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By the time I had gotten to the top of the slope and was viewing the yard, I had the strange feeling that I had been walking for over three hours, and my brain seemed oddly convinced of this. I shook my head, feeling tired and weak, dizzy and confused. I hadn't brought any water with me, and I was hungry again for some reason. Something strange was going on, and I was now convinced of it. I was the only one seeing this weather, and it wasn't a good thing.

No... Kevin had seen it. Jacob couldn't see it that much was clear. Only Kevin and I saw it. I was about to wonder if Jacob was the odd one here, but the remembrance of the visions flashing in front of my car sent that thought from my head. I wished I knew what was going on here, and I had nothing to work from.

I stood at the top of the hill and stared out at the clearing that had been gouged out from the mountainside. It was cleared of trees, and was surrounded by sharp cliffs on either side, roots sticking out of the dirt and looking rather frightening in this now gloomy lighting. I looked up at the sky once more, and saw that it had indeed gotten much darker.

This was unlike any sort of weather I had ever seen in these mountains. It made it so dark that one would think it was becoming dusk. I had to look at my watch to remind myself of the current time of ten-thirty-six AM. The wind was beginning to pick up, and the trees around me rustled and creaked. I looked at the area around me and the partially erected structure.

Even in the darkness, I could make out the land around me. There were no tracks of any sort of machinery or any tracks from any people around. I couldn't see any of the workers, and there wasn't even any equipment around to say that there had even been anyone down here. Had I missed them? I walked a bit further up, past the wall and turned to look inside the building. It was unusually dark inside, even though only part of the roof was up, and all of the walls were in place. Some insulation had already been put into place as well.

I cautiously stepped inside the doorway and peered around the corner, then headed into what looked to be the kitchen area. A gust of wind pushed at me from outside, colder than ever, and I looked behind me again, and then back into the room. Stairs at the far left wall from where I stood led to the second floor, but other than that, there was nothing in this first room.

I headed from the kitchen and into the second room. It was there that I saw something splattered on the wood flooring. I crouched down and looked at it more closely, seeing that it led down a small hallway and into the other room. There was enough of the substance that it wasn't just a small spill. Something had been dragged.

In the light, I couldn't make out what it was, and I wasn't about to taste it in case it was oil or something. I looked around again and saw an opening where I assumed double doors would go. On my right and behind me, there was another opening in the wall for a window. I stood slowly again and walked cautiously into the hall, daring to call out softly as I went. "Anyone back there?"

No reply. I peered into another smaller room that looked as if it were to be the bathroom. Nothing there except another opening for a window. It was then that I smelled something, and not smoke or oil, but a metallic stench. I'd read it enough in novels that I could guess what it was, and my stomach clenched as I stepped around the corner and into the final room... the living room.

I covered my mouth and pressed my back to the wall as I entered, and saw the source of the marks on the floor. It had entered my mind that it might have been blood, but the weather being as it was and the strange things that had taken place earlier; I hadn't wanted that thought in my head causing even more fear and questions. There was no question to this though. It was all over the floor, pools in different places, trailed by drag marks where the bodies had been dragged to far corner and dumped in one large pile.

My jaw muscles worked for a moment as my hand covered my mouth. The smell was hurting my nose now it was so strong, and by the large pool of blood that leaked from around the pile, I was grateful for the large opening in the wall that was to be a large window. My eyes went from the pile of bodies to the doorway on the far wall supposedly leading to the basement.

There was a draft coming up from there and it was clean, so there were no bodies down below. I had seen that part of the building coming up the hill. Despite my rising fear, I slowly walked towards the bloody pile, avoiding the pools of blood coagulating on the floor and becoming black. I didn't want to get too close to the bodies, but I also wanted to know how long they had been there.

I reached out tentatively and put my hand on one of the workers. I could still feel the warmth beneath the clothing, and after sweeping my gaze over those who were on top and visible, I noticed they had all been murdered the same way. Their throats were slit from ear to ear, and a clean slice down their midsection from chest to waist and bled out. The wound had not been deep enough to disembowel them, only to bleed them out swiftly.

I swallowed and backed away, pressing my back to the wall and gathering my thoughts as another gust of wind came in through the opening and swept away the stench, clearing my head slightly. My breath was coming slightly shallow and fast, so I steadied it with a few deep breaths and ran my hand back through my hair. The bodies had still been warm, which meant they couldn't have been killed more than half hour ago.

My main concern was whether the killer was still nearby. He wouldn't stick around. He would probably get out of there and try not to leave any evidence. I saw no footprints, only drag marks and some jugular spray across the wall. At the moment I hadn't thought to look and see if there were any spots to show that the killer had been in the way when he'd killed them and blocked part of the spray.

