Latest / INSPIRE STORY / Wild Fruits in the Window

Transcript

Wild Fruits in the Window · INSPIRE STORY

0:09
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Creekcast.
0:11
Speaker 2: Today we're talking about something I hope to be deliciously
0:14
evil because it's called Berries in the Window, written by
0:19
Kevin Jones.
0:21
Speaker 3: Before the recording started, Hunter asked me if I'd still
0:24
do the podcast if he murdered a woman in cold
0:27
blood and I didn't have anyone else to tell about that, so.
0:31
Speaker 2: Okay, well that's a lie. That's a lie, but here's
0:33
a truth. I said, Isaiah, what'd.
0:36
Speaker 1: You have for lunch? And what did you say? That's spaghetti?
0:39
Speaker 2: And then he was like, oh, it's because I'm part
0:42
of Italian that's what he said.
0:44
Speaker 3: I said, I'm Italian to my blood was the direct quote.
0:46
Speaker 2: And I said, and I said, oh, that's what that
0:48
smell is whenever I meet me, when I was in
0:49
person with him, that's what that smell is.
0:51
Speaker 3: So today we're worth that. I'm not even that Italian actually,
0:54
So you're making that.
0:54
Speaker 2: Your mustache your mustache and you you could fool any
0:58
of mey, you could definitely fool.
0:59
Speaker 1: Me like an Italian American.
1:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're just like really racist and need
1:05
to put people in groups in your mind. Absolutely, well,
1:08
I have to be you know, I have to be
1:10
that character said it. He said it, he said, yeah character, Okay, yeah,
1:13
he said it on the show. Right there, I have.
1:15
Speaker 1: To be this character. Bring my fingers because I close
1:20
them so hard. A character.
1:23
Speaker 2: Barriers of the Window was written on June twentieth, twenty
1:25
twenty four. This great the Lord's Great year of this
1:28
year and apparently, sorry Kevin, but we saw you follow us, dude, lame, lame,
1:37
just kidding.
1:37
Speaker 3: Very excited to read this from somebody who's a fan
1:40
of the show. A lot of hostility that you're reaching
1:43
out with all ones. Yeah, so it seems that Kevin
1:45
is a fan of the show. He has two stories.
1:48
It looks like I looked for publishing ounce anything he
1:51
has published. At least at the moment, he has this one,
1:53
Berries in the Window, and another one called the Puppet
1:56
Theater in my attic. Berries in the Window has been
1:58
recommended by a few people. We've heard good things about it,
2:01
and on creepypasta dot com it is rated eight point
2:04
five stars out of ten four seven four seven.
2:08
Speaker 2: You know, and I want to say, I think this
2:10
is the first time, and correct me if I'm wrong.
2:13
Speaker 1: I think I think this is.
2:14
Speaker 2: The first time that we are reading a quote unquote
2:16
fans story, not.
2:18
Speaker 3: Not about us. By just mean somebody that we know
2:20
follows us, no knows the show. We know it's our
2:24
first viewer story, right. Maybe I feel like there was
2:28
one time we read a story and then after we
2:30
got to recording, I checked on Twitter and they followed us.
2:33
Speaker 1: Okay, well, now going into it, you know, I'm going.
2:36
Speaker 2: To Kevin, I'm gonna give you the prestigious viewer read story.
2:40
I see a lot of people on our subwurdy even
2:43
write stories and stuff, and I would really love to
2:46
get something to where we can get the community writing
2:48
and start you know, reading more stories and stuff like that.
2:50
But you know, you have to watch out because people
2:52
usually suck. People suck at writing. It happens, you know
2:55
what I mean.
2:56
Speaker 3: Sometimes they suck. Sometimes they're pretty good. We got a
2:59
pile of stories people handed us at the live show
3:02
for an episode. Sometimes I have four. I think I
3:05
have not read any of it yet. It was a lot,
3:08
all right, It was a lot.
3:09
Speaker 2: Also, still want to say, I'm in Japan mode now,
3:13
so all my cares are out the window.
3:15
Speaker 1: They're on a plane flying to Tokyo.
3:18
Speaker 3: The past three episodes we've recorded in the span of
3:21
like four days. So Tokyo, that's all I can think of. Tokyo.
3:25
I say, hi, he said he was going to murder
3:31
a woman. So did I tell you?
3:33
Speaker 2: What would you now? I'll say, you know what, I
3:35
fuck it. I'll say it again. What would you do
3:37
if you found out that I killed someone in Japan?
3:40
Speaker 3: And I told you I would quit the podcast? That's
3:42
what That is not what you said. That is what
3:46
I said. It would be terrible optics to continue the show.
3:51
Speaker 2: No, no, no, here's a little sort if I said,
3:53
gave you this one, then what if I gave you
3:54
this one?
3:55
Speaker 1: I said, I go to you.
3:57
Speaker 2: We're at like a red robin or something, having dinner,
3:59
solebrating something. Why would we be celebrated around more campfire
4:04
sauce and bottle of fries right here? And I say,
4:07
I say, I gotta tell you something. Then I had
4:09
I'm like leaning in because I think I don't want
4:11
to be lowed.
4:12
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you something. You got to respond back.
4:16
Speaker 3: If you're at the table, Okay, all right, what what
4:19
what is it?
4:20
Speaker 1: Hunters?
4:20
Speaker 3: It is your fries bad? Or they all over.
4:22
Speaker 1: Coat the fries couldn't be better. Seriously, the campfire sauce
4:24
is amazing. That's good.
4:25
Speaker 3: Hey, I just had a quick question. Why are we
4:27
celebrating at a Red Robin's?
4:30
Speaker 1: Isaay? I did something bad?
4:33
Speaker 3: What it took me to Red Robins for a celebration?
4:36
I know, but you mean something else.
4:39
Speaker 1: I strangled a woman on a Japanese train, and guess
4:44
what I got away with it. No one knows, only you,
4:48
all right, but I felt weird.
4:50
Speaker 2: You know, we're here, we are celebrating at Red robin
4:53
your favorite restaurant, and I I feel like it's It
4:57
would only be disrespectful if I didn't tell you this,
5:01
and I just wanted to. You know, no one else knows.
5:03
I don't think anyone's ever gonna find out. Will you
5:05
continue the show with me? And that's the conundrum I
5:08
give you. Now, what's your answer? No one knows?
5:15
Speaker 3: Was the train Japanese or the woman.
5:19
Speaker 1: Both?
5:22
Speaker 3: Then I don't know if I can continue. I don't
5:25
think I can keep the I think I think just
5:28
culturally and especially from like a brand safe perspective, I
5:33
think I have to quit the show. But I won't
5:35
tell how you you on a public transit and you
5:38
got away with it. You got out of the country.
5:40
Speaker 1: It was late at night.
5:42
Speaker 3: It was so late, so kind of like a collateral
5:47
moment where like Tom Cruise gets shot to death and
5:49
they just leave him on the train and it's fine.
5:52
Speaker 2: No, I I hit her body, Oh on a train.
5:59
Speaker 1: Because of it? Because yeah, I just put.
6:03
Speaker 3: It under trains move like really fast, oh, extremely fast.
6:09
So how did you How did you hide your body?
6:11
Speaker 1: I put it under a bench. It doesn't matter, you
6:14
know what.
6:14
Speaker 2: I'll say this with my with my answer, I'll say this,
6:16
I'll say you know what you might have said, Yeah, Hunter,
6:19
I would have.
6:19
Speaker 1: To leave the show. I couldn't work with you anymore.
6:22
Speaker 2: But you said I think so for a moment you
6:25
were like, well maybe I can't get past this.
6:27
Speaker 1: And that's all I needed.
6:28
Speaker 2: Buddy friendship, secure friendship saved knowing that did she have
6:33
it coming?
6:35
Speaker 3: No, I'd like to think it was a barbaric rage.
6:37
I was blocked out.
6:38
Speaker 1: I was. I always hate that in those crime documentaries.
6:41
I blocked out. Bullshit.
6:43
Speaker 3: Well that's like that's a cope, that's what like Oja
6:45
said and stuff like that.
6:46
Speaker 2: Right, I blocked I didn't know what happened. Yeah, I
6:48
go fuck yourself.
6:49
Speaker 3: Well, hold on, did you so did? Just like Harry
6:54
and Alison just watch were they just there? They didn't care?
6:57
Speaker 1: Like? What was the logistics I had?
7:00
Speaker 2: I had a long night think Actually, what if? What
7:02
if you found out that I strangled someone to death?
7:05
But it was in self defense? Like I saw some
7:06
guy getting ready to stab somebody? Right, well, that's fine, he's.
7:11
Speaker 1: Like, give me a fucking what.
7:13
Speaker 2: Whatever like that, and then I besides just like knocking
7:16
him out with a punch.
7:17
Speaker 1: I just just go with my bare hands. I strangle
7:19
to death.
7:20
Speaker 3: That's fine. I don't care about that because because at
7:23
that point, like I've thought about this before, if you
7:26
were in like a self defense scenario and you were
7:28
choking someone, you would be afraid that as soon as
7:32
you quit choking them, they were going to attack and
7:34
kill you.
7:35
Speaker 2: Right, Okay, let me reap, let me let me repurpose
7:38
the question then really quick. Okay, what if I said
7:41
I think I saw a guy getting ready to stab
7:43
somebody to death?
7:46
Speaker 3: What do you mean by think?
7:49
Speaker 1: That's what I mean?
7:51
Speaker 2: What?
7:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I What do you mean said? I'm
7:57
just saying I thought that's what I saw.
7:59
Speaker 3: One word is a lot really does. Like, Yeah, I'm
8:06
several I have several follow up questions to that statement.
8:10
Speaker 1: I think I don't.
8:11
Speaker 3: I honestly don't think just from knowing you, from hanging
8:14
out with you, and like you know, we've what we've
8:16
been doing this podcast. We've been talking to each other
8:18
a couple times a week for over a year now.
8:21
I don't think there is a scenario that you could
8:25
tell me something that serious and I believe you.
8:28
Speaker 1: That is not true. You're you're very goible. I've done
8:31
time and time again.
8:32
Speaker 3: Well, yeah I have, but it's taken like you've got
8:35
me a lot of times. But recently I've I've like wisened.
8:38
Speaker 1: Up a little bit. Yeah, okay, dude, I don't.
8:42
Speaker 3: Think if you told me anything serious over like a diagnosis,
8:46
I would believe you.
8:47
Speaker 2: I think I would space I think I'm space out
8:50
enough to where I think I I think i'd get you.
8:53
I think i'd get you again. Also, uh, we should
8:56
read the story I keep, you know, I keep some
8:59
of the times I'm just like, you're just riffing around
9:01
my buddy's fun.
9:02
Speaker 1: Huh. Nice.
9:03
Speaker 2: But we do have a story called berries in the window.
9:05
If it's not good guess what, dude. And here's and actually,
9:08
me and Isaiah we talked about this before the episode.
9:11
We both followed Kevin Uh, Kevin Jones back on Twitter.
9:14
If the story's not good, we're on fucking following him. So, Kevin,
9:18
if this comes out and you're like, well they're not
9:20
following me, guess what happened?
9:21
Speaker 1: Bro? So here we go. Berries in the Window. I'm
9:26
in the window. I'm ready.
9:27
Speaker 2: It's also this I it has I'm excited for the themes.
9:31
I don't want to go into it yet because I
9:32
don't want to spoil it, but I'm excited.
9:35
Speaker 3: For what we've heard. It sounds pretty cool. Yeah, someone
9:38
gave me like kind.
9:38
Speaker 1: Of a little rundown of it. I'm excited.
9:40
Speaker 3: Okay, let's get into it. Berries in the Window. I
9:44
want to take a quick moment to tell you about
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It really doesn't mean the most, and we are now.
11:03
Speaker 1: Back to the show.
11:05
Speaker 3: I met Elaine at the rim of a fountain. The
11:07
water bellowed from the spickett in its ornate pattern. The
11:11
fact it was running it all was a miracle for
11:13
our underfunded university. It was just after my eight forty
11:17
five class on early horror films. No better way to
11:20
start your morning than with a dissection of the infernal cauldron.
11:23
I suppose she sat on the edge of the courtyard fountain,
11:26
with her head buried in a textbook, fresh brewed coffee
11:30
from the commissary by her hip. Her hair draped to
11:34
her collar bone and swayed in the passing breeze. I
11:37
assume she was a nursing major. By the art on
11:39
the front of her textbooks and the fact that she
11:41
was always trapped in their pages. I assume she had
11:45
a keen mind, top of her class, even by the
11:47
way she was constantly scribbling on her notepaper. I assume
11:51
she had a boyfriend waiting for her back home. But
11:53
I was tired of assuming.
11:55
Speaker 1: Love that dude, love the insult live there.
11:57
Speaker 2: I bet she has a boyfriend it.
12:01
Speaker 1: You know.
12:02
Speaker 3: I was actually about to say, I was like, if
12:04
you didn't speak, I was going to say something about
12:06
how sweet of a setup that is. I assume she
12:09
learned my life.
12:11
Speaker 1: I assumed she had a boyfriend waiting for her back home.
12:15
But I was tired of assuming.
12:16
Speaker 2: That's kind of a it's kind of a creepy line. Also,
12:18
I want to say to the horror class, that's actually true.
12:21
In college, I had a class it was a camera
12:26
how they phrase, I mean, it's like basically gay theory
12:29
is what it was like. Literally, but it was like
12:32
the depictions of gay artists and media through vampire films
12:36
and how like the adies was all sprung up by
12:38
the Aide scare and that kind.
12:40
Speaker 1: Of it was very interesting.
12:41
Speaker 2: I just want to say that's a real thing, because
12:43
I feel like there's gonna be all a lot of
12:44
people being like, what a horror class.
12:46
Speaker 1: But it was cool. It was a good class.
12:48
Speaker 3: I don't think I'm trying to think if I had
12:50
any cool classes in college because I was science major,
12:53
so all of my like electives I had to take
12:55
were like biochemistry and like you know what was that
13:00
one class called? It was like invertebrate vertebrate anatomy. I've
13:04
app like invertebrate invertebrate anatomy and physiology. It was all
13:07
like science stuff, right, So not a lot of fun classes.
13:10
I remember hating molecular cellular biology and what's the one
13:15
that killed immunology? Oh my gosh, immunology sucked. So the
13:20
only like gen eds I got to take that were
13:22
cool were just like the very generic one. So like art,
13:26
Like I liked art because it was like art history
13:28
and stuff. And a couple of my history classes were cool.
