Barn Find by Norsebard

BARN FIND

by Norsebard

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

DISCLAIMERS:

This shocker is an Original. All characters are created by me.

All characters depicted, names used, and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious. No identification with actual persons is intended nor should be inferred. Any resemblance of the characters portrayed to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

The registered trademarks mentioned in this story are © of their respective owners. No infringement of their rights is intended, and no profit is gained.

This story contains some profanity. Readers who are easily offended by bad language may wish to read something other than this story.

SPECIAL WARNING #1: This story contains several scenes in which a woman is in severe jeopardy. Readers who are disturbed by or sensitive to this type of depiction should probably skip this story.

SPECIAL WARNING #2: This is not for the faint of heart *Flower*

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR:

Written: For the 2020 Royal Academy of Bards' Halloween Invitational.

- Thank you very much for your help, Phineas Redux :D

As usual, I'd like to say a great, big THANK YOU to my mates at AUSXIP Talking Xena, especially to the gals and guys in Subtext Central. I really appreciate your support - Thanks, everybody! :D

Description: Ashley's Barn Find is a popular Internet video show created and maintained by Ashley Townes, the daughter of a famous quarterback. A simple mistyping has massive repercussions for the young woman as she unwittingly goes to a haunted barn to record a show - not only is the site's ethereal resident evil to the core, it follows her to the motel where she plans to spend Halloween night…

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

BARN FIND

Two cones of light cut through the late-evening darkness as a charcoal-gray rental car drove off a paved road and onto an uneven forest trail. The headlights illuminated plenty of swirling mist and dense shrubbery on either side of the trail until the car came to a halt some two hundred yards from the road.

Not long after the engine had been switched off and the headlights had faded, the driver's face was lit up in an eerie fashion by the white glow that came from a computer tablet held against the steering wheel. The small clock in the corner of the screen proved that it was a quarter past ten on October 31st.

A few swipes and taps followed before the tablet's GeoTracking app confirmed that the twenty-nine year old Ashley Townes had arrived at her selected destination - the site that was to form the backdrop for the next episode of her popular Youtube exploration show Ashley's Barn Find.

The concept of her show was simple: For two years, she had traveled all over the continental United States as well as Alaska and Hawaii to visit ghost towns, derelict buildings, abandoned mines and the like. Once she found a good subject, she would record a video of herself as she explored that particular site. Her most popular videos had click-counts of just above one million views which had in turn attracted a couple of high-profile sponsors.

Not that she needed them - she was the oldest daughter of 'Captain Marvel' Marvin Townes, one of the best-known quarterbacks of the past few decades. Although retired, Marvin's three Superbowl rings meant he was always in demand for personal appearances, and that created a steady income for the entire Townes family.

Closing the tablet, Ashley stepped out of the rental car and moved around to the trunk. Her advanced camera was soon pulled out of a padded transport case; it was the safest place for it while she drove along the many forest trails that were rarely less than uneven.

The only time her camera equipment had been damaged had, ironically enough, been during a commercial flight on her way to a new site. When she had mentioned it in her next video, the camera company had sent her a brand new, highly advanced model in exchange for a little positive spin. She was quite happy to return the favor and had used the advanced camera ever since. The airline company in question hadn't been so accommodating, and she was only happy to return that kind of favor as well in her subsequent videos.

Everything was ready to go, so she put the carrier strap for a utility bag containing various utilities over her shoulder and shut the rental car's trunk. Like the camera equipment, her clothes had been donated free of charge by associate sponsors: rugged hiking boots, heavy-duty, multi-pocket cargo pants, an all-weather, three-quarter length mountaineer coat and a pair of fingerless gloves. Underneath the warm coat, she wore a regular flannel shirt over a black tank-top.

A strong flashlight was soon turned on. The powerful cone of LED light helping her find a trouble-free path through the shrubbery en route to her destination: a dark barn located some fifty yards off the forest trail.

---

Once Ashley had made it to the barn, she walked around it twice to find the best and easiest way to get inside. In this particular case, the easiest way was also the intended way: the barn door was ajar. The large, heavy thing had fallen out of its rail after the bolt holding it in place had rusted apart.

She stepped inside and let the cone from the flashlight play along the floor, up the walls and across the ceiling. Personal experience of the painful kind told her to conduct a thorough search for hostile animals before doing anything else, so she grabbed an extendable stick from her utility bag and poked a few of the old items closest to her.

The interior was laid out like any other barn built in the mid-to-late 1800s: a hayloft down the far end and an open area with room for three or four horses nearest the door - the barn would have been part of a working farm back then, so the horses would have been large, sturdy beasts of burden and not high-strung thoroughbreds.

The wooden barn had the sense of a very old place about it. Decayed wood, broken glass and rusty metal formed the order of the day while a certain whiff of mold as well as the inevitable animal excrements hung in the air. The woodwork gave off infrequent creaks and groans as it cooled off after being exposed to the sun all day, but it didn't seem like it was about to give up the ghost just yet. Save for parts of the ceiling that sagged dramatically, the barn was in remarkably good condition for its age, and the withered hay and untouched dust on the floor proved that Ashley was the first to enter it for a long while.

A smile spread over her face as she re-folded the stick and put it into the bag. Her hand retrieved the camera that was soon put on a crossbeam that seemed solid enough to hold it. As she turned on the camera's integrated light, she rolled her shoulders, checked her makeup and her teeth - for any embarrassing foreign objects - in a small hand mirror and finally drew a deep breath to get herself in the right frame of mind for recording. When she reached the end of her pre-recording checklist, she took the remote and activated the camera.

"Hello, my friends!" she said in a cheery voice; a wide, genuine smile spreading over her features as it was lit up by the camera's light. "Welcome to another episode of Ashley's Barn Find, the show that seeks out old, long-forgotten buildings and places and tells the story of some of the people who lived there. Today… or rather tonight because this is the Halloween special, after all… I'm at Logan's Bend, a wonderful old barn originally built in the mid-nineteenth century."

As Ashley moved around in front of the lens to show a few details of the barn's interior, the lights integrated in the camera's plastic housing caused abstract shadows to flicker across the far wall. One of the shadows rose from the floor and remained there, even after Ashley had moved on.

"-from what I've been able to discover in my research," Ashley continued as she moved back to her original spot on the withered hay, "there's a ghost story connected with this barn. That's why I chose Logan's Bend as my Halloween special for this year. Before I get into that story, isn't this a good time to get some hot, tasty coffee? I think it is."

