Anticipation

Life is surprisingly normal after what I've been through. I still have no idea who Sophia Blanchard is, or what she has to do with my situation. Maybe another DVD will appear in a cookie jar; that wouldn't be out of place right now.

But I guess that's just how things work. Something insane happens, a stretch of eerie silence, and then another insane thing. Rise, lather, repeat.

I'm just on edge for what's next. What will it be? Will I come out alive?

I'll schedule an appointment with Dr. Frey. He won't believe me, but I have to tell someone. I don't want to drag my girls into this...

The DVD

I finally got up the nerve to play it. Honestly I was expecting something like The Ring video tape: lots of symbolic yet incoherent images and disturbing sounds followed by a phone call that foreshadows my untimely death. None of that happened. Instead of disturbing figures there was just a grainy, constantly moving snowy texture. I could barely make out two figures sitting at a table. The following is what I could transcribe from the DVD:

Dr. Gordon South: This is Doctor Gordon South of Highwind Mental Institution. With me is one Miss Sophia Evelyn Blanchard, age twenty-nine. The subject arrived here on July seventh of this year, 1994.  Okay, Miss Blanchard, we are starting now. Miss Blanchard?

Sophia Blanchard: I…I have no idea what happened. It just…happened, Doctor. That's all I know, I promise.

GS: I know, I know…but tell me, what happened on June 27, 1994?

SB: (silence)

GS: Sophia?

SB: Robbie and I were taking the boys down to our cabin. It was summer vacation, and it was a family tradition. When we were in college we used go there and just…do anything and everything.

GS: Robert Hensher was your husband, correct?

SB: No…no, we never got married. We didn’t need a piece of paper of a big, fancy party to prove that we were in love. We just decided that it was for the best. Save up the money for something else, like a house.

GS: Uh huh. And who were your boys?

SB: James and Nolan. James was seven and Nolan was four. They were the best little boys anyone could ask for. Not always well-behaved but…(she chuckles).

GS: And when were they born?

SB: James was born 1987 and Nolan was born 1990.

 

GS: And, for the record, please tell me how you and Mr. Hensher met.

SB: Me and Robbie…we were together for a long, long time. We met in middle school and could not be separated. Barely after graduating college I found out that I was pregnant with James. He was actually really happy about it. A part of me worried that he would up and leave.

GS: But he didn’t.

SB: No. No, he didn’t. He was thrilled. He comforted me and told me that he wanted this, wanted me and the baby. I was so happy I cried.

GS: Well, he is one of a kind; I can’t think of any man who would be excited about an unplanned pregnancy, if you don’t mind me saying.

SB: You aren’t the first to say that, Doctor.

GS: Anyway, continue on to what happened on that day, Miss Blanchard. On the day of the incident, how long had you already stayed?

SB: We were getting closer to the end. The boys didn’t want to leave, neither did Robbie or I, but we had to. A bunch of odd things had happened before that, though…I remember the smell of something dirty and burning. I can’t even describe it properly. I checked the stoves, checked the heater, checked everything in the house. It was all fine. But...

GS: But?

SB: Nobody could smell it but me. I asked James if he smelled anything strange but he didn't. I thought I was going crazy.

GS: How long was it before it happened? Before the cabin--

SB: Stop. Please...Doctor, please stop.

GS: Miss Blanchard, we need for you to tell us, in your own words, what happened that day. I understand that it was traumatic for you and that you still have issues stemming from it, but please just, tell me. Tell us.

(For a while there is nothing but the sound of the static becoming almost deafening. For a split second I thought I saw words in the grainy images, but they didn't make anything I could read.)

SB: No. Not today, I'm sorry. Not today.

GS (sighing): Alright. Next time we'll talk further. The nurse will take you back to your room.

(A woman walked in and gently took Sophia by the shoulder and led her out of the sterile room. The DVD ends there. I'm going to keep it somewhere safe in case I need it later. Sophia Blanchard...who is she and what happened to her?)

Happy Birthday, Rebecca!

Even though it rained and was really dreary, I'm glad we all found a way to enjoy it. Thanks for humoring Florence with the laser tag and putting in 100% of your skill. You were great! I'm also really happy you loved the gardening books we got you. Plant something nice while it's still autumn, girlie.

I'm still working on the DVD. It's not a trippy excursion through hell...but it is disturbing.

Unlocking Part 2

I stared dumbfounded, the pieces of the DVD still in my shaking hand. I wondered if I should run, but where could I go? Just turn and bolt and hope for the best? I swallowed heavily and began to slowly step backwards.

The woman with the fish scale veil scoffed haughtily, "Just look at her. She's filthy."

I was suddenly brought to my knees, as if someone had kicked my legs out from under me and. I looked up and saw that they were now mere inches in front of me and my heart could have stopped from fear. Their scent...it was not in the least unpleasant, but it was so heady and rich my nose began to burn. I couldn't describe to you how elegant their dresses or how detailed their masks--they were beautiful in an unnerving, terrifying way.

In all of three of their right hands they clutched large, plain jugs. Simultaneously they all tipped them sideways, directly above me, and I was drenched in a seemingly unending downpour of water.

I blinked and they were gone. The trees, the dirt, the sky above me, too, all melted away and was replaced with a dark basement. I was soaked to the bone, so confused and frightened I thought I was going to

As I found my footing, I turned around to see a set of stairs and an opened basement door. One final time I looked around at what was once a vast forest and--

I saw it.

