SELAH: Boats, cars … bodies. For those brave enough to try, swimming across it will make you a Foggy Hollow legend.
TWIG: Next up is Hollow Screen Horror Night at the drive in.
SELAH: If you miss it again this year, I will cry.
TWIG: They’re playing all three of the original Poltergeist movies. There’s no way I’m missing that.
SELAH: The weekend before Halloween, we take a brief pause from the spooky festivities to honor our town’s history. Not its birth, but its rebirth. This year will be extra special because we’re celebrating our bicentennial.
TWIG: In 1822, our town mysteriously combusted into flame. If this sounds intriguing to you, check out season one, episode five,Inferno Without a Spark. Suffice it to say, lives were lost and the damage to property was unimaginable. Most towns like ours would have perished after such a devastating tragedy, but not us. Three years later, we emerged like a phoenix from the ashes, andevery October we celebrate with our very own holiday.
SELAH: A two-day event that begins on a Friday, with a parade and a festival and best of all, no school.
TWIG: Followed by the Hunter’s Moon Masquerade Ball on Saturday.
SELAH: Usually it’s held at town hall, but this year the event is taking place at the one-and-only Vandenberg Estate, and you all know how we feel about that estate.
TWIG: In case you don’t, check out season one, episodes ten through twelve.
SELAH: Last up is the crown jewel of October itself—Halloween. Your town might feature haunted houses and a pumpkin patch. Ours has its own Wraith Walk, a self-guided tour featuring Foggy Hollow’s creepiest haunts.
TWIG: The boarded up train tunnel is terrifying.
SELAH: Not as terrifying as The Night Beast Feast, the very spot where two girls were killed in 1832. Authorities say by a wild animal. Others, theNachtdier.
TWIG: Listen to season one, episode eight and decide for yourself.
SELAH: For local teens, the night culminates in a costume party to end all costume parties. The location is, as always, top secret. I’m not allowed to say it on air. But I can say that this year will be extra special. Because of …
(A drumroll sounds.)
TWIG: Dante’s Comet.
SELAH: Which means, we’re done with the preamble, folks. Let’s get to the show, shall we? It’s time to grab your flashlight, keep your wits, and tune in for another … uncanny account.
(An eerie electronic motif plays, pulsing with an unsettling rhythm. The music fades into a lingering, uneasy silence before the hosts continue.)
SELAH: I think I’d like to start with a number. Point zero eight percent. Tell us about this number, Twig.
TWIG: It’s the probability of being alive to witness Dante’s Comet,in tandemwith its brightest night occurring on Halloween. You won’t need a telescope. You won’t even need binoculars. This thing is going to be very visible.
SELAH: Dante’s Comet only comes once every two-hundred-sixty-eight years, and the last time it appeared, something big happened. Listen carefully as Twig reads two eye-witness accounts.
TWIG: The first is taken from the journal of Minister Dirk Van Buren on April 18, 1757.Near the midnight hour, a light as brilliant as the noonday sun did consume the heavens. The sky was set aflame. Many fell to their knees. Women wailed, babes shrieked, and even the cattle did flee in terror. Surely, this was an omen of judgment. The Lord hath set a sign before us, yet its meaning remains unclear.
This next one was sent from Captain Tobias Hargrove to Colonel Wexley of Fort Cumberland.Sir, the men and I were camped three miles east of the Blackwillow River when the night did turn to day without warning. The flash lasted but a moment, yet in that instant, the trees cast shadows as if it were midday. The men stood in arms, fearing the end, yet no end came. A fiery ball was seen in the heavens, but it did not fall, rather, it vanished, as though swallowed by the stars. I have sent scouts to search for signs of an impact. If this be an enemy weapon, we must prepare for war.
SELAH: These are only two of many accounts regarding an event we Foggy Hollowans refer to asThe Flash of 1757. Allow me to set the scene.
It is the mid-eighteenth century. Foggy Hollow was a relatively new, but thriving settlement, a close knit community of Dutch immigrants who left New Jersey for more fertile lands. The forests stretched vast and unbroken, the river ran dark and deep, and the mountains loomed like shelter from the wider world.
By day, the settlers worked. Men toiled in the fields. Women spun wool and baked bread. Children either helped or ran free. But by night? The darkness was absolute. No streetlights. No glow of towns or cities. Just flickering candlelight behind cabin shutters and the night sky. These people lived on the edge of the unknown. God-fearing and superstitious, their faith and their fear were inextricably linked. So imagine for a moment, what it must have been like to see a ball of fire in the sky.
TWIG: By 1757, people had observed Halley’s Comet multiple times throughout history. While scholars and astronomers might have recognized the ball of fire for what it was, understanding amongst the general public was lacking. Comets were still viewed as omens, often associated with disaster, war, or divine judgment.
SELAH: Dante’s comet was met with widespread fear. Most people saw it as a harbinger of doom. A warning from God. This mystery in the sky left thewhole town on edge. So you can imagine what it must have been like when the night erupted in light. No warning. No explanation. Just a blinding, brilliant flash that turned midnight into midday. Nobody knew what it was. Nobody knew what it meant. We still don’t today. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t theories. The most predominate being a lightning strike plus mass hysteria, the whole thing blown way out of proportion. However, there were no reports of storms of any kind on the day in question. One would think if lightning were involved, somebody would have mentioned a storm.
TWIG: It could have been a meteor exploding in the atmosphere. But if this were the case, such an explosion would release an immense amount of energy. The Tunguska Event in 1908 and the Chelyabinsk Meteor of 2013 are great examples to look at here, and they both came with a sonic boom and damage on the ground.
