The Makings of Something Bad (The Cleveland Hellmouth Moves)
Who: Various residents of Hope Falls, Rhode Island.
What: This explains how the Hellmouth moves from Cleveland, Ohio to Hope Falls, Rhode Island. It chronicles what happens the night the Hellmouth moved, and the days after - from several resident's points of view. It does not take in account what Buffy and others do in reaction to these changes, over the various days. That is saved for other's specific threads.
When: April 29, 2007
Where: Hope Falls, Rhode Island - several places. For the sake of not having uber confusion, please make your own threads about this. Use this as a reference. Your mod thanks you, and asks for some chilled Diet Coke.
Telephone wires were good for many things not limited to a landing spot for small groups of black-feathered birds that decided to perch atop the heavily insulated cables. Sometimes, when things got crazy in the small town of Hope Falls, people laced together their old shoes and looped them over. On a cool spring afternoon, however, there weren't many people throwing a pair of beat up Chuck Taylor's into the air to scare away the birds. Most of the community was working.
Except for Herb Michinski.
A fifteen-year-old high school major of study hall, the poorly-named-by-his-parents Herb was out in front of the local drug store, waiting for the remaining few seconds of the hour to pass so that he could go inside to steal a liter bottle of Coke and a Snickers. If he went in before school was out, the news of his cutting would no doubt get back to his parents. What kid wanted that?
The sky above him was covered in dull gray clouds, leaving him to wonder for a moment just why it was so hot when the sun hadn't peeked its head out all day. "Friggin global warming," he said as he sighed, pulling at the collar of his shirt.
Lifting a stone, Herb tossed it into the street, watching in horror as the first car that appeared in half an hour came around the corner just as the rock sank, bouncing first off of the hood before hitting the windshield.
"Figures."
---
Herb sat at the top of the stairs, listening to his parents. They had been less than pleased when they got a call from the cops, saying that their son had damaged someone's car. "Typical," his mother had muttered. Since then he'd been up in his room, and no dinner had been offered to him so his stomach growled achingly at the thought of any crumb of food.
His dad worked as a Realtor, and sometimes had late hours. It was only a half-hour ago, at ten p.m., that he'd come home. Since then, his parents had been arguing. And from the top of the stairs, they were more than loud enough for Herb to hear.
"He needs discipline," Mrs. Michinski said in her know-it-all voice.
"Why am I the only one who has to discipline him?" countered Mr. Michinski.
"I try. You know I try. This isn't even the point. It's -" Herb couldn't see that his mother had taken a seat on the loveseat, but her voice got softer. "Why are we failing as parents? Why is our child so unhappy?"
"It's not our fault he's unhappy."
"Whose is it?"
Herb didn't want to know their answer. He scrambled up from his sitting position, and walked into his room, shutting the door carefully so they wouldn't hear it downstairs and know he'd been eavesdropping. He locked the door then unhappily made his way to his bed, sitting down on the edge. He felt like everything was going wrong. Everything in his entire life. It was overwhelming, to feel so powerless, to feel so insignificant, and to know you are alone.
And it wasn't his fault.
He'd been happy before. He'd had friends before. But that had been when he lived in Cleveland, Ohio. A month ago was when his parents had moved him from the haven that is Cleveland, to this hell that was Hope Falls, Rhode Island. They'd moved for his father's job. They didn't care that they were disrupting his life.
Your teenage years were supposed to be full of unlimited fun and debauchery. But Herb hadn't been able to have any experience here that he could deem as even 'moderately fun.' He knew there was no chance of his parents moving him back. He'd argued about it with them night after night. They answer was always a resounding 'no.' And every night, his parents seemed angrier at his request. He'd asked them if he could go live with a friend in Cincinnati, if someone could adopt him, if he could emancipate himself - the answer was 'no.' To everything.
The hunger he felt now was great. But he'd already checked everywhere in his room for any sign of food. All he'd had was some stale Big Red bubble gum shoved into the pocket of a jacket he hadn't worn for weeks, now.
