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Speaker 1: I never thought i'd see half the town show up

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to bury a man nobody actually liked. Rickie Helden wasn't

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a monster or anything. He was one of those loud,

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broad shouldered firemen who made every story about himself, the

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kind of guy who'd tell you about a house fire.

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He'd put out an at like it was Vietnam. Still,

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he'd been part of the fabric of this place. And

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in small towns, even the people you don't love feel

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like pillars. But the moodas funeral wasn't grief. It was fear.

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There were no tears. Instead, people watched on, whispering, glancing

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over shoulders at shadows that weren't there. To the side,

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Missus Holland kept repeating, it's earlier than last time. Two

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older men stood behind me near the tree line, speaking

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low as the pastor drunned on. It started again, twenty

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seven years, like clockwork, thought we'd get more time. I

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pretended not to hear. I grew up listening to this

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kind of nonsense, stores about the black cycle, about the curse,

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about however twenty seven years someone would die in a

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way that didn't belong to the world. To me, it

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was always just superstition layered over tragedy. Small towns loved patterns,

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even if they had to invent them. But this time,

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this time felt different because nobody had an explanation for

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Howick burned to death inside an empty grain silo. There

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wasn't an investigation, no state fire marshal. Nothing at all.

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He got was a closed casket funeral and a quick

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burial before any one outside town could ask questions, and

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the silo itself. I drove past it and the way

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to the service. The whole structure had been reduced to

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a perfect black circle of ash on the ground, like

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someone had dropped a giant branding iron on it. Rick

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had been in the center, what was left of him anyway.

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After the service, people lingered in clusters, talking like frightened cattle.

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Then the whispering started. It's the vault, The vault's waking up.

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That's when I knew I wouldn't sleep if I didn't

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see the sight myself. I waited until sundown, until the

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sheriff's car was gone and the road was empty, then

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drove out to what was left of Hull and Siloh

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the fields were quiet, their naturally still. The ash circle

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fell wrong It didn't look shod in the way you'd expect,

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more like the ground had melted. I crouched, brushing my

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fingers across the surface. The concrete was glassy and smooth,

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fused into a dark, rippled shape, and in the center,

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where Rick had died, the scorch marks curved into an oval,

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wide at the ends, narrow in the middle, jagged around

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the edges, almost like teeth, a mouth an open one.

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I stood slowly, feeling a cold bloom in my chest,

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like recognition, though I didn't know why. I left. Before

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my mind could make sense of what I'd seen that night,

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I dreamt I was underground. I wasn't buried in dirt,

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buried in bone and a coffin made of intolocking teeth,

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and above me, something massive exhaled, something waiting and hungry.

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I didn't go to work the next day. Every time

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I closed my eyes, I saw the shape burned into

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the silent floor, those jagged edges, that impossible symmetry, like

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a fossil of something that had taken a bite out

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of the world. So instead of clocking in at my

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job at the hardware store, I drove to the town museum.

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It was like an overgrown attic, cold dust, full of

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things nobody wanted to throw away or remember. I told

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the curator I needed to do some genealogy research. Our

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archives were downstairs, She muttered, barely looking up. If anything

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bites you, it's not our liability. Nice. The archive room

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smelled like yellowing paper and mildew. Rows of metal, filing

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cabinets containing stacks of old town ledgers and newspaper reels

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older than any one alive in town. I started with

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obituaries eighteen nineties, nineteen tens, nineteen thirties, nineteen fifties. A

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pattern began to emerge before I even wanted to admit

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what I saw. Every twenty seven years, the death can spiked,

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an old man wiped out and a has fire past,

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a found hand in his own church, rough as a

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child drowning in a lake during a drout, just like

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the stow was. Then I found the nineteen ninety eight folder.

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It contained detailed cancel minutes, and they were terrifying. There

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were references to selection committee and a recipient list. The

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names were blacked out with heavying strokes, but the phrasing

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was unmistakable. One entry rate consent acquired, the fault remained sealed.

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What fault? What consent? I flipped page after page, hand

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sweating until I found a single note, clipped it inside cover.

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If the list isn'tcomplete note by the elders, no cycle

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can begin without unanimous selection. That was the first moment

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I felt something twist in my gut. Something had gone

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wrong this year. I pulled an old town survey map,

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spread it across the table and started comparing landmarks mentioned

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in the minutes. A creeked, it dried up in the sixties,

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the road was routed in the forties, an old settlement boundary.

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Then I found it, a place marked only once in

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tiny faded letters boldna. It was deep in the woods,

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far beyond the main trails, so remote it wasn't on

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modern GBS. A place nobody talked about, a place meant

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to be forgotten and, judging by the council minutes, deliberately avoided.

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I was stuffing the documents back into the folder when

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a chart slipped out, A folded piece of thick, brittle

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paper looked like it hadn't been touched in decades. On

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it was a family tree of the original settlers of

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the town were dozens of names and dozens of branches,

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most of them were crossed out with red pencil, and

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when I saw my own last name, my stomach dropped.

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My family's branch wasn't crossed town. It was circled hard,

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several times, deep enough to bring up the fibers of

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the paper, and next to it written in the same

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red pencil, next to seal the mouth. The room felt

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suddenly smaller, the air grew colder, and the hairs on

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my arms stood at attention, sending chills down my spine.

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I stood there, staring at that circle, that message, feeling

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like a hand had reached out of the past and

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grabbed the back of my neck. Whatever was happening now,

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my family hadn't just been a part of it. We

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were at the center of it. There were only two

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elders in town who had lived through the nineteen seventy

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one cycle, and one of them didn't talk any more.

