BEYOND NIGHT STARS: PART ONE

Slow, and intentionally cheesy horror MUSIC oozes from the speakers, the song FADES into the bgDJ Welcome to Beyond The Night Stars from beautiful Cannan City Kansas. Im your host Sam Pratt and once again we are here to spook and unsettle you to the bone. If you have stories, memories, things that might be memories or nightmares give us a call, at nine two six, five four two, Night. Now, This is our first day here in Cannan City and Im not saying Im not excited to be here because I am, Ive heardwell almost nothing about this town but in doing some research its pretty clear why we were asked to spend the week here. Unlike the last town we visited that bragged and boasted about their centuries old legends of ghosts and goblinsof which none turned out to be true by the way, Cannan City does the opposite. Its almost as if theyd rather you not know they were even here. Drive right along gentle drifter, for we are not hiring nor do we want any news of the outside world. At least thats the feeling I got when I rolled past the flatlands into town seeing congregations of women in long dark gowns standing in a line by the side of the road and blank faced teenagers staring at my mobile studio from atop their unused skate ramps. The only stories I found from Cannan were written by people who no longer lived here- most of them stating that they would never have dared saying anything at all if they had not left years ago. Ill begins tonights program by reading one such a story by an anonymous contributer, an eye witness to life growing up in a hidden place, intentionally forgotten. Until now. BEAT. New music filters in, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gE1FCNFG40)

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DJ (CONTD) Our first piece of fact comes from BusinessMike83, who wrote on the Stories From My Childhood Forum on the website. I lived in Cannan City for about four years from when I was eight to twelve. I dont remember much of that time. We sang hymns in school at weekly assemblies- at the time I thought it was perfectly normal but now I realize it should never have happened since it was a public school. Anyway thats not what my story is about. There was a game that we used to play, every kid in town knew it, it was called Hide The Serial Killer. Each kid would be assigned one day in the week where he or she would have to wake up in the middle of the night, go to their back door, open it and say You can come in now. To the darkness. Then you would go back to sleep with the door left open. Sometimes youd hear him come in but mostly you fell asleep before anything happened. I Played this game countless times but I only really remember it once because he made a mess. My mom had bought a plastic case full of strawberriesI woke up first and found fridge wide open and the case of strawberries was empty, there were some mushed ones on the kitchen floor next to his dirty foot prints. I cleaned and then my mom yelled at me for eating them all. I told her it was the serial killer, she never bought strawberries again. We moved soon after, she asked me about it years later and I told her I ate them. I didnt want to scare her. The music continues for a moment. DJ (CONTD) Thank you BusinessMike83 for sharing that with us, Im sure youre still looking for answers and thats why were here. (MORE)

3. DJ (CONTD) Now I picked this story not because I thought it was the scariest from this town- far from it, but because BusinessMike wasnt the only one to mention this game, since announcing that we were coming here we got no less than thirty four of these stories, most of them exactly like Mikes. The only difference was that not every body called this game Hide The Serial Killer, someactually about half of the posts we got called it Help The Sin Eater. For those of you who may not be familiar with this particular snipet of English Folklore, the Sin Eater is a man who is brought to a dead or dying persons side and given food to eat which is first placed on the breast of the sick or deceased person. By eating, he takes their sins and becomes himself, an unholy thing. It has been said that those who look upon his face will go mad. If any of you Cannan City kids are listening now, I hope you know what youre doing when you call invitations to the dark.

Beat. DJ (CONTD) Were gonan go to the phones now, hello, caller youre on the air. HUNTER Hi! Oh my God Sam youre my favorite! I always listen to you! DJ Thanks Caller, whats your name? HUNTER Hunter! Oh man wait sorry can you edit that? DJ No were live HunterHUNTER Damn it, okay well thats okay.

