Hang Or Pain

Chapter VI: The History Of Oakridge & Birchwood

Birchwood was a happy town, the complete opposite of Oakridge. For example, Oakridge dominated in football, whenever the cross town rivalry occurred, Oakridge was usually walking out of the field as the victor. But when it was basketball season Birchwood was superior, always exposing Oakridge basketball team as weaklings. Birchwood had all of the educational buildings, the Leafy Green Public Library,  A lot of private country clubs, the BirchWood Community College, and The Center. The center was a nickname for the laboratory located in the center of Birchwood, which was supplied with more houses and buildings than it's sister Oakridge, which was dominated by Trees, middle class and lower class houses, Oakridge only had Oakridge high, The junkyard, and a lot of abandoned factories, abandoned houses, and a lot of trees. That was the beauty of Oakridge, it was not always abandoned, Oakridge factories used to bring in a lot of money for the town, producing Oil, Paper, and many other trades that would bring in money. Pasted all of the nice things in Birchwood up a hill north of the center they're was a gated area, people called them the "Gated" as they were hated for being behind the gates, those were the wealthy people who were born into money. While everyone outside of the gates had to work for money and earn everything they wanted. People who live in the gated were usually scientist from "The Center". Nobody knew what went on in the center but the rumors were never good, which caused the people behind the gated to be hated for infamy, as they were preppy kids who acted like zombies, never knowing social norms creating their own little world revolved around science. This was Birchwood dark secret, those who opposed against the gated ended up missing. Rumors said that the people were abducted in their sleep by the scientist and kidnapped in the lab for testing. But whenever the police investigated "The Center" nothing ever was found. But in Oakridge behind the junkyard close by the forest, further hidden in the forest was a burned down asylum. Nobody in Oakridge really knows of it, besides the eldest members that still breathe air, they can remember the Asylum burning down, due to a convicted kid who killed a guard and used his blood to summon demons and speak to the devil. After the asylum burned down nothing was found. If you happened to go further deep into the scary forest you'll see the remains of the ruined asylum but thats all.  

Many claim that the Center was responsible for the burning as Oakridge mayor never allowed them to take the inmates for testing. Many say that the Center was furious that they were told no. A long time ago before this shadow figure appeared in Oakridge it was Birchwood under siege, haunted by a man who wore a gray cloak and a black mask covering his nose and mouth. In books many refer to this man as the String Master, his abilities was to turn his prey into puppets, he practiced voodoo, many believe he was the first wizard to ever stumble into Birchwood and Oakridge. For some reason the String Master never came into Oakridge. Police just found many dead people in the gated area's, and slowly workers from the center ended up dead. Well none of these people were harmed so it wasn't ruled homicide, every murder was a suicide. Many of the victims were hung, the others slit throats or bled out from a slit wrist.  These murders went on for a decade before suddenly everything just stopped. The string master never targeted people outside of the gated area, and some people today still say they see the string master roaming Birchwood causing no harm to anyone.

Many of the children who stay up past their bedtime claim that they seen a man in a grey cloak enter the library every midnight, many believe he resides in the cellular of the library. But no one has ever seen the string master leave the library. Only rumors of the string master entering the library at night.

Present day that is still true, more than ever many people outside of the gated area states that they seen the string master, and even spoke with the string master. 

Oakridge has it's shadow demon and Birchwood has it's string master, the two targeting certain groups of people. Only  difference is the String Master is in books, documents, even written about in essays of students residing in the schools in Birchwood, he has became apart of the culture of Birchwood, and has calm down on his killing spree. While this Shadow Demon is haunting Oakridge, these two super natural beings have never met.

Birchwood afraid of losing it's good prestigious reputation of being a town of education only tells about the string master to Birchwood members only, people outside of Birchwood know very little of the string master. 

Our heroes arrive into Birchwood blind to the terror that roams around the streets of Birchwood as if it was it's own.