Episode 2: The Schoolhouse

Blurb
Ten year old Sarah Avery continues to deal with the fallout of the elders of Barlo's choices. A promise is made.

Plot Synopsis
The Narrator picks up with young Sarah Avery being lunged at by her father Pinky's animated, yet smouldering, corpse, following the events of The Path To The World of Men. She dodged his attack,and began to run, soon after falling down a hill on the roadside, finding herself in a waist-deep swamp full of weeds. She pushed through it, and found her uncle Ed as he rose from a strand of cattails, in much the same condition as her father; he asked her to come with him, in the same way the Thing That Was Not her father had, before seeming to regain control of his body, telling her to run, that "they" had her scent, and had him, her father, and her mother; and that "they" would not rest until they had her, too. Immediately after, Ed lost control again, and the Thing That Was Not him advanced towards Sarah, but was killed by a bear that jumped out of the woods, before vaguely acknowledging Sarah, and vanishing; at this, Sarah fainted.

She woke in the schoolhouse, with Miss Annie stroking her hair. The sound of screaming, breaking glass, and fire; and the smell of sulfur and fire quickly reach Sarah, and she sees the fifty-one scabs destroying Barlo, their corpses just like Ed and Pinky's, before realizing Miss Annie is a Burned Thing, herself. As she tried to hide from Miss Annie, she saw the Green, and reached out a prayer--to who, she was not sure what--but telling them to "take it back." It soon begins to rain, and then storm, putting out the fire animating the Burned Things. Through the rain, she can almost see large birds begin trying to take flight, but quickly falling back to the ground and dissipating into smoke.

The next morning, only the schoolhouse remains of Barlo, Kentucky, and Sarah intends to set off into the Green to give thanks and fulfill her promise.