"The Short Cut" Chpt 7: Go To El(mwood)

This last chapter has to wrap up the current plot. Of course life goes on for the characters, but I want to see a resolution, or if you have a saga going and this is a piece of it, a stopping point that doesn't leave with a cliffhanger. This is imperative. Extra points for a surprising last minute twist.
In your chapter, use the word October. Use it as a month name, for a person or in any way you want. Make it bold.
And finally, let me know what the weather was like during the story. If you talked about it earlier, mention if it's the same or has changed.
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John immediately recognized three of the four voices that were speaking around his bed. One was Elise, one was Ellie, and one of the males was Elwood. The other he assumed had to be that of Ellis.

Elwood motioned to Elise to close the door, which was slightly ajar, allowing the warm early-October breeze into the room, but also representing too much of a risk should John start yelling.

A chill, reminiscent of the cool September nights John experienced when he started this journey, slowly overcame his body. Ellie removed her hand from covering his mouth, and John spoke immediately:

"Why in God's name are you doing this to me? I did nothing to you...nothing!"

John continued his fidgeting, but on a smaller scale. Elise took over the conversation:

"Sweetie, I think you met Elmer, didn't you?"

There was no reaction from John.

"Maybe it would be better if I called him by his full name: Elmer....Lester....Elmwood. The old man that was in the diner with you, Ellie, and Elwood. The old blind man, right? I think Ellie told you that he lost his eyes in an accident, right? Well, it was really no accident. He had gotten into a fight with a co-worker at the neighborhood bar one night. The other guy, who was much bigger than Elmer, held Elmer down and slowly pulled out each of his eyes with a corkscrew. In spite of the excruciating pain, Elmer made his way back to the old mill and made a concoction of fluids that he put in his eye-sockets until he could locate a set of replacement eyes. He also preserved his extracted eyes in the same fluid. He acquired a keen sense of hearing and touch over a relatively short period of time, and having a fairly high standing in the neighborhood - Elmwood was named after Elmer's daddy - he got a family physician to agree to an eye transplant if Elmer could get a donor. The physician didn't know the circumstances, but Elmer arranged to have the guy who had extracted his eyes highly drugged and sedated - to the point of simulated death - and then the physician removed the guy's eyes and transplanted them to Elmer. Elmer kept the body of the other guy alive in a secret place - what is now the motel we're in - and when he had studied up on eye transplants enough to do a rough one - he used the co-worker who had taken his eyes and put Johns cork-screwed eyes back in the guy, making sure that all the right nerve endings were attached. He kept the guy in agony and isolation for more than twenty years until the guy finally died - suicide actually - chewed his wrists right off."

Now Elwood spoke:

"The kicker here is that by using this fluid that Elmer got from the mill, the transplanted eyes only last about 3 years, then he has to get fresh ones. In case you're wondering, everybody in here has had their eyes removed by Elmer - right before his current ones fail. He taught me almost 20 years ago how to do an eye transplant; see once you lose your eyes to Elmer you become part of the "family", and have to take a new name with the first two letters the same as Elmer's, 'EL.' I used to be Darryl and the sisters were Joanie and Jill. Ellis just joined us a few years ago, his name was Duke."

In a hushed, barely audible tone, John asked of the group:

"Why do you all stay here?"

"Because," Ellis continued, "Elmer uses the purple fluid in our eye sockets too, so we can only go three years before we need replacements. We can't go to a regular hospital because the purple stuff does some damage that makes conventional eye replacement impossible. So it's not so bad here, at least we can see."

"Where do you get fresh eyes?"

"Same way we got you: Cause an accident on the interstate and big delay. Most everybody gets off and takes the north US 26 route. But some - like you - always think they know a "short cut" and a few end up in our little town, just like you. The screams you heard last night - those came from a guy named Jason, from Pittsburgh. I got a new set of eyes last night!"

"What happened to Jason?"

"Some people don't like our 'arrangement' here. So, it becomes necessary to silence them...permanently. Duke was a munitions expert in the Gulf War. He knows how to make a car burn like an incinerator...poor Jason...there was so little left of him that the coroner will never know Jason didn't have any eyes after what that fire did to him.
And the sisters, they've sort of made a game of trying to seduce our visitors, because they know that for some, it will be the last happy thought they ever have. So, tell me, John Phillips: what do you think of our little town?"

John cleared his throat, and in a surprisingly stronger voice, said, "You're mistaken; my name is Elton."

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