"Now that I'm Coming Down
Won't you be my solid ground?"
-Sway (The Perishers)
Strange and Unusual things happen in the quiet town of Westbrick, Colorado on a weekly basis. Nobody knows why it happens. And no one knows when it'll happen.
Think of it as Colorado's own Hellmouth.
The strangest of it is that while everyone would usually be affected by whatever weird apocalypse had hit the town, most wouldn't recall it happening aside from a faint feeling about it.
But that's where people like me come in.
My name is Lyle Ross. I'm a journalist for Paradoxia, a magazine for those like me who retains their experience and memories of what happens within this town. Gammas.
Every week, I partner up with one of the town's other unique brand of people. One of the town's secret Supernatural Countermeasures Team agent, Detective Zan Taylor.
Now unlike me, he has powers far beyond memory locking what happens around Westbrick. Zan has the ability to harness the power of Ice and manipulate it to his every whim. People like him and those in the SCT are what we call Zetas.
Together, we try and resolve whatever happens in Westbrick and make sure those like us remember.
~ Issue #1 - Halloween Headlights ~
Ah Halloween. That time of the month little kids get to dress up like monsters or witches or whatever. And what is Halloween without candy. Yum.
Of course, Halloween meant us adults have to buy candy for the door to door kids...
Or in Westbrick's case, prepare for anything.
With our strange streak, anything could happen. Last year's Halloween alone had turned that creepy house in Formor Street into a Ginger Bread house with a witch that attempted to fatten and eat kids ala Hansel and Gretel.
But this is the 21st century. Kids have smartphones and you have no idea how fast the SCT reacted to one phone call from a parent who couldn't get into the witch's house after the witch took his kid in.
The funny part was that the first reaction the SCT had was to send their Pyrokinetic agent to "Burn the Witch"
I got it all on the papers.
With hours to go before Halloween officially begins, Zan and I decided to drive around the town, see if anything strange had begun to happen.
Speaking of, the man of the hour arrives.
"Here you go." I hand Zan a cup of coffee. He takes it and takes the lid off. He casually waves his finger around it, causing some shaved ice to appear on top of it. "Thanks."
"I'm a man of generosity." I say,
He chuckled. "Wouldn't have thought that after you so generously taken my Garlic Bread two days ago."
"Oh let that go will you?" I say. "So what's this week's MO?"
"We drive around town. No supernatural phenomena has surfaced yet."
We got into his car, driving at least 3 times in circles. No mysterious activity yet.
"This town isn't seriously waiting for it to be night before unleashing its voodoo is it?" I ask.
"Lyle, we don't control what happens. We're going to have to be patient if we want what happens to be stopped."
"Or, you know, Westbrick decides to take a break this year?"
Zan turns to me with a look of skepticism.
"Nah, you're right. Halloween never gets a break." I sipped my coffee, watching around the streets to see if anything odd was going on.
I get paid for telling people what happens around this town, but it's not like I enjoy whatever goes on around here. There has at least been 4 zombie apocalypse around town that ended with me and Zan locking ourselves at either my apartment or his house and playing Uno or Poker just to wait it out.
The first Zombie apocalypse is what taught me to keep at least 3 times the amount of food than normal.
Trust me, Zombies are not fun things to experience or to talk about.
Thankfully, the Zetas and Gammas had a handle on things whenever this happened.
After hours of being in the car, Night had eventually befallen the town. Before we could park in front of an In-N-Out, Zan stopped.
"Wait... do you hear that?" Zan parked the car along the curb to a party going on in one of the houses. This was owned by the Prescotts.
"It's just a party Zan." Zan's eyes turned cold and serious. The first sign of his astute senses.
But then I heard it too. A scream just beyond the music.
"Please don't tell me..."
Zan sighs. "Yep... This year's Halloween is based on Scream."
"But isn't it easier to believe one of the kids around here just went crazy? It's happened before."
"We can talk about this later, we have to stop what's happening."
Zan exited the car, running for the garage.
I grabbed my camera, strapping it around my neck.
Unlike Zan, I have a more human approach to protecting myself.
I'm a licensed Gun owner.
Exiting the car, I follow Zan to garage to find one of the party goers on the verge of being crushed by the garage door ala Scream 1.
Zan was just fast enough to freeze the doors.
Sure enough, a masked fellow was inside the garage. He fled immediately before any of us can react.
"Thank you so much." The girl said. "This psycho has killed at least 3 of our friends.
"And you decide to throw a party after that?" I say. "Don't you think you're being a little stupid. Not to mention you shouldn't be by yourself when there's apparently a murderer on the loose."
"I'm sorry."
"Go home." Zan says. "And try not to make any stops. Lock the doors and don't open it for anyone."
She nods and scampers off.
"This is definitely Westbrick's work" Zan says.
"How so?" I ask.
"If this was a normal murder spree, the police would have been informed and had a handle on it. I've asked my friend in the station and he's heard nothing about this apparent murder case."
"They could be incompetent."
Zan looks at me with silence and sarcastic eyes. I shrug before we enter the house.
The party goers seem to have left faster than we got here. Zan stops me from going forward.
"The Final girl is about to hear the master scheme from the killers."
And just as Zan predicted, two men had cornered the Prescott girl, Vanessa Prescott, to a corner.
One of the boys I recognize as Bill Watts has a knife to her throat.
"And if your dad hadn't gone around sleeping with my mom, I wouldn't have killed him."
That's stupid, Vanessa's dad is overseas and is hardly a womanizer.
Zan was right, this was the work of Westbrick.
"And now, I'm going to kill you."
Of course, Bill was frozen into a popsicle before he had the chance. Vanessa had quickly run off behind us.The other guy tried running at us with a knife before I shot him the leg.
"Say Cheese." I say, taking a picture of the killers in play.
As it turns out, the string of murders they committed was done around the town since this morning. They were just too fast for the police to handle.
Vanessa's father wasn't killed and their lives returned to normal three days later.
Those who were apparently killed seemed to have never existed and are most probably alive. The killers were put in a psychiatric ward. The after effect of Westbrick's influence seems to have driven them insane. The poor kids.
Paradoxia's headlines for this week, Ghostface strikes Westbrick, was a little boring for my taste.
Despite being affected by Westbrick's influence, this week's mystery was more human than supernatural.
But I'm not complaining. If I had faced off against something like Jason, I don't think we'd live to tell the tale.
Zan and I spent the rest of the night giving out treats to kids.
He and his wife had bought way too many sweets.
I always enjoy being around him and his family, if only because it beats staying in at my apartment alone. Plus, his kids love me.
"Well, we stopped a murder spree." I say. "That's a win."
"I just wish every other case was this easy."
"This is Westbrick, Zan. We don't choose what happens. But whenever something does happen... We're there."
