639
is ready and willing. Just take your ass over to

839
00:56:17.679 --> 00:56:21.159
the filling station. By the time we were young teenagers,

840
00:56:21.199 --> 00:56:24.440
we'd already heard the rest of the stop sign man folklore.

841
00:56:25.280 --> 00:56:28.039
After entering the barn with a sign as an offering,

842
00:56:28.760 --> 00:56:33.800
a woman appears. People say, she takes your innocence, she

843
00:56:34.400 --> 00:56:38.199
makes you a man. They say, no, one really knows

844
00:56:38.239 --> 00:56:42.320
what that means. Though obviously, with what Greg is suggesting

845
00:56:42.360 --> 00:56:45.639
to me now, his takeaway leans more towards something of

846
00:56:45.679 --> 00:56:50.519
a sexual nature. The girl he's talking about, Roxy is

847
00:56:50.599 --> 00:56:52.679
someone who grew up in the boggy land on the

848
00:56:52.719 --> 00:56:57.119
other side of the railroad tracks. Swamp rats, we call them.

849
00:56:57.519 --> 00:57:00.679
I glance across the square. The filling station is visible

850
00:57:00.719 --> 00:57:04.599
from here and I see her. She's sitting on an

851
00:57:04.639 --> 00:57:07.599
old wooden church pew that's pushed up against the side

852
00:57:07.599 --> 00:57:12.440
of the store. I groan in disgust. I'm sure she is,

853
00:57:12.599 --> 00:57:15.199
but I don't want to catch some kind of disease.

854
00:57:17.119 --> 00:57:20.599
Later that night, after having birthday dinner with my dad,

855
00:57:20.639 --> 00:57:23.400
I drive all the way out to Layman Road to

856
00:57:23.440 --> 00:57:27.599
where an intersection sits deep in a long stretch of pines.

857
00:57:28.679 --> 00:57:31.440
Over the past few days, I've been scoping things out

858
00:57:31.480 --> 00:57:35.039
and making a plan. Anybody who does this has to

859
00:57:35.159 --> 00:57:38.199
choose his own sign, and the one I've picked has

860
00:57:38.239 --> 00:57:42.360
a spray painted X on the back. With a wrench

861
00:57:42.440 --> 00:57:44.920
from the toolbox on the back of my truck, I

862
00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:48.239
remove the sign from the metal post. After I have

863
00:57:48.400 --> 00:57:51.079
the sign taken down, I place it flat on the

864
00:57:51.119 --> 00:57:54.159
bottom of my truck bed. I drive out to the

865
00:57:54.159 --> 00:57:57.880
Williamson Land and pull off the road, parking in a secluded,

866
00:57:58.199 --> 00:58:02.079
unused red dirt driveway located on the far side of

867
00:58:02.119 --> 00:58:06.239
the barn. Admittedly, the exterior of the barn is creepy,

868
00:58:06.280 --> 00:58:10.119
as all get out, even at seventeen years old. Briefly,

869
00:58:10.159 --> 00:58:13.480
I'm taken back to several years earlier when I thought

870
00:58:13.480 --> 00:58:17.119
the stop Sign Man might be real. Just as quick

871
00:58:17.159 --> 00:58:19.599
as those stories begin to resurface in the back of

872
00:58:19.639 --> 00:58:23.599
my mind, I push all the nonsense away and focus

873
00:58:23.679 --> 00:58:28.039
on the present. Here's the kicker about all of this. Tonight,

874
00:58:28.559 --> 00:58:31.679
I'm going to one up Mark Taylor. My visit to

875
00:58:31.719 --> 00:58:35.000
the stop Sign Man is going to be recorded. If

876
00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:37.360
the girl's got a kick out of Mark's penny trick,

877
00:58:37.800 --> 00:58:40.599
Allison is going to flip the f out when she

878
00:58:40.719 --> 00:58:44.440
sees this. With the stop sign held under one arm

879
00:58:44.480 --> 00:58:47.360
and my phone in the other hand, I walk toward

880
00:58:47.400 --> 00:58:51.800
my destination. For dramatic effect, I hold the phone at

881
00:58:51.800 --> 00:58:55.480
a low angle, recording the tall weeds that slap and

882
00:58:55.599 --> 00:58:59.960
brush against my jenes. Once there, I lift the wooden

883
00:59:00.119 --> 00:59:02.679
latch and push the door open with the toe of

884
00:59:02.719 --> 00:59:07.840
my boot. The rusty hinges creak in the still dark night.

885
00:59:09.199 --> 00:59:12.559
The door makes a soft slap against the interior wall.

886
00:59:13.400 --> 00:59:19.079
Finally I step inside. Narrow slants of moonlight come through

887
00:59:19.079 --> 00:59:23.119
the gaps between the boards of the wall. The smell

888
00:59:23.199 --> 00:59:27.360
of old straw hangs heavy in the air. Not knowing

889
00:59:27.400 --> 00:59:30.880
what else to do, what step I'm supposed to take next,

890
00:59:31.440 --> 00:59:34.239
I toss the sign onto a loose scattering of hay

891
00:59:34.880 --> 00:59:40.519
and uh, nothing happens. I'm about to leave when the

892
00:59:40.519 --> 00:59:43.199
wall on the far side of the barn begins to shake,

893
00:59:43.719 --> 00:59:46.679
like a set of shutters in a thunderstorm. As the

894
00:59:46.679 --> 00:59:50.920
boards clatter, a shower of thick dust falls from the rafters,

895
00:59:51.119 --> 00:59:55.559
making me cough and sneeze. Finally, the wall literally folds

896
00:59:55.599 --> 00:59:58.440
in on itself and I'm able to see what is

897
00:59:58.480 --> 01:00:04.639
on the other side, a wet, boggy swamp. This can't

898
01:00:04.679 --> 01:00:09.480
be real. I think this has to be a prank. Gregg,

899
01:00:10.199 --> 01:00:12.840
I call out, I don't know how you're doing this,

900
01:00:13.039 --> 01:00:16.639
but you need to cut it out. I imagine him

901
01:00:16.679 --> 01:00:20.280
around the corner or high above in the hayloft, looking

902
01:00:20.320 --> 01:00:25.840
down on me, watching and laughing. Movement within the wetland

903
01:00:25.880 --> 01:00:31.440
catches my attention and I look. A girl is standing

904
01:00:31.480 --> 01:00:34.960
on the end of a moss covered wooden dock. She's

905
01:00:35.039 --> 01:00:38.679
wearing a white tank top that's way too small and

906
01:00:38.719 --> 01:00:42.800
a pair of jean shorts that fit tight over her thighs.

907
01:00:43.280 --> 01:00:47.079
Roxy A moment later, I'm standing on the dock in

908
01:00:47.119 --> 01:00:50.039
front of her. I have no idea how I got here.

909
01:00:50.719 --> 01:00:52.800
I look down and see the bottom half of my

910
01:00:52.920 --> 01:00:57.880
jeans are covered in thick, dark colored muck. Obviously I

911
01:00:57.960 --> 01:01:01.320
walked through the water, but I don't remember any of it.

912
01:01:01.880 --> 01:01:06.239
I wonder if I'm hallucinating Gregg. I call out again,

913
01:01:07.119 --> 01:01:13.880
enough is enough, Joke's over. Roxy speaks, there's nobody here

914
01:01:13.920 --> 01:01:20.360
but us. Her voice is soft and strangely seductive. At first,

915
01:01:20.400 --> 01:01:23.599
I think she's talking about me and her, but then

916
01:01:23.639 --> 01:01:27.280
I notice her eyes look over my shoulder. I turn

917
01:01:27.400 --> 01:01:31.079
to look. A shadowy figure is standing in the barn.

918
01:01:31.679 --> 01:01:35.039
I can't make out any particular features, but I can

919
01:01:35.079 --> 01:01:38.440
tell it's a guy with a body built like an athlete.

920
01:01:39.119 --> 01:01:43.039
The tips of Roxy's fingers brush against my neck. The

921
01:01:43.159 --> 01:01:47.239
length of her nails causes my skin to crawl for

922
01:01:47.320 --> 01:01:50.920
some reason. When I turn back around, I'm looking at

923
01:01:50.920 --> 01:01:55.920
her exposed midriff, a cubic zarconia, belly button piercing catches

924
01:01:55.960 --> 01:02:00.480
a sparkle of light. Logically, I know I should run far,

925
01:02:00.800 --> 01:02:05.440
far away. But there's something else deep inside of myself,

926
01:02:06.360 --> 01:02:10.519
a pull that makes me stay. It draws my body

927
01:02:10.559 --> 01:02:15.920
closer to hers. She slides her fingertips against my lips.

928
01:02:18.000 --> 01:02:22.880
It is done, she says, you are a man.

929
01:02:24.639 --> 01:02:24.960
Five.

930
01:02:26.079 --> 01:02:28.719
I wake up the next morning, still wearing the clothes

931
01:02:28.760 --> 01:02:32.159
I had on the night before. The inside of my

932
01:02:32.239 --> 01:02:34.920
mouth feels like I've been chewing on a sheet of

933
01:02:34.920 --> 01:02:38.639
coarse sand paper. My head pounds, and when I sit up,

934
01:02:39.000 --> 01:02:41.840
I feel dizzy. Sitting on the edge of the bed,

935
01:02:41.880 --> 01:02:44.960
it takes me a moment to gain my composure. I

936
01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:47.400
stumble into the bathroom to take a leak and brush

937
01:02:47.480 --> 01:02:51.239
my nasty ass teeth. That's when I noticed the crumbly,

938
01:02:52.079 --> 01:02:58.239
crusty MUDs smeared across my shirt and jeans. Dry leaves

939
01:02:58.280 --> 01:03:01.679
are stuck in my messy hair. I look like crap.

940
01:03:02.559 --> 01:03:07.800
My eyes are bloodshot below them dark bags. My skin

941
01:03:07.880 --> 01:03:11.719
has a washed out, sallow look. To someone else, I

942
01:03:11.800 --> 01:03:14.119
might look like I've been on an all night bender.

943
01:03:15.239 --> 01:03:18.239
After looking for my phone, which is nowhere to be found,

944
01:03:18.559 --> 01:03:21.199
I change clothes and then go into the kitchen for

945
01:03:21.239 --> 01:03:25.880
a glass of water. Dad's sister, Rita is here. Aunt

946
01:03:26.000 --> 01:03:30.519
Rita lives next door and comes and goes as she pleases. Currently,

947
01:03:30.599 --> 01:03:34.360
she's sitting at the kitchen table talking on her phone.

948
01:03:34.400 --> 01:03:38.159
She acknowledges me with a brief smile. I pull a

949
01:03:38.239 --> 01:03:40.679
glass from the cabinet and fill it with tap water.

950
01:03:42.000 --> 01:03:44.719
This is just like nineteen ninety six all over again,

951
01:03:45.559 --> 01:03:48.400
aunt Rita says to whomever it is she's talking to.

952
01:03:49.440 --> 01:03:52.079
I'm clueless to the reference, but I can tell by

953
01:03:52.079 --> 01:03:55.360
the sound of her voice that she's upset. Did you

954
01:03:55.400 --> 01:03:59.400
hear about that girl, aunt Rita asks. Now, her voice

955
01:03:59.400 --> 01:04:03.840
has a different the one in your class. It takes

956
01:04:03.880 --> 01:04:07.679
me a second to realize she's talking to me. I

957
01:04:07.760 --> 01:04:12.360
pinch my eyes in confusion and shake my head. Alison Weaving,

958
01:04:12.679 --> 01:04:17.239
She explains, she had a crash last night. She died.

959
01:04:18.480 --> 01:04:21.559
My heart slams against my rib cage. The glass of

960
01:04:21.599 --> 01:04:25.119
water nearly slips from my grip, but instead I slam

961
01:04:25.159 --> 01:04:29.599
it onto the countertop. What do you mean another car

962
01:04:29.719 --> 01:04:33.840
t boned hers. They say she died on impact. I

963
01:04:33.880 --> 01:04:37.239
feel so terrible for that girl's parents. The loss they

964
01:04:37.280 --> 01:04:41.239
must be going through is impossible to fathom. This can't

965
01:04:41.280 --> 01:04:45.599
be happening. I think the room is twirling around me.

966
01:04:45.880 --> 01:04:50.559
I need to sit down, aunt Rita continues. They say

967
01:04:50.599 --> 01:04:53.880
the stop sign was gone. The driver of the other

968
01:04:53.960 --> 01:04:57.920
car didn't even know they should stop. What I'm hearing

969
01:04:58.000 --> 01:05:00.800
can't be true. It all it makes me feel like

970
01:05:00.880 --> 01:05:04.400
I could puke. Finally, I fall into the seat of

971
01:05:04.440 --> 01:05:09.400
the chair opposite Aunt Rita. Where where did it happen?

972
01:05:09.719 --> 01:05:13.840
What road was it on? Her answer solidifies the thoughts

973
01:05:14.000 --> 01:05:20.000
churning through my head way out on Layman. Later that day,

974
01:05:20.159 --> 01:05:23.760
English class is interrupted by the secretary from the Principal's office.

975
01:05:24.320 --> 01:05:27.159
After tapping on the door, Missus Brown leans her head

976
01:05:27.159 --> 01:05:31.559
in and calls my name. I stand from my desk

977
01:05:31.639 --> 01:05:36.039
and feel the entire room watching me. Missus Brown escorts

978
01:05:36.079 --> 01:05:39.559
me down the hall. It's the middle of fourth period.

979
01:05:40.039 --> 01:05:43.519
All the other students are in class. It's just me

980
01:05:43.679 --> 01:05:47.519
and her. The heels of her shoes clamp on the tiles.

981
01:05:48.239 --> 01:05:51.599
The sound is loud and echoes in the long, narrow space.

982
01:05:53.000 --> 01:05:56.360
Missus Brown opens the door to the office and I

983
01:05:56.519 --> 01:06:00.360
notice right away that two uniformed police officers are standing

984
01:06:00.440 --> 01:06:04.639
next to the Principal's desk. And Dad is here too.

985
01:06:04.800 --> 01:06:09.079
I can tell he's pissed. Stratton Duke. One of the

986
01:06:09.119 --> 01:06:12.559
officers steps forward. There's something we'd like to talk to

987
01:06:12.559 --> 01:06:19.360
you about. You turned seventeen last night, right more scarce

988
01:06:19.480 --> 01:06:31.079
to come after these quick messages. Six, I'm sitting in

989
01:06:31.119 --> 01:06:34.400
the back seat of the officer's car. The old Williamson

990
01:06:34.480 --> 01:06:37.760
barn looks even creepier than it did the night before.

