The Cabin Is Always Hungry

Arc 1 | Nightmare Suburbia (8)

NIGHTMARE SUBURBIA

Part 8

‘LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF A HORROR MOVIE’: MASSACRE AT GREEN HILL; 8 DEAD, SUSPECT AT LARGE.

by Toby Malley, KGWA Staff

Fri, September 22nd 2023, 6:30 PM PDT

Point Hope, Oregon (AP): Hundreds of terrified residents fled from Point Hope’s affluent neighborhood, known by locals as Green Hill, after a brutal mass slaying, shortly between 12 noon to 1 PM, authorities said.

The gruesome crime unfolded in a quiet suburban neighborhood, leaving residents in a state of fear and disbelief. Law enforcement agencies swiftly responded to multiple emergency calls reporting screams coming from multiple residences along NE Oaken Street. Upon arrival, they discovered a horrific scene of carnage, with eight casualties scattered across four residences.

While the identities of the victims have not yet been officially released, preliminary information suggests that they range in age of seventeen to late fifties and include both males and females. The motive behind this heinous act remains unknown, leaving the community in a state of anguish and seeking answers.

Authorities are urging residents to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity as they intensify their efforts to locate the suspect. The suspect left on a red Ford Explorer, believed to be armed and extremely dangerous. Citizens are advised not to approach the individual if spotted but to immediately contact the local authorities.

38-year-old fellow Green Hill resident, Terrell Hilling, describe the chilling scene of bodies along Oaken Street when he went for a jog. He locked the doors while police scour the area. “I started running with another guy and hid,” Hilling said. “It’s like out of a horror movie.”

A press conference held by Point Hope Police Department spokesperson, Fernand Blompkin, shed some light on the ongoing investigation. "We are committed to bringing the perpetrator to justice and providing solace to the grieving families affected by this senseless act. We have allocated significant resources to the manhunt and are working diligently to gather any information that may lead to the suspect's apprehension.”

As the manhunt unfolds, schools and local businesses in the vicinity have implemented heightened security measures to ensure the safety of students and employees. Residents are advised to remain indoors, keep doors and windows locked, and exercise caution until further notice.

The city police department has established a dedicated hotline for anyone with information relating to the crime or the whereabouts of the suspect. Tips can be reported anonymously, and authorities assure the public that every lead will be thoroughly investigated.

This story is developing, and we will provide updates as more information becomes available.

10 HOURS EARLIER

Ashley stepped into the landing, peering into the sinister darkness below.

“Dave?” She called out again. She didn’t like the look of it. I could see her wondering what was wrong with the lights. “You know this is not funny.”

She called for him again. Nothing.

Ashley waited. Took a step down. Then another. And another. “Dave? Baby?”

She stopped. Stared down at the darkness. Listened.

Still nothing.

Her eyes were fixed on the bottom step’s corners as if she feared someone was waiting by the wings, something in the dark, waiting to strike. And she was mostly correct. The demon remained, looming like a menacing shadow mere inches from her trail.

But there was no movement. No sound. She continued down the stairs.

And then it happened.

I watched, transfixed, as the demon I created snatched her from behind with a savage force. I didn’t add [Superhuman Strength] as part of the demon’s traits, but monsters with the [Demonic] archetypes already came with a passive strength level that was a little stronger than a human. But seeing it in the flesh still surprised me.

Ashley screamed as she was lifted into the air and pulled backward. The stairs disappeared from beneath her feet. Her legs kicked frantically, trying to find some purchase, but there was none. Her hands flailed helplessly, trying to grab onto something. Anything.

The demon dangled her a couple of feet before it chucked her down the stairs, tumbling just as Dave did, and landed on her face. Her scream was cut short by the impact, and blood gushed out of her nose. Eyes wide, she frantically looked for where her attacker came from, but there was no one up the stairs but me looking down at her. She couldn’t even see me, but her eyes pierced through mine.

The demon took a step back, savoring the sight of her panic.

Like a switch, it unnerved me how much the demon enjoyed it. After all, it was a twisted creature, yet it seemed to revel in hurting people much more than I expected. But perhaps that was because I created it to do so. Maybe it would have been different if I hadn’t given it such an evil purpose. I flew further back from the carnage, shocked at the brutality before me.

Then I caught a glimpse of the incinerator and the ashes within, the evidence of my murder that Dave burned, and all of that doubt melted away.

