The End

I can't believe I'm actually writing here. I never expected this to happen. I honestly expected her to be posting to mine not this way.

My name's Aiden Clarke. I'm a close friend to Branwen. She was practically my little sister. She turned 19 this year, you know? She was strong. Good head on her shoulders. Really intelligent. She knew what she was doing. So why is it that I'M the one writing on HER blog. It shouldn't have been this way. But it is.

If you follow this blog, then you already know, we were in quite a predicament with Slender Man and his creeps. Running, fighting. We just needed to get the hell out of dodge. When this all started and we parted ways, we exchanged log in information for our blogs. If something happened to one of us, we'd let everyone know by posting to the other's blog.

Well, I'm here to tell you. Branwen's dead. She's gone. My little sis is gone.

Slender Man got her. He killed her. She was only 19. She had so much to live for. So much life left in her. And she's gone.

….and so, I promise to you. I'm going to fight for her in every way imaginable. I will fight for her. I will get my revenge one way or another. I'll do this. I swear it. 

I love you Branwen. I'll miss you sis. Stay safe wherever you go in the afterlife.

Rest in Peace

Branwen Whelan
April 13th, 1992 – October 31, 2011

The Lone Wolf

I must have fallen asleep at some point...or I was caught off guard. The last I remember I was in a coffee shop.


I woke up about 15 minutes ago in the backseat of the car. The car I left behind.


My laptop was sitting on the floor, along with a pile of red and black feathers. Some of them had spots of blood.




First thought? "Think optomistically. Maybe I fell asleep somewhere and Todd put me back in the car."


And then I remembered that I left the car in Missouri.


"Maybe Todd found the car, drove it to the edge of Kansas where I was, found me, and put me in it."


But then where was he?




I sat up fully, looked in the front seats...and found a disemboweled fox sitting in the driver's seat.


Out the windshield, I saw Him. His head snapped up to acknowledge me looking out the window, and then He vanished.




My laptop tells me I'm still in Missouri. That...thing...it also left crow feathers littering the parking lot.




Am I the only one left?




I'm going to pull myself together enough to drive out of here. Alex taught me enough on our way down here-


I'll never see him again.




I'm going back now, Aiden. As fast as I can. I'm driving to the closest public transport possible and dumping this fucking car.






I'm all that's left now. Everyone is dead.


...time to join the rest of the survivors.

Showdown

We stopped in Missouri late afternoon yesterday. Left the car in the parking lot of a plaza. Alex and I needed more gas and supplies.

By the time we came back, this was on the hood of the car...

All the pieces are sitting on this desk in the library I'm hiding in...just staring at them...

All my best friends. She killed them.

...I have never felt so angry...too angry to even be sad...and now...just numb.

Now I wait. Alex took a short nap so that he'd wake up as Todd. He's going to confront her.

Todd told me to abandon the car, head to a halfway point, let him know my general location, and wait for him there.

If I don't hear from him by midnight, I need to go back to Oregon.

He left around 8:00 this morning.

...please come back.

Panicking...

Casey's gone.






Not gone as in dead. I mean we can't find her and I-


I'm having a really hard time not freaking out right now. She's like my sister. I don't know what I'll do if something happens to her.


We joked we were half-sisters once on like...Jinopets or something. Everyone believed us.




She's been trying to call Danielle since we got here. The last update I got about it...just two hours ago at midnight...Casey had received a voicemail, covered her mouth with her hand, and started crying.


She wouldn't tell us what happened.


She went to go to the bathroom to wash her face. She didn't come back. She got out somehow, or she was taken or...ohgodIdon'tknow.




Todd thinks that she left to find Danielle and Madden...but...why wouldn't she tell anyone?










Why wouldn't she tell me?








We're getting ready to head out now. It's extremely stupid and extremely dangerous, but I'm not leaving my best friend and Todd's not letting another one of us die.




We're coming Casey.






...please be okay.

Then there were three.

I let them grieve. They've all been strong long enough. We are but three now. It has taken awhile, but I think we're all ready to get back on our feet.


Branwen had tried frantically to get ahold of her brother after...they died. She had no success. It seems that Alexander must be a substitute sibling for her. However I cannot allow him to be here now. Alex cannot function well enough yet in an emergency.


It is now up to me to keep the three of us alive. I must keep them safe. I have already failed Seth and Skyler...


We are truly sorry for the lack of any sort of update on this. As far as the phone and computer go...you can blame the Crow Queen. The Morrigan. The filthy, dirty bird who has blood on more than just her hands. She is wading in it. Basking in the body count, most likely.


This is my fault...I told Branwen we could help her friend and now look. There is not a single damn thing we can do about her except...


...it is hard for me to accept killing her if I can still remember when she used to be a person. And that's my fault too. I am part of the reason she isn't a person anymore.


That means I am part of the reason Seth and Skyler are dead.


We had been in Oregon, if but for a mere two days. We had moved because of the threat of The Morrigan. She had, of course, followed us and we would by no means want her complicating things any more than she already had as we tried to find Aiden.


We should not have moved. We played right into her blood covered talons.


She had perfected her illusion and we fell into it once more. It was easier to break with the knowledge that we knew what it was, but much harder to hold it off as we kept running into it time and time again. And it was not healthy. None of them had said anything about it, but The Morrigan's illusionary art is based off of what makes parallel travel possible, and if you remember correctly it is not safe for anyone not affiliated with Him to remain in it. The initial desert ruse was not powerful enough for any deadly side effects to occur, but it left them sore and hurting. This new repeated exposure was starting to greatly damage their health.


The parallel also blocks off all electronic communication, at least when used correctly.


We tried to answer the phone several times...all in vain.


She struck on the 30th. I was awake at the time. I was the only one not feeling the effects of the parallel, but the other four were too weak for what happened next.