991
01:06:38.800 --> 01:06:42.360
Now the mystical ambience of the setting is long gone.

992
01:06:42.920 --> 01:06:47.559
It seems real. It is real, I remind myself, and

993
01:06:47.599 --> 01:06:51.599
the reality of all this terrifies me. The repercussions of

994
01:06:51.639 --> 01:06:56.119
my actions are gut wrenching. It wasn't supposed to be

995
01:06:56.320 --> 01:07:00.079
like this. I say, it's just a silly urban lef le.

996
01:07:01.400 --> 01:07:03.159
We get out of the car and I lead the

997
01:07:03.199 --> 01:07:07.760
officers inside. Dad follows us, but he remains quiet the

998
01:07:07.800 --> 01:07:12.880
whole time. He stands with his arms crossed, watching. And

999
01:07:12.960 --> 01:07:15.519
you say, you drop the sign, and that wall there.

1000
01:07:16.199 --> 01:07:20.079
The officer nods across the space. You say it opened up.

1001
01:07:20.639 --> 01:07:22.960
I can tell by the look on his face that

1002
01:07:23.039 --> 01:07:26.840
he doesn't believe a word I've said. Look, I know

1003
01:07:26.920 --> 01:07:31.440
it sounds crazy, but yeah, that's exactly what happened. And

1004
01:07:31.559 --> 01:07:36.039
this girl, roxy you call her, she took your innocence.

1005
01:07:36.800 --> 01:07:40.280
I notice a smirk on the second officer's face. Yes,

1006
01:07:40.880 --> 01:07:45.960
I say, it's not anything raunchy, well, not like sex

1007
01:07:46.079 --> 01:07:49.239
or I don't think so anyway. Look, I'm not sure

1008
01:07:49.280 --> 01:07:53.400
what happened, but I'm telling the truth. The second officer

1009
01:07:53.480 --> 01:07:56.840
walks across and pulls open a wide door, revealing a

1010
01:07:56.880 --> 01:08:01.400
second room. This one is full of stop signs. From

1011
01:08:01.480 --> 01:08:05.760
floor to ceiling is a menagerie of red octagons. Some

1012
01:08:05.840 --> 01:08:08.199
of them are lying on the floor while others are

1013
01:08:08.280 --> 01:08:11.840
nailed to the walls and the support beams. With both

1014
01:08:11.920 --> 01:08:15.719
doors open, wind barrels through the space, the hanging signs

1015
01:08:15.760 --> 01:08:20.359
swing and clatter against each other. Look, kid, what you're

1016
01:08:20.399 --> 01:08:23.439
telling us. All that mess about the stop sign man

1017
01:08:23.520 --> 01:08:27.279
is nothing new. I've heard it all before. Don't forget.

1018
01:08:27.319 --> 01:08:30.720
I grew up in these parts. I've heard the stories. Hell,

1019
01:08:31.039 --> 01:08:32.720
when I was your age, I was tempted to do

1020
01:08:32.760 --> 01:08:38.319
it myself. But the thing is I didn't. What we're

1021
01:08:38.359 --> 01:08:42.000
dealing with now is something else altogether. The other man

1022
01:08:42.039 --> 01:08:45.840
speaks up. A girl is dead because of what you did.

1023
01:08:46.960 --> 01:08:49.039
I ride home in the back of the cop car

1024
01:08:49.640 --> 01:08:52.800
after being issued a citation for theft. I stand on

1025
01:08:52.840 --> 01:08:55.600
the porch and watch the cruiser pull out of the driveway.

1026
01:08:56.520 --> 01:08:59.399
The horrifying truth of the matter hangs over my head.

1027
01:09:00.520 --> 01:09:04.920
I could be charged with involuntary manslaughter. After telling me

1028
01:09:05.000 --> 01:09:07.920
I'm grounded for the rest of my life. Dad heads

1029
01:09:07.960 --> 01:09:10.960
back to his job. He's working a double and can't

1030
01:09:10.960 --> 01:09:14.000
get out of it. While he's gone, I decide to

1031
01:09:14.000 --> 01:09:16.479
sneak out and make a quick visit to Greg's house.

1032
01:09:17.399 --> 01:09:19.840
I pull into Greg's yard and spot him sitting on

1033
01:09:19.880 --> 01:09:23.640
the porch swing drinking one of his dad's cheap beers.

1034
01:09:24.319 --> 01:09:28.640
I've been worried sick about you, he says, what's going on.

1035
01:09:29.840 --> 01:09:32.239
I'm sure the gossip of me leaving with the police

1036
01:09:32.279 --> 01:09:35.279
spread like wildfire through the school, and I can only

1037
01:09:35.319 --> 01:09:39.279
imagine the assumptions people have already made. Greg offers me

1038
01:09:39.319 --> 01:09:42.359
a beer, but I decline. I take a seat on

1039
01:09:42.399 --> 01:09:48.159
the steps and tell him everything. Seven they say. If

1040
01:09:48.199 --> 01:09:52.079
you get caught, the stop sign man will come after you.

1041
01:09:52.079 --> 01:09:55.479
You can't sleep because he invades your dreams, and staying

1042
01:09:55.560 --> 01:09:59.680
awake doesn't help either. He constantly stalks every corner of

1043
01:09:59.720 --> 01:10:04.359
your mind, turning every peaceful thought into a nightmare. Even

1044
01:10:04.399 --> 01:10:07.000
when I was talking to Greg, my attention was broken

1045
01:10:07.039 --> 01:10:11.880
by the shape of the porch tiles octagons. Greg didn't

1046
01:10:11.880 --> 01:10:15.479
believe my story. In fact, he suggested I seek mental

1047
01:10:15.479 --> 01:10:19.199
help The knowledge that my best friend no longer has

1048
01:10:19.239 --> 01:10:24.520
my back hurts me deep inside. After leaving Greg's house,

1049
01:10:25.199 --> 01:10:29.640
I have an idea my phone. I recorded everything the

1050
01:10:29.720 --> 01:10:32.600
night before. I wasn't able to find the phone in

1051
01:10:32.640 --> 01:10:35.039
my room this morning, and I hadn't seen it in

1052
01:10:35.039 --> 01:10:38.720
the barn this afternoon. There's one person I can think

1053
01:10:38.760 --> 01:10:42.800
of who might have an answer. Finding the phone won't

1054
01:10:42.880 --> 01:10:46.199
change what I did, but it will give proof that

1055
01:10:46.239 --> 01:10:50.319
I'm not crazy. Instead of going home, I make a

1056
01:10:50.359 --> 01:10:54.079
stop at the filling station where I spot Roxy today.

1057
01:10:54.199 --> 01:10:57.640
She's leaning against the wall by the bathrooms. I get

1058
01:10:57.680 --> 01:11:00.600
out of my truck and charge across the parking, not

1059
01:11:00.840 --> 01:11:04.279
stopping until I'm standing directly in front of her. Her

1060
01:11:04.319 --> 01:11:07.279
hair is damp from a recent shower. I can smell

1061
01:11:07.319 --> 01:11:10.840
the flowery scent of shampoo other than the wet hair.

1062
01:11:10.960 --> 01:11:15.119
She looks exactly like she did last night. Where's my phone?

1063
01:11:15.760 --> 01:11:19.359
I cut right to the chase. Roxy laughs and stands

1064
01:11:19.439 --> 01:11:23.520
up straight. I don't have your phone, Stratton. My name

1065
01:11:23.560 --> 01:11:28.359
on her voice is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Oh yeah, well,

1066
01:11:28.359 --> 01:11:31.119
where is it? Then? I just happen to lose it?

1067
01:11:31.239 --> 01:11:31.960
Huh.

1068
01:11:32.119 --> 01:11:35.720
I throw up my hands that would be really convenient,

1069
01:11:35.800 --> 01:11:40.479
wouldn't it. Roxy reaches out and grabs my forearm. The

1070
01:11:40.560 --> 01:11:43.319
sleeve of her shirt rides up and I notice a

1071
01:11:43.359 --> 01:11:46.560
sketchy red tattoo spread across the underside of her wrist.

1072
01:11:47.399 --> 01:11:50.920
The artwork is badly done. It's like something someone would

1073
01:11:50.920 --> 01:11:54.960
get in prison, but the symbol is clear enough a

1074
01:11:54.960 --> 01:11:58.960
stop sign. Let go of me. I jerk my arm away.

1075
01:12:00.159 --> 01:12:04.520
What you did take someone of a certain character, she says.

1076
01:12:05.399 --> 01:12:08.319
Why did you do it anyway? Was it to prove

1077
01:12:08.359 --> 01:12:12.079
a point or to show that you're It was because

1078
01:12:12.119 --> 01:12:17.039
of a girl. My voice cracks. Roxy laughs again. This

1079
01:12:17.199 --> 01:12:20.119
time it sounds like a cackle coming from an old witch.

1080
01:12:21.199 --> 01:12:23.560
You came to the barn with one goal in mind,

1081
01:12:23.920 --> 01:12:27.960
and you got it. That girl was standing in your way.

1082
01:12:28.680 --> 01:12:32.159
She would have held you back. I realize now that

1083
01:12:32.239 --> 01:12:36.840
Allison's death wasn't just an accident caused by what I'd done.

1084
01:12:38.199 --> 01:12:42.560
She was payment. I'm not sure what for, but I

1085
01:12:42.640 --> 01:12:47.760
know it's something I don't want. That's messed up. I say.

1086
01:12:48.119 --> 01:12:50.239
If I would have known there was a price, I

1087
01:12:50.239 --> 01:12:54.159
would have never You're part of it now, Honey. From

1088
01:12:54.159 --> 01:12:57.800
here on, it's between you and him. You have to

1089
01:12:57.840 --> 01:13:02.600
finish what you started by him. I know she means

1090
01:13:04.279 --> 01:13:07.720
the stop sign man. If facing him is what I

1091
01:13:07.800 --> 01:13:12.920
have to do, so be it fine. My breath is

1092
01:13:12.960 --> 01:13:16.680
coming and going out of my lungs in deep rhythmic puffs.

1093
01:13:17.119 --> 01:13:22.319
I'll do it. Eight. The first rule in the legend

1094
01:13:22.319 --> 01:13:24.119
of the stop Sign Man is that you have to

1095
01:13:24.159 --> 01:13:27.840
go alone. I look at it like this. If I

1096
01:13:27.880 --> 01:13:30.720
got myself into this mess, I'm the only one who

1097
01:13:30.720 --> 01:13:34.760
can get myself out. I'm still not sure how or why,

1098
01:13:35.640 --> 01:13:39.359
but the octagon shape is significant. I think I can

1099
01:13:39.439 --> 01:13:43.039
use that bit of folklore against him. When I get home,

1100
01:13:43.079 --> 01:13:45.479
I go into my closet and find an old workbook

1101
01:13:45.520 --> 01:13:48.199
from when I was a kid. One of the multiple

1102
01:13:48.279 --> 01:13:51.279
choice questions was to select an octagon from a group

1103
01:13:51.319 --> 01:13:56.199
of shapes. I'd picked one, but it was wrong next

1104
01:13:56.199 --> 01:13:59.640
to a red ex. The teacher wrote, an octagon must

1105
01:13:59.680 --> 01:14:04.359
have eight eat equal sides. Then I go into the garage,

1106
01:14:04.359 --> 01:14:08.520
where I find the hatchet Dad uses to chop firewood. Later,

1107
01:14:08.640 --> 01:14:13.399
I park in front of the Williamson Barn. I go inside.

1108
01:14:13.439 --> 01:14:16.319
Not long after entering, I hear movement in the hayloft

1109
01:14:16.319 --> 01:14:19.520
above me. I turn to face the wooden steps that

1110
01:14:19.600 --> 01:14:23.239
lead upward, and I wait for the stop sign man

1111
01:14:23.279 --> 01:14:29.239
to appear. Finally he does. The steps creak under his weight.

1112
01:14:29.720 --> 01:14:32.960
His thin legs are bare. The skin on his feet

1113
01:14:33.039 --> 01:14:38.520
is thick, calloused, and cracked. The toes are gnarled and bent,

1114
01:14:38.720 --> 01:14:42.119
like the knots on an ancient tree stump. He's wearing

1115
01:14:42.159 --> 01:14:46.000
a pair of white boxers. It's obvious he's built from

1116
01:14:46.119 --> 01:14:52.000
pieces of different men. His torso is defined with muscle,

1117
01:14:52.399 --> 01:14:56.760
despite the fifties era greaser haircut. His face is wrinkled

1118
01:14:57.039 --> 01:15:01.119
and spotted with age. The story mister Perry told me

1119
01:15:01.239 --> 01:15:06.960
ten years ago is true. His eyes are spinning red octagons.

1120
01:15:07.720 --> 01:15:13.319
Who what are you? I ask? When he speaks, his

1121
01:15:13.479 --> 01:15:16.920
voice has an eerie timber of a teenager and a

1122
01:15:17.000 --> 01:15:19.119
ninety year old speaking at the same time.

1123
01:15:19.800 --> 01:15:24.560
We're an organization that stretches all across the southeast, from

1124
01:15:24.680 --> 01:15:29.560
Virginia to Texas and everywhere in between. Right here in

1125
01:15:29.600 --> 01:15:34.119
South Carolina. It just happens to be the epicenter a

1126
01:15:34.199 --> 01:15:40.000
secret society some might call it, or a cult or

1127
01:15:40.800 --> 01:15:43.560
In a flash, he's standing in front of me. I

1128
01:15:43.560 --> 01:15:48.039
can feel his breath against my face. So are you

1129
01:15:49.239 --> 01:15:53.520
the president? Of the whole thing, I ask. He scoffs

1130
01:15:53.520 --> 01:15:56.760
at my question of this particular chapter.

1131
01:15:57.800 --> 01:16:01.239
Yes, the idea that there are like him makes my

1132
01:16:01.319 --> 01:16:01.840
head spin.

1133
01:16:02.880 --> 01:16:09.600
Everywhere all over there are boys, young men, looking for

1134
01:16:09.720 --> 01:16:12.920
ways to achieve their wildest dreams.

1135
01:16:13.800 --> 01:16:18.640
But this is not about them. This is about us.

1136
01:16:20.359 --> 01:16:21.359
Let me show you.

