Shelby finally believes Matt when he insists he has no memory of having sex with the witch in the woods. She goes upstairs for a shower, and finds the pig man, waving a machete, in the shower. She screams for Matt and runs. Matt tackles the pig man, Shelby grabs the machete, and they run. Elias shows up and sinks an axe into pig man’s back. It drops, but soon rises. “Croatoan!” Elias shouts. The pig man disappears, but Elias promises it will be back.
Now that Matt and Shelby were face to face with the crazy man from the videos, he explains what he knows. The word “croatoan” was carved into a post, left for settlers of the original Roanoke colony. It was thought that the word was meant to direct people to where the colony relocated, but it is really a word of black magic and dark power. Everyone who has ever lived here has disappeared or died within months. Elias owned the property, but didn’t live there, as a way to protect people from living – and dying – there. But financial woes meant he couldn’t cover the property taxes, and it went up for auction.
Elias takes the couple to a secret room, stuffed full of all the research he did into the house and the property. The house was completed in 1792, and the architect was the first to disappear. In 1952, a trio of hunters rented the property; they turned their guns on each other. In the 1970s, the Chen family, Taiwanese immigrants, disappeared. The murderous nurse sisters actually came to Elias and showed him their murders: one was ripped limb from limb; the other was beheaded. The deaths are linked to the same six-day period in October, from the first quarter moon to the blood moon. The rest of the year they can haunt, but they can’t touch. During those six days, the ghosts can kill.
Shelby tells Elias that it is not the Butcher who has Flora, but Priscilla. Elias knows where she likes to play: on the edge of the property with the other spirits, who are all bound to the land. On the way, Matt sees Witchy Gaga and freezes. Shelby is infuriated and gives chase. She loses the witch and is instead confronted by the dead hunters. She screams “croatoan” at them, but it has no effect. Elias collects her and takes her back to Matt, who is watching a strange scene. Standing in a circle, playing, are the Chens, the nurse sisters, the pig man, and a few others. In the circle are Priscilla and Flora, playing. Elias moves forward to reason with Priscilla to let Flora go. A horn blows, and arrows impale Elias, as a group of Native Americans appear from the trees. The spirits run off, Flora included. Matt and Shelby run back to the house, and find Cricket waiting for them. “You guys ready to do things my way now?”
Cricket insists that Flora is not dead. He feels her life force. The Butcher wants Cricket gone, but instead, Cricket goes out looking for the Butcher. He comes back, hours later, disoriented and frightened. “I met her. I lived to tell the tale. And I met the bitch with the real power.”
When Cricket went out into the woods, Witchy Gaga blows dust in his eyes, temporarily blinding him. She puts her knife to his throat, and Cricket realizes she is the power behind the Butcher. The one thing she wanted was pleasure, and she could only get that from Matt. Cricket promises her Matt in exchange for her freeing him. (Cricket assures Matt he doesn’t have to have sex with her; he just said that so he could live.) Witchy Gaga took him centuries into the past. The house is the site of the true lost colony of Roanoke. They were never lost; they were living in the Horn ‘o Plenty. To keep the fields full of food, there was a price to pay, and the Butcher sacrificed humans, starting with Priscilla. Not all the colonists were on board with this, including Ambrose. He wanted to return to where they originally set up camp and wait for his father’s ships to return and take them back to England. The rest of the colonists agree, and leave the Butcher calling them ungrateful. Witchy Gaga comes to her, telling her they are children in need of discipline. She urges the Butcher to shed their blood, release the power of the blood moon, and their souls will be enslaved to her.
At a banquet, the Butcher speaks to her flock, claiming to repent. Ambrose takes this as joyous news and the colonists welcome her back into the flock. To celebrate, the Butcher passes out special green fruits to everyone. Of course they are poisoned, and while her people cough and sputter, she slaughters them all with her trusty cleaver. Their blood tethers them to the grounds forever. The Butcher presents the cleaver to Witchy Gaga, who uses it to kill the butcher.
Cricket claims he knows a spell that can put the Butcher and the other spirits down for good. He has to go back to his hotel to gather some supplies, but promises he will come back that evening. He hops into an Uber, and as he is propositioning his driver, the car slams to a stop, narrowly missing a young girl running across the road. Cricket realizes this is Flora, and chases her out into the woods.
As it grows late, Matt and Shelby are worried that they haven’t heard from Cricket yet. The pair doze off, and Matt wakes in the middle of the night. He takes the gun and goes outside to investigate… something. He hears whispers, but not words, and is drawn to the cellar. Someone calls his name: Witchy Gaga, waiting for him in the cellar. She is impossible to resist. Matt is under her spell. Without words, she opened herself to him. Her words, her story, her pain (and, of course, her body). It was the most intimate connection Matt has ever had with anyone. He learned that she was a descendant of the Druids, and she stowed away on a ship to the New World. She was discovered and imprisoned, and was to be burned at the stake as a witch. She killed her jailers and escaped into the woods. The massacre of white soldiers was blamed on the Native Americans. Out in the woods, the magic of the old ways plus the new world created something powerful. She wanted Matt to join her, and he would have, but Shelby’s screams pierced the night and caused him to come running.
Shelby woke and saw the Butcher and her spirits coming towards her at the house. The Butcher has Flora. Priscilla hits the Butcher, who loses her grip on Flora. Matt and Shelby scoop her up and rush her into the house. Flora is scared. She keeps saying, “The man. The man.” The adults look out the window and see Cricket brought before the Butcher. Shelby and Matt watch as the Butcher takes her cleaver to Cricket’s torso. There is nothing they can do. Ambrose then grabs a hook and uses it to disembowel Cricket while he screams for mercy.
You can watch a preview for “Chapter 5” using the player below!
