Featuring: Shelterwood

Thanks for supporting the Fable and Folly Network. Here's another show we know you'll love. There's a war in this city. Unseen. Hidden. unspoken, between the living and the dead, between the gods who have forgotten us and the mortals who no longer believe in them. I'm Damien, writer and showrunner for Red Fathom Entertainment.

creator of Hanapocalypse and Cybernautica. And this is Scarlet, Reliquary of Souls, an audio drama currently funding on Kickstarter. Scarlet Velasco, mortal daughter of Hades, stands at the edge of the world. fighting to keep the abyss from claiming what's left. Set in the haunted streets of mid-2000s Toronto, the living offer their flesh to the departed in forbidden ritual, in worship.

And in so doing, they draw our world closer to the embrace of Oblivion. This isn't a story about heroes. There are no chosen ones. Just fate, and the ones who choose to fight on anyway. Persistence through trial and grief. Scarlet Reliquary of Souls. A high production. Eight episode gothic noir thriller anchored in modern myth and tragedy. Featuring music by Chelsea Wolfe, Emma Ruth Rundle.

and Succession Studios. Join the ritual. Make your offering today by finding Scarlet Reliquary of Souls on Kickstarter or by following the trail at www.redfathom.com. With your help. We might summon this story from the shadows and present it upon the altar of your reverie. Hey folks, real quick before we get started today, we just wanted to take time to gush about our new favorite podcast.

Anyone that knows Goodpoint knows we love alien UFO lore. And right now, there is a show called Sightings that's covering these stories in a super engaging and creative way. But Sightings doesn't just recount what happened. It puts you at the center of the action. With its heart-pounding storytelling, it puts you in the story. Have you ever seen a fleeting shadow in the corner of your vision?

or heard a whisper on the wind that seemed just a little too clear, then I have just the podcast for you. Sightings is a new series that invites you inside the world's most mysterious unexplained events from epic encounters with... legendary creatures to spine-tingling bumps in the night that I guarantee you've never heard before.

Sightings is a new series that invites you inside the world's most mysterious, unexplained events. From legendary encounters like Bigfoot and Roswell to the secrets of Skinwalker Ranch. Sightings is your passport to the extraordinary. Each episode combines a never before heard story of an infamous supernatural encounter with mind bending investigations that will leave listeners questioning what's real and what's impossible.

New episodes every week. Look for it now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And now, today's episode of Someone Just Like You.

Today on the feed, we are thrilled to get the chance to share our favorite new show of 2024 from Bloody FM and created by Stephen Andresano. It's called Shelterwood. Shelterwood is a suburban gothic horror fiction podcast about one man's journey to find his long lost sister. Season one follows podcaster Nicholas DeRosa on a quest to find his missing sister in an infinite suburban dreamscape called Shelterwood.

With the help of his reluctant friend and producer Solomon Crockett, Nicholas must survive nightmarish monsters in the ever-present Homeowners Association in order to find her. Will he return to our reality with her, or be lost like many before him to the impossible development where smiling residents live out their deepest, darkest American dreams? In the style of Limetown or the Black Tapes,

This show mimics the format of true crime podcasts, including dramatic narrations, slick production, and startling twists. With both their voice and writing, Intrasano delivers a great story. We love Shelterwood, and we think you will, too. Enjoy! Hey there! Steven Indrasano here, writer and creator of Shelterwood, a Suburban Gothic.

If you enjoy the show and would like access to early and ad-free listening, please consider joining our Patreon community. Thank you for listening and enjoy the show. Shelterwood contains mature themes and graphic content that may not be suitable for all audiences. For a full list of content warnings, please check our transcript in the episode description. Listener discretion is advised.

