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This world is a beautiful but unforgiving place. Every day, countless atrocities ravage our civilizations; War, poverty, disease, famine… an innumerable amount of plagues lash out against humanity, and if left unchecked could bring us to the brink of collapse. However, these pestilences are inconsequential compared to the true horrors out there, the ones that have lurked in the shadows for eons… some that even predate our universe itself. They are the demons inside our heads, the beasts who live beneath your beds, the wraiths that prowl within the woods, the shadowy figures beneath their hoods… These beings are ancient and ferocious, but only a select few still bother to show their loathsome faces. Their numbers may be small compared to ours, but they are powerful; so powerful that to simply know of them is to invoke calamity… But is there a way to cheat fate? To cheat Death? Everything you know, everything you’ve seen, is just a distraction from reality…
WAKE UP! Katelyn Milens shot up in bed, drenched in a cold sweat that chilled her to the bone. Her stormy gray eyes were filled with terror and locks of her messy, shoulder-length black hair fell in front of her face, making it difficult to see the rest of her bedroom. She brushed the offending strands away and nervously peered into the darkness, but fortunately, her nightmares appeared to be nothing more than a figment of her imagination for a change. She let out a sigh of relief and sunk back into her pillows, grateful that her personal demons had seemingly taken the night off. Perhaps they’d decided that what she’d gone through in the radio station was enough trauma for one day, or maybe they were just lulling her into a false sense of security in order to strike when she was most vulnerable. It was impossible to predict the actions of her otherworldly stalkers, so she’d stopped trying long ago, choosing instead to worry about what she could actually control. However, that tactic was failing her for the first time in a long time, as it was next to impossible to avoid thinking about what was in store for her in the coming hours. Although she tried her hardest, Kate was too stressed to fall back asleep, so she got up to retrieve a pen and pad of paper from her desk instead. Lightning flashed across the night sky as she walked past the open window, making her pale skin look even whiter than it already was, and as she sat back down with the utensils and let a familiar habit take control, memories of when the nightmare first began came flooding back to her. She vividly remembered that fateful night back in 2009, when she was only fifteen years old…
(X)
It was a warm summer evening and Kate was sitting in her living room talking to one of her two best friends, Carl Ross, on the phone. They’d been discussing what he’d seen two years ago on one particular homestead, and what his recording of the event detailed. You see, about four years ago, around Carl’s sixteenth birthday, he and his family moved to the town of Oakside; a quiet little village located near the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada. It was a peaceful little town, and very similar to where he’d grown up and met his two best friends; Crystal Falls, Michigan. He’d first met Kate through a mutual friend named Lauren Jones, who was only two years younger than himself but three years older than Kate, when the three of them were in elementary and middle school. They’d all lived relatively close to one another back then, and as a result played together frequently, with Carl gradually assuming the role of the big brother of their group; something that he quite enjoyed since he didn’t have any siblings of his own. Things were so much simpler back then, and all three of them wished that they could go back to those fun times; especially Lauren, whose hands were constantly full these days. Due to her academic prowess in high school, she’d scored a full ride to a university in Florida, and soon after graduation had packed her things to go take summer classes for Criminalistics and Real Estate. As for Carl and his family; neither of the girls really understood why they’d wanted to move to a place like Oakside. While it’s true that every town has its secrets, the dark history of that place blew just about everywhere else out of the water. It’s common knowledge that the town’s rate of missing person incidents is higher than anywhere else in the province, and more often than not, the cases are never solved. However, those statistics paled in comparison to the sheer brutality of the infamous 1905 case of the old Matheson Farm. Only the authorities had been made aware of how most of the people living there died in one fell swoop, as the details were reportedly so controversial that they were deemed unfit for public knowledge. Since a clear answer was never given, the townspeople had come up with their own theories over the years; each one darker than the last and ranging from a contaminated well to the family’s possible connection with the occult. These days, the only remaining Matheson was a woman named Diane who’d married into the family a long time ago. Back in 2006, her ex-husband Charles perished in a house fire, and roughly ten years prior to that, their six-year-old son Charlie mysteriously vanished during a family trip to the beach. After hearing about Charlie’s disappearance, Carl managed to get in contact with Charles Matheson Sr. a few months before his death and began an investigation into the boy’s disappearance that ultimately led him back to the place where it all started; the farm. There wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t regret visiting that place, as what he’d seen there was something so dark and twisted that it’d haunt him for the rest of his life… or so he claimed. Kate wasn’t quite sure how she felt about the results of Carl’s investigation, or if she even believed him at all. Even after he’d shown her the footage of the event, she was still skeptical, as the things recorded on that tape seemed about as far from the realm of possibility as one could get. She’d done her best to shrug the footage off as an insanely good attempt at a prank despite Carl’s protests that it was genuine, but even she couldn’t deny that just maybe there was some truth to what he’d shown her… and what he’d told her about the place’s history. Looking back on it, how could she have been so foolish as to not believe him? After talking on the phone for a good half hour or so, Kate said goodbye to Carl and went back to tending to her mother’s garden, as the poor woman was currently in no condition to do manual labor. It’d been about two years since Beth Hayes first fell ill with a mysterious disease, and her condition had only worsened during that time. Suspiciously, as far as the doctors could tell, it appeared to be extremely similar, if not exactly identical to the ailment that put her father, John Milens, in a grave when she was very young. However, it was progressing through her mom far more slowly than it had with her dad, something that gave them both hope that she could still be saved. Unfortunately, they could do little more than wait and hope that the doctors would be able to work a miracle, but they both clung to the little hope that they had. Her mother’s plight was the reason she’d asked Carl to come to Crystal Falls for a while, as she needed some extra help taking care of her mother since she was already juggling two jobs and their neighbors could only do so much to help out while maintaining their own lives. As for why she didn’t ask Lauren; she knew that her friend would’ve been happy to lend a hand if she asked for her help, but she was having such a hard enough time keeping her own hectic life under control that Kate didn’t want to place another burden on her. Unsurprisingly, Carl accepted the offer and said he’d try to be there by July 18th, just a couple of days from then. Kate hoped he remembered how to get to her house, since it was further out into the wooded area and therefore slightly more difficult to find. Whatever inconvenience that may have posed was made up for by the serenity of the surrounding wildlife, as it was quite beautiful where she lived, especially during the summer and autumn months. However, the woods behind the house had an unsettling aspect to them; contained within them was a supposedly haunted, long-abandoned campground called RiverView Park. Reminiscent of Oakside’s local legends, RiverView had a nasty reputation of people going missing. Long ago, the park had once been a popular tourist attraction, featuring an excellent layout of campsites, playgrounds, visitor centers, and various recreational activities to take part in… but that was before everything went downhill. It began with a steady stream of campers seemingly vanishing from their sites and only escalated when the few mangled bodies that the authorities managed to locate were found in such a bad state that it took almost a month to identify them all. Due to a significant decrease in tourism after the incidents and the community’s growing fear of a murderer living in the woods surrounding the place, the campground was shut down and promptly abandoned soon after. It was unfortunate that tragedy befell such a beautiful place, especially since the owners had recently spent a lot of money expanding the campground further into the woods with a series of dirt hiking trails. The project had come so far, only to fail at the hands of a bloodthirsty animal that had proven impossible to track. However, not everyone believed that a bear or wolf was responsible for the ghastly murders, and there were more than a few local myths about what truly lived in those woods. Kate usually dismissed them as harmless stories, but even she couldn’t help feeling uneasy every now and then considering how close she lived to the place. After all, there was definitely a chance that a few of those stories contained at least a small grain of truth, despite how ridiculous some of them were. Several hours later, around 11:00 PM, Kate was finally getting around to cleaning up the dinner mess when a strange sensation crept over her; a tingle ran up her spine and goosebumps began to form on her arms as the feeling of being watched became more and more noticeable. She glanced out of the kitchen window and into the dark forest behind the house, a nervous expression growing on her face. For what felt like hours she stared out at those trees, a feeling of paranoia filling her with dread as she strained to catch a glimpse of even the tiniest movement. “Pull yourself together, Kate, it’s just late and you’re tired,” she told herself, turning away from the window to finish cleaning up. The eerie silence of the house was made up for by the furious windstorm outside as the trees creaked and cracked, with some of them even losing branches in the tempest. She found herself constantly looking over her shoulder, growing more fearful with each glance that she’d catch something looking back from the treeline. Another stressful hour passed without any hope of Kate’s nerves being soothed since when she’d tried calling both Lauren and Carl to take her mind off of the storm, she discovered that the phone lines were down. She wasn’t surprised, as the reception was terrible during any type of harsh weather, but it was still terrifying nonetheless. She felt more isolated than she ever had before, and despite all of the windows and doors being shut and locked tight, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was in danger. In another attempt to calm herself down she tried playing her favorite movie, but the only thing the television would display was static, and white noise blared loudly in the background. Then, to her horror, the electricity began to act up; The lights flickered rapidly at uneven intervals, several devices and appliances started making unnatural noises, and it all culminated in the sudden explosion of a lightbulb, followed by the others going out and plunging the house into total darkness. Kate let out a fearful yelp and rushed to her room, slamming the door shut and backing away from it in terror. She rushed to her bed and grabbed the wooden baseball bat that she kept under it for home defense, gripping it tightly as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. It was then that she remembered her sleeping mother and the fact that her bedroom door was wide open, making her a perfect target for an intruder. Her heart pounded as she made her way back over to the bedroom door and gripped the handle, slowly turning it and peering out into the pitch-black hallway as it creaked open. The only sound came from the wind outside, and she had to force her legs to move as dread filled her heart. Through the darkness she crept, feeling her way through the house with one hand and wielding the bat with the other, steadily making her way to the kitchen where she kept flashlights in a drawer. After several terrifying minutes of sneaking through rooms, she finally reached her objective and opened the drawer; but to her dismay, it was empty. Her heart fell at the sight, and as the never-ending darkness devoured everything, it dawned on her just how unnatural the entire situation was. She began hearing strange noises, noises that almost sounded like disembodied whispers, but whatever they were saying was indistinguishable. They rapidly increased in volume with each passing second, making her head pound harder and harder until it felt like her skull was about to cave in. Kate dropped the bat and fell to the floor, clutching her head and praying for anything to make it stop. Then, something changed; as abruptly as they began, the whispers were silenced. She sat there kneeling on the floor, unable to comprehend the events that just took place. Slowly, her breathing slowed and her headache faded as the remaining lights flickered back to life and bathed the house in golden brilliance. However, the return to normality wasn’t enough for Kate; She couldn’t explain what she’d just gone through, but she wanted to know what was causing this and how to put a stop to it once and for all. It was then that she remembered the stories about RiverView and the strange dreams of the park that both she and her mother had been having for months. In these dreams, whichever one of them was having it at the time always reported seeing the same thing; their surroundings were shrouded in darkness and they’d always be standing right at the entrance of the hiking trails as disembodied whispers echoed from all around them. These dreams reflected everything that’d just happened to her with the exception of location, and Kate quickly came to the conclusion that whatever was going on was tied to that place. The park was only about a fifteen-minute drive from her house, and she knew exactly how to get there since she’d passed it several times before, the only problem was that it was pitch black outside, and without any flashlights, she’d have no way to see what she was doing. That’s when she remembered the spare flashlight she always kept in her mother’s bedroom and swiftly made her way down the hall to retrieve it. Thankfully, when she stepped into the room she found the flashlight exactly where she’d left it; on the nightstand and fully charged. Kate grabbed the flashlight and prepared to leave, but stopped for a moment to look at her mom, who was sleeping peacefully for once. She felt tears begin to well up in her eyes as she glanced over at the gifts that Beth’s friends and relatives had left for her; flowers, get-well-soon cards, and even a few teddy bears since she’d always found them adorable. She tried her best not to think about her mother’s deteriorating condition, choosing instead to focus on the task at hand as she left the room. She might not be able to do anything about the disease, but Kate was going to try her damnedest to put an end to whatever was haunting the two of them. “If there actually is something paranormal going on here, then I really hope that Supernatural was telling the truth, because I’m screwed otherwise,” she muttered as she gathered a bag of rock salt, a bottle of lighter fluid, a box of matches, and a shovel in case she needed to do some digging; something she’d learned from watching her favorite show. “A lot of people went missing out there and most of the bodies were never recovered, so there’s a good chance that this thing is a vengeful spirit. If that’s the case, then I just have to find the remains, salt and burn them, and hope to God that it solves the problem… Jesus, Kate, what are you even saying,” she said, hardly able to believe that she was stooping to such superstition. “Then again… you know what you just witnessed, and you know from the pain alone that it was real,” she told herself as she collected the last of her supplies. It was while she was loading everything into her mom’s car that she remembered something; they had a camcorder, and thankfully it used replaceable batteries instead of needing to be charged back up. Remembering the footage that Carl showed her, and simultaneously reevaluating how real it may have been, she decided to follow in his footsteps; Kate found the camcorder after a minute or two of searching, swapped out the batteries, stuck an empty tape into it, and tested it out, finding that it still worked perfectly. Without delay, she quickly wrote a note for her mother and placed it on her nightstand in case she woke up, then put on a brown jacket and stepped out into the windswept night, bringing the baseball bat with her just in case she was dealing with something other than a ghost. She locked the door behind her and got into her mom’s car, beginning the suspenseful drive to RiverView. The night was even eerier on the road than it was at home, as there were no passing cars nor signs of civilization for miles. However, despite the creepy factor, she was actually grateful for the isolation since she didn’t actually have a driver’s license and didn’t like the idea of being pulled over with a bunch of suspicious items in the car. The wind howled louder and louder the closer she got, knocking branches from trees and making it difficult to stay on the road. Then, after one more mile of struggling against the elements, she made it to the park at long last and pulled into the driveway. The overgrown foliage covered most of the parking lot and consumed all but a few dim rays of moonlight, and as she passed a painted wooden sign that read; “RiverView Park - Camping, Recreation, & Boat Launch”, she felt a familiar chill creep up her spine. Finally, she reached the entrance to the main area of the park and stopped her car, grabbing the bat and camcorder from the passenger seat before stepping out into the night. “I’ll come back for the other stuff once I actually find what I’m looking for,” she muttered, beginning her trek down the desolate roads. It was then that she noticed the wind dying down, and as a light, eerie fog began to set in, Kate swore she heard a voice whisper;
“Welcome Home..."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The snake-like voice sent goosebumps running down Kate’s arms and adrenaline pumping through her veins. She immediately ran back to the car and retrieved the rest of her gear, not wanting to be caught defenseless by whatever was lurking in the dark. “I’m really glad I brought the bag from the kitchen,” she said, stuffing the salt into her jacket pocket. “It’d be a pain in the ass to lug around one of the big ones from the garage… and I guess I don’t really need more than one of these at the same time either,” she mumbled, replacing her baseball bat with the shovel. Once that matter was settled she locked the car back up, propped the shovel up on her shoulder, turned on the flashlight and camcorder, and attempted entering the park for the second time. As she made her way down the cracked asphalt roads, she felt a somber feeling building up inside with each passing ruin. First came the Park Lodge; a once-beautiful building that looked like a chalet combined with a visitor center, which was now little more than a dark, empty husk scarred with rotting boards and shattered windows. The pool beside the lodge was half-filled with stagnant rainwater, and in the overgrown clearing to the left of it sat a long-abandoned playground covered in rust and mold; the few swings that remained intact creaking eerily in the breeze. A short distance away from the lodge was the RiverView Event Hall; the place where nightly camp activities had once been hosted, and surrounding the building were several bike racks as well as a variety of recreational activities to take part in, including two basketball courts, a picnic area, a climbing wall, and an entire baseball field behind the event hall. Needless to say, all of these were in a rough condition, and unfortunately for Kate, none of them held what she’d been looking for… not that she expected things to be so easy. Despite the fact that they were little more than overgrown dirt lots with concrete fire pits, she noticed that the campsites themselves were in a relatively decent condition aside from the occasional abandoned tent or fallen tree. However, the sight that truly broke her heart was the formerly gorgeous namesake of the park; the river that flowed through and around the campground. Long ago, it had been crystal clear and teeming with fish, but now it was choked with weeds and algae, giving the water a vile green hue. Even the covered bridge that stretched across the largest section of the river had been devastated by the elements. It was after about an hour of exploring that Kate finally came to terms with the fact that the main area of the park held absolutely nothing of importance, which meant that she’d have to explore the undeveloped hiking trails deep within the woods. “Ground Zero,” she muttered, growing more fearful by the second. To both her delight and despair, finding the trails turned out to be a simple task, as it was rather difficult to miss the chain-link fence that blocked off a massive chunk of the forest. As she approached the rolling gate, the asphalt road became a rough dirt path just big enough for service vehicles to drive on. Thankfully, there was a gap between the gate and the fence just wide enough for her to squeeze through, and she did so easily, crossing through and into the dark forest contained within. “This isn’t so bad…” she began to say but was cut short by the sound of a soft click behind her as the gate mysteriously slid shut. Her eyes widened at the sight and she bolted back over, pulling on the massive obstacle in an attempt to wheel it back open, but no matter how hard she tried, no matter how much strength she put into her efforts, it wasn’t enough. “I should’ve knocked on wood,” Kate panted, catching her breath as she let go of the gate. “Well that’s just fantastic, now I’m stuck in here all alone and I can’t even call for help because I left my damn phone in the car,” she grumbled, more irritated than afraid that her only exit had just sealed itself. “Wait, why don’t I just climb over the… dammit,” she said, glancing upward at the wicked barbed wire lining the top of the fence. “I don’t suppose this thing just slid shut from a lack of wind either, so something definitely doesn’t want me to leave, which means… wait, what is that?” she questioned, shining her flashlight on the gate’s latch. Carved into the rusted metal was a strange, vaguely familiar symbol; two eyes intersecting in the shape of a cross. As she reached out to run a finger over the sigil, a psychotic laugh echoed throughout the forest, making her blood run cold. She spun around to face the trees and shined her flashlight into them, desperately attempting to catch the perpetrator red-handed. “Show yourself, asshole!” she yelled, anger quickly replacing her fear. “Yeah, you think you’re all big and bad now? Let’s see how badass you are when you go up in flames!” Now more determined than ever to defeat this malevolent entity, Kate began her hike down the dirt trails, failing to notice the eight figures lurking just behind the tree line. The one responsible for the laughter stood at his master’s side with a demented smile plastered on his face. He, in particular, was growing quite fond of their latest plaything. She had a certain spunk to her that he found refreshing, and her bravery easily outshone most of those who’d come before her. Perhaps that was why he was so content with sitting back and watching the show… observing this new candidate. The forest was dark and eerie; the only sound came from a light breeze blowing through the woods accompanied by the occasional hoot of an owl or chirping of crickets, all while the crunching of loose dirt beneath Kate’s shoes barely managed to break the silence. The dull moonlight shone through the gaps in the trees, struggling to illuminate anything other than the light fog creeping across the ground. More thankful than ever for her flashlight, the determined teenager followed the path straight for a while before coming across a fork in the road. She barely gave a thought to which path she chose, correctly guessing that a hiking trail like this one would inevitably loop back around to the entrance, and headed down the path to the right without a second thought. Just like the original, this section of the trail went straight for a while before culminating in another fork. However, the path leading toward the center of the woods would have to wait, as the one that continued following the forest’s border led to a tall red structure nearly hidden by the thick vegetation. Wondering what exactly RiverView Management had been building on the trails, she stepped forward to investigate. Standing just taller than the trees, the structure turned out to be nothing more than a heavily rusted silo. What once had been the central segment of a miniature petting zoo for passing hikers was now the only surviving monument from the attraction, as everything else had been reduced to a decaying mess of wood and metal. Although the abandoned landmark was somewhat interesting, Kate was just about to move on when she caught sight of something peculiar; a yellowed sheet of paper was stuck to the eastern side of the silo. She focused the flashlight’s beam on it as she came closer to investigate, discovering that a strange message had been scrawled across its surface; “Don’t Look Or It Takes You.” Accompanying the cryptic note was a sketch of a tall, faceless stick figure drawn in the bottom right corner of the page, and unaware of what was about to happen, Kate plucked the paper from the silo and stuck it in her pocket, intending to examine it further once she was out of harm’s way. However, she soon discovered that doing so would trigger the exact opposite of what she wanted to happen; As soon as the note was in her possession, the wind stopped blowing, the crickets ceased their chirping, and the hooting of the owls was silenced. A new sound that drowned out all others tore through the woods, one that sounded like the slow, steady, singular beat of a drum, repeating over and over as if to signal a looming execution. Kate couldn’t explain the phenomena she was witnessing, so she didn’t try, instead electing to focus on getting as far away from the silo as she could. She quickly became more thankful than ever that she’d decided to wear a sweatshirt on this little excursion, as the temperature inexplicably began to plummet. She continued down the path, searching desperately for any hint of whatever remains she needed to salt and burn to finally end the nightmare. However, it was due to her focus on the task at hand that she failed to notice a faint voice hiss the phrase; “One of Eight.” Her camera, on the other hand, heard it loud and clear.
“Oh come on, you’re brand new… don’t start this crap already,” Kate grumbled as her camera started to exhibit video tearing and picture discoloration, as well as audio distortions and occasional bursts of static. She wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing that the camera was picking up the incessant drumming, but at least this way she’d have proof of the stories she was going to tell once it was all over. Fortunately, the camera was only malfunctioning on an infrequent basis, and since the device wasn’t suffering any actual damage she tried not to worry about it too much. Soon after making peace with the fact that the distortions were probably there to stay, she stumbled across the second landmark; three oversized boulders standing tall in the rough shape of a circle just to the right of the trail. “Now what do we have here,” she narrated as she approached the rock formation, noticing a second note stuck to the side of one of the stones. At the center of the aged piece of paper was a large circle with two x’s drawn over it to resemble eyes, and both above and below the illustration were the two halves of the phrase; “Always Watches, No Eyes.” “This one’s just as ominous as the first… how cheery,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she retrieved the second note. Perhaps it was the growing sense of paranoia, fatigue from being awake later than she usually was, coming to terms with the fact that she was both hunting and being hunted by some supernatural entity, or a combination of the three that enabled her to hear the voice this time; “Two of Eight,” it said, sending chills down her spine when she recognized it as the same voice that had cackled at her misfortune with the gate. “Wait a minute, the gate…” Kate pondered, her expression of fear quickly being replaced by a sly smirk as she understood what she had to do. Her number one priority was still finding and burning whatever remains were anchoring this spirit to the land of the living, but now she had a secondary objective; locating the eight pages scattered around the hiking trails in order to break the paranormal lock put on the gate. She decided that she was going to play this game willingly and headed down the trail more confident than ever, eventually coming across yet another fork in the road. “Two notes down… six to go,” she announced, finally giving in to her curiosity and taking the path to the center of the woods.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Shoes crunched on dirt at a mild pace as a low-hanging fog steadily grew thicker and thicker, threatening to obscure the forest floor. Despite her newfound confidence, a sense of fear still loomed over Kate like a dark cloud, growing heavier with each pound of the omnipresent drum. She was no closer to finding the remains of this vengeful spirit than she’d been upon first entering the park, and the only things that stood any chance of helping her learn more about her mysterious adversary were the two tattered papers she’d recovered, which had only failed to deliver any crucial information. The strange man whose likeness kept appearing on the notes unnerved her in a way she couldn’t quite explain, and for some reason felt eerily familiar as well. Maybe the man was the spirit or creature responsible for everything that was happening… maybe he was another victim of this plague who’d left a handful of cryptic notes behind for anybody unfortunate enough to follow in his footsteps… or maybe he was simply the product of a damaged mind, existing only within the pages of a madman’s opus. “It might not even be worth my effort to go around finding these notes,” she thought; “Wouldn’t destroying this thing just unlock the gate anyway?” Just a few short moments later, her mind had formed yet another troubling theory; “Or maybe this is more like a cursed object type of thing and the pages themselves form a paranormal seal or something… Yeah, let’s just stick with the original plan.” Minutes after she’d made up her mind, Kate breathed a sigh of relief as the path finally opened up into a huge clearing but felt a sense of paranoia return heavier than before as the moon retreated behind a patch of dark clouds, shrouding the landscape in darkness. The southern end of the field of dirt was speckled with residential propane tanks, and further to the north stood an ominous building wreathed in shadow. Despite the disappearance of the moon, the frightened teen was still able to find a glimmer of hope through the gap in the forest canopy; far off in the distance, a group of radio towers stood tall, their red and white blinking lights serving as the last remaining beacon in the starless night sky. “What are these things even doing here?” she thought as she made her way through the field of rusted tanks. It made no sense why a hiking trail would need something like this at its core, leaving Kate not only confused but irritated as well, as no matter how hard she searched, there was no page to be found in the metal boneyard. Frustrated that she’d wasted her time, she quickly made her way over to the dark building, discovering that despite its age, the structure still held up quite well; featuring a green sheet metal roof that still sat soundly atop the foundation of gray bricks. As far as the exterior condition went, the only real damage came in the form of the metal door having rusted right off of its hinges and fallen to the ground, and beyond the open door was a long hallway that served as a straight shot through to the opposite end of the building. Her heart pounded at the idea of wandering around in an enclosed space while something supernatural was hunting her down, but she knew that there was no other option. Swallowing her fear, she stepped through the door and onto the tile flooring, unaware of the tall, dark figure silently watching her from within the field of propane tanks. “Well, this explains what all of those gas tanks are for, but I don’t really understand why they needed so many if all they were doing with them was heating up some water, unless the building was originally going to get a heating system put in before they abandoned it… but even then, having that many tanks seems like overkill,” Kate thought to herself upon realizing that the building was essentially just an oversized bathhouse. The gray tile floor was coated in several layers of dirt and grime, and the thin interior walls were constructed from the same layer of brick as the building’s exterior. Two other hallways branched off from the main hall; the one going to the left led to the men’s facilities, and the one on the right led to the women’s, both of which she had high hopes for. She was confident in her ability to locate a note in the bathrooms, but if she could finally find the remains of the spirit that was haunting her in this building and set them ablaze, things would return to normal at long last. Kate then chose a path at random and headed down the western hall, but much to her surprise, the men’s bathrooms were in a relatively decent condition aside from the expected wear-and-tear, as well as a few strange black stains on the walls and floor. The only difference between this particular building and the average bathhouse, aside from its greater size, was that the layout consisted of two bathrooms per hallway instead of including showers as well, but since this place was so far out in the forest, it made sense to exclude showers from the design. However, much to Kate’s disappointment she quickly discovered that there was neither a page to collect nor a body to burn in either bathroom, so she backtracked to the entrance and made her way to the female facilities, which displayed the same deterioration as the men’s had; busted mirrors, missing stall doors, broken pipes, and more black stains. It was when she passed an overturned wooden chair that was missing a leg and found yet another empty room that she began to worry if the building actually held anything of importance, however, her fears were quickly proven misplaced, as the second female bathroom held one of the two things she’d been looking for. Jammed inside the frame of a shattered mirror was a tattered page that read; “Leave Me Alone.” The more she looked at the new note, the more disturbing the situation became. It was the frantic handwriting decorating the scrap of paper that finally made her understand the horrible truth; these pages were not something left behind by a monster to simply unnerve its target or induce paranoia, they were all that remained of a previous victim, who’d presumably been driven mad by whatever was hunting them… the very same beast that was now hunting Kate. Not only that, but the thing responsible for all of this had turned its previous victim’s torment into a game for itself to enjoy, so she could only imagine what it had in store for her if she was to fail this task. “I don’t know how Sam and Dean do this shit so easily,” Kate muttered as she retrieved the page from its display; “Then again, they hardly ever work alone.” Ignoring the disembodied voice that piped back up to say "Three of Eight", she stuffed the note in her pocket and made her way back to the building’s entrance. It was when she finally reached the doorway that she realized the incessant beating of the drum had finally ceased. However, this relief was short-lived, as an even more unnerving sound immediately took the place of the original. To her, it almost sounded like somebody mowing their lawn, but the noise was twisted and distorted beyond recognition to the point that it was no longer pleasant to hear, but instead made her skin crawl. Accompanying the main ambiance was a faint, barely audible rattling, and like the execution drums from before, the lowly drone repeated itself endlessly, piercing through the otherwise quiet atmosphere of the forest. She could feel the temperature dropping much further than it ever should’ve during the summer, see the eerie fog steadily growing thicker and rising up off the ground, and even the night itself seemed to be growing darker by the minute. “Phase two,” Kate thought, quivering at the realization that this was her pursuer’s way of telling her that it was done playing around. Nervously, she took a step outside, but a high-pitched screeching sound coming from her camera stopped her in her tracks. It was as she was turning to look at her camcorder that she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye; a tall silhouette standing ominously at the back of the propane tank cluster. “Oh, Christ…” Kate gasped, any semblance of bravery she once had vanishing at the sight of the entity. She turned around and bolted down the hallway, intending to escape through the other end of the bathhouse, but the figure had other plans. With a sound like thunder, the demon appeared directly in front of her as she exited the building, knocking her off her feet and sending her flying back onto the tile floor, her camera and flashlight skidding away down the hallway. Kate sat there paralyzed with fear as her suspicions were confirmed; this thing was definitely the man that the pages had portrayed, but it was