CreepCast - Borrasca Pt. 1 | Creep Cast

Episode Date: January 14, 2024

Wendigoon and MeatCanyon explore one of the internets best horror stories. A new family moves into a small Missouri town by the Ozarks and begins experiencing strange things that lurk in the towns mysterious past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is the cold habitual, and it is the froy of the mountains blue. The froy at its summit. Coors Light, t'envee in a fruade? Celebrate, in a fashion responsible, you have to have the age legal for consuming the alcohol. Welcome back to Creepcast.

Today we're talking about Barasca. Let's go. That's how I've always pronounced it. I could be horribly wrong, but it's too late to stop me now. So yeah, Barasca. that's what we're covering today and I am so excited because out of all the creepypasta I've read this one's always been my favorite it's been a long time since I've looked at it but I mean like I can't think of one that's compared to it at least at the time I've read it so I'm interested

to look back on it have you ever read Barasca I haven't no oh yeah let's go I've just seen you I've seen you talk about it and then also I think in every episode that we've uploaded Out of all three episodes, this is probably the most talked about one in terms of people wanting us to read it and talk about it, so I'm stoked. I'm extremely stoked to get into it. I'm excited too, man. Which, it's written by Rebecca Klingle, also known as C.K. Walker. They are a writer renowned for her contributions to horror and suspense genres.

She gained prominence on the No Sleep subreddit, a platform sharing original horror stories. Her notable works include Barrasca, which is highly popular on No Sleep, which I guess, yeah, you're, I mean, this is like one of the most popular out there. Yeah. But one thing that's interesting is from that,

from her writing on No Sleep, she got to, she had a pretty big involvement in the writing in the Hunting of Hill House on Netflix, which is a Mike Flanagan show, really fucking good. So I loved Hunting of Hill House. So I'm, I'm super, super excited.

And I think this is, is like kind of a longer story so i think we're going to break this up into two parts it's a four part story all and all so we'll probably start with part one and two this time and then wrap it up next time with three and four so a nice little two part or something you have to you get to sit and wait so we'll see and if you all hate it well that's too bad because we want to do it this way so yeah it's our podcast i'm sorry you can get over it is so it is true and this you know what's weird is that I'm finding that a lot of like this was published in 2015 the first part here what it seems like so many stories were coming out around that time doesn't it feel that

way it feels like stare in the woods you know that that's when that came out it feels like there was like just a big a big boom then I don't know if that's true or not that's me being completely speculative well I do I do have a theory around that so you know how like when did creepypastas start like 2010-ish 20s 2012 stuff like that so 2015 2016 gives it a few years to kind of evolve the process the mind i mean it's the same thing we see with stuff like analog horror now right there were a few people that pioneered and then a few years after that you kind of have this deeper exploration it gets better it effectively refines itself right so i think that's why some of the more interesting stories we

see out of like internet horror come from that time period because the genre has been given time to grow at that point. Yeah. I mean, obviously, I'm like jumping to conclusions about a story you haven't read. But if you don't like it, I will fight you live on air. So, you know.

I'm fine. I'm fine with that. Which, so, Barasca is all about people relocating, which I thought this is funny. It's a family moving to Dress King, Missouri, which I'm originally from Missouri. Dress King is like in the Ozarks area.

And it's about pretty much this whole thing is about family's relocation because I believe their father is being reassigned to a sheriff's department. So it's about a narrator who's a nine-year-old boy and his sister and the family there. But I just thought that was kind of interesting. The Ozarks is close to me. And apparently this whole thing is about a place that is called Barasca, which is where creepy things happen. So without further ado, I think we should just get into it. we should as well. Boy, I'm so excited. It has been so long. I've looked at this story. Let's see if it holds up. I'm doing this as like a litmus test. Like we have with

pass one, see if it holds up. I'm also excited for you to see how this turns out. Yeah, I think I'm going to have a good experience with it. Since it's like my first time, I think that I'm going to have like rose goggles on, I bet. Perfect. I can't wait. All right. So I'll go ahead and get started with this first part. So we've got our narrator, the nine-year-old boy. and then Whitney, the narrator's 14-year-old sister, and they're upset about, or at least the sister is upset about leaving her life and her boyfriend behind. One of our first paragraphs we see, I was nine, so it didn't take me too long to warm to the idea of change.

It was like an adventure. New house, new school, new friends. Whitney, of course, felt the opposite. Moving to a new school at her age is hard. Moving away from her new boyfriend, however, was even harder. while the rest of us packed up our things and said our goodbyes Whitney sulked and cried and threatened to run away from home but a month later when we pulled up to our new house in Drisking, Missouri

she was sitting right next to me texting viciously on her phone so little kid you know excited to see new stuff older sister doesn't the classic the normal setup we all we all understand however yeah after that well I could I could read this part of you can if you want to I don't want to read all this just because I'm excited, but I will continue to read the sections. No, you're good. Yeah, keep going, keep going.

All right. So, they get to Drisking. The family finds it to be like this, you know, picture book, classic nice town, nothing creepy happening yet. And it says that at one point, while they're in the town, this is another section, my face fell. Now I knew they were making fun of me. Speaking of the local kids in town. That's a lie. You guys are lying to me. No, we're not, Kimber insisted. Kimber being one of the local girls. Yeah, we'll show you. We just had to get a knife for the ceremony and we'll go.

What? I feel like we're missing some context here. The boy continues, it says, At first I was upset when they told me we were moving to some little town out in the Ozarks. I remember staring at my dinner plate while I listened to my sister throw a temper tantrum unbefitting of a 14-year-old honor student.

She cried, she pleaded, and then she cursed at my parents. She threw a bowl at my dad and told him it was all his fault. mom told Whitney to calm down but she stormed off slaming every door in the house on the way to her room so so the nine-year-old boy continues talking about how he was unsure of the change at first but he likes it now and continues it says thankfully we moved over the summer and i had months of free time to explore the town when dad started his new job at the sheriff's office mom drove us around the city commenting on this and that the city was much much smaller than st louis but also a lot nicer there were no bad areas and the entire town looked like something you'd see on a postcard. Drisking was built in a mountain valley surrounded by healthy forest land with walking trails and crystal clear lakes. I was nine, it was summer, and this was heaven. We'd only been living in Drisking a week or so when our next-door neighbors came to introduce themselves, Mr. and Mrs. Landy, and their 10-year-old son, Kyle. While our parents talked and drank mimosas, I watched the Landy's lanky, red-headed

son hung out in the doorway, shyly eyeing the PS2 in the living room. So for the first time, from this point, Kyle and the narrator begin to become friends. They start to play Tekken together, which, you know, classic nine-year-old boyfriend, getting to punch stuff, right? So the two of them begin to blossom this relationship. Shiley eyeing the PS2 in the living room is such a great line. I love that. What small boy hasn't shyly eyed a PS2, dude? Which I will say, it's just funny because the, you know, the city was much smaller than St. Louis, but also a lot nicer. St. Louis is probably, I mean, it's my least favorite city in probably the entire world.

So to me, this little nine-year-old boy is, he's getting a start on his real life. He's getting out of this hellhole, and he's starting to blossom in this small little suburban in Lake Town so it's but developing his friendships now you know he I think that you know it's it's setting something

up and I think that we're starting to see that it's going to set up that I think that these little these new kids in the neighborhood are probably going to tell them something a little weird then they're going to introduce him to some Lake of the Ozark dark magic black magic

oh you're you're scarily close to to wear it okay good uh are you sure you ever read this before because that all right so after that before you jump the gun so it says in that afternoon with the ease and simplicity of our age kyle and i became friends we spent the cool summer mornings outside exploring the ozarks and the hot afternoons in my living room playing the ps2 he introduced me to the only other kid in the neighborhood our age a skinny quiet girl named kimber distaro she was shy but friendly and always up for

anything. Kimber kept up with us so well that she quickly became the third wheel on our tricycle. So anyway, the three of them become friends. They start to run around the town and everything's going great. That is, until as the story says, on the last Saturday before school started, Kyle and Kimber told me they were going to take me somewhere special. Somewhere we hadn't been yet. The triple tree. What's a true? I just, you know, you know, It's bad in a story where it's like, we're going to take you somewhere special, somewhere we hadn't been yet. It's just, it's such an ominous little line. It's like, it's, you know, it's nine-year-old kids talking this, but it's just, it's a beautifully put horror trope right here where that's the initial reaction that I had to, I just, oh, God.

Yeah. Good Lord. This can't go well. The triple tree. Yeah, it goes about as well as you could. so initial their initial conversation about it goes like this what's a triple tree i asked it's a totally awesome totally huge tree house out in the woods

kyle said excitedly whatever kyle come on you guys if there was a freaking tree house you would have showed it to me already no that's very cute that's a cute line yeah yeah exactly if there was a tree house you would have showed it to be all right you would to be hiding a tree house from me would you kyle Yeah, what the hell, Kyle? I thought we were friends. Nah, we wouldn't have.

Kyle shook his head. There's a ceremony for first timers and everything. Kimber nodded eagerly in agreement. Her dark orange curls bouncing off her tiny shoulders. Yep, it's true, Sam. If you enter the tree house without the proper ceremony, you'll disappear and then you'll die. My face fell. Good God.

How is that that casual? Wait, what? She just says, yep, it's true, Sam. if you enter the treehouse without the proper ceremony you'll disappear and then you'll die good god god what else would the ceremony be for

I guess I guess that's true I thought it was going to be something where maybe they smoke menthol cigarettes together or something like that like that that's their ceremony we're all blood brothers now yeah like it's a stand by me kind of thing or something yeah exactly like maybe they're maybe they're sitting there and having like a little

shot of whiskey and they're like, no, don't tell anybody. You know what I mean? But no, you'll just disappear and then you'll die. But if you don't do the ritual, if you don't. Yeah, that is, okay. Yeah, yeah, the ritual isn't disappearing and dying. You want to prevent that. Yeah, yeah. The dare program did not prepare me for this kind of peer pressure. So you're probably going to find people who also, you're probably going to find people

who are like, if you don't do this, you'll disappear and die. that's the what is that that that has be one of the letters in the dare program i forgot i forgot all of them all i remember is d i won't do drugs yeah and then a avoid disappearing and dying in the woods yeah a d i won't do drugs a avoid the ceremony disappear dying go in a treehouse r a tale is oldest time so so from there so it's uh you'll disappear and you'll die it says my face fell now i knew they were making fun of me that's a lie you guys are lying to me no we're not kimber insisted yeah we'll show you we just have to get a knife for the ceremony and we'll go oh no what you was fucked up too

is i don't i don't want to keep derailing the car we're just getting through some dialogue but i immediately imagine that the knife was you remember in moulon whenever like the main bad guy he had like that swivel sword. You know how like there's ceremonial daggers like that? Yeah. I almost imagine that they're like, yeah, we just have to grab a knife from, you know, wherever in the ceremony. So I just imagine these nine-year-old kids are just like they have like these golden daggers with like ruby encrusted handles and stuff.

And they're like, all right, we're good to go to the tree house. Next stop, triple tree. The knife's like whispering to them like, oh, it does that. Yeah, exactly. Put her that's in the monococlasts, speaking in tongues and shit. It says I've been bad. It's like, what? Yep, like holding it right up to their ear.

So, anyway, continuing from there. What? Why do you need a knife? Oh, do you want to go ahead? You can take it if you want. What? What? Why do you need a knife?

Is it a blood ceremony? I whispered. No way, Kimber promised. You just say some words and carve your name into the triple tree. Yep. It takes like one minute. Kyle agreed. And it's a really cool tree house, right?

I asked. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, Kyle promised. Okay. I guess I'll do it then. This is bad. Bad narrator. You need to ask more questions to that.

I will say it does feel very, very kid-like. That's one thing I like about all this so far is it feels very realistic. Like, I think all of the dialogue and, like, how they're going about it. I feel like a kid would probably just say that. Like, a kid would just be like, but it's pretty sweet, right? And they're like, oh, yeah. Okay, fine. That's all I didn't know.

Treehouse? Okay, I'll go. But, yeah, let me go to the next part here. Kyle insists on using the same knife he used during his own ceremony, but we paid the price to get it. Mrs. Landy just happened to be home with her younger, son Parker, and despite Kyle's many objections, his mother insisted

he take his six-year-old brother with him. Mom, we're going to the tree house. It's only for older kids. Parker can't go. I don't care. That's probably a bad mom voice. I'm going to use it anyways, though. I don't care if you're going to see an Exorcist movie Marathon. You're taking your brother with you. I need a break, Kyle.

Can't you understand that? I'm sure your friends won't mind. She flashed Kimber and me a challenge look. Right? No, not at all. Kimber said and not in an agreement. Kyle made a loud, dramatic sigh and called his brother, Parker, put your shoes on. We're leaving now!

I met the youngest Landy several times before and found that he was unlike his older brother and looks as in despond... Oh my God, as in disposition. Holy shit. I'm having a fucking shrunk. Where Kyle was wild, excitable fireball with hair to match, I found Parker to be an anxious,

fidgety boy with small eyes, and dark brown hair I don't know why but I really enjoy the description of somebody with just saying they have small eyes you know what I mean

just extremely tiny eyes also just kind of insulting too they're like yeah his brother's a firecracker an absolute fireball yeah but his brother is he's a bit of a tiny anxiety-ridden mess with

little eyes in a gross smile I imagine them like unsettling small like Yeah, exactly. You're like, Jesus, is he okay? He looks sick. We got on our bikes

and made our way to a lesser-known hiking trail a few miles away. I'd asked before where the trail led when we'd ridden across several weeks before, and Kyle had given me the underwhelming answer of nowhere interesting. We pulled up on a trail ahead, leaned our bikes against the wood signpost, which read

West Rim Prescott Oral Trail. Why are so many trails around here named Prescott, I asked? Is this Prescott Mountain or something? Kimber laughed. No, dami. It's because of the Prescott's. You know, the thing that lives in the mansion up on Fairmont?

Mr. Prescott and his son Jimmy own like half the businesses in town. Now, if I had to guess, since I haven't read this, I have a feeling like, I'm hoping that we get an encounter with the Prescott's or we have to go into their spooky mansion. Or is it a regular mansion? I don't know. I'm curious. I hope that we get to meet the press.

You're so whimsical and full of hope. Keep that. Keep that. Okay. I'll try to it. More than half, Kyle agreed. Which ones? Does he own the GameStop?

