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This is part of a longer commission written by Joshiah https://joshiah.sofurry.com/ Or check out the author's patreon at ?https://www.patreon.com/Joshiah

This is an effort to collect all the parts into a single location for easy reading

Stonebury Chapter 1

"We've got very limited intel, Steven. There's almost nothing more that we can give you."

The twisted world that Ms. Schafer had introduced so many people to over the years was indeed a sheltered one, and it was hard for any outsiders to move to her town without her finding out about it. Anyone who stayed for more than a week was almost guaranteed to be corrupted, and their families were almost guaranteed to fall to the same fate.

"But we're absolutely sure that this town is where all of those people have disappeared to?"

"We've got census data that backs up the claim of several families moving from their prior locations to this one, and all of them have a different destination listed for their new addresses. Some of them list the city as Beaver Ridge, others as Wolf Creek, and there's even a couple mentions of Stonebury in there. None of those towns actually exist, meaning we've got a literal ghost town, where people are disappearing...but not far from the GPS coordinates of the same, there have been numerous sightings of werewolves, disfigured monsters, and even humans...but not the friendliest bunch of them, to say the least."

Steven was an agent of an underground team that prided themselves on keeping impure monsters from populating the entirety of the United States. They existed in secrecy because much of their work sounded ridiculous, but they dealt in the kind of occult occurrences that many people believed in, even if they refused to accept such.

Ghosts, werewolves, demons and all other manner of diabolical creatures were very real, and it was their job to keep everyone else on Earth wondering if that was the case.

"And did our man on the inside come up with anything?"

Sitting with one leg crossed over the other, Steven watched as a small portfolio slid across the table in front of him. He was locked in an office with one of his superiors, and the two of them were not to be disturbed for any reason, barring a threat to national security. "He was able to mail this many files out to us before they finally nipped him. I think he discovered too much about the town a little too quickly, but that could end up working out in our favor...damned shame that Hans won't be making it back to us, though."

"W-what? What do you mean by that?"

"If they got to him, he's a goner, Steven. At best, if he is alive, they're milking him to create more of those disgusting creatures, and if not, he's dead as a door nail. He knew that was the risk when he accepted the mission...I suppose it's only fair that I make those same risks known to you."

Steven wasn't that different from many of the men who ended up in the ghost town. Though he was rather well paid for his line of work, he was always looking to provide the best life that he could for his family, and he didn't want to risk their safety by bringing them to such a place.

"Then I'll go in alone."

"Not an option."

The normally calm, reserved Steven nearly tore the slipcover from his chair as he kept a grip on it. His nails nearly bled from the pressure he put upon them, and his teeth were gritted tight enough for his boss to hear the scrapes. "What? Why?!"

"We sent Hans in by himself. He didn't have an adequate cover, which made it that much easier to expose him. A man moving to a new town and mailing something out to a hidden address almost every single night arouses a lot of suspicion, and we need to go about this perfectly if we're going to take these twisted scumbags down."

"I've seen some of the case files," Steven immediately began to argue. "I've seen what happens to some of those men, but worse, I've seen what happens to their families. They were just looking to better their lives...they didn't think they would end up in that kind of a situation! If I know that there are these kinds risks involved, I'm not going to put my family in that line of fire!"

"Steven. Relax. We're sending you in with a solid cover, and your house will be bugged to the damn window frames. As long as your kids behave themselves, they won't get into any kind of trouble, and if you keep your mouth shut about anything, save for your cover job, you won't run into any problems. If you can collect a little more information than Hans did, we can mobilize the troops and shut the bastards down."

Clearly, Steven wasn't satisfied with the answer. His hair was already falling out of place, despite the gel that kept his solid, raven locks tucked back, and he couldn't keep from scratching his five o' clock shadow with an open palm as he considered the ramifications about anything going wrong.

"Why don't we just send them in now? One of our agents is down, possibly dead, and he sent us this entire case file of evidence. What more do we really need? This place doesn't even really exist; it's not like they can call the National Guard on us or something!"

"I'm not authorizing a military strike on a population until I can be absolutely certain that every person in the city is somehow involved in these practices. Every year, it gets harder and harder to cover this kind of stuff up, and there could very well be normal people living in this town, completely unaware of the things going on around them."

Grabbing the file and pulling the strings away on the package, Steven pulled out a few pages worth of text, along with a multitude of pictures that were taken within a large facility. The inner walls were clearly some kind of thick, powerful steel, much as one might expect of a shipping or storage facility, but the pictures revealed something more than the ordinary.

"These...t-these aren't people," Steven protested, as he flipped through a couple of different photos. The bodies were decidedly female, with long, hefty breasts and exposed labia, but collectively, their womanhood looked nothing like that of a human female, and attached to their swollen mammary glands were a set of tubes, sucking out copious amounts of milk. Further photos display a bottling line, and a shipping dock where trucks would leave the facilities to stock up local grocery stores with the evidently local brand of 'milk.' "These are beasts...some kind of canine beasts that they're milking for profit."

"Werewolves, Steven...and yes, they are. It's not just about profit, though. If this was just something to do with low grade milk, we'd notify the FDA and be done with it. The milk is a definitive link in what's causing people to disappear, however, which makes it directly linked to the transformations of the local townsfolk, as well."

"If the local brand is the most popular in that town-

"It almost certainly is," his boss suggested, "And it's likely that everyone has already sampled it at least once before."

"Then we don't need any further evidence to authorize a strike!"

"What about the people who might want to be saved, Steven? What if we could help them, instead?"

"And what if this stuff makes it out of their city? What if it makes it into the national water supply?" Steven argued, as he turned his attention back to Hans' report. "I'd feel terribly for those people involved, but for the greater good of this country, we need to wipe this place off the damn map, as fast as possible!"

"Do you know how difficult it is to send in a black book task force and take down a place like this without some kind of report making it to a major media outlet?"

"I do. We've already done it twice since I've come on board, sir, and I was directly on one of those task forces!"

Small trails of smoke came from the other side of the desk as Steven's direct supervisor lit a cigarette and took in a deep, heavy puff. "Mnnnn... yeah, you sure were. We killed almost ten thousand people between two task forces. Had to do literal years of back work to cover up how every single one of them had died, and further, we had to replace entire towns with farms to make sure that no evidence could ever be sought after. You really think we have the budget to do that again?"

"Natural disaster, sir. We ransack the place, wreck it, burn it to the damn ground take off. The place is over fifteen miles from any other form of civilization. We'd be halfway across the country before anyone even saw the smoke from the headers."

A quieter sigh came across the desk, thereafter. "You're too eager to just try and wipe things under the rug without actually cleaning the floor, Steven. If we can save even one family from that nightmare, we owe it to ourselves to do exactly that before we act with anything close to military force. You and your family will be relocated with a proper alibi and cover...you will collect all of the information you can without rousing any sort of suspicion, and if you do, you are to contact us immediately. We'll fake your death, get you a safe transport and get your family out of there in no time."

"I suppose you think it's easier to cover up one death than it is to cover up thousands."

"One man dies every day, a million times a day...but they don't all do it at once, Steven. That isn't how this country works."

Steven was beside himself. He knew that his only choice was to accept the task: He didn't have the kind of marketable skills to find a new career, and he didn't have enough of an emergency fund to keep his family afloat.

"You should be expecting a phone call very soon then, sir. Hans barely lasted a month."

**

As it stood, Steven Richards almost talked himself out of his job before the day was over.

Stressful as his discussion with his boss was, it was already turning out that much worse to discuss things with his wife.

"We like it here, Steven. I don't want to move."

"Neither do I, but...the kids are in college, we're still paying off the house, and we can't afford to have our cash flow cut off right now."

It wasn't easy for Tandy Richards to accept all of the facts about her husband. She thought she knew him inside and out, and for the most part, she trusted him every bit as much as one person could trust another, but she'd never known more than slivers about his job. He told her from the beginning that he was employed by the government, and that he couldn't explain anything further, for risk of endangering the family.

Moving away from their happy, comforting home of over twenty years, however, wasn't ever something she had to prepare for.

"And the kids are just supposed to stop learning? It's not like we can get the money back for their classes. It doesn't matter that it's community college...they're still going to fail everything they've taken this semester!"

"I've already talked to my boss. We're going to get financial help with the move, and we'll be compensated for anything that we have to drop early. I'm sure if the kids speak to their professors, they can at least get a withdraw credit. Some of their professors might even let them take the finals early."

