Latest / Shallow Nights: Scary Bedtime Stories / The Wild Ones' Whisper - Escaping a Dark Family History

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The Wild Ones' Whisper - Escaping a Dark Family History · Shallow Nights: Scary Bedtime Stories

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I'm fired now, but then again I spent the last 24 hours or
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something driving around with my manager, so that really doesn't
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matter all that much. Dale drove all day and night.
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When we finally pulled over at a rest stop, he told me to stay in
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the truck and went outside to get himself some coffee.
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I did as he told me. My seat had gotten all soft and
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weary, but my butt hurt from not having stood upright for so
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long. I almost felt like the car was
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absorbing me. I leaned over to take a look
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into the rearview mirror. My hair was matted and my eyes
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bloodshot. Ever since we had fled from the
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park, I hadn't been able to shake that feeling of my
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reflection not being my own. Don't get me wrong, it's no one
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else's, it just isn't mine. It feels like I've distanced
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myself from it, and Dale had told me not to look into the
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mirror as much. He had said it wasn't dangerous,
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but that it would do nothing but drive me crazy.
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Still, I couldn't stop sneaking quick glances at it every time.
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I was scared to find something new, something that might have
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changed about the way I look, but there was nothing there yet.
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I wondered if that was a good or a bad thing.
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Dale returned a little later with a large cup of coffee for
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himself and a cupcake for me. He handed it to me and squeezed
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my shoulder awkwardly, trying to comfort me.
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Figured you could use some carbs.
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He said softly. I always eat when I'm sad.
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Not good for my body, but it helps temporarily when I get
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crumbs on the seat. I muttered warily.
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I don't care, make as big as a mess.
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You like crumbs aren't vomits. So.
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His voice trailed off. It's fine, it's what I'm saying.
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He took a sip of his coffee. I carefully unwrapped the
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cupcake and took a good chunk out of it.
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It was soft and sweet. There was pink strawberry cream
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inside and white chocolate on top.
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The two sugary flavors mixed on my tongue, banishing the foul
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taste of Warren saliva. Thank you.
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I whispered, but my voice broke again.
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I quickly took another bite of the cupcake, then another, then
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stuffed the whole thing into my mouth.
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Dale regarded me quietly from the driver's seat.
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The look in his eyes was unfathomable as can be, but I
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believe to recognize genuine sorrow somewhere within.
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I think you should try to sleep a little.
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I can't rest like this, Dale. Please tell me what's going to
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happen to me, or where you're taking me, or anything at all.
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The blonde man let out a soft size.
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He leaned back in his seat. If it put your mind at ease, be
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my guest. But maybe I should start at the
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beginning. What do you think?
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The beginning? I repeated questioningly.
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Dale nodded. The very beginning.
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How the part came to be in the 1st place.
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Would you like to hear that? His voice was incredibly soft
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and gentle. Even on his friendlier days.
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I had never heard him speak like that.
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He was talking to me like a father would to his frightened
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child. Yes, I breathed, curling up in
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my seat. Well then, think of it as a
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bedtime story. That's how it was taught to me.
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My mother and father were always very eager to prepare me for the
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kind of life I would be leading. Me and my siblings too, of
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course. They would come to our beds
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every night, and just before letting us go to sleep, they
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would tell us the story, the same one, over and over again.
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It burned itself into our young minds.
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It shaped us, made us wary of what was to come once we would
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become grown-ups. Sometime during the late 1800s,
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my family's ancestors decided to settle down on a patch of land
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they hailed from, well, basically everywhere.
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Some of them came from Texas, others from further up north,
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but they all gathered to mend their bond as distant relatives
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because they wanted to make money.
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That might have not been the most honorable goal, but at the
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time, none of them were wealthy, not by any stretch of the word.
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They figured that maybe if they would all join forces, they
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could build up something. A brand, perhaps.
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I'm not sure what it was they had in mind exactly.
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Either way, it took this scattered bunch nearly a full
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year to get together again, but once they were all reunited,
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they got on their journey. They settled down on a really
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large clearing in the middle of a forest.
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They began by building a single large cottage for them to live
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in. At first, everything was fine,
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things were looking up for them. However, they soon came up with
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the idea to turn their land into a fairground, since there were
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many townships in close proximity to the woods.
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So they started chopping down trees.
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That's when the nightmare began. The settlers had thought that
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the woods were not populated and that they didn't belong to
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anybody. On the paper they didn't, but
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the truth looked a bit different.
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It started with Faith, a younger, at the time pregnant
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woman who had been travelling with her husband who was part of
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the clan, suffering A miscarriage.
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When the first tree fell, she went into labor.
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It was way, way too early. She was bound to her bed for two
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entire days, screaming and crying in agony while the men
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outside continued to clear the forest.
