The Light at the End of the Tunnel

The Light at the End of the Tunnel1

"Dude, this story is wicked."2

"What story," I asked of Steve, whose face was buried in the local newspaper. He dropped it down just far enough to reveal his eyes, and from behind the paper came his muffled voice once more.3

"A murder, in Ransom. It was a missing person report since Halloween, and they found the body three days later."4

"Ransom?" The name brought up bad memories. 5

"Yeah, dude. The body was found in an old covered bridge that's never used any more. They'd been... Let me see..." And with this he buried himself back in the paper. I had been preoccupied with writing down the events that took place over Halloween to notice anything else that was going on around me, but now I lost interest and wanted to know more about this story. Anything that happenned in Ransom had to be funk.6

"Yeah," he finally said, having found the part of the story he'd been looking for. "Police blah-blah and blah-blah found blah-blah-blah and, listen to this, remains strewn about the old covered bridge on Ransom ave and third street in Ransom early this morning. And any blah-blah leading to the arrest of the blah blah can be blah..."7

"Okay, I get it," I sighed, and stood up. "Let's show this to someone. It sounds interesting."8

The day was cool, windy, and overcast. It wasn't a terrible day, but it wasn't a particularly nice one either. It figured that when we made it back to the dorms and went into Phil's room that we would find him fast asleep. We knew better to wake him under the circumstances, and so we decided to hold a secret council with the others.9

A half an hour later, we had called the girls and nabbed Tim out of his room, and were gathered back in the Rec Room.10

"So here's the deal... This story looks extremely funktified. I wouldn't doubt if we found out something interesting while we were there."11

"Like what?" Laura asked. She looked completely unwilling to do this. I couldn't blame her, though. First off, it was a long hike to Ransom, and we all knew that Ransom was not a very happy place. Secondly, is this was funk it was some of the worst I've ever seen make it into the papers. Here's what the story said, minus Steve's incessant blathering...12

Ransom. Police are baffled this morning by the discovery of the body of fifteen year old student Jennifer O'Connell. She had been missing since October 31st, police say, having been reported missing after she did not return home after a Halloween party. Police found her remains strewn about the old covered bridge on Ransom ave and Third street in Ransom early this morning after an extensive search of the area within ten miles of the girl's last known whereabouts. Any more information remains closed to the public as police continue to look for the suspect.13

It seemed to be pretty straightforward... A girl had gone to a Halloween party looking for a good time, and found a little too good of a time with some guy she didn't know. He took her to the bridge, and pow... it was all over. It was a cut-and-dry case, like a thousand others that happen every day.14

But that couldn't be the situation here. Nothing that came out of the town of Ransom could be overlooked. Even if this was just a regular case, funk had to have some hand in it. Steve and I wanted to check it out.15

"It's another three-hour drive to Ransom... I don't know if I could handle that." Cassy looked seriously depressed that we were even thinking about this. Katrina, on the other hand, seemed more than just a little interested.16

"I'll go, if you guys are going to," she said. "I think it could prove to be... interesting."17

"That worries me," Laura said sheepishly. "Um, this doesn't sound very fun to me at all."18

"No, it doesn't," Cassy added.19

"No, you're right, it doesn't," I said, "but this is what we do. We're not the Funk Club anymore. We're ESPER now, and we need to start acting like it. One of our big things is that we're supposed to help others."20

"How are we gonna help that poor little girl? She's dead!"21

I looked at Cassy with a little twinge of sadness. Nothing could help that now. But there was some way that we could help.22

"We know things the police don't," I said ardently. "If this killer struck in the name of Funk, or because of it, we might be able to help bring him down. As sad as it sounds, we probably know the mind of a killer better than the best police profiler."23

"Maybe," Cassy said, "but it doesn't mean we have to get ourselves killed or arrested."24

"We won't get neither, dude," said Steve. I corrected him. 25

"Either."26

"That too. Dude, it's like, there's this big frickin' knife in society's back. Like, we can pull it out. Dude, I know we can. We should give it a shot."27

Katrina looked askew at Steve. "A... Big... Frickin'... Knife... In society's back. I must admit, it is a good simile, but kind of misguided."28

"We would be putting ourselves in danger," Cassy said.29

"So?" I cried. "What's the point? Tell me, what's the point of having the cure to cancer if you aren't going to give it out?"30

"We don't have the cure," Laura said. "It's kind of like a medication."31

"It's better than what there is right now," Steve yapped. "Nothin', dude. Nothin' at all."32

"So, who's with us?" I pleaded.33

Ian and Phil for the first time were out of the loop. Laura and Katrina sat behind Cassy and I, and Tim and Steve were getting booted around in the far back. I knew this station wagon might prove useful, although it still looked like the type of car an old man might drive. That's why I still hadn't gotten rid of it, although none of the other students at Colony Hills seemed to like it very much. It had been my dad's, and my brother's... It was keeping three whole generations of Angstroms on the road. Now, since Betsy was smashed in, it would have to serve as the official ride of ESPER.34

The trip was a long one, but not quite as long this time. Last time we went to Ransom, there was a whole lot on our minds, and we were completely silent the entire journey. This time, despite what everybody was saying, I think we were all a little more secure in ourselves and with each other and were able to relax. It might also have been because none of us were expecting to have to deal with anything.35

We were wrong.36

It had been Big Ed Rollings who always wanted us to fill out forms and permission slips to go anywhere further than twenty miles from campus. The new dean, also named Ed but not the total waste of humanity that had been our last dean, was cool with us going home on weekends and bringing our friends. He didn't even ask. Thus, we had the rest of Friday to get there and all day Saturday and Sunday to "work our magic." Then, we would come home Sunday night early on into Monday morning, get into bed, and be ready for class the next day. No one would have a clue what we had done, and only Ian or Phil might ask, if they even noticed.37

"Why couldn't we tell Ian, or at least Phil?" Laura was fretting now, not for the prospect of what lie before us, but behind.38

"Don't worry," I said, "We are ESPER, each one of us. Ian wants us to be independent. He wants us to someday succeed him in being the big head honcho. One of these days we're going to be on our own, and I say we need to start practicing now."39

"This is a rather dangerous way to start," Katrina said. I guess that she and Laura had been talking privately in the seat behind me and decided to voice their concerns together. As I was about to reply she started again. "I mean, just checking a place out, or some old legends or something, that would be fine. But we're looking into a psychopath here who eviscerates little girls. If that isn't bad enough, we're butting into police territory."40

I tried to ease their minds a bit, but they became more and more agitated as time went on. The final half-hour of the trip was the worst, and I think that's because when you show up in Ransom, it's almost like Ransom knows you're there. It really is a disquieting feeling. I had forgotten how bad it was until we actually got there.41

The main concern they kept bringing up was that this was a job for the police, and that muscling in on a police investigation could wind us all up in the bighouse. At that point in time, they were keen on reminding me, we would not be back in class on Monday, or anytime soon.42