1137
01:16:22.199 --> 01:16:25.680
He grabs hold of my arm. His grip is strong.

1138
01:16:26.039 --> 01:16:29.079
The palm of his hand feels like hot asphalt against

1139
01:16:29.119 --> 01:16:29.960
my flesh.

1140
01:16:30.680 --> 01:16:37.000
Look deep into my eyes, really really deep.

1141
01:16:37.640 --> 01:16:41.239
I don't want to, but I'm transfixed. I stare into

1142
01:16:41.279 --> 01:16:45.680
his face and her eyes lock. His octagon shaped eyes

1143
01:16:45.760 --> 01:16:48.960
light up in a traffic light glow of green, and

1144
01:16:49.039 --> 01:16:52.159
I fall into them.

1145
01:16:52.199 --> 01:16:59.359
Go, he says, go, go.

1146
01:16:58.000 --> 01:17:03.680
Go, and I do. I let myself go. It's as

1147
01:17:03.720 --> 01:17:06.399
if the interior of the barn melts away from us.

1148
01:17:07.359 --> 01:17:10.560
In my mind, I'm speeding through space and time, through

1149
01:17:10.600 --> 01:17:13.520
the years of my life that haven't happened yet. I

1150
01:17:13.560 --> 01:17:17.600
see myself with what seems like everything a man could want.

1151
01:17:18.399 --> 01:17:23.560
It's different for everybody, he says. What you imagine won't

1152
01:17:23.560 --> 01:17:25.239
be the same for the next.

1153
01:17:25.920 --> 01:17:28.119
In the vision, it all goes on and on.

1154
01:17:29.560 --> 01:17:34.680
There's no stopping us, he says, you see the potential.

1155
01:17:35.800 --> 01:17:40.319
You see what you can be, the things you can do.

1156
01:17:41.840 --> 01:17:47.119
An octagon symbolizes a rite of passage. Eight is a

1157
01:17:47.239 --> 01:17:52.159
number of transcendence. I recognize the truth. All of what

1158
01:17:52.239 --> 01:17:56.760
he's showing me only looks good on the surface. None

1159
01:17:56.800 --> 01:18:01.600
of it is worth the price he tricked me into paying. Somehow,

1160
01:18:01.640 --> 01:18:06.680
my thoughts break the spell. You weren't tricked, he snaps.

1161
01:18:06.960 --> 01:18:10.359
You wanted to steal that sign. It was your idea.

1162
01:18:10.920 --> 01:18:13.680
You wanted to prove you were a man.

1163
01:18:14.520 --> 01:18:18.199
I shake my head. No, not like this, I didn't.

1164
01:18:19.000 --> 01:18:21.640
I think about the page from my grade school workbook

1165
01:18:21.840 --> 01:18:24.119
and all the various shapes that were drawn on it.

1166
01:18:25.119 --> 01:18:27.399
Do you know what the opposite of an octagon is?

1167
01:18:28.520 --> 01:18:32.479
A surprised look spreads across his face. His eyes fade

1168
01:18:32.520 --> 01:18:36.640
to yellow, and then the red they were before. Stop,

1169
01:18:36.960 --> 01:18:42.600
he demands, I answer my own question. It's a concave polygon.

1170
01:18:43.399 --> 01:18:45.840
I pull the hatchet from the waistband at the back

1171
01:18:45.880 --> 01:18:48.840
of my jeans. It means one of the sides is

1172
01:18:48.880 --> 01:18:52.119
angled inward at the sight of the weapon. The man's

1173
01:18:52.159 --> 01:18:56.960
mouth drops open impossibly wide. I notice his teeth for

1174
01:18:57.000 --> 01:19:01.840
the first time. They're the yellow of I swing the

1175
01:19:01.920 --> 01:19:05.319
axe against the wall. The first blow only cracks the wood,

1176
01:19:05.880 --> 01:19:09.239
but it's enough to cause the stop sign man to pause.

1177
01:19:09.840 --> 01:19:13.239
He cries out in pain, clutching his side with both hands,

1178
01:19:13.479 --> 01:19:16.840
his body bends. I swing the axe again, harder. This

1179
01:19:16.960 --> 01:19:21.640
time the wood splinters. The stop sign man hollers. This

1180
01:19:21.760 --> 01:19:24.520
time his voice is so loud it cuts deep into

1181
01:19:24.560 --> 01:19:30.560
my essence. Dark blood gushes through the gaps between his fingers. Stop,

1182
01:19:31.159 --> 01:19:35.600
he yells, jerking his disproportioned body back and forth, moving

1183
01:19:35.680 --> 01:19:38.680
toward me. With the hand not holding his side, he

1184
01:19:38.800 --> 01:19:42.600
reaches toward me. Put the axe down, you little shit.

1185
01:19:42.960 --> 01:19:43.479
I don't.

1186
01:19:43.880 --> 01:19:47.399
I swing a third time, harder now the sharp end

1187
01:19:47.439 --> 01:19:50.439
of the blade crashes through, and I jerk it free.

1188
01:19:50.840 --> 01:19:55.239
The broken slats are jagged and sharp. My nemesis body

1189
01:19:55.319 --> 01:19:58.680
folds over on itself, like the snap of a mouse trap,

1190
01:19:59.000 --> 01:20:03.520
and as his bone crack, it sounds like that too.

1191
01:20:03.880 --> 01:20:06.800
The vocals of his agony pour from his throat in

1192
01:20:06.880 --> 01:20:11.840
a torrent of pain. Still, he reaches for me. He's

1193
01:20:11.880 --> 01:20:15.359
not giving up. I'm on the other side of the space,

1194
01:20:15.640 --> 01:20:18.600
And just as he returns to his unsteady feet, I

1195
01:20:18.720 --> 01:20:22.399
swing the axe through this section of lumber his body

1196
01:20:22.439 --> 01:20:26.800
slams over. This time a deep fissure cuts into his abdomen,

1197
01:20:27.079 --> 01:20:31.359
pulling his upper half horizontal to the floor. Now I'm

1198
01:20:31.399 --> 01:20:34.600
sure what I have to do to finish this once

1199
01:20:34.680 --> 01:20:38.039
and for all. Each of the next five walls are

1200
01:20:38.079 --> 01:20:41.039
met with the blade, and each time my ears are

1201
01:20:41.079 --> 01:20:44.079
assaulted with the agony of the stop sign man being

1202
01:20:44.119 --> 01:20:48.920
reduced to a broken and splintered pile of nothing. On

1203
01:20:49.000 --> 01:20:52.439
the eighth wall, I chop the blade through the boards

1204
01:20:52.760 --> 01:20:55.600
and then twist the handle so the axe had catches

1205
01:20:55.640 --> 01:21:00.000
on the other side. Then I pull with all my mind.

1206
01:21:00.560 --> 01:21:04.720
The wall splinters inward, and the screams are finally silenced

1207
01:21:05.479 --> 01:21:10.439
as the stop sign Man's head splits in two. I

1208
01:21:10.560 --> 01:21:14.439
stand for a moment, catching my breath, when the entirety

1209
01:21:14.479 --> 01:21:22.720
of the barn begins to rattle around me. Nine on

1210
01:21:22.760 --> 01:21:25.520
my eighteenth birthday, I go out to the intersection on

1211
01:21:25.600 --> 01:21:29.560
Leyman Road. Now a wooden cross stands by the road,

1212
01:21:30.479 --> 01:21:35.399
marking the spot where Allison died on that night the

1213
01:21:35.520 --> 01:21:39.199
year before. After I brought down the barn and destroyed

1214
01:21:39.199 --> 01:21:42.840
the stop sign man, I drove out here and reattached

1215
01:21:42.880 --> 01:21:46.560
the sign to the post. I was taken into custody

1216
01:21:46.600 --> 01:21:51.600
for destruction of property. Thankfully, Dad bailed me out. He

1217
01:21:51.680 --> 01:21:53.960
told me it was the one and only time he'd

1218
01:21:54.000 --> 01:21:59.159
ever do it. My actions didn't bring Alison back, and

1219
01:21:59.279 --> 01:22:02.600
my phone was never found, But the evidence from a

1220
01:22:02.640 --> 01:22:05.920
nearby game camera and the analysis of the skid marks

1221
01:22:05.920 --> 01:22:10.560
at the intersection revealed the truth. The fatal wreck wasn't

1222
01:22:10.600 --> 01:22:14.039
because of the missing sign. The car that hit Allison

1223
01:22:14.680 --> 01:22:18.960
was coming from the opposite direction. It's been one year

1224
01:22:19.039 --> 01:22:23.800
since all of that happened. One plus eight is nine.

1225
01:22:23.960 --> 01:22:26.760
Recently I learned that one of the meanings behind the

1226
01:22:26.880 --> 01:22:32.520
number is wisdom. After dropping a single flower next to

1227
01:22:32.560 --> 01:22:46.000
the wooden cross, I drive away the end The Devil

1228
01:22:46.239 --> 01:22:51.199
Reaps the Harvest by John Oakdalton. The laboratory at the

1229
01:22:51.319 --> 01:22:53.399
end of the dead end road had been closed for

1230
01:22:53.439 --> 01:22:56.520
so long now that people had forgotten all about it,

1231
01:22:57.159 --> 01:23:00.199
or tried to forget about it, And now everybody he

1232
01:23:00.279 --> 01:23:03.800
said it was an abandoned factory. It was there that

1233
01:23:03.840 --> 01:23:06.079
Peter O'Day was supposed to meet a guy who had

1234
01:23:06.119 --> 01:23:09.199
a couple of kidneys and a beer cooler. So Peter

1235
01:23:09.439 --> 01:23:12.399
parked in a weed choked employee lot and walked about

1236
01:23:12.399 --> 01:23:15.039
a quarter a mile into the woods where the old

1237
01:23:15.119 --> 01:23:20.760
laboratory sat. There, he was meeting Octavius. Octavia sounded like

1238
01:23:20.800 --> 01:23:24.520
a mad scientist's name, and as it happened, Octavius kind

1239
01:23:24.520 --> 01:23:27.439
of was a mad scientist. He had worked at the

1240
01:23:27.520 --> 01:23:30.760
lab long ago doing things that are frowned upon in

1241
01:23:30.800 --> 01:23:34.800
the mainstream medical world, but that gig dried up. He

1242
01:23:34.880 --> 01:23:38.520
ended up harvesting organs, which wasn't much of a step down.

1243
01:23:39.239 --> 01:23:42.359
He still liked meeting people there for the handoff because

1244
01:23:42.399 --> 01:23:46.399
his greatest triumphs had been at that lab. Also his

1245
01:23:46.479 --> 01:23:51.239
greatest failures, but those were buried here and there around

1246
01:23:51.239 --> 01:23:54.760
the property. Peter had a bag of money, and Octavius

1247
01:23:54.760 --> 01:23:56.680
had a cooler with organs in it and a new

1248
01:23:56.720 --> 01:23:59.960
England Patriot sticker on it, so that went down about

1249
01:24:00.159 --> 01:24:03.720
like you'd expect. Peter was a dot com guy. The

1250
01:24:03.720 --> 01:24:06.479
bubble never burst on, so he had plenty of money

1251
01:24:06.479 --> 01:24:08.880
and could jump the transplant list and buy a new

1252
01:24:08.920 --> 01:24:13.119
kidney for their little girl, Alandra. People with money can

1253
01:24:13.159 --> 01:24:16.319
pretty much do what they want. Just look at celebrities.

1254
01:24:16.359 --> 01:24:19.319
They do drugs and get married eight or ten times,

1255
01:24:19.359 --> 01:24:21.880
but can adopt all the kids they want and go

1256
01:24:21.960 --> 01:24:25.720
on TV talking about various causes. If they did all

1257
01:24:25.760 --> 01:24:28.119
the same things but lived in that trailer park on

1258
01:24:28.159 --> 01:24:31.079
the other edge of town, the one called Warning Side,

1259
01:24:31.079 --> 01:24:34.520
but everybody actually called it homicide, Nobody would give them

1260
01:24:34.640 --> 01:24:37.880
kids or want them on TV talking about their causes.

1261
01:24:38.319 --> 01:24:41.760
When Peter took the Patriots cooler from Octavius that had

1262
01:24:41.800 --> 01:24:45.319
a kidney and despair for Alandra, his hands were shaking

1263
01:24:45.439 --> 01:24:48.520
pretty badly, and some of the blood sloshed out from

1264
01:24:48.560 --> 01:24:51.439
under the lid and onto his shoes and into the dirt.

1265
01:24:52.079 --> 01:24:54.600
And it wasn't until that very moment that Peter sort

1266
01:24:54.640 --> 01:24:58.960
of realized what the hell he was doing. Octavia stepped

1267
01:24:58.960 --> 01:25:02.239
back easily and missed the sloshing, but he was used

1268
01:25:02.279 --> 01:25:05.640
to blood spraying out all over the place. Peter nodded

1269
01:25:05.680 --> 01:25:09.600
and walked away, but Octavius stayed where he was. To

1270
01:25:09.720 --> 01:25:13.199
his misfortune, he had parked behind the old lab on

1271
01:25:13.239 --> 01:25:17.479
an access road everybody had forgotten about too, because he

1272
01:25:17.560 --> 01:25:19.880
did not want Peter or anybody else to see the

1273
01:25:19.920 --> 01:25:23.199
car he drove. Peter was hardly out of sight when

1274
01:25:23.239 --> 01:25:27.239
something just under Octavius's feet, where the blood was soaking in,

1275
01:25:27.800 --> 01:25:32.840
sniffed and swallowed and opened its eyes. If this lab

1276
01:25:32.880 --> 01:25:35.760
had been that good at black science, they'd still be

1277
01:25:35.800 --> 01:25:39.119
in business. But they weren't, so they made the mistake

1278
01:25:39.159 --> 01:25:42.279
of burying their problems instead of burning them in a

1279
01:25:42.279 --> 01:25:46.479
big bonfire, so that there would be no trace, or

1280
01:25:47.159 --> 01:25:51.560
in this case, so something could not bite and claw

1281
01:25:51.680 --> 01:25:55.079
its way with long fingernails and sharp teeth out of

1282
01:25:55.119 --> 01:25:58.880
the dirt and grab Octavius by the ankles, then pull

1283
01:25:58.960 --> 01:26:01.720
him to the ground and bite him right on his face.

