When the Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under Glass

Reality breaks like a mirror in front of me, and time splits into different directions like cracks in the glass.

I'm a kid again, laying in my small bed. I am looking across the room to my youngest brother, Padriac, and I think to myself about taking him to the lake where we sailed with our father so long ago. Maybe we'll conquer Padriac's Fear of the water this time.

The cracked glass pieces begin to fall out of the wooden frame and fall to the ground.

I can't die yet, I can't give up yet. All these mirrors are trying to show me the true way, the true me. They're trying to tell me that the Darkness is resting inside of me.

The mirror pieces hit against the floor, and scratch against it.
Sounds from the past echo from these tiny collisions.

I'm writing a letter to my old counselor, Ruba, down in Florida; I'm only a teenager this time. My mother wanted me to keep in touch with her through letters for some reason. I remember Ruba telling me to never underestimate the power of a mirror....I don't know why she told me that.

I look into these tiny pieces of glass, and see that Haligh is hiding inside each and every one.
I take the opportunity to examine each piece, and each side of Haligh.
I see that Haligh is more than just connected to me.

I hear someone singing the following lines:

"Time take us forward, relief from this longing
They can land that plane on my heart, I don't care
Just give me November, the warmth of a whisper
In the freezing darkness of my room"

 It's me, wishing for someone to save me from the Darkness.

I made a Wish, I wished upon myself, floating in the dark like a fucking star without anyone to catch me.

I'm popping pills left and right, I'm looking around and seeing lies everywhere.

Haligh realizes that she is under glass.

The Scales are starting to tip.

Arienette

She's back, she's back, goddammit, she's coming back.

Arienette's found herself back into my dreams. I was doing so good! Haligh and I are almost there, almost to the compound back West where the group I intend to join are located. We stopped in one of the houses I grew up in during my childhood, the one I spent many times in with Haligh.

Arienette's back, and the strings are accompanying her fully this time.

I awoke to find myself in a canyon, just like the canyon I was trapped in a year and a half ago. Only this time, there was no snow. It was deathly cold there, and yet inside me, The Fevers kept me warm...too warm.

I heard the Monsters gather around to watch me. They were Wolves. Now that I was fully alone, with Haligh far away in reality, they were ready to swoop down and consume me.

The darkness grew and the deathwatches began to tick.

 Arienette appears at this moment. She offers her hand, and says that I'd be safe in her entangled embrace.

I try getting up and running away, to get away from her, but a light shines off the rough exterior of her locket, and catches my eye. I see Arienette, with her tears falling down upon the strings grabbing onto her.

"Please don't leave...I realize that I need you, and I wondered if I could come home."

she says.

At this moment, Haligh shakes me away from my Fever dream. She's sitting above me, and tells me that I'm deathly pale; the Sun spies us from behind her head, from behind the car window, from behind reality.

Don't leave me here, so that the mirrors are always watching me.

Don't leave me in this cold house, with all these painful old memories.

Stay with me Arienette, until the wolves are away.

The Movement of a Hand

I have to say goodbye to Arienette; I've said goodbye to Arienette.

Haligh was right in telling me this the entire time, but I can't keep chasing after someone who does not actually want me. I can't fight against her, or this situation. I knew this entire time that she didn't love me,...why couldn't I just accept this?

Things are changing, and I'm changing.
The Fevers need to stop. I have to consider what I really see in the Mirrors this time.

This morning I found myself in another dream. I was in a hall, and I heard footsteps. I followed the steps, and discovered a ballroom. Sunlight stretched like ivy over the floor, pushing away the darkness. The Shadows, who desire to take away beauty, run away as well. There is music playing. In the center, a tiny painted, porcelain Doll danced gracefully, innocently, and the world suddenly seems so small.

There are two chairs in front of the Doll. I sit down on the left, and Arienette appears on the right.
The strings in her skin appear in the sunlight, and I feel sorry for her...but she chose this, didn't she?
I reach into my pocket for her necklace, and give it to her.
I wave my hand and I say goodbye.

