Our time is up.
They are moving, in the forest.
It is only a matter of time now.
And I cannot stop dreaming of them.

My Family.
Why.

Curtis

He's dead. The man who risked his ass to tell me what I wanted to know, when I went home.

Those bastards out there nailed his body to a tree. That girl. The one who fought me, in Skan's house. I saw her wave at me with a hammer in hand, then point 25 yards to the left..

I...oh God...Curtis...

I'm so sorry...I...Shouldn't have gone to see him. Shouldn't have bothered. What did it get me? Nothing, really, just confirmation. What did it get him? Death at the hands of...her.

That's another thing. Hypnos' week isn't up yet. We still have three days...

What the hell is he up to? 

Recovering

Things are slowly getting fixed and cleaned up around here. The lawn is still a bit of an eyesore, unfortunately. Molotovs will do that.
We let Hypnos have his lackey back the day after he asked for the return. We would have let the obscenity-yelling and later dagger-glaring proxy go a lot sooner except...The Rake. I'm pretty sure our clawed friend is pissed off about all of the flashing and banging..He is always around, now. Stalking the wards, clawing trees, leaving deer parts everywhere. The day we intended to let the proxy go, the Rake never left the sight of the house. Not once, all day. None of us are that cruel, and we hoped Hypnos wouldn't be a pain about it. He must have seen the Rake too, because we didn't receive any threats. How very...considerate...of him. Strange, considering he just sent a small army after us.
The proxy actually calmed down a bit too, after Skan and Eternity dragged him to a window and pointed at the Rake. The conversation had been a little bit like this:

Proxy: YOU MOTHERFUCKERS LET ME OUT OF THIS DAMN CHAIR OR I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU WHILE YOU SLEEP. HYPNOS NEVER LEAVES A MAN BEHIND. HE WILL COME FOR ME. OBEY HIM OR ELSE.
Eternity: Your threats don't faze me. You're tied to a chair.
Proxy: *more screaming and obscenities*
Skan: You know what, fine. Come here and met me show you why filth is still in my house.


She actually cut the bonds (all but the arms and the blindfold, at first) on the guy and hauled him to his feet, dragged him to the closest window, ripped off the blindfold, and pointed. "See that? In case you're blind, that's the Rake. If you go out there now, you'll die. But by all means, walk out. We won't stop you."
The proxy stared at her in disbelief. And stopped glaring and yelling. Instead he stared out the window for a few minutes and simply said, "I'm hungry. Would you mind giving me something? We can talk, if you want. I'll answer anything I can. I don't know much. Hypnos doesn't say much, to be honest he tells his enemies more than he tells us."

So, we did something stupid. We took him back to the basement first, then untied him completely. We got him some food and then..started talking to him. He didn't seem like the enemy, talking like this. Eternity never got more than a foot away from me the entire time, though. It appears my girlfriend (yes, indeed) is a guard dog as well.

We never got around to talking about Hypnos' plans, because he either wasn't going to say or he really didn't know. I believe the latter, personally. Except one thing that he kept repeating..The words "Family is the reason for everything we do." I think...He was trying to say something important. I have no idea what it could mean, though. Just another puzzle, I guess. But I was admittedly sorry to see him go back to Hypnos when the Rake finally disappeared for a while.

Things are quiet again, but not ominously so. Minus the Rake, that is. We've got rue stashed everywhere just in case shit hits the fan in the Rake department.

RETURN

Return to me what is mine.
Return to Him what is His.
Or He will come for it.

You would not like that.

Return it to us and we will not bother you.
For one week.
You have my word.
Did I not keep it last time?
Do I give you reason to not believe?

Question it if you think it will help you. 
Harm it not.
Return it to us at morning light.

Tomorrow.

Sorry I took so long..