He felt restless from being cooped up in his room for so long. He'd never been a 'bad' kid, but he wasn't against breaking the rules from time to time. And a plan had been formulating in his head for a few minutes now, with hunger being his driving force. He was living a rebellious teenagers dream for the fact that his side window overlooked a large trellis where ivy grew. His mother had loved it from the moment she'd seen it. She saw it as a lovely addition to the house.
Herb saw it as his escape route.
Pushing the window open, he looked out into the dark night. His parents had the shades pulled downstairs, they'd never see him climb down. Hopefully the trellis was sturdier than it looked. One leg swept up over the windowsill and rooted itself on one of the trellis's bars. Holding onto the sill, Herb maneuvered his other leg up and over. Nervously, Herb made a slow decline down the trellis. And it didn't even break, it only swayed a little.
Grateful to put his feet on the ground, Herb wasted no time in grabbing his bike from the side of the house, and getting on it. Then, off he went, peddling like a madman, down the street.
---
Herb arrived at the closest place he could think of that would be open and have food - Valero Gas Station. He parked his bike and stalked into the store section. The lights were bright, and they beamed down on yellow bags of Lays potato chips, purple boxes of Sweet Tarts, and blue packages of Chips Ahoy. They all looked so delicious. There was nothing of nutritious value of course, but that wasn't on his list of priorities for the night. Anything to make the grumbling in his stomach stop was a-okay.
Reaching for a bag of chips, Herb glanced first up the aisle, then back down, assuring himself that he was alone. Since he'd wrecked that windshield earlier, he was feeling different, unsure of how to place it exactly. "Weird." Shrugging it off, he opened the bag and continued to meander around the store, glancing at the shelves packed full of things that no one should ever need. Like, for example, cap guns. Or better yet, the refills for the cap guns. He couldn't recall a time when he was younger that he bought one of those refill things; he'd always just gone and gotten a whole new gun.
Munching down, he kept to himself, kept up the search for something else worth making fun of, and kept hearing a flicker in the Muzak the store was playing softly, the sounds coming from a pair of speakers that sounded like they needed their proverbial oil changed. That was odd. He hadn't often gone inside the store portion of Valero, not for a while, but he didn't ever remember there being music before.
"Hello?" Setting the bag down, his intent on skipping by the part he had to pay for the snack, Herb moved to the front of the store. As he got to the front, the counter, covered in all sorts of power bars and the like, was unmanned. Hadn't there just been someone there?
"This town," a voice came from behind him, causing the boy to whirl around so fast that he knocked a few things over. "Is positively boring. How do you people survive this pointlessness?"
Like any teenager, Herb's eyes were focused on one sole spot as the busty brunette beauty approached him, and that wasn't her eyes. Though, he would remember later, they were the most beautiful blue color he'd ever seen before. Her eyes, that is, not her breasts.
"Heh, don't know, don't particularly wanna find out myself, ma'am." Bending down, he began gathering the fallen items back up into their proper places. "I hate this place."
"A damn shame anyone would ever have to actually live here." She placed a few bills on the surface beside the register, and together they waited in silence for the next few moments. Herb was too afraid to say anything. She seemed to be impatient for the clerk to return.
"You're passing through, then?"
"Quickly as a person can manage, once this cretin returns from whatever it is he finds that he should be doing instead of working. Herb smiled, and she noticed it from the corner of her eyes, relenting and grinning herself. "What did you mean when you said that you do not want to find out yourself?"
"My parents," a sigh, "they moved here from Cleveland and said I had to come along. I don't really like it, and I wanna go back." Placing his hands inside his pockets, he looked down at the floor, unable to see his reflection because of how poorly it was maintained. "I'm thinking of running away. Hey--"
"I think not," she interrupted. She wasn't going to aid a runaway. "Here." She removed her ring and held it out, waiting for him to accept it. The silver band was well crafted, looked rather old, and was set with some sort of green gem that caught even the terrible lights above and reflected something beautiful. "Maybe this will bring you some luck." She smiled, and seemed to lose the harsh tone of voice for a moment. "I remember, back when I was your age, my parents dragged me kicking and screaming from where I had grown up as a child. I despised them for doing it to me. In point; I know where you are coming from. Try not to run away. Do what I did."
