Thunder clashed as the five hooded figures scurried across the street in the pouring rain. They each held a single lit candle giving each of them an eerie gold glow against their black robes. They all split up as they reached the sidewalk and went into different houses. Each of them carried a sack of food when they emerged from the houses. They kept repeating this until all the houses were empty of food. They figures took all the sacks into a cave and set them on a flat stone. The smooth rock started to lower itself into the ground and the cave was slowly lit by more candles. A giant statue emerged shaped like a giant eye. It had a purple tinge to it and it's pupil was the blackest black.
Shren woke up to the sound of cupboards clattering and his mother gasping. He slowly sat up in his bed and looked around at the dark room. The walls were painted a dark green and a black dresser and shelves were the only pieces of furniture in the gloomy room besides the bed. He got out of bed and went into the kitchen. It was old with brown cabinets and black counters. He saw all the cupboards open and saw there was no food inside. Confused, Shren walked slowly around the house looking for his mother. The front door was left wide open, perhaps his mom went to work already. He grabbed his bag, a brown old newspaper bag, and headed out the door. He walked along the sidewalk and looked around at the old neighborhood. All the houses looked the same with a small downstairs and an even smaller upstairs. On the gable roofs sat a chimney with smoke coming out of it at all times.
He made his way down the road looking at the trash that outlined the street. He smelled the smoke coming from the houses. The smell sat in his throat and he coughed. He looked through the windows of the houses and saw that all of his neighbor's cupboards were open too, lacking food. This was strange, he thought. Well stranger than things were normally in Night Vale. It seems as if something was always out of the ordinary in the desert town. Whether it was the hooded creatures or- the hooded creatures. Today was their honoring of their god ceremony. He knew that every year the strange creatures would hold a great ceremony in the cave to honor their one god. It was a purple eye with dark dark pupils. He started making his way to the cave then stopped. He had no clue what would happen if he entered the dark place. If he would be welcome, ignored, or slaughtered. The creatures could kill him, but so could starving. He decided to take his chances and headed off to the cave.
He approached the cave and peeked inside. He could see a tiny light at the very end of the tunnel and started walking inside. As he came closer, the light got brighter and brighter. He soon came to a space illuminated by candles. He saw a smooth stone and tapped on it with his foot. Once he was sure the rock was steady, he stepped on it. As he did so, the back wall to the cave crumbled. He saw hundreds of hooded figures chanting something in front of a statute of their god. He watched perplexed as the walls around him started getting higher. He realized that the rock was lowering him into another room filled with all the missing food. He stared fascinated. He saw a door opening to the outside of the cave. One by one he took the sacs and dragged them into the open. He saw his neighbors approaching him and cautiously taking the bags of food, not even saying a word. As soon as he turned to get the last bag from the tunnel, the hundreds of cloaked figure surrounded him and his neighbors chanting something he couldn't understand. They tried to take the sacs but the neighbors fought back. After a while, the creatures fled and the neighbors remained. They started chanting the same things the creatures were softly as they walked home.
