The Meddling Kids and the Athol Mysteries

Athol, Worcester County, Massachusetts

The bus crossed the Millers River into this sleepy town in the Massachusetts area. It was old but well serviced, spacious but sparsely seated. The air conditioning hummed monotonously, a sonorous drone that kept passengers half asleep. The countryside air was alive with the smell of oak and cedar, the trees on the horizon a blur of green and brown amidst the thick, rolling fog.

Diana wore a jacket and scarf to keep out the damp cold. She was used to humid, but not chilly humid, and wiped the sleep from her eyes. The bus departed from Boston so she could investigate... unusual activities... in this sleepy town. The bus trundled along the street, the aging bus driver slowing down to a reasonable speed in the thick fog that obscured vision.

"...We'll be in downtown in ten minutes, people. Mind your bags." The driver said to whoever was onboard, eyeing his passengers in the rearview mirror.

"Alright, thanks." Diana yawned and stretched, trying to get the sleep out of her system. American counties had this real effect of making her sleepy, and the fog didn't help either.

As the bus drove along, the combination of a bump and the man speaking made Jenna jerk up, her peaceful sleeping face rapidly disappearing with the annoyance of being woken up. She glances around before leaning back, trying to get comfortable again.

Jenna glances over at her friend, who had somehow talked her into doing quite a lot of things that she'd rather not do today. First would be visiting a spooky town to solve a mystery. Second would be riding public transportation. "Are we there yet?"

She chuckles to herself slightly at her choice of words before stretching and sitting up, not able to find the sweet spot again. "For real though, how long do we have left? I'd love to go back to sleep."

After a rather hellish week on the west coast, Clover found herself in Massachusetts on yet another business venture. She couldn’t stand the ungodly amount of traveling she had to do, just to ensure that her company was running, but if her parents could do it for as long as they did, then the young entrepreneur would do the same. After she wrapped up her meeting, she’d spend some time in the state. The state of Massachusetts had always been a hub for supernatural and occult activity and it fascinated the young girl.

Once the meeting was done and out of the way, Clover decided to cruise around town and take in all the sights and sounds. It was a lovely autumn day, with a beautiful blue sky, crisp breeze, and wonderful orange and red hues of the changing leaves. About midday Clover and Winston sat down to have lunch in an upscale restaurant. While they were eating, Clover couldn’t help but overhear talk about some occult happenings in Athol. The girl’s eyes lit up at the opportunity to visit the sleepy little town and discover what nasty little secrets it was hiding.

Winston overheard the conversation as well, and shot a glance up at Clover. There was a great deal of disdain in his expression but there was no arguing with Clover. They would have to go to Athol, so she could have the chance to investigate the stories.

After a lovely lunch the two were on the road. They headed through the fog covered countryside, drifting ever slowly towards the sleepy little town.

"We're technically already there, we're just not in town yet." Diana checked her mobile GPS, indicating they were already in Athol.

The Bus came to an abrupt, tire-screeching stop on the main road to town, the suddenness causing Diana to lurch forward and catch herself on the seat in front of her. No, nothing exploded or turned over, just an abrupt stop. "Hey!" Diana got shook up and even loses her phone.  

"Oh, Deer!" The driver exclaimed with a bit of a relieved laugh. Still, the bus went no further, as there was a deer on the road.

"Sorry about that folks, I'm just gonna call in the deer, get the sheriff and county wildlife to deal with it." The driver apologizes, and gets on it on the bus radio. Grumbling, Diana got down on all fours to look for her phone under the seats.

She then called out to Jenna. "Hey, you want some fresh air? I could use some stretching after that long ride." Diana headed out first and stretched, rotating her arms and shoulders and hips and other joints. She took a deep breath of the cold, crisp air, visibility reduced by this fog.

Just outside the bus though, Diana got a closer look at the deer that the bus stopped for. She had yet to actually see a deer in her life, but she was sure they didn't look like that- the animal's normally reddish-brown coat had a spot of sickly gray, swollen and dull. A hind leg was pale and shriveled. The deer had collapsed on the side of the road from pain. It looked at Diana and any other humans with apprehension, but it was clear it was in too much pain now to go anywhere.

@Clover

The bus suddenly stopping may have caused other cars behind it to come to a sudden halt.

Jenna stretches, annoyed after being woken up even more because of the sudden stop, not able to go back to sleep now. "Urgh, fine. Not like we have anything better to do." She follows her friend outside, rubbing her eyes as she tries to adjust to the light.

Jenna glances sleepily over at the deer, frowning at the sight of it. "Poor thing, I'm going to go see what's wrong." With that being said, she wanders over to where the deer is, crouching down beside it and gently rubbing it's neck. "It's okay, I won't hurt you. Can you tell me when you started to hurt?"

Jenna just nods a couple times, perfectly understanding the deer as it told her that it started to hurt after it drank some water. She gives it a final pat, telling it that it'll get some help soon before walking back over to Diana. "Poor deer, it must have drank some poisoned water. After we deal with your mystery I'm going to hunt down whoever did it and make them hurt."