Oh, hell yeah. What? The Prescott's own a GameStop, too? I like how so far it's been riddled with PS2s and stuff, and he's like, which ones? Does he own the GameStop? The only store. That's the most nine-year-old question, though, right? He owns half the stores in town.

What about GameStop? Does he own the GameStop? Well, yeah. And I love the part of the line after this is the only store in Drisking I really cared about. Exactly. Yeah. What a G. Exactly.

A legend. Yeah, the narrator really showing his true nine-year-old colors here. We got to love it. I don't know about that one. Damn. Kyle wound a lock around the four bikes and clicked the bar into a place. Then spun the numbers on the dial. But like the hardware store, the pharmacy, glintons in the second and the, uh, glintons on second in the newspaper.

Did they start this down? nah mining started the town I think right what am I reading here this is them's disgusting the important thing to take away though from that area is that the the Prescott's are important people right and that quick line about mining starting the town will come back later so from here they just talk it they're like oh it that's such a long walk I don't want to walk that far and then like nana you're you're a sissy whatever um oh sorry apologies it is the younger brother the one with small eyes quote unquote who's the one who's

afraid who doesn't want to go walking down the road they're talking about going up this trail and then all of a sudden parker uh the little brother who as mentioned earlier small eyes only six years old uh doesn't want to go out on the trail because it's scary it's a long walk you know general kid's stuff right um and there is one mention here whenever our narrator is describing what kyle's talking about he says, Kyle was right, it wasn't a long walk, only a half mile down the trail, and then another half mile hike on a well-tread path up the mountain. It was a steep climb, though, and by the time we got to the tree house, I was winded. So they eventually make it all the way to the treehouse, and then in describing it, our narrator says, it's, I studied the tree as I caught my breath.

It's pretty awesome. I smiled, and it was. They had it lied. The treehouse was the biggest I'd ever scene. It had multiple rooms and there were actual curtains in the windows. A sign above the door said, Amber caught fort, and a rope ladder hung below the threshold, missing several planks. I'm going up first, yelled Parker, but Kimber caught his arm. You have to do the ceremony first, or you'll disappear, she reminded him. That'd be fine with me, Kyle grumbled. I was eager to get in the fort myself. Give me the knife. I held out my hand. Kyle smiled. I held out my hand. Kyle's and dug the switchblade out of his pocket. There's some space in the back to carve your name.

I opened up the knife, walked around the tree looking for an empty spot. There were so many names on the tree that I had to crunch down and look near the bottom since I couldn't reach any higher. I spotted both Kyle and Kimber's carvings on the tree and I finally found a spot I liked near the ladder. I bit my tongue and carved Sam W. into a blank piece of bark underneath someone named Paul S. Parker went next, but had so much trouble with the knife that Kyle had to do it for him.

That also gives us our narrator's name, Sam. So, we see what the ceremony is. Whenever you approach the tree house, you have to walk around to the back of the tree house, and then carve your name into it. And as mentioned, and that's an important detail for later, there's so many names on the back of this tree that it's hard to find a spot to put your name. yeah I love that visual I like the visual of

especially just being able to actually I wonder it it really doesn't matter if you can legibly read it but I love the idea of just seeing like I don't know hundreds of names carved in there just a really cool thing especially with such an eccentric tree house I mean like when I when I was reading

or when you were reading that thing and it said that there was like curtains in the windows that simple description kind of gives it a fun like it almost makes it feel like a house on a tree It doesn't feel like a rinky dink thing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly.

There's, I don't know. I'm remembering some of the, because like, thinking back on this story, I remember the plot beats and especially the ending, and that's what always stuck out to me. But hearing some of these little details and stuff like that, I wonder if there was, like, some quality in the writing that I didn't pick up as a kid, like, directly, but I kind of, like, internally processed, right? Like, maybe I read those details. and was like, I like that.

This makes me think of something bigger, even though they didn't go into much description on it. It kind of let my imagination play with it. It's fascinating. Kimber sang them out. Underneath the triple tree, there's a man who waits for me. And should I go or should I stay? My fate's the same either way.

That's creepy, I said. What does it mean? Kimber shrugged. No one knows anymore. It's just tradition. Okay. Can you say it one more time, slower? What's Parker and?

I recited the poem, we were ready to go. I climbed the rope ladder and took stock of my new surroundings. The treehouse was more or less empty, just a dirty rug here and there and some trash, old soda cans, beer cans, and fast food wrappers. I went room to room, four in total, and found nothing of real interest into the last one. An old mattress lay in a corner. Piles of musty, ripped clothing scattered the floor. Did a hobo live here? I asked. Now, this room has been like this for a long, as long as I can remember, Kyle said from the doorway behind me. it smells gross i said kimber walked up to the threshold but refused to go any further

it's not the smell that freaks me out it's that she pointed up on the ceiling and i raised my eyes to read what was written there roads the gates of hell mile marker one that's pretty sweet yeah yeah that's awesome that goes pretty hard

there's a lot of stuff to there's a lot of stuff to unpack here like very quickly I kind of like that they do you know like he's looking through this I mean four rooms in a tree house That's a big tree house I mean full rugs on the deal You're getting a sense of the scale

And I like how it does like You know It's filled with kind of what you would expect right Trash soda cans beer cans Magazine blah blah blah But then I really like Just immediately on the next one There's an old mattress on a corner

And piles of musty ripped clothing Scattered the floor Just such an interest Like you're already starting to be like What happened here what can happen here to me it's a lot more malicious it feels a lot more evil than that

and I think through the like through the lens of these children I don't really think that they even process how maybe evil or violent that just ripped clothing scattered on the floor can be so it's kind of interesting because now I'm like

in my mind I'm like you guys need to get the hell especially with a nice sign that says road to the gates of hell mile marker one Pretty awesome Go ahead continue What's just say it just and then which they say Or Sam our narrator says

What does it mean It's just older kids being dicks Kyle said Come on I'll show you the best part of the tree house We walked back and which I guess I want to stop again real quick It's interesting That's the second time that like They kind of nonchantly shrug off something The first one being a poem about how like a man is going to take you potentially

And then now it's like a sign that says roads to the gates of hell. And it's like, ah, you know, it's just people being weird losers. It's, I can't tell if they're hiding information from Sam or if they're just like in their kid brains being like, that's whatever. It's, it's what it is. You know what I mean? Like they've been here so many times that it's, you know, who knows? We went back into the first room and Parker looked up at us and smiled, pointing down to what he clumsily carved into the wooden floor. Fart.

Redd. That's hilarious. I wanted you to read that part really bad. Yeah, fart, Kyle Redd. That's hilarious, Parker. That is funny. Imagine going into like a demonic fucking tree house and you just cart fart into the floor. You're like, awesome. Yeah, brother. He rolled his eyes, but his little brother didn't pick up on the sarcasm and smiled proudly at a boy Parker.

Kimber sat down on the floor next to Parker and I sat on the other side. Kyle took the knife from his brother And then walked across the room and wedged the blade Between the two planks on the wooden wall He pushed and the board gave Opening up a small secret compartment in the wall Kyle took something out and pushed the plank back Until it was flush with the others

Check it out He turned and probably held up two cans of millerite beer Oh there you go see now we're getting into I love it Whoa I said Ew warm beer that's gross How do you even know

How do you even know is there? Kimber asked Phil Saunders told me A classic Phil Are we gonna drink it I asked Hell yeah we're gonna drink it Now this is my kind of party dude So over the next few paragraphs It just talks about them drinking

Talking about town and whatnot I do like the note that enough kids visit this tree That they have like these like like he says Oh Phil Saunders told me So like the tree house is popular enough That like the kids know where to leave stuff They have almost dead drops set aside for each other so they go a little bit down they're sitting around talking everything's fine however it then says

kimber was in the middle of reciting the alphabet backwards when a loud metallic grinding suddenly pierced the calm mount air like a gunshot kimber stopped talking and we spent a few minutes staring at each other waiting for the noise to end parker curled into kimber and put his hands over his ears after what seemed like ten whole minutes the same The sound ended as suddenly as it had begun. What was that? I asked, and Parker mumbled something into Kimber's sweatshirt. Do you guys know? I tried again. Kimber stared at her feet as she crossed and uncrossed them. Well, it's nothing, Kyle answered finally. We hear it sometimes in town. It's not a big deal. It's just louder up here.

But what's making that sound? Barasca. Kimber whispered without taking her eyes off her. feet. Who's that? I asked. Not who, where, Kyle answered. It's a place. Another town? No, it's just a place in the woods. Oh, bad things happen there, Kimber said more to herself than me. Like what? Bad things, Kimber repeated. Yeah, don't ever try to find it, dude, Kyle said behind me. Bad things will happen to you too. But like, what bad things? I turned around, Kyle shrugged, and Kimber stood up and walked over to the rope ladder. We'd better go. I have to get home to my mom, she said.

We climbed down the ladder one by one and then started to walk back to the trail in an unfamiliar silence. I was dying of curiosity about Barasca, but couldn't decide if and what to ask about it. So who lives there? Where? Kyle asked. Barasca. The skinned man, Parker answered. Pugh, Kyle laughed. Only babies believe that.

that. Like men who are skinned, like their skin is gone, I asked excitedly. Excitedly. Yeah, like men who are skinned? Like their skin is gone? Really? What the fuck? You promise? All right. Yeah. Now we're slowly realizing that Sam is a psycho. Yeah, that's what some kids say. Most of us stop believing in that, though, when we turn double digits, Kyle said. I looked back at Kimber, who was still nine like me, but she was staring down the trail, ignoring us. That seemed to be the end of the conversation, and by the time we reached our bikes, the awkwardness was gone, and we were giggling trying to decide if we were too drunk to bike home. That's cute.

Sipping some warm, though we're probably too wasted to ride, man. So, yeah, so that's basically at the end of that scene. They go up there, this big tree house, everyone cars, names into, but then there's this loud metallic noise coming from a place called Baroscow. And other than the mention of the skinned man, that's all that we get about the location. Yeah, the skinned men also. It's not even just a man. It's like there's there's multiple people who are skinned. It's it's very interesting, which I was going to say to when reading this, the sound came outside of the tree house, right? Yeah, yeah. It was like

louder up there on the woods. Yeah, yeah. Right. It's louder when you're away from town. I'm picturing just like a long metal scraping sound, like just something really horrid and just like, you know what I mean? Just something completely, what is it? Just like almost unbearable like nails on a chalkboard. It's interesting.

It kind of feels like also that they set up the tree house to be like you, it's almost like you expect the treehouse to be the evil place. but then they do the nice subversion of like actually it's this completely other place that makes everybody else uncomfortable because until this point too Kyle and Kimber have both been very like oh it's just superstitions oh it's tradition oh it's just a dick whatever but then whenever this gets brought up it gets very serious it gets very quiet and now it's even it's kind of like completely disrupts the flow of what they had before so but also it's weird too Sam is like very like it seems like he's anxious to hear about it but then just even the word excitedly is interesting where it's like now it kind of seems like i have a i have a bad feeling

sam is going to want to like pursue this like pursue this idea finding it and knowing what it is man i'm over here i'm almost getting like nostalgic thinking about hearing you describe it like that i dropped all these nuances this early in the story um man this is a good one okay i'm i'm so back I'm so ready. Because, like, everyone we've covered, even the ones I like, I go in, like, scared. Like, what if this isn't as good as I remember? But this is so much cooler than I remember because, like, there's stuff I'd completely forgotten about along that, which, slight spoiler, you're totally right with your idea

of, like, maybe Sam will have some, like, desire to go look for it. But, wow. Okay. Yeah, it's interesting. Well, the thing about it, too, that's just, I don't want to, like, get too far off. I know I'm sure our viewers want to keep hearing about the. story, but it's just interesting. In terms of storytelling, having it start off by a kid who's moving to a town, it's already a fish out of water situation, right? Being introduced to

new friends who are introducing him to all of these new things and all these other kinds of weird stuff going on. It's very believable that a kid would become obsessed or that he would have some kind of like just like innate desire to find this thing that is like this fantastical thing, especially whenever Kimber and Kyle are already prepping up like the ceremony and the tree house and stuff. All this stuff is so new and exciting that in a way, I feel like there's just so much that he is going to, Sam is going to want to, I wouldn't say prove it to his friends, but I think prove it to himself that he can go and find this thing and learn more about it. I think it's like forbidden fruit

in a weird way. Yeah. Oh, man. Okay. So continue on in the story. So after that, it skips forward a bit and talks about the first day of school. It says there's this dialogue between Sam and his dad, where his dad's, like, you know, saying, ah, you're not getting out of the car until you give me a hug or whatever. It's mentioned that Sam's dad's a police officer. I believe, I'm pretty sure he's a police officer later in the story, if I remember right,

and there's a mention here, I threw open the back door of his cruiser before he could say anything more. But other than that, just a brief exchange between Sam and his dad. And then he runs up and he meets with Kimber and Kyle as they're about to walk into school. And there's this quick mention. Most of this isn't like super important for the narrative. It's just character stuff like, ha ha, oh, what are you nervous for, whatever? But there is this one short thing I want to read where it says, whose class are you in kimber asked she was wearing a red sweater and leggings with frogs on them her curly

orange hair was brushed into ringlets and her lips were pink and shining she never looked prettier and i was surprised to realize i'd never really seen kimber as a girl so the the slight mention that sam is maybe developing some feelings towards kimber wanted to bring that up anyway so they're talking about the rest of class. One of them swears, and then a teacher over here is it. Typical, you know, middle school cutesy stuff, right? Even some of the stuff here, like it looks like there's some,

even like you were saying that he might be developing feelings for, I mean, there's stuff where, you know, you know, the way that Sam is saying things and Kimber's giggling, it's very cutesy. It is very cute. This whole thing is very, is very young love. young cutie love and it's very innocent too everything so far is just like fun and games nothing to it

there is one character that gets brought up in the scene that I want to mention so Kyle says he drops an F-bomb in conversation and then up behind them we hear excuse me

Mr. Landy I immediately recognized the tall man that had suddenly appeared behind the white-faced Kyle sorry sir I met dang Kimber giggled. I'm sure you did, he nodded. Hi, Sheriff Clary.

Even though I'd only met him a few times, I liked my dad's boss and he liked me. Well, hello, Sammy. Are you excited for your first day? Sheriff Clary crossed his arms in front of me and widen his stance imposingly, but gave me a wide smile. Yes, sir, I said, and then added lamely.

