[Blackness fades away]
[We see a blue ford driving on a deserted road]
"Where were they going without ever knowing the waaaaay....." Fastball's The Way was blaring on the radio and I didn't even notice that I was singing along. My windows were rolled down so that I could feel the gentle breezes siphon through me. Just like they used to when I was a kid. The town was only 2 hours or so away from my place. I was well underway. But I'd have to take a short cut through Brahms, the town right next to it, if I was going to make decent time. Of all the things I've heard about that town. About its past, present,...even future. Supposedly, The whole area in itself was a holy place. Scared ground type of mumbo- jumbo like that.
But was to be was not to be. Some certain groups were swarming to the dark cause in hopes to complete an Ancient Symbol called The Mark of Samuel. The whole rituals were nothing more than a quest for power and evil. To be able to control what you see and how you picture things. Altering ordinary people's perception. I read an article I recovered from an old library about how the main leaders of the cult were sentenced to death or missing. The justice system back then had no sympathy for the wicked. Several 200 members were executed without a fair trail. They had caught them right in the middle of a necessary ritual at the time. They were performing human sacrifices around a huge oak that was a flame and yet still stood. The ritual had to be performed while during a eclipse. The vigilantes marched up on that hill and attacked. They were yielding spears and ropes and had netted everyone they could. Some had died trying to run. Corpses of local missing persons were found at the base of the huge oak. Justice was served but evidently, the cult's dead were cursed. Some 30 townsfolk had planned to shovel all the dead cult corpses and bury them far away. But as they gather all the bodies, the huge Oak's roots gave and made a sickening slap against the bodies of the townsfolk volunteers. To this day, People of the town couldn't believe what happened. Some say it was coincidence, others say a delayed force of nature.....
That spot is now a historical landmark and even has a monument built.
Ever since that one incident. That one incident. It triggered an upheaval chain reaction of sudden curses around the spread of the town. Ships disappearing on their way to the town. How can whole ships disappear? Sturdy boats that carry passengers exceeding the limit. Irony has a strange sense of humor. The spookiest thing I ever read was out of a magazine about a well-designed ship crashing into the town's Harbor. The ship was investigated and searched by the town's finest. Not one single person was on board that ship! How could a crew of hundreds vanish. The strange thing was that everything, the food, life preservers, were all untouched.
People became cautious after that. You'd think they would freak out if they even predicted what happened next. Throughout the late 1900's is when things got weirder. Children going missing from the town. Some were found only to say that they say "Patterns in the sky" and "gleaming red glow coming from the hill".
Today, the town sits waiting for me to arrive. I was still on the road. My anticipation growing with every mile I passed. I saw a sign pass. It had read: Brahms 4 miles ahead.
I pulled out my tape recorder from my pocket. I had 12 hours of recording time on my 4 small tapes. I clicked the record button and cleared my throat:
"June 19th, 2002. I'm heading towards Brahms on schedule. Its starting to get dark now, so I'll shack up at a motel in this town and make the rest of the road for tommorrow. So far, I've seen nothing to convince me that the town has nothing but bad luck. I'll see what I can retrieve from the locals about it..[*Click]