52% of all Americans live in neighborhoods they would describe as suburban. That's 180 million people living in intentionally developed communities across the United States. But what is suburbia? Is it white picket fences in neat little rows or long, rolling acres for kids and a dog? Colonials or McMansions? Does a suburb need to have cul-de-sacs or a neighborhood watch? When you think of suburbia, what do you picture? Because I can almost guarantee it's not exactly...

what I picture. The truth is, suburbia is defined not by any one aspect of its design, but by distance, by absence. Suburbia isn't rural, but it isn't urban either. It doesn't have manufacturing or an abundance of restaurants and stores. It isn't agricultural, and lord knows there isn't a whole lot to do. What suburbia is, is a borderland. It can only ever exist on the outskirts. The outskirts of cities, mostly, but also the outskirts of...

farming communities, manufacturing hubs, or tourism hotspots. This podcast is about one particular suburb. A suburb not on the border of any one city, job site, or transit hub, but rather one on the border of material reality itself.

This is a story of disappearances and homecomings, loss and grief, family and belonging. And yes, fair warning to our more skeptical listeners. This is a story about the supernatural. I have seen and experienced things on this investigation which are, to vastly undersell it, impossible. I've walked miles of roads in this other place. I've fought through verdant fields of cutting grass, guarding four-story brownstone mansions with drawn shades and silent gardens.

I've traced cul-de-sacs so massive that you can barely detect their sloping curve until you end up right back where you began. I've worn through the soles of my shoes on cobblestone laced with moss, on gravel strewn with shells and bleached coral, on pavement as smooth as silk and twice as shiny. I've bled for this story. In fact, I've been sent to the hospital and eagerly returned. I've been scarred, bloodied, battered, all in the service.

of finding someone. Yes, this is, sorry to say, a story about me. I know ego much, but it's just good ethics to note that up front. I've been searching through the byways and side streets of these impossible suburbs investigating the disappearance of my sister, Sadie DeRosso. Her vanishing act, over a decade ago now, shocked the world. And it shattered my family. It robbed me of a loved one. So, I've been searching.

As you'll see, it has been a harrowing ride, and as such, this podcast will discuss dark themes and may contain audio disturbing to some listeners. Discretion is advised. Welcome to Shelterwood. you

My name is Nicholas DeRosso. I'm an actor by day and a history podcaster by night. Acting leaves you with a lot of weird days off, so I would spend my free time in the most embarrassing way possible. traveling the DMV, that's DC, Maryland, and Virginia, not the Department of Motor Vehicles, going to sites of historical import and generally geeking out about it.

That show ended rather abruptly, however, when I found, well, what I found. More on that in a bit. For the rest of you wondering where you've heard the name DeRoso before, It's probably this. Good evening. My name is Casey Franklin. You're listening to Action 5 News. Our top story tonight is a bizarre crime in Potomac, Maryland. In 2008,

My sister, 16-year-old Sadie Alexandra DeRosso, disappeared on a clear October night. Her disappearance was heralded by a catastrophic house fire, tendrils of black smoke billowing, unfurling, spilling into the afternoon light. By the time the authorities arrived, the only trace of her that remained was a cryptic note placed in our mailbox, left. Apparently, by Sadie herself. These are the details which captivated the nation. A missing girl. The charred remains of a house. And an email.

Printed out, neatly folded, a final missive. We could start this story at any of these places, but I would like to begin with the note. Solomon, my best friend and co-producer, is going to read it now. It starts with the subject line, Urgent Missing. You'll be hearing a lot from Solomon over the course of the show, so... Consider this your introduction. Are you ready, Saul? Yeah, here goes nothing.

So, like Nick said, it's a printout of an email with the subject line, URGENT MISSING, in all caps, with a few question marks at the end for good measure. At the top is a note that reads, Police are looking for a missing person, and they need your help. She disappeared last week, but first she wrote this in her diary. And then there's this little weird poem entitled, I'm Going Far Away. It's just two short stanzas. And here's how it goes.

I'm going far away today, to where there are no tears. I'm going somewhere no one aches or hurts or frets or fears. I'm headed to the land of dreams where everybody smiles. a land of hope and joy and love that stretches out for miles. I wish that you could see it there, that neighborhood sublime, beyond the iron gate and wall between the slats of time.