What are you doing here? Well, I'm given a presentation to the fifth and sixth grades about safety when walking to and from school. Yeah, he gives it every year. Kyle muttered. Cool, I smiled. Sheriff Clary nodded at me and he turned and walked away. I looked around confused. Where's Kimber? She took off. She is annoyingly on time to everything. And as if to illustrate his point, the bell rang. We both ran up the stairs and inside. So from there they go to their first day of school. So there's a mention there. His dad isn't a police officer per se, he's sheriff's deputy in the small town. And Sheriff Clary's here giving. it also further like you said paints the idea of this an idyllic small town oh the sheriff comes to the local school to give presentations about you know stranger danger or whatever right everything's very picture book right now yeah i mean even just it's i've had that happen in my own like you know when i was younger too people talking about uh people like a sheriff or cop coming in from in town and

talking about like the like safety concerns and stuff but especially though so far in the story to me it just feels like a subtle nod of especially the the guy talking to fifth and sixth grades about you know the safeties of like walking home and from school or to school it just feels like there's something being set up or there's like something in town going on where they're trying to like let people know like hey you should be careful because I don't know stuff is happening but I think that's just my excited little evil brain getting you know prepping what I think is to happen. Yeah. I do want you to read this part, both because I think it's good for like character growth, but also because I think you'll find it funny. A group of girls who sat

near the front, Snuck looks at us all morning and snickered. I asked Kimber who they were and she shrugged. During our second break, they came up and talked to me. Are you friends with Kimber de Starro? A tall, dark-haired girl asked me. Yeah. I answered and I looked over at Kimber. She was watching me with worried eyes. Are you related to her? No. I didn't think so. Because you don't have orange hair I didn't know what to say to that Yeah it's like okay You don't have to be friends with her

You know So the second girl with oddly a round face I want to be friends with her A third girl behind the other two snorted She had pretty Auburn hair And rude upturned nose Well if you do You're going to be in the ugly kid group

The first goal warned And once you're in that group You can't leave it ever Better than the bitch group rip I said. Rude nose and round-faced gas, but dark hair smiled. Wealthy, she said, and the three returned to their corner of the room. I sat back down to the next day, Kimber feeling like a badass.

It was the first time I'd ever used a swear word in front of anybody other than Kyle. Hell yeah. What did they say to you? Kimber asked nervously. They said you're too pretty to be near them and that you make them look gross, so we have to stay away from them. Liar, Kimber answered. but I could tell she was smiling. That's so sweet, isn't it?

Yeah, I love that. That's an adorable interaction. It is. It's super nice. I also, I love, man, I love the idea, too, of just how real it feels for a kid to be like, God, I feel like such a badass. Because he just said, bitch. Yeah. Usually I don't say that in public, but.

But he used his power for good. He used it to defend his friend. It was very sweet. there's another part later when it's talking about them at lunch this is again seems like character dialogue but this is setting up important world building similar to the sheriff mentioned earlier when it says hey are you sam walker the kid asked but by the way they're at lunch now like him kyle and uh all them hey are you sam walker the kid asked yeah oh your sister is dating my brother oh man kyle left your sister is dating a whittaker remember whitney um sam's older sister's older sister

who's like 14, that's who they're referring to. Your sister's dating a Whitaker. Shut up, Kyle, the kid grumbled. She's going to be Whitney Whitaker. As funny as it was, I couldn't help be a little surprised. Not that I've been paying attention, but I'd only seen Whitney out of her room

once over the summer. Where did she meet him? I asked the Whitaker kid. I don't know, probably at his job. His job where? He works at Drisking Water. It didn't make any sense to me, but I shrugged it off. I did remember my mom giving Whitney some menial tasks like getting the car washed and setting up some

utilities to get her out of the house. Maybe she met him once and they started dating over text. Teenagers were weird. So anyway, the kid doesn't really, like Sam doesn't think a ton about it. But we get another mention. His older sister Whitney is dating someone, right? And also he is a part of the Whitaker family, which similar to the Prescott family is a pretty well-renowned to do family in inside of this town. Driskey. Yeah, well off kind of like one of the wealthier families in town. Definitely like a name.

Exactly. Yeah. Like, oh man, she's going to be a Whitaker. Like that, that carries some weight, even to these like fourth graders. Because if anything,

you kind of assume that like maybe their families or like talk about it and stuff. Like kids can pick up on that. Yeah. You know, like I, it becomes something, yeah,

pretty real. So anyway, it goes on from there. They go about their first day of school. And then, A few days later, it says, the rest of the school week followed much like the first. We were well into the first month when I heard someone mention the skinned men again. We were out on the playground and Kyle and I were trying to start a fire with two large woodchips.

I'd just given myself a splinter when the distant sound of metal grinding on metal flooded over the playground, silencing every one of us. Baroscow, I said in awe. Yep, said Phil Saunders. the skinned men kill again hey Kyle said only babies believed in skinned men I threw an accusatory look at Kyle they do Phil is just stupid am not

ask Danielle she's seen them yeah yeah wait she's seen she's sick I think it okay I felt like I was having a stroke chest then yeah I was like wait a bit yeah ask Danielle she's seen them Phil scanned the playground and then yelled and a blonde girl talking to rude nose.

Hey, Danielle, come over here. The blonde girl rolled her eyes but came skipping over anyway. What do you want? I told you Kayla doesn't like you, Philip. No. No, this isn't about that. That's for later.

No, tell them about the skinned men. Phil gestured to the air around us which was filled with metallic scraping coming down from the mountain. You tell them. No, you saw them, so you tell them. I didn't see them Paige saw them

Oh Phil said And an uncomfortable silence descended You guys are weird Daniel said Before flipping her hair In our faces and leaving Whose page?

I asked when she'd gone Her sister, Phil said Paige disappeared when we were like five Kyle said After she saw the skinned men Phil added The sounds from the mountain abruptly ended

And the subdued atmosphere of the playground disappeared with it When the bell rang, Kyle lined up in his class line, and since Phil was in my class, I made sure I was behind him. The teachers began to count us off. Hey, what else do you know about Barasca? I whispered to him. My brother said, that's where people go when they disappear, to Barasca. What happens to them there? Bad things, he said, and then shush me when I asked him what he meant. And that's the end of that scene.

So, okay, we have some interesting stuff here. For one, I love. I love. the the haunting visual of a school yard full of children going silent when the metal starts you know it's like there's this understood almost reverence they have for it right of like oh it's beginning again that's them and then there's they make the shrewd comment of like up that's the skinned men they're killing again right however the one that's really haunting is the mention of page's older sister who disappeared when they were like five right so and what do we know about the ritual for the tree. If you don't write your name on your tree, you disappear. Right. So we're starting to see some reoccurring themes. If you don't write your name on the tree, you disappear.

Paige had an older sister who disappeared, and apparently she saw the skinned man. It's interesting. Yeah. It's interesting, too, because there's just adding to what you said about like even the Barasca sound of the metal scraping, I was curious because there could have been a couple different ways it goes where the kids in town who are there are so used to it that they don't really pay any attention. But still, even though it's a regular thing, it still sounds as people. Like, I think that it's still something that just like fundamentally affects and people are, everybody's afraid of it. But yet still, there's like an urban legend to it. Like there's interesting things where some people are like, yeah, there's a skin man. No, she said she's seen it.

No, they're not real. There's still like urban legends, even though there's this huge grading thing and there is this like base level of fear that everyone believes in. So I don't, I don't know. though too is Sam saying Barasca in awe like it really yeah yeah it really shows that I think that he is going to I in my I think that he's going to form some kind of obsession I think it's going to like call him or he is like he I think that something's going to happen to where he's going to have to explore it by himself because he is like I think because he's so new and so naive I think that it's going to inevitably lead him to go there by himself and kind of like disregard all of the things that people have said, all of the warnings.

So after the, I can't comment on it because it'll be getting in the spoiler territory. Don't comment on it. I'm just saying this is where, this is my thought now. Yeah. Right. So it says that a few months go by, it's around Christmas break and one day it, Sam's setting in his room and he hears the metal again. He hadn't heard it since that time at the playground. So it's a few months between the noise, right? It's not like it's every day or something. So he hears the noise again at the same time that his dad comes home from work. So when his dad comes inside, he says, hey, dad, do you hear that, that like machine sounding noise? Yep, I hear it in town every now and then. Do you know what it is? I asked the sheriff about it, and he told me the noise comes from

private property up in the Ozarks. Is the property called Barasca? I asked quickly. I guess I should be like, is the property called Barasca? But you get a phone. Is the property called Barasca? Is the property called Barasca? I have no idea. Barasca, where'd you hear that? I shrugged.

Kids at my school. Well, it's nothing to worry about Sammy. Probably just some logging equipment. But is the place called Barasca? Like, have you heard that name before? No, I've not heard that before. Dad pulled its boots off and shrugged off his coat, looking toward the kitchen.

I could tell I was losing him. have you ever heard of the skinned man hold on have you ever heard of the skin man I asked quickly skinned man good god Sam is your sister

telling you these stories this is me I used to do this kid I would like terrorize my younger sisters with things I heard all the life god no but he wasn't listening to me anymore Whitney he yelled upstairs

no dad Whitney doesn't even talk to me I repeated. I heard a door creak opened upstairs and Whitney peered over the railing, phone in hand and an annoyed look on her face. Are you trying to scare your brother? Dad demanded. Dad, no, I said again.

Whitney shot me a betrayed look. Seriously, as if I'd waste my time. Why aren't you telling him stories about skinned men? No, Dad, I told you I heard it at school, I said. Winching gestured to me as if to say, see all right well you kids need to start getting along your family for god's sakes Whitney rolled her eyes and when dad walked into the kitchen

she stuck her tongue out at me real mature Whitney I yelled up to her but she was already gone I'll tell dad about your boyfriend that's the end of that so but there's that mention around the father I won't say anything specific now but just keep that interaction in mind right yeah I don't believe them I don't I don't believe them

I feel like maybe not the skin men thing but I do feel like, well, because here's the thing. I'm wondering how long has this been going on for? And if there's local sheriffs, because if it's like a sheriff, right, in a small town, I would say the majority of time you're like a, you're like a hometown boy, right? You're like a little, you're born and raised there. So to me, I'm like, I feel like, unless the other sheriffs aren't being honest, I feel like the dad would have heard Barasca.

It just depending, but to be fair, we don't know the context of like when really this sounds started or anything or when this urban legend kind of happened. so I'm curious because the skin men thing it's easy for him to be like Jesus no good like good God where the hell are you hearing this

but at the same time I'm wondering too how much of it is him trying to be trying to I guess not scare his kid or something I don't know

I don't trust the dad for some reason that's probably you know some personal issue I have of my own father but I'm always like he's lying

it is like it is like the kind of it's weird to say about a story but kind of the body language the father has in the scene, where it's like, Barrasca, where'd you hear that? I just heard it at school.

Oh, well, I've never heard of that before. You know, like, it's, it's kind of, it's like he's trying to pry for information, but doesn't want to give anything away. That's what I mean, yeah, is if I just feel like he knows more. Like, I feel like they're, and I could be completely reading it wrong, but to me, it just feels like, exactly, you're prying for information because you don't want to, like, reveal your hand yet. And I think it's easy to also, pass people off because of like not wanting to talk about something and you just kind of give him the whole excuse of like oh this is ridiculous and then he even brings this dog like the kid Sam is being very transparent of like no I heard it at school and he's like did your sister tell you

hey you know Emily get down here what like it seems like it's trying to sway the conversation in a certain way and also completely ignore it even though I don't think Sam is being irrational at all even though he's not I understand he's nine but still I don't don't think that he's doing anything that's totally absurd. So I don't know. My little, my, my, my suspicious blinders are on for the dad as well. I feel like there's just not enough. I don't know.

I think the cards are being held too close to the chest. Yeah. Well, anyway, those are interesting things that you said that I won't say anything about it. So continuing on. So there's, the next day they go to school, or not the next day, after Christmas break, they go to school. The girls mentioned earlier, the three who made fun of Kimber,

they come up, push Kimber again. Kimber says that she hates all those girls. And then the three of them are going to the assembly hall in the school because there's a DARE presentation or they say it's either DARE or the History Society's presentation, which is funny because we mentioned DARE a minute ago.

I'm telling you, yeah, it's coming full circle. It's coming full circle now. So the three of them go to the auditorium and then a teacher named Mrs. Tebridey walks onto the stage and says hello fourth grade students this morning we have a special presentation for you from the historic preservation society of drisking if you have questions during the course of the lecture please raise your hand like that'll happen kyle laughed now i'd like to introduce you to mr wyatt doubting miss katherine scandlin and of course mr james prescott

what jimmy prescott and not his dad that's so weird kimber whispered dude Thomas Prescott has done this presentation every year for like 20 years, Kyle said. It's definitely weird. It's not weird, whispered Mike Sutton from behind us. He leaned forward. Tom Prescott went crazy like a year ago. He didn't do the presentation last year when my sister was here either. I don't like Jimmy Prescott.

Kimber shook her head. He gives me the hebi-jeebies. His dad's so much nicer. He's like a grandpa. The presentation was slow and boring. Mr. Dowding and Miss Scalian. talked about the first settlers here, the Cherokee, and the Trail of Tears. They talked about Alexander Drisking's discovery of a motherload of ore in the mountains

and settling here with his family to mine and refine the iron. Then James Prescott took the stage from there to tell the story of his family's early journey to the town and their role in the revitalization of Drisking itself in the late 50s. The last part was the most interesting of it all, and I found Jimmy Prescott to be infallibly charismatic and entertaining. so busy laughing at his jokes and hanging on his every word that by the end of his presentation, I realized I'd actually learned quite a bit, so much so that I was interested enough to ask a question, which Kyle warned was committing social unaliving for YouTube.