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The other was Dolores Kint. She lived on a faded

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yellow house on Burchelane, a kind of place that looked

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like it should have caved in years ago, but by

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miracle stayed standing. I'd seen her at the grocery store

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sometimes pushing an empty cart, mumbling to herself. Some said

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she had dementia, but I also heard she watched her

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entire family die through a single October. I figured both

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could be true. I knocked on her door, but there

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was no answer. I was just about to leave when

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a shadow moved behind the curtains and the locks clicked one, two,

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three four. She opened the door, just wide enough for

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one eye. You're the mok of boys, she said. I

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didn't correct her. I wasn't sure if she meant my

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father or me. Her living room smell like dust medicine

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in old damp copper. She shuffled around and slippers, muttering tea,

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tea jo I macked tea. When I told her I

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had questions about the past, she stopped moving, just stopped.

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Her back stiffened, and she turned her head in a

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way that made my salivia taste like despair. When I swallowed,

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what year is it? She asked, twenty twenty five? She

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sucked in a sharp breath that soon she whispered. She

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wandered to her recliner and sat down, hard, hands trembling.

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I pulled the chair across from her. Dolores, I said quietly,

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I need to ask about nineteen seventy one, about your family,

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about the deaths. She didn't react until I said the

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word walt mouth. Her eyes snapped to mine, clear as crystal,

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like the fog lifted all at once. You shouldn't know

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that name, she exclaimed. Only the chosen and the choosers

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know that name. I found documents, I said, chancel notes

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from nineteen ninety eight mentions of a selection committee. She

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let out a shaky laugh. No one chooses any more,

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she said, That's why it's angry. Then her voice dropped

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to a rasp. It doesn't want a person, It wants

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the choice. That's the fact I swallowed. What happens if

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there is no choice? She leaned forward, cropping the edge

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of her chair with white knuckled fingers. If the town

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does not give, it takes, and it will keep taking

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until the mouth is full. Her eyes suddenly darted to

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the window, like she expected something to be peering in.

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Then her expression changed when blank fog rolled back in.

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She looked lost. What were we talking about? She murmured,

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Do I know you? I stood to leave, but before

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I could make a two steps, her hand shot out

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and grab my wrist. Heart Her voice was clear again, sharp, urgent,

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say it allowed her name with intend it listens. Then

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like a switch flipped, her grip loosened, and she sank

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back into the recliner, staring at the far wall. Her

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mouth moved silently, like she was praying to something that

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wasn't God. I left the house, trembling as I stepped

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onto the walkway. The sound of screeching toward down the street,

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then a horn fallowed by a sickening, metallic crack. About

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fifty yards away, a car had slammed into a telephone pole.

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The front end was crumpled like an aluminium can. Steam

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billowed from the engine. But what shot me wasn't the crash.

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It was the open driver's side doors, whening gently. No

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one was inside. There wasn't a trail leading away, no

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blood or body from the impact of Shiver crawled up

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my spine. This wasn't the first death. This was the

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beginning of something feeding. The map said it was called

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Vault Math, but the land around it had no name,

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no roads, just a thinning tree line off Rout nineteen

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and the path that felt like it hadn't been walped

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in decades apart where the road turned to gravel and

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followed the rest on foot, shoulder and drew bush, slipping

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down embankments, boots snagging on head and routes. The air

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got heavy the deeper I when eventually I found the fence,

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or what was left of a rotting would post space

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and even eight around the clearing, warp of crumbling bobbed

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wire and rusted iron nails, half driven in half bend upward.

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Fhader signs dangled by one hinge words long gum but

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symbol still visible. Circles, spirals are muff full of triangles.

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Latin esched into the boards, almost browned in none eligium

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was carnum, carnum elegant us. We do not choose the flesh,

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the flesh chooses us. It wasn't just creepy. It felt deliberate,

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like a warning whispered by dead hands. I stepped over

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the boundary. The trees stopped, all life absent. The soil

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turned ashen. The center of the clearing was perfectly flat,

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ringed with pale stones half sunk into the earth, and

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in the middle was a hole. At first glance I

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thought it was a well, but un closer inspection, it

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was a smooth vehicle shaft wide enough to drop a

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body into without folding it. The inside was black, no

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bottom in sight, and around the rim the stone had

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been carved in a tight viral grooves that coved down

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would like something had dragged claws around the edge a

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thousand times, just clean dressed stone, and the faint hummer pressure,

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like the air was breeding in an air. I picked

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up a pebble, held it for a second, then dropped

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it in nothing. No click or bounced, just gone light.

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The earth swallowed it before it hit the bottom. Nearer

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the lip of the shaft. Embedded in the ground was

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a slab of metal iron gon orange with age, bolted

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down with thick rivets. Names asched across the surface in

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uneven hand karv rows, dozens of them. Mira my fingers

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across the grooves, reading alive. Many I didn't recognize. Then

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near the bottom one I did wal to Mokroff, my

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f father, the last name and the list. My breath

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caught in my throat. He never mentioned this place, never

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said a word, but somehow he was part of it,

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in you. I left the clearing as fast as I

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could without run in like turning my back on the

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hole too quickly might give it permission to reach for me.

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The sun was starting to set by the time I

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got home. I opened the door to my trailer and

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that he was sitting in my kitchen, no coll or worning,

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just there. His eyes were sunken, shirt still half buttoned,

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knees jittering as foss came out, flat and shaking. You

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shouldn't have gone there. I hadn't seen him in months.

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We weren't estranged exactly. We just moved around each other

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like planets on a different door. But he's only ever

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showed up when something has gone on, and something had

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come very, very wrong. He looked older than I remembered, drained.

