Thursday, April 28, 2011

Assault

It never stops. If I didn't think we were cursed already, I'd start thinking it now. I don't know how it all happened, I don't know how we were found, but we were and... I'd better start from the beginning on this one. The seven of us, Alexis and her group and then us, were just sitting in a parking structure, a different one than Kal talked about (we have to move about now and then to keep the police from ticketing or arresting us). I was finally starting to relax. I haven't seen that thing, the Thief, Slender Man, whatever you want call it, since we met up with Alexis. We've all been paranoid about it, that's another reason we're on the move so often, but none of us had seen him. Hell, even Charlie began to calm down; not that you'd notice if you'd never met him at all.

All good things come to an end though. Charlie and Alexis were talking in whispers - I think Kal called it pretty well on their relationship - Kal was talking with Thomas, JD was staring off into the streets below us and I was watching everyone with Sara next to me. Then we heard the footsteps. Running. More than one person. I didn't think too much of it except maybe some people in a hurry until I sawAlexis glance at Thomas and spring into action, inspiring Thomas to do so as well, Thomas getting JD into the van and Alexis starting the engine. I must have looked confused as Hell because Charlie, who was shaking his head at the whole affair while walking slowly to the car, spoke up:

"They're coming. I'd get in your car if I were you." The sneer on his face seemed to live in his very voice; his words dripped with contempt.

I looked at Kal who only shrugged, but headed for our car, so I got Sara in as well. With the engine started, we waited for Alexis to back out so we could follow her. Right as her reverse lights came on, I saw JD run from around the van, an angry look on his face, as if his entire body was full of hate for whatever was coming toward us. He carried a crude makeshift spear in his hands and seemed to be trembling - with anger, yes, but I think there was some hint of fear, lonliness, desperation in his young eyes... Thomas appeared behind the boy and picked him up bodily, wrapping him up in his arms as one might a younger child, protectively, and carried him back to the van. When Alexis finally was able to get moving, we heard the screech of tires. In the parking garage, it was impossible to tell what direction it was coming from through all the echoes. Soon enough though, the car appeared coming from the bottom floor - from the exit - moving quickly and blocking the road.. I saw the van swerve in front of us and heard the squeal of its brakes, soon joined by the screech of our tires as Kal slammed his foot down hard. The van slammed into the other car regardless though and landed on its side, falling back toward Kal and I. For a moment, everything was silent except for the purr of engines and the light creak of metal. Then the footsteps came back and a small group of people began to swarm the van. There must have only been five of them at most, but it seemed a whole crowd with as sudden and quick as they moved. While I was watching, I heard Kal taking off his seatbelt and opening his door. I only registered what he was doing when I saw him running out in front of the car with a wooden stick in hand.

After a moment I decided to follow him, grabbing my knife from the glove compartment, before remembering Sara. I let Kal go to the van on his own while I stayed near the car - I couldn't leave her alone, no matter how the struggle sounded. I'd never been in a fight before and this thought flashed through my mind over and over as I looked nervously around the car until, suddenly, a fist caught me in the stomach and I went down, rolling a little away - we were on an incline. From the floor I watched Kal swing his stick at someone and I heard the flat sounds of fists and wood slamming into bodies, of shouts and grunts of pain and effort. I heard noise near me and saw one of the attackers, probably the one that punched me, clawing at the back door of my car. Sara.

I got to my feet quickly and charged. As I got close he turned toward me. He looked completely normal: brown hair, pale skin, jeans and a t-shirt except.. his eyes. They were sunken, haunted, as if he hadn't slept in far, far too long. And he was expressionless. Devoid of life. Just like Ronnie, the last time I saw her... An animal growl shocked me from my memories and he came toward me, recklessly. Not knowing quite what to do, I stabbed at him. I must have only nicked him as he howled but didn't seem incapacitated at all. He swung a punch and I caught it on my arm, near the shoulder - the arm went numb. Swearing and frightened, I threw myself into him. We went down together in a tangle of struggling limbs. I stabbed at him again and this time I felt the blade stick. I pushed it in to the hilt - six inches. In return, I caught an elbow to the face and he rolled away from me, taking the knife. I saw it, attached to his side like some failed extra limb - it must have been in an organ, a kidney or maybe the stomach. He didn't seem to mind and, leaking crimson, he came back at me. I scrambled to get to my feet, but he closed the gap between us too quickly and threw himself onto me, pinning me to the concrete. If we hadn't been on a slope like we were, he may have had me, but I was able to use the angle and gravity against him to push him off me, sending him rolling down to the van.