I backed slowly out of the room, and then, heart pounding, fled the building and near leaped out the front entrance and out into the clearing, spinning around and backing up, nearly tripping. I took my few gasping gulps of air as though I'd been holding my breath. That couldn't be healthy for you, breathing in air intoxicated with human blood stench. Whoever Kevin and Jacob had been talking about was back, and he meant business, most likely a serial killer. I had to get back and tell him, had to warn him. I turned and sprinted back down the road.

A crack of thunder made the small building rattle as if an explosive had gone off nearby. Kevin stared out the window at the roiling clouds. Black and roiling, like boiling water. It was certainly the end for him, there was no running from it. Even if he tried he wouldn't make it to The Rebellion in time, and he would rather face the bastard than run from him.

Kevin sighed and saw lightning pierce down from the clouds. He was relieved that Jacob had headed home to take care of his kids; he didn't need to be here to see this. A text came in and Kevin picked up his phone to see who it was. It was a text from Jacob.

_ "I get home and guess whose raiding moms garden!? Finally found the culprit. Austin is home."_

Kevin deleted the text and set the phone down with a hard set grimace. It's like he'd known Austin would come home. Kevin didn't doubt it, and he only hoped that they would catch wind of it before it locked them out of reality. Kevin quickly picked up his phone and sent a quick message with a picture, the 'I Love You' hand sign and the words,

"I'll miss you, keep your family safe."

Kevin hoped that would get through fast enough to get them a warning. Another peal of thunder shook the building, followed by torrential rain battering the building like hail. It didn't bother him that was sure to be brutally murdered in the next ten minutes. He knew where he would go, and Cardew couldn't change that. He smirked in triumph and gripped his phone. The following flash of lighting was so bright it blinded Kevin for a moment, and then the thunder followed, rattling the windows and making the entire building shake. Kevin had to steady himself on the desk to keep from falling over.

When he opened his eyes, he was looking into the coldest, emptiest gleaming green eyes he'd ever known and couldn't suppress a sneer. "I was hoping never to see you again, but I guess what was too much to hope for."

All he got in reply was a cold smirk.

Panting and gasping, I made it back up to the site. However... there was one problem. There was no site. It looked as if the place had been hit by a massive explosive. The building was in flames and collapsing. For a moment I just stood there and gaped, chest heaving and staggering to a stop in front of what used to be Kevin's office.

Who had done this? Most of the building was still intact, just in flames and slowly degrading. Was Kevin still in there? Without thought, I ran inside, opening the door and covering my mouth and face as smoke billowed out at me along with a painful wave of heat. What was I thinking, running inside a burning building? I have no idea, but I did it, and with no fear at that, my only thought was if Kevin was alive.

As I headed through the hall into the kitchen, I grabbed the pictures off of the walls, as if saving them was also very important, and tucked them under my arm as I headed towards the office. The smoke seemed to be less and less as I headed in that direction and more from the bedroom. I tested the handle to the office swiftly with a covered hand and it was... cool, actually, cold, freezing cold.

For a second, I almost didn't open the door for fear that there was another sort of deadly substance like liquid nitrogen on the other side of the door, but after a moment, I opened the door slowly. The room was clean, and nearly untouched accept for scattered papers.

I walked slowly around the desk, and the first thing I saw was a massive pool of blood soaking into the carpet. Kevin was on his side; slit open like the others down at the site... something was different though. His eyes weren't open and he didn't have the look of terror and shock on his face as the others had. He looked as if he had merely fallen asleep.

There was another difference as well, though... he wasn't just sliced to bleed out, he was sliced all the way open, so his innards were in a pile on the floor. With all that had happened, this didn't seem to bother me besides a shocking sadness. I'd never really known him, but he was Jacobs father, and anyone from the Hanson family, I loved like my own. Why was he slit open like this, and the others weren't? Special grudge against him or his family perhaps...?

I didn't have time to think about it as the ceiling groaned in protest. As I ducked for the door, I grabbed Kevin's phone, which was in his upwards facing palm and lunged for the door as the ceiling caved in. I barely made it out of the office as the whole thing came down around my ears, blinding me with smoke, dust and sparks. I still had the pictures and the phone as I hit the cement and covered my head, feeling the debris sting my neck and arms.

When the explosion of dust and such was finished, I slowly raised my head, only now seeming to realize that it had started pouring, putting the fire out. The only possible evidence I had as to what had done this, was now in my hands. I quickly tucked the phone into my pocket and held the pictures close to myself, hoping that they wouldn't get too wet, even with their protective casing.

I went for my cell-phone in my left pocket and realized that there was nothing there. I took out Kevin's phone, but it was dead. Where was my phone at? I thought frantically for a moment, hoping that I hadn't dropped it whilst escaping the building. After a moment's thought, I realized that I hadn't felt the pressure against my hip when I was running up from the site. It was down along that path somewhere.

Taking a quick look around, I headed back down, scanning the ground as I did so, watching small streams of water begin along the edges of the road and in the tractor gutters in the dirt and hoping against hope that the killer wasn't still here.

