Day Two Evening (August 16, 1930)

Day Two, meant for methodical work, instead brought peculiar discoveries and disturbing revelations, extending into the evening and foreshadowing the strange events of Day Three.

As twilight fell, our group converged back at the farmhouse, the air thick with heat and unspoken anxieties, a “heavy” and “sticky” atmosphere with “no respite”.

Sophia, ever the chemist, meticulously analysed the mysterious emulsion obtained earlier from Richard Wendell at the Cobb’s Corners Gazette. She determined it was indeed a photography developing emulsion, noting its “slightly bluish tint” when held to the light, though she couldn’t identify any unusual additives with her limited on-site equipment. She handed it back to William, hoping someone with photography knowledge could make more sense of it.

Back from the dig site, Harry Higgins, in typical fashion, shared smuggled Irish whiskey with William and Teddy. Teddy, however, declined, feeling unwell and experiencing a headache due to the “storm coming in” and the general “heaviness” in the air.

Driven by her earlier observations and having overheard Sophia’s discussion of the emulsion, Professor Neill set up her camera for a long exposure near the flower bed, confident in capturing a “very steady image” due to the lack of wind and hoping the “emulsion” would help the photographs develop clearly.

The most unnerving event of the evening, however, was the return of the shared, unsettling dreams that haunted both Professor Lilian Neill and Teddy Harris. These dreams were vivid, intense, and filled with “strange, fantastical places, trees, and people,” with the “chilling familiarity of the sugar maple trees” as a recurring element. They both experienced a sanity loss.

Day Three (August 17, 1930)

The morning dawned under a sky of “thick, angry clouds, promising a deluge” after the intense humidity. Over breakfast, Sophia vaguely connected the description of the dreams to a child’s drawing she had seen earlier depicting “weird trees”.

Blaine set the day’s agenda: the soil surveyors (Sophia, Clarissa, Roderick Lewis, and Harry Higgins) were to return to Rice Hill, while the folklorists (Professor Neill, Teddy, William, Jason, and Terrence) would head into Cobb’s Corners. Blaine indicated he would join the diggers, though the other car refused to starts, so he hitched a lift in the truck..

The folklorists decided to start their day at the First Baptist Church of the Divine Ascension, hoping to meet locals after Sunday service, as they believed people would come to them if they had stories. The church, the only one in Cobb’s Corners, is a whitewashed, single-room building with adjoining living quarters for Reverend Earl Wilson and his family. It overlooks a well-maintained graveyard. Inside, there are eight sets of pews split by a central aisle, and an oak podium with a Bible.

The folklorists arrived at the church around 9:20 AM, finding many familiar faces from town gathered outside, including the librarian, Jim’s Grill staff, store owners, the Sheriff, and the Deputy. The service began with the entrance of Reverend Wilson. During the sermon, Wilson was seen to be fiercely dogmatic, delivering “fire and brimstone”. The children present, including Jacob, were unusually still and well-behaved. The service lasted over an hour, and William noted that it felt like a “somber celebration of Mass” with little exuberance from the congregation. The parishioners dispersed quickly afterwards, not lingering to socialize, an unusual behavior that the folklorists attributed to the Reverend’s stifling presence.

Reverend Earl Wilson, who moved to Cobb’s Corners only two months prior to fill a three-year vacancy, is described as an imposing figure of above-average height and build, giving the impression he could “wrestle the Devil”… and win. He is prematurely grey and appears to be in his mid-40s. His blue eyes squint, and he has an old scar running down his right cheek, which he attributes to his “ungodly days as a youth”. He is a puritanical man of God and dogmatic zealot, whose sermons are “filled with terrible punishments for sinners”. He fervently believes everything he says. William noted he was “moody”. His wife, Martha, is about twenty years his junior, and they have an eight-year-old son named Jacob. Both Martha and Jacob are timid and mousy.

When the folklorists spoke with Reverend Wilson, he was initially somewhat dismissive. Teddy Harris, with an astute display of Biblical knowledge and references to Isaiah, managed to impress the Reverend and gain his attention. Professor Neill then introduced their purpose as folklorists. Wilson expressed reluctance to have their conversation audio-recorded, preferring “good old-fashioned paper notes”.

Wilson shared that he and Martha had only been in Cobb’s Corners for a few months and that his understanding of the town’s history was “very limited”. He described some local stories as “fanciful, bordering on foolish”. When Jacob, his son, dropped some biscuits, Wilson clipped him on the ear and publicly chastised him and Martha, revealing a harsh temper before recomposing himself.

