The clock on the dashboard read  four-thirty when Frank parked the rental at the bottom of the long country lane that led up to the Elderbridges’ farm. His mysterious friend had been correct.  The owners of the rooming house had been decent to him, offering him a room and a quick meal when he woke. He had surprised himself. He didn't think he would be able to sleep, but he had. It had been a fitful sleep, full of disturbing dreams. Each of them about his brother and people he had met in Castle Rock.  

The sun was just setting behind the tall trees that backed the property of the farm, sending bands of purple and orange across the sky.  The woman had told Frank that Joe wouldn't be at the farm yet, but that he would be there eventually. He wasn't sure what he had expected.  He only knew that his heart sank when the farmhouse came into sight. As unrealistic as it had seemed, he had somehow expected that it would be there as he had first seen it. Instead, the burnt-out shell stood in silhouette against the fading light; the charred remains shattering his dwindling faith that he would get his brother back.  Too much time had passed without any trace or clue.  The soft crunch of gravel underfoot interrupted his thoughts and was the only warning he had that he was no longer alone.   

"Don't lose hope."  The woman's words were a soft whisper behind him.  "There's still a chance."  

"There's no one here," Frank replied desolately.  His eyes searched the ruin and the shadows behind it for signs of movement before turning to the older woman. "When?"   

"Soon."  She looped her arm through his and steered him towards the small, fenced off family graveyard.  It looked as overgrown and forgotten as the farmhouse with its gravestones that lay broken and crumbling.  "This way."  It was when she felt him hesitate and try to pull away from her that she noticed his pallor and near panic.  "No, no. It's not what you think," she reassured him.  "There's a bench where we can sit, Frank.  I have a story to tell you while we wait."  

Frank still held back.  "I don't even know your name. How did you learn mine?  Meyers?  Are you the woman who called him about me this morning?" He gently removed her hand from his arm.  "I don't even know what I'm doing here except that I'm so desperate to find my brother I can't afford to ignore anything. Do you know how crazy this is?" His laugh sounded more like a sob.  "Joe's missing and here I am, standing outside of a graveyard on Halloween with some woman who manages to show up and disappear whenever she pleases." He ran a shaking hand across his face. "I'm not even sure why I trusted you—why I trust you.  I haven't made a mistake, have I?"  

"My name's Ellen. Ellen Watkins," she said, once again linking her arm with his. "And no, dear, you haven't made a mistake. Come sit down with me. We still have a wait." Gently pulling him through the torn down gate, she pointed to the concrete bench hidden in the tall weeds.  "And to ease your mind, I have never made the acquaintance of Brad Meyers.  I know of him, though, and all the others that live in that town."   

"Tell me where he is, Ellen," Frank sighed tiredly. "You said that you know."  He took the spot next to the old woman, but kept his gaze fixed on the house that was becoming almost impossible to see in the deepening darkness. "I don't understand any of this.  What is it that we walked into?"  

"Even after I've explained it to you, I don't know if you'll understand any of it, but I'll try." Ellen pulled her coat more tightly around her.  "The Elderbridges were a kind couple, you know.  They were God-fearing people who worked hard and took all that life had to throw at them with a quiet strength and unwavering faith.  The only thing that they ever wanted was a child.  I remember my mother telling me that she could always see that sadness in Sada.  That longing.  And then a miracle happened.  They had a son."   

"But he died," Frank said quietly.  "Sada mentioned that.  But what does this have to do with Joe?"  

As if she hadn't heard his question, Ellen continued her story.  "Michael, that's what they named him, came to them late in life.  Sada was very near fifty, but she and Ben couldn't have been happier.  Their one prayer had finally been answered."  She could feel Frank's steady gaze on her and lifted her eyes to meet his.  "They loved that little boy with all that they had, but they tried to shelter him too much.  I suppose they were worried that he could be taken away from them.  Michael, being a normal little boy, rebelled when he could.  Never doing anything bad, mind you, but just stretching his wings and testing his limits.  And that's when it happened."  

"What happened?"  

"It was on Devil's Night.  He had just turned sixteen and wanted to go to a Halloween party at a neighbouring farm.  His parents refused to let him go.  Ben and Vince Weaver had been arguing about some land, so Ben didn't want his son anywhere near the Weavers and their boys. Only problem was that Michael and the boys were friends."  

"Weaver?" Frank asked.  "Any relation?"  

"To the doctor.  Yes.  Most of the families that still live around here have been here for decades.  A lot of them, like mine, got out."  Ellen could just barely make out Frank's frown in the gloom.  "And if that sounds like we got out while the getting was good, that's just what I meant."  

"You were telling me about Michael and how this is all connected to my brother?"  

