Amitywood
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10th April 1999: 12:02pm
The silver stretch limousine revved it's way down the road to the now-visible village of Amitywood, gleaming in the near-perfect sunlight as it coughed up dust from the side of the road around it, making it look like some sort of silvery serpent, snaking it's way through the valley.
Inside, The Governor turned away from his copy of the Crystal Lake County Herald to frown out the rear window before turning towards his Assistant, Mr Baxter, with a faint look of concern while he folded his newspaper and put it to the side.
Thomas Baxter was a tall, sleek looking man. He was young but an injury at a young age had forced him to need to use a cane to get around steadily. He always wore black and despite his need for his (rather over-bejewelled) cane he always gave the impression of flowing smoothly from place to place.
"Do you think that dust will damage the car, Baxter?"
"I wouldn't worry, Mr Galloway... no damage it can do will be irreversible" Baxter sighed back, glancing out the window to his side, over the two hulking Security guards who were sitting next to him motionless as rocks.
"Good..." the Governor paused, "How long till we reach Amitywood then?"
"We should be there momentarily, sir. Driver!" Baxter tapped his cane on the panel seperating the driver from the compartment where they were now sitting and it swiftly was pulled aside
"Yes sir!" chirped the driver
"Are we almost there?"
"Yes sir! Only a few moments in fact!"
"Very good..." Baxter slid the panel shut again with his cane "...any minute now, sir.."
After a moments pause the door opened and the two bodyguards emerged looking cool-faced, eyeing the crowd followed by the Governor himself who was greeted by a loud applause from the gathering and a hearty, over-excited double-handed handshake from Mayor Grumbles. Finally Thomas Baxter emerged from the car and scanned the crowd with an apparent passing interest.
"Welcome to Amitywood, Mr Galloway!" with all the excitement of a child on Christmas morning
"Why thank you!", replied the Governor, overwhelmed but extremely grateful of such a warm welcome, as he wrestled his hand free from Grumbles to wave to the smiling crowd "such a magnificent welcome! If only every town was as friendly!"
"Amitywood residents have always been firm supporters of you and the President, Mr Galloway", beamed Grumbles "the stage is right here, whenever you're ready though, if you have time afterwards I might suggest some of Hughes's fine baked products!"
Grumbles signalled the way to the stage as Galloway eyed the table of assorted treats laid out in wait as he made his way up the stage steps, followed by the bodyguards and Thomas Baxter. They positioned themselves on the stage - Galloway in the centre with a bodyguard on either side while Thomas Baxter and Mayor Grumbles took a seat near the back of the stage to view the preceedings. The Governor gripped the sides of the altar and awaited the restored applause to cease with a broad grin, clearly enjoying the enthusiasm.
Eventually the crowd died down to barely a whisper or cough and The Governor eased, lessened his grin to a level with which it was possible to speak and clearled his throat.
"People of... Amity..." he bagan, but could not finish
A look of cold terror washed over the Governor's face as he stared, open jawed beyond the crowd. worried murmurs grew from the crowd and several of the people turned to look behind them but could see nothing out of the ordinary as the Governor barely moved from his position. His bodyguards closed in to either side and stared intently to where the Governor was locked but could see nothing. There was whispering on stage now as Thomas Baxter got up to survey the scene while Grumbles looked tterrified, not of anything he was staring at but more that his 'perfect day' might be ruined for the Governor. Some of the crowd were standing upo to turn around, bracing themselves for some unknown horror, judging by the Governors face, but not a one saw a thing. Young Jones, more than anyone, was frantically scanning every inch of landscape or building he could see from his position at the back of the crowd but in spite of his panicked efforts could see nothing that would terrify even his trembling self-esteem.
But there was something. The Governor could see her. No more than 5 feet to Jones' left hand side, a Girl. A Dead Girl, standing upright and staring up at the stage in no different a manner than the rest of the crowd was before they frantically started looking around.
But her flesh was clearly beginning to decay and there was a plain and emotionless look in her eyes as she seemed to return the Governor's jaw-dropped look of shock. Her plain white dress was covered in blood and, worst and most blatant of all, she had a gaping hole through her ribcage through which the vaguest of light could be seen from behind her. For what seemed an eternity, the girl was all the Governor could focus on, all he could see. The sound of the panicking crowd were blurred and echoed in his head and he couldn't even begin to notice the touch of his bodyguards on either side. As the girl continued to stare.
