Broken Masquerade Part 2

Alright. I think we're getting somewhere. Kind of. Sort of. Maybe.

I'm not really sure.

After we torched the diner, we headed into the town proper. The first place we tried checking was the corner store Anne was running before, but someone had broken every single gas can in the entire store. Boy, were they thorough too. Even the ones in the back. The only thing we salvaged was the gun from behind the counter (A Ruger, according to Deb), and a single can of propane from the dumpster out back.

So, not a total loss.

I spotted one of the kids on our way out, though, running through the shelves. I can't say for sure, because I started shooting before I got a good look. I think I hit it, though. I say "it" because I swear to god that the little bastard didn't have a face. I don't mean that it didn't have eyes; I mean that it had a hole for a face. Just-just a whole. Nothing inside but darkness. There was black blood on the shelves. Really hoping that's because I hit the thing.

I asked Virgil if he'd seen this kind of thing before.

He waited a long time before he answered. He took a deep breath, and as we were standing in that dark corner store, he told me that he'd seen all this happen hundreds of times. Hundreds of towns across the world. Virgil said that the things that did this were old, really old. He said that he'd traveled other realities where "the Church" had manifested, and everywhere it had manifested, it brought unimaginable suffering.

It always started with little things, and it almost always started in small towns like this. Virgil said that he wasn't sure exactly why they did it, but he theorized that it was because it kept them under "their" radar.

"They" were what he called "The suits."

The "Initiative."

I knew for a long time that DARKNET and myself weren't the only ones with a stake in this game, but Virgil said that it went even deeper than that. He said that there was an agency that handled the supernatural; that they would exterminate or exploit anything they found. The Church wasn't the exception. There had been a secret war going on for centuries, millennia even. The groups had different names, different doctrines, but the paranormal had always been the constant. I asked him how he knew that. He laughed.

Simple, he said. He'd seen it himself.

Part of me is thinking that Virgil is more of an "it" than a "he." Shocking idea, I know, but I just assumed that the mask shtick was just a quirk. I wonder if there's actually anything underneath. I don't really think I want to know. I know too much now, and the Church still lives. Not for long, I hope.

Left the corner store behind. Headed towards the library. Going to keep sweeping the town until we find the Church. It's my turn to carry the shotgun now, so I'm handing off to Deb.

Wish me luck.

Broken Masquerade: Part 1

Whatever facade this town was maintaining, it's completely gone now.

The streets are completely abandoned. I haven't seen anyone for hours now. I mean, I've seen a few people, but they're always hiding out in the shadows. Haven't seen any of the kids yet, though. I don't know which is worse, this town when it's populated, or when it's abandoned. Reminds me of Centralia in a way. You can look it up yourself if you're interested, but it was this little town in Pennsylvania that had to be abandoned. Supposedly it was a coal fire, but when they sent me out that way, it sure as hell didn't seem like it.

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked.

I wanted to see if we could wrangle up any of the other folks in town. You know, ones that weren't drinking the Kool-Aid. Figured that Shirley, the gal from the Diner, might be able to help. Virgil told me not to count on it.

The diner was abandoned. Ransacked, really. Tables and chairs thrown about everywhere, pictures knocked off the walls. Nobody around, just like the rest of this godforsaken town. I did find something, though. On the door of the manager's office was a symbol, just like the one I'd seen on my hand. Written in red...paint, I hope. A triangle, a hand in the middle, and three circles. The back was similarly destroyed; there was food just thrown everywhere, the freezer was busted open, and the back door was knocked clean off it's hinges.

We were just about to leave when I heard one of the drains in the kitchen gurgling. We all stopped and just kind of looked at each other, not sure what to do. Virgil had the shotgun at the time (It was heavy when it was fully loaded, so we alternated), so he went to look. We stuck behind him; me with my handgun and Deb with a flashlight.

Virgil stepped closer to the drain. It was one of those big industrial sinks you usually see in restaurants, with a long spray nozzle suspended above a handful of washbasins. He didn't even have a moment to look. This thing burst out of the drain, throwing pureed garbage everywhere. It was hard to describe, but it was like a tentacle. Not like an octopus, though. It was made of what I can only guess was muscle tendon and fat. It whipped out, and before it reached any of us, Virgil shot it down.

My ears were ringing for a few seconds, but the disorientation wore off just long enough to see Virgil stuff the barrel of the shotgun down the drain and fire again. I heard a clanging, and a long protracted moan. Half pleasure and half pain is the best way I can describe it. I could hear this slapping noise, like if you threw ground chuck against a wall, coming from one of the freezers. I had Deb focus the light, and we saw this malformed thing dragging itself out of the darkness.