1284
01:26:02.479 --> 01:26:05.399
But his face was kind of bony, so it started

1285
01:26:05.439 --> 01:26:08.920
working on some of the soft parts. Peter had stopped

1286
01:26:08.960 --> 01:26:11.720
not far away to call his wife, but never heard

1287
01:26:11.760 --> 01:26:15.119
a damn thing. It was ironic because as soon as

1288
01:26:15.119 --> 01:26:18.680
that creature's hand popped out of the dirt, Octavius's heart

1289
01:26:18.720 --> 01:26:23.119
popped like a balloon. All those times Octavius had arranged

1290
01:26:23.119 --> 01:26:25.399
for guys to meet Russian women off the internet for

1291
01:26:25.439 --> 01:26:28.199
a night of passion, only for those guys to wake

1292
01:26:28.279 --> 01:26:31.319
up in the hotel tub, packed an ice or dumped

1293
01:26:31.359 --> 01:26:34.119
in a landfill, and never waking up at all. All

1294
01:26:34.159 --> 01:26:37.880
those times, Octavius never knew he needed an organ himself.

1295
01:26:38.680 --> 01:26:41.680
He ignored the shortness of breath and the tingling in

1296
01:26:41.680 --> 01:26:46.000
his fingers and all the rest. Like I said, if

1297
01:26:46.039 --> 01:26:49.039
they were better at science, they would still have been

1298
01:26:49.039 --> 01:26:52.239
in business, And if they weren't all so lazy, they

1299
01:26:52.279 --> 01:26:58.199
would have buried these things deeper. Peter's wife was named

1300
01:26:58.239 --> 01:27:01.000
Stacy and was waiting in a bit McMansion out in

1301
01:27:01.000 --> 01:27:04.079
the suburbs for news of a Landra's kidney. Do I

1302
01:27:04.119 --> 01:27:06.479
even need to say that? This was his second wife

1303
01:27:07.000 --> 01:27:11.760
and very young. Were halfway there, Peter told her it's

1304
01:27:11.800 --> 01:27:16.199
not like a pig kidney or anything. She asked, how

1305
01:27:16.199 --> 01:27:20.760
would I know? I don't know, she fretted. Look, this

1306
01:27:20.800 --> 01:27:23.960
guy came highly recommended, and when it comes to Alandra,

1307
01:27:24.239 --> 01:27:28.640
we don't have another choice, I know, said Stacy. And

1308
01:27:28.720 --> 01:27:31.359
there was a lot in those words, And those two

1309
01:27:31.439 --> 01:27:34.800
words were all the feelings Stacy had growing for little

1310
01:27:34.800 --> 01:27:38.960
Elandra and all the feelings Peter lacked. But Peter did

1311
01:27:39.000 --> 01:27:41.680
what he had to do. What Peter had to do

1312
01:27:41.800 --> 01:27:44.199
next was walk out of the edge of the overgrown

1313
01:27:44.239 --> 01:27:46.760
parking lot and wait for a guy from the transplant

1314
01:27:46.840 --> 01:27:51.079
organization he'd paid off. Actually, this guy, whose name was Rollo,

1315
01:27:51.520 --> 01:27:54.920
knew Octavius quite well, but neither man wanted anyone to

1316
01:27:54.920 --> 01:27:58.239
know they were connected. Rollo had worked in that lab too,

1317
01:27:58.560 --> 01:28:01.680
back in the day, not so much in the sciences

1318
01:28:01.720 --> 01:28:06.600
as in the more nebulous parts of the organization. Octavius

1319
01:28:06.600 --> 01:28:10.079
could have just given the organ to Rollo, but Octavius

1320
01:28:10.119 --> 01:28:13.359
and Rollo always wanted a middleman. It wasn't fool proof,

1321
01:28:13.399 --> 01:28:16.960
but it was better than nothing. Look, just go to

1322
01:28:16.960 --> 01:28:19.880
the hospital and wait, Peter said. The guy is on

1323
01:28:19.920 --> 01:28:22.000
his way here, and then he's going to be bringing

1324
01:28:22.039 --> 01:28:27.239
the kidneys within the hour. Okay, said Stacy, but there

1325
01:28:27.319 --> 01:28:30.159
was so much she could not face. She knew she

1326
01:28:30.199 --> 01:28:34.479
was staying right where she was Okay, and Peter hung up.

1327
01:28:35.399 --> 01:28:37.640
Peter had only taken a few steps before he saw

1328
01:28:37.680 --> 01:28:41.279
something moving in the trees, just out of the corner

1329
01:28:41.319 --> 01:28:44.079
of his eye. Of course, Peter was thinking it was

1330
01:28:44.119 --> 01:28:48.119
a cop or the FBI, or maybe an investigative reporter

1331
01:28:48.239 --> 01:28:50.439
trying to entrap him and put him on TV with

1332
01:28:50.479 --> 01:28:53.560
all the pedophiles. So Peter stepped off the road and

1333
01:28:53.640 --> 01:28:57.359
hid behind a tree, which was stupid because unlike cops

1334
01:28:57.359 --> 01:29:00.880
and FBI agents and reporters, what was shamming towards him

1335
01:29:00.920 --> 01:29:05.079
could smell the blood on his shoes. Peter peeked around

1336
01:29:05.119 --> 01:29:07.640
the tree and realized he was wrong about the cops

1337
01:29:07.680 --> 01:29:11.800
and the reporters, because how this person was dressed, how

1338
01:29:11.800 --> 01:29:17.119
this shape was dressed, was in things Goodwill would not take.

1339
01:29:18.000 --> 01:29:21.239
They looked like clothes somebody took out of a compost pile.

1340
01:29:22.199 --> 01:29:24.960
Peter started moving quickly through the trees, trying not to

1341
01:29:25.000 --> 01:29:28.279
slash the beer cooler too much, and cut cross country

1342
01:29:28.319 --> 01:29:31.560
towards the parking lot. All the bones and muscles and

1343
01:29:31.600 --> 01:29:35.800
ligaments and the things sniffing along behind Peter, which seemed

1344
01:29:35.840 --> 01:29:38.880
barely connected to each other still let the thing move

1345
01:29:38.960 --> 01:29:42.279
faster than you would think, But it would not have

1346
01:29:42.359 --> 01:29:45.439
mattered if Peter had watched where he was going, which

1347
01:29:45.479 --> 01:29:48.640
he did not, so he overshot the parking lot and

1348
01:29:48.800 --> 01:29:52.600
thrashed deeper into the woods, and the thing that could

1349
01:29:52.600 --> 01:29:56.800
smell his bloody footprints, who saw the shoeprints, glowing like fire,

1350
01:29:57.279 --> 01:30:01.720
kept on coming. Peter saw the bloo gray concrete block

1351
01:30:01.760 --> 01:30:04.359
of the lab building looming in front of him, and

1352
01:30:04.399 --> 01:30:07.920
he realized he'd been a dumbass and circled back on himself.

1353
01:30:08.079 --> 01:30:11.279
He was ultimately a tech guy. He'd never been much

1354
01:30:11.319 --> 01:30:13.520
out in nature and did not really know how to

1355
01:30:13.600 --> 01:30:17.319
navigate even a small forest of trees, much less tell

1356
01:30:17.399 --> 01:30:20.760
one from another, and he'd never seen a dead body,

1357
01:30:21.399 --> 01:30:24.600
but he recognized that Octavius was dead when he saw

1358
01:30:24.640 --> 01:30:26.840
what was left of him in the small clearing where

1359
01:30:26.840 --> 01:30:30.720
they had met up minutes ago, the chewed parts and

1360
01:30:30.760 --> 01:30:34.119
the parts that should have been tucked inside but were

1361
01:30:34.159 --> 01:30:38.000
glistening in the sun. The thing behind Peter was getting closer,

1362
01:30:38.640 --> 01:30:42.199
so close now Peter could hear a slurping noise. And

1363
01:30:42.279 --> 01:30:45.439
Peter turned and looked, and what he saw sent his

1364
01:30:45.520 --> 01:30:49.600
heart plummeting and his balls scurrying up inside himself to

1365
01:30:49.640 --> 01:30:53.199
meet it, and his butthole slammed shut with the finality

1366
01:30:53.239 --> 01:30:56.840
of a coffin lid. Peter dropped the beer cooler, and

1367
01:30:56.920 --> 01:31:00.000
this time a lot more blood slashed out than was good,

1368
01:31:00.680 --> 01:31:04.439
and the thing moved faster. Somehow, Peter grabbed the cooler

1369
01:31:04.479 --> 01:31:07.399
back up and started running. Peter was running, and the

1370
01:31:07.399 --> 01:31:10.840
only place he knew he was running was away, wherever

1371
01:31:10.880 --> 01:31:13.840
that was, and he was bouncing off of trunks and

1372
01:31:13.880 --> 01:31:16.319
getting whipped in the face by branches and all that.

1373
01:31:16.479 --> 01:31:19.800
Because instead of joining boy scouts, he had taught himself

1374
01:31:19.880 --> 01:31:24.960
computer programming. He was richer but very close to being dead,

1375
01:31:25.399 --> 01:31:30.119
so some of his life choices seemed poorer today. He

1376
01:31:30.239 --> 01:31:32.920
kept splashing blood out of that cooler, and that wasn't

1377
01:31:32.920 --> 01:31:36.800
great for a landra, but more importantly for Peter, it

1378
01:31:36.880 --> 01:31:40.000
wasn't great for him at all. So Peter stopped and

1379
01:31:40.079 --> 01:31:43.079
opened the cooler. He plunged his hand in and grabbed

1380
01:31:43.079 --> 01:31:46.079
out a kidney that was in a leaky sandwich bag,

1381
01:31:46.199 --> 01:31:48.600
and he flung that kidney in a long red arc

1382
01:31:48.920 --> 01:31:51.720
that hit the thing's chest with a wet sound and

1383
01:31:51.800 --> 01:31:54.520
plopped into the grass. And the creature looked down at

1384
01:31:54.520 --> 01:31:57.439
it with yellow eyes, and it gave Peter a chance

1385
01:31:57.520 --> 01:32:01.079
to catch his breath. Then the creature showed broken teeth

1386
01:32:01.159 --> 01:32:03.880
and reached down with those long nails and grabbed the

1387
01:32:03.960 --> 01:32:07.920
kidney up and it went down in one gulp, and

1388
01:32:07.960 --> 01:32:11.319
Peter threw up in his mouth a little. When Peter ran,

1389
01:32:11.399 --> 01:32:13.760
this time, he didn't even pick up the cooler. The

1390
01:32:13.840 --> 01:32:16.800
thing tipped the cooler back and gulped the other kidney down,

1391
01:32:17.279 --> 01:32:20.800
and that bought Peter a little more time. Peter ran

1392
01:32:20.880 --> 01:32:24.039
and looked back, ran and looked back, and sure enough,

1393
01:32:24.199 --> 01:32:26.680
in a minute or two, he saw that raggedy shape

1394
01:32:26.760 --> 01:32:30.119
moving between the trees. Again, Peter was looking back when

1395
01:32:30.199 --> 01:32:32.800
his foot touched asphalt and he was out on a

1396
01:32:32.840 --> 01:32:36.479
country road. The woman driving the mini van was leaning over,

1397
01:32:36.560 --> 01:32:39.920
pushing the Hocus Pocus DVD into the dashboard for her

1398
01:32:40.039 --> 01:32:42.720
kids in the back seat to watch for the millionth time,

1399
01:32:43.479 --> 01:32:46.760
so she didn't even tap the brake before she hit

1400
01:32:46.800 --> 01:32:50.600
Peter head on. Rather than explain what that looked like,

1401
01:32:50.960 --> 01:32:54.199
it's simpler to say the kids never asked to watch

1402
01:32:54.279 --> 01:32:59.359
Hocus Pocus ever. Again, As it happens, Rollo was not

1403
01:32:59.520 --> 01:33:01.760
too far behind the woman in a truck that looked

1404
01:33:01.800 --> 01:33:05.720
like a medical vehicle but really wasn't. Rollo was very

1405
01:33:05.800 --> 01:33:08.079
quick on his feet and looked like he had a

1406
01:33:08.079 --> 01:33:11.479
lot of authority. He bet on ponies with the same authority,

1407
01:33:11.560 --> 01:33:14.319
but no common sense, which is what got him into

1408
01:33:14.359 --> 01:33:17.319
this bad situation to begin with. It didn't take much

1409
01:33:17.359 --> 01:33:19.760
for Rollo to convince the stunned woman that he was

1410
01:33:19.800 --> 01:33:22.239
going to take care of everything and she was free

1411
01:33:22.279 --> 01:33:26.000
to go. He would even contact her insurance company for her.

1412
01:33:26.680 --> 01:33:28.880
She wrote everything down on a piece of paper with

1413
01:33:28.960 --> 01:33:31.880
tears in her eyes. Of course, as soon as she

1414
01:33:31.960 --> 01:33:34.119
drove away, he chucked that paper in a cup of

1415
01:33:34.159 --> 01:33:37.359
cold coffee he'd left on the dash. Rollo set to

1416
01:33:37.439 --> 01:33:40.199
looking around for that cooler and started back into the

1417
01:33:40.239 --> 01:33:44.159
tree line. He didn't find it, but he found a shambling,

1418
01:33:44.399 --> 01:33:48.119
shuffling creature with blood dripping off of a lipless, leering

1419
01:33:48.239 --> 01:33:53.800
mouth and grasping clawed hands stained with blood. Rollo was

1420
01:33:53.880 --> 01:33:57.479
a bad gambler, but he'd been a good crooked cough

1421
01:33:57.520 --> 01:34:00.560
and a decent emt who stole drugs. So he took

1422
01:34:00.600 --> 01:34:03.359
a snubnose thirty two week kept under his shirt tail

1423
01:34:03.359 --> 01:34:06.079
in the back and shot that thing in both its

1424
01:34:06.159 --> 01:34:10.359
yellow eyes. It fell down, as you might suspect, and

1425
01:34:10.439 --> 01:34:13.960
did not get back up. Then Rollo found the empty,

1426
01:34:14.239 --> 01:34:17.439
bloody cooler with the Patriot sticker on it. His mind

1427
01:34:17.520 --> 01:34:20.840
remained remarkably clear, and he knew what he had to do.

1428
01:34:21.840 --> 01:34:24.800
Rollo did a very good job at the transplant center,

1429
01:34:25.039 --> 01:34:28.199
which was his real job now, but he paid special

1430
01:34:28.199 --> 01:34:31.239
attention when he was getting a fat envelope on the side.