far from human, even if it somewhat resembled one. The being was dressed for a funeral, sporting a black suit, dress pants, and dress shoes, as well as a white undershirt and crimson tie. However, the creature’s choice of clothing was the only aspect of it that could be considered normal; It towered over its terrified victim, standing well over nine feet tall and barely visible in its entirety from within the hallway. Its form was unnaturally slender, appearing almost malnourished while looking healthy and powerful all at the same time, and its arms were grossly out of proportion with the rest of its body, coming down so far that its long, skeletal fingers extended just past its knees. The demon’s skin was clammy and deathly pale as if it had been dead for a long time, but the worst part by far was its face… or lack of one. There was no hair, no eyes, no mouth, no ears… no facial features of any kind; only a bald head featuring a blank slate. Kate scrambled to her feet, trembling in fear with her mouth agape as the fallen, flickering flashlight struggled to illuminate the monster she’d once thought herself capable of taking on. It was in this moment that something finally clicked; the cryptic notes and drawings, the unsettling ambiances, and even the suited horror itself… it all felt so familiar because she’d seen it before on Carl’s tape of the farm investigation. "Stay back!” she commanded as the creature ducked down to enter the doorway, watching it step into the puddle of spilled lighter fluid and salt that had formed when the two items fell from her jacket pocket. “This might work out in my favor,” she thought, retrieving the box of matches from her pocket and throwing a lit one into the mess. As the flames roared up to lick at the foul entity standing within them, a victorious smile spread across Kate’s face, but her face quickly fell once it was evident that the creature wasn’t affected in the slightest; not even its clothes were taking any damage. If it had a mouth to smirk with, she was sure that the being would be doing so. Eyes wide and heart pounding in a blind panic, Kate watched as a batch of slim, black tentacles erupted from the monster’s back and slithered toward her through the air. She quickly discarded the box of matches and picked up her dropped shovel, and in one last-ditch effort, swung it at her adversary with all her might. However, this proved to be nothing more than a minor annoyance to the demon, who caught the tool with one tentacle and snapped it in half effortlessly. Before she could process the broken remains of her weapon clattering to the ground, several tentacles wrapped around her neck and each of her limbs and lifted her into the air, bringing her face-to-face with her tormentor. She couldn’t move, couldn’t think, couldn’t even scream; she could only watch in silent horror with tears streaming down her face as the beast contemplated her struggling form with its head at a slight tilt. The longer she was in close proximity to the creature, the more her body seemed to be tearing itself apart. A fierce migraine mercilessly ripped through her head while the smoke from the growing fire stung her eyes, her ears rang so loudly that she felt like her eardrums were about to explode, and a stream of blood dripped down her nose and fell onto the floor, not to mention the fact that the tentacles holding her in place were so cold that they burned her skin. “I admire your bravery, little one, but you’ll have to do much better than that if you wish to challenge the likes of me,” the demon said. Kate let out an audible groan of pain as the powerful voice tore through her conscience, having been broadcasted directly into her mind instead of spoken aloud. Suddenly, just as she was about to lose consciousness from the pain, the entity released its grip on her and allowed her to fall to the floor. She hit the ground like a stone, letting out a grunt of pain from the impact and lifting herself up onto her hands and knees to cough up blood, too delirious to notice that her enemy had been careful to drop her a safe distance away from the fire. “I quite enjoy this little game that we’ve been playing, so I’ve decided to allow it to continue for the time being. Now go, leave this place before I change my mind.” Hardly able to believe what she was hearing, the battered teen scrambled to her feet and retrieved her camera and flashlight, the only two pieces of equipment that she had left, and staggered back in the direction of the propane tanks. “And Katelyn,” it said, causing her to turn and look back with fear in her eyes; “Do try to make this a little more fun for me, would you? I don’t like to be disappointed.” The demon let out a sinister chuckle and folded its hands behind its back as it watched its terrified victim sprint away across the clearing. Her breathing grew more strained and ragged by the second, and her legs felt as if there were spikes being driven through them, but she didn’t care. Terrified beyond rational thought, she was incapable of noticing how quickly the migraine and ringing in her ears had subsided after getting away from that monster, unconcerned with the fact that her bloody nose had stained her jacket a deep red before the blood stopped flowing, and was focused solely on getting far away from that eldritch horror as fast as humanly possible. She’d never run so fast and for so long ever before in her whole life, and despite the volatile mental state she was currently in, found herself thinking of her mother once again; silently thanking the woman for making her run track for so many years. However, despite her impressive endurance, Kate knew it was only a matter of time before she would collapse from a number of factors, with exhaustion being to most tame of them. Fortunately, just as she was beginning to slow down, her flashlight’s beam fell upon a red brick structure in a dirt clearing only a short distance ahead. “Oh, thank God,” she gasped, picking up her pace for the final stretch. The structure turned out to be little more than two brick walls put together to form the shape of a plus symbol. She staggered over to the cross-walls and made her way around to the side facing the chain-link fence, which was surprisingly close. She almost contemplated scaling the thing despite the obvious risk of being torn to shreds by the barbed wire, but finally, the fatigue caught up with her and her legs gave out, and she dropped her equipment and slumped down to the ground, leaning up against the brick wall and gasping for air. It wasn’t long before struggled breathing turned into terrified sobbing, as Kate had no idea what she was going to do now. It was obvious that this demon was responsible for not only the gruesome happenings that had gotten the park shut down but for everything she and her family had been forced to endure over the years, from her father’s mysterious death to her mom’s current condition; she’d known that as soon as she first laid eyes on the creature’s expressionless face. She’d come into this terrible place with a plan to liberate her family from what she’d thought was nothing more than a vengeful spirit, but now that it was evident she was dealing with something much darker, something much more ancient and powerful, any semblance of the bravery and confidence she once had was gone. “What am I supposed to do?” she whimpered. “Look behind you.” Kate let out a yelp and looked around wildly, before instinctually doing as the masculine voice had commanded and coming face-to-face with the fourth page. Mixed emotions filled the trembling teen as she retrieved the scrap of paper, seeing that it featured nothing more than rough sketches of trees and another illustration of the faceless man. As if on cue, the eerie voice piped up again; “Four of Eight.” “Good, good. Now, stick that in your pocket and listen up. I only have a very limited window of time to relay this information to you so pay close attention;” “And why the hell should I trust you, especially after what that… that thing just did to me? Taking advice from some disembodied voice in a haunted forest sounds like a good way to get myself killed,” Kate challenged. “I really don’t care if you find me trustworthy or not because if you don’t listen to what I have to say, you will never leave this forest alive, so do us both a favor and lose the attitude.” Taken aback by this new entity’s disposition, Kate could do little more than give a nod of understanding. “I apologize for the hostile tone, but you must understand that time is of the essence. The Administrator cannot know of my actions tonight or all will be lost.” “The Administrator?” Kate asked. “That is what we call the being who is hunting you. I belong to an organization known as The Collective; an inner circle of his most powerful and most trusted servants… or perhaps, slaves would be a better term for us.” “Wait, so if you work for that thing, then why are you trying to help me?” “What part of the term ‘slave’ did you not understand? I don’t want to work for Him and never did in the first place. I used to be human, like you, but The Administrator and His Collective stole my life away… turned me into what I am now. I’d like nothing more right now than to cheat him out of another prize, but that’s only a small piece of the puzzle.” “What do you mean?” Kate questioned. “Kate, you are but one pawn in a game of chess that was set in motion long ago. You’ll come to know what that means later on, but as for the situation at hand, you need to know that while He does love a good hunt, He loves a good game of cat-and-mouse even more. You were right about those pages holding the gate shut, and if you have any desire to escape, you’ll do everything in your power to gather the remaining four. Now, leaving this place will not stop The Administrator from following you beyond the park, but at the very least it’ll get you out of any immediate danger, and if you’re lucky, you might be able to get some semblance of normal life back.” “So, you’re saying that there’s no way to kill this thing then?” Kate asked, deeply troubled by the idea of living a life where an eldritch abomination shadowed her at every turn. “If I knew of a surefire way, I would’ve tried it by now, but it’s a work in progress. Believe me, the second I figure out how to kill this son of a bitch, He’ll never be able to hurt anyone again. Nice strategy with the salt and fire, by the way. If you’d used that against what you thought you were hunting, you would’ve come out on top without a doubt,” the man said. “Thanks,” Kate responded, allowing herself to smile a little bit. “Wait, how’d you know I was trying to destroy a ghost?” “You talk to yourself a lot, and we’ve been listening all night. That, and salting and burning a body is the go-to solution for most phantoms,” he answered. “I’m running out of time, but now you know without a doubt what you have to do. I feel for you, Kate, I really do, but now is not the time to break down and feel sorry for yourself. You need to stand back up right now and get back in the game, and don’t even think about trying to cheat your way out of this because He will personally ensure that you suffer a fate worse than death if you try anything. No, you need to get back up on your feet, grit your teeth, and win this thing the right way no matter what it takes. Do you understand me?” her new ally said. “I do,” Kate answered, getting back up and retrieving her equipment. “What about you? Am I going to hear from you again?” “I’ll do my best, but I can’t make any promises. This short little conversation is far too much of a risk as it is, but it was worth it. Good luck, Kate, I have faith in you,” he said, preparing to cut off their communication. “Wait, what am I supposed to call you?” she asked. For a few moments, there was only silence, but the entity must have decided that revealing his name would cause no harm because a few short moments later he responded with; “My name… is Firebrand.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
