With her former determination having been rejuvenated courtesy of her new ally's pep talk, Kate held her head high as she jogged down the dirt road, keeping at a mild pace to avoid wearing herself out. She'd decided to follow Firebrand's advice; rather than worrying about what the future held or feeling sorry for herself, she was entirely focused on solving the problem at hand. Her only concern, for the time being, was staying alive long enough to complete the second half of her mission, and only after that goal had been achieved and she'd escaped this wretched place would she feel comfortable enough to worry about what the future held. Still, she often found her mind wandering as exploring abandoned trails was rather uneventful… aside from the part about being hounded by an ancient force of evil, that is. First and foremost, she wanted to know more about The Administrator and had an innumerable number of questions about the beast, questions such as; "Where did He come from?" or "Exactly how long has He been around?" "What's going to happen if He actually catches me?" and "How far does His influence really spread?" were also among the questions rattling around in her head, not to mention the most pressing concern; "How did that thing make me feel so sick just by being close to it? Could it be generating some kind of radiation?" She also wanted to know more about Firebrand, her supposed messiah, as she wasn't even sure if she fully trusted him yet. So far, all he'd really done was confirm information she already knew and tell a revenge story that very well could've been fabricated to lure her into a false sense of security. "There's no way he's just helping me out of the kindness of his heart. That'd be way too risky if he's telling the truth about who he is," Kate thought to herself, taking great care to avoid speaking aloud ever since she'd been made aware of the fact that her enemies were listening. "There must be some ulterior motive… he mentioned that I was part of something that started a long time ago but wouldn't tell me what that was," she pondered; "I guess it doesn't really matter right now, as long as he's telling the truth about wanting to help me… I just hope he's actually trustworthy."
She checked the clock on her camcorder's screen as she was thinking, discovering it to be early in the morning now; around 3:47, give or take a few minutes since the device hadn't been used in a while. Fatigue was beginning to set in but slowing down wasn't an option, especially since her flashlight was starting to grow dimmer and the battery life on her camera was getting dangerously low, the screen beginning to darken in order to conserve battery power. She couldn't bear the thought of being without either of them, as both served as her last line of defense against the dark forces seeking to ensnare her in the dark forest, and picked up her pace while doing her best to tune out the eerie sounds that followed wherever she went. Ever since she'd stopped at the cross-walls, things seemed to be going relatively smoothly… at least until now. She felt an all-to-familiar chill creep up her spine, and without bothering to look back, immediately started running faster. Far more unnerving than the unnatural ambiance of the forest was the constant feeling of being watched, but it was something that Kate quickly grew accustomed to. It hadn't been long since she'd left the cross-walls behind, and yet she was already stumbling across something new; a small, rough, dirt trail extending into the woods from the left side of the main road. This path, in particular, was in a far rougher condition than the others; littered with overgrown ferns, fallen twigs, and dead leaves, having become nearly invisible from the main path as a result. The foliage was so thick that she had no choice but to slow her pace down to a walk as she stepped onto the trail, as the trees were far more plentiful than usual and thick branches obscured the night sky, making her feel even more thankful for her flashlight. Fortunately, she didn't have to travel too far into the woods before a small clearing became visible; one that held a cluster of what appeared to be pale logs standing vertically like a bootleg Stonehenge.