1431
01:34:31.399 --> 01:34:33.880
Rollo pulled Peter's body up into the back of the

1432
01:34:33.920 --> 01:34:37.039
white truck that if you squinted your eyes at it

1433
01:34:37.159 --> 01:34:40.199
might be a medical vehicle. He had some tools back

1434
01:34:40.239 --> 01:34:43.479
there that could have medical uses. The back of his

1435
01:34:43.520 --> 01:34:45.920
truck was not as clean as some places, but it

1436
01:34:46.039 --> 01:34:48.199
was not as dirty as the back room of that

1437
01:34:48.439 --> 01:34:52.760
massage parlor where Rollo knew Octavius had done a little surgery.

1438
01:34:53.439 --> 01:34:56.279
If he hadn't already been a decent empty, he could

1439
01:34:56.319 --> 01:35:02.159
have used YouTube. Stacy had been sitting very still in

1440
01:35:02.239 --> 01:35:05.880
her spacious living room when the doorbell rang. She answered it,

1441
01:35:06.159 --> 01:35:10.640
her hands trembling. Two stone faced men in dark suits

1442
01:35:10.640 --> 01:35:14.920
stared at her. Stacy O'Day. One asked. It was more

1443
01:35:14.960 --> 01:35:18.840
of a statement than a question. Yes, is this about

1444
01:35:18.880 --> 01:35:23.000
a landra? She asked in a manner of speaking. The

1445
01:35:23.039 --> 01:35:26.000
man showed her a piece of official looking paper. This

1446
01:35:26.159 --> 01:35:29.640
is a warrant to search your house. Stacy took a

1447
01:35:29.680 --> 01:35:33.880
step back. But a landra's in the hospital. She needs

1448
01:35:33.880 --> 01:35:37.239
a transplant. It's on its way. Why is this happening

1449
01:35:37.319 --> 01:35:41.279
right now? The man looked at her. That's just it.

1450
01:35:41.840 --> 01:35:45.319
The hospital checked. There's no record that Alandra was officially

1451
01:35:45.359 --> 01:35:51.279
adopted from anywhere. Stacy swallowed hard. There's no record she

1452
01:35:51.359 --> 01:35:55.039
was ever enrolled in school. Stacy got her feet under her.

1453
01:35:56.239 --> 01:36:00.239
She's homeschooled. Your neighbors have a lot to say. One

1454
01:36:00.239 --> 01:36:02.560
of them says they saw a mattress on the floor

1455
01:36:02.560 --> 01:36:05.119
in the basement, next to an ironing board and a

1456
01:36:05.159 --> 01:36:09.760
stack of laundry. Stacy shook her head. We're painting her room,

1457
01:36:10.920 --> 01:36:14.439
so can you show me that room? He asked, Like

1458
01:36:14.479 --> 01:36:17.840
I said, it's being painted. The cop gave her a

1459
01:36:17.920 --> 01:36:22.000
thousand yard stare. You're not the first housewife that needed

1460
01:36:22.039 --> 01:36:25.600
a little help around the place. Tears showed in Stacy's eyes.

1461
01:36:26.199 --> 01:36:30.640
She's living better than she was in that hell whole orphanage.

1462
01:36:30.680 --> 01:36:34.000
She will be. She's in surgery and the kidney looks

1463
01:36:34.000 --> 01:36:36.760
like it's going to take. Stacy leaned against the wall

1464
01:36:36.800 --> 01:36:40.520
with relief, which surprised the two cops. But she's not

1465
01:36:40.600 --> 01:36:44.159
coming back here, the cop added. Stacy stood up straight.

1466
01:36:44.920 --> 01:36:47.479
If I didn't care, I wouldn't have pushed to get

1467
01:36:47.479 --> 01:36:50.319
her that kidney when she got sick. The cop had

1468
01:36:50.319 --> 01:36:53.960
cold eyes. What else could you do? I reckon, you

1469
01:36:53.960 --> 01:36:58.560
didn't keep the receipt. Stacy processed this. She looked the

1470
01:36:58.600 --> 01:37:02.239
cop full in the face. This whole thing, it started

1471
01:37:02.239 --> 01:37:05.960
out differently than it ended with a landra At least

1472
01:37:06.000 --> 01:37:09.680
for me. Stacy making that statement was the only thing

1473
01:37:09.720 --> 01:37:12.239
that kept the cops from cuffing her and banging her

1474
01:37:12.239 --> 01:37:14.319
head on the door when they lowered her into the

1475
01:37:14.359 --> 01:37:17.000
back seat. They let her walk out on her own

1476
01:37:17.039 --> 01:37:20.319
free will, but she did not see that McMansion again

1477
01:37:20.840 --> 01:37:24.279
for a long time. The cops assumed Peter had run

1478
01:37:24.319 --> 01:37:26.920
out on Stacy and all of their problems. Nobody ever

1479
01:37:26.960 --> 01:37:29.399
found a trace of him. They were soon distracted by

1480
01:37:29.439 --> 01:37:31.840
a very large fire at an old factory in the

1481
01:37:31.840 --> 01:37:36.039
woods outside of town, which burned a big tract of land.

1482
01:37:37.079 --> 01:37:40.039
Rollo had a steady hand and a clear head and

1483
01:37:40.119 --> 01:37:43.119
got a bonus for all his quick thinking. Didn't change

1484
01:37:43.119 --> 01:37:45.520
his luck at the track, but he can't have.

1485
01:37:45.520 --> 01:37:45.960
It all.

1486
01:37:56.600 --> 01:38:04.920
Grave consequences by killian crane. Dennis's shovel bit into packed dirt.

1487
01:38:05.880 --> 01:38:09.119
Years of practice told him he'd passed the five foot marker.

1488
01:38:09.880 --> 01:38:12.239
Only a few more inches and his blade would strike

1489
01:38:12.279 --> 01:38:15.760
the coffin lid. This was one of the good cemeteries.

1490
01:38:16.399 --> 01:38:18.600
It was off of a main road, but the town

1491
01:38:18.840 --> 01:38:22.840
was sleepy and there were no lights. No lights meant

1492
01:38:22.960 --> 01:38:25.399
he could park damn near on top of the grave.

1493
01:38:26.319 --> 01:38:28.960
He wouldn't have to lug everything from a block or

1494
01:38:28.960 --> 01:38:33.199
two away. As an added bonus, the night dripped with

1495
01:38:33.279 --> 01:38:36.560
a heavy fog, it would be impossible to see his

1496
01:38:36.640 --> 01:38:40.680
electric lantern from a distance. Mister Piles told him to

1497
01:38:40.720 --> 01:38:43.800
look for an old money tombstone, and he wasn't kidding.

1498
01:38:44.359 --> 01:38:47.880
The once lavish tombstone had a statue of a weeping

1499
01:38:47.960 --> 01:38:51.600
angel wielding a sword, staring down at Denis as he

1500
01:38:51.640 --> 01:38:56.159
worked at the angel's feet. Read here lies Vania Mills.

1501
01:38:57.000 --> 01:39:00.319
Her birth year was worn away, but she died in

1502
01:39:00.399 --> 01:39:05.079
sixty two. Chances were anyone coming to check on dear

1503
01:39:05.119 --> 01:39:09.239
old Vanya was either an old fart or buried close by.

1504
01:39:10.640 --> 01:39:15.199
He dug faster, feeling sweat dripped down his chin. He

1505
01:39:15.279 --> 01:39:18.680
learned long ago to keep plenty of sweat rags handy

1506
01:39:18.760 --> 01:39:21.720
for long nights, and there was a fresh beech towel

1507
01:39:21.760 --> 01:39:24.359
already waiting for him in the driver's seat of his truck.

1508
01:39:25.199 --> 01:39:27.760
He had a change of shoes in his covered bed,

1509
01:39:28.199 --> 01:39:30.640
where he'd place his muddy boots and tools of the

1510
01:39:30.720 --> 01:39:34.720
trade in one large trash bag and his hall in another.

1511
01:39:35.880 --> 01:39:38.399
If it was too big, he'd just wrap it in

1512
01:39:38.439 --> 01:39:41.880
painters plastic and tape it up. Once upon a time,

1513
01:39:42.000 --> 01:39:44.960
Dennis was something of a jack of all trades, a

1514
01:39:45.000 --> 01:39:47.520
pipe fitter when he could pass a drug test, a

1515
01:39:47.560 --> 01:39:51.159
construction hand when he couldn't, and a thief in between.

1516
01:39:52.079 --> 01:39:54.239
It was a stroke of genius that he found his

1517
01:39:54.279 --> 01:39:59.760
favorite form of larceny, grave robbing. Many homeowners were getting

1518
01:39:59.800 --> 01:40:04.560
home security systems, the ones with anything worth stealing anyway.

1519
01:40:04.640 --> 01:40:08.279
The same was basically true of people you'd never guess

1520
01:40:08.359 --> 01:40:12.399
who all was packing across the country. Sure, some places

1521
01:40:12.479 --> 01:40:16.279
had hinky gun laws, but that didn't stop Granny from

1522
01:40:16.359 --> 01:40:22.199
carrying a forty five. Dennis knew that from experience. Several

1523
01:40:22.279 --> 01:40:24.680
years ago. He'd held up an old woman and she

1524
01:40:24.800 --> 01:40:28.760
pulled heat on him. Luckily, her hands shook something fierce.

1525
01:40:29.079 --> 01:40:32.560
The forty five rang his ears but didn't ventilate him.

1526
01:40:33.039 --> 01:40:36.239
Dennis had enough gumption to snatch the revolver from her hands.

1527
01:40:36.600 --> 01:40:40.720
He retaliated, stomping Granny's ass into the ground. She had

1528
01:40:40.800 --> 01:40:44.399
just been protecting herself, but she damn near killed him.

1529
01:40:44.960 --> 01:40:47.640
To teach her a lesson, Dennis made sure that she

1530
01:40:47.720 --> 01:40:51.560
had the ass whooping of her long life when he

1531
01:40:51.640 --> 01:40:54.000
found the only thing of value she had was the

1532
01:40:54.039 --> 01:40:57.199
revolver and a coin purse with a whopping five dollars

1533
01:40:57.319 --> 01:41:01.399
and change. He decided that robbing Peace was just too

1534
01:41:01.439 --> 01:41:05.359
much drama. That night, he used the five dollars to

1535
01:41:05.359 --> 01:41:08.159
get a coffee at a local diner. The night had

1536
01:41:08.199 --> 01:41:11.279
been rough, so sweet thang at the counter wasn't getting

1537
01:41:11.279 --> 01:41:14.560
a tip. The local paper was on the counter, opened

1538
01:41:15.079 --> 01:41:19.039
to the o bits. One in particular caught his eye.

1539
01:41:19.800 --> 01:41:23.560
A local heiress, pretty little thing, probably in her forties,

1540
01:41:24.000 --> 01:41:28.039
had kicked the bucket. She wore something intricate around her neck.

1541
01:41:28.800 --> 01:41:31.399
The black and white photo didn't do the thing justice,

1542
01:41:31.880 --> 01:41:35.920
but he could tell it was gold and diamonds. It

1543
01:41:36.000 --> 01:41:40.359
was then he had an idea. While he waited for

1544
01:41:40.399 --> 01:41:43.199
her to be buried, Dennis pawned the forty five for

1545
01:41:43.279 --> 01:41:46.319
three hundred dollars, then went to the hardware store for

1546
01:41:46.399 --> 01:41:53.960
things he thought he'd need. A shovel, crowbar, mallet, good rope,

1547
01:41:54.279 --> 01:42:01.600
bolt cutters, flashlights and a lamp, towels and large trash bags.

1548
01:42:02.640 --> 01:42:05.119
It all came out to just under two hundred dollars.

1549
01:42:05.720 --> 01:42:09.359
Another eighty five went to a shithole motel nearby, and

1550
01:42:09.439 --> 01:42:11.920
the last fifteen dollars to his name went to a

1551
01:42:11.960 --> 01:42:15.199
good hot meal. He had a full night's work ahead

1552
01:42:15.239 --> 01:42:18.079
of him and he needed to have his strength up.

1553
01:42:18.720 --> 01:42:22.000
Once he was at the cemetery, he realized just how

1554
01:42:22.079 --> 01:42:27.479
brilliant his plan was. Graveyards were empty at night. The

1555
01:42:27.600 --> 01:42:32.079
dead made people uneasy, except goth kids, but they were

1556
01:42:32.119 --> 01:42:36.319
easy to scare off. Another plus, there were no pigs

1557
01:42:36.319 --> 01:42:40.239
on patrol. Small town pigs couldn't be bothered that late

1558
01:42:40.560 --> 01:42:42.720
when there was a car to sleep in or doughnuts

1559
01:42:42.800 --> 01:42:46.760
to suck on. Best of all, graves didn't call the

1560
01:42:46.800 --> 01:42:53.880
police or shoot back. They were buried treasure waiting to

1561
01:42:53.960 --> 01:42:57.920
be plundered. As he dug up the heiress's grave, he

1562
01:42:58.000 --> 01:43:02.039
had this feeling of destiny as macab As it was.

1563
01:43:02.800 --> 01:43:05.479
This was what he was truly put on earth for.

1564
01:43:06.560 --> 01:43:10.319
His shovel bit greedily into the dirt, like a first date.

1565
01:43:10.560 --> 01:43:14.479
He was both nervous and excited to meet little miss Money.

1566
01:43:15.239 --> 01:43:17.640
When he finally felt the thunk of his shovel on

1567
01:43:17.680 --> 01:43:20.560
her coffin lid, he scraped away enough of the dirt

1568
01:43:20.600 --> 01:43:23.840
to put his hand on bare wood. He gave the

1569
01:43:23.880 --> 01:43:29.680
coffin a little knock you in there, sweet thing. No answer,

1570
01:43:30.880 --> 01:43:34.279
don't you worry. I'm on my way. He cleared the

1571
01:43:34.319 --> 01:43:36.920
dirt away from the top and the sides and slid

1572
01:43:36.920 --> 01:43:39.960
his crowbar under the lip of the lid. It was

1573
01:43:40.039 --> 01:43:42.319
like he was at a casino pulling the handle of

1574
01:43:42.359 --> 01:43:46.760
a slot machine. Would he hit? Would he bust? He

1575
01:43:46.840 --> 01:43:51.159
pulled the crank. The lid popped with a hiss. She

1576
01:43:51.279 --> 01:43:56.439
still smelled sweet like flowers. He turned away, caught in

1577
01:43:56.479 --> 01:44:00.960
a sneezing fit. Anything scented always did this to him. Well,

1578
01:44:01.359 --> 01:44:06.159
damn near anything, really, He had a sensitive nose. He sniffled,

1579
01:44:06.439 --> 01:44:09.319
embarrassed that she saw him like this on their first meeting,

1580
01:44:09.960 --> 01:44:13.720
But that embarrassment evaporated when he saw the gold chain

1581
01:44:13.960 --> 01:44:20.680
encrusted with diamonds around her pretty little neck jackpot. He

1582
01:44:20.720 --> 01:44:23.880
took the necklace off her. She didn't seem to mind.