It had the upper body of a man, with arms and a torso and all that, but everything looked...melty. Like it's skin was barely holding on to the flesh. It was literally sloughing off as it crawled towards us. The rest of it's body was trailing off into the dark, like some kind of worm. It groaned, desperately trying to drag itself towards us. I could've sworn that it said "help me" before Virgil blew it's head off. I watched his head turn, and the shotgun nearly dropped out of his hands.

The freezer was full of bodies. Not corpses. Live, wriggling bodies, all meshed together. Just one enormous mass of flesh covered in arms and legs and faces. God, man, I barely even know how to properly describe it.  The whole thing reeked of blood and shit and vomit. Deb puked, then I puked, but Virgil just stood there watching. They were all still alive, and they were screaming and moaning and begging. They all wanted to die. Virgil took a lighter from the office and a propane tank, and we burned the whole place down.

I'm still not sure what I think. Part of me hopes that Shirley wasn't part of this, but those people had been back there for a long time, based on the smell. I mean, christ, they had bits of them sliced off. Like the fuckers had been harvesting them. How many people have come through here before me? How many people did these fuckers take?

I don't know. All I know is that I'm really glad I stuck to coffee when I ate there.

Revelations

Well, I went into the bathroom. Figured whatever was in there couldn't be that bad. I was really, really fucking wrong about that one.

Anne, or rather what was left of her, was in the tub. Virgil had hacked her apart and tossed what was left in the bathtub. The worst part, though, was that she still wasn't dead. Her eyes were actually watching me as I pulled the shower curtain. Her hands were grasping at me, and she had this wicked smile on her face. Not like a "ha ha I'm a head in a tub" kind of smile. More like a "I'm going to kill you when I get a chance" kind of smile.

Showed Deb. She puked, although I'm not sure why expected different. Probably would've done the same thing if this hadn't become normal for me.

Virgil came back. Climbed out from under the bed. I think I might be right about how he gets around.

He said that he'd taken a look around town, and that most of the adults were gone at this point. Said that the Church must've come for them. Fucked if I know what that means. He said that the town is practically abandoned now. I asked him what we should do, if we should just take off and hope for the best. Virgil said that the Judge wouldn't let us leave, and that "that looping road bullshit" was his way of keeping us in town.

"It didn't want anyone getting out to spill the beans."

Oh, well. That's just great.

Virgil went on to say that we were living on borrowed time. He said that it wouldn't be long before the "suits" would show up, and that when they did, they wouldn't discriminate. I hope that he means the government, but part of me feels like he meant someone else.

Deb wanted to know what the plan was. Virge said that if we wanted out of the town, we would need to fight.

We're headed back into the town proper. If we're going to fight, we'll need weapons.

Virgil said that we needed a load of aerosol cans, lighter fluid, and propane.

You know, I thought he was kind of a creepy asshole at first, but I like his style.

Still Alive

I needed some time to collect my thoughts.

First, I'm missing three days. I don't mean that they didn't happen, I mean that I have no memory whatsoever of the last three days. I get snippets here and there, but for all intents and purposes, I can barely remember anything. I don't know why the last post date is so fucked up, but they're fixed now. Nothing about any of that made any sense. I can tell you what I do remember.

I remember that we ran out of gas after a while, and Deb just crying and crying. We were stuck out in the middle of nowhere, and before either of us could do anything, the headlights died. Almost ten minutes passed with nothing happening, and then the headlights came back on. There was Anne, along with nearly a dozen children. I can remember screaming, because Anne's face wasn't' a face now. It was a hole. All their faces were holes. I kept screaming while they were tearing apart the car.

Then, I woke up this morning. On the side of the road. Again. Fuck me sideways that's getting old already. My bag, along with all my stuff, was in a ditch on the other side of the road.

Wasn't sure what to do, so I just started walking. Turns out, I was still in town, because of course I was. Took me hours to get back to the hotel, and lo and behold, my key still worked. I'm not sure why I was surprised that it worked, but at this point, I'm surprised I'm still alive. Deb was inside, sprawled out across the bed.

I woke her up, and she seems to be the same way I am. No memory of what happened. She said that she remembered Anne turning into something else, but that was it. Just as I finished talking to her, I heard a toilet flush and looked up to see Virgil standing in the bathroom. He was wearing a bulky raincoat, with that same mask as before. He was splattered with blood from head to toe. Big, dirty gloves on his hands. He nodded to me, told me to sit down. Told me that we all needed to talk.