All Steve and Tim worried about was the discomfort in the back of the station wagon. With no seat belts, every corner sent them tumbling around, and they were not very happy.43

"We need a frippin' van," Tim said quite a few times.44

Ransom was almost like a ghost town. There were a couple of shops, and a few houses you could see in the distance. There was one place where a house used to stand, and I'm pretty glad it wasn't there anymore. I won't say which house it was, or why it wasn't there anymore, just like I didn't say when it actually happened. Legal issues and all. Just know that I was very happy this particular house was no longer there.45

There was a lot of wooded area, and the roads were all slim. Two cars had to wait to pass each other, but that wasn't a problem because two cars rarely passed at all on those abandoned streets. Only one street was a two-way, and it was Ransom ave. The Avenue, as the Ransom folk called it, was the main road that you had to pass as you went through the middle of town. Further on out, however, once you passed the town and were nearing the highway, it placed you back in deep woods with only one-and-a-half lane. This was right about where Third street crossed it.46

It was a while before we got there. This road was very long and it was quite a ways from the middle of town to the edge of town and then it was double that distance back to the highway. Somewhere in between the edge of town and the highway was where we found the smaller road. Third street was not actually a crossing street at all, but rather a completely disused overpass. I guess there had been "town" there before, but now Third street was a ghost road, running between nothing and nothing and intersecting the Avenue in a little covered bridge.47

We were getting ready to turn around, thinking we'd missed it, when Cassy pointed up.48

"There it is," she whispered. Everyone heard this, even Steve and Tim who had passed out in the back and had been rolling around unsecured in the back for about ten minutes. Laura and Katrina leaned over the center column, and the guys followed them by climbing over the back seat. We all were looking now at the little grey stone building atop the road, barely visible in the trees. Its top was black pitch and poked over the higher branches. An old brown sign hung down from the overpass and read "T-IRD ST." Of course, Tim and Steve both laughed about this. However, prolonged looking at the stone construct above us as I slowed the car down to a crawl put a little soberness back into everyone present. Especially when we noticed the broken strands of yellow police tape that hung limply in some of the branches and remembered what had happened here.49

"That thing's hideous," Cassy said. Indeed, with Daylight Savings Time upon us, the afternoon was growing grey and the darkness was, for five o' clock, regular. Of course, in Ransom nothing was regular, and especially not in darkness. 50

...And especially not this bridge.51

We were obviously not going to stop to take a look at the thing in the dark, which would be upon us by the time we could park the car and get here. As I executed a three-point turn (a seven-point turn is a little more like it) and went back by it, I had everyone in the car look for a good place to park when next we came this way.52

"There's one," Laura said, looking out her window at a patch of dirt off the side of the road that gaveroom enough for me to park and probably still let two cars pass each other without hitting me. The chances two cars would have to pass right at that point were phenomenal, but I've already explained how important my car was to both me and ESPER. 53

The long ride back to town was just that... long. We were silent again, just like we had been last time we came this way a few months ago. Ransom did not bring out the best in anyone. If I had my say in the matter, I would say that this murder had taken place solely because it was in this godforsaken town. When finally we arrived where there were streetlights illuminating at least something of the road, it became a little easier to breathe. Of course, we had all felt those dark things that loomed just outside the windows. I noticed that Cassy and Laura, who were both the type that gaze ponderously out the windows in a car, were both looking down at their laps. Once I noticed Cassy turn to look out the window for a second but jerk back to the attention of her lap. I took her hand.54

"I'm okay," she whispered.55

"Of course you are," I said as romantically as I could under the circumstances. "You're with me."56

"Yeah," she smiled, and I smiled too. "I'm with all of you. I'm with ESPER."57

This was not exactly what I was trying to get across, and I couldn't necessarily "shrug it off," but I guess that was better than nothing.58

We finally got back to the little hole in the wall where we had stayed on our last "excursion" to Ransom. The same large, gruff woman was there that I thought ran the corner store, and she looked less than pleased to service us. Then again, that awful face probably would look less than pleased under almost any circumstance. I stepped up to the desk and slapped my ID down on the table.59

"No need. Yer in the system."60

I didn't like how that sounded, and was also quite unhappy that this monstrosity even remembered me in the first place. I smiled brightly (and fictitiously) as I replaced my ID in my wallet. 61

"Yep. We're back again," I said, maintaining the smile and somehow managing to increase its size. She looked at me hungrily and spoke again.62

"Why?" I didn't like that question.63

"We like this place. It's so cool. The woods and all, and the small-town feel of it. It's just a really nice and relaxing place to come visit." I lied through my teeth.64

...And she just about guffawed at me.65

"This hell-hole? Love, yew can do a whole lot better'n ol' Ransom."66

I tried to smile and say no more, and she seemed to like that arrangement. After some paperwork she pulled a key from a pegboard on the wall and handed it to me. The oval-shaped off-white tag bore a piece of masking tape on which was penned "157" in black Sharpie. As we filed out of the office, I swear she was watching us all with baggy yet fiery eyes.67

We were being really quiet again. Without speaking to each other, we arranged ourselves into the same sleeping arrangements as last time. Tim was out a spot, and so I sat down on the edge of Cassy's bed and dialed zero. Steeling myself for the gruff voice I was expecting, I was almost shocked back to reality when a young, clear female voice answered the phone.68

"Housekeeping."69

"Oh, yes..." I stammered. "Um, we need another blanket and comforter and maybe a pillow or two to room one-five-seven, please."70

"Certainly," the voice said, "I'll bring it in just a moment."71

"Thank you," I said, and she returned the sentiment before hanging up.72

The dark sky had broken open, and a little rain could be seen spilling out of the clouds in the moonlight. Otherwise, nothing could be seen. It was only six o'clock and already the darkness was unbearable. I stared out the window intently while everyone else sat around watching a small television that could only receive fuzzy local channels. For Ransom, there were not many channels that could be considered "local." I found the darkness more interesting, and the lone streetlight outside our room which reflected the passing drops of water from the sky. It was really coming down hard now. It felt almost terrifying, like the rain was concealing73

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK74

I jumped back and let out a weak scream. The others didn't even seem to notice, and Tim politely stopped Cassy from getting it and got up to answer the door. He almost pulled the same maneuver when he saw the gorgeous young lady standing at the door.75

"Well, hello, miss!" he cooed. "I'm Tim Durham."76

"Did you want some blankets, Mr. Durham?" she asked, completely ignoring his obvious flirtation.77

"Ummmm, yeah. So, what's your name?"78

She offered a quick smile and said it. "Jennifer."79

"Well, Jenny, did you..." Tim didn't go any further than this before the girl broke down crying.80

We got her in the room and closed the door. Under the yellow hooded parka she wore was a crown of long blonde hair held up in the back with a pink scrunchy. Now that we could see her more clearly, it was obvious that she was much too young for Tim. That didn't stop him from putting the charm on her, but there were more important things afoot.81

