Welcome, my little critters, to Tales from the Crit Season 2, The Level Up.
We're an actual play podcast with an ever-changing cast of players making our way through a bunch
of different RPG systems, from micro-RPGs to some of the more well-known role-playing
games out there, and the occasional highly narrative tabletop game.
Content warnings can be found in the episode's description.
My name is Riley Groves, and I am the Crit Keeper on this episode of Tales from the Crit.
Last time, on Crit's On Bikes, we chased a cat, but ended up running into a monster
instead.
For some reason, Danny picked up a thumb that he found, and thinks it might belong to this
kitty-nosed Dale, but no one really knows for sure.
Danny and Shelly spend some more time together, but they seem to be attracting a lot of scums.
Oh, and we also committed a BMP, and stayed up way too late.
Welcome back to Tales from the Crit.
I am the Crit Keeper, Riley Groves, and I am joined by my co-hosts, Tim.
Wonderful to meet you.
Derek.
Hello.
And Connor.
Hey.
We are getting into part three of our Kids on Bikes part two playthrough, Kids on Bikes
sequel playthrough.
And before we jump into that fun stuff, let's answer a question about our characters from
the Ultimate RPG Campfire deck by James Diamato.
You can find that on Amazon, I'm pretty sure, or just look it up.
It's on simonshoester.com as well.
The question for today, this is a question about your companions.
What is something that you feel has become your responsibility within the group?
Danny feels like, especially with Andy and Jack being gone, that he now has to, you know,
not only look out for Josh and Billy, but take the role of a friend also.
And just makes Danny feel, you know, kind of good, because he's also doesn't have many
friends of his own age.
He's, you know, not the most popular.
He knows some people, but doesn't know Dale very well.
Does anyone truly know Dale anymore?
So he feels good about it, but it also is, you know, he does have that burden feeling
sometimes like, oh, hanging out with these little kids.
All right.
Yeah.
It makes it hard to fully embrace the senior culture that he is in, not the senior citizen,
but like senior in high school.
Yes.
Josh or Maxwell?
I feel Josh has kind of gotten the responsibility of carrying the backpack full of stuff.
He's, I mean, he typically has it with him and anytime they've come across things in
this game and in the past one, he has it usually in his backpack.
So he's the gadget guy, I guess.
All right.
And Maxwell, new to the group.
Yeah, I feel like it would revolve around Josh and Billy and kind of this new, I guess,
responsibility.
It seems like he has to kind of jump in a little more to inform like, hey, this is a
bad idea.
We shouldn't be doing that.
Or have you thought of all the consequences involved with these actions?
The voice of reason.
The safety man.
I guess.
Yeah.
The ocean inspector of the group.
All right.
Now that that's over with, let's get back to our story.
And it would be Saturday morning when Billy's mom comes and picks him up from Maxwell's
house at 6 a.m.
Billy begrudgingly gets in the car and you can hear his mom yelling at him from the street
outside while you guys are still inside the hotel room.
Wow.
He wasn't kidding.
His mom is really, really upset.
Is she always like that?
She's not usually this animated, but, you know, this is probably the first, well, not
the first time that Billy hasn't come home all night.
And the last time it was, you know, not not super good for him.
So she's probably a little worried.
Oh, man.
Well, if he just waited like a couple of minutes longer, breakfast is going to be up here.
I ordered it for four.
So I guess we'll have some extra.
Nothing wrong with some extra breakfast.
That's for sure.
And Josh has pulled a blanket and pillow over his head and is still he's he's perked at
the idea of breakfast, but he's still sleeping so very much.
He will move when the food arrives.
So I was thinking, like, one of the first things we should do is probably go check the
ghost tour in the daylight, like so we don't have to worry about the big thing in the dark
that chased us.
I do agree that doing some investigation in the woods or along the path of the ghost tour
during the daylight is a good idea.
We're less likely to be set upon by giant beasts that we won't be able to see.
Yeah, maybe the darkness.
Maybe we'll see some clues of what happened to Dale.
We should turn on the local news and see if they're saying anything about what happened
to the art teacher last night.
You know, that's a decent idea.
Good morning and welcome to the WTAF morning news.
Bethlehemites, we wake up to tragedy this Saturday morning.
Last night at what should have been a joyous homecoming party for our local school, the
beloved art teacher, Mrs. Melbourne, had an unfortunate accident where she tripped into
the celebratory bonfire, where officials say her reaction time was slowed due to her consumption
of alcohol throughout the night.
Unfortunately, she died as a result of her injuries.
The school will remain closed for the upcoming week, with services expected for Mrs. Melbourne
to take place either Thursday or Friday.
The missed days of classes will be added to the end of the school year.
I wish I could say that this was the only incident that has befallen our town since
our broadcast yesterday, but it seems a local boy, Dale Carpenter, senior at the high school,
went missing during the festivities.
News of a bear sighting has been the cause of alarm as sheriffs have been searching the
woods around the school since last evening but have not found any signs of the missing
boy.
They are concerned he may have been attacked.
If you have any news regarding the disappearance, please contact the local sheriff's office.
They are also considering offering local hunters a reward for anyone brave enough to hunt and
kill this bear within town limits.
In happier news, the biggest pumpkin we've ever seen will make its way down Main Street
on Sunday during the town's Harvest Festival parade.
The pumpkin, grown by relative newcomer to the town, James Trotter, has been officially
weighed by the Harvest judges at 885 pounds.
I guess it was not all that hairspray that made her grow up so fast.
It must have been the alcohol.
Must have been.
I didn't see her drinking that much.
I didn't see her drinking at all either, and I definitely didn't see her trip.
I mean, unless tripping is something that happens after you get pushed.
Josh comes into the room with a plate and has made himself an egg sandwich with what
was on the plate.
What were you guys talking about?
Oh, we were just talking about how we're going to start the day.
We were thinking we should just go search the woods when it's daylight and the ghosts
tour to see if they could find any trace of Dale.
But the news just said that they think it was a grizzly bear attack, but Danny's pretty
sure that's not what happened.
I don't think that's what chased us, and he takes a bite and all his eggs fall out the
bottom of the sandwich.
You dropped something there, Josh.
Yeah.
You should use a plate.
Maxwell walks to the bathroom and grabs a washcloth and tosses it over to him.
You got to make sure to clean that up.
Wipes it off the table onto the plate.
Tries again.
At least it went on the table, not the floor.
I had assumed it was on the carpet.
Well I'm going to enjoy some of this breakfast food as well.
Thanks for ordering the room service, Max.
I think before we go off into the woods, I should try and catch up with Shelly and or
Carrie.
About the feet.
About the feet, yes.
And I kind of do something with this thumb.
Oh, it's in the freezer.
I put it on ice.
It's kind of what you're supposed to do.
I saw it in a documentary.
Good call.
I think that's the best thing we could do at this point.
Oh yeah, it's right over there in the little fridge.
Well I'm just going to leave it there because I agree with you.
It seems like the best thing to do with it at this point.
Oh, you should freshen up that ice.
It's probably pretty bad by now.
Alright, I'll run down the hall of the ice maker.
I'm back in a flash with some ice.
Alright, so yeah, I guess after you do that, we'll head on out to make sure your friends
are okay before investigating.
Josh is going to get started on the fourth plate of food.
The extra plate of food.
You guys enjoy a pleasant breakfast and then you're free to do whatever it is.
Billy's not with you, so it's just the three of you.
Alright, do you guys think that Billy's going to be able to come join us today?
Do you want to check on him?
Should we all go check on him?
Or should we go see where Carrie and Shelly are first?
I mean, we could hear his mom yelling at him on the third floor.
I don't think he's getting out of the house today.
Do we still have a cat with us?
Didn't we bring a cat in here last night?
Meow meow.
Is there a kitty?
Kitty kitty.
Meow.
There it is.
Who's under the bed?
Maybe if we take this cat by Billy's house, just kind of, you know, let it go.
He'll just jump out the window after the cat.
I mean, that is a solid plan for him.
He will just run.
He heeds his mom.
He's scared of her, it sounds like, or, you know, really admires her.