I got up and ran to the car - Sara was okay. God how horrible is it to think that her vegetable state is even close to okay.. I looked back down to where everyone else was. The sounds of fighting were dying down and I could hear someone wailing. It was painful to listen to. I caught sight of my attacker get to his feet - how he had the strength to rise I don't know. I shouted in warning and saw Thomas come from behind the overturned van with what looked like a butcher knife. Taking the man by surprise, Thomas punched him his cheek and then chopped into his neck until he fell to the floor, twitching. He then looked up at me, nodded grimly and disappeared back behind the van. I hurried to find Kal and saw maybe three people run off into the darkness. The car that had wrecked the van was gone too. I'm not sure when they left. Then I heard a shout, a quick scuffle followed by grunts and the clattering of wood on concrete. Finally Thomas, clearly: crying.

When I turned to look at him, he was bent over JD's shaking body. In one of the kid's hands was a crude spear, the tip covered in blood. About 10 feet away was a body, pooling blood, with Charlie rummaging through its clothing, muttering to himself. Alexis went to Thomas and pulled him to his feet, trying to calm him down while getting to him to move JD into the van. While they did, I saw a dark splotch on the front of JD's shirt. He wasn't dead, but... Kal's shirt was spattered with red, but he seemed fine, if winded. But the way he stared at the dead man, the one who'd attacked JD, it was like nothing else existed for him in that moment. Yet more blood dripped from one end of his stick. The bruises I'd gotten began to make themselves known as I heard Thomas's sobs begin to settle into a quiet rhythm of mourning over his bleeding brother, backed up by Alexis's gentle words.

That was earlier tonight. Somehow we got the van back onto its tires and the bodies inside it. All of us are bruised. All of us are exhausted. JD seems to have stabilized, for now. Charlie, angry as he is about breaking M's rules, at least let Alexis talk him into helping. The bleeding has stopped, but now Thomas and Charlie are having it out over whether or not to go to a hospital. I can sense things falling apart here.

-Michenab

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Sunday, April 24, 2011

Running

There are four of them; Alexis, Charlie, and the Brothers. I don’t really know all that much about them besides the fact they’re what you’d call runners, and that now it seems we are too. We’ve only known them for a few days... we met Alexis first. Encountered her in the restaurant where we were celebrating, see we’d just finally arrived. We’d driven on out to Roanoke because, well if we do end up disappearing from the face of the Earth I figure Roanoke is a pretty fitting place for it. Anyhow, it was the end of our big long and basically pointless journey and we’d squandered a lot of cash on hotels and gasoline along the way, had to pick up a bunch of other random shit like extra changes of clothes too. I didn’t really think about what I was grabbing when we rushed from the apartment and as a result we didn’t have much besides a small pile of dirty clothes and various electronics that are all but useless when you’re on a cross country trip with no real concrete destination. Celebrating probably wasn’t our best idea, but it felt damn well deserved after so much driving.

Between our tired and wore appearances, Henry’s jumpiness, and Sara’s peculiar state I’m not amazed we drew her attention. It’s actually pretty funny looking back; we were so surprised to have this cute blond girl make her way to our table from her nearby barstool. And then when she started to ask us questions and tell us about her own experience, when we saw an all too familiar symbol stitched into her sleeve… well what the hell were the chances of that?

We were cautious, skeptical even, but eventually decided to meet them. Henry and I just can’t do this alone… I mean he’s still not quite stable and taking care of a basically comatose 7 year old girl would be hard enough without having to protect her too. You know on our way down here I woke up one morning to long black vines trying to worm their way in through the car’s doors and windshield? Hell of a thing to wake up to, that. Threw the car in reverse and sped off as quick as I could. There have been other instances like that too, so yeah we went and met them.

She led us out of the restaurant and into a parking structure a few blocks away to meet the others. We found them two levels down and tucked into a corner, a pair of boys sitting in the back of a dirty minivan. They were the brothers, Thomas and JD. Thomas, the older brother sat with the tailgate open and his legs hanging over the side. From one ear dangled a pair of headphones which seemed to occupy him at least slightly, but you could tell from his posture that he was on guard for something. He noticed us quickly and stood up from the open lift gate making his way to greet us. In the vehicle still was his younger brother JD, staring intently at his PSP with an aluminum bat close by his side. JD looked much younger than his brother, and was much less interested in our intrusion into their little lair. Thomas was nice enough, he got up and introduced himself, but all the while something felt off. This wasn’t just a friendly meeting, he was definitely scoping us out… it was his eyes, they were suspicious even if his tone welcoming. But all the same we stood and talked while Alexis went up to find Charlie, the last member of their little gang.

