to go. What was your name?”
“I am officer Chin Po, and this is Leonard.”
“I love German Shepherds, I used to have one, but Tilly got old and feeble and I had to have her put down. Anyways, this room is yours. Now, Detective Cowley, if you will follow me, your room is next door. ”
Derrick was shown a room that looked like it came out of a Country Living magazine. The bed was barely big enough for him and had a hand stitched quilt draped across it. The room had a small writing desk in a corner and two sitting chairs. A dresser was on the wall with the light switch, there was no closet. Again, Derrick noticed a large cross over the window. He put his bag on the floor and turned to the woman.
“And what is your name ma’am?”
“Oh me, I am Widow Waters, but you can call me Terri.”
“Well, thank you for putting us up. We couldn’t find a hotel in town.”
“Ashmere doesn’t get many visitors. There has never been a need for a hotel.”
“Did Inspector Drumwell come here looking for a room?”
“I’m afraid not, nobody has stayed here for over three months. There might be a little dust on the furniture in here as a result.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. The room looks great.”
“Well, I know that the sign says Bed & Breakfast, but I also cook dinner and have cold lunches available. I’m afraid that Ashmere doesn’t really have any restaurant.”
“That sounds fantastic. Anything else I should know about?”
“The windows don’t open. The last time I had the house painted the painters simply painted over the window sills and latches, so I don’t open the windows so that I don’t put cracks in the paint.”
“I understand, I will tell Chin not to open the windows. Widow Waters, is there a phone here?”
“It is only local dear. I’ve been told that there is a fault in the line going out of town, but nobody seems in a hurry to fix it.”
“I see, thank you.”
Terri left the room and Derrick took another look around before he went back out. Chin was busy pouring some food for Leonard into his bowl.
“The widow said that there is a break in the phone line leaving Ashmere and nobody is bothered enough to fix it.”
“Sounds about right; this whole place is off. I’ve felt eyes on my since we got into the forest.”
“Me too”
The two men spent the next hour bringing a larger tabletop police scanner from the truck into the house and setting it up. Leonard was quite happy sniffing around the outside of the house. Besides being damp and overcast, the bed and breakfast on the hill had a country charm effect. Dinner was almost ready by the time they set up the radio, Derrick turned it on and tried to contact his local office.
“Hello dispatch, this is Detective Cowley. Can you hear me?”
Static
“The forest around here must have grown over lodestones. I can’t get anything from the outside.”
“Is there anything from the local net?”
“I haven’t checked, that blip from earlier rattled me, but I think it’s just because my nerves were already tight. It was just static.”
“Well, check the local net then.”
Derrick hesitated before flipping the channel to the local station, still static.
“Oh, well, just leave it in the hopper mode. If somebody tries to contact us, the hopper will pick up the active feed and auto tune to it. I think the widow Waters has dinner ready.”
The two men set the radio to the auto tune function and went to go eat. The sun was going down as they tucked into their meals. The conversation grew lively, it was clear that Terri loved having company.
“So, Ms. Waters, why does Ashmere seem so empty?”
“Well the people here are farmers you know; they spend their days on their farms. They are probably just now putting their tractors away and starting to prepare their meals.”
“But there is no restaurant or hotel. This is the first small town I’ve seen that doesn’t have a church.”
“We had a church, but it burnt down years ago. The people here are not very religious and there was no support to rebuild the church.”
“But you seem to be.”
“The lord protects”, Terri said with a shrug.
The exact moment the sun dipped below the horizon, the same shriek as before came across the radio.
“What on earth is that?”
“That is our police scanner. I don’t know what the scream was.”
Chin and Derrick ran to the police scanner and tried to see what channel the shriek came from, but the hopper had moved on. They looked at each other, then the radio came to life again.
“Arise Ashmere, outsiders have come. Free us from their corruption.”
The blood drained from both of the men’s faces. The radio had put together a sentence while hopping from channel to channel.
“I think you should stay indoors tonight.”
“And why do you say that Widow Waters?”
“We don’t get visitors often, but when we do some people are threatened by them. That voice is urging the residents to find you.”
“There is something that you aren’t telling us Terri. What is going on here?”
The widow put her hands to her face and started crying, “This is what happened to my husband. He had to leave one day for business outside of Ashmere and came back just before dusk. He was mistaken for an outsider and dragged from his car. I never saw him again.”
“The people of Ashmere kill every outsider that stays the night? What about us here?”
“You are safe here.”
“How can you say that?”
“The lord protects, the crosses keep those things out.”
“Things?”
“The people of Ashmere are controlled by something once the moon rises and the sun is down, they become blood raving lunatics. I haven’t been affected by it because I have always had crosses throughout the house and barn. The reason that nobody would talk to you in town was because that force wouldn’t let them, out of fear that you would be warned and leave.”
“Is that why Inspector Drumwell is missing? Was he taken by these lunatics and this force?”
“Most likely, I doubt you will ever see him again. And tomorrow, you should leave here and never come back. Tell your government to never come back here, Ashmere is cursed.”
“Widow Waters, I don’t believe in curses.”
“By tomorrow morning you will.” Terri got up from the table that she had stayed at and began clearing the plates away. She was acting as if this happened every night. Derrick realized that this did probably happen every night.
“Well Chin, I’m sorry to have gotten you involved in this. I don’t know about you, but I doubt I am going to sleep tonight.”
“Yeah, I don’t picture myself snoozing very much either.”
Terri came back with a double barreled shotgun.
“The reason that the population of Ashmere is so low is that a few people don’t fall under the sway of the dark force. They are targeted by the lunatics and forced to defend themselves. The constant battle has had casualties from each side. In the morning though, nobody remembers anything. The people have a fog over their minds that keep them from missing folks that were once important to them. They go about their day, farming or whatever their occupation is, but when the sun goes down and the moon rises they become lunatics again, that is if there is prey. Without an outsider or a resistant person in Ashmere, they don’t become lunatics.”
“Why do they not come after you then?”
“I keep telling you, it’s the crosses. The lord protects.”
“But they know you’re here, right?”
“Of course, I’ve been here for years.”
“So if we stay here, we will be safe?”
“Yes, but don’t open a door, or a window. And for god’s sake don’t go outsi
de, even to the front porch. Don’t let Leonard out either, those bastards got my Tilly and I will never forgive them.”
“Why did they take your dog?”
“I think it was an attempt to lure me out of the house. That was an awful night, hearing them torture my lovely Tilly. They were trying to bait me to come outside and save her. But I heard them on the porch, waiting for me. There aren’t any dogs in Ashmere either, I don’t think whoever controls the dark force likes dogs.”
“Why don’t you leave?”
“I have nowhere else to go. I’m safe in this house with the memories of my husband.”
Chin and Derrick glanced at each other, not sure if this was a very elaborate prank or the real deal. Nobody at the home office talked about the sleepy hamlet of Ashmere, nothing supposedly happened here. But apparently, nothing got out of here.
“Well, let’s make sure the windows and doors are locked I don’t want anything to get in.”
The night was horrible and agonizing and Derrick was on the second floor, he couldn’t imagine the widow sleeping in her room on the ground floor. He dare not look out the window, but he did hear several pairs of feet dashing around outside. He also had to turn the police scanner off; the thing was blasting some kind of eerie music even as it continued to hop from station to station. The music was only interrupted by shrieks. To top it all off, Leonard had his hackles up all night and would not stop growling.
Chin and Derrick sat on the landing overlooking the front porch, just listening to the sounds outside. The widow didn’t leave a light on the porch on; she said that it attracted the lunatics. But apparently the fog broke and the moon shone down very brightly. Derrick could see shadows pass through the windows and onto the light