The next thing the governor was aware of was wind. A strong wind suddenly picking up. This, unlike the girl, the crowd was aware of too. The wind seemed to rush from all directions into Amitywood and with it, it brought dark clouds from over the hills. The Governor blinked and got his sense together enough to look up in time to witness the valley being shrowded in darkness from the clouds, which were black as night and streched as far as the eye could see and as suddenly as they came rained down on Amitywood with torrential force, sending alot the crowd running to get sheltered from the sudden storm.
The governor glanced down to wear the dead girl was still standing. A hooded figure had appeared just behind her and her arm was raising up towards the Governor. As she pointed her finger at him, still with the cold, dead look in here eyes, the hooded figure advanced slowly and the Governor tumbled on his back and tried to scamper to the rear of the stage. The two bodyguards drew their weapons and began scanning the crowd, again futiley, for whatever the Governor might have seen, until one of them finally spotted a hooded figure coming towards the stage brandishing a large metal scythe, but it was too late.
All at once the streetlights of Amitywood flickered out, as well as any light coming from the homes and shops, and in the same instant the clouds above the village closed as a great thunder raged, leaving everyone in pitch darkness. Nonetheless the bodyguard insisted.
"FREEZE!" he screamed, and it seemed the entire village obeyed as suddenly any murmerings and running footsteps ceased and all that was left was the rattling drops of the rain all around.
The near silence continued for what seemed like an eternity. The bodyguard, who was unable to see even as far away as his gun, at arms length, was holding his gun steady in the position to where the hooded figure had been when the silence came. He shivered with something between bitter cold and utter fear, awaiting some form of light to come back.
After a few seconds, months in everyone around's minds, a bolt of lightning crackling right above Amitywood revealed to the Bodyguard that the hooded figure had moved from his position, unsurprisingly. Insitinct swivelled the bodyguard round in the split second of light he had in time to see the hooded figure arriving on stage behind him before the light was gone, but this couldn't stop him. He raised the gun and fired but the thunder that was still echoing in the wake of the lightning bolt drowned out any evidence of whether the bodyguard had hit his target or not.
There was silence for only a few more seconds as the bodyguard awaited the next bolt of lightning to arrive to show him what may or may not have happened but before it could come there was a loud cracking sound, followed by the distinct sound of metal, slicing harply against something hard, a loud, gargled cough and finallya loud thump of something against the stage, followed by more silence.
Another agonisingly long silence later, the rain abruptly stopped as another gust of wind blew the clouds that had englufed Amitywood apart again and cast the forgotten perfect sunlight back on the valley. Amitywood looked, as much as it is possible for a village to do so, like a drowned rat. The sheet of water that seemed to layer everything and everyone looked distinctly out of place coupled with the now clear blue sky and brilliant sunlight.
That is what most of the village observed, as the light arrived over Amitywood again.
On the stage it was different. In the centre of the stage slumped over on his stomache lay Governor Ali Galloway, a pool of blood trickling from his mouth and as the bodyguard nearest him turned him over, a large hole through his ribcage was revealed, which was ozzing more blood out onto the stage. The bodyguard covered his mouth and backed away slightly from the corpse, while the second bodyguard, with his pistol still in hand scanned the gathering and shocked looking crowd, but could see no sign of any black hooded figure or scythe.
"Get on the phone to the President!" he barked at the queasier of the two bodyguards
The second bodyguard dashed off to the Limousine as the first turned to see the pool of blood, lying where he had aimed his pistol before but unfortunately the rain seemed to have washed away any trail that it may have left beyond a single pool where it was clear his bullet had hit the assailant. He turne dto the body of the Governor and let out a sigh and put away his pistol, as Sergeant Lang and the three out of town officers came to the stage and urged the obliging but curious crowd to stay down. Stocks, one of the Forensics, carefully covered the Governor's body in a curtain from the stage and looked, as most people were to the bodyguard, merely because he was standing at the front of the stage as if for an answer.
Seeing the Bodyguards inner struggle with himself, Thomas Baxter stepped forward to the altar, looking glum but at the same time allowing an anger to fill his eyes.
"Ladies and Gentlemen... for those of you who don't know... the Governor... Ali Galloway, is dead... murdered by person's currently unknown. I think It would be..." but as seemed to be tradition of the day he was interupted by the bodyguard who had gone to the Limousine running on stage to stand next to him and whisper to a suddenly awe-struck Thomas.
"I'm afraid..." Thomas paused, "That the situation is worse than we thought... Ladies and Gentlemen, The President has also been killed"
(to be continued)