Virgil said I should be thankful that I had "someone in my corner on this one" and that his boss didn't want me dead. On the contrary, he wanted me alive. I asked him what he meant by "his boss". Virgil said that he worked as a "fixer" for "things", that when these "things" wanted something done, he could usually do it. The thing that had wanted us alive (he wouldn't say a name) was also working with Antlers. He said that the thing and Antlers were "associates of the Court."

Deborah cut me off, asked if he knew where her boyfriend was. Virgil was really quiet for a while. All he said was that Ted wasn't "part of the game anymore". She looked like she was going to cry. I would've done something, but I needed to know more.

I asked him the simplest question. Why me, why us?

"We were convenient."

Virgil said that he'd tried setting this up before, but that Rosenberg was "out of the picture". He said that he'd failed before, and that I, and by extension Deb, were his "aces in the hole." Redwood Falls was just one of many places were this was, or was going to, happen. The Reverend was just one of many people under "their" control, and that I could use my connections to try and expose them.

Who were "they"?

"The Court of the Black King."

He said that I needed to expose the Court to everyone, to the world. That if I did, people in high places could bring down the hammer and destroy it everywhere it lurked.

So, Virgil wants me to help him save the world. Basically. He nodded, and started for the closet. Before I could even say anything, he stepped inside, telling me to stay out of the bathroom while he was gone. The door shut, we scrambled over there, and of course, he'd vanished. Maybe that's how he gets around so easily, maybe he can disappear when people can't see him?

I might just be losing it.

Virgil's been right so far, so I'm staying out of the bathroom. I can hear weird, squelchy noises behind the shower curtain. There's...a lot of blood. A lot.

Cards on the table, I kind of don't want to check. For now.

.

The road keeps going forever.

I saw Anne in the backseat last time. Looked again. She's gone.

Took over for Deb. She's been crying for hours.

Something is chasing us. Children in the woods.

Virgil, for the love of god, I know you can hear this.

Please.

Anyone.

It's getting cold outside.

I can smell blood in the backseat.

I want to go home.

I want to go home.

I want to

On the Road Again?

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

We've been driving for two hours now. We should have been out of town an hour ago.

There's nothing but trees all around us, and we're down to half a tank now. Ever since we left town, I keep seeing things moving in the woods around us. I can't tell what they are, but they're definitely not Antlers. My cellphone reception is spotty at best now, but we stopped just long enough that I was able to get my setup together and put this out.

I went to get the gun from my jacket, but it's gone. I don't know how, but it's just fucking gone. 

Deb seems like she's in shock. She's barely talking. I keep telling her that she needs to eat, to stop or something so we can figure this out, but every time I do, she just shakes her head and looks in the rearview mirror. I only looked once, but I could have sworn I saw two kids watching us from the side of the road. Anne was standing with them.

We're going on two hours and...four minutes. Every time I check the rearview mirror, Anne and the two kids are a little closer.

....

Fuck me. We just passed the Diner. I can't tell if we're going in circles or if they're just fucking with us now.

I've been telling Deb to stop for a while now, but now I'm telling her to keep driving.

I don't want to see what's in the rearview mirror next.

Strange Dreams

I know the title is pretty self-explanatory, but I had a really odd dream last night. With everything going on, I don't feel like what I saw was a coincidence. The weirdest part of the whole thing is how well I remember it all. I've never had a dream that felt this real. 

I fell asleep pretty soon after my last post. I know Deb made a post on here, though, honestly, I just don't have the time to be upset about that. She's just as much a part of this whole affair as I am.

In the dream, I woke up inside this huge chapel type place. It's hard to describe it, but I felt the heat of the place through my whole body, like it was alive. The walls were this thick, bony stuff and everything was covered in a thin layer of veins. There were organs interspersed among them, too. Hearts, sets of lungs, kidneys, bladders, anything you could think of. There were pews for miles, all made of the same bone as the rest of the place. The whole place would shudder occasionally, like a beating heart.

There was nothing else to look at, so I started walking. I must have been walking for a good few minutes before I started hearing wet, slapping footsteps behind me. Every time I turned, there was nothing there. The footsteps were mirroring my own, so I started trying to trip them up. Finally, after about ten minutes of doing that, whatever was behind me finally moved out of turn.

Everything went silent, and I felt in my gut that I had just done something really wrong.

