Jack's Diary - Death to Illusion - Day 84

*Morning*

            Death shouldn’t be celebrated, not even the death of an enemy. Smiled upon, perhaps, as death’s just another form of leaving, but what lies beyond is uncertain so we can’t be too sure what we’re celebrating. Someone leaving is the saddest and the most enduring part of life. Friends, family, acquaintances, and lovers, they all leave or you do and when it’s them, you either live alone or find new ones, but the memories of them are a constant haunt and forever foreshadow and remind you of what is to come.

            I could’ve sworn I was somewhere else after the fight. Somewhere dark, in a prison cell or a hotel room; the kind of staleness you’d expect in a place where it is kept clean, yet to only a minimal degree to create sterile smell of fumes and cigarette smoke. Anyways, yesterday I experienced what I can only assume was a seizure or a stroke. The outside view of the world disappeared and turned to white. I then saw a large open grassy field on top of a landscape of gentle, rolling hills, with it all surrounded by mountains. Nearby a small cabin, plain in sight yet rural and made well, whose property was fenced in by a long small fence that extended three times the cabin’s length. Ann was standing off a ways in a white dress. Without a second thought to my weakened state, I stood up and walked toward her without any trouble. I stopped five feet away. She looked at me indifferently, as if she didn’t know what to say. For once, I knew I was dreaming; no one could make me forget that she was dead.

            “Seems you won,” she said solemnly.

            “I thought once I killed you, you wouldn’t haunt my dreams anymore,” I told her.

            “Not unless you want to see me.”

            “I don’t!”

            Ann came forward quickly, as if floating across the ground, and put her hand to my chest. I could feel my rib cage being pulled forward, my heartbeat becoming weaker, and my attempts to pull in more air all being in vain. Her dress turned dark red.

            “You listen to me! I could’ve killed you 100 times over, 1000 times at any time: while you walked, while you ate, and while you slept. I could’ve killed you in our fight had I’d been using all my abilities, but I decided I’d fight on your terms, at your level because I wanted to test myself, show that I didn’t need any tricks to deal with you, but I was wrong! Even now, I could still kill you in your dreams and the shock would stop your heart, but I won’t!”

            She took her hand away and I fell, trying to regain my breath. She turned her back to me and walked a ways away, her dress returning to white.

            “Of course, I’m not so petty as to kill someone out of revenge, especially in this case where I no longer walk the Earth. I should leave a legacy. You and I are, after all, the same.”

            “I’m nothing like you.”

            “Then why do you kill? Despite your reasons for killing, you still kill, even when there are other options available. You care only for survival, for security, even if that means death just as I sought entertainment even if it was at the expense of others. Tell me, just how many would you be willing to kill to live here?” I’m ashamed to say that my first thought was disturbing. I was going to answer that question with a number as if it were nothing, slightly lowering it in my mind as if I were considering how much money to spend at a store. I noticed that her appearance became slightly transparent as she was speaking. “Soon, my psyche will fade from your consciousness, but it seems my influence will remain.”

             She turned to face me and stared at me, saying nothing else as she faded into nothing. She was smiling the whole time. Soon after, everything turned to black and I woke up (or rather the problem I’d been having ceased enough for me to regain consciousness). I couldn’t shake it. She was right about me. I thought that her death would be the end of the nightmares I was plagued with. I was wrong; her death woke me up to the fact that my life is a nightmare. I don’t know what to do from here now. Until I find what I should do, I’ll just go through the motions and do what I’ve always have.

            This morning I could at least walked, but not much else. I looked around for my equipment, it was scattered throughout the area from the fight. I found most of the knives, my gun (which I loaded and kept with me in case soulless were to show up), and machete. I piled my stuff next to Ann’s head. The eyes were still open on it. None of us were really talking to each other.