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His shirt was umbuddoned and crooked, hand shaking, eyes bludge

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up with tiredness, like he'd been waiting for something. Sit down,

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he said, I did, because the tone wasn't optional. He

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lowered himself into the chair, crossed from me, elbows on

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his knees, breathing slow and heavy, like he had to

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convince his lungs to keep working. I know what you've

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been looking into, he said. The archaves Dolores kind the vault.

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Hearing him say at lad felt like I swatter poured

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down my spine. Dad, What is it? What's in the vault?

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He looked away, Joe clenching. Then he said the words

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that would ruin everything I thought I knew about this place.

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00:11:06,080 --> 00:11:09,559
The town isn't cursed. It made a deal. He rubbed

235
00:11:09,559 --> 00:11:12,759
his face with both hands. Back in eighteen ninety, he said,

236
00:11:12,799 --> 00:11:15,039
the founder struck a pack with whichever lies under the ground.

237
00:11:15,679 --> 00:11:18,399
They called at the mouth, the deep, the listener. It

238
00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:21,480
doesn't matter what name ye use. He swallowed. However, we

239
00:11:21,559 --> 00:11:23,600
promised it a life every twenty seven years, just one

240
00:11:23,679 --> 00:11:25,639
chosen willingly through the vote, and in return it left

241
00:11:25,679 --> 00:11:27,600
the rest of us alone. Something horrible was happening to

242
00:11:27,679 --> 00:11:30,080
the settler, something so horrendous it warrant even recorded. The

243
00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:32,080
deal was the only way to survive. My stomach twisted.

244
00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:34,320
You're telling me this town has been sacrificing people. He

245
00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:36,600
didn't flinch. Willingly, as always with could sent always some

246
00:11:36,639 --> 00:11:38,440
one who accepted it a quiet death, a clean one,

247
00:11:38,440 --> 00:11:40,200
and the vault staate silled. I must have made a face,

248
00:11:40,240 --> 00:11:42,159
because he added, you think they wanted to make a deal,

249
00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:44,720
that they didn't try leaving He shook his head slowly

250
00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:48,559
people did leave. In the early years, whole farmers packed

251
00:11:48,600 --> 00:11:51,200
up wagons and tried to off on. It didn't matter

252
00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:55,440
wherever they went, something followed. Things would start to happen.

253
00:11:56,039 --> 00:11:59,600
Their crops were drop, the ground would go dry, children

254
00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:02,840
would get sick. And then he held up one trembling finger.

255
00:12:03,519 --> 00:12:06,799
One death always won. Something final like the mouth needed

256
00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:09,000
to remind them you can't cheat hunger, you can only

257
00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:12,279
feed it. He leaned back or tight. That's why they

258
00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:15,159
settled at in eighteen ninety, not to keep people in,

259
00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:17,919
but to keep something from following them out. I shot

260
00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:20,519
to my feet in shock. I know what it sounds like,

261
00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:24,639
he snapped. I know, but he went here for the

262
00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:28,480
years when the vote didn't happen, when people doubted, when

263
00:12:28,519 --> 00:12:32,360
they resisted, His eyes had gone distant. Those years were hell.

264
00:12:33,039 --> 00:12:35,519
I paced the room, trying to process it all. So

265
00:12:35,879 --> 00:12:40,000
what happened this time? I demanded? Why did the fireman die?

266
00:12:40,639 --> 00:12:44,600
Why are people disappearing? What changed? My dad leaned back

267
00:12:44,679 --> 00:12:46,440
and stared at the ceiling as if the answer was

268
00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:49,919
written there. This year, he said quietly. Nobody could agree.

269
00:12:50,480 --> 00:12:53,279
I started moving. The council argued for months. Half the

270
00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:55,600
Elters died off the younger generation doesn't believe. They think

271
00:12:55,639 --> 00:12:57,480
it's all folk tales. He let out a bit of luff.

272
00:12:57,519 --> 00:13:00,799
Turns out belief doesn't matter, responsibility does there softly there

273
00:13:00,840 --> 00:13:02,919
was no vote, no selection, no name of it. I

274
00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:05,159
felt my mouth go dry. So the fireman was taken.

275
00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:07,039
Dad said, but it doesn't count. It wasn't a will

276
00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:09,039
and offering. He leaned forward, eyes burning. It as to

277
00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:10,960
be chosen, not just to death. The words sunk into

278
00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:13,679
me like its because suddenly the pattern made sense. The

279
00:13:13,799 --> 00:13:16,440
random vanishing is the crash, the way the effelt charged

280
00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:19,159
and wrong, that act have been broken. The vault was hungry,

281
00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:21,360
and there was no offering to stop it. I sat

282
00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:26,080
back down slowly. He watched me something unreadable in his gaze. Okay,

283
00:13:26,279 --> 00:13:30,480
I whispered, So what now? If the sacrifice was made,

284
00:13:30,679 --> 00:13:33,240
what does the vault do? For a long moment, he

285
00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:36,519
didn't speak. Then he inhaled, sharply like the next part

286
00:13:36,600 --> 00:13:40,279
heard to say, then it's up to the collector. I frowned,

287
00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:44,200
What does that mean? He didn't let me finish? He

288
00:13:44,279 --> 00:13:46,200
looked at me with an expression I had never seen

289
00:13:46,240 --> 00:13:49,200
on his face before, terror, grief, in something like an

290
00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:53,000
apology The collector isn't a person, he said, It's a

291
00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:56,080
roll passed down a blood line every generation has won.