But either way, he forgets about all that when he sees a cat.
Yeah, we should try that.
Alright, I'm ready when you are.
Come here, kitty.
Alright, so we grab the cat, head out the door and hoof it down to the residential section
down.
Alright, you run all the way down.
You know where Billy's house is.
And yeah, I mean, he's home, his mom's home, or at least her car is parked out front.
It's like nine o'clock in the morning by the time you get down there.
Alright.
Oh, hey, Danny.
Shelly comes up, seeing you just outside.
She's in some athletic wear going for a walk.
Her morning walk.
Hey, Shelly.
How was the rest last night?
How's Carrie doing?
Pretty bad.
We haven't heard from Dale yet.
Did you find anything?
Um, yeah, about that, I don't know how much we'll be hearing from Dale soon.
I did find, do you remember what he was wearing yesterday by any chance?
Yeah, that dumb yellow shirt he always wears.
Yeah, that's what I was afraid of.
So we went back into the woods.
Well, I'm glad you made it out.
Me too.
I mean, it was, uh, so.
You've got to cut on your face.
And she takes her thumb and she gently brushes it against the, one of the scratches on your
cheek.
Oh yes, thanks.
It always feels really nice when people poke me in my cuts.
Oh yes, sorry.
Um, but yeah, so I fell in the bushes last night when we were running from.
The bear?
Something that was, we didn't think it was a grizzly bear, but it was something big and
loud.
A grizzly?
Well, we didn't think it was any kind of bear.
Oh.
Grizzly, black, koala, none of those.
Did you see it?
Not clearly.
I saw it run past and so we were all in the woods.
Billy went chasing this cat right here, I think in my hands.
And uh, but then he came running back the other way being chased by this giant thing
and the three of them ran past me and I got tripped up and fell into a pricker bush where
I found some bloody pieces of shirt that I'm pretty sure were Dale's.
Along with a thumb.
You found his thumb?
I found a thumb.
I mean, I didn't leave it there.
It's in the freezer right now.
Uh, okay.
Um, we probably shouldn't tell Carrie.
I agree with that.
Yes, very much so.
Not yet anyways.
She was pretty distraught still last night.
I'm gonna get changed.
Maybe we can meet around noon.
You know, um, outside of the tarot shop.
Okay, that's a place I know where it is so we can certainly do that.
We are gonna go try and find Billy first.
Oh yeah, I noticed there was only two little weirdos around.
Yes, we really need to have the three little weirdo musketeers with us.
Okay, if you don't need them to be around all times, maybe you and I could just meet
outside the shop later.
But up to you, I'm gonna go.
We'll see how it goes.
I will see you later.
One way or another.
Alright, bye.
Bye Shelly.
And she power walks away.
Danny, does she not know that I'm standing right next to you?
I can hear her.
And I'm 13.
I don't know if I can count as one of the three youthful sprites.
Yeah, who is she calling a weirdo?
Well, let's be honest guys.
We're all a little weird here.
She lives here too.
Yeah, and I'm pretty sure that last year she went to that dance with Tommy.
So again, there's weirdness afoot.
Alright, so I guess we just make the cat meow and then Billy hears it and immediately is
here.
Something like that might happen.
Should we open the door and then just let the cat go and see if it runs inside the house?
I don't think that'd make his mom any more happy if we're talking about it.
But I don't have a lot of good decisions sometimes guys.
I think he just needs to see it through the window and he'll find a way out.
Yeah, that sounds better.
You remember which room is his, right?
Yeah.
Max, stand right there with the cat and make sure he can see it.
Oh, oh, okay.
I walk over to Billy's window and I stick my head up and I knock on the window and go,
Billy, we brought you a cat.
You pound on the window and when you look in quick, you see that most of Billy's stuff
in here is gone.
I walk back to Danny and go, all Billy's stuff is gone.
Oh, you think another one's gone to military school?
Oh no, are they sending us all to military school?
You guys hold on to this cat.
I'm going to knock on the door.
That fits with the school lunches.
I go knock on the door.
After a little while, Billy's mom answers the door.
Oh, Daniel, I do remember you.
Billy's not here right now though.
I thought you might've figured that out by now that he, she's in college.
Yes, yes.
I remember and know this still.
She's yet to respond to any of my messages.
Have you written her?
I have not written her, no.
I was going to call, but then I just got so busy.
We just came over to check on Billy.
He had a pretty traumatic night yesterday and we just wanted to make sure he was okay.
Oh, he's grounded.
That's for sure.
Yeah.
I mean, he, he didn't come home.
That's true.
But there was a lot of,
He had me worried sick.
I called the police.
Were you able to get through?
Cause we were at the police station and they wouldn't listen to us.
You know, it took several attempts and then I'm not sure if I actually talked to somebody
or if I just talked to the operator.
I told somebody.
Well, they wouldn't talk to us at all.
We were trying to get ahold of you to let you know that we couldn't come home because
the police were everywhere, you know, making it hard to move around the town because did
Billy tell you what he saw last night about the teacher?
That poor little boy has such a vivid imagination that honestly I only tune into about 2% of
what he's got going on.
His sister used to do a real good job of listening to him and entertaining that, but now she's
gone.
Yes.
She was, you know, she was pretty great, especially with, you know, helping out with Billy and
teaching him how to read.
Yes.
Teaching us all how to read.
She was very good.
Oh, you don't know how to read still.
I thought you had would have remedied that in a year.
I can read better now.
That's good.
So what are you doing here today then?
Yeah.
Like I said, we're coming to check up on Billy.
Can we talk to him for a minute?
Is he okay?
He's grounded.
Right.
So what does this mean?
We have to come inside to talk to him and he can't come out here?
He can't come down from his sister's room.
His sister's room?
Yes.
He moved in there shortly after she moved out.
It's a whole thing.
Oh, very distracted, but I just don't have the energy to deal with him.
So he kind of just did whatever he needed to.
Okay.
He keeps writing your letters, but they are so poorly addressed that I don't think any
of them have made it even past the post office.
That sounds about right.
He's still got some trouble with the letters and numbers.
I do worry what will happen to that poor boy in the future, but we all find our own paths.
Exactly.
And he's been doing good so far.
You know, last year he chased that cat and everything eventually worked out fine.
He came back.
Did you did you console him about his girlfriend?
Did he tell you that that Jamie broke up with him?
Probably for the better.
Yeah, he didn't need that.
She was a little older than him.
I was always worried about the expectations she might have.
Anyways, I have a lot to do.
Pilates and such and then you know my 10am on a Saturday morning, white Russian.
So unless you have other things to do, you could wait until he's not grounded, which
will be Monday when he goes back to school.
Okay.
That sounds good.
That's what I'll do.
Tell him that I stopped by.
I'll make sure he knows.
All right.
Adios.
All right.
Were you two in front of the house with me or you still on the side?
I was standing off to the side with the cat probably on like the sidewalk ish area.
So Billy's grounded guys until Monday when school starts.
She didn't seem to be listening to the news too good, but school does not start on Monday.
Okay.
You guys should walk around to the back door.
Count to 30.
And then go get Billy.
I'll handle the rest.
Okay.
Sounds good.
Make it fast.
Okay.
Because I don't know how long I will be able to do this, but it'll work.
You know, I just met you, but you sound really convincing.
So let's let's give it a try.
What do we got to lose?
It's not my mom that's going to yell at me.
All right.
Perfect.
Let's do it.
And I'm going to kind of wait to see them make on their way toward the back door and
then head to the front door.
Danny, I can't wait to see what he's got planned.
Hopefully we find out afterwards from not a place of being yelled at by a mother.
So I still have the cat and I knock on the door.
We sneak around back.
All right.
The door opens again and you see a lady you've never seen before.
And she has like a couple just beads of sweat coming down from her forehead.
And she's got a large glass of water in her hand.
Oh, hello.
Hi, how's it going?
Dear, can you back up with that cat?
I'm so allergic that I can barely be near them.
Oh, well then you sound like the perfect person for me to speak with today.
I am new to this community and I am here trying to provide homes for stray cats.
