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 Most of his goons have been replaced by others that I don't recognize.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.

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.

Fuuuuck

Blog-jacked by Hypnos again. Dammit. This time, he gave us a date. A sort of ultimatum I guess. Either I (we?) surrender by Friday, or they'll attack us.
You know what. Fuck that, and you. We're ready, and the longer he gives us, the longer we have to prepare for it. Yeah, Hypnos. Come Friday. Waste your men and resources crawling through the net of wards. If you manage that, I would LOVE to get you in range of our lovely assortment of anti-proxy devices. I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time discovering them.
I'm sure you're frustrated that you can't read my mind to figure out what they are exactly. I know you've tried. I felt your miserable presence last night, fumbling with the locks on my mental doors like a child lost in the dark.
You should go back to fighting, Hypnos. Even crippled, you're better at that than this mental game.

Really though. We ARE ready for an attack. There isn't an inch of this place that isn't defensible.
Let's play.

You have until Friday to Decide.


I found you Easily.
I have been Patient.
I have waited Outside
You return this courtesy by Mockery.
You shoot at Us.
You laugh when one is Consumed.
Enough Games.


Come to us.
Or Friday we will come to You.
This is your Choice. 
Make it Soon.


~I Have Spoken~
Hypnos

On the edge

The tension in this house is so tight, it could snap any minute. I've been trying to keep my spirits up, trying to tell myself that it's nothing, that Hypnos is..I don't know. He's out there though. It's like I can feel him underneath my skin. Eternity won't put down her sword, not even when she sleeps...And she won't let me out of her sight. I came back downstairs today after my routine session of glaring out an upstairs window to find that she had moved her bed in front of the door and mine to the back corner. The more time I spend around her, the more I think she can sense my moods or something...Just as i went to lie down, I heard a slight creak outside the door... Before I knew it I had my knife out, poised to...kill, defend, who knows. It was just her, though. She has to learn to not sneak up on us paranoid folks...She's taking too many lessons from Skan in that department.

Speaking of Skan, seems like she's on edge too...She walks around with that shotgun even while all three of us are indoors. Note to self: Always announce my presence when walking into a room. Getting blown away by friendly fire is not on my to-do list for this round of existence.

The dreams of the box have stopped. On the very last night I had it, the only strange thing was a black and white mask...As the box disappeared, it appeared..Slowly at first, and very small, but it grew until it was the only thing in my field of vision. It was the only thing I saw the rest of the night. Needless to say, I don't think I slept very well that night..I keep dreaming of my family, though. We're always doing something, hiking, boating, playing football...Just the three of us. I can't feel Hypnos' presence in these dreams like I could the others, so maybe they're just me missing my life..Before father left, before Benny died of sudden cancer, before...before HE came along. Before I made the mistake of a little harmless internet searching that turned into..this.

Moments of hilarity and confusion

Skan was right, Hypnos' lackeys don't seem very bright. Today all but proves it. I woke up about an hour from sunrise feeling unusually kind, so I figured I would make Eternity and Skan breakfast for whenever they woke up.
I stepped outside for a moment just to clear my head of drowsiness, and what do I see? One of the lackeys, walking straight towards me. I figured the others were in the background, that this was some kind of assault or something. He appeared to be unarmed, but you can never tell with these people.. I slowly backed up towards the door, where I had my handgun stashed. But there was no one with him. He was alone.

At this moment, I went from thinking that we were under attack to thinking that this guy is insane. Does he NOT realize it's still dark, and the Rake likes to prowl around at night? Apparently not. Either he's an idiot, or Hypnos has kept him locked in a box  and conveniently forgot to tell him about The Clawed One.

What happened just after this made my head hurt for hours. The Rake pounced him as he approached the wards. It came out of nowhere like a creature from hell. The lackey immediately went down, the Rake on top of him. In the following flurry of activity I saw an arm go flying off into the woods behind them. I'm not entirely positive about what happened next, but I pretty much blinked and they both disappeared.  The Rake probably dragged him off somewhere. I hope there isn't a body on the perimeter again....