292
00:13:56,720 --> 00:13:59,360
His voice cracked and at the time won't choose the

293
00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:03,919
sacrifice the elector must. A cold pressure settled behind my ribs. No,

294
00:14:04,159 --> 00:14:08,080
I said, da, No, you're not saying. He closed his eyes,

295
00:14:08,799 --> 00:14:11,080
and then he said it, voiced barely above a whisper,

296
00:14:11,759 --> 00:14:15,080
the words I didn't want to hear, it's you. After

297
00:14:15,159 --> 00:14:17,720
my father left, I didn't sleep. I sat at the

298
00:14:17,799 --> 00:14:20,039
kitchen table thinking about the name etched into that rusted

299
00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:23,440
eyron plate, Walter Mocroft, my father at the previous collector

300
00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:26,039
now passed on to me. And I couldn't stop thinking

301
00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:27,559
about the way he'd looked at me, like I was

302
00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:30,480
something he was sorry for, not something he loved. I

303
00:14:30,559 --> 00:14:32,960
knew he hadn't told me everything, not even close. So

304
00:14:33,039 --> 00:14:34,799
I broke into the lot foot locker he kept under

305
00:14:34,799 --> 00:14:37,399
the guest bed. He always kept a boltage out, like

306
00:14:37,519 --> 00:14:39,720
he thought someone would try to steal his old hunting gear.

307
00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:42,279
But I knew the combination, same one he used for

308
00:14:42,399 --> 00:14:47,159
everything inside, not weapons or chuwols, just journals, stacks of them,

309
00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:50,080
whether worked in yellowing page After page in my father's tight,

310
00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:54,000
careful handwriting. Most of it was nonsense at first, whether reports,

311
00:14:54,039 --> 00:14:58,000
council meeting notes, obituaries with names under lined encircled. He'd

312
00:14:58,039 --> 00:15:01,000
been tracking every cycle since I was born. But then

313
00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:04,039
the language changed. He stopped writing like a man and

314
00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:07,480
started writing like a witness. One page read it speaks

315
00:15:07,519 --> 00:15:10,039
in symbols, now dreams. The hum in the trees isn't

316
00:15:10,039 --> 00:15:13,000
the wind. It's waiting for its name to be spoken. Another.

317
00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:15,960
When the collector is called, the chosen cannot offer themselves.

318
00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:18,480
The collector must choose. This is the pact, the old way,

319
00:15:18,559 --> 00:15:21,440
not by death by right. The words collector and vault

320
00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:25,519
mouth appeared again and again, sometimes capitalized, sometimes underlined and red,

321
00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:29,519
and next to them crude diagrams of the vault, the shaft,

322
00:15:29,639 --> 00:15:32,240
the spiral, the concentric rings of trees around it, marked

323
00:15:32,240 --> 00:15:35,600
with strange glyffs. Some look like runes, others like teeth.

324
00:15:36,159 --> 00:15:38,279
One diagram showed a person standing at the edge of

325
00:15:38,279 --> 00:15:41,279
the vault with errors pointing inward, as if their presence activated.

326
00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:44,879
Something opened. Something then came a section I hadn't expected.

327
00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:47,759
Returning back to the style of a journal, detailing date

328
00:15:47,879 --> 00:15:49,559
by day, beats at a tense time in the town.

329
00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:52,679
It spoke of apocalyptic symptoms, the lake changing color, the

330
00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:55,720
sky casting strange hues, and the wildlife losing their minds.

331
00:15:56,360 --> 00:15:59,639
People disappeared and families were torn apart, all because Walter,

332
00:15:59,840 --> 00:16:02,879
my father, could not choose. It mimicked the current time,

333
00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:05,720
the council not choosing, and the decision falling to the collector,

334
00:16:06,320 --> 00:16:08,600
an impossible choice of life and death. One to die

335
00:16:08,639 --> 00:16:11,120
for many to live. That night, the vault came to

336
00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:13,519
me again in dreams, but this time I wasn't inside it.

337
00:16:13,679 --> 00:16:16,600
I wasn't falling. I was standing above it, at the edge,

338
00:16:16,639 --> 00:16:20,039
looking out. A crowd of people, kneeling, hands gasped, heads bowed,

339
00:16:20,519 --> 00:16:23,399
whispering something I couldn't hear, and I was speaking. My

340
00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:26,000
mouth moved, my voice was not my own, and the

341
00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:30,279
vault opened. It started with the birds. Every morning, my

342
00:16:30,399 --> 00:16:33,360
poor trailing used to be dotted with crows, the smart,

343
00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:36,000
spiteful rascals that lined everywhere in the town like little

344
00:16:36,039 --> 00:16:39,600
black jodges. Then one morning they were all just gone.

345
00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:42,039
That same day, a field of cows in the western

346
00:16:42,039 --> 00:16:44,600
of town was found standing in perfect formation, heads lowered

347
00:16:44,639 --> 00:16:47,679
toward the ground. A moving, every single one of them, dead,

348
00:16:47,759 --> 00:16:52,120
bloodless organs, folded inside out like paper crafts. Two nights later,

349
00:16:52,279 --> 00:16:55,440
I heard something boil, but not from the kitchen, from outside.

350
00:16:56,039 --> 00:16:57,679
I looked out and saw it was the lake. An

351
00:16:57,799 --> 00:16:59,639
entire body of water, rolling like a pot left on

352
00:16:59,759 --> 00:17:03,120
tul wigs Pond, the old reservoir where we used to

353
00:17:03,159 --> 00:17:05,400
swim when we were kids, steamed for ten hours straight.