Reaching into her utility bag, she produced a to-go mug of coffee that she held so her sponsor's logo was in clear view of the camera - that the mug was empty was to be filed under Tricks Of The Trade. "And what better way to get some hot, tasty coffee but to sip an organic, Fair Trade latté from the Victory Roasting Company in one of their patented heating mugs? Cold coffee is fine as we all know from enjoying Victory's prize-winning Iced Caramel Macchiato, but there's something unbeatable about hot coffee on chilly nights. Right?" she added with a wink that showed her tastefully applied makeup - yet another of her associate sponsors.

With the first commercial interlude over and done with, she put the mug away and turned her attention onto the camera once more. The diffuse, lingering shadow on the wall behind her moved on its own. Sliding out of frame, it climbed the wall and moved across the ceiling for a brief while before it returned to its original spot once the show had resumed.

"Where was I? Oh yes… the ghost story," Ashley said in a voice that she lowered to get the full effect. "One evening just over a century ago… on Halloween, no less… two ill-fated lovers met here, in this barn, for a secret meeting at midnight. A blood-feud existed between the two families, and the father of one of the lovers had followed them here because he suspected an inappropriate tryst. He was right as a child had been conceived during an earlier rendezvous. Some of the details have been lost to the passing of time, but what was meant to have been a pleasurable moment for the two lovers turned tragic when they were exposed. Under the threat of being banished by their families, or worse, they drank poison to be together in the Great Beyond. Grief and guilt struck the father who never recovered from the ordeal."

The retelling of the ghost story was completed by another pretend-sip of the empty to-go mug of the Victory Roasting Company latté. Ashley offered the camera a wistful expression. "What a terrible evening that must have been in this beautiful, old barn. Those people are long gone, but the place where it all happened is still here. Never forget to love, my friends… we never know when it's all over," she said in a voice that was somber yet not entirely without hope.

A few moments went by in silence to let the message sink in; then she broke out in a wide smile. "Thank you for watching Ashley's Barn Find, the show that seeks out old, long-forgotten buildings and places and tells the story of some of the people who lived there. I'm Ashley Townes and I love all you guys! Thank you for your continued support. If you wish, you can get in touch with me at all the usual channels and sites. Keep watching Ashley's Barn Find, keep drinking all the great coffees from the Victory Roasting Company and keep using the first-class products from Tiffany Bell Cosmetics. Goodnight, everybody! I hope you'll have a great, spooky Halloween."

As Ashley clicked the remote to make the camera stop recording, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The light dazzled her eyes, so she shuffled over to the crossbeam to turn it off. Behind her, the shadows disappeared from one moment to the next - except one that continued to move slowly across the wall.

"Not a bad show if I do say so myself… always good to sign off with a human story," she said in a mumble as she put the camera back into the utility bag.

Slowly turning around, she let the cone from her flashlight run across the various items lying around as she cast a final glance at the old barn at Logan's Bend. Her job there was done. She had mentioned her primary sponsor a couple of times, and she had let her viewers see her associate sponsors' eye-makeup products and rugged outdoors wear. Not a bad show at all.

Ashley moved back to the decrepit barn door to get outside. Just before she reached it, something unseen brushed past her left shoulder. As it did so, a muted whoosh could be heard - somewhat similar to the sound of a vacuum pack being punctured.

A brief shriek escaped her and she hurriedly performed a complete spin to see what might have come into contact with her. When the trembling cone of the flashlight proved that she was still alone in the old barn, she furrowed her brow and let out a worried grunt.

Halloween was on the brink of getting a little too spooky in Logan's Bend, so Ashley hurried back to the rental car and put the expensive camera into the padded case in the trunk. A final look around brought no news as to the nature of the contact, so she jumped behind the wheel and took off in a cascade of wood chips and withered, old leaves.

She only had eyes for the winding country road ahead, but had she glanced up into the rear-view mirror, she would have seen a diffuse shadow matching her rental car's every move along the taxing stretch through the national park.

-*-*-*-

An hour's drive north-east of Logan's Bend, Ashley pulled into the parking lot of the rural motel where she had pre-booked a room for the night. Although the motel was located right next to one of the scenic routes that criss-crossed the entire region, she had the parking lot to herself save for a shiny, black Volvo SUV. She parked near the check-in office, got out and used her telephone to take a series of snapshots and a 360-degree panoramic video of the premises for her travel blog.

---

A set of bells above the door let out a two-tone chime as she entered the check-in office. The low amount of activity outside was reflected in the sleepy state of the office. It had the typical metal swivel-racks that carried the typical maps, postcards, umbrellas, cheap sunglasses and other items that the typical tourist couldn't live without buying. That the wall-mounted paper calendar had yet to be flipped over to October even on the last day of the month was a hint that business had perhaps been slow for a while.

Ashley spotted an old-fashioned hotel bell on the counter, so she moved over there and put her hand down onto it. The first attempt only produced a pitiful, muffled ding, and she needed to try a second time for it to work.

A drawn-out yawn from the back room proved that the office wasn't completely devoid of life after all. Twenty long seconds later, a bead curtain fluttered aside to reveal a lanky, rail-thin late-teen boy whose eyes were lined by dark circles - not by Goth design, but from a lack of sleep. "Hiya," the young fellow said while he scratched his bare chin and cheek.

"Hello. I'm Ashley Townes and I've booked a room here at your motel," Ashley said before she held up her smartphone so the teen could see the appropriate information regarding the prepaid booking.

"Huh. Yeah, okay," the young man said and shuffled over to an old-fashioned key rack that - instead of old-fashioned brass keys - contained up-to-date plastic keycards. After grabbing one, he shuffled back to the counter where he took a deep breath to deliver the usual spiel: "You need to insert the end that has the arrow into the reader below the door handle. It'll unlock it. Once the card is removed from the door's reader, the door will automatically lock upon closing. You also need the keycard to activate the power. The control panel for the power is on the wall inside and to the right of the front door."

"All right… thank you. Do I need to get clean towels from you, or…?"

"No. Everything's already there. I took care of that myself," the teen said with a look of raw boredom on his face.

While Ashley put her telephone away, she let out a chuckle at the host's complete lack of interest in her. "Great. And your name was…?"

"Will."

"Thanks for the assistance, Will. You can go back to sleep now. I won't tell the owners of the motel," Ashley said with a grin as she went back to the front door.