The vision washes away to reveal the layout of a car. I'm driving down a road, and Haligh is resting her head against my shoulder. She's crying, and I'm telling her that it's fine, it's fine.

I'm here to stay this time. The trees rejoice as we pass by them.
I'm optimistic,...we're going to defeat the Monsters, the Darkness.
We're going to replace that damn broken mirror.
We're going to relieve that hot fever inside.
We're going to reset each and every clock.
This is an Attempt to Tip the Scales.

The Joy in Discovery

I'm hallucinating again, I'm dreaming again

i'm in a field of knee-high grass, I see Arienette

she was almost hidden in the thickness of it all

the sun burns above us in anger as i approach her

"Why are you laying in the grass, don't you want to be found?"

she looks up at me, and i see that she's crying

"No, I don't, go away before it's too late...." she moans.

the sun gets close, and the field around us starts to burn

"Please!" I say, "I can't let you go! Not just yet!!"

the sun burns away the invisible strings and the grass rots away

and I'm back in my room writing as fireworks go off

Something Vague

I'm living on my own now, in an apartment in the city.

I'm better, finally. I've spent the last week or so in a feverish nightmare, burning inside from what happened with Arienette. Every day, I spent it either in the bed, under the covers, trying to run away from the darkness, or with Haligh. When I was with Haligh, I felt better, but I still felt extremely empty....

Haligh took me away from one of the Monsters, who according to her, was trying to "merge" with my Key. Haligh doesn't know why she was trying to do that; probably for a power boost. If the Monster had succeeded in gaining the Key, it would have broken the Scales.

It was stupid of her to save me, really. Haligh has a "Key" inside of her too. She could have been assaulted by the Monster too. But she wasn't thinking ahead, just like how I never think ahead...

Haligh told me that she's been looking for me, just like how I have been looking for Arienette. She's been using the Key to look for me for almost up to 2 months...

She tells me there are 2 reasons why she's been looking for me.
1; she wants me to join this group that fights against The Fears.
2; she wants me.

She's apparently in love with me, and has been for a while.
This surprises me a bit; I don't know what to think, honestly.
Arienette's my one and only, but...I do feel some desire to be with Haligh.

Christ, it's so cold in this apartment.
Winter's back, and it's been snowing alot in this city.
I've been drinking alot again too.

I don't know what to do about Haligh. Furthermore, how do I save Arienette?

Haligh, with her tangled brown hair, her hazel eyes, her warm personality...

I'm so sick of writing in this journal.
Fevers, mirrors, scales; when I look into myself, I see these things.

I've been having this weird dream every night for the past few days.

It's more like a memory masquerading as a dream, though.

I'm on a bridge with my family, I'm standing on it, I'm looking down, I see a body in the water, I see my reflection, I see Padriac, I see a boy in a sailor suit, the bridge disappears, I'm falling and no one's there to catch me, I'm in the air like a fucking star, glowing in the dark, falling.

I see myself falling into Death's arms, and I find that it's Padriac, all grown up.
I say,

But now I'm confused. Is this death really you?
And do these dreams have any meaning?

He looks at me
and says,

No. 
No, I think it's more like a ghost, that's been following us both.
Something vague that we're not seeing; something more like a feeling.

 The dream ends there, but as it fades away, I always find his image in my mind.

Haligh told me she thinks there's something inside of us both, other than the Keys.

I got to go. She wants to meet up again.

The Calendar Hung Itself...

She's betrayed me. Arienette, I saw her today with another guy.

I followed the Key's instructions and infiltrated a local college campus. In one of the dorms, I saw her exiting, along with some tall blond fuck. I was about to yell her name out, but they kissed, and everything I had stood for fell apart.

All I could do was whisper "Arienette?...Why?"

She looked at me in that instant, and saw right past me. It was like I didn't even exist, or matter, to her! Turning her back, she led that random guy to a car, preparing to leave me alone.

My legs felt weak, but I tried running anyways. I was approaching the car, when I realized a shadow had fallen over me. I looked up, and saw the most famous of my monsters, ...The Slender Man.