_ 40 Minutes Earlier..._

Jacob arrived home to total chaos and all of his siblings in a giant pile on the living room floor, some helpless victim squirming and yelling beneath them. He hadn't been home in a while, and if it hadn't been for the distraction on the floor, the rabble would have gone for him.

He yelled into the kitchen over the din, "Mom, what the heck is this all about!?"

A yell from the bottom of the pile, "You can ask me that, I'm right here you know!"

Jacob looked down, startled. "So it's true! You finally came home!"

The victim tried to reply and got yelled over by a dozen other shouting voices. Jacobs mother Bella came in and put an end to it.

"For goodness sake, I just vacuumed and your brother hasn't gotten a chance to wash! Get off him, let him talk, and go do your homework!"

The mass of siblings scrabbled away, giggling and went back to their spots to resume their homework. Bella waited until the now disheveled form on the floor was up and then hugged him tightly.

He tenderly wrapped his arms around her and rested his cheek against her head. "I've missed you too mom."

Jacob was next, and squeezed his younger brother in a tight embrace, making him wheeze. "Where the hell have you been? No contact, no texts, no hints, nothing, mother was starting to fear she would never see you again!" Jacob scolded.

Bella shoved him lightly aside. "It wasn't as bad as all that, he's done this before, and what I'm upset about is that he raided my garden...without asking me, as if I wouldn't let him!" She cuffed her son about the head and he ducked away with a snort of laughter. "You're nearly thirty, son, you need to start acting like it! I was hoping your sudden change when this whole thing began would get rid of that." "It changed the worst in him." Jacob commented, and eyed the bag of garden produce on the counter. "What'd he steal?"

"I didn't steal anything Jacob, I was gonna bring it inside and ask-"

Bella snorted and washed the last of the tomatoes before putting them gently in the bag and handing it to him. "Ask me, yeah, pfft, right!"

"Where have you been this whole time, with The Rebellion? Surely Holly was pestering you to at least contact us!" He followed his brother into the other room as he sat down and turned on the TV and went to the news channel.

"I decided to take advantage of the serenity recently, but I wanna' make sure, it's not like it isn't suspicious." Austin said, and flipped through the channels to the news.

Jacob felt the vibration of an incoming text in his pocket and took out his phone. It was a text from their father.

"Speaking of suspicious, do you remember that friend of Richards, Daniel Prescott?"

"Yeah, barely" His brother replied, and tucked himself up onto the couch with a groan.

"Well he went in for an interview with dad today... and he didn't seem well. He's usually pretty jumpy and stuff, but I've never seen him like this.... and Austin, I think he's back"

All attention on the TV lost, his brother turned fully and stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Daniel got here this morning for breakfast, and said something about, 'Was it a good day to go out there, because the weather looked nasty!', and the weather was fine."

Austin frowned. "Maybe it was the morning fog or something... or the... whatever those things are that make the top of your windshield darker."

"Yeah, that's what I thought too, until we were going down the road and he suddenly slams on his brakes like he'd seen something... when I went over there to see if he was okay... the kid was as white as a sheet, shaking, and lied to me and said he thought he'd hit a squirrel."

All the evidence seemed to sink in as he told it, and cold spread up his spine. What had he been questioning?

"That sounds a lot like Cardew to me... he wouldn't just play with a random person like that unless they were somehow involved in it... no... Jacob, I think he's talking to us."

Jacob now felt like he needed to find a reason, any reason for it just to be a coincidence. "We've had nearly four years of peace, why wo-" He stopped as he finally opened the text and looked. His blood went cold as ice, and Austin was staring at the TV again, his face going pale as well.

"Jacob, I think we spoke to soon"

Jacob showed him the picture that their father has sent, the 'I Love You' sign language and the words below it saying "I'll miss you, keep your family safe."

The only thing that kept his brother from lunging off the couch and for the door was the news, an announcement of a jail breakout... a convicted psychopathic serial killer by the name of Dr. Cardew Blake Norris.

"Spoke way too soon..." Jacob breathed, unable to swallow.

"Ooooh shit." Austin agreed, and turned off the TV. "Ooooh shiiiiitt!" He scrabbled off the couch.

"You go get dad, I'll get the family to The Rebellion, and Daniel should be there somewhere, he hasn't texted me yet either." Jacob said, and headed for the kitchen. "Mom! Pack up and get the kids in the car! We've got to get out of here ASAP!"

Austin grabbed his coat and headed out the door, getting into his car and starting up the engine; he lunged out of the driveway and headed for the site. Already, he saw the signs. The storm was about to break, and who knew if they could get out of this one alive. As he got onto the freeway, rain began to pour down. He grabbed a two-way radio off of the dash.

"Xav, are you there?"