*Afternoon*

           

            We were all well enough to go back to where we had that “showdown” with the large number of people. Problem is, we couldn’t tell who was who. The fire had spread from the trees to the ground below and scorched the bodies, making identifying them near impossible. Mike wasn’t happy with this aspect and wanted to know, looking at each and every face to find some sign, some indication of who they were. Julie only looked at a few faces before walking off and puking, probably from the disgusting sight of burnt bodies. Looking over it all, the body count was unbelievable. Despite Ann’s manipulation, we killed all those people, not her. We killed her followers and looking back, I never saw her kill anyone, not even when she traveled with us. She could’ve killed hundreds of thousands of people and yet in the time I knew her, I did all the killing. She taunted, teased, and pushed me into a conflict with her and this was the result: nearly 100 innocent lives lost to kill one person (or thing). Maybe if I’d never gone after her, this wouldn’t have happened.

            We gathered up our supplies and headed back to where Julie had built a fire. Oh, before that, I went off by myself to look for the bodies of Jane and Duke (at least, I think it was them). I did find two bodies, but like the others, they were burnt and were beyond identifying. I’m glad that the fire didn’t burn down the whole forest or we would be dead. It makes me wonder why it stopped though. Backfire, maybe?

*Night*

            Ann. Just who or what she was, I’ll never know, but I know I don’t want to write about her again. There’s no need to take her head with me as a reminder; I couldn’t forget even if I wanted to. I picked her head by the hair, closed the eyes, and dropped it into the fire. Mike and Julie asked me why? I told them I wanted to watch it burn and I did. I watched the skin turn red, then dark red, and then black. I watched until there was nothing left, but the skull. They both watched for a while, but looked away after a while. I think they were asking me something, trying to talk with me while I watched, but I didn’t listen or answer. The fire was just too good to do anything else. Tomorrow, we’re headed back. To what, I don’t know.

- Jack's Diary

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Jack's Diary - The Nightmare of Living - Day 71

 *Morning*

            It was probably before dawn when I woke up. I don’t look to the sky too much anymore so I wouldn’t know. I didn’t finish the design. It’s going to be a pole with a sledgehammer on each end. Since the head of each hammer is going to be heavy, I knew I needed to make the pole strong and near unbreakable. I couldn’t do that without a power drill and some lighting so I decided to wait until morning. The good news is the base does a have a few power drills, but the parts are scattered around all the storage areas like a Find It picture book. Only found two drill bits and the body of the drill itself before I stopped looking; no battery pack (ironic). I’ll look for it later.

            After the search was over, I managed to make two more silencers and tested them; they work just as well as the others. I was working on attaching a newly made silencer to a rifle when Mike snuck up on me. I turned and pointed the barrel of the rifle at his cheek (I’m glad the habit of identifying my target’s face before shooting has prevailed after all this time). He told me he was impressed with my work, but that I should take a break. Like that’s going to happen. Relaxing just isn’t relaxing to me. There’s too much to do and not enough time in our lives left to finish it.

*Around Noon*

            Found a stupid battery pack. An uncharged one! You’d think they’d keep this place a little more orderly, especially equipment like batteries and chemicals. The only good thing to come out of my search was the assortment of knives, screws, nails, wires, and the bow saw I found (mine now). Screws won’t do much good without a drill and although the nail could work, I don’t want to chance the weapon breaking mid-swing. I should give it a name as to be more specific. Double Sledge, perhaps?

            Mike is building something with a few other guys. I didn’t bother to ask in case I’d get stuck with helping (I’m not lazy; I just prefer my own projects). It appears to be the foundation for a house or building of some sort. Not a bad idea since the more buildings we have, the better. A storage shed, a place for sleeping, a bigger watchtower. There are definitely some possibilities with it.

*Afternoon*

            I don’t think it’s going to be a storage shed. They’re not adding a roof at all so it’ll probably go up at least another floor. Victor and two guys (who I think I saw on the roof in the city) have been working on it for a while now. I finished another three silencer and again searched for a battery pack. No luck and there aren’t too many places left to look. I’m tempted just to drown the Double Sledge in cement glue despite knowing it’d break apart easily. Also, I would need glue.

*Evening*

            It’s been an “interesting” day. Definitely not one of my worst. Mike asked me to join him and Victor in a search party to look for Julie. Apparently, she went missing a while back and wasn’t anywhere on base. We drove into the city to look for her. I hadn’t noticed just how horrid the outside world smells, like decay and car fumes. I say outside world because I take comfort inside the walls of the base and it seems so different than the bleak landscape around us.

