Shoes crunched on dirt at a mild pace as a low-hanging fog steadily grew thicker and thicker, threatening to obscure the forest floor. Despite her newfound confidence, a sense of fear still loomed over Kate like a dark cloud, growing heavier with each pound of the omnipresent drum. She was no closer to finding the remains of this vengeful spirit than she'd been upon first entering the park, and the only things that stood any chance of helping her learn more about her mysterious adversary were the two tattered papers she'd recovered, which had only failed to deliver any crucial information. The strange man whose likeness kept appearing on the notes unnerved her in a way she couldn't quite explain, and for some reason felt eerily familiar as well. Maybe the man was the spirit or creature responsible for everything that was happening… maybe he was another victim of this plague who'd left a handful of cryptic notes behind for anybody unfortunate enough to follow in his footsteps… or maybe he was simply the product of a damaged mind, existing only within the pages of a madman's opus. "It might not even be worth my effort to go around finding these notes," she thought; "Wouldn't destroying this thing just unlock the gate anyway?" Just a few short moments later, her mind had formed yet another troubling theory; "Or maybe this is more like a cursed object type of thing and the pages themselves form a paranormal seal or something… Yeah, let's just stick with the original plan." Minutes after she'd made up her mind, Kate breathed a sigh of relief as the path finally opened up into a huge clearing but felt a sense of paranoia return heavier than before as the moon retreated behind a patch of dark clouds, shrouding the landscape in darkness. The southern end of the field of dirt was speckled with residential propane tanks, and further to the north stood an ominous building wreathed in shadow. Despite the disappearance of the moon, the frightened teen was still able to find a glimmer of hope through the gap in the forest canopy; far off in the distance, a group of radio towers stood tall, their red and white blinking lights serving as the last remaining beacon in the starless night sky.
"What are these things even doing here?" she thought as she made her way through the field of rusted tanks. It made no sense why a hiking trail would need something like this at its core, leaving Kate not only confused but irritated as well, as no matter how hard she searched, there was no page to be found in the metal boneyard. Frustrated that she'd wasted her time, she quickly made her way over to the dark building, discovering that despite its age, the structure still held up quite well; featuring a green sheet metal roof that still sat soundly atop the foundation of gray bricks. As far as the exterior condition went, the only real damage came in the form of the metal door having rusted right off of its hinges and fallen to the ground, and beyond the open door was a long hallway that served as a straight shot through to the opposite end of the building. Her heart pounded at the idea of wandering around in an enclosed space while something supernatural was hunting her down, but she knew that there was no other option. Swallowing her fear, she stepped through the door and onto the tile flooring, unaware of the tall, dark figure silently watching her from within the field of propane tanks.
"Well, this explains what all of those gas tanks are for, but I don't really understand why they needed so many if all they were doing with them was heating up some water, unless the building was originally going to get a heating system put in before they abandoned it… but even then, having that many tanks seems like overkill," Kate thought to herself upon realizing that the building was essentially just an oversized bathhouse. The gray tile floor was coated in several layers of dirt and grime, and the thin interior walls were constructed from the same layer of brick as the building's exterior. Two other hallways branched off from the main hall; the one going to the left led to the men's facilities, and the one on the right led to the women's, both of which she had high hopes for. She was confident in her ability to locate a note in the bathrooms, but if she could finally find the remains of the spirit that was haunting her in this building and set them ablaze, things would return to normal at long last. Kate then chose a path at random and headed down the western hall, but much to her surprise, the men's bathrooms were in a relatively decent condition aside from the expected wear-and-tear, as well as a few strange black stains on the walls and floor. The only difference between this particular building and the average bathhouse, aside from its greater size, was that the layout consisted of two bathrooms per hallway instead of including showers as well, but since this place was so far out in the forest, it made sense to exclude showers from the design. However, much to Kate's disappointment she quickly discovered that there was neither a page to collect nor a body to burn in either bathroom, so she backtracked to the entrance and made her way to the female facilities, which displayed the same deterioration as the men's had; busted mirrors, missing stall doors, broken pipes, and more black stains. It was when she passed an overturned wooden chair that was missing a leg and found yet another empty room that she began to worry if the building actually held anything of importance, however, her fears were quickly proven misplaced, as the second female bathroom held one of the two things she'd been looking for. Jammed inside the frame of a shattered mirror was a tattered page that read; "Leave Me Alone."
