Episode 4.5: The Bad Death and Resurrection of Annie Messer

Blurb
An interlude.

Plot Synopsis
Cletus Garvin and Annie Messer travel to the Avery home in order to check on the family. The trip is slow due to Annie’s easy distraction. They begin to feel they’re being observed and tracked by something that cannot see, but can hear. The Voices remind Cletus that they will keep his family safe if he brings them Sarah Avery.

Arriving at the Avery home, they discover that Carol Ann hangs from the tree in the yard, and the yard and house have been ransacked. The earth is dug up, the windows are broken, the furniture destroyed, and evil-looking black sludge covers everything. Puddles of ichor dot the yard and large white worms are scattered about. Cletus surmises it was done by Things searching for Sarah. Annie is completely distraught. Sarah is nowhere to be found.

Annie falls silent, and she and Cletus see something massive but that can’t be fully seen by their eyes. Something falls from a tree and lunges at Cletus, but a Voice in his head commands the creature to stop. Cletus can then see the creature.

It is in some ways like a dog or a wolf, with soft, blue, hairless skin, huge black claws, and eyes all over its many limbs. It has three eyes on its wolflike head, wide, bat-like ears, and tusks. It possesses a long, black, forked tongue.

The Voice commands the creature to leave Cletus alone once again, and the creature becomes impossible to see again.

Annie Messer, meanwhile, staring in the opposite direction, twitches and seizes as another, larger creature latches its forked tongue onto her face and cauterizes her eyes, turning her into a smoldering Burned Thing. Annie falls face-first to the ground as Cletus commands the creature to leave her alone using a word he does not understand. The creature disappears into the woods.

Cletus begins to think of himself as one of the “dogs,” and resolves not to help the Voices anymore. He lifts Annie onto the cart and takes her into Barlo, praying Sarah Avery remains safe.

Cletus arrives at the schoolhouse and discovers an immense bear has been walking around the schoolhouse yard, but it is nowhere to be seen. He takes Annie Messer’s body inside the schoolhouse, where the Voices repeat the message, “First you rise, then you clean her; prepare her for the fire.” Cletus laughs at the Voices and tells them to clean her themselves, and winces in fear that he will be killed, but nothing happens.

He does not notice Sarah sleeping in the schoolhouse, and departs to go to his family.

Annie, however, was the target of the message and begins to bathe Sarah Avery, humming to her while doing so. Sarah stirs gently.

Additional Information

 * Additional vocal work by Allison Mullins

Relevant Characters

 * Annie Messer
 * Cletus Garvin
 * Carol Anne Avery
 * The Hounds
 * Sarah Avery