It was one of THOSE days.

[Magdalena]

I was visiting someone that I helped escape from our cult. She lives somewhere in Missouri. I knew Scotty lived in Missouri and so I called him up. Scotty said that he was in the middle of something with cab312 (also known as Mack); he continued, “an’ ‘en we gonna check some stuff, we ken use yall’s help ackshally,” he informed me. I had some extra time. “Sure thing, Scotty,” I said. “Eeeap,” was all he said. Since I was on their way they just picked up me from a commuter lot. I was greeted by Mack and Scotty. “How yall are?” Scotty asked. I shifted my ruck sack a bit and smiled. “I’m fine, Scotty, thanks.” I turned to Mack and he just nodded with a smile. “Nice to see you guys again,” I said. We arrived at the vehicle had brought for the trip. It was a large SUV. “I don’t know what to expect, so I’m expecting everything,” Mack explained. “Which means we have just one stop to make before we can head out.” Scotty was riding shotgun. Scotty explained they just got the call this morning. “Yall’s timin’s perfuckt.”

We arrived at metal works shop near a Wal-Mart. Mack pulled around back. “Wait here,” he said, and got out of the vehicle and went to the door and waited. In about 30 seconds the door opened and he went inside. After a couple of minutes he returned with a dolly with some Pelican cases of various sizes piled together and held together with ratchet straps. The door closed and he went to the back of the vehicle and popped open the door. Scotty went back to help. I twisted around in the seat and did what I could to help load up the cases. “What is this stuff?” I asked. “Mack thanks we are bein’ set up en a trap.” Mack finished, “this is insurance,” and returned the dolly to next to the shop’s back door and then returned to swung the vehicle’s door shut. I nodded but I didn’t really understand.

“Anything else before we hit the road?” Mack asked. Actually it was more of a statement rather than a question. Mack started driving. Before long we were on the Interstate heading due west. The sun was sinking behind the horizon before us. For a while I stared at Mack’s GPS device mounted on the dashboard. I watched the little car icon drive along a purple street. I looked over at my spirit guide. Before I realized it, the sun had gone completely behind the horizon. It was a New Moon night, the stars were becoming visible. I closed my eyes and perhaps I drifted off to sleep. I woke up at the moment I heard a series of short beeps and then I heard Mack say, “gah, we’re low on fuel.” He scratched his head and continued, “well, next station we see, we’ll pull off.” Scotty offered the observation, “eeeap, a truck ike is one at measures galluns per mile not miles per gallun jus ike ma own pickem up truck.”

I sunk down in my seat to get another view of the window of the stars. “There’s a station at the next exit,” Mack said, seeing one of the street-side billboards. We pulled off the interstate and there was a sign with an arrow. The station was just half of a mile down the road. We approached the station. It was not well lit but it was open, which was all that mattered. Mack pulled up to the pump. I got out of the vehicle to stretch my legs and arms a bit. While I was walking around I caught a glimpse of something very strange. There was at the roadside entrance to the station a large ghostly apparition of a skull floating there. It was large enough we could have driven the SUV through just one of its eye sockets. It was facing me. As I moved from side to side, the whole skull turned to followed me. I blinked. It was still there. I closed my eyes for a few seconds, and then opened them. It was still there. “Hey Mack,” I said, not turning away. “Yea?” he asked. I turned to him and said, “do you see anything weird over there,” and turned to point at the floating skull but it had gone. “Nah,” he said. “Nothing weird. Why? What did you see?” he asked. I tucked my upper lip under my lower lip in a thoughtful expression and then said, “An apparition of a giant skull.” I shook my head in disbelief. “I saw it, too,” my spirit guide mentioned to me. “My guide, too,” I added. Mack hung up the hose and pressed a few buttons on the pump. “We’re being followed.” He scoffed. Cool,” he said, and started the vehicle up again. The nonchalance of some of our colleagues still takes me off guard, but less and less as I gain more experience. I climbed into the back where I had been sitting.