13:32
Speaker 2: I enjoyed all my history classes. That was like the
13:34
big thing I really enjoyed I took that. There was
13:36
this one teacher I just liked her. I took one
13:39
of her classes and then all she ever. The only
13:41
other classes she taught after that was feminism, So I
13:43
was in all of her feminism classes. But one of
13:45
them was basically female history in China, and I got
13:50
to learn about like it was fucking insaney, like like
13:53
Chinese feet binding all that kind of shit. Fucking crazy.
13:57
So I enjoyed almost every history class I ever took.
13:59
I thought those were sick.
14:01
Speaker 3: I had some cool history ones. I remember taking stuff
14:03
where we go over like we had one history class
14:06
that was like ancient World up to I think like
14:08
fifteen hundred BC. Uh So there's a lot of stuff
14:11
out like the Code of Hammer Robbie and like Egypt
14:13
and stuff like that.
14:14
Speaker 5: And it was.
14:14
Speaker 1: Cool all that kind of stuff.
14:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, through all the periods and stuff like that, talk
14:21
about what was the epic of Gilgamesh and stuff like that.
14:23
Speaker 5: It was.
14:24
Speaker 3: It was pretty neat.
14:25
Speaker 2: I want someone to make a venus of us, dude.
14:27
Remember the venuses. It's like the venuses back on like
14:31
the Neolithic ERAa, there would be like these statues that
14:33
they would call venuses.
14:34
Speaker 1: Uh oh, they're big, fat, thick women. You know what
14:38
I mean.
14:38
Speaker 2: Because it's like because if you were you know, big,
14:40
back then it's bounceiful, you're healthy and whatever else.
14:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a privilege to be fat because I
14:45
want someone was hard to come.
14:46
Speaker 1: By, pregnant and all that.
14:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want someone to make one of me, dude,
14:49
Make someone make me a venus, dude.
14:51
Speaker 1: I want That's why I want to.
14:52
Speaker 3: Be Yeah, yeah, i'd have a venus way to me.
14:56
Speaker 2: I think that'deah, why not big ass lips and a mustache, huge.
15:00
Speaker 1: Huge, You know what.
15:03
Speaker 3: I wasn't going to bring this up, but since you
15:05
just made that joke, I will. Do you think maybe
15:07
your relation of taking like a like a Chinese feminism
15:11
class may have you know, related to you just randomly
15:14
telling me you're gonna murder a Japanese lady on a
15:17
on a train.
15:18
Speaker 1: Do you think maybe there's some like I think it open.
15:21
I think it made me open minded enough to even
15:22
have the thought.
15:24
Speaker 3: Is that so you have to be open minded to
15:26
murder a woman in cold blood?
15:28
Speaker 1: I think you have to.
15:29
Speaker 2: I think you have the open minded enough to be
15:30
able to want to ingest and adore someone's culture enough
15:35
to visit their country kill them well exactly and go
15:39
there and they'll indulge in whatever you have to at
15:41
a blind rage because I blacked out, Yeah, an angel
15:45
told me to.
15:46
Speaker 3: Okay, So back to the story. Uh, I was gonna
15:52
say it was weird because like I met my wife
15:54
in college, right uh. And I remember for a while
15:59
like just thinking like, oh, she's so far out of
16:01
my league, like there's no way I'm gonna have a chance.
16:04
And then when I was stupid enough to try it
16:08
and how we're married. So I don't know. There's something
16:10
about this opening paragraphers like she was top of her class.
16:13
I figured she had a boyfriend, but I was tired
16:14
of assuming and stuff.
16:15
Speaker 1: I don't know.
16:16
Speaker 3: I thought of Kayla there, I was sweet cot where
16:20
I'm an in cell.
16:24
Speaker 1: It's awesome.
16:30
Speaker 3: You like this, don't you? This humiliation just all right? Whatever.
16:38
Perhaps it was the way the sun peeked over the clouds,
16:40
or the water playing the perfect score in the background,
16:43
or it may have just been the pressure of summer's
16:45
vacations approach. Whatever it was on that morning have made
16:49
the twenty seventh. The frame was absolute perfection. So I
16:53
took the shot. I sat next to her and made
16:56
some comment about the books she was reading that I
16:58
couldn't possibly remember. She laughed at it, though out of
17:02
nervous Out of nervousness or pity. She would never tell,
17:06
but the laugh offered all the confidence I needed. We
17:10
left that morning with the date planned, and then that
17:12
date with another and another and another. She said yes.
17:17
Six years later to the day, took a trip to
17:20
the Large Man. That's like, how long I'd talk? Is
17:23
this going to make me sad. We took a trip
17:25
to the largest resort in our state. I made sure
17:28
the sky was clear, the crowds were minimal, and the
17:31
flowers had bloomed. I got off my knee to embrace her.
17:35
She was eladen. Her smile, her embrace, her scent, every
17:39
detail was just as I imagine.
17:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, she should herself. How did you propose?
17:46
Speaker 2: I propose I took Alison to Fairbanks, Alaska under.
17:50
Speaker 1: The northern lights.
17:53
Speaker 3: Did you actually I didn't. I'll text her right now.
17:56
I go ahead and text her.
17:58
Speaker 1: I did it. That's what happened.
18:01
Speaker 3: That's very romantic. That's actually incredibly thoughtful and sweet.
18:04
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's awesome. Did you cry? Uh? Yeah, I
18:09
did for probably like three or four hours. I don't know.
18:14
I think she I can't remember where she was at.
18:17
But yeah, no, I tear it up, did you I did? Yeah?
18:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, I had like a whole like little speech prepared
18:24
and stuff, and we were both crying.
18:26
Speaker 1: Can you can you remember it?
18:31
Speaker 3: I do remember it?
18:33
Speaker 1: Actually, can you say it to me right now? But
18:35
I'll pretend I'm Kayla.
18:38
Speaker 3: What would your Kyla impression be? Like?
18:41
Speaker 1: Well, once you start saying once you start saying it,
18:43
I'll start, I'll start doing it, Kayla.
18:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, so she sounds like goofy.
18:53
Speaker 6: Doesn't sound goofy. That was a goofy impression. Okay, that's
18:57
one hundred goofy impression. Years ago you asked me.
19:06
Speaker 3: I was waiting for you to do the impression again.
19:09
Oh when I ask you, Okay, do you remember what
19:12
you asked me? Past the ketchup? Okay, now you're Patrick's start.
19:22
Speaker 1: It's the same voice.
19:24
Speaker 3: Anyway, the little the little like speech I gave or whatever.
19:27
Is like when we had started dating, we had this
19:30
whole conversation where she was talking about how like like
19:35
she used to she used to pray for when she
19:37
was a kid. She used to pray for, like, uh,
19:41
a man to come into her life to make make
19:43
things better not worse. Blah blah blah, like all all
19:45
this sappy stuff. And when I when I proposed, right
19:51
before I got down on one knee, I said something
19:53
of the effective like I think I'm that man, or
19:56
I want to be that man, or something like that.
19:58
Speaker 1: I propose. It's very sweet. Go ahead, I just listen.
20:09
Speaker 3: I was just waiting for you to have some Snyder
20:11
Marker comment too.
20:13
Speaker 1: No, I think it's beautiful.
20:15
Speaker 3: Okay. Can I go back to the story now, yea.
20:22
I managed to discover another frame as flawless as today.
20:25
Speaker 1: I met her.
20:26
Speaker 3: From there we made a beautiful film of our life together.
20:29
She was a nurse at the leading hospital in the area.
20:33
The hours were grueling, but she felt rewarded by the
20:35
lives she touched. I, while not making it in Hollywood,
20:40
got contract videography work for advertisements and weddings that kept
20:44
me busy enough. Then two years after our wedding day,
20:48
I opened her present to me on our anniversary, and
20:51
the box was a stick with two bold red lines,
20:54
and the film of our life was made entirely of
20:56
perfect frames. Then the bay was born. The harsh light
21:01
from the hospital room nearly melted the creases of my
21:04
wife's face away. Her breath was rapid, having just expelled
21:08
the baby from within her. Eons passed as we waited
21:11
for the cry. Buzz of fluorescent light bulbs overhead rattled
21:14
the room. The indistinguishable sin of sterilization masks the scent
21:19
of birth like a fishing net. It's a brutal war
21:23
the scent of birth.
21:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just say.
21:26
Speaker 2: The language he's using is very flowery, like everything used
21:29
to be this kind of thing. But yeah, it's funny
21:31
to do the same thing with like pussy juice and
21:34
blood for the smell of birth. It's like caught it
21:38
like a fishing net. What the fuck are you talking about?
21:41
Speaker 1: Dude?
21:45
Speaker 3: You know, I saw someone made like a highlight reel
21:48
of us and they titled it Christian Appalachian Boy and
21:52
Godless Miss Midwestern Man the podcast, and I feel like
21:56
that that becomes more true every day.
22:00
Speaker 2: I want to find a ban that guy from a
22:02
reviewing the show again, is what I say.
22:06
Speaker 3: The cry was not as expected. It's merely a hic
22:10
gas choking. I caught a glimpse of the baby before
22:14
the nurses rushed him out of the room. His spine
22:17
bent as if a string yanked the back of his
22:19
head to his heels. Torso is that funny? Hunter?
22:24
Speaker 1: It's a weird, weird Chinese finger trap baby. That's not right.
22:31
Speaker 2: If I was the doctor delivered delivering it, well that's
22:34
not right, I said, Okay, sorry, go ahead.
22:41
Speaker 3: Guys, just insane like a child with a birth defect.
22:45
Quote Chinese finger trap baby.
22:48
Speaker 2: Come on, man, it can kind of makes sense right
22:50
when you had to push it together.
22:52
Speaker 1: It's like a contorted and it doesn't I.
22:53
Speaker 3: Understand what you meant. Sure, yeah, I processed. It was
22:58
the choice of work doing right.
23:00
Speaker 2: I am not doing right by the Asian community with
23:03
this episode so far.
23:04
Speaker 3: No, no, I apologize.
23:07
Speaker 1: I apologize.
23:08
Speaker 3: I have his address if anyone wants, and I'll send
23:10
it for fourteen dollars.
23:12
Speaker 1: That is so cheap. I know.
23:15
Speaker 3: It's it's to send a message. His torso was a
23:18
stump compared to the ski pole, limbs attached, and the
23:22
eyes bulging from his skull. They clung to their sockets
23:25
like balloons inflated in a roll of duct tape.
23:35
Speaker 1: It feel like.
23:36
Speaker 2: It looks like a little Brian Peppers, Papa. I doesn't
23:38
it was that his name.
23:41
Speaker 3: It's not it's not funny. Do you remember do you
23:43
remember Brian Peppers? Does that not sound I remember? I
23:46
remember Brian Peppers.
23:47
Speaker 1: Yeah.
23:47
Speaker 3: But when I read that, just because of how like
23:50
the language was kind of literal for a while that
23:52
it got like very figured itive. So I imagine like
23:56
there's literally two balloons taped to the kid's head, a stump.
24:01
Like the doctor turned around and was like tudah, and
24:04
he like made a balloon animal on his head.
24:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, let me tell you this is he should not
24:08
look like this.
24:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like, oh, how that happened. He's like hurridly
24:12
tying up like a poodle balloon animal behind him.
24:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, big clown nose. What do you think of that?
24:20
It's a sword.
24:25
Speaker 3: That would be you as a doctor, I know, looks.
24:28
Speaker 2: Like a Tommy gun balloon gun here huhm, just kidding.
24:31
Your kid's dead.
24:37
Speaker 3: The doctor said they had never seen a disorder like this.
24:40
Months of ultrasounds and blood work showing a healthy boy
24:43
only for this to be the result. It was as
24:45
if he mutated during labor. Eleane and I were not
24:49
the same. We talked less and less, as every breath
24:53
now needed to be spent on keeping it alive a
24:55
little longer. The baby continued to breathe and feed, although
24:59
there were a tube. She loved the baby. She devoted
25:02
everything she had to it, and I I was in disbelief.
25:06
I hope to wake up from the nightmare that became
25:08
of us, that the pregnancy doctors we talked to were
25:12
right and a healthy baby was still on the way.
25:15
Elaine did returned to the hospital for work even after
25:17
the maturity leave expired, I stopped taking contracts for video
25:21
work for a year. The offers completely dried up in
25:24
that time. That was until I received an email with
25:28
the to the point header documentary requested.
25:32
Speaker 1: Documentary work has always.
25:34
Speaker 3: Been an interest in mine. Since weddings and advertisements are
25:37
mostly shot at the mercy of the client, I was
25:39
more than interested in being the driver for a project.
25:44
We are an independent church based an hour from pleasant View,
25:47
West Virginia. Our festival I imagine pleasant View that may be
25:52
a real place, but point Pleasant, West Virginia is the
25:55
place where like Mothman's from and stuff like that, so
25:57
it could be a fun reference. Our festival is coming
26:01
in a few days, and as this is a once
26:03
in a once in a lifetime event, we would love
26:06
to preserve it. All we ask for is three nights
26:09
of your time and we will make you feel right
26:11
at home. If you are interested. We can discuss prices
26:14
and directions. Money is no issue. We believe our faith
26:18
will be of particular interest to you. Mister Dowie, May
26:22
you have faith? Pastor Madison. I was turned away after
26:27
reading the email. Why would it be of particular interest
26:30
to me? Beyond the odd ending to the email, I
26:33
was never partial to religion. Given recent events, my partiality
26:37
grew far worse than ever. The longer I sat with
26:40
the email, the more disgusted I would be with myself
26:43
if I accepted such an offer. Weeks passed since the
26:47
initial email from Pastor Madison. I applied for over fifty
26:51
jobs in that week for consistent income. Of the nearly
26:54
fifty job postings I applied to, I only heard back
26:57
from four, all with essentially this apologetic rejection. Elayne's time
27:03
was wholly dedicated.
27:04
Speaker 1: To the baby.
27:05
Speaker 3: She was at its beckoned whim with each gasp or choke,
27:11
with each gasp er choke, she was there to refill
27:13
the baby's feeding tube or change its stiper. She was monopolized.