The more she looked at the new note, the more disturbing the situation became. It was the frantic handwriting decorating the scrap of paper that finally made her understand the horrible truth; these pages were not something left behind by a monster to simply unnerve its target or induce paranoia, they were all that remained of a previous victim, who'd presumably been driven mad by whatever was hunting them… the very same beast that was now hunting Kate. Not only that, but the thing responsible for all of this had turned its previous victim's torment into a game for itself to enjoy, so she could only imagine what it had in store for her if she was to fail this task. "I don't know how Sam and Dean do this shit so easily," Kate muttered as she retrieved the page from its display; "Then again, they hardly ever work alone." Ignoring the disembodied voice that piped back up to say "Three of Eight", she stuffed the note in her pocket and made her way back to the building's entrance. It was when she finally reached the doorway that she realized the incessant beating of the drum had finally ceased. However, this relief was short-lived, as an even more unnerving sound immediately took the place of the original. To her, it almost sounded like somebody mowing their lawn, but the noise was twisted and distorted beyond recognition to the point that it was no longer pleasant to hear, but instead made her skin crawl. Accompanying the main ambiance was a faint, barely audible rattling, and like the execution drums from before, the lowly drone repeated itself endlessly, piercing through the otherwise quiet atmosphere of the forest. She could feel the temperature dropping much further than it ever should've during the summer, see the eerie fog steadily growing thicker and rising up off the ground, and even the night itself seemed to be growing darker by the minute. "Phase two," Kate thought, quivering at the realization that this was her pursuer's way of telling her that it was done playing around. Nervously, she took a step outside, but a high-pitched screeching sound coming from her camera stopped her in her tracks. It was as she was turning to look at her camcorder that she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye; a tall silhouette standing ominously at the back of the propane tank cluster. "Oh, Christ…" Kate gasped, any semblance of bravery she once had vanishing at the sight of the entity.
She turned around and bolted down the hallway, intending to escape through the other end of the bathhouse, but the figure had other plans. With a sound like thunder, the demon appeared directly in front of her as she exited the building, knocking her off her feet and sending her flying back onto the tile floor, her camera and flashlight skidding away down the hallway. Kate sat there paralyzed with fear as her suspicions were confirmed; this thing was definitely the man that the pages had portrayed, but it was far from human, even if it somewhat resembled one. The being was dressed for a funeral, sporting a black suit, dress pants, and dress shoes, as well as a white undershirt and crimson tie. However, the creature's choice of clothing was the only aspect of it that could be considered normal; It towered over its terrified victim, standing well over nine feet tall and barely visible in its entirety from within the hallway. Its form was unnaturally slender, appearing almost malnourished while looking healthy and powerful all at the same time, and its arms were grossly out of proportion with the rest of its body, coming down so far that its long, skeletal fingers extended just past its knees. The demon's skin was clammy and deathly pale as if it had been dead for a long time, but the worst part by far was its face… or lack of one. There was no hair, no eyes, no mouth, no ears… no facial features of any kind; only a bald head featuring a blank slate. Kate scrambled to her feet, trembling in fear with her mouth agape as the fallen, flickering flashlight struggled to illuminate the monster she'd once thought herself capable of taking on. It was in this moment that something finally clicked; the cryptic notes and drawings, the unsettling ambiances, and even the suited horror itself… it all felt so familiar because she'd seen it before on Carl's tape of the farm investigation. "Stay back!" she commanded as the creature ducked down to enter the doorway, watching it step into the puddle of spilled lighter fluid and salt that had formed when the two items fell from her jacket pocket. "This might work out in my favor," she thought, retrieving the box of matches from her pocket and throwing a lit one into the mess. As the flames roared up to lick at the foul entity standing within them, a victorious smile spread across Kate's face, but her face quickly fell once it was evident that the creature wasn't affected in the slightest; not even its clothes were taking any damage. If it had a mouth to smirk with, she was sure that the being would be doing so. Eyes wide and heart pounding in a blind panic, Kate watched as a batch of slim, black tentacles erupted from the monster's back and slithered toward her through the air. She