Charlie was… well the idea of adding more people to their group didn’t sit well with him. Charlie is easily not the most social individual I’ve ever met, nor is he the most understanding. He seems to have a concept of how things should go and when things don’t go that way he doesn’t respond well. And this, so far as I can tell, is why he tends to spend his time up on the third level and higher. Why his and to some degree Alexis’ clothes are adorned with operator signs, and why he was apparently already unhappy with the size of their group before the three us showed up. He idolizes M, takes his every word as fact and ignores any evidence contrary to what he’s read. The only person who can reason with him seems to be Alexis. Unlike the others I don’t know much of his story besides the fact that he knew Alexis before all this. The way they interact I’d have to guess they dated before or maybe still are, but whatever the extent of their relationship was, it’s now very obviously strained.

Alexis herself is much more pleasant to be around, though a lot of the time she’ll be trying to get Charlie to socialize with everyone and so we don’t see that much of her. She’s always trying to bring him down from the 3rd level where he compulsively resides, doesn’t like him there all alone. She’s approachable and seems to enjoy talking, and is a nice girl if a little blunt. I talk with her about old tv shows on occasion but uhh… well when she’s not off dealing with Charlie she’ll be off finding a drink somewhere so our conversations are rather infrequent.

And then there are the brothers Thomas and JD who I mentioned before. Thomas is a nice kid, he’s only 17 despite all appearances, and his brother’s 12, but… but I can relate to him. He just wants to keep his brother safe. I’ve been talking with him a lot since Henry and I fell in with their little group, we generally talk about just how fucked up all this is, about how we all got involved in this, why we’re running, what we’ve seen done and experienced. They lost their mom to this shit, happened right in front of JD, left him pretty fucked up for a while. But now… well Thomas is just concerned for his brother and that’s something I can easily understand. He’s got fucking awful taste in music though.

As for JD, well he’s hard to approach. He doesn’t want to be around all these people, just plays his PSP and ignores you if you try to talk with him. I’ve tried engaging about games and books and television and just about anything else but no dice. Whatever, maybe he’ll be more communicative in time, or maybe not, either way he’s still less hostile then Charlie.

Oh and more good news. As you’ve no doubt noticed Damien and Arkady are both alive and well. I can really honestly say that that’s one weight on my conscience I’m glad to be rid of.

Hopefully distancing myself from them will help them stay safe.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Excrucior

Excrucior

The history won’t be erased
As long as I’m inside this place;
It’s finally time for me to face
The hole inside, that gaping space.
It aches for filling, screams for substance –
But substance is something that I have lost
Here in the frost of this forest
In which I am tortured.
The snow is melting now,
Though the rays of sun still refuse to show
And the drip-drop patters of lazy melt
Soak into my clothing – so I’ve been dealt.

Bruised and cracked and cast aside,
Content enough to keep awake
But hardly conscious of the constant
Whip-smacks so acclimated have I been made,
The humid heat of the dripping sunless night
Intrudes upon my realization,
My renewed sensation in hands, in feet, in face, in toes.
Smearing sweat across my brow,
I stand and stare into the sky,
See the stars run away to hide
From my self-righteous reawake’ning:
I assure you, I’m not faking!
I will leave the planet quaking!

And then, docile once again,
I just sit back and think to then,
Shaking in my sallow skin,
Afraid to wake, afraid to move.
-

She's gone. And I.. I didn't do anything. I just let her leave into the arms of that fucking thing and now she is gone. I killed her. I killed Ronnie. This last week or so has been one long roller coaster of ever-shifting emotion, now angry, now depressed, now scared. Angry at the abomination who stole Ronnie from me, angry at my own incompetence. Depressed, saddled with this emptiness, hopelessness. Scared of every shadow, every flap or flutter of darkness. My dreams are haunted by her face, dead and soulless, grey with the apathy of lifelessness. Her mouth opens, face still slack, body wrapped in the arms of that thief, and she forms the word "traitor" over and over until it becomes written across my vision in her crimson blood. A few times I thought I'd maybe crawled out of this delirium only to fall back into mindless haunting, consumed by paranoia, consumed by myself. I woke up today.

