An Interlude: The Scenic Route

Blurb
'''CW: Frank and intimate out-of-character discussion about the pandemic, death and suicide. In-character mentions of child labor, child and parental death and disfigurement.'''

There is a darkness that can only truly fall in the deep woods. An enveloping shadow of some great beast that is at the same time soothing and terrifying and can only exist in the absence of electric light and full moons. The hours that pass beneath this hallowed veil are usually best spent sleeping so that you do not witness the world that only thrives while the living aren't in it, unless they are spent by the watchful vigil-keepers who keep that world at bay. Join us for a late night encounter in the deep woods around the Virginia state line.

This is a special alternate episode offered in memorial to Rhonda Kay Dooley and Grey.

National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 800-273-8255

www.crisistextline.org

hotline.rainn.org/online

translifeline.org

Plot Synopsis
In the unique darkness of the deep woods, Caleb wakes in the cabin where he and his traveling companions are staying. He reflects on the difference between him and normal children, and he looks with dread on the place where he’s going and what might happen. They are two days into their journey taking the long and arduous way to Esau County, Virginia, and have been stopping at places hidden from prying eyes, places owned by witches and meant for travellers.

Getting up to search for a privy, Caleb goes out into the moonless night. In the darkness, his sight shows him the markings that protect the place, growing fainter toward the river. He walks to the running water, where he sees another boy sitting on a rock, young and dirty and barefoot. They greet each other carefully.

Both of them are passing through, and the younger boy, Grayson, states he travels with a group of other boys that go “wherever they are needed.” He tells a story of growing up in Cotton Flower, West Virginia near a mining town, and going to work at 8 years old. The mining enterprise consumed the town and the towns nearby, and the work became harder and more dangerous before one day, a cave-in and fire strike the mine. Grayson tells of thinking he was dead, until someone helped him up and out of the mine.

Looking at him with his Sight, Caleb can’t see a future life and death in the boy, and realizes the boy is dead.

The Boy who helped Grayson, known as Brownie, out of the mine said he had been in the mines for a long time, as well, and invited him to travel with him and the rest of his group of boys, working to make sure nothing bad happens to any other boys in the mines. Not only would they protect other boys, but they would make the companies pay for what they had done.

Brownie offers to let Caleb come with them, able to see he’s not like a normal boy. Across the river appear a large group of dead boys of all ages, some disfigured from their deaths. Caleb can See none of them, either. A Boy holding a lantern comes to the front, and he is not like the others, but is vengeance in the shape of a boy, his shape seeming to change, his age impossible to determine. Caleb states he doesn’t want to meet the Boy, and excuses himself, going back up to the path.

He hears the Boy, speaking in a man’s voice, tell “Cotton Flower” that he can’t trust haints like Caleb, and summons him to move out, to go punish more negligence.

Caleb goes back to bed, wondering about his future, though he is thankful he isn’t like the boys by the river.