Chapter 9

Chapter  Nine:

Unfiled Investigation found within the Rollinsville Sheriff's Office. Written by Sheriff Hardin, September 1896.

Consider this a personal investigation into Richard Malone and his Murder Circus.

Even if I don’t have order within the West, that shouldn’t prevent me from doing the work of anyone fit to work with the law. McLeon has been easy on Malone, but something rubs me the wrong way about this. As I was responsible for guard duty for defending Rollinsville, I snuck out at night to Mammon’s Gulch to locate where he was touring.

As I was walking past the infected, I saw a corpse strung up upon a tree. I thought it was one of the grunts I would see all across the bayou, but it was one of the foremen who had entered our office yesterday to inquire about his son being missing. Knives were all over his body and a balloon was nailed to his right hand. Someone sick in the head could only do this. 

Off to the right of the corpse, I saw a fire blazing near the mountain and decided to investigate. With my trusty spyglass, I witnessed painted figures crowd around a fire where they were worshipping something that I could not comprehend. They ate raw meat, presumably human, and chanted some kind of song. From the shadows, a man dawning a pig nose chanted louder than all of them held up some malformed rock. It pulsed in his hand as the others started to convulse and shake. Two circus clowns joined him from behind as they laughed through the unholy sight. My stomach still churns at the thought.

I tried to run back to town to tell the Sheriff, but he was gone. Either went to bed early or is now another victim of this Murder Circus (more like murder cult). By noon, I hope to have the ringmaster behind bars where he belongs.