*News Broadcast*
"Well folks, it looks like we're in for another couple weeks of hot and dry weather. You can see here that there is a huge continual Heat wave being blown in from the south, so we here at channel 6 suggest folks stay inside as much as possible and pray the town's crops won't whither."
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"Damnit! we've already lost fifteen acres so far; I don't know how we're going to make it Jenny." exclaimed a man sitting on an old beat-up sofa. "Milton, please watch your language around the children, we don't need them to pick up any bad habits." explained Jenny as she got up and escorted the children towards their bedroom. "I just don't know what to do anymore, the crops are dying, there's no jobs anywhere near Ladmouth, Valley Creek or Bientville, and Rachel needs braces." exclaimed Milton as he cracked open a bottle of beer. "We could always move back to Omaha and stay with my parents until you find a job there, my parents love you and would quickly take us in." Explained Jenny as she walked over and sat next to her husband. "I love your parents too, but I have to prove that I can take care of my own, and make it out here, my father couldn't do it, so I have to do it for the both of us, it's what he always wanted." Explained Milton as he got up from the couch, "I'm going to go check on the fields, don't wait for me to eat dinner I'll eat when I get back". As he walked out the door he put on his old boots by the door, they had been his fathers before they were his, he felt that if he wore them while he was out there in the fields then his father would truly know success when, if ever, he was to have it. He walked by the edges of the field running the tips of his fingers against the withered grains of wheat, he thought about when he first arrived here with his wife ten years ago in 1985, she was pregnant with their first child at the time and they were both intoxicated by the smell of the country and the possibilities they now faced on their own away from their families in the big city of Omaha. The first two years brought immense success as the crops' yields were as high as the price they sold for, then came the summer drought of 88' and with it the end of many family farms out here. He and his family stayed through the challenging times hoping to eventually break free, but it only got drier as the years passed by and more dreams with it. Once he reached the end of the fields and the beginning the country road, he saw a yellowish light in the distance hiding within the tree line of the forest. Curiously he began to walk towards the mysterious glow, he had no neighbors, they had all been forced out by the heat or the banks. As he neared the trees, he began to hear voices in the form of chants, they grew louder with every step he neared, once by the tree line he sneaked behind a bush in hopes of getting a good look but without the possibility of being seen. "We honor you, o great one, we fall on our knees, beg you, bring us rain, bring us rain, and we will worship you forever" the unknown group chanted towards a Scarecrow perched atop a boulder. What was going on thought Milton, he knew that some people here thought if they treated the scarecrows with respect that God might bring much needed rain, but these people, they were worshiping it, begging it, as if it were some god itself. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a man rise from the ground wearing some kind of robe or cloak, wondering if this man was the leader, he inched closer towards the group. "My fellow Loudmouths, I believe that your honor and sacrifice has truly been noticed, Crow will certainly take these actions into consideration, but before we have one more thing we must do before we all leave. Men take out your knives, Crow needs a blood sacrifice before he grants us rain." Horrified, Milton began to back away slowly as the group brought out what appeared to be a beat up man blindfolded and tied to a pole into the center of the men, no doubt the sacrifice. "We honor you, o great one, we fall on our knees, beg you, bring us rain, bring us rain, and we will worship you forever" chanted the group as they began towards the man. As Milton started back towards his home he slipped and fell on a pile of twigs and leaves on the forest floor, thankfully his fall was masked by the screams of the poor man as the bastards must have completed the final sacrifice, he took this opportunity and began to sprint back home not wanting to be near those people any second longer. He finally reached the porch of his two-story farmhouse and quickly went inside, locked the door, and closed all the blinds. Panting, he went over to the couch and fell onto the beat-up old thing. "Milton, is that you, I thought I heard the door shut, how are the crops" asked Jenny as she walked down the hall into the living room. "Oh my lord! Milton, what happened to you, you look like you have seen a ghost or something," exclaimed Jenny. As she helped him sit upright onto the couch, he began to explain everything he had just witnessed, the chanting, the bonfire, the cloaked leader, the murder of some helpless man, "What the hell! did they see you at all Milton, I mean they don't seem the friendly sort" asked Jenny as Milton got up and headed to the kitchen to grab a beer. "I don't know Jenny, I ran all the way back and I am pretty sure I wasn't followed, I'm going to go into town tomorrow to pick up the new front tire for the tractor but while I'm there I'll check in with sheriff Gorman, maybe we can go check out where it happened as well." explained Milton as he tried to comfort his wife. He then got up and walked down the hall and into the bathroom began to get ready for bed when he heard a faint voice, *Tell no one, tell no one else*, he looked around to see if anyone was there, but he was alone. He decided he must just be hearing things now it has been a long day he just needed some sleep to calm his nerves. He crawled into bed next to his wife who was reading her bible with her beads clenched in her hands. The two of them were not religious but she had grown up in a catholic family and her father had been a priest, she only ever read the bible and wore the beads when she felt unsafe, usually when a kid was sick or they couldn't pay their bills which was more common as of recently, but she had never clenched them before and you could feel how tense she was just by looking at her. He decided to just ignore it tonight and go to bed, he needed to get his mind right himself, he would talk to her tomorrow. As he drifted off to sleep there came a tap at the window, then another and another, and suddenly he shot up from his sleep as a bolt of lightning swept across the sky and a bang of thunder rattled the house to its foundation, as he looked out the window to see how much rain they were getting. He was momentarily thrilled to be seeing the rain fall out of the sky but then he remembered the group of people he ran across that evening and their chants of asking for rain and the sacrifice they made, did they in fact bring rain to Ladmouth, was this just a weird coincidence that bordered freaky, or did they tempt fate by tapping into some weird ritual shit that brought the weather here. *BANG* another loud eruption of thunder shook the house and sent the two young girls fleeing into their parents' room looking for comfort. "Daddy, can we sleep in here with you and Mommy, the loud noises are scary!" asked the girls in unison. "What's going on?" asked Jenny as she yawned. "It's raining outside finally, and the Thunder scared the girls" explained Milton, "come on in girls, you guys can stay in here for the night". As the family slowly drifted off to sleep once again a tall dark figure stood in front of the house but quickly vanished with the easement of the rain and subsequent thunder and lightning.