"What was that?" Herb asked, slipping the ring on his middle finger and admiring it, fingering it with his thumb
"I killed them." Chuckling softly, she left the bill on the counter and decided that it was enough, though five dollars short as it was. "Be good," she told him with a sing-song voice.
"Yeah, well, I don't think I can do that. I just wish that this place would get more like home." Head sinking, Herb blinked back the tears and didn't catch the fact that when he went outside just after the woman that she was gone, not a single soul in the parking lot save for his ten speed and himself. "I miss home."
---
And in an instant, so much changed.
---
All of the electricity in Hope Falls turns off in a blink of an eye, bringing darkness down over the town that was getting ready to tuck in for the night. Many residents that noticed the change called up the local power company, who said they'd work on getting the power up ASAP. Little did they know that nothing had malfunctioned that they could actually fix.
---
Regina Sparks had endured a long day at work. She worked at a bank, and it was a tedious job. She was thirty-five, and without a significant other, so the most she had to look forward to at the end of the day was a welcome home greeting from her white cat, Sugar, a glass of red wine, and a nice relaxing bath. She'd had to work late that night, and it had been most unenjoyable.
Having obliged Sugar in giving her attention, and pouring herself a glass of wine, she ascended the stairs. By the time she got to the bathroom she had already peeled off her mauve colored cardigan. She was left wearing a simple pale yellow bra - that she'd gotten on sale at Sears, and black pants and socks. She'd wriggled her feet out of her too-small black pumps minutes after walking in the front door. She examined herself in the mirror as she maneuvered her bra around, unhooking the clasp. Faint traces of makeup could be seen on her, but most of it evaporated as the day went on. It made her wonder why she spent so much time in the morning applying her daily mask of foundation, powder, blush, eye-shadow, mascara, and lipstick. Her face looked pale under the bright bathroom light. Turning away from the unforgiving mirror she pulled off her pants, underwear, and finally her socks. She left all of her clothes in various piles on the floor. She was simply too exhausted to do anything about them for the time being.
Leaning over the bath, she twisted a knob, and the sound of water began pouring out of the faucet. She held her hand under it, waiting until she could gauge the temperature - and turned the knob farther left, making it hotter. She stepped into the bath, letting her feet relish the warm feeling that surrounded them, and sat herself down in the tub. Reaching behind her, she pulled her hair out of its low ponytail, taking the black elastic rubber band and in a gesture she performed so many times, pulled it over her hand and let it rest around her wrist - one black line separating her hand from her arm.
She pushed the drain closed at the bottom of the tub and leaned back. The walls of the tub were icy cold, but she didn't care. It was the best meditative time - while the water was still running, as she reveled in the warm bath-water. She closed her eyes and thought about the cute boy who'd come into the bank today. He was too young for her, of course. But she couldn't help but think that if she'd had a daughter, or if she was close to any of her nieces - if they lived here, she could have introduced them. The boy had had a gentle face, just the type she'd want a daughter of hers to date.
She did this too often. Thought of the 'what if's'. Being a single woman of this age, things like marriage and babies tended to surface on your mind more than you liked. She'd never even come close to marrying anyone - she'd had all of three long-term boyfriends in her life. The numbers weren't in her favor. Especially her age. That infernal biological clock was ticking. She'd saved all of her old dolls from when she was a child, always intending that she'd let her daughter have them. They were good dolls, in pristine condition, some of which were collectibles. When she'd been a child she'd always been so enthralled when her mother would get out her old dolls and let her see them.
Of course, there was no way of knowing whether her daughter would have even liked dolls. Or if she'd even have had a daughter, had she given birth.