            We searched the grocery stores and other loot-able places where she may have gone. No sign of her there and not much to loot either. It seemed like hours had passed before we found her. Of all the places you’d expect; in an old arcade. She said she wished the games still worked. I guess I can relate and I can’t blame her for yearning for a lost time, a time where nightmares were only in our dreams. I looked around at the games. A lot of the screens were busted out and the wiring and token collectors ripped away (there was more glass on the floor than tokens). I started thinking back to one of the few times I went to an arcade; the lights, the sounds, the smiles. All lost.

            Mike took Julie to get some new stuff or as he put it “shopping”. Not surprisingly, most of the toys in the toy store were untouched. No demand for toys when food and water was scarce. I took a few things for myself, including some water guns, a few little (batteries included), some small fluffy animals (just in case I need padding in the future), and a Star Wars lightsabor just because I wanted one. Victor rolled his eyes when he saw me take it. We visited a few other places after, but I don’t remember what they were called as not too much interested me at those places.

            I remember during our trip that Julie said she wouldn’t go alone again if Mike wouldn’t do it either. Mike looked to Victor and I for help, but neither of us said a thing. As fun as it is to go alone, it dangerous. Mike seemed to agree with Julie though I don’t specifically remember him making a promise. That was one conversation. It was the ride home that the feeling came over me again. Mike asked about Ann and all I did was look out the window. What was I suppose to him? That she left randomly at night? The horrible truth? I planned on lying or just giving a vague answer, but I just couldn’t do it. To make it worse, as I was staring out the window, my vision began to get blurry. I thought the window was getting cloudy. It was my eyesight. In less than a minute, all I could see was white, much like that blinding light from before. Luckily, I wasn’t the one driving at the time. I didn’t want to alert the others to it or to show any fear so I took to writing in my journal and I continue to do so. My sight has returned partially though I dread looking up from my writing.

*Night*

            My vision is almost completely restored. It was still a little blurry when I went back to working on the silencers (I’m probably going to have to remake the new ones). Mike told me to “take a major break”. For once, I complied with this command. I sat against the wall of the base far away from the others as night overcame the sky. I began remembering or for lack of a better word, reliving the nightmare I had about Ann and the proof I woke to. The Ann I thought I knew was kind, shy, and perhaps a little naïve. The Ann I met in my dream was confident, prideful, and had a malicious toyful nature about her. They were opposites and yet how could I have dreamed up that other personality of Ann when I don’t recall ever meeting someone that could even come close to fitting that description? I also thought of the blinding light I saw and the sights that came afterward. Am I to believe that I saw Lexi alive and well or that I dreamed it? What dragged my body back up the hill and did I even fall down it in the first place. That letter I found was the most confusing. It sounded like it was from Ann or Jane and even then, it just doesn’t make sense. What the point of it all? As I was going over the details in my head again, I felt a small cold breeze on my neck, as if someone had breathed on it. In a low feminine whisper came the words, “Come to me…” and I instantly drew a knife and stabbed at the space behind me. All I hit was the base wall. There was no one around me.

            Right now, I’m sitting in the corner of my room with a shotgun next to me, watching the door and window, both locked, occasionally writing in this journal. I’m not afraid. It’s not fear; it’s paranoia. Paranoia of what may come to be.

- Jack’s Diary

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Jack's Diary - You've Been Warned - Day 64

(I know the next entry is going to sound crazy and I wouldn’t blame you for not believing me, but I’m telling you this happened. Read at your own risk.)

            I spent most of the next day lying on my bed in a dreamless solitude. I wasn’t tired or even hungry for that matter; I just didn’t feel like living. It was safe to say that I wasn’t getting over my depression so easily. It was more than the arm though. There was something more to my life that was bringing this sadness to the surface, something I’d been avoiding. I didn’t know what the problem was yet.

            With a knock on my door, I opened my eyes to see someone at my door. Ann came into the room. I hadn’t seen her since we returned to the base. She was carry a box filled with stuff. I quickly straighten up when she placed the box next to me on the bed and sat down.

            “I thought you could use some cheering up,” she said with a smile. She dumped out a portion of the box onto the bed. They were children’s toys: paddle balls, slinklies, small cars and trucks, Barbie dolls (wasn’t interested), and little plastic mazes with tiny silver balls in them among other stuff. They were objects I hadn’t seen or touched in years (I guess she stole them off the kids).

