Hole in a Field, Chap 10

A little while ago I wrote a short story for the L. Ron Hubbard "Writers of the Future Contest".  I did not win, and I know why, my story is really more horror than Science Fiction or Fantasy.  But I decided that I will post each chapter here on my blog.  There are 37 very short chapters, for a total of 15,000 words, about a fifth of a modern novel.  Here is the start.

Chapter 10:

Allison felt a chill travel up her spine and quickly looked back behind her expecting… Really, she hadn't known what to expect.

“Are you okay, Alli?”  Todd asked.

“I just got the weirdest feeling,” she replied.  “It came of nowhere.”

“You think it might have something to do with the hole?” said Todd.

“I don’t know,” Allison said.  “But I don’t usually get twitches or phantom shocks unless there is something very wrong with something nearby.”

The pair had decided to take a different tact with the investigation of the hole. Rather than follow their fellow White Hat investigators down, Allison and Todd were visiting the local city hall for information concerning the area, but as of yet they had turned up little.

“Well,” began Todd, “'very wrong' is not what I have been finding.  Mostly I have found lots and lots of completely ordinary, Podunk, worthless, nonsense.”

“Thank you for making that so clear.”

“I’m not kidding, Alli," said Todd.  "This town is as non-interesting as it gets.  There aren't any bizarre murders, local landmarks, celebrities that grew up here; I can’t even find references to urban legends or any regional authors who give a substantive, humanized history of the area.”  Todd spoke all of this in a tone that seemed to be leading somewhere.

“So, what are you saying then?” Said Allison

“I’m saying that something, I don’t know what, but something, is being covered up in this little farming village.”  Todd made this point, and turned his head dramatically, as if signaling some musical score to sound a suspenseful ‘dun-dun-dun!’ but none materialized anywhere but in Todd’s own imagination.

“So what should we do about it?”  Allison asked coldly, being used to Todd’s attempts to be dynamic and engaging.

“Well, first I was hoping you could reach out and see if you can touch anything.”

“ I've been trying the entire time you've been doing research.”

“Nothing?”

“No.”

“Damn,” Todd sighed.  “I guess that leaves us with a plan B: we need to ask a lot of questions in the community.”