Chances are, if you're actually reading this journal, then you are fully aware of this creature and its capabilities, so I will refrain from giving a description of it. I wouldn't be able to find accurate words for it anyway. Not this beast, not with how tall it is, not this Monster.

It grabbed onto me, and took me away from my world....my entire life, Arienette.

I drowned in darkness for five full minutes. Literally invading me, filling my body. It was agonizing torture.

Visions of my Arienette and that...that fucking fucker blasted inside of my mind as this happened.

I see him kissing her eyelids in the morning as she starts to raise her head, I see him singing incessantly from the space between the bed and the dorm wall, I saw him I saw him

I couldn't keep on with that. I tried swimming away from the visions. I start choking on the darkness inside of me. In the deep, I happen across a solid object.

I open my eyes in the darkness, and though they burn, I stare directly into the object without looking away.

A mirror. I see it, breaking. In between the cracks, I saw Arienette and I running, with the promise of death over our heads, screaming for our bodies. Running, running, running, but in love!

I sing to myself softly the lyrics to that classic song "You Are My Sunshine."

I remembered all the training I had been put through at the island at that moment. I remembered being able tap into the item inside of myself, being able to jump between dimensions. Wherever I was, I could escape.

A golden light flashed inside of the pit of darkness. I escaped the abyss, and was launched into the torrent in between dimensions. I was aiming for Arienette's location, but the strings...they pulled on me, and tugged me into some unknown location.

I fell onto a maroon colored bed. Beside me, there was that one girl....one of my Monsters. Her mask's jaw hung loosely from her face, and she reached towards me. I screamed, but I was silenced by her embracing and kissing me. I tried pushing her off of me, but she just wouldn't stop.

Her eyes resembled Arienette's as I delved back into me, trying to muster up enough energy to escape this place again...it was futile though, The Key was worn out. I couldn't do anything...

I felt like vomiting...the stench of the corpse on top of me was just unbearable. I couldn't move, I couldn't scream, I couldn't

She put her hands on my chest, and for a second, something began to happen due to the contact...I don't know what. It just felt like..

I saw gray skies, everywhere. We were in a field, where a secret was being held. She was getting so close to what she wanted, but it all ended when I was saved.

The girl I mentioned earlier; Haligh. She appeared and grabbed my wrist and we disappeared in a silver light. I'm currently staying with her, talking over things, will update in this journal later.

The deathwatches have stopped.

A Scale, a Mirror and Those Indifferent Clocks

I'm on the Eastern Seaboard now. Took a week, but I'm here, in the very same city Arienette resides in.

It's so strange, I've found myself in the same city that I stayed in so long ago, when I met a special friend of mine; her name was Haligh (pronounced Hai-lie). We spent most of our adolescence as friends. I haven't talked to her since The Lonely Hearts started to move me around at a faster pace, unfortunately.

Maybe I'll see her around, right?

I'm in a hotel room again, and like what had happened a year or so ago, the "fireworks" are back. Or rather, an advanced version of them. Instead of a flash of sparks, they're an explosions of all the colors in the rainbow. They paint over the hotel room, washing away at everything and swallowing the darkness that hungers for my key. Perhaps this is a defense mechanism?

The colors were being balanced upon a scale at one point. The scale was weighing my darkness and my soul, and the darkness was definitely heavier. The scale faded away, only to be replaced by the hotel bathroom mirror. In it, I saw a smeared version of someone watching me. This person had green eyes, just like someone I was missing at that very moment.

The gray blob appeared during the hallucinations too. They passed along this message:

"And language just happened, it was never planned."

The delivery of the line sounded like it was from some song. I was in the room of my old house when I saw them. I screamed at the Monster, which broke the vision, and dumped me back in my hotel room.

And then the clocks began. What I like to call the Deathwatches.

I can hear them sometimes, when all is completely quiet in the world.

They're getting louder. And closer.

I need to hurry up and save her...but I'm worried. What if she...what if she left?

Was she really taken? Why'd she leave that note?