The Bad Man: Season 3, Episode 8

Brian Kendall and Belinda Milburn had found the perfect house to raise their kids. Secluded in the forest in Slanesville, West Virginia, they never realized precisely what they'd gotten themselves into.

Shortly after they'd moved in, Belinda's niece, Jordan, received an impromptu birthday party. When one of the balloons began 'walking' across the room in midair as though it were being held, the adults began to wonder what was going on. Jordan, however, looked as though she were watching another child.

On a hunting trip deep into the backyard, Blaire found an old, burnt-out van.  It looked like it had crashed, but there were no roads back there. Blare had a feeling something was just wrong with the whole situation, and Brian got them out of there as quickly as he could.

While Blaire was camping in the yard with the family dog, and having a rough night’s sleep, her little brother Shaun wasn’t able to sleep, either. He saw something lurking outside his window. Belinda gave her son a simple spray bottle of water, but told him it would get rid of anything that frightened him. It was enough to get him to sleep.

On another evening, Blaire was playing quietly in her room when suddenly a little girl was sitting in front of her. The door had been closed, so how had she gotten in?  Why hadn't her mother said anything about a visitor? The little girl began appearing at about the same time every night. Belinda simply chalked it up to her daughter having an imaginary friend.

Belinda dreamt of a little boy named Andrew, who'd gotten her attention in the dream by pinching her toes with a clothespin. He'd just wanted her to know he was there, but when Belinda woke the next morning and found a clothespin mysteriously at the foot of her bed? She wasn't so sure about that whole 'dream' thing.

While her sister watched the kids, Belinda took a walk through the woods. She found an odd little assemblage of stones with a fence around them. On further investigation, she realized she was looking at four gravestones. Two were for adults, and two were for children. Could those have been the children that were in her dream and playing with her daughter?

Blaire awoke to her bedroom curtains sitting open. She got out of bed and closed them, but was met by this ghostly face on the other side of the window as the curtains drew. Blaire jumped back into bed, throwing the covers over her head.  She was terrified when she felt the covers move, but it was the little girl again. "He's the bad man."

Belinda borrowed her mom's car, and took the kids with her to run errands.  Cocoa had been in her enclosure outside, waiting for them to come home. While out, Belinda heard that 100 years before, a family had died in a fire in a house right where hers stood today. When they returned home, Cocoa had disappeared.  Their watchdog; their protector; their family member, had been taken.

Belinda and Brian were awakened by Shaun’s screaming. They found their son in a pile on his bedroom floor, his arm obviously broken. Blaire said later that Shaun had informed her that the Bad Man had done it. Could the little girl have been protecting Blaire, causing the Bad Man to move on to abusing her brother?

On her way back from the hospital with Shaun, their car broke down. A kind woman gave them a lift. She also gave Belinda the details on what had happened in her house. The man who’d lived there had been accused of child molestation, and some of the local men had taken the law into their own hands. That burnt-out van that Blaire had found had been the final known location of the old man.

When they returned home, Belinda was disturbed by the sound of scratching all around, as though something were trying to get in. The family packed up and began moving out that night. Belinda never went back.