She had two brothers - both of which had daughters. But they lived far away. She hardly got to see any of her family. She talked to her mother on the phone now and then, but she always ended up being annoyed at her, even if her mother was well-intentioned. Her mother always wanted to talk about the way the price of ground beef had gone up at the grocery store; how she'd found a pair of socks in a clearance bin for only a dollar, the new type of coffee bean she had tried and dislike earlier that day; how, when she was a little girl, the shows on television were of much higher quality than the garbage that people watched now.
Regina did her best to keep herself amused during the phone calls, toying with a string above Sugar, or painting her toenails.
The water felt good, but it had been too long, it was time to turn the water off, and just soak. She opened her eyes reluctantly, and moved herself forward, reaching for the knob. But before she could touch it, she noticed something extremely wrong.
The water all around her was red.
Alarmed, she gasped, and looked to the faucet - the red had originated there - as it poured forth. Her eyes widened as she pulled her other hand up from the depths of the water. Or...what she was just now realizing was not water. It was not just red, but a dark crimson... The perfect color of blood.
Downstairs, Sugar lifted her head as she heard a scream. The cat scurried under the couch.
---
Though it was night, the sky above Hope Falls seemed to grow darker, blotting out any stars that might have been faintly visible from the beach. Thunder rolled in ominously, startling the birds nestled in the trees and under low hanging roofs. Violet Richards had been at the beach with her boyfriend, Eric Valentine, and they'd been sitting on the rock-formed pier, talking about nothing in particular, as most boyfriends and girlfriends are apt to do. Now both of their eyes trailed upwards.
"Think it's going to rain?" asked Violet, feeling an involuntary shiver go through her despite the fact that she was wearing Eric's jacket.
With a nod, Eric stood up, holding out his hand for his girl. As Violet stood, they heard a crackling above them. Eyes towards the blackness above, they both caught a glimpse of white lightening streaking across the sky.
"Let's go," Eric said, as if they'd needed anymore warning.
Violet squeezed Eric's hand as they began half-running down the pier. When they reached the end of the pier and stepped down into the sand it was harder to run. Violet could feel each of her footsteps sink unwillingly. Eric felt something jerk him backwards. Violet had not let go of his hand as she'd stopped.
"What is it?"
"My sandal came off," she said, slipping her fingers out of his grasp and letting her eyes look behind her as she walked, one foot barefoot, over the cold sand.
Eric wasn't watching her, though. He'd looked skyward, again. He'd been hearing a fizzing - almost like a pop bottle had been shaken and opened. In the sky, in small blue clusters, bolts of light seemed to shine and disappear.
Violet hadn't wasted time putting the sandal on, she'd grabbed it, and now Eric felt a shove as she was pushing him towards the parking lot. Flowers planted on a grassy mound that separated the beach from the parking lot had all turned an unmistakable shade of black. They'd all died. But in the darkness, neither noticed this anomaly.
As they ran to the car, lightening sparked above them - and Eric couldn't get the sight of those blue bolts out of his head. He'd never seen anything like that at all.
While Eric pulled out of the parking lot, Violet looked out the window, her eye catching on something red. There, wide and full, looking heavy as though it might fall, was the moon.
Back on the beach, the water from the lake crashed upon the shore angrily in unrest.
---
Slayers that night would begin seeing flashes of the ground. What was so terrifyingly frightening about the ground, you may ask? The fact that, all throughout the Earth, that was the spot in which bodies were put to rest after people died. Why? Tradition.
So when they began to see images of people clawing their way out of the graves in which they were supposed to rest for eternity - or until someone came along in search of jewels, or bones, or something more ghoulish than either of those - the sight would be one that was highly unsettling. These people were not alive, yet they weren't dead. More disturbing that either of those, however, was the fact that none of the people were vampires; the sort of thing a Slayer was accustomed to see crawling to the surface of some night-shaded graveyard.
Slayers in other parts of the world that were awake would find themselves closing their eyes, receiving the same images, not knowing where they were coming from.
The Hotel Cavalier and the Watcher's Council in England would start to get calls from various Slayers and Watchers around the globe. They knew something was coming.
They had no idea it was already here.
