The Blue Ribbon Part 2

Evening wears on day turns into night Father sits and looks at the phone, waiting for it to ring. He fumbles with the radio tuning it to the nearest Radio station to see if there are updates. "Just in!" The excited weatherman shouts, "Severe weather headed our way. It looks like it's going to be a rough night, folks."

Suddenly Father dashes out the door and down to the basement, locking the door and then back up the steps. Mother grabs the Hurricane lamps. In the distance, lights flicker, flashing as if a movie star were approaching and reporters were trying to capture her picture.

Then laugher echoed this time from under the floor. Momma, was that in the basement? "Shh, child," as she put her hand over my mouth. Father stood in shock. "How could something like this be happening?" He muttered out loud. The confusion was evident, his mind twisted with bewilderment. He sat down, putting both hands on his head, and screams, "What do you want from us!" The laughter echoed again—this time outside behind the kitchen wall next to the mountain.

Mother hugs daughter closer, whispers from all angles linger in the air through the room. Seeming to come from every corner as if every piece of wood were speaking.

In the fog, two headlights race off in the rain, the Preacher saying, I cannot believe what I saw. Am I losing my mind? He questioned himself out loud in the car. The fog rolled in thicker and thicker lightning began to flash rain began to pour down. He says out loud, "Once I get to town, I can get call my mentor and ask him what to do about this. He'll know he knows how to deal with almost everything." He starts to notice the rain is coming down even harder. The water flowing off the car distorts his image, giving his appearance a look of being in pain and screaming. When he sees this, he screams, swerves, and almost runs off the road.

He comes to an abrupt stop, water splashing his head, almost hitting the steering wheel.

"That was close." He mutters to himself. He looks down on his sleeve, and there is one hair that is not his there. "Curious," he thinks. He puts the car back in gear and resumes his trip into the town, this time more carefully. Finally, getting closer, he can see lights, a sense of relief begins to flow through him. Then there is a thump. The car bounces, "I hit something!" He gets out to his utter horror to see a small child lying in the road dead. "What have I done! I didn't see anyone there!" Crying talking to himself, he gets down on his knees and says, "God forgive me!" Then a clap of thunder and bolt of lightning hit right above him with a catastrophic boom. He falls to the ground, knocked out.

Moments later, a passerby pulls up, rolling the man over. "Hey, Mister! Hey, Mister, you ok?" He groans and says, "Where am I?" The young man says you're near town. Here let me help you up." The young man continued, "Mister, you are soaking wet what happened?" The stunned Preacher said, "I don't know. I was driving there was the storm I thought I hit someone. Wait, I hit a child! Where is the child!" The young man said, "That storm was bad, I was right behind you, sir, but there was no child. Are you sober, sir? I mean, I won't say if your not. It's none of my business."

The Preacher, insulted by these words, said, "Young man, I'm a Preacher" I do not drink. Jerking away from the young man, he gets back into his car and starts back toward town. Pulling into town, he sees a gas station still open and hastily jumps out. I need to use the phone if you don't mind, young man. Sure, sir, right there on the wall. After moments of conversation, he says, "Great, tomorrow morning will do just fine." He then looks at the young man at the station and says, is there a motel or hotel in town here?" The young man says, "No sir, that would be the next town over about an hour in this weather." "Which way?" The Preacher questions.

The storm starts to pound the house, the hole in the roof open enough to see the sky through when lightning flashes. The house begins to groan. The trees sway back and forth the laughter again appears and vanishes. Mother, what is that? She shouts over the thunder, "I have no idea." Father sits with his hands over his head in his seat. The house begins to vibrate as if it were going to lift off its foundation. Mother, is this one of those bad dreams I will wake up from, or is this real? The mother responds, "This is real!" The daughter screams, "Make it stop!" Mother screams, "I can't!"

On the wall beside their heads, tiny wet handprints appear; Father looks up to see them appearing. The horror on his face indicates Something is going on behind them, so Mother and daughter look back to see the tiny handprints appearing and water dripping down as each handprint appears. Then a brilliant bolt of lightning claps close to the little house with a thunderous boom. A tiny face appears for a split second and then is gone—the three rush to the center of the room in utter shock. They stand together. Car lights appear in the distance.

The storms' rage pounds the tiny shack. The car spins and casts mud as it tries to make its way back up the hill.

Mother loosens her grip to look out the window. Father was standing behind her. The moon peeked through the storm clouds. In the yard beside the large poplar tree stood a man. Old, wet, very angry looking, he proceeded to circle the house, stopping briefly to look up at the bright moon, uttering words no one had heard before. Then he began to spread Something upon the ground creating a circle around the house.

