by Ron Ripley
Brian took a pen out of his pocket as he opened the page. A boy with a sword stood up, having heard Jim.
“Here,” the teenager said, “I will sign.”
Brian brought the paper and the pen to the boy as a teenage girl stepped up beside him. The boy moved slightly so the girl could read the paper as well, and then the boy and the girl each signed it in turn.
An unarmed man wearing a battered flannel jacket walked up, looked at the paper, and held his hand out wordlessly to the girl. She handed him the pen and as he signed, the last man, carrying a wicked-looking knife came up, accepted the pen from the other man and signed as well.
“Where’s Fred?” Jim asked.
Brian looked over at him. “Who?”
“Fred?”
***
Fred stood near the pool, in front of the door, which was open. The key which he had stolen from Jim was in the lock, and Fred held the book that he had read only hours earlier.
A whisper came rippling through the forest and the dead boy Morgan was there.
“The last of them has signed,” Morgan said.
Fred nodded, opened the book, and with the light of the stars he read: “Et ego erudivieostevinctossic ego.”
The world shifted and far beyond, in the center of Thorne, Fred heard the faeries scream out their outrage.
Morgan smiled at Fred, and Fred smiled at Morgan.
Closing the book, Fred turned and walked into the curious cave, removing the key from the lock and closing the door behind him.
Epilogue
One Year Later
Scientists were still trying to figure out what had happened to the town of Thorne. No one could understand what had caused trees to be uprooted and to form a strange barrier around the town. Some people had attempted to push the State and Federal governments to investigate, but both governments had refused. At least two independent investigative news teams had attempted to discover what had happened to the three hundred and forty-seven missing residents of Thorne.
Neither of the teams, which had slipped over the jersey barriers placed across the sole remaining road into Thorne, had been heard from again.
There were, of course, rumors of a government experiment gone wrong, which caused the death of the residents and poisoned the town, making it unfit for human inhabitation. Others believed that this was the case, and that the news teams were killed for trying to find out what had happened.
A State sanctioned search party went in after each team, yet nothing was found of the reporters and their crews. There was no secret memory card or tape found containing the reasons why -- no last video journals.
The news teams -- eight men and three women -- had simply vanished. Eventually, their cars were towed away.
Theirs were not the only cars, however.
Others came seeking the mystery behind the destruction and abandonment of Thorne. Some never returned, although others did make it into the town and came back. Those that did return said that their various electronic devices were rendered useless during their time in the mysterious circle of trees.
What they had seen in the town had changed them.
Few of the buildings were still standing, and on Main Street they found the remains of large bonfires and the gnawed and broken bones of people. They also reported that the trees lining Gilson Road had human skulls nailed to them.
Jim Petrov and the other five signers of the contract knew all of this. Jim and Evan and Philip had actually been the ones to nail the skulls to the trees. Rose Mary had built dozens of disrupters, which Erin and Klaus had placed in the barrier around the entire perimeter, each connected to a solar-powered battery. These simple devices ensured that no recording equipment or cell phones would work properly within the faery confinement area. None of the signers of the contract were responsible for the deaths, however.
The faeries took care of that.
On the one-year anniversary of their escape from Thorne, the six of them sat in Jim Petrov’s new house on the edge of the perimeter on Gilson Road. Brian Ricard was there as well, having full knowledge as to what had occurred. All of them were gathered in Jim’s den with after-dinner coffees, yet this wasn’t a mere social gathering.
“Have you spoken with Fred?” Jim asked Klaus.
“Yes,” the young man said. His voice still had a hint of a German accent. Klaus adjusted his arm slightly, Erin slipping in closer to him. “Erin and I spoke with him on Saturday. We made it all the way to the pool and found him. He was pleased that the note he had thrown over the barrier on the road had been found. Thus, we brought to him those things which he had requested, the books and ammunition.”
“Good,” Jim said. “What’s the word with rumor control, Phil?”
Philip grinned. “Good. The garage is a great place to spread information. Lots of tourists have the bright idea of trying to go through Thorne. I dissuade most of them, but a few get through,” he said, the grin fading. “Those I feel pretty bad about. I wish that I could get all of them to stop.”