I think that you would like it too. Why don't you try and see? I'm going far away today, and you should come with me. Then there's this creepy JPEG of a teenager smiling with her eyes blacked out. Her mouth has been digitally altered to reach up to her cheekbones. It's classic early creepypasta stuff, but it's unnerving all the same. At the bottom of the email, Sadie wrote, I'm sorry, I'll be better there.

in black ballpoint pen. The script is a little shaky. I was at college, out of state at the time, so I saw all this the same way everyone else did. through TV cameras and grainy early 2010s cell phone footage. The fire was very likely set by Sadie, unless there was someone else with her that night. The accelerant used to stoke the fire was turpentine. which we later learned she purchased in large quantities from a few different art supply stores in the area.

Now, because turpentine burned so black, the smoke could be seen for miles around. It's easy to understand why this story went viral. The fire was spectacular, of course, but what really set Nick's personal tragedy apart from the million other tragedies that occur every day was that chain letter that Sadie left behind. That chain letter did what it was designed to do. It spread. A mysterious chain email with the subject line, urgent, missing.

And police remain baffled today over the chain email. The email? The baffling email seems to contain a missing persons note. Really highlights the danger of cyber communication for today's youth. Back to you. I've spent a lot of time thinking about that letter. Here was a fake plea by the police demanding action, demanding to be shared with others. And then, when Sadie disappeared,

It turned up in an actual investigation. That's compelling. It makes for good television. And at the time, it was horribly new. Like, people used to worry about... will-o'-wisps and pied pipers. In 2010, suddenly we had the technology for this. In time, chain emails gave way to new digital monsters. Slender Man, Momo, whatever comes next. But I think what makes this lineage really scary is that...

Every now and then, one of these monsters seems to reach out from fiction to grab someone. Sadie was taken on the national stage.

Moving on to the ongoing search for Sadie DeRosso, the 16-year-old girl from Bethesda, Maryland, who allegedly burned her family home down before running away. After repeated requests for an interview or comment, a spokesperson for the DeRosso family has finally come forward. Good afternoon and thank you for being here.

The DeRosso family asks for the nation's patience and grace during this tumultuous time. We have placed our faith in the police, and we are sure that Sadie will come back home to us soon. That is all we're prepared to say at this time. Thank you, and please, if you have any information, contact the Montgomery County Police Force.

There have been, however, no new developments in the case for over two weeks, and law enforcement is reportedly baffled by the disappearance. An anonymous source within the MCPD told Action 5, It's like she just vanished. If you have any information about Sadie DeRosso, please call. At the time, my parents chose to remain silent.

A silence they have maintained in an attempt to avoid further attention. Unfortunately, that decision has only helped fuel rumors and speculation about... murder and conspiracy, child trafficking, ritual sacrifice, and about a million other proto-Pizzagate conspiracies, which place Sadie's disappearance on our shoulders.

What you're about to hear is an interview Nick and I put together well before the majority of this journey. We hope it clears the air a bit and clarifies what Sadie's disappearance did to Nick and his family.

Hey, man, how you feeling about this? I'm okay. I'm a little nervous. You're gonna be fine. Yeah, thanks. It's just something I've been sitting on for so long, you know? I don't know, now that it's time to finally open up, I'm finding it, uh, more vulnerable than I anticipated. Makes sense. You're in control here, though, okay? We can stop, edit stuff out. Whatever you need. Yeah. Okay, let's get going. Cool. So, just to start with, I happen to know the answer to this because we're like...

real life buds, but is it true that you've become estranged from your parents? Unfortunately, yes. Gotcha. And when was the last time you saw them? I guess it would be... six or seven years now. I know how that sounds, but... It is for the best. The last time I saw them was like Christmas, 2016. Look, anyone who's got a separated or complicated family can tell you that the holidays can be really rough. For us, you know...

after, mom and dad had this way of pushing me. Like, purposefully bringing up topics they knew that I had trouble with. And it was never presented as intentionally malicious, but... They knew what bothered me, and I knew they knew what bothered me, and I just, I don't do passive aggression, so I tended to get heated. We'd fight. And after a certain point, I just decided it was for the best to just avoid them altogether. That sounds hard. Yeah. What was the nature of those fights? This and that.

Some mundane stuff about whether I was dating, you know, what my career was doing, but... It was always really about Sadie. So they think she died that night, and that I'm like... developmentally stunted or something because I don't buy it, I always thought that she was still out there somewhere. Maybe under an assumed name or just so far away that no one put two and two together.

