No more than fifteen hundred people resided in the tiny town of Milborough.  It was surrounded by a forest, wrapping around the town like a warm blanket. And much like any small town you came across, you'd know that everyone knew everyone and Blair Treton couldn't help but feel that he hadn't grew up there. He'd always wanted to go somewhere - anywhere where he could leave his damn past - and make sure that people just kept their noses out of his, or anyone else's business.

He supposed though, there was never was much excitement around these days, but every so often, something would pop up that would get the locals roused up and talking about it for days, weeks, or even months later.  Though their behaviour annoyed the twenty-nine year old immensely, Blair couldn't help but admit that the townsfolk acted a lot like family, taking care of one another without question. Perhaps it was the kindness that everyone shared that Blair was also reluctant to leave.

Jus like a lot of other places though, Milborough also held an incredibly disturbing past; no matter how much the local government tried to bury the past, everyone would always be haunted by the injustice served to those that had been wronged in the past. 

There had been rumours - stupid rumours - of a curse that had plagued the town for many, many  years.

The Shadow Men, the locals referred to them as.

Blair wasn't certain as to why they called them that, considering the word men was used lightly. Many wondered if they were merely malevolent spirits of those who were seeking revenge for something. Many thought that, perhaps, they were aliens, or maybe, just maybe, they were nothing more than adults dressing up try and scare the absolute shit out both children and teenagers to keep them from doing something that they may regret.

All of this legend bullshit was giving him a headache and making him more irritated than he normally was.

Blair scoffed, shaking his head and taking on final drag of his cigarette, before flicking the rest on the ground in annoyance. With the heel of his boot he squished the damn thing and then took his place back up against the back wall of the restaurant that he worked at.

There had to be some way he could get out of that god-forsaken hellhole. As much as he had grown to love the small town, it was nothing more than the same thing, just a different day, and he wanted - no - needed to get out.

One way or another, Blair vowed that he would travel and see the world. He would not stay in Milborough and waste his life being the owner that Mister Douglass wanted him to be.

It would happen over his dead body.

Blair's thoughts were interrupted by the obnoxious sounds of high heels clacking against the pavement and he turned his head to see an extremely pissed off looking blond-haired woman storming towards him. He had a feeling he was going to get chewed out for some reason and crossed his arms over his chest as he prepared for whatever lecture that Elisa Jackson had in store for him today.

"You're a fucking piece of shit, y'know that?"

Blair's brows shot up at that.

"Yeah. So?"

He shot back, pulling out his pack of darts, figuring he'd need to have one if he was going to listen to her bitch.

If that didn't seem to irk the woman more, Blair wasn't sure what would, and if there was actually a thing called reincarnation he would swear on his mother's grave that Elisa was a redhead in some past life of hers.

She placed her hands on her hips, huffing in response before clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth.

"You know goddamn well what."

He hummed in reply, spitting on the ground, then gritting his teeth in annoyance.

"For fuck sake. Enough games, Elisa." He muttered something not so polite under his breath that she could not catch. "Care to enlighten me as to why I'm a piece of shit this time?"

"Oh," she laughed, but it wasn't from humour. "Didn't you promise Jaden that you'd take him on Saturday to his hockey game?"

He drew a sharp intake of breath.

Now he could see why she came here looking like she wanted to kill him. It was no excuse, he knew, but with everything going on he wasn't sure if he was really to blame for forgetting.

"Christ," Blair muttered, putting out another cigarette butt. "I thought it was next weekend."

"Well, it was yesterday."

They both had anger rolling off of them, tensions running high, and Blair had to bite his tongue to keep from saying something that would result in him getting his ass kicked.

Again.

Elisa had proven, time and time again, that woman or not she was more than capable of handing someone their ass if the mood struck her. And the way she was looking at him suggested she was in just a mood.

Blair noticed the tears beginning to well up in her eyes as Elisa looked away from him, shaking her head as she fought the urge to punch him in the face. The next thing that came out of her mouth felt like someone had cut him in the gut with a rusted knife.

"Ever since Carlos..." She paused, not able to bring the word to her lips. Elisa closed her eyes, swallowing. "You've been treating us like we have done you wrong...like Jaden and I did something to warrant such behaviour, especially when we need you the most. Do you not care anymore?"

That was the comment that broke the camels back, so to speak as Blair bolted upright, towering over her. His voice rising in octave with each word he spoke.

"How fucking dare you come here and tell me I don't care." His nostrils flared as he attempted to keep his anger to the minimum. "Carlos was my best friend. The man I loved like a brother. His death has been a tough pill for me to swallow."

He could see regret soaring through her eyes as she licked her lips nervously, but he knew she wouldn't backpedal and apologize for saying such a shitty thing. She wouldn't. Blair watched as Elisa awkwardly cleared her throat before speaking, her voice low and quivering.

"You are not the only one who was been affected by his death. Don't pretend that you are."

Well, that felt like a slap in the face, Blair silently admitted.

"You're the one who's insinuating that I am, you're putting words in my mouth and I don't fucking appreciate it," Blair sneered, his anger slowly, but surely, beginning to boil over. "If you want to talk to me instead of acting like a bitch, you know where to find me."

As he turned to leave, he caught sight of Elisa shaking her head, looking down to the ground as she scoffed, "Blair, Carlos asked you to be Jaden's Godfather because he loved and trusted you as if you were his own flesh and blood and this is how you're repaying his memory? By forgetting a promise you made for what, the third weekend in a row?"

Elisa then sighed, the clacking of her high-heels told him that she had begun to walk away, and as he opened the door, she made him pause.

"If this is your way of not wanting to be a part of your godson's life then tell me, because this getting Jaden's hope up is destroying me, and it's getting old. It's not fair to Jaden and it's not fair to me."