She struck Skyler first. Just one blow was lethal enough to bring the Panda down. Thankfully, for both Seth and Skyler's sake, she died not long after the head injury. She did not suffer for long.
I have never seen Seth enraged. I could not even imagine the Buck fighting back with murderous intent. He was holding up well against The Morrigan's remaining army (I suspect she has been killing some of her minions off for sport). I tried to get to him. I had been defending the Wolf.


I was a fraction of a second too late. The knife was already in his neck. Another second later, and we had lost Seth as well.


This seemed to satisfy The Morrigan well enough, and she drew back with whatever proxies we had not killed or rendered unconscious.


...to leave the remaining two of the original five to wallow in sorrow. The weight of it all finally collapsed on them. I could do nothing of any sort of consolation. I thought Alex might be better suited for the task, but he could not bear it either.


We buried them not long after.


And then we were quiet for a long time.


I allowed Alex to be conscious earlier today because he told me he had an idea. He had taken the girls into a pet store so they could see the puppies.
They have not genuinely smiled in such a long time. It was good to see that. Alex is much better at handling emotional matters than I.


We will arrive in Oregon shortly. The phone is working now, Aiden. The remaining three of us are relatively healthy, physically speaking. I don't know what to say about our collective mental state. I'm sorry.


This is my fault.


I'm not going to let anymore of us die.


But for now, we need to rest.

I...am no doctor.

I don't even know if I put these stitches in Alex's head right. Or if he needs them. He probably doesn't. I probably just stuck a needle through his forehead about eight times for no reason.

Nathan got cut on his head once and he needed stitches so...I did it like the ER did with my hand that one time I accidentally stabbed myself. (That's why I usually avoid sharp things...)

We were never lost. I mean we were, but not the way we thought we were. Turns out giving dear sweet Morrigan a good crack in the skull cleared that whole matter up.

She came for Skyler like the code said. Several times, in fact. We did a good job defending and staying relatively out of harm's way until last night. She came with more backup than anticipated. Todd got hit in the head pretty hard. He's okay. Perfectly fine, probably, considering Alex is the one living with the headache and the needle wounds.

Seth was actually the one to drive her back and break whatever illusion she had cast. As her cronies ran off, I saw him standing over Skyler with the metal bat and a groggy Morrigan crawling to her feet to run away. And things looked different.

They looked different because we were back in the real world, and not her desert playground.

Aside from all that commotion, we're alright. As far as I can tell, we're close to Oregon.

No more unpleasant interruptions. Please.

Directionally Challenged (Among Other Things...)

Okay. We uh...we aren't in Oregon yet. Uhm...there's a couple reasons for that.


We decided making a straight shot from Montana to Portland might be dangerous because we said we were going to do it, so we decided to confuse things and mess up the whole intended route. This sounded like a good idea.


This was not a good idea.

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We aren't totally sure where we are now.

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Except it's somewhere extremely sandy and dry. We're getting really shitty wifi. We haven't seen any signs in a while.


But deserts are supposed to be safer, right? That's what M said, I think. Treeless places and out on the water is good.


We don't have a boat. So we're camping here until we find a town or something.


Sandy and treeless is safe. It's okay to sleep here...

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We got jumped again. I have to keep saying that to myself. The radio keeps cutting out. That doesn't make me feel better.


And we got hurt this time. Nothing broken on anyone. But lots of cuts. And bruises.


It was coming out of Colorado. We knew where we were then. We've just been on this road for awhile and no signs or anything. But like...Colorado and it's trees...it's so pretty there. I definitely wouldn't knock it for a vacation spot. It was nice. But that fucking forest...


It was in the middle of the road blocking our path. Seth revved the engine. Casey punched him in the shoulder. "Uhm, where did that get Jack and Stephanie when they tried it? Don't you dare."
I was amazed she remembered that but I wasn't about to point that out. Alex and I picked up the bats at our feet.


And they were on us. They had something lit on fire and were preparing to throw it. We did not waste any more time staying in the car. It was jump out and meet them and the monster or risk the entire vehicle possibly exploding.


It turned out that the flaming object was filled with tacks and small stones, so when it exploded we got rained on. That's the scratches.


The rest was just fighting off the bastards. It didn't step in once. It just watched. It didn't do anything until I saw Alex standing in front of it huffing and dragging his bat. And then it just let out the horrible screeching sound. And all the crow proxies left.


Alex doesn't know what happened, but he had a horrible migraine so he thinks Todd was responsible.


This is the longest the radio's been on since I started typing. Huh.


I'm suspicious.


Two of us keep watch, the rest sleep, switch two hours later. That's our plan.


For right now, dinner time.


Let's hope it's a peaceful night...

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Montana

We're somewhere in the south western part of it, we think.  It's only about 60 right now, so Seth and Bran are freezing their tiny butts off. It's been 80 to 90 where we're from. At least we aren't here in the middle of winter. Wouldn't that suck?


We've stopped trying to think about Aiden's latest revelation. It's too confusing to wrap our heads around. Psychology is some intense stuff. See, I might know a thing or two about what's going on right no- wait no I wouldn't. Because I would have started college in September. Whelan would have started tomorrow. Seth would already be in his senior year of high school, starting yesterday.


We think we're going to make it to Oregon late tonight or early tomorrow. We're following like...a weird pattern to confuse things if anyone's following us. At least we get to see a lot of stuff this way. We're also running out of packed food, so it might be time to go out and get some more. And do the laundry again. Alex, Seth, and Skyler got distracted by a fountain in another city we stopped out at and decided to secretly remove coins from it, so now we have a metric fuck ton of quarters we don't know what to do with. We've been shoving some in vending machines we pass. Surprise free food/soda to whoever finds it! (They're good for laundry too, I guess. I GUESS.)


Last night we had a sort of "party" with a little late night picnic and some sparklers we found. Because Branwen likes fire and if it's within her reach good luck getting it off of her. It's amazing she's not a pyromaniac by now. But yeah...just celebrating the fact that Aiden's still alive. We're comin' to see you soon, bro.