My parents thought, think, that I'm delusional, which my father in particular is very vocal about, you know, once the arguments really get going. I think they gave up on finding her, which, in fairness, I am also very vocal about. And the difference of opinion generally devolves into a shouting match between me and Dad, and it...

Yeah, I can just tell it really breaks Mom's heart, so... Yeah, I just don't keep in contact anymore. Why don't you tell me about Sadie? What was she like before she disappeared, before the cameras started rolling?

Sure, yeah. So, Sadie was born when I was three. June 19th, 1994. She was actually born on my birthday, so we shared that. We were twins separated by a few years or so. That's what we used to say. I never minded because we were immediately very close. She was a... Just a great kid. So funny, too. We were pretty much inseparable, even with the age gap. But she wasn't great with emotions.

Hers or others? I learned pretty early on how to handle myself around our parents and, you know, keep the peace, but, uh, she needed me around to stay above water. I mean, we kept each other afloat, really. Oh, and she was an amazing musician. Like, pick up an instrument and learn to play it in an afternoon amazing. Wow. How was she before she disappeared? I think she must have been really struggling mentally. She was 16 at that point, which is just a hard age.

I was 19. I had been struggling myself with college. So I was up in Vermont and she was down in Maryland. We weren't talking very much because I was busy. It was October. Mom told me later that she had depression. She'd been sleeping like 14 hours a day and wasn't eating well. Why they hadn't told me before she disappeared, I'll never understand, but that's just how our family is.

Communication is either shouts or whispers. So I was at college in my own world, and then she was gone. What was that night like for you?

Well, it was late. I was up because I was supposed to be writing an essay, but instead I was just kind of sitting there, you know. Yeah. It was... snowing these skinny little snowflakes. It was already so cold out in October and my dad called. Usually mom called, so that was the first thing that was wrong. And when I picked up, he was in this panic. I'd never heard him like that before or since. He wasn't coherent, at least not to me.

He said the house was gone. That it's all gone. His voice had this awful, like, ragged quality to it. Like, he was just barely keeping it together. So I hung up, and I called Sadie, and when she didn't answer, I just... I called Mom and asked if Sadie was okay, and she said, I'll never forget this. She said, we just don't know. Just like that. Nonchalant. We just don't know. So... It's at this point that I really started to panic. I hung up and I remember thinking that I just needed to get out.

So I got up out of bed and I went out into the freezing cold air without a coat or anything and I just let it sting for a bit. I don't know how long I was like that, but eventually my roommate... got back from the library or whatever and brought me inside. He was a good dude but he was high just all the time. He really didn't know how to help. Anyways, once I was a little more under control, I called mom again and she explained everything. That the house was on fire and it was bad.

that Sadie had left some kind of note in the yard, that Dad was in shock. And the next day, you, Solomon, for those listening, gave me a ride to the airport and got me home.

And what happened when you were back in Maryland? The media machine started. It was just hell. I've never felt so powerless in my life, not before or not since. I mean, these people would... hound us. Whenever we went out for groceries or just to get the morning paper, anything. We all agreed not to talk to any of the cameras because we were in shock. My parents were sure. that Sadie had died in the fire, but it doesn't make any sense because she left a note.

You know, a goddamn note that she was going somewhere, and there was no body anywhere. I mean, not to be gruesome, but when someone burns to death, it leaves behind a body. A skeleton, at least. But Dad said it was a fucking suicide. side note and mom just went along with it and that's bullshit okay it's just it's bullshit she wouldn't have done that and they didn't even know their own daughter well enough to know that that she wouldn't um

She wouldn't... Okay, okay. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Take some deep breaths. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's just... I knew, I knew, I knew she was still out there. Someone like her, they don't just up and do that. It doesn't make sense. Nick, are you sure you still want to go through with this? Yeah. Yes, yes. I have to. For her. So. That's what the world knows. My sister, Sadie, disappeared at 16, leaving behind a charred foundation, a grieving family, and a mystery.

It caught national attention, attracted internet sleuths. And as for me, well, I kept searching too, on my own. Before we make our way forward...