The footsteps began sprinting after me, and I ran as fast as I could. I ran for what felt like hours. The footsteps only stopped when I tripped and fell, passing straight through the veiny floor and into some dark crevice. I fell for just a few seconds before something grabbed me in the dark, and before I knew it, I was in front of an altar.

It wasn't made of bone. It was made of this black stone. Totally seamless. No cuts or markings at all. I looked around, and behind me were the same miles and miles of pews I'd been traversing. In front of me was the altar. Behind it, was an enormous statue made of jet black stone. The veins had spread everywhere else in the cathedral, but they wouldn't spread onto the black stone.

The statue was a figure, like a man, but not. The statue itself had to have been sixty feet tall, at least, and just thinking about it now gives me a headache. The face was just blank, or rather, it wasn't blank. There was something there but I just can't remember. All I can remember was how wrong it was. It had a crown over it's head, and most of it's body was covered in a long cape-like thing. It had about six or so arms coming out of the cloak, three on each side. The bottom right was holding a book, while the top left was holding a sword. It took me some time after I woke up to realize it, but there was a symbol on the book. The same symbol is on the cover of the book I found.

A crown, with a worm around it.

I looked down at the altar, and there was the book. It was much newer than the one I had. Leather binding. Smooth, black, practically begging me to open it. I did.

It's hard to describe exactly what I felt when I read it. The best thing I can compare it to is a massive blast of information. Anything I could think about, the book had an answer. Yet, I can't remember anything I actually learned from it. Only snippets here and there. Fragments of whatever knowledge it contains. The copy I have is almost indecipherable, from what I understand. It takes someone who knows the language to get it. It's not a cipher, it's not gibberish. It's some kind of language.

Someone called out to me from behind. I turned, and saw a man standing in front of me. An older man, in a judge's robes. They were black, but had these distinctive orange accents on the sleeves and up the arms. He looked half-way between a judge and a priest, basically. He had a really narrow face, with balding grey hair and a thin neck. He was almost corpse-like in how thin he was. The Judge, since that's the first name that came to mind, spoke to me. His voice was baritone, commanding.

"Only those closest to the King can learn his teachings."

I asked him what he meant, what this was all about.

"Your mind is not open," he said. "As for what this is about, well, you're meddling. Too much for my tastes."

Again, I asked him what this was all about, and he just sighed again before he spoke.

"Jannura is busy preparing her assemblage in the desert, and she asked me to watch over her flock here. You are not the first to come looking into their midst, into our affairs."

Their affairs?

"Ascendance."

Before I could ask anything else, he moved closer, sounding almost angry as he spoke.

"You people live in decadence, in depravity. You've lost the very essence of the hands that bred you, that brought you from the mud and made you what you are. Your people are lost, tumbling in darkness, and He offers salvation."

I tried to keep pressing him, asking him what he meant by "your people" and "Him".

"The King. My Lord, and my Savior. He who lifted us from the yolk, and cast off our chains of mortality so we could better serve him. He who waits beyond the veil, He who will return to bring eternal salvation to sinner and saint alike."

Naturally, I had more questions, but before I knew it, we were both standing on a hillside. We were overlooking a field, but instead of grass or trees, it was hundreds of miles of nothing but people. All on their knees, all wearing nothing but rags and looking like starved holocaust survivors. They were all muttering prayers in nearly every language, all facing towards a massive figure in the distance. Just like the statue, but it had to have been miles tall. The Judge kept talking.

"It is said in the last passages of the Compendium that King will return someday, and that all men will gain a greater purpose. To serve his will. We must hasten his return."

I told him that that was a load of bullshit, and that they needed to be stopped. He just stared at me, and sighed.

"So be it," he said. "I thought you'd be a bit more receptive than the scientist. I'll ensure that Whitewall deals with you appropriately."

Then, something came from behind. It was fast, but it looked like some kind of hooded figure. It threw me down among the people praying, and they all broke off to come after me. Their cold, half-dead fingers were just digging into me when I woke up.

I was screaming when I woke up, covered in sweat, and I must have scared the shit out of Deb because she looked like she'd seen a ghost.

After a bit of prodding, I finally told her about the dream, and she went really pale. Said she'd had almost the same dream, verbatim, and that we needed to get out of town. Now.

I agree with the sentiment. Whatever this is, I need to get out of here and get help before whatever we're dealing with decides to really come after us. I don't know if I should take that dream as gospel, no pun intended, but if the Judge is really going to sic the whole town on us, then I'm going to need some more guns on my side.

We're leaving in a few minutes. I'll try and get another update once we're out of town.