Moonlight Over a Ruined Village

The village is much quieter after being the recipient of that epic asswhoopin expertly administered by the Rook and his crew. The weed has been pulled from the garden. But parts of the roots still remain. Not enough to warrant the brutal attentions of the Rook, but these loose ends have attracted the attentions of independent agents in search of new holes to invade. For all gardens have their snakes, and our doomed little garden has now been claimed by none other than Sachiko. She is as beautiful as she wants to be, and those who know her fear her. She has come to this ruined village that has been left barren after being swept of refuse in search of answers. She wants to know how it came to pass that sentient life was bestowed unto a ventriloquist dummy. That search is going to bring her into contact the very jackasses responsible for such a staggeringly idiotic act. She will have to use all her charm and wit to contend with their madness and folly, hopeful that the answers she finds will be worth the price she has to pay. This episode makes frequent references to ventriloquist dummies, senseless violence, alcohol consumption, and wanton disrespect for public order. Moreover, it contains the usual level of needless profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s episode, we find ourselves standing at the crossroads with one of the village’s disaffected youths. As we stand beneath the moon in need of direction and purpose, we await the birdman and his legion of doomed souls. The hour is late, and nothing good is likely to come of any of this. Nevertheless, we stand waiting, mulling over the past crimes and sins that brought us to this lonely street corner. Our guide is an aimless soul, yet he has been enlisted to protect the birdman from the dangers that assail him. As he looks to the sky for the arrival of his fate, his doom creeps towards him on dead fingers, ready to drag him to the depths of a watery oblivion. The only weapons within his grasp lie deeper in the darkness, beyond our worst fears. This episode contains discussions of crime and cruel acts of mutilation, as well as horror, death, hopelessness, and profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

Though it is not my intent to allow this work to descend into the realm of self promotion, I fear it is necessary as it is relevant to tonight’s tale. I wrote a novelette entitled Escaping the Old Charleston Jail, and it is available on Amazon. It’s a dark tale about man at odds with the world around him. He turns to alcohol to dull the pain of fitting in, but the alcohol becomes a prison to him. Our doomed hero eventually finds his escape. Unfortunately, his judgment is so ruined that he escapes in the wrong direction. The tale is dark and dramatic, and it does not have a happy ending. And that always bothered me. I wrote it when I was younger, and I figured that’s what happened at the end of a story like that. Tonight’s tale is similar, but it doesn’t end properly. Indeed, It reaches a proper ending, but then it keeps on going and stumbles along even thought its supposed to be over. It moves along in open defiance of the events that should have ended it. In short, tonight’s tale is about a man who refuses to accept the fact that he should be dead. So he acts like he’s not, and the rest of the world just has to deal with it. This tale is pretty dark and deals with themes of addiction and alienation. Moreover, it contains elements of involuntary body modification, which is that the whole bone removal thing from the last episode. And I don’t think its so bad, but at least one of the characters use public transportation a few times, and that may offend some people for some reason. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we find Tomisaburo, the mysterious Kitsune who acts as the demon lord of the ruined village, curled up in a hole he dug in the ground. He is lying there so he does not have to show his face to the moonlight. As he contemplates his place in the world of the living, a world in which he received that savage ass whoopin from them boys, he hears a strange voice. Intrigued by the level of venomous pride and arrogance in the voice, he follows it to its source, a mysterious figure known for now as the dirt spider. The dirt spider is the master of the web that forms the technical mainframe that forms the cultural center of the disaffected youths of the area.
That means he works at the local second hand store and has a part time at the game center next door. Who is this mysterious dirt spider? He’s the birdman from previous episodes. The guy who made that boy shove those chicken bones into the gutter. He’s that guy. Whoever gave us this story either got his name wrong, or the guy who gave us the chicken bone story got the name wrong. As a general rule, the people who give us these stories are unreliable, and I’m not much better for passing them along to you.
Nevertheless, Tomisaburo, the demon lord of this ruined village seeks to form an alliance with the dirt spider. Their plan is to exact revenge on them boys and to hasten them along to their final, bitter reward. With them boys gone, them and their unholy cabal of damned souls will be unopposed as they feast upon the blood, bones, and marrow of the ruined villages miserable inmates. This tale contains blood, violence, pain, turmoil, horrific themes, and profanity. In addition, there are references to grave desecration and alcohol consumption. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we meet a man embarking on a quest. Our pilgrim, a young man who is being relentlessly haunted by an unquiet spirit, has decided he can no longer endure the ice cold touch of the restless dead that pokes him in the eye every Thursday night. He seeks aid from one who is learned in the ways of the dead. Yet our hero finds that the learned make claims to knowledge they can never possess, and they are in no position to stand between the living and the dead. Abandoned by the learned, he must seek out help from a band of fools who gladly rush forward where the wizened fear to tread.  This band of fools lead our pilgrim on a rampage through the heart of polite society, and they do whatever it takes to punish the decadent powers that be, appease the unquiet dead, and evade the franticly clutching claws of madness. This tale contains profanity and excessive references to alcohol and tobacco consumption. As a general rule with these tales, listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we follow our solitary thug as he makes his way through the tunnels that run beneath our ruined village. He was sent there by a mysterious figure. Some call him the bird man, others call him the dirt spider. Our hapless thug is being pursued by an unimaginable horror that has just received a name, and that name is the Rook. The birdman informs our solitary thug that the Rook is coming for him and he will steal the bones from his body. He tells him that his only hope lies in the center of the tunnels. Yet the path our hapless thug thinks will lead to his last hope drops him straight into a Hell worse than he could ever imagine. This tale is dark, bleak, scary, and it may disturb sensitive listeners. It contains themes of violence, medical horror, mutilation, and despair.  Listener discretion is advised.