Noble cause, but like I said, I can already feel my eyes puffing up with all the dander
in the air.
There's an excellent place for cats nearby.
Where is that?
Anywhere else, but here really.
You know who loves cats?
There's just a boy.
What was his name?
He's like this tall, has long hair and likes my daughter or used to Dan Danny.
Yes, Danny, go find him.
He loves cats.
Well, that's wonderful.
But what's a cat too loud by the way, what this plan does is it provides homes for all
of these cats because you don't want it to be your home or outside of your home or the
allergies can be.
So for just for one lowly donation of $100, I can help re-home these cats from away from
you so that your domicile is pollen free.
I'm excuse me, dander free.
All right, let's get some fucking charm checks in this bitch.
Oh, nice.
Yeah, for a hundred dollars back in the nineties, that's a pretty hefty amount.
So make it a six.
That's a three.
I'd really, really rather appreciate it if maybe you threw that cat into the bushes or
something and then maybe I could give you money, but not a hundred dollars.
Maybe how is 20?
I take a step closer.
I think 50 would sound better.
She extends her glass out in front of her.
Stay there.
Hold on.
Oh, thank you.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Take the glass of water.
All right.
Hold on.
Stay on the porch.
Back up onto the porch.
I'll go close the door and get some money.
Oh, no, I that's that's OK.
I'm sure you could just stay right here after all.
And then I accidentally I just dropped the glass.
Oh, no.
Oh, butterfingers.
I'm so sorry.
Let's zoom to the back of the house.
Danny and Josh.
So once we break from Maxwell, we walk around and quietly go up the back steps and try the
back door.
It's open.
So we go open.
It's unlocked.
Yeah.
Perfect.
So we open up the back door and we can hear Billy's mom talking to Maxwell out front.
OK, Danny, where's Andy's room?
It's upstairs.
OK, we gotta go.
I think that you're smaller and should be able to go quieter alone.
So you go by yourself.
It's up the stairs and at the end of the hall, the door will be closed because he's grounded.
I'm going to take off towards the stairs and head on my head my way upstairs.
Be quiet.
This isn't the hotel.
All right.
Let's do a flight check of four.
Blow it up.
OK, so you got 23.
Like a professional spy, you move through this house undetected.
Just like so quickly.
You're up the stairs in seconds down where Andy's room is and you can hear Billy inside
and he's just muttering to himself.
Billy, Billy, we gotta go.
What?
Billy, we gotta go.
Be quiet.
You hear thud, thud, thud, thud and like the bedroom door gets ripped open.
Josh, what are you doing?
I'm in trouble.
Yeah, we're gonna break you out.
You gotta be quiet, though.
But I'm crowded.
My mom's gonna be really mad.
She'll never know.
When was the last time she came to check on you?
You're right.
Let's go.
Out the window.
Oh, OK.
And he opens the window.
This is how I usually get out.
I always snuck through Andy's room instead of my own.
And he tumbles onto the roof and like falls out the back window onto the yard.
I follow him.
Billy's mom comes back with a towel and just a handful of cash.
I will give you this if you just go away.
It's all I have.
All I have.
And she just like stuffs it into your chest and like kind of uses her foot to push at
you to get you out of the door.
Please leave.
Thank you so much for your donation.
I can't wait to see you again.
Have a great day.
And the door slams behind you.
And I head back to the sidewalk and just kind of wait.
When they're having that commotion in the front, I just close the back door also and
head out the side.
Yeah, you see like Billy and Josh just like tumble down behind you off the roof.
OK.
The that's not the way I thought you guys were going to come, but you made it.
So yeah, I usually have better landings than that.
Billy, there's easier ways off.
There's better ways out of the house.
This one makes me feel alive.
All right, let's go.
Where's Maxwell?
He was distracting your mom.
We'll meet up with him in just a minute.
All right.
And the four of you, I assume, meet up.
All right.
Oh, there's that cat again.
Yeah.
Yeah, we brought the cat.
I fucking love cats, man.
Yeah, I'm aware.
We're going to we got to get going.
We're going to go explore the ghost tour trail.
Oh, that's where Jamie went missing last year.
Maybe I'll feel better if I hold the cat while we go through the ghost trail.
And Billy vigorously grabs the cat from Maxwell and squeezes it like Elmira really tightly.
And he begins to claw at his neck.
It's OK, kitty.
It's OK.
It hurts.
Then he kind of just drops the cat.
He doesn't want to, but he's getting clawed too much and moves in such a way the cat squirms
out and runs away like kitty, kitty, kitty.
Then Danny grabs him like, no, no, we're just going to let it go this time.
Oh, all right.
Well, anyways, what's our plan of attack for the day?
Let's get away from my house.
My mom might see.
Yes, let's let's move.
And we walk back towards the town.
Heading for the ghost tour.
Yeah, I guess heading for the bookstore.
The tarot shop.
That's on the way, right?
Mm hmm.
Wait, do we have time before you meet her at the tarot shop or?
Yeah, like three hours.
I was going to say.
Oh, I go to the old watchtower is not where the tour like where the tour goes through.
Tour definitely went through there, not into the old watchtower because it was closed.
Oh, that's still is closed.
It starts at the historic Bethlehem building, right?
Yeah, like row houses or something historic.
Oh, man, it's great that there's all these signs that you could just follow and kind
of do the tour yourself.
Well, after the events of last year, they kind of had to make it self guided this year.
Oh, what happened last year?
Oh, well, all that stuff that, you know, they've been telling you, frog man and.
Pop, pop, pop.
The book guy was a cult leader and he tried to kill us all.
Oh, with his kids.
The bookstore we were just at.
Yeah, and his kids.
Yeah, they kidnapped a couple of girls.
Oh, wow.
And Danny.
That's terrible.
One of them was my girlfriend, Jamie, ex girlfriend, Jamie.
Oh, I'm sorry, buddy.
I miss her so much.
It's OK, bud.
We know you miss her, but you're going to have to just let it go because it doesn't
really seem like she's been missing you too much lately.
Hey, hey, Danny, you think you can help Billy get a new girlfriend?
You got one so easily.
I've told you kids that's not what's going on with Shelley and I.
She just asked me to come to the bonfire with her.
Shelley, I thought you were with Carrie now.
When did you and Andy break up anyways?
Andy and I were never boyfriend and girlfriend either.
You guys, just because boys and girls are friends, it doesn't have to be more than just
friends, you know, not every time.
Well, then I guess we can start walking down this trail that will just remind me of all
the times with Jamie in the last place that I really saw her.
Yeah, let's go look for clues.
The origin story of my heartbreak.
We should be good at this one, Billy.
We're used to looking at clues along the ghost path.
Yeah, yeah, we should know every inch of this thing by now.
Well, I'll tell you what all the clues add up to a broken heart.
Maybe we'll find a cat along the way.
I know how much you love them.
We can have more than one cat.
I don't think you can right now, but someday, definitely.
I heard you can have three.
We just said we could find another one now.
Right, but we lost the first one.
It ran away.
We can find that one again.
It ran that way.
Danny, this is turning out to be another Jamie situation.
I really miss her.
She had such big hands.
It just made me feel so safe.
Oh, Jamie.
All right.
Do you think I'd look better if I started wearing all black to show my mourning?
I think you should go back to where your superhero outfits actually isn't that when you met Jamie?
It was.
Yeah.
Now I'm going to hit my dark face.
Just.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I'm going to do it again.
I'm going to be the vengeance.
I will.
Get yourself together, Billy.
All right.
We didn't see anything really suspicious on the way to her path.
I mean, you saw some ghosts.
That's true.
I did see some ghosts, but I'm the only one and I'm still not really sure what I saw.
Guys, I think we should get moving.
Billy's really stomping up that trail.
He's got some fire under him now.
He's a very passionate young man.
It seems that way.
So what exactly happened?
Is this Jamie person alive and she just left or?
Yeah.
Well, last year when we went on the ghost walk, she got kidnapped.
Oh, that's terrible.
She got kidnapped and then we found her and then they were together for a while and then
she's with some other boy now.
