There was a reason Crystal Wilders went to Rosewood alone during the summer of 2016. It all started when the sickness outbreak in Subere. First it was the town's hunters, next the farmers, then the children. That left the majority of the people unable to care for their own. The selective few that weren't affected kept their distance from the others.

Unwell victims had unrecognizable wounds on their necks, wrists, and sometimes their ankles. Dr. Luking was convinced the marks were the cause of blood loss they've suffered. Sadly, they were left with little to no memory of how the marks even got there. That was suspicious enough.

That caused havoc in town and rumors spread about a deadly virus and some spoke about parasites contaminating the water supply. Because of this restaurants and public venues shut down. The markets went out of stock with items like toilet paper, soap, hand sanitizer, and bottled water.

Subere's lockdown disallowed anyone from town's nearby from entering. Fresh food and meat was a problem as some of the animals died off.

Many laid off their jobs and careers and lost money. The mayor - for the first time, let everyone have free rent and go tax free on everything at the markets.

Crystal sat on the ground pulling weeds from the edible garden her and her mother planted a few months ago in the backyard. Rodents and other small animals never became a problem. Every night before bed she hid the pots by letting down the balcony walls. That helped with the flies and other winged insects keep a distance.

In the middle of yanking the last weed she heard the sound of the front door slam shut and she got up and dusted her bottoms off. She entered the house.

Dr. Lukin stood in front of the front door with a concerned look upon his face. He never showed up unannounced before.

"Doctor Lukin, hi." She greeted, a bit skeptic.

"Hi, Crystal. I'm here about Angie. She collapsed in the barn earlier today. I never saw you enter the hospital. I assume you were unaware."

Mama sick? How? She thought.

"No, I didn't know that. Can you take me to her please?" He nodded, and after gathering her purse, she and him rode the horse to the clinic.

It made sense. Angie wasn't around all morning for breakfast and Crystal figured maybe she slept in today. It was a Saturday and they both had the day off.

She wasted no time racing to the room number Lukin told. She was afraid to know what happened. The only health problems she knew about was the anemia. Besides that her mother was as healthy as can be.

But the moment Crystal's eyes saw her mother laying on the hospital bed with a breathing tube in her nose she didn't know what to think. She rushed beside the bed and grabbed her mother's hand. "Mama."

The middle aged woman eyes remained shut and sweat covered her face and neck. Crystal sat down in the nearby chair, never letting go of her mom's hand. "She's like the rest. Isn't she?" She asked, hearing someone at the door. She didn't need to look up to know it was Lukin.

"Yes. She is in and out of consciousness and has lost a lot of blood."

"What can you do?" She asked, and looked at him.

"Unfortunately, I can't perform a transfusion without the right equipment. With the lack of economy these days, the hospital doesn't have enough money for resources."

What?

"What are you saying?"

"There's not enough bags and needles for everyone. If the patients doesn't recover on their own, I'm afraid..." He paused.

"Afraid of what?" She urged.

"I'm afraid it will become fatal and people will die from complications."

Her head snapped back to her mom's form. She eyed her and glanced down at her mother's hand where she noticed the two injuries on her wrist. Crystal frowned.

She wasn't ready to lose her yet. They already dealt with the lost of her father after his disappearance. He did most of the heavy lifting in the family and when he was gone, her mother struggled a lot working full time jobs to support the both of them.

"I will be back periodically. I must check on the other patients. You're welcome to stay for as long as you want. If you need help, push the call button on the remote."

His words nearly went unheard as Crystal's mind was already distracted. She spent the rest of the day watching television and eating unhealthy snacks from the machines in the hallway. Her mother woke up for a few minutes mumbling something about a man with colored eyes.

She slept uncomfortably in the hard chair when a loud knock woke her up. She looked around the room for the noise. Hearing it for the second time caused her to turn at the large square window behind her. The sound came from there. She was sure. Moving the chair out the way, she looked through it.

Out of nowhere someone pops out into view and she jumped, eyeing the person on the other side. "Damn it. What the hell." She rolled her eyes and lifted the window up for her best friend Lucian to crawl through. "You know using the door like a normal person doesn't hurt."

"Where's the fun in that?" She pressed her lips together.

"We're on the top floor."

"Mhm. All that climbing up the ladder I had to do."

"Omg. You're so ridiculous." Lucian made it inside and went to the bed to see Angie. "What's the progress?"

"Not good. Doctor Lukin said the hospital lacking resources and stuff so he can't do anything more for her or the others. I might really lose her Lucian." She spoke the last sentence in a quavering voice.

