Young Scott had a long morning, with Cosmo on his butt from dawn to a few minutes ago, of nagging him with work, when he finally found the time to relax. Among the nice quiet trees he would blend in the silence, hidden by the woods from anyone looking for more 'free labor.'

Looking up at the morning sky he followed the clouds in their, seemingly, motionless existence.

"Hello, Snow, you lazy bum." The innocent and sweet voice of a girl alerted Scott to the presence of a dark haired face he had been ignorant to the whole time; causing him to sit up in a jolt of fright that almost caused a heart attack.

"Don't do that Selena; you almost gave me a heart attack. And it's Scott, not Snow—only Cosmo has to call me that!"

She was the only person who knew Scott well enough to look in the woods. Selena was the only other person, besides him, who would step foot inside there.

"What are you going to do if I did?" Selena asked, playfully toying with her fellow child-carnie. "Messing with you's to easy!"

"Let see how you like it when I get my hand on you." Scott declared before starting to pick himself up.

Selena chuckled and giggled, running off ahead of him. "Catch me, if you can slowpoke!"

"Welcome to Dunwich," Snow read the sign above the phantasmal town's entrance, for all the others to hear as they watched Timcanpy fly through; both acting possessed by some unseen force controlling their actions.

"Wait, isn't that…" Ven hesitated to finish the question, so Snow did it for him. "Yeah, this is Dunwich, Massachusetts."

Lavi joined them in looking up at the sign in marvel; perplexed by the impossibility. "But that town was destroyed by the Akuma a year ago. This should all be decaying ruins and ash or nothing at all!"

Duh, Snow muffled any witticisms he had from erupting inside him. Feeling the stressed importance in knowing how hammer-boy knew. "And, how did you come to know this sad assorted tale, Captain Eyepatch? I'm just curious….there was only two survivors of that massacre, and, under normal circumstances, I wouldn't touch the Black Order with a ten foot poll—let alone tell them about the lowest point in my life; and I'm fairly sure the other didn't."

"Who was the other guy?"

Leaning back against the charred wood that, miraculously, still stood erected up, Snow was reluctant to say; considering not to, in his head. "Allen. He stayed in Dunwich for a week, after my vaudeville troupe returned its latest tour through the states. He's the only other that I'm positively certain, wasn't, filled up with Akuma led that horrible night." Snow recounted, nearly crying as he did so, remembering all the people who died there; sarcastically commenting "Good times…losing the people I loved like family, watching the only life I've ever known burn down before my eyes, and killing my first Akuma. It was certainly memorable,"

Astonished by the hole in his story, Lavi tells him "You were not the only two survivors. Three women and two men made it out, as well; and they became the finders who told me and gramps about it."

"More like told Bookman, with you gawking at the poor girls the whole time." Lenalee commented before Kanda added "And before they beat your gut to a pulp, for another one of your 'strikes'."

Snow, both, chuckled with Ven, and felt like his world was been shook violently. Once again close to crying, realizing he had lived his past year believing everyone in Dunwich died senselessly; all because of him.

When he turned to look for Timcanpy, Snow sees him waiting for him. "Feel free to wait here; I'm goanna go check out twilight Dunwich zone. In case of emergency, boys and girls, you feel the urge of stupidity compelling you to follow me, I would advise against wandering off; making out, having little misadventures, and/ or to meddle your nose where it doesn't belong is prohibited: unless you want to end up prey for a psycho!"

They didn't listen, they never do. Snow went into the echo of a phantasmal remnant with them going off into separate areas of the town, some scientists lucky to have an exorcist nearby to keep an eye out for trouble' and for protection, should trouble find them.

Every corner, sheet, and feature of Dunwich's nook and cranny was just like they were, a year ago. Not one detail missing. Whippoorwills prance along high scaffolding and other high points with distant sounds of ravines that surrounded the town, even when none exist outside this Dunwich.

"So, what kind of town is named Dunwich?" Ven followed behind his friend, with Lenalee and Tessa following them. Declaring they were keeping the young men out of trouble.

Snow went through Ven's question with pure speculation; not definitively certain how the town came by its name, other than through a camp fire story the other orphans would re-tell every night. "I'm not sure how it is, but the other kids use to say, that in 1692—when Witch Trials became all the rage in Salem—a warlock named Joseph Curwen was fleeing to Providence with his daughter. It didn't end well. Curwen was cornered in a barn, at the expense of his own life he burned down the farm while he was still inside, but his daughter, Dunileth, escaped and settled elsewhere. After Dunileth passed away, her son, Joseph II, named the town after her."

Soon coming to the end, he said "The rumors surrounding her supposed practice of the dark arts later contributed to the town christening."

"Why was the 'T' not put into the name?" Lenalee asked and Snow responded "Cause, they were worried the religious fanatics would think Witches were being foster, and didn't want to have another inquisition on their side of the world."

Looking around the town was like being inside some old western ghost town. Not a soul could be found; with only the eerie, dead silence, the exception being distant ravines and bird chirps.

"Nooooo," a woman's voice yelled, breaking the layer of calm; followed by a blood curdling scream so terrifying it could send a chill up the collective spines.

By the time Snow and Lenalee located its, expired, host, they were too late. All four could not believe what their eyes were showing them. A headless body on the ground with its head still rolling with the face frozen in reflection of the agonizing terror she felt, moments before her untimely death.

"You murdering son of a bitch!" any of Snow's overly calm demeanor eradicated itself. "Turn around nice and slow."

Not that he cared about the unknown woman, who became the random victim. She, like everyone else was warned. But she was one of his people.

When the murderer turned to face them, with his ugly grey sword still dripping blood, none could wrap their heads around what they were seeing. The killer was another Snow.


References

Twilight Zone

Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft