Lone Falls

'The Lone Falls Killer' The news headline was like a punch to the stomach. Nobody wanted to relive the past, especially one as bloody as ours. Below this was clippings from the next couple of weeks. All the kids that died.

'Sara Williams and Thomas Marks to be engaged. Both have just finished High School and it seems they are more than ready to start their lives together.'

'Terror grips Lone Falls as the town wakes up to Andy Rover dead. Andy and Tina Rover, son and daughter-in-law of Mayor Dennis Rover had just gotten married. Andy was found near the Falls Lake, he has strangled, by a curtain rope. Andy Rover was last seen at Sara Williams’ house. She claims that what happened to Andy was an accident. Sheriff Austen didn’t arrest anyone.'

I had hoped that I would never see a body mangled like that again. It almost made me rethink my career choice, being a reporter was going to be fun they said. Ha! I had to go through a whole year of counseling before I could even enter the town again. Now that I am back I can feel all those feelings coming back, the fear and blind panic that anyone could be the killer. It all started again on Saturday, April 22nd, 2006 with a high school cheerleader, Cher Andrews.

'Cher Andrews and Matt Barnes were heading to the Andrews home, Matt was dropping off Cher after a party that they had both been to. Cher was going on and on about her upcoming trip to New York with her parents. Matt was just a bit annoyed with her. Cher had turned him down again. He couldn’t understand why she didn’t want to go out with him. Sure he had dated most of their year. But what jock didn’t? Cher got out of the car and stumbled up to her front door. Matt fleetingly wondered if he should help her inside, but as soon as he thought that Cher, by some miracle got the door open and closed it again.

Cher heard Matt drive off and made her way to her room, calling out to her parents

‘Mom?, Dad? I’m home.’ she yelled, ‘Mom?’ She walked to the kitchen and saw a note on the fridge “Went to the movies be back at 12 -Love Mom” Cher looked at the clock over the stove 12:30

‘Hmmm, so much for being punctual.’ Cher had a tense relationship with her Mom. Like most spoiled single children, though I suppose their relationship was better than the stereotype.

Suddenly the back door closed. Cher jumped, she huffed when she saw Bruno, her lab sitting near the back door. Cher bent down to pet him and she saw a reflection of a masked figure in the window. Cher screamed, she ran to her room and locked the door.

"Damn it, Matt, if this is some sick joke, I will end you."

She heard scraping on her window and saw the guy in the mask again. She screamed and grabbed her phone to call 911, but there was no cell service.

‘Crap.’ Cher whispered to herself, she was starting to hyperventilate. ‘This can not be happening. AHHHHHH’ She screamed again. Her door was starting to open, she ran to her bathroom and closed the door. Her bedroom door banged open and she saw someone’s shoes at the bottom of her bathroom door. Cher screamed again when her bathroom door opened. She started to struggle when the masked guy grabbed her hair and started to pull her to her bed. Cher was starting to imagine the worst-case scenario as the guy in the mask pulled out a small knife, the blade was curved and it gleamed in the light coming from the window. Cher couldn’t scream anymore. She stared, wide-eyed as the blade came nearer, and then all was calm and silent.

The man in the mask looked down at Cher. She was lying in her bed like she was asleep, but the bright red gash on her throat and the ever-growing pool of her blood on the pillows told a different story. The Man took Cher’s phone and kneeling next to the bed took a selfie. Then he placed the phone in her stiffening hand and left.'

Lone Falls was a quiet town. Not much of anything ever happened, you might get the odd complaint of shoplifting, maybe some vandalism. But on the whole, it was your stereotypical small town. Everyone knew everyone. There was no way would be able to get away with anything. Until now. He was back.

In some ways, Lone Falls was still reeling from the death of Andy Rover 30 years previous. Being the first suspicious death in the town since the 1940s. There was no warning, that morning when Lone Falls woke up to the murder of Cher Andrews. No one saw it coming, it was a sneak attack from hell. But what really had the town’s people going wasn’t the brutal death of one of there own, it was the accusation of Thomas and Sara Marks killing Andy Rover.

Tommy and Sara gonna pay

The message was found on Cher’s wall, written in her blood. Yes while all grieved over the death of Cher Andrews, the question at the back of everyone’s mind was the message on the wall.

Tuesday, April 25th, 2006 the next teen to fall victim was Matt Barnes, the on again off again boyfriend of Cher.

'Matt Barnes could have kicked himself. He should have walked Cher to her door, she might still be alive. He could have, he should have done something. He kept reliving the last time he saw her over and over in his head. Matt was working late at his father’s granary when he heard the factory door close. He looked in the threshing room, but he didn’t see anything except the door was wide open. Matt frowned, he could have sworn that he had closed that after his dad had left work. He had been picking up more hours after Cher. He needed to keep busy, His father was all for that. He was excited to see that his son wanted to continue the family business. Matt closed the door when his phone went off. Matt swiped to open and answered the call.

‘Hello?’ He said

“Hello, Matthew.”

“Who is this?”

“An old friend. Tell me Matt how’s Cher?” Matt froze, how dare anyone mention her name.

“What do you mean? How could you even say that?”

“I can say what I want Matthew. It’s you who should watch your mouth.” The call abruptly ended there. Matt shoved his phone back in his pocket. He couldn’t believe this punk. Once he found out who it was he was dead. Nobody would drag Cher through the mud like that. Not on his watch. Matt went back to stacking the bags of flour when he heard a door slam shut. Frowning he straightened and turned around. The door to his Dad’s office, which had been open was now closed. Matt walked over from the storage room and opened the office door. There was nothing there. He shook his head. He was just imagining things. As he walked back to the storage room he felt like something, or someone was watching him. He turned and saw nothing. He shook himself. ‘You're just imagining it, Barnes. There is no one there.’ He said to himself.

But he couldn’t shake this feeling like something was wrong. He finished his work and started to head to his Dad’s office so that he could sign out and pick up the key to lock up when he heard footsteps behind him. He stopped walking and took a breath, thinking that it was like last time and nothing was really there. After a few seconds, he started walking and walked right into a pitchfork. He didn’t even scream, he looked at the handle that had been stuck into the ground in terror, then looked up and saw the masked man in front of him. Matt started to panic when he started coughing up blood. He grunted when the masked man jerked the pitchfork out of his stomach. Matt fell to the ground and tried to crawl away, the man let him struggle for a few steps before thrusting down into his back. Matt let out a strangled scream as he felt the fork being pushed into his back. He rolled over,

"Why? What did we do to you?" he coughed, blood dripping out of his mouth. The man put a finger to his lips, telling him to be quiet. He grabbed both of Matt's hands and dragged him over to the mill. Matt started to struggle, the man simply let him fall to the ground, Matt again tried to crawl away, but the man picked him up and thrust him on to the conveyer belt and turned on the machine. The man pulled out Matt's phone and started to record Matt being ground up in the mill.'

That had to be the most disturbing thing that I have ever seen. How sick do you have to be to feed a person through a flour mill?

As I compiled my notes for today, I wondered what other creepy and disturbing things were in store for our town?