The Brookhaven Event

January 10, 2020 

“Good evening. I’m Amber Castillo, and this is Current Events.  

“It’s been almost one year since The Brookhaven Event occurred in Brookhaven, Massachusetts. An unexplainable event that caused global hysteria, confusion, and fear to ensue. Scientists are still unable to explain how over 1,000 residents inexplicably vanished on February 6, 2019 in the small town of Brookhaven.”

“There were only two people left in that town on this terrifying day, an infant and one local adult resident. Speaking out for the first time, I bring to you an exclusive interview from that local resident, Ms. Tinsley Thomas. We are live in Ms. Thomas’ home, just outside of Charleston, South Carolina.” 

“Ms. Thomas, thank you for allowing us into your home tonight, and speaking exclusively with us.”

“Of course,” Tinsley replied with a half-smile. 

“Why are you just now speaking out after a year?”

“I didn’t have a choice. I was taken to a facility owned by the CDC in Atlanta and that’s where I stayed until a few months ago, the baby and I.”

“Who took you there, Ms. Thomas?”

“The government, the CDC, and God only knows who else”

“Why did they finally release you?” 

“I think everyone finally came to the conclusion that there was nothing the baby or I could give them. It is just one of those unexplainable things in life.” 

“I do want to say that you are looking well and healthy,” Amber continued.

“Thank you! I sure feel like I’m 90 years old, but I just celebrated my 39^th birthday last week. I’m lucky and thankful to be alive and well, considering that what happened to the residents of Brookhaven should have happened to me.” 

“I know the viewers are anxious to learn about what happened that day, but first let’s talk about your background and what brought you to Brookhaven. Your accent doesn’t seem to indicate that you grew up in Massachusetts,” the news reporter continued. 

Tinsley smiled. “No, I didn’t.  I’m from here, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.  I lived in this house, which was my parents’ home, growing up until I went to college. After graduation, I took a job at the University and lived there in Columbia, South Carolina until my parents passed away three years ago.” 

“That’s when it all began, my moving to Brookhaven. When I came home for the funeral arrangements, I was going through some boxes in the attic and found a letter from an ancestor. I was intrigued by the letter and got in touch with a historian friend. He was able to find that my family is originally from Brookhaven, and one of my ancestors was involved in a witch trial and subsequently executed back in 1703.”

“1703? In Brookhaven? But there were no witch trials anywhere in America after the Salem Witch Trials,” Amber stated, internally priding herself on remembering 11^th grade U.S. History. 

“That’s because there was a cover up; it was erased from history. It took my friend, Dr. Ben McIntosh, almost a year to discover it.”

“So this discovery is what led you to Brookhaven?” 

“Yes. I had no family left, and I was just a few years out of a broken engagement. My parents were well-off financially, and with the inheritance, I could afford to take as much time off from working as I wanted. I decided to quit my job, lease this home, and move to Brookhaven.”

“You wanted to find answers about your family’s past?” Amber persisted. 

“I was intrigued and did want to learn about where I had come, but to be honest, I needed a fresh start. I wanted something new. I wanted to just re-boot my life. So, in 2018 I made the journey to Brookhaven, rented a house, and took a part-time job at the local library.”

“Did you like Brookhaven?” Amber asked. 

“Brookhaven was going great! I loved living there. There was nothing unusual about the residents at all. Everyone was friendly.” 

“So let’s get to the day of the event. Start from the beginning.” 

“I enjoyed Brookhaven a lot; I just wasn’t prepared for the winters. Having always lived in South Carolina, I had no idea what actual snow accumulation entailed. Here in Mount Pleasant, it hardly ever snows, and when it does, it is only something like a quarter inch accumulation. We do get ice, which makes the roads dangerous, so I was used to rushing to the grocery stores for supplies before ice storms. I just didn’t realize that they did that up North, too, but that February, I learned that even the toughest Northeasterner needs supplies before a blizzard.” 

“And that day, February 6, 2019, there was a huge snowstorm coming to the Northeast, right?”

“Yes. It was going to be huge with most referring to it as a blizzard. Like most of the people that day, I rushed to the store to pick up things I would need to wait it out.” 

“So how did February 6^th start for you?” 

“I woke up around 9. I dressed and drove to Shaw’s Groceries,” Tinsley explained. 

“Were there many in the store?”

“Yes, for sure!”

“OK, so you go in, shop, and then what happened?” 

“I stopped by the deli and requested a half pound of Tavern ham. While the clerk was slicing the ham, I ran to the restroom. I had consumed three cups of coffee that morning, and I didn’t know how long it would take me to get home. It had already started to snow, and like I said, I was not used to driving in it.” 

“I used the restroom, and started to make my way back to the cart when  I noticed the silence,” Tinsley continued. 

“Silence?” Amber asked, brows furrowing.  