354
00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,559
The water turned thick and red fish floated to the surface,

355
00:17:08,599 --> 00:17:12,000
split open. The air changed after that, smelled rawn, sweet,

356
00:17:12,039 --> 00:17:15,640
but spoiled, like wadded peaches or burnt heath. Something was opening,

357
00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:18,359
and I wasn't the only one who noticed. The few

358
00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:20,920
remained in town elders, the one who still remembered how

359
00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:23,839
this thing worked. Cold Seeker Vote. They held it in

360
00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:26,000
the old stone house outside Mill Creek, the kind of

361
00:17:26,039 --> 00:17:29,240
place built with no insulation and too many locks. Only

362
00:17:29,319 --> 00:17:31,839
six of them showed up. They tried to vote, They

363
00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:33,559
tried to choose a name, but the vault didn't care

364
00:17:33,559 --> 00:17:36,440
any more. It had waited, been ignored, denied its due.

365
00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:40,240
Now it wanted me, not as a meal, as a mouthpiecet.

366
00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:43,680
I didn't hit a second hand. One of the elders

367
00:17:43,799 --> 00:17:46,440
I retired judge named Halvesa came to my door at dawn.

368
00:17:47,039 --> 00:17:49,440
His eyes were bloodshot, his knuckles scraped, like he'd punched

369
00:17:49,519 --> 00:17:52,599
something harder than he expected. He sat on my port's wing,

370
00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:55,400
hands trembling as he lit a cigarette. We failed it,

371
00:17:55,559 --> 00:17:59,559
he said. I didn't speak here the last stop, you understand,

372
00:18:00,319 --> 00:18:03,240
I just stared. He flicked ash on to the ground.

373
00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:07,599
The collector exists for a reason in case of breakdown Tan,

374
00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:11,319
when the people can't choose the blood mass. You're not

375
00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:15,440
a sacrifice. You're the priest to speak a name with intent.

376
00:18:16,279 --> 00:18:19,039
That's all you have to do. If you need coggestions,

377
00:18:19,079 --> 00:18:21,599
I can. I told him to get off my property,

378
00:18:22,319 --> 00:18:24,160
told him I wasn't killing anyone for a town too

379
00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:27,359
cowardly to face its own history. You're offering that's different.

380
00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:30,960
I slammed the door, but the ground kept humming. That night,

381
00:18:31,039 --> 00:18:34,279
it got worse. The sky turned the color of ole bruises.

382
00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:37,759
The cloud spiraled low and fast, like water being sucked

383
00:18:37,759 --> 00:18:40,599
down a drain. My neighbor's trees, blood sap that smelt

384
00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:44,839
like iron. Dogs stopped barking, In fact, dogs stopped moving.

385
00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:48,759
A low bell began to ring from nowhere, no visible source,

386
00:18:49,640 --> 00:18:52,599
just there, vibrating through the soles of your feet. Something

387
00:18:52,680 --> 00:18:55,839
was uncoiling. The vault wasn't sealed any more, not fully.

388
00:18:56,480 --> 00:18:58,599
At three point twenty one am, my phone lit up

389
00:18:58,640 --> 00:19:02,519
with a message from an unknown number, just one line shoes.

390
00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:05,880
By morning, the lawer's Kim was dead. She had been

391
00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:08,519
found in a bed, peaceful, no winds, no trauma, but

392
00:19:08,599 --> 00:19:11,640
her face was smiling, hands folded like kinnechurch pew, and

393
00:19:11,799 --> 00:19:14,920
between her palms a yellowing card, handridden, addressed to me

394
00:19:15,599 --> 00:19:18,240
name the Chosen. I knew where they kept the records.

395
00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:22,079
It wasn't a secret it The room was beneath the

396
00:19:22,119 --> 00:19:24,119
old ten Hall, not in the modern wing, but in

397
00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:27,119
the original limestone foundation, with a smell of meldy soaked

398
00:19:27,160 --> 00:19:28,960
into your tom and the light was like and insect

399
00:19:29,079 --> 00:19:32,559
was trapped behind your eyes. It was still unlocked. They

400
00:19:32,599 --> 00:19:35,119
hadn't even tried to hide it. Maybe they wanted me

401
00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:38,519
to find it. The Selection Ledger was a thick cloth

402
00:19:38,559 --> 00:19:40,440
bound book that looked like it belonged in a court

403
00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:43,559
house or a church, heavy freight, smelling of dust and

404
00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:48,079
smoke and human oil inside, names page after page, each

405
00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:51,559
androten in the concursor sundated over a century ago. I

406
00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:54,319
flaked forward to the most recent year, this year. The

407
00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:58,319
first few pages were normal, just names, birthdays, occupations, handrid

408
00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:01,680
and summaries of each candidate's commune, city standing, financial status,

409
00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:05,079
and family size. Then I started seeing the red circles

410
00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:07,640
suggestions for choice, a short list for them to vote on.

411
00:20:08,319 --> 00:20:11,359
Alongside them were stirring judgments marked with phrases like approaching

412
00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:14,240
end of life or minimal surviving kin or historically low

413
00:20:14,279 --> 00:20:18,640
civic contribution. And then added on were notes not from

414
00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:22,839
the elders. No, their handwriting was firmer, direct, but younger handwriting,

415
00:20:23,039 --> 00:20:27,640
softer language directional. Even Marling Gailloud eighty four, she still

416
00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:31,079
tutors at the library. Her great granddaughter just got accepted

417
00:20:31,079 --> 00:20:34,400
to college. She brings hope to the family. This would

418
00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:38,920
destroy them. Thomas Harvey fifty eight, disabled, It still teachers

419
00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:42,559
would working mentor's trouble kids as PTSD wouldn't be ethical.