With her former determination having been rejuvenated courtesy of her new ally’s pep talk, Kate held her head high as she jogged down the dirt road, keeping at a mild pace to avoid wearing herself out. She’d decided to follow Firebrand’s advice; rather than worrying about what the future held or feeling sorry for herself, she was entirely focused on solving the problem at hand. Her only concern, for the time being, was staying alive long enough to complete the second half of her mission, and only after that goal had been achieved and she’d escaped this wretched place would she feel comfortable enough to worry about what the future held. Still, she often found her mind wandering as exploring abandoned trails was rather uneventful… aside from the part about being hounded by an ancient force of evil, that is. First and foremost, she wanted to know more about The Administrator and had an innumerable number of questions about the beast, questions such as; “Where did He come from?” or “Exactly how long has He been around?” “What’s going to happen if He actually catches me?” and “How far does His influence really spread?” were also among the questions rattling around in her head, not to mention the most pressing concern; “How did that thing make me feel so sick just by being close to it? Could it be generating some kind of radiation?” She also wanted to know more about Firebrand, her supposed messiah, as she wasn’t even sure if she fully trusted him yet. So far, all he’d really done was confirm information she already knew and tell a revenge story that very well could’ve been fabricated to lure her into a false sense of security. “There’s no way he’s just helping me out of the kindness of his heart. That’d be way too risky if he’s telling the truth about who he is,” Kate thought to herself, taking great care to avoid speaking aloud ever since she’d been made aware of the fact that her enemies were listening. “There must be some ulterior motive… he mentioned that I was part of something that started a long time ago but wouldn’t tell me what that was,” she pondered; “I guess it doesn’t really matter right now, as long as he’s telling the truth about wanting to help me… I just hope he’s actually trustworthy.”
She checked the clock on her camcorder’s screen as she was thinking, discovering it to be early in the morning now; around 3:47, give or take a few minutes since the device hadn’t been used in a while. Fatigue was beginning to set in but slowing down wasn’t an option, especially since her flashlight was starting to grow dimmer and the battery life on her camera was getting dangerously low, the screen beginning to darken in order to conserve battery power. She couldn’t bear the thought of being without either of them, as both served as her last line of defense against the dark forces seeking to ensnare her in the dark forest, and picked up her pace while doing her best to tune out the eerie sounds that followed wherever she went. Ever since she’d stopped at the cross-walls, things seemed to be going relatively smoothly… at least until now. She felt an all-to-familiar chill creep up her spine, and without bothering to look back, immediately started running faster. Far more unnerving than the unnatural ambiance of the forest was the constant feeling of being watched, but it was something that Kate quickly grew accustomed to. It hadn’t been long since she’d left the cross-walls behind, and yet she was already stumbling across something new; a small, rough, dirt trail extending into the woods from the left side of the main road. This path, in particular, was in a far rougher condition than the others; littered with overgrown ferns, fallen twigs, and dead leaves, having become nearly invisible from the main path as a result. The foliage was so thick that she had no choice but to slow her pace down to a walk as she stepped onto the trail, as the trees were far more plentiful than usual and thick branches obscured the night sky, making her feel even more thankful for her flashlight. Fortunately, she didn’t have to travel too far into the woods before a small clearing became visible; one that held a cluster of what appeared to be pale logs standing vertically like a bootleg Stonehenge.
Upon closer inspection, the strange landmarks turned out to be long-dead trees that had been stripped of their branches, leaves, and bark. Out of all the landmarks she’d borne witness to that night, this one made the least amount of sense to the teenaged girl. Her best guess was that RiverView Management had been in the process of clearing out a new area to put in another attraction for passing hikers, and they’d probably been harvesting the trees as well so that they wouldn’t go to waste, but why they would’ve left them like this, or even gone through the extra trouble of stripping everything from them in the first place was a mystery. “Maybe they were going to use these for some kind of rope climbing thing,” Kate thought, “Or maybe this is the work of something else entirely.” Fortunately, the simplicity of the area made finding the fifth page extraordinarily easy since it was just stuck to one of the stripped trees, and there weren’t enough of those around to make locating it a challenge. “Five of Eight,” the voice announced once again, growing increasingly agitated with each collected note, the most recent of which simply reading;
“Help Me.”
As expected, the repetitive ambiance from before came to a close as she retrieved the yellowed paper, but surprisingly, the one it was replaced with was far more natural than any of the others; it was a tempest that ravaged the treetops and made hearing difficult while simultaneously kicking up loose dirt, spreading the thick fog even further into the air, and dropping dozens upon dozens of leaves and dead branches. It was almost too much to bear, and while squinting against the unnatural gale, Kate caught sight of The Administrator observing her from just beyond the tree-line. She took that as her cue to leave and ran back the way she’d come from, not wanting to experience the same effects she’d been forced to endure in the bathhouse. It was a difficult task to perform in the tight confines of the dense foliage, but the adrenaline pumping through her veins managed to work a miracle and she made it back to the road without too much difficulty. The wind roared even more fiercely out in the open and Kate struggled to do so much as remain standing upright, let alone move forward at a decent pace, and found herself stumbling forward at a speed she was far from comfortable with. Several painstaking minutes of struggling against the elements occurred before the poor girl finally found somewhere to offer sanctuary; a huge concrete tunnel that had been built into a steep hill in order to allow the trail to continue. Desperate to get away from the wind, she quickly made her way toward the passage, all while being stalked by an eldritch deity who was growing increasingly unamused by the minute.
Aside from the occasional chip or network of cracks in the concrete, the tunnel was structurally sound. There was also an abundance of moss growth on the walls as well as some standing water on certain parts of the path, but that was about the extent of the disrepair. However, the cloud of dread hanging over her grew exponentially as soon as she stepped foot in the dark passage, as if the structure itself was emitting bad energy. Her heart began to pound harder with each step, and she found herself growing more paranoid by the second, constantly looking over her shoulder and waving her flashlight around to make sure nothing was waiting for her in the dark. Fortunately, this sudden bout of terror wouldn’t have to last long, as the flashlight’s dim beam suddenly fell upon a yellowed note stuck to the wall about halfway through the tunnel. Scrawled ominously across the scrap of paper in frantic handwriting was the phrase; “Can’t Run,” and incoherent shapes and scribbles covered the bottom of the paper. “Six of Eight,” the voice announced, sounding more jovial than before as she pocketed the page. Before Kate even had the opportunity to suspect that something was amiss, she felt a dark presence manifest right behind her, and her head started to hurt again. Refusing to do so much as take a quick glance behind herself, she sprinted toward the other end of the tunnel without any hesitation, but her escape route was abruptly blocked by the suited Lovecraftian horror. The Administrator’s sudden appearance had caused her to crash into Him at full force, knocking her down to the ground as if she’d run into a brick wall. “Time’s up,” the demon stated coldly as it looked down at the dazed and barely conscious girl laying on the ground, all while her flickering flashlight struggled to remain powered on and the static, distorted screeching of her camera echoed throughout the tunnel. She could hardly make out the dark tentacles snaking their way toward her as lightheadedness threatened to become unconsciousness, but something unexpected happened just before The Administrator could close in for the kill; A man shrouded in darkness appeared between Kate and the demon as if trying to protect her from an untimely demise. It was impossible to make out any distinguishing features on his silhouetted form, with the exception of three characteristics; the mysterious man had pinhole eyes that shone an unholy white, and he wore a toothy grin of the same color. Set into the palm of each hand was a glowing eyeball, both of which were animate and staring directly at the wounded girl.
As far as she could tell through her double vision, this new entity seemed to be conversing with The Administrator, whose tentacles had retracted as it listened to whatever proposition was being thrown at it. After several minutes of debate and no small deal of convincing, the faceless deity finally gave in to the shadow man’s request and gave a nod of approval before vanishing into thin air, leaving no trace of its presence behind. The unexpected savior let out an audible sigh of relief once his master was gone, and as he approached the barely conscious teen, he said; “Well, I managed to buy you a little time, but not much. You have no idea how lucky you are that I was able to pull this off.”
