#stacysnotes

[youvereachedthebadend]

Notes

1/5

“I thought I needed to do this. In case anything happens to me, then someone else will know what’s really going on. Know what happened. I still don’t have the full story myself, but having these written down is better than nothing.”

“There’s something in this city. Something that steals people and then puts them under some kind of...mind control. I know I sound crazy. I kind of thought they were crazy when they first told me. But by this point, I’ve seen enough to know it’s real. As batshit as it sounds. There’s something in the city controlling people, and it’s getting stronger the more people it controls. It’s somehow related to electronics. Anywhere they are, it can be. And don’t fucking trust anything that could have a camera, then it can see you.”

“Now that I’ve got the elephant out of the room, you’re probably wondering who I am. My name is Stacy Greene. I’m 29 years old...I think. I’ve sort of stopped keeping track of time, but last I checked, that was how old I was, and I haven’t noticably aged since. I’m a mother of two kids. Ryan is 8, and Delilah is 5. I used to be a sales clerk, but that was before I ended up on the run from some supernatural force. If you’re asking how someone like me got mixed up in all this magic bullshit...well, I’m not really sure. But it started with my husband and his friends.”

“Actually, he’s my ex-husband. Should probably get that out of the way first. His name was is Chase. Sometime in the fall of 2018, I can’t remember the exact date, I went to take the kids over to his house for the weekend. He wasn’t there. Instead, there was a note on the door. I still have it:”

“To Stacy, Ry, and Lilah,” “I’m sorry for disappearing suddenly. But there’s something we need to do. I don’t know when I’ll be back, so don’t expect me to come back at all. I’m sorry. I left my savings in that safe, the combination is 00-48-13. I’m giving it to you. Consider it me making up for not being there.” “I love you.” “-Chase”

“So okay, I’ll admit I was kind of pissed at the time. It felt a bit like him ducking out of responsibilities that we were supposed to share. But I don’t hold it against him now. I know what freaked him out enough to run.”

“And he wasn’t the only one. See, Chase had this group of friends. They were all really close, but I didn’t know that many of them. They all disappeared around the same time. I talked to my friend Trisha--she was also ex’s with one of Chase’s friends. She said he disappeared at the same time. I remember her being really worried about it, considering her ex had also disappeared before (well, he wasn’t her ex at the time he first disappeared), for a long time, too. Months. So that got me to think it was something more serious than just Chase leaving.”

“Again, I don’t remember the exact date. I’m wondering if there’s a reason for that, but that’s not important right now. I think it was fall again. It was definitely dusk. I heard a knock at the door, and when I went to open it, Chase was there, with two of his friends. Trisha’s ex (his name was Henrik) and one I wasn’t too familiar with, the one with the mask. I wasn’t excited to see any of them at first, but then I saw the look on Chase’s face. Afraid. But not in a way I’d ever seen, more...desperately. “I’m sorry,” he said, “But we couldn’t think where else to go. We need a safe place to stay.””

“Well, what was I supposed to do? Leave them out on the doorstep? Especially once I realized that the one with the mask...well, he didn’t look too good. Henrik was carrying him, and he was shaking and breathing hard. So yeah, I let them in, and Henrik immediately demands to see all my medical supplies. I didn’t get a lot of answers for the first night, even though I kept asking. Chase said it was better if I didn’t know.”

“But I could tell something was up from the beginning. They were trying to hide the mask one from me, but I got glimpses of him. At the time I thought I was imagining it, but...well, his arm and part of his chest was gray. Like a black-and-white photograph. I would find out what that meant later, but at the time I thought I was seeing things.”

“They stayed in the house for a day, and the next night, something happened. There was a knock at the door, and I heard a voice. Another one of Chase’s friends, and this time I recognized who. His friend Jackie, they’d known each other for years. He wanted me to let him in. I almost did, but then Chase showed up, and said not to. Which I thought was weird, didn’t they know each other? We started fighting, and I tried to open the door anyway, but then Chase took out his gun--I thought it was weird that he still had one--and he shot right through the door. I didn’t hear a scream. At the time I didn’t think that was weird. I yelled at him, demanding to know why he’d shoot his friend. He said, “That’s not Jackie anymore.” I’ll never forget the way he said it. I don’t think I can even describe it. It was like the desperate fear from earlier, but mixed with this...grief.”