"And that kind of stress is fair to them?"

Steven let out a quiet sigh as he stood up from the kitchen table and stepped over to his china hutch. He kept a myriad of different bottles of alcohol within, but only the strong, forceful bite of unfiltered bourbon could burn away his stresses that evening. "It isn't fair to them, Tandy. Not even a little bit," he admitted, as a long stream of amber fell from a bottle and splashed around carelessly in the bottom of a short, stout glass. "I hate the idea of having to put everyone else's life on hold for even a day, but if I don't do this-

"The kids already have part time jobs, Steven. I can pick up some work on the side. You can look for something more local. We can make this work, if you just give it a chance!"

It was impossible for Steven to erase the memory of the transformed women from his minds. He could still see the machines forcefully sucking milk out of their heavy, swollen nipples. He remembered their bodies moving in a blur in the photos as they clearly struggled to break free of their bondage.

They'd been stripped of their humanity, and he might be one of the only people left on the planet who could restore it.

"Tandy...you trust me, right?"

"With everything that I am, Steven. You're my husband...the light of my life."

Steven felt a warmth creeping across his cheeks that was greater than the burn of any alcohol. Rough bourbon tickled his throat, but it was the words of his sweet, endearing wife that sent a blush to his expression. "Nnnngh...then...you need to believe me, Tandy, when I'm telling you that we have to do this."

Tandy still trusted her husband, but her spirits were breaking, knowing that he'd already resolved himself to his choice. "Just tell me why, Steven."

"Top secr-

"Don't give me that bureaucratic bullshit!" she screamed at him, glad that their children weren't around to hear it. "I don't care about the specifics of your work, or what your boss said, or what terrible things you might be doing that I'll never know about! I just want to know why you feel you have to do this!"

"...They need us, Tandy."

Not knowing the true nature of Steven's work made it harder for Tandy to appreciate it, but she could recognize honesty in her husband's tone, even when he was talking about something that he kept a mystery. "Wh...what?"

"I can't be any more specific than that, but...they need our help, Tandy. I have to go. I have to do this."

Whatever burden Steven was putting on himself, or rather, the company was putting onto him, Tandy didn't think she'd be able to appreciate it fully, even if her husband ever gave her that information. No doubt, there was something terrible going on behind the scenes, and just like the rest of the country, it was best if she wasn't made privy to it.

She felt isolated with that knowledge, that she could only see her the struggle of her husband, and never know what it was about. It felt as though she could only watch him be driven to further madness by his work, and no matter what she did for him, it didn't seem to be enough to quell the sense of justice in him.

Tandy just wanted her husband to take a break from it all. She also knew that it wasn't within him to take a break when there was something important to be done, be it in his line of work, or any other part of his life.

"...Will you be safe, Steven?"

"I can't know that," he admitted, being entirely up front about the potential dangers of the job. "But you and the kids will be. If I so much as make the call, you'll be escorted to a safe house, and kept far, far away from any sort of dangerous activity. With any luck, I'd be able to join you there shortly after."

"And that's really all that you can tell me about this?"

"Giving out any further information wouldn't do us any good. I just need you to be a good mother to our kids, while I'm out being a terrible father."

Steven didn't get to take the next sip of his drink. He tried to lift it to his lips, but before he could, his wife stood up from the table and wrapped her arms tightly around his body. Her smaller arms looked pitiful in comparison to the thick, rigid muscles that Steven needed for his line of work, but they were no less useful in comforting someone when a touch was truly needed.

"You're an amazing father, Steven. You've done nothing but take great care of me and the kids your whole life, and I know how much it eats you up inside to have to be away from them all the time. At least, in this instance, you'll get to see them every day. You'll get to make up for lost time..."

"Tandy...?"

"Perhaps," she reconsidered, "It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if you took this job...but I want you to be who you are, Steven. I want you to get out there and finish whatever it is they need you to do, and I want you to do it fast. I don't want us to lose this house...I don't want us to lose the life that we've worked so hard for."

Surprise took Steven's face as his wife began to waver just slightly, but he smiled and set his drink upon the table. Arms that had taken Tandy in their relaxing grasp so many times before hugged the shorter woman in close to his broad, welcoming chest and eased the stress right out of her with a tight, loving squeeze.

