July 30th, 2018
The forest is a dangerous place. I know sometimes fully grown adults will up and vanish without a trace. This case might be something completely mundane, kids vanish all the time unfortunately, but since I’m in the area, I want to look into it. Best case, I’m able to return the Sweets’s daughter to them.
As much as I’d like to say I’d turn down the reward, hunting doesn’t exactly pay the bills terribly well. I, primarily, do this job to save people and help the populace at large stay safe from things that go bump in the dark. The occasional bump to my non-existent bank account (having a digital tail doesn’t suit well with the amount of illegal things I do), is frequently a welcome thing.
So, what do I know:
Kiddo vanishes in a forest.
No trace
Kid’s friends were present at the time, but spared
Broad daylight
Doesn’t confirm anything, but it does help to rule some things out. Plenty of things can make someone vanish without a trace, but few can do it in the middle of the day. The kids might’ve seen something but not shared it with the news or authorities.
Brightside: I’m not likely dealing with a vampire. Might be a faery though. Wouldn’t hurt to hit Kelsie and Colby up if that’s the case.
July 31st, 2018
Suit and tie and the proper attitude will get you pretty far. My mentor definitely was right about encouraging me to invest in a proper suit bag.
I was able to waltz into an interview with the kids posing as a counselor. I tried to leave them with good vibes after the interview and encouragement that their friend was still out there and they did nothing wrong.
Two of the three claimed to not have seen anything, but regretted not doing something to prevent Peggy’s disappearance. It’s been a week and the kiddos seemed to be genuinely despairing. I don’t think this was a prank or that Peggy’s run away with her friends covering for her.
The third, however, said they were out there to meet a tall, thin man without a face. When I said that it sounded like the internet myth Slender Man, the child nodded. He then told me that, while he didn’t see it happen, he’s sure that Peggy was snatched by the creature.
Sounds to me like we might have some sort of shapechanger on my hands. Best to start packing silver. Skinwalkers and the like have been known to be able to change their shape without the aid of the moon.
August 1st, 2018
Went out to the Blazery Forest to the place the children said they last saw Peggy. I spent the day walking the trails and blazing a few of my own. I came across a page that looked ripped from a composition notebook. It was scrawled with arcane sigils with a giant O with a slash through it as a backdrop.
I’m not saying that it’s a dead end, but there wasn’t a lot to discover out there.
August 2nd, 2018
Sent the page off to Dan and Charlie. Charlie couldn’t identify it, but said it looked old. Dan hasn’t gotten back to me.
Had a headache since visiting the forest. Not sure if it’s the heat or something else. Gonna add that to my research though.
August 3rd, 2018
So, encounters with Slender Man come with a side dose of paranoia (the cops aren’t actually sneaking into my motel room as I write this), headaches, and delusions. I got a nosebleed earlier today too. Seems like this might be the real deal. Going to float this out there.
Looking like Peggy might very well be gone though.
August 4th, 2018
After a couple hours on the phone with Charlie and Dan, I’m not sure I can beat this thing. Charlie’s provided me a modified version of the lock that Kelsie identified. She said it would lock it back behind whatever door it crept out of and hold longer than the original.
It’ll take a blood sacrifice though. The pages need to be written with human blood. Fortunately, it doesn’t need to be fatally written.
Given my nose’s propensity to leaking, I’ve opted to scrawl the lock in my own fluids. Disgusting, I know, but it’s better than some of the alternatives.
Hopefully the hard part will be traipsing through the forest and figuring out where the Slender Man is coming through at. I feel a little bad about not being able to rescue Peggy, but the delusions inflicted when this entity targets someone haven’t grown to the point of me thinking I can tackle it. Especially by myself.
As far as I can tell, this being is something akin to a modern Rumpelstiltskin. A fae that hops across to our world to steal people to theirs. If that’s the case, I should pack iron. But such things definitely don’t like to obey the laws of our world, so I need to be wary.
August 5th, 2018
I revisited the most talkative of the kids and nailed down the place where they were meeting the creature. I have a solid plan to go out there, find the gap between realities is, and patch it up. If I encounter Slender Man while doing this, I’ll shoot first and ask questions later.
If you’re reading this and I’m not there with you, but you want to give another shot at locking this thing up, consult the map in the back for my location. It’s Map 097.
August 6th, 2018
I need to take a break. Feels like I haven’t slept in a week, but at least last night didn’t have nightmares.
I didn’t find Peggy and that wears on me, but I did lock up the entity again. I went out to the forest and found seven pages scrawled with the Arcadia script. Each was nailed to a tree. I took each down and buried the replacement at the base of the tree. As I set to put down the eighth, and final, one Slender Man appeared from nowhere and charged me.
The moment I buried the last page in place, it disappeared just as quick as it appeared. I put a ward in place to keep the pages hidden from casual searchers.
Need to have Charlie check my work though. Hope I never have to do this again.
Used in this post is a newspaper template from TheGoodocs.com
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