After a moment, there was a reply. "Yeah boss, wassup?"

"Hell got loose, look at the news ASAP, headed down to the site to get dad, Jacob will be there within the hour, be ready to bring out reinforcements."

There was a momentary silence before the reply came through.

"Mk boss, where am I sending this to?"

"Sugarloaf Turnout, down where the work-site is at. Send Jasmine, Thane and if you want, come along with them. Send a couple others to meet Jacob; he'll be headed your way from seventeen."

"I'll have them ready."

Austin put the receiver down and amped up the windshield wipers as the rain poured harder. He prayed that he would get there in time before Cardew, but he doubted it. His father's text to Jacob said that much. A crash of thunder so close it made the hair on his neck stand up seemed to speak to him.

_ You're too late, Austin. You're always too late._

This weather was becoming outrageous. There was no wind, but the rain was pouring down as though it was a tropical storm, and occasional thunder rumbled. Who else was seeing this? Only me I guessed.

By the time I reached the site, I was long since soaked through and shivering. The fear had returned, but only enough to make me continually look around and about me in case there was someone there, as if I was paranoid.

As I jogged up the hill, I saw a river of red water running out from underneath the building at the section where all the bodies were at. A shiver crawled up my spine, and I twitched. I had to go back in there. It was far darker, and I had no light to see my way around. I searched the area in front of the building first and when I didn't see it, I peered inside.

Dark and cold... some places were wet as there was no roof. I slowly stepped in, and the moment my whole body was inside the structure, there was dead silence. Not a sound from the rain or any of the weather outside, and when I turned and looked outside, it was still a storm out there, but I could hear none of it. I was done trying to explain the events that went on here, accept that either my mind was snapping and I was going mad, or there was something more going on here, far more than could be explained.

For a few seconds, I was frozen in total stiff terror and all I could do was listen to the silence and look around for my phone. I couldn't see it in this room either, and I leaned and looked into the second room. For some reason I swore I was going to see zombies. I couldn't help then but laugh at myself, and on that brief instant of release, I stepped into the hall and into the room where all the corpses were at.

For the first few moments of me being in the room and staring once again and the large pile of dead people, I wasn't afraid. They were dead, what was to be afraid of? I peered around in the darkness and didn't see my phone on the floor... and then I saw it... in the hand of one of the deceased. My breath slammed to a halt in my chest, and I stepped towards it. Why was my phone in its hand as if it had picked it up?

_ Or someone had put it there?_ The thought leaped into my mind as if I'd thought it myself. The killer had been watching me, I knew it for certain now, because I'd dropped my phone here, and I hadn't been near that body when I'd fled the building. I spun and stared frantically at the corners of the room as if I expected to see him there.

Nothing but darkness and another doorway leading to the basement, I'd seen that coming up the hill. I reached out slowly and took my phone from its hand, and stepped back, my eyes locking to its own, cold, open, staring. I swallowed, and stepped back into a pool of water, somehow startling myself, I looked down. It was red and I stared at my reflection. I could barely see myself, but I could see my eyes were wide with fear and shock.

"What is going on here?" I breathed, and suddenly felt dozens of eyes all on me, staring, making me cringe and I jumped back. I was being assaulted by something, the feeling of being watched was definitively demonic, and I backed out of the room and out of the building, never turning my back. I was numb with cold and fear, I was so scared now I felt nothing, and if a twig snapped, I'd probably have a heart attack and pass out.

The sound of the rain resumed the moment I backed out of the doorway. I stepped back in, and the sound ceased. I backed out of the building and the sound resumed. I waved my hand in the doorway and yanked my hand back. My hand had been in that room, and the whole inside of that building was as cold as death. And it was darker, much darker now, so dark I could barely see.

I stepped back from the building and looked at it from a distance... no, not looked, stared at it. Currently, this whole situation was so wrong that as I pictured the totally bizarre look on my face, that didn't even make me laugh, it only confirmed how demonic this thing was.

Demonic...yes...very demonic, there was no other words for things going on here, either demonic or seriously staged. I checked to see if my phone was still alive, and it was, full battery.

I set the pictures down against the hillside and went through my contacts to dial for Jacob. As I was about to press the button however, I heard a sound. Instead of moving, I stayed in place, paralyzed with fear. It was not the sound of an animal, but the sound of something flying through the air, as if someone had flung something. I turned my head to look up into the forest a split second before the object hit me, I saw a glint of metal and then agonizing pain exploded in my side.

Dropping the phone to the ground and going to the ground myself, staggering with a screech of pain, I stared at the knife in my side.

I grasped the silver handle weakly as I lay on my back, struggling for breath through the waves of pain that engulfed me and my vision going dark. The knife had a red jewel at its end and it had begun to glow slightly. I felt my energy draining from me slowly, and the pain dragged me down with it, I fell back, thinking for sure that I was now going to die, and passed out.