---

The instructions for inserting the keycard into the door's reader had been simple enough to follow, but the lack of light on the narrow footpath that ran in front of the rooms made it difficult for Ashley to see the little arrow Will had mentioned. She had needed her smartphone's flashlight app to even find the proper room, and the electronic light came into use again to illuminate the keycard.

While she fumbled with the light, the card and her luggage, the door to the next room was opened. A middle-aged man stepped out with a Jack Russell terrier on a leash - he only noticed his temporary neighbor when he nearly bumped into her. "Ooops," Ashley said with a smile. "They really ought to install better lighting over here, huh?"

"I'll say! Pardon me," the somewhat overweight fellow said after he had taken a quick step back - he was in his late-fifties and wore a stylish flat cap and a dark overcoat where the collar had been pulled up to his ears. He studied Ashley for a brief moment before he smiled at her and went about his dog's business.

Ashley smiled back before she focused on getting the keycard to work. A moment later, she finally spotted the little arrow so she could get on with the procedure.

---

The power circuit had soon been activated by inserting the keycard into the second control panel. Stepping away from the door after checking that it really did lock itself automatically, she sat down on the bed and plugged her camera into her tablet. While the external device was recognized by the onboard operating system, she looked around the small room: the best way to describe it being 'rudimentary but functional.'

It had a single bed with a bedside table next to it - the table carried a lamp wearing an old-fashioned shade. A small, round table framed by two chairs had been pushed up against the wall opposite the bed, and a low sideboard carried a TV set and an oval reed basket that someone, presumably Will, had filled with a few postcards from the region, two cans of mineral water, a mini candy bar and a tiny bag of roasted peanuts.

The dark-brown wall-to-wall carpet on the floor saw a few stains, but nothing too gross. A small handful of posters graced the walls, and they were all blow-ups of professional photos that appeared to have been taken in and around the local national park.

After the file containing the recording had been transferred from the camera to the tablet, she accessed her video editing software to shave off a few rough edges and add her usual logos and end credits. A few taps and swipes later, the finished product was in the process of being uploaded to her channel. Her telephone was quickly mated to its charger and put into a wall socket - she had experienced running out of power at the worst moment, and she didn't want to repeat that - after which she went straight for the small bathroom at the back to get a well-deserved shower.

---

While the shower had been refreshing, the same couldn't be said for the can of lukewarm mineral water. She had only taken a single sip from it before her face contorted into a disgusted grimace. The motel room didn't have a refrigerator that could cure the problem, so the can was quietly pushed aside. After that disappointing intermezzo, it was time to check out her video channel to see if any comments had been posted.

A confident grin spread over her lips when she noticed the new video had already been watched nearly two hundred times. That was close to a record for a new upload, and that meant it was off to a great start on its journey to match the other most-watched videos.

She was soon off checking her blog site and her accounts on the various messaging services. One comment sent to her via the Paloma service made her furrow her brow and move closer to the tablet. It read:

'OMG luv ur new vid, Ashley!!! But is there mo than 1 Logan's Bend in the state? I live 6 mil from it & drive past 1 a week, but can't recog it in the vid. Hug&Xs, Angela'

"Huh. That's strange…" Ashley mumbled as she re-read the message. Letting out a puzzled grunt, she switched over to her GeoTracking app and began to type Logan's B-

For each letter she typed, the app responded with a partial suggestion until it arrived at one with an almost identical name to the one she was looking for - almost, but not fully so. Her initial puzzled grunt was joined by a second, stronger one when the first suggestion displayed wasn't Logan's Bend but Logan's Bog.

Back when she had asked for an auto-planning of the route, she had just tapped on the first suggestion because she thought it was the correct one. Apparently, that hadn't been the fact.

"Logan's Bog?" she mumbled as she switched over to the integrated Internet browser to access one of the encyclopedia sites. Logan's Bog was soon typed in and retrieved. What she read made a cold shiver run down her back as the implications dawned on her.

After reading the first few paragraphs that detailed where the site in question had been located and what remained of it - including an original photo from the early part of the 1900s - her breath hitched as she zoomed in on an unfortunate headline in the main body of text: 1931 Mass murders.

"Logan's Bog," she mumbled to herself as her eyes took in what the page said, "was a lumber camp consisting of five main buildings, three barns and several bunkhouses used for sleeping quarters. It was owned and managed by the brutal, and thus greatly detested, John Thomas Roderick 'Cane' Calhoun who mistreated the manual laborers working for him to such an extent that the mortality rate was higher than in the nearby coal mine. With employment almost impossible to come by during the Great Depression, the workers had little choice but to accept his violent ways despite the frequent deaths that occurred among them…"

The latter part of the paragraph sent further shivers down Ashley's back - she had wanted a little spookiness for her Halloween show, but not of the kind presented to her on the screen. "Oh, man… I was at Logan's Bog… not Logan's Bend…" she whispered as it dawned on her just where she had spent a good deal of the evening. Her eyes moved left-to-right as she studied the next part of the article:

'In late October of 1931, rumors of a treasure in gold buried somewhere on the property or in the nearby grove began circulating among the lumberjacks. Though the rumors were proven unfounded, they provoked a rebellious mood among the mistreated workers. The camp bosses and foremen tried to calm matters before troubles could flare up, but it was to no avail as the harsh treatment in general and the cold and damp conditions in the bunkhouses used as sleeping quarters in particular - nearly sixty percent of the lumberjacks had contracted some kind of respiratory illness - sparked a riot that soon grew in size and intensity.'

'The dictatorial J.T.R. Calhoun would never allow his position of power to be threatened, so - in a quote verified by numerous witnesses present at the time of the crisis - he promised to "unleash the fury of hell upon the inbred animals." '

'He and the most loyal among his self-appointed brigade went on a three-hour killing spree chiefly using canes, axes and even saws. It resulted in 74 fatalities among the loggers and an additional 12 fatalities among a group of female prostitutes who happened to be there at the time. The women and their madam, all aged between 14 and 67, lived in a 'house' close to the camp's land and were present as part of their regular work. None of the prostitutes survived.

After the bunkhouses and barns had been thoroughly washed clean of blood, the lumber camp resumed normal operation later in the week following the arrival of a new batch of lumberjacks looking for steady employment in the difficult times.