“Yeah. There was no one around. I thought maybe the store was on fire and everyone had evacuated. But that didn’t make any sense. I had been in the restroom for less than five minutes, and there was no alarm sounding or smoke. All I could hear was the music playing over the intercom. There were carts everywhere with purses left inside. My ham was still loaded on the machine, but there were no clerks behind the deli glass. I looked at the front of the store where the checkouts were located, and there were no workers or customers, but groceries were still there, waiting to be bagged.” 

“Did you panic and run out?” 

“That’s what should have been my first instinct, but it wasn’t. I must have been in shock. I walked over to my cart, placed my now removed coat in it, and started walking down aisles. I was moving slowly, trying to understand what was happening.” 

“Now that you had ruled out a fire, what was going through your head as an explanation?” Amber questioned. 

“Honestly, that I was in big trouble with the Big Man above!” 

“So you’re religious?” Amber asked. 

“Maybe religious isn’t the right word, but I thank God every night for allowing me to be here today.” 

“I’m sure. When did you see the baby?” 

“After a couple minutes of walking around, I heard her crying. I left my cart and ran toward the sound. I was terrified, but I felt this strong pull to find the baby. At least finding the crying baby would lead me to her parents or someone who could explain what had happened.”

“But there was no adult with the baby?” Amber pressed. 

“No, there wasn’t. This sweet baby was just lying on the floor, swaddled in a blanket.” 

“I picked her up and started looking for someone again. No matter what had taken place in the store while I was peeing, there was no way someone would have left this poor child alone, I thought.” 

“But you thought incorrectly, didn’t you?” Amber questioned. 

“Yes. I was shouting for someone to respond, to let me know we weren’t alone, but nothing. I finally just left with the baby.”

“And where did you go?” 

“The police station. I ran with her toward the police station a few blocks away, cursing to myself for leaving my coat in the cart. The snow was coming down and it was freezing. That was the least of my worries, though.” 

“What do you mean?” Amber asked, curiously. 

“I mean that outside was more terrifying than inside the store! There were no moving vehicles. Only abandoned cars, crashed into one another. There were no pedestrians. Worse, there was no one inside the police station.”

“There was no one to help,” Amber stated, matter-of-factly. 

“There wasn’t. Like the store, there was evidence that people had been there and left in a hurry, but there was no one. “

“You must have thought you were going crazy.” 

“I most definitely did! But, I had a baby in my arms who needed to find her parents, so I dialed 911 from the station. I knew that 911 calls were routed to a Boston dispatch. Within half an hour, several Boston sheriff deputies showed up.”

“That’s when you were taken in for testing?” Amber asked. 

“Lots of things transpired between the deputies arriving and Charlotte and I going to Atlanta for testing, but yes, that’s where the nightmare continued and thankfully has now ended.”

“Charlotte?” Amber asked, confused. 

“The baby,” Tinsley explained, showing  happiness since the interview started. “During our time at the CDC facility, we grew close to one another. And that really made a lot of sense considering what I found out.” 

“I’m not sure I follow.” Amber explained. 

“During our testing, they ran our DNA and it turns out that Charlotte and I are related. Well, distantly related, but related nonetheless. The authorities found that Charlotte had been adopted at two weeks old. She was left at the admissions desk of a Boston hospital in January of 2019. Brookhaven residents, Brian and Michelle Lawrence, were in the process of adopting her when they vanished. Social workers have been unsuccessful at finding any biological or relatives of the Lawrences, so I applied to be her adoptive mother. There’s still lots of legalities that have to take place before she’s officially mine, but no one believes that there will be a problem so I’ve gone ahead and started calling her by the name I plan to give her when the adoption is finalized.”

“So you went to Brookhaven to get a fresh start and because you had no family left here, but you end up back here in South Carolina with family?” Amber inquired. 

“Yep, pretty much!”

 “That’s an incredible sequence of events. And you’ve named her Charlotte, you said?” Amber inquired. 

“Yes. Charlotte Serephine. Serephine is the name of the witch ancestor that I spoke about in the beginning.” 

“You gave her the middle name of a witch! That may be fitting considering the unexplainable event.” 

“But my ancestor of course wasn’t really a witch. The letter I found was written to her daughter, Cora, by Cora’s adoptive mother who took her in when her mother was executed. Apparently, the old Serephine became pregnant with Cora after an affair with a married man who was half her age. The townspeople were convinced that she had put a spell on him, but according to Cora’s letter, everyone was just jealous of her beauty. Apparently, she had the face and figure of an eighteen-year-old, rather than the 40-something that she was at the time.”

Tinsley’s brow wrinkled. “I guess it is a little odd to name a child after her, though.”

“What happened at the facility in Atlanta, and what do you think happened in Brookhaven?” Amber asked, anxious to get off the promiscuous witch topic. 

“For six months, Charlotte and I were analyzed. Still, they don’t have any explanation. There’s no sign of the residents who vanished that day. There are no dead bodies, and no one else in the world vanished. It only happened in Brookhaven, and there’s no reason as to why we were the only ones left.”

“Were you shut off from the outside world that whole time?”  

“Yes. I never knew that people were panicking, and I didn’t know that the entire town of Brookhaven had been quarantined off with a wall.”