Upon closer inspection, the strange landmarks turned out to be long-dead trees that had been stripped of their branches, leaves, and bark. Out of all the landmarks she'd borne witness to that night, this one made the least amount of sense to the teenaged girl. Her best guess was that RiverView Management had been in the process of clearing out a new area to put in another attraction for passing hikers, and they'd probably been harvesting the trees as well so that they wouldn't go to waste, but why they would've left them like this, or even gone through the extra trouble of stripping everything from them in the first place was a mystery. "Maybe they were going to use these for some kind of rope climbing thing," Kate thought, "Or maybe this is the work of something else entirely." Fortunately, the simplicity of the area made finding the fifth page extraordinarily easy since it was just stuck to one of the stripped trees, and there weren't enough of those around to make locating it a challenge. "Five of Eight," the voice announced once again, growing increasingly agitated with each collected note, the most recent of which simply reading; "Help Me." As expected, the repetitive ambiance from before came to a close as she retrieved the yellowed paper, but surprisingly, the one it was replaced with was far more natural than any of the others; it was a tempest that ravaged the treetops and made hearing difficult while simultaneously kicking up loose dirt, spreading the thick fog even further into the air, and dropping dozens upon dozens of leaves and dead branches. It was almost too much to bear, and while squinting against the unnatural gale, Kate caught sight of The Administrator observing her from just beyond the tree-line. She took that as her cue to leave and ran back the way she'd come from, not wanting to experience the same effects she'd been forced to endure in the bathhouse. It was a difficult task to perform in the tight confines of the dense foliage, but the adrenaline pumping through her veins managed to work a miracle and she made it back to the road without too much difficulty. The wind roared even more fiercely out in the open and Kate struggled to do so much as remain standing upright, let alone move forward at a decent pace, and found herself stumbling forward at a speed she was far from comfortable with. Several painstaking minutes of struggling against the elements occurred before the poor girl finally found somewhere to offer sanctuary; a huge concrete tunnel that had been built into a steep hill in order to allow the trail to continue. Desperate to get away from the wind, she quickly made her way toward the passage, all while being stalked by an eldritch deity who was growing increasingly unamused by the minute.
Aside from the occasional chip or network of cracks in the concrete, the tunnel was structurally sound. There was also an abundance of moss growth on the walls as well as some standing water on certain parts of the path, but that was about the extent of the disrepair. However, the cloud of dread hanging over her grew exponentially as soon as she stepped foot in the dark passage, as if the structure itself was emitting bad energy. Her heart began to pound harder with each step, and she found herself growing more paranoid by the second, constantly looking over her shoulder and waving her flashlight around to make sure nothing was waiting for her in the dark. Fortunately, this sudden bout of terror wouldn't have to last long, as the flashlight's dim beam suddenly fell upon a yellowed note stuck to the wall about halfway through the tunnel. Scrawled ominously across the scrap of paper in frantic handwriting was the phrase; "Can't Run," and incoherent shapes and scribbles covered the bottom of the paper. "Six of Eight," the voice announced, sounding more jovial than before as she pocketed the page. Before Kate even had the opportunity to suspect that something was amiss, she felt a dark presence manifest right behind her, and her head started to hurt again. Refusing to do so much as take a quick glance behind herself, she sprinted toward the other end of the tunnel without any hesitation, but her escape route was abruptly blocked by the suited Lovecraftian horror. The Administrator's sudden appearance had caused her to crash into Him at full force, knocking her down to the ground as if she'd run into a brick wall. "Time's up," the demon stated coldly as it looked down at the dazed and barely conscious girl laying on the ground, all while her flickering flashlight struggled to remain powered on and the static, distorted screeching of her camera echoed throughout the tunnel. She could hardly make out the dark tentacles snaking their way toward her as lightheadedness threatened to become unconsciousness, but something unexpected happened just before The Administrator could close in for the kill; A man shrouded in darkness appeared between Kate and the demon as if trying to protect her from an untimely demise. It was impossible to make out any distinguishing features on his silhouetted form, with the exception of three characteristics; the mysterious man had pinhole eyes that shone an unholy white, and he wore a toothy grin of the same color. Set into the palm of each hand was a glowing eyeball, both of which were animate and staring directly at the wounded girl.
As far as she could tell through her double vision, this new entity seemed to be conversing with The Administrator, whose tentacles had retracted as it listened to whatever proposition was being thrown at it. After several minutes of debate and no small deal of convincing, the faceless deity finally gave in to the shadow man's request and gave a nod of approval before vanishing into thin air, leaving no trace of its presence behind. The unexpected savior let out an audible sigh of relief once his master was gone, and as he approached the barely conscious teen, he said; "Well, I managed to buy you a little time, but not much. You have no idea how lucky you are that I was able to pull this off."
Kate's eyes widened as she recognized the voice of the being looking down at her broken form. "Firebrand?" she managed to ask, silently rejoicing as she watched his grin widen and the nod of confirmation that he gave her.
"Come on, let's get you patched up," he said as he took one of her hands in his own. Before she could say anything more, she felt a rushing sensation and everything went dark.