27:17
While I could hardly look at it. I was disgusted
27:20
with myself for feeling this way. It was a constant
27:22
stab of guilt within me. Funds ran completely dry. We
27:28
began putting every expense on the credit cards, and doing
27:31
so we dug a hole three thousand dollars deep in
27:33
only a couple months. We feared losing the home, we
27:37
feared losing the baby, We feared everything and still, rejection
27:40
after rejection came from job listings with my name in
27:43
the letter head. I delivered food after a period of time,
27:46
but every check was like filling a cannon with a
27:49
bucket of sand. Then another email came, not to me
27:53
this time, but to Elaine. She showed me the message
27:57
that read as follows.
27:58
Speaker 2: Ope I find you will. I wanted to follow up
28:01
regarding a previous email. We are willing to pay you
28:04
eight thousand dollars for your services. We are very intrigued
28:08
by your previous work and hope you will and hope
28:10
you will consider working with us for a few days.
28:13
Our offer is negotiable. If you're interested, I can send
28:16
you the directions to our church. The festival is quickly approaching.
28:20
We'd love to hear.
28:20
Speaker 1: From you soon. May you have faith, Pastor Madison.
28:27
Speaker 3: I felt my integrity toteriorate as I read through the email.
28:30
Eight thousand dollars for three days sounded too good to
28:33
be an actual offer. Options were slam at the time. However,
28:37
three days away would be a much need to break
28:39
from life, even if it was spent hearing this past
28:42
or proselytize. Perhaps the once in a lifetime festival, could
28:45
be could even be fun. I told Elaine that I
28:49
would take the offer. It's the first time I had
28:51
seen her with an authentic smile since the baby was born.
28:55
I decided her smiles were worth selling out for a church.
28:57
For the next couple of days, my laptop and email
29:01
Pastor Matson back for directions three days until the festival.
29:06
Uh so she he emails the wife and says, I
29:10
wanted to follow up regarding a previous email, but he
29:14
sends it to her. And he never says anything like,
29:17
uh oh a previous email to your husband, or that
29:20
we see him. Well, I think that he just assumes.
29:22
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's supposed to indicate that he like
29:25
that I guess he knows both of them, or like,
29:28
like he isn't revealing his whole hand, but it seems
29:31
like he is indulging that this pastor knows not only
29:34
the husband for his documentary worker like it's but the
29:36
why work, but he also understand knows the wife or whatever.
29:40
Just make it a bit more creepy, you know, of
29:42
just like why the fuck are you reaching out to her?
29:44
Speaker 1: You know?
29:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I mean, like eight thousand dollars is hard
29:47
to pass up, especially for how short the work is.
29:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're if you're in death, thereas might as
29:52
to swallow your pride a bit.
29:53
Speaker 1: And just fucking I mean, you've got to.
29:54
Speaker 3: You've got a child that needs around the clock care
29:56
you're trying to take care of you know, Pleasant View
29:59
is only a two hour drive from my home. As
30:02
destructed by Pastor Madison. I pulled onto a back road
30:05
that evolved from pavement to gravel and then dirt. The
30:08
dirt ended in an encircling tree, lying only ten minutes
30:12
from the main road. The remaining fifty minute journey needed
30:15
to be completed on foot, not a simple hike with
30:18
all the film gear I was looking. Took my phone
30:21
from my pocket and sent a text to a lane
30:23
not to find her of my arrival. The one bar
30:26
of signal I was sure would be the last for
30:28
the next three days. After briefly worrying about leaving my car,
30:32
I submerged myself into the sprawling woods. An hour later,
30:37
I emerged from the bramble and leaf coated forest to
30:40
an open passing. Buildings speckled the grass with what seemed
30:44
to be little forethought. Huts would be a generous term
30:47
for such structures. Stacked logs plattered together by dried clay
30:52
formed the exterior walls, each one uniquely assembled but collectively
30:56
shared in their state of decay. The only building large
31:00
enough to fit more than three people in them were
31:02
a structure in the middle of a one acre fence
31:04
and field, and a church nestled in the village center.
31:08
Top of the spire was a vacant seat for a cross.
31:12
I considered getting a shot of the village to prove
31:14
this wasn't just a film set. I stumbled onto when
31:17
a figure approached. That's interesting. I like the mention of like,
31:21
so it looks all kind of ramshackle together, but then
31:24
there is a church, but there's no cross on top
31:27
of the church, right, Yeah, it's an interesting note. The
31:30
man wore a crisp white alb ordained with a Jerusalem
31:34
cross stitched with golden fabric. A wine red sash draped
31:38
around his neck, embroidered with the same golden stitching. He
31:42
appeared to glide across the dirt path. Each of his
31:44
steps were careful and deliberate. The band kept pure black
31:48
hair tight to his scalp. No evidence of hair remained
31:51
below his eyebrows grated a dare show regardless of the
31:55
wrinkles appearing at the corners of his eyes, his irises cloaked,
31:59
his pupils perfect. That sounds like an exact description of
32:05
Jim Jones. Yeah, like the jet black hair tied against
32:08
his head and he wears like the flowery garb and
32:10
stuff like that.
32:11
Speaker 2: Well, you don't know a pastor or just kind of
32:13
like randomly too. I just think the pastor attire is
32:16
so fucking creepy in general. There's like a guy out
32:18
there wearing that shit in the middle of the woods,
32:20
like the white robes, white robes with the wine red
32:25
sash whatever, and then like him coming out of this
32:27
like church without any kind of real I don't know.
32:29
It just feels like a like a setup or something.
32:31
It feels weird.
32:33
Speaker 3: The Jerusalem Cross that was used by the Crusaders a lot, right,
32:37
I have no idea. Maybe I think I think it's
32:40
a Crusader logo if I remember correctly, Yes, I think
32:44
that's right, or at least the first popped up with
32:46
the Crusades.
32:47
Speaker 2: Do you think it's gonna be some kind of like
32:48
hell fire, damnation like clemsing thing?
32:51
Speaker 1: Then do you think we're heading that round?
32:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think maybe something like violence, like conquest of
32:57
belief kind of thing, right, Pastor, and I assume, I said,
33:02
extended my hand.
33:03
Speaker 1: We appreciate your time, mister Downey.
33:06
Speaker 3: His voice was smooth, as if the words troubles were
33:10
just set at ease. His hand was soft and light
33:13
as it shook mine. His presence was strangely inoffensive, like
33:17
it was constructed to never be disliked by any stranger.
33:21
Please take this, he extended an envelope. Upon opening it,
33:25
I found a check for four thousand dollars. The other
33:28
half I was sure would come after the festival. It
33:31
seemed rude in that moment to confirm he had a
33:33
nature that was difficult to question, So I thanked him
33:36
for the early payment and put it into my wallet.
33:39
Picture me and my wife met. My eyes from the
33:41
billfold or smiles were carved onto our faces. I remember
33:45
the intense labor it took to wear smile that day.
33:49
Peeked over the vast white nothing, introduced to the image
33:52
by a crease of my own making nearly a year prior,
33:55
felt a stab of my gettage. Time I saw the image.
33:58
Crease did not prevent the stab. The grease remained.
34:01
Speaker 1: Love me to show you around our town before your
34:03
first service.
34:04
Speaker 3: I felt as though there wasn't much I couldn't see
34:07
from our current position, but I obliged. As we walked
34:10
towards the heart of the village, he directed my attention
34:13
to each of the structures, giving his story of each
34:15
of the families who lived there. He spoke glowingly of
34:18
each family and named each member. He pointed my attention
34:21
to the creek where they washed their garments, the open
34:24
field where the children all played, and the rickety well
34:27
that dried into nothing more than a safety hazard, to
34:30
be avoided at all times. But I could barely hear
34:33
his hypnotical, mundane voice. As my attention was drawn to
34:37
the fenced in field, a group of women knelt by
34:40
one of the standing cattle. They rubbed and kissed the
34:43
animal's belly as they sank. I thought to ask the
34:46
pasture about the strange display, but decided it would be
34:48
best to hold my tongue. His nature still difficult to question,
34:53
He spoke instead.
34:54
Speaker 1: The sun is almost down as time for a service.
34:59
Speaker 3: So I see there the women knelt down by the cow,
35:01
touching its belly, probably because the cow is about to
35:04
have a calf, right, uh, and they're doing something for
35:08
like the calfs to be born. I see a mirror
35:11
between that and his wife having the child. Right, there's
35:16
gonna be some kind of like blood for blood, animal
35:18
for human.
35:19
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's very uh midsummary, Yeah, very midsummary.
35:23
Speaker 2: Uh. Traumatic thing in the real world, uh, is reflected
35:28
into this almost perfect haven of foreign foreign existence basically,
35:34
so like this coltish kind of thing feels very reflective.
35:37
It also feels, you know, and also too of just somebody,
35:40
you know, predestined you were supposed to be here, you
35:43
know that kind of stuff.
35:45
Speaker 3: Smorgas board of color, fueled by the full moon, painted
35:48
window frame shapes around the room. Candles shifted the shadows
35:52
in a mesmerizing sway. The blurred hills of congregation heads
35:56
peaked just into the picture. Pastor Madison prepared to deliver
36:00
his sermon to the village residence. Filling the thirty pew seats,
36:04
audio levels were as perfect as could be hoped. In
36:06
the open nave. The rustle and mumbles of the congregation
36:11
ceased when Pastor Madison stepped forward to begin.
36:14
Speaker 2: Let there be a time for each of us, a
36:17
time beyond the trials of today, that we may find
36:20
all things.
36:22
Speaker 3: Upon rechecking the viewfinder there was a little too much
36:25
headroom above the pastor. I made the prosper adjustment to satisfaction.
36:31
Speaker 4: We can rive away the flaws and failures manifest in
36:33
our current form to the faith and truth revealed to us.
36:39
Speaker 3: The lighting in the church was causing the temperature to
36:41
run a little too warm for my liking. Quickly dove
36:44
into the camera settings and adjusted the white balance, using
36:46
Pastor Madison's robe as a reference. And when said the
36:49
mistake failure due to like a practice, I assured myself.
36:53
Speaker 2: Give him your faith, so that we may yet again
36:56
purge the world of its wrong doings.
37:00
Speaker 3: Behind the pasture creaks open and the congregation stands and
37:02
roaring applause, blocking both the camera and my own view
37:06
of the pulpit. I could only find slim sight lines
37:10
between the shoulders of the congregation and their flurry of
37:13
clapping hands. Slamed the tripod together and moved to the
37:16
aisle for a clear view of the pulpit. Once more,
37:20
what stood there was incomprehensible. It appeared to be the
37:24
shape of a human. I could see the outline of arms, legs,
37:28
and head, but it shifted. It was as if the
37:32
thing had to actively work to contain itself to that form.
37:35
The features of the being melted and folded in on itself.
37:39
His skin was charcoal black, with specks of pale that
37:42
gave it the appearance of snow falling on a tinted window.
37:46
The camera cannot see this, where the thing should be
37:49
in the frame, only showed as a white smudge that
37:52
dimmed the rest of the light in the image. The
37:54
aisle door creaked open just a foot behind me.
37:57
Speaker 4: Behold the manifestation death.
38:02
Speaker 3: A woman entered with dirt staining the lower portion of
38:05
her dress. She held something in her arms. Small creatures
38:08
shielded by her shoulder. An all two familiar hick and
38:12
gasp choking wafted from the creature. It was a calf
38:16
with a bend in the spine, a stumpy torso, and
38:20
the eyes. The eyes clung to their sockets with the
38:24
same desperation as the babies. The woman ushered the calf
38:28
to the altar and got on a knee before presenting
38:30
it to the bean Pastor Madison and the congregation muttered
38:34
in a language unfamiliar to me. Their words were rapid
38:37
grew louder as the being took the calf and what
38:39
could only be perceived as its hands. Women started to
38:43
howl and convulse where she stood, and the chance overwhelmed
38:46
the air, and the chance overwhelmed her. The bean raised
38:50
the calf into the air, unhinged could only be interpreted
38:54
as its jaw, and consumed the deformed calf. The chanting
38:59
in a breath, silent anticipation washed over every person in
39:04
the room. My ribs could hardly contain my heart. After
39:08
months of researching and doctor visits, I finally found another
39:11
creature with the same affliction as my son, and it's gone.
39:15
Speaker 1: I wanted to scream.
39:16
Speaker 3: I wanted to attack the thing that just state my
39:18
only chance in understanding what my baby has. I withheld
39:21
this instinct. Pastor Madison bent behind the bean and shouted.
39:27
Speaker 4: It is poor new my pure faith.
39:30
Speaker 3: The crowd erupted into cheers and prayers in the unknown language.
39:34
Tears filled the eyes of the congregation as Pastor Masson
39:36
lifted the calft above his head, now perfectly healthy.
39:43
Speaker 1: Uh oh, this is great.
39:44
Speaker 3: I already see where this is going this is so good,
39:47
like presenting to him like this option, right, you.
39:50
Speaker 2: Know, I mean basically becoming a pets cemetery scenario where
39:53
the dad's going to like go home, grab the baby
39:55
and try to come here to heal it for sure.
39:58
Speaker 3: Yeah. Another thing I like, I didn't know is till
40:00
he hasn't set his kid's name, he won't refer to
40:03
it as that. He just calls it the baby. Yeah,
40:06
he has like this bitterness, this detachment from it. The
40:09
service ended in an instant. The congregation emptied past me
40:13
and the beans slipped into the back room, leaving only
40:15
Pastor Madison and I in the nave. He recognized my
40:18
confusion and with a wave, invited.
40:21
Speaker 1: Me to the back room.
40:22
Speaker 3: Rationally, I assumed that this was all some sick prank
40:25
at my expense, that they had to have known about
40:29
my son's afflictions and made some kind of puppet to
40:33
mimic the deformities. It seemed far too real to be
40:36
a puppet, but it had to be something. Once Pastor
40:40
Madison went into the back room, I felt the very
40:42
real possibility of being in the same room as that thing.
40:47
All I knew was that on the other side of
40:49
the door there were answers, the only answers in the
40:52
world as far as I knew.
40:54
Speaker 1: So I took a breath and.
40:56
Speaker 3: Went in the door, squealed in away. I hadn't noticed
41:00
from the back of the church the tan stucco walls
41:03
couldn't have been more than ten feet in either direction.
41:07
There was enough room for a polished wooden desk with
41:10
hand carved iconography of departed saints, a purple and green
41:14
love seat that appeared more suited for a hotel suite
41:17
in the eighties, and the office of a pastor, and
41:19
a pocket bible resting on an end table. Pastor Madison
41:23
sat behind the desk with his forehead in his palms.