“I convinced him to tell me a bit of what was happening. He told me, “There’s this...thing following us. A demon or something, we’re not sure what. He put Jack in that coma, and he...he’s taken the others. He wants to take us, too. I can’t tell you that much, not because I don’t want to, but because he feeds off attention. It’s better if you don’t know. We had to run, because he wouldn’t stop following us...we had to get rid of our phones because he can use electronics to watch us. Please understand, that’s all I can tell you.””

“Jack was another one of Chase’s friends, one I was very familiar with. His best friend. He did fall into a coma. Part of me wondered if Chase and the others had gone crazy with grief over this, but then...things started to happen.”

“Chase and his friends stayed with us for three days. And during that time, I started to see things. People with weird eyes would try to get through the windows, so we had to board them up. The kids couldn’t go to school, because the people would stand out there and watch. You couldn’t see them all the time, but they were there. Surrounding us. Chase and his friends argued about what to do, about how they shouldn’t have come here at all. And I’ll be honest, I was starting to agree. Ryan and Delilah knew something was wrong. I could tell they were scared, even though they didn’t say anything. And I think they knew I was scared too. Who wouldn’t be? There were these people outside, who sometimes seemed more like zombies or animals than people, who wanted to get inside. They tried so hard to get inside. I kept waiting for something to break, for them to come pouring in, and I kept thinking about ways to get my kids to safety. Not me, just them.”

“Then, on the third day, Chase’s friend Henrik came to talk to me. He had a plan to get his friends out of here, and the kids and me too. But he needed my help. He knew that Chase and the other one wouldn’t agree with it, and that they’d try to stop him if they knew. I could see why. It was an insane plan, but I couldn’t come up with anything better. So I agreed.”

“We used this bottle of...what were essentially sleeping pills to knock out Chase and his other friend. Because again, they would have fought this plan as long as they could’ve. Henrik said that, for whatever reason, this supernatural force was after Chase as a priority, so he took his cap and jacket in the hopes that would draw the controlled people away. They always did look eerily alike, you know. Meanwhile, I took the kids and the others to the car and got ready to go. God, it felt so surreal sitting in my minivan in my garage, waiting to hear a signal. Well, I did hear the signal: I heard him scream. I had to open the garage door at that exact moment and drive as soon as possible, before the door was even entirely up. I was so terrified that we weren’t going to make it. But we did. We got out, and I didn’t stop until we were on the other side of town.”

“Once Chase and his friend woke up, they were...well, “upset” is putting it mildly. In all my years of knowing Chase, I never saw him cry like that. It was like someone ripped his heart out. He and his friend left as soon as possible, saying it wouldn’t be safe to stay with me and the kids. His friend told me, “You need to run. Maybe he’ll leave you alone, maybe he won’t, but just in case, you need to run.” And then the two of them left.”

“Well, this thing didn’t leave us alone. And I did run. I took Ryan and Delilah, and we ran. I wanted to leave the city entirely, but it was like...something was stopping me from doing that. I wouldn’t know if it was in my mind or...something else...until much later. We’ve found a safe place now. I don’t want to write it down, in case these notes fall into the wrong hands, but it’s some place without anything electric.”

“But that’s just my story. There’s still more I need to explain. If you find this note on its own, there are 3 4 others like it. I’ve had to write them on separate pages, since there’s only so much space on this sheet. If you haven’t already, find the others. They’ll help fill in the gaps.”

[youvereachedthebadend]

Notes

5/5

“Holy shit, I was not expecting to write a fifth one of these, but recent events have made me realize there’s more I need to figure out than I initially thought.”

“First new development: there’s a sentient eyeball following me around that emits electricity, changes size, and answers to the name Sam. This is the craziest fucking thing that’s happened to me in a while, and given all the crazy things that’ve happened in recent times, that’s saying something.”

“Sam was apparently a friend of Chase’s friend Jack. Ryan tells me that Sam was the logo for Jack’s Youtube channel, but I never would’ve guessed they were real and not something Jack made up. But apparently they are! And they found where we’re staying and are now following me around! They can’t talk, but we’ve figured out a system. They can nod or shake for yes or no. And I wrote out the alphabet on a piece of paper. They point at the letters with their...optic-nerve-tail-thing and can spell simple things that way. So I now know that they’re here to help.”

“I managed to get a few more things out of them. Apparently they want me to “find” Jack. I asked if that meant they wanted me to find his body or if he was awake and wandering around like the rest of us, but...the answer must’ve been a little more complicated than just that, because they couldn’t spell their answer quickly.”