Oh, that wasn't exactly how I thought that would end up.
We were all a little confused by it.
I mean, still are.
But you know, I think she's with a jock now or something that makes more sense.
Isn't she like your age?
She's a little younger than me.
I think she's closer to Maxwell's age.
Oh, okay.
So we can keep that in mind.
Maxwell, she likes to, you know.
I couldn't do that to Billy.
Danny, you're into some different stuff.
You have all those girlfriends.
I'm just looking out for all my friends.
I'm too young to have those types of experiences.
I have to focus on business.
That's what you tell them.
Tell them you're ready to get down to business.
Oh, I'm all about business.
You got your business socks on?
Every day, one foot at a time.
Perfect.
That's all that matters.
Right before I put on my business slacks and then my business shoes.
Guys, the watchtower is empty.
You already made it to the watchtower.
You're not supposed to go up there.
It's condemned.
Didn't you know that, Billy?
Remember last year we couldn't go in.
Everybody's always trying to tell me what to do.
The building shudders a little bit when he starts to get upset.
Can I have your post-it now?
Just relax and come out of the condemned structure and we'll look around.
Did I tell you about the ghosts I saw around here last night?
What the fuck, man?
We were together all night and you never once mentioned that you saw a bunch of ghosts.
Well, there were people getting pushed in fires and crazy other things happening, possible
monsters or bears and mysterious footprints.
The ghosts just never came up.
Ghosts can fit all of those descriptions.
Ghosts just never came up despite all the times we talk about ghosts in the bookstore.
I got distracted by the other ghosts in the bookstore that I just forgot about all the
ones I saw on the ghost tour.
This is so upsetting.
You think you're upset?
Picked up a thumb last night.
Will you stop mentioning the thumb?
He keeps puking.
That way we know where we've been.
This was unrelated.
That one was a sad puke.
Thumb.
See?
Sad puke.
All right, so the tower was empty?
I didn't see anything in it.
All right, let's all just check again real quick.
Open the door back up to the tower and just look around to see if there's anything suspicious
or that wasn't there yesterday.
There's not, but a passerby on the street goes, hey kids, that's off limits.
Don't go in there.
Notice all the tape and the closed signs and stuff?
We thought it was some sort of attraction.
It's not attracting at all.
That's why it's closed.
Do we buy the tickets from you?
I have all this money.
And I pull out the money from the cash from Billy's mom.
Oh yeah, I have the tickets.
Come on over.
Perfect.
You're the one running the ghost tours now?
Sure am.
Let's see, how much money do you have there?
I think it's $50.
That's perfect for a few tickets to the ghost walk.
Awesome.
Are you going to guide it too?
No, I'm not the guide.
I'm just the ticket guy.
Okay, where do we meet the guide?
You'll meet him over there after you get the tickets.
I'll go tell him that you're waiting.
All right, where are the tickets?
They're in my pocket here.
Money first.
Guys, let's just move on to the next place.
Thanks for letting us know, sir.
We won't go in the tower, but we'll go meet the guide and we'll see.
You don't want the tickets?
No, no.
We got tickets.
We'll get tickets for the next one, but we already technically kind of saw that one.
But yeah, we'll buy tickets for the next one.
Drats.
And the guy turns around and walks the opposite way down the street, back to his van, which
has no windows.
I don't think that guy really had tickets, guys.
It's a weird ticket booth in a van.
I've never seen that before.
Makes me wonder what the tickets are for that he's selling.
It's daytime though.
Do we need the tickets?
I thought that was only for night to make it scary.
It is scary when you've got to pay for the tickets.
I'll be honest, I was kind of fudging a little bit so that we could get out of there without
getting in trouble.
Quick thinking.
Always, always good to think on your feet like that.
It was weird how quick that stranger wanted to give me tickets though.
You know, as soon as you mentioned that money, he seemed very intrigued.
It's true.
All right.
Yeah.
Moving on to the next place there.
All right.
I think the next place would be from the watchtower is the old cemetery or the shaker ruins or
the old Moravian ruins, which are kind of next to each other.
So all right.
Well let's walk through these ruins before we get into the cemetery.
Everyone, you know, it's daytime so we should be not as scared as if it was nighttime, even
though we have lost people walking through the cemetery before.
It's okay.
Do you guys smell that?
I think that's skunks here.
Oh, must really like Danny.
I guess don't go in any of the buildings.
Just kind of look cautiously from outside.
Be careful.
And if you see any cats, make sure they're, you know, not the stinky cats first before
you go running, Billy.
I will make sure if I come home with another skunk or covered in skunk juices, mom's going
to be pissed even more so when she realizes that I'm not at the house anymore.
I'm going to get in a lot of trouble.
You are probably going to get in a lot of trouble, but it's not like if you go back now, you're
going to get less.
So.
Wish Andy was here.
She'd help me keep out of trouble.
She certainly would try, you know, she'd always lower her bed sheet down out of her window
and let me climb back up.
Because if mom knew that I was in her room, she wouldn't get me in trouble.
She was like, Oh, that's nice.
Well that's good.
How do you plan on getting back up today without her letting the bed sheet down?
I have no idea.
Well, we'll figure that out later.
Maybe we'll just knock on the door again.
What do you mean?
Who knocked on the door?
I did and then Max did.
Remember when we came to get you?
Oh yeah, I didn't know what Max was doing at all.
Well we didn't, but we know now that we've gotten you out of there without your mom freaking
out.
See he caused the distraction without making a bunch of people angry.
Just my mom.
Just your mom.
Cool, cool, cool.
See, unlike last night when there was a whole crowd of people looking for you two, one person's
a lot easier to evade.
Keep that in mind.
I'll store that one away.
New old memory banks.
I think that skunk's getting closer.
You guys can hear a couple, like two people giggling somewhere in the cemetery.
Why don't you guys go explore that side of the cemetery?
I'm gonna go over here and see if I can scare that skunk away.
I mean I do feel better because it's daytime, but last time we did that, you know, Jamie
went missing.
That's why the three of you together will be fine.
Alright, stay close Josh.
I'm right here.
And then I go off a different way to investigate the giggling.
You find Shelly and Kerry perched up behind a very large tombstone.
Oh hey, Shelly.
Kerry?
Jesus.
Huh.
You scared me.
No, it's me, Danny.
Yeah.
And what are you doing here in the cemetery?
Um, just, you know, looking around for you and Kerry.
I don't know who's talking.
You and Kerry would be right.
Well we're right here.
I thought I was meeting you later, but it turns out you're just in the cemetery.
Yep.
Um, you know, we're just looking around, retracing the steps from last night to see if we can
piece together any more pieces of the puzzle that evolved last night.
Hmm.
Those, uh-
Here, you want some?
And she passes you a joint.
Sure.
I did tell those kids I was gonna chase this skunk away.
There's a skunk here?
I heard there was a skunk here, so just be careful.
There's also cats around.
That's fine.
There's always cats around.
There's so many cats in this town.
There really are.
Someone should really start a better spay and neuter program.
Yeah, that sounds like a good project for sure.
Yeah.
And Kerry pipes up.
Uh, what?
Can you go away?
It's just, I'm not in the mood to see boys.
And you're really upsetting me and I'm over Dale.
I realize now that whatever fight we had, it's his problem.
You can say that again, but sure.
I will leave you to it.
Um, I still gonna meet you later, Shelly?
Oh yeah, definitely.
I'll meet you right over there.
Okay.
Thanks for the joint.
Here you go.
You can have it back.
I'm gonna go-
Kerry grabs it back.
Thank God.
All right.
I didn't last too long for her, did it?
All right.
I had to head back over to the kids.
All right guys.
I scared that skunk away.
Didn't, didn't see anything.
It was a skunk, not a cat.
Nothing really worthwhile over there.
You find anything on your walk through the cemetery?
Did we find anything?
Josh is specifically looking for the different types of footprints that we've come across.
Yeah.
Give me some brains rolls.
Do me a favor.
Let's get, you guys are checking together?
Both of you give me rolls.
Let's set it at an eight.
11.
Seven.
Okay.
Josh, you and Maxwell are walking around.