            “Do you like paddle ball?” she asked picking it and successfully hit the ball against the paddle 80 times without missing. I tried as well, making it to 20 before the ball smacked me in the face. Ann laughed and I guess I did as well. We went through nearly all the toys, laughing and taunting each other when one of us was better than the other. We were both acting like kids. I’ve never had the luxury or freedom to do so up until this point where I was both safe and didn’t care at all if I died. After we were done, she asked me if I was a good writer. She pulled out a story she’d been writing; 142 pages (I have no idea when she wrote this. Either she wrote it when she got back to base or she’s more private and secretive about her writing than I am). She read me parts of it, stopping to ask about her choice of descriptive adjectives. From what I could tell, the story was about a traveller in a dangerous world where there is an unbalance in everything. Mountains jut out suddenly from flat plains, large trees grow from larger trees like branches, dogs and cats dig their way from underground to the upper world, where they are either worshipped or despised. Both reason and reality were twisted yet it all made sense when seen as a whole. The traveller had a duality about him or her (it doesn’t indicate gender. Only the name traveller); the traveller has the power to bring life or to cause death, but he or she does not see this. The traveller is blind and therefore is unaware of the powers that are being unleashed on the world. We were near the end of the story when we both fell asleep. The traveller had decided to stop his journey for a time and had to decide whether he wanted to keep moving forward or turn around. Ann fell asleep, lying on the bed next to me with her back on my left shoulder. I didn’t care; I couldn’t feel a thing. I thought it was nice of her to try and make me feel better. She’d always been kind and understanding (if not a little stupid sometimes). There weren’t many people in the world like her anymore.

            The next thing I remember, an extremely loud sound of cracking wood came from outside. Both Ann and I jumped up in fright. I looked out the window and saw that part of the front wall had been broken in and soulless were rushing through the opening like bees out of a beehive. The nearby men killed a few, but there were too many and the men were quickly overpowered. These soulless seemed even faster and more vicious than usual. I saw this place as a sanctuary, that’s why I wanted to get back to this base so bad. I should’ve known better than to let my guard down or to place faith in anything, but myself after the first time this happened; when enemies sneak in, walls don’t try and stop them. Walls break or get built to break and age again. I am fool for accepting this peaceful illusion.

            I waste no time when I realized what was happening. I looked away and went to grab my equipment when I realized Ann wasn’t in the room anymore. I thought she might have run to warn anyone still sleeping. I didn’t know if we could save the base, but I had to try. I gathered my equipment and headed outside (one arm was better than nothing). I was instantly greeted by three soulless, which I dodged and shot at point blank range (my aim and coordination was decent compared to how bad it was before). Around me, chaos rushed and moved just as fast as the soulless. A number of survivors were using guns (some of them using heavy machine guns, which were power, but forced them to stay in one place) Those who weren’t lucky enough to have a gun or to be near one rushed to the artillery shed, ran and hid in buildings and behind people or used whatever was nearby to defend themselves. The sound of bullets mixed with the screams and yells of the men and women either screaming in terror or slowly dying. The ground was already littered with bodies, both friend and foe and the air smelled of a thin smoke. I saw men and women get tackled to the ground and reach out their hands in vain as the soulless surrounded them and began frantically feasting on their still-living bodies. I even saw a man running away who had part of his face missing.

            One thing that should be noted about the situation; I didn’t see anyone trying to get away. Although people ran away in terror, they’d often grab a weapon and turn around to face the danger. No one tried to jump the fence or leave. This is how I felt it should have been. Everyone defending their home. At least, that’s how I thought I should have been before. I saw Moses in the distance manning his own gun turret on the back of a armored truck while someone else drove it. They were running over and gunning down enemies in large numbers until three large soulless with blade arms jumped in front of the truck. The truck crashed into them, crushing two out of three. The last one broke through the window shield and pulled the driver out, slicing clean through him at the waist and began eating his entrails. Moses continued to gun afterward even as soulless were mere inches away from his face. For as much effort and bravery as he put up, the gunfire still stopped; I could no longer see or hear him under the pile of soulless.