“They also managed to tell me a few more...depressing things. I asked about Chase, and that other friend whose name I still don’t know. They answered “taken.” So...guess that means there’s no more holding out for them, then. I have to do this on my own. Or, we have to do this on our own, all of us who know the truth.”

“And Sam told me the name of the force that’s behind this. But I don’t think I can tell you. I tried to say the name out loud after Sam spelled it for me, but they flew up against my head and covered my mouth. Apparently even saying it counts as giving him attention, and thus making him more powerful. So maybe writing it will do the same thing. I’m not taking chances.”

“Of course, there is so much more information that I’d like to hear from them, and it seems like they want to share so much more, too. But...it’s hard when they can’t talk or write. We’ve gotten as far as we can for the past few...two weeks, I think it’s been? But that’s not that far. Still, we’re trying.”

“Another thing. I brought Sam to Raven. You know, the magician? I wanted to ask them if Sam was one of the Things they told me about. They said they thought so, and cast a simple spell that would, apparently, detect magical auras. And they immediately paled. Raven told me that the aura around Sam matched the one around the city for the longest time, the crazy powerful one that “does stuff” to magic...and apparently people, too. Because Raven finally told me more about that. Spending too much time “in this aura” at a “close proximity” would do things to a person’s soul, things that the magicians were still figuring out. And upon hearing that...well, Sam looked sad. They spelled out “sorry” on their alphabet. I asked them if they meant to do any of this, and they said no.”

“But...here’s a thing. I think they do mean to do it this time. When I go to sleep, I always wake up with them sitting on my chest, the electricity around them going crazy. I’m seeing things out of the corner of my eyes when I go out...like green strings. Sometimes people seem to be glowing. I think Sam is doing something to me, but when I asked them about it, all they would say is “help” and “find.””

“I do think Sam means well. But I’m not sure what they’re trying to do. If anything happens, I’ll make another note. Until then, I’m leaving this here.”

[youvereachedthebadend]

Notes

4/5

“It’s time to talk about the actual threat. Time to tell what I know about this supernatural force that’s abducting people and controlling them. If this is the first note of mine you’ve read, you’re probably thinking I’m totally insane. Hell, you still might be thinking that even if you have read the other notes. But I don’t have time or paper space to defend myself, just trust that I’m not crazy.”

“I’d love to tell you all about this thing’s strengths and weaknesses and what it is exactly, but...well, we don’t know that much. I know the most, and even that’s not a lot. I know that it can affect electronics, use them to spy on people. And that it can control people, and this control...changes people. And that, for whatever reason, it targetted Chase and his friends first. And even they didn’t know that much. They called it a “he,” which implies that the force is somehow aware and not just...a force. And they said he feeds off attention, so I think the more people he controls, the stronger he gets. But that’s all I picked up from them. And none of us have seen this thing, or even know if he has a body to be seen.”

“But what we have seen are...the people he controls. Most of them change in appearance, though not all of them. Sometimes a person will just be...shortly overwhelmed by this thing. We can snap those out of it, if they can’t fight off this hypnotism themselves. It’s more like a trance than anything, and they’re able to continue on in their lives even while under it. But then there are the ones who get taken. They disappear, sometimes for what seems like weeks, sometimes for what seems like months, and when they come back they’re...different. They’re like the force’s little puppets, sent out to do his bidding. And we don’t know how to snap them out of this mindset...or even if they can be.”

“When these people come back controlled, they come back...well. They look different. Sometimes it’s just in their eyes: they changed color, and now look unnatural. Some of the controlled who just have their eyes different are able to go out in the world and walk amoung normal people, as long as they wear sunglasses to hide their new appearance. I think these guys work as scouts. I’ve seen some of them following me before, when I need to go out. They’re easy enough to lose, if you know how to lose people.”

“Though, some of the others are talking about one who’s harder to ditch. They think it’s a man, but it’s hard to tell because he keeps his distance. And a lot of the times, they can’t lose him for hours--Jessica once couldn’t lose him for over two days. We were...worried about her, when she didn’t show up. We thought they got to her. I’m trying to keep tabs on this one, but it’s hard with how little we see of him up close.”

“Besides, I don’t think we really have to worry about those ones, these scouts. They don’t do anything but watch. Admittedly, it’s creepy, but it’s the other ones we have to worry about. The ones who change in more ways than just their eyes. How they change is...different for all of them. Different skin color, growing claws or fangs, I once saw one that had quills like a porcupine all along her back. They all seem to generally stay human-like, if you know what I mean. But other than that, just about anything’s possible.”

“A lot of the time, if you notice a scout tailing you only to suddenly disappear, that’s your cue to get to safety fast. That means that some of these stronger ones are about to come for you. They tend to hang out in groups, I think generally in threes or fours, but there can be as many as seven at once. But you really have to watch out for the ones who are alone. That means they’re the strongest.”

“Because they can have...powers. I don’t know what else to call them. But they can do things.”

“I’ll give you three examples: the ones I like to call the red one, the wires, and the white eyes. I...could give you their names, but it’s hard to think of them that way. It’s different when you know who they used to be. The red one is fast. Not just running fast, but also in reflexes. You see him, and next thing you know you’ve been stabbed. He also likes to...climb things. Get up high. Seems unusually good at climbing sheer surfaces and staying there. Then there’s the wires. We don’t see him much, but it’s always a bad sign when we do. Basically, any cables or wires nearby are his to control. You’re running down a hallway in a building and suddenly the electric wires are ripping out of the wall beside you and tangling around you--things like that. And the white eyes. I said a while ago that he’s fucking terrifying, and I stand by that. Someone so quiet, that makes everything around him quiet, who seems to walk so slowly, except he’s not actually slow at all and suddenly he’s in front of you, holding a knife that he pulled from nowhere. And if he touches you...it’s like paralysis. Suddenly, you’re frozen, limbs locked in the position they were in when he touched you, like he pressed pause on a moment in time.”

“There’s a chance he’s only so terrifying to me because I’ve experienced that. I barely got away, but he still brushed my wrist, which locked in place. And that paralysis spread, and where it spread my skin and clothes turned gray, like a black-and-white picture. It might’ve got to me entirely, if we hadn’t found Raven, and they managed to reverse it.”

“But these three...as far as we can tell, they’re the most powerful ones he has. But that doesn’t mean the others are weak. In fact, all the controlled people are stronger and faster than normal people. And they don’t seem to feel pain. So...that’s just the baseline abilities they all have, and then a lot of them can do things on top of that.”

“It’s hard, sometimes, to fight back against them. You don’t know what powers they have or how to combat them. Which is why we try to keep a file on every one we see. Anyone who goes out frequently has to have the most common ones memorized.”

“But there are some general tips to follow. These people may be under some kind of hypnosis, but they’re still people. They still have flaws. It’s easy to outrun most of them in a car. A lot of the times if you hide really well or move through the streets unpredictably, you can shake them off. Sometimes you can bait them into fighting each other or making rash decisions.”

“The best advice I can give would be to get creative. Be resourceful, and if it comes to it, fight dirty. But don’t fight right away. It’s hard to defeat someone who’s super strong and can’t feel pain in a brawl. Your first priority should be running or hiding.”

“I hope what I’ve written can help anyone who finds these. If it’s someone who’s part of the group before, you know where to find all my files. If it’s someone new...I don’t know how to direct you to where we are. There’s a chance these notes will fall into the wrong hands, and I can’t risk all of us for that. But now you know. Now you can try to find us. Good luck.”

[youvereachedthebadend]

Notes

3/5

"Well, if there’s a supernatural force behind all this shit, you must be wondering what that means. The supernatural is real? Are all myths true? That’s where Raven comes in. I mentioned them in my last note, which...if you haven’t read yet, I’m not going to waste paper space explaining. Just find it. But yeah, Raven. They’re a magician.”

“Yes, I didn’t believe it at first either. But then I saw their eyes change from black to glowing blue with a simple tune, and they lifted rocks into the air with nothing but light. Magic fucking exists. I’ve sort of accepted it at this point, because why not with my life going the way it has. But someone reading this note might not know that. Which is why I’ve decided to try and explain everything Raven’s told me about magic in this note. Emphasis on try. I’m no magician, so I’ll surely be forgetting things. But hopefully I’ve got the basics down.”

“First three questions I asked Raven were 1) how many people had magic? 2) Why didn’t we know about them? and 3) Does this mean other myths and creatures are real? Raven told me that about one in a hundred people are born with the magical talent, though their natural skill will vary. Magicians tend to hide because they’re so outnumbered, and things like guns are just as powerful as their spells. Who knows who’d want to exploit or kill them? And that mythical creatures as we know them, like unicorns and dragons and stuff, don’t exist. But there are...Things that exist. Things that aren’t human, and are powerful. Raven gave me a few examples, but paper space is limited, so I’ll just get to the point: there are no records of something like we’re facing ever being seen before.”