41:27
He alerted himself to my presence and extended an invite
41:30
to the love seat with a heaven facing palm. I
41:33
sat with caution.
41:34
Speaker 4: He's never here by the time I come in.
41:37
Speaker 3: Pastor Madison said he must have been savvag to my weariness.
41:42
These His statement granted me broke the damn of questions
41:44
as I spewed every thought I had. What was wrong
41:47
with a calf? How was it cured?
41:49
Speaker 1: Was ending with this real?
41:51
Speaker 3: What was that thin said in silence with my barrage
41:54
of questions. His inoffensive face remained stoic as they bounced
41:58
around in his head until he spoke, that.
42:01
Speaker 2: Was my son's bible before he passed. I used to
42:04
have three others like it, filled with notes, cover to cover.
42:09
Speaker 3: I found this an odd statement, given the myriad of
42:11
questions I gave him. I took the pocket Bible in
42:14
my hand without turning the cover.
42:16
Speaker 1: You're holding the last bible in this village. Open it.
42:22
Speaker 3: After a brief wave of confusion, I flipped open the
42:25
cover with them through the pages, each one with an
42:28
X etched into it with pencil. Each page, I progress
42:32
the duller, the lead, and more rips in the page
42:35
from the pressure till there were only rips in each page.
42:40
Speaker 1: The answers I needed weren't in there. Nothing but a
42:43
boy's sold in need of a new body, like your son.
42:49
Speaker 3: The word stunned me. So he did know about my son,
42:53
but how we have never posted online about him since
42:56
his birth. I knew no one from this part of
42:59
the state, no reason to pass through a town an
43:01
hour from civilization. But ultimately he wasn't wrong. This place
43:06
offered the only chance my son had a long, fulfilling
43:09
life without any other possible explanation for such a spectacle.
43:14
I believed it. I had faith. Long pause followed broken
43:20
by his voice, let me show you where you'll be staying. Okay,
43:26
So I just got to say I was a little
43:29
like I was like, I like this story or whatever.
43:32
But then that the combination of the church steeple having
43:35
the cross removed, and then this quote unquote pastor being like,
43:40
that's the last Bible in this village and all the
43:42
pages are scratched out, scattered through and stuff like that,
43:46
as if like he was at once a pastor and
43:48
this was his congregation, but he found that he hated God,
43:52
so he took them out here and he's found a
43:55
new religion, God worship. Yeah, it's like, ah, this, I
44:00
like this. This is a cool setup. I'm vibing.
44:03
Speaker 1: This goes pretty hard.
44:04
Speaker 3: It's like I made the Jim Jones joke, but it
44:07
is very Jim Jones like presentation of everything, like we
44:10
have to find our own answer somewhere else, you know. Yeah, yeah,
44:15
this is this is really cool. I like this. It
44:17
almost reminds me of like, do you remember in the
44:20
first part of Deep Woods when they go to that
44:24
church that there's a demon in the basement of and
44:26
there's like, oh, the desk in the room with the
44:29
demon is the same as the one in the pastor's office,
44:31
kind of implying there's a community out here that worships
44:34
some for good in God. This is almost what I imagine
44:37
the deep Woods town to be like before it disappeared.
44:40
Speaker 1: Oh I see, yeah, I see what you're saying.
44:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like this is kind of like the prelude to
44:45
a situation like that of a forgotten city that has
44:48
a demon locked in it.
44:49
Speaker 1: Yeah.
44:50
Speaker 3: The sun descended behind the skyline hours ago. At this
44:52
point I knew my stay would like lean not be
44:55
a comfortable one. In such an impoverished rural community, each
45:00
roof is only suited for the families within. Honestly, they
45:04
were probably a few rooms short of suited. I followed
45:07
the pastor to my living quarters without a word being spoken.
45:11
I followed him past the rickety fence, the dilapidated well
45:14
that erupted a musty odor, and into the second largest
45:17
building in the village, the barn waittered the hayloft, spacious
45:22
room in all dimensions, but hight does the ceiling nearly
45:25
grazed my scalp haybells lining the baseboards and stacking to
45:30
the low ceiling. In areas other than hey, an iron
45:33
framed bed sat below a broken window, paired with a
45:36
bucket to its side. The window seial was splattered in red.
45:41
Pastor Masson apologized for the state of the room. I
45:43
mentioned the likelihood of hearing some noises in the night.
45:48
Speaker 1: It'll likely be mice.
45:49
Speaker 4: It's best to ignore them.
45:53
Speaker 3: He said, in a stern voice. I assured him it
45:56
was no issue at all. I wasn't going to be
45:58
staying long anyways. Then he left in a hurry. The
46:02
moonlight gave the hayloft a tint of sickly pale white.
46:07
Hours passed and centering the hayloft before I found an
46:09
ounce of comfort, and still the springs of the mattress
46:12
would not relent. I rolled to my opposite side. Jab
46:16
I stretched out onto my back. Jab I yawned, thud
46:21
set up. In an instant, the moon's light poorly painted
46:24
the room, leaving vast corners in pure darkness. Called out
46:28
to the void with quivering breath, no response, picking just
46:33
beyond the corner of the shadows was a trail of
46:36
once stacked haybells. My mind went to the being a
46:40
church service. If this place held such mysteries as that being,
46:44
what else could be lurking here? Anger grew from desperation,
46:49
and I hurled the bucket into the darkness. The clang
46:52
of the bucket meeting the floorboards forced a high pitched shriek.
46:55
Out of the darkness, a figure darted from the door
46:58
and shot down the stairs, stomp on each step as
47:01
it descended. Without thought, I followed the field, and the
47:06
village beyond was motionless. I desperately scanned the area for
47:10
who or what that think was watching me sleep. I
47:14
walked around the barn, ignoring the few cattle that chose
47:16
to sleep under the stars for the night. They were undisturbed,
47:19
which gave me relief. It is until I saw it.
47:23
Figure no more than fifty yards hunched down in the grass,
47:27
I could make out the back of a head and shoulders,
47:30
even as even at its imagined full height, it seemed small.
47:36
Speaker 1: I approached it cautiously.
47:37
Speaker 3: Each step I took was mindful of my feet, careful
47:40
not to catch a twig or dry leaf under my weight.
47:43
I still was not quiet enough. It jolted up and
47:46
turned to face me. It was a girl no older
47:50
than ten years. Her body was frail and her brown
47:53
hair matted to her head. Her eyes swelled with panic
47:57
at the side of me. She was unusual, even beyond
48:00
her obvious neglect. Her upper lip weaved into an M
48:04
shape up to the outer corner of each of her nostrils.
48:08
Her hands slapped over her mouth, covering this blimish and embarrassment.
48:13
She drops the basket woven of hand. She drops the
48:17
basket woven of hay into the grass. I could hear
48:20
her breath pulse through her chest. As I stepped closer.
48:23
She retreated, keeping a constant distance between us. Tears formed
48:27
in her eye and reflected in the moonlight. Not knowing
48:31
sign language, I crossed my forearms over my heart as
48:34
I asked her to trust me. I approached her slowly,
48:37
her breath faster with each step. I bent over to
48:41
her hay basket. Three wineberries scattered from within it. I
48:45
gathered them back in and handed it to her. She
48:49
uncovered her grin and recovered slightly with a sniff and
48:52
wipe of her eyes. She looked at me and smiled.
48:56
When I asked if she wanted help picking her berries,
48:59
I smiled when she yes. We spent the next hour
49:03
gathering berries into her basket. When we split up, I
49:06
would gather a palm full go to her dump them
49:09
into her basket. She came alive a little more with
49:13
each berry we collected, and the light of the sun
49:16
became noticeable on the face of the hills. Fear hit
49:19
her once again. I thought of my son, should he
49:23
live long enough to be aware of himself, would he
49:26
fear the sun too? I paused her side after dumping
49:30
a palm of berries. After a moment of thought, I
49:34
looked into her eyes and told her what I saw
49:36
the night before by the sick calf who was cured
49:39
in the church, about that being that cured it, and
49:43
that she could have a body that matched the beauty
49:45
of her soul. I hope she would be elated to
49:49
hear the news that she would be so excited to
49:52
go to the church with me that evening and be cured.
49:55
She concealed her mouth with her palm once again and
49:57
ran for the barn, her eyes once war filled with tears.
50:02
Two days until the festival. Interesting, how are you feeling
50:07
so far.
50:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I'm just kind of getting into it
50:13
a bit.
50:15
Speaker 3: I like the note of like this little girl who
50:18
has a deformity. It's like, oh, you could be healed,
50:20
but it causes her to cry. There's something, yeah, I mean,
50:23
there's obviously something that we're not being told yet. I'm
50:25
kind of just waiting for this more and more of
50:26
the story to unravel. I think the first day starting
50:29
with a huge mutation and like a fucking baby being
50:32
eaten and like reborn as a healthy thing is crazy,
50:38
like insane for the guy not and I understand he
50:42
has his own baby and stuff, but I'm like wondering
50:45
what else is keeping him there besides that, because I
50:47
feel like that would fucking horrify me. I would probably run,
50:50
I don't know, and then just be like you're sleeping
50:52
in this barn now, we'll see you tomorrow. It's like,
50:55
what the fuck house is the goal? You know what
50:56
I mean, It's just a lot.
50:58
Speaker 2: I'm kind of just letting the story unfold and seeing
51:00
and processing.
51:02
Speaker 1: I guess my opinion that then.
51:04
Speaker 3: The sun filled the hayloft with fury. The previous night
51:08
felt so far away, but after confirming on my phone.
51:11
It was only two hours ago. The bed protested. As
51:14
I staggered to my feet, my mind immediately went to
51:17
the girl. I had it referred to her as the girl,
51:20
but it hadn't occurred to me to ask for a name.
51:24
The floorboards cracked and popped. As I approached the stairs.
51:27
My mouth opened to call to her, but ultimately the
51:30
air was best if left silent. I descend the stairs
51:34
with my camera equipment alone. The morning light intensified to midday.
51:39
After shooting b roll of the church, barn and a
51:42
couple other residential buildings, it's the day aged. I got
51:46
some shots of the village residence. A wife rints the
51:50
family laundry in the creek and pinned them to a clothesline.
51:54
Her right leg, just a few inches shy of her left,
51:57
gave her a distinct limp, assisted by a twisted came
52:02
osbond with a hunch that curled his shoulders inward, posted
52:05
against his doorframe as he popped smoke into the air
52:08
from his pipe. A group of five kids in a
52:11
backyard plane sword fight with sticks scavenged from the tree line,
52:15
each with their own blemish, a burn, a scar, a
52:19
lazy eye, a missing hand and the last with down syndrome.
52:23
Each person I approached seemed to have some abnormality, and
52:26
each one recoiled from the camera once they were aware
52:29
of its presence. I returned to the bar in the evening,
52:33
just before the sky shed its blue. As I climbed
52:36
the stairs, I heard a scurry of feet from the hayloft.
52:40
When I entered the room, it seemed unchanged, the buckets
52:44
still resting at the end of its violent journey across
52:46
the room. Haybells remained spilled from the top of the stack,
52:50
and the girl concealed in her usual hiding place. The
52:54
only difference from that morning were the berries, a group
52:57
of berries baked at the ledge of the shattered window.
53:00
I took a step or two towards the berries and
53:02
was met with a hiss behind me. I turned and
53:05
caught a glimpse of the girl before she ducked back
53:07
behind the hay bells. I assumed it was meant to
53:10
be a shush that her lips would not allow. I
53:14
stuck behind the hay with her. She was tucked in
53:17
a ball, with her mouth concealed by her knees. Tried
53:20
to console her with a touch, but she dodged my
53:22
hand with a jolt. I whispered my apologies to her,
53:25
which was met with another kiss, the first time her
53:29
eyes met mine since the night prior. The pause opened
53:33
a chasm between us. A faint gust of wind blew
53:36
into the room from the broken window. Sound whistled past
53:39
the shards of glass that still held onto the frame,
53:42
and brushed the loose straw against the floor. Sound was
53:45
enough to pique the girl's interest. She darted her head
53:48
around the bales of hay for a glance at her berries.
53:51
It remained unchanged. She paused this realization before retreating behind
53:55
her knees.
53:56
Speaker 1: Once more.
53:59
Speaker 3: I offered it for offending her, and that my intention
54:02
was not to hurt her feelings at all. She offered
54:05
nothing in response. After a moment of consideration, I fished
54:08
in my pocket and revealed my wallet. Flipping open the fold,
54:11
I removed my family portrait from its plastic sheath, the
54:14
crease held firm by the pressure of time. With pins
54:18
in my lungs, I flipped the white corner to reveal
54:20
my son. His form was just as haunting as the
54:23
first day I saw him. I turned it so that
54:26
she could see. I told her of my son's ailment,
54:29
that he has looked that way since his birth, that
54:33
I now see that he can be cured. Here, she
54:37
tapped my son with her pointer figure. I couldn't gather
54:40
the meaning by the look in her eye, but I
54:42
assured her she wasn't wrong to see that he looked
54:45
like the calf born here on the first day. She
54:48
didn't care for that interpretation of her pointing. This time,
54:52
she circled him and gently placed her fingertip on his chest.
54:56
Speaker 4: Oh his name, His name is Alan.
55:00
Speaker 1: Hmm.
55:02
Speaker 3: The word entered my ear like a love lost to time.
55:05
A flame kindled inside of me. My son's name is Alan.
55:10
The girl's mouth was still covered by her knees, but
55:12
I could see the corners of a satisfied grin peeking out.
55:16
Asked her what her name was. She froze and thought
55:19
for a moment before raising her fist before shaking it
55:22
up and down at the wrist. I chuckled at the display.
55:27
Thankfully she joined in the amusement. Shake, punch, maybe knock.
55:33
She shrugged, accepting that answer, realizing it was no longer
55:35
worth the effort. Another breeze wandered into the room, this
55:41
time with much more life. She stopped and quickly peeked
55:44
around the hay. Sitting on the windowsill with a beak
55:47
full of a berry chunk was a vibrant cardinal. Knock
55:52
revealed her smile at the side of it. It was
55:54
her perfect shot. I looked back down at the family
55:58
photo before reintroducing the fold, tucking it into the sleeve
56:01
of my wallet. Our cardinal would come soon, our perfect shot.