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As the sun crept up over the bedroom's windowsills, Milton woke to see his wife was not in their bed, no doubt she was forced out by the girls he saw sprawled out over the bed. He sat up and put on his slippers and walked out of the room into the hallway where he saw Jenny asleep on the couch, he checked his watch and saw that it was only 6:45 so he quietly dressed for the morning and went to go check on the crops. The fresh smell of dew hit his face the second he opened the door, and he walked down the porch and saw that a tree by the fence line had been torn out of its roots and was now lying atop a portion of wheat. "Damn" thought Milton. He took the keys to the shed out of pocket as he walked to the door, after unlocking it he grabbed a twenty-foot-length chain and then walked towards his truck. Attaching one end of the chain to the hitch on the back he thought of how he had been waiting for rain for months but when it finally came it destroyed crops instead, how unlucky he must be. After successfully dragging the tree out of the field he watched as the tree took two hundred dollars' worth of wheat with it, he hopped of the truck took the chain off and put it back in the shed, now he can finally leave for Bientville, which was forty-seven minutes away, but was the only town Ladmouth County that had the tire he was looking for but also was home to Sherriff Gorman, his childhood best friend Lester Gorman who moved to all the way Springfield to become a sheriff's deputy since there wasn't an opening in Bientville or even a sheriff department in Littleton where we grew up ever since the county decided to defund it after the Littleton lost its city ship. He eventually got a job offer to become the Sheriff in Bientville when the former had retired after suffering a stroke a month prior, albeit the job came with a lower salary than Springfield but also was far safer for him, his wife Janice and newborn son Lester Jr. Along the way Milton found it rather difficult to keep his mind occupied and off the subject of what he had witnessed just hours ago, he wondered how many times had these people met prior, had this been the first sacrifice of life to some damn scarecrow, were there other groups like them, he didn't know and quite frankly didn't want to know, but before he knew it the long ride to town was over as he entered Bientville and past the town sign welcoming him in. He drove down the street for a few minutes before pulling into a parking spot in front of a building named "Jason's Tires", he walked into the lobby and collected his tire he had ordered, placed it into the bed of his pickup and then began to walk towards the Sheriff Department just a block down the street. As he approached the front of the building, he noticed a large crowd formed around the door which included the local news station with their cameras. "Back away folks, back away please, give the Sheriff some room" shouted a deputy attempting to make room for Sheriff Lester who was making his way out of the door towards a podium that was set up slightly to the left of the entrance. "Thank you, Deputy," said Lester "ladies and gentlemen please calm down and I will take your questions one at a time." The crowd died down and a short man with glasses stepped forward "Sheriff, do you have any leads where Anna Bednar could be" asked the man. "At this moment we do not have any leads, but we are currently in the process of getting a tip line up and running so when we do if you or anyone you know has any information on Ms. Bednar, please let us know, any other questions" asked Lester. "Do you have any comments on this being the first missing persons case in Bientville since 1956" asked a woman in the far back. No comment, but we are putting all our resources into finding out what happened, that is all for now guys, thank you all for coming-out explained Lester the crowd then dispersed, and Milton walked up to Lester who had slumped onto a bench and understandably looked exhausted and stressed tremendously. "Lester, how are you doing these days" asked Milton "Oh look who it is, Old Milton Renfield, I'm pretty shitty to be honest, how about you old friend," said Lester. "Well, that's why I'm here, something happened last night out by my place, and I was wondering if I could get some help with, I think someone was murdered last night, by some, cult like group". explained Milton. " Come on Milton, on we can talk in my office". The pair of them walked into the building and into the hallway passing a couple who looked like they had just received the worst news of their lives, they must be the parents of the missing girl or at least someone close to her. "How long has the girl been missing for" asked Milton once they had walked into Lester's office. "Twelve days now, I'm starting to lose hope at this point, and I can't sleep, so about this potential murder, are you sure you saw something, maybe your mind is playing tricks on you, I know how much stress you've been under since the drought. There has not been a violent crime in Littleton since, well you know" explained Lester. He did in fact know, the last violent crime was in 1958 when he was only four years old when his mother had been murdered by two men who were passing through town and were angered when she would not give them her purse. They never found the two men and now the only memories of his mother were from stories his father told him before he passed. "No Lester, I know what I saw, someone was killed just a few hundred feet from where my family sleeps." exclaimed Milton. "Well, I don't really know what you want me to do, I don't have jurisdiction over that area, Valley creek does." explained Lester. "I know you don't have jurisdiction, but I'm not asking you to come as Sheriff Gorman, I'm asking you to come as my friend Lester." begged Milton "I wouldn't ask if I wasn't sure what I had seen, if there truly is some weird shit going on there, I'll have to move Jenny and the girls, I can't have them in danger." Lester began pacing the room and took a swig from his coffee, which Milton suspected was filled with more than coffee. "Alright, I'll help but I can't make it up there tonight, I'll be there tomorrow around noon, and I'll have to tell Janice why I'm going." explained Lester. "That's alright, tell Janice me and Jenny say hi, see you tomorrow then". Milton then walked out of Lester's office and back down the hallway past the distressed couple and back towards his car.
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