Ashley pushed herself up and tried to stand, but her knees buckled under her weight. She collapsed to the floor, crying in pain as she clutched her broken nose. She got to her feet, stumbling over her own feet as she went to retrieve her phone from the floor. She fumbled with it, dropped it twice, and finally got it open. She started dialing for help, but the demon interrupted her by swatting it off her grip.

The phone skidded toward’s Dave’s body.

Ashley froze. “No!” She cried out, scrambling over to his side. I watched Ashley fall to her knees beside him, wailing hysterically, holding his lifeless hand into hers. “Dave...Oh God,” she sobbed. “Oh, God.”

Panicked, she managed to get up again and ran for the stairs. It surprised me when the demon let her reach the landing when Ashley suddenly stopped, looking into the wall across the basement door.

“M-mom?” Ashley muttered. “How…?”

The demon was using its [Mocking Torment] to trigger a hallucination of Ashley’s mother. Something must be happening in Ashley’s head because she started peeing on the floor, soaking her bathrobe with her urine. “No...no...please—”

It took me a moment to focus on the demon lingering around her, and once I was mentally connected to the demon, I began to see what Ashley saw with her own eyes.

The demon’s form materialized into an older woman that almost resembled Ashley but haggard and unkempt. She smelled of old cigarettes and cheap wine, and her hair was greasy and unwashed. Her skin was pale and sickly; she looked like a corpse. She stared at Ashley with dark eyes full of hate and regret.

“Should we go see a movie, dear?” Ashley’s mother asked in a sing-song way, happy and blissful. “Isn’t your birthday today? Happy birthday, sweetheart. My little pumpkin, bumpkin.”

I realized the demon was pulling one of Ashley’s memories into the forefront.

“Mom...how...no...what are you?”

“Oh, my sweet, don’t you recognize your mother?”

Ashley shook her head. She tried to escape the trance but stayed rooted to where she stood. “Y—you’re not real.”

“My poor child. I am as real as you are. Now go give Mommy her medicine from the fridge, will you?”

“You’re not real. You’re dead.”

“Ashley…” The old woman’s eyes darkened. “You know I don’t like it when you don’t listen to me.”

“You... you’re not real!”

“Get Mommy’s medicine from the fridge now, missy! I won’t ask again!”

“No. No. No. Not real. Not real.” Something must have pulled Ashley from her terror when she glanced over her shoulder. “Dave,” she whimpered.

Suddenly, the demon lunged, almost making me jump from fright.

“Get my medicine from the fridge, you cock-sucking whore!” The demon spat. Even I took a step back, surprised by its foul mouth.

Ashley screeched as the demon grabbed a fistful of her hair and dragged her down the stairs. She kicked and punched, but the monster held her fast, still in the form of Ashley’s dead mother, shrieking nonsense maniacally, “Pumpkin, sweetpea, babycakes, sugarplum, honeypie...! Dind-dong! Ding-dong! The bitch dies today!”

The demon tossed Ashley down the steps, slamming her against a shelf stacked with boxes, falling on top of her, filled with cables, straps, electrical wires, spare hoses, Christmas foils, and fishing gear.

The demon grabbed the hanging pendant light from the ceiling, pulled the electric cable, and wrapped the wire around her neck. It then hoisted her inches off the ground. Ashley struggled to get the damn thing off her neck.

The demon chortled gleefully against her ears. “Want to hear something, pumpkin? Mommy’s gonna swallow your soul.”

I could feel the power surging through it. All those hours spent crafting it had paid off. It felt amazing and horrifying to watch it work with barbaric precision. I realized what the demon had been doing for the last minute. It was trying to shed as much Resolve from Ashley before it would possess her and then consume her soul, killing her. It did as I asked. Made them suffer, and the demon brought Hell to her.

Ashley’s eyes widened with panic as she gasped for air. She thrashed about helplessly. She managed to bring one foot against a shelf, but the demon wrapped a hose and more electrical cables around her ankles, yanked hard, and kept her suspended. It threw four hooked fishing lines at her, which sank into her bare arms, shoulder, chest, and cheek, pulling the skin apart as the demon dangled her there.

“Now give your momma a big wet kiss!” The demon clutched Ashley’s jaw and opened its mouth.

A car pulling up the driveway, a red Ford Explorer, distracted me from the brutal scene.

