(Part 1) I'm a cable guy in the world's creepiest little town, Hollow's End..

The little town I live in is really closer to a village in terms of its size. We're not near any major freeways, we're located deep in the woods far north of any cities or towns you would have heard of. I say that the place is creepy only by the standards of the general public, which I observe on TV. Since my family has lived here for generations, it's normal enough to me. I watch a lot of TV. As a cable guy, it's kind of a prerequisite.

The big cable company which supplies the cable service in town doesn't like to send its people in too often. There's been too many accidents. So I've pretty much got a monopoly on installations and service calls in town. I don't get a lot of business, since most of the residents are very old, they don't have much use for internet or cable TV. Occasionally I'll recruit my brother, if I need a hand on a busy day.

In the summer we get the occasional nosey tourist who heard about the place from a website or a friend. We try to keep them blind to what happens here, but things get past us sometimes, feeding the rumors online more and more. We've had more tourists in the summer months lately, and they don't always return from their trip to Hollow’s End

Of course that's not the real name! I'd never tell you that, as it would only feed the rumour mill. But let me assure you it's equally malevolent-sounding. I’m sure the name only stokes the fires of the public's burning curiosity about the place, but there's no changing what we are.

Although I've lived here all my life, I never quite know what I will walk into during most of my service calls. Those who live in town keep to themselves, and they keep their secrets close. As much as I like to believe I know what's going on in my own backyard, I have only vague suspicions and rumors to rely on for the most part. However, being a cable technician you do gain access to people's houses and as such, see the side of them residing there that few others see. Not everyone cleans up when the cable guy visits.

The town's residents no longer call the cable company when they have a problem, they call me directly. I call the cable company myself if I have to, and ask them for whatever assistance I need. Occasionally we need to call in the cable company's maintenance crew, who eventually make their way into town to fix the trunk line should it have noise issues or damage from a storm. Occasionally an amplifier will need to be replaced, or God forbid, a tap.

As strange as my little hometown is, and I'll get to the specifics of that soon enough, it's gotten far weirder around here lately. There's something going on which has prompted me to begin this journal. I think about the metaphor of a frog dropped into a pot of boiling water, and jumping out. How if the water is cool when he gets in, and it’s heated gradually, he'll slowly boil to death. I think I’m the frog in the lukewarm pot of water that is Hollow's End.

The recent strangeness started when a large storm front passed through recently, knocking down a handful of cable lines and creating a lot of extra work for me and my brother, who I had to call in for assistance. Storms pass through here a lot, and more recently they have been almost constant. This makes life difficult as we're surrounded by trees and branches tend to fall down in high winds.

We were over at the Sisters' house, and they were desperate for us to get their WIFI back up and running. I had checked the signal level and found it was dead at the P.O.E. (point of entry). I went outside and found the culprit to be a collapsed tree which had brought down the big RG11 line coming into the back of the house from the telephone pole.

The large downed tree had been reported to me by the sisters when I first arrived, and I had had a feeling it was the source of the trouble. They were eager to get the WIFI back up and running for their weekly coven meeting. They were broadcasting via Zoom for the immunocompromised members of the group.

I got out in the backyard and saw the sisters' garden was blooming brilliantly as usual. Tomato plants loomed over me, ten and twelve feet high, despite the fact that it was only June. Corn stalks resembling small trees lined one section. These were almost liable to fall over and bring down a cable line one of these days, I mused to myself, only half jokingly.

The sisters' black cat followed me around the big back yard as I did my inspection, ready to report to the sisters if I touched anything I wasn't supposed to. I walked further back with her at my heels and got to the back of the garden where the telephone poles stood. They carried power, phone lines, and coaxial cable lines, so I had to check for voltage before proceeding any further. No sense wasting more time now if the power company needed to be called first anyways, I thought.

I walked up and pulled out the voltage meter from my tool bag, which I carried with me everywhere. It was full of useful things, and very heavy. I walked up and held out the voltage meter, checking the base of the telephone pole for stray voltage. The little light shone green, indicating there was no voltage present. I could hang a new RG11 and code a “16” into our system, since the line was over 200 feet long. A cool twenty five bucks, not to mention the twelve dollars for the initial service call. It was shaping up to be a lucrative morning. This would take an hour at most.

I turned around to head back to my van, and stopped cold. The plants at the back of the garden far off to my left weren’t looking good at all. There was a patch of malicious black rot spreading from a central point which looked vile, full of hatred, and bubbling at its core.

“What the hell is that?” I said to myself. I looked over at the sisters’ cat who had been following me. It was growling a low, deep, guttural sound, then hissing at the strange black spot. It stopped abruptly and stood there, listening for a moment, then it abandoned me and ran back to the house.

I looked closer at the bubbling blackness at the center of the spreading disease, or whatever it was, it gave off an unpleasant feeling, sending shivers down my spine. I saw a veiny eye open up in the tarry center of it. The eye stared at me briefly with its red maliciousness and blinked, then disappeared again. Not good. Not good at all.

The sisters ran out a minute later. They looked with grave concern at the black spot growing at the back of their garden. They conversed for a minute then came over to me.

“You should not be here for this,” the two said in unison, “We have to call the other sisters. This evil cannot be dispelled by just the two of us.”

I was a bit disappointed, but only a bit. Changing a 200 foot aerial cable in 100 degree weather isn’t much fun, kids, let me tell you. I would just come back another day to do it, whenever the sisters’ told me it was safe to come back.

“I saw an eye in the middle of that thing.” I told them.

“What colour was it?” one said

“Did it see you? Did it see your face?” said the other.

“It was red. Yeah it looked right at me. It saw me.” I gathered my thoughts.

“Should I be worried?”

“Yes.” They answered the question in unison again, sending shivers up my spine.

“Is there anything I can do?” I asked, suddenly sweating heavily.

“Pray to your God we can kill it, if you wish.”

And with that they went back to the house, and I followed quickly behind them.

Things haven't been going well since that day. And the sisters haven't called to say they’re ready for me to come back, meaning that horrible blackness is still growing, getting bigger day by day. Part of me needs to go back, to see how far it's spread. But I’m worried if I get there and I see it, will it see me? Maybe I should listen to the sisters and just stay away..

JG

Part 2