            I ran around the base looking for Mike and the others. I couldn’t do much in the way of combat right now so trying to help out the others would be near useless. I felt it was my duty to protect Mike and his friends (my friends), even if it meant me losing my life. Getting around turned out to be easier than I expected. For some odd reason, the soulless weren’t interested in me. A few would attack me and I’d take care of them, but many were running passed me, like they didn’t even see me. Even the men and women who were still fighting were too busy to notice me. Every wounded and suffering man and woman noticed me though as they begged for me to save them or to end their suffering. It was ironic; the same guns and the same screams that everyone was using to save the base or themselves was drawing the attention of more and more soulless. It was then that I started to question my resolve about fighting for the base and it was one in the multitude of screams that I heard since I had woken up that I heard Jess’ voice. I frantically looked around, looking at the faces, clean and ugly, and the bodies laying on the ground until I found her; she was trying to crawl out from a pile of soulless that were eating her. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she clawed at the Earth, yelling out to me in desperation, “Please help me!” I saw old memories, memories of Jane as they dragged her back into the gathering of soulless, but now Jess firmly took Jane’s place as her face of terror overpowered the old memory, bringing tears to my eyes as well. All I could do was look away; had I stared any longer, I don’t think I could’ve moved on.

            Not long after, I saw two men on top of a building; it was Victor and Brian. They both had grenade launchers and were using them wisely, taking out large gatherings of soulless. I began to make my way over to them when the door to the roof broke open and soulless ran at them. The soulless came at the men in such a rush, they ended up pushing themselves along with Victor and Brian off the roof before Victor and Brian had a chance to react. The impact of the fall killed them. I still wanted to check on them; at the time, I thought they could’ve survived the fall. I made my way over and knelt down to check on Victor to find his skull broken open, grey matter and blood leaking out onto the bone fragments. I proceeded to check Brian when some soulless were running toward me, probably to feast on their bodies. I raised my gun to shoot them, but my left arm began intensely hurting again, making the ability to aim a gun nearly impossible. The gun fell out of my hand with the soulless only a few yards away. I did the only thing I could think to do with the now limited mobility I had because of the pain; I’d seen them pounce at their victims when they ran as soon as they were within jumping range so as soon as their feet left the ground, I dove and rolled under them. They missed and quickly turned back (I guess, at the time, I really didn’t think about what to do next). It was then that they were gunned down from behind in a mere matter of seconds. Walking overtop the bodies came Mike and Julie.

            “Come on! We have to go!” he yelled. Julie helped me up and Mike led the way with his large machine gun to what I could only assume was a way out. We were getting closer and closer to the base wall and more and more soulless just kept coming. Mike gunned all of them down, sometimes having to kick a few away while reloading. The sound of gunfire decreased with every passing moment. Man after man fell to the surge of soulless and the number of soulless just kept increasing.

The base was doomed. It was now about surviving.

            We reached the wall and Mike told Julie to stand on his hands so he could boost her up over the wall. She did so when suddenly, a sword burst through the wall where Julie was, ripping through her chest and protruding out her back before she could make it over. Mike reeled backwards in shock staring at Julie’s body hanging on the large grotesque sword, dropping the machine gun. She gasped for breath violently while the rest of her body was completely motionless (probably due to shock). The sword retracted and Julie’s body fell to the ground. Mike ran over to her. I knew we were going to get attacked by more soulless so I picked up the machine gun, positioned it between my right leg and one good arm, and started shooting at the soulless approaching us. I didn’t look back to see what was happening, but I heard coughing as well as a faint whispering of some kind, like “this can’t be real. This can’t be real…”

            “Mike! Get up now! Come on!”

            Within a few moments, he came back to my side and drew the rifle on his back, and began shooting as well. We were keeping them at bay at the moment though I knew we’d run out of ammo soon. The soulless numbers never decreased; they just kept growing, growing to the point where the place looked like an audience for a death metal band. It wouldn’t be long before the base was completely packed with soulless. Suddenly, I heard the now familiar sound of cracking again. I looked back to see the base wall falling forward. I jumped out of the way, dodging it, but Mike didn’t. The wall was at least a half-foot thick so it was extremely heavy.  The soulless that had killed Julie had broken the wall down as well. In an instant, I fired on the soulless and it fell over, but the situation was the same. Mike was stuck under the wall, extremely injured. I can’t stop to try and lift the wall up or else the soulless would kill me. I continued to shoot the oncoming soulless until I realized that the soulless were now coming through the new opening. One nearly got me.

