Evening in early autumn in the pouring rain in a small town somewhere in middle America. It's a small safe town, rarely does anything bad happen and it's mostly a quiet place. . . well, at least is used to be. Next to an old cemetery on a rise, there is a family living in an antiquated two-story house on hillock low. There are strange rumors about the nearby High Point Cemetery and sometimes the children say they hear strange noises. They moved in a few months ago and never paid much attention to the rumors or the fanciful imagination of their children.
Below the home is an old dirty basement that is full of junk, boxes and old storage containers of various sizes. In one corner of a back area there is an old bookcase, there are noises from the family above as the bookcase creaks and dust falls and the bookcase moves away from the wall a tiny bit.
Above the basement is the first-floor level, a family watches television together. Throughout the area there are various scented candles burning, to make the space have a pleasant aroma to cover up the odd smells that seem to come up from the basement.
The mother tells three children to head off to bed as the dad takes a drink of his can of cheap beer. The children protest and bicker amongst themselves, the dad yells back, “And brush your damn teeth or they'll fall out your head,” that comment was directed at the youngest boy.
The young lad protests in defeat, “Aww dang,” as his mother ushers him into the bathroom.
A bit later, after all the children are sleeping in bed the mother kisses her husband goodnight and she says, “I gotta get up early tomorrow, hun, I'm turning in, but can you blow out the candles before coming to bed?”
The husband replies, “Huh. . . oh, yeah, of course, hun,” only halfway paying attention while not really taking his attention off the television.
The bookcase in the basement is pushed open as if it's on hinges like a door.
Up in the bedroom, the mom is lying in bed naked holding her phone, she is using a dating app for local singles. She is talking to a man with the username of 'pussypunder69,' it's purposely spelled that way because 'pussypounder69' was already taken when he made his account. She has been sexting him for a few weeks now and she knows his first name is Jerry, so when she addresses him, she calls him 'Jerry' and not by his username. Her and Jerry have grown close, she believes, so she has provided Jerry with details about herself, such as where she lives.
Her relationship with her husband has become less romantic over the years, talking to Jerry and planning to meet up with him offers her some excitement that she hasn't felt in a long time. She felt a little guilty at first, but that guilt subsided and was replaced with the thrill of cheating on her husband.
She asks Jerry for his instructions for pleasuring herself. Jerry gives her step-by-step instructions until eventually she climaxes. When she is finishes, she texts, “I wish you were here in my room right now.”
Jerry replies back, “Soon.”
She sends him a smiley face.
A few moments later, the dad is on the couch holding his beer can as he drifts off to sleep, eyes watch him from the open cracked basement door. Then the old basement door opens slowly as it creaks in protest. The candles near the door flicker from the air pressure differential as three men step inside, all dressed in dirty black hooded robes and holding clubs, one of them is a huge imposing figure with a shotgun, he towers a full head above the other two men. The tall man points up the stairs, gesturing the other two men to go up there as he stands over the slumbering intoxicated dad.
Upstairs, the two men step into the bedroom where the mother is sleeping and creep over to her bed. One of the men is Jerry, the man she was sexting. Suddenly she is violently woken as a hand grabs her around the throat and by her hair and pulls her out of bed. She tries to resist but the man behind her hits her in the back with his club, weakening her efforts to resist. They drag her out of her room and down the hall and throw her down the stairs, the violent fall knocks her unconscious and shatters her arm.
This makes the dad wake up and try to stand, just in time to be hit in the face with the stock of a shotgun hard enough to knock him backward, causing the couch to tip over backwards. This action knocks over some candles, igniting a curtain on fire.
The youngest boy that avoids brushing his teeth wakes up and walks out of his room, down the hall to the top of the stairs and watches in horror as his mom and dad are dragged off into the basement.
The structure of the local Fire Department is an antiquated building, built over one hundred years ago, clad in vintage red bricks. The alert comes through the 911 system: a residential fire. A man sitting at a desk using his laptop to play an online golf tournament suddenly jumps up. He is Steve McCoy, a large fellow standing 6 feet, 5 inches tall and is a former member of the US Marines, the military is where he received his formal fire-fighting training.
As the fire-truck races down the street with Bill, the other fireman that was on call, over the truck radio the dispatch lady gives details that there is possibly a family and children still in the structure. Steve looks up and sees the kids screaming for help from the second-story window as the firetruck pulls up to the burning house. The children can only open the window partially because it's old window and it always jams; it takes someone strong to pull it open all the way.
The first authority on the scene is the local city police sergeant, he got there a few moments before the firetruck arrived, his name tag says Lincoln. The sergeant yells to Steve, “Oh my god Steve, there are kids trapped up there, I can't get in the front door, it's too hot!” as fire shatters the front window and flames pour out.
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Steve is usually calm and cool under pressure and is a professional but seeing the children trapped in the burning house gets him shook up, he says, “Oh God.”
Bill gets the firefighting equipment ready and looks at Steve and says, “I hope you're not going to do something stupid, Steve. . . backup is coming.”
Steve replies, “There's no time, those kids are going to be dead before they get here, and I'm already geared up!” as he puts on his face mask grabs a fire extinguisher. Steve runs up the porch and kicks the front door as hard as he can, knocking it open. He enters, inside it's a blazing infernal, well in excess of 1000 degrees Fahrenheit with the ceiling starting to collapse. Using his fire extinguisher, he clears a path up the stairs, some of the boards give way under foot but he holds the handrail firmly, he was anticipating structural failure. Once at the top of the stairs, they collapse behind him as he looks back.
