OK I had a bit of time and so just rewrote the background.
Cheers
Roy
John Mason Neale was born to a well-off couple in Providence, Rhode Island, on the 4th of February 1841. His father worked for the railroads, obtaining an influential position in the Providence and Worcester Railroad Company. Both his father and mother were keen churchgoers and regularly attended the Baptist church in Providence. In his early years John's father was seldom with his family, instead he focused on the creation of the first rail terminal in Providence. As a result John tended to run wild, with his mother unable to keep up with him or his antics. At the age of five his mother first came across John holding a gun; he was sitting cross-legged in a corner of the garden examining it. Terrified she pulled it from his grasp, and that evening John received a leathering that prevented him sitting down for a week.
In his parent's eyes, this was an end to the problem, however John just learned to hide things better. At the age of 7 he owned his first gun, no one knows where it came from, however the rusted, worn pistol held John's fascination. By the time he reached 14, John has his own (new) pistol and had started running with a local group of "up to no good" teenagers. The gang tended to be wild and noisy, however few who saw them doubted that they were going to be trouble in future days. The law frowned on people carrying guns and on more nights than his parents care to remember, John was brought home by the law and his father was left to "deal" with this situation using his contact and position. On more evenings than he cares to remember, John received beatings that were meant to drive this evil out of him, however none of them managed it.
This continued for years, with the actions of the gang becoming more and more serious and with the police starting to give warnings threatening to fully arrest the boy and charge him for his actions. Rebelling against his parents he also tried to stop going to church and on many occasions was physically dragged there. One boring Sunday evening he noticed a new family in church and their rather good looking daughter. Something about her fascinated him, and after a period of feigned interest in the church (as the daughter was a dedicated Christian) they officially started courting. Susan changed his life, as they spent more time together he spent less with the gang, until he fell out of touch with them altogether. Over the next two years their relationship deepened, until on July first, 1863, John proposed. Susan's reply stunned him; she agreed to marry him if and only if, he agreed to stop walking about with a pistol and got rid of them. Stunned (as he thought the derringer he wore was pretty well concealed) he stammered that he would of course ditch the weapons. He sold his extensive collection of pistols the very next day, however decided to delay selling his favourite two pistols until the following day. John doesn't understand quite what happened, the next day he managed to get as far as entering the gunsmiths, however when the push came to the shove, he found that he was physically incapable of handing over the pistols. John didn't want to tell Susan that he couldn't sell the pistols for fear that she would call off the engagement and so instead hid them from sight.
The following year, much to the delight of both families, the two were wed and within the year had a young one on the way. John's father expected him to enter the railway business like his two elder brothers; Joseph and Matt, however all were stunned when John announced his intention to enter the pulpit. The church not wanting to discourage such a reformed character agreed, however insisted on a training program. The program took up most of John's time for the next year, however things became busier when his daughter, Emily, was born during that time. Even with this distraction John completed the course showing a flair for preaching that few would have guessed.
On completion of his training, the Baptist Church provided John with a mission; to go and prepare the groundwork for the establishment of a Baptist Church in Duluth. So in the summer of '68, John and his family, moved west to Minnesota.
The family were welcomed in Duluth, as often clean living people are, and they found that they could get a new start where all the prejudices of John's past were completely unknown. The next five years progressed well for the family, with friends meeting with them in their front room to hold meetings and John sometimes preaching in the street. Towards the end of this time John and Susan had their second daughter, Josie. The seventies was not a good era for Duluth. In 1873, the promise to make the town the "lake terminus of the continental railroad" fell flat with Jay Cooke the owner going out of business. Feeling that due to his fathers' expertise, he knew a little about railroads, John tried to help out, however only manage to earn the enmity of the management for meddling and the love of the workers for his concern. John's involvement told him that there were some strange occurrences behind the scenes however he was never close enough to find out more. Depression descended on Duluth and the situation went from bad to worse.
Events finally came to a head in '75, when a plague of Rocky Mountain locusts descended on the region, with the insects invading 29 counties. There was scarcely enough food to go round and some of the people of Duluth starved before private subscriptions and legislative appropriations were provided. The situation continued with the locusts staying in the region. With things not looking brighter the following year, John wrote to the Governor with a suggestion of a day of prayer for the situation. As a result a day of state-wide prayer for relief was appointed for April 26, 1876. That spring the grasshoppers hatched as usual, but, when fully grown, took wing and by the summer had all but disappeared.
About a month after this, late one night, while Susan was preparing for bed upstairs, John heard a strange noise from the back of the house. Thinking this strange he went to investigate, finding that the back door was a jar, he quickly shut it. As he turned and headed back towards the lounge he noticed a darkness that he hadn't noticed before. Knowing something wasn't right he picked up a knife from the kitchen and also a cross that hung there. Moving back into the lounge, he could see little as the fire had dimmed to a dull glow. Uncertain he hesitated, peering into the gloom. Just in time he saw a dark hand lash out, through instinct more than skill he managed to dodge back out of reach. The dull light disguised the features providing only a black outline of a man. The thing that alarmed him most was the grunting noises that the man was emitting. Unsure of what to do, John raised the crucifix and saw that his attacker hesitated and moved back. Emboldened by this success he kept the cross raised and hoped to push this person out the front door. As John moved forward, his attacker moved, dislodging the tall bookcase that leaned against the wall. Caught unprepared, John could do little but throw his hands up as the heavy bookcase fell, leaving him sprawling on the ground, his weapons knocked from his grasp. Lying there gasping for breath as his chest was slowly being crushed, he heard a rasping laugh from the man, as everything blacks out.
Regaining consciousness, John is not sure if it's been seconds, or hours he's been out cold, but the first thing he feels is the terrible weight of the bookcase still trapping him to the floor. The second thing he feels is a presence close to his face; a he opens his eyes he recoils in horror at the glimpse the glowing fire gives him of a dark inhuman face looking down at him.
John hears Susan on the stairs asking if he is all right, tearing his eyes away from the creature, he tries to shout out a warning, but can only gasp under the pressure of the bookcase. The creature sits back, sniffs the air and then moves away. The last thing he hears, as consciousness slowly slips from his grasp a second time, is his wife screaming.
John wakes up, finding bandages encircling his chest making it hard to breathe. Against the protest of the doctor, he gets up and puts on his clothing without saying a word. Stepping out of the door, he walks up the street towards his house, the Doctor follows at a distance conscious that the Reverend hasn't uttered a word.
Stopping briefly in the middle of the street opposite his house, John's eyes take in every detail before he walks forward, stepping through the front door as he ignores the calls of his friends across the street. Closing the door and locking it, he stares up at the stairway that's lined with blood, his nightmare come to life again. His eyes follow the trail of blood up the stairs towards the bedrooms. Hurriedly he rushes up to his children's bedrooms and goes inside.
About an hour later, the door opens and almost everyone on the street freezes. The Revered steps out on to the street, his duster swept behind him revealing a pair of immaculate pistols and a gunbelt that although worn, has been kept immaculate. The crowd looks on gaping at how their preacher has been replaced by this grim figure that stands before them. People shy back as he crosses the street his stride taking him to the stables in little time. The silence of the street is eventually broken by a horse's whinny, as the reverends brown gelding come out of the stables at pace. Townspeople scamper in all directions to get off the road, as the lone figure rides out of Duluth, never looking back.
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