"So, how old are you?" Tim tried to get, but Cassy smacked him in the back of the head.82

"Stop trying to ob-ray the adle-cray, Timothy," she hissed in his ear. I sat down next to the girl and Laura sat in front of her and took her hand.83

"What's wrong, sweetie," Laura said sympathetically while stroking the girl's hand. She looked up, eyes blurry with tears, at Laura and spoke after a few sobs and sniffles.84

"I'm... Just Jennifer," she wept. "Jenny was what we called Jennifer O'Connell." She went into such deep throes of agony that we couldn't console her. While Laura held her hand she turned her face to me and mouthed "Jennifer O'Connell" with a look of wonder on her face. Cassy moved from where she had been scolding Tim and sat right behind me. I felt her hands take my shoulders and her warm breath on my cheek as she whispered into my ear.85

"That'sthe girl that was killed."86

I figured there was only one way we could succeed in our mission, and it was to employ this young girl. Obviously, being close to the victim, she could provide us invaluable information, but how could use her without keeping her trust? This was going to be a tough one.87

"Who is Jenny O'Connell?" Laura asked. Obviously, she knew the name, but she had a plan.88

"Duh," came Tim's voice. "That's the..." and Cassy smacked him into quietness.89

The little girl looked up at me, and then at Laura, as if to ask her if it was alright to talk in front of me.90

"It's okay," she said. "Go ahead and tell us."91

"Well," Jennifer started, looking back uncomfortably at me, "she... she was my best friend. We grew up together. Like..." Here she started fanning herself with one hand, clutching Laura with the other. "Like, she's dead." The girl went back to weeping, and through it all we could barely hear her last statement.92

"I have to go."93

She got up, continuing to hold Laura's hand until she couldn't any longer. She stepped out of the door and let it crash shut behind her, and we watched through the window as she put her hood on and ran off into the rainy night. I stood up and went to the wi...94

FLASH her face twisted in a scream of terror her head in the hand of...95

I almost wasn't expecting the flash, since none had really come the entire trip. This one freaked me out, having taken me by surprise, and I jumped back and threw the curtain shut. The flash never really ended, though, which bothered me even more. I knew that if I opened the curtain again I'd see it again: the huge, dimwitted man that stood there with Jenny O'Connell's severed head in his hand. It was so real... it was even wet from the rain. The girls blonde, blood-stained hair was matted to the man's shaggy bare arm and her mascara mingled with blood dripped off her chin in pink and black rivulets. The man... his empty, soulless eyes were the eyes of a child, but the eyes of a madman. He must have weighed four hundred pounds, and the hair on his five chins was thick but not enough to have ever seen a razor. The trucker hat that crowned him looked like it was plopped on top of the unruly mop of sandy hair and not actually on the head. The killer wore bright red Farmer John pajamas that were torn and dirty. 96

This was the worst thing I could have imagined. The killer somehow knew where we were, what we were there for, and wanted to make sure we didn't get a chance to do it. The girls had been right. We should never have come here and tried this. Ghosts and superstitions and even demons were one thing, but to deal with a living, breathing psychopath was another.97

Then again, I had been sitting there thinking about it for a while.98

"What's wrong, honey?" Cassy said, jumping up at me. For some reason, I thought I had fallen down, but I was standing there shaking in my shoes. Laura and Tim gathered around me as I mumbled something. I don't remember what it was, but it must have been about the window because Tim reached out and pulled the curtain aside.99

I screamed.100

"What's wrong?" Laura said, and she started shaking me. Cassy had my hand and put it up to her face.101

"Sweetie, you need to relax. Hon, please!" 102

"What's friggin' wrong, man?" Tim was standing around there at the window wondeering what to do.103

The fat man in the window holding the severed head said something, but I couldn't hear him through the window and in the rain.104

I'm pretty sure Steve was sleeping. Soundly. Nevertheless, I kept right on screaming.105

The man in the window came closer, and pressed both his own face and the face of the girl to the window. Her blood smeared all over, and now I knew that this was not a flash.106

But why hadn't anyone else seen it?107

I pointed at the window, and now my screaming started to take shape.108

"CLOSE THE WINDOW!!! CLOSE THE WINDOW!!!"109

It was taking them long enough to do it, but I guess they did need to calm me down. I kept telling them to do it, though.110

The phone started ringing. No one answered it, though. They were all (minus Steve) trying to calm me. Unfortunately, none of them would take my advice and shut the curtain. I started backing up and my would-be comforters followed me. The dim-witted man gave a strange, blank smile and his shoulders heaved as though he was guffawing at something, and he turned the head of the girl to face him. He had a little laugh with the still face of his victim, and now I was really wigging out.111

"CLOSE THE DAMN WINDOW!!!!"112

The phone was still ringing. Laura went over to it and lifted the reciever, holding her hand over it as she nodded her head and muttered responses. I knew this because I had turned to face her and was reaching out for her, still screaming. Cassy was now holding her hand over my mouth, but I tore free and turned to run across the room. I almost stumbled over the sleeping body of Steve. I could tell from the way his chest was moving that he must have been snoring pretty loudly, but I couldn't hear it over my screaming. Laura turned from the phone, hanging it up and walking calmly back over toward me. As small as she was, she steadied herself and looked almost angrily at me. She clenched her fists, stood with her feet shoulder length apart, and gazed deep into my eyes.113

"Richard Angstrom," she blurted, "you need to stop this right now... Please... The office says they are getting complaints and they're gonna call the police on us. So, please stop. Now."114

Just then, Fatass knocked on the window, and it made everyone jump. Tim looked like he'd soiled himself, and I felt Cassy dig her nails into me. Laura, of all people, seemed the least disturbed, although she did flinch a bit. She turned intently on her heel and strode right up to the window.115

"Is this window the problem?" she asked, her brow furrowed into a little anger and a whole lot of confusion. "Is it?"116

"GET AWAY FROM THERE, FOR GOD'S SAKE!"117

She turned again to it and shut the curtain. I swore that as it concealed him the killer watched it with more than a little sadness.118

Of course, I didn't recover right away, but after a moment I was brought down to simple hyperventilation. Tim and Laura talked me down from that as Cassy sat behind me and provided comfort and a lap to rest my head on. After a few minutes, I was fully relaxed, but I could still see the outline at the window, and every time the curtain moved with the wind seeping through the shoddy weatherstripping, I could see him peering in at me. That was the longest night I ever spent in my life.119

Part Two120

The next morning, I was very groggy. I had slept, but not very well, as you might suspect. Cassy had a pot of coffee going and Laura was sitting there in her trademark green sweatshirt, it's long sleeves concealing fingers wrapped tightly around a steaming cup.121

"You worried us last night," she said, her voice grainy from little sleep. Cassy came over to me and sat cross-legged on the floor next to me, bending over to peer into my eyes.122

"Are you okay, sweetie?" she said, and I nodded. After a moment, I had a cup of my own warming my cold hands.123

"It was lousy," I said once I had taken a few sips of the black water the hotel passed as coffee. "It was like a flash that wouldn't go away. I'm surprised none of you saw it."124

"All I had last night was the discomfort of knowing we were in this town."125

"Me too," Laura agreed wholeheartedly with Cassy.126

I grabbed the remote off the corner of Cassy's bed and flipped the television on. Although my screaming last night wouldn't budge him, the sound of the television coming on woke Steve right up. Tim and Katrina woke up as well.127

"Dude, whaddya want ta wake me for?" He seemed pretty aggravated.128

"It's 5 AM, but we got to sleep early last night. You've had about ten hours of sleep."129

"That's it?" He looked at me incredulously, then rolled back over. Tim and Katrina, however, both got up and took their own cups of coffee as they sat around the small television.130

"Turn it up, Rich," Katrina prodded when she realized what was on. I noticed the familiar face of Jenny O'Connell on the screen and did so. This action was sufficient to rouse Steve finally from his slumber. He still was not very happy and in no way looked awake.131

"...Police are ruling this terrible loss as a suicide. The girl, last seen at a party on Halloween night, had a tendency toward manic depression and had told her friends often that she planned on doing something like this. A terrible, terrible loss. Tom, on to..." I turned the television off.132

"It was no suicide," I said. "I know she was killed."133

"We all do, we just have to..." I interrupted Tim with a small, angry blurt.134

"I know... I know what I saw, and it was her murderer, here, last night."135

"What?" Laura cried, eyes wide open. Just then, a knock came on our door and the girls all jumped.136

"Housekeeping," came a young girl's voice, much less cheerily than it come last night.137

I got up and opened the door, and of course Tim, knowing who it was, was hot on my heels. The morning was dull and grey in lieu of last night's storm, and everything was wet. Although it had stopped raining, rainwater was still dripping from everywhere in such an amount that it gave the appearance that the rain continued still. There, again in her yellow hooded parka, stood the still-living Jennifer.138

"Come in, come in," I said, and she obliged.139

"Look," she said, staring mainly at Laura but glancing at Tim and I while she spoke, "I don't know why, but I felt like I should come back here for some reason. I've told the police my story a hundred times, but itr didn't help. They're saying now it was a suicide... It wasn't, okay? I knew Jenny. She was full of life. She did NOT kill herself!"140

"Whoah, sweetheart, calm down," Tim purred as he stepped closer to her. "Just tell us what's on your mind."141

The look on her face of who exactly ARE you, anyways that crossed her face would have been extremely comical had it not had the added twinge of pain visible there. Laura tried to make herself look bigger as she stared him down, then took the girl's hand like she had last night. 142

"Never mind these guys, just listen to me. What made you want to come back here?"143

"I'm not sure," she said, and she gave a worried look around the room. "I just felt it was right somehow."144

"We just watched the news. They said that Jenny's friends all told the police she was depressive, and..."145

"That's not true!" The look of utter aggravation that crossed her face gave this the obvious mark of truth. She used her free hand to squeeze Laura's and looked her deep in the eyes. "I told them everything I knew, and that was DEFINITELY not one of the things I said."146

"Well," Laura urged, "what did you say?"147

"First," Jennifer said, sniffing back some tears and collecting herself, "you guys have to tell me who you really are."148

"What do you mean?" Laura started to say, but I broke in on them. She had already passed the test: she had come to us without knowing who or what we were. Now, it was time to let her know.149

"We are representatives of ESPER, the Society for Extraordinary Supernatural Phenomenon Explored and Revealed. We came here to find out the truth behind Jenny's death, even if it isn't what people want to believe." She looked at me with renewed interest after this little speech, and now everything she said started coming straight toward me. 150

I felt like Ian.151

"We were at this party," she started, and I broke in for a question. 152

"Was there any... you know, stuff going on at this party?"153

"Like what?" she asked.154

"Come on," I urged, "like drinking, or smoking pot, or..."155

"Oh, no, no, no..." Her eyes grew wide with a disgust that again proved the veracity of the statement. "We DO NOT do stuff like that! This party was, like, bobbing for apples, and there was a costume party, and we were playing Pictionary."156

Tim's eyes went wide. "Like, we go to a frippin' seminary and have crazier parties than that!"157

"Dude," Steve muttered, still bleary-eyed, "our drives in the woods are crazier than that." His half-conscious and mostly joking statement got knowing looks from everyone but the girl. After a confused moment she continued.158

"But, there was this guy there..." Again, I interrupted her. Looking back, I probably should have just let her tell the story...159

"I knew it!" I blurted out. "This guy, what did he look like?"160

"Ummm," she looked sidelong at me, a kind of weariness in her eyes, "like, um, he was short and thin and had black hair. Kinda cute. Why?"161

"Oh, nothing. Go on." This was obviously not what I had been thinking.162

"Anyways, so he's, like, telling this story, about this guy from Ransom who, like, was nuts. And, he like, escaped the funny farm and survived by eating little bunnies. And, like, they finally cornered him on that bridge and killed him. Like, right at midnight, on Halloween. So, like, supposedly if you go there, right at midnight, y'know, like, on Halloween, you're supposed to see him, or something."163

The narrative was a little tiring, coming from an excitable fifteen-year-old girl, but the idea she was getting across was pretty interesting.164

"Go on," said Laura, who had let go of the girl's hands a while ago. She used them extensively when she talked.165

"So, like, I was all, what-ever, but Jenny was totally like, all wierded out, and she wanted to see it for herself. It was, like, around eleven o'clock, and she left the party to go down the Avenue to the Bridge."166

"And that was the last anybody saw of her?" Cassy asked.167

"Like, no way!" she cried. "We all went with her!"168

"So all of you... saw whatever happened to her?" Laura asked.169

"Obviously not," Tim said, "or else..."170

"Yeah we did!" she interrupted. "We all saw it! She went up there, and there was a light, and then, BAM! It was all over!"171

Needless to say, her loud bamming made all of us jump. Except Steve, of course, who had rolled back into a sleepy fetal ball.172

"What do you mean?" I asked. "What... umm... 'Bammed?'"173

She looked all of a sudden like she'd gotten a slap in the face. I think she realized that she was talking about her best friend's death here like she was talking about some scary movie she'd seen. She calmed down a whole lot and looked straight at me.174

"It just... That was it," she whispered. "Then it was over."175

We thanked her for her info and let her get going. There was obviously some scam going on perpetrated by the local police. They probably had caught wind of what was going on and didn't want it to get out. Therrefore, they could be keeping a close eye on this girl, and if they were doing that, we were found out already. I hoped that none of this was the case as we sat around that morning and watched The Today Show, waiting for Steve to wake up. Tim caught the bug somewhere along the line and sacked out for a while longer, too, but eventually everyone was awake, showered, and ready to go.176

It was Saturday, so the library opened late anyways, and the doors had only been open a half an hour by the time we showed up.177