quickly discarded the box of matches and picked up her dropped shovel, and in one last-ditch effort, swung it at her adversary with all her might. However, this proved to be nothing more than a minor annoyance to the demon, who caught the tool with one tentacle and snapped it in half effortlessly. Before she could process the broken remains of her weapon clattering to the ground, several tentacles wrapped around her neck and each of her limbs and lifted her into the air, bringing her face-to-face with her tormentor. She couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't even scream; she could only watch in silent horror with tears streaming down her face as the beast contemplated her struggling form with its head at a slight tilt. The longer she was in close proximity to the creature, the more her body seemed to be tearing itself apart. A fierce migraine mercilessly ripped through her head while the smoke from the growing fire stung her eyes, her ears rang so loudly that she felt like her eardrums were about to explode, and a stream of blood dripped down her nose and fell onto the floor, not to mention the fact that the tentacles holding her in place were so cold that they burned her skin.
"I admire your bravery, little one, but you'll have to do much better than that if you wish to challenge the likes of me," the demon said. Kate let out an audible groan of pain as the powerful voice tore through her conscience, having been broadcasted directly into her mind instead of spoken aloud. Suddenly, just as she was about to lose consciousness from the pain, the entity released its grip on her and allowed her to fall to the floor. She hit the ground like a stone, letting out a grunt of pain from the impact and lifting herself up onto her hands and knees to cough up blood, too delirious to notice that her enemy had been careful to drop her a safe distance away from the fire. "I quite enjoy this little game that we've been playing, so I've decided to allow it to continue for the time being. Now go, leave this place before I change my mind." Hardly able to believe what she was hearing, the battered teen scrambled to her feet and retrieved her camera and flashlight, the only two pieces of equipment that she had left, and staggered back in the direction of the propane tanks. "And Katelyn," it said, causing her to turn and look back with fear in her eyes; "Do try to make this a little more fun for me, would you? I don't like to be disappointed." The demon let out a sinister chuckle and folded its hands behind its back as it watched its terrified victim sprint away across the clearing.
Her breathing grew more strained and ragged by the second, and her legs felt as if there were spikes being driven through them, but she didn't care. Terrified beyond rational thought, she was incapable of noticing how quickly the migraine and ringing in her ears had subsided after getting away from that monster, unconcerned with the fact that her bloody nose had stained her jacket a deep red before the blood stopped flowing, and was focused solely on getting far away from that eldritch horror as fast as humanly possible. She'd never run so fast and for so long ever before in her whole life, and despite the volatile mental state she was currently in, found herself thinking of her mother once again; silently thanking the woman for making her run track for so many years. However, despite her impressive endurance, Kate knew it was only a matter of time before she would collapse from a number of factors, with exhaustion being to most tame of them. Fortunately, just as she was beginning to slow down, her flashlight's beam fell upon a red brick structure in a dirt clearing only a short distance ahead. "Oh, thank God," she gasped, picking up her pace for the final stretch. The structure turned out to be little more than two brick walls put together to form the shape of a plus symbol. She staggered over to the cross-walls and made her way around to the side facing the chain-link fence, which was surprisingly close. She almost contemplated scaling the thing despite the obvious risk of being torn to shreds by the barbed wire, but finally, the fatigue caught up with her and her legs gave out, and she dropped her equipment and slumped down to the ground, leaning up against the brick wall and gasping for air. It wasn't long before struggled breathing turned into terrified sobbing, as Kate had no idea what she was going to do now. It was obvious that this demon was responsible for not only the gruesome happenings that had gotten the park shut down but for everything she and her family had been forced to endure over the years, from her father's mysterious death to her mom's current condition; she'd known that as soon as she first laid eyes on the creature's expressionless face. She'd come into this terrible place with a plan to liberate her family from what she'd thought was nothing more than a vengeful spirit, but now that it was evident she was dealing with something much darker, something much more ancient and powerful, any semblance of the bravery and confidence she once had was gone. "What am I supposed to do?" she whimpered.