"I'll do the best I can, Tandy...and if all goes well, we'll be back home before you know it."

The kids would be back from the community college any minute, but even if they'd walked in, nothing could break the embrace between Steven and Tandy in that moment. Just in his touch, Steven could infer the gravity of his current situation on his wife, and Tandy, being the strong and willful person that she was, helped to keep her husband on his feet as he prepared to make what could be a one way trip.

**

"So what's it really like in Stonebury, Dad?"

Steven and Tandy were blessed with a pair of wonderful children when they were a much younger couple. With a few years on them now, they had the good fortune to watch Tabitha grow all the way to the ripe age of twenty two, and her younger brother, Clyde, had just turned twenty the month before. Tabitha wasn't quite as close to her father, having taken on a light resentment for his always being away, but Clyde wanted to be just like his dad, even if he wasn't sure exactly what his old man did for a living.

"It's a wonderful little town, Clyde. Lots of friendly people with a small-town mentality, plenty of room to grow, and the houses are a lot bigger than they are here in Springfield. I think you two are gonna love living there."

"You literally asked us to pick up our lives, put them in a box and take off," Tabitha pointed out, the end of her tongue dripping with venom. "I wasn't planning on staying in Springfield too much longer anyway, but this kinda puts a huge wrench in my plans, Dad!"

"Sweetheart, you know it wasn't that simple."

"Whatever. If I didn't need you to help me pay for college..."

" Tabitha!" Tandy yelled back at her daughter, who certainly was the spitting image of her mother. The long, red-brown hair and sapphire eyes were spot on, and save for a mild fade from the test of time, Tandy still looked so much like her daughter that some people found it eerie. "Your father is doing the best that he can for this family, and he's hurting more about this move than you ever will, so try to show a little support for this family!"

It wasn't often that Tandy raised her voice at either of the kids. She didn't want to turn them against her, and early on, it took serious pleading to get Clyde in her husband's corner, so she wanted to establish right then and there that Tabitha wasn't to question her father's motives.

After all, if Steven had a choice in the matter, none of this ever would have happened.

The drive from Springfield to 'Stonebury' wasn't horribly far, and for such a hotbed of demonic activity to have popped up that close to headquarters was something of an embarrassment for Steven and his organization, but then again, as the van rolled down the road and they approached the city limits, nothing looked out of the ordinary.

Farmland sprung up on either side as far as the eye could see, but just as quickly as it appeared, it passed, and small houses and cul-de-sacs began to show up. After a little over a mile, most of them had given way to an old fashioned, American downtown strip, with a number of two and three story buildings, all made out of old, faded bricks. Store fronts that would have looked just as fitting in 1850 still had people coming and going from them, but not too far past Main Street, there were a couple of larger, chain grocery stores, as well, showing that the city was starting to look toward the realistic future.

They're hiding in plain sight. I can't really spot anyone suspicious, Steven thought, as he drove slowly down the main roads and scanned the sidewalks.

This is going to be harder than I thought...

Stonebury Chapter 2

The last of the boxes were being unpacked as the Richards family settled down in the living room of their new home.

There weren't quite so many boxes to move; getting a moving truck just wasn't in the cards for Steven and his family. He still believed that this was going to be a temporary move, and he hoped that by leaving some of the essentials at their old home, it would keep them motivated to cling to the idea of the life that they once had, and with any luck, the life they'd have again soon.

His family was losing trust in him, however, as they grilled him with question after question on the couch.

"So you still can't tell us anything?" his wife asked, while she wiped a little sweat from her brow. "It doesn't do well for a man to lie to his family, Steven."

"I'm not lying, Tandy. I'm just telling you all only as much as you need to know."

Living the life that he did, and working for a shadow company that effectively didn't have a name, Steven had been dancing around the subject of what he did for work for over twenty years, and his children, now adults themselves, were completely disillusioned with their father.

It was a fun game for them as children, pretending that their father was some kind of secret agent or international super spy. These days, they figured that he was in a custodial field, and just didn't want to admit what he did for a living.