Inside the room, the children are having trouble breathing and are screaming for help out the window, the other fireman goes to get a ladder and the police sergeant can only watch helplessly. Sergeant Lincoln can only say, “Jesus Christ,” as he covers his mouth, thinking about his own kids if they were in this situation.
Steve enters the room with the kids inside and shuts the door behind him, knowing there is no going back the way he came in. Steve yells through his breather, “I'm getting you out but where is your mom and dad?” as he uses his ax to smash the window out and clear the glass quickly.
The girl says she doesn't know, and the older boy is crying and choking but the little boy says, “The bad men took them into the basement,” with a scared look on his face.
“Okay, let's get you out first, then we'll get your mom and dad,” says Steve but from what he saw on his way in he knows that if anyone is down there, they probably aren't going to make it out alive from the heat and lack of air to breathe, even if the fire never reaches them.
The other fireman leans a ladder on the house next to the window. Around the corner, a burning wall falls on a large old rusty propane tank. Bill sees it and yells up, “Steve, hurry, we have a situation with the propane tank.”
“Okay kids, there isn't much time, it's like the playground, climb down the ladder and see who can do it the fastest, okay?” says Steve, trying to think how they can get out, with only moments to live as the old house creaks and groans with the roaring fire raging in the background.
The oldest boy wastes no time and scurries down the ladder quickly while Bill waits at the bottom to try to catch them if they fall. Then next the little girl climbs down after she protests because she's too scared so Steve says, “You need to go before your little brother, so you can help catch him if he falls when it's his turn, can you do that for me?”
The little girl's protective instinct takes over and she overcomes her fear and climbs down quickly.
The old propane tank starts to creak and bulge, surrounded by fire and Bill tells Sergeant Lincoln to get back behind the firetruck because the situation is critical as some volunteer firemen arrive in a truck and a county deputy drives up. Bills gestures for them all to stay back and yells for them to stay back also.
Inside the room, the boy loses consciousness from the smoke and Steve picks him up and says, “Oh shit.” as he puts him on his shoulder and gets on the ladder and climbs down with one hand on the ladder and one on the child, knowing the propane tank could explode at any second. He reaches the bottom where Bill is waiting for him.
“Go, Bill, run!” Steve says while cradling the child.
They both run towards the trucks, but Bill isn't carrying anyone so reaches the trucks and gets behind it as the propane take explodes, blowing half the house away. The fireball and concussive shock wave hits Steve and throws him like a child's toy down the hill, but he manages to use his body as a shield for the child he's holding. Steve hits hard enough to be knocked unconscious and cracks three ribs but the child is relatively unharmed and survives.
He awakens a few moments later. Bill says, “Jesus, Steve, are you okay?”
Steve says, “Yeah, I'm okay, let's get this fire out. . . we might have two bodies in the basement,” but doesn't mention how much his ribs hurt and asks, “Did the kid make it, is he okay?”
“Yeah, you saved him, he's on his way to the hospital,” Bill says, and he helps Steve up and gestures to the ambulance that is pulling away.
Later in the early morning twilight, the fire is out with half the structure destroyed and charred. Steve, Bill and Sergeant Lincoln inspect the structure and work their way to the basement, they look around and see no bodies there. Steve says, “That boy said bad men took his parents down here but there's nothing, where did they go?” asking rhetorically to Bill.
Bill says, “We might have a possible arson here with a double homicide.”
“It's not a homicide without bodies. . . but it's certainly looking like another missing persons, this time with a possible home invasion and abduction. . ." Lincoln remarks.
The next morning, the tall man in black is standing inside a large cavern in front of a stone ring with a sphere of light and energy contained within the ring. Surrounding him are eight men in dirty black robes. The tall man says, “Jerry has proven himself and his loyalty to the Order, all in favor of making Jerry Johnson a full Disciple, say aye.”
The men in black robes all say aye.
The tall man says, “I agree to this judgment but on one condition: Jerry must give up someone he values, that online girlfriend doesn't count as enough of a sacrifice.”
Jerry falls to his knees in front of the tall man and says, “Please forgive me master, I-I have someone to sacrifice, my stepdaughter, Adelle.
The tall man laughs out loud and says, “Not good enough Jerry, we all know she's just your sex-toy.
“No, no, she's more than that to me,” insists Jerry, then he continues, “All I used to care about was money, until I saw what real power was from meeting you Theodore. She is my primary income, I been selling her body for years, so I didn't need to work, it was how I had so much time to dedicate to the Order and it's where I got the money from to donate to the Order.”
The tall man's name is Theodore, and he nods and says, “Very well, this is acceptable. We shall take your little bitch and sacrifice her to the great and powerful Forgotten Gods.” Then he laughs in amusement, “I like the twisted nature of the relationship dynamics of your sick, dysfunctional family and how her mother will be crying on your shoulder, she will wonder what became of her daughter and it will haunt her for the rest of her days. While the very man that made her daughter a child prostitute and ultimately let her be sacrificed so that he may gain more power, will be with whom her mother finds comfort!” then he laughs manically.
The rest of the group laughs. Jerry looks around with an eager smile, happy that they all approve and asks, “So, do you think it will please the Forgotten Gods, master?”
Theodore looks down at him and grins, “Yes, I know it will.”