We want to leave you with a memory, something to hang on to, something to humanize this mythical disappeared girl. As Nick mentioned, Sadie loved music. She had a YouTube channel, which is now unlisted thanks to a barrage of conspiracy theorists in the comments, where she would write and perform songs on piano and guitar. This was one of her first videos. We hope it makes her more real for you. more human. Hey, welcome to my channel. I write songs. Anyways, here's one. Take two.

Living alone in the world is a hard thing to do Being with friends isn't easy when they don't really know you When you're afraid and alone and upset. Brimming with rage, filled with regret. Remember this song. Remember this song. Remember this song. Remember this song. And sing another song. I'm not alone Give me a call and I'll pick up the phone I'm not alone I'm not alone I've got a melody, a dumb little song I'm not

Alone. That's as far as I've gotten. It still needs, like, another verse or two, but it actually sounds like a song for once, so... Yeah. I hope you enjoyed it. Okay. Bye. When we return, we return to Shelterwood. Stay with us.

So far, we've told you one half of the story. Don't get me wrong, it's super important to Nick and to me. But we want to acknowledge that as a society, as a world, we've kind of buried the lead here. See... For as long as there have been people with homes and maps, there have been stories of places just beyond the borders. Call it Atlantis, call it El Dorado, call it what you will. In her note, Sadie called it the land of dreams.

Nick, well, he would come to call it Shelterwood. Okay, a note to Solomon. This is the raw audio for episode 91 on Glen Echo Park. All the intro voiceover stuff should already be uploaded. And I'll send you some audio on the drive too. I know how you feel about like capturing ambiance or whatever. I think that's everything. So...

Here we go. When Nick and I used to make the other podcast, Mid-Atlantic Hidden Histories, this is how we'd do it. Nick would take his mic with him somewhere and just kind of ramble. Hello, dear listener. I am in a parking lot. Well kept up, don't worry. There's some dogwood trees lining the lot, which are in bloom. Looks like maybe there's a community garden out by the exit.

as well, which is lovely. Normally I'd clean this up in post, but for this, I think it's important that you hear everything. It does look like mine is the only car here, even though there were, what, two dozen or so other spaces? I was definitely expecting some more, like, foot traffic or whatever on a day as nicest today, because I... have just arrived at the one and only Glen Echo Park, out here in the tiny suburb within a suburb of Glen Echo, Maryland. Only...

I must be at some sort of back entrance or something, because this is not what the internet told me Glen Echo Park would look like. Anyway, here we go. Okay, so, first impressions. Things are off to a rocky start, as I appear to be at a side lot or something here in Glen Echo. Now, according to my phone, it is... 2.20 p.m., and there's seriously no one out here. I can hear birds chirping and kids playing somewhere off in the distance. Now, there should be a little footpath here.

across a wooden bridge over to the park itself. But the bridge I'm looking at is a little worse for wear. It looks like an old train crossing, which would make sense because, see, the park itself... was a train stop on the way into DC. This bridge is black metal and has been covered over in, well, to be honest, some pretty shoddy plywood.

Across the bridge looks like mostly wood, so I'm assuming this is a backdoor kind of deal. I'm not sure why GPS brought me here, but what can you do, right? Onwards and upwards.

I believe that what I found that day was a kind of tear in the fabric of reality. A wormhole of sorts. A portal. Across that bridge was not Glen Echo Park, but another suburb. Not on the outskirts of D.C., but on the outskirts of what is considered to be our material reality. What you're about to hear... is the crossing of a threshold. It feels every bit as surreal as it sounds. The first few steps are normal. Soles on wood. And then there's a kind of membrane.

that you pass through. The air clings to your skin like a spider web. It takes a few paces to push through. While you're in that moment, in the push, There is a bombardment of sensations. It feels like falling. like drowning like the moment just before smoke turns to fire there's a moment of intense head rush and then the membrane breaks and you're through oh my god

What was that? I remember the first time I opened my eyes underwater when I was a kid. That feeling of being somewhere alien, but also somewhere bright and... clear and crisp. That's what it's like on the other side. Our world is beautiful, but it's also messy. It's beautiful in bare moments that you have to hold on to. This other place? It isn't like that. The world over there is painted in technicolor.

