July 3, 1866 (two days before the incident)

Jeffery Wilkins was the head of a rather fortunate family after the Civil War. One son, came back from it alive, if not a tad traumatized, which was just par for the course. Wife does wife things, even a pair of servants to help maintain the house. His son, Mel Wilkins, was part of the 3rd Infantry for the Union and saw his fair share of death at Gettysburg. Their home and town were fortunately spared of the carnage, save for the brave men that fought and died for their cause. It was a long trip from their small town in Delaware to the battlefields further south, but it didn't deter the loyal boys from signing up.

"Brianna? Is lunch ready yet?" the lady of the house, Kim Wilkins asked her servant on duty. This question draws the attention of husband Jeff and son Mel, both who were in the study talking about how the war was and how the town has changed since the war ended over cigars and drinks.

"On my way with the last of it, ma'am!" she calls back, setting the plates down and quietly exiting the room. The men head over and sit down, and lunch goes as it does. The other servant, Jennifer, steps in to clear the dishes, and says to Jeff:

"Sirs, ma'am, if i may intrude for just a moment. I thought you should be aware of something i heard in town. The general store owner and a customer were talking while i was getting supplies for the house, they said there was a rumor of a group of Confederate holdouts somewhere around here. I did share the sentiment of the owner, who said that we were a bit too far north for that. Its not impossible, but i thought it best we should be aware." The men looked at each other, and nod.

"I appreciate it, Jennifer. Mel, if you and those other two boys from your squad -"

"We'll go check the woods outside of town. Give it a once over, just in case." He gets up and heads out after grabbing his things.

Evening of July 3, 1866

Mel returns to the house, quiet, stained in blood. Jennifer rushes him up to the bathroom, taking his uniform to get cleaned, and Brianna helps him bathe. Meanwhile, his father comes upstairs, having heard Mel come home.

"What happened out there, son?" He looks up at him, Brianna stepping aside a moment.

"We found them, Pa. Three or four of em jumped out of bushes at us like damn trappers on muskrats. They didn't have guns though, so we shot em up pretty easy. Two of them slipped away, some damn weasels. Barrett went after them, dont know if he got them." His father sighed. "Alright son, rest. You did real good. I'll send a letter to your old unit leader. Let him know you guys did some good work for the town." Jeffery leaves the room, Brianna gets Mel cleaned, and everyone headed off to bed.

July 4, 1866, Independence Day (one day before the incident)

The Wilkins family didnt celebrate the holiday with the public this year. With the events of the day before, they opted to relax and cook big amounts of food, relaxing outside in the fenced backyard that backed up to the woods. The same woods they skirmished in the day before. As the cookout eventually drew to a close, the servants cleared the dishes and Mel stomped the dying flame out. None of them were aware that the rest of the holdouts were watching from just inside the treeline. Night fell, and the lanterns were doused. It would be the last peaceful night in the Wilkins house, not that they knew that.

July 5, 1866 (the day of the incident)

The Wilkins family woke up a bit late today, most having imbibed a bit much in private reading after the dinner. There's a whole lot of nothing going on today, Jennifer heading down to town to get some resupplies after the big cookout the day before. When she returned, Kim was dusting the family heirlooms, since her mother had always told her to not delegate that to anyone but herself, and she always remembered that. Lunch passed, dinner, drinks, and the night came to a close with the door left unlocked, the gate closed, nut unguarded. A fatal mistake.

Late night July 5, 1866

The gate creaked open, one of the Confederates quietly prying it open. They tried the door, and when it opened, the now four holdouts crept into the house, closing the door behind them. The servants were first. They died fairly painlessly, throats slashed. One of them stayed with the bodies, and what he did to their bodies... jesus. The other three went upstairs, to the master bedroom just off the stairs. the wife was similarly slashed, but from groin to gullet rather than the throat. The effort woke Jeffery, who immediately went into attack mode, tackling one of them off the bed with a crash while one of the others tried to undo his pants. He wouldn't get the chance, as Mel swung into the doorway, revolver drawn and cocked. He blew the would-be defilers head off with a deafening 'BANG', the corpse slumping off the bed immediately. Unfortunately for Mel, he wouldn't get the chance to fire again. The fourth and last holdout, whom had seen Mel in the woods days before, struck him over the head with the metal bar used to open the gate and began savagely beating Mels face in. Jeffery saw this, and having knocked out his attacker for a moment rushed to help his son. He slipped in the blood of his wifes attacker, stumbling and nearly falling over, long enough for the man who straddled his sons mangled body to swing his weapon out of reflex toward him, shattering his jaw and sending back onto the floor. From there it was maybe seconds before the man Jeffery had tackled had recovered, picked up his knife, and proceeded to gut Mr. Wilkins on his own bedroom floor. The remaining three attackers regrouped on the ground floor and fled over the backyard fence back into the woods they'd slunk out of, local sheriff fast approaching what he'd described as "the goriest scene i saw as a sheriff."

Sam finished describing the newspaper article to his brother Dean, who'd started it out with entries from a journal taken from the Wilkins house.

"Civil War horror story. No shortage of em on the East Coast, Sammy. We find em, we deal with em." An almost epidemic level of haunts awaited hunters all across the country if they traveled east.

"That's the groundwork set. We should head into town, see what kinda tall tales we can scare up about the Wilkins house. Then maybe we should check the place for ourselves." "I'm driving." Sam sighed, put his laptop aside and followed his brother out the hotel door into the temperate Delaware summer afternoon.