Oh dammit. Now I'm using Seth's speech pattern too...


I guess we were also celebrating that we've somehow graduated from spazzy teenagers to mother fucking ninjas. Or crow proxies are just really uncoordinated. Either way, we were jumped earlier last night too. Something else that should be noted: Branwen and I are straight up dangerous with blunt instruments. Look out.


It reared it's ugly stupid head a few times on our journey too. We're still alive, so we're not going to freak out about it. Its jackassery can be ignored for now.




I think that's all for now. We're going to go into town for supplies (maybe grab a couple baseball bats) and then head out.




See you later, folks.

How should we feel?

Everything about Aiden, I mean. We started moving west towards Oregon, but Branwen (of all people) made us stop.


Because...we'll never catch him and we probably won't change his mind even if we do.


Which is completely reasonable and makes sense, but the idea of letting one of our friends voluntarily go towards death doesn't sit well with any of us...


I'm posting here because as long as I'm with the group, there's really no reason to post on Todd's blog, is there?


We're somewhere in Colorado now. I'm not sure of the exact route we're taking. It's a bunch of confusing loops and turns. (I thought zigzagging only applied to running...)
We've caught sight of a our missing persons reports. We're trying to keep out of sight. I was sent in to buy a bunch of hair dye and cosmetics in a store a little ways back. Right now Casey and Bran are working on Skyler's hair which is...um...no longer a nice natural blonde.


We haven't heard anything about the FBI becoming involved yet. Right now, we don't care. No news is good news right?






We still...don't know what to do...

This isn't happening...

Please just...I thought it would be better...we were doing so well and...everything was okay and nothing bad happened and...



I think I'm going to be sick...

Adventure Time

Because that's what Seth keeps shouting any time anyone utters the phrases "leaving", "running", or other related words.


Good on ya for trying to keep our spirits up.


We didn't plan to stay at Ai's this long, but then the thing with Brennon happened and yeah. You know.


But it's time to go now. It's stopped raining so much, so it's safer to drive. Bran's running around saying her goodbyes. And then we'll be off. Where? Who knows? Pick a direction and drive.


Ohgodthisstorm. I do not want to be driving in it. For Bran and Seth and Alex it's like the most exciting thing ever. Like we're in a movie and this is some climatic scene where we run away. Thunder rolling, rain pouring, lightning flashing, and a siren - oh yeah there's a siren going off. This adventure scene comes complete with all the bells and whistles.


Alex is upset because he hasn't been able to post his adventure yet and he wants to tell everyone all about it. He'll have to wait until we've stopped somewhere. Cool your jets, Alex.




But...I guess this is it. We're ready to go.






Thanks so much, Aiden and Brennon and Malkin and Chas. And Taben, when he was stable...and Ryan when he was alive. For everything. From all of us.






Here's hoping you here from us soon.

"Dear Diary..."

"...Alex has the potential to be a bad ass. Todd must be so proud."

He's so happy with himself right now. A couple times he's realized the powers he used were dark and he didn't necessarily like them, but then he would remember that he helped save someone's life and he'd go off on a happy spree again.

Nobody has the right to ruin this for him, and if they do I will deck them.

If feel like we're almost the same person, except he's a guy and he has none of his original friends left. Well that's okay. Because we're adopting him into our group.

Packing Up

Everyone's up here at Seth's loading the car. We made sure neither of his parents were home to see us doing it.

I guess we're going to get Alex/Todd/Whoever's Awake At The Time when we get up to Aiden's.

We don't think these stupid spray bottles of salt and holy water actually do anything anymore. I'm starting to think they never did anything in the first place. It's just all false hope, like the Constants and the salt circles and everything else we tried. It won't hurt to bring them, though.

If we leave in about...20 minutes...we should be there by at 2:00 at the latest. We think. We'll see how it goes. Once we get there we can get the rest of this stuff settled, maybe camp there for a day, and then head out.

I just saw Aiden's most recent post...and the comment Taben left on it...color me concerned.

The Decision

We've been at Casey's the past couple of days. Before that, we decided we needed a meeting and where we should have it.

Among sporadic naps and panic attacks, we've decided this: We will go to Aiden's. And then we're getting the hell out of Dodge.

The original plan has been revised. We're all going together. No splitting up. And we're taking Alex and Todd with us, because otherwise we're just four stupid kids making an easy meal for a monster.

We're packing up Seth's van with everything we have. Seth and Casey's stored wages plus the graduation money Casey and I both received, nonperishable food, a few changes of clothes, Seth's laptop...

We should get new phones, if we'd like to have phones at all. Try to stay off the radar. We don't know yet.

Aiden, if it's all right with you I mean, would it be okay to have...not a party. Not a huge thing. Just...a little thing...so we can all have a little bit of closure for Sam and Dean...and Sammi...and for Lance?

We get that it's probably very dangerous to go up there, but honestly...now...it's dangerous everywhere. Better we're all together, right? Like a family. Just let us know if/when its okay to move up there.

Love you, bro.

Down to 4

You know. Without Todd or Alex or whatever...

Guys I'm so sorry. I should have just left and gone with you. I don't know what I could have done but...

Good bye, Sammi.

SON OF A BITCH

SAMMI ANSWER YOUR GODDAMN PHONE.


I can't get out of this house and Seth's at work. MOVE TODD MOVE.



I don't know what's happening...

We are seriously terrible at keeping an eye on one another.

While Allen was missing (yes we saw and heard) we had our own huge problems.

Like my brother deciding to go out for walks in the wilderness. By himself. Because Keri moved to Texas for a job at an aquarium and now nobody's up there to keep watch on him.

I suppose he wanted to try and make his own creepy movies and move into a new artistic medium. That APPEARS to be what he was going for.

Oh and then he went missing. Which is basically...he talked to Keri on the phone, told her he was going for a walk to get more footage, went on said walk, and then did not call her back. And nobody heard from him all day that day. But then he was back the next day.