56:07
Speaker 2: I bet you the dad or the mom. The dad
56:11
like a protagonist or's wife. I feel like it's going
56:14
to be related to the pastor somehow.
56:18
Speaker 1: Oh you think so, I feel that coming a little bit.
56:23
I could be.
56:23
Speaker 3: Wrong, interesting, I think, but perhaps it could be a
56:28
literal relation. It could also I kind of suspect that
56:30
the pastor emailing the wife could be a sign of
56:33
like the wife being involved somehow, not telling the husband.
56:37
I also feel like the cardinal's kind of symbolic of like, oh,
56:39
this is a good opportunity of something laid out for us,
56:42
but you know, the berries are poison or whatever. Yeah,
56:45
the sun dropped from the sky and with it, my
56:47
time with Knock briefly expired, offered her. My goodbyes, gathered
56:51
my film and equipment, and left for the church. The
56:54
building felt different at night. The shadows exaggerated the cracks
56:58
and curves of the weather construction. Candlelight flickered through the
57:01
glass panes and wove over the grass contained in their squares.
57:06
Pastor Madison's voice vibrated through the slits in the wood.
57:09
This building offered me a taste of hope for the
57:11
first time in over a year. But now a bitter
57:14
note seeped into my palate. I couldn't place the reason.
57:19
Just before entering, I felt a tug at my sleeve.
57:22
I turned a bit more startled than I cared to
57:24
admit to see Knock, her cleft lip unapologetically visible. A
57:28
pleasant side asked her what she was doing outside of
57:31
the church. I told her she didn't have to follow
57:34
me inside. It was okay to remain how she is side.
57:38
The roar of the congregation extinguished the insects playing their
57:41
song for the moon. Knock raised her forearms and crossed
57:44
them over her chest, then pointed to mine. I trust you,
57:50
she said through a soft but rusty voice. Together we
57:53
crack open the doors of the church. The bitter flavor
57:56
was all the more present. It stood at the altar,
58:01
its features shifting the midnight snow of its skin. Knock
58:04
wrapped her petite fingers around my forearm at the side
58:07
of it. Congregation was brought to silence at our step,
58:12
What is this? Pastor Madison called out beyond the walls
58:17
of the church. Each step we took down the aisle
58:20
brought more detail to the Pastor's expression. Concern, fear, then
58:25
panic were plastered in his eyes. Doubt crept into me.
58:29
I consider grabbing a knock by the wrist and pulling
58:31
her from this place. She was already out of my reach.
58:34
Her neck craned to look up at the face of
58:36
the bean out directly above her. Was noticeably taller than
58:39
the night before. The being extended an arm that unnaturally
58:43
and methodically stretched across the altar to a chalice.
58:48
Speaker 4: Where was the calf?
58:50
Speaker 3: Pastor Madison screamed through a trembling throat. The being extended
58:55
the chalice to knock. One of his fingers dipped inside
58:59
Pastor Maddie and.
59:00
Speaker 1: Peered at her.
59:01
Speaker 3: His face pleaded with her to catch his eye, but
59:03
she didn't.
59:05
Speaker 1: She caught mine.
59:06
Speaker 3: The bitter taste coat in my mouth, the sweet hope
59:09
was lost. Tears formed at my lashes, and still with
59:13
her eyes locked onto mine, her forearms crossed over her
59:16
heart and her head turned to the deity. Her eyes
59:19
were overcome by a milky white haze, and a smile
59:22
grew on her face. I shall, she answered, a question
59:27
that was never spoken. Pastor Madison rushed out of the church,
59:31
colliding shoulders with me on his way. I was choked
59:34
on the pleads that all wanted to escape my mouth.
59:37
Speaker 1: At once.
59:38
Speaker 3: She took a sip, and the crowd cheered. I could
59:41
see in her smile that her bliss intensified. She hummed
59:45
a melody that I was sure came to her at
59:47
that moment, a malady, just the same as the woman
59:49
singing the cow. Then the bones snapped, the spin compressed,
59:54
and the eyes bulged from their sockets, all while her
59:58
hum continued. The congregation began their alien chant alan the
1:00:03
calf and now knock shared in living death. The being
1:00:07
grabbed her new form. Its fingers became spears of speckled shadow,
1:00:12
piercing her abdomen and lifting her into the air effortlessly.
1:00:16
The chanting, now more rabbit.
1:00:18
Speaker 1: In the ear splitting.
1:00:20
Speaker 3: I couldn't move, I couldn't think, I couldn't even breathe.
1:00:23
As the bean's jaws unhinged with the crackling of falling trees,
1:00:27
Knock's unrecognizable forms slid into the bean until the hum
1:00:31
was no more. The crowd's chant again turned silent as
1:00:36
they waited for the rebirth. A girl with two perfectly
1:00:40
normalized and lips standing upright on the altar, Girl born
1:00:44
anew by pure faith, A girl that never came being
1:00:49
glided off with the altar and into the back room.
1:00:51
The knave was void of all sound, broken in a
1:00:54
moment by the faint cry of a little girl. Candle
1:00:58
flames chewed at the remainder of their wicks, leaving the
1:01:01
wax slain.
1:01:02
Speaker 1: In a puddle at their feet.
1:01:04
Speaker 3: The floorboards of the knave rested after they're deafening squeals
1:01:08
under the weight of the congregation.
1:01:10
Speaker 1: The altar left facant.
1:01:14
Speaker 3: Hours passed since I last saw a knock before I
1:01:16
found the strength to leave the church building, cloud suffocated
1:01:19
the moon of its light. Only lanyards dangling from the
1:01:23
porches of family domiciles led the way back to the hayloft.
1:01:26
The lonely Hayloft, tears well to Mike, tears well to
1:01:30
the corners of my eyes. Wiped them away with my
1:01:33
thumb and whipped the tears, poking at the back of
1:01:36
my eyes with a stern phrase, one more day. So
1:01:42
did knock die there?
1:01:44
Speaker 1: That's what I'm not sure of.
1:01:45
Speaker 2: I think that I mean, to an extent, you would
1:01:47
have to say that she did die and she was
1:01:50
born healthy. But I'm wondering if it's still the same person, Like,
1:01:53
if she still is the same.
1:01:55
Speaker 3: I would say that, but it sounds like she's dead,
1:01:58
because it says it picks her up, chanting more rabbit
1:02:01
and ear splitting, it swallows her. And then it says
1:02:04
the crowds chant turned as they waited for the rebirth,
1:02:07
a girl with two normal eyes and lips, a girl
1:02:10
born by faith, a girl that never came. And then
1:02:14
it says the being glided off at the alter and
1:02:16
into the back room. The knave was void of all
1:02:18
sound in a moment, broken in a moment by the
1:02:20
faint cry of a little girl, says candle Flames chewed
1:02:24
at the remainder of their wicks, leaving the wax flame floorboards.
1:02:28
The altar left vacant. Hours passed and side saw a
1:02:32
knock and I found the strength to leave the church building.
1:02:34
So I think what happened is it swallowed her and
1:02:38
then nothing new happened. It just killed her. She disappeared
1:02:41
into the void and they heard the cry. The crowd
1:02:44
heard a little cry, but that was it. So congratulations, dude,
1:02:49
you fed a child to this demon ghost thing.
1:02:53
Speaker 1: Yeah you could also.
1:02:55
Speaker 2: I guess it makes sense too where the pastor was
1:02:56
so freaked out and ran away as well.
1:02:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, you car reminds me of a little bit too.
1:03:01
Speaker 2: Not to keep comparing it to things, but in a way,
1:03:03
like I almost picturing the monster now, like the Midnight
1:03:05
Mass Vampire where people are going up and they're curing
1:03:08
their ailments and stuff, but it's like he's just a
1:03:11
fucking monster, like a guy is A guy is A
1:03:16
pastor basically is saying like this thing can heal you.
1:03:18
It's it's you know, he looks evil but it's fine,
1:03:22
but really it's just you know, wanting to harvest people's
1:03:26
blood and it's like transforming people. There's just similarities there
1:03:29
where I'm like, oh, that's where my mind keeps going to.
1:03:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, I think that sounds right, like a like
1:03:36
the pastor knew what was about to happen, but it
1:03:38
seems the congregation was dumb to it until it happened, right. Yeah,
1:03:42
they're waiting for the girl to be born anew, but
1:03:44
that is not what happened.
1:03:45
Speaker 1: Yeah.
1:03:46
Speaker 2: It almost makes you seem like everyone's there as well,
1:03:48
Like all the congregation is there because they maybe have
1:03:51
faith that they will be healed one day.
1:03:55
Speaker 3: Shit, everyone he comes across in the town has some.
1:03:59
Speaker 1: Deformance, a goddamn freak show allund town.
1:04:02
Speaker 3: And it's like the pastor is selling people on the
1:04:04
idea with animals like calves come forward and are kealed.
1:04:08
So all the people in town are like, oh, maybe
1:04:10
that can be me next. You know, maybe I could
1:04:12
be killed like that. But when a child is actually
1:04:15
fed to it, the Pastor's like, where's the calf? What's
1:04:18
going to happen? It just kills them. Right, So you
1:04:22
have a whole community of people who are waiting on there.
1:04:25
What was that the story in the Bible? Oh, the
1:04:27
Pool of Bethesda, a pool that an angel would come
1:04:30
and dip its swing into the pool, and anyone who
1:04:32
stepped into it would be healed, but whoever made it
1:04:34
to the water first. So people would just live by
1:04:36
the pool of Bethesda, hoping to be the first person
1:04:38
to come into the pool. And here you have a
1:04:41
sort of pool of Bethesda, but instead of it being
1:04:46
a healing water or like, whoever gets there first, it
1:04:51
is just the promise of the pool that has brought
1:04:54
all these people in without any at least as far
1:04:57
as we know, without any actual delivery on that promise.
1:05:00
Right after scaling the mountain of stairs to the hayloft,
1:05:03
I Creak opened the door to see the all too
1:05:05
familiar scene. A dreadful mattress nested in an iron haybell,
1:05:09
scattered on the floor, the broken window, with a pile
1:05:12
of fresh berries in the window sill, A figure rested
1:05:15
on a haybell. Excitement flushed over me. In an instant,
1:05:20
the room was draped in a flickering light cast it
1:05:22
from the lantern. At the hip of Pasture Madison, no
1:05:26
side of knock. His hands clasped together beneath his chin.
1:05:30
His lips moved as if to speak, but no words
1:05:32
came from them. The once pristine white robe draping from
1:05:36
his shoulders is not soured and tattered. Sorry, I imagine
1:05:41
it is is now soured and tattered from dirt, leaves
1:05:46
and thorns. Although this was my room for another night,
1:05:50
I couldn't help the feeling that I was intruding. I
1:05:53
turned to sneak back down the stairs when his voice
1:05:55
stopped me.
1:05:57
Speaker 1: Her name was Bell. His words quivered.
1:06:01
Speaker 3: From his lips, but still had an accusatory stab. I
1:06:05
turned to face him. He pushed against his knees to stand.
1:06:09
I could see his swollen eyes. With a sniff into
1:06:12
the sleeve of his robe, he continued.
1:06:15
Speaker 2: I'm not sure you didn't know. She never spoke to anyone,
1:06:19
but she listened. She always listened, and I believed with
1:06:22
full faith as she would listen.
1:06:24
Speaker 3: Again, faced around me like a shark, his eyes carefully
1:06:29
monitoring his next step as he.
1:06:30
Speaker 4: Spoke or what happened to her? Where is she?
1:06:35
Speaker 3: My words stopped. His encircling snarl curled his lip inward,
1:06:39
pressing a moment of rage. Rage simmered in me as well.
1:06:43
He continued, as if he didn't hear me.
1:06:46
Speaker 2: I told her to stay away from the church, and
1:06:47
she listened. I told her she was beautiful just the
1:06:51
way she was, and she had all the faith in
1:06:53
the world that she was.
1:06:57
Speaker 3: He turned, and he turned and stepped a foot for me.
1:07:01
His eyes met mine. The inoffensive facade he wore the
1:07:04
moment I met him shattered in.
1:07:06
Speaker 1: The lantern light.
1:07:08
Speaker 3: Then you come, the words bellow from his gut. He
1:07:11
pauses for a moment before continuing.
1:07:14
Speaker 2: I told her to stay away from the newcomer, and
1:07:16
she did until you. Now she wants to go into
1:07:20
the church. She wants to be changed. I told her
1:07:24
she would.
1:07:27
Speaker 3: He looked up to the heavens as if gravity would
1:07:29
keep his tear ducts at bay. Defeated, he sits back
1:07:32
on the hay bell for a moment.
1:07:34
Speaker 4: I told her she would see her brother again.
1:07:39
Speaker 3: The words were faint, like the wings of a gnat.
1:07:42
Pause followed, filled only by her breath.
1:07:46
Speaker 4: What happened to her?
1:07:48
Speaker 3: I insisted with a stern tone. He used to his
1:07:51
feet with the lantern in hand.
1:07:54
Speaker 1: She lost her faith, he.
1:07:56
Speaker 3: Admitted, attract him as he walked to the top of
1:07:59
the stairs. Keep the faith, mister Dowe, that is all
1:08:03
I ask, he whispered with a growl in his throat.
1:08:09
Then he and his lantern faded down the stairs, leaving
1:08:12
darkness in their wake the day of the festival. So
1:08:17
would you say that I'm sure it doesn't work. I'm
1:08:21
kind of more so believed what I did that no
1:08:23
one gets healed by this thing. But is the pastor
1:08:26
saying there that he told her not to come to
1:08:29
the church because she was supposed to have faith, that
1:08:33
she was okay, whereas others can be healed by it?
1:08:37
Speaker 1: Or is.
1:08:42
Speaker 3: What Maybe he cared about Bell and he didn't want
1:08:45
her to fall for the facade he was telling everyone else.
1:08:48
Speaker 1: Maybe Yeah, I don't know.
1:08:50
Speaker 2: I think it's still once again, there's just not enough
1:08:52
info to me. It almost reads at the end of
1:08:55
this paragraph of keep the faith means like trust what
1:08:59
I'm saying, because he's like she didn't keep the faith,
1:09:02
she didn't listen to him and say not to go
1:09:04
on the church. She's like, you're perfectly find the way
1:09:06
you are. That that I think that they're it's worth
1:09:11
living this life versus what you're given with this monster
1:09:14
or whatever. It could be that faith is an analogy
1:09:18
of like trust me, you know, like he kind of martyr,
1:09:20
the kind of thing or whatever.