'John Thomas Roderick 'Cane' Calhoun was found brutally murdered in October of 1932 in one of the barns. The killer was never found, but it was widely suspected at the time that the perpetrator had been one of the few lumberjacks who had survived the massacre. The barn where Calhoun's body was found is said to be haunted by a vengeful apparition.'

'Logan's Bog continued as a lumber camp after the murder of J.T.R. Calhoun, but it was closed down for good in 1937 as too little vegetation remained within a manageable distance from the main site for it to be run profitably.'

Unable to read on, Ashley pushed the tablet away and fell back against the chair's backrest. Her eyes were wide and staring as she tried to make sense of what she had just read. Despite her wide-eyed appearance, she saw nothing of what was happening in the small motel room - and that included the strange, diffuse shadow that seemed to hover just below the ceiling.

-*-*-*-

The lights had literally and metaphorically been turned off in the small motel room. Although Ashley had intended to continue to work on her tablet and her telephone updating her various sites and channels, the shocking article had rendered her incapable of getting anything done. She could only lie on the bed fully dressed and wide awake. Her heart pounded and a deep-seated ache insisted on tormenting her brain; she didn't have any painkillers with her so she had tried to appease the headache by draping a damp, cool washcloth over her forehead and eyes. The household remedy hadn't helped.

A long sigh escaped her as she moved aside the washcloth to look at the time on her telephone. The harsh, electronic light revealed it read nine minutes past midnight. The witching hour had begun - on Halloween night.

Now and then, cars driving past out on the scenic route caused eerie patterns of light to play across the ceiling. Deep shadows soon conquered the light to restore everything to the night's proper darkness. The late evening had brought rain with it, and drops and droplets of varying sizes splashed against the window overlooking the parking lot.

Other sounds entered the mix as well: a toilet flushed somewhere and a dog let out a few muted barks. Adult voices speaking to each other proved to be her next-door neighbors. They weren't even shouting, merely talking in regular tones, but the walls were so thin she was still able to pick up unwanted details of their conversation. Although their talk had yet to contain any embarrassing content, there was no telling what the rest of Halloween night might offer.

Groaning, she removed the washcloth for good and swung her legs and bare feet over the side of the bed. She had taken off her sponsored all-terrain boots and thick hiking socks as the second thing she had done when she entered the motel room - the double-layered mountaineer coat had come off first - but the chill seeping up from the floorboards underneath the wall-to-wall carpet meant she wished she had packed a pair of sneakers as well. The sturdy boots were perfect for trekking through dense shrubbery and prickly undergrowth, but not for comfort wear in the middle of the night no matter how draughty it would get.

Her ears picked up a slight whoosh. Before her tired brain could identify it as the same one she had heard out at the barn at Logan's Bog just after something had brushed past her, a strong dizzy spell set in that made her slide off the edge of the bed and fall onto the floor.

She barely had time to let out a startled, pained moan before a shadowy entity fell upon her covering her like a blanket. The diffuse shadow hovered around her for a second or two before it seemed to seep into her skin.

From one moment to the next, her frightened panting stopped and became regular, even breathing. She rose slowly and looked around the motel room like she had never seen it or its contents before. Her right fist was clenched and unclenched; the hand was turned over a couple of times to study the bone structure and the strength of the fingers.

An angry roar was heard somewhere in an ethereal reality, but the continued conversation next door and the drops of rain splashing against the windows were quick to drown out the outburst.

Moving like she hadn't been able to walk on legs for centuries, Ashley staggered over to one of the wooden chairs by the round table. She studied it for a moment before she picked it up with ease. Then she slammed it so hard against the wall it splintered into a dozen pieces. Discarding the majority of the ruined piece of furniture, she picked up one of the legs that had been separated from the seat in the impact.

She wrapped her right hand around one end of the leg and began to swing it like a cane. After a few simulations to determine its potential, the cane was used against the table that still carried her tablet, her camera and her telephone. The wooden tabletop shattered which sent the expensive devices rattling onto the floor, but she didn't seem to care.

A cold smile spread over her pretty features as she staggered into the bathroom on bare feet. The smile turned into a disgusted sneer when her image was reflected in the mirror above the small washbasin. Ashley's skin color might have remained the same, but her eyes had turned red like the fires of hell.

The light in her eyes only grew more intense when she raised the cane and pulled it back for another violent swing. As the wood struck the glass, the mirror shattered in a hundred razor-sharp fragments that rained down upon the white tiles and her bare feet.

An ethereal roar of triumph was heard when she bent down to pick up a shard that the impact had shaped into a perfect weapon for mass murder. The shower curtain was soon torn down, ripped in half and wrapped around the lower end of the shard to act as a grip.

'Miss Townes! Miss Townes! Are you all right?' Will - the young desk clerk - said outside the motel room's front door. The frantic question was followed by several knocks that grew in intensity. 'Are you all right? Do you need help? Miss?'

Ashley moved back to the doorway to the bathroom; she didn't seem to pay any attention to the shards of glass crunching under her bare feet that had already begun to bleed. Holding the wooden cane in her left hand and the makeshift machete in her right, she calmly observed the scene. "I don't need your help!" she said loudly in a voice that bore no resemblance to her own. She cleared her throat several times to get the old frogs out before she tried again: "I just had a little accident. That's all."

'Do you need an ambulance? Let me call an ambulance for you… Mom's gonna kill me if you're not all right!'

"I'm fine," Ashley said once more. Her voice slipped into a far lower register than her vocal cords would normally allow her to reach, but it seemed she had more important things on her mind as she calmly walked over to the closed door. The odd fact that it was locked though it had no visible keyhole made her furrow her brow. A strange panel had been attached to the wall adjacent to the door, but she had no idea how to manipulate it.

A cold smile graced her lips as she took a step to the side. "On second thoughts," she continued in a voice that she at least tried to keep fair and human, "I could use a hand in here…"

'I'll be with you in two seconds flat!' Will said and began to fumble with his master keycard that could unlock all doors. The fumbling only lasted for a brief period before he entered the motel room. "Whoa, dude!" he cried at the sight of the smashed furniture.

Ashley moved swiftly. When the entity within her noticed the lanky young man would serve a better purpose as the killing spree's final victim rather than the first, it made her raise the cane rather than the home-made machete. Will received two hard knocks across the neck before he could take a step back or even duck. Out cold, he slipped onto the floor where he landed in a heap.

An evil grin spread over her face as her fiery eyes took in the sight of the rain-filled freedom beyond the open door. Stepping outside - trailing blood from her lacerated feet - she moved into the open parking lot to search for someone to get acquainted with.