And then he said, "Oh my phone was just being weird."

Yes. Okay, Nick. God I need to figure out a way to get him to stop. The easiest way would be to just say, "Listen. This is only going to lead to terrible things and I don't want anyone else to be in the same boat as me." But my brother's not as simple as that.
I can't sit here and hope he's not going to delve deeper into the Mythos. He will.

But that entire mystery of him "missing" was quickly resolved and is not really the issue I was talking about at all.


No. That's Casey's sister Danielle. And little Madden. And that entire situation is starting to grow more and more out of control because now Danielle doesn't argue with Madden about her "imaginary friend". Because Danielle sees Him too. Or It/Thing. One of them. It doesn't really matter which it is does it? Because neither of them is a good sign.

But oh wait no. That's not the thing really.



The really bad thing is Sammi hasn't really talked to anyone since the fourth. I was with Skyler and Seth recently, and Seth told me Sammi's been holing herself up lately.

I told Alex, told him to forward that message to Todd and see if he could maybe get a hold of Crow.

Todd managed to talk to Crow in a civilized manner for a very short space of time, but basically got that the Raven's crossing paths of madness with the Crow and that Raven and Crow are one in the same.

Or something. It sounded terrible, whatever he said.


I'm having a really hard time focusing and organizing all of this because it's just so...there's so many people.

Aiden and Brennon and Taben and Allen. Now Malkin and Chastin. Sam and Dean. Alex and Todd might as well count as two people. Mr, Casey, Seth, Skyler, and Sammi. Crow. Skye/The Morrigan. All of our friends that are now mindless slaves. I'm not even totally sure of how many people that is.
Danielle and Madden. My brother.

The police. We've seen a lot of them lately. At least we don't seem like suspects, but the entire thing makes even less sense to them on our end of the spectrum because what happened to us seems completely unrelated to what happened at Aiden's.
 

I need to just...sit down and try to organize all of this. If there were ever any time to do that. Right now we need to try to talk to Sammi. She's stopped answering her phone and replying to texts. And you know...a round table would be great. A round table in real life rather than online would be even better. Let's do that. We'll do that.

Dear Alex/Stupid-face/Todd,

That also means you. You are in this discussion.


I think...I think that's....everything? Oh god. I'm having the hardest time following our own problems, much less everything insane that's going on with Ai.

Jesus guys I'm sorry. At least you're all okay and you got the little one.

P.S. Malkin is totally a kitten.

This shouldn't happen to us.

But I guess it did. And we're just going to have to roll with it.

I guess we're less a force against humans than supernatural abominations. Aside from my ankle getting injured again (or worse, I should say, it's been a continual injury for a year now), and some emotional trauma, I'm okay.

Bran didn't have any fractures, just some bad bruises. She has her own special way of dealing with things, so I think she's okay.

Seth and Skyler have each other. They're fine. Bran just saw them.

By 'okay' and 'fine' I mean we can all function. If we're in this deep now, then I guess we'd better get used to tragedy. We've already lost several friends, some are dead and some are mindless slaves. And...Ryan. And then Mateo. The phrase, "better get used to death" should not apply to a bunch of normal happy kids with normal happy lives. Ever.

Sammi doesn't seem okay at all...we've been trying to call her. She's holing herself up.

Whelan's brother came home, and I guess he's suffering effects of Marble Hornets. You know, the whole looking over the shoulder tick that everyone gets. She's keeping a close eye on him.
And I'm keeping a close eye on MJ.

Last thing we need is more people getting sucked into this...

There's so much blood...

It's all over the yard and Sammi won't stop crying about Skye and Alex is trying to find some way to wake Todd up and Skyler won't let go of Seth and I'm crying too and so is Casey and-

Can Skye even be saved now, Todd?

It's...we have to get out of here. Soon. This is the third tragedy that...wait...three for a wedding...no that probably doesn't mean anything.

The police are baffled and I think they think we're being stalked too and that it's connected to Aiden's problems and-

I'd never been able to roll before. When I was in karate, they were trying to teach me to roll for my yellow belt. And I couldn't.

Somebody hit me hard. And I went down. But I rolled. And I got right back up and delivered a solid punch to that fucker's face.

I rolled. I did something right today...

Not all of us know self defense. Seth, Skyler, and Casey need patched up. I do too, even. I can't breathe without it hurting some. I might have a fractured rib from the hit I took...

I just...the police and...what are we going to do?

It's not your fault, Aiden. We're just...we're just in such terrible...

We're going to need one long ladder to get out of this hole...

owwwwwwwwwwwwww

That's what all of my limbs are saying today. D:

No, it doesn't have anything to do with Eldritch abominations.

I was playing Grifball yesterday with the guys and now I am in much expected pain. That game is intense.

I guess we're going up to Aiden's for the 4th. If something happens, at least we'll all be together. And hey! maybe I can actually get some sleep!

Which is what I was doing today. No interruptions from It or Slenderp. No nightmares. I was able to sleep off my battle wounds (ie. huge welt and bruise on leg, lots of sore spots, some scrapes) in peace.

And then mom wakes me up because she needs computer assistance. Let me just yank something from Todd for a second...

- You are easily frustrated by the combination of your parents and technology.

WHY YES. YES I AM.

Too late to go back to bed now. Better take some more Advil.

Oh and hey, what's this here?

She's a murderer.

Skye. The Morrigan.

I didn't think she was the one that did it. I thought it was It.

 

 Nothing happened, at least not a huge major kind of thing that would have involved all family and friends present. Something definitely happened, but the only people left were Casey, Seth, Skyler, Sammi, Alex, Jonnie, Jason, and Paul. The latter three of which are ignorant to our problems. I would like it to remain that way.