420
00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:47,200
Alicia Norris forty one chronic illness, started the Grief Circle

421
00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:50,480
after the nineteen ninety eight death. Still manages the town

422
00:20:50,559 --> 00:20:53,599
website would send the rum message to others with chronic conditions.

423
00:20:54,319 --> 00:20:58,119
George Amlin, seventy one. Ex convict, he served as Time

424
00:20:58,279 --> 00:21:01,960
runs the food pantry. His death would confirm every stereotype

425
00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:04,880
the town's trying to grow past. Every single name was

426
00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:08,680
paired with the counterpoint. Every sacrifice was dismantled by empathy.

427
00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:12,319
The deeper I read, the angrier I felt, not at them,

428
00:21:12,559 --> 00:21:15,079
but how familiar it was, How easy it is to

429
00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:18,799
rationalize in action when action feels monstrous. This was in corruption,

430
00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:22,359
It was blood lust, it was compassion. They had tried

431
00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:24,519
to be better, but better didn't stop the vault from waking.

432
00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:29,119
Better didn't boil the lake. Better didn't spare Dolores. Or

433
00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:32,200
was it ignorance? A new wave of leaders who wrote

434
00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:36,279
off tradition as ignorance, something to move past. The final

435
00:21:36,319 --> 00:21:39,440
page wasn't even finished, just a handful of names with

436
00:21:39,519 --> 00:21:42,079
writing scratched through, like someone had grown furious and thrown

437
00:21:42,079 --> 00:21:44,839
the pen across the room in a margin, one line

438
00:21:44,839 --> 00:21:48,920
of near handwriting, there are no perfect deaths, another in pencil.

439
00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:52,599
Then maybe we stopped pretending it's wif choosing, and under

440
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:55,640
that scrolled in dark pen pressure piercing through the paper.

441
00:21:56,359 --> 00:22:00,240
Then we died together. I closed the book, the vault

442
00:22:00,279 --> 00:22:03,440
was right. This wasn't a sacrifice any more. It was

443
00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:06,720
a failure. That night, I dreamed of the spiral again,

444
00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:11,200
only this time I descended. No ladder, no rope, no fording.

445
00:22:11,799 --> 00:22:13,759
I just fell gently as a fee. Air below me

446
00:22:13,839 --> 00:22:16,440
had turned to water. The stone walls pulled away as

447
00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:19,200
I went, becoming rips than roots, then rows of open mass,

448
00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:22,240
all breeding together in rhythm. And at the bottom, where

449
00:22:22,279 --> 00:22:25,160
Sancha vanished into nothing, there was light, soft, living, like

450
00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:27,920
a heart beat underskin. I didn't hear anything, but I

451
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:30,160
felt it behind my eyes and my gums, in the

452
00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:32,720
mirrow of every bone. The town agreed to the cost,

453
00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:37,319
it said. I turned, and around me were reflections, other towns,

454
00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:40,440
other timelines. Each one was different, and in all of

455
00:22:40,519 --> 00:22:43,640
them the vault had gone unceealed. One showed spirals of

456
00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:46,000
fire coiling up into the sky, turning birds inside out

457
00:22:46,039 --> 00:22:49,279
in flight. Another at a town square full of kneeling people,

458
00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:52,279
mouths sown shut with golden thread, trees grown backwards through

459
00:22:52,319 --> 00:22:55,880
their skulls. In one, the vault was gone, not sealed,

460
00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:57,799
but absorbed, as if it had eaten the line around

461
00:22:57,839 --> 00:23:00,440
it and kept growing. They were all worse than anything

462
00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:02,519
I could imagine, and every one of them had something

463
00:23:02,559 --> 00:23:05,799
in common. No choice was me. I woke up with

464
00:23:05,839 --> 00:23:07,559
my pelisse hooked and sweat and my tongue heavy in

465
00:23:07,599 --> 00:23:10,079
my mouth, like it had been speaking without me. Despite

466
00:23:10,119 --> 00:23:11,720
all I had seen and what I could call more

467
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:13,839
a vision than a dream, I still couldn't pick one name.

468
00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:17,200
I didn't call a meeting, but they came anyway. One

469
00:23:17,279 --> 00:23:19,839
by one, the elders filed into my living room. Some

470
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,799
look resigned, some looked angry, some looked like they hadn't

471
00:23:22,839 --> 00:23:25,960
slept in days. I'm behind them. The younger council members

472
00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:27,759
slunk him, with a stink of guilt on their faces.

473
00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:33,000
No greetings, a small talk, just expectation. Judge Vressor was

474
00:23:33,039 --> 00:23:35,720
the first to speak. It has to be now, he said,

475
00:23:36,359 --> 00:23:39,680
We've run out of time. Another miller ran her hand

476
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:43,440
through her hair, shaking. You've studded the list, You've seen

477
00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:46,559
the sky. Ye know what happens if we don't. My

478
00:23:46,720 --> 00:23:50,720
throat hadn't. I'm not choosing, I said, not one, not

479
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:54,680
any of them. A long silence. Then something changed in

480
00:23:54,759 --> 00:23:57,440
the room. The faces of the younger members, those who

481
00:23:57,480 --> 00:23:59,559
had written all the gentle notes in the margins all

482
00:23:59,599 --> 00:24:02,240
the reasons why each circled name shouldn't be chosen shifted,

483
00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:06,160
the sympthy drained, the humanity dimmed. A man named Devon

484
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:08,400
stepped forward, jabbing a finger at the ledger on my

485
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:11,839
coffee table. Just pick someone from the marked list, he snapped.

