Hard times fell upon the small town of Sherman; the stock market crashed just three years prior resulting in successful businesses floundering.  The cattle trade that had once provided the town with prosperity had all but dwindled to nothingness.


The Great Depression drove the majority of the town into poverty. It's people had to survive off of the meager rations of the town's harvest. So bad had the impact of the depression been that all but two of the town's grocers shut down. The grocers that survived the devastation were Wilder's Bakery Produce along with Ostertag's Slaughterhouse.

Mr. Wilder, the crotchety old man who ran the produce store, was first of many to go missing.  Gossip had it that his benevolent wife, Kat, had finally grown tiresome of his unfaithfulness and killed him. To most people, although amusing, it was highly unlikely of such action being taken - especially from a woman with such a heart of gold. In midst of not knowing the whereabouts of her husband and through perpetual mourning, she maintained the produce store with a smile on her face day in and day out.  When fall harvest was gone, she would hold a festival in appreciation of the towns' children that had been working so hard in the fields for their families. To the naked eye of a child, Kat wasn't the safest nor most sane looking individual. However, when a child were to face their fear and come to greet her, surprises and games awaited to occupy their time while waiting for their parents to return from the local slaughterhouse.

One night that year, Kat Wilder arranged for a town festivity accompanied by a traveling circus. Locals and non-locals came from a few towns over to see this circus that was to be held on this very night.  After the night began to get busy, things started to happen - strange things.  One by one, people and animals were vanishing; first the clown entertainers, then a few dogs and then a few more people. By the end of the night, no one had even realized so many people were 'hiding'.... well, someone knew..

The Ostertag's, Henry and Margaret, had all but good times in the final years of life.  In 1935, the family was approached by a small group of rustlers, who accused them of stealing cattle from nearby farms to preserve their own business. In the family's defense, Henry denied the accusations while reaching for a firearm bracketed on the wall. Without second thought, the rustlers scurried away from the slaughterhouse and back to their homes. The very next evening, while Henry and Margaret were closing, the rustlers returned and stole all of the cattle pinned behind the establishment. After all the cattle were gone, two of the men set the slaughterhouse aflame.  Trying to get their teenagers Hatch and Kraven out of the burning building, Margaret Ostertag was barricaded in the office.  Upon Henry getting to his trapped wife, his nineteen year old son Hatch followed him into the inferno.  As he was approaching them, a section of the roof collapsed atop of his parents, killing them instantly.  Hatch saw his parents die before his very eyes and began to run in their direction, when suddenly he was struck in the head by a wooden beam from above him.  Kraven, the older of the two, ran in to drag his brother back outside to safety, only in time to watch the majority of the building be devoured.

The fire could not stop the boys. It only fed their need...


Story Continues Here ...





How it all began....
SPONSORS: