It's over at last

God help me it's over. Last night I found the first flat place I've seen since I entered this strange and eldrich realm and I slept for what feels like the first time in ages - which can't be true, I did sleep while I was stuck in Shady Lawn. I awoke this morning to that voice booming from the sky again.

"James Phillip Carlson. You have overcome every obstacle placed in your path. You have been found to possess courage and determination. You are strong. You have proven yourself WORTHY. What do you desire?"

It was unnerving to hear this speech delivered in the same cold emotionless tone that the voice used when condemning another man to death for smoking a cigaret but I replied. "I want to save Janice. I want her to be safe from these monsters, that's what this whole journey was for. It's why I put myself through this hell. Her safety is the only thing that matters." The voice boomed from the sky once last time. "It is done. Prepare yourself James Phillip Carlson." With that a hole tore in reality, or what passes for reality in this place. Through it I saw a tower ascending to the heavens, so tall I could not see the top. It was wrapped in wire and string and cloth. Corpses hung on the wall. Many of them I recognized. I should after all, I was the one who hacked them to pieces in the lobby of their office building. From somewhere high in the tower I heard the screams of someone being tortured. I drew my sword and stepped through that gaping wound in space to find myself at the gate of the tower. It was guarded by a Puppet, this one dressed like Mr. Punch from the Punch and Judy puppet shows. He was surprised to see me, tried to tell me no one could enter because they were filming the new episode of Candle Cove, "Prisoner of the Skin-Taker". I cut him down where he stood and took the keys dangling from his belt.

The outside of the tower didn't prepare me for what I found inside. If you've ever seen a site where a TV show or movie is being filmed you probably know there are usually cables everywhere, hooking up the sound equipment, the video cameras, the lights, and everything else a film crew needs. Here the cables were made of flesh. The boom mics dangled from the ceiling on marionette wire and sinew and each had an ear grafted to it's end instead of a microphone. One of the camera men, well camera Puppets, swiveled towards me when he heard the disturbance and his camera blinked at me. The camera's eye was green. I saw the "manufacturers" logo on the side of the camera as he turned, "Newborn Technologies Incorporated". In the middle of the room at the end of a leather leash held by Horace Horrible was Janice. She looked terrified but her mouth was forced into a hideous grin as if the corners were being pulled up by strings. She was kneeling at the feet of the Skin-Taker and Pirate Percy was waiting off camera apparently for his cue to come rescue her. Janice was dirty and bruised and I doubt any of it was makeup. When I came in she turned her head to look at me but it was quickly, and probably painfully, twisted back by the being pulling her strings. The Wooden Girl. She was sitting in the directors chair, the body of a young girl carved from wood and wrapped in tangles of string and wire her face painted on with a perfection pageant contestants can only dream of. She turned slowly and looked at me. "The teacher actually made it. Skin-Taker, kill him and get back to work. The show must go on." While I had everyone else distracted Percy, God bless him, took advantage of the situation and did something I think he's wanted to do for a long time. He rushed on set and cut the leash that Horace was holding Janice by, in the same fluid motion he reversed the stroke of his blade and took Horace's head off at his buck teeth. Blood mixed with cotton stuffing as Horace went down, and for some reason the Wooden Girls control of Janice seemed to slip. Percy shouted at her to run and she started fighting her way to her feet. I barely had time to cut down the camera Puppet before the Skin-Taker was on me slashing and thrusting with his own blade. For all his bragging to Percy on the show about being the better swordsman he fights with more rage and brute strength than skill and I found his blows easier to parry than the Skin-Taker doppelganger in that strange realm. I quickly disarmed him and took his head off just like I had the duplicate yesterday. He dropped his weapon and began what would have under other circumstances been a comical scramble for his head. I kicked it away like a soccer ball and let him scramble for it, I had more important things to worry about.

Janice was screaming in pain. As I watched the strings implanted in her by the Wooden Girl writhed to the surface of her skin and fell to the ground. I don't know how it happened but she was free! The Wooden Girl was shocked as well she shouted at Percy to behave himself at once and stop Janice from escaping. He, as he put it was "Disinclined to acquiesce to her request." Unfortunately, his strings were still functioning. With a gesture from the Wooden Girl he jerked into action moving to block Janice's escape as the Wooden Girl conjured more strings from the air and sent them streaking towards Janice . . . where they simply fell to the floor millimeters away from her skin unable to touch her. She screamed at Percy to kill Janice rather than let her escape. He tried to fight the pull of her strings but I could see that he was he losing so I rushed down and got between him and Janice. I locked blades with him and leaned in close enough to speak to him without the Wooden Girl overhearing. I told him "Stop fighting Her Percy, and fight me. It might be the distraction Janice needs to escape." He nodded that he understood and we began to duel. For some reason the Wooden Girl actually seemed to enjoy this, she relaxed her control over him so he could fight with his own skill, much more skill than the Skin-Taker (still scrabbling after his head) had mustered. If I'd been in better condition I would have almost been a match for him but I was tired and still in pain. Even though I could tell he was holding back to make the fight last long enough for Janice to make her escape I knew he was going to kill me in the end.

Then I remembered the episode where he and the Skin-Taker fought, how they would occasionally slash for each others strings rather than their bodies. She wasn't pulling his strings at the time but I could still see them extending up towards the ceiling and trailing off into space, or possibly just moving in a direction that humans aren't aware of. My first strike at his strings missed and I was distracted enough that he got in a solid blow, I felt a pain in my left wrist and my hand went numb but I ignored it and fought on. I saw something slowly taking shape near Janice. A door. No, a Door, the kind that leads to the Empty City. I swallowed and hoped that when I said I wanted her to be safe from the monsters ALL of them were included, not just the Wooden Girl and her minions. My attention shifted back to Percy quickly as he scored a light wound on my right cheek, just under the eye. Nearly blinded me completely. Another attack at his strings severed the one connected to his left arm and the arm went limp, hanging by his side as if dead. I redoubled my effort then and brought him to one knee by severing the string to a leg. As he went down I saw the Door open and Janice fled through with tears in her eyes, but at least she didn't have to watch me and Percy cut each other up anymore. I hope she's somehow safe even in that place and I hope that against all odds she finds her way out. Percy looked up at me with his porcelain face and said "Finish it Mr. Carlson. I've been trapped like this too long. For every time I disobeyed Her the Queen made me cut off part of myself and She replaced it with a part from a doll. There is nothing left now of who I used to be and if you let me live She will hang me from the Tower still alive for the cloth birds to peck at with their needle beaks."

Regretfully I severed the strings connected to his torso and his head, and if he hadn't needed to change heads to change his expression I think he would have smiled as he died finally free of Her. I only wish I had gotten the same mercy. As I dealt the final blow I felt strings dig into MY flesh and felt my limbs move under Her command as She turned me to face Her. Her painted face couldn't change it's expression anymore than Percy's could but I could see she was furious. "You cost me a Janice!" she shrieked at me. "Not only that the Skin-Taker will take weeks to repair after you cut his head off and kicked it across the room. But worst of all you cost me a Percy. That Percy was relatively new, it had only served me for three years you bastard! I hate it when someone breaks my toys." She actually stamped her Goddamned foot there like a petulant child throwing a tantrum. "You owe me a new Percy, Carlson. And we need to clean up this mess so we can get back to filming again as soon as possible. Now lets deal with that little problem with your hand before we get started."

Damn, this took me forever to type. Understandable I suppose trying to type with this hook. I hope Janice is able to escape the City somehow and get home at last. I hope I find the new Janice before the Skin-Taker does. Thanks to him needing repairs I get a head start. I wish I didn't have to do this but She has my strings and if I disobey She has promised me a peg leg to go with the eye patch and the hook. James Carlson is dead, only Pirate Percy remains now and the show must go on.

Hopefully the Wooden Girl won't read this and notice my disobedience with these final words. Parents, if you're reading this, don't let your children watch Candle Cove. I know most of you can only see static and it seems odd if harmless to let them "watch static and make up pirate stories" but it is anything but. And watch over your daughters carefully. She wants a new Janice and I must bring Her one. I have no choice in the matter. Don't let it be your little girl.

Oh God.

It's been a few hours since my last post. I'm in a lot of pain as I type this up. I just had an encounter with what looked like the Skin Taker. I'm pretty sure based on what happened that it wasn't really him, just this place messing with me again but the after effects are all too real.

I was hiking up the slope when he dropped down from the trees on his strings and laughed. He said there was no way I'd be able to save Janice, I didn't stand a chance against him, hell even Percy could take me in a fight he said. He said that he was just going to kill me now and save me the trouble of making the trip. I barely got my own blade up in time to block his cutlas. Good thing I fenced in college I guess. Have you ever tried to fight a skeleton with a sword? You stab or slash and half the time it either just bounces off or slides through a gap in the bones. That second is what got me in trouble. My blade wound up trapped between his radius and ulna and before I could get it out he slashed across my face. He took my left eye. I thought I was going to pass out from the pain but then I had a surge of adrenalin and got my sword out of his arm and brought the blade down on his skull. I took a big chunk out of it and there was a face underneath. My face. I took another swing and managed to sever his vertebrae taking his head clean off. After that he faded away. I cleaned up what was left of my eye and made an eye patch out of some gauze in the first aid kit. Heh, between that and the cutlas I'm starting to look like a regular pirate. Surprisingly it looks like the terrain is leveling off. I'm going to move on a bit further and see if there's a spot flat enough to lay out my sleeping bag. I'm tired and I hurt and I just want this to be over.

I'm really glad I didn't drink that bottle of Beam now . . .

First of all I'm sorry if you guys haven't heard from me in a while, judging from the date on the last comment by Robbert Dillinger time has gone screwy again. I don't know if it's been days weeks or months for you guys but I put that post about our escape up an hour ago. I'm, uh, not traveling with Jack anymore. This place killed him. We were just hiking up the ever increasing slope (I swear we're slogging up a fifty-five degree slope now, if this keeps up I'm going to need climbing gear) and we had stopped for a break. He'd been rambling on about how he'd been framed for the murders and how "They" had convinced everyone he was insane and that he was going to hunt "Them" down and make "Them" tell the truth . . . really crazy stuff but it's still possible the Fears were involved not just psychosis. But, we stopped for our break and he spotted a pack of cigarets and a lighter in the grass.

Well, he was overjoyed. Said that he hadn't been able to smoke since he was committed to Shady Lawn and he'd been dying for a cigaret. I tried to tell him that I didn't think it was a good idea to smoke cigarets that appeared out of thin air in a place like this but he didn't listen. Next thing I know he's taking his first drag in months and this voice booms from nowhere "Jack Dylan Simons. You have given in to temptation. You are UNWORTHY." and the ember of his cigaret raced down to the filter, went into his mouth and he . . . burned up. He went up like a freaking candle. The flames were hot enough that the gun he was carrying melted down, some of the bullets cooked off but fortunately they didn't hit me. Before I could even think about trying to put him out he was reduced to ash. There was no anger in the voice, no malice, no human emotion at all. Then, in the same neutral tone the voice said "James Phillip Carlson. You may take your supplies and continue your journey." I turned around and there was everything I had to leave behind at Shady Lawn packed carefully into my duffel bag. I shouted at the sky for a while demanding an explanation but the voice didn't return. What the hell kind of place is this that Jack probably being a murderer wasn't enough to make him unworthy but lighting up was a death sentence? Clearly I'm being judged by something, but for what and by what standard?

 Well, back to my hike. Hopefully the sooner I get where ever it is I'm supposed to go the sooner I get out of here in one piece and can get back to my rescue mission.

We're free!

I'll be going back to those coded posts shortly and posting translations into the comments sections. A half hour ago (6:00 PM Thursday by my computer if time has started going screwy again) Jack and I broke out of Shady Lawn. I knew it was time to act when the doctor started talking about adding extract of Salmacis to my therapeutic regimen. People familiar with the Fears know that Salmacis is one of the names used for EAT, the thing that created that catatonic patient that arrived a while back. So I told Jack the plan was to bust out today at dinner time and I slipped my pepper spray into the pocket of a baggy sweater vest that was in my closet. The plan was to start a smallish riot (in addition to me and Jack there were ten other inmates at Shady Lawn) and escape while the orderlies put it down.

It occurred to me that I really didn't have any idea of how to do that as we were sitting down to dinner but Jack had me covered. He picked up another patient, shouted riot, and tossed him at an orderly. He told me later that he got the idea from some cartoon on Nickelodeon. Well, everyone but the Camper started milling about attacking the Orderlies and each other. Soon enough the Camper joined in too, but I think he's still in the imitating others phase. Jack and I started making our way to the door but one of the orderlies managed to block our path so I pulled out my pepper spray and told him "Don't make me use this on you." He sneered at me and asked what I thought I was going to do with a plant mister. I was a little worried . . . it was looking like a plant mister again and what if Doctor Beakman was right about this being in my head? But, he was looking a little to worried for someone with a plant mister pointed at him so I let him have it full in the face. He went down screaming and my pepper spray hasn't looked like anything other than what it is since. I almost feel sorry for him, you might remember I got the kind of pepper spray that was rated for bears. Jack jacked his keys (heh) and we headed up to the locked "broom closet". That thing was full of weapons. I'm sure they couldn't all have come from the residents and I'm a little worried about why they thought they'd need a closet full of knives, swords, and guns. As I was standing there marveling at their arsenal we heard a door slam around the corner and jumped in the closet and shut the door just as Doctor Beakman ran down the hall to help with the riot. I found my cutlass easily and Jack grabbed a hand gun and few magazines that fit it and we booked to my room to grab this laptop before heading out. Unfortunately the doc is a smart man and the first thing he did was station an orderly at each exit. Jack double tapped the one at the exit we were using in the chest and we ran. I . . . I really don't know what to think about that. I mean we had to get the hell out of there I understand that. But . . . I could have used my pepper spray again. We didn't have to kill him. Jack on the other hand doesn't seem to care.

Once we were five steps out the door the whole place vanished like it was never there. That almost didn't surprise me given this place, Jack on the other hand was totally shocked. He's also confused by the strange geography we're back in. Apparently he was committed back in what I still think of as the "real" world. I don't know for what. All he'll say is that something killed his family and he was going to make it pay before they locked him in that hell hole. It's sad that I hope it was one of the Fears that killed his family, but the alternative is to wonder if maybe I'm currently traveling with a crazy man who did belong in a mental hospital (although not that one. No one deserves to be committed to Doctor Beakman's care.)

Well, I'm off to update those coded entries with a translation then it's back to slogging up an ever increasing slope.

What a racket

One of the patients here has this compulsion to draw doors on every flat surface he can find, over and over until they overlap and he still keeps doing it. Someone stole his chalk today and you would have thought the world was ending! It took all the orderlies and Doctor Beakman to calm him down.

Oh, and that catatonic guy has started talking again, but he's just repeating what everyone around him says.

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Camping? In January?

The doctor brought in a new patient today. This one appears to be catatonic. They said something about him having been on a camping trip . . .

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I hope the cake isn't a lie.

I don't know why I made that post yesterday. Everything's fine, I trust Doctor Beakman completely. There are rumors that there's a double layered cake for desert tonight. Must be someone's birthday.

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If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better

If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. If I don't trust the doctor I won't get better. 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Can I trust the doctor?

Had a session with Doctor Beakman today

It's about 6:30 in the evening in case the time is still messing up.

This afternoon I had a session with Doctor Beakman and he explained to me that everything on this blog was my reaction to the guilt I felt when I had a psychotic break at school. He says this obsession with "rescuing" Janice is because it would make up for what I did to her and that I created these fantasies about "Pirate Percy" and "the Skin-Taker" to represent the parts of me that hurt her.

I don't know. Everything he says makes a lot of sense. More sense than a magical woman made out of wood that can control people and living puppets kidnapping little girls. But . . . I just can't see myself hurting a child. I don't know what to think but I have to trust the doctor or I won't get better.

I met someone at dinner today (Sloppy Joe's, yum!). I'm not going to put his name here because Doctor Beakman might get mad at him for what he said. He agreed with what I posted as "Robert Dillanger" that this place is messing with my mind. He says he's on a quest too and they're keeping him here against his will and trying to convince him he's insane just like me. He wants me to stop taking my medicine and break out of here with him. I don't believe him but I don't want to turn him in either.

The Doctor says today was just a small setback

I don't know if my computer is still messing up the time stamp on these but it's almost 9:30 at night here at Shadylawn.

Doctor Beakman said I had been acting so lucid today that he didn't think I'd be updating the blog. He did say though that he thinks it's a good sign  that I didn't reply in the comment box in my last post with any made up people like Elaine, Aura, and Paradoxical Machinations. But he saw today's post and he came to check on me. He didn't find me in my room so he sent the orderlies to find me. I was on the lawn with my laptop, a bag full of my things, and a broom I kept insisting was a sword. He's locked the broom back up in the closet. I have to go, the pill they gave me is making me sleepy. I might update this blog tomorrow, or maybe I'll remember that none of this is really happening and I wrote everything on here even the comments "you guys" made.

I need to investigate this

Looking at the time stamp on everyone's comments for my last post you guys probably think I downed the whole bottle and have been laying there drunk since you heard from me last. For me though it's only been a half hour since my last post. Twenty minutes ago I left the bottle laying in shards on the ground, the bourbon - all of the bourbon - soaking into the soil. After a few steps I looked back and the broken bottle was gone, not even a sign of dampness in the soil. This place is messing with me pretty bad, it doesn't feel like I'm being tormented for somethings sick amusement though, it feels like I'm being tested.

The path keeps rising, it keeps getting steeper and harder to climb, but I can't give up I need to press forward. I stopped to take a quick rest and noticed something just around one of the curves in the path that warrants some investigation before I move on, the first sign of a human presence since the farm house. I have not put my cutlass away because this still doesn't seem like anywhere that belongs in the "real" world (for one thing I don't think anyone would build on a slope that's a 45 degree angle) and I don't know what I'm going to find here.

What it appears to be is some sort of group home, the sign says "Shady Lawn: a resting place for the troubled mind". Unlike Janice the sign is real. I can touch it. The house is real too, I bounced a small pebble off the side. Not enough hopefully to alert anyone inside but it tells me  the building is really here. Now I just have to decide if I should snoop around or knock on the door.


I take that back. I've apparently been noticed. A couple people are coming out, they look a little worried not surprising considering my sword. Judging from their build and their white coats they're orderlies or something. Better hit publish and talk to them before they decide I'm dangerous - and so I can be ready if they're dangerous.

My Ordeal

An hour and a half ago I followed the advice of Paradoxical Machinations and went down the path labeled Ordeal. They certainly named the path accurately. After I set out on the path it began to slope upwards, gradually at first but soon it became very steep and a hard climb. The path began twisting and turning so that clumps of trees hid the road ahead. I continued on with my hand on the hilt of my cutlass since the trees seemed ideal to hide an ambush. What I didn't expect to see on the path was Janice. I thought my quest had ended right there. I wish I could say I got her out and we were on our way back to Michigan but life just isn't going to be that kind.

When I rounded the curve and saw her standing there, in the pajamas she was wearing when she was taken, I expected her face to light up. I expect that she would be grateful that someone had come to bring her home. Instead she glared at me accusingly. Then she started to scream at me. "Why did you let him do it Mr. Carlson? Why would you let Percy take me away? You were watching the show just like us kids, you knew he was looking for me and you didn't do anything! You could have stopped him Mr. Carlson, you could have made him leave me alone. But you didn't! You let him take me away and I'm scared and I miss my mommy and my daddy. They could be hurting me right now and you didn't do anything to stop it!"

I tried to reach out to her. I tried to take her hand and tell her that it was okay, she was safe now and I would bring her home. That I hadn't meant for this to happen that there was no way for me to have known that the show was real or that she was the Janice Percy had been searching for. It was like trying to grasp smoke, she vanished at my touch. She had never been there, she was an illusion conjured by this place.

You know what is real though? The huge bottle of Jim Beam that appeared along side the road a few moments after she vanished. I can touch it. I'm cradling it in one arm like a child as I type. I've cracked the lid and smelled it. It's real alright. I haven't tasted it yet. If I do I'll probably drink the whole thing. It's so fucking tempting though.

I'm at a crossroads

Looking at the time stamp on my previous two posts it looks as if time here is behaving in the same way as distance and direction. Which is to say, unpredictably. I'm not sure how long it's been for you but for me it's been about fourteen hours since my last post, which makes it about 9 in the morning eastern standard time (which is what my blog is set to) from my perspective.

I was able to sleep in my car last night without incident. I had some time to think about this place before getting to sleep last night and I'm still confused. If I were in a city instead of the countryside I'd suspect I'd wandered into the Empty City, but the landscape although it distorts direction and distance doesn't seem to be in a state of constant change. Also I'm seeing animals here. If it were just birds I'd be worried because of the Convocation but I've also seen a few squirrels and rabbits. As far as I know there is no Fear of cute fuzzy creatures.

I've read of Loops and Labyrinths but this feels different somehow from the way they've been described. Among other things it lacks the feeling of wrongness and menace and again the geography isn't shifting around when I'm not looking.

It certainly isn't the path of black leaves or any other Realm I've heard of.

So this morning I set off, taking with me my duffel bag stuffed with food, water, a smaller first aid kit than the one in my trunk (bought on Proxiehunter's suggestion), binoculars, my multi-tool, a blanket, and some matches. And of course my laptop. I'm also carrying the pepper spray (for all the good it's done me in the past) in my coat pocket and I have the cutlass thrust through my belt in case I need to fight. If I see any evidence I'm back in what passes for the "normal" world I'll hide the sword in my duffel bag again but right now I want it easily accessible. I walked for about an hour, passing that tree with the gauze around it several more times but not my car. Just now I came to a crossroads. There's an old fashioned wooden street sign with arrows pointing all four directions. Back the way I came the arrow reads "Hardship", the way forward reads "Tribulations" to the left "Woe", the arrow pointing right "Ordeal".

I'm saying right now Woe is out. There doesn't seem to be much point going back the way I came either (even given the wacky geography). So I need to choose which way to go, Ordeal or Tribulations?

Out of gas

I've been driving for an hour since I made my last post and the car just shuddered and died. I'll be sleeping in the car tonight and try to walk somewhere in the morning, I know enough about the world these days to be worried about sleeping around all these trees but hopefully Slenderman is too busy stalking collage students and school kids to worry about an elementary school teacher.

Phone isn't working

No matter what number I dial, even 911, I get the recording that says my call can not be completed as dialed. Still getting wireless internet for some reason, and my computer is still fully charged despite running on battery power. Running low on gas.

It's getting worse.

Just tried an experiment. Fifteen minutes ago I tied some gauze from the first aid kit around a tree. Despite not making a single turn and the road running straight as an arrow I've passed that tree five time now. Still no clue how I'm getting a wireless signal out here.

I'm lost

My GPS says I'm in Finland, my compass is spinning in circles. I turned around to drive back to the last sign of civilization I saw, a small farm, and despite not having taken any turns or even a curve I'm five miles past where the farm should be and there's no sign of it. I don't know how I'm getting wireless, I wish I had any clue where I am, maybe I'd be able to get directions from Google.

I'm heading out to scout

I should reach my destination at a quarter past four. I'll try to get back online as soon as I can to let you know what I turned up.

Think I've got a lead

I hope not posting yesterday didn't make anyone think I'd been killed by a Puppet or crawled back into the bottle (I dumped the last of the Beam down the sink right after I made my last post). Instead I've been distracting myself from the guilt over what happened at that office building by immersing myself in research trying to connect Geppeto Corporation to Tower TV. I think I've got an address for where they're broadcasting from. It's out in the boonies though. I need to take some time tomorrow gathering supplies to scout this place out so I don't walk into another trap. That Proxiehunter guy following my blog may be a lunatic but his blog had some good suggestions of things I didn't bring along when I left. I'll probably head out Wednesday for the scouting mission.  

My head is killing me.

Sorry for the incoherency of the last post. I don't normally drink like that but I think you can understand why I did last night. Unlike Omega's dismemberment this one did make the news. They're trying to connect it to the Cartels though. News reports suggest they think it was multiple people with machetes who did it. I'm going to swap out my license plates again just in case my plate number was noted as being in the vicinity.

This place is so sleazy the check in guy didn't even look at me or check my ID when I checked in. He counted the money twice though. Someone kept knocking on my door last night. He was shouting at me to let him in. Drunk as I was I still remembered what I've read about the Dying Man so crackhead or eldrich abomination I just ignored him until he went away.

She was wrong. I'm not broken. I'm going to do some more research and see if I can connect this Gepetto corporation to Tower TV and I'm going to rescue Janice. That's the only thing that will make this nightmare worth it.