            Mike struggled the whole time to get out. He was coughing up blood. It even looked like he tried to get ahold of his rifle to help out, but it was jammed underneath him. “Help… me…” he said faintly just as the clip in the machine gun was going to run out. Even among the snarls, stomping, and gunfire, I heard the words so clearly and I still do. I wanted to save him. I at least wanted to put him out of his misery, but the machinegun ran out of bullets. I ran away, following the base wall, hoping to find a door or maybe an escape hatch. I never looked back. My athletic skills were good, but I was barely staying ahead of the soulless. That’s when I saw Ann. Far off, I could see her standing by the base wall, looking at me curiously. She jumped up and climbed over the wall. I didn’t know where she thought she was going. I thought the outside was probably crawling with soulless as well. Still, she was the last one of my friends left so I followed, barely being able to grab the top of the fence and pull myself over (with one arm).

            The impact of the fall over the fence was nothing compared to the guilt I felt. I could’ve saved them had I been better. I could’ve saved Mike if I’d stay. I’m a hypocrite and coward. I expected a group of soulless to approach me at any moment. After a minute of nothing happening, I realized there was silence. No gunshots, no chewing sounds, nothing at all; not even a faint chirping of birds or a light breeze. Everything was silent. I looked up, expected a much different picture than what I was greeted with; in the forest around me hung bodies. Tree branches pierced through some bodies while others hung by rope like piñatas. The bodies were rotten and decomposing. It was one of the weirdest sights I’d ever seen. There was no movement at all. No soulless coming to attack me and no survivors or Ann. I couldn’t even tell if the bodies were soulless or human at one point in their lives; they were all grey, green, brown, and white. What shocked me even more was the vast number of them. Every tree I could see for yards and yards had bodies hanging from them. It was a disturbing sight that would definitely work well for Halloween. Strangely, although I couldn’t tell who they were, they seemed familiar. I wandered around when I suddenly saw Ann run passed a tree. I called to her, but there was no response. I ran after her, but found myself unable to catch her. This went on for a few minutes before my pursuit took me out of the forest, down a large hill and into a city. The city was empty as well. At least there weren’t any bodies hanging around. Suddenly, I heard Ann’s voice. It was much louder and firm then I recalled.

            “What are you thinking now?” asked Ann?

            “Where are you?”

            “What are you thinking now?” she asked again.

            “I’m thinking why are you hiding?”

            “Not a bad question, but how about this one: does any of this seem familiar to you?”

            “What do mean? Ann, stop this! Stop hiding!”

            “Really? Nothing? It reminds me of what happened to your old base.”

            “My old base?”

            “Yah, the Hill; the one that was overrun by soulless. I’d say today was just like it, if not a little more ironic.”

            There’s no way Ann could’ve known that. The only person I mentioned the name of my previous base to was Lexi and she died before Ann met her.

            “How… did you know about that?”

            “You are quite a writer at times, Jack. The way you describe your surroundings and express the truth of human nature makes me envious of your writing skills.”

            “You’ve been reading my journal?! Why?”

            “Curiosity. It’s funny. Your life is full of irony really. Anyone you try and protect always ends up dying and when the time comes for you to die for your base, you run with your tail between your legs.”

            “There was nothing I could do. Besides, I was following you.”

            “That’s right. Another irony. To think, the one and only person you personally let into the group was me. You’re usually such a good judge of character. I suppose we all make mistakes.”

            “And what’s so bad about you?”

            Ann laughed playfully.

            “Oh, Jack. You’re so stupid. Do you think all those soulless gathered at the base on their own? I brought them. And your arm, well, that was one of the most delightful of my projects.”

            She sounded devious and insane. If what she’s saying is true, then my suspicions were right before.

            “What did you do to my arm?”

            “Oh, I can’t reveal all my secrets. Instead, let me fix it.”