1:09:21
Speaker 3: Keep the faith in me? Yeah, the morning beat my
1:09:24
eyelids open with a blinding ray. I begrudgingly stood from
1:09:28
the clutch of the rickety mattress. I looked at the
1:09:32
camera gear I stacked in the corner, batteries glowing their
1:09:35
solid green eyes as they hang on the sockets of
1:09:37
their chargers. I knew there was still a job to
1:09:41
be done, but how can I find a minuscule amount
1:09:43
of care? Started to grow concerned that I wasn't there
1:09:46
to film the documentary anyway, left the hayloft empty handed,
1:09:51
de send to the stairs, and walked circled around the
1:09:54
family huts. Every face I saw wars smile, and if
1:09:58
the children danced or ran through the open grass. A
1:10:01
couple of residents even waved hello. Still, their voices remained
1:10:05
a mystery until I heard a woman call out to me,
1:10:08
would you like some tea? I turned to see the
1:10:12
wife with the short and right leg and twisted cane
1:10:14
gesturing into her home. I debated continuing in my sulk,
1:10:18
but I was beginning to fill a bit parched by
1:10:20
that time, so I entered. The interior was just as
1:10:25
dilapidated as the outside. Cobwebs dressed the corners of the
1:10:29
single room. Splinters of sunlight glowed between the decayed wood paneling.
1:10:35
I sat at the table while a kettle dangled by
1:10:37
a chain over an open fireplace. Try to make small
1:10:41
talk about the upcoming festival.
1:10:43
Speaker 1: Oh, yes, we are so delighted to be going home soon.
1:10:49
Is this not your home?
1:10:52
Speaker 7: No, we've all only been here for about a month.
1:10:56
I guess all of us have except for you. When
1:11:00
the pastor finally messaged you he ruined one of his
1:11:03
last good robes in.
1:11:03
Speaker 3: Those woods, my stomach churned. I tried to warn her
1:11:07
that we all have to leave this place, that we
1:11:10
are not going to make it out of your live.
1:11:12
We all do not leave immediately, that our fate would
1:11:15
be the same as bells. Stickening snap of her bones
1:11:18
echoed in my mind. Her lips turned not in fear
1:11:22
or concern like I hoped, but piteous. She tapped her
1:11:26
finger against the handle of her cane.
1:11:28
Speaker 7: I was real sorry to hear what happened to your girl,
1:11:31
But we were all promised to cure, and we have
1:11:34
the good face to get it.
1:11:37
Speaker 1: I see.
1:11:38
Speaker 3: So the idea is like they each have their roll
1:11:41
and they see what happened to the little girls. Her
1:11:43
stepping out of line basically I see evening rolled in
1:11:47
with the heavy dread. People gathered outside of the barn
1:11:50
for the festivities. Lanterns hunt from broken broomsticks and pitchforks
1:11:55
stuck into the dirt in the open field by the barn.
1:11:58
The light circled the cluster of people as they danced, laughed,
1:12:01
clapped at the tune of a fiddler with a missing
1:12:03
foot stood outside the cluster. Camera equipment was still resting
1:12:08
in the hayloft. No perfect shots here. I watched the
1:12:13
tree line. I contemplated making the trek to my car
1:12:17
a thousand times that day to avoid what was sure
1:12:19
to be a grizzly display. But every time I look,
1:12:23
it feels more like a wall, like there was truly
1:12:26
no space between the trees.
1:12:28
Speaker 1: We were all ensnared.
1:12:31
Speaker 3: A figure approached from the dirt path connecting to the
1:12:33
center of the village. I dreaded the dad's approach, but
1:12:38
this figure was far too pale. It was Pastor madison
1:12:42
side that made my brows sweat even more. He bounced
1:12:46
two trays of identical chalices on top of each other
1:12:48
in his hands, his robe still tattered from the night before.
1:12:53
Speaker 2: Now it was the time for each of us, the
1:12:55
time to shed our flawed reality and be born anew.
1:12:59
Speaker 1: Please grab your cup everyone.
1:13:02
Speaker 3: Okay, so this hit. I made the Jim Jones shirt.
1:13:05
This is the Jim Jones joke. This is literally Jim Jones.
1:13:08
This is Jim Jones, Jim Jones, this is the kool aid.
1:13:12
Pastor Madison called over the crowd. The facade glued together
1:13:16
again behind a pleasant smile. The group did what they
1:13:20
were told, each one grabbing their cup and stepping away
1:13:23
from the cluster that formed around Pastor Madison. Cluster dwindled
1:13:27
until there was one cup remaining on the tray. Pastor
1:13:31
Madison caught me in his gaze. In an instant, my
1:13:34
spine scorned within me. As he approached the last cup extended,
1:13:40
be of good faith for your son, he whispers through
1:13:45
his teeth. With the cup extended to my chest. I
1:13:49
take the cup and consider his words for a moment.
1:13:52
Despite what happened to Belle, could this still be the
1:13:55
only chance my boy has? Look No, I look absolutely
1:14:01
from everything you know, do not drink this. I looked down.
1:14:04
Jim Jones. Yeah, I looked down into the cup. Black
1:14:08
liquid reflected my image back at me. I washed my
1:14:11
face distorted to the ripples.
1:14:14
Speaker 1: Drink and you shall be made in the true image.
1:14:19
Speaker 3: I will say the black liquid is accurate because Jim
1:14:21
Jones used great flavor.
1:14:23
Speaker 1: Aid, not cool Aid. Flavor Aid.
1:14:25
Speaker 3: Everyone not cool Aid flavor Aid, not to be smirched
1:14:28
the good name of kool Aid. It was flavoring. Pastor
1:14:31
Madison called over his followers one by one. Each of
1:14:34
them sucked down the black iker with heartfuls of faith.
1:14:39
A portrait of myself on a dust canvas stared back
1:14:42
at me again from within the chalice turned and walk
1:14:45
to the well, the cup into its chasm. Thank God. Oh, However,
1:14:51
sound that a rose was not that of liquid meaning
1:14:54
its likeness, or ker splashing against concrete. It was a
1:14:58
peculiar sound. I peeked over the Kabba wall to investigate.
1:15:03
A pit of despair awaited me. At the bottom was
1:15:07
a pile of the faithless and faithful alike, a mantle
1:15:11
of distorted hoofs and fur amassing dozens of corpses. At
1:15:16
the peak of the atrocious pile lie the body of
1:15:20
a contorted spine, bulging eyes, cleft lip, skin sucked to
1:15:25
the bone, leaving only the shell.
1:15:30
Speaker 1: All right.
1:15:30
Speaker 3: So is that uh cleft lip that's knock. Yeah, so
1:15:34
Knock's bodies at the top of the well.
1:15:36
Speaker 1: Yeah.
1:15:36
Speaker 2: And also it's like all the people, all the miracles
1:15:39
that they've quote unquote been doing, I believe, have just
1:15:41
been like thrown into this well. The bodies are thrown
1:15:45
into the Yeah, contorted hoofs and stuff, and those are
1:15:47
the cats and all that.
1:15:51
Speaker 3: False miracles basically is what it's false miracles. Yeah, he's
1:15:54
a false faith healer.
1:15:55
Speaker 5: Yeah.
1:15:56
Speaker 3: I ran for the tree line, rushing past the collection
1:15:59
of doom followers, the last of their poison. A more
1:16:02
melody trickled from the lips of the most eager, an
1:16:05
opener for the thunder of crushing bone. I gave myself
1:16:09
no time to pity them. The tree line was just
1:16:11
meters away and coming fast. I suppressed the sinking feeling
1:16:14
of being trapped there. Escape was my sole thought, even
1:16:17
if I had to smash through an invisible wall. The
1:16:20
space between the trees caved as easily as the rest
1:16:23
of the evening breeze. I spread it through, realizing that
1:16:26
the wall was not constructed by the deity, but my
1:16:28
own fear gave me a slight ease, But the true
1:16:32
piece was much farther from this place. I refused to
1:16:36
break shride the bringable, and thorns tore crimson twine into
1:16:39
my flesh. Their sting went unrecognized as I fixated on
1:16:43
the distance. My lungs burned as they filled with gulps
1:16:46
of air, my legs ached as they shoved the earth
1:16:49
behind me. After what felt like miles, my skin decided
1:16:52
to alert me to the damage that thornbush can do.
1:16:55
I collapsed. It had to have been fifty minutes. There
1:17:00
had to be a break in the trees just a
1:17:02
few more steps away my car, and therefore safety had
1:17:05
to be just ahead, checked over my shoulder, half expecting
1:17:09
the stace, the staticy, the statusy. It's not the word statusy,
1:17:15
no thing, it just staticky, but half expecting the staticky
1:17:19
amorphous apparition to step out from behind a tree and
1:17:21
devour me whole. Instead, it was empty behind the trees.
1:17:27
Only lullabies from the legs of crickets filled the forest.
1:17:31
Resting in front of me was a puddle, left undisturbed
1:17:33
by my frantic presence. In my exhausted state, the sight
1:17:38
of water was a blessing. I take handfuls of water
1:17:41
and splash it into my face. Reinvigorating coolness ees my
1:17:44
body and steadied my mind. Drink was tempting, but the
1:17:47
murky dirt swaying in the current of my creation muted
1:17:50
this temptation. When the dirt settled and the water stilled,
1:17:54
the remaining light of a gruesome day sculpted my reflection.
1:17:58
The reflection I'd seen in all my life seemed special
1:18:01
on that day. I fished in my pocket and pulled
1:18:04
my wallet from its steps, pulled our family portrait from
1:18:07
its plastic sheath, my wife and I fainting joy over
1:18:10
a pale white void. Carefully I unfolded the picture, vanishing
1:18:15
the void to the unseen and introducing Allen to the picture,
1:18:19
the one a few times he could be seen in
1:18:21
the photo since it had been taken. My journey home
1:18:24
continued with a rejuvenated vigor, no longer as I just
1:18:28
running away from the hordes of the village, but to
1:18:30
my family. The thought of returning to them brought me
1:18:33
a joy I hadn't felt it some time. The air
1:18:36
felt lighter, the insects more pleasant, and the trees more beautiful.
1:18:40
After only a few minutes of walking, the forest released me.
1:18:44
My car remained unchanged from the moment I left it home,
1:18:47
felt like a short drive away. I fished for my
1:18:50
keys in my pocket when I noticed something on the
1:18:52
other side of my car, crept around my vehicle, and
1:18:57
was left appalled by what lay before me Elaine's car.
1:19:01
Speaker 1: Oh no, stupid.
1:19:03
Speaker 3: Bit, Oh no oh, I was oh.
1:19:09
Speaker 1: No, oh, gosh it was.
1:19:14
Speaker 3: I thought we were ending right there. I thought that
1:19:17
was like gonna be the final note, is gonna be
1:19:19
like a happy, wholesome.
1:19:23
Speaker 5: There.
1:19:23
Speaker 1: I'd be like, that's so fucking stupid, dude, I'm glad.
1:19:26
Let's let's keep the ball rolling here.
1:19:30
Speaker 3: Well, I thought it'd be like I did think auld
1:19:32
end on that line. I thought it'd be like his
1:19:35
desperation to avoid what his child is led to him
1:19:38
sacrificing another child almost to test if it worked right,
1:19:42
right uh, and he'd have to live with that guilt
1:19:44
and that selfishness that overcame him.
1:19:46
Speaker 1: But he learned it was wrong.
1:19:48
Speaker 5: Right Uh.
1:19:49
Speaker 3: But now it looks like that should have done that
1:19:52
before you left to go to the cult, because now
1:19:54
you've imprinted that on your wife and now.
1:19:56
Speaker 1: She's here with the child. You know.
1:19:58
Speaker 3: Rip knock by the way, yeah, rippock, rip young knock.
1:20:01
Speaker 1: Especially knock, saying I trusted you fuck.
1:20:05
Speaker 3: Yep, and then getting just eviscerated by the entity and
1:20:08
then her body thrown like sucked drine thrown on top
1:20:12
of the aisle in animals. Yeah, poor thing, and like
1:20:17
she had that that that kindness where she was like
1:20:20
I believe or whatever she said to the entity before
1:20:22
it ripped her to pieces.
1:20:23
Speaker 1: Poor thing.
1:20:25
Speaker 3: The wall I thought was only in my mind was
1:20:27
finally in front of me, and I had to turn back.
1:20:31
The limbs of the forest tried to and stare me.
1:20:34
Their claws and spears tore the crimson threads of my
1:20:36
skin into leaking ropes. The puddle captured a shoe from
1:20:40
my foot, causing me to stumble but up fall. I
1:20:43
pushed forward with no thought of retrieving it. The twigs
1:20:45
and pebbles that made the forest carpet prodded at my
1:20:48
bare soul. With each stride, Night blanketed the woods, making
1:20:51
avoiding their painful afflictions futile. The burn of my lungs
1:20:55
returned sweat a rose on my brow. I had to
1:20:58
be almost there. What if in my haste I got
1:21:01
turned around. What if that thing is keeping me in
1:21:03
these woods? Just as quickly as the doubts arose, they
1:21:07
were silenced, and I appeared in the woods speckled with
1:21:10
age worn structures, the occupants of which were nowhere to
1:21:14
be seen. Evidence of their festival was scattered in the
1:21:17
field by the well. A handful of cups laid forgotten
1:21:20
in the moonlight grass, their contents sipped dry. A pair
1:21:25
of pants no longer suited for the contorted figure that
1:21:28
came to inhabit them. A twisted wooden cane from the
1:21:31
woman whose alments now surpassed its use. The church emitted
1:21:35
the flicker of candlelight. It had to be where everyone was.
1:21:39
I rushured as quickly as my exhausted muscles could take me.
1:21:42
The candle flames clung to the last flicker of life
1:21:45
as they gnawed at the remaining nubs of wick. The
1:21:48
puddle of wax escaped the clutches of the candle bras
1:21:52
candela bras ordaining the windows. The moon hid from this night,
1:21:56
leaving the stained glass windows dull and lifeless. Madison stood
1:22:00
of the podium, silent, his eyes not leaving the vacant
1:22:04
wood canvas between his clenched hands. Before him was a
1:22:08
line of followers, filled with the hopes of his teaching.
