Five individuals. Five human beings that I have selected personally to help solve my problems and maybe problems around the world. But that's secondary. Mr. Jonathan Cole, the eldest of the group with ties to Stonega, with his history, and that he can talk around and through everybody is a perfect choice. He needed a little coercion to leave his practice behind, but a couple of well-placed words about family did the job. Mr. Isaac Hampton also has ties to Stonega, but his thirst for knowledge, especially knowledge of the supernatural, drove him to many places worldwide. Mr. Tom Stevens, Stonega born and bred. Even as a child, he proved that he could get out of any situation by visiting Jimmie's Hell several times and lived to tell the tales. Mr. Darius Fitzpatrick is the best state marshal in Virginia. Acquiring him would have been problematic if not for the lucky coincidence of the missing owner of the local mining company. Who else would have been sent to find him if not for Mr. Fitzpatrick? And last but not least, Mr. Edward Lane. He was the toughest one to secure, and there were a couple of others better suited for my needs, but with his no-nonsense attitude, I have faith in him. Ah... Faith... I haven't used that word in a while.
Of course, I needed a test run first of how they work together as a team. I pulled them together in Stonega because that area was always trouble. I didn't know how to bring them together, but I hoped that, as always, something would happen there, and they would jump into action. And they did it with flying colors.
The events started with a harmless dance party. Of course, nothing is harmless when a cursed artifact is involved, as the residents of Stonega can attest to it. As many of them started to grow old and the rest of them, including Mr. Lane - his baptism of the unknown - started to freak out, the rest of the group responded quickly. Of course, they had to check loved ones and known associates first - something to purge them from - but all in all, they did what I expected them. They quickly realized the cause of folks growing older was the fiddle Leenie used. Her pawpaw's fiddle broke recently, and a well-known luthier, the journeyman Pollard Bear, fixed it. The first breadcrumb in this story. But how can a fiddle cause such chaos? That was the second breadcrumb when Mr. Hampton, with the help of Miss Odessa, deduced the luthier used some unique wood that cursed everybody through Leenie's play. Poor Leenie... I hope she remembers what she played. I might need that tune in the future.
At this point, all my plans almost crumbled because of Mr. Cole. He just left with his ma. It looks like the city is still too strong within him. I might need to throw him some bait of the Green. Or maybe the Dark. Who knows? I'm not judging. Luckily, Mr. Stevens, who is always quick on his feet, went after him and brought him back to the fold. I was happy this happened because it took me a while to get them together, and it would have been a pain to scrap everything and start anew. And I was happy because it showed that I chose the right people.
They found Mr. Pollard relatively quickly. Of course, they found him at the last place they could go, but that's the way of life. He was in terrible shape. The curse affected him too. Longer than everybody else. He was frail and sick but still tried to hide his failings from my boys. Even a child could have guessed that he wasn't just lost in the woods, and he didn't just pick up those wood shavings somewhere. He was lost in Jimmie's Hell, and he received those shavings from a talking tree. Which by itself is a bizarre thing to say, but Jimmie's Hell can hide many beings even I'm not aware of. With this new information, they visited Miss Odessa and agreed that this tree was the source of the curse and that somebody must do something about it. I was grinning ear to ear because I already knew who these somebodies would be.
The following morning, I was pumped up. Probably more than my team was, but I must admit, they prepared for the unknown as much as possible and dived into the obscure and mysterious Jimmie's Hell. The woods were peaceful. It was more subdued than I thought it would be, but of course, soon enough, it started its little games. Paths changed, and bushes came to life. The company took this wickedness with dignity, but that was just the start, and there are more dangers in Jimmie's Hell.
