Table of Contents
001: Prologue
002: The Pages
003: Into the Abyss
004: Flashback
005: Genesis
Dedicated to my best friend Samuel,
Who inspired my pen at work
The Arrival
001: PROLOGUE
The shadows cast by the sun in an overcast sky flicker across the shiny, metallic surface of the Hummer as I drive down Interstate 35 in rush-hour traffic. Rush hour traffic isn't that bad in Texas: like, no one lives there. The thoughts that pass through my mind in rush hour.
Six in the afternoon, everyone on the road sprinting away, or sprinting towards me, wasting some more gasoline. I take the exit to the rest area, breaking free of the traffic. I finally hit open roads after the rush hour, taking the road to Llano. However, instead of finishing the trek to Llano, I turn off on the private road leading to the old park: typically, the only people on the road are the residents and the big mining trucks holding loads of raw ore fresh from the ground. But I don't care about the cars on the road.
The most important rules to me are the driving rules. Two o'clock and ten, ignoring just about every text sent my way, never a fraction of a mile over the speed limit. Never been in a car accident in my life. Typically, my thirteen-year-old stepson Jaden would manage my texts and phone calls. This time, though, he isn't in the car with me.
Jaden is the most important thing in the world to me: him and my husband, Liam. I got the two of them three years ago, which was three years after I divorced my first husband. He was ten, then, and had the cutest eyes: he still has the same eyes. Today he looked at me with those eyes: "Lauren, why aren't you taking me to see Kate?" To that I responded, "The letters she's sending are unsettling. I'm afraid the place I'm going won't be safe."
Now I guess I have to talk about Kate: Kate is a childhood friend of mine. We were best friends in kindergarten, and the first and second grades. We had a falling out in early third grade over her new friend: a boy named CR. I never liked him, and she had a crush on him, and you can see how that went. Later in life, we got back together. We aren't nearly as close as we once were, but you know.
Kate lives in an old State Park which was opened to public purchases when I was still an infant. The place is mostly occupied by farmers and hermits who just want to live away from civilization. There are a couple little villages (basically gated communities with no gates), and there is also a mining company who set up shop in the mountains near the woods. Kate is one of the rural dwellers. She teaches online classes from a crappy computer and the worst WiFi in the country. Lately, however, she's been trying to sell her house, to no avail.
Lately, an alarming development has taken place: about a month ago, Kate began sending disturbing letters written in the form of poetry. At the beginning, they were neat, orderly, and intelligible, like Kate always was. As the month went on, however, the letters started to devolve. Eventually, it changed into scribbled drawings of trees, children, and tall men, mixed with scattered print saying things like 'HELP ME' and 'KILL ME' and 'DON'T LET HIM IN!" Eventually, I decided I would just go out there and see what I can do.
The sky is starting to clear, revealing the Texas sun. It bathes the land in beautiful light that flickers softly off metallic surfaces, or takes a mean streak and glares off in violently bright tones. I keep my eyes on the road, despite the fact that the sun is setting right in front of me and hurting my eyes.
Finally, I arrive at Kate's driveway: it is a dirt road leading up to her house. I had a plan to drive my car up to Kate's house, but nope! Fallen tree!
I sigh, open the car door, and step out into the crisp, autumn air. The trees nearest to me are maples, with a variety of hues including vibrant yellow, russet, and dusky orange. The setting sun slices through the leaves to make dappled patterns on the ground that slowly, ever so slowly slide along as the shadows grow longer and the sun dips behind the distant mountains. I open the door to the backseat and pull out the gopro I had brought with me: no shame having recordings in case some sort of crime thing is going on up here. I attach it to my forehead, climb over the log, and start walking up the dirt driveway.
The surroundings are dimming at an alarming pace around me as the sky starts to darken. The path takes an upward turn, winding through the woods to the small house on the plateau. The house in question is just within my line of sight, the shadow it casts slowly fades away, just as the light that creates it does. The sky is becoming more and more overcast, and finally I reach the front gate.
I walk towards the door, knocking. I expect to hear Kate come down the stairs, or rise from her favorite rocker in the living room, or one of her little cousins who come to stay with her running to the door in a ruckus, accompanied by Kate's voice telling them to quit there antics… soon enough, the expectancy fades to probability, then to hope, then to a wish. I tried the door: unlocked. Unusual.
I stepped in, to find the house in a state of anarchy, quite unlike Kate's usual autocratic rule over her furniture. The aforementioned furniture was arranged in an awkward manner about the place, and the floor was littered in all sorts of junk. No lights were on. Totally dark.
And that isn't the worst part. Scrawled on the white wall is a drawing of black pine trees, with a picture of a tallish man standing in front of them. HELP ME is scrawled underneath.
I decide to go find Kate, if she is here. I walk into the living room, cautiously, worriedly. It's quite dark: all the windows are shut. Kate usually leaves them open. I can't see much in the way of details: I don't have any light. I walk through the living room, stumbling over various pieces of crap. I reach the kitchen, finally. A flashlight lies on the table: I pick it up and turn it on.
The kitchen is slightly more orderly than the living room. There is a house phone (excellent, perhaps I can call someone) and a note:
(Please refer to the note found in Kate's living room. Just do it)
CR is involved? That isn't reassuring. I set the note down and walk to the phone: the line is dead. D*nmit. I go back to the living room.