1:22:12
Their bones shifted and snapped out of their sockets, their
1:22:14
spines craned out of alignment. Their eyes were so filled
1:22:18
with promise that they now bulged from their skulls. Their
1:22:21
legs were twigs containing, barely reaching the threshold of strength
1:22:26
needed to stand. Their protruding knees wobbled under their weight.
1:22:30
At the end of the line was laying holding Allan
1:22:33
on her hip. Their presence in such a place may
1:22:35
be ill. I wasted no time in my warnings. I
1:22:39
told her what happened about the cattle, with our son's afflictions,
1:22:43
but the deity that claims to cure it, about Bell
1:22:46
and the well that houses her corpse. I spoke in
1:22:49
such frantic desperation that I must have seemed Matt. I
1:22:52
studied her face during an insufferably long pause. Her eyes
1:22:55
were wild with astonishment. Everyone here, she whispered with confused amazement. Yes,
1:23:04
and we have to leave, I said, as I turned
1:23:07
her to the exit. Her eyes were stuck to the
1:23:10
crowd of disfigured people. Panic burned to my gut. While
1:23:12
attempting in vain to pry her away from the spectacle.
1:23:15
Attempting to pry her eyes from the spectacle. I could
1:23:18
feel her stare beginning to break. When I could hear
1:23:21
a creak come from the altar. The back door was open.
1:23:26
Its presentation of the darkness swallowing the room beyond was
1:23:29
a call for Pastor Madison to begin his speech. His
1:23:32
eyes and spirit remained low.
1:23:35
Speaker 2: Tonight is a night of promise, a night of her birth.
1:23:39
As you approach, please do not allow fear to overcome you.
1:23:45
Speaker 3: As the Pastor spoke, Thedie unfolded from the darkness of
1:23:48
the back room. Its impersonation of the human form twisted
1:23:52
its arms into their sockets. Shoulders rolled into their presentable positions,
1:23:56
spines stiffening into posture with care for each joint, sending
1:24:00
in its head to the ceiling. The beings slid into
1:24:03
position in front of the line like fog. The newly
1:24:07
deformed congregation marveled at the figure as if it were
1:24:10
God returning to ail their troubles. I pleaded with the
1:24:13
Lanes to take our son and leave with me. She
1:24:16
was in awe of the sight before her. May you
1:24:19
have faith, Pastor Madison, muttered. With that statement, the being
1:24:26
lifted the first victim, in line with the ease of
1:24:28
a father lifting his infant. The woman and the beings clutched,
1:24:32
hummed to melody through grinning teeth, smile of comfort and anticipation.
1:24:37
Spite her newly acquired form, her original affliction was still apparent.
1:24:41
Her right leg was noticeably shorter than the other. The
1:24:44
deities jaw unhinged to accommodate the unsightly collection of skin
1:24:48
and bone. I turned to practically shoveling out of the
1:24:52
church door. When I felt it, A flame kindled from
1:24:54
within me. The warmth cleansed the fear and horror for
1:24:58
my bones. Every ounce of display as nodded within my
1:25:01
soul vanish. In an instant, I could feel the world
1:25:04
correcting deep within myself. When I heard from behind me
1:25:07
the shrill glee of a promise kept, I turned to
1:25:11
face the altar. The candle flames were rejuvenated. Their swaying
1:25:16
light filled the once overpowering darkness. The kind woman that
1:25:21
was just moments ago a broken collection of limbs, stood
1:25:24
at the side of the deity and danced her feet,
1:25:28
playing a song on the drums of the floorboards. Her
1:25:31
joy was uncontainable, such a palpable and infectious joy that
1:25:36
I had only seen in children before. Tears slid down
1:25:39
her face, lining the edges of her grin. She was
1:25:43
reborn with two legs of equal length. The sight was unbelievable.
1:25:48
Moments ago, I was ready to leave this place, convince
1:25:50
that its spewed only lies in de scene. But in
1:25:53
that moment, the truth bestowed itself unto me. One by one,
1:25:59
each person was taken into the embrace of the deity
1:26:02
and consumed, and each one walked out from behind its
1:26:05
static form anew warped. Limbs were straighten, amputations were undone,
1:26:11
Disorders were made orderly. The church was buzzing with laughter
1:26:14
and song. My eyes never wandered from the festivities. My
1:26:18
cheeks grew sore from smiling. Powers beyond this realm offered
1:26:22
themselves to us as correctors, a divine eracer, taking away
1:26:26
the unjust and unfair afflictions of our world, and I
1:26:30
was honored to be one of the first to witness
1:26:32
such a great cleanse. The last member to be reborn
1:26:37
walked out from behind the Deity, and to the celebration.
1:26:41
He was a boy no older than bell. Scar that
1:26:44
once carved through his hair and down to his neck
1:26:47
was no longer the only evidence of his existence set
1:26:50
in our memory. They were all cured, each one believed
1:26:55
in the promise they were told, and each one rewarded
1:26:58
with a new life. Manifestation of death was conquered in
1:27:02
minutes by this angel. An angel stood at the altar.
1:27:07
An angel promised a better life for all of us.
1:27:11
An angel now stared right at me. The unification of
1:27:15
our gaze brought a deep feeling of honor to me.
1:27:19
I knew what it wanted, and I wanted the same.
1:27:26
I turned to Elane, who createled Alan in her arms.
1:27:30
He was sleeping, unaware of the miracles being performed around him.
1:27:34
His eyelids failed to conceal the entire pell corny of
1:27:37
his eyes. His neck bent backwards with its usual violence.
1:27:43
I could see the veins running through his needle thin arms,
1:27:46
raising the crimson waters over the bone hills of his
1:27:48
elbows misfilled my eyes as I looked over him. I
1:27:52
was proud of him. I was proud of who he was,
1:27:56
what he had lived with. I looked up at a lane.
1:28:00
Her expression said what we both knew. She extended Alan
1:28:04
to me with grace. The broken cocoon that housed our
1:28:08
sun was ready to be shed. The candlelight felt even
1:28:12
brighter when I took Alan into my arms. It took
1:28:15
precaution to not jar him. As I transitioned between steps.
1:28:19
The aisle stretched for miles, the festivity ceased. The newborn
1:28:25
congregation watched my son with warm smiles, ready to accept
1:28:28
him in his new form. They began their chant in
1:28:32
a soft, caring whisper. The foreign language had a gentle
1:28:37
touch to the ear. Listening to their chance, I knew
1:28:39
it must have been the language of heaven. The fact
1:28:43
hit me like the warmth of a summer sun. The
1:28:47
deity stood just feet away from us. Its eye divits
1:28:51
remained steady under the waves of its features. They stayed
1:28:54
focused on us as we approached. The closer we came.
1:28:58
The Mord's human form at the border, like the container,
1:29:02
was cracking to the pressure. May have been a trick
1:29:06
of the eye from the candlelight. With the constant folding
1:29:09
of its features appear to mould a smile. I stood
1:29:15
before it, feeling unworthy of its presence. The smell of
1:29:19
sweet fruit enveloped to my nostrils. My neck strained to
1:29:23
meet its crater eyes. The jostling void on its head
1:29:27
molded the bare minimum to be considered a human looking face.
1:29:31
Yet the bare minimum was the most beautiful face I
1:29:34
had ever seen. My chicks went from a sore pain
1:29:39
to a numb acceptance of the smile I'd been wearing.
1:29:43
It was as if love and joy manifested in front
1:29:47
of me, and the form of pure beauty. A song
1:29:50
came to me in my bliss, I'm into. The tune
1:29:53
was as natural as breathing. I knew I had never
1:29:56
heard such a melancholic melody before, except maybe once from bell.
1:30:02
It felt comforting that her song would come to me
1:30:05
at that moment, that in some way she would be
1:30:08
redeemed by my faith, by my son's faith. The deity,
1:30:14
looking down at me with the loving eyes of a father,
1:30:18
reached toward Pastor Madison. Its arms was as long as
1:30:23
the task required. I watched it along gate to bridge
1:30:26
the divide between it and the chalice in the Pastor's hands.
1:30:30
With the ease of wind, it brought the chalice to
1:30:33
my chest. One of its spear fingers pierced the surface
1:30:37
of the water. Within the black of the finger dissipated
1:30:41
into the water, transforming it in the image of the angel,
1:30:46
a serving to the impure, an offering to the unworthy.
1:30:51
Instead reflection, I watched the face of the bean unaltered,
1:30:54
as for the first time. It crazed me with its words.
1:31:04
It was the sound of choirs harmonizing across language. It
1:31:07
was the bird serenading the worms from the earth. It
1:31:10
was all of creation offering their gratitude, and the Creator
1:31:12
giving their blessing. It was all things. It was nothing
1:31:16
ever heard before. The fire of happiness licked just beneath
1:31:20
my skin, blackening my insides. The world beyond that chalice vanished,
1:31:26
Nothing had any matter or consequence. Once I heard its words,
1:31:31
all I wanted to do was obey it's every command.
1:31:35
I wanted to devote everything I was to it. It
1:31:38
took the chalice. It was ice to the touch, as
1:31:42
if it was pulled from the depths of the Arctic
1:31:44
before being placed in my hand. The candle flames were
1:31:48
wide in color, The gold cup glistened against their glow.
1:31:52
The chance from the congregation boiled into a synchronous shout.
1:31:57
Their passion warmed me further my desire to worship and obey,
1:32:03
I shall my acceptance. Invited my God's hand, palm to
1:32:10
the heavens and pointed fingertips rested delicately in a row.
1:32:14
My son was still resting on my hip. So poor
1:32:17
body crumpled at my side, resting the beautiful soul buried
1:32:19
within the hand of God beckoned for him, offered to
1:32:24
mold the body and the image of the soul. I
1:32:28
handed my son to him. The hand grew to accommodate
1:32:31
his petite frame. My son, now in its possession, my
1:32:36
destiny hid within a cup. God's fingers wrapped around alan,
1:32:41
a cup filled with the iger of his being, a
1:32:46
cup filled with the egor of his blessing, filled with
1:32:49
a life void of imperfections. The hand raised my son
1:32:53
to the ceiling, to eye level. My lips pursed around
1:32:57
the rim of the cup, warming the frozen rim. Opened
1:33:01
my eyes to watch the Ichor roll on my lips.
1:33:03
The divine chance boomed from the crowd. God's jaws opened
1:33:07
the size of my son. I met myself at the
1:33:12
rim of the chalice. The Ikor was still in that moment,
1:33:15
plastered on its surface, was as shot as imperfect as
1:33:18
a shot could be. The hair under my nose grew
1:33:22
like the thorns of a bramble bush. Tears had been
1:33:25
leaking from my eyes without my knowledge, eyes that saw
1:33:29
the truth once and allowed it to muddy before them,
1:33:32
muddied in a milky haze, the eyes of bell. In
1:33:36
an instant, the burning white candles became their dying selves
1:33:39
once more. The sweet smell of fruit turned to us
1:33:42
suffocating damp rot, and the god I had just offered
1:33:46
my son to turned to the monster I knew.
1:33:48
Speaker 1: It to be.
1:33:50
Speaker 3: Without hesitation, I splashed the bean with the ichor of
1:33:52
my cup. The liquid kick steam into the air it
1:33:55
contacts with beans flesh, a screech.
1:33:58
Speaker 1: That sewed my ear.
1:33:59
Speaker 3: Drums cut from the depths of the creature before its
1:34:01
black form receded to a shadow on the floor and
1:34:05
darted into the back room. My son plummeted from the ceiling.
1:34:08
I dashed him in a panic, stretching my arms out
1:34:11
to save him from the harshwood below bud The sound
1:34:16
silenced the room, Even flames of the candle sees there flickering.
1:34:20
Only my breath could be heard. I could feel a
1:34:23
heavy weight in my arms his weight. Alan was safe.
1:34:26
I held him close to my chest, thankful for his safety.
1:34:29
Elaine ran to us and wrapped us both in an embrace,
1:34:31
truly together for the first time. A scream only born
1:34:36
of pure anguish, broke through the air. Pastor Madison rushed
1:34:40
to a figure sprawled under the floor where the being
1:34:42
once stood. Pastor fell to his knees and scooped the
1:34:45
figure into his grasp. It was a boy at one
1:34:48
point it was a boy, a boy no older than two,
1:34:51
judging by the tiny, severely decayed body. Patches of bone
1:34:55
poked through the rotted flesh at his chin, brow, and forehead.
1:35:00
An arm was snapped from its body on collision. The
1:35:03
clothes tattered over the boy were staining the color of
1:35:06
liquefied death. Yet the pastor mourned him as though his
1:35:09
death was fresh, stroking the remaining hairs that clung to
1:35:13
its scalp, watching them fall into his palm. A father
1:35:16
in need of a son, holding the body in need
1:35:18
of a soul, I took a Lamee by the hand
1:35:20
and Alan on my hip and walked down the middle
1:35:22
aisle to the exit.
1:35:24
Speaker 4: You took my daughter. Now you bring my son to me,
1:35:29
that's my boy, that disgusting body. His soul belongs to
1:35:33
my boy.
1:35:35
Speaker 3: The pastor shouted through the sorrow in his throat his
1:35:38
final plead to an empty church. His congregation undoubtedly shriveled
1:35:42
at the bottom of the well. His faith finally lost.
1:35:47
Two weeks after the festival. Interesting eh, final paragraph. Okay,
1:35:53
the moon ushered in another day. I gave Elen a
1:35:57
kiss and offered to take Allen to bed so she
1:35:59
could rest after her first shift back at the hospital.
1:36:02
I took Alan up the stairs, listening to their joyous creaks.
1:36:06
He was as beautiful as he had always been. I
1:36:09
was grateful every night that I could see it. He
1:36:12
was a little fussy still, so I decided to calm
1:36:14
him with the story.
1:36:15
Speaker 1: However, before I could rifle through the books.
1:36:18
Speaker 3: On his shelf, I no longer heard him. The fussy
1:36:21
required more energy than he had in his little body,
1:36:24
and he rested his chest delicately pulsed. I could hear
1:36:28
the slight hiss of air passing through his nose, and
1:36:32
placed my hand on the crown of his head, rubbed
1:36:34
his forehead with my thumbs. So I eased him into
1:36:37
a comfortable sleeve I heard a tune, a familiar tune
1:36:42
sung in the chirps of a bird standing in the window.