Hypnos is here

Eternity said she saw him yesterday. He really has guts doesn't he, standing out there in the middle of Rake territory.
Well, I saw him today. Staring at the window to the room I just happened to be in. I don't know how he could have known I was in there.

On another note, I had another dream last night. It wasn't anything weird, like the dreams Hypnos likes to plant.
This one was about my father and my brother. My brother died when he was twelve years old, but in this dream...In this dream, he was grown. He looks exactly like I thought he would-The spitting image of my mom.
My father looks the same as the day he left home and never came back.

Yes, if it isn't obvious, my family is gone. All taken by various things-cancer, disappearance, and cancer. I hate cancer.
On second thought I can't post this right now. It'll come later.

Oh and I agree with Eternity-Proxy deathmatch. Take her up on it.

Dream pillows

Skan was right, they don't keep Hypnos out completely. But, I think they're working. The dream seems fragile, like if I were to take a hammer to the dream itself it would shatter into a million pieces. Things also seem to shift around a lot more. Nothing is solid..Nothing but that damned box. No matter what happens to the rest of the dreamscape, the box is always in the same rough location, and it is always solid.
I keep trying to open it, but nothing has even dented it so far.

On to happier matters. Eternity and Skan are cooking venison out there. I think it's almost done, because the smell coming from the fire is ungodly good.We'll be eating good tonight. :D

Soon now. All things will come to pass quite soon. Make your decision, Black Hawk.
Friends of Hawk, I urge you not to get in the way. You are not my concern. You belong to others. Do not make it worse for yourselves with your useless interference.


Eternity, you were right in what you saw today.
Too late will come very soon.


~I Have Spoken~
Hypnos

Stop disappearing.

First Shady..And now maybe Lucas. I really hope Mystery and the gang find him before anything else does.
I don't know either of these people beyond their blogs, but if they're against Him, then they're friends of mine. Come back, safe, both of you..

Sometimes, it seems like the pile of crap that happens is never-ending. There really is no rest for the weary in this life. I think I'm starting to understand what my father meant when he used to say that he would rest when he was dead.

Glass boxes

 There is a glass box in the middle of a desert landscape. I walk towards it. I see people inside. People I know. Eternity, Skan, Mystery (not sure how I know that one..), my best childhood friend, and...one person I didn't know. A teenage boy.

 I try to take control of it at this point. It's sluggish at first, trying to get a grip on my own actions. I've been out of practice for a while. Hypnos stopped coming around my dreams for a while after that incident with the tree. It's a lot more difficult than I remember at first, but then I remember how.

I try to break down a wall with a hammer first. I beat the glass again and again, to no avail. I try to shoot it out, but the bullets rebound and I have to stop. I try fire to melt the glass, but no matter how hot it gets, the glass won't budge. It seems like I try these things for hours, until I am too weary to try again.
And then the laughter comes, and I wake up.

The only way out is through the mask.

Leave them out of this Hypnos. Skan, Mystery, that boy... They haven't done a damn thing to you. Your mission is ME. I'M the one you're after. Not them. I swear to god if you so much as try to come anywhere near them for any reason at all, I'll rip your head off.

I had almost forgotten what real food was like until we stopped at some random small airport on the way out. Hawk and I have both spent months on the road eating camp food, and apparently it has taken its toll on both of us. Hawk a bit more so than I, but..I think there is something more eating away at him, aside from the lack of food and sleep. I can't place it. Hopefully he will recover some soon. I am shocked to hear myself say this, but I do worry about him. Ever since he met up with Curtis, he has not been completely..here. I hope that it is just the news he received, and not something more sinister that he has not revealed.

Whew..

It feels so good. To be on board this 'copter right now. No sign of Him, no sign of Hypnos. I can't shake the feeling that there is going to be some serious retaliation for this. I've been on the border of paranoid since we got to the airport. But maybe now it will go away. I hope so. Eternity and I look and feel like hell. We can't thank Skan enough for coming and bailing us out of there. We're looking forward to the possibility of some rest now.

Eternity keeps telling me I should put the gun down. Perhaps I should listen.