Her pleas for murder and mayhem were heard when her next-door neighbors opened their own door and stepped out onto the footpath that ran in front of all the rooms. In addition to the middle-aged, slightly overweight man she had already met earlier in the evening, an early-teen girl and a woman who appeared to be decades younger than her husband stood next to him wearing worried expressions. "Lady, what's going on? Are you okay?" the man shouted out to Ashley.

"I am now," Ashley responded as she took in the sight of the concerned family. Raising the shard high in the air, she stormed back to the row of rooms while letting out a frightening, otherworldly yell.

The man cried out in fear and shoved his family back inside the motel room. The door was soon slammed shut which activated the automatic lock.

When Ashley came to a blood-smearing halt at her neighbors' room, she hammered the cane repeatedly against the door handle and the hinges while the three people inside cried out for her to stop. She let out an ethereal roar of anger when all she got out of her actions was a shattered cane rather than a shattered door.

Moving back, the entity within Ashley looked around for something to smash the large window so it could get inside and continue what it had begun all those years ago. While the three people inside screamed - and their terrier barked its head off - the evil entity came to the conclusion there wasn't anything out there that could be used as an effective tool.

Ashley continued to be under the influence of the vengeful spirit inside her mind as it forced her to stagger back to her own room. The next leg from the smashed chair was soon grabbed and twirled. On her way out, she noticed the master keycard that was still inserted into the reader on the door. Although the entity within her had no knowledge of such advanced technology, it had always taken pride in its shrewdness and ability to learn fast. The result was that Ashley snatched the keycard from the reader and went back next door.

The screaming turned to insane levels when Ashley kicked the now unlocked door open and ran into the motel room. She held the shard from the mirror high and stared gleefully at the three people who wouldn't survive the next few minutes. The Jack Russell terrier rushed her and began to snap at her bare, bloodied feet, but a mean swing from the new cane ended that brief insurrection.

THEY'RE RIPE FOR THE SLAUGHTER! KILL THEM ALL!

The evil voice roared so loudly in Ashley's head she had no choice but to follow its command. Stepping over the prone dog, she let her fiery eyes play over the family of three who were huddled together up against the farthest wall.

KILL THEM NOW!

The unbridled screaming and the look of raw fear on their faces spurred on the entity that had assumed control over Ashley's body, but it was that exact same response that made her mind struggle for control. Little by little, inch by inch, gasp by gasp, she attempted to push the evil within her out of her mind and into submission.

NO! DON'T FIGHT ME! KILL THEM ALL! KILL THOSE INBRED FREAKS!

She stared down at the razor-sharp weapon in her hand. No matter how hard she tried to get her fist to unclench, she was unable to get it to obey her commands. As the entity made her legs take another staggering step closer to the bloodshed it so dearly wanted, she focused all her inner strength on a different approach.

THEY MUST DIE! THEY MUST ALL DIE! I WANT THEM TO SUFFER!

As the voice in her head continued to roar its evil commands, Ashley concentrated so hard on raising the cane she nearly blacked out. Exactly like her right fist, her left refused to unclench for anything in this world or the next, but she could use that to her advantage if she could only get the cane and the shard from the mirror closer to each other.

DON'T FIGHT ME! EMBRACE THE POWER! EMBRACE THE KILLING!

Another step closer to the cowering family was taken, and it left her only a few feet from her potential kills. The frightening look of Ashley's fiery, inhuman eyes caused the young daughter to faint and collapse onto the wall-to-wall carpet; the father reacted by roaring and jumping forward. The large man tried to grab hold of Ashley's arm that held the lethal shard, but his desk job meant his bulk didn't translate into strength.

KILL HIM! AND KILL THE OTHER FREAKS!

With an otherworldly roar, Ashley brought down the makeshift cane and whacked the family man over the shoulders until he let go and fell onto his knees. All through the punishment, Ashley's mind tried to fight her body's actions, but it was only after the fifth strike across the man's shoulders and upper back that she was able to move her right arm over to get in the cane's way - the impact shattered the shard of glass and sent razor-sharp fragments raining all over the carpet.

NO! DON'T FIGHT ME! YOU FOOL! YOU CANNOT STOP THE BLOODSHED!

The sound of shattering glass seemed to create an eerie void in the middle of the disaster. The evil voice in Ashley's mind roared out in frustration before a strong dizzy spell rolled over her. Dropping her weapons, she took a wobbling step backward. An atomic blast of pain exploded from her lacerated feet, and she let out a strangled cry before the shock of the moment literally took her breath away.

Ashley's legs knocked into the edge of the double-bed's wooden frame. The surprise stop made her fall backward onto the unmade bed with a bouncing thud. A diffuse shadow seeped out of her skin and hovered over her for a moment - then it began to tear around the motel room like it was searching for somewhere to go.

The overweight man had yet to get up from the floor, and he didn't seem to be an attractive prospect. The Jack Russell terrier was still out cold and the daughter hadn't recovered from her fainting. It left the large man's far younger wife who suddenly jerked back and let out a cry in a voice that fell into a deep, inhuman register. When the woman reopened her eyes, they had turned red and fiery.

The evil entity had only needed less than half a minute to complete the transfer of host beings, so Ashley was in no way, shape or form ready for the attack that came after the new vessel had picked up the makeshift cane. She cried out in pain as the other woman used the weapon to repeatedly strike her over the head, upper back and shoulders.

Ashley understood she needed to escape or else she'd die right there, so she rolled away from the entity's new enforcer. It led her to falling off the bed and onto the carpet. After getting up - while evading several more vicious swings with the cane - she hobbled away from the bed only to be tripped up by the large man on the floor.

As her aching body met the floor in the second hard impact in less than a handful of seconds, she fumbled onto her side to stare wide-eyed at the man who had completely misunderstood the situation. "No! No, please don't! It wasn't me! It- it was- no, please don't!" she cried as she watched him clamber to his feet and come at her with the clear intent of incapacitating her until the police could arrive.

The man didn't look back at his wife while he closed in on the stricken Ashley - it proved to be a costly mistake. Ashley herself couldn't tear her eyes away from the new vessel of evil who seemed unable to fight the entity like she had done only moments earlier. "Look out! Behind you!" she cried at the top of her lungs while she pointed at the hostile being in human form.