“Next I asked them how magic worked. Were there rules? How does someone cast spells? Raven said that learning spells was just like learning anything else: some people will be drawn to certain spells, liking them more or just being better at them. Casting spells requires magical energy, which will take time to regenerate. The more you use, the longer it takes, of course. Drain yourself completely of magic, and that’s it. You don’t have anything more if you don’t leave yourself a spark to regenerate from. Some people have more magic than others, but that doesn’t equal skill.”

“Raven said casting spells falls into three categories. All magicians use one of these to channel their magic. It’s not something you learn, it’s just something you have. You’re born able to channel magic a specific way, nothing else:”

“Vocal focus: Magicians will cast spells using their voice. They’ll chant, read poetry, sing, whistle. Raven themself is a vocal focus; they hum or sing to cast spells. For them, it’s the notes that matter, but for other vocal magicians it’s the words or the rhythm or the beat. Anything, as long as it’s a sound that comes out of your mouth.”

“Motion focus: Magicians will cast spells through movement. This involves dancing, gesturing...apparently Raven once knew a magician who channeled magic through facial expressions. Must’ve been pretty inconvenient. But the point is, the magician has to move. Maybe only part of their body, maybe the whole thing, but they have to be in motion.”

“Scripted focus: Magicians will cast spells through writing. Or not just writing, also drawing. Sometimes they need ink or paint, sometimes only a pencil or piece of chalk will do. Anything that involves leaving a mark (apparently even a digital tablet and stylus will work.) These guys’ spells tend to be more powerful, but take longer to create.”

“Raven then said that magic takes the form of colored light. And it’s then that I realized something. If you’ve read my first note, you’ll remember one of Chase’s friends, the one I identified through him having a mask. Well...he might be a magician. Well, he was, I know he did like stage magic tricks. But I’ve always wondered why green light sometimes appeared during those tricks, when he flourished his arms a bit too much. I asked Raven about this, and they said he probably was a real magician. But they were confused about one thing: the color of the light. Apparently, magic isn’t supposed to be green. Magic is only red, yellow, blue, purple, or silver. Never green.”

“That reminded Raven of something. They explained to me that they worked for something called the Réalta Council, which apparently governs magicians in this part of the world. They were sent to this city to investigate it.”

“See, this city wasn’t normal, magic-wise, even before people were getting controlled. There was something around it, some sort of gigantic aura that, and I quote, “did things to people’s magic.” They wouldn’t explain further. But they said that all magicians were forbidden to enter this city for decades. Every ten years they sent someone in to find young magicians born in here and “take them away” (I wasn’t fond of that, but Raven assured me they got permission from the kid and the parents,) but otherwise, no magician had set foot in the city since this aura appeared in the 1920s.”

“Until this aura vanished. A few years ago, apparently, but this Council wanted to wait to see if it would come back. It didn’t. And then a different aura appeared, surrounding the city again. Raven was sent to check it out, but the minute they passed the border of this aura, they lost all communication with the Council. And they couldn’t leave. Every time they thought to, they physically froze. So now they’re stuck here. And apparently, so are we. Because this new aura is keeping people from leaving, probably because of this controlling force.”

“And again, apparently there are no records of anything like this force. Raven was apparently pretty high up in the Council, and they’re positive they’ve never heard of anything like it. There are things that influence electricity, and things that can hypnotize people, but never so...thoroughly. And on such a large scale.”

“Raven’s current theory is that this force comes from some kind of pocket dimension. There are apparently a lot of those, sprinkled across the earth. They’re called the Places in between the folds of the world. They’re supposedly empty, but maybe the magicians are wrong in thinking that. We don’t know.”

“Or maybe it’s a new kind of Thing. These...Things are supposed to be pretty powerful, ranging from on par with the stronger magicians to “able to destroy nations.” I really hope this force isn’t one of the latter.”

“But maybe it’s not a Thing. Maybe it’s a person with magic of some kind. Magic that’s never been seen before. We don’t know. We have no way of knowing. But we have to figure it out.”