I flew with my many-eyes toward the front of the house. Maxine had just arrived. She sat behind the wheel but appeared to be talking to someone in the car. I recognized her husband, Adam.

“Can’t we check up on Dave after lunch? My folks are waiting for us, and you know how my mother is about being late,” Adam groaned.

“It’s just a quick stop, Adam. Hodge asked us to check up on him,” Maxine said.

“Hodge should do it himself.”

“He got work. We don’t. And it’s the least you could do since you skipped the ritual. He’s already blaming us for fucking it up because we didn’t get the numbers. Like it fucking matters. It worked when there were only four of us.”

“I was not feeling well.”

I frowned. Even the husband was involved. Fuck, were Xavier and Vivian in on it, too? How many cultists were in Point Hope?

Maxine forced a smile. “Of course, hon. Anyway, we live close to the Yates, so it shouldn’t take more than ten minutes, okay? Then we can go to the restaurant and listen to your mother drone on about your brother and his new wife’s adventures in Nepal.”

Adam scoffed. “He told me he climbed Mount Everest. Said he had pictures.”

“And you believe him? That takes months of training, you know. And your brother ain’t got that kind of money.”

“Doesn’t matter. Mom believes it, so we’ll have to swallow it.”

Maxine shook her head. “Stupid.” She turned to look at the house. “Hey, do you feel something odd?”

Adam tilted his head. “Uh, what?”

“I don’t know. Something looked different about Dave’s house, but I can’t tell what it was.”

Adam peered over her shoulder and looked around the front lawn. “Hm. Dave finally switched on the lawn mower?”

Maxine rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She opened the door and climbed out of the car.

I hurried back to the basement.

Ashley lay on the floor, eyes wide open to the ceiling; the electrical cables around her neck were loose, bruising her neck red and purple. I couldn’t see the demon anymore. No smoke cloud lingering at the corner. No faint smell of rotten eggs. Even Ashley’s aura was gone completely.

“Is she dead?” I wondered.

Then, Ashley’s eyes blinked, and they quickly turned to look at me.

Directly at me.

“Er, demon?” I asked.

Ashley sat up. She never left her gaze on me. “Master,” she said, but it sounded garbled. Strained. Like a child stuttering to express a complicated word for the first time. Her voice also sounded an octave lower. She cleared her throat. “I serve,” she forced to say.

“I…I didn’t expect you would do that,” I said. “Throw her around a few times, sure, but—” I looked at the bloodied fishing tackles, cables, and hoses the demon used to torture her.

“Master asks for suffering. Pain. I serve.” Ashley—Demon Ashley—looked up, almost confused why it should go against its nature. It’s a demon, after all. They were experts at tormenting people. Demon Ashley then sniffed the air. “Ah. New meat.”

The doorbell rang. Demon Ashley got up and started walking up the stairs, and was that a lullaby I heard? She hummed a tune to the Rockabye Baby as she walked into the kitchen and headed for the door.

“Uh, demon?”

Demon Ashley continued, stumbling slowly toward the door. The demon was still trying to get used to the body. She opened the door a smidge before pivoting and headed for the stairs. She puffed up the collar of her bathrobe higher, hiding the bruises around her neck, and then pulled the sleeves around her wrists to hide the rope marks.

Maxine stared at the door momentarily before pushing it open, creaking loudly.

“Um, hello?” She called out, pushing the door wide open mow. She and Adam caught Ashley halfway up the stairs, her back facing them.

“Oh, hey, Ash,” Adam said and waved. His smile suddenly dropped. “Er, is something wrong?”

Demon Ashley paused near the landing. “Need to take a shower,” she said lowly without looking back at them. I was impressed that the demon made it sound like Ashley’s voice and speech pattern this time, not the warped, strangled, and baritone voice I heard in the basement.

“Oh.” Maxine narrowed her eyes. “Um, is it okay if we wait down here?”

Ashley tilted her head a little. “Please.”

Adam pointed at the living room. “We’ll sit right there. And, uh, could you get Dave as well? Is he in the house?”

A long pause. “Yes.”

Maxine shot Adam a wary look. “Oh, well, let him know we’re in the living room then.”

Demon Ashley continued walking up the steps and turned the corner. They entered the living room and sat silently, listening to the muffled sound of the water pipes shuddering as Ashley turned on the shower and hopped in.

As the couple sat down, a greenish aura formed around them.