What looked like a thicket of underbrush from our side of the bridge is actually an Eden's bounty of flowering trees, singing birds, and high green grass. The forest grows dense and dark, but there's a clear path laid through it. That path, really just a few steps of cobblestone, leads to the Shelterwood Gate.

Okay, this definitely isn't Glen Echo Park. I've just come across a huge wrought iron gate. Very ornate. black and woven. Over top is a sign or a banner of sorts. It reads, Welcome to Shelterwood, land of... Oh my god. Solomon. It reads, Welcome to Shelterwood, Land of Dreams. Beyond the gate was a development of sorts. Nick looked out through miles upon miles of Shelterwood circumscribed by the wall.

And what exactly is Shelterwood? Okay, I'm... I'm looking out at... like a patchwork of neighborhoods. The view is at once neat... and hectic. It's like a storybook image of every kind of geography, every kind of neighborhood, every kind of home. There are... trailer parks and Victorian mansions and apartment buildings and shotgun shacks and castles and campers and and I just just goes on and on contained by the wall

It's all one great big impossible suburb. Hold on, I'm just gonna call you. Hey buddy, are you recording now? Yes, I'm recording. What's happening? You crossed a bridge and now you're, what, in Narnia? I mean, kinda. I don't know, dude. It's like I'm in some old movie from the 60s. Everything's kind of pastel and very colorful. Vibrant, I guess. Look, I know that doesn't make sense, but it's the only way I can think to describe what I'm seeing. What about you? Are you okay?

Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I almost fainted coming across the bridge, but now that I'm here, I feel great. My dude, you are kind of freaking me out here. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. It's just... Look, I really think this is the... place is all. I mean we're close enough to home that she could have walked here that night. Slow down who? Sadie. Oh. Oh.

So, you know, if she made it across the bridge, she could be here. I mean, she could be here, which is why no one ever found her. Where is here, exactly? It's like... Okay, I'm on a hill, I think, because I'm looking out, or... Maybe on houses. Houses and streets. Hundreds. No, thousands of them. And then there's a tower of some sort in the middle. Way, way far off. Wait, so like a city?

No, no, no. It's more spread out than that. It's like... I think it's all one big neighborhood. It goes on for a long way. There's this brick wall closing it all in, and then there's this... big iron gate that I'm under, and it reads, Welcome to Shelterwood, Land of Dreams. I still don't follow you. I'm going far away today, to where there are no tears.

I'm going somewhere no one aches or hurts or frets or fears. I'm headed to the land of dreams, where everybody smiles. A land of hope and joy and love that stretches out for miles. Nick, what? It's the poem! from Sadie's fucking letter. I wish that you could see it there, that neighborhood sublime, behind the iron gate and wall between the slats of time.

I think that you would like it too. Why don't you try and see? I'm going far away today, and you should come with me. Jesus H. Christ. I know. Just... Look, here, I'm sending you a picture. Oh my god. Where? What? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know, dude. But... Should I go down and check it out or what? Are you being serious right now? Go f-

Of course I'm being serious. I mean, how confident are you that you'll make it back? I mean, look, I guess I don't know, but what if I leave and I can't find this place again? What if I drive away to get, like, supplies or whatever, and it... goes back to being a regular bridge. I couldn't live with that. I mean, I really don't think I could live with that. Okay, I get it, but...

Be careful. You don't have a phone charger on you, do you? Just my little emergency battery pack. Right, of course. You call me back in an hour. If I don't hear from you, who can I call in your area to try to find you? My mom, I guess. I don't know if she'd believe in any of this, but my folks still live pretty close. Got it. Stay safe, Nick. You come back to us. I will. Yeah, man. Good luck. Thanks. Okay. One hour.

I descended into Shelterwood with a mix of fear and awe and hope fermenting in my gut. I remember that my hands were shaking. Uncharted territories lay ahead as I walk down Main Street. And just to give you a taste of the world I discovered, here's a sampling of Shelterwood's many, many subdivisions. Okay, here we go. Streets with names. I am at the corner of Main and Willow Street. Willow Street goes off in either direction with these neat rows of Cape Cod-style houses with...