Anyway, they were all inside. I was outside by myself checking the far side of the building to see if any trash was outside. And then there was a fluttering sound. And The Morrigan, one of the people I specifically said wasn't invited (jesus why don't people ever listen), is looking down at me from a tree. She removes just enough of her mask to taunt me with Skye's face, grinning wickedly. And then she hops down, picks up a baseball bat that was lying in the field, takes a Rat rat out of her pocket, pins its tail to the tree she was standing on...

And then...and then while the Rat rat is still squealing...she just begins smashing it with the bat. Crushing its skull...and giggling...

The Morrigan killed Rat.

Skye killed Rat.

And then she pulled out a little American flag, planted it in the ground, smiled, replaced her mask, and then vanished in a flurry of crimson and black feathers. They burned the leaves and furns they touched as they floated down and vanished.

What I failed to notice in my stupor is that Alex had run out to check on me, realizing that I was outside by myself. He witnessed enough to understand what happened. Alex gently took the rat off the tree and laid it somewhere in the forest where it wouldn't be found by the owner of the building. Then he looked at me apologetically.

"You're right. As much of a dick as he was, he didn't deserve that," he said. He pushed me a little back towards the building.

"I can't believe she..." I knew I was lying to myself. I knew she would kill someone eventually. She wasn't Skye anymore. It was only a matter of time before she got past the vandalism with my other friends turned proxies.

"I'm sorry about your friend."

"It's not your fault, Alex."

"But it is. Kind of."

"No, that was Todd, and even then it wasn't really his fault."

"...still."

"I know. Thanks though."

The rest of the night went without incident. I had to wait for the last normal person to leave so I could take everyone upstairs to tell them what happened.

My chief concerns are these: 1.) Something feels like it's going to happen on the 4th. 2.) That smashed rodent might also have a double meaning, Aiden. Please be extra careful.

I'm going to try to get some sleep. I might just end up with more incessant tentacle tapping on my window though. And more "staring". At least It stays outside

...please don't say I just jinxed myself...

It's party day...

Alex is here. I explained to mom that he's a friend I met through Casey. That was apparently sufficient enough. He'll be riding over to the place with us and helping me set up.

If nothing happens today, then if we're having that 4th of July party it'll definitely happen then.

I'd rather It do something then. It'll just be our gang and Ai's, and we'll at least be prepared.

....crossing my fingers...please don't show up today...and The Morrigan and her friends aren't invited either.

He's her best friend.

That guy Madden sees. I talked to her about it a long time ago, and she swore up and down that she had no imaginary friend, despite what I told her her mom said.

Her little kid mind must have forgotten that she was supposed to be pretending she didn't have one, because she recently brought him back up. Or Him. It must be Him. She only sees her friend at my house. She says he's a tall skinny man.

My niece...my toddler niece...is seeing Slenderman.

I am not the only one having problems regarding family on this matter. Whelan just went up to her brother's art show yesterday. He said he tried getting into the whole Marble Hornets thing (you already know where this is going) and based his recent sculpture on that. As she described it, it was basically a small, creepy, two level room in this warehouse with rickety stairs and a bunch of PVC pipes wired to speakers. The pipes emerged at the top and were blaring all kinds of distorted noise. Also there were copious amounts of our favorite symbol.

We're hoping he doesn't get any further into it. I mean, watching that shouldn't be enough to draw His attention, right?

She had something else to say about the art show. I'll just copy and paste it.

I now know full well the amount of creepy a warehouse possesses. And it wasn't even just that room. That room was terrible, but the whole thing is like this old, dirty, scary building. It's not abandoned or anything. They still use it for shipping. But it's like...imagine that while in a labyrinth of sorts, and then you sort of understand how Zeke felt.

I think there's pictures somewhere...

I'm also here to tell you that we'll all be busy with life and Slenderp, and Whelan won't be back until Wednesday. She'll be with her sister in Pittsburgh doing something with a house.

Meanwhile, what am I going to do with my niece...

Grumblegrumblegrumble

I miss my dashboard...and I hate Google...why isn't this fixed yet?

For anybody that I haven't talked to in weeks, it's probably because I've been checking blogs based on memory and I honestly cannot recall everything I'm following. I'm really sorry, but every time I try to go to my dashboard it looks like this.

And I can't really ask for help, because you know...Google's proven SO effective at fixing these things for other people. I'm going to try anyways. What else can I do...

Stormecho and Joce. And Elizabeth. You popped back into my memory and I'm going to be catching up on you today. I've been following Beast and trying to understand the poetry...

Who else am I missing...I don't know...help me out here.

And of course I'd have an encounter today just a couple hours after Aiden says Its been stalking around more.

Dad trimmed some tree branches today and had me pick them up, put them in a wheelbarrow and dump them in the woods. In. The woods.

I have never been so close to It. And I never want to be ever again.

I threw some branches into the part we made a compost pile and suddenly It was in front of me. Three feet away from me. It wasn't even that close at The Initiation. I let go of the wheel barrow and heard it topple behind me. I took a step back. It wrapped a tentacle around my wrist and suddenly any defiance I had felt moments before was replaced with sheer terror.

...M was right when he said it burns. Or maybe it's just because I think it's supposed to burn. It hurt.

A shrill voice echoed through my head screaming something largely incoherent to me about Alexander. It sounded like It was angry about losing Its toy. I needed something to help me put on a brave face, so I took that and ran with it.

"Are you pissed about losing your toy?" I said in the most taunting voice I could muster, which sounded ineffective being half mingled with fear. My shaky voice was apparently enough to offend It though. Because It did more of the shrill, incoherent yelling. And that sound...is so piercing...

And then it did something that surprised me. It let me go. And then It held up a mask.

Not a Fox mask. Or Crow mask.

A Rat mask. Torn and covered in blood. I was going to assume that Rat...or...Jared...was just injured. But I saw hair glued to the mask with blood. And some pieces of white and...it's like his head just exploded. I actually felt slightly angry for him. Rat was a bastard, but he didn't deserve his skull getting blown to pieces.