"Michael died on Devil's Night over fifty years ago.  He disobeyed his parents and went to the party.  He didn't get there, though.  I guess in all his excitement he didn't look or didn't hear the car."  She sighed before continuing. "The driver didn't stop to help or see if that poor boy was still alive.  Just left him at the side of the road.  It was Ben who found him.  It destroyed both him and Sada."  

"Ellen, I don't understand…"   

"How does this tie in?  I asked you earlier if you had an accident and you said you did.  I can tell you exactly what happened, Frank.  You were driving down that old lane when a boy ran out in front of your car. You swerved and ran into a ditch or a tree. Whatever it was it was bad enough that you had to be rescued.  Am I right so far?"  

Frank swallowed hard before answering.  "How do you know all this?" he asked in a hushed voice.   

"I know that and more. Old Ben came to your rescue and took you and Joe to his place. He talked you into staying.  For some reason you left the house, and thank the Lord you did, and when you returned you found this."  She gestured at the ruined building. "How do I know? The same thing has happened for many, many years since the day that Ben and Sada Elderbridge died."  

"Died?" Frank got up to glare at the older woman. "That's the same ridiculous story that Weaver tried to feed me. You are a part of this.  I can't believe how stupid I've been."  He started for the lane back to the road.  

Ellen stood up but didn't move to follow him.  "You are stupid if you leave, Frank," she called after him. "Please, hear me out. Just a few minutes more. I promise you, I'm here to help you and your brother.  Please Frank, I almost made the mistake you're going to make if you leave."  She held her breath, watching to see his reaction.  

Something in the woman's voice made Frank stop and turn around. "If what you're telling me is true, then please, please tell me what's going on.  The Elderbridges are not dead. I met them, talked with them. Sada helped Joe. He hurt his leg when we went into the ditch. Are you going to tell me, too, that all of it is some kind of hallucination?  That Joe wasn't here with me?"  

"No, I'm not going to tell you that.  It all happened as you remember it." She took a deep breath. "What I'm going to tell you is going to sound insane.  Frank, for the past fifty years the Elderbridges have come back for their son or a replacement for him. Almost every year since that couple was murdered in the fire a child has disappeared on Devil's Night. Maybe they started even before that.  Children had gone missing before the fire, too."  She took the few steps to close the distance between them and grasped both his arms. "I don't know if it's their grief, their rage, if they made some pact with the devil himself, but they come back to claim a child.  They've taken your brother just like they took mine.  Like the countless other brothers and sons that have disappeared on that road."   

"Murdered? But why?"  The story seemed to become more far-fetched with every detail, making Frank wonder if he hadn't been deluded into following a woman who was suffering from some delusions of her own.  

"Orville Meyers, who always fancied himself to be Sherlock Holmes, was sheriff at the time and he put it together that the disappearances could only be connected to the Elderbridges.  I'm not saying he was wrong, but the man was a coward and a fool. He didn't want to handle the case and let slip his findings to the people in town, knowing that they'd carry out their own form of justice." She snorted in disgust. "I remember my mother telling me that the vigilante group was headed by the man she, and quite a few others, suspected of running poor Michael down.  Roger Wellwood was one of the few people in these parts who even owned a car in those days."  She saw the different emotions flicker across the dark-haired teen's face.  "Yes, all the names you recognize. Lord only knows what they unleashed that night, but it's preyed on them generation after generation."  

"And no one's ever heard about this."  Frank couldn't keep the skepticism out of his voice. "No one's ever investigated the disappearances?"  

Ellen shook her head.  "The people in that town are diseased.  When they realized what was happening they found a way to save their children.  Do you think it's just coincidence that you ended up on that road at that time of night? You fell right into their hands.  Usually they offer up runaways that pass through. Sometimes, when the time draws near, if they don't have anyone they’ll find someone. Hitchhikers, lonely kids from bus stations and train stations in nearby towns. Kids nobody's going to miss right away. Voiceless victims. Even you, Frank. How would you have explained your brother's disappearance? You have a whole town ready to swear that you were alone. There would be no farm, you'd have a story that involved a couple that died over forty years ago, and probably Meyers would have worked something up that would have shifted suspicion over to you.  They've been doing this for a long time. They know how to protect themselves." Her voice became bitter. "They've become very good at sacrificing whoever they must to protect their children."  

"Sacrifices, offering people up."  Frank scowled in frustration. "You make it sound like some cult."  

