Don't do it, Eternity. I've been reading your posts. I know what you're doing, and I know what they're doing, and it's all going to backfire. Please, please don't fall for it. It might be too late for me, but it's not too late for you. And Skan, too. Both of you, just get out before the trap closes. The trap is closing on me.

They've put the mask with arm's reach of me. The one I kept seeing in my dreams all those months ago, with the box. I understand it, now. Mystery was right. And they weren't lying. All I have to do it reach out and pick it up with my hands. Reach out and put it on, and they'll open the box and let you all go. There is so much pain in the future for you all, and I could stop it. Just by picking it up.

My hands hurt from clenching the ropes around my waist so tightly, trying to keep from reaching out for the mask. It's a simple one, yet there is a certain fit to it. White, with bloody stripes across the face. It seems so inevitable... And that woman. She's always around, staring at me with that cruel smile. I know she knows what I'm thinking. And she knows that I know what will happen if I put that mask on. I think that's why she hasn't hurt me in a while. Cruel, beyond any of the others. Even Hypnos.

He hasn't been around much, either. Most of his goons have been replaced by others that I don't recognize. What a pity, actually, as i was starting to almost get acquainted with a few of them. One especially. We could have been friends in another life. He was an airport security officer before he picked up his mask. He lost his father also, and spent much of his younger life searching for him. I never got the chance to ask him how his story ended. He wasn't much older than me, either. Reminded me of my brother actually, in a weird way. After my father disappeared. My brother did the same thing, shortly after. It drove him insane, because they were so close. Sigh.

It's times like this, I miss them the most. I was showed a newspaper article the other day, as a means to break me. Right after it, they laid the mask in reach. It was an article..About my mother's death. Part of me refuses to believe it, because I'm supposed to be dead too. It says she died in a car accident. I just don't know what to believe anymore...

Come

12:34AM.
The Church That Has No Faces.
We Know.

It is not yet too late. Come.

Hey...it’s me, Hawk here...

I’m alive, and well, hurt. Some of these guys, they aren’t so nice.

Especially that woman. Her nails are like needles. Something not natural about her either, her movement, that chilling smile that almost never leaves her face. They way it starts to hurt if you look right at her for too long.

Ugh.

I’ve been stuffed in a sack, tied to a post in the ground, collared like a dog, almost set on fire and now I’m chained up to a bed in a rather nice motel. You can stop your clicking, woman, I’m not going to give a name. Not that it matters, you’d just delete it and hit m—OW. Glass bottle to the shoulder.

What’s funny, is they fight like...Well, I’m a Lord of the Rings fan, so, I offer up the example of the orcs in RotK. These guys fight like that. Two conflicting interests, Hypnos and...HER. The woman who refuses to give her name. Says that if she wants to talk to me or anyone else, she’ll do it and you’re not to talk back. Heh. Not much of a team play---OW. Rapped my knuckles.

Fuck. I’m so tired.

Hypnos oddly decided to allow me to let you, particularly you Eternity, and Skan, know that I’m okay. SHE didn’t like it, but agreed once Hypnos said he’d edit my writing for potential slips or codes or whatever.

I’m too tired and sore and scared to try to code shit. I’m just glad for the opportunity to be able to post.

Don’t give up, guys. I know you’re after me, that much I’ve been told repeatedly in varying degrees of niceness.(Read-Usually followed by hitting, cutting, stomping, and me being forced to listen to one or more of them  rail about futility.) It only hurts when they talk about hurting you.

They try to convince me, Hypnos in particular, that the pain will go away if I just...take up the mask. That’s what the mask in the box is about, guys. If I pick it up, I can save so many of you...No. No I won’t, I won’t I wo---

Hawk has, tEmporariLy vacated his consciousness. It has been happening more and more of LatE. pooR little boy, So Timid, so weak. Run along now, wE arE Taking fine care of him. 

:O

~Oh little child, you make me laugh at thee with such great joy

You seek us.

You seek your precious Hawk.

He will soon be lost to thee.

On the move, but we are watching.

And you, wild huntress, are next.

You cannot deny yourself.

You try to hold it at bay, but the need consumes.

Just like me.

And what shall I say to your little companion?

She is just as hopeless as you

Watch, huntress.

Watch her consumed by that which crawls the night, seeking her

Go home, girl.

Go home before he catches you.

Hehehehehehehehehehehe.~

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.