text: . And suddenly the village of Reddit was alive with the sounds of hysteria and muffled concern, as townsfolk emerged from their cottage homes, out into the streets and gathered in its centre. Then, almost as soon as it began, the feverish crowd hushed. Footsteps on cobblestone gave way to a gap in the crowd which snaked along; a distraught priest dressed in black robes carried the body of a naked woman, a trail of restrained gasps following him. Somebody cried out, "Murder!" Another, yelled, "Witch!" When he got to the gallows which sat in the town centre, the priest lay the body down on the cold stone and closed its eyes. A smartly-dressed fat man in a top hat was pushing through the swarm of townsfolk, shouting, "Let me through, let me through!" He approached the naked girl until he was looking down at her face. Then his face shone red and began to pulsate. "Alright," he shouted into the crowd, breathing through his nose, "Which one of you degenerates did this?" Nobody answered. He pointed to a random bystander with a judgemental finger: "Was it you?" Then he paraded over to a young peasant boy and grabbed him by the scruff: "Was it you? You filthy peasant, I'll kill y-" "It could be anyone." An intelligent male voice spoke from behind him. Everything fell silent again as the mayor lay off the boy and slowly turned around to face the speaker. It was the town's doctor. He walked up and rested his hand on the gallows, looking up at it with reverence, as though it were judging him and everyone else. "You see these people around you? It could be *any* *one of them*. This town ain't safe no more, mayor." He began to circle the gallows along the ring of the crowd, making eye contact with random people as he spoke. "You wanna know what it is?... You think it's a witch?" He stopped and made claw gestures with his hands: "Or even a werewolf?" Then started walking again. "Hell, maybe it's the Devil himself?" "Mountain troll, probably. Came down from the snowy lands to feast on man's juiciest flesh." The priest muttered to himself loud enough that the fat mayor heard it, who immediately turned and started strangling him. "It was you, wasn't it?" "We don't know *who* it is yet," the doctor resumes, "but I think I just might know *what* it is." Trembling silence. "If it were a mountain troll, well then there wouldn't be nothin' left. Trolls eat to stay alive. We're food to them. Likewise with a werewolf, they kill to eat most of the time, and even when they don't, they leave a nasty bite. With a witch, you get a hex on the back or the forehead. No. Ladies and gentleman, what we're dealing with is far more perverse than that. Whatever killed Jenny, whatever killed Rose, it did it without ever touching them. It pulled their souls from their bodies and dragged them into hell, and it enjoyed it. Now it's gonna do the same to all of us. We could strangle every man and woman in this town and we'd still never know. All *I* know is that we have two young girls dead with no imbalance of humors and no cause of death." He continues: "This thing hides among us. It is your best friend. Your mother. Your son. Your daughter. Your wife. It could be your cobbler, or that baker from down the road. What we got here is a Downvoter." The crowd gasps in terror and a baby starts crying. A woman faints, shortly followed by a man who also faints. A small girl vomits on her younger sister and a bunch of peasants kneel down in prayer. The mayor lets go of the priest's neck and turns toward the doctor; his face, flushed of red and ghostly-absent: "A-a Downvoter? A-are you sure?" A naive peasant boy steps out from the crowd and speaks with squeaky innocence: "What's a downvo'er?" The doctor walks over to the boy and crouches opposite him, as members of the crowd whimper in dread. He puts a sympathetic hand on the boy's shoulder and looks him firmly in the eyes. "Downvoters are snakemen. Some call them skinwalkers. They look just like you and me, but they ain't no man. If the moon shines a certain way, his eyeballs turn to diamonds, and 'is tongue turns green and spiky like a two-pronged fork. Some say they come from over the mountains, in the forest, to steal away our dreams and our souls." Now the mayor is pacing up and down like a madman: "*It's happening again. It's happening again. It's happening again. It's happening again*." An old lady announces to the crowd: "We're all screwed!" And a pandemonium of noisy concern breaks out: "Who's gonna protect us?" "I don't feel safe anymore!" "Wiiiiiiitch!" "What about the children? Won't somebody *please* think of the children!" "My leg!" The mayor pipes up: "QUIET. Quiet down!" When the uproar settles to a murmur, the doctor begins speaking again. "This thing thrives on fear and it revels in chaos. It learns through what we say, and what we do. It's probably watching us right now. If I'm right and it is indeed a Downvoter we're dealing with, then the best thing we can do is all go back to our homes and pray God have mercy on us. Lock the doors, close your shutters. Stay in your rooms and don't answer to anyone, not even your mother's voice. If we can last the night and get some good sleep, we'll be in proper form tomorrow to deal with the situation better under light of day. That's all we can hope for." He pauses and looks around at the crowd as if he's searching for someone he knows, then the mayor echoes the doctor's instructions to go back to their homes. The crowd quickly disperses in a paranoid race to their respective front doors. Shutters slam closed like dominos falling one after the other. Door locks clank shut. Just as the mayor steps off in the direction of his house, the doctor taps him on the shoulder. "Do you mind if I have a word with you?" "I'm tired and scared." He replied grumpily. "What is it?" "I was wondering if we might discuss the matter at hand over a cup of tea at my cottage, or we could go to your house. It makes no difference to me." The mayor grunts a sigh. "Alright then. We better had do, hadn't we?" "Yesssss." "What did you say?" "Er, um: yes. Yes we had." The doctor put his arm around the mayor and they both walk into the darkness.