"It's not a cult like you're thinking. They're diseased, damned. They all should have died long ago, but they've decided to do whatever they have to--to survive."  Studying his face, Ellen let go of him, letting her arms fall to her side. "I told you that it sounded insane, but is it any more insane than anything else that has happened? Your brother just disappearing, a whole town that lies about his existence, things you know to be fact, like the hotel room, changing? And I'll bet that the car you drove into the ditch hasn't got a scratch on it."  She angrily pointed at the Elderbridges' home. "This isn't a farmhouse that looks like the one you were in. It is the farmhouse.  I know. I pulled my brother out of it!"  

"Your brother? You mentioned him before."  

Ellen nodded, knowing that the teen probably couldn't see her now in the almost complete darkness. "My older brother. His name was Frank, too.  One night he and I were driving into Castle Rock from where we lived just down the way.  Frank had to run our car into a ditch to avoid a boy who ran out in front of us. I couldn't get out so he went for help. I heard a truck slow up and my brother talking to someone, and then nothing until the truck started to drive away. I waited, but Frank didn't come back so I worked at getting myself out."  She dug her hands deep into her pockets. "I saw the lights of the house and ran there for help, but before I could reach the house the lights disappeared and so did the house that I had seen through the trees. All that was there was an old burned out farmhouse."  

"You said that you pulled your brother out of the house?"  

"That's right. I spent all the next day searching for my brother. The people in town wouldn't help me and my family was away at a fair, showing our stock, but I managed to get a message to them and knew they'd be coming to help me.  The townsfolk put me off at every turn. Sound familiar? It was just luck, Frank, or maybe it was destiny. I came back here the next night, thinking that this place had something to do with my brother's disappearance. I couldn't wait for my brothers and parents to get back and I was determined to search every square inch of the place."  She moved back to the small graveyard and sat back down.  "When I got here, there was still the ruined house, but later, when I was heading over to look into the barn I noticed a glow coming from the direction of the house. When I turned around I thought that I had lost my mind. The farmhouse was there. Light coming from the windows, flowers on the porch.  It was there."  

Becoming mesmerized by the woman's story, he slowly sat down next to her on the bench again.  "The Elderbridges? Were they there?"  

"I don't know what they were, Frank, the ones that I saw." Ellen's eyes were wide as she relived the encounter.  "Don't know what made me do it, 'cept that I was scared out of my mind and too afraid to go to the door.  I went around to the back of the house.  There was a window with a light shining through it and I peeked in. And there he was—my brother. I tapped on the…" She suddenly grabbed Frank's arm as she noticed a faint glimmer in the darkness. "We don't have time for the rest, Frank, I'm sorry. Now you listen to me," she hissed, "and listen carefully. Soon as I say, I want you to run to the back of the house. If it's the same as with my brother, Joe should be all right. Just get him out of the house. Do whatever it takes, but just do it as quickly and as quietly as you can."  

Frank hadn't noticed the light, being so intent on the older woman's recounting of her experience. Startled, he followed Ellen's gaze to the farmhouse and gasped.  It was shrouded in a soft shimmering of light.  As each second passed, more and more of the structure seemed to be filled in until he was seeing the farm as it had first appeared. "I don't believe it."  His heart pounding with excitement and hope, he turned to look at his companion.  "He's there? Joe's there."  He started for the rear of the house, but didn't get far when Ellen tugged him back.  

"Soon as you get him out you run back here to the graveyard. Stay here until that house disappears again. Understand? They can't follow you here. Maybe because it's hallowed ground. Whatever the reason, they won't cross."  She pulled him into a tight hug. "Be careful, Frank," she whispered before releasing him. "You hang onto your brother. Joe's not going to see or hear things the same as you do. My brother kept trying to get away from me to go back to the house."  

"What are you going to do?"  

Laughing softly, Ellen gave Frank's cheek a gentle pat. "Don't you worry about me, dear. I'm not that scared little girl anymore. I’m going to go right up to that front door and knock. Just like I couldn't do all those years ago.  I'm hoping to distract them, if only for a few minutes."  

"I can't let you do that."  Frank was adamant.  "From everything you've said it sounds too dangerous to do alone. Just stay with me. Or better yet. Stay here, where you'll be safe."  

"We don’t have time to argue.  You need to get Joe out of that house," Ellen insisted, pushing Frank towards the back of the farmhouse. "I promise you, I'll be all right. Go. I'll give you a minute or two to get to the window."  

Giving the woman one last look, Frank started towards the rear of the house.  At first his steps were hesitant. It didn't feel right to leave an old woman to face whatever threat the Elderbridges posed.  But then the thought of getting his brother back took over and his feet couldn't carry him fast enough.  Joe had been missing barely 24 hours but to him it had seemed an eternity. Finally reaching the back porch, Frank saw a light coming from a window.  He slowly crept up to the frame and took a cautious peek inside.

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