Meanwhile, Ace was running up to the woods from the front yard and stood defensively by my side, growling. It made a move towards him, but Ace snapped his jaws and I flicked at Its torso with a branch that fell out of the wheelbarrow.

And then It was gone. Ace got a huge hug, I threw the rest of the branches on the pile, and we went back inside so I could have a mini panic attack and process what just happened.

In something mildly related to that, I've been talking to Alex since he's been at Aiden's and I've resolved to get him horribly addicted to some of the stuff I listen to too. He mentioned that Todd still sings Panic! songs. A lot. So I've been sending Alex to Lapfox. And now they're annoying each other with their songs. Teehee.

He's also having a hard time understand all of what Todd does, but I think he's been filled in thus far and now he's just trying to practice. I'm not sure how that's working out for him, other than he said he wanted to punt a baby squirrel yesterday.

Seth, Sammi, and Skyler are gathering supplies. Casey and I holding the fort with It around.

Zeke is with Celeste, Vi, Ava, and Wren. It almost sounds like a sitcom to me. I shouldn't laugh, but the combination of people is hilarious. And Zeke had a good moment. Good for him. He deserves it.

I guess M's still dealing with that kid? I don't know?

Where is Ygg?

And Malkin is with Aiden.

And now to see what the rest of you guys have been up to...I hope you're all okay...

Well then...

Evidently the kid fell unconscious at some point because he was sitting in my basement looking very confused. Good thing mom's on vacation and Harry's in Florida for the summer. House to myseeeeelf.

He said Todd couldn't hear anything and got lost. He also said he doesn't know what means. I told him I don't really know either and Todd's a cryptic bastard so good luck trying to figure out anything he does.

Then we ate sandwiches and we had a Sims marathon.

I like Alexander. I think I might deck Todd in the face every time he's conscious just so I can hang out with this kid.

He Split

I hate myself for making that joke.

Uhm...Todd's gone. I called everyone else and he wasn't near them, so I'm assuming that he headed for Aiden's while he was still him.

It's like something out of Artemis Fowl, I swear.

Todd's calm, snarky, and cunning. And the other one is uh...

Alexander? He's like...well I haven't seen enough of him to make proper judgment so I'll just say he isn't stupid or delusional like Orion was to Artemis. But he's not really Todd.

I just realized this isn't making much sense...

So I was sitting in the basement last night, waiting for Todd to wake up and trying to think of ways to hide him if he didn't wake up before my parents. I was reading 1984 because I'm weird and I like that book. Ace was laying down there with me. I could have watched TV or something but again, Todd was asleep and he was also on my couch. The entire couch. Jerk.

As I'm reading, somewhere at the point where Winston is talking to O'Brien about the church bell rhyme, there's a shuffling noise and a voice says, "Why the hell am I wearing a suit jacket?"

It's not Todd's voice. He has a distinct tone and a very slight accent.

"You're a model," I say, not looking up from the book. Because taking sarcastic shots at each other is what Todd and I do best.

"I'm doing a terrible job at it," he says, sitting up and brushing some dirt off of his sleeve.

"The torn, dirty look is a new style."

"It looks terrible."

"I'm sure it'll catch on."

He snorted. I looked up at the VCR clock. It was a little past 3:00 AM.

"Really though, what is this?" I turn to look at him, because finally I can see his whole face. He's pale, his hair's grown out to be a little shaggy and is currently more unkempt than usual. He has a cut on his forehead that's still bleeding slightly and has stuck a few strands of hair together in the clotted blood. His eyes are olive green and they look tired, but curious.

"I don't know," I lied. Sort of. I didn't really know why he was on my basement couch either. "Who are you?"

"Alexander? I think?"

Oh good. I thought he decided his name WASN'T Alexander. Who's this guy?

"Are you like Dennis?" I asked him. I've been thinking about Yggy a lot. It looks like he disappeared...

"Who?"

"Do you know who Todd is?"

"You mean the jackass sharing my head space?"

"Now we're getting somewhere," I clapped a little. He wasn't amused. He looked kind of annoyed.

"Well damn it..." he sighed.

"What?"

"Oh nothing...I'm just crazy."

I laughed. He smirked. Ace picked his head up, looked at us, then laid back down and sighed.

"He's kind of a jackass, yeah. But...I mean...I think he's the other you. Or you're the other him. Are you?" I asked.

"Am I what? I don't understand what you're talking about..."

"You were captured by Rat. And then you ran away...somehow. And now you're on my couch. Except I don't really know who you are, because I've only ever spoken to Todd."

"Rat? You mean Jared?"

"Is that his name?"

"I guess."

"What do you, as YOU, last remember?"

"I was with Lance. We were following Jared into the woods because-" he stopped talking abruptly, looked horrified for a second, then extremely depressed.

"Because?"

"Hey...what day is it?"

"Wednes...well no. Technically it's now Thursday."

"No I mean...I mean what's the date?"

"Thursday, June 16th. 2011."

There was a really long, uncomfortable pause here.

"I made the deal."

I remembered Sammi's dream.

"If I'm following correctly, you and your friends went into the woods and somehow became Agents through Him."

"Yes, how did you know that? Wait...Agents?"

"Not important right now. It sounds like I'm talking to the you before you made the deal, whatever that is. And Todd is the you afterwards. I'm being surprisingly deductive for 3:00 in the morning. Go me."

"Oh...okay..."

"Yeah...uhm...what do remember most recently? If you already assumed you had a split personality or something, that means you had to be conscious instead of Todd at some recent point."

"Jared had me in a chair..."

"Rat."

"Okay. Rat had me in a chair. I was tied. And cut. A lot. And my head hurt. He was babbling about stripping me of something and that I was clinging too much. Lance was in the corner with about eight billion birds and some weird people I don't know. They both had masks on. The other people just had hoods pulled over their faces. Rat inject me with something. Then I blacked out."

"Okay...and then?"

