Involvement

Looks like you won your bet Morningstar. You piece of inhuman trash. You murdering psychopathic maniac little shit. I hope you and your little crew get killed by Dumah. I hope you develop kuru from all that meat you eat. I hear it is a bad way to die. Still too good for you.

...

To those of you who are not psychotic dogs of a hellish abomination... Expect a few updates in a short amount of time. Lots to talk about. Think I will start by talking about Morningstar's "Game." We woke up just as he said. Slumped over in chairs, untied. Staring at my open laptop with his idiotic post. Roland was a bit more confused and disoriented than me. To be expected really. Nevertheless I coaxed him out of it quickly. We had no time to lose despairing over our situation. Had to accept it and move on.

Just as Morningstar said, a Car was outside. I had no idea how to hotwire it, neither did Roland. A sign was sticking out of the ground. "Salvation is underfoot" it said. So we pulled the sign out of the ground and found a piece of paper. "The Cleverest Piggie knows the way. North." The evil bastard is clever, I'll give him that. It was a clear night sky, and the north star was visible. So we went north. Of course, Morningstar's statement regarding a "Black Oily feeling" and his belief that we will "have plenty of company" was dwelling heavily on my mind. It was extremely obvious what he was hinting at, and that might have made it worse. We could barely slow them down when we had home field advantage, an extra person AND weapons.

About a five minute walk away and we found an old structure. Naturally made of bricks with the words "NOT CLEVER ENOUGH" written on the front. The words were fresh. Not yet dry. It probably wasn't paint either.

Inside, slumped over in a chair at a table was a rather portly man. With a cheap plastic pig nose and pig ears on his head. A metal wire jabbed into his lower back and twisted to resemble a tail. This was far from the worst thing we had seen while in Morningstar's company, thus we were not overcome with shock as we might have if we hadn't seen...

...

A story for another time. We began searching the structure and found nothing. I examined the corpse more closely and found fresh, crude, stitches on the head. Sick fucker. Removing the wire, I used it to undo the crude stitches and remove the man's scalp. The Skull was cracked open and the insides were missing. In place of a brain was another piece of paper. Sick fucker. It said "Salvation within the belly of the beast. No worries, this one involves less surgical work. East."

We wasted no time. We couldn't afford to. The trees had leaves. The moonlight revealed no color. Black. Black Leaves. Black leaves everywhere. Paper white trees. I couldn't... Stupid, stupid, stupid... Found a large tree with trash bags hanging from the branches. My head. My head was pounding. I could hear my heart beating. Drumming faster and faster with every step. It was with us every step of the way. Beside us. Behind us. Maybe inside us. The bags were labelled. "Brains" "Lungs" "Intestines" "Heart" "Liver" "Stomach." We pulled the stomach bag down and opened it. The Paper was almost unreadable from the blood.

"Behind You."

There was a man standing. Wearing a clean business suit with a hairless head. Lips sewn shut, a long metal rod jammed into the ground and through his body, holding it up. His eyes were gouged out. In one of the sockets was another sheet of paper. "F(x)llow Me." Confusing. Took a moment's thought. Morningstar. Morning Star. Venus. Looked up and saw darkness. Infinite darkness. Vast expanses of nothing and empty nothing. More nothing than my mind had thought possible. Neither cold nor hot. Not sad not joyous. No color, not even blackness. Nothing but quiet.

But then I saw the edge of the sky. I saw a single point of light in the sky. I would not let myself stand beneath that... Nothing any longer. "I." I. Roland was gone. Or maybe I was. I know that Roland and I were not with each other at the time. I know Roland found the bags hanging from the tree. I know he heard the clicking and chattering that had haunted us since Silas. I know I was panicked. My mind felt.... Damaged. Like glass smashing against the pavement. I followed the light. I felt Dumah's shadow at my back. I felt It's tendrils at my spine. I ran and the forest gave way for me. But no matter how fast I ran, I felt It. It was omnipresent. It was inescapable.

I saw other things in the forest. A writhing mass of black worms that walked as men. Gnawing on the bones and intestines of their hosts. Ever searching for new ones. Violet lights dancing among them as they stalked something.... Roland maybe.

I stopped in my tracks when I saw it. Imagine swimming in a liquid ocean only for it to flash freeze in an instant. Water turns to ice, as does blood. My heart stopped for a brief instant as I saw a massive tree, oozing and pulsating crimson sap. A graveyard of corpses, many of which seemed inhuman, hung from it's gnarled branches, amid an endless sea of black leaves. The light in the sky faded into darkness and I fell to my knees.

A loud gunshot, followed by another. I looked up and saw darkness and night. A star filled sky, and in my hand a shard of paper. "Back to the Beginning." Behind me was the shack and car. My mind knew where the key was. The cruel joke that monster had played on us. It was beneath the doormat to the shack.

Roland came running, with Pale shadows in pursuit. Their knives stained red with blood. I entered the car and jammed the key in the ignition, but the shadows were quick and I could almost feel the sting of their knives at our heels. But I saw a flash in the dark and the explosion of a gunshot. The black blood of the Pale Men drenching the car as the bullet ripped through flesh and cloak. Not enough to kill them, but enough to slow them down. As we drove off as quickly as I could, I tried to catch a glimpse of the gunman. He stood and gave a salute. I knew his face. I knew Silas' Face.

...

Will post again tomorrow... Want to forget that night ever happened. Have to block it out. But can't let it be lost. Had to post it here. But can't think of it again. Don't think my mind could stand it. No.