Mr. Prescott scanned the room and answered a few other questions before he finally got to me at the back. Yes, you in the back. Uh, Mr. Prescott, why did the minds close? Like, what happened, I asked. Very good question, young man. What did you say your name was? Sam Walker. Ah, I believe I met your father the other day at the sheriff's office. Welcome to Drisking. As for your questions, most of the mines were closed in 1951 after a long period of unprofitability. The mountain had simply ran out of iron ore. The mills and refineries were abandoned and the town suffered for years. The miners and their families moved away. stores went out of business schools closed and drisking became a ghost town that would have been the end of it

if it weren't for stubborn families like mine who refused to leave we refused to give up the town and after many many years of hard work drisking became the picturesque little haven and the ozark said it is today i hope that answers your question i sat back down and kyle shook his head at me bro so anyway that gives us an important thing for one we see the families again the important families mentioned. Specifically, we heard that Ted Prescott, or Thomas Prescott, the older one, went mad according to them. And now his son, Jimmy Prescott, is the one holding the assembly. So again, there's a mention that the Prescott's are an important family. Remember all the trails around town and all the roads are named after them? And there's a mention that while it was at one point a big

mining town, it lost its economy in the 50s and families like the Prescott's revitalized it. So that's probably why all of these different families have such predominance in the town, because they kind of saved it from, from an economic collapse. It kind of makes, it made me think of like, like mine carts and stuff, the grindings and everything. I'm wondering, uh, I'm wondering if, if, if the sound is, my immediate, my immediate thing is thinking that the sounds are coming from the mines, especially because, uh, down here a bit, there's some dialogue, basically the kids after the presentation, Kyle's like, oh so boring whatever and uh they're kind of giving sam a hard time for asking about it and sam says

i just wanted to know about the mines mines are creepy that's all yeah but all other yeah but all of our minds were blown up you can't go in them anymore kyle said blown up i asked kimber nodded some kids died after going in the mine so the city set off some controlled blast and plowed the caverns at least that's what my mom said they messed up though and i heard they blew out the water table or poisoned it or something. What? How do you know that? Kyle asked. Kimber shrugged. I heard my dad talking about it. Do you C4

or something? I guess. That's a very general question. So like we all drink the water so we have C4 in our bodies and we don't explode at any minute, Kyle said, excitedly. Do you think that's what's happening to all the missing

people? I asked him. Just sitting there one day and boom! Yeah, dude. Kyle grabbed my shoulders. And that's where the skin men come from. I made the intentional symbol of mind-blown, and we laughed hysterically. I don't know. What do you, what if you had, well, fuck it. What sucks is that you already know.

I will. I need someone here to hypothesize. We need a third party. It's funny or if I torment you with it, though. If I'm like, I don't know. It is true. It could happen. Yeah.

That's a good question, Hunter. Why don't you tell me more of your theories? So, but what are you thinking? What are you thinking, right? now. Where's your mind up? I don't know. I mean, like, they're setting up some stuff. I don't think that we're getting, like, I don't think any of the information that we're getting so far is, like, not intentional. Like, I think it's, it's not intentional. It isn't just random that we hear about Thomas Prescott going insane, right? And how it's a big deal that, uh, the younger

Prescott, who Kimber finds creepy is doing the presentation and stuff. There's just too many little subtle things being hinted and dropped at, especially a big emphasis on mining and like how mining built a town, you know, to me, I think that, I think that we're going to end up in the mind somehow, but I'm wondering how it correlates with the treehouse or even if the man that, uh, the scared men or, uh, the man from the poem might be, I don't know, people that have gone insane or like in my head says Thomas Prescott but I have no idea to know how old the poem is

because to my head my head I'm wondering if the Prescott's who are obsessed with this town especially the mining and stuff if they're like lurking around up there or or something I don't know my I'll tell you this I'll give you this you are holding all of the right pieces everything you're saying all these thoughts in your head

you've got all the pieces together you're not putting them together right per se but I think you know that I think you know you don't have all the information Yeah, no. But you're catching on to everything you should be. It's becoming one of those things where it's like I'm theorizing, but every time I like say it, especially when I'm saying it out loud for the viewers to hear because it's, you know, it's embarrassing.

It sounds very dumb. But I do think that like it's going to, I mean, obviously as we get more information, it'll piece itself together. But I think it's going to be one of those things where I'm like, how did I not see that? You know what I mean? I think that the story is going to be one of those stories where from beginning to end, it's like you had every, you had every, you had every, clue right in front of you or every answer right in front of you the whole time yeah so i'm curious okay so it the story has a very dramatic total shift here right because after that conversation the two of them uh it says they go home from school uh and kyle says specifically uh i remember

thinking in that moment that i was happy here in drisking missouri these two people happier than i'd ever been anywhere else it was the last truly happy moment i ever had less than an hour later Mr. Diamond's phone ring and he exchanged a few quiet words with the person on the other end his eyes flicking to and from my desk it was hard to be surprised then

when he hung up and asked me to come up to the front when I got there he told me my mom was waiting for me in the office and I was going home for the day I traded a confused and worried look with Kimber and then packed up my backpack and went to the office when I got there my mom was crying we drove home in strained silence i was too afraid to ask what was wrong mom parked the car a block

from our house which was blocked in by several police cars when an explanation didn't come i broke the silence myself is it dad i asked quietly holding back tears no honey dad's fine she whispered then what happened whitney never made it to school this morning her voice broke over my sister's name oh no mom i think she ditched i said quietly i saw leave this morning and it was really early like six and she was with her friends Pete Whitaker and that kid Taylor we know about all that Sam but they made it to school and Whitney wasn't with them they said she wanted to stop by the Circle K near Drisking High so they left her there and no one's seen her since well my

brain struggled to come up with an explanation maybe she's ditching no honey my mom put the car back and drive and drove up to our house parking behind a police cruiser. The police, as well as your father, think that Whitney is with Jay. But she has a new boyfriend here. We found all her books on the floor of her room this morning and half her clothes gone along with some cash of your dads. But right now we think that she hitched a ride to St. Louis and that she's with Jay. The sheriff office is trying to contact the boy's parents now. Whitney run away? one who knew my sister knew she was prone to

dramatics and empty threats. Plus, she was dating Chris Whitaker's older brother Pete. I was sure of it. We walked up the steps and into a house filled with stale coffee and quiet murmurs. Oh, gosh, that's a great. That line gave me goosebumps of like that pulp I love

so much. Just not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, sorry. Stale coffee and quiet murmurs. I tried to remember if Whitney herself had ever actually confirmed she was dating Pete, but I drew a blank. When we walked into the kitchen, I saw my father sitting at the table, staring at phone records, head in hand. He looked up when I came into the room and gave me a weak smile.

Hey, buddy. Dad, I have to tell you something. I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder and turned to look up at solemn Sheriff Clary. Everything and anything you might know, son, no matter how trivial you think it is. I nodded and sat down at the table with my dad as my mom handed the big man a cup of coffee. here you go sheriff she asked weekly please mrs walker call me killian my mother nodded and retreated back into a darkened corner to talk quietly with sheriff clary's wife grace what do you know sam my dad asked as he rested his chin on his hands in a mock symbol of prayer as though i may deliver him from his suffering bro what's the writing turned up of it It got into the...

Anyway, anyway. Well, just... I heard Whitney had a boyfriend. That guy, Pete Whitaker, that she's been hanging out with. And I saw them and Taylor Dranger leave this morning before me. What time did they leave? asked the sheriff. I don't know. Like, before six, he nodded.

That matches the statements of Taylor Dranger and the Whitaker boy. My father's head sucked lower to his hands, and I knew I'd let him down. But, I rushed. I don't think she went back to St. Louis, because she was dating Pete, and I don't think she wanted to be with her boyfriend back home anymore. I understand that, son, but a teenage girl's mind is a complicated thing. My officers are trying to get a hold of the boyfriend's family back at St. Louis. Clary nodded to my father.

Now, why don't you head up to your room and let us work, Samuel? I looked up at him and surprised. What? No, I want to stay down here. I can help. No, son. There's nothing more you can do here. You've been a good brother. Now, let us handle this. But I can help. You already have.

Dad. I looked over at my dad with begging eyes. Go to your room, Sam. He said quietly after a moment. I balked. Dad. Now. I was angry. I did the only thing I could do to make my rage known. I stomped upstairs, slammed the door, and then sat on my bed in disbelief. The tears came then, and I laid there feeling helpless, worthless, and scared for my sister. I thought about all the places Whitney could be. Was she scared? Was she alone? Was she dead?

When the sun began to set, I finally got out of bed and went to check my email. I was expecting lots of messages from Kimber and Kyle, but there was only one. Did she go to the tree house? I said staring at the computer screen for almost a minute. Kimber's words from last fall echoed in my brain. If you entered the tree house, Without the proper ceremony, you'll disappear, and then you'll die. I didn't buy that Whitney had gone to Circle K that morning,

and I especially didn't believe that she'd hitched hike out of town. Nothing they were saying downstairs made any sense if you knew my sister, but maybe this did. Maybe she and her boyfriend went to the tree house to make out or something, and maybe he'd left her there. Maybe she'd gotten lost her. Maybe the skin Ben had found her. That was the worst thought of all.

I didn't need to sneak out because the police were too busy with my parents to care about me anyway. I snug my bike out of the garage and rode the three miles to the West Rim Prescott or trail. When I got there, I saw two bikes already locked to the signpost and my two best friends sitting in the snow next to them. I knew you'd come, Kyle said, when I pulled my bike up and Kimber ran up to hug me. I'm so sorry, Sam. There's really nothing for me to say, and they didn't push. Kimber took my arm and we started up the trail. The silence between us was stretched but comfortable. We trudged through the snow and all the while I searched for the tail-tale footprints of others but the snow was coming too fast.

The hike up the mountain was harder and wetter than when we'd come in the fall and when Amber caught fort finally came into view over the ridge, it was a welcome sight. The sun was getting low and we hadn't brought flashlights. I fell as I ran up to the tree, calling my sister's name to the quiet wild. Kyle was right behind me and leapt impressively onto the rope ladder, climbing quickly up the planks. I kept calling Whitney's name, waiting for Kyle to yell that he'd found her or that there was at least some sign of her. And then I heard Kimber quietly say my name from where she stood at the triple tree. I ran over and tried to follow her eyes to confirm what I already knew was there. And then I found it, freshly carved near the top. Whitney W.

you my breath froze in my chest and my vision blurred with unwelcome tears and as the sun took its last desperate breath before plunging into the deep of the horizon a deafening metallic whirls sang out from the wilderness and spilled down the mountainside and that's the end of part one end of part one beautiful really the the flavor all of that like i mean the the prayer hands of prayer you know and that line there. Let me see I can find that again because that was awesome. It's weird too.

We're doing a lot of reading, but it's hard because there's so much there's just a great... You can't... There's just so much great flavor. Yeah. It's really good. I think that, um...

I don't know. Now it makes you think that every time that we hear the metallic ringing makes you think that someone has been captured or someone's been caught or like, you know, the skin men have taken a victim or something like that is what it kind of feels like.

Because I was wondering, and I couldn't be getting my time wrong here. so a lot of stuff a couple thoughts before we move into part two which is uh which is a couple cool things one is were they on the playground this morning when the metallic thing rang it was at the same day that the sheriffs came and talked about no this is spread out over the course of like several months yeah okay so the the metallic worrying was the first week of school and then the sheriff's thing was around December and the This is like in the winter, early winter school.

Okay. Because, yeah, I was wondering if it was the same day if Whitney left that morning that if it would just help me figure out more of it's like, oh, she was walking to school and she got caught or whatever. But the idea, too, where this happens around the same time, because though it is months, or though it is weeks or months in between stuff, the idea that the sheriffs are coming there and they're talking about people, you know, he was talking to the fifth and sixth graders about walking home from school and stuff. And this is like the literal, a parent's literal

worst nightmare kind of thing. Yeah, I'm very curious to see. I, once again, I don't know. I mean, the dad, I don't, I don't, Sheriff, Sheriff Clary just, I don't know. I don't like him. Don't trust him. Don't trust him at all. He's always just kind of around, big ominous kind of thing. real good point to talk about how weird his his pose was when he was talking to the kids the first time. And then even the whole thing about him putting his large hand on the kid's shoulder and just kind of being like, tell us what you know.

Gives you weird vibes, doesn't it? It does. And it's nothing really justified yet, but I think it's just because we're so early on to it and still so much unknown that right now it's kind of like it's that early part of the game of clue where everyone's kind of a suspect in a weird way. but I think I don't know

I feel bad for the parents the dad feels very realized now too and I feel like I am a little more on his side because I think that he's just

thinking the worst of like his daughter running away but once again it's just the it's just the idea of them completely ignoring

I guess the kid but he's nine you know if your kid ran away you probably wouldn't be like you wouldn't try to get rational

especially if you're discussing like the concept of okay maybe your daughter let's discuss kidnapping let's discuss maybe she got involved with drugs or something you don't want to discuss that in front of her younger brother right yeah yeah so no that's fair it makes sense but yeah that whole that whole sequence feels and we're seeing it from the kids perspective but it feels very odd how everyone's like yeah i guess she just went back to kansas city after half a year you know yeah or Or it just doesn't make any sense. Like, we're going to, she's going back with her new boyfriend to St. Louis, but she's not even dating the guy that she was there.

One of those Midwest towns. Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Missouri City that no one gives a shit about. Yeah, that's what I do. But it just doesn't make sense. Like, why would she go back to St. Which the only thing is like, well, there's more to do.

But I don't really think that she, there was enough of a discussion about, uh, I didn't think that. I don't think that she was super happy with it, but I think that she was more so at the beginning of the story worried about. not being able to be around her boyfriend. So it's just weird. There's no real reason why she would have gone back. Especially she's not dating that guy anymore. She's dating a new guy. So the weird like puppy,

you know, puppy dog love kind of thing of a young girl might have, but to just go back to a city just doesn't make a lot of sense, especially since she hasn't made a lot of, you know, vocalized, uh,

it's not like she's complaining all the time, like there's nothing to do. I'm so bored, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because that's usually a trope that people do, too. But I don't know. I'm hoping that she, you know, wasn't taken into the mountains or something like that. But we'll see. But, yeah, part two.