“I know,” Jim said, nodding. “Try not to worry too much about it, Phil, we can’t stop them all. Rose Mary, what about any new electronics? I know that you were looking for a way to shut down onboard computers for the newer cars.”
“I’m still looking,” she said, sighing. “The tech’s out there, but the Feds have most of it watched. I’ve got feelers out, but I have to wait until someone contacts me.”
“Evan?” Jim said, looking at the man.
“Still patrolling the perimeter at night,” Evan said, stifling a yawn. “Every once in a while I’ll get a goblin troop that comes a little too close, but a few rounds from the Colt usually settle that business. Most of them are too afraid to come to the barrier now. With Phil spreading the bad news about the barrier and the faery folk kept away from it, well,” Evan grinned, “I think that we’ll keep accidental sightings to a minimum.”
“Good,” Jim said. He looked over at Brian. “And politics?”
“Politics is politics,” Brian said simply. “We were fortunate that the few descendants of the original signers have as much political pull as they do. Without them, we’d never have been able to shut the world out. As of last week, Senator Copp from Massachusetts managed to get Thorne designated a National site, and Governor Hall of New Hampshire is going to have Thorne listed as a permanent monument. Judge Coffin has also managed to deny the release of any information on Thorne by way of Homeland Security.”
“So we’re covered,” Jim said, “all the way around for now.”
“What about the giants?” Evan asked. “What’s going on with them? I know that they’re kept back by the barrier, but we don’t need someone sneaking around the perimeter and spotting one.”
“Don’t worry too much about them,” Jim said. He put his coffee down on the coffee table and stood up. He walked across the den to the bookcases lining the far wall. He moved a small clock and pressed a switch. As he pulled his arm back, the wall started sliding to the right.
“Fred’s been busy,” Jim said, smiling grimly, “very, very busy.”
Revealed by the moving wall was a large trophy case made of dark mahogany and museum-quality glass. Warm lights spilled down from recesses in the ceiling upon six massive, roughly human-looking skulls which had been boiled white. The skulls of the giants stared emptily out from the case with their death’s head grins, a bullet hole in the center of the head.
“Damn,” Evan said softly as the others murmured, “I guess Fred really has been busy.”
* * *
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Table of Contents
Prelude: Ignorance is No Excuse
Book1: The Blood Contract
Chapter 1: Playing Security Guard
Chapter 2: Checking on the Pizza Man
Chapter 3: Hollis and Coffee
Chapter 4: Jim Petrov and the Blood Road Worksite
Chapter 5: Alderman Nadeau and his morning paper
Chapter 6: Jim Petrov at the Monson PD
Chapter 7: At Alderman Nadeau’s House
Chapter 8: The Thorne Historical Society
Chapter 9: Alderman Williams Working Late
Chapter 10: Mike Pinkham and the Mechanic
Chapter 11: Jim Petrov and Morgan Blood
Book 2: The Old World
Chapter 1: Jim Petrov, Alone with the Dead
Chapter 2: Cold and Calm upon the Gauthiers
Chapter 3: Jim, the Colt, and the Goblins
Chapter 4: Fred O’Dierno and War
Chapter 5: Scott Ricard and the Dullahan
Chapter 6: Jim, Fred and Hollis Blood
Chapter 7: Brian Ricard in Thorne
Chapter 8: A Place of Safety
Chapter 9: Fires along the Roads
Chapter 10: Elizabeth O’Grady and the Brownie
Chapter 11: Down by the Pool
Book 3: Ghost Town
Chapter 1: Fred O’Dierno and the Book
Chapter 2: Brian Ricard and Gilson Road
Chapter 3: John Kenyon and the Little Red School House
Chapter 4: Gerald and the Draugr
Chapter 5: Jim and Fred and Walking Back
Chapter 6: Thorne Town Hall, 11:00 AM
Chapter 7: Hearing the Hounds, 11:00 AM, the Blood Lands
Chapter 8: Erin and Klaus at the Bus Stop
Chapter 9: At the Blood House
Chapter 10: 4:00 PM, Evan in the Forest
Chapter 11: Town Hall, 4:30 PM
Chapter 12: Erin and Klaus in the Pharmacy, 4:3o PM
Chapter 13: Jim, Fred, Rose Mary, and Gwen at the Cottage
Chapter 14: Brian and the Dead
Chapter 15: Night Falls