"Then I was running through a forest and people were chasing me and they kept appearing by trees in front of me. I don't know how. Something kept yelling at me to hit the parallel world and I kept shouting back that I didn't know what it was talking about. Then I realized it was in my own head. Then I ran into a tree branch and hit the ground head first. Hard. And uh...now I'm on this couch."

I just stared blankly for a few seconds because this entire thing is insane.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Uhm...no. I think you trade places whenever one of you goes to sleep or is unconscious...which means if you go back to sleep now you should wake up as Todd. Which is good, because he can get you out of here and to Aiden's."

"Who's Aiden? And sorry if I sound rude, but who are you?" He rolled back onto his back. The suit jacket was on the floor. He took it off at some point, which is good because that thing looked terrible and reeked of Rat/Jared/Jerkface.

"He's our friend. Listen, I'm going to get my alarm clock. I'll set it for 5:00. I'm going to leave a note here for Todd. If you wake and you're you and not Todd, I need you to find a way out of here and you need to hide. Okay?"

He nodded.

"And my name's Branwen. 'Night, Alexander."

"'Night, Branwen."

And that's how my night went.

If he's not Todd he's hiding and if he's Todd then he's on his way, Ai. If he turns to Alexander at any point, be careful with him, okay? He's already incredibly confused.

I need to head out soon. Be careful out there you guys...

What is going on?

I still can't see my dashboard. I didn't realize what deep shit Malkin and Chastin were but seriously Ai and Tab, good job on getting Chas. I hope he calms down soon.

Hang in there, Malkin. You're doing pretty damn awesome so far.

Now on my end of the spectrum of "What the fuck is going on?".

There is a strange man on my couch.

Mom and Dad are both asleep. This guy's downstairs. On the basement couch. I found just like five minutes ago, sleeping, and I crept upstairs to the computer and wait a minute.

...I'll be back.

Guys. He has a strawberry blonde hair. He's beaten and cut and further examination of the suit jacket (why is he wearing a suit jacket...) shows tearing and thorns and...dirt. And blood.

Lucky he's dead asleep so I can creep on him.

I found a paper in his pocket. All it says is "I AM NOT ALEXANDER" in really frantic writing over and over again.

Oh...my...holy shit.

This is Todd.

thisistoddthisistoddthisistoddthisistoddthisistoddthisistoddthisistoddthisistoddthisistoddthisistoddthisistoddthisistoddthisistoddthisistoddthisistodd

Alive. And unmasked.

Fugitive

Hi.

Were you wondering what the hell happened to the conversation here after Sammi commented?

I have news. So are we.

It's been dead silent. And by dead silent, none of the three have said anything. A few of our old friends have been sent to harass us, but compared to the trio, they aren't anything. I personally mostly just try to hold conversation, especially with Connie.

Spoiler alert: Conversing doesn't work and it will just make you sad for them.

Also It. But that's not news.

I actively try to spot It now. Everything's green and blue and brown now instead of white and black and grey and heads up Mr. Tall Pale and Faceless.

I know you can see me. And now I can see you. Fucker.

There's a reason I remember so many useless things. It's because I have good eyes. It's because I'm good at detail. It's because I WOULD be a female Spencer Reid if I could find a way to organize it all.

What were we talking about?

It's quiet.

It's like the eye of a hurricane.

I think I know why.

He ran away.

Crow and Rat are gone with most of our former friends because he ran away.

It's probably pissed as all hell about it too, which would be why Rat's looking for Todd instead of being an arrogant bastard to the rest of us. Which is why It is turning It's attention to us. Which is never not absolutely terrifying, but we can't afford to let It distract us.

We are planning and plotting and we have our way out, we think. It's getting too dangerous for everyone around us here.

I did go to that concert on Tuesday. With Casey and Skyler and Seth. 1.) Brendon Urie is the most beautiful human being on the planet and 2.) I called Todd for every single song.

I don't know if he was the one listening, but if he was, that was a morale booster, pal. Wherever you are right now. If I'm right, please come back here. You're part of the 'us' and 'we' and 'our'.

Sammi was by herself because she couldn't get up there, and because she's been working on that dream almost constantly with my help.

And now I have a message for Rat.

His name's not Alexander.

His name is Todd.

Summary of Events

I think I'm by myself here.

Skyler can finally get up here more often because summer's coming, which means Seth is completely distracted. Jerk.

Casers and Bran are done with school, but I don't know what's keeping them. Probably something with Todd. He was quiet for a while.

Actually they all were. After the freaky thing I saw, it was just...normal.

I hate when it's normal. Is that weird to say? But it's like they're doing it on purpose, giving us tastes of normalcy before throwing everything back into a hell twister.

But you know what that means...normalcy? While we couldn't access anything, there was no Rat. Or Crow. And no Todd. (That part was actually scary...)

No Morrigan...which also meant no Skye. None of our former friends defacing things for Mr. Tall Pale and Faceless. Either of the tall faceless guys. It doesn't matter who they're doing it for, It or Him, it's freaky and annoying.

I think what Bran basically wanted to say about what Rat had to say was...

- They have him.

- And them.

- We're not getting him back.

- They've been instructed not to get caught, unless on purpose.

- He sings because he's clinging.

And that all means...

- They've got Todd (duh)

- And our friends (duh x2)

- He doesn't intend to GIVE Todd to us. He's scheming...

- The proxies are all somehow avoiding the police, unless told to get caught. Probably to purposefully involve the feds. Yay.

- Todd spouts lyrics as a distraction from whatever they're doing to him. It annoys Rat.

The Morrigan is a Celtic war goddess. She's also called The Morgana. She's a triple goddess, associated with death, and her symbol is a crow.
Or...a raven.

Bran/Branwen are huge characters in Celtic myth too. Bran is a giant and a king and was Branwen's brother. His name means Blessed Raven. He gave Branwen's hand in marriage to the king of Ireland, who mistreats her. She sends for help and a huge war breaks out, nearly decimating Ireland and Wales. Branwen dies of a broken heart...

