I went to the address that this Virgil guy (gal?) gave me. It was an abandoned gas-station, way out on the edge of town. I showed up at the time they wanted me to. Dead of night. Brought my pistol along with me.
The walk there was uneventful. Half of me thought I'd run into Antlers along the way, but he's been weirdly absent since our last encounter. I'd almost say that I miss him, but I'd rather not be nostalgic about being kidnapped and mind-raped.
The gas-station was totally wrecked. Fire-damaged, broken glass windows, the works. There was even a rusted out Ford in the front, near the pumps. I was a bit on edge, so I got my gun out as I was headed inside. At first, I thought this would be a waste of time. That was, at least, until I got to the back office. There he was, just kicking back in this half-broken metal chair.
Virgil, which is what I'll call him since he didn't give me his real name, said that I worked for DARKNET. I was a little surprised, and I asked him how he knew that. He had this eerie, raspy voice that was hard to describe. It was quiet, but not so quiet that you couldn't hear him. It sounded like he had fucking throat cancer or something, I swear. He had the same Noh mask on too, along with a hoodie and black jeans. It got a better look at it now, and after a bit of looking around, I think it's an Oni mask. Cute. It looked pretty old, though. Kinda yellowed with age.
Anyways, he told me that there was something wrong in the town. I told him that, no shit, of course something weird was going on. I had creepy children staring me down in the street like it was high noon and, oh, no biggie, but a antler monster stalking me. He just laughed at me. Said he liked my moxy. I told him to get to the point.
Virgil said that he wanted me to spread the truth, and that I could use my connections with DARKNET to get the story out there. I told him that was what I already intended to do. He told me that there were other folks that had a serious interest in making sure nobody ever looked into Redwood Falls.
He handed me a paper. One of the census sheets from the library, only this was the one for last year. There are only a couple hundred people in the town. So, how, then, are there more children then people?
Virgil was getting up to leave, and I asked him who exactly he was. He said he was "A friend."
I asked him what the hell that meant, and of course, he just laughed.
He's a creepy bastard, but I think he's actually trying to help.
Saw things moving in the bushes on the way back. Smaller forms.
Five bucks says those little bastards followed me out there.