The living room is cluttered, of course, with junk. On the wall is a whiteboard with some sort of checklist:
Flashlight,
Kerosene,
Rations,
LOCK THE HOUSE!
Interesting. I walk upstairs. The floorboards creak under my feet as I ascend, flashlight in my hand.
Flashing it around the house reveals the familiar second story of Kate's humble abode. I decide to check out the upstairs room by room. Through one room, nothing occured. Second room, nothing. Third room. Third room was something.
The door creaks open to reveal Kate's bedroom. But it isn't anything like her old bedroom. The walls are covered in pages of notebook paper with drawings of trees and men scribbled everywhere. Graffiti words are sloppily written on the wall, including one in red saying CAN YOU SEE IT? The window is smashed open.
I look out the window.
The dark outline of a tall, gangly, slender man is silhouetted against the backdrop of a cloudy night sky. The form is punctuated by the long shadow cast down from the hill he's standing on. It rolls down, just to the gate, and just as I catch him within my line of sight, my gopro glitches and he disappears. Suddenly, a scream from downstairs interrupts my watching.
I turn quickly, yelling "Kate!" as I dash down the stairs. However, as I run down, my gopro starts being overcome by static. I stop running, and hear another scream before turning and running back up. Another scream again: louder and more afraid then the last. What's happening?
I run to the bedroom window, and leap out, feet first. I remember my old instructions from karate class, and I tuck in my legs and roll to absorb the impact. I run to the door, which is locked. I use the key: it doesn't work. I turn to run to the other side of the house, and as I do so, my gopro starts to glitch again.
I turn and head the other way, dashing over to an old playhouse and ducking under it.
In a prone position, I see a pair of legs run past, off into the night. Barely able to contain a yell of fear, my heart thumping against my chest so loudly that the body that belonged to the pair of legs would surely hear, and then it would turn 'round and reach in to drag me out into the open…
I lie there for several minutes, until I realize that whatever-it-was must be gone. I drag myself out into the open, get up, and tentatively creep around the house again, to the place where my gopro glitched.
Nothing.
I sit down on the ground, having a mental debate with myself: leave… or find Kate? Leaving is my best chance of survival, but if I live, I will never know what happened to Kate. If I stay, I could find Kate, who was once my best friend. I decide to stay and look for her in the woods.
I get up and walk through the gate, out onto the path I had approached the house on. I noticed a piece of paper nailed to a tree: CHARLIE MATHESON: MISSING. The paper also shows a picture of a young boy, about eight years old. Better keep an eye out. This is sketchy.
I decide that I should find CR. I have a rough past with him, but he loves Kate just as much as me: maybe even more so. Plus, if anyone here knows what's happening, it'll be CR. He was always thinking.
CR's house isn't far from Kate's. To find it, I'll have to stray off the beaten path, at least a little bit. He's closer to the mountain range and farther from my car. Regrettable.
The dark path is hard to navigate: I decide to light some generators. Kate had four on the path, which would activate some minor floodlights. I find the first generator quite easily: when I activate it, however, I notice that tall, thin creature standing on the nearby hilltop. Once again, as soon as I catch a glimpse of him, he disappears and my gopro flickers a bit.
I walk along, not less than a little perturbed, and light the second generator after a little while. I find a newspaper clipping sitting next to it, and I look at the headline: Matheson Farm Arson. Matheson Farm. Charlie Matheson. Something weird is going on here (well duh).
Third generator: this time, He isn't standing on the hill. He's standing on the path about twenty meters in front of me. Icy chills race down my arms, and goosebumps race back up. I aim the flashlight directly away from him as my camera begins to act up. As I back further away, my camera recedes to a state of normality.
He isn't moving. I stand there, staring at his silhouette, my flashlight resolutely pointed in the opposite direction. After several minutes, my state of fear begins to change to annoyance.
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to move out of the way," I say loudly. He didn't move. After a few minutes, he teleports off the path to who-knows-where.
I walk down the path and light the final generator. I see the place where I am supposed to step off this main road and follow a little rink-a-dink dirt path off through the forest. I steal my nerves and step off the path into the dark forest.
As I walk along the path with my terrible flashlight in hand, I notice the burnt remains of an old farmhouse. There is a sign that says Matheson Family Farm. I walk towards it.
I don't know what led me to walk towards it, but I do. In fact, I walk inside the burnt up barn. The barn is quite cluttered with debris and filled with a horrible sound: the sound of a young child crying.
I pick my way through the clutter to see a ghastly figure: a smallish, humanoid figure with long, straw-like, black hair, wearing only a loincloth. His flesh is rotting. His skin is green. He's also the source of the crying.
"D*mn," I say aloud to no one in particular. At the sound of my voice, whatever the creature is turns with a fury, launching himself at me violently. I scream, kicking out, my foot sinking into someone's stomach… and then he's gone.
I stumble out of the barn, muttering profanities under my breath as I stumble towards a large showerhouse connected to a farmhouse. As I walk through, I notice words written in black all over the wall. I WANT TO DIE! KILL ME! DON'T LET HIM GET ME!
But the one that stands out to me is this:
GET CR! HE KNOWS HOW TO END IT!
I need to find CR. I need to find Kate. I need to figure out what the h*ll is going on here. And that's when I realize it. That creature must be Charlie.