486
00:24:12,599 --> 00:24:17,440
Any one. Marlene is old, Norris is sick, our is

487
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:22,160
basically retired. It doesn't matter, Just choose. These were the

488
00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:24,880
same people who'd written She's a pillar of her family.

489
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:28,680
He volunteers more than anyone. She gives hope to the community.

490
00:24:29,319 --> 00:24:32,640
Now they spoke like accountant's balancing a ledger. It's between

491
00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:36,119
them or us, Devon said, don't act like it's complicated.

492
00:24:36,759 --> 00:24:40,279
Something inside me curdled. I shoved the ledger away, sending

493
00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:42,920
its getting across the floor. If you want a name

494
00:24:43,039 --> 00:24:45,519
so bad, I said, through my teeth, pick one of yourselves.

495
00:24:46,279 --> 00:24:49,440
We can't Bessa whispered. It won't listen to us any more.

496
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:53,440
It only listens to the collector. Well, then you're all screwed,

497
00:24:53,519 --> 00:24:55,640
I said, because I'm not playing priest for a monster.

498
00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:58,200
The idea of getting blood on my hands to save

499
00:24:58,279 --> 00:25:01,119
these people, ready to condemn another with a responsibility, I

500
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,359
didn't ask for was too much. The room went dead quiet.

501
00:25:05,079 --> 00:25:06,960
Everyone stared at me like I had just set the

502
00:25:07,039 --> 00:25:10,920
house on fire. But nobody said a thane. Nobody argued

503
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:14,000
or moved. They just stood there, waiting, hoping fear would

504
00:25:14,039 --> 00:25:17,519
make me fold. And then the door exploded inward. My

505
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:19,279
father storned him with the force of a man who

506
00:25:19,319 --> 00:25:22,119
had been running for miles as wide, hair slicked with sweat.

507
00:25:22,799 --> 00:25:25,680
His voice hit the room before he did. You stupid boy,

508
00:25:25,839 --> 00:25:28,880
he roared. You think this is a joke. You think

509
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:31,359
he get to refuse. I thought he was just going

510
00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:33,599
to yell, maybe should me, maybe try to scare me

511
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:35,880
into it. I did not think he would tackle me

512
00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:38,039
to the floor. My head hit the hard wood so

513
00:25:38,119 --> 00:25:41,440
hard starsburst behind my eyes. Before I could breathe, his

514
00:25:41,559 --> 00:25:43,759
hands were on my collar, dragging me up and slamming

515
00:25:43,799 --> 00:25:47,240
me back down again. Say a name, he barked, Just

516
00:25:47,319 --> 00:25:49,880
say the God I name. At first I thought he

517
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:52,720
was bluffing, losing control and panic. But the weight of

518
00:25:52,759 --> 00:25:55,559
my chest didn't lift and his fists didn't stop. My

519
00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:59,039
vision blurred white At the edges mighty threttled with each blow.

520
00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:03,319
The high the alder stood frozen, not intervening, not helping,

521
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:06,039
watching things play out, not knowing which side to take.

522
00:26:06,799 --> 00:26:09,839
Some horrified, some relieved, watching action. They must have dreamt

523
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:12,920
a doing, but didn't have the guts. My father lean close,

524
00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:15,759
breath hot on my cheek. You're supposed to keep it sealed.

525
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:19,319
You're supposed to be better than this, he snarled. I

526
00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:22,920
had to do this too, Just do it another blow.

527
00:26:23,559 --> 00:26:27,680
My skull screamed, No wonder your mother left, No wonder

528
00:26:27,759 --> 00:26:32,440
I left. You were always weak, always a disappointment, Just

529
00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:35,240
like now. He was trying to scare me any more.

530
00:26:35,839 --> 00:26:39,000
He was trying to kill me. My ears ran, the

531
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:41,720
blood filled the back of my throat. The world tilted

532
00:26:41,799 --> 00:26:47,359
sideways ways. I felt myself slipping, consciousness, lipping, dissolving, like

533
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:50,200
the vault was already tugging at me. And in my delirium,

534
00:26:50,279 --> 00:26:53,279
one thought surfaced. I didn't have to choose from the lists.

535
00:26:53,319 --> 00:26:55,480
I could choose the one trying to kill me. My

536
00:26:55,599 --> 00:26:57,799
lips moved. Before I fully realized what I was saying,

537
00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:05,319
I whispered my father's name, barely audible, pracked, broken but true.

538
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:09,559
The second the consonants left my mouth, the weight vanished. Done.

539
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:13,440
My father was sprawled over me anymore, softest, like a

540
00:27:13,480 --> 00:27:16,640
heart attack or stroke. He wasn't in the room, he

541
00:27:16,839 --> 00:27:19,799
wasn't anywhere. A moment ago, he was beating me into

542
00:27:19,839 --> 00:27:23,480
the floor. Now there was only air in silence. A

543
00:27:23,519 --> 00:27:26,319
few of the elders gasped, One crossed himself. Another woman

544
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:29,200
looked away, trembling. No one said a word, because they

545
00:27:29,279 --> 00:27:31,519
knew what I had done, and worse, they knew what

546
00:27:31,599 --> 00:27:36,200
it meant. The room emptied in minutes. No goodbyes, no reprimands,

547
00:27:36,319 --> 00:27:40,440
no condolences, just fear. They fled like they expected the

548
00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:43,200
house to collapse. The second they crossed the threshold. I

549
00:27:43,319 --> 00:27:45,519
was left lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling,

550
00:27:45,839 --> 00:27:48,839
my heart beat hammering in my teeth. Eventually I stood,

551
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:52,279
walked to the window. The sky was clearing, the clouds unraveling,

552
00:27:52,319 --> 00:27:56,119
colors returning, the hum in the earth finally quiet. It

553
00:27:56,279 --> 00:27:59,920
was over, Just like that. My father was the sacrifice.