Scrubby grass in front? I can smell the beach. And hear the ocean. God, I want to check that out, but... For now, I'm just going to try and see where Main Street leads. As Nick descended into the neighborhood, he tried to take note of the streets he passed. Some were relatively normal. White Oak Street. Looks like a 50s sitcom. Even the car is... Palm view, huh? It feels like New Mexico, maybe. Hot at this corner. Is that a mall?

Oh, man, I want to go check out the mall. God, that's tempting. I'm going to get my ear pierced outside time and space. Maybe later. Some were. Less so. Hey, what? This is Vermont! How... Where were the mountains hiding before? That's Mansfield! That should have been visible blocks ago, but... Ugh, weird. Weird, weird, weird. Coming up on a dirt road now. Street sign looks like driftwood. It just reads, no trespassing.

Is that... Solomon, there's a... There's a bird. It's crucified. Out in the woods through there. Okay, time to go. The more Nick wandered, the stranger things became. Saul, I'm not sure how long I've been walking for. I mean, Main Street has been pretty consistently paved, at least, but... I'm coming up on this wide cross avenue with no street sign and is... What is that? Tile? Look, there are no houses either, actually. There's...

There's nothing out here. It's just fields and a road, if you can call it that. Looks like old, broken pottery. Is that... Solomon. Way off in the distance, there's a figure running, just running. It's so flat on this street. They must be miles out. I'm not sure if they're running towards or away from me. I don't think I want to find out.

Sometimes there were long stretches of blank road with only trim grass and high hedges. Sometimes the streets would crowd together like children telling secrets. Some streets would recur, maybe looping around to meet the road again and again. I'm not sure how long I walked, because time is kind of loose in Shelterwood.

But one thing remained constant. The building at the end of Main Street. Just past Rockefeller Avenue, again. That must have been the third or fourth time. Same houses, I think. Colonials and neat rows with neat lawns. I can't see the next intersection yet, but I can see something. At the center of Shelterwood, there is a building unlike any I've ever seen.

It's made of marble and granite and concrete and steel and about a dozen other materials that I cannot readily identify. If I had to define its shape... I guess I'd have to call it a tower. Although that implies order of some kind or other. Approaching the town hall... was like watching the ground rush towards me in a nightmare about falling. It seemed to corkscrew up out of the ground like it grew there. It's beautiful and stately.

as a town hall should be, but it's also disturbing. Like, viscerally disgusting to look at. The building... bubbles out and curves in on itself and it cuts the skyline at odd angles, terminating in a capped dome with a strange, rusted weather vane. Easily. hundreds of feet tall. If there was ever an imposing building, it would be the Shelterwood Town Hall. Next time on Shelterwood. Solomon? What's that old poem? Child Roland to the dark tower came.

Shelterwood, a Suburban Gothic, was written and produced by Stephen Indrasano and Indrasano Audio, LLC. This episode featured Stephen Indrasano as Nicholas DeRosa. Sam Stark as Solomon Crockett. Kendra Murray as Casey Franklin. Sarah Golding as Newscaster 2. Donna Shaw as Newscaster 3. Virginia Spots as Newscaster 4. Varun Sati as Newscaster 5. Lauren Kong as Newscaster 6. Noir Thornton as the DeRosso family spokesperson.

Alexandra Rose DeAngelis as Sadie DeRosso. Directed by Sivan Raz. And Madeline Regina. Songwriting by Emily Branham. Theme composition by Allie Hilton. Dialogue editing by Sam Stark. Transcripts by Rook Moguvera. Sound design by Brad Colbrook. Additional music from Monument Studios. Production by Emma Johanna Purinen. Special thanks as well to our executive funding producers, Cam Collins and the Fellowship of the Breaking Dawn, a.k.a. the Vermont Party Association.

Although some of the locations, people, and events in Shelterwood may seem real, worry not. This is a work of fiction. Thank you for listening. A Bloody FM production. The Fable and Folly Network, where fiction producers flourish.