“Do you think we will ever learn what happened to those people?” Amber continued.

“I think the government will come up with something to appease everyone, but I don’t know if we will ever know what truly happened that day.”

Tinsley’s au pair brought Charlotte in to the living room where the women were. A bright-eyed, blonde beauty hobbling along with her au pair’s finger gripped tightly, made her way excitedly to her new mother. 

“Oh, she’s beautiful! She resembles you a lot,” Amber stated, unable to ignore the physical resemblance.

“Say, thank you,” Tinsley said to Charlotte, as she lifted the toddler onto her lap. And yes, she does! We have the same blonde hair, for sure.”

“What does the future hold for you and Charlotte?”

“Hopefully a somewhat normal life. It is hard with the constant photographers photographing us everywhere we go, but I am hopeful that the attention will cool off after a while. Maybe something else will happen that takes everyone’s attention away from us and Brookhaven. The new year has started, and I believe 2020 will have some surprises. I’m not sure if those surprises are going to be good or bad, but I just have this gut feeling about that.”

“It must be your witchy blood!” Amber exclaimed, jokingly. 

Tinsley smiled, but did not offer a response. 

“Thank you for speaking with me, Tinsley. And thank you at home for watching,” Amber spoke to the camera.  “This has been an exclusive interview with Tinsley Thomas. Be sure to check out tomorrow’s episode as we report on a novel virus that has been confirmed in China. I’m Amber Castillo. Good night.” 

Two weeks later…

“It is so great to finally see you, Ben. How are you?” Tinsley asked, as she maneuvered Charlotte up to the table in her stroller. 

“I’m well, and apparently you’re the new star of the town?” Ben commented, using his hand to indicate the number of photographers outside the coffee shop, continuing to take photos of the trio through the window. 

“Tell me about it. I can’t go anywhere without reporters and photographers following us” Tinsley disgruntledly replied. 

“What’s up?” she asked, as she picked up the latte Ben had ordered for her.

“Well, I found something out about Serephine. I came across a journal from a Quaker who lived in Brookhaven in the early 1700s who was present at Serephine’s execution. With his journal and Cora’s letter, it pretty much conclusively provides evidence that the trial and murder of Serephine did take place.” 

“Wow. That’s cool, but we already figured as much. Is there something else in this journal that we didn’t know about before?” Tinsley was intrigued. 

“Ummm. Yeah. The Quaker gives a verbatim account of what was said that day. It seems Serephine either truly believed herself to be a witch, or she at least wanted everyone to believe that she was,” Ben explained, in an uncharacteristically cautious tone. 

“Why are you acting so coy, Ben? Out with it. There’s surely nothing that upsetting; I mean this all happened 300 years ago.”

“Well, it seems that Serephine cursed the townspeople as she was being burned. She pledged to seek revenge exactly 316 years to the day. Why 316 years? I don’t know.” Ben continued, shrugging his shoulders.  “It isn’t explained in the journal. Anyway, she vowed that in 316 years Brookhaven would pay for what the townspeople had done. That on the very second that she died, 316 years later, all of the people in the town would vanish without a trace, all except those who have her blood flowing through their veins.”

“Ha! Oh my gosh, Ben, you cannot seriously be thinking what I think you are. I admit it is a freaky coincidence that Charlotte and I were left, but seriously this can’t be real!” Tinsley pleaded. 

“At first, I thought the same, but then….”

“But then what, Ben?” Tinsley asked, her voice now growing more intense. 

“Tinsley, what time did you notice that everyone was gone from the grocery store?”

“It must have been around 10:30 or so, why?”

According to the Quaker’s journal, there was one thing that Serephine continued to say over and over until she finally succumbed to the fire.”

“What?” Tinsley skeptically asked.

“To the minute.” According to the journal, she said ‘to the second’ over 100 times. 

“Well, what time did she die?” Tinsley asked. 

“10:32 a.m.” 

“OK, that’s a coincidence, surely. Please tell me you don’t honestly believe in this hocus pocus nonsense.”

“Normally I wouldn’t, but you told me before that you felt warmth in the store when you walked out of the restroom. You were so hot that you took off your coat. You said it felt like you were standing in front of a bonfire. That was one reason you initially thought there was a fire.” 

“Right, but, it was due to the stress and fear that I was experiencing.” 

“So why was the baby sweating? You told me that yourself, though you didn’t mention it or the heat at all in the interview with Amber Castillo.”

“I didn’t think it was relevant to mention in the interview, and Charlotte was swaddled in a thick blanket, presumably dropped by her mother onto the floor,” Tinsley explained. “What does this have to do with anything?” 

“Tinsley, there was one more thing Serephine said before she died.”

Ben handed Tinsley the journal and turned to the page to which he was referring. 

The pages were worn and Tinsley could barely make out what was written. 

Squinting, she read:  Warn the children of youre children so that they will oon day knowe that whan they feel the heat of this verray fire, I will have come to take my revenge.