"Throwing sawdust on a different pile of puke today, dad?" Tabitha asked, as she came to settle down on the loveseat across the living room. Bringing hardly anything with her, it was clear that Tabitha was taking the move the hardest, and certainly, she was still in denial about it.

Used to his daughter's dry sarcasm, Steven shook his head and managed a chuckle at her terrible joke. "You don't get to live in a house like the one that we had if you're a janitor, dear."

"Yeah, it was a really nice house," she shot back. "It makes no sense to move away from it right now."

"It does when your job doesn't give you a choice," Steven pointed out. "And the sooner I finish up the job here, the sooner we can all head back there, and we can act like this summer never even happened."

Clearly, his family wasn't sold on the idea, but Steven knew that he was locked into his situation, and he felt a certain sense of guilt for the assumed death of his old friend and co-worker, Hans. That sense of duty made him believe that he had to avenge his fallen comrade, and he knew that even if he was given a choice about accepting the assignment or not, he would have done it regardless.

"You seem to know a lot more about the town than the rest of us do," Tandy cut in. She knew that her husband was involved in a dangerous line of work, and it made her nervous for the safety of her family that they were forced to follow Steven toward the threat. "Is there anything that we should know about before we settle into our lives here?"

"Actually, there is," Steven recalled. "I'll be working in and around the dairy plant here in Stonebury. Don't drink the milk...or consume anything with dairy in it whatsoever."

This time, it was Clyde who spoke up, despite his being rather passive about the move until then. "Wait. I can't have any milk, any cheese, any ice cream the whole time we're here?"

"That's right," Steven replied calmly. "I'm sorry, but until I can assure all of you that it's safe, I need to make absolutely sure that no one eats or drinks anything with dairy in it."

As a father, Steven seemed that much worse to his adult children with his admittance, but Clyde was willing to overlook the issue. He realized that his father must have been someone very important to have such a say in what the family ate and drank, even if Tabitha was still convinced that this was all a move to torture her.

Steven was sure that Tabitha was getting ready to throw a fit when they heard a knock on the front door, and he stood right up to go answer it.

A kindly looking woman was standing on their front porch with a friendly smile. "Good afternoon, sir! I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm your next door neighbor. It's always great to see a new family here in Stonebury!"

"And our family could always use a warm welcome," Steven admitted, as he opened the screen door and welcomed his new neighbor in. "I'm Steven Richards. It's great to meet you, miss...?"

"Tina. Tina Walton," she introduced herself as she smiled and stepped inside. "We knew this house wasn't going to last long when it went up on the market. You picked a wonderful home to move into, and it's fitting for such a lovely family!"

Playing polite despite the tension in the room, Tandy smiled and stood up to greet their neighbor with a quick handshake. "Tandy Richards. Thank you for coming over to say hello! We didn't see anyone next door when we pulled in, but it's great to know there's a nice family living right beside us!"

"Everyone else is out and about today. I just happened to be home and noticed all of you pulling in!"

Tina seemed like a genuinely kind woman, but knowing what he did about the place, Steven wasn't convinced in the least that she didn't have an ulterior motive. "Real shame we couldn't get you to help with some of the boxes," he teased her, as the parents in the room shared a quick laugh. "Seriously, though, it was very nice of you to stop by. We're just getting set up here at the moment."

"Well, I won't keep you, then," Tina said. "Though I'd be terribly rude if I didn't mention that our neighbor, Ms. Schafer, was having a get-together in three weeks. She's quite well to do, and I'm sure she'd be glad to convert it into something of a welcoming party for all of you!"

Steven tried to hide the discomfort on his face. That last name was mentioned several times in his mission report, and knowing that they lived so close to such a high profile character made him hesitant to welcome Tina in; there was no doubt in his mind that she'd already been compromised.

"We'll be sure to make it, then," Steven agreed. "Can't wait to see you there!"

Tina nodded politely as she excused herself from the house, letting the Richards family unpack in a false semblance of peace.

**

Steven's cover story was much better than Hans', at least, on paper.

His work around the dairy plant wasn't something that he'd told anyone in the town except for his immediate family, but he'd need something else to keep prying eyes at bay, and his company had enough sway to pull strings when and where it was necessary.