We returned to the interstate and as I saw the sign that we were approaching Columbia. As happens sometimes, the memories started to return in force. For the next hour or so all I was doing was recalling in vivid detail my last days in the cult compound. I left almost everything I knew behind. I was very young when I joined the cult and knew very little, but it was enough. The cult very rarely accepted outsiders because we arrived with knowledge and memories of the outside world. It was more difficult for the cult leaders to crush this from our minds than it was to simply condition the ones that were born into the cult. I was not a typical outsider, however, as I was raised in an orphanage and on my twelfth birthday, around the autumn equinox, I was introduced to my “foster” family. Like I said, one of the cult leaders took a liking to me from the very start. In my second summer I gave birth to my daughters. I had learned all about raising the babies and children of the other girls there, and it was something that I loved doing; I looked forward to having my own children to raise. When I realized that I was pregnant, I remember being so proud and so excited, and feeling so special. He seemed proud and even more pleased with me, too. When I and the other girls would join him in his bed he would hold me closest, stroke my hair, and tell the most wonderful fairy tales to me, and I would always fall asleep before he could finish the story. I thought it was funny, and so did he. When the girls were born I remember that he had the most disappointed look on his face that I have ever seen. It was such genuine disappointment. It was overwhelming. I was wailing, in part, honestly, because I knew I had done something wrong in his eyes and that was devastating. I was not allowed to see my daughters or to know where they were and nobody would tell me. He shunned me. Many of the other girls shunned me. I wanted to kill myself but they taught us that was the fastest way to hell and I knew that however painful things were in this world, so much more painful they would be in the next. But I was heartbroken. I did get over him in a few months but I never stopped feeling the loss of my girls. By the end of the year I did not care about hell anymore and decided to kill myself.

We had to pull off of the interstate. “Finally,” I whispered to myself. My spirit guide tried to look soothing but it was too late. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply through my nose. I felt overwhelmed. I started to meditate so as to regain my composure. so I have no idea how much time had passed between then and Mack stopped the vehicle which jarred me out of my meditation. “Are we there?” I asked, trying as much as possible to sound calm because I sure as hell was not calm. “Almost,” Mack said. “There’s a location we’re supposed to check out that requires us to travel along some back roads. It’s a house in a local Amish community.”

“Ew we, an in if we lucky we ken meet da informint in tha morning,” Scotty added. “But he might not show up.” He spit out the window. “Eeap, sumbitch is a Amish hisself. But he git out for a while but he didn’ ike tha ‘English’ way of life. So he go back ta bein’ an Amish.” And Mack continued, “sounds like he’s having doubts about his decision to return home because he saw something jacked up and having heard about us he called us rather than take a more,” he tried to be sensitive, “Amish approach.” We wound our way through the back roads and we arrived, at least we had according to the GPS. I would confirm it soon enough.

I looked at the house but there was not much to see in the darkness. No electricity and the windows were dark. But I believed that we were still being watched. I’m sure that we were drawing attention to ourselves, but for folks like Mack and me, time is of the essence. So I started to concentrate. I had to get the clutter out and focus on the task at hand. I came out of the trance, gasping for air. I went to a knee and I felt some hands stabilize me. “It’s alright now. It’s alright now,” the voice promised. I think that it was Scotty.

I looked at the house, and I started to cry. I saw a bit of movement from inside the house. I collapsed on the ground, my knees had completely gone out from under me. I tried to say, “I’m so sorry,” as I looked at the door. I was just sobbing and blubbering. A strong hand hooked under my arm and lifted me, “a’ight den, c’mon,” I heard. Scotty stood me up and I put an arm around him. I looked over my shoulder as we approached the SUV; I was trembling and sobbing.

Mack has mixed up a valerian concoction for me. I drank it down and in within a few minutes I guess that I was asleep as the next thing that I remembered was waking up in a hotel room. Scotty was in the recliner, reclining. He was awake though, “how yall are?” he said. “Yall had a tough one last night.” He lowered the reclining leg rest and said, “Sorry ‘bout at.” I felt strangely calm as I blinked my eyes and ran my fingers through my hair. “I know, Scotty.” I yawned and rubbed my eyes. “Did I tell you?” I asked. He nodded once and slowly. “A lot?” He shook his head. “Yall jus tawked bout da girl.” I stood up and stretched, “are we going to tell her family?” Scotty stood up, too. “Tell em whawt, ex-sackly?” I felt sick to my stomach. I looked down at my socks. I looked at Scotty. I looked at my spirit guide. And back to my socks. I sat at the edge of the bed and stared at myself in the wall mirror. “We’re ready when yall ready,” Scotty said, walking out of the hotel room.