Billy's just kind of like nervously following.
He's not the most investigative.
You guys already know this.
You guys begin to follow a set of footprints and like there's a large print, which is your
first clue that, hey, this might be something that we know.
And then a little ways later it's joined by two of the same sets of footprints coming
on both sides of the large footprint.
Well, it looks like we're on the right track.
Yeah.
I just wonder where they went from here.
The footprints lead off behind the hotel and the tarot shop and the hardware store down
that direction.
There are a lake and a mill in that direction.
I don't think there's a mill anymore.
The mill has been gone and flattened and that was like way down and the lake was here.
Okay.
That's what I thought.
But the lake's been filled in since the last year.
The lake's been filled in?
It was always an artificial lake.
Okay.
But it was not that big.
Lake is a gratuitous term.
So like not a super large lake, not technically a pond.
Very toxic.
The footprints lead off that way, but you can only follow them for roughly 50 yards.
Okay.
Are they all human footprints?
Yeah.
The footprint is a large set of human footprints and on the side, on each side of the large
footprints is two smaller sets of tracks that are like identical in size, shape and pattern.
The regularity of the footprints on the side of the big ones, that's pretty odd.
That's almost like military consistency.
It's almost like the same person was walking on either side of the one in the middle.
Yeah.
That's weird.
They're like perfect sets.
Nothing else in this town has perfect sets like that.
I can only think of one thing.
The twins.
I never even thought of them.
I forgot all about them last night.
You forgot about the two people that were haunted your dreams and you saw in real life
murder an adult.
His mom can be really scary.
I was way more afraid of my mom than those two kids.
I'm so sorry, Billy.
I'm really learning a lot about you right now.
That's all right.
I saw two cats in the back room the other day that she didn't know about and they got
into her clothes.
Oh, it was a nightmare.
She's real allergic.
Oh, that's such a shame to hear about.
For her, yeah.
Yeah.
Because I can just keep finding the cats.
Did you have anything to say about the twin thing or you?
Oh, right.
Yeah.
Those two creepy girls.
I forgot all about them.
Yeah.
I mean, they're identical tracks and that's what made me think of identical twins.
Oh, shit.
I don't know why there's big ones in the middle though.
That's kind of weird.
Yeah.
I don't know where the third set came from.
Maybe they each have a third leg that's really big.
No, they had to be following somebody.
Oh.
Maybe they have creepy parents.
Or a creepy parent.
Or a creepy uncle.
Well, we should follow them anyway.
The way they're going or the way they came, because I don't think there's very far that
they go.
Is it 60 feet?
We can see that they kind of just appear 60 feet away.
So you found them in the cemetery, old Shaker ruins, which is here.
And then 20, 30 yards down where you can follow them through the mud, it gets to just some
regular grassy patch where you can't track any longer.
Hmm.
Do the big prints look like the ones that we saw in the bookstore last night?
Brains checks.
They could be similar.
Let's roll fours.
Three.
20.
You have a 20 on brains?
No, I have an eight.
I exploded it twice and rolled a four.
Okay.
So Maxwell and Danny take some adversity tokens because you guys failed.
Yay.
First one of the game.
Don't forget, you take two.
Oh, that's right.
You got all the adversity tokens.
I do.
Josh, you know for a fact that these are the same footprints.
Guys, these are the exact same ones.
They're exactly the same size.
From the bookstore?
At the bookstore.
Yeah, at the back.
Okay.
These are the same ones.
They must have headed this way.
After they left the bookstore, they came this way.
It's Dale's footprint.
I don't think it's Dale's footprint.
No.
So he's still missing.
I don't think, yeah.
Oh, I was just...
Yeah, he got eaten.
Right.
The thumb.
Or he's a monster.
Or he is the monster.
Did anybody see if the monster had thumbs?
As if it didn't have a thumb.
I think this is a great thought.
Danny, could you see?
You're the only one who got a good look at it.
How many thumbs did it have?
I didn't see any thumbs.
No thumbs.
I know.
I didn't see any fingers either though.
No fingers at all.
It was more of just a blur.
It was big and it was fast.
Not to mention, I had just fallen.
It was a little disoriented.
So when Dale turns into the beast, his clothes and his fingers fall off.
That's pretty good.
It's less scratching.
Yeah.
That could be.
That's the best guess we've got so far.
I think we should keep our minds open, but...
Maxwell, have you ever seen any documentaries about a monster whose arms and legs and fingers
and clothes fall off when it turns into a monster?
Um, no.
Nothing like that.
But that doesn't mean it's not a real thing, Billy.
True.
There's a lot of strange things out there.
Should we go back to the bookstore and try to investigate where those big footprints
came from?
They just kind of looked like they appeared in the middle of the bookstore to me, right?
It did kind of look like that.
Well, at least go see if it looks like, you know, the police went in there at all last
night.
They did drive by quite a few times.
And we should locate the hidden basement.
I do think there could be a hidden basement.
I mean, there was a hidden attic, so...
Yeah, towards the bookstore?
Yeah.
All right.
You guys come to the corner and there's actually two police officers outside of the bookstore
and you can see several inside the bookstore as well.
And they're picking up books and putting them on the shelf.
Oh, is the bookstore open again?
Uh, nope.
Just seemed to be somebody broke in last night.
Oh.
Why would someone break into the bookstore?
It's been closed for a year.
Good point.
I don't know if they were looking for a book or they just wanted to trash the place.
There's a lot of damage to some books in there.
Maybe some late night reading.
I don't really know.
So they're not opening again to make milkshakes?
No, the milkshake thing was disgusting.
That was left untouched.
Oh, that's sad.
Don't I recognize you?
I don't know.
I've lived here my whole life.
Did you guys find out anything more about our missing friend Dale?
We have not found Dale.
Well, did you look over in the woods kind of behind the ghoul adjacent to where we are
now?
There's actually several officers combing the woods for him now.
Last night, I'm pretty sure something chased me through there and I saw some pieces of
his ripped up shirt in a pricker bush.
They had some blood on them.
This would have been a great thing to know sooner.
I didn't see it until we've got a kid that has seen the bear.
Yeah, well, we tried to stop by the sheriff's department last night and you guys were too
busy and nobody wanted to pay attention.
And then our friend Billy got in trouble because nobody would answer his mom.
Are you Josh?
No, I'm Jack.
Okay.
Do you have a statement to go from last night or about last night?
Yeah, something scary tried to eat my friend.
He flips the book back closed.
Multiple bear sightings.
Got it.
All right.
Well, clear off and the bookshops not open.
Okay, let us know if they start making milkshakes.
They won't.
Did you find anything in the basement?
The basement?
I haven't.
The basement?
Is there a basement?
I haven't seen any basement.
There's no basement.
Did you look hard enough?
I have heard that historically these older buildings, they used to be sealed off reasonably
well but not when you could find them.
It's just they would put like a little bit of a wall in front or a tapestry.
He slowly reaches up to his radio.
What's that?
Crime?
All right, boys.
Yeah, we got things to do.
Move along.
We'll take a look for any basements.
All right.
See you later then.
You've got crime to go investigate.
Good luck.
See you.
Danny, did you notice how they all had really big feet?
I did notice how they all had really big feet.
Maybe this was an inside job.
It could be.
I wouldn't put it past them.
The cops in this town have always been behind the bars.
That too.
But also just not very good at preventing a lot of the crimes that happen in the city,
in the town.
I mean, they'll get you if you're trying to steal bubble gum from the corner store or
something like that.
But, you know, a group of people try and summon some monster in the steel mill and they're
like, oh, there was an earthquake and that's it, you know.
Oh, okay.
Taking bribes and stuff, I think, before it's...
So we could break into like anywhere we want and they're not going to do anything.
Hopefully.
No, if they were looking for evidence, they really didn't find any of us last night and
we kind of trashed the place.
Yeah.
I mean, you stood there in the light.
Oh, that's probably what he meant by you look familiar.
Maybe.
I have also lived here my entire life.
You done some stuffed animal modeling?
No.
Well, if the cop asks, you maybe say yes.
All right.
