Hey. For no reason at all, here's a part two. Using my headcannon names from Winter's Dark Angel.
*BOS*
At first, the police investigated the disappearances as they would normally. Dubbed the Burgess 7 Mystery, the incident turn everyone's lives upside down and nearly tore the small town apart. Everyone was a suspect.
The blood found at each scene matched the child or children who were last seen there. No sign of struggle, so the perp either got the jump on them or they went willingly. In Cupcake's case, the later seemed plausible in the beginning; the only prints on that side of the car were her own even on the outer handle. But then they couldn't explain the single set of foot prints that led away from the car. They were hers but stopped where the blood trail began. Never changing direction or speed. The trail lead across the field, through the woods and the center of the frozen lake. As if someone had incapacitated her, injured her enough to cause continuous bleeding then carried her over a little over 4 miles leaving nothing disturbed. How the hell had that happened? What happened after?
Investigators had even gone so far as to break the ice to dredge the lake. An idea quickly abandoned once they realized it was frozen at least 5 feet down. There's no way she could've gotten down there in such a short time with so much effort needed to reach liquid water. Mr. Demarco was only gone roughly 57 minutes. A time worked out using metadata from their cell carrier.
The other 6 vanished under equally puzzling circumstances.
Ingredients for the Bennetts famous hot cocoa were on the counter of the burned out kitchen. Jamie had been making some on the stove. The pot had been unattended for sometime before catching fire. The children were taken well before anyone noticed the flames. Both of their cellphones were in the sofa. Both showing the group text with only three words. The wall above where the writing had been.
The entire Whitmore clan was at home when it happened. On his way to bed that night Chris noticed the sound of booing coming from down the hall. At 10pm the twins were still up playing their special edition Guitar Hero game and apparently losing the in game crowd. When he opened the door to tell his boys lights out, all he found was the 'You Suck' screen, two plastic guitars on the floor next to their phones and the chilling message on the wall.
Monty's parents and brother were home too. He hadn't been feeling well and got up to take a shower hoping the steam would help. Jacob went to freshen up for a date thinking the younger boy was in bed but the shower was still running. After banging on the door he used a coat hanger to pop the lock. Only to find an empty bathroom. Sleeping clothes folded on the back of the toilet, sneakers by the door. The outfit he'd worn to school nowhere to be found. The same message written across the wall and shower curtain. His iPhone in the sink.
Pippa had gotten into her nightgown but never even pulled back her quilt. She'd called out the open door to her mother for help pinning up her hair then presumably closed her door to change. The older woman had already been on her way up the stairs with a laundry basket. In the time it took Mrs. Jaeger to finish putting clean towels in the linen closet then walk 5 feet, her daughter was gone. Cellphone on the vanity. Her husband busied himself down stairs in his office with paper work. He only became aware something had happened when his wife's body hit the floor directly above him HARD. Like Mrs. Bennett, the bloody words were too much for the woman to process.
Doors locked.
The Felder bathroom didn't even have a window.
No screams.
No surprised shouts.
No suspicious noises of any kind.
Nobody could figure it out. Eventually winding up in the cold case files but far from forgotten.
*BOS*
This attracted all manner of paranormal experts and theorists anxious to do their own investigating. The unofficial cause, according to locals and out of towners alike, was the spirit that lived in Burgess lake. Said to be the ghost of a boy murdered back in colonial times; slowly bleeding to death before the ice gave way and he drowned. He had frigid blue eyes, unnaturally white hair and skin pale as snow. Said to have taken that appearance from 'the shock of death' somehow. Over the years he became angry and resentful. He'd been confined to his watery grave by a spell to keep his spirit from seeking vengeance. Only speaking his name could break it.
Which is probably what the Burgess 7 did, reading it aloud.
No longer bound, Jack was free to satisfy his lust for the flesh and blood of children. That's why no bodies were left.
Something that couldn't be proven but persisted nonetheless. Treating it like the legend of Bloody Mary, thrill seeking (re:stupid) young people would try to recreate the circumstances of one of the vanishing and say his name.
Thankfully nobody else disappeared.
...
Their pale bloodless corpses were always found right where they played their deadly game. The situation was always the same. Just like with the Burgess 7, there's nothing to alert anyone to the situation until it's over. No witnesses.
Except one.
Samson Radcliffe was looking for his daughter and her less than brilliant friends at midnight. Deciding to camping right after a snowstorm, who does that? Using a series of elaborate excuses consisting of 'I'm staying with _' and turning off their phones insured their parents remained clueless. Well the ones that weren't detectives for a living. Ever the paranoid parent, especially with the weirdness in this town, Radcliffe had merely traced the signal from the tracker in his daughter's Highlander.
He trusted his daughter. Just not the 4 idiots with her.
Disgruntledly trudging through the snow, he honed in on the sound of laughing and giggling. Too tired to make a grand entrance, he just barrelled through the brush flashlight blazing.
"Marlene Hanna Radcliffe you are in so...much..." His voice trailed off at the sight.
All five teens were around a campfire, tents and the SUV with the radio on in the background. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except the seven other younger kids holding them down. Startled they looked up at the man with glowing blue eyes and mouths covered in blood. Clearly from the bite marks all over Marlene, David, Stephen, Jodie and Bryan. Faster than he could blink they were on him. He thrashed around but small hands were like steel vices.
"Let him up. You guys know the rules." A voice laughed.
"Aw..." They whined as they pulled away.
"He didn't call us so we can't touch him. Unless he'd like to speak one of our names..."
The one to call them off, Sam knew his name the instant he saw him. White hair, blue eyes, ghostly complexion. The local legend stood before him. But he wasn't looking at him. Instead he prodded the eerily still bodies of his baby girl and her friends. Marlene moaned but didn't open her eyes. Parental instinct kicked in and he ran forward.
"Get away from her!"
"Nope." The tiniest of the young monsters snatched his coat sending him backward into a tree.
What he saw before fading into unconsciousness would forever be burned into his mind. The hunger in the eyes of the murderous phantom as he bit into his poor daughter's neck. While the smaller ones descended on the other barely breathing teens. Smiles on their faces.
*BOS*
Okay. Done with this. Lemme know whatcha think. Sirensoundwave out.