As soon as the door closed I buried my face in the pillow. I screamed. I cursed. I cursed and I screamed.

[cab312]

We were waiting for Magdalena to check out when my phone rang. I recognized the number. It was the informant. “If you have one of her toys or something?” I asked. He said he would bring some clothes and a doll. “Excellent,” I said. I hung up the phone and being perfectly honest I turned to Scotty. “I should go meet the kid, you know.” Scotty spit, wiped his beard, and tugged on his belt a little bit. “Eeap, ah read ya.” He made some kind of motion with his hand that I understood to mean that I should go. “Caw if yall need innythang, ya read me?” I nodded, “yea, Scotty, I read you.” Another spit, another wipe, “a’ight den.”

I hit the road. The kid told me to meet at one of the local Amish shops. “There’s signs everywhere, you can’t miss it,” he explained. There’s only one paved road, so it’s actually kind of difficult to get lost. Once I found Yoder’s shop I found the kid, too. He was anxious and being eager to hear everything. “Well, what did you find out?” he asked out on the driveway, while smuggling the doll and bit of clothing to me from his pocket. “Whoever took your sister was a human or at least not supernatural. I would have detected something,” I said, being quiet as I noticed another young one appeared curious to know what we were talking about. I held the stuff in my hand that he had given me. “Give me a minute,” I said and pointed out the young one.

I was able to confirm that she was alive and in decent health. I was able to view her remotely as well, but only for a very brief period of time. I exhaled heavily with relief. As long as they’re alive, there’s a chance. I had been dreading the worst. “What happened to her?” he asked. I gave him back the objects. I lied through my teeth, “we know about as much as you. She was abducted. We’re still on the case, and time is of the essence so I have to go.” I pulled away and he ran after me for a second or two before turning back. I didn’t look in the mirror. I just hauled ass back to the hotel. I called the others from the road. “She’s underground, in a pit,” I said. “Could be anywhere.” Scotty said, “guess our only chance is when day move her.”

[Grace]

Hey Mack. Long time no see. How'd things turn out for you and yours? Do you need any help?

[cab312]

Being perfectly honest, the trail has gone cold and object readings indicate the girl has left us.

[Grace]

Oh. I'm very sorry to hear that, Mack.

[Magdalena]

Hi Nemesis. Mack is on the road and perhaps has not been keeping up with his messages. There are a few more details that he would not have known about. So here's more information for you and the others here.

We posted about it here because of the things I had picked up at the house leads us to believe that the supernatural was at the root of the event, even though we have no direct evidence of it. I believe that we were dealing with a witch. I spent some time at the scene picking up the residuals and more time going them over and over and over in my mind. I was able to pick up a number of details that makes me believe that the abductor was indeed a human since the ethereal trails were just too faint to be supernatural evil. The motivation for abducting the Amish girl was to satisfy the conditions of a witch pact. The girl could easily be taken and the community almost certainly would not go to the police. As Scotty spent time at the local police department he was able to get some details about a local man and his daughter going missing. He was down and out on his luck. He wife had recently passed and he was unable to work. He used to be a man of faith; he went to church tree times a week. But then stopped going and even started to express hostility towards the faith and at one time vandalized the church property. It would seem that he turned to the dark side, desperate for help and/or revenge. Scotty even got the police to research the property but no pit was ever found. I believe that the demon or whatever found out the rouse (the man's determination not to lose his daughter) and just killed everyone.

[Eilonwy Solstice]

Would you like us to keep our attention anywhere so that we may be of help, Magdalena?

[Magdalena]

Thank you, Eilonwy. I don't know what you can do that's not simply chasing the wind. From what all I gathered, the man uttered the words that attracted a supernatural menace to him. I do not think the monster is local to where all of this took place. Mack seems to think that the monster has left our dimension entirely. Thanks again nevertheless.

[Eilonwy Solstice]

All right, Magdalena; the offer still stands though, should something else happen and you change your mind.