Deborah

Tried calling Cole again. Nothing but dial tones for hours. On what must have been the twentieth time I called, someone, or something picked up. Heard a woman breathing for a few seconds, then it hung up. Fuck. Took the gun and was going to try and find out where Cole lived, just so I could put a fucking bullet in that freaky bitch. Instead, I ran into Deborah again. She looked really tired. I feel a little hypocritical thinking that, because I've barely gotten much sleep myself.

We were shooting the shit, and I told her that I had somewhere to be. Just as I was starting to leave, I tripped over a package and nearly ate shit on the concrete floor. She laughed, and I just rolled my eyes. The package was this gross looking, dingy cardboard box. It fucking reeked of, like, nutmeg, I guess? Just this overwhelming forest smell like someone drenched the thing in air-freshener. I knew who it was from right at that moment.

Deb asked if it was from the Monster. I asked her how she knew about that, and she said that something had been stalking her and her boyfriend for months before he disappeared. Whenever it showed up, it always left behind that same smell. She said that whatever this thing is, it's interested in both of us. She said she thought it "marked" her, and that if the package is any indication, I'm "marked" too.

I'm not really sure what I expected to find in the package.

It was a dog collar, covered in blood. No tags. A couple of very fucking human looking teeth. A crumpled up note, which while it was mostly covered in blood, was still legible.

the jester has granted me a moment of clarity, and with that, i'm going to break some rules

the loyalists, the priestess, the judge and the others, have ventures all over the world

their king is dead, or as close as it will ever be to death, and so begins the dilemma of accession

we couldn't stop the monsters it created, because we were the monsters it created

you can succeed where we failed

please

not just for me, not just for us, for all of us.

the judge knows that you're here now, and i can only hold them off for so long

hurry, please.

p.s - when you see the nexus again, give the concubine my regards."

Ok, so, uh, not sure what to make of that. Antlers is trying to get me to help it save the world. Ok. Cool. Right. Fuck my life. I'm gonna need some time to stew on that.

Deb said that maybe we should work together. I told her that I work alone. She said that she didn't think either of us had an option anymore, and that if I was looking to get myself killed, there were far less complicated ways of doing it. I told her that, with the people I worked with, that having partners was kind of frowned upon. She just rolled her eyes and told me that we were going to find Cole's house. 

It's times like this that I remember why I'm single.