Those are the notes, in short.

Wanna hear about what freaked me out? Let's talk about what freaked me out. Okay! Reliving nightmares...whee!

I had it for a while...I wasn't saying anything about it. I was scared to admit how much it scared me and I also didn't want to break it.
It's like a series. It starts in a field. In the same spot, every time. It progresses. I see the same scenes over and over, but with a little more added at the end before I wake up.

Like I said, there's a field. The whole thing plays like a movie, but it looks old and scratched and grainy. There's these harsh shadows and everything looks grey or brown. It's in color, but that's how it looks. It's hard to make things out.

Three people are walking through this field. It's wheat, I think. They're heading for a forest. I took a few times running this scene, but they're all boys. One walks farther ahead of the other two. The last one is walking closely behind the one in the middle.

Did I mention it's like an old movie? You how bad the sound is on those things? Ugh...

I had to listen really hard, but the two guys in back are named Alexander and Lance. Like Todd was talking about in some of the texts he sent to Bran. I don't know which is which, or what the name of the guy in front is.

Alexander and Lance are whispering to each other. I can't hear what they're saying. The guy in front yells over his shoulder for them to hurry up. They run to catch up to him. They start to walk into the forest. And then there's this god awful droning screeching static sound while everything goes black and red.

And then I wake up. It's terrifying. It reminds me of when Crow was being a creepy stalker and trying to talk through me (and NO I DON'T want to talk about that right now).

I stopped having that dream. But I want to have the dream again. I want to find out what happens. I feel like we need to. It's like watching a show that has a huge cliffhanger and needing to find out what happens next season, only for the show to be canceled.

I keep trying to have it again. Bran's a huge nerd about dream stuff and I've been trying to get back into it...

Alexander and Lance...three guys...one's a leader and the other two follow...

Who does that sound like to you guys? I wonder which of them's trying to tell me this...

On a completely different note, hi Beast! I saw your comments when you were talking to Bran and I read through your blog. I like your poetry. It's so sad though. We'll try to help you find Beauty.

I'm gonna try Bran again and see if she's got anything on Todd...

HOLY SHIT

Google stopped being a piece of shit and actually fixed something! Now if I could have said what I wanted to say DAYS ago, that would have been GREAT.

Jesus...

Thanks for letting everyone know, Ai.

We're not dead or injured. Sammi was freaked out for a while but we'll get to that part.

I have to go soon. Today's the day. Casey and I will be free from the BL.

It's weird to think about...I won't be going back to high school.

I should have taken pictures...

Next time...next time I go down to EL, someone remind me to get pictures.

They've definitely been busy with the graffiti down there.

Rat was just nonchalantly standing around in an alley near the Jaycee Hall. Our filming spot. I promised Justin I'd be there for his movie...and with Rat there, I HAD to be.

He said, "Don't you miss him?" with a slight head tilt. His mask makes him look...so...it's...imagine this tall, lanky guy. He's got a full mask on, a grey, grinning rat. Buck teeth on the mask. Like a rat. Torn up coat, looks like it used to be nice. Greasy black hair...at least the parts you can see sticking out.

He smells. Even that night I had the sword. You can smell him several feet away.

He's a Rat. And not at all like the cute little white ones you see in pet stores.

"Yeah. You done toying with him? Because I don't know if you've noticed, but we kinda want Todd back." I said. I managed to slip into the alley by the Hall while Adam's makeup was being done. I was already finished, so I probably looked a tad ridiculous. I don't even care. I guarantee I look better than whatever's under that mask. I still have this crap on.

"Oh nononononono. Not even close. I suspect he'll attempt contact through your blogosphere again. I think I'll let him. Or not." And he giggles. The kind of giggle that makes you want to punch a man. Very hard. In the balls. And the face.

Simultaneously.

And did he seriously say the word 'blogosphere'?

"The hell are you even doing to him? Why do you need him? He's not even of use to you anymore...oh fu-" Me and my big mouth. I sat there hoping that didn't come out as, "You don't need him anymore so you can dispose of him."

It did sound like that to him. But...

Rat laughs. I want to vomit. "Oh my dear...we don't plan on killing Foxxie..."

I exhale deeply. But Rat trails at the end. "What?"

"It would be so much less fun!"

And I'm pissed again.

"Don't you like fixing broken things? Cleaning them up? Helping things?" He steps closer. I step back. There's a piece of pipe in my peripheral. I get ready to grab it if he makes a move. Hell, I think, if he attacks me, Jim would probably run out and make Rat piss himself and then he'd run away.

Jim's a big dude.

"...Yes. I do..." I say hesitantly. They're breaking him. They're hurting Todd and you can tell by how the texts are getting and he's saying something about...Alexander and...this looks like it says Lance. I don't know who those people are, but they relate to him somehow. He keeps texting song lyrics, no matter how frantic or messed up they are. He sings and I guess that helps, but I wonder how long he can keep it up...

"You'll have quite the project when we're done." I can feel the malice dripping from his words. He backs up out of the alley, runs across the street, and passes a small tree in a parking lot.

"Hey Bran! We're ready to shoot!"

That's Justin. I can hear Adam talking too. I turn around, look over my shoulder, spy a tentacle. I casually walk out of the alley, trying not to look afraid.

We shoot Jim's death scene at the diamond in EL. The cops show up (somebody compained? I don't know.) and chew out Eric and Jim. We walk back to Hall, because we got our final shot anyways (and with a neat clip in the end of the cops rolling up. Score.)

Filming's done. I go home.

And I still have to wash this crap off my face and neck.

So you know what I'm gonna do tomorrow? I'm going to tell you everything from memory as best as I can. Luckily, I remember the most important parts. I think.

And we'll talk about The Morrigan and my name of course.

I guess...we'll see if anything else happens with Frap...