So the cop said that they have crime to go investigate, but they're not leaving.
They haven't done anything, though.
They're just standing there.
All right.
You didn't hear any voices come over on their radio when he said it.
It was like just one of those times where somebody would pick up their phone.
Get in a call.
OK, I have a new theory.
Well, no, I have a new plan of action.
What if we break into the high school because the cops don't care and then we find the transcripts
of where the twins came from?
Because maybe they murdered somebody in their old town as well, and then they had to move
here to escape their past.
Their nefarious, murdering past.
That sounds very interesting that you would have that idea, Maxwell.
Is there some very, very specific kind of plan you have there?
I do happen to know a lot about relocating.
I do it frequently.
And is there a particular reason why you relocate frequently?
It often becomes necessary due to the location of my parental units.
OK, well, yeah, I guess we can move on from here.
Maxwell, why don't you go in the front?
Yeah, I can do that.
And should we go and see if we can get into the high school?
I'm pretty sure we broke into one of the schools last year, so it shouldn't be that difficult.
You have more than one school here?
I can't quite remember.
Sometimes one end of the school looks a little different from the other end.
Oh, I got it.
Like one end, the one end is the junior high and the other end is the senior high.
I get it.
It does kind of, yeah, that sounds like two schools.
Yes, you guys did break into this school last year around the back through a window to the
locker room.
Yep.
All right.
I remember this one.
We're going to go around to the locker room.
All right.
Who's going to jump up to the window?
I can get up there.
All right.
And then me and Josh do the thing where, you know, you make a step with your hands and
we give Max a boost up to the window.
So what's the trick?
Is there a lever?
Oh, yeah.
You don't go to this school.
Yeah, there's a latch over there.
Oh, okay.
Got it.
And then you go out of the locker room and around the corner and then you come open these
doors here for us so we don't have to all go through the window.
Okay.
I'll be there and the shake of a lamb's tail.
All right, you guys give me a combined brawn of eight, not you, Maxwell.
You're getting pushed through the window.
I got a two.
Five.
That's a seven.
All right.
So you guys are pushing Maxwell through the window.
However, they're pushing you through the window, Maxwell, and they push with such reckless
abandon that you don't get a chance to get your hands anywhere on the other side of the
ledge and you come tumbling down and you actually get caught up on an open locker door that
cuts your side, not a tremendous amount, just enough to have some blood, and you come tumbling
down onto the locker room floor.
Okay.
I'm going to look for the first aid kit that is often in a locker room.
Oh, you can find it.
It's right there on the wall.
Perfect.
I'm going to pull it down and open it up and grab some iodine and then pull a pen out of
my pocket, stick it between my teeth, splash it on the wound and then put a pad on there
and then head on out.
Okay.
Are you okay in there?
I would assume I probably don't hear it because I'm in the...
I mean, you probably could hear through the window.
Oh, I'm already making my way out, so I'm going to keep going and then just pop out
to the door.
Danny, I think something got him.
Well, we'll wait a few more minutes and then we'll throw Billy in there too.
Maxwell's pretty tall.
I think he can handle himself.
All right.
I've located what I believe to be the exterior door and I push it.
Maxwell pops out seconds later after you guys begin to panic.
Oh, there he is.
Oh, good.
He made it.
Way to go.
Hey, you've got blood on your shirt.
No, it's not that bad.
Someone left their locker door open and I hid it, but it's okay.
You really cleaned yourself up good there.
Yeah.
I've watched quite a few war movies.
It's pretty easy.
They show you a lot in there.
What are you guys doing once you get into the school?
Heading to the office.
All right, guys.
Where's the office?
Oh, I'm very familiar with the office.
Follow me.
All right.
I've made many trips here.
Oh, you really like school if you're in the office a lot.
Oh, yep.
The principal really likes to have private talks with me.
Oh, wow.
That's the past of a lot of my teachers.
They want your advice on stuff for how to run the school and how they can be better
to students.
More that they want to give me advice.
Oh.
On lots of things.
As these two are talking and walking, Billy and Josh are behind them going from corner
to corner.
Like little secret agents going from corner to corner and peeking around.
Maybe we should be careful around here.
Yeah, guys, what if we get caught?
You guys are just talking and walking around.
It's a Saturday.
No one's at the school.
How do you know?
I'm just assuming.
Should we go check for Mrs. Melbourne's ghost?
I hope if Mrs. Melbourne's ghost is somewhere that it's not here at school where she had
to spend so much time.
Seems logical.
Maybe she's stuck in a pot.
Oh, she was an art teacher.
There are a lot of cultures that believe that your soul is rooted to the spot where your
body spent the most time.
Well, that makes sense.
So she'll never leave this school again.
How many other teachers do you think are haunting this place?
Well, probably quite a few if that's how it works.
And you head down to the office?
Mm hmm.
Yeah.
I want to search for the file and cabinets to have like student files and find the files
on these girls.
Where do you start?
Administration.
Sorry.
What like in what order like you find the student files?
Like are you starting with a or you go alphabetically or you just randomly pulling?
All right.
So let's see.
They were in these classes, which looking through some of this most likely they are
in this grade.
So we're going to start looking through those files.
And yeah, let's just start A to Z unless someone else wants to start at Z and I'll start at
A.
Danny, why don't you start at Z?
I'll start at A and then we'll meet in the middle or hopefully find them before.
Yeah.
I mean, I guess that sounds good.
I only know the first name, so we'll just go until we see someone with Callie and Allura
with the same last name and see if we can see like, you know, transfer records where
they were before.
Perfect.
Sounds good.
Josh goes and grabs a start opens a drawer and starts sifting through as well.
Billy just moves stuff around on somebody's desk.
And Maxwell and Danny, you guys start and Maxwell, you're feeling very optimistic when
you first dive into the A's and almost immediately, Danny, you find two files, the only two files
under the letter Z with the last name Zahn first names Callie and Allura.
Oh, wow.
How convenient.
A Z last name right here Zahn, Callie and Allura.
Let's open up and see what we can find.
Yep.
I can see that the one of them is in one of Billy's classes and the other one's in one
of Josh's classes.
All right.
Let's see if we can find out where they're from or any other information here.
While the two of you are scouring through the files, Josh, you begin to hear your name
being called very lightly from outside of the office.
Josh.
I start moving towards it.
Curiously.
As you do it, it gets louder.
Was this as I'm getting closer to the door?
I move closer to the door.
Josh.
Guys, do you guys hear that?
Hear what, Josh?
We're just trying to figure out where these girls came from.
Get back over here and help us look.
I'm going to open the door.
As you get out into the hallway, you hear your name very clearly.
Just pop my head out.
Josh.
Josh, what are you doing?
I think somebody's calling me.
I don't hear anything.
Josh.
I mean, this is the nicest way possible, but all of your friends are right here in this
room.
Who could be...
Who is calling you right now?
Josh.
I don't know.
I keep hearing my name.
It's coming down the hall.
I just can't tell where.
Maybe it's a teacher.
At that, I pull my head back and shut the door.
All right.
There's a photocopy over there.
Let's copy these files.
Then we'll go to...
I'm at the library, the public library.
We could probably look some stuff up over there.
Maybe there's an article on new families that moved into town.
Or we might be able to look up news articles from wherever we find out that they came from,
if there's anything interesting that happened to them before.
Yeah, but if somebody knows that we're in here, we need to get out of here or they're
going to catch all of us.
Yeah, we should get out of here.
And also the microfilm machine doesn't work in the library still.
Well, we can just get a magnifying glass.
Let's get out of here first.
We'll figure that out.
You look over and Billy, the desk he was pushing shit around on is a complete mess.
I tried to remember where everything went and it just...
So they're definitely going to know if somebody was in here.
Hopefully they don't fingerprint.
You know what?
I think it's going to be okay, Billy.
You were grounded all weekend anyway.
Let's go.
Perfect alibi.
I'm just going to write a little note.
Max writes a little note that just says, sorry.
Just puts it on the desk.
Josh is going to open the door again cautiously and then dart his head out and look both directions.
It's clear.
