HALLOWEEN WATCH
Grove City Teens Seek Blood Bats in Gantz Park; Two Boys' Car Left in Lot
A podcast episode from the MicroTerrors series follows two children, a father and a thirty-minute limit into a park said to harbor creatures that appear one night a year.
GROVE CITY, OHIO — On Halloween night in Grove City, Ohio, a father drives his daughter and her friend to Gantz Park, according to the description of a new podcast episode. The children, named as Lucy Buxton and Shawn Dyer, carry two flashlights and have been granted a thirty-minute limit.
Their purpose, the account states, is to look for the Blood Bats. Legend holds that the creatures emerge on this one night of the year and trace their origin to Archibald Rhysand, a Union soldier rumored to have eaten bats on the battlefield.
The description adds a sombre note. Two teenage boys reached the park ahead of the children, equipped with a pair of pumpkins and a handful of firecrackers. Their car, the summary says, is still sitting in the lot.
The episode is Part 1 of "The Blood Bats of Gantz Park," a story by author Scott Donnelly, narrated by Darren Marlar for the MicroTerrors series, which describes itself as offering family-friendly frights. It is presented as fiction, a Halloween tale, and not as a report of actual events.
The description does not reveal what became of the boys or of the children's half hour. Listeners are directed to the usual podcast services, and, presumably, to Part 2.