Teaching at the local high school would give him enough of a pedestrian job that no one would consider him to be a high profile member of the community, and it would excuse any trips that he decided to make to the dairy plant as field trips, whenever he decided to go there to collect evidence.

"These sure are nice classrooms," he murmured to himself, as he stepped into one of the larger science labs. There were desks in the middle of the room, surrounded by tables on the outside edges that were equipped with test tubes, beakers and burners, allowing the students to take part in a number of different experiments. "Not a big surprise, though. They've got a budget the size of a damned football field, with the way they're pulling in money."

Acting as casual about the act as possible, Steven snapped a few pictures of the room on his smartphone, compiling all of the evidence that he could that something might be going on behind the scenes. If the tainted milk was coming from the dairy plant, it was surely leaking into the school through the cafeteria, and there might have been some sort of surplus of the same in the science labs at the school.

An experienced field agent, Steven wasn't spooked at all when he felt a tap on his shoulder. "You the new guy, mister?"

"Sure am," he replied without so much as turning around. He locked his phone and finally did spin to face whoever was addressing him, wearing a smile that was a little bit thin; he didn't want to seem too eager to be taking on his new job. "Steven Richards."

A male was standing right behind him, next to a slightly shorter female. "Brian Smith," he introduced himself, "And this is my wife, Linda. We just recently got hired here ourselves!"

"Very nice to meet you," Steven said, as he placed his smartphone in his pocket and shook hands with each of his new colleagues. "Seems that this school has a bit of a high turnaround rate. It's a little bit concerning!"

"They sure do," Brian admitted, "But I can't imagine why. All of the families in this community have been so nice to us, and the students are wonderful so far! I think some people just get bored of the small town feel and decide they want to do more with their lives."

"I know that feeling," Steven lied, "But there's nothing wrong with getting back to the basics sometimes and enjoying a calm, quiet life again."

"This is certainly quieter than things were at BYU," Linda suggested. "There's nothing wrong with a nice, quiet community to take part in, but I didn't think it got any quieter than Utah!"

Steven chuckled. "I guess you'd be surprised!"

"Indeed, but it's been quite the pleasant surprise. I'm hoping there's more of that in store for us."

"I'm sure that there will be," Steven lied yet again. He knew that if this couple stayed in the area, no matter how nice they were, their lives were going to be ruined, and there was nothing he could do about it; telling them about his mission would compromise the entire operation, and potentially doom his family. "Sorry to sound rude, but I suppose I should finish setting up my desk."

"Oh, not a problem at all!" Brian exclaimed. "We were just making the rounds with all of the new hires. Good luck to you, Steven. I'm sure you'll love it here!"

"Me too!" Steven concluded his small talk with a smile that he tried not to force too hard.

I hate it here already...just seeing all of you innocent people, completely and blissfully aware of the danger you've walked right into...I'm sorry...so, so sorry...

There was heavy guilt in Steven's heart as he closed the door to his classroom behind him and stepped into the small, cramped teacher's office in the back of the room. He knew that he'd be spending a lot of time there over the course of the next few weeks, but he didn't want to leave any hints or clues that he was an undercover agent in a place that could be so easily breached.

He hung a picture of his wife on the computer screen in the small office, and just below that, a picture of his wonderful children. His lips trembled with a heavy sigh as he embraced the cold, terrible person that he believed himself to be inside, knowing that he might have to do some horrible things before this mission was completed.

For the sake of the ones he loved, however, he'd be willing to do whatever the mission called for.

**

"They seem like a lovely family," Tina Walton spoke into her house phone, as she lazed about on the couch. "A handsome man, a beautiful woman, and two children that are at least out of high school."

"You're absolutely sure they're out of high school?" The voice on the other end of the phone replied.

"Almost certain. They're old enough to join in the festivities, anyway."

"That's good to hear. We've been struggling to keep people coming into the city lately...I was worried that we were going to stagnate. A surplus of milk is never a good thing."

"Don't worry. I'm sure you've got four new playthings living just a couple doors down from you."

"And you invited them?"

"Of course I did. What kind of a neighbor doesn't invite their new friends to a party?"

"Good...you've done well, Tina. I never would have guessed that you'd be such a useful ally, when we first met."

"You're too kind, Ms. Schafer. I'm just hoping you have as much fun with these ones as you did with my family."