The building was old and made of yellow bricks in alot of round patterns. It was nice looking but also looked like it could have housed some evil old wizard. The main doors were wide and glass, obviously not the originals for this piece of architecture, and looked into the main lobby. Even from outside you could tell that there was a series of skylights in the main dome, because the inside was brightly illuminated with only the beams that shot down into the center section from above. There were already quite a few people there, which was surprising based on the size of the town. Using that same source of judgment, the library was itself extremely large. This few people couldn't possibly ever use that many books. 178

On stepping through the main doors, we were greeted by the same mousy librarian that had last attended us here. She was small and mousy and thickly bespectacled. Her gaze at us could have melted ice if need be. When she walked up to us, her demeanor was much less improved from last time.179

"You again?" she snapped. "Don't you have libraries in your own town?"180

"We do," said Steve, "but they suck compared to this one, dude. You guys rock on."181

This did absolutely nothing to improve our standing with the librarian, as any of us could have told him before he said it. Now she was glaring at us wildly, as though we had offended her intelligence in the severest of ways. "What do you want this time?"182

"Same general stuff," I said. "Public records, town history, and the microfish."183

"That's what the hoozamadoody's called?" Steve murmured, and she shot him in the face with her eyes.184

We had gone through the resources available to us for hours, but unlike on our last excursion to Ransom, this time we found absolutely nothing. It was kind of discouraging, and we all felt the same way about it, until Katrina voiced her opinion.185

"Maybe that's just it... There's nothing to find because there is nothing there to find..." It was illuminating.186

"You're right!" I said. "But, I mean, that makes every story we've heard so far of no effect. We know the police and the media are lying, but now so is the girl."187

"Unless," Laura said, "the girl is just misinformed."188

"That's got to be it," I said. "There was too much in what she said that proved she believed what she was saying. It's not like it was an eyewitness account she got from this guy... It was all urban legend."189

"That's it," I said almost to myself, then to the others. "That's it! Come on, let's get to that bridge."190

Again, the ride was long and boring, and again we didn't say much to each other. This time it might have been entirely my fault. I really didn't feel like too much conversation after having been stared at all night by a retarded serial murderer who didn't really exist. Everyone else took some instruction from my silence, until Laura piped up behind me.191

"Why are we going out here? I mean, it's only supposed to happen on Halloween at midnight."192

"Think about what we know about Funk," I said. "All we have to do is believe it'll happen and want it to happen, and it most likely will oblige. Like Bloody..." I thought better of saying the second part of the name of that famous urban legend.193

"They still normally follow the frippin' rules, there, guy," Tim said, looking nonplussed by anything that was going on.194

"Dude," Steve said, leaning over the backseat, his eyes wide. "If we see it tonight, I'm gonna freakin' have a..."195

"COW!!!" screamed Cassy, and I slammed on the brakes. The next couple of seconds were a blur. I know for a fact that there was broken glass all around me and that a tree branch was brushing against my face. Steve was in between Cassy and I.196

"How... the hell... did you... get there..." I wheezed. He looked up at me with a bloodied nose and smiled.197

"You... swerved... away from the fat guy..." he replied.198

Talk of "The Fat Guy" was not very pleasing to me. I knew which fat guy it was, and only a second later the stupid guffaw of an imbecile could be hearrd from within inches of my face.199

FLASH oh god he's here again he's breathing down my neck I can feel his hot breath on my face I turn to look at him and200

"OH MY GOD!" I wailed, and then continued to scream it countless times. There, just an inch from my face was the massive head of the killer, thrust through the broken window among the branches of the tree that had broken it. When he opened his mouth to release his idiot gurgling laugh, I saw the pink hue in his teeth and noticed how his two front ones were elongated past the others and crusted over with black blood. The thick saliva strands that filled his mouth bent out toward me with every thick breath, and when he started the laughter a column of it blew out and hit me in the face. I could feel the warm, wet mucous on my face and was probably more horrified than I had even been at any time in the Montega house. I continued to scream, and Cassy turned again to help me.201

"Richie! Please, are you okay? Rich!" I was aware of the fact that she was pushing Steve out of the way, but I never let my eyes stray from the monster who was within biting range of me. I knew that any second he could introduce me to Jenny. She must have been a nice girl in life, but where she was now I was not quite ready to follow.202

"Dude, that's nice."203

"Steve, please!"204

"A'ight, fine, dude. 'Scuse me."205

"Watch where your putting that hand, Steve."206

"Dude, Kat, relax, I just had an accident here. I didn't even know I still had hands."207

"Don't call me 'Kat,' either."208

"Guys, please! I think something's wrong with Rich!"209

"Yeah, something's wrong. Dude's screamin' bloody murder!"210

"Steve!"211

"What!!!"212

I was really out of it. I knew the thing looking at me could not have been real, but it seemed to be. We had done the reasearch... The Bunny Man never existed, and neither did any of the other parts of the story that dealt with him. There was no Ransom Asylum. There were no fatal police shootings ever on a Halloween at any time. There was never any reports of a man who lived at that bridge and ate rabbits to survive.213

...But there was Jenny O'Connell's unexplained death, and this abomination hanging his head through my window in broad daylight. 214

I screamed even louder.215

Tim was a little banged up, but he got out of the car through the hatchback and went around to the driver's side window. I continued screaming as he grabbed the Bunny Man around the shoulders with both arms, broke his neck, and pulled him out of the car. As I heard the terrible cracking sound, the beastly man vomited blood up on my lap, which made me scream all the more. 216

"Let me see your face," Cassy said soothingly as my screams broke off to heavy breathing. She turned my face with her hand, and I could feel her run her finger through the thick saliva mingled with blood on my cheek.217

"That's a bad cut, hon," she said, and mopped it up with a kleenex she produced from her purse.218

"Not... mine..." I remember having breathed at her, but she paid me no heed. I looked down at the bright red blood that soaked warmly through my shirt and pants and onto my chest and lap. Do you see that? I wanted to hiss at her. Didn't you see any of that? But it didn't seem as though she had.219

Amazingly, the car had skidded to a stop right at the place where we had planned to park it last night. Tim opened my door and pulled it open. I figured it wouldn't budge with the body of the killer in the way, but it opened easily and revealed the thick, dead branch that Tim had broken and pulled out of my face.220

"Thanks, Tim," I sighed breathlessly as I stood out of the car, stretching my legs and arms and cracking my neck. I looked around at everything there was to see, and there was no trace of the killer anywhere...221

...Except the blood that was all over me.222

It was only around one o'clock. The sun was still brightly shining. It was amazing to me that what had happen actually took place on a bright, shiny day. The clouds were still a little heavy and the air was thick with moisture, but the dark clouds of this morning had passed away and the sun was reflecting off the wet surfaces to make a very warm, bright spectacle out of the world. Nevertheless, I had just had funk of the worst kind. It was apparently a manifestation, but no one else was seeing it. Somehow, it was in my mind, and the thought of that was maddening. That a big hulk of funk was in my head was one of the most disturbing ideas I could remember having. Ever. I looked pleadingly at Cassy and pointed to the blood on my clothes, still so flustered I was unable to put my thoughts into words. She just looked at me with a combination of pity and longing and kept on with her business.223