I'm not entirely sure where we are. I can't say that I mind that too much - the last place I want to be is back anywhere near that apartment... Kal is asleep on a bed not too far from me. The girl is lying on the other bed in the room. I guess a hotel room. From what Kal written, we've come far. I don't remember most of it. There are flashes of memory - Kal, angry at the absence of Damien; leaving Austin; the girl, Sara, staring into me with her vacant eyes - but the last thing I remember with any clarity is Ronnie, the moment she died. That image is carved into my eyelids. I cannot escape it.

But Sara is still with us, vegetative as she is. Sara is our symbol of defiance against this bastard thing, this monster and accident of horror. If we can keep her safe... If I can keep her safe... Then maybe I can be forgiven.

I think it's my turn to drive next.

-Michenab

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Thursday, April 14, 2011

Oh the places I've been

Ugg. I’m exhausted.

Driving long distances isn’t fun. Driving long distances in a strange car occupied by a newly paranoid friend and a nearly comatose kidnapped girl, avoiding an otherworldly monster that can appear wherever the fuck it wants and coping with the fact that you may well have killed your best friend is somewhat worse.
Jesus, what was that? Like a week ago?

Damien and his buddy, that Arkady fellow, called us up during that whole… that whole Ars Goetia fiasco. They said something about a plan, that they were going to go and do Damien’s dumbfuck summoning bullshit again, that they were going to pull it away from us. Well, actually Damien said this while Arkady seemed to throw a goddam party in the background. I told him no, that he’d done enough helping me get Sara back, that we could get out of this ourselves, that Henry had enough in him for the one last push we needed. It seems though that they were already moving.

It just vanished.

I fucking cursed him. He always had to go and do things his way, never listened. We took advantage of the opportunity of course, no sense not to. I ran into our rooms, threw some shit into a bag, grabbed Hank’s keys and pulled both him and Sara out the door. Raced down to the parking garage, got into the car, ignored Henry’s half hearted protests and just started driving.

We didn’t have a destination besides as far away from the room as possible. I just drove furiously dialing Damien’s number over and over. I got a hold of him eventually; right cursed the bastard out too. I calmed down though, told him what all had happened, how it just sorta vanished from us, thanked him, and threatened to kill him myself if he ever tried to pull that shit again for me.

And then we just kept driving. I looked over and Henry was passed out, he slept for like an entire day, by the time he woke up we were nearly out of Illinois. And I was fucking exhausted, Henry had no clue where we were or what was going on, and I was too damn tired to bother explaining. I pulled into a hotel and paid for a room. And then I just slept.

Henry just thought he saw something. He’s a fucking wreck. Jumping at shadows, at everything really, he’s imagining our shadow everywhere… he can feel its nonexistent eyes on him. Night, day, doesn’t matter, if something moves in his peripheral vision or there happens to be a figure some distance off I can guarantee to you he’s going to flip out one way or the other. Hell, it would be kinda funny if you know… if it wasn’t so fucking terribly unfunny.

Anyhow, back to what I was saying.

We settled into the room, I took a well deserved sleep and woke up to Henry yelling about Arkady.

You all know what’s going on with Arkady better than I do; hell even now I don’t know much about this Labyrinth or whatever the hell it is. But Henry, during my slumber, got the internet in our room set up and started looking at the blogs and so I was awoken by news of what had befallen my friend’s bloodthirsty associate. And then news that Damien hadn’t posted anything all.

Tried calling him, tried Facebook, Skype, no new comments on this blog or any of the others he follows, nothing on his or any of his friends’ walls. Nothing. He was just gone. Is gone.

I gathered up all our stuff, threw it back in the car, and then we set off for Texas. If he was in trouble, in trouble for helping me… well I couldn’t just sit around. We stopped at a gas station to refuel and buy a US mapbook, and then… well then I started our journey to St. Edwards. It was a long trip, took a day and a half; we didn’t stay at a hotel again, instead we spent the night in the car. The trip was peaceful though thankfully, free from Slenderattacks and the meddling of masked strangers.

We tried his apartment first of course; it is where he’s been living after all, went right up to his door and knocked, though maybe it wasn’t the best idea. No answer. Then we tried the offices where he works at the school; he hadn’t shown up for a couple weeks. I tried his parent’s house… nothing. He’d completely disappeared.

I went back to his place and threw a fucking brick through his window.