1:36:46
Still was the vocalist singing his haunting song, a vibrant
1:36:51
cardinal picking up the berries that were never there. That
1:36:56
is the end of berries in the window.
1:37:00
Speaker 1: I like that.
1:37:02
Speaker 3: I'd puhnd with it. What did you think of it?
1:37:05
Speaker 1: You know?
1:37:06
Speaker 2: I think I like the emotional tie in of a father.
1:37:09
I like the concept of a dad who is in
1:37:13
a way, not inadvertently saying.
1:37:14
Speaker 1: This, but ashamed of his son.
1:37:16
Speaker 2: I think he is unable to process the fact that
1:37:19
his son is disabled.
1:37:22
Speaker 1: And basically not how he sees fit. So he goes on.
1:37:25
Speaker 2: A selfish crusade. Well he gets a job, and it
1:37:31
leads to a selfish crusade of him being like, well
1:37:33
my son can be normal, versus accepting him for who
1:37:36
he is, and the nice tie in at the end
1:37:38
that he has that. I think in some places it
1:37:40
felt a bit rushed, like I just kind of I
1:37:42
just wish there was more to things, like even just
1:37:45
some of the stuff of like how did the pastor
1:37:47
even know about the kid?
1:37:49
Speaker 3: Or like I would assume so my idea was that
1:37:52
he was like my son needs a body, and that
1:37:54
whole thing, like all the ultrasounds looked fine for Alan
1:37:57
until he was born. The pastor did some kind of
1:38:00
ritual or some kind of promise that that child would
1:38:03
one day be delivered to him. It was effectively a
1:38:06
vessel for his son's soul to take over.
1:38:09
Speaker 1: I see well more of the story is.
1:38:12
Speaker 2: I felt like, I don't know, it felt like time
1:38:15
passed by kind of quickly. I kind of wanted to
1:38:17
sink more, just more teeth into stuff, like we kind
1:38:22
of we only get to talk to one of the
1:38:23
other people there and she's just like.
1:38:25
Speaker 1: Yep, we're going home.
1:38:25
Speaker 2: So like it just I wish we could have built
1:38:28
up this the scenario a bit more. I guess the
1:38:31
world around this area and the and the pastor a
1:38:34
bit more. But ah, in all, like I said, I mean,
1:38:36
I enjoy it. It has that kind of midnight midnight
1:38:39
mass vibe of a creature offering salvation in a fun way,
1:38:44
and I do think that it's interesting the idea. I
1:38:47
always love faith as a concept for a story, and
1:38:51
having faith in yourself and having faith in your child
1:38:54
at the end, I think is a really fun conclusion.
1:38:58
Like I like the character arc there that the dad had.
1:39:01
But all in all, like I said, with a lot
1:39:03
of these things too, it happens. And also just to
1:39:05
keep in mind Kevin Jones, I think he has two stories.
1:39:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, this being one of the first two stories. Uh,
1:39:11
it's pretty awesome.
1:39:13
Speaker 2: And I think as time goes there'll be more of
1:39:15
those instinctive you know. And I think the the the
1:39:21
you like very flowery, like very very flowery, very like
1:39:25
everything almost felt poetic, you know, with how he was
1:39:29
describing things, and I think just a bit more like
1:39:33
I would have loved to hear more and have that
1:39:35
realization that it's like because I do like that.
1:39:37
Speaker 1: I like the bit of yeah.
1:39:39
Speaker 2: Like we're we have only been here a month, Yeah
1:39:42
he messaged you a month ago, and it's like they're
1:39:44
not villagers, they're people that just kind of showed up
1:39:46
and are looking for a cure themselves. I think kind
1:39:51
of trying to stretch that out would have been nice.
1:39:53
But once again, these are all just subjective thoughts and stuff.
1:39:56
I think all in all, I really enjoyed the the
1:39:59
I enjoyed the p I also am just a huge
1:40:01
sucker for like cold, weird religious shit that that's just
1:40:04
like a flavor I always enjoy.
1:40:06
Speaker 3: I like the characters, like, yes, it was very Jim
1:40:09
Jones at least look inspired in the kool Aid and
1:40:10
stuff like that. But I do think it's interesting how
1:40:14
to much agree because it never mentioned all the people
1:40:16
in the congregation. Dye, it sounds like it worked for
1:40:21
everyone else, right. I thought that it's like the hole
1:40:24
and left. I thought that it was like a well,
1:40:26
I don't know.
1:40:27
Speaker 2: That's the kind of thing too, is some of the
1:40:28
moments in this reading it, which it could be me
1:40:32
just being a bit of an airhead, but I found
1:40:35
that it was kind of hard to keep up with
1:40:36
what was kind of happening because also at the end
1:40:39
it's like, yeah, they're getting healed, and it's like, oh,
1:40:42
this is working, and then you have this moment of
1:40:44
him being won over and then he kind of just
1:40:47
was like, well, then I see it for its true form.
1:40:49
Speaker 1: To me, it almost felt like it was it was giving.
1:40:53
Speaker 3: It was like putting on a show, but really all
1:40:55
the people were dead in the well, Like the reality
1:40:58
is still there that the girl is still on there
1:41:00
and the congregation, but.
1:41:01
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's true.
1:41:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that could very well be true, because that's
1:41:05
the whole thing too, is it seems like the pastor
1:41:07
is selling, is selling everybody on this false promise. And
1:41:12
also there's the fun mirroring of like the pastor and
1:41:15
his family of the pastor had the same thing of
1:41:18
he is now basically trying to find a way to
1:41:22
like have the souls for his son, you know, like
1:41:25
it's a very selfish response of like what the pastor
1:41:27
wants for his kid versus what our protagonist wants for
1:41:32
Allan and like his boy. So you kind of you
1:41:35
kind of get the healthier relationship that Alan's. You know,
1:41:39
Alan had his ending of just being accepted and his dad's.
1:41:42
Speaker 1: Gonna love him.
1:41:42
Speaker 2: Now he kind of has like he actually looks at
1:41:44
him like a son versus the pastor looks at him
1:41:47
like a dead child. And now it's like a demon
1:41:49
that needs to have souls and shit.
1:41:51
Speaker 1: The parallel there is really fun, but it's pretty good.
1:41:54
Speaker 3: I also like the detail of like, so the pastor
1:41:57
had this congregation and he had two kids he had
1:42:00
and his son, and then it's like one of the
1:42:04
sons dies, so he does whatever this is to get
1:42:06
another one. And at that scene, where our writer brings
1:42:12
bell into the congregation. The pastor knows what's going to happen,
1:42:16
but he can't let the guys up because he can't
1:42:20
tip off our rider because then our writer won't end
1:42:23
up bringing his son, or he'll leave beforehand or something,
1:42:26
and he also can't let the congregation know, so he
1:42:28
just has to leave the room and be angry about
1:42:30
it because our writer is still the only hope he
1:42:33
has at getting his son a new body, right, so
1:42:35
it puts him in an interesting positions. That's an interesting characterization.
1:42:39
Speaker 1: I like like for as short as it was for
1:42:41
what did.
1:42:41
Speaker 3: Yes, I agreed it could be longer in some parts,
1:42:45
but for what it did, I like how it pulled
1:42:47
it off. I really like that whole segment where it's
1:42:50
his description of what the quote unquote angel looks like
1:42:53
and how beautiful it is, only to then see through
1:42:55
the guys and see it for the demon that it is.
1:42:58
That was a cool note.
1:43:00
Speaker 2: And I think when I say longer, I guess I
1:43:02
just mean more clarification on things, more of like a
1:43:05
setup of enveloping. I wanted to be more enveloped in
1:43:08
this small town and stuff, like there's so many great
1:43:12
starts off by like just this church that's this kind
1:43:15
of like faceless church and this like kind of almost like.
1:43:17
Speaker 3: Resid the mention of a church without a cross is
1:43:20
a fund.
1:43:21
Speaker 2: Just kind of like just the size of the like
1:43:23
a I mean just essentially a barn, a decorated barn
1:43:26
is what it is. And you know, I was kind
1:43:28
of picturing the place as this resident evil four kind
1:43:31
of village of just like yeah, freaks walking around and stuff,
1:43:35
and I think just getting to know them, because I
1:43:37
think the highlight.
1:43:38
Speaker 1: Of the story is Knock.
1:43:40
Speaker 2: I love that character, and I think getting to experience
1:43:44
more with her and just understanding more of the intention.
1:43:47
And I think it's just more so as well, because
1:43:49
I just feel a little lost on like it was.
1:43:53
It was pieced together in such a way where I
1:43:55
understand the gist of it, but I wanted, I think
1:43:57
I just want to make sure I wouldsh I wish
1:43:59
I would have like left the story feeling like I
1:44:02
had my head wrapped around all of it and I
1:44:04
wasn't just so.
1:44:05
Speaker 1: Like, well, is that, what is that? What was what
1:44:08
was happening here? Or whatever else?
1:44:10
Speaker 2: But once again just subjective, just you know me just
1:44:13
for the food criticism or whatever.
1:44:15
Speaker 3: I just that's I think a seven and a.
1:44:18
Speaker 1: Half, uh out of.
1:44:20
Speaker 3: Ten is a good rank. And seven and a half
1:44:21
or eight out of ten, yeah, I think that's about right.
1:44:24
Speaker 2: The all in all though, once again for second story,
1:44:27
I mean, I I love that this is wrote, that
1:44:29
this was road this year, that this is something that like,
1:44:32
I love that these horror stories are continuously being written.
1:44:36
Speaker 1: That's I love that.
1:44:37
Speaker 2: And I love that someone just put their you know,
1:44:40
creativity and who knows, you know, I mean, I don't know,
1:44:43
you know, we don't know Kevin Jones, but there could
1:44:45
be some inmblence of like maybe some kind of personal
1:44:48
story in there, you know, like personal aspect of this
1:44:51
and exaggerated to fit a horror story.
1:44:53
Speaker 3: I think he went to Jim Jones cult Mill the Woods,
1:44:56
you know, because.
1:44:57
Speaker 6: Better you know.
1:44:57
Speaker 2: It was kind of weird, is my My buddy was
1:44:59
really religious when I was growing up, and his brother
1:45:03
had a mental disability, and I remember the dad always
1:45:07
taking in to church and like having people pray for him.
1:45:10
It was just kind of very It was just creepying
1:45:11
away where it was like healless boy, and I'm like,
1:45:13
he's gonna be like that, that's just who he is,
1:45:16
you know what I mean. So just like you just
1:45:18
never know how people are, you know what kind of
1:45:21
experiences people had.
1:45:22
Speaker 1: But all in all, I love the flavor of this
1:45:24
story and just the visuals.
1:45:26
Speaker 3: So I remember there was near where I grew up.
1:45:31
There's this story of this family who liked their daughter
1:45:34
who was like nine or ten.
1:45:36
Speaker 1: This is like back in the eighties.
1:45:37
Speaker 3: She had appendicitis and her appendix ruptured and they wouldn't
1:45:40
take her to a hospital. They just had like a
1:45:42
bunch of pastors can pray over her and stuff, and
1:45:44
she died.
1:45:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's scared. I had to decide us. I mean,
1:45:47
I can't imagine.
1:45:48
Speaker 3: Serious, you gotta get that taken care of quick.
1:45:51
Speaker 2: It's it's so painful, and then you just kind of
1:45:53
black out whenever it's I mean, it's it's fucked.
1:45:56
Speaker 1: So that's just horrifying, just.
1:45:58
Speaker 3: The the weird for everyone. The parents did go to
1:46:02
jail the couch case. They did go to jail, So
1:46:04
it's not like.
1:46:05
Speaker 2: That ends in a somewhat happy ending, a little bit
1:46:08
at least a little bit of justice. But yeah, I know,
1:46:11
I always love religion as a theme, especially I think
1:46:15
that's why.
1:46:16
Speaker 1: I know, I get maimed on a lot.
1:46:17
Speaker 2: But like love crafty and stuff and things of religions
1:46:21
and ideas and followers from unknown places, and you know,
1:46:27
it's always just so fun. That's also why I love
1:46:29
that movie The Wickerman, where it's you have these pagan
1:46:31
things of religions that are older than humans, you know,
1:46:34
they're mandated back to born from the Earth, coming from
1:46:38
the Earth kind of stuff, and stories like this, Uh
1:46:42
just kind of tickle that bone a bit, and I
1:46:44
think it's fun, especially whenever they almost disguise themselves as you.
1:46:48
Speaker 1: Know, worldly religions like Christianity or something.
1:46:50
Speaker 2: They use that guys to get people lower people in
1:46:53
like a venus fly trap almost to catch them. So
1:46:57
really really fun. But yeah, no, Kevin Jones, yeah bro,
1:47:00
we appreciate you. We'll put his Twitter as well, just.
1:47:03
Speaker 3: Because he has I'll throw Twitter down there.
1:47:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll throw this Twitter down there, and we'll just
1:47:07
give him a follow and check out his other work.
1:47:09
Hopefully maybe in the future we'll read it as well.
1:47:11
But Kevin, good job, buddy. And once again this is
1:47:14
just proof too that this, you know, creepypastas are still
1:47:17
alive baby, you know right?
1:47:19
Speaker 3: Okay again, still going strong. We're gonna be doing this
1:47:21
for years to stay. You're sure, yeah, well we'll see.
1:47:26
We'll definitely see. But you know, you know for a
1:47:29
fact you're not turning down this paycheck.
1:47:31
Speaker 1: Well maybe not. That's why I thought. Guys, this is
1:47:35
Barry's in the window. Thank you so much.
1:47:37
Speaker 2: Also, we didn't say at the beginning of this episode,
1:47:39
but please consider listening to this podcast on Spotify or
1:47:43
Apple Podcast. It really does help us out. Give us
1:47:45
a nice positive rating there.
1:47:46
Speaker 3: We have to beat Ben Shapiro into the dirt.
1:47:48
Speaker 1: We have to. We have to do it.
1:47:50
Speaker 2: And just thank you guys so much again for the support.
1:47:52
This is the years been insane, uh And I hope
1:47:55
you enjoy your holidays.
1:47:56
Speaker 1: Stay safe out there. Safe travels to everyone, and we
1:47:59
will you in the next one.
1:48:02
Speaker 3: See you all in the next one. And don't give
1:48:05
your children to weird angel demon things unless you really
1:48:09
want to, I guess.
1:48:10
Speaker 5: Bye.
1:48:59
Speaker 3: H