Kate’s eyes widened as she recognized the voice of the being looking down at her broken form. “Firebrand?” she managed to ask, silently rejoicing as she watched his grin widen and the nod of confirmation that he gave her.
“Come on, let’s get you patched up,” he said as he took one of her hands in his own. Before she could say anything more, she felt a rushing sensation and everything went dark.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
A haunting, distorted, yet somehow somber melody filled the stale, dead air of the abyss that the demigod and the teenager he’d rescued now took sanctuary in. Kate and Firebrand sat in the dirt on opposite sides of a makeshift firepit, the warm glow coming from the dull blaze succeeding in little more than brightening the immediate area. The pitch-black void surrounding them devoured any and all excess light, making it impossible to see anything beyond the protection offered by the dancing flames. Perhaps her eyes would’ve eventually adjusted to the darkness had she decided to go investigate what was out there, but she intended on doing no such thing; Kate knew better than to leave their safe haven, for she’d been warned of the horrors that existed in this unholy plane of existence. Her unexpected savior had told her very little about the realm he’d taken her to, only instructing the girl not to venture off on her own; not that she’d needed any warning. “This place doesn’t take very kindly to strangers,” he’d said while doing his best to tend to her concussion and set her broken nose, both of which she’d gotten during her collision with The Administrator. Despite the shadow man’s efforts to make her comfortable, she felt far worse taking shelter in the void than she ever had while wandering RiverView Park. This realm of reality was no place for human beings, so while Firebrand sat there calm and collected, his glowing pinhole eyes staring thoughtfully into the glowing embers, Kate only grew more paranoid by the second. She found herself constantly looking over her shoulder, her flesh crawling with goosebumps as she had no choice but to listen to the disturbing, near-constant noises coming from the other side of the black curtain. Every snapped twig, creak or crack of a branch, and even the occasional footfall tugged at her sanity, and as she looked back up at Firebrand to observe his nonchalant behavior, a great deal of irritation built up inside. He’d said next to nothing since tossing her those painkillers and curious white pills from across the firepit, choosing to contemplate the flames instead. Suddenly, the sound of something huge entering a body of water rang out from somewhere nearby and Kate let out a yelp of fear, earning herself a bemused look from Firebrand. She scowled back at him and finally snapped, fed up with his silence; “Why are you looking at me like that? This might be an everyday thing for you, but I’ve never actually visited Hell before now,” she spat.“You seemed pretty eager to try it just a few hours ago,” he commented, ignoring the glare she was giving him; “Besides, you’re safe as long as I’m around, which makes this the best-case scenario. I don’t blame you for hating it here, but there was nowhere else I could’ve taken you.”“You could’ve taken me home, did you ever consider that?” she snarkily replied.“And what do you think would’ve happened if I did?” Firebrand retorted, receiving the same foul look in response; “Did you pay any attention to what I told you back in the forest? They would’ve slaughtered everybody you love and made you watch, so be very grateful that I didn’t take you back home because you’d be begging for death right now if I had.”“What the hell is wrong with you? You’re supposed to be the hero who comes in and fixes everything, not a cynical jerk who treats me like I’m just some dumb kid,” she said, raising her voice.“Who just saved your naive little ass?” Firebrand growled. “I don’t think you fully understand the gravity of the situation; This isn’t some low-budget monster movie or video game where everything magically works itself out in the end, I’m not your knight in shining armor who comes riding in to slay the beast and save the day, and you certainly are not some modern Ellen Ripley. What were you thinking coming out here on your own like that? Even if it had been a vengeful spirit, do you honestly believe that you would’ve stood any chance against it? How shortsighted are you that you think picking up a few tips and tricks from a mediocre television show makes you capable of fighting monsters?” the exasperated entity lectured.“I was trying to save my mom’s life!” Kate shouted, mixed emotions welling up inside of her.“Well, a lot of good that did! If you don’t manage to pull this off, you’ll die out here and nobody will ever see you again! How do you think your mom will feel about that after she’s already lost so much?” Firebrand responded, earning a shocked look from Kate. She stared at the annoyed daemon for several moments before what he said finally hit home, and she felt herself starting to tear up. She buried her face in her hands and cried silently, imagining what her mother’s reaction would be if she never saw her daughter again. Firebrand let out a remorseful sigh upon seeing the teen’s reaction to his outburst, cursing himself for losing his temper with her. “Listen, Kate, I’m sorry… I just…” he started, struggling to put his thoughts into words. “It’s easy to forget that you’re just a kid, especially after everything I’ve seen you go through tonight. I didn’t mean anything by…”“No, you’re right. I’m not ready for this… It was stupid to think I was” she interrupted, wiping tears away with her sleeve. “But that doesn’t matter because I have to be; I have to be for my mom’s sake, and I’m going to finish this no matter what it takes,” she said, her shaky voice filled with determination.“And I will do everything in my power to help you get out of this mess, I promise you that. But you need to have trust in me for this to work, and that goes beyond simply taking those painkillers I gave you,” he said, having found a whole new sense of admiration for the girl. “Understood?”“Yes,” she sniffled, nodding to her inhuman ally.“Good. Now that we’re on the same page, I need to know if you’re ready to go back to the forest. We’re running out of time, and believe me when I tell you that you’ll like The Administrator even less when He’s angry,” he said, getting up onto his feet.“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. Those meds you gave me really did the trick, whatever they were,” she stated as she too stood back up.“Those little beauties are called Preaxin,” he said with a grin; “Fighting off Sigma Radiation Poisoning isn’t their intended purpose, but for some reason, the things have an element or chemical compound in them that works wonders for people in your situation; and before you even ask, no, taking them won’t have any nasty side effects. I think their official purpose is to help with schizophrenia or seizures or something.”“Well I guess I was right about the effect that The Administrator had on me and my equipment being radiation-based,” Kate stammered, amazed that she’d guessed correctly. “But this Sigma Radiation, how does it work exactly?” she questioned, hoping to untie some more knots before being dumped back into the fray.“To put it in layman’s terms, the stuff rolls off of Him like some kind of anomalous body odor, only instead of smelling bad it ravages your physical health. It’s not something you want to be around for very long and avoid it altogether when possible. Looking back on it I really should’ve warned you about this sooner, since the amount of time you’re exposed to this stuff can mean the difference between life and death. Also, keep in mind that Preaxin isn’t a permanent solution, especially if you get too close to the source. Think of it as a supernatural painkiller,” Firebrand explained.“So it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to invest in some of these things as soon as possible then, considering you told me before that He’s still going to follow me around after this is over,” Kate said.“Bingo,” the demigod responded, satisfied at the progress they were making together. Then, his tone shifted back to serious again as he remembered the tight schedule he was on; “I hope you’re ready because it’s time to go.”“I am,” Kate confirmed, fear setting in again as Firebrand took her hand in his own. After only a short moment of dizziness accompanied by the same rushing sensation as before, she found herself blinking rapidly as she adjusted to the new surroundings. No longer were they in the twisted crawlspace between worlds, but back in the concrete tunnel standing almost exactly where she’d been knocked to the ground. The tired teenager instantaneously felt the familiar chill of the forest, but this time she relished in it, grateful that she no longer had to breathe in the foul abyssal air. She heard the fierce wind picking up outside of the passage, and when she turned to look out at the tunnel’s exit was pleasantly surprised to see the first glimmer of dim morning sunlight shining down on the hiking trails.“Catch,” Firebrand said as he tossed her the fallen flashlight and camcorder, which had been laying in the dirt since she’d dropped them. “I hope those still work. Believe it or not, Sigma Radiation is worse for electrical equipment than it is for people.”“Let me check,” Kate said, searching for the power button. The camera booted up slowly, and when first turning on emitted a shrill burst of static as video tearing and discoloration flashed across the now-cracked screen. At first, she feared the worst, but after a few painstaking moments of waiting, the device seemed to get ahold of itself and went back to working normally. After checking to make sure all of the footage she’d recorded hadn’t been erased, she hit record again and pointed the camera at Firebrand, doing her best not to worry about the near-dead battery. She then switched on her flashlight, which still worked alright, but the battery was so depleted that the beam was barely visible. “Everything’s up and running,” she announced.“You still have those notes on you?” he asked. Kate dug around in her jacket pocket for a moment to make sure she still had all six before nodding her head. “Well, in that case, this is where we part ways. I wish I could do more for you, I really do, but now my help must come to an end… for good.”“Wait, what are you,” Kate began to ask, confused at this sudden turn of events. However, it only took one wink from the eye on his left hand, the one that wasn’t in view of the camera, to understand what was happening; He was putting on a show for those who might be listening, whose eyes were definitely fixated on the two of them now that the game was about to resume. “Well… thanks, I guess,” she responded, playing along with his scheme.“Oh, and just for the record, I find your actions tonight far more brave than stupid,” he said, earning an amused grin from the girl. “Good luck out there, kid,” he said, preparing to leave.“Wait!” Kate exclaimed, needing to get one more piece of information from him; “You said before that I was part of something that began a long time ago, and it kind of sounded like I’d have an important role to play in the future. What was that all about?” she questioned.“You’ll find out when the time is right. Just know that everything happening tonight is only the beginning,” Firebrand stated, a neutral look on his ghostly face. “Best not to worry about it now, though. Go make your mother proud.” With that, the living silhouette gave one last glowing white, toothy smile before vanishing.