Is it okay to panic now?

One
Friday and Saturday ended up being enjoyable days. And I decided not to ruin them. Today is okay though, I guess. I though, "Hm...I have nothing going on," except now I have the urge to cry.

Two
I finished The Tutorial yesterday. I had barely started it before, never even got to the Tulpa Effect theory. And now I'm absolutely terrified that I've passed this thing on to several classmates because of Casey.
Still, it's a guide. It's a beacon of hope. And I love it and M for existing.

Three
I haven't broken down yet because I'm trying to sass the crap out of Him. Actually, it's mostly just me being bitter and sarcastic about the fear, and not to Him directly. I keep telling myself, "Zeke is a badass. Zeke didn't let himself turn into a cowering mess. And Zeke is alive."
Second point of hope.
I've been looking to see where else Zeke and M have been in the other blogs. I've come across Sandra's crew and Celeste thus far. Aiden, is there a list of sorts?

Four
Yes...what we really want to talk about...
Most of the pictures are normal nature shots. Some of them were alarming and it looked like someone set my camera to thermal or something - except my camera doesn't have anything like that at all. There's also the standard fuzz and distortion and such.
Ace's picture came out unharmed. At least I got that out of my useless nature shots and screwed up pictures.

And then this one showed up amongst the distortions...

...it's the only one like that.
This is where I heard something snap. I don't know if...HE and the noise are related - I don't think they are - but...there He is...

I couldn't see him there before. Maybe I wasn't looking, or maybe he only showed up on camera.

I don't know if I'm more comfortable with Him currently being invisible to me or if I'd rather just see Him.

I've asked the crew (Seth, Sammi, Casey, Skyler) to keep their eyes open and take pictures as well. Apparently Casey already has something for me. She caught a bit ago and initially brushed it off as the camera spazzing out. I have yet to receive it, but I'll post it when I do.

Speaking of the crew...

Five
Nobody's heard from Skye in a few days. We don't know if she's at home sick or if she went to the hospital or...
God...I don't want to think of that...

And Ripley's owners have reported him missing. Which also worries me. But he's run off before. They found him relaxing in a lady's house the first time. Maybe that's where he is, I hope.

In the meantime, I'll be trying to stay in my head. I'm going to try the Operator symbol trick. I'll put it in my window. Hopefully I don't have any of the dreams...I have school tomorrow...and midterms...I'd like to sleep.

...I'm going to try to contact M.

"Branwen's Big Forest Adventure!"

Dad was being non compliant about going with me and I couldn't offer an explanation that sounded sane, so I just said, "Alright fine. I'll go by myself."

I was getting impatient about this trip anyways. But I was smart about it. I didn't actually "go in".

So it starts off with me getting Ace and snapping the leash on. I had to get him up and excited first. German Shepherds are known for napping around the house a lot. And the other half of him (something huge, Mastiff we think) just makes him more chill and easy going. I guess that's what makes him a gentle giant though.
So I found him lazing around dad's chair. I bent down, said, "Walk?" and his head snapped up. Ace loves walks!

I grabbed my camera and we went outside into the snowy wasteland.

It actually wasn't that bad. I only started freezing when we began to head home.

I noticed the fire smell again when we hit the driveway. It only existed in that area though. Ace and I headed up the street and our neighbor Roger was out shoveling his driveway. Ace loves Roger. Ace loves people. Especially kids. Gentle giant. Gentle protective giant too.
We stopped to chat a bit. Roger says he hasn't seen Ripley in a couple days. Come to think of it, neither have I. I shrug and say maybe he'll show up on the walk. We continue on our way to the closest patch of woods on the horseshoe.

I got as close as possible and got some pictures. I decided against actually going in since I had nobody with me and this patch of woods was difficult to get into in the first place. Running out would be a trick. And then to try it with a huge dog...
I heard a snap. I figured it was just a dead tree under the weight of the snow and ice, but I took some pictures in the direction anyways. Then a couple shots of Ace for cuteness. I picked up his leash and we headed in the other direction.

No sign of Ripley.

We get to the other patch. I can actually enter this one and exit easily due to there not being an almost vertical hill. It just slopes off the road into a patch of grass and then there's a forest. There's also some quad trails.
I only took a few steps in though. I took some pictures around and noticed Ace staring off into the distance at something. I decided to take some pictures in that direction as well. One is zoomed in, to make sure.

We headed home. All the while it was silent. Not in the same creepy way like on our last walk. Just the sounds of people were absent. The kind of silence I love, as rare as it is. You could hear the wind as it blew past you. Someone had wind chimes up. There were some birds as we got closer to the second patch of woods.
Then some dogs barked as we passed and that was a tad annoying.

Still no sign of Ripley. Maybe he got hit by a car again and was being confined to his house?

The fire smell was still in the driveway when we got back, but I think it's from the neighbors. No creeptacular source there.

Anyways, I've got me some pictures to go through now. If this is really happening, then I guess I've also got a game of Where's Waldo: Eldritch Abomination Edition to play too.

I'll get back to you on the pictures as soon as possible.