"Look behind you."
Kate let out a yelp and looked around wildly, before instinctually doing as the masculine voice had commanded and coming face-to-face with the fourth page. Mixed emotions filled the trembling teen as she retrieved the scrap of paper, seeing that it featured nothing more than rough sketches of trees and another illustration of the faceless man. As if on cue, the eerie voice piped up again; "Four of Eight."
"Good, good. Now, stick that in your pocket and listen up. I only have a very limited window of time to relay this information to you so pay close attention;"
"And why the hell should I trust you, especially after what that… that thing just did to me? Taking advice from some disembodied voice in a haunted forest sounds like a good way to get myself killed," Kate challenged.
"I really don't care if you find me trustworthy or not because if you don't listen to what I have to say, you will never leave this forest alive, so do us both a favor and lose the attitude." Taken aback by this new entity's disposition, Kate could do little more than give a nod of understanding. "I apologize for the hostile tone, but you must understand that time is of the essence. The Administrator cannot know of my actions tonight or all will be lost."
"The Administrator?" Kate asked.
"That is what we call the being who is hunting you. I belong to an organization known as The Collective; an inner circle of his most powerful and most trusted servants… or perhaps, slaves would be a better term for us."
"Wait, so if you work for that thing, then why are you trying to help me?"
"What part of the term 'slave' did you not understand? I don't want to work for Him and never did in the first place. I used to be human, like you, but The Administrator and His Collective stole my life away… turned me into what I am now. I'd like nothing more right now than to cheat him out of another prize, but that's only a small piece of the puzzle."
"What do you mean?" Kate questioned.
"Kate, you are but one pawn in a game of chess that was set in motion long ago. You'll come to know what that means later on, but as for the situation at hand, you need to know that while He does love a good hunt, He loves a good game of cat-and-mouse even more. You were right about those pages holding the gate shut, and if you have any desire to escape, you'll do everything in your power to gather the remaining four. Now, leaving this place will not stop The Administrator from following you beyond the park, but at the very least it'll get you out of any immediate danger, and if you're lucky, you might be able to get some semblance of normal life back."
"So, you're saying that there's no way to kill this thing then?" Kate asked, deeply troubled by the idea of living a life where an eldritch abomination shadowed her at every turn.
"If I knew of a surefire way, I would've tried it by now, but it's a work in progress. Believe me, the second I figure out how to kill this son of a bitch, He'll never be able to hurt anyone again. Nice strategy with the salt and fire, by the way. If you'd used that against what you thought you were hunting, you would've come out on top without a doubt," the man said.
"Thanks," Kate responded, allowing herself to smile a little bit. "Wait, how'd you know I was trying to destroy a ghost?"
"You talk to yourself a lot, and we've been listening all night. That, and salting and burning a body is the go-to solution for most phantoms," he answered. "I'm running out of time, but now you know without a doubt what you have to do. I feel for you, Kate, I really do, but now is not the time to break down and feel sorry for yourself. You need to stand back up right now and get back in the game, and don't even think about trying to cheat your way out of this because He will personally ensure that you suffer a fate worse than death if you try anything. No, you need to get back up on your feet, grit your teeth, and win this thing the right way no matter what it takes. Do you understand me?" her new ally said.
"I do," Kate answered, getting back up and retrieving her equipment. "What about you? Am I going to hear from you again?"
"I'll do my best, but I can't make any promises. This short little conversation is far too much of a risk as it is, but it was worth it. Good luck, Kate, I have faith in you," he said, preparing to cut off their communication.
"Wait, what am I supposed to call you?" she asked. For a few moments, there was only silence, but the entity must have decided that revealing his name would cause no harm because a few short moments later he responded with;
"My name… is Firebrand."