Search and Reveal:
Entry 2
Ron decides that since he took the trouble of convincing Jared’s family to give them to him, instead of throwing them out, to look at them now. He hangs the jacket and neck tie and sits down on his couch to over them over.
The notebooks are old and fairly well-used. They are unmarked and nothing denotes an order they came in. He shrugs, set three of them to the side, and begins from the fourth.
The following is what he finds:
P. 1: This odd image:
P. 2: On the next page is an unfinished image of Jack Skeleton.
P. 3: The following:
“What does It want? It just stares" written over and over.
P. 4: This photo:
P. 5: “I missed you so, so to see you.”
P. 6: I page with the image on the first page scribbled on it in several places. Also on it, the words: “HE WATCHES WHAT HAS BEEN SEEN CANNOT BE UnSEEN”
P. 7: “Your move.”
P. 8: “You see him. He sees you.”
P. 9: “I cannot hide.”
P. 10:
Pages 11 and 12 are missing, as a little bit of the page is left over.
P. 13: “Eyeless.”
P. 14: “I want to believe” scribbled over and over.
P. 15: “Red Rook”
P. 16:
All the rest except for the last have been ripped out very messily.
Final Page: “Check mate” and:
Ron closes the notebook after he finishes reading it, not knowing what to make of what he read. The writing did seem to be that of a madman’s. He looks over at the other three, shrugging he picks the next one up and reads from it.
Most of the pages are filled with inane gibberish about something stalking Jared’s every footstep, but nothing really helpful.
Then he opens the next notebook and finds this:
"My son, wherefore seek'st thou thy face thus to hide?"
"Look, father, the Erl King is close by our side!
Dost see not the Erl King, with crown and with train?"
"My son, 'tis the mist rising over the plain."Once upon a time there were twin girls, Stela and Sorina. They were brave little girls, and had no fear of the dark, nor of spiders and other crawling things. Where other young ladies and even young boys would cower, Stela and Sorina would walk with their heads held high. They were good girls, obedient to their mother and father and to the word of God. They were the best children a mother could ask for, and this was their undoing.
One day, Stela and Sorina were out with their mother gathering berries from the forest. Their mother bid them stay close to her, and they listened, as they were good children. The day was bright and clear, and even as they walked closer to the center of the forest the light barely dimmed. It was nearly bright as noon when they found the tall man.
The tall man stood in a clearing, dressed as a nobleman, all in black. Shadows lay over him, dark as a cloudy midnight. He had many arms, all long and boneless as snakes, all sharp as swords, and they writhed like worms on nails. He did not speak, but made his intentions known.
Their mother tried not to listen, but she could no more disobey the tall man than she could forget how to breathe. She walked into the clearing, her daughters shortly behind her. "Stela," she said, "take my knife, and cut a circle on the ground big enough to lie in." Stela, who was not afraid of the tall man, nor afraid of the quiver in her mother's voice, obeyed what her mother said. "Sorina," the mother said, "take the berries and spread them in the circle, and crush them underfoot until the juice stains the earth." Though Sorina wondered why her mother asked her to do such a thing, she obeyed, because she was a good girl.
"Stela," the mother said, "lie in the circle."
Stela, though she worried she might stain her clothes, did as her mother asked.
"Sorina," the mother said, and bid Sorina cut her sister open with the knife.
Sorina could not; would not.
"Please," her mother said. "If you don't, it will be worse. So much worse."
But Sorina could not, and she threw the knife away and ran home, crying. She hid under her bed, afraid for the first time in her life. She waited until her father came home from the fields, and told him of the terrible thing she had found in the woods. Her father comforted her, and told her she would be safe. He went to the woods, his axe in hand, and as he commanded, she stayed by the hearth, waiting for his return.
After some time she fell asleep. When she woke, it was to the sound of knocking on her door at the darkest hour of the night. "Who is there?" she said.
"It is your father," the knocker said.
"I don't believe you!" said Sorina.
"It is your sister," the knocker said.
"It cannot be!" said Sorina.
"I am your mother," said the knocker, "and I told you it would be worse." And the door, locked tight before her father left, fell open as if it had been left ajar. And her mother stepped in, her sister's head clutched in one bloody hand, her father's in the other.
"Why?" wept Sorina.
"Because," said her mother, "there is no reward for goodness; there is no respite for faith; there is nothing but cold steel teeth and scourging fire for all of us. And it's coming for you now."
And the tall man slid from the fire, and clenched Sorina in his burning embrace. And that was the end of her.
Little Prey Goes To The Big Town,
Play's a little game with the big boyS,
Snip, snip, snip, off goes a finger,
Bright red, his pain lingers.
Little Prey Goes To The Big Town,
End's a game for a girl,
Stab, stab, stab, she will loose her Hound,
Bright red, he is Hellbound,
Little Prey Goes To The Big Town,
Can he be found by a friend,
Slice, Slice, Slice, straight to his tummy,
Out his sides, red and yummy
You seek
concentrate You fool
incorrectly. assist
silence Fifth Perch.
to those who know
are about the beast
thus You need
a beast to your abilities
its work not in doing slaying the prey for it. There is nothing else is this notebook. Ron slams it shut and puts it with the other two he’s read. He’s certain that the stories are going to give him nightmares. He picks up the fourth and final notebook and reads it:
“It seems to come from the woods. Always from the woods. Does that red building belong to it? What is It? What does It want? Is it because we entered it’s domain? Where have James, Ryan, and Maddie gone?! Did It take them? Who was that man earlier?”
“A night. It always comes at night. Everyone else in gone. What was that noise? Oh god, he's coming for me. No no no no no. I still have so much to say, so much to do! I won't let them take me. I'll run. Not again. Never again. I'll run and hide, but they'll find me. He always finds me. Must be a way death. death is a way out. Death is better than the blankest room. Goodbye. I can't go back there. Didn't want it to end like this. I'm not crazy. I can't go to that place again."It cuts off after that, but the notebook does have one more thing to offer:
“1 3 2” on an otherwise blank page.
“8 20 13” on another.
With the four notebooks piled up, Ron isn’t sure what to make of them. There was one lead in the last notebook, mention a red tower building, the woods, and a third possible location Jared what called it’s “domain”, which could be either one of the former two, but what was written did not clarify that.
Now that Ron thinks of it, three months is awfully soon to declare someone dead after they just went missing. It was almost like they just ended the investigation for the sake of keeping things quiet. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that something very wrong.
A) I should give Jared’s family a call tomorrow to ask about the woods and the red building.
B) Maybe I should keep quiet, and prepare to return on my own later.
C) Maybe I should just leave this alone.
D) Maybe I'll study the notebooks a bit more.