Yeah, part two. Oh, boy. I will say that, like, I'm almost getting, I have this such a weird, I don't know what the emotion to describe it is. But, like, I remember reading Barasca when I was, I guess I would have been 15, 14 or 15 when I read it. and I remember reading it and being like wow I it's one of the Barasca is one of those pieces I can say

made me like want to be a storyteller like it was one of the early pieces I read that really impacted me so coming back to it and seeing that it's like it's still this good is it's weirdly encouraging it's a I don't know I'm having a great time just just like I mean so far

this is this is easily leagues above anything that we've read in terms of like and that isn't to say that none of the other stuff that we've read is it's a different kind it's a different kind it's because stuff like i'm the search and rescue officer is very anecdotal it's supposed to be about the mystique of it you know yeah and it's good still yeah i just in terms of like the story of story yeah it's just a different kind of story and i think that it's it's it's very flavorful like it's it's it feels extremely realistic is my biggest compliment so far to it is the I'd like I mean the dialogue of the kids

you know how hard it is to write dialogue for children that feels believable that isn't coming from like an adult's voice yeah it's very hard so all of it feels like there how many times did we sit there and talk about like you know you know laughing about how cute something it is or like it's just so believable there's so many moments where you're like yeah I I've said that exact thing before yeah that is how a kid would say something like this it's just little cute moments that are extremely impactful of like immersion like i feel fully immersed into these characters it's it's awesome i i i must continue yeah which part two part two once again starts with the poem i will i will say uh there has been a you'll see it

in a minute but just so you know there's been a significant time jump here okay just so you know continue okay so the it starts off again with the poem of underneath the triple tree the There's a man who waits for me. And should I go or should I stay? My fate's the same either way. Good morning. The words faded back into the ether, and I woke with a start. Jimmy Prescott was lounging against the wall near the door,

and amused yet disproving look on his face. Shit, sorry, Mr. Prescott. I didn't hear you come in. You know, I worked in here when I was a kid, too. I installed the bell on the door for this very reason. Didn't seem to wake you up, though. He laughed. I mumbled another apology and idly straightened the stack of business cards in front of me.

Late night? Uh, kind of very. I hope you weren't out on the bonfires with all those other underage drinkers. No, sir. Yep. Oh, yeah,

so this is setting up to be like, wonder how old he's supposed to be. I think he's like, if I recall, he's like 15 here, something like that. Because it feels like a significant jump. Um,

he's going, he's going out to bonfires getting drunk with other kids. Yeah. It's like high school. And, and also he just now has a relationship with Jimmy Prescott now. Yep. He's working.

The man he was enamored with before. Yeah, he works at a business the Prescott owns. Yeah, yeah. Good. Anyway, I'm just here for my lunch. I'll take Parmesan chicken with avocado on rye. Yes, sir. Happy the conversation was over.

I walked over to the sandwich counter and unwound the twisty tie from the rye bread. Jimmy Prescott stepped back from the counter and idly studied that pictures on the wall. Though, he'd seen the thousand times before. More of the photos were of the Prescott family, taken over the last century. I'd always thought it was odd decor, but then the shop was named after them after all. all. Or sorry, is Mira here? Prescott asked as I wrapped his sandwich. She's in the back. Ah, I thought she'd still be in St. Louis. Well, when you're finished, would you mind getting her for me? Shit. Yes, sir. I handed him a sandwich and went back to the, to find Mira. She was in

the office, fiercely punching the keys on her accounting calculator. Uh, Mira, Jimmy Prescott's out front. He wants to talk to you. She turned and gave me a dubious look. Did he say what about? I shook my head. Okay, she sighed. You can go home for the day, Sam. But are you sure? I still have three hours on the clock. He's the only customer we've had since we've opened. Don't worry. I'll pay you for the whole day, kiddo. Thanks, Mira. Um, good luck, I guess. Which I just want to say, uh, before I keep going on, it's kind of a sad thing. Like you, you'd have to assume here, too, with this time jump with what this is, which the, it's not that we've, you know, it's not like the, it's not like the story's like 10 years later or anything.

It's just an assumed time jump. But you also have to assume that his sister was never found is kind of what I'm assuming. And to spoil it for you, she was never found. Yeah. Yeah. So. And it's such a depressing note too because like you said, it's like, oh, well, the story will pick back up when there's a development in the case. And it picks back up and there's no development in the case.

It's very. Yeah. Not only is there no development in the case, but it's just like life has had to continue. with this mystery for years now, which is so torturous, like so extremely tortured. You know, it's an interesting narrative device

that I guess I don't really think about until I see it like right there because emotionally we're still there, right? We're still in that living room with the family. Like, what happened to Whitney? Where's Whitney? And now our characters are completely distant from it. They're six years separated,

if not more. Like, it's in the back of their mind. They're not thinking about it, but that's still at the front of our thought. So it kind of, it disconnects us from the narrative for a second to kind of replace us somewhere else. It's interesting.

It is, yeah. Which, to continue, I let the store out the back door, so I wouldn't have to see Jimmy Prescott again. His weird yellowed amber eyes always set me on edge, not to mention he was a total tool. Interesting. I thought that he was very enamored with him when he was younger. I hopped in my car and texted Kyle that I was off work. He answered immediately and told me to come meet him.

I happily whipped my apron off over my head and threw it in the car into reverse Crystal Lake was my favorite place in all of Drisking I had to park almost Isn't Crystal Lake the name of the Friday Camp Crystal Lake yeah I thought so just making sure

Yeah How funny would it be if we're like complimented the whole time And it just turns like it's just Jason Vorge Is the person is the skin men taking people No what if that's what it was It's like Jason just becomes a slasher if like none of the character set-ups matter or anything. Just, just beautiful, beautiful, beautiful writing,

all for it to be a Friday the 13th fanfic. Bro, that would be hilarious. That would be such a good break. It would be a pretty good way to like to burn people. Even if it's not Friday the 13th, like it gets to the end of the story, and it's just like, and then a creature appeared,

the creature appeared and killed everyone. Like, you just like run it into the dirt. That'd be good. That was definitely not worth it. Yeah. So, I had to park almost a mile away since the lake was so packed. I eventually found Kyle and Kimber sitting on a rock that jutted out over the beach. Kimber was sunbathing in a blue floral bikini and Kyle was wearing his,

no one can tell where my eyes are looking sunglasses. Yeah, brother. Yeah. So also, we see some stuff here, right? because, like, when they were nine or ten, Sam was like, Kimber's kind of cute, you know, she's like, like, I see her as a girl. And now, like, with their 16, 17, Kimber was wearing a blue floral bikini. Like, you know, we know where his mind's at.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, especially with the, don't know where my eyes are looking, which kind of insinuates, I think, like, jealousy of like, is he looking at her? At her, or just women in general, because it's a packed lake, right? He's just looking at all the girls going by. they're teenagers now right they're like young adults and he also was able to drive so

not 15 like 16 17 I think they're still in high school if I remember right so yeah like 16 17 uh times times changed a little bit right um but like you said there's this like melancholy because we know nothing's changed with a sister because you know the story isn't going to be like Whitney runs up oh hi guys real weird I disappeared for a few weeks

then we were like 10 right because Whitney would be Whitney would have to be like 22, 23 at this point, something like that. But yeah, she hasn't been seen since. Which is very interesting. I'm curious to, I really want to see where the character dynamic comes in, which they start talking, they're kind of like joke around with each other until Sam says, you know, Prescott came in today.

Ew, Kimber squirmed. He totally freaks me out. He's been staring at me since, like, fifth grade. That's an interesting deal there. Because there's the mention she had, remember, where she's like, Jimmy gives me to be heby-jeebies. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

And now she's old enough to, like, think about the implications of that and be like, oh, that was weird. Yeah. Next time he stares at you, let me know, and I'll knock him the fuck out. Kyle has always been protective over Kimber. But ever since they started dating, I'd gotten 10 times more unbearable. Oh. Yep. They're dating now.

Yep. Kyle, Kyle and Kimber are dating. Yes. Kimber weaked at him. so what did he want Sam he wanted to talk to Mira probably about the sandwich shop you mean about how no one goes there in the business

should have closed years ago but it won't because the press scots are stubborn in vain Kyle said yeah probably I mean she looked pretty worried I can count on one hand how many sandwiches I've sold in the past month out Kimber grimaced yeah I'm sure she's going to get chewed out

I really don't like the guy I thought about the squirmy yellow-eyed freak yelling at sweet little Mira and it made my blood boil They really emphasize his yellow eyes Like he has jaundice or something like that Yeah You should have met his dad

Kyle snorted He was a piece of work His dad? Yeah Tom Prescott Kimber said The family put him in a home A few towns over Why is he in a home?

I heard he got dementia And he was embarrassing The family in public Kyle said I heard that too Kimber brushing her long curls Off her shoulders I always liked Tom Prescott

He was a pretty shitty thing to do Hey kids We turned in use sent to see Phil Saunders come stomping out of the bushes behind us with Mike Sutton following behind. So this is where the cool people hang out. High above the kingdom on pride rock. So up Mike, Kyle said, ignoring Phil, who he disliked ever since Phil had briefly dated Kimber. Phil was either unaware or uninterested in Kyle's feelings. Of course, that may also have been because Phil was stoned out of his mind most of the time and now was no expectation or no exception.

What's funny about this, too, is I love that our introduction to this is like nine-year old and it's just like look how cute all these kids are and now it's like they're stoned they're all dating and fucking and you know all the kind of stuff it's like but at the same time it's like it's it still keeps that kind of like storybook coming of age thing right because it's a small town the kids you know kimber's dated a few of the guys and uh there's a mention where they talk about round nose down there but one of them a round face or whatever but one of them ran off to be with a college guy like it's a small town but things have grown up dynamics have but there's still kind of that tight-knit community.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It's, uh, which they go on to talk about, pretty much just talk about being high and it's just kind of like some bro-y stuff. And they're doing some real introspective things, but we're all just drinking the Kool-Aid. And they're having a big group, group chat here. Um, but I think that an interesting part to pick back up on is when, uh,

Kyle, who I knew, uh, had been monitoring the conversation for mention, uh, of this very thing, sprang to his feet and opened his mouth to yell at Phil. Now, Whitney Walker ran away to St. Louis, remember? Mike said. I saw Kyle and Kimber exchange a quick look as I try to remain passive from behind the Blue Bockers. That true man, Phil asked, and there it was. I knew Kyle and Kimber I'd always wondered what I thought about Whitney. And if I'd ever accepted the official statement that she and Jay ran away together. They were kind of enough not to bring it up, and I knew they wanted to know what I believed,

what I thought had really happened. I loved them both and I wanted to talk to them. about it. I just couldn't. Everyone thought that I had spent the last seven years quietly grieving and that I'd put the incident behind me. At least that's what I tried to show them. The truth was that I'd never given up on Whitney. I'd waited years for Jay to show up on social media and when I finally found him last year I'd been devastated. I'd always hope the official report was right in that Whitney was somewhere far away from here, alive and happy with Jay Bauer. But his my space page

showed a thriving teenager still living at home with his parents and his ex-girlfriend Whitney the furthest thing from his mind. Just so we finally get some, you know, we officially know that seven years later, so he's 16, Sam's 16,

all those people are 16, and that people, you know, they haven't really brought it up and that the whole thing now too is that Sam has never really stopped, I don't think that he ever really believed this statement, but with the use of social media and stuff, he found that it officially isn't true.

true, which I'm wondering if the parents know that as well. Well, to cut you off, to clear up that thought, the next paragraph says, when I brought the evidence to my dad, he read the pages I printed off and then shut the door to his office, me on the other side. I heard him crying in there for hours as I waited for him to reopen the case and bring the smackdown on the Butler County Sheriff's Department. But justice had never come, and we never mentioned Jay Bauer again. Oh, yeah. So sad. too is you know that the dad is probably like because what's the I mean the first thing that you

think is like okay one kidnapped two murdered like horrible I mean especially as being a parent here it's terrible and then now here Sam has to just be like okay you know we're he's wanting there to be justice he's wanting to find his sister but it's just something that apparently we never we never get which is also oddly suspicious too I god damn that sheriff Clary I do not trust him For whatever reason, I never told Kyler Kimmer about any of that. Maybe it was because I was worried they'd blow it off like my dad had, or maybe, and far more likely, I didn't want them to know how obsessed I'd become with the Barasca and the skin men. I knew as assuredly as the sun would rise tomorrow that Whitney's death had happened at there,

just like all the others who'd gone to the triple tree. Okay, so he is fully invested into that still. It's good to know, too, that just a little bit of line lets us know that he still... Because I actually thought that this was going to go that he's like, that maybe Sam was like, oh, Barrasca, that's a kid's thing. Yeah. You know, skin, you know, that's unrealistic. But no, he's fully invested still. I think he may have done that.

Like, oh, it's a kid's thing. Had it not been for Whitney's name being carved on the triple tree. Yeah. I mean, it's too impactful. Yeah. How do you reconcile that, right? Well, you can't. Yeah, I mean, you can't.

The day she disappears, her name was on the tree. And then you heard the metal noise. especially out of all those names too it's like because the whole thing because i was thinking about this and i was like oh justifying it it's like oh well maybe it's a different whitney but it's at the very top it's a fresh marking like yeah i don't know yeah it's whitney w you know same last name exactly yeah exactly so from there sam says yeah it's true she ran off with the guy j from our hometown i answered that was enough for kyle all right guys seriously he's the sheriff's kid. What do you think's going to happen if he gets caught with the weed? The little man is

right, Phil. Let's bounce. I don't need any more trouble with the cops around here, Mike said. So I have a couple things there. For one, Sam is saying to the group like, yeah, the official story is correct because he doesn't want them to know how obsessed he is with it. And also, we have the fact that recently Sam's dad's become sheriff. We're trying to make this as congested or as digestible as possible because there is a lot of there's a lot of dialogue that is that I think for our sakes I don't think it's super necessary that we include it in

but I think it but if you're reading it I think that all this dialogue it's just straight immersion like I mean it is solely making it as realistic as possible and honestly it sets up a great way of character building you get you know exactly who these kinds of people are I think that like a lot of people would say that this is

like filler or fluff or something like that, but I just, I think that it just completely sets up the dynamic of these characters. And also with a lot of the things here, how, you know, it sets us up to tee up new bits of information as well. I do want to read this one dialogue between Kyle and Kimber. So after they leave, Sam hears this going on behind him. He hears, I didn't say I wanted to go. I said I had to go, Kimber said. It's only two o'clock and it's Sunday. I know, but my parents have been fighting a lot lately and i don't want to leave my mom alone too long i thought she was doing better a little but she's still depressed kyle do you want to stay over at my place tonight kimber's voice dropped into a whisper i just don't i don't think i'm ready for that yet what

no wait that's not what i meant i'd sleep on the pullout in the basement and you would have my room very awkward silence my parents love you you know he added kimber laughed i know i just want to be there for my mom right now. But thank you, sweetie. And then the absolutely disgusting sound of my best friends kissing. I would never get used to. On that note, I'm out of here, too. I stood up and gave them both a shaming look.