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DJ Why dont you want us to know you name? HUNTER Oh well I lived in Cannan City, I went to high school there and yeah man I dont know I just dont want anyone to know Im talking about it. DJ Well you dont live there now do you? HUNTER No I live in Portland now but still you know? DJ Still what? HUNTER Its just- I dont know you never really feel like youve left that place its weird. DJ Well weird is what were all about, do you have a story to tell? HUNTER Well I wanted to tell you that I remember those assemblies that guy Mike mentioned. DJ Oh you do? And what about the game? HUNTER No I moved there when I was fourteen, that sounded like a middle school thing. DJ Oh I see, well what about the assemblies, were they creepy or strange or just-

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HUNTER Creepy! Man they were the worst, we used to sing all these songs about sin and stuff and I told my mom and she said it was good because she wanted me to go to Catholic school but we couldnt afford it. But she didnt understand you know? DJ Understand what Hunter? HUNTER We werent singing about Jesus or God or anything we just sang these songs- I tried to find them after I left but I couldnt- they were all like, about how you have sin in your heart no matter where you go and you have to get rid of it, and you have to be pure to live in a pure place. DJ Was Cannan that pure place? HUNTER I guess so- I mean honestly after a week of acting out and talking back I just started doing what I was told. I learned all the songs and did all the assignments, even the homework was creepy. DJ Creepy homework? HUNTER Yeah they had nothing to do with anything like math or anything, they were all about local history. DJ We looked into the history, all we found was a settlement date... Eighteen fourteen- and some things about farming but not much else.

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HUNTER They didnt want anyone from outside to know anything, thats why I had to pretend to be like everyone else cause I was afraid of what theyd do if they found out I wanted to leave. DJ Whos they? HUNTER The church mostly. But anyone really. DJ The church? HUNTER Yeah the head minister, he was really strange. DJ Why were you afraid, did he threaten you? HUNTER No, I had a friend who moved- we were best buds you know? Like partners in crime, we did everything together. And then he said he was moving- the whole church made this whole big thing about them staying they tried to donate money to his family, all kinds of things- a new car... but they had to go cause his grandfather was ill so they left and he said hed call me and he never did. DJ Well he was young maybe he justHUNTER Nah, sorry Sam but I loved this kid like a brother he would have called or written. Ive tried to find him since but I couldnt and then I remembered... DJ Dont keep me in suspense.

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HUNTER A week after they left we had this... funeral. We went to church like any other Sunday, my mom told me to wear black, I didnt know why but I did it. When we got there everyone else was in black too. The minister said some words about the dangers of the outside world and how lucky we were to live in such a blessed place. Afterwards we all went outside, there were two graves dug out, a big mound of dirt next to each once. One by one we took some dirt and dropped it on the them. The bodies were wrapped in a white sheet, no coffin, thats what I found really weird. I almost threw up when I saw the smaller one, I knew it was him but I didnt let myself believe it. I asked my mom who the funeral was for and she said she didnt know, just Some lost Souls She said, and never talked about it again. I assumed she would have told me if it was Jeff. I forgot about it to be honest. No one ever mentioned it again. I asked her if we could move and she looked at me like I had set the house on fire. A few weeks later I ran away to my dads house. I still have nightmares about it. DJ So you left and no one ever came after you? HUNTER No. Well, sometimes I think someones watching me, but I cant be sure. DJ Well Hunter thanks for the call, Ill keep you in my prayers hope those nightmares go away. HUNTER Thanks. DJ May I ask what kind of nightmares you have?

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HUNTER I dont know if its a memory or just a dream. The more I think about it the more I think it actually happened. DJ Whats that? HUNTER When I threw the dirt on the bodies... I think they were still breathing. Music FADES UP for a few moments, drifts back into the bg. DJ Its that time again my friends, the program comes to a close with little satisfaction for those of us looking for answers. But dont worry, because next time were going out to explore every nook and cranny in the daylight. Well talk to the people and record every square inch of Cannan City with our hand held mics and maybe, just maybe well see if we cant spot any rouge Sin Eaters or unmarked graves. Music -- Fade Out. TO BE CONTINUED.