He turned to her. "Well, shit Crissy." He hugged her. "Listen." He grabbed her cheeks with his palms. "Nothing is going to happen, okay? A group of us with my parents are at the church now and I came to get you so you can come too. We're praying for everybody going through it."

"Church? Isn't that place suppose to be closed down?"

"You know nothing can keep my parents from that church."

He did have a point there. The Ullies ran the only church in town. Their home was built right behind it. To them a prayer solved everything.

"Come on. It'll be a hour and you can come back and I'll sit with you."

She looked back at mom and then nodded. "Okay." She was doing this because mom was a big churchgoer and believer.

At the church, Lucian's parents, his older brother Kaleb, Mr. Cone, and Mrs. Albery sat in chairs making a circle in front of the benches. Lucians parents finished a prayer for the town and it's people and that ended in everyone saying 'Amen'.

Mrs. Alberty shared her story about her husband speaking incoherent words in his sleep and failing to wake up for two days. She took him to the hospital and that is where they found the marks on both of his ankles. He too lost lots of blood.

Mr. and Mrs. Alberty was the town's clerk. Loved by many. Mr. Alberty let multiple people in town off the hook for not owning permits while riding horses.

There were no regular roads in Subere, only dirt roads and the only transportation was by horses.

"Is Angie doing any better, Crystal?" Lucian's mother looked at Crystal.

"I stayed with her for some hours. I haven't really had the chance to speak to her much because shes been sleeping."

"God is going to protect her. I know it. She is very active in this church and helped me countless of times. Keep some faith and pray." Crystal smiled a little and nodded, but still felt sadness thinking about it. Why would God even allow something like this to happen? "If no one else has anything to say, we can take our leave."

"I... I have something to say." Everyone looked towards Mr. Cone. Crystal haven't seen him around the public in awhile. Before the whole lockdown. She remembered the horror stories he told her and her friends as kids. Earned him a few lectures from parents at times. He was harmless and a good person. Gave away candy to the kids after his creepy story times.

He took a drink of the silver square bottle in his hand. "Mr. Cone, I told you about the alcohol in church."

"Oh, calm down. This is wine." He shook the bottle. "Wine is made from a well grown fruit. God made this. It's natural, ya know." Crystal and Kaleb looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Now that mayor you all voted for talked all that stuff on money issues. I know what needs to be done. Someone has to go down to Rosewood and ask that family for help. Been tell y'all for awhile."

"Mr. Cone, four people went to that address and nothing was found. There is no house on Rosewood."

"Yeah, there is. I would know. I lived here for over thirty years. A family lives on Rosewood and they have countless of money. I'm talking about stacks of green like you've never seen."

"Alright everyone. You can all take your leave now." Lucian's mother stood up from the chair along with the rest except Crystal. She was curious to what the old man spoke.

The elderly man and his wife built Subere in their early twenties and the place became populated a decade later. He was the mayor once and lost the status after his wife died from a form of cancer. His life had been consumed with drinking ever since. It's unfortunate no one listened to him anymore.

"Crissy, you coming?" Lucian waved at the altar.

"Give me a minute." She yelled back. She hopes over to the chair near Mr. Cone and greeted him.

"Crystal Wilders. It's been a long time. What you been up to? I'm sorry about your ma."

"Thank you. I don't know. I've been around. Working and helping out mom the best as I can. I wanted to ask about the family you talked about. Is it true?"

"Yeah, it's true. They know nothing." He waved his hand. "That family out there is filthy rich. They say they sent people to look." He gave me a certain look. "No one went out there. See me with a bottle or two, they think I lost my mind." He tapped his forehead. "Their name is Lanlarke. The family. I was doing construction one day, when this place was being built. A few houses, a factory and water mill was the only buildings out here during the time. A woman came up to me. Dressed all nice and classy. You could tell she had money. Told me her name was Mary Lanlarke. She said her family lived in Woodland for many generations and me creating a community would benefit them and their children. The woman handed me half a million dollars in cash. Told me it was for the expansion of the town and if I needed help financially let her know. I got her address back home and wrote it down in Subere history book at the library."

An idea entered Crystal's mind. "Mr. Cone, say someone did go and find this family, do you think they would help us?"

"Yeah they would. That wasn't my first encounter with Mary Lanlarke. She and her husband came to me around the time we reached population near fifty. My wife was fond of the family. They offered us more money but we refused. A week later, a lawyer handed me the deed to ten more acres of land. Bought by the Lanlarke's."