Oh, come on, Sam. Don't be jealous. We'll find you a girlfriend someday, Kyle joked. I really don't need your help with that, I muttered, glancing out to the beach where Emmeline Adler was sunbathing. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Last week of school, Kimber yelled at my retreating back. Thank God.

So, yeah, continuing on for there. You mentioned this his sophomore year, so yeah, 16-year-old, like we mentioned. It says that the summer met no distractions, more time to thank, and even more hours of boredom at Prescott Artisan Sandwiches, which for one, imagine that owned in this small town, and you set, you put in a sandwich shop, and you call it your last name, artisan sandwiches. I hate this guy. I, they are, they are setting him up to be just one of the biggest pieces of shit. This is the kind of person, you know, too, where you're like, God, yes, the press scots. And I'm thinking exactly this, a corner shop of artisan sandwiches. It's like, yeah, no shit, nobody wants to go in there.

And it's pictures of him all over the wall. Yeah. He went in, he's like the only person that buys sandwiches to her there. It's like his own personal store of getting rye bread sandwiches. Yeah, Prescott sucks. We find here, you know, Sam's saying that he's looking forward to his sophomore year beginning on Monday and that it's, or his sophomore ditch day that's happening. His dad knows about it and he's just like, you know, set a good example.

You know, but he's going to do it anyways. Kimber and Kyle were sympathetic and had offered to share in my misery I had, of course, said yes. Wait, what? I had, of course, said yes, much to Kyle's sadness. As I had expected my dad was waiting for me when I got home. shared a brief, stained conversation about respective days, and then he finally got to it. Remember, Sammy. We're cracking down on truancy this year.

I went to see you at school tomorrow. Yeah, I got a dad. And I hope I won't have to write a ticket to Kyle either. I sighed. It's a tradition. Even the teachers sort of encouraged it. On Friday, they said. I don't care what they said, Sam.

Besides the fact that on the sheriff, I'm also your father, and I want my son in school. Oh, so is he the main sheriff in town now? Is that where we're insinuated? Yeah, yeah. So he's become the sheriff. He's got elected. Yeah, so Sheriff Clary, the man that I was super suspicious of, might not even be in the picture anymore.

Or didn't get elected, one or the other. Hmm. I laughed and shook my head. What a joke. I can't control what Kyle does. Fair enough. But you can't control. But you can control what you do.

I said nothing in Dad's side. It's almost over, Sam. Just get through these last five days, and you can be done with school for a few months. Once. Fine. I walked out of the kitchen, rudely ending the conversation. I climbed the stairs and passed Whitney's door on the way to the room. The light was on and silence was behind it. I knew my mother was in there. She was always in there doing God knows what. Sad and creepy. Oh my gosh. That's so, that is heartbreaking, man. Heartbreaking in also you wonder to, uh, they haven't really

dive too much into it. I mean, I'm curious the, the, the relationship strain between everybody. Like, I almost expected the mom to have... Because usually when this stuff happens, too, we usually find that, like, the mom and dad divorce because it's, like, too much of a strain on the relationship. So now it kind of seems like she's just like... It at least seems like if the mom is always in there doing God knows what, which means that, like, Sam probably never goes in there

because he's too, you know, emotionally driven by it. But it almost makes the... The mom is probably fundamentally, emotionally and mentally broken still. and probably will never recover. I mean, how do you get over that? I know parents who have lost kids, and it's like, not to say that they're stuck there forever. I mean, some of them, like, you know,

they have lives afterwards, but a lot of them just, they just, it's like time freezes, you know? They never leave that place. It's one of those things where I think it's, you will never know how it feels unless it happens to you. It's so easy to be like, that's horrible or whatever, but I think it's

a different kind of pain, a different kind of loss. Like, it's just a whole piece of you completely missing. So, I can't even imagine. I walked to my own room, shut the door behind me, and locked it. The next day at school ended up being more embarrassing than anything else. There were a few others

that hadn't skipped, maybe a total of ten of us. And then, in the looks they shot, and the looks they shot at me, made it clear that my dad was the reason they were there. so from there it talks about the officers going around they collect the tinnets and everything then eventually it says that at lunch kyle and sam go out to his car to get high um and they're setting in the car smoking and it says uh that sam begins and said did you text kimber i asked him while he hit it yep he said through tight lips as he let the smoke sit in his lungs and then blew it

all over my dashboard she went home after fourth period she said her mom called and she was going home to take care of her. I don't know, man. Doesn't her mom hate you? One second. I was going to say real quick, did we ever figure, unless I missed it,

is there a reason why her mom is so distressed or something's wrong with her? The only thing we've heard so far is that her parents fight and she's depressed. Okay, okay. As far, that's the, unless we've tragically missed something,

which if I recall, right, we have it. That's all we know currently. I don't think we have, but that's why I just, it's just something where it's like if a, if a high school or, especially a sophomore, is going home to take care of their parent.

I just didn't know if she was sick or something, but it makes it even more, I guess, kind of weird that she's just, I guess, depressed and the kid has to go home and help. It's interesting. Yeah. So, doesn't her mom hate you? I asked her taking my turn with the bowl. Yeah, I mean, that's a fairly new development. Ever since Kimber and I started dating, but I'm pretty sure she's always hated me and just

hit it better before. Now that she's all depressed and whatever, she doesn't give a shit. it was hard to picture anyone hating Kyle why can't Kimber's dad take care of her I don't know I hit the pipe again hey man let's not even go back today Kyle said you think I asked yeah I mean you put in four periods

you've been a good son and Officer Dickass already came around and collected the attendance sheets although I feel like the next few are you the dialogue lines yeah he's like Dickass really you're better than that man officer ass dick you fucking make Kyle seriously man let's go

that's pretty good from there they're like all right let's get out of here let's go let's ditch school right and then there's the mention that Kyle had let the insurance lapse on his card didn't have money for gas

Kyle's kind of your typical like you know I don't want to say deadbeat, but like, you know, bumming his way through high school type of guy. Right, right. And Sam's forced to not be that by his dad, basically. So, anyway, it says that a lot of the stuff Kyle does is to impress Kimber. And then while Sam is thinking about Kimber and Kyle, he says, they started dating in the fall and Kyle quit his job to spend more time with her. Kimber didn't seem like the kind of girl to be impressed by a Pontiac Bonneville, but Kyle was convinced that was how he'd want to. her over. I was sure all, yeah, that'll get her. High school girls, like, easily.

They love, a Pontiac Bonneville. That's the panty dropper for sure. But do you remember like being in high school and like we had thoughts of that? Like, oh, bro, I bet they like cars. Like, that is the last thing going through their mind. And I'll tell you, depending on what year the Pontiac Bonneville is, it's a solid car. Yeah. Solid car. If it's a 90s one, probably not as much. But, you know, it's, it's, you know, who knows? I think it was, I'm Kyle supporter here. Yep. I was sure all the car had really done was giving him the confidence to ask her out.

And now that it's part in their, wait, and now that it's part in their romance ended, the car sat in the garage of the landy home collecting dust instead of memories. Oh, that's good. Hang on, I like, I like this story. Anyway, I love to write it. Yeah, it's good. GameStop didn't have what I wanted and neither did Driskin games in media

Since I had nothing else to do I decided to show up to work early And hope that Mira would let me leave early too I parked in front and walked in the door Unsurprised to see no one at the front counter There were only three of us that worked at the shop And sadly I never got to see the other girl Emmeline who worked on the days I didn't

This was disappointed to me Since she was half the reason I applied there in the first place I went into the back Ooh Ooh, do you show more like Emelon. Emmeline is hot. I went into the back to tell Mira I was there and found her slumped over her desk on a pile of receipts and paperwork. This wasn't an unusual way to find Mira, but something seemed different today.

I immediately felt a disturbance in the force, but before I could run away, she turned toward me and I saw I was right to flee. Mera was crying. Are you, um, are you, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. She said quickly, wiping her eyes. Is it four already? No, it's 2.15. I just thought maybe if I came in early. Oh, right, it's your ditch day. Mirro wiped her eyes only to have them fill with tears again. I don't understand, Sam, this store had been operating in the red ever since I was hired to manage it. What am I doing wrong? I don't know, I offered lamely. The instinct to escape never stronger. No one comes in here ever, and Mr. Prescott refuses

to let me put signs up to advertise. He says they're unsightly, but how does he expect me to pull in business? I need this job, Sam. God, I just, I must have looked like a frightened deer because when Mirr glanced over at me, she seemed to subtly collect herself. Go ahead and go out to the front. I'll do your time card. She didn't have to tell me twice. I really liked Mir, and I hated seeing her like this. The front didn't end up being much better. I could hear Mirror crying over the store's dated music track.

her top Jesus she's just like bawling her eyes out of the deal this guy sitting there like making ham sandwiches would you like

black olives with that scream crying in the back oh god her sobs went from her sobs went from painfully audible

the muffled whispers oh my gosh She's like, and then it turns out to And she's like throwing stuff like you hear stuff breaking. It's especially weird too when you're a kid, when you're kind of like younger, like if you're 15 or 16, and you are like looking at an adult cry, it's even more awkward. I don't know why, but it's just something where it's like, you're not supposed to do that. You know what I mean?

So it's like this is like adult woman who's just like bawling and this is like 15 year old kid who's just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I. I'm just here to make pastrami sandwiches. I have nothing to give. Like, yeah, you're, and so he says here, he says, after half an hour, I decided I had to do something. Since I was entirely unequipped to deal with an adult woman's emotions, man, brother, aren't we all? Hey, hey, it never gets any easier, Sam.

It never gets any easier. That's how it is, and it is earth you. I decided to call Mir's husband. Owen. He was thankfully at home and answered on the second ring. I'll be right there. I breathed the cyber leaf when I heard a car pull up outside and saw the tall, Gerthy Owen get out of it. He walked in... Gertie, Erthie. He walked it... The story likes him so it doesn't call him fat. It says Gertie. Gerthy. If it was Mr. Prescott, he'd be fat.

Yeah, fat piece of shit, Mr. Prescott. But no, Gerthy, Owen. He's like a chode. he walked in during a quiet lull in his wife's breakdown it has its phases and cycles I'm sorry to call you at home Mr. Daly I just didn't know what else to do that's okay Sam you did the right thing he looked tired and I could tell the situation wasn't new to him is she okay I mean like like will she be okay

oh yeah he nodded we're just going through some things oh mirror said the store is going bankrupt up too. I winced as soon as the words were out of my mouth. Yeah, Owen ran a hand through his hair. That's part of it. Although I don't think Jim is going to let that happen. Mere's more upset about he sighed. Has Mere told you about her, uh, appointments? Uh, no? Well, we've been trying to get pregnant for years. Long, painful year? long painful years I'm sorry it's not funny

it's not but it's just a brain of a 12 year old I'm sorry long painful years okay it's just so important for her to have a baby

and you know she blames me for our problems man he's dumping on a 16 year old this I was going to say this 16 year old is, I mean, this is a fucking, this is a heavy load. This is a lot. Yeah, you know, do you know that my wife in there who's losing her job blames me for infertility? Do you know she thinks it's my, and he's like, I just, I'm still high. I'm ditching school today. Exactly. He's like, he's like, did you know we got Swiss cheese in? We offer Swiss cheese now. He's like, I want her to be pregnant. We've been trying so hard. You know she blames me right. You're like, yeah. Every day she looks at

like it's me. Do you know what that's like to look and come home and sit? So we actually make our own sourdough bread here. It's like just trying so hard to like get the fuck out of this conversation. And then I have to go to work. I have to provide for this house while she runs this dead end job

and then I'm the monster. I come home and it's me. I'm the devil. Yeah, so I'm hoping to graduate in two years. Like, just like okay, do you want Pepsi with that or? Yeah. He walked around the room, staring at the pictures, not really talking to me anymore.

I understand why it's important to her. I just don't understand the obsession with it, you know? Because she's the last one in her family? Because she's the last McCasky on the planet? I mean, does she even realize that our baby wouldn't be a McCasky? He'd be it daily! I tell you, Sam, never marry a woman with a crazy father and four dead uncles. They develop these obsessions with lineage, and...

which first off dude this is this is this this is a this is a crazy conversation this is a wild thing to say to like we we were

joking around but that pretty much nailed the exact paragraph that is that is the vibe that's happening in the room like uh

four dead uncles what oh yeah the famous ones you know the four brothers who die in the Drisking minds well

that only left her dad and her parents were the only able to conceive her, which leaves her as the last McCasky, and the hope for the family line. So, of course, you know, this is all my fault. He looked at him blankly and sighed. I'm sorry, kid. These aren't problems, and they're way over your pay grade anyways.

I'm just very stressed out these days. Our fertility issue and mirror's absolute abhorrence to our only other option. But how did they die? I was better to talk about anything else in the story of Mira's uncle's interest of me. The McCasky boys? I don't really know. They died on the mountain somewhere. Oh, well, have you heard about the skin men?

Sam really needs to find a better way to approach people about the skin men. Oh, her uncles are dead? That's weird. Have you heard of skin men before? Yeah, exactly. This guy's like pouring his heart out. He's like, yeah, I mean, you know, it's a lineage thing. I don't know if our marriage is going to survive it.

And he's like, yeah, that's weird. Have you heard about the skin men? And then the guy's like, skin men. Man, we were joking, but we hit the nail. on the head for how absurd I don't think so what about Barasca yeah Sam just doesn't give a fuck about anybody he's just letting him fly

like out there in the air Owen Daly squeezes his eyes and pushed in on his temples with his fingers what what does a Barasca have to do with anything Owen mirror voice squeaked from the doorway oh baby are you okay Sam called the house oh Sam called the house

I want to do it. You do? Owen asked dubiously. I called him. His eyes flicked over to me, and I immediately looked away. Another conversation I didn't want to be a part of. Sam, why don't you take off for the day? Meera and I will handle things here.

Okay, I mumbled and bolted to the door. Once I was in my car and backing away, I called Kyle. Dude, fucking weird shit is going down in this town. What happened? I can't explain it over the phone. where are you at i'm at kimbers are you out fork yeah i'm coming to get you i want to do it what does that mean what did what did what did mirror mean when she said that so i assume she's referring to when he said right before kyle cut him off the lines owen said was um our fertility issues and mirrors

absolute abhorrence to our only other option it's and then uh sam or sorry not kyle sam cuts him off to talk about how the how her uncles died so i i imagine it's referring to like adoption like she abhors the idea of like oh like adopting a kid when she can't have one right or maybe maybe because it's not blood yeah exactly yeah maybe some kind of some other step to having a kid but now mirrors at the point that she's like i called him we're going to do it yeah yeah okay yeah that makes sense so um but then pretty much sim it's freaking out, thinking that weird shit's going on, and he's going to go meet up with Kyle and Kimber at Kimber's Kyle meant sitting on the curb in front of the house, kicked off the property

again. When I pulled up, Kimber came out and met us at the curb. I'm so sorry, Kyle, she said. She's really upset today. She wouldn't even let me leave the house to sit with you. It's okay, he said, don't worry about me. I just want to make sure you and your mom are okay. I mean, her mom must be like, it almost seems like she's going insane.

Like she's manic or something now. Yeah, like it's some kind of like. like swinging episodes or something like that yeah yeah we're okay and my dad will be home soon text us when he gets home and we'll come get you I said I wish I could I'm babysitting tonight until 730 maybe after that sure

Kyle and Kimber hugged goodbye and Kimber rushed back to her house as something crashed inside Jesus yeah good God the mom's like breaking vases and shit inside so what's going on Kyle asked taking a drink of warm Dr. Pepper sitting in the cup holder you're still wearing your apron now

mirror had a breakdown I said peeling it off. Really? What happened? I told Kyle the full story giving particular attention to the four uncles. Yeah, the McCaskys. I've heard of them. Did know Mir was one, though. I thought they were all dead. Yeah, she's the last one. So, like, do you think the McCaskey deaths have anything to do with the other disappearances? It had been a while since I've mentioned anything about Barasca, and Kyle choked a little on the Dr. Pepper. I don't, I don't know, man. I mean, maybe if the disappearance started around the same time, how can we find that out? Maybe the cops? There have to be police reports.

Okay. But what if I... But what if I couldn't ask my dad? Kyle shook his head. I don't know, then. What about the, like, records? Historical society people, maybe. Oh, yeah, he said nodding.

We can try them. They're over on second. They're over on second. They share an office with drisking arts and antiques. I made a U-turn and started back towards town. So, yeah, so now basically Sam is really fixated on the four uncles being missing. And I think he's thinking of a way how it could, correlate with even Whitney's disappearance.

And I think that he realizes, too, that he can't ask his dad because I think it would send him and his, probably his dad and his mom into, I would assume, an emotional episode as well. Like, I think that he just doesn't want to put that on them. Plus, like, I get the feeling Sam's a little suspicious of his dad because he's like, I brought all the evidence that the official story of Whitney was wrong to my dad. He cried for three hours and then never reopened. the case so well that's the weirdest thing is that the dad is emotionally they're on the same page or like at least sam and his dad are on the same page of like okay well she definitely

didn't run away but it's so odd that the dad didn't do anything to try to rectify or find out the truth so it is it is very suspicious it's like it's one of those things where he probably doesn't want to bring it to him because who knows he might just like not do anything with it again yeah yeah so from there and i also like the idea of like sam like There's a lot happening in town. Like, sure, he was weirded out by Miry's emotional breakdown, but as soon as Owen mentioned, like, oh, the minds. He's like, what do you mean the minds?

What happened? Tell me more. Like, he's trying to learn everything he can about what might have happened to his sister. Well, we kind of get, it's like almost like a flashback to when he was nine again and how pressing he was about it then, too. Yeah. Because it's been, up until this point, it's been, all of these characters are so new. It feels like, you know.

Yeah. They're all older. They're doing different things. but this immediately made me, it's like he's right back, which is cool because it puts him right back into his mind when he was there and he was obsessed about it, which I know they say he has been obsessed, but even like the verbiage used in the story here

makes it seem like he's like nine years old and obsessed with this thing again. Yeah. And like, so the next part says, he makes the U-turn to go back towards town. And Kyle says, hey, why are we doing this? I'd known the question was coming. I'd hope to have more answers to myself before I had to give him one. just Whitney was all I could say Kyle didn't ask anything more I like that I like

even though Kyle's like kind of foolhardy dumb kid like he hears that and he gets it yeah I he catches up on it I mean you even see that too early in the story when Kyle and Kimber none of them ask about that like none of them have ever pressed him about it you know I mean I think that they just kind of understand that like there is a level of respect that his friends have for him, which is, it's nice. I really, I really enjoy Kyle and Kimber. Yeah, I do too. Um, so, so from there, it says Calden asking thing more. The historic preservation society of Drisking was at the back of the building and we had to walk through the antique shop as the owner, Mr. Dranger, I diswearily. At the end of a short hallway, he, we found a

small room with two desks pushed together. One was empty and the other was stacked high with books and folders of loose paper. We could hear someone typing behind the stacks. I cleared my throat. Hello? A small woman popped up from behind the desk. I recognized her as the same woman who had given us a lecture in fifth grade. Hello, how can I help you, boys? She asked, walking out to greet us. Yeah, I have a few questions about Drisking's history, I guess. Oh, great. Is this for an end of year report? Have a seat, boys. She gestured to the empty chair sitting behind the other desk. I nodded a call and he said Now I'm looking uneasy. Yeah, it's for an essay we have to write.

Hey, I think you gave a lecture to us like seven years ago at school. Oh, yes, I give lectures every year with Mr. Prescott. She smiled. Yeah, it was you and one other guy, too. A bald guy, Kyle said, shifting uncomfortably in the wooden chair. Yes, that was my fiancé. Wyatt Dowdy. He passed several years ago.

Oh, Kyle said. Kyle, the king of... Oh. he's dead gross yes that was my fiance Wyatt downing he passed several years ago so instead of just being like

oh I'm sorry oh yeah I read it very much like oh so miss Scanlan but you can call me Catherine she said Catherine I tried

I hated calling adults by their first names we want to know about the McCasky kids. Oh, Catherine said, shaking her head. A dark part of history there, but still history nonetheless. Yeah, so when did that happen? And how did they die?

Kyle added. Well, they didn't die. I mean, they certainly perished in the minds, but their bodies were never recovered. They certainly die. I mean, they certainly perished in the minds. It's like, good Lord. God, Catherine, you crazy old hag. Good Lord.

They didn't die, but they didn't die, but their bodies succumbed to the nature. He succumbed to their earthly grave. They were swallowed by the earth, returned to their once-for. But no, they weren't dead, per se, I don't think. Well, they certainly perished in the mines,

but their bodies were never recovered, so we don't know the answer to that. I would think dehydration, starvation, and exhaustion killed them within days of getting lost down there. And to your second question, that was 1953, I believe. And the mines closed that year.

Well, actually, the mines officially closed the year after. There was a legal spat between the city and the Prescott family who wanted to leave the mines open until the bodies were found. The city won and the mines were condemned. Wait, why did the Prescott's care? Don't you want to write this down? Catherine asked. Kyle tapped his head twice with his finger. Catherine shrugged and continued. Ah, don't worry, it's all up here, lady.

It's all up here, Catherine. Don't you worry about it. Well, the Prescott and the McCaskey family were closely related. Tom Prescott was paying teams of unemployed miners to go down in the mines and search for bodies. The city had had enough of it. The mountain was unstable and they didn't want any more deaths. The mines had been abandoned years before and were structurally unsafe. After the city banned the recovery teams from the mines,

members of the Prescott family started going down there themselves. finally the city had enough and they had the mines collapsed with bombs call asked well with explosives and that's what led to the incident by this time uh by this time the mines had been unprofitable for a few years and the city was quite broke they hired a less than reputable company to collapse the mines and well when they set off the explosives they accidentally broke into drisking's water table the city went into debt trying to purify the water of silt and iron ore. It wasn't until two years later that things started getting better. Thanks to the Prescott's who truly did revitalize Trisking. Kyle's phone chirped and he pulled out of his pocket. It's Kimber. She wants us to come over. Okay, thanks, Ms. Scallion. I mean,

Catherine. Sure, if you have any other questions, feel free to come by. We're almost always open during the day. Oh, or you can email me. She dug into her jacket pocket and pulled out a loose business card. It was creased and had a dusty smudge on it. Thanks. So what do you think? Kyle asked when we got in the car. I don't know. It's weird, isn't it? I mean, why would the Prescott's give a shit if the town suffers after they refuse to help him find their family and were actively working against them? Maybe they forgave and forgot, Kyle shrugged. Does Jimmy Prescott seem like a guy to forgive and forget to you? Uh, no. And his dad's even worse. Exactly. Maybe we should turn here. Sorry, Kimber's still babysitting,

and she's over at Amherst. When we pulled up, Kimber was out in the front yard with two young boys who were playing in the driveway. She was holding a sleeping baby and waving to us. We parked in the driveway and she introduced us to the two older kids. They gave a shy helloes and ran off to continue their game. So did the Prescott's, were they interested in fighting the bodies or were the ones that were more interested in shutting the minds in the city?

So it's mentioned that the Prescott's and the... the McCaskys were very close to each other, right? And then the four McCasky brothers die in the mines. So the Prescott starts sending in untrained crews into the mines to try to recover the bodies. And there's danger that the crews are going to go missing or die as well. So the city wants to have the mines condemned so no one else goes down there,

and the Prescott's are fighting to leave the mines open so they can recover the bodies. Eventually, the city wins, blows up, the mines, but it was done unprofessionally, and it poisoned the water table. Interesting. Okay. So that's the history lesson we got there, which, yes, I will confirm that all of this does come back later. This isn't just set dressing for the sake of it, yeah. No, I figured. I mean, it also shows some stuff too. Well, it sets some stuff up to where why the Prescott would have a McClaskey, the last remaining McClaskey, run this dying business and

keep it open to give her work or whatever. But there's still some. something malicious with the Prescott's. There's too much emphasis also on people being like, oh, the Prescott's really did help and stuff like that. I just, I, I, there's something fishy going on. Yeah, yeah. So, so they're setting there with, uh, it's the three of them now. And Whitney's still, sorry, not Whitney.

Um, Kimber's still babysitting the two kids and says, uh, once they'd left, we explain everything that happened to Kimber while she listened and rock the baby in her arms. Sam's right. That doesn't make sense. But why are we even concerned about something? something that happened decades ago. Whitney. Kyle said so I didn't have to.

A flash of surprise crossed Gibber's face and she walked over to put the baby down in his playpen. Then she walked back and pulled me into one of her famous, super comforting, not at all, awkward hugs. When she released me, she began to pace around the driveway. Okay, so we thank Whitney somehow got involved in all of this. And you're right. If we want to figure this out, we need to start at the beginning.

Phil is right. Every mystery in this town is one piece of a larger part. puzzle. It's all related. She's so often looked over at us. We need to go to the source if we want answers. Yeah, that's not a bad idea, Kyle agreed. I know he likes to hang out in the hideaway and get drunk with ex-Sheriff Clary. Uh, no, Kyle, not Jimmy, his dad. Tom, he's so crazy, they put him in a home. He's the horse's mouth though, isn't he? Jimmy isn't likely to know half as much as his dad. But as Kyle and Kimber argued, I watched the chase each other around the tree in the front yard. There seemed to be something carved

into the bark. Words, not unlike the triple tree at Amber Cot Fort. It was too far away to read what it said. He got you, he got you. I heard the youngest one called to his brother. The skinned man got you. Now you have to die. Nah, Peter. I was touching the tree. No, you weren't. You're a liar. One of them got you and now you have to meet the shiny gentleman. No, I don't. Kim, oh my gosh. Oh, bro. I forgot about that detail of the story. Oh, man, I can't talk about it because I know where this is going.

But the shiny gentleman, oh my gosh, bro. I was going to say, all I know is I'm sure as soon as one of the people said something about skin tree, I feel like Sam probably shit a brick. You did not. Did you just say the skin men? Oh, my gosh. And then also, now a new introduction into somebody called the shiny gentleman.

There's also something always so creepy about just children saying stuff like that. If it was an adult saying shiny gentleman you're like oh but for some reason a kid saying it just makes it so much worse I've been about to blow a gasket this whole time because I can't talk about like what the foreshadowing

that's happening but for the people who know this story the shiny gentleman I'm going to die I'm about to blow oh my gosh okay you have to meet the shiny gentleman no I don't Kimber Josh is cheating

I shuddered and turned away from them where where's the nut house i interpreted them is it close i i love this dynamic too because like okay kimber hears that it's about whitney and she's immediately like all right we've got to fix this you know it's it's sam he's our friend we got to do something and then they're talking about how absurd it would be to go find you know um this old man who just may know something that's going on and then sam hears the kids playing and making skinned man jokes and all of that and he's like all right where's the nut house where is it is it close can we make it to it like the urgency is kind of picking up in his mind

well it immediately makes me think they put such an emphasis on like oh yeah the oldest grandpa thomas uh prescott yeah he's crazy which if anything he could be in a place of hysteria but he could be telling the truth also so he could be like ranting and raving about the skinmen or shiny gentlemen and stuff so i feel like whenever they go meet him i think it's going to be something where he is going to spill some beans yeah and i and i and i do think Jimmy Prescott is going to be pissed. Yeah, I can't say anything, but those are interesting ideas you have. We'll see how they play out.