And with that she walked away.

If he wasn't in a bad mood before, Blair certainly was now.

His heart felt heavy with guilt as he took a step back, turned around, and headed for the door to the kitchen. It wasn't that he was trying to forget, it wasn't that he didn't care, he did, but it was his way of coping with the loss of his best friend. He refused to shed a tear in front of anyone, believing it was a sign of weakness to do so. He refused to let anyone in, and he sure as hell refused to indulge people's curiosity about why he had become such a hard ass over the last year and a half.

When he walked into the kitchen, the manager, Mister Douglass sent a glare his way, glancing to the clock, "Forgot to tell time, did ya?"

"No." Blair's reply was curt. "Got caught up in a storm, supposedly."

"Don't let it happen again."

His boss' statement was met with a single nod of Blair's head as he headed to wash his hands before heading out to wait tables again.

Mister Douglass was not an idiot, far from it, he knew of the issues that Blair was currently facing at the moment.

It didn't take a genius to see that the young man's attitude had changed since finding out that his best friend had been found brutally murdered.

Carlos, though a bit arrogant and the cause of some jealousy between folks, he was probably one of the nicest men in town. He had helped others and always being a shoulder if someone, anyone, needed to cry or lean on. It was a death that had left the citizens of Milborough shaken up. And after the investigation into his heinous death had turned up nothing on his killer it had only caused tensions to run higher.

It was as if the killer didn't exist.

What grinded Blair's gears were the constant whispering rumours that Carlos had, somehow, became the victim of The Shadow Men. It was becoming a sickening obsession with the damn legend that Blair swore that the next asshole that would even begin to mention it, he'd drop them.

Whatever was going on didn't make a lick of sense to him.

* * *

Finally, after enduring a grueling Friday night session at the restaurant, and a stop over at a local bar, it was time for Blair to go home.

He had wished that the nice chat he had with Elisa would leave his mind, but unfortunately for him, it caused a heavy anvil of guilt to drop painfully into his gut. He knew well that his words hurt; he also knew that he couldn't take it back, not now, but he also refused to allow Elisa to think that her own words were the right ones. Both were in the wrong.

And they both knew it.

A shiver ran down his body as the late November air nipped at his face, his breath easily visible in front of him. Soon the snow would soon be falling relentlessly and winter would be in full swing. As he reached the crosswalk, he paused, shoving his hands into his jacket pocket, glanced both ways, crossed, and headed down Clark Avenue, to where his small two bedroom home was located. It sat there, the last house on the right, mere metres away from the forest. He glared at the seemingly black wall that stood higher than the buildings of Milborough. Blair wasn't sure of the reason, but ever since he could remember he felt as though he was always being watched. He despised the feeling that he had whenever he would lay eyes on the forest. Ever since he had been little he was always told to not step foot into the forest because, if he did, the monsters would come and take him away.

He had always obeyed that rule.

The moon lit the streets, casting its soft glow all around him. It wasn't much, but it was enough for him to see if there was anything coming his way without blindsiding him. Blair took out his phone to make it appear as though he was checking messages, being as discreet as he could as he studied the surrounding area, seeing if there was anyone, or anything, hiding in the shadows.

There wasn't a damn thing.

Blair cursed under his breath as he shook his head, shoving his phone back into his pocket and continued down the way towards his house that he could see in between homes as he walked past.

He had, a couple of times, contemplated whether or not he should stop in at Elisa's place, knowing full well that she would still be awake at this hour, probably watching a favourite television show. However, he figured that what had happened earlier probably put a strain on his relationship with her and Jaden.

He sighed. No, he decided, as he turned and began walking again. A few metres away from his driveway, Blair was feeling home free as he reached into his jean pocket and pulled out his house key, doing a little jog to get momentum as he jumped, landing at the top of his porch, made it over to the front door and then unlocked it.

A smile grazed his lips, reaching ear to ear when he was met by Izzie, his beautiful black lab mix who was, right then and there, sitting by the door, tongue hanging out as her entire backside swayed from side to side instead of just her tail.

The excitement and love that radiated off of the sweet dog always deterred any foul mood that he had and pushed it out of the door.

Blair laughed, closing the door with his foot behind him and then falling to the floor as he wrapped Izzie in a hug, allowing her to lick his cheek in greeting. He pulled back and scratched behind her ear.

"Hey there beautiful." As his feet began to feel like pins and needles he repositioned himself until he sat cross-legged on the kitchen floor. They stayed like that for a few seconds when a noise, a creak in the floorboards down the hall, stilled them both. Blair's heart skipped a beat as he slowly stood up, taking a quick glance down to Izzie, who was staring down in the direction of the noise, almost in a trance.

Quietly, he made his way over to one of the drawers, and pulling out a handgun he had stowed away in there.

He'd be damned if some punk-ass prick was going to break into his house and get away with it. There was no way in hell he was going to let that happen. Not without a fight anyway.

He heard Izzie's nails scratch against the hardwood floor as she followed him down the hall. Blair was careful in his movements as he turned each and every single light on. Maybe, indicating that he was home wasn't the most brilliant of ideas that he had ever come up with, but he didn't really give a damn, either. He couldn't explain the nagging feeling he had telling him to do so, but at the same time, the action, as minute as it was, made him feel at ease.

Once the lights were turned on, Blair ensured that all doors and windows were locked and then began looking in both bedrooms, the bathroom, living-room, the closets, and then, the kitchen.

It was an immense relief he felt, seeing as he didn't find anything amiss, and chalked it up to him working too much lately or maybe, just maybe, having the old folktale overwork his imagination.

And if that was the case...

Blair was, most definitely, going to lose his mind. He made his way to the kitchen, muttering a curse or two as he ran his fingers through his short dark hair. "Christ, I need a beer."

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