I climbed inside and looked around. Place was a goddamn mess. There were sigils tacked all over the walls, there were papers thrown everywhere, and now thanks to me there was glass strewn across the carpet. The papers, they were covered in scribblings; symbols, glyphs, research, random notes on behavior and analyses of what we all had experienced. In the corner was a stained mattress and bundle of sheets along with a laptop and busted up sword, almost certainly Arkady's accomadations. It was weird to see the place such a mess, though not nearly as weird as seeing Damien's alcohol just sitting out.

I leafed through the papers, looking for really anything that he may have left behind, a note, a plan, anything really. Grabbed their computers to look through them as well; Damien’s wasn’t protected, though Arkady’s was. I looked through his history, read all the most recent posts of the other blogs he follows, really just looking for anything that might tell me where he vanished to. I looked through Word documents, really just anything that had recently been written, read, or used. I looked at his blog one last time as precaution, just to make sure you know? Nothing. I pushed his computer to the side and grabbed Arkady’s. If I knew anything about Russian literature I probably would have actually made an attempt or two at cracking his password, but sadly I don’t. Instead I booted it up in safe mode… luckily, just like everyone else on the planet; Arkady didn’t bother to password his Administrator account. I looked through his history too, and his documents and everything else. He didn’t have anything of interest either, though it seems that his most recent post wasn’t written from his laptop unless he went and deleted his history for some reason.

Then I realized that between busting up the window and asking around about Damien that the police would probably show up around here at some point. I’ve killed so many people already; I wasn’t going be responsible for getting anyone else involved in this shit.
I mean what am I at now? That one kid’s dead, so is Ronnie and probably Damien, Henry is infected along with god know who else. I wasn’t going to let my actions maybe lead so poor unfortunate police officer and his friends and family into this shit too. I don’t know when Arkady’s coming back if he or if he ever is, and even if he does… well I doubt he gives a damn about what happens to anyone but himself. So yeah.
  
I pulled out the laptops again, deleted their histories, unbookmarked anything I saw that was related to this whole mess, gathered up all the stray papers and headed back to the car. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything.

Anyhow that was a few days ago. I’m sorta just driving at random now, we’re in Georgia at the moment but I think I’m gonna head up towards Virginia. I was born there so it should be at least somewhat nostalgic, on top of that I don’t know a damn soul for close to 600 miles from it so it should be a decent place to hide out while keeping family and friends save.

If we can get there it’s one less thing to worry about. I’ll only have to concern myself with helping Henry adjust, figuring out what to do with Sara, managing our small supply of money, and of course dodging our constant shadow.

Oh yes. This is going to be fucking fun times isn’t it?
~Kal


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Monday, April 4, 2011

Breakdown

Fuck. Fuck Fuck Fuck.

Throughout the night its curiosity stopped… it’s slowly progressed from gently prodding to stabbing about in search for some weak point, and then when that didn’t work it switched again to slamming on the sliding glass doors trying outright to break them down. It wasn’t much at first, oh sure the sight of it pounding on the windows was unsettling, but then everything involving this thing is. I closed the blinds and walked into the other room. But then… then I heard a small crack.



I went back to the window and threw open the blinds, and there beneath one of many, many, arms was a small hairline fracture. And of course it looked oh so pleased with itself. Stood there bent backwards at the torso, twisting around so its absent face was right there at the crack it had created. And it continued.


More force, faster, and with so many more arms it pounded on the window, slamming, slamming, slamming, until even more of the tiny cracks appeared, each one accented by a small shattering sound that may as well have been my sanity. I pulled back towards Henry, who was still sitting in the middle of the room keeping this thing up, sweat now drowning down his face and shivering harder still. I grabbed Sara who was just sitting at the kitchen table staring blankly into to space, and together the three of us huddled in the center of the room where the air was thickest and protection the strongest. And I watched, the only one of us truly conscious, as the window weakened more and more. As hairline fractures turned to tiny points of impact, as those little circular indentations broke into small craters. And finally as the craters started to grow larger and larger and larger until they obscured all vision of what lay beyond. The glass doors shattered, ten thousand tiny shards flying every direction and wailing against each other. It stepped inside and made towards us… and then it just stopped.

Henry must have pulled the barrier in or… or something. I honestly couldn’t tell you. But it’s inside the room now just standing with too many arms flung about the room grasping at the edge of our bubble, just waiting until Henry can’t keep this up any longer. I think we’re going to have to make a run for it… I mean we can’t just stay here.

I… I don’t know maybe Henry can shift our protection into a wall to buy us time to run away… I hope he can. I hope that that’s possible, that Henry has enough in him to manage it… that I can even get through to him without causing everything to collapse…

If you all never hear from me again… from either of us…
I’m sorry.