We all stood there around the car, viewing the covered overpass bridge that loomed there above us. Tim and Steve were already climbing up the hill, and Katrina moved to follow them. Cassy tried to pull me to follow them. Laura, on the other hand, looked wary of going at all.224

"Wait," I managed to mumble. I did not really find a whole lot of comfort in the prospect of going up that hill. Laura came up behind me and looked to Cassy, an unvoiced caution on her lips. She grabbed my arm and spoke.225

"It's kinda obvious that Rich's had some bad funk. I don't think he should go. I really don't want to either, but I will. I think you should stay down here with him."226

"That's no good. Rich is the leader here."227

"Look at him! He can't even say his own name right now!" She pulled back, and I turned a bit to face her. She was wringing her hands and looking very flushed.228

"I knew we shouldn't have come," she said.229

"Look, Laura, it's what we do!" Cassy said, a little harshly. Laura looked hurt.230

"Is this what we do?" she said, pointing at me. I was still just about catatonic. Cassy just gave a little huff and walked toward the hill the others had climbed.231

"Suit yourself. You stay here with him. I'll go and take the lead if he can't."232

She walked away up the hill, and I could see the others all join together with her at the top. They were picking around in the bridge, and every now and then Steve or Tim would raise their voices loud enough for us to hear them from the car. Of course, they were just playing around and not having any problems. I was very worried about all of this. I looked at Laura as soon as I finally caught my breath.233

"Have you... had any flashes," I whispered, my throat still tight.234

"Not since we've been here," she sighed. I noticed she was very red and she looked severely put-out. I think there were almost tears in her eyes.235

"Then, why?" I asked, hoping she would understand what I was asking. I really wasn't in the mood to say much else.236

"I've just had some bad feelings, that's all," she said. "I wish Ian were here."237

"We all do," I said. She turned fully to look at me and caught my glance with all her might.238

"What do you think? About him?" she asked intently. I was a little surprised, and breathed deep before answering.239

"Ian? He's okay."240

"You think more of him than that."241

"You're right," I answered pending another deep breath. "I think he's the greatest guy that ever lived. But you know what? He thinks we're the greatest guys that ever lived. I learned that at the Montega house." I stopped and breathed again. My chest was really hurting. "He's a great leader, but he's no better than us, and he wants us to understand that. I used to look at him like a king, but now I understand. He's just one of us. He's a human being like the rest of us. The only thing that makes him special is that he chooses to live an extraordinary life. And he doesn't want to be better than any of us." I breathed again deeply, preparing for the last phrase. I said it slow, like I was rehearsing it. It was a meaningful point that even I was only just now coming to understand.242

"He wants us to live extraordinary lives too."243

Laura looked at me, and started to cry.244

Up on the hill, nothing was going on. They started making their way back down, and by this time I was feeling quite a bit better and met them. I could still see the blood on my shirt, but I knew now that it was my own blood from where the branch had come through the window and cut my cheek and neck. There wasn't as much as I had thought before... it had just been an illusion. The dead branch that had been in my eyes a giant head was still lying broken on the ground outside my door, and all the fear I had in me before was lying there dead with it. 245

"What did you find," I said, my voice only very unnoticeably weak now. Katrina was the first back to the car, and she leaned against it as she spoke.246

"Nothing. There's not a thing up there at all.247

"Dude, it's like no one's been up there for ages." Steve appraised the situation with his wide-eyed look. "But somebody had to've been!"248

"We know a frippin' murder took place up there," Tim said. "It was on the news and everything. But now..."249

"It's like nothing ever happened," Cassy said as she walked up. "I think that's the point. There's a cover up here."250

We all got back in my car in the same order we had been in it before and started to drive up the road a ways. I was wondering if maybe there might be something to see anywhere else, but no one thought it was worth it. Most just wanted to go back to the hotel. Laura wanted to go home. Tim and Steve mentioned something about the diner.251

"Alright," I agreed, "the little Denny's we ate at last time seems like a good place. Everyone okay with that?" There were no problems, and so we turned around and drove there.252

When we arrived at Denny's we found it relatively free of customers. Upon entering, a younger lady that looked like she could have been the unholy offspring of the librarian and the innkeeper seated us and told us our waitress would be right with us.253

"Crystal!" I cried when I saw the familiar face approach our table bearing menus. She put them on our table and smiled, hugging Laura and Katrina and stopping as she moved to shake my hand.254

"Hon, what happened to your face?" she said when she saw the deep cuts and the blood on my shirt.255

"A little accident this morning. Nothing to be worried about." I realized I hadn't even cleaned it yet and asked to be excused from the table.256

I walked into the bathroom. It was a small, ratty one. the rest of the Denny's was all right, but it looked as though the all-female staff of the restaurant had decided to never clean the men's bathroom. I looked in the blackened mirror and straightened my hair before pulling some paper towels out of the dispenser and turning on the water. It ran brown for a second before coming out clear, but I had no choice but to wash my face. The toilet water was definitely out, so I pooled some of running water in one hand and threw it over my face.257

FLASH I looked back up into the mirror and dabbed the paper towels on my face but he was there it wasn't me the image in the mirror it was the killer and it wasn't water on his face but blood he smiled at me the two elongated teeth crusted with dried bloo... FLASH258

The flash was over, but the horrible image in the mirror was not. The killer was there, following my every movement as I went about cleaning my face. I had only his image to go by, and so I wiped at myself until the blood was completely cleaned from his face, and threw the towel in the garbage.259

FLASH it was red it was soaked all the way through with blood the blood of innocent children of Jenny O'Connell of FLASH260

The paper towel really was red, but I knew it was my own blood that I was cleaning from my face. The ugly, dimwitted face in the mirror looked back at me, twisted into a ridiculous mockery of my own, but I did not let it bother me. Of course, it was a terrible thing to have to deal with, but I kept wiping the horrible serial killer's face until it was clean of blood. Not being able to see my own face, I wound up hurting myself a few times as I rubbed my injuries the wrong way, but I kept on a strong face and kept cleaning.261

When I rejoined the other ESPER's, Crystal had joined them at the table. If you don't remember, Crystal was the girl we woke up at the end of the mission at the old Montega House. She was telling them about how Ransom just had too much funk ever since then and how she was planning on moving to the big city.262

"Douglas is not the big city," I said. "I'm from Douglas."263

"So are Kat and I. Believe me, it's nothing special." Cassy smiled as she said it, but she knew Douglas was better than here. Anywhere would be.264

"Where are you guys right now?" she askeed.265

"We all are in Colony Hills," I answered.266

"Maybe I'll go there," she smiled. "Is that other guy that was with you last time still there?"267