Tonight’s tale will be told in two parts. For the first part, we follow a young woman as she ventures into the village. The fires of her curiosity were undoubtedly stoked by the villages growing reputation for being infested with thugs, drunks, assholes, and the pedantic creeps who broke them. Her curiosity leads her to the infamous doll museum, and her better judgment leads her to leave it almost immediately. This leads her to the river road, where sleepy houses are overshadowed by trees that sway in the seer winds from the ghoul haunted forests and mountains that surround it. The road is gentle during the day, attracting families, children, and dog owners. However, the sun soon sets and the darkness descends. With the darkness come the predators, and the gentle town folk become their prey. The first victim is a small dog that goes missing. The loss of the dog sends all of them into a panic, and they are soon reminded that ownership of the river road changes when the sun is no longer there to watch over it. Once the moon holds court, the denizens of the night creep from the shadows with brazen audacity. Bewitched and bewildered by the darkness, she cannot find the way out. Enraged ghosts find her, eager to bring fresh blood into their endless conflict. Caught in a hellish maelstrom, she is pulled away. She is pulled into the cold, silent shadows by an otherworldly creature. Helpless and at a loss, she follows the strange creature deeper into the shadows. Her only hope is that she chose the lesser of evils as darkness engulfs her. This tale contains references to crime and mutilation, animals and humans in states of distress, references to dolls, and a greater than reasonable amount of profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we follow our hapless wanderer as the reaches the conclusion of her journey through the darkness at the center of the ruined village. She is pulled from the battle between the two raving jackasses by a strange creature in the form of a ventriloquist dummy. From that point on, it gets a lot weirder.
 For this haunted dummy serves as her only guide through her encounters with an increasingly bizarre succession of unearthly beings. This roving pack of drunks serve as her only hope of finding her way to the end of the River Road. They bravely guide her along the strait road that runs along a river that runs near the bus stop she used to get there in the first place.
Along the way they face the dangers of convenience stores that are willing to sell them alcohol if they shut up and go away. Their mad journey enriches her with valuable life lessons, such as the importance of friendship in the face of adversity, the strength that comes with compassion, and most important of all, the importance of looking up from your God damned phone when you’re in an unfamiliar area.
But the tale takes a dark turn. For as she makes her way back to the real world, she finds the unseen phantoms of the River Road linger about her like smoke from incense offered to the departed. The darkness has found her, it has marked her, and its denizens will forevermore be able to find her.
This tale contains references to the previous episode, so the same warnings apply. Furthermore, this tale deals with irresponsible people in states of inebriation and a great deal of disrespect for public order. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we meet our hapless drunk. He is standing on the street at dusk. He is alone and without his crew, but he is not aimless. For he is there to execute the duties of his office. The hapless drunk has moved up in the world, and he somehow managed to assume the role of liaison to the board of education for the ruined village. At least, that’s the way he remembers it. He is there to confront the teacher who sent a young writer into the next of vipers that is the ruined village. The acting liaison will enact his scheme to teach this cowardly teacher the importance of manners and honesty when one walks the river road. However, this teacher is far from lost, and him and his student came to the ruined village for a reason. This reason may prove greater than even a hapless drunk can imagine. This tale contains profanity, antisocial behavior, references to previous episodes, and references to crime, murder, and mutilation. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we follow another traveler along the river road.  Though he has no definite destination, he has an aim, he has a purpose, and he has the means and will to obtain them. This is a man who was haunted by denizens from beyond the veil. Lost and desperate, he sought help in the ruined village. While there he found them boys and their crew. They helped him to find his strength. Emboldened, he returned to the River Road, to seek out other denizens from beyond the veil, to show them he was no longer going to live in fear of them. As he travels the road, he contends with the strange, ruined creatures that stalk about the River Road. But when he meets one of the denizens from beyond, all of his plans fail. At a loss, he stares into the darkness. It is there that he receives help from an unlikely source. As they work together to salvage his plan, he is forced to question the purpose of his journey. By the end, he learns that true horror lies not on the other side of the veil, but in the trappings we humans create for ourselves on this side of it. This tale contains profanity, references to previous tales, and excessive descriptions of bureaucracy. Listener discretion is advised.