Still wondering where the sound came from, but knowing it's time to go.
All right.
Yeah.
I guess we should make our way to the backside of the school so that no one sees us.
Or like the side with the woods on it.
Yeah.
That's a good plan.
Back out kind of where we came is the most discreet entry exit point of the school.
Perfect.
Is anyone else getting hungry?
I mean, I'm always hungry.
How can be hungry?
You ate so much of that breakfast this morning.
I think you had at least four plates.
Yeah, but it's almost lunchtime now.
And I only had two.
And you guys go to leave the school?
Yeah.
As you get closer to Mrs. Melbourne's room, Josh, you see the door swing open to the art
class.
However, when you look around, neither Maxwell, Danny or Billy are with you any longer.
I am going to head towards the door.
As you get closer, you can see that there's not like lights on in the room, but there
is something that's emitting a lot of light coming from inside the room.
Josh is going to go up and like put his head in and kind of investigate the room, but not
enter it yet.
He's still cautious about what's going on.
When you peek your head in from over in the corner next to the kiln, you see a fire raging
and you see Mrs. Melbourne inside of it screaming in pain.
And then from behind you, you hear, you're next.
You're next.
Josh is going to jump, slam the door and run down the hall.
You find Maxwell, Danny and Billy already outside.
Josh, where'd you go?
I thought you were right behind us.
I saw the art teacher burning in the kiln and then there was light coming out and then
the voices were telling me that I was going to be next.
What?
The voices were telling you you're going to be next?
You saw the art teacher?
I don't know what he was saying, my name and the art teacher was on fire in the art room
in the middle of the kiln and there was voices and they were saying that I was going to be
next and they were calling my name.
Did it sound like the voices that were in your dreams?
Kind of.
They're a little more whispery though.
Maybe the twins are here.
That wouldn't be good.
No, definitely not.
But I think they're going to get me.
Out in the woods behind the school, you guys hear several different voices shouting for
Dale.
Oh, it sounds like they're at least looking for Dale.
We left that thumb in the hotel, right?
Yeah, it's in my freezer.
Yeah, I should have brought that with me.
Just chuck into the woods.
I regret picking that thumb up, guys.
All right, I don't think that the police are going to like it very much if we go back in
and interfere with them in the woods.
Do we think it's them?
I mean, they said someone was looking for them.
Well, it definitely sounds like some sort of official search party.
Well, no one told us not to go there yet.
So let's just go ahead into the woods a little bit.
It's daytime now.
We got less to be scared of.
Maybe we should bring all this paperwork from the school to the hotel first so we don't
have it on us.
That's a good idea.
We can get that thumb.
Perfect.
Back to the hotel.
All right, I'm just going to put these papers here.
And Danny, is there any other information we can get from them?
The papers?
Yeah, let's take a look here and see if we can see anything besides what classes they're
in.
Okay, I got their ages.
Yep.
The classes they're in.
Nothing on this page about where they came from or why they switched schools.
Let me look through the rest of the file a little bit.
Do you guys have computers at your library?
I think we just got a couple computers, one or two of them, in the new section of the
library.
You know, not where they keep all the old newspapers, but upstairs actually.
If they have the internet, we should be able to use a search engine to look up their last
name and there might be something from an article from their hometown already on the
internet.
Okay, that sounds good.
Let me grab this thumb with this bag for getting ice from the hotel ice maker and put that
in my pocket.
And then we'll head over to the library.
That sounds good to me.
So you're just going to carry it around with you?
Until we get close enough to the woods so I can throw it back in there or a sewer or
anywhere else.
I want to get rid of this thumb.
Probably a good idea.
You guys go to head out of the hotel.
And when you leave, Shelly is passing by the hotel as well.
Oh, hey, Danny.
Hey, Shelly.
Right into you again.
You following me around?
No, I was going to make the same joke about you.
It's usually the guy that stalks the girl.
No, I was just coming from, you know, the cemetery over there.
Carrie got upset and ended up leaving with Charles.
I don't know why he was in the graveyard too.
Everybody's just down there today, I guess.
Anyways, what are you guys up to?
We're about to go to the library and see if they've got those computers working yet.
Maxwell says he knows how to use a computer.
You?
Yeah, I've had a lot of practice.
Oh, I haven't even really touched the thing.
I was able to get access through the various work that my parents do.
Oh.
They're very big into the technology.
Okay.
Sure.
Danny, do you want to go do something else?
Maybe the library sounds stupid on a Saturday.
Wow.
I'm sorry.
It just, it really does.
We got like a whole week off of school coming up.
I wouldn't want to do studying.
All right.
Well, yeah, you kids, you know how to use the computer.
You don't really need me.
There's only two of them there.
You know, you don't need four people to go look this up, right?
You've got the papers.
I mean, Maxwell does.
I don't know if she doesn't want to hang out with us.
All right.
I mean, I guess if you have to go, you have to go.
That's okay.
Yeah, Danny, your new girlfriend's kind of disappointing.
Now you be careful with our friend Danny there, Shelly.
Don't go put your hands in his pockets or anything weird.
Yeah.
Keep, keep an eye on your thumbs.
Keep your thumbs in your own pockets.
Okay.
All right.
Yeah.
Let's just walk this way.
Yeah.
We'll catch up with you guys later.
Let me know what you, what you find out and Shelly and I will see if we can find anything
else to investigate or any more clues.
Goodbye, Danny.
Don't get sprayed by any more skunks.
Try my best.
Good luck with the computer.
And the two parties go different directions.
You guys, Danny's kind of changed.
Maxwell, you probably have only known him for a little bit, so you don't know, but Josh,
he's changed a little.
Yeah.
With each girlfriend, he gets a little different.
Yeah.
I liked the best when he was dating my sister.
Sounds weird, but at least I had a better dad than I used to.
Yeah, but we haven't seen him what he's like with Carrie yet though.
Maybe he's-
Is he cheating on her?
Maybe, maybe, I don't know how it works, but maybe with her we'll get more milkshakes.
Mmm.
Milkshakes always bring me to somebody's yard.
Anyways, Max, lead us onto the library.
Oh, we'll lead you.
You probably don't know where it is.
Yeah, I haven't really had time to explore.
It's over here.
You guys have taken a lot of my time since I got here.
Not a bad way, just-
I mean, do you need some alone time?
I haven't even done any school yet, but research counts as school, so-
Don't worry, school's canceled for like the next week.
Well, I mean, your physical location is, but knowledge is consistent throughout your whole
life.
Uh-huh.
Okay, here, do you like bright lights?
Yeah, typically.
Wait, wait, do you see this computer screen?
It's got all sorts of bright lights.
Oh shit, all right, it's got games.
I don't know, libraries usually don't allow games.
And you guys go inside the library.
It's a pretty nice library as far as town libraries go.
And there is one computer sitting in a back corner in the news section of the library.
All right, he goes to log in.
What's a log in?
Oh, so you have to have users to get onto it to make sure that anything you look up
is attached to your name.
Oh, okay.
It takes forever for the computer to boot up and get to the home screen.
What are you looking up?
Last name Zahn with the local zip code.
You find some historical records from a census done 30 years ago.
Do I find anyone with a last name Zahn?
You do, actually.
There is an Eric Zahn.
Okay.
Who would be in his 50s now and was the old music teacher for the school.
Does it say if he retired and moved away or anything like that?
No, because it was just a census, so it probably wouldn't say too much past that.
Gotcha.
Okay, so found a sentence.
All right, so I found an Eric Zahn who should be in his 50s now who was the old music teacher
at the school.
I wonder if the twins are somehow related to that guy.
Maybe he moved away and then moved back to have his family live here or something.
I don't remember a music teacher named that, but mostly not that old.
Well, this census is from 30 years ago, so it could have been a long time.
It was a long time ago that he was a music teacher.
Hmm.
I wonder who would have known him.
Wait, didn't we have a substitute music teacher named Mr. Zahn?
Maybe I don't really pay that much attention in class.
Me either.
I'm not in music class.
Okay, so maybe he's still in the area.
I'm going to look that up, Eric Zahn address.