1583
01:44:24.359 --> 01:44:27.279
As he stared at her, he had another bright idea.

1584
01:44:28.119 --> 01:44:30.760
She wasn't doing anyone any good laying in that coffin,

1585
01:44:31.199 --> 01:44:34.279
but maybe she could still be good to someone out there.

1586
01:44:35.000 --> 01:44:37.880
He threw the arress over his shoulders and loaded her

1587
01:44:37.920 --> 01:44:40.640
into the back seat of his sedan. It took a

1588
01:44:40.680 --> 01:44:43.199
little doing to get her seated, on account of her

1589
01:44:43.239 --> 01:44:48.119
being so stiff, but he got it done. Dennis buckled

1590
01:44:48.119 --> 01:44:51.359
her in and covered his work in the driver's seat.

1591
01:44:51.399 --> 01:44:54.880
He wiped his forehead with an old bandana. He saw

1592
01:44:54.920 --> 01:44:59.199
her through the rear view mirror, staring at him. The

1593
01:44:59.279 --> 01:45:04.439
glue hold her eyes closed had come undone. It freaked

1594
01:45:04.439 --> 01:45:07.119
Dennis out a little, but she was just as stiff.

1595
01:45:07.800 --> 01:45:11.199
Nothing she could do to anyone. I know, this car

1596
01:45:11.239 --> 01:45:14.239
ain't what you're probably used to, he said, giving her

1597
01:45:14.279 --> 01:45:18.600
a bashful smile, But I hope you enjoy the ride.

1598
01:45:18.760 --> 01:45:21.079
He threw the sedan in drive and crept out of

1599
01:45:21.119 --> 01:45:24.960
the cemetery. To Dennis's surprise, it didn't take much searching

1600
01:45:25.039 --> 01:45:28.920
to find a buyer for the Heiress. Down a dirt

1601
01:45:29.000 --> 01:45:32.119
road that the sedan didn't like, he found the old

1602
01:45:32.199 --> 01:45:36.159
ranch house of mister Piles. He was an old man

1603
01:45:36.239 --> 01:45:39.800
with a look in his eye of terrible intelligence. He

1604
01:45:39.880 --> 01:45:42.800
and Dennis shook, and he explained that he was a

1605
01:45:42.840 --> 01:45:47.600
sort of artist. After viewing the Heiress and seeing what

1606
01:45:47.680 --> 01:45:51.720
he liked, he paid Dennis two thousand dollars for her

1607
01:45:52.560 --> 01:45:57.159
in cold, hard cash. He was floored, like a kid

1608
01:45:57.199 --> 01:46:00.159
looking at the ocean for the first time. Before or

1609
01:46:00.159 --> 01:46:03.039
Denis could leave, mister Piles fetched two glasses and a

1610
01:46:03.079 --> 01:46:06.319
batch of moonshine from the cabinet you got time for

1611
01:46:06.399 --> 01:46:09.760
a drink, the old man asked, I got an offer

1612
01:46:09.840 --> 01:46:13.359
for you you might like to hear. Dennis never was

1613
01:46:13.479 --> 01:46:16.239
one to say no to good money, so he stayed

1614
01:46:16.239 --> 01:46:19.479
for the drink. I've been looking for someone like you,

1615
01:46:20.079 --> 01:46:24.439
mister Piles said, been looking a long while. You know,

1616
01:46:25.079 --> 01:46:27.560
in the right hands, a dead body can be spun

1617
01:46:27.600 --> 01:46:31.800
into gold. He poured two shots of moonshine and slid

1618
01:46:31.800 --> 01:46:34.560
one to Dennis. How would you like to make this

1619
01:46:34.720 --> 01:46:39.239
a regular thing? Dennis stared at the shot of moonshine,

1620
01:46:39.319 --> 01:46:43.039
reminiscing about the thrill of the dig. He flexed his fingers,

1621
01:46:43.079 --> 01:46:45.960
remembering the tension of his crowbar under the lid of

1622
01:46:46.000 --> 01:46:50.319
the coffin. For the sake of formality, he had to ask,

1623
01:46:51.520 --> 01:46:56.800
what's the pay? Mister Piles smiled same for her, two

1624
01:46:56.840 --> 01:47:00.239
thousand dollars as stiff. Anything on their person as a

1625
01:47:00.279 --> 01:47:06.439
bonus for you, unless specifically instructed otherwise. For Dennis, it

1626
01:47:06.560 --> 01:47:10.720
was a no brainer. They toasted the moonshine burned on

1627
01:47:10.760 --> 01:47:15.479
the way down, and their packed was forged. Mister Piles

1628
01:47:15.560 --> 01:47:18.399
gave him a burner phone, a name, a photo of

1629
01:47:18.399 --> 01:47:23.720
a gravestone, and an address. Dennis set out immediately. Things

1630
01:47:23.760 --> 01:47:27.560
went that way for three good years Since then, Dennis

1631
01:47:27.560 --> 01:47:30.239
sold the sedan in favor of a four wheel drive

1632
01:47:30.319 --> 01:47:33.720
truck with a long bed and a hard cover. An

1633
01:47:33.720 --> 01:47:36.399
eight foot bed meant he could put a basketball player

1634
01:47:36.399 --> 01:47:40.199
in the back if need be. His new profession took

1635
01:47:40.279 --> 01:47:43.920
him all across the country. He found that northern dirt

1636
01:47:43.960 --> 01:47:46.279
didn't like to give like the ground in the South,

1637
01:47:46.760 --> 01:47:49.640
and the more rain a place got, the better For

1638
01:47:49.720 --> 01:47:53.800
the older graves. Wet ground meant the coffins weren't busted

1639
01:47:53.800 --> 01:47:57.119
when he got to them. He wasn't sure why that was,

1640
01:47:57.640 --> 01:47:59.560
He just knew it meant he had a lot less

1641
01:47:59.560 --> 01:48:04.560
work today. A busted coffin meant playing archaeologist, and on

1642
01:48:04.640 --> 01:48:09.359
more than one occasion it resulted in a bust. Despite

1643
01:48:09.359 --> 01:48:12.720
his love of Southern coffins, Southern air played hell with

1644
01:48:12.800 --> 01:48:16.239
his allergies. They were bad enough as it was, but

1645
01:48:16.319 --> 01:48:19.520
the South really let him have it. He caught a

1646
01:48:19.560 --> 01:48:21.720
sneeze in the crook of his arm for probably the

1647
01:48:21.760 --> 01:48:25.600
tenth time that night. The angel looked down at him scornfully.

1648
01:48:26.960 --> 01:48:30.159
Bless me, he said, blowing a snot rocket at her

1649
01:48:30.159 --> 01:48:33.840
feet before he kept digging. Most of the houses near

1650
01:48:33.880 --> 01:48:37.560
the cemetery looked like old money. Chances were Vanya was

1651
01:48:37.840 --> 01:48:41.680
probably a trophy wife for some local millionaire when she

1652
01:48:41.840 --> 01:48:47.199
was alive, meaning she carried some trophies into the afterlife.

1653
01:48:47.399 --> 01:48:52.159
Dennis hoped anyway. He wondered if Vanya was feeling lonely

1654
01:48:52.239 --> 01:48:55.640
down there, maybe she was looking forward to finding a

1655
01:48:55.640 --> 01:48:59.079
new friend in mister Piles. He wasn't sure what the

1656
01:48:59.119 --> 01:49:02.039
old man did with any of the bodies. Dennis brought

1657
01:49:02.119 --> 01:49:05.119
him all kinds of people at various stages of decay.

1658
01:49:05.760 --> 01:49:08.600
He learned that graves over fifty years old were usually

1659
01:49:08.760 --> 01:49:13.359
just the frame. He enjoyed those graves. The best bones

1660
01:49:13.399 --> 01:49:15.920
were easy to pick and clean and load into the truck.

1661
01:49:16.680 --> 01:49:19.279
As he bit into the dirt, the shovel jolted with

1662
01:49:19.319 --> 01:49:24.520
a thunk. The r she be, he whispered with a smile.

1663
01:49:25.399 --> 01:49:28.159
He cleared away enough dirt to touch the coffin lid.

1664
01:49:28.840 --> 01:49:32.520
If that little bit was any indication Vanya's coffin was

1665
01:49:32.520 --> 01:49:36.000
a good looking one in its heyday. Fingers crossed For

1666
01:49:36.039 --> 01:49:40.039
a bonus, he gave the lid a little knock. I'm

1667
01:49:40.079 --> 01:49:43.439
comin for you, old bitty, You better be decent. He

1668
01:49:43.560 --> 01:49:46.319
cleared away the dirt as he had so many times before,

1669
01:49:46.680 --> 01:49:49.720
and grabbed his crowbar. If the lid wouldn't act right,

1670
01:49:49.920 --> 01:49:52.359
he'd have to grab the mallet and force it open,

1671
01:49:52.880 --> 01:49:56.000
but he wasn't worried about that. Vanya was going to

1672
01:49:56.039 --> 01:49:58.880
be a good girl. She wanted to feel the air

1673
01:49:58.920 --> 01:50:01.720
on her old cheeks again, and if she played her

1674
01:50:01.760 --> 01:50:05.920
cards right, she could leave with Dennis like a good

1675
01:50:06.000 --> 01:50:08.880
Southern cough and the crowbar slid under the lip with

1676
01:50:09.000 --> 01:50:12.560
no resistance. Gripping in his hands. Feeling how ready the

1677
01:50:12.600 --> 01:50:16.039
lid was to pop, Dennis wiped excited sweat from his brow.

1678
01:50:17.000 --> 01:50:20.720
Would he hit? Would he bust? All he had to

1679
01:50:20.760 --> 01:50:25.159
do was pull and find out. The lid popped with

1680
01:50:25.239 --> 01:50:28.840
a hiss. Dead air swelled into the night sky, and

1681
01:50:28.920 --> 01:50:32.760
Dennis found himself in another sneezing fit. Allergies in the

1682
01:50:32.800 --> 01:50:38.159
dead didn't mix. Well, it's okay, old gal, he said,

1683
01:50:38.199 --> 01:50:40.920
once he could breathe again. We'll get you out of

1684
01:50:40.960 --> 01:50:46.199
that stinking box. Lid up, Dennis leveled his lantern, not

1685
01:50:46.359 --> 01:50:51.079
understanding what he saw. Where Vanya should have been, there

1686
01:50:51.159 --> 01:50:56.119
was a ragged hole leading somewhere below the ground. Dennis

1687
01:50:56.159 --> 01:51:00.600
lowered his lamp, trying to see past the dark uneasily,

1688
01:51:00.680 --> 01:51:05.199
he realized that wherever the hole went, it went deep.

1689
01:51:05.720 --> 01:51:09.560
From the depths below, a screech shattered the silence of

1690
01:51:09.600 --> 01:51:13.359
the night. Denis tripped face forward before he could grab

1691
01:51:13.399 --> 01:51:16.560
for anything. He was falling through the coffin into nothing.

1692
01:51:17.319 --> 01:51:20.600
As he slid, the dirt scraped painfully into his stomach.

1693
01:51:21.000 --> 01:51:25.279
Then he stopped sliding and started falling, spinning in the air.

1694
01:51:26.479 --> 01:51:30.560
Something not dirt broke his fall. A jolt of pain

1695
01:51:30.640 --> 01:51:33.399
shot from his ankle as he landed wrong, and his

1696
01:51:33.520 --> 01:51:40.159
lantern went out Above. He heard the coffin lid slam shut.

1697
01:51:41.039 --> 01:51:46.960
He was left in total darkness. Instinctively, he reached for

1698
01:51:47.039 --> 01:51:50.760
his leg, but he was waist deep in something slimy

1699
01:51:51.279 --> 01:51:55.600
and dense. His heart pounded in his throat as pitch

1700
01:51:55.640 --> 01:51:59.960
black pressed in on him. The smell was unbearable, makeing

1701
01:52:00.239 --> 01:52:03.520
him vomit on himself. He tried to be quiet about it,

1702
01:52:03.560 --> 01:52:08.600
because somewhere someone was crying. He fumbled for his lantern,

1703
01:52:08.760 --> 01:52:14.399
fingers trembling as they dug into slime and something else. Please,

1704
01:52:14.920 --> 01:52:18.760
he whispered, the sound of his echoing voice, terrifying him.

1705
01:52:19.000 --> 01:52:22.479
After what felt like an eternity. He found the lantern.

1706
01:52:23.399 --> 01:52:27.439
He pressed the button, but it wouldn't come on. No,

1707
01:52:28.000 --> 01:52:32.880
he hissed, no, no, no. He jammed the button madly,

1708
01:52:33.399 --> 01:52:39.039
but still the light wouldn't activate. He felt himself sinking deeper.

1709
01:52:40.359 --> 01:52:44.399
Liquid drenched his clothes and wet his skin. Whatever it was,

1710
01:52:45.039 --> 01:52:50.720
it felt disgusting. Please, he cried, terror, almost drowning him.