“Thank you, for everything,” Kate whispered. She’d wanted to say much more to this strange being to whom she owed her life, but hadn’t found the right words in time. He’d never been obligated to guide her along the right path, deceive The Administrator into letting him help her escape, or even do so much as speak to her at all. He may have had ulterior motives for assisting her rather than just doing it out of the kindness of his heart, and she fully expected to learn more about what those motives entailed in the years to come, but for now, she was just grateful for his help. Without Firebrand, she’d surely be dead… or worse. Holding her head high, Kate finally exited the tunnel and stepped out into the windswept morning, noticing right off the bat that the suffocating fog from before was all but gone. Her best guess was that the tempest had either blown most of it away, or it had dissipated on its own as the morning grew brighter. Beams of bright golden light from the rising sun shone through the trees like rays of hope, finally putting an end to the oppressive darkness and allowing the teenager to put her flashlight away in a jacket pocket. According to the camcorder’s clock, it was roughly 7:00 in the morning, and in any normal forest, she’d be able to look forward to seeing the wildlife waking up from its collective slumber. However, in this cursed place, the only thing she had to look forward to beyond the rising sun was being hunted by a demon. More determined than ever before to finally end the nightmare, she started sprinting down the trail as fast as she could while fighting hard against the wind, doing her best to ignore the fact that she could see The Administrator much more clearly in the sunlight. It took longer than she would’ve liked to reach the next landmark thanks to the unrelenting gale, but she still made it there at a decent time. However, it turned out to be nothing more than a heavily rusted, blue oil truck parked in the grass to the left of the trail, and much to Kate’s annoyance, there wasn’t a note to be found. Letting out a frustrated groan, she glanced to the right and saw The Administrator standing in the road, much closer to her position than she appreciated. She knew that if He could physically smile at her misfortune, He would be doing so, and thought of flipping the creature off but ultimately decided against it. Going through with that idea would’ve been like prodding a bull, only this particular bull was capable of effortlessly reducing her to a bloody mess. Instead, she simply turned around and got away from the area as fast as she could, refusing to let the creature’s scare tactics get to her head. The sun steadily climbed higher in the sky and illuminated more and more of the landscape, which ultimately proved to be both a gift and a curse. While it was far easier to see where she was going now, aside from the wind stinging her eyes, it was also much easier to see The Administrator in her peripheral vision, who was constantly teleporting from place to place, trying to make her slip up as He slowly got closer and closer. Feeling her heart rate increasing and knowing that she couldn’t ignore His presence for much longer, she pushed herself to keep going, her legs burning as her lungs struggled to take in enough air. She soon stumbled across a new path that branched off to the left, but took one look down it and passed it by, now able to see that it led back to the field that held the propane tanks and bathhouse. Kate eventually managed to reach the penultimate landmark; a red, rusted pickup truck parked next to a small, run-down blue and yellow building in the shape of a cube. It took only a few moments of investigation to discover that the vehicle held nothing of interest, but there was, however, a tattered scrap of paper stuck to the shed’s single boarded-up window. A more detailed, yet still simplistic drawing of The Administrator stood at the center of the page, and scribbled around it dozens of times was the word “No.” “Seven of Eight,” the voice announced with a nervous tone. “One to go,” Kate muttered as she pocketed the note, well aware of how serious things were about to get. Just as that thought was going through her head, a new ambiance tore through the forest to signify the final stage of the game; There was no coherent explanation for what she was hearing, as it could only be described as a strange, repeating audio frequency that shifted in pitch throughout its duration, accompanied by something that vaguely resembled the sound of raspy breathing thrown in at the end of the loop. Unfortunately for the exhausted teenager, this new cadence operated differently than the previous ones; Instead of replacing the fearsome tempest, it joined in with it to create something far more unsettling than any of the others. Snapping back to her senses, Kate barely had time to shift her thoughts away from the new sound and back to her objective before The Administrator abruptly appeared right in front of her, His tentacles writhing ferociously in the air. She immediately ran for her life, sprinting down the trail as fast as she could and dodging her foe at every turn. The demon was moving around more rapidly now than it ever had before, frequently teleporting directly in front of the girl in the hopes that she’d finally slip up and run right into its waiting arms. Due to her enemy’s erratic movements, she was often forced to backtrack or even leave the path entirely, which made progressing much slower than she would’ve liked, but the effort proved to be worth it as the last landmark was finally within sight; A great tree stood tall in a grassy patch at the center of the dirt road, its dead, deformed branches reaching toward the sky like misshapen lightning bolts. She was so close, so close to reaching her goal, but the faceless monstrosity was relentless and had no intentions of letting her win. However, her determination to survive far outweighed The Administrator’s resolve to ensnare a new victim, and when Kate laid eyes on the final page, she pushed herself further than she’d ever thought was possible to reach it, nearly colliding with the tree in the process. She snatched the eighth page off of the petrified bark and fell to the ground with the note clutched in her fist, taking in deep, raspy gulps of air as her body recovered from the physical torment she’d just put herself through. Eagerly, she waited for the game’s disembodied commentator to announce her victory, and when at long last the devastating wind died down, the unnerving ambiance faded into silence, and the eerie voice she’d come to know so well uttered the phrase; “Eight of Eight” in a disappointed tone, she let out a cheerful laugh, hardly able to believe that it was finally over.Scrawled haphazardly on the final note was the word; “Follows,” and accompanying the obvious hint was a picture of The Administrator standing beside a tall pine tree. After taking a quick glance at the tattered artifact, Kate stuffed it in her pocket and headed back toward the gate at a steady pace, enjoying the new day. A triumphant smile spread across her face as she approached the now-unlocked gate and slid it open, but did little to camouflage the tired look in her eyes. RiverView Park turned out to be far more beautiful in the day than she ever could’ve expected; The bright morning sun cast its golden brilliance across the vacant landscape as a warm breeze gently blew through the overgrown grass and rustled the vibrant green leaves. Finally able to sense the departure of the dark presence corrupting their forest, the inhabitants of the woods cautiously trickled out of hiding, beginning with the brave birds and squirrels who came down from their nests to forage for food. She even saw a family of deer walking around by the fence, and a warm feeling built up inside of her as she watched the doe and her two fawns lazily grazing without a care in the world. At that moment, she truly felt on top of the world. However, the good vibes were abruptly cut short when the doe’s head snapped over to look at something behind the teenager, and as she and her young fearfully fled into the woods, a familiar chill crept back up Kate’s spine. She spun around and came face-to-face with The Administrator, whose tentacles writhed in the air like a nest of black serpents. The battered girl was immediately felled by the unholy power emanating from the beast; the very same radiation that Firebrand had warned her to stay away from, and as she kneeled on the ground clutching her head with both hands, she felt tears of pain rolling down her face as blood began to drip from her nose again. Her trembling body felt as if it were freezing solid, and a fierce migraine ripped through her skull, partially thanks to the loud electronic screeching coming from her camera. “Why are you doing this? I already won your stupid game!” she sobbed, praying for anything to make the unbearable pain go away. Sadly, no help came, and as she felt herself slipping into the sweet release of unconsciousness, an ominous response invaded her mind;
“I have plans for you, Kate.”
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Thunder crashed and branches snapped as the storm outside continued its assault on the town of Oakside, sending many unsuspecting residents into a blind panic as the ruckus jolted them awake. While her fellow townspeople found the downpour to be an annoyance at best, the sound of heavy rain pelting the roof of her house while relentless wind swept through the trees was rather soothing to the now twenty-three-year-old Katelyn Milens. The distracting racket was a nice change of pace from the silence that usually allowed her mind to run wild whenever she indulged in her unusual habit; sketching those strange illustrations of cryptic phrases and tall trees accompanied by the suited specter… not unlike the very same notes she’d been forced to retrieve eight years ago. A compulsion like this was one that had formed over almost a decade of being dogged by paranormal entities, and as much as she hated to admit it, she couldn’t deny the fact that her self-isolation from society had helped to fuel the fires of the addiction. With each passing day, more and more of her time was taken up by this fixation, but Kate had decided long ago that this way was better for everyone; The fewer people she came into contact with, the lower the risk of them getting involved in her predicament was. Sadly, this particular strategy came with the price of loneliness, but it was a price she was willing to pay if it meant stopping the plague from spreading to more people. The walls of her room were plastered with these sketches, the floor was littered with the ones she hadn't strung up, and even bare sections of the walls had been used as a canvas when a project became too large for paper alone to handle. However, no amount of rain, thunder, or artistic expression could hope to block out the young woman’s memories of what she’d been through in RiverView Park, let alone the horrors from mere hours ago that were still fresh in her mind. Even so, she tried her best not to think about it too much; an effort that was made futile by the content of her drawings. Kate let out a sigh of defeat as the memories finally proved to be too much to keep at bay and found herself thinking about how simple and carefree things had once been, reminiscing in the days of her childhood that weren’t tainted with black suits and night terrors. She remembered how quickly everything had happened after that night in the woods, how she’d been so excited about moving to Oakside to start a new life, and how slowly but surely her dreams of ever being normal again were crushed by an eldritch horror who reveled in her misery. “God forgive me, but sometimes I wish He would’ve just finished the job back then instead of making me suffer for so long,” she pondered, thinking back to the events that transpired shortly after RiverView;
(X)
As he was finally nearing the end of his long drive over to Crystal Falls, Carl Ross noticed something peculiar out of the corner of his eye; the familiar brown suburban that belonged to Beth Hayes was parked far down the driveway of the abandoned RiverView Park. Immediately growing suspicious, he pulled up behind the suburban and stepped out of the car, making his way toward the other vehicle and peering through a window. “What the hell?” he muttered after peering through a window and seeing a baseball bat lying in the back seat. “Kate, where are you?” the man called out, dread building up inside of him when no response came. “Oh shit… Kate! Beth! Somebody answer me!” he shouted, sprinting down the driveway while doing his best not to imagine the worst-case scenario. “Oh god…” Carl groaned upon catching sight of his surrogate sister laying unconscious in the tall grass. “Kate, wake up! Hey, can you hear me? Wake up!” he pleaded, attempting to rouse her from the coma. Blood still dripped steadily from her nose and ears, and her ice-cold body trembled violently on the ground as her face contorted in pain. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered, picking up the wounded girl and cradling her in his arms as he rushed her back to his car, where he laid her down in the back seat and cranked up the heater. “Just hang in there, I’m gonna get you some help,” he instructed, hoping that his friend could still hear him. He started to shut the door but stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed the damaged camcorder still clutched in her frigid hand. Carl took hold of the camera and gently pried it from her grasp, taking a look at its cracked screen. A sharp burst of static nearly caused him to drop the device when it first turned on, and the heavy video distortion that plagued the screen, accompanied by near-constant white noise and an all but dead battery told him all that he needed to know. “No… not this, please not this,” he begged, reaching into the girl’s pockets to search for more evidence. Unfortunately, his suspicions were confirmed when he looked over the things she’d been carrying; a busted flashlight and eight scraps of tattered paper, all of them featuring cryptic, ominous messages.
