Autopsy of an Eldritch City: Ten Tales of Strange and Unproductive Thinking by James Champagne

possible (goodbye to the Witch of Endor, goodbye to the Antichrist, goodbye to the Devil, goodbye to that creepy fat priest who used to smile at me in that way that made my skin crawl). By that point in time, my parents were dead (having perished in a fiery car accident in the year 2000), and Seamus had moved away to Canada with his girlfriend Claire (who he would later marry), and I assumed that I would have no reason to ever return to Thundermist again. But it seemed as if the gods had a different idea about that.
     
    III
     
    In October of 2013, I was informed that Häxan Pictures, the film production company I was employed at, was planning on shooting a low-budget indie horror film in Thundermist, Rhode Island, of all places (the film itself was based on a screenplay written by an old neighbor of mine, Daniel, who also works for Häxan Pictures: however, he pointblank refused to head with the rest of the crew to Thundermist). When I first learned of this, I experienced a number of conflicting emotions. On one hand, I was kind of excited about the idea of returning to my hometown, to see what changes had taken place in a city I had been away from for almost 13 years. On the other hand, I was also somewhat nervous about returning home, as I knew there were some bad memories there, what with the death of my parents.
    We arrived in the city the last week of October. Because the house I had grown up in had been sold a number of years ago (following the death of my parents), I was forced to take a room at the Lucky Clover Hotel over on Wicker Street. The first day I got back, I just spent a bit of time driving around the city and taking in the sights and sounds. True to the city’s slogan, in some ways it was a “city on the move.” I noticed lots of new buildings that hadn’t been there since I last visited 13 years ago: these new buildings had replaced the old mills that had once upon a time lined the Blackstone River, mills that had dated back to the 1800’s… now gone, stripped away, and replaced with boring office buildings. Yet many of the old churches remained, to say nothing of the countless graveyards and cemeteries: proof that while the living of Thundermist still paid lip service to the Abrahamic God, the dead remained in thrall to the Conqueror Worm.
    Another thing that hadn’t changed was the Thundermistian appreciation of Halloween. As I drove down the streets of the city, I saw with my own eyes that the competitive spirit in the city was alive and well, as many of the lawns were decorated in an even more excessive and outlandish fashion than I remembered them from my childhood. And everywhere I looked were jack-o’-lanterns, grinning their cryptic Mona Lisa smiles. I had the radio switched to 8-Bit FM, a local radio station that only played music from computer and video games, and even they were in an appropriately festive mood: that afternoon they were playing the soundtrack to the classic 1991 Super Nintendo game Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts , the current song being the background music for the stage known as “Crucible of Flame.” 
    Most of that first week in Thundermist was spent scouting out possible locations for shooting. But on October 31st, Halloween, we were all given the day off, and I decided to have a bit of fun.
    For the first time in 18 years, I decided to wear a costume that Halloween. So I quickly tossed together an outfit that was a dead ringer for the black swan costume sported by Natalie Portman in the film Black Swan (one of my all-time favorite films, I should add). Then, dressed up in such a manner, I began visiting various spots around Thundermist that I had liked to frequent as a kid. The first location I hit was the local Covers bookstore, which I was surprised to see had hired my old childhood chum Frederick as a bookseller. When I walked into the store, I spotted him setting up a promotional table in the center of the store that was dedicated to classic horror books. He was just