            Suddenly, an arm wrapped around my waist and another one grabbed below my armpit near where the cut was. There was no time to struggle; I felt a small intense pinch in my arm and within a second, I felt myself being kicked to the ground. Instinctually, I went to grab a knife when I realized I grabbed it with my left arm. It was perfectly fine. I looked back and Ann stood indifferent to me, as if this was an everyday event.

            She wasted no time, “I’ve been watching you for a long time. Long before you met Mike and his stupid friends. I’ve seen you go from a man who killed when it was only necessary to where death is your go to answer. You remind me so much of myself and yet you still cling to an abstract moral code that even you question. You’re capable of so much more than merely surviving and looking after the human mongrels you care so much about.”

            “I don’t have much of a choice now. You killed them all and now I’m going to kill you!”

            “Aren’t you being a little hypocritical? You’ve killed hundreds of people, all of who had families and friends. Just like the ones you protect. Why are they important? What makes them better than those you killed?”

            I came at her with the knife, but she sidestepped me and grabbed my arm. She didn’t even have to bend it; all she did was squeeze extremely hard and I am sure I felt something break (the crack was as loud as the broken walls). I screamed in pain.

            “It was fun to meet you close up. You learn so much about someone through first hand interaction. I could kill you, but like any child with a magnifying glass, I love to watch the weak suffer. The fear on your face when you realized your arm was useless was exciting. There’s a powerful feeling in making others feel powerless. It was almost as exciting as watching your battles. So much blood!” she said with excitement, “But I think I should be going. A show is only good when you get to sit and relax during its performance; being a part of it isn’t as much fun.”

            I quickly threw a knife, only to have her catch it. I stood up, drawing another knife and approached her. I prepared to stab her when she used the knife I threw before to slice open my chest and gab her hand inside. It was such a strange, fearful, and shocking experience that I couldn’t move. She pushed her hand under my rib cage and grabbed my heart and started squeezing it. The fear was 10 times worse than the pain.

            “What… what the hell are you?!” I asked, almost pleading.

            Her skin began to change to a pale color as it developed wrinkles and scars. Her eyes became darker and the air around her changed to a dark mist. Everything else began to look red.

 “I am no one. To you, I’m Ann, but you can call me…,” her voice changed to a sinister, loud tone, “the Devil!”

            Suddenly, I woke up. It was still nighttime. I was back in my room laying onto of my bed and everything was quiet. It was all a dream… or so I thought. Ann wasn’t in bed with me so I figured she went back to her room. When I pulled up the covers, I found blood on the mattress cover. It wasn’t mine. Upon further inspection, the blood reached down the bed for five feet (which was about how tall Ann was). The place where the blood had soaked in was exactly where Ann had been laying (it even had a slight outline of her body). I thought she could’ve been hiding in the room so I looked around. That’s when I noticed the red handprints and footprints on the walls and ceiling, as if some had been crawling across them. They led to the window, which was open. There was no one outside and the base was still intact. Another thing I didn’t notice; I could move my left arm again. It was completely fine.

            At this point, I thought that this might all be a joke or something. My mind couldn’t accept what was going on. It was a dream involving Ann being a traitor (and maybe something even worse). I wake up to find blood places where it shouldn’t be. I thought that Ann may have had her period or something, but it didn’t explain the prints. I even found one on my face when I looked in the mirror (it was as if it was cradling my cheek). You may wonder how I was able to remember that dream so well. Truth is I didn’t have to. Next to my bed on the nightstand was a collection of papers that described every detail. What was stranger, it was written in blood and in my handwriting. My last question was partially answered; my right index fingernail had been cut out in the shape of a fountain pen, meaning that I could’ve written; yet I don’t remember doing so. At this last realization, I rushed to Ann room to find it empty. I searched all around the base and she wasn’t there. Was it a dream or a message? Was it a prediction? It was a frightening thought that I didn’t want think. Not only this, Mike wasn’t here and neither was Julie. Please do not let this be real. I closed the window and I haven’t been to sleep since (not easy to sleep when you think someone’s watching you). I’m waiting until morning and if they don’t return, I’m going to look for them. One thing is for certain. I’m not telling anyone about this. They’ll think I’m crazy! And they might be right!

- Jack's Diary

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