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Her child never lived to see the light of day.
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Of course, my ancestors didn't immediately draw the connection.
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How could they have? They merrily continue to cut
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down the trees. Just one week after Faith's
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miscarriage, Lawrence, the six year old son of one of the
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couples, vanished from his bedroom without a trace.
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The next child to disappear was a girl called Millie.
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And that's when the family began to catch on.
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See, Millie was just 5 when she disappeared, but she had an
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older half brother in his early 30s.
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His name was Colt and you should probably know that he had a
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cleft lip. Now Colt wasn't the type to sit
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on his ass while his little sister could have been taking
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God knows where. He was one of those who hailed
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from Texas and he was your typical cowboy.
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He did care a whole lot about manners and etiquette and all
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that shit. He was a true gentleman.
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Swearing he would not leave Millie hanging, he set out to
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look for the family. Told him it was useless, after
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all, they had already searched the whole woods in the
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neighboring towns when Lawrence had gone missing.
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But Cole wouldn't listen. He went for the woods, and he
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was out there for days. Just when he was about to give
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up, he found a hole. There was a hole in the ground
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right next to an old fallen tree.
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And on the remains of that tree sat a man dressed in nothing but
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rags. The man was holding a child, a
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little girl who seemed to be fast asleep.
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Colt immediately recognized her, it was Millie.
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He pulled out his revolver and aimed at the man, and he
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screamed at him to let her go, but the man just smiled at him
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and asked him what his name was. For some reason, this question
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struck Coltus off. He decided not to answer.
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He approached the man on the fallen tree, warning him once
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again that if he wouldn't hand over the girl, he would shoot
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him. The stranger, however, remained
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unfazed, grinning with black teeth for the next bit.
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You need to know that Colt was a bit of a Craftsman.
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He was a firearm fanatic, and due to not always having the
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money to buy ammunition, yes, they were that poor, he would
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sometimes try to make his own. These handmade bullets would
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hardly ever fly far, they were pretty much useless, but Colt
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insisted that they were better than nothing.
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He made the from iron, you know. I heard he melted old nails and
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stuff, but whatever. At the time there were five
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bullets in his revolver, 2 normal ones that were made of
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lead and three made of his handmade iron ones.
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The man on the fallen tree laid Millie down on the ground, she
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was unconscious, didn't even know what was going on around
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her. He slowly started to walk
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towards him. Colt began to shoot at him.
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He fired two shots at him, both hitting him in the stomach.
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He stopped for a few seconds, appearing to be in pain, but to
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Colt's shock and astonishment, he just straightened up again
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and continued coming closer. The wounds where the bullets had
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sunken into his flesh and vanished.
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So Colt fired the remaining three shots in his revolver.
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The stranger was just close enough for the iron bullets to
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find their target. He shot him right in the chest
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three times, but this time the stranger LED out a cry of agony
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and fell to the ground. Colt grabbed his sister and ran
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back home while her kidnapper was still rising on the ground.
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That same night, as soon as the sun had set, a group of the
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strangest creatures emerged from the tree line.
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They surrounded the cottage and waited for the family to come
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out. Colt had told them all about
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what had happened when he had brought back Millie and they had
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prepared themselves for battle. But when they came outside, only
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the man with the black teeth stepped forward, the one who
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held the little girl. Even though there were three
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bullet holes in his chest. He stood upright, and when he
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spoke, black drool came dripping from his mouth, and in the
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sharpest of voices, he offered Colt a deal.
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We started taking your young ones when you began to destroy
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our home. You told him.
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But we will return to you. We will even help you with your
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endeavor to reshape our land. However, we will do so under the
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one condition that you treat our every wish as your command.
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Of course, Colt was less than happy with this suggestion,
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especially since it was so vague it could mean anything.
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Still, he struck A bargain with a Black Teeth man, but only
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after they had worked out a certain set of stakes.
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You may have already guessed most of them.
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The creatures would help the family to gain money.
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They promised that they would personally see to their success,
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no matter the changes to the woods this would require.
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There would only be 3 of the creatures to stay on the
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surface. The rest of them would move
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underground into a certain realm that appeared to be accessible
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by the hole in the ground where Colt had found the black teethed
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one. These three would provide the
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humans with each of their names, granting them a certain power
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over them. However, they would demand
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sacrifices of unspecified nature, which the humans would
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be bound to provide, but they also assured them that they
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would use the sacrifices for the refinement of the fairground.
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Those were the basics, but there was one last oath Colt made them
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take. He had noticed that during their
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consultation, the creatures had kept trying to screw them over
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by using very vague phrases and careful wording.
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He figured that since it was so dangerous to talk to them, it
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would be better if they couldn't talk at all.