"No," Laura jumped in before any of us had time to answer. "He left a while ago." We all smiled, and after our conversation, I think mine was the widest. It was wide enough to hurt my torn cheek.268

Crystal had business to attend to, so she eventually had to get up and go back to work. The rest of us all sat around and packed tighter together while I explained the funk I had been having, now that I found myself actually able to. I went through all three of the major events that had happened, and the others listened with interest and a more than a little fear.269

"Why only you?" Cassy wondered. "What's going on here?"270

"I don't know," I sighed sincerely. Steve looked wildly at me.271

"Dude, like, you gotta get a hold on this thing. What happens if it hits you while we're driving or something?"272

"It already frippin' did," Tim urged, and I lowered my face.273

"Guys, relax," Laura pleaded with the others. Just when it seemed no one was going to listen, Crystal came back. 274

Again, she sat down and chatted with us, mainly with the other girls but a bit with me. Tim kept trying to talk to her but she continually acknowledged him for a brief second and moved on. Steve was only interested in his food. This time, the tables were turned, and it was Steve who was eating most of Tim's food and not the other way around. I tried to stay silent, but she kept talking to me.275

"Is that so?" she asked, which jolted me out of the melancholy I had unexplainably slipped into.276

"Wh-what?" I stammered, accidentally knocking my fork out of my plate as I looked up at her. She chuckled.277

"Are you guys up here for another quest?" she looked deep into my eyes, waiting for an answer. I obliged.278

"They aren't really 'quests,' Crystal. They're kind of 'jobs,' only we weren't hired for this one."279

"Then why are you here?" she asked, and that bothered me a little. I knew the girls were all thinking the same thing.280

"We have a job to do. People might not know we're here, so we need to make ourselves available."281

"What are you doing here this time?"282

"I really can't talk about it," I said, but Tim had other ideas.283

"Have you heard about Jenny O'Connell?" he asked. You idiot, I thought to myself, but the response garnered was one I wasn't expecting at all.284

Shock.285

She looked around at us all, and then bent in. We all followed suit and soon everyone but Steve was huddled around the middle of the table. Steve, remaining on the outskirts, was working on a pile of hash.286

"Um, we aren't supposed to talk about that. But for you guys... Listen..." We all did but she was still silent. The hostess walked by our table, and as she passed she gave a horrid look that proved to me she really was some kind of demon offspring of the other women that ran businesses in this town. Once she had passed, we resumed the huddle and waited for Crystal to speak.287

"They said she committed suicide. They asked us what she was like, and we told them she would never do anything like that... ALL of us told them, but they said we were going to tell people it was suicide because that's what it was, plain and simple. Then, they started saying on TV that we told them we were expecting her to do it."288

"And you're sure that none of you did?" I asked. She shook her head. 289

"We all were in the same room when they asked us. All of us heard each other. We know what we said. And it wasn't what they're saying."290

Now that the cat was out of the bag, thanks to Tim and his thinking with his lap instead of his head, I decided to press on. "Were you at the Halloween party where she disappeared from?"291

"I was there, but that's not where she disappeared from. She disappeared from the bridge."292

"You were there?" Cassy asked, and the girl shook her head.293

"They said it was once every year, at midnight on Halloween, that this happened. But it never happened here before. It's always been an urban legend around here, but it never actually happened before."294

I looked at the others thoughtfully. There was only one thing to do, but I couldn't let them know what that was.295

I drove in the dark toward the bridge. That day had been spent in a quiet, defeated spirit among us all. All except for me, that was. My spirit was just quiet, because I knew that I had a really lousy job to take care of, and I might not be coming back from it. 296

It was obvious to me that there was no other choice. There could be only one thing causing this to happen.297

FLASH in my rear view mirror he was there holding up the head of little Jenny O'Connell FLASH298

Of course, although the flash was over, the huge head was still taking up my entire rear view. The bulbous lips and eyes of the killer twisted up into a look of glee. He knew I was coming, and he also knew that I wouldn't be able to defeat him.299

"Alright, dumbass," I said out loud. "You tell me whether or not I have this right. You aren't a big fat retarded killer, because no such killer ever really existed. You are whatever was at the Montega house, and ever since Ian dropped you like a sack of hot crap, you've had no way to do what you wanted to do. So, you wait until Halloween, when supposedly the spirits of the dead are able to escape from the underworld, you take an urban legend that really has no backing in truth just because it's something that causes fear in people, but it also lures them, and then once they come to the bridge, you take them."300

The smile twisted into more of a look of hunger than glee. The lips still upturned in that grotesque grin, the bloodstained teeth and gums were now also visible. Most terrible were the two front incisors, elongated into the image best associated with the Bunny Man. His hot breath was on my neck once more, and although I knew that he had no power over me I began to grow fearful again.301

My cell phone began to ring, and the head of the Bunny Man dropped down behind my seat. I picked it up and turned the handset over until the illuminated screen was facing me, and I could see the word "CASSANDRA" flashing in it. I threw the phone back down and it fell on the floor. As soon as it stopped ringing, I caught a sudden movement out of the corner of my eye and turned my attention back to the mirror. Here he came again, rising back up slowly, holding aloft Jenny O'Connell's head by the hair. I cursed and looked straight at the image in the mirror.302

"Get out of my car, now," I snapped, and he was gone in an instant. Still present was his smell and the feel of his breath, and that was a little more unsettling than even his physical attendance. I turned back to the road and realized I was going astray and realigned my car with the slim road. Another car passed by, and I almost wiped it off the street.303

Suddenly, in front of me came the bright  illumination of another set of headlights over the next hill. They noticed mine and turned off their high beams, which favor I instantly returned. 304

Then I remembered where I was.305

"Damn it!" I cried out as I saw the familiar sandy patch on the side of the road. I tried to pull all the way to one side so the other car could use it to go around me. However, both of us were going too fast to take appropriate action, and I knew something was about to happen. The Bunny Man wasn't in my car anymore, but just where was he?306

Just then, I found out where he was. As the other car mounted the hill, we met together under Bunny Man's Bridge. There, in the middle of the road between us, stood the Bunny Man, his gruesome bauble hanging by its hair from between his stubby fingers.307

The other car jerked to the side and connected headlong with the stone underpass wall. The bridge shook as I passed under it, and the killer's large body struck the front of my car and was pulled under. I bounced up twice in succession, and my car swerved to a stop perpendicular to the road. Without wasting time, I got out and ran to the other car. The sight there was a shocking one... The driver and only occupant of the car, a male in his late thirties, was laying twisted on the hood of his car, very broken and obviously dead.308

I turned back to look at the bridge. I would call an ambulance, but I would have to do this one thing first. Taking the lessons I had learned from Ian in times past, I ran up the slope to enter the dark structure.309