Standing there, in the corner, head cocked to the side slightly. Its piercing, eyeless gaze cut through me like nothing ever has and ever will again. I did not scream.

I ran. I ran and it followed. I felt it upon my spine and in the wind that blew my hair. I threw open the door and raced out of the house in a mindless panic.

This proved to be foolish. I made it about five steps before I slipped...and when I hit the ground I was in the grove of trees near my house.

My shoes were now gone, only the socks remained. Nothing else was missing, for which I was thankful for. But in what could only be described as bizarre, the three pieces of the DVD fused into a single, immaculate disk.

I walked out of the grove in a daze, still wet, still shaken, but I had gotten what I needed to get. I suppose. My poor mother wondered what happened and I made up a story about falling into a pool. The shoes I was honest about: someone stole them right off of my own feet. I threw my clothes off in the bathroom and took a long hot shower. My car was most likely still near the house and I would have had to go back and get it. Eventually I did, and I was proud of myself for not fainting when I saw a face in one of the top floor windows. Since then I've been reluctant to go places, even with my girls.

The DVD sits on my desk and I wonder when I'm going to find the courage to play it.

Unlocking Part 1

I've been hiding in my room like a coward, though I know that at any time it can pass through the locked doors. I don't regret going to the house...but I know now that things are only going to escalate

On the 15th I grabbed the keys (just in case), filled up my car with gas, and drove all the way to the ends of town to see the place overrun with ivy, but still intact. I took one final sip of my Coke before going right up to the door. Unlike the dream it wasn't open, but a quick turn of the handle fixed that.

The place could not have been more quiet. The only sounds were of my feet stepping carefully on the old floors. I turned to the left and beheld a somewhat clean living room scattered with relics of the late fifties and early sixties. I know nothing about that place, not even rumors, but in my gut I knew something went very, very wrong here.

The grandfather clock in the corner chimed, and that's when the floor gave out beneath me.

I screamed as gravity fulfilled its purpose, sending me careening to the basement. instead of plumes of dust and cobwebs, I was confronted with the unbelievable.

A forest. There was a goddamn forest in the basement. Trees that should been poking through the above floors stood with thick trunks and bare branches, their paradoxical existence only frightening me more. The floor was now dirt, partially wet and bereft of any insects, and the hole that I fell through was now the sky.

My heart caught in my throat and my stomach felt like it was filled with lead. But even with this, I pursued. It was not as claustrophobic as one would think, but even then I looked behind me to be aware of where I was going.

I saw a large tree with a bronze chain encircling it. No lock, though, but I pulled out the bronze key. A hole near the roots grew wider and wider until it became easy for me to go into.

Right in the center there was a dog so big it was like a small horse, staring at me with eyes as big as teacups and sitting calmly in the center. It didn't lunge at me or bark, but it did pant heavily as if it was thirsty. I slowly walked closer to it, mumbling platitudes as I willed my feet to move. Suddenly, when I was just close enough, the dog stood and closed the distance between us, nudging my hand with the key open. My finger shakily exposed my item, and in the blink of an eye the dog gobbled it up.

I yelled at it to drop the key, or rather, I would have had the dog not melted away into a large, unlocked chest. My jaw could have fallen from my skull. It took a while for me to collect myself, but when I did I opened the chest and found one third of a DVD.

I fond another large tree with a silver chain around it. I took out the matching key, went through the hole, and what did I find? Another dog, just as big as the last one, also staring at me with eyes as big as pinwheels. It ate the key like the one before it and turned into an chest. I took another third of a DVD within it and quickly left.

Not far along there was the final tree. There was one last dog, also big with eyes as big as a human head, that swallowed my final key and it, too, turned into a chest. I grabbed the final piece and made it out of the tree.

I thought that maybe, just maybe, that would be it and I could figure out a way to get out of the forest-basement. Little did I know that they weren't done with me.

At least fifteen feet away I saw three figures, dressed all in black, wearing Venetian masks that concealed their faces. One wore large goat horns upon her head, another with cardinal feathers that made up her earrings, and the last had a multitude of fish scales entwined in the veil she wore.

They were watching me, and I realized then that they had been doing so this entire time.

An Old House

A lead. I have a lead.

A usual it came in my dreams. An old peach colored house with a slightly cracked open door. Inside there was blackness and the sound of creaking moans. I reached out to touch the rusted handle, only to have it crumble under the slightest touch.

I remember see a place like that near the edge of town. It's been boarded up for years and it's plastered with KEEP OUT signs. Going to jail for trespassing would definitely hinder any progress I'd hope to make, but I'm desperate. I'll go there as soon as possible, but I know I'm in for something that might be the death of me. If I let it.

Still Here

I still have the keys. They're out of their pouches and lined up neatly on my vanity. They are normal, every day keys; at least I hope they are. The last thing I need are these three things summoning demons from the ninths circle of hell.

My dreams have been quiet. I can't remember most of them, and those that stay lodged are so mundane that they're useless.

As much as I want to,  I don't want to show my girls. They want answers just as much as I do, but I don't want them to get hurt in the process. Losing Catherine destroyed me, and even after so long I still can't get over her death.

Losing them would destroy me even further.

I almost wish for a nightmare--it would bring be closer to finding her killer. I want to know where these keys go to.