There was no time for the large man to look back, much less react, before his wife clobbered him across the back of his head with the cane. A moment later, he fell face-first onto the carpet like a sack of cement someone had knocked over. His hair began to glisten in a deep shade of crimson where the cane had struck him. Blood soon ran down his neck and onto the carpet proving the injury was more than skin-deep.

The human vessel of evil let out an otherworldly laugh as it stepped over the man-shaped lump on the floor. Ashley stared up at the hideous sight of the other woman's fire-red eyes; she was still unwilling to let herself be killed without at least attempting to fight it, so she clambered to her lacerated feet and struggled to get away before the new corporeal enforcer thought of repeating the trick with the bathroom mirror.

She hobbled out onto the rainy parking lot. The gravel's coarse texture dug into her already devastated feet and made her sob in pain for each step she took. The injuries meant her attempted escape was far too slow to work, but the entity's new vessel seemed to settle for toying with her - at least for the time being.

Halloween night was cold and dark around the two women. Although the motel's neon signs were still lit, the reflections they produced in the many puddles that had been formed all around the parking lot were anything but vivid and beautiful; instead, they were grotesque and surreal. The rain had eased off from its previous intensity, but the drops that continued to fall were strong enough to soak through Ashley's clothes.

She staggered along without any clear goal as to where she wanted to go - except as far away as possible from the evil being that hunted her. The throbbing headache was engaged in a fierce competition with her bleeding feet to see which end of her could produce the worst pain; each was mind-numbingly painful and rendered her incapable of coherent thought.

The intensity of the rain increased once more. By the time the hobbling Ashley had made it over to the wall of the check-in office, it had turned into a proper shower that caused choppy seas in the countless puddles. The footpath in front of the office was protected by a canopy, and she forced herself to head over there to at least get out of the rain.

Looking back, she let out a groan of frustration and fear when the rain didn't have an affect on the evil entity. That and its new enforcer continued to stroll toward the office like everything was hunky-dory in this and every other plane of existence.

Steam rose from the other woman's head and limbs as the drops hit her; it was almost like the red fire burning in her eyes had increased her body temperature to the point where the rain evaporated on her skin.

Distant sirens joined the chorus of the falling rain and the sobs and raw moans of pain that emanated from Ashley. The chill entered her bones and made her shiver. Wrapping her aching arms around herself, she continued to stare at the new enforcer to keep her in sight while she hoped the distant sirens were produced by police vehicles.

Ashley's hopes were dashed when an ambulance drove past out on the scenic route without stopping. The blue-and-red emergency lights draped everything in psychedelic colors as the large vehicle raced past, but it only lasted for a second or two - then everything fell back into the status quo it had been at before.

The new vessel of evil took a taunting step closer while it twirled the improvised cane like a member of a marching band would twirl a trumpet at a Fourth of July parade. A devious smile that made the woman's pretty features turn ugly spread over her face.

Ashley clenched her jaw and began to stagger along the wall of the check-in office to get away from the murderous being. Lightning bolts of raw pain shot up from her bleeding feet for each step she took. The pain was too intense and she eventually collapsed in a heap no more than three paces from the door.

She bared her teeth in a grimace that was no less ugly than the one still plastered onto the face of the evil entity's new corporeal enforcer. Shuffling around, she pulled herself closer to the wall so she could lean her back against it while she stretched out her legs. The new position meant her injured feet were exposed to the rain once more, but at least the drops of water washed away a good deal of the blood that continued to seep out of her.

"Why? Why?!" she croaked as the other woman took a step closer to her with the cane poised to strike - perhaps the next blow would be the killing one. She clenched her fists and held them to her chest simply to have something to hold onto. "Who- wh- what are you?! And why are you doing this?!"

"I am your master!" the new vessel of evil said in a booming, gravelly voice that couldn't possibly be produced by a woman's vocal cords. "Roderick Calhoun is my name, and I hereby condemn you to death, you worm-brained freak!"

Neither of the two women noticed the police cruiser that turned onto the parking lot as the second-to-last stop on its regular evening patrol. It seemed the two officers in the cruiser already had their minds on the warm dinner and the hot coffee they would get once they returned to base as the black-and-white unit only performed an ultra-quick tour of the parking lot missing everything that had transpired at the motel.

Ashley finally caught a glimpse of the police vehicle as the light from the neon sign reflected in one of the side windows. She stared at it in wide-eyed disbelief as it crawled back to the exit to continue its night patrol. Only a convoy of three eighteen-wheelers that needed to drive past the motel made the cruiser come to a temporary halt no more than ten yards from her position by the wall to the check-in office.

"Hey…" Ashley croaked the loudest she could to grab the attention of the officers inside the car. The shouting alerted the evil entity within the other woman who turned around to look at the cruiser.

"Hey! Hey! Help! Help me! Help me!" Ashley continued in a voice that grew ever stronger. Shouting for help took such a toll on her that she could hardly think straight, but she managed to scoop up a handful of loose gravel that she threw at the police cruiser.

An angry roar was heard from the air around the two women. It came from neither Ashley nor the new vessel; instead, it seemed to originate somewhere above them. While the roar continued to echo around the parking lot, Ashley's erstwhile attacker reeled like she had just woken up from deep hypnosis.

Most of the pebbles Ashley had thrown flew wide, but a few found their intended target and rattled off the side windows and the roof of the cruiser. A split second later, the vehicle reversed away from the exit in a shower of gravel. The right-hand side door was flung open to reveal a female police officer whose face proved she was spit-flying furious to be the recipient of such a welcome.

Ashley let out a cry of relief at the sight. She tried to call for help, but she could only produce a croak that didn't carry further than the tip of her nose. As a last-ditch effort, she raised her hand to wave at the uniformed officer, but her limbs had turned to jello from the shock and the loss of blood, and she was only able to perform a pathetic, floppy gesture.

It only took the experienced officer a second or two to spot the bleeding woman leaning against the wall; her eyes soon flew over to a second woman who held a cane in a threatening fashion. Before anyone could count to two, the officer had whipped out her service pistol and aimed it at the woman with the weapon. "Drop that bat! Now! I said, drop it!" she barked to get the suspect's attention. The parking lot was too dark to see properly, so she briefly reached into the cruiser to get a flashlight that was soon held in the proper cross-handed grip.

The woman who had been the entity's second enforcer of the night staggered around in an obvious daze. She continued to hold onto the makeshift cane, but it appeared she wasn't even aware of that fact. Almost on cue, the shower eased off again and turned into an infrequent drizzle.