---
Luke Gallagher opened his eyes to the dim light of his room. He felt more rested than he usually did when he woke up. Crap! He rolled over in his bed, looking to the alarm clock - hoping that those green beams of light would tell him it was a reassuringly early time - that he hadn't overslept. But the clock was blinking 12:00. Crap! He pulled himself from bed, looking over to his wife, Marissa. He had no idea what time it was so he decided to wake her, putting a hand on her shoulder and shaking her clumsily.
Marissa awoke from the shaking sensation on her arm. "Huh? Hunny?"
"The power's out," Luke said simply.
Marissa groaned inwardly, pulling herself up. "Are the kids up?"
"I don't know," he said, rubbing his eyes as he made his way to the bathroom.
Marissa got up and walked down the hall, opening first Joanie's bedroom door, and then Adam's. She called out to both of them to wake up as she quickly entered the bathroom to alleviate herself.
Luke had now walked out of their bedroom, leaning into Joanie's room. The angelic nine year old was curled up in her bed, clearly awake, but pretending to be asleep. "Come on, Joanie. School today."
Adam emerged from his room, wearing his power rangers pajamas. Marissa opened the bathroom door, walking out as Adam wordlessly went in.
Marissa called out in an authoritative tone both of the kids were familiar with, "Joanie, we're late, come on!" as she headed downstairs.
Downstairs, Marissa went towards the coffee machine, only too late realizing that it wouldn't work. Dammit. She'd have to go out to get coffee. Luke would just have to get some on his way to work. Which he was probably late for. He usually got up at 6 a.m. and got on the road by 7, arriving at his office before 8, as he worked not in Hope Falls, but a neighboring town. Joanie had to be at school at 9.
Luke, fresh from a super-fast shower, and dressed, was now downstairs, checking his cell phone. "Shit, I'm late."
"Don't swear," Marissa said, surprised he had. He was usually so good about it, what with the kids being so young.
"Sorry." Luke put his cellphone to his ear, listening to a message, ignoring her as she started to say something. Marissa was used to him being like this. But he was a good father and a good husband. She didn't blame him for not being a morning-person.
Luke closed his phone. "Bridgers is okay with me being late, he heard about the power outage, but he said that Karyn says there's no school for Kate and Joanie today. The power is out everywhere in town."
"That's weird. Isn't that weird?" asked Marissa, secretly relived she didn't have to hurry to get Joanie to school. Luke was grabbing his briefcase. "Where's the coffee?" he asked.
"No power," she replied simply, astounded that he was so out of it he didn't remember that.
Shrugging, he grunted something as he pulled at the kitchen door and walked out. No kiss good-bye. Marissa sighed, leaning onto the kitchen counter. Was this how it was going to be as they got older?
Luke only made it a few steps outside when he stopped, and looked upwards. The sun was out, but there was ...a black ring around it. And there was also a large glowing red moon, hanging there. "Marissa!" he called out, not sure what he was looking at, but wanting to be sure he wasn't hallucinating.
Marissa sleepily walked outside. Had he forgotten something? Luke pointed upwards, and Marissa looked, amazed by what she saw. What...what was that stuff? That couldn't be normal. The door behind them opened, and out walked Adam. He was looking down, though. "Mommy," he said. "All of the flowers are dead." Marissa looked down, and noticed that all of the flowers were indeed black. All those tulip's she'd taken the time to plant. All black. Like some sort of gothic garden. And the plants, though not dead, looked to be dying. And what was that smell - the smell of rot? Now that she looked closer, even the grass seemed to be a sickly shade of green.
"Let's get inside, Adam."
---
Though she was aware that the power was out, Victoria Chartlon had a responsibility to the animals at her clinic. She'd woken up on time because of her impeccable internal clock. But it hadn't taken long to realize that there was no power. A call to one of her assistants at the clinic confirmed that there wasn't any power, anywhere. Still, the animals needed food and water. While other businesses could afford not to go into work, the people at the clinic had to go.