However, what really made his blood run cold were the frequent illustrations of the same tall, suited, faceless man that Carl himself had come face-to-face with two years prior at the Matheson Farm. A burning rage suddenly erupted inside of him, and throwing all caution to the wind, he stowed Kate’s equipment and the pages she’d collected in his glovebox and marched over to her car. With one well-placed elbow to the glass, the suburban’s window shattered, allowing him to retrieve the baseball bat from the back seat and carve a very particular symbol into it with a shard of glass. “You think you’re all big and bad picking on some poor kid, well come on then! Show me what you’re made of!” he shouted into the trees, gripping the weapon tightly in the hopes of The Administrator accepting his challenge. “What are you waiting for? You’ve been waiting two years for a rematch, right? Why don’t you stop hiding in the woods and show yourself you FUCKING COWARD!” he roared, more furious at the beast than he’d ever been before. However, the demon he was awaiting never showed its face, and as Carl stood there waiting, his anger was quickly overshadowed by a sudden realization; “Damn you, Großmann,” he fumed, remembering the dire situation that his friend was in. “Hold on!” he yelled to her, running back to the car and jumping in, throwing the bat into the passenger’s side and flooring it out of the driveway, going well over the speed limit on the way to North Cross Hospital.
Kate awoke in a hospital bed several days later, groggy and confused with tubes and needles sticking out of her arms. Her mother was there by her side, and so was Lauren, both of whom were ecstatic to see her awake after so many days of hopelessness. The battered girl couldn’t remember very much of the hell she’d been through, only bits and pieces, and as a result had almost managed to convince herself that the entire thing was just a really bad dream, but her hopes were extinguished as soon as she saw the grave look on Carl’s face when he walked through the door. It was painfully obvious that he’d watched the videotape while she was comatose, and she hoped dearly that he hadn’t mentioned it to anybody else. Not wanting to sound insane to everyone but Carl, Kate decided to remain silent about the supernatural horrors she’d been forced to endure, and instead feigned amnesia of the whole event. She learned that Carl had called Lauren about the situation shortly after getting their friend to the emergency room, and when she’d agreed to come over and help take care of Kate’s mom while the girl was in recovery, Carl contacted Beth and brought her to the hospital, as she was adamant about wanting to see her daughter. While Kate greatly appreciated all of the concern that her loved ones were showing her, she knew that there were more important things to attend to and told Carl everything the moment she got the chance, even apologizing for not believing him about the Matheson Farm. Carl couldn’t help but chuckle at her apology and told her not to worry about it, stating that he too would’ve been skeptical if their roles had been reversed. “Just remember, we’re in this together now,” he’d told the injured teen; “And I’m going to do everything I can to keep you safe.”
The ensuing investigation into the incident accomplished very little, mainly due to Kate proving to be a natural at concealing the truth. “I was just doing some ghost hunting,” she’d told the detectives who asked her why she’d been trespassing in the park. Her explanation wasn’t exactly untrue, but she didn’t go into much more detail than that and even insinuated that she’d been doing it for fun before she was attacked. As much as she hated lying to the doctors and police who were trying their best to help her, she hated the idea of being sent to a mental ward even more. That combined with Carl’s efforts in hiding the footage of the event from prying eyes culminated in the police ruling the event an attempted homicide, with their only physical description of the perpetrator consisting of; “He was really pale and wore a black suit, but I can’t remember what He looked like,” courtesy of Kate. The whole ordeal was eventually declared an open investigation, and there were even theories being thrown around about how this new development could be connected to the original batch of murders. Eventually, Kate was released from the hospital and the detectives stopped harassing her at every turn, but any hope of returning to normal life was gone. Crystal Falls was one of those towns where everybody in the community knew each other in one way or another, and it didn’t take long for word of what had happened to spread. She hated the way everybody looked at her now; like she was a victim. They tried to treat her like she was still the same happy girl they’d known for so many years, but she could see the pity in their eyes whenever they spoke to her. High school became a nightmare as well, with those who didn’t feel sorry for her deciding that it would be fun to pick on the poor teen. She quickly became isolated on both fronts, and soon could focus on nothing but the monsters she constantly saw lurking in the shadows or hiding in her peripheral vision; the monsters that nobody else could see when she tried pointing them out. The Tall Man was especially cruel in that regard; He would allow her to see Him standing there motionlessly, always watching, but would never reveal Himself to anyone else. She started seeing Him more and more as her memory healed, and eventually the school counselors heard about her so-called delusions and recommended her to a psychiatrist, who surprisingly turned out to be quite helpful. Over the course of these visits, she was prescribed several types of medication, most of which didn’t really do much for her mental health, but a couple of them worked wonders, particularly the ones for anxiety and paranoia. Perhaps her only real victory was managing to get a Preaxin prescription, something she thanked Firebrand for tipping her off about every time she took one of those little white capsules. She never really stopped seeing The Administrator, not to mention the flunkies of His who would occasionally tag along, but they never attempted to harm her; They simply watched from a distance, studying their newest lab rat as she tried to go about her life like a normal person. As time went on, things started changing faster than Kate ever could’ve anticipated, and before she knew it she was an adult signing lease papers and paying bills. She eventually managed to save up enough money to buy a house of her own, and with nothing left for her in her hometown, purchased some property in Oakside and moved away, where she lived as normally as she could for several years. Up until a short while ago, everything had been just fine.
(X)
The longer the storm went on, the more she enjoyed listening to it. The howling wind and buckets of rain helped clear her head, and the metallic creaking of the swingset outside accompanied by the sound of groaning trees only added to the soothing atmosphere. Perhaps the reason she could hear it so well was that earlier in the day, she’d opened all of the windows and doors in her house, hoping to counteract the unusual heat wave that came just before the storm. Part of her knew that she should've shut them, but at this point, she simply didn't care; It was an unusually warm night, the breeze felt good, and the sound and smell of the rain helped ease her conscience. However, as the hours passed the storm steadily grew worse, and Kate was debating whether or not she wanted to get up and stop the inside of her house from being drenched. It was late in the night now, around 3:30 AM, and the only light in her room came from the flashlight laying on her bed, as the storm had knocked out the power hours ago. She'd set up her new camcorder next to the flashlight and was using it to record herself, another habit that stemmed from dealing with entities that nobody else could see. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew through the open window, sweeping through the scattered papers and knocking a few from the walls. Then, lightning flashed across the sky accompanied by an earsplitting crack of thunder and Kate froze on the spot, feeling an all-too-familiar chill creep up her spine. She turned to face the camera, her terrified eyes beginning to water, and whispered; "He's here…”
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Properties
Slender: The Eight Pages & Slender: The Arrival
~Mark Hadley, Parsec Productions, and Blue Isle Studios
TribeTwelve
~Adam Rosner and Rikki Dorian Audax
Operator Symbol
~Troy Wagner, Joseph DeLage III, and Tim Sutton----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Characters & Factions
Slender Man
~Eric “Victor Surge” Knudsen
Kate Milens, Beth Hayes, Carl Ross, and Lauren Jones
~Slender: The Eight Pages & Slender: The Arrival
Firebrand and The Collective
~TribeTwelve----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Collaborators
Arúspice
~B&V Trilogy Cover Art Creator~Website Link: https://www.artstation.com/vtomioka
Dyinglight
~Story Influencer (Drafted concepts for Chapters 1 and 2 of B&V Book 2)~Website Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/6168427/
Infinit777
~FanScape Podcast Owner (Partnered with me to turn B&V Books 1 and 2 into audiobooks)~Website Link: https://www.thefanscape.com/ ~Season 2(Blood and Venom) Link: https://www.thefanscape.com/episodes/season/2/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer
~This is a nonprofit, fan-made passion project.~Any and all original content, characters, concepts, events, locations, etc…, belong to Arthur Faraday. All others belong to their respective owners.~No copyright infringement intended.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thank you for reading! Be sure to check out the second book in the series:
The Blood and Venom Trilogy - Book 2: Shattered Reality