554
00:28:00,759 --> 00:28:04,640
The town was safe for now. The town healed fast.

555
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:08,200
That was the strangest part in the weeks I followed.

556
00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:11,680
Life returned to rhythm, not the same rhythm maybe, but

557
00:28:11,799 --> 00:28:14,720
something close enough to pass for normal. The sky lost

558
00:28:14,759 --> 00:28:17,279
its bruised hue, the trees stopped leaning in, the power

559
00:28:17,359 --> 00:28:20,039
line stopped whispering. People got up and went to work.

560
00:28:20,079 --> 00:28:22,480
The butcher reopened, The school held a BIG's ale. The

561
00:28:22,559 --> 00:28:24,519
lake was still red, but no one talked about that.

562
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:28,759
The selection committee resumed their meetings quieter, now, fewer members

563
00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:31,920
and fewer words spoken. When they left those rooms. Once

564
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:34,799
I used to see them as elders, guardians, wise men

565
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:39,160
and women holding ancient truths. Now they looked like exhausted survivors,

566
00:28:39,319 --> 00:28:42,119
scared of what might come next. I never went back

567
00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:44,680
to their meetings. They never asked me to. But there

568
00:28:44,759 --> 00:28:47,000
was one thing left to do. One door I hadn't opened.

569
00:28:47,559 --> 00:28:49,880
My father's house sat just off the main square, topped

570
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:53,039
between two identical ranch style homes. I driven past it

571
00:28:53,079 --> 00:28:56,079
a hundred times without thinking. I don't know what I expected,

572
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,680
but when I stepped inside, it was exactly what I'd feared.

573
00:28:59,279 --> 00:29:01,839
Spas for anigh, a sink full of old dishes, frozen

574
00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:04,240
dinners stacked like brooks in the freezer, or klino with

575
00:29:04,279 --> 00:29:06,160
an ass crow too deep to ron jew facing a

576
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:09,039
TV tune permanently to the sports channel. It was a

577
00:29:09,119 --> 00:29:13,000
life half lived, lonely, eat mechanical gray. I stood in

578
00:29:13,079 --> 00:29:16,519
that room for a long time. It smelt like dust, coffee,

579
00:29:16,559 --> 00:29:18,440
and a man who didn't know what to do with silence.

580
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:21,559
And then I saw it, A folded piece of paper

581
00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:24,200
sitting on the coffee table. My name was written on

582
00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:27,640
the front of my father's blocky, stubborn handwriting. I opened it.

583
00:29:28,359 --> 00:29:30,359
If you're reading this, then I went through with it.

584
00:29:31,200 --> 00:29:33,599
I'm sorry you had to see it. Sorry you had

585
00:29:33,599 --> 00:29:35,519
to be a part of it. I didn't want that

586
00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:39,359
for you, not ever. That's why I left. But I

587
00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:41,599
had to make sure you dear it. I couldn't risk

588
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:44,119
you freezing up the way the others did. I know you,

589
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:48,039
I raise you. You were always the good one. Even

590
00:29:48,079 --> 00:29:50,240
when you were little. You gave away your Halloween candy

591
00:29:50,279 --> 00:29:52,119
to the kids who were too scared to trick or treat.

592
00:29:52,759 --> 00:29:55,160
You used to cry when you saw rokil That's the

593
00:29:55,279 --> 00:30:00,559
kind of heart you have, it honest kind. But a

594
00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:03,279
heart like that won't save this town. It never has.

595
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:06,000
I said things I didn't mean, did things I never

596
00:30:06,079 --> 00:30:09,200
wanted to do. You have to know that I needed

597
00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:11,720
to make myself into the enemy. I needed to give

598
00:30:11,759 --> 00:30:14,160
you some one worth condemning. If you hated me enough

599
00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:16,720
to speak my name with weight, then you'd survive. I'm

600
00:30:16,759 --> 00:30:19,839
the town would too. That was always the deal. One

601
00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:23,000
name spoken with intent. That's how the mouth knows offering

602
00:30:23,079 --> 00:30:25,319
is real. It had to be me. I was already

603
00:30:25,319 --> 00:30:27,839
half for gun anyway. I've been watching the sky for

604
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:31,680
years now. I could feel it, the teeth behind the clouds,

605
00:30:32,359 --> 00:30:35,839
the pressure in my bones. It was coming. I knew

606
00:30:35,839 --> 00:30:37,799
were going to be the one A turn to, so

607
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:40,720
I gave you something to aim at me. I'm proud

608
00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:43,799
of you, not because ye did what I wanted, but

609
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:47,720
because even after everything, I think you hesitated. Don't let

610
00:30:47,799 --> 00:30:50,519
this town break you. You're not like the rest of them.

611
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:54,039
Keep being the kind one, even if it hurts all

612
00:30:54,119 --> 00:30:57,519
My love Dad. I sat down in his chair. It

613
00:30:57,559 --> 00:31:00,559
didn't feel right, didn't fit me, but I sat there anyway,

614
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:03,599
and I cried harder than I had in yours. Not

615
00:31:03,759 --> 00:31:05,759
because he was gone or because of what he did,

616
00:31:06,519 --> 00:31:10,400
but because I understood, and I hated that I understood