Once there, I could see what the others had meant. It was very obviously not used at all, and had been so for quite some time. Bottles and cans of beer and soda lie strewn about everywhere, bleached white from the sun and the elements. Broken slate and other shards of the construction were thickly piled around all the edges. There were a couple bent hubcaps and one rather old and rusted muffler. I had no flashlight, which was foolish on my part, but the moon very brightly illuminated the bridge through the open sides. Above, a wide black roof covered me, the architecture of which eluded me in the pitch black that loomed there.310

I began to walk down the length of the tunnel toward the other side, which was too dark at this time for me to see. I kept on pressing toward that dark end, although I knew a dark end might wait there for me.311

"Where you go?" came a deep but childlike voice from beside me, and although I would not look, I knew that the Bunny Man was walking alongside me. I smelt him, and heard his labored breathing. I didn't answer, continuing to walk straight toward the end. A small but bright white light began to glow there.312

One, Two, Three, Four, came the sudden ring of children's voices from the distance. Guess Who's Knocking at the Door. Five, Six, Seven, Eight, it's the Bunny Man so Don't be Late. You have till midnight All Hallow's Night to Get to His Bridge and See the Light. One Two Three Four Five Six Seven, the Bunny Man Will Take You to Heaven. Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve, Better not go There by Your Self.313

I kept walking, despite the spectral warnings. The light at the end of the tunnel began to grow brighter and bigger, yet I kept on toward it. The Bunny Man was still by my side. The light was now starting to infringe on me, lighting the whole bridge. I looked up and saw there the reason why police had closed this case.314

There, in the rafters above, were the bodies of both small children and large rabbits, all of them eviscerated and swinging by thick hemp ropes. Their intestines were pulled out to look like even further lengths of rope which hung down and swirled in ghoulish patters above my head. Obviously all dead, their chorus of voices had made up the terrible nursery rhyme which had played out a moment before. In the middle of them all, tied up in such a way that her whole body was facing me like some horrible sign, was the decapitated body of Jenny O'Connell.315

"This isn't real," I said. "It never happened. I have proof."316

The bodies of the children began to sink down until someone outside the bridge might be able to see them. This put their horribly ripped-open stomachs at my eye level, and I vomited for what must have been five straight minutes. However weakened I was from this, I pressed on toward the light.317

"This isn't real," I repeated. "The Bunny Man is a folk tale. This is Funk trying to scare me and I'm not going to let it. I am going to send you packing."318

The children were still there, and the Bunny Man was still walking among them at my side. The Light was still glowing. I didn't know what it was, but I felt the urgency of getting to it. I would reach the source and I would destroy this demon right from the source. I would send it back to wherever it came from, or die trying.319

Most likely the latter.320

"You," I began, as the light grew stronger, blinding me but mercifully concealing the macabre sight around me, "have been a blight on this community too long. Too long you have lain in wait around Ransom and stolen its children. Too long now have you lured them into the dark places and slaughtered them for your own twisted pleasure. It stops tonight. Ian destroyed your last physical form but didn't send you away. Now it's time. Leave this place at once, and return to the Abyss from which you came."321

The world grew suddenly dark...322

Part Three323

I woke up at the bottom of the hill. Red and blue lights were all I could see for the first few seconds of consciousness, but after that I could make out the policeman standing me to my feet.324

"You've been in a pretty bad accident, sir," he said to me. The other driver was drunk, and must've forced you off the road. You were thrown from the car... Quite a ways, in fact, but you're not badly injured. Are you with me sir?"325

"Mmm-hmm," I groaned. He threw a thin wool blanket around my shoulders and led me back to my car. The others were there.326

"Dude, what the crap?" Steve was saying. Laura and Katrina hugged me tight, and then let go so Cassy could come and do the same. She kissed me and put her head on my chest.327

"I didn't think you were okay," she sobbed. I stroked her hair and held her as the others gathered around.328

"What happened?" Tim asked, and I turned my face to meet his.329

"It's gone," I said. "There's a long story to tell."330

"We tried calling you, dude," Steve said. "Someone forgot protocol and didn't have his cell phone on at all times."331

Just then, my cell phone rang, and we all jumped. This jump was not so frightful as most of the others we had experienced together, and we all started laughing.332

"Oh, wait, I should get that," I said, and painfully crawled through the front seat of my car, reaching under the passenger's seat. I grabbed the phone and pulled it out, turning it on as I brought it to my face.333

"Y'ello?"334

"Whatever happened to 'ESPER, this is Richard Angstrom, how can I help you?'" came a familiar voice.335

"Ian! Boy do we have a story to tell you!" When the others heard the name, especially Laura, they all gathered around. I listened to him for a while, quick amused by what he had to say, and then with a word of goodbye I hung up the phone.336

"What did he want?" Laura cried almost happily.337

"Well," I said, smiling. "He was wondering if we would mind driving all the way to Ransom to meet him at Denny's."338

Everyone smiled.339

The police held us up for a while, but when we were able to get away we drove down to the Denny's. I recoiled when I saw the yellow station wagon out front.340

"Dude, we're gonna have some explaining to do," Steve said.341

"You've got some explaining to do," Ian said as we entered. He wasn't wearing his trademark duster and hat, but rather a black business suit. He had a booth all to himself where he sat sipping coffee. We rounded the table and slipped into the seats on either side of him. Crystal passed by and started handing us menus.342

"We're not eating, thanks," I said.343

"I thought you said he wasn't around any more?" she said to Laura, nodding her head to Ian. Ian, in return, looked at me with an eyebrow raised. I went back to the original subject.344

"I know," I said. "But, like I told you on the phone, we've got quite a story for you."345

"Well, first let me show you what I've got." He pulled a manila envelope out of his jacket and set it on the table in front of me. I opened it up.346

FLASH it wasn't a legend after all it was real it was real and it was still there it was coming for me FLASH347

I exhaled heavily. I was glad to be back to the standard type of flash rather than the terribly realistic ones I'd been having lately. Everyone at the table noticed it, and Cassy and Katrina both grabbed my hand. I was also very thankful that my flashes were back to being seen and recognized by the others. I was not happy at all, however, to see what I was seeing now.348

Clinton; November 1, 1997. Last night the month long reign of a local legend ended. Three months ago, a patient from the Clinton Hospital for the Mentally Disabled that had been catatonic for twelve years escaped the hospital by strangling two night watchmen and found his way into the hills and forest surrounding the hospital. For the past three months, children have been reported missing as often as twice a week from the area. A hunting party six weeks ago claimed to have stumbled upon a pile of half-eaten rabbit carcasses in the woods and what looked to be the finger and tooth of a little girl. Last night, Clinton police closed in on the suspect in the closed-down overpass that enters Ransom and shot him to death upon finding him cannibalizing the body of a Clinton boy, Andrew Malton, 12.349

I looked at the page one last time, horror on my face. Cassy reached out for me and held me around my shoulders.350

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" she whispered. I looked instead at Ian.351

"We do have a long story to tell you...'352