Three bodies in search of an exit

I'm not sure how much longer this is going to hold up. Henry's barely made it through last night with... well. Yeah he's barely holding on. I've got him covered with a few blankets because he's shivering, I honestly don't know what's going on but it isn't good.

It's standing on the balcony prodding at the Ars Goetia, its head cocked and curious.
We can't stay in here forever.


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Saturday, April 2, 2011

Ronnie

I've been staring at this screen for... almost an hour now. Everything that happened tonight keeps replaying on the backdrop of this blank prompt. At first I was in shock. I didn't know what to do. But it's starting to hit home now. And I don't like the feeling.

I've been avoiding talking too much to Ronnie. I've been nice and sweet as much as Ican, but I've needed to retain some amount of focus on keeping us all alive. I though about explaining that to her, but all I could see was a fight at the end of that tunnel. As it turns out, there was nothing I could do in the first place to stop that fight from coming. Finally fed up with the whole situation, with her distrust of Kal, her want to help the girl and my... unresponsiveness, she picked an argument. It doesn't matter anymore what it was about. I don't care and honestly, I don't remember it very well, except that as I became more and more involved in it, I could feel in the back of my mind a weakening in the presence that I brought around us. Something sharper than the gradual sapping of energy that has been going on since I put it up.


Kal noticed it too. He came into the room to get my attention and when I gave it to him... Well, that's what really set Ronnie off. She began walking around the room, gathering some of her things as she did so, voice raised. I could hear something about the balcony from Kal, but my main focus was on trying to calm Ronnie down. Trying to keep from leaving. To keep her with me. But that was another thing I couldn't stop. Another failure.

At least Kal was able to keep the girl from her. Because when she walked out of the front door... there he was. And I think for the first time Ronnie actually saw him. Saw him and recognized him for the otherness that he is. The rest happened in silence. That dead silence that almost claimed me. I could see her mouth moving, but all I heard was the impossibly slow beat of my pulse in my ears. His presence seemed to dwarf Ronnie, though he didn't seem to actually shift in size - and then without any warning, she was pulled into him. It looked as though she had been pushed from behind, or had jumped. Wrapped in an embrace with far too many arms, she was turned to show her front perfectly to me. The fear etched on her face... the horrible fear that I couldn't keep her away from... It was nothing compared to the sudden emptiness that followed. Her lithe body, tense with so much stress, was not so hard to witness as the ragdoll limpness that came after. One second, there she was, my Ronnie, wrapped in his arms, struggling - and then the next, she was gone.

She isn't mine anymore. She's his now. She was taken from me, and I will never have her back. I can feel it in the soul crushing void that screams for something to fill it and sucks everything into its empty nothingness, only to feel no more satiated than it was at its conception. I can feel it in the energy around me that weakens no matter what I do. I can feel it in my broken will. Thank god for Kal. If he hadn't been there, I may have just charged at him, holding her, and ended us all. Instead, I watched him fade away, the dead eyes of my love staring out at me, while I struggled against Kal's restraint.

I can't do this anymore.

-Michenab

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Deterioration

I still don’t like this. Veronica shouldn’t be here.

I went along because Damien thought it was a good idea, because I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere at all without him. Because Henry needed it, I know that I’d have kept a woman around if I’d had one when all this started for me. But now the wall, or barrier or whatever it is is breaking, it barely covers the building now. Hank just sits there concentrating calmly, though you can occasionally see a strain on his face presumably from keeping this going.

I saw our agressor out in the lot this morning, I haven’t said anything yet however. I haven’t got a chance to, I just can’t get Veronica away from Henry. I’m starting to get worried though. I don’t think we’re going to stay safe in here much longer.

I don’t know what Damien was thinking, how is she supposed to help if she knows nothing and we can’t tell her a thing? She’s not an extra adult, just another body to protect. She really needs to go. I think she feels it though. She’s been getting jumpy and complaining there's something claustrophobic about air in here. I assume she means Henry’s… energy I suppose is what you’d call it. I’ve tried convincing her again, nicer this time, that she should get out for a bit, get some fresh air or go to the store or something. She refuses to leave Henry or the girl though. I think she’s afraid for him; he’s barely spoken since their fight, he just sits there maintaining our shield. And of course she still doesn’t trust me.

Fuck. I shouldn’t have relented.
This was a bad decision.
~Kal