It seems that Jenna likes animals a lot more than she likes humans.

The loud and obnoxious roar of Clover’s personal vehicle came to an abrupt stop as Winston applied pressure to the breaks. The traffic on the country road had come to a standstill as several vehicles ahead of them, a bus had come to a complete stop. Clover didn’t even wait for the car to come to a complete stop before throwing her door open and briskly strolling out onto the pavement. “Ms. Sinclair! Please do be more careful.” Winston barked as he drove the car around the side of the bus. He pulled the car over several yards down the road, taking note of the deathly ill looking deer as he passed by.

Clover made her wall slowly along the right side of the bus taking note of the two passengers that had taken the opportunity to stretch their legs. “Um excuse me. Do you two happen to know why the bus has stopped?” Clover answered her own question as she peered past the two girls to see the sickly looking deer. It’s skin has a ghastly shade of gray and it looked as though cancer had run rampant throughout its body. Clover cupped her mouth as she let out a gasp in shock at the deer’s condition.

“Oh my. The poor thing. I wonder what happened to it?” she asked aloud.

Diana looked at Jenna with rare surprise and amazement. "Wait, you can talk to animals?" She exclaimed as Jenna began extracting information. Her friend explained how the Deer got sick from drinking water. "Tainted water... does the deer remember exactly where it drank water?" She asked, wanting to be more specific. She also wondered if this was part of the mystery.

Diana looked over to Clover, and repeated the information. "Bad water."

The town was pretty small, as within a few minutes the sheriff's truck had arrived, followed by animal control. Diana had mulled euthanizing the animal herself, but she decided not to bring it up. Seeing her killing an animal in pain might put her friend off, or so she thought. Now she didn't have to decide.

Animal control put the deer on a stretcher then loaded the poor animal into the back of the truck. "Alright folks, we'll take it from here. Seems everything's in order." The aging sheriff said, carrying a shotgun. He looked over Jenna, Diana and Clover.

"Look like you ain't from here. Might you gals be the ones looking into our... unusual occurrences in town?" He asked the folk.

"yeah, I am. I'm an occultist with experience in the supernatural." Diana said it out loud. It seemed they did sort of stick out like a sore thumb in this rural american town.

Jenna just glances over at Diana before rolling her eyes. "I don't tell you everything. We are kinda on opposite sides now. Why am I even here again?" Jenna just sighs once. "Plus it's weak and in pain, I'm surprised it could even tell me that much. Animals are rather simple."

It was then that other people started to walk up to them, causing Jenna to take a step away and watch them warily, not wanting to speak in case she says something that is mistakenly as an order.

She does, however, glare at Diana when her friend just goes off and starts blabbing about everything like a fool. Who looks around for mysteries by telling the whole world that they are?

“Oh.” were the only words to trail out of Clover’s mind as her hope of adventure slowly drifted away. She was quick to brush off the claims of mysterious anomaly’s happening in the town and chalked them up to some contaminated water source that was most likely giving birth to a plethora of grotesquely sick animals that many were mistaking for stranger origins. She knew better and her spirits were slightly lifted as the sheriff from the town rolled up on the scene.

“Who me? I’m just passing through is all.” she said with a nervous chuckle when the sheriff commented about the three girls being in the town to investigate the strange happenings. He wasn’t wrong in his observation as it seemed that the other two were together. Clover found it suspicious that the sheriff assumed that visitors to his town were there just because of the mysteries surrounding the sleepy little town.

“You wouldn’t happen to know more about what’s happening in your town would you? Like what seems to be plaguing it?” she inquired, curious to know more about the town and the occult anomalies happening there and why these stories were common place in other cities in the state.

"I appreciate you coming along. We've been having alot of weird goings on. Whatever you find out, you ought to tell me."

Diana nodded. "That's what you called us for, Sheriff."

The sheriff then turned to Clover. "I'm just the sheriff, miss. I've seen a lot of things in this county I don't understand... but the librarian, mister Morgan, probably knows more. 'Sides animals gettin' sick, we've had a break-in at the library, and we suspect an unnatural thing was responsible. Well, I'm off." The law man got into his car and drove off.

Diana nods and turns to Jenna. "Hear that? Looks like more than one thing happening in town. We should check out the library first. This contaminated lake might be way out in the wilds."

Jenna looks around, trying to stay away from the random people that were standing around as they waited for traffic to get moving again. "Yeah, sure, why not? Can we go now?" It honestly didn't matter where they went now, since Jenna was pretty sure that if there was a mystery, the cops were in on it and Diana had helpfully just told them that they were here to look around.

She glances over at her friend, almost glaring. "By the way, if any shit goes down when we are in the library, I'm blaming you and as such, you get to deal with it."

She gets back onto the bus, plopping down into her seat and waiting for the bus to start moving again. Jenna was certain that something was going to go horribly wrong when they are in the library, since that's how it always goes if Diana is part of it.