"Last warning! Drop your weapon immediately, or I will open fire!" the female officer shouted - the woman finally complied and let go of the piece of wood.

When the suspect continued to stagger around like she had no control over her faculties or limbs, the second patrolman moved away from his own firing stance at the other side of the cruiser to draw a better bead on the erratic woman.

The female officer moved ahead with her pistol aimed squarely at the dazed woman. "Hands behind your head! Hit the ground! Now!" she shouted, but the suspect's expression never changed from its state of utter confusion.

Moving in close, the officer swiped the dazed woman's legs out from underneath her to get her onto the ground. In no time flat, the woman was lying on her stomach and her wrists had been cuffed behind her back. "Joe, I got this one… take care of that woman over there! I'll radio for the EMTs as soon as I've dragged this one back!"

"Gotcha!" the second patrolman said as he hurried away from the cruiser to get to the bleeding victim by the wall.

"Officer! Officer…" Ashley croaked as the patrolman ran over to her to help. "Y- you need t- to go over t- to room four first… two people and a dog are injured… they- they need more help than I do… and there's another one in room f- five…"

"What the hell's been going on here?" the patrolman said as he crouched down next to Ashley. He stared at her bleeding feet and then over at the open doors to the two rooms.

"Please just go… a m- man is badly injured in room f- four…" Ashley said, grabbing hold of the sleeve of the uniform jacket.

"All right… Jesus," the patrolman said as he got up and ran over to the motel room that carried a brass '4' on the door. He came to a hard stop in the doorway before he went inside, but that was all Ashley could see from her vantage point.

Groaning, she tried to shuffle around to find a spot that would ease the pain shooting up from her feet. No matter what she tried, the sensation was never less than fiery so giving up seemed to be the best option.

With the drizzle stopping altogether and the cloud cover slowly drifting away, the air turned crisp which offered a rich environment for the night's regular ambient sounds. Added to those sounds was a faint whoosh that seemed to come from somewhere above the unfolding tragedy. When Ashley became aware of it, she gasped in fear and began to whip her head around in wide-eyed horror to locate the ethereal terror.

The patrolman came out of room five after having checked them both. Using his hand as an amplifier, he called out to his riding partner: "It looks like a slaughterhouse in here! We got one DOA, one who's been knocked out and one who's fainted. And some sick freak has kicked the crap out of a poor dog! We need the coroner and two more ambulances!"

"I'm on it, Joe," the female officer said before she reached for the walkie-talkie on her utility belt to call in the request. After completing the transmission, she was suddenly knocked two feet to the side. The sneak attack made her boot drop into a water-filled pothole which sent her knee-first onto the coarse parking lot. The portable radio rattled along the gravel and disappeared into the darkness. Crying out in pain and surprise at the ungentle landing, she drew her service pistol at once to get even with the unseen attacker - but nobody was anywhere near her.

Ashley gasped again as she witnessed a diffuse shadow fall over the female police officer and engulf her fully. Her throat tied itself into a hard knot that made her unable to even croak a warning. She could only whimper in terror as she watched the officer slowly stagger back to the cruiser, raise her gun and fire two rounds at the handcuffed woman on the back seat at point blank range. The side window Ashley had a view of was suddenly coated in chunks of gray and splashes of crimson.

"What the hell? Who are you shooting at?!" the other patrolman shouted as he ducked out of room four and ran onto the dimly-lit footpath. After staring at the odd scene without seeing anyone else present who could warrant getting shot at, he stepped away from the rooms to get a few answers.

The female officer moved back from the cruiser and calmly shot her approaching riding partner twice in the chest. Once she had made sure there was no movement from the supine patrolman, she continued to stroll over toward Ashley like she had all the time in the world.

"I am your master. I am your executioner," the female officer said in a gravelly voice as she came ever closer. "I will not rest until I have killed all those inbred freaks and animals who dared to rebel against me… such is my God-given right. And with these superior weapons, there will be no stopping me."

Ashley gulped down a bitter surge. She stared at her blond opponent and the threatening firearm. Her eyes never left the dark hole at the tip of the grayish-black tool of death that was slowly moved up into a proper firing stance. Though her heart pounded so hard in her chest she could only hear the blood coursing past her ear drums, the terror and agitation seemed to drift away from her. Sighing, she closed her eyes and leaned her head back.

A few seconds went by before a shot rang out. Then a second one. Then a third one in rapid succession. Somebody moaned in pain; a female voice. A faint whoosh could be heard. Then something thumped hard onto the ground.

Ashley's eyes flew wide open. Letting out a shocked gasp, she tried to take in as much as she could of the horrific scene in front of her in as little time as humanly possible. The female officer was face-down on the wet ground with three bleeding gunshot wounds in her legs. Still alive, she moaned in pain while her hands tried to scoop up fistfuls of gravel for some strange reason.

Further out in the parking lot, the patrolman balanced on one knee while tracking his own pistol at something that seemed to be up in the air. His uniform had been torn to shreds across the chest, but the body armor he wore underneath his shirt had saved him.

"Don't- don't let it touch you!" Ashley croaked in the loudest voice she could muster. She tried shuffling around to get into a safer position, but the pains that shot up from her injured feet were still far too fierce to do anything but sit there and moan.

The police officer continued to track the shadow above him; he repeatedly shook his head like he couldn't fathom what was going on. "What the hell is that thing?!" he shouted without losing sight of his target.

"A gh- ghost… an apparition!" Ashley said in a croak. She ran a trembling hand across her face a couple of times to try to get herself into a more coherent state. "It's Roderick Calhoun… a m- mass murderer f- from a h- hundred years ago…"

"Th'hell? I don't believe in any of that shit!"

The diffuse shadow that continued to circle the parking lot searching for a new host seemed to be frustrated over its lack of options. Seeing how the only two remaining subjects were both among the people it wanted to eradicate, it let out a constant, otherworldly roar that echoed between the low buildings.

As the next rain cloud moved over the motel and began to release a steady drizzle, the shadow seemed to arrive at a decision. In the increasing rain, the evil entity grew more and more diffuse until it had dissolved fully and had become one with the precipitation. Its roar eventually subsided and turned into a faint whoosh. Soon, it had vanished like it had never been there at all.