You get an address from a Eric Zahn that played the violin in a French orchestra, and that
record is from two years ago.
Danny, you and Shelly are outside.
So what's the deal with those little kids anyways?
You spend a lot of time with them.
Yeah, well, Josh there, he was good friends with my cousin Jack.
And now that Jack's off in military school, he doesn't have a lot of people to hang out
with other than Billy.
And, you know, you remember Andy, now it's Billy's older sister.
We were in the same grade last year.
I thought so.
Yeah, so you know, then that she's off at college now, so Billy is also alone and they
just feel safe hanging out with me.
And I mean, you know that I don't hang out with a lot of the other folks in our grade
ever since all the weird stuff that happened last year with those Garvey's.
A lot of people don't don't hang out with me.
So I end up with them sometimes.
I lost some friends over that too.
I lost Tommy over that too.
That one was hard.
I missed a lot of school because of that.
I really love Tommy, I think.
Tommy was, yeah, not one of my favorite people.
It is a shame what happened to him.
But he was often not super nice to me.
And he I don't know how much you know about what he was into towards the end there, but
I mean, I have an idea what he was into.
Probably better than most people, but really kind of weird stuff.
I wasn't always I didn't always appreciate it.
Anyways, we should stop talking about such depressing things.
That's nice that you look out for those kids.
Yeah, I mean, it's also helps me out too, because Jack was the only real family besides
my mom and dad that I had in the area.
So it helps me to not feel the loss of him as much.
You know, not that he's lost like Tommy, but.
Oh, yeah.
Killed in an earthquake.
Yes, that is what happened to him.
Yeah, in a terrible earthquake.
Now, remember every October 14th?
Well going forward, because today's October 14th, I'm going to smoke a joint in his tombstone.
It's what we would have liked.
It's where we've had our first date a couple of years ago, actually.
Not his tombstone, because it wasn't there, but just in the graveyard.
Oh, is that what you and Carrie were doing earlier?
Yeah.
And then Charles showed up.
He kind of ruined a lot of it.
He always thinks he's in charge of things.
I don't know what what he was doing there.
But you know, we were also there.
So it's just not a lot of places to go in the town, you know, cemetery is one of the
spots people go.
I guess that's true.
So where do you want to go today?
Well, I did want to kind of run back around by the woods yesterday where I saw the ripped
clothes of Dale that seemed like the police were trying to search close by, but I think
they were still a little bit off the path.
I got to run back near there for a little bit.
I don't really want to go back into the woods.
Oh, yeah, we don't have to go into the woods, just kind of close ish.
Well, all right.
And you guys walk near the woods.
So what are we looking for?
You know, no, not looking for anything, but I've got, you know, Dale's thumb here.
I'm just going to kind of toss it off into the woods and roll it that way.
And I'm going to let the next cops we see, you know, know about where to look for it.
Did you tell Shelly that you had his thumb?
Uh, yeah, that's a gross plan.
Well, unless you want to hold on to it, because I, you know, regret picking it up and I don't
know what else to do.
Yeah, I guess I don't really know what to do about this.
I'm not really conflicted.
I didn't really like Dale that much, but if he is eaten, we should probably tell somebody.
Okay, yeah.
So here, we're just going to kick this off here and I just kind of like drop the thumb
on the ground and kick it off into the woods.
Okay.
Maybe it's not his anyways.
Maybe he'll just turn up later.
It could be.
It's very unlikely, but you know, anything can happen.
I did find it near a shredded yellow t-shirt that had some blood on it.
She like shakes her whole body.
All right.
Now that that's done, let's go do something fun.
Okay.
What do you have in mind?
Um, you know, we can't go into that lake because it's not there anymore.
It's also October.
Yeah, that's true.
But it was always very warm when, you know, it was a lake still.
Probably not a good reason to go in there also, but a lot of pollution.
If there was so many signs that said don't ever go in, is that why you're all kind of
weird?
It, you know, it might be, could be, but, um, we could go, you wanted to meet at the
tarot place and go get a tarot reading.
I always have been kind of interested.
Oh, you've never been in there?
No.
Oh, the lady's very nice.
She makes her own candied apples for Halloween.
Oh, well, all right, let's go.
Yeah.
Let's go check it out.
Will you go first?
Of course.
Sure.
You guys head over to Griselda's magic shop and it's actually expanded since the last
time you've been in here.
Instead of just being kind of a, a curtained off portion of her front porch.
This is an actual like shop where her house is not taking up most of it on the first floor
anymore.
And you go in and there's nobody else in here, but you hear the music set to a very mystical
radio station.
And soon you're greeted by Griselda, the tarot reader.
Oh, hello.
Hello.
Hello, my darlings.
Hello, Griselda.
Oh, hello.
Welcome back.
I remember you.
I, you know, I figured you would.
We made a little bit of an impression last time we were here.
You didn't run through my house?
I, I, I didn't run through.
Again, that wasn't me.
I was just here.
Stole my apples.
It was Halloween.
You gave us the apples.
Anyhow.
Anyhow, yes.
What can I do for you?
We didn't bring the little ones today, so we just wanted to get some tarot readings.
Oh, excellent.
I am very proficient at them.
Excellent.
So, um, just do one at a time or you want me to pick a card?
I'm going to go first.
All right.
I'll go down at the table, dear.
Okay.
I don't think we got to do this last time.
We were in too much of a rush and you were all weirded about about how we have found
that card in the woods.
Yes, it was not great that you found it in the woods, but I'm glad to have had it back.
And she sets three cards face down in front of you.
All right.
Now from the left to the right, please flip the card.
Okay.
I'll flip this first one.
This card represents your past.
Oh goodness.
The death card comes back once again to greet you.
That is from my past.
This is good though.
It is upright.
It symbolizes a cycle of change, a metamorphosis.
Okay.
That's great.
It's good.
You know, things have changed from the past and we'll hopefully continue to change.
Let's go on to the next one here.
All right.
Flip the middle card.
This card represents your present.
It is the magician.
However it is upside down.
This is not search a great home.
This represents trickery and illusions.
Perhaps something is pulling the wool over your eyes.
Maybe you see things that aren't really there.
Oh my.
I have been seeing a lot of things and also hearing some weird stuff lately that I don't
know if anyone else has been hearing or seeing.
I could intuit that.
That does make a lot of sense here.
If you're interested in your future, flip the last card my dear.
Okay.
Yeah, let's do it.
Flip over the final card.
Ah, the tower.
It is upright.
However, it seems like a better thing than it is.
It typically represents a sudden upheaval or disaster.
Something monumental or catastrophic may be happening in your life.
Perhaps you should tread carefully.
Okay.
That's-
Maybe the path that you're on you don't want to take.
All right.
I mean, that's a tricky one, but keep that in mind.
Try not to get tricked and be careful what path I'm on.
Okay.
So, Shelly, I think why don't we change- you sit down here and pick your three cards.
She's standing next to you, rigid, and her eyes are rolled back up into her skull and
you can only see the whites of her eyes.
And suddenly you hear a cat meowing on the other side of the table next to Griselda.
And when you look, her eyes are also rolled up into the back of her skull.
And the cat just begins meowing and getting louder and louder.
And then a second cat joins in and a third.
Oh dear.
Um, oh God, I wish Billy was here.
I'm also kind of glad he's not here.
Um, Shelly, Shelly.
I'm going to like grab her arm and shake her a little bit.
She moves with your movement, but she does not move.
And you begin to hear the erratic violin music again, louder than you have ever heard it
before.
Oh man, that sounds close.
I'm going to stand up from the chair and look around.
Are the cats trying to come towards me or are they just like around looking-
They're just all looking at you and every time they look, there's more and more.
Okay.
Weird.
They're trying to pull Shelly out of the store.
And you do so.
And when you get out the front door, we're going to find out what happens next time as
this is where we're going to end the episode.
Okay.
Well, with that, we will see you next next Tuesday.
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acha
I got distracted by the other book, but
Okay, Danny don't get sprayed by any more thumbs bye skunks skunks
Say it again, just with skunks, I'm gonna put the thumbs thing at the end