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He forbade them from speaking, only the ones who would stay on
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top, though. Of course, the Black Teethed 1
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introduced himself as Warren and the other two that would stay on
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the surface as Mulberry and Moth.
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Nowadays, you know Mulberry is the Sugar Plum Fairy and Moth is
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the Mime. My folks probably noticed that
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they had made quite a crappy mistake right away, because
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right after the contract was sealed, Warren snapped Colt's
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neck and took on his form. The only thing he couldn't
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replicate were his white teeth and normal saliva, but I guess
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he didn't really need to since he, well, I guess you know what
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he uses it for. The three holes in his chest
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from the iron bullet stayed as well.
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Dale ended the report with a soft sigh, and I stared at him
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incredulously. That all sounded like a fairy
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tale. I remarked.
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Well, that's what we've been told.
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Maybe it happened like this, maybe it didn't, but the
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important thing is that with the creature's help, the clearing
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was turned into a fairground. When the time came, it was
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changed into an amusement park, the one you now know.
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Every single thing in the park was built by them.
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Sure, we were able to make additions and renovations to it,
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but it was them we laid the foundation.
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Don't ask how they did it. I never quite understood it
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myself. Either way, the creatures lost
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their names and ability to speak.
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But while we gained wealth, we also lost our privilege of
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freedom. We have to give them what they
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want, no matter what it is. If we don't, they'll pause to
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swallow audibly. They will not only tear down the
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park, but probably come for our young ones again.
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I held my breath and Dale continued.
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Warren, Mulberry, and Moth were tasked with staying on the
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surface to enforce the contract. But let's be honest here, Warren
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is the only one who takes it serious.
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He chose every single one of the sacrifices.
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Mulberry gained a certain passion for dancing, so she just
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does that all day. And Moth never cared much about
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anything. He's more like an animal, I
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think. Are they fairies?
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I asked. That's the thing, we don't know.
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We believe them to be, but they're not exactly the ones
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you'll find in literature. They enjoyed mischief and follow
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certain rules. They even react negatively to
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most of the same materials. Plus, they're able to change
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shapes. See, Millie died of some illness
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in her teen years, and Mulberry took on her outward appearance.
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I'm not sure how they do it. Maybe they can only change into
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people who are dead. But there are obvious
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inconsistencies that set them apart from the traditional fairy
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folk. My folks and I, we call them the
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wild ones. The wild ones?
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I repeated. Yeah, that includes those who
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live underground. My head was spinning.
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I still like quite a lot of questions, but before I could
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say anything, Dale went on. We need to focus on Warren
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though. He's the parks guardian, the
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enforcer of the contract. I won't go so far as to say that
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he's upper management, but he he communicates with the ones
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underground. They discuss who or what it is
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that they want, but in the end, he's the one who will make me do
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it. Fun fact, the ones underground,
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they weren't forbidden from speaking and sometimes when they
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want me to, I can hear them. I hate when they do that.
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Warren is also the one who designs the Halloween tasks, I
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mean square dancing and his handler humiliating himself.
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He uses them to mess with us a little.
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And most importantly, he's the one who is trying to turn you
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into a knot actor. I'm sorry if my account just now
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sounded like a jumbled mess. You don't even need to care
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about the contract anymore. I've breached it.
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I I denied Warren his sacrifice. I wasn't sure if I actually
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wanted to know the answer to the question burning on my tongue,
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but I asked anyways. Why me?
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How did he, When did he decide? Dale bit his lower lip.
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He let me know he wanted you last Halloween, but if I'm being
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honest, you were doomed the moment you walked your happy ass
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into the park for the first time.
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It was just the same with Nathan.
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Even though I think he simply had me do that one because he's
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never liked me all that much, I still remember it like it was
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yesterday. He came into my office that one
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morning. There was a framed photo of
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Nathan and me standing on my desk.
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And he took it and looked at it for a little while.
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I was like, what's going on? What do you want?
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And he just, he just pointed at him in the photo on grind.
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He took the one thing that made me happy, like truly happy that
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day. So what now?
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Do we kill him? Dale chuckled.
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I'm totally on board with your enthusiasm, but I don't know
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how. That's why I'm taking you to
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meet my family. Perhaps we can come up with
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something together. We need to get ourselves out of
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this mess somehow. The contracts done for that
16:37
means Warren might, you know. I just hate to imagine anything
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happening to them. I still had quite a lot of
16:44
questions, but I felt like I had heard enough for the day.
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I curled up in my seat and shut my eyes.
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I don't know how exactly I managed to fall asleep with the
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truck driving, but somehow I did.
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It's kind of strange. I haven't really done anything
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all day, but I feel terribly exhausted.