Mother "Who is that? What on earth is he doing?" Father is shaking. "I have no idea!"

The older man greyed out by the moonlight, moved swiftly, supernaturally encircling the house, casting Something as he walked. The car light danced as it tried to make its way up the muddy hill, swerving backward and forth.

Laughter again echoes through the tiny house, sending chills up and down everyone's spines. Then with a thunderous clap, the storm starts again. This time the rain is coming down even more than before. The child's laughter splinters through the house as if the echoes were coming from every room at the same time.

Then an unusual thud of a car door outside their house appears. Father rushes to the door, "It's the preacher!" He shouts. That rescue is short-lived. He sees the older man standing facing off with the man of God. Father stands watching while the two see each other.

Everyone can hear the child's laughter while water is pouring down, and The Preacher and the Older Man aim at each other.

Then in a puff of smoke, the older man vanishes to reappear to The Preacher's right, to the left disorienting him. "What are you! I command you to tell me!" The Preacher screams! "I answer to no man." The child's laughter again echoes.

Mother and Daughter both scream in harmony. The daughter looking at her mother, said, "What on earth is happening?" The mother replies, "I don't know." Then a voice a hoarse voice said, "Some monsters you can't bury deep enough, can you, mother?" "What!" Mother screams! Leave me alone!

Father rushing to their side, says, "What happened?" Daughter trying to explain, says, "The voice said, "Some monsters you can't bury deep enough, can you, mother?" What does it mean, Father?

Outside, the older man circles the house still shouts, "I have the beats caught this time, and you will not interfere, Preacher man." "What are you talking about, old man? What have you caught? Who are you? Do you know these people?" The Preacher shouts to the top of his lungs. No answer, The child's laughter now can be heard outside. The Preacher stood listening. The old man shouts out, "That's no child, you fool, no get out of my way."

The Preacher, stunned by this, stops for a moment catching his breath, water draining down his face in streams now, thunder and lightning overhead. "Then what is it?" He shouts at the older man. The older man answers, "Something brought to this earth long ago, with good intentions but was went foul." "That doesn't answer the question. What is it?" The Preacher shouts back impatiently.

"Man-made is what it is. Hellbound is where it's going." The older man keeps going in a circle, casting what looks like white stones. "What are those?" The Preacher shouts. The older man says, "Enough talk. I have work to do." A second figure appears off to the rear of The Preacher, a shorter man soaked. "Is that an Indian?" The Preacher questioned himself. The older man shouts, "Come, Brother, we have work to do." The smaller man gets a hand full of rocks and begins to circle the house. Now the laughter has turned to cry, almost screaming. Everyone inside the house is huddled together. Their minds are bewildered and mentally dismayed by all that they have seen.

The two men look to The Preacher and say, "Join us, Brother. We need you. Something brought here for a reason. Now help us." The Preacher, bewildered by this, stops for a moment, takes a handful of the white stones, and starts casting them. "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want." The three of them joining forces then begin to rattle the creature.

Father, what's happening? Daughter looking up at her Father. The mother says, "What is happening? Is it dying?" Father says, "I don't know."

The three men now walk around the outside of the house casting the white stones chanting The Preacher reciting Bible verses, The Indian ancient chants, of freedom, The older man using words never heard by men before. Finally, in an explosion of relief, the laughter dies, the house stops moving, the rain stops, the air clams.

The family dashes out of the house to meet the men; Mother asks first, "What was that?" The older man says, "Something we dare never name it used you, and the death of your child to come back into this world. I locked it up a long time ago and thought it would never be let loose. I was wrong." My child? She gave great pause; the old Indian man said, "You have something from a child that didn't live?" She said, "Yes, I do, a blue ribbon in a heart-shaped locket my children destroyed the locket years ago but left the ribbon it has a clipping of the babbies hair tied up in it." Putting her hand over her mouth.

The Father said, "I never dreamed of such a thing." The Indian said, "You would be amazed at what's out when you open your eyes." It is good, and it is evil. One this, there is always "more ." The morning starts to peek through the clouds the family begins to sit down. Relief takes hold in a flash. The older man and the Indian were gone as if they were never there.

The phone rings. Father stands there bewildered, "But But." looking at the Preacher and his wife. "Ok, Yeah, I hate to hear that too." Mother, what's wrong? Father whispers, "The Preacher was killed in a car wreck last night. They found his body earlier today." Wait, he was standing right here right then!