We've been cleaning up for the greater part of today. Hypnos isn't a liar, but he sure is a bastard. He waited until Friday was almost OVER to come for us. By the time Eternity noticed shadows moving on the fringes of the wards, all three of us were wound up so tight that for a moment, Skan and I just thought she was seeing things.
Until of course, there was a quiet snapping sound followed by a very audible explosion. That would be one of Skan's beautifully designed land mines. It lit up the night enough to let us know the the guy didn't step dead center on it. He would have been dead..As it is, He's probably just missing a lot of blood and maybe a limb. Probably. One down
The explosion cast off enough light to illuminate the surrounding area for just a brief moment, which was all we needed to see the shadows of a rather large seeming group of proxies. Eternity counted about 8 of them in all. And out in front, the man with the cane. Hypnos. They stepped up the the wards..And Hypnos...He looked up at the house and smiled. I SAW him...I FELT him..I shouldn't have been able to see his face in the dark from that far away. But, it seemed like he was just feet in front of me.. He stepped across. One step, two, three. Then he turned to his group and beckoned. One by one they stumbled across, all but the last one. He collapsed with his hands on his head..I suppose whatever Hypnos did to get his group across didn't work on him. Two down.

A group of six split off from Hypnos and charged the front door. The three of us looked at one another and nodded. I sighed. Show time. Skan waited until they group was within acceptable throwing range, then flipped on the giant floodlight. The group of 6 looked up, just to see the shadows of three molotovs sailing out the window. All three landed just in front of the charging proxies. Only three made it through the wall of flames. I don't know what happened to the rest, I couldn't see them afterwards. And I am trying very hard not to care. They came here to fight, right? Three, four, five down.

The remaining three came right for the front door. Skan brought one of them down with the shotgun, right after he threw a rock through the window. Not bad aim, either. Hit her right on the arm. Of course, then a slug hit HIM in the arm. Six down. The last two reached the door and started pounding on it, just as a crash sounded in the back. One of the snares, set to trap the first person trying to force the back door. Oh no. No No No. Eternity sprinted for the back door, sword in hand. I tried shooting out the window at the two breaking down the front door, but no matter how hard I tried...I emptied two clips at them. No hits.

I heard gunshots in the back, followed by a scream. And laughter. Eternity... But no. I hear blades clashing, cursing...She's all right. The two in front of us finally got in. One of them apparently jumped through the window in the next room. I went for this one, consequently losing sight of Skan. The proxy tackled me to the floor and started beating the shit out of me. I managed to get a foot free, and I kicked for the head. The mask flew off to reveal the face of a younger girl. She snarled at me and jumped at me with a knife. Cut me right across the face, and spat on me. "Hypnos will have you, little Hawk. That's the only reason you aren't dead. Pity, same might not be said for your little girlfriends." Then she jumped back out the window and ran for the forest.

I bolted for the front door. Skan was there,  a little bloodied up, but nothing serious. I haven't asked what happened. Perhaps, she will post it later. We heard some noises coming from the forest again. Oh God, no no, not more of them. Another group of four, with the girl who attacked me. They were coming again. We had one more weapon though.. Skan and I got up the stairs as fast as possible. In the upstairs window sat a bag of baseball sized rocks, next to that a small catapult. We took Mystery's advice and pained wards on rocks. Last ditch effort. We launched rock after rock out the window. None of the proxies were hit,  a few came deadly close though. They didn't like that...Apparently, they weren't ready for a barrage of warded rocks. Ten minutes later they melted back into the forest. I could hear them screaming angrily.

Eternity. Where is she. I ran back downstairs...She met me at the bottom of them.
"Three charged the back..One of them is alive and PISSED to all hell trapped in that door snare. One of them..I think he's dead. I didn't mean to. The last one broke and took off about five minutes ago."

Oh thank God. I don't know what possessed me, but I picked her up in a giant bear hug. And then she kissed me. Just like that. Both of us, covered in blood, weapons in hand...

Skan started laughing. Then we started laughing. Battle-high, all of us...

And you know what. All three of us agree. Hypnos never showed his ugly face here all night.