1711
01:52:51.279 --> 01:52:55.359
After an eternity, the lantern blessedly came on, and the

1712
01:52:55.399 --> 01:53:01.640
echoes of someone crying stopped immediately despite its blinding effect,

1713
01:53:01.840 --> 01:53:05.000
Denis held the light close to himself, thanking the powers

1714
01:53:05.000 --> 01:53:08.800
that be that it wasn't dark anymore. But as his

1715
01:53:08.880 --> 01:53:12.239
eyes adjusted and he saw what it was he'd fallen into,

1716
01:53:12.840 --> 01:53:17.279
realized what it was that he smelled, he wished otherwise

1717
01:53:18.359 --> 01:53:21.720
he was in a large cavern. As he squirmed, he

1718
01:53:21.800 --> 01:53:26.119
sank deeper into a pile of bodies, each of them

1719
01:53:26.479 --> 01:53:31.960
at wildly different stages of decomposition. Through the muck, he

1720
01:53:32.000 --> 01:53:36.640
could see that they were missing parts, faces ripped off, hands,

1721
01:53:36.720 --> 01:53:41.960
missing bodies torn in two. He tried to wriggle free,

1722
01:53:42.159 --> 01:53:46.439
only succeeding in falling further into the pile. The dead

1723
01:53:46.439 --> 01:53:49.119
weight began to press on him, and with the little

1724
01:53:49.119 --> 01:53:53.520
air he had left in his lungs, he screamed. From

1725
01:53:53.560 --> 01:53:57.000
the single rough entrance to the cavern, came a faint

1726
01:53:57.079 --> 01:54:03.199
light accompanied by wailing. Whatever the crying thing was, it

1727
01:54:03.319 --> 01:54:06.800
knew he was near. He tried to turn off the lamp,

1728
01:54:07.319 --> 01:54:10.600
but the button was jammed. The glow beyond the cavern

1729
01:54:10.640 --> 01:54:13.560
grew brighter as the patter of bare feet and wild

1730
01:54:13.600 --> 01:54:16.800
shrieking closed in on him. He was out of time

1731
01:54:17.520 --> 01:54:21.359
and only saw one option. He flung the lantern away

1732
01:54:22.079 --> 01:54:26.359
and played dead. The crying thing stepped into the cavern,

1733
01:54:26.840 --> 01:54:31.279
having to hunch over. She was tall, with long red

1734
01:54:31.319 --> 01:54:35.840
hair and impossibly long arms and legs. She wore a

1735
01:54:35.960 --> 01:54:38.960
ragged black dress that was much too short for her

1736
01:54:39.000 --> 01:54:42.800
skeletal frame, exposing her bony legs to the tops of

1737
01:54:42.840 --> 01:54:48.800
her thighs. One slender hand held an electric lantern, bathing

1738
01:54:48.880 --> 01:54:52.680
the room with questing light. With her other hand, she

1739
01:54:52.800 --> 01:54:56.680
held her face. Tears streamed between her fingers and down

1740
01:54:56.720 --> 01:55:00.680
her forearm, where they dripped from her elbow. Seeking between

1741
01:55:00.760 --> 01:55:04.960
her fingers, Dennis caught a look at her eyes. They

1742
01:55:05.000 --> 01:55:10.880
were puffy and impossibly red, and searching for him. It

1743
01:55:10.920 --> 01:55:15.159
took everything he had to keep up the act. Her hand,

1744
01:55:15.239 --> 01:55:19.439
which ended in jagged nails covered with black grime, dropped

1745
01:55:19.439 --> 01:55:23.439
from her Verico's face, revealing crude makeup that ran down

1746
01:55:23.439 --> 01:55:27.800
her cheeks and cracked lips, dribbling the same black grime

1747
01:55:27.920 --> 01:55:33.640
on her fingers. What that grime could possibly be, Dennis

1748
01:55:33.640 --> 01:55:37.199
didn't know. Snot flowed from her nose, and a fresh

1749
01:55:37.239 --> 01:55:40.039
line of drool leaked from her mouth. She looked like

1750
01:55:40.119 --> 01:55:43.079
she was always trying to say something, but the tears

1751
01:55:43.119 --> 01:55:47.800
only aloud. Hitching sobs. Her cries reminded him of his

1752
01:55:47.920 --> 01:55:50.640
mother's the day his baby brother was put in the ground.

1753
01:55:51.640 --> 01:55:55.479
That memory in this strange place, sent cold sweat trickling

1754
01:55:55.640 --> 01:55:59.720
down his spine. He wanted to look away, but he

1755
01:55:59.720 --> 01:56:03.680
did dare move. She put her lantern down and reached

1756
01:56:03.680 --> 01:56:06.079
for the one Dennis had flung, picking it up with

1757
01:56:06.159 --> 01:56:11.279
two spindly fingers, She sniffed at the handle, licking it

1758
01:56:11.479 --> 01:56:15.880
with a long, dirty tongue. Tears streamed down the lantern,

1759
01:56:16.439 --> 01:56:20.760
glistening in the light. She gently placed his lantern on

1760
01:56:20.800 --> 01:56:25.079
the ground and sniffed at the air. Her nose danced

1761
01:56:25.760 --> 01:56:29.920
in his direction with a sad grunt. She worked both

1762
01:56:30.000 --> 01:56:33.119
hands into the piles of bodies. She fished out the

1763
01:56:33.119 --> 01:56:36.680
bottom half of a corpse, her hand still searching the pile,

1764
01:56:37.199 --> 01:56:41.159
her sobbing mouth worked around a bloated thigh, Every bite

1765
01:56:41.159 --> 01:56:45.159
a struggle as her teeth sank into decayed flesh. Black

1766
01:56:45.239 --> 01:56:48.479
goo bubbled around her mouth as her slender neck flexed

1767
01:56:48.680 --> 01:56:52.199
and pulled the sound of old thigh me tearing from

1768
01:56:52.239 --> 01:56:54.960
the bone made Denis sick again, but he kept his

1769
01:56:55.039 --> 01:57:00.199
face stone dead. His eyes begged him to blink, but

1770
01:57:00.279 --> 01:57:04.000
he didn't care. As she chewed and swallowed, he could

1771
01:57:04.079 --> 01:57:08.079
feel her other hand questing the muck near him. The

1772
01:57:08.199 --> 01:57:11.319
dark liquids oozed down the length of the half corpse,

1773
01:57:11.600 --> 01:57:15.199
mixing with her tears into the dirt. Even as she ate,

1774
01:57:15.880 --> 01:57:22.199
she sobbed, her fingers prodded his foot. His heart jumped

1775
01:57:22.199 --> 01:57:24.199
in his chest as she grabbed him by the ankle,

1776
01:57:24.319 --> 01:57:27.399
testing him. As she pulled his leg, he grimly thought

1777
01:57:27.399 --> 01:57:31.199
of his crowbar against the lid of the coffin. Would

1778
01:57:31.239 --> 01:57:37.359
she hit would she bust? She squeezed, shooting fresh pain

1779
01:57:37.520 --> 01:57:40.319
up his leg. He knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt,

1780
01:57:40.359 --> 01:57:44.239
his ankle was broken like her. He began to cry.

1781
01:57:44.560 --> 01:57:48.000
The tears rolled down his cheeks, but somehow he kept

1782
01:57:48.039 --> 01:57:51.920
himself from blinking. Back and forth, she worked his leg,

1783
01:57:52.079 --> 01:57:54.840
forcing Denis to use willpower he didn't know. He had

1784
01:57:55.199 --> 01:58:01.640
to stay absolutely still. There was a rumbling in the pile.

1785
01:58:02.239 --> 01:58:06.319
Her questing had disturbed some precarious balance, and the meat

1786
01:58:06.720 --> 01:58:11.520
shifted in response. Dennis became even more entangled, only his

1787
01:58:11.680 --> 01:58:15.760
head above the pressing corpses. The mourner squealed, her hand

1788
01:58:15.880 --> 01:58:19.000
darting from his ankle into the shifting. She thought she

1789
01:58:19.119 --> 01:58:23.560
had him. This might be my chance, he thought. It

1790
01:58:23.640 --> 01:58:27.680
was a slim one, so impossibly slim. But maybe if

1791
01:58:27.680 --> 01:58:32.960
she didn't find anything, she'd move on. It would be terrible,

1792
01:58:33.479 --> 01:58:37.319
but maybe he could wait her out. There had to

1793
01:58:37.359 --> 01:58:40.319
be another way out of this cavern. She got down

1794
01:58:40.359 --> 01:58:44.119
here somehow. He wasn't sure yet what he'd tell mister Piles,

1795
01:58:44.520 --> 01:58:46.640
but he'd burn that bridge when he got to it.

1796
01:58:47.439 --> 01:58:53.560
Right then, he just had to stay calm. As the

1797
01:58:53.600 --> 01:58:57.000
pile shifted, the body of an ancient woman whipped around

1798
01:58:57.039 --> 01:59:00.800
to face Denis. Around her bony neck was solid gold

1799
01:59:00.880 --> 01:59:05.319
necklace sparkling with fine emeralds. He was face to face

1800
01:59:06.199 --> 01:59:10.880
with Vanya mills. He didn't know how he knew, but

1801
01:59:11.039 --> 01:59:14.600
he did. His night had already been the craziest of

1802
01:59:14.640 --> 01:59:17.880
his life. He was terrified, and he should have been screaming,

1803
01:59:18.399 --> 01:59:23.880
but all he could do was look at that necklace, Jackpot.

1804
01:59:25.079 --> 01:59:28.600
It was beautiful, easily the most valuable thing he'd ever

1805
01:59:28.640 --> 01:59:31.680
seen on a dead person, easily worth more than the

1806
01:59:31.720 --> 01:59:36.640
bones wearing it. Dear old Vanya was just another skeleton,

1807
01:59:36.960 --> 01:59:41.159
begging Dennis to pick her clean. Mad Lee threatened to

1808
01:59:41.199 --> 01:59:44.640
creep into his stone face. He flexed his fingers, fighting

1809
01:59:44.680 --> 01:59:48.600
the urge to grab the precious jewelry. The mourner wailed

1810
01:59:48.600 --> 01:59:51.359
in anger, grabbing a body and flinging it into the

1811
01:59:51.399 --> 01:59:54.760
cavern ceiling. It exploded up there like a party favor

1812
01:59:55.119 --> 01:59:59.199
and parts reigned. An arm struck Dennis in the head.

1813
01:59:59.520 --> 02:00:02.319
He couldn't scream. Now he had to have that necklace.

1814
02:00:02.640 --> 02:00:06.039
This thing thought she had him licked. She didn't. She

1815
02:00:06.119 --> 02:00:08.640
didn't have any idea who Dennis was, what he was

1816
02:00:08.720 --> 02:00:12.279
capable of. He was in his element. He understood then,

1817
02:00:12.479 --> 02:00:15.039
the intoxicating thrill he felt the night he stole to

1818
02:00:15.079 --> 02:00:18.960
airis his entire life had been building up to this

1819
02:00:19.239 --> 02:00:25.399
very moment. He breathed carefully, shallow breaths, reveling, and how

1820
02:00:25.439 --> 02:00:30.119
the dead made him feel alive. Vanya must have been

1821
02:00:30.119 --> 02:00:33.520
able to read his mind, because as he stared into

1822
02:00:33.560 --> 02:00:38.399
her empty hollows, she gave him a light, knowing smile.

1823
02:00:40.239 --> 02:00:44.439
He wanted to smile back. No Vanya, he thought, unblinking

1824
02:00:44.720 --> 02:00:47.880
as his vision began to blur. He won't get me

1825
02:00:47.960 --> 02:00:50.279
that easy. I'll be getting out of this one, and

1826
02:00:50.359 --> 02:00:53.880
that necklace around your scrawny neck will be mine. The

1827
02:00:53.960 --> 02:00:57.399
mourner collapsed, pulling at her hair, ripping it out in clumps,

1828
02:00:57.439 --> 02:01:01.000
and pounding her fists into the ground. The thuds made

1829
02:01:01.039 --> 02:01:06.159
Vanya's head tilt to one side. Now she was questioning Dennis.

1830
02:01:06.920 --> 02:01:09.920
She thought she had him licked too. She and the

1831
02:01:09.960 --> 02:01:14.079
mourner were in this together. He might take Vanya's head

1832
02:01:14.079 --> 02:01:17.520
as a souvenir, just to spite her, take her on

1833
02:01:17.600 --> 02:01:20.800
a vacation, paid for it with her necklace. That would

1834
02:01:20.840 --> 02:01:24.319
show her, That would put her in her place. Who

1835
02:01:24.319 --> 02:01:27.439
did she think she was? She thought she was a

1836
02:01:27.479 --> 02:01:32.279
match for Dennis. He'd robbed hundreds of graves, hundreds all

1837
02:01:32.319 --> 02:01:36.640
of them, preparing him for this, his masterpiece. You can't

1838
02:01:36.680 --> 02:01:41.600
stop me Vanya, He thought, no one can. I'm getting

1839
02:01:41.640 --> 02:01:46.279
out of here. I'm gonna win. Vanya laughed at him,

1840
02:01:46.680 --> 02:01:50.800
not out loud, but in his head. As she did,

1841
02:01:51.000 --> 02:01:54.800
her head whipped back and her jaw fell open. Dust

1842
02:01:54.920 --> 02:01:58.680
spewed from her skull into Dennis's face. The kiss of

1843
02:01:58.720 --> 02:02:02.479
death hit him just right. He wanted to cover his face,

1844
02:02:02.800 --> 02:02:05.880
but he was thoroughly trapped by the dead. His grand

1845
02:02:05.960 --> 02:02:09.840
plan to steal the necklace and Vanya's head evaporated as

1846
02:02:09.880 --> 02:02:14.720
he let out a loud sneeze. The morning lady stopped

1847
02:02:14.760 --> 02:02:17.920
pounding the ground and their eyes met for the first

1848
02:02:18.359 --> 02:02:22.880
and last time. Terrified, Dennis realized he knew that look

1849
02:02:22.920 --> 02:02:36.520
in her eyes all too well. Jackpot Dead. In Breakfast

1850
02:02:36.880 --> 02:02:41.359
by Morgan Moore, the screams of a young woman pierced

1851
02:02:41.359 --> 02:02:44.600
the night as the source of the din exploded from

1852
02:02:44.640 --> 02:02:48.239
the back door of her home, letting loose another screech

1853
02:02:48.520 --> 02:02:52.640
in her wake. Her screaming didn't last long, as the

1854
02:02:52.680 --> 02:02:55.880
cold night air cut off her wind, forcing her to

1855
02:02:55.960 --> 02:03:00.359
stop to catch her breath. She was enjoying it night

1856
02:03:00.399 --> 02:03:04.119
to herself while her mother baby sat for her, but

1857
02:03:04.239 --> 02:03:07.439
the peace she was hoping to get was shattered when

1858
02:03:07.479 --> 02:03:10.920
a stranger knocked on her door. When she opened it,

1859
02:03:11.239 --> 02:03:14.039
the man rushed her and chased her into the living room.

1860
02:03:14.439 --> 02:03:17.239
A bottle to the head led to her escape, and

1861
02:03:17.359 --> 02:03:21.319
here she was taking a break to regain her composure.