[youvereachedthebadend]

Notes

2/5

“If you read my previous note, you know my story. If you haven’t, here’s a quick summary: my name’s Stacy, I have two kids and we’re being chased by a supernatural force that’s mind controlling people and also chased after my ex-husband and his friends. Good, we’re caught up now.”

“At first it really was just the kids and I. It...well, it wasn’t easy, being on the run with an 8-year-old and a 5-year-old. But we made do. And then...other people joined us. Other people who’d also been targetted by this force. Either it had tried to send its controlled people to take them, or they had family or friends who were taken, or the force wanted to kill them, for whatever reason.”

“The first one to really join us was Trisha. I mentioned her last time, she used to date one of Chase’s friends. I think that’s why this force went after her--she was too close to this matter to be left alive. I had to leave the kids behind and go get her myself. It was the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done, but we got away mostly unharmed. Mostly. Trisha has a scar on her stomach now, and for a while, I was partially paralyzed because of that one with the white eyes. But we got away. And we stuck together.”

“There are almost a hundred of us now. I know most of them, if only vaguely. Adam, Jessica, Aoife, Willow, Malcolm, Quentin, Raven--oh, Raven. They’re important, I’ll talk more about them later. Yes, we all stick together. Safety in numbers. Again, I won’t say where in case this falls into the wrong hands, but we’re careful that none of the controlled ones can find us.”

“Though I have to be honest for a moment here. I wish I want I sort of wonder why Chase, or at least his other friend, hasn’t found us yet. The force wants them too, I know it, but I don’t know if it’s taken them. I know it’s taken all of them but two, because I’ve seen them. Jackie became the red one, one of the most dangerous, the one that fights viciously. Henrik became the wires. We don’t see him that one alot, but when we do, it’s always a bad sign. And the other one who’s name I don’t know...I wish I knew it so I could tell you who he used to be, but I don’t. But I know he became the white eyes, and he’s fucking terrifying.”

“But Chase and the other one...I haven’t seen them since the night we started running. I know that’s a bad sign. They could’ve been taken, but I desperately don’t want that to be true. They know the most about this, if they ended up with this force...and I just don’t want But there’s the chance that they could just be hiding, like us. And that they think it’s safer to stay away. I don’t know. I won’t know until I either see them controlled, or they join us.”

“And there’s Chase’s friend Jack, the one in the coma. Apparently this force put him to sleep. Why it didn’t control him like so many others, I don’t know. And I don’t think I’ll know for a while, because Jack disappeared from the hospital. Maybe he was controlled, maybe the force killed him, maybe it took him...or maybe he woke up and walked out and is hiding like all the rest of us. Again, I don’t know.”

“Finding out the answers to all these things I don’t know seems to be what I spend half my time doing. The other half is divided between looking after Ry and Lilah, looking after the others in the group, getting supplies because we’re constantly running out, and a million other things. I have no idea if I’m doing good at any of this. Even watching Ryan and Delilah...I spend so much time doing other things that I wonder if I’m not being a good mom to them. But I’m trying. I just need to figure out what’s going on.”

“The others are helping, of course. Trisha handles a lot of the rescue missions, going after anyone the controlled might be targetting. Adam and Malcolm are in charge of supplies and storage, Quentin is our primary medic, Willow and Jessica are amazing at running out and getting supplies (even stuff that, well, is illegal. Like guns. So I don’t know how they’re doing that) and Raven...well. Raven is magic. They’re the only one with magic in our entire group, and it’s like, yeah, I’ll accept that there are people born with magical powers, my life is already weird enough. They’re called magicians. And I’ll tell you about them on another page, I’m running out of room on this one.”

“We have to look out for each other. We’re really all we have, and we know that without us...well, this force would be a lot farther along with whatever its plans are. We’re the only ones who know anything. And yeah, we could try going to the police. Willow did, in fact, with polaroid pictures of the controlled people. They almost sent her to a mental hospital. The police and local city government know there’s a crisis going on, but the minute you suggest there’s something supernatural causing it? They instantly dismiss it. Honestly, I don’t blame them.”

“That’s why it’s so important to know what’s going on. Know what’s going on, and we can stop them. We stop them, and we save god only knows how many people. We can’t lose. I have so much shit hidden in my workplace, so many newspaper clips and photographs and notes and just guesses as to what’s happening. Too much to ever be able to sum up in a series of notes written on single sheets of paper. Maybe writing these, I’ll come to a breakthrough. Who knows? But if I don’t...well. Just in case.”