Professor Neill attempted to persuade Wilson that folklore often contains a “grain of truth,” akin to “parables” in the Bible. Although Wilson holds a literal interpretation of the Bible, he was somewhat swayed by this argument. He then recounted a story about a parishioner’s grandpappy encountering the Devil on a mound in the woods, with a “light [coming] out of the heavens” to strike the Devil down at the sound of prayers. This part of the story, he liked, but dismissed other tales of “strange noises and strange creatures” as “nonsense stories told by children” and “spread by simple minds”. He suggested everything they needed to know was in the Bible.

The conversation concluded with Wilson cutting it short, stating he needed to visit “sick parishioners”. Professor Neill noticed a “strong sense that [Wilson] is an accomplished liar”.

Following this, Professor Neill, Teddy, and William visited Richard Wendell at the Cobb’s Corners Gazette office, primarily to develop the photographs taken the previous night. The results were stark and unnerving: the pictures clearly revealed multiple pairs of white, glowing “eyes” in the dark woods behind the farmhouse, appearing particularly dense around the outhouse and flower bed. This chilling visual evidence seemed to confirm the eerie sensations from their shared dreams.

While there, Teddy also took the opportunity to review old newspaper archives, noting a disturbing number of “stupid accidents” and child deaths over the years, though he attributed this to the reporter’s sensationalism and attempts to “milking the story”.

Meanwhile, at the Rice Hill dig site, Sophia and Clarissa continued their work, discovering more Indigenous artifacts, including arrowheads made from dolomite and carved bone rings, alongside what Clarissa identified as potential “post holes”. They did not find the rare pasquallium ore.

The weather soon took a turn for the worse, with heavy rain beginning to fall. Blaine, who had ostensibly joined the diggers, left them, claiming he was going to a nearby farmhouse to use their telephone. After an hour and a half, the survey team decided something must have happened and headed back towards the farmhouse in Joe Harlow’s truck.

As they were heading back, disaster struck while crossing the Gismend Road Bridge: the surging river swept part of the structure away, plunging the truck into the water. Sophia suffered a nasty cut to her forehead and hurt ribs in the ordeal. Thankfully no one was seriously injured, though everyone was quite wet and cold. The sheriff arrived on the scene quickly as he’d been checking road conditions and he brought the diggers back to the farmhouse. Later on, the truck was eventually pulled to safety.

The folklorists, having wisely taken a different route unaffected by the washed-out bridge, had already returned to the farmhouse. Blaine had also, somewhat unexpectedly, returned to the farmhouse ahead of the dig team.

Upon returning to the Maclearan farmhouse, cold, wet, and weary from the day’s ordeal, Harry Higgins couldn’t hold his tongue any longer. He was visibly pissed off and put out, especially after Robert Blaine had finally reappeared, hours after leaving the other diggers behind.

Harry launched into a furious tirade, primarily aimed at Blaine. He vehemently stated that Blaine had abandoned them in a “bloody monsoon,” claiming to be “right back” yet returning to the farmhouse completely dry. Harry exclaimed, “I got him figured as a jinx. Cursed.”. He then recounted the tragic events of the previous year’s Miskatonic University expedition to Cobb’s Corners, where one student died and two, including Blaine’s girlfriend, went missing. Harry pointed out Blaine’s supposed “lucky” escape from that trip due to a broken arm, implying a suspicious pattern. He concluded by expressing a profound sense of unease, stating, “I got a bad feeling about that fella”.

Amidst this passionate outburst, Harry suggested that the group should “down tools” and wait for Blaine to figure out the next steps, given the challenging circumstances. Sophia, also frustrated, highlighted their precarious situation, noting that the group was now down to only one working car. Harry, dressed in a “vesty top” and “pajama bottoms,” continued to vent his frustration, cementing the uneasy mood in the farmhouse for the evening.

Food was prepared, but it didn’t help much to lift the mood.

During the evening, Teddy and William noticed Jason Trent, the secretive student, acting suspiciously with a book, snapping it shut and hiding it away when he realised he was observed. Teddy later glimpsed its faded gold lettering and title: Folklore and Strange Stories of New England and Beyond. Teddy tried to engage Jason, but he dismissed it as “just a fiction story” and quickly retreated upstairs. Teddy suspected it was “something that is either precious to him or important to him”.

Later, after an hour and a half of unexplained absence, Robert Blaine reappeared, claiming he’d gone for “Dutch courage” (whiskey) in the woods because he was “a little bit shaken” by what had happened earlier. Professor Neill, however, used her keen perception to deduce he was lying, sensing him to be an “accomplished liar”. Sophia also noted his peculiar behaviour and called out his lie about making a phone call. His footprints, when noticed, led not to the outhouse, as he implied, but it was hard to determine where they went.

Later that evening, Lilian and Teddy dreamt… again their dreams were bad.

Until next time,

Owen