Only a short while later, three ambulances, two further police cruisers and a gray station wagon from the county coroner raced along the scenic route and drove into the motel's parking lot. Many doors were opened and slammed shut, and the open area between the buildings and the neon sign soon resembled an anthill after someone had poked it with a stick.

Ashley could only lean her head against the cold wall behind her while staring in wide-eyed disbelief at the frantic activity. A pair of EMTs dressed in white and fluorescent-orange uniforms knelt next to her and began to administer urgent first aid to her lacerated feet.

---

The professional paramedics were quick and efficient, and Ashley was soon able to look down at a pair of bandaged feet - not to mention her ruined cargo pants that the EMTs had cut open to make sure the lower extremities had no further injuries they needed to treat. She let out a long sigh as she was lifted onto a gurney and wheeled over to the waiting ambulance. On her way there, she caught a glimpse of her charcoal-gray rental car.

That sight made her think of her expensive electronic and recording equipment that was still in the motel room she had rented; they had all been thrown onto the floor when she had smashed the table in her possessed state. "Oh…" she croaked to the two EMTs, "will- will someone pl- please look after my things that- that I left in my room? Room four…"

The patrolman walked over to the ambulance after the EMTs had slid Ashley's gurney into the lock-stops. From the way he grimaced just from climbing up into the rear compartment, it was obvious that the hard impact of the nine-millimeter slugs on his chest remained painful despite being stopped by his body armor. Once at Ashley's side, he informed the emergency workers he needed a word or two with the patient before they drove anywhere.

"Please," Ashley said again as she looked at the officer who had most likely saved her life, "all my things are in room f- four… an expensive c- camera… my tablet and my telephone… I need- need to know they're all right…"

"They were on the floor next to a smashed table when I was in there, Miss, but they looked okay all things considered. I'll take care of them," the officer said as he sat down on a narrow seat opposite from the gurney. "Hello, I'm Officer Joe Wallace."

"H- hello… thank you. Thank you so much…"

"You're welcome, Miss. Just doing my job," Wallace said as he reached into a pocket to find a notepad and a ball point pen.

Ashley tried to shuffle around on the gurney, but the protective blanket she had been wrapped in restricted her ability to do so - she didn't like being pinned down like that, but at least it kept her warm. "Are… are you all right? I saw the other officer shoot you…"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Joe said while he toyed with the shredded shirt. Grunting, he looked back at the woman on the gurney. "But enough about me. I need to know who you are and what the hell happened here."

"My name is Ashley Townes. I run a video blog on the Internet called Ashley's Barn Find… or I did… I'm not sure I want to go on after this nightmare…"

"Townes… is that t-o-w-n-s, or n-e-s?" the patrolman said as he jotted down the information on a notepad.

"There's an E near the end…"

Joe Wallace furrowed his brow and took a better look at Ashley's face. "Are you related to 'Captain Marvel' Marvin Townes, the former quarterback for the-"

"Yes. He's my dad."

Joe nodded as he flipped his notepad over to a fresh page. "Right. Miss Townes, I need you to tell me exactly what happened tonight. I need to understand why the motel rooms look like a bad Monday morning in hell… and why my good-natured patrol partner of the past three years blew away a defenseless, handcuffed woman for no apparent reason! Why I had to put three in her legs to make her stop killing you, and what the hell that creepy, shadowy thing really was! You called it an apparition, but there must be a more Earth-bound explanation."

The agitation made the patrolman cough which in turn prompted a dark grimace to spread over his face; reaching up, he rubbed his chest where the bullet strikes had undoubtedly created a pair of nasty bruises.

Overwhelmed by the barrage of perfectly legitimate questions, Ashley could only stare at the patrolman with wide open eyes. Her mind was still too scrambled to be of much help in collecting her thoughts, but she eventually shook her head and started from the top. "Like I said b- before, I run a video blog site. I travel the c- country exploring ghost towns and old, abandoned b- barns… I was supposed to have been at- at Logan's Bend, b- but… I made a mistake and ended up at Logan's Bog. A t- terrible event took p- place there in th- the early 1930s… a mass- a mass murder of… of th- the camp's workers. The sh- shadowy thing was- oh… the vengeful ghost of the man res- responsible for the k- killings… Roderick Calh- Calhoun…"

Joe Wallace let out a long, deep sigh as he closed the notepad and leaned against the panels inside the ambulance - the expression on his face revealed he didn't believe a word of what he had just been told.

Ashley gulped. She had more to say, but a single glance at the pure skepticism written all over the patrolman's face told her she would be better off keeping it to herself - if she mentioned that 'Cane' Calhoun had possessed her and subsequently spoken to her several times as a booming voice in her head, it would only earn her a one-way ticket to a padded cell. "It sounds crazy, I know, b- but… that was the starting p- point of this hellish night…"

One of the EMTs climbed up into the back of the ambulance and exchanged a few quiet words with the patrolman who nodded and got up from the narrow seat. "Okay, Miss Townes. You'll be brought to the Wilfredsson Memorial Hospital. I suspect they'll keep you there for observation for a couple of days. Homicide detectives will talk to you about your experiences and the exact sequence of events… I'm sure they'll have a list of questions a mile long."

"I hope I can answer them…" Ashley said in a croak. With her famous family name, the press would soon find out she had been involved in something extreme - she could see the headlines already. Her father would know what to do, so she needed to call home as soon as she had a chance to.

"So do I, Miss Townes. So do I," Officer Wallace said and offered the patient a faint smile. "Listen, I'll take care of your equipment and make sure it'll go to your hospital room."

"Thank you…"

"Perhaps you shouldn't thank me yet. We've only just started to unravel this mess," Joe Wallace said as he stepped down from the ambulance and walked out of Ashley's line of sight.

Sighing, she leaned her head back on the white pillow and observed one of the EMTs preparing a syringe. She was informed it contained a fast-working sedative, so all she had to do was to close her eyes and relax. Happy to be faced with something simple for a change, she did just that and tried to put the nightmare behind her. As the sedative took hold of her being, a faint whoosh filled her senses.

She gasped out loud and struggled against the tight blanket and the numbing medicine that coursed through her veins. Her eyes battled her efforts to open them to see if the shadowy entity had returned to finish what it had begun; the eyelids had turned to lead so she was unable to do anything. No matter how hard she fought the approaching darkness, she was too weak and exhausted to stop the tide from rolling over her. Soon, she fell head-first into a black void that seemed bottomless…

THE END.

Bard's Page

Back to the Halloween Special

Back to the Academy