So, anyway, it's not a nut house. It's more like a hospice, Kimbertschid. The rumor I've heard is that he's at Golden Elm, and that's in Cape Girard. Gerardo, I'm sorry. I think it's Gerardo. Gerardo, thank you. Gerardio, yeah, that's about 40 minutes away, Kyle said. pulled out his phone i'll check the visiting hours for tuesdays sam do you work tomorrow i work

every day but i'll get out of it i promised okay cool let's plan to leave after school so the three of them are going to set off and they're going to head to meet the old prescott to see if they can get any information out of him so after school's over is uh they get in their car it says the drive took longer than we expected when i got lost in cape gerardio i would get lost to if i could have pronounced it the town the town was bigger than drisking and the streets weren't laid out with any sort of planning or logic. By the time we arrived at Golden El, we only had 20 minutes left for visiting hours. We're here to see Mr. Thomas Prescott, Kimber told the nurse at the front desk. We let her do the talking since she had a disarming, old-fashioned charm about her

that put people in a friendly mood. Old Tom, wow, he hasn't had a visitor since Christmas when his son came up, since the check-in sheet and sign the check-in sheet and take a visitor's sticker. Your family then? Do you know where his room is? The nurse arched a thin suspicious eyebrow i'm sorry we don't kimber apologized my mother has been asking me to check in on my great uncle while she's away doing doctors without borders i should have gotten more information from her but you know she only has so many minutes to call home oh smart smart girls very smart girl yeah oh of course dear let me get someone to escort you an orderly led us to tom prescott's room which we found empty he pointed down the hall and said he likes to read in the sun room we walked down the hall and found

an old thin man with i think it means while an old thin man sitting alone and whispering to himself he was sitting at a table in front of a bat game and board moving chess pieces around it tom prescott kimber said smiling he didn't look up and i wondered if he heard her at all kimber took a deep breath to try again but the old man suddenly slammed his fist on the table it's him i'm what wait oh heart. Do you... I'm him. Yeah. I'm him, God damn it. I'm Mr. Thomas Prescott. Don't call me Tom. People's kids used to have more respect. I'm sorry, sir. Kimber said gently as she sat down in the chair opposite of him. You kids have no respect. Do you even know who I am? It's my son that's done it. That's... That boy's mama should have whipped him, but she was soft. And now he's run around my town

spraying the vulgarity and disrespect. Our apologies, Mr. Prescott. we never meant to be disrespectful. We greatly admire you. You're the man who built our town into what it is today. Ever remembers that. Drisking was suffering and the town was dying and you fixed it. We know that. I did what I had to do, the old man grumbled.

It was my town. It still is. Who are you? Who are you, little girl? To come in here and suggest otherwise. No, no, that's not what I said. Kimmer changed tactics. As for who we are,

We're Merrick McCasky kids. Do you remember the McCaskies? Huh. So you're all... Ada's granddaughter? That explains why you're not there. That explains why you're not there. We exchange puzzled looks.

We're right here, Mr. Prescott, Kimber said. You know what I meant, young lady. They all know. They know I rescue the town. That's my town. Of course, we're going to let... Of course, we're going to let me do anything. I want...

Fuck, my sakes. Of course they were going to let me do anything I wanted it as long as the... money kept coming in that's why it's my town is the money still coming in kimmer tested well you're here aren't you they didn't like it but they kept but they took the money they didn't know not not everything they didn't but they suspected some and they must have been okay with it because they kept electing clary and they kept taking the money press got uh picked up upon and ran his finger crossed as if he as he talked it's just a powder you know so unassuming A fine, soft powder.

A powder doesn't know what it is. It doesn't know it's bad. It's the people who say it's bad. But it needed to be done. You know that, Ada. You know we had to do it. Kimber hooked him. Kimber hooked him in.

I know. I know we had to, but it's your son. I don't think he's doing it right. Well, of course he isn't. The elderly press got slammed his fist on the table again, and two rooks tumbled to the floor. They were mine! He took them from me.

He thought he could do it better, but he took mine and he ruined my legacy. Decades of war, and now it's all run by powder. It's the dust of the crumbled empire. What about the skin men, I asked? God, Sam, Jesus. Give it fucking ten minutes, dude. Ten minutes. What about the skin men?

I asked caught up in the moment. What are you talking about, boy? He growled. And the tree house, the triple tree. What is it? What is it for? Triple tree. I didn't authorize that. We paid triple the price, but it was only for a short while.

When things were slow. We never changed triple. That's bad business. Where is Burr? Has my idiot boy been telling you that? Did he offer you triple for them? He's ruining my town, isn't he? God damn it, Jimmy. You get him in here. Ada, get me my boy on the phone. You tell Jimmy I want to talk to him.

You tell him they're still mine. Ada! Ada, get Jimmy on the phone! Kimber jumped up and Kyle pushed her behind him as the old man rose to his feet, tall and imposing. We were backing toward the door when the orderly came in with disapproving look on his face and shoot us out. Long after we'd made it to the lobby,

we could still hear Tom Prescott yelling for his son. The ride home is quiet, and I spent it trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. The skin men, the triple tree, the shiny gentleman, the powder, These things seemed to have been pulled blindly from the ather, random and meaningless. The veil over my eyes was thick and heavy, but I was closer to Barrasca than I'd ever been before. I could feel it all around me, but I couldn't see it.

I could almost touch it, but I couldn't yet comprehend it. I suddenly realized that Kyle was pulling over off the road, and I snapped out of my contemplation. He put the car in park and turned over and looked at me in the back seat. Is this really about Whitney, Sam? Yes. washed us with worried eyes. Why do you think that? The cops, I mean, even your father confirmed that Whitney ran away.

I don't believe them. I said through clinched teeth. Look, Sam, we're getting pretty deep in here, and I'm only, and I'm with you every step, but I have to know that there's a reason we're doing this, and pulling Kimber in, too. I have to know this is important to you for the right reasons and not just an obsession. I looked at the window and realized he pulled over near the West Rim Prescott Orr, trailhead. He was right to worry, and even more so to be protective of Kimber. Kyle was thinking, Kyle was thinking it, and so was I, the powder. If Barrasco really did involve moving mass amounts

of drugs, did I want to be involved with my friends any further? This wasn't their fight. I love these people. Could I really risk their safety for my own curiosities and vendettas? But as hard as I wish I could let them go, I knew I needed them. I have to know what really happened to Whitney, I whispered. I turned back around without a word and Kimber placed her hand on mine. I jerked my hand away and crossed my arms and then immediately apologized. Kimber just smiled in a forgiving sort of way. Kyle sighed. Sam. He was interrupted by the piercing ring of Kimber's phone. She scrambled for her cell to silence it. But when she saw the name on the screen, she quickly answered. Dad? What? Wait. What do you mean? Dad? No, wait, slow down.

Hello? She took the phone away from her ear. Something happened to my mom, and she's at the hospital. Tears filled Kimber's soft, green eyes. Kyle threw the car in gear and screeched into the parking lot. We made the 10-mile trip to the hospital in as many minutes, which was criminally fast on service streets. Kyle stopped the car at the emergency entrance, and Kimber and I ran inside.

A deputy was there waiting. He refused to answer Kimber's desperate questions as he led us to her father. When the deputy swung open the doors, I saw my dad standing next to Kimbers, and I braced myself for the worst. Kimber's dad took her in one direction, and my dad took me and the other. Before he said a word, I saw Kimber crumble to the floor on the other side of the room. I looked at my dad helplessly, and he gave me a sympathetic nod and pulled me into a hug. He sat down in a corner, and I stared at my hands as he quietly explained that Mrs. Distarro had gone grocery shopping at around one o'clock, come home

put the groceries away made two lasagnas and a meatloaf put them in the freezer then she got in her car drove to the hospital parked in the shade took the stairs up seven floors to the roof and jumped off of it

she lived long enough to apologize to the EMT who found her oh my god I watched Kimber fall apart as her mother's body slowly grew cold in the morgue one floor beneath us man

end of part two and the end of part one of our episode here yes yeah yes that's the end the beginning of our coverer for one just real quick what do you think of the story so far I think it's very good the thing about it so far is that

it's it's tapping it has a lot of eccentrises eccentric eccentric is that the right word I don't know the idea of like you're talking about stuff called Barasca which is fine but you're talking about stuff like the skin men and stuff, and there really hasn't been any elements of actually visually being able to see anything. Really, the horrors of a lot of the stuff so far of

this story has been putting yourself in the shoes of somebody of like a brother or a parent losing a child or a sister or sibling. And even so much of this, of dealing with somebody with mental health issues that had tried, or unalive themselves and having to deal with that and the long periods of stretches of how that affects you. So I think that it's extremely well written. But I also more so like that it's taking its time. It's really not trying to reveal too much. It's not trying to be big and flashy.

There's moments too. I think the biggest thing from this one I thought was interesting was I really thought that we were going to get something a little more than our meeting with Thomas. Thomas Prescott being obsessed with the ownership of the town and stuff i thought was going to go in a different direction so i i would like to highlight something about that conversation right yeah so we know that the prescott's revitalized the town in the 50s right yeah so the the prescott's did something right town starts making money and we hear

at the beginning of the conversation he's talking about it's my money or whatever and they apologize and they says and the old man says I did what I had to do it was my town who are you to suggest otherwise and he says whenever she identifies herself as Ada's granddaughter he says oh then you know what I mean young lady they all know they know I rescue the town that's my of course they were going to let me do anything I wanted as long as the money kept coming in that's why it's my town and then whenever Kimber says is the money still coming in he says well you're here here, aren't you?

They didn't like it, but they took the money. They didn't know, not everything. They didn't, but they suspected some. And they must have been okay with it because they kept electing Clary and they kept taking the money. Yeah, he's trying to, he's trying to assume that it's bad,

like that it's a crooked cop. And especially the emphasis of him continuously using the word powder and stuff, which is usually people associate that with like cocaine. But I don't think it's that. I don't think that it has anything to do with a drug ring or anything like that. What I am curious is potentially like an HP Lovecraft situation thing where the powder could be, you know, something not of this world, something that maybe they found in the mine that, like, presented them some kind of wealth or whatever, which is also maybe why the Prescott's were so advantageous to keep the minds open, not necessarily to find the people. or if they were to find the people to have them, you know,

because the McClaskeys were important to them somehow as well. So I'm very intrigued. I'm extremely intrigued. And I really, I don't know, like so far in terms of dialogue and believability, this is just extremely well written. It's like so visually clear. And I think that just the way that each part, one thing that I love about these so far,

especially with part one and two is it ends on such a great moment like such an impactful moment that sits with you. Plus, that conversation is derailed when he asked about the skin man

because Prescott goes from talking about like, oh, the dust, it's the dust of the crumbled empire. Like he's talking about something tangible. And then when he says the skin man, he goes, what are you talking about? And then at the mention of triple tree, he's like, I didn't authorize that.

Why would we ever charge triple? Like he has that, the old man has no idea. idea what the skinned man or the triple tree is or anything like that yeah yeah no i think that sam's uh eagerness and sam's obsession because even like i think that kimber and kyle are starting to see it too he's like i just need to make sure that this is actually for something tangible and not just your obsessive mind needing to get your fix or whatever but i think that even when they were talking to thomas and it is an obsession in a way for sam and i think that it's like it's it's like a it's like a

scratch or it's like a it's like a thing that needs to be itched you know what I mean like he he he couldn't wait any longer he had to like bark out and say it and I completely derailed this thing when it seemed like Kimberly or when it seemed like Kimber had uh you know her it seemed like she was controlling the conversation pretty well like she was like navigating it well and um like following his sways of emotion but now Sam yeah Kimber was just leaning into whatever he was saying and then Sam killed it yeah good job Sam um Sam's obsessed with being like, do you know the Skidman? And people would be like, what are you even talking about?

But to be fair, what about Barasca? That is the only pieces of the puzzle that Sam has. And he had just heard kids mention in it earlier. So he thinks that it's a common thing around. Sure. I see why he would have asked that. Yeah, it's not totally unjustified for sure. And also it's become a thing where now it's this like, it's almost this symbol or it's this like kind of tangible.

You know, and he says, it too in the cards like he feels like he's right there but he just can't comprehend it yet you know it's like he feels like he's right by it but he just can't see it so it's it's plaguing him and i think that it's the only thing it's like the only ounce of hope he has left to solve this thing um with his sister and even just this greater mystery of everything else going on in the town so it's awesome i mean i'm i'm totally bought in i cannot wait to see where this goes and it seems like a lot of people have read this story too so i'm curious to see because this has been kind of a fun juxtaposition of

you've read this, you know where this is going, and then you've kind of been just like grinning and like over me trying to see where it is going. So I'm curious to see if people haven't read this so far, if they're kind of, who's in the wheelhouse with you and who's in the wheelhouse with me of people speculating and then also

people seeing how, you know, if you've read the story, how it could be perceived or hopefully my first time reading experience is making sense with people. I will say, because I can't give away stuff right now, but I will say that I forgot how, like, well-written, like, actually the specific segments of it were, like, how much I like the dialogue, moments that are kind of

more pulpy, but I love stuff like stale coffee and quiet, you know, quiet conversation or whatever. Like, I forgot how expertly done it is in like a literal sense, but also, uh, some of this foreshadowing, some of the character drives getting built up and stuff, I'm, I'm so thrilled to see it's even better than I remembered. So I, I couldn't be happier with that. Yeah. I mean, it does it in the best ways. I love a lot of flavor and like you're saying,

pulp with that. It rises fine line of extremely believable dialogue and descriptions and content. And then it just gives you these beautiful little cherries on tops with little moments like that, where it's just these little lines that are just so tasty, so nice. And also, I'm assuming that the sandwich shop has to be some kind of like Ponzi scheme or like front. I think it's a big thing. that's what I was going to say too I think that like a failing business like that

I don't know I don't know what they're using the sandwich shop for I'm not saying that it's a skin men sandwich shop but I do think that the sandwich shop being open and it being a business and also we haven't you know I'm curious to see what Jimmy Prescott said to Mira in private

and kind of that stuff and also her being so you know we have gotten conversations about you know she's probably depressed because of the business. She's probably depressed because of the baby situation and stuff. But I think there's more to that as well. Like, I think it's just that all of those things are true,

but I think it's not the full picture. And not to mention, we have the death of Kimber's mother. That is also supposedly just a manic depressive episode, right? Yeah, it just feels too coincidental. Especially because you would almost assume that, like, instead of Kimber's mom, it would be Sam's mom or something that would be going into this fit. You would think.

You would think, but it's like we just had, I think there's just even stuff that Kimber hasn't told us yet. You know, it's all just so vague. It's so vague. And the mystery is, it's thickening, and it's really making, it's, it's peaking a lot of stuff.

It's peaking a lot of curiosities. And it's a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. But for now, that is our part one of Barasca. I think this is amazing. It's really good. But next time we'll be tackling the part three and four.

so please be sure to show up next time and also you can listen to these episodes on Spotify I think we're I don't know if we're are we up on Apple yet I think we're up on everything I think we're up on pretty sure but yeah I like Spotify better so prefer that but yeah yeah I never use Apple but you know what do but if you do listen to things anywhere be sure to give us a positive rating if you like it and I think that helps us out and yeah

we will see you in the next one thank you all so much for watching it means the world and can't wait to finish out this great story and hopefully you all enjoy it and again thank you for watching hugs and kisses bye