1862
02:03:22.439 --> 02:03:25.600
She was freezing, but there was no way she was

1863
02:03:25.640 --> 02:03:30.319
going back into her house. A neighbor, any neighbor, would

1864
02:03:30.399 --> 02:03:33.800
have to do. The young woman started to walk towards

1865
02:03:33.800 --> 02:03:37.159
a distant gate when the man shoved his foot into

1866
02:03:37.159 --> 02:03:40.319
the small of her back. With no time to react,

1867
02:03:40.600 --> 02:03:43.760
he flipped her over, sitting knees first on her stomach.

1868
02:03:44.239 --> 02:03:47.199
Stunned by the blow, she looked up at him as

1869
02:03:47.239 --> 02:03:51.520
the ice pick, recently pilfered from her own home, entered

1870
02:03:51.720 --> 02:03:56.960
and exited her heart repeatedly. When he finished, the man

1871
02:03:57.000 --> 02:04:00.000
stood up and slid the ice pick into the pocket

1872
02:04:00.039 --> 02:04:04.079
of his jacket before walking off into the cold, bitter night.

1873
02:04:08.079 --> 02:04:12.239
I think it stuck, Matt, Really, I hadn't noticed, Rachel,

1874
02:04:12.720 --> 02:04:17.119
Matt replied sarcastically. Rachel, Matt, and their friends Danny and

1875
02:04:17.239 --> 02:04:19.720
Jack had been trying to get in one last camping

1876
02:04:19.760 --> 02:04:23.800
trip before the weather turned bitter, but a blizzard appeared

1877
02:04:23.840 --> 02:04:27.000
out of nowhere midweek, so the quartet had packed up

1878
02:04:27.239 --> 02:04:30.520
and hit the highway. The blizzard in full swing. The

1879
02:04:30.560 --> 02:04:33.439
group took the recommended detours and ended up in a

1880
02:04:33.479 --> 02:04:38.680
town called Oldsville, or, more accurately, on the front lawn

1881
02:04:38.720 --> 02:04:41.239
of a house they almost hit as they skid it

1882
02:04:41.279 --> 02:04:44.520
off the road thanks to the ice that surrounded Oldsville.

1883
02:04:45.000 --> 02:04:47.760
So now what do we do? Danny asked, as she

1884
02:04:47.840 --> 02:04:51.439
held her arms against her body for extra warmth. There's

1885
02:04:51.520 --> 02:04:53.520
no way we're gonna get any help out here tonight.

1886
02:04:54.000 --> 02:04:58.039
Jack remarked, Well, we have to do something, or else

1887
02:04:58.079 --> 02:05:03.199
we'll freeze. Matt interjected. Rachel looked around the area. He

1888
02:05:03.359 --> 02:05:06.760
was right. She thought they'd freeze to death if they

1889
02:05:06.760 --> 02:05:10.920
stayed out here. Rachel looked around the neighborhood and noticed

1890
02:05:10.920 --> 02:05:14.479
that the lights were off in every house except for

1891
02:05:14.560 --> 02:05:17.319
the one they were stuck in front of. Hey, guys,

1892
02:05:17.880 --> 02:05:20.079
it looks like the people who live here might still

1893
02:05:20.119 --> 02:05:22.479
be up. Why don't we try asking them for help,

1894
02:05:23.039 --> 02:05:26.560
she suggested to her friends. The other three looked at

1895
02:05:26.560 --> 02:05:30.159
each other and shrugged. I'm game. As long as they

1896
02:05:30.199 --> 02:05:33.199
have heat, Danny said, and a warm bed to go

1897
02:05:33.359 --> 02:05:36.399
with it, Jack added, grabbing Danny by the waist and

1898
02:05:36.439 --> 02:05:39.640
bringing her into a kiss. Don't get too lovey dovey,

1899
02:05:39.920 --> 02:05:42.720
you might get stuck together, and not in the fun way,

1900
02:05:43.199 --> 02:05:46.079
Matt said, as he hauled out everybody's bags from the car.

1901
02:05:46.720 --> 02:05:48.800
The four trudged up to the house and banged on

1902
02:05:48.840 --> 02:05:52.720
the door all at once. Almost immediately the door swung open.

1903
02:05:53.039 --> 02:05:56.720
A middle aged woman stood between them and the interior. Yes,

1904
02:05:57.479 --> 02:06:02.159
she asked, slightly annoyed. Hi, We're sorry to bother you,

1905
02:06:02.199 --> 02:06:05.399
but we slid off the road and into your yard.

1906
02:06:05.760 --> 02:06:10.479
Matt started gesturing to the car. And anyways, it's stuck now.

1907
02:06:10.560 --> 02:06:13.640
Is there any way you could let us spend the night,

1908
02:06:14.239 --> 02:06:17.359
he finished, before giving the woman a warm smile. The

1909
02:06:17.399 --> 02:06:20.640
others following suit. The woman looked at the group and

1910
02:06:20.680 --> 02:06:24.560
shrugged a bit. Well, I guess we'd be a really

1911
02:06:24.680 --> 02:06:27.239
terrible bed and breakfast if I didn't let you sleep here.

1912
02:06:27.840 --> 02:06:32.119
Come on in, she ushered them inside a bed and breakfast.

1913
02:06:32.640 --> 02:06:35.600
I guess we lucked out big time. I didn't see

1914
02:06:35.600 --> 02:06:38.239
a sign out in the yard, though, Rachel remarked, as

1915
02:06:38.239 --> 02:06:41.399
she and her friends stripped off their winter gear. It's

1916
02:06:41.439 --> 02:06:45.279
more than likely covered by all the snow, the caretaker explained.

1917
02:06:45.760 --> 02:06:47.880
She led the group to the kitchen, and after a

1918
02:06:47.880 --> 02:06:50.319
few minutes, handed the meach a hot cup of tea.

1919
02:06:51.039 --> 02:06:54.520
The foursome downed their beverages eagerly, which elicited a chuckle

1920
02:06:54.560 --> 02:06:57.720
from the caretaker. Are there any other guests staying here?

1921
02:06:58.159 --> 02:07:02.079
Danny asked, nope, You kids are probably the only ones

1922
02:07:02.119 --> 02:07:05.079
we'll have until the weather blows over. Well, how much

1923
02:07:05.119 --> 02:07:09.159
do we owe you, Jack asked, don't worry about it tonight.

1924
02:07:09.279 --> 02:07:11.720
We can hash that out in the morning. No point

1925
02:07:11.720 --> 02:07:14.479
in handling the business side of this now, when you

1926
02:07:14.520 --> 02:07:17.520
may end up staying a lot longer. The group looked

1927
02:07:17.520 --> 02:07:21.880
at each other. Sheepishly, sounds like a plan, Then Matt said,

1928
02:07:21.920 --> 02:07:25.479
breaking the awkward silence, I don't know about you guys,

1929
02:07:25.479 --> 02:07:29.560
but I'm tired. Would you excuse us, ma'am? Not at all.

1930
02:07:29.880 --> 02:07:33.039
The rooms are upstairs for guests, pick whichever ones you want.

1931
02:07:33.479 --> 02:07:35.760
My room is down here if you kids need anything,

1932
02:07:36.119 --> 02:07:43.439
she explained, giving them all a smile. The stranger trudged

1933
02:07:43.479 --> 02:07:47.199
through the harsh winter conditions. He did not know where

1934
02:07:47.239 --> 02:07:51.039
he was going. He was only moving because he felt

1935
02:07:51.039 --> 02:07:54.560
the urge to do so. He would need shelter soon.

1936
02:07:55.600 --> 02:07:58.840
As if reading his mind, the snow led up some

1937
02:08:00.159 --> 02:08:08.640
the lights of the nearby house. Beckoning him, Rachel walked

1938
02:08:08.680 --> 02:08:11.840
into the room she and Matt had claimed, buttoning up

1939
02:08:11.840 --> 02:08:15.039
a pajama shirt. As she did so, Matt sat on

1940
02:08:15.079 --> 02:08:19.760
the bed looking at his phone. Anything interesting, Rachel asked,

1941
02:08:20.600 --> 02:08:24.039
I was checking the weather. Looks like the snow is

1942
02:08:24.079 --> 02:08:29.800
definitely not stopping until late tomorrow night. I guess that

1943
02:08:29.920 --> 02:08:33.279
means we will be staying here for a bit, Rachel said,

1944
02:08:33.600 --> 02:08:37.720
blowing a strand of hair from her face. Looks like it,

1945
02:08:38.319 --> 02:08:43.199
Matt said, sternly. The stranger pried open the back door

1946
02:08:43.279 --> 02:08:48.640
of the dwelling and slipped inside, Finding himself in a kitchen.

1947
02:08:49.119 --> 02:08:52.199
He sat down at a table and pulled off his coat.

1948
02:08:52.760 --> 02:08:55.680
He removed an ice pick from his pocket, laid it

1949
02:08:55.760 --> 02:08:59.119
upon the table, and sighed at the sight of the

1950
02:08:59.159 --> 02:09:08.000
instrument before him. Danny collapsed on to Jack and smiled

1951
02:09:08.039 --> 02:09:11.560
before rolling off of him. The two lovers lied next

1952
02:09:11.560 --> 02:09:15.000
to each other, sweat covering them. I'm gonna take a

1953
02:09:15.039 --> 02:09:18.479
shower while there's still some hot water, Danny said, exiting

1954
02:09:18.520 --> 02:09:22.920
the room. Jack dozed off seconds later, only to come

1955
02:09:23.000 --> 02:09:27.680
two in pitch blackness. He stumbled to his feet in

1956
02:09:27.720 --> 02:09:31.199
search of his phone and the light it would provide.

1957
02:09:31.239 --> 02:09:34.880
The stranger rushed at Jack and pinned him against the wall.

1958
02:09:35.359 --> 02:09:39.760
Jack's assailant slid a gloved hand over his victim's mouth tightly.

1959
02:09:40.399 --> 02:09:45.439
The blows came fast, tearing his flesh savagely. Again and again.

1960
02:09:46.119 --> 02:09:49.720
The stranger let Jack's body collapse to the floor before

1961
02:09:49.760 --> 02:09:54.319
heading to the bathroom and the sound of running water.

1962
02:09:55.800 --> 02:09:59.119
Matt and Rachel rushed into the bathroom as Danny's screams

1963
02:09:59.239 --> 02:10:03.640
rang out repeat. Now Here, they were face to face

1964
02:10:04.359 --> 02:10:08.520
with a psycho path run. Matt screamed as the stranger

1965
02:10:08.560 --> 02:10:11.720
bolted towards them. The duo rushed down the stairs, nearly

1966
02:10:11.760 --> 02:10:14.880
falling over one another. As the stranger pursued them. Their

1967
02:10:14.920 --> 02:10:17.560
eyes went to the front door, widening in joy that

1968
02:10:17.600 --> 02:10:22.600
they would be free of this nightmare. The stranger tackled Matt.

1969
02:10:23.279 --> 02:10:27.000
Rachel screamed. Matt turned his head to look at her

1970
02:10:27.560 --> 02:10:31.039
as the stranger slid his throat. The killer stood up

1971
02:10:31.359 --> 02:10:34.840
and turned to face Rachel. She bolted and dove out

1972
02:10:34.840 --> 02:10:36.640
the window on the far side of the room and

1973
02:10:36.800 --> 02:10:41.000
ran pell Mell into the cold night. The frigid air

1974
02:10:41.079 --> 02:10:45.880
assaulted her lungs and skin. Rachel pressed on, desperately searching

1975
02:10:45.920 --> 02:10:48.520
for signs of life in any of the neighboring houses.

1976
02:10:49.079 --> 02:10:51.960
Minutes passed, and she was ready to give up when

1977
02:10:51.960 --> 02:10:55.319
a light appeared from a distant home. She stumbled forth

1978
02:10:55.439 --> 02:10:57.399
up the stairs and beat on the door until her

1979
02:10:57.479 --> 02:11:01.840
knuckles bled. The door opened, and a middle aged woman

1980
02:11:01.920 --> 02:11:06.439
peered forth from the slight opening. Please please help me.

1981
02:11:07.000 --> 02:11:10.159
The woman looked at Rachel, stunned. She gathered her wits

1982
02:11:10.159 --> 02:11:14.960
and spoke, what's the matter. Somebody's chasing me. He killed

1983
02:11:15.000 --> 02:11:19.159
my friends. The woman ushered Rachel inside and bolted the

1984
02:11:19.199 --> 02:11:26.000
door shut. Honey, I'm home. A voice called out, that's

1985
02:11:26.079 --> 02:11:28.520
my husband. Let me go tell him what happened to you,

1986
02:11:28.960 --> 02:11:31.640
the woman said as she left the room. Wringing her hands,

1987
02:11:32.319 --> 02:11:34.920
Rachel listened to the sound of a clock ticking away

1988
02:11:34.960 --> 02:11:40.359
in the kitchen. The gentle tick talk droned on and

1989
02:11:40.479 --> 02:11:50.319
on as Rachel's eyelids grew heavier and heavier. Rachel started

1990
02:11:50.359 --> 02:11:55.199
awake as footsteps approached. In the doorway stood the stranger,

1991
02:11:55.760 --> 02:11:59.960
ice pick in hand. His lips split into a gruesome smeame.

1992
02:12:01.079 --> 02:12:05.239
Rachel's blood curdling scream rung through the neighborhood and across

1993
02:12:05.800 --> 02:12:12.760
the cold winter's night. All right, my Spooky is you

1994
02:12:12.920 --> 02:12:17.319
manage to survive a compilation of the IDEs of March

1995
02:12:18.000 --> 02:12:22.119
well at least until next year. So please make sure

1996
02:12:22.159 --> 02:12:26.199
you're subscribed on your favorite podcasting app because there's always

1997
02:12:26.640 --> 02:12:30.239
more where that came from right here at Weekly Spooky,

1998
02:12:30.520 --> 02:12:32.840
And while you're at it, leave us a five star rating.

1999
02:12:33.199 --> 02:12:36.359
It really does mean a whole lot to us. But

2000
02:12:36.520 --> 02:12:38.399
now it's time for me to get back to my

2001
02:12:38.640 --> 02:12:42.880
job of recording terror tales to keep you all in

2002
02:12:42.960 --> 02:12:47.960
suspense until next time. Make sure you truly do heed

2003
02:12:48.039 --> 02:12:53.000
the warning and beware the IDEs of March four. They

2004
02:12:53.039 --> 02:12:58.039
are waiting for you. I'll see you all next time

2005
02:12:59.600 --> 02:13:01.359
with an you luck at all