Having grabbed a bottle of water, and a granola bar, Victoria was out of the house and on her way to her car when she saw what several other residents had now seen - the red moon, the black ring around the sun, the decaying plant-life. Worried, her instinct was not to hide in her house, but to get to her animals. Her own dog, Rufus, had been barking madly half the night, and all morning - something quite odd and out of place for him. But then he'd run off and hid under the bed, and she hadn't been able to coax him out, to take him into the clinic with her. "Stay there, Mr. Pouty," she'd finally said.
The ride to the Hope Falls Animal Clinic was short. Even before getting that close to the building she could hear barking and howls from the animals. Quickly as she could, she unlocked the doors and stepped inside. It was dark, but the place was alive - her ears were flooded with the sounds of the animals. All of the dogs seemed to be barking madly. She hurried into the room where they kept the cages. Most of the animals were making noises, and several of them were pushed as far back into their cages as they could get.
This had never happened before.
---
For days, the sky remained as it had. The vegetation in Hope Falls seemed to have had the very life sucked out of it. Animals acted weirdly, both aggressive and afraid. The power had been fixed three days later, though none of the technicians had been able to figure out what had fixed it, or what he caused it to stop working.
But once there was power, people seemed to relish the normalcy of life - coffeemakers, blowdryers, lamps. But this also meant that communications were doubled. Now there wasn't just phones, there was the TV, the radio, and the Internet.
The Mayor had been hard at work, trying to process what was happening and keep his people updated, although he was not giving them any real information. He had no real information. None of his experts knew what was going on, even when he'd employed several scientists.
And though, as time wore on, what had happened in Hope Falls was on the news and the Internet, his office got calls from conspiracy theorists from across the nation, he knew they were all freaks. But he had to appease the townsfolk, and he had to do it now.
The fourth night after everything had started, he had a press conference, one in which was shown on the news. He told everyone that businesses and schools were back running. He commended everyone on working as a true neighborhood community in these past few days of trouble.
Then he gave explanations.
The water that had turned into blood? Why, that wasn't blood. All of the pipes had become eaten through with rust. That was rust water. And people believed it, because they wanted to. Because the water was back to normal. So what was the sense in worrying?
The dead foliage? Yes, many flowers had died. All, in fact. With the water in terrible shape from the pipes, they were the first to experience it for several days before anyone had even noticed. With the fresh supply of non-soiled water, they would be able to plant anew and keep things looking fresh again.
The strange things in the sky? Why, it was a celestial phenomenon that occurred every thousand years. Hadn't they ever heard of the Yvonne eclipse? It was totally normal, and they were lucky to have seen it.
The animals acting weird? Well, animals would be animals. Hadn't they all calmed down now? Yes.
He said nothing of the rising body count, of all the strange deaths that had been occurring. He knew nothing that would satisfy and saw no reason that things wouldn't be handled by his brother-in-law, the local sheriff.
The majority of people in Hope Falls underwent what you could call the 'Sunnydale Syndrome.' They believed the excuses the authorities told them, because they didn't want to believe that anything scary, weird, or dangerous was going on.
"What about the birds," someone called out at the press conference. Indeed, there had been what seemed to be an influx of black-feathered birds as of late, probably either ravens or crows or something of the sort.
The Mayor had informed them all that he'd take more questions later, or that they could write their concerns and send them into his office, gave an assurance the would all be answered, and waved to the good people of Hope Falls. Moving off of the platform, he whispered to his assistant to find some people that actually could fake answers to all these questions with a threatening glare that only the man running the town could pull off without looking silly.
---
"You mean it actually moved a Hellmouth under the town?"
"Yes," said D'hoffryn with a smile. "Although, sadly, it didn't create a new one - that would have taken more power than a wish. It simply moved one. My sources tell me it was the Cleveland Hellmouth which moved."
"I had no idea his wish would be so exciting," replied Margret. She'd only been a vengeance demon for ten years, but already it looked like she was going to be one of D'hoffryn's favorites. She smiled, adjusting her ring on her finger. Herb would notice it missing, but never know where it'd gone. That was his name, right? Herb?
The boy who'd changed history.