The next day came around and Milton was in the field trying to salvage as much of his crops as he could when Lester came walking over. "Jenny said you were out here, how much have you lost" asked Lester referring to the mounds of ruined wheat surrounding Milton. "Almost too much to even break even, especially with the prices bottoming out. Are you hungry, I think there are still some biscuits left over from breakfast" asked Milton. "No, I'm fine, where did you say it happened" asked Lester. "About two miles south of here by that tree line in the distance, we can take my truck" Explained Milton. The two men climbed into the truck and started towards the tree line, "how many people do you think were there that night" asked Lester getting out a notepad and pen to write down information, despite him coming as a friend he still acts like a cop. "I don't know maybe like eight or ten, I didn't make counting them a priority, but I think that's how many." explained Milton. After a few more minutes they reached the tree line and got out and walked over to the opening in the tree line. "It happened right over there, by that boulder" explained Milton. "Okay, toss me some plastic gloves from my bag, and get a pair for yourself, this may not be my jurisdiction, but I don't want to contaminate it just in case you're right and something did happen" explained Lester. Milton grabbed the gloves and the two of them proceeded to the boulder. "Look" exclaimed Milton pointing at the ground, "ashes from the fire." Just in front of the rock was an old fire pit that was filled with ashes and charred logs. "That doesn't mean anything Milton, anyone could've had a fire out here It's far out and secluded could've been some kids being irresponsible, let's keep looking" explained Lester. They spent the next thirty minutes looking around to see if anything was left behind but after a while Lester had given up "there's nothing here man, either you didn't see anything or it's the most organized murder in history" explained Lester while pulling off his gloves signaling defeat "If you actually get some solid evidence of any kind call me but as of right now there's nothing here, I'm going to walk back to my car I need to call Janice." Damnit thought Milton as Lester left towards his car how could there be nothing here, he knew he didn't imagine it all, maybe Lester was right, and it was the most organized crime of all time, after a few more minutes of searching he got back in his truck and left thinking of how he had possibly been so moronic. As his truck was no longer in sight there was movement in the trees above and down crawled a dark figure covered in dried blood and holding a pair blood-soaked shoes staring as Milton drove away.
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Later that night, after Milton and his family had eaten their dinner and the girls were put to bed, he and the misses sat down to watch some TV. "What do you feel like watching Hun" asked Jenny and she grabbed the remote. "I don't care, something mind-numbing will do" explained Milton. As jenny flipped through the channels, she stopped at the local news station. "When I said mind-numbing this is a little more than I had in mind," laughed Milton. "The batteries died, I'll go get some more, give me a second" explained Jenny. While Jenny was rummaging in the drawers for new batteries Milton watched as the News Anchor was talking about some potential traffic tomorrow. "With construction on two additional lanes on Highway 76 expect an additional 15 minutes to your commute tomorrow" explained the anchor, "In other news, we have a breaking story coming in from the sheriff's office of Valley Creek, earlier this evening they found the body of a unidentified man who appears to be somewhere between 30-35 years of age, he was reportedly stabbed multiple times in the abdomen, Valley Creek Sheriff's Department have stated that they will be throwing all their resources into the mysterious death of this man." Holy shit thought Milton, that's got to be the guy he had seen the other day with that psycho group. He reached into his pocket and dialed Lester.
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-Hello, Sheriff Lester speaking.
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-Lester, it's Milton, they found a body today that was stabbed multiple times, it must be the guy I saw.
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-Milton now's not the best time, we found the girl, and it's not good. I've got a lot of shit to deal with right now, I'll call you later.
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Lester hung up and it was obvious that he was both pissed and stressed now so he decided he'd give him a few days and would continue investigating by himself. "Aha, I found the batteries, sorry it took that long, anything interesting on the news" asked Jenny. "No, just traffic" lied Milton as Jenny flipped to her favorite cooking show, and Milton drifted off to sleep. He awoke hours later to see that Jenny had gone to bed and decided to let him continue to sleep. As he stood up to walk to their bedroom, he saw something outside and decided to walk to the window to get a better look, at what appeared to be a figure standing in his field. He flipped the porch lights on but let a sigh of relief go to see it was just a scarecrow, he flipped off the porch light and walked to bed, but in the distance the dark figure walked away. The next morning Milton woke to five missed calls from Lester and was about to call him back when he texted "come into the living room." Milton walked down the hallway into the living room to see three officers sitting at the kitchen table with his wife and the couple he'd seen the other day in Bientville at the police station. "What's going on" asked Milton sensing an eerie vibe the minute he walked in. "Milton, this is Mister and Misses Wallen, the parents of Laurie Wallen who has been missing." explained Lester standing up to let Milton take his seat. "Last night we found Laurie deceased in the woods about three quarters of a mile of where you took me yesterday, and we found a pair a bloody shoe with her that belonged to the man who was found dead yesterday, Walter Schmidt." Milton had to stand up after hearing this and now heard a loud ringing noise but composed himself and asked "what does this have to do with me other the close proximity" asked Milton now pacing the room. "I haven't told you everything yet, in the pocket of Mr. Walter was a notepad that had a log of a meeting that was dated for the night you saw the group in the woods, and it describes the entire meeting up until the sacrifice you said you saw." Explained Lester. "So, wait, that man wasn't the man I saw that night" asked Milton now shaking and holding his wife's hand as she now was scared and had gone pale. "We don't know for sure but Laura Wallen had apparently been involved with a local boy in town Todd Shoemaker who has been apart of a group that's meeting up at nights and worshiping scarecrows, but their group had always been peaceful, we've launched an investigation, but we wanted to question Todd about the group first, however, last night he took his own life after hearing the news about Laurie. Explained Lester. "I don't know what to think, can you talk to the other members about the group" asked Milton. "We can't, their members always used anonymous names with in the group, the only reason we knew Todd was in the group was because a diary entry Laurie had written and then ripped out and thrown under her bed" as Lester explained this to him he heard the same voice he had heard the other night *you told others, now you must pay, must pay with BLOOD* "WHO SAID THAT, WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME" yelled Milton as he fell to his knees with his hands over his ears that were now bleeding and ringing. "Milton! What happened, what are you talking about, no one said anything" exclaimed his wife Jenny falling to the ground and throwing her arms around him as he began to shake. "I think its best if you take Mister and Misses Wallen back home" stated Lester gesturing to the other cops and the couple, "I'm going to put a pot of coffee on." Lester left the room and Jenny was slowly able to get Milton back on his feet and guided him over to his recliner. "I need to call Ms. Cooper and ask her if the girls can stay the night" Jenny stated but before she could reach the phone Milton spoke up "No! We need the girls here, they can't be away from us, ask Ms. Cooper if she could walk them back over as soon as she can" exclaimed Milton looking pale and sweating profusely. "Okay Milton, just sit down and breathe" explained Jenny as she got him to finally sit down and handed him a cup of coffee from Lester and preceded to call the girls babysitter to ask her to bring them back over. After about forty minutes Miss Cooper walked up to the porch with the two girls and walked in trying to wrangle the hyper kids who were now trying to break free. "Hi Ms. Cooper, sorry for making you walk them back over short notice, but we have some family matters to attend to, would you like a cup of coffee before you take off" asked Jenny. "No worries. I'm fine, thank you though. I need to get back home and put my living room back together" chuckled the babysitter as she turned and headed out the door.
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