And The Caravan Leaves

The four of us left Benjamin's house again today, which inspired a surprising amount of tears from Em. She's gotten really attached to him. I guess it hadn't really registered how much time she was spending with him until she started tearfully asking why we couldn't stay.
It hadn't really occurred to me, but his place is the closest to a home she's had in a while, not to mention how close she got with Benjamin....
Sorry, I'm getting off topic. Ronan, Derek, Em and I are travelling together still. I figure it's best for Em to have a little more time with these two, she's not handling separations well at the moment, not since Elliott left. It's a little sad, you can almost forget how young she is, considering how smart she is. Until she starts crying and throwing fits because she doesn't want to leave because what if something happens while we're gone?

Heh, she takes after me.

Anyway, we're on the road again. Kinda wish I still had someone to split the driving with, but we get on.
I'll check back in when I next have something to report.

We're Going to Disney World!

Or rather, we did. Met up with Rachael today-she suggested it as a good opportunity to do something for Em, and as the poor kid certainly needs all the cheering up she can get, it struck me as a good idea.

One day, spent in the Magic Kingdom, with a six year old. We spent all day running about, trying to see and do everything. Emily, of course, took to Rach like she's taken to all of my friends she's met-enthusiastically and loudly.

Would've been a nice, peaceful day, except for two fucking things.
The first happened around 2 or so, we'd just done fucking Splash Mountain, and Emily wanted the picture. For those of you who don't know, at the top of the big fuckoff hill at the end of Splash Mountain, there's a camera set up to take your picture right before you go over. They sell the pictures at the exit of the ride.
Em wanted a copy, so we went to get it-and got a little more than we bargained for.

The entire right side of the picture was distorted all to hell. Looks like slendershit was nearby. And worse, when I got the copy of the picture (figured maybe it was just the monitor since they didn't seem bothered by it), it came with a threatening note.

"Mock me all you want, but I won't just watch forever."

Still a little trite, and yes the 'o's were all replaced with operator symbols, but the fact that they could slip the note /into/ the frame with the picture means this isn't just some idiot amateur. The fact that only our picture was distorted... Well, that means he showed up just for us. How nice.

The other thing was the chat I had with Rach, while Elliott and Em watched the fireworks. She'd been... wobbly, for lack of a better term, all day. Looked a little glassy eyed, was a little slow to react to things. Barely noticeable, especially considering how bright and happy she seemed, playing with Em and seeing us. It's such a fucking radical change from the quiet, demure, sad proxy I stayed with back in August.

But I was right. Something's wrong. She's pretty badly injured. Been shot a couple times, and has a burn on her arm from the New Years party. I only got to see her arm, but that, at least, was infected enough to look really bad. I'm fucking worried about her.

Nothing I can do, though. I offered the little help I can give, and she told me not to worry, she has a plan. So, hopefully that works out.

As for us? We're long gone by now. Gotta keep fucking moving, after all.

We stopped at a Kroger for no more than five minutes.

Had to get some shit for the road. Food, water, Tylenol, whatever. The usual stuff.

It was when we got back outside that things got a little weird.

At first I thought we'd gotten a parking ticket. There was a little square of paper stuck under the wiper. Strange, sure, but nothing too suspicious. Elaine and Em were trailing behind a bit, Emily struggling to pull a Kit-Kat from underneath a week's worth of ramen and Dr. Pepper.

Yeah, I know it tastes like shit. Bite me.


It's college all over again on the road, and I'm not sure if I'm complaining or not.

Anyway.

So the note. And yeah, it was a note, not a parking ticket. A scaaaaary~ little piece of cryptic bullshit written on the back of what looked like a lotto ticket.

"F(X)RGETTING S(X)METHING?"

You had to be kidding me.

This was so Marble Hornets.

Wasn't really sure what to make of it at first. You get a note under your wiper and normally it's some passive-aggressive asshole raging on about your inability to parallel park or a nice little chunk of change you're expected to pay because you ran into a store for five minutes for a pack of cigs because of course it's only when you're gone for a few minutes. It's not really that common to find what looks like My First Death Threat, letters cut out of a magazine and O's crossed with what you swear must have been tar or paint because it sticks to your fingers and stinks.

I guess we did the most logical thing with it.

That is, take the note and get out of there as quickly as possible.

Hey, we're snarky, not stupid. Even if this is some newbie fresh off the betentacled bandwagon we're not about to take any chances. Elaine doesn't seem the slightest bit concerned and I'm a little more curious as to why it's on a lottery ticket instead of some personalized operator-symbol ridden stationary à la the red-haired bastard or something ripped from a 16-year-old girl's diary.

Either way, we're still on the road. Elaine's started putting us in connection rooms so she can have her nights in peace - says it's 'nightmares' but yeah, right, like I'm going to believe that. At least I get some time to watch Em and figure some stuff out for myself.

Updates to come, I guess. Nothing else to report.

So, we've left Benjamin's place. It was nice to stay in one place for a bit, but it's a bit of a relief to be on the move. Means I'm less likely to bring doom down upon poor Benjamin, at least. Em's got a bunch of new books, courtesy of our former host, and so she's pretty pleased, even if she did do everything but burst into tears in an attempt to get us to stay.

But travel is essential, considering we're high priority targets. So we keep going.

And we keep going. And I try to cut back on the drinking some, now that we're moving and Emily can't be so easily kept in the dark.

At least I have good news tonight, right?

Doing This Shit Out of Order

Right. I owe you all one hell of a post. I'd intended to go through and write about everything that happened since... since I last posted something actually informative. But honestly, I don't really want to write about the time I spent curled up in my bed, not moving for days at a time. I don't want to relive it, and it's really none of your business, you fuckers. The important part is Friday. Last Friday when Elliott came to me and told me that we needed to get out of there, the forest was going too far. To be honest, I'd hardly noticed anything strange, barely looked out the window.
But again, not the point.
The point is, we were in the middle of discussing the need to get out of there-and had just decided to leave first thing in the morning-when a certain redheaded bastard made his appearance. Just leaning nonchalantly against the wall like he had a right to be there. The rotten cunt.
I made the mistake of challenging him. Thought that perhaps out of the forest he'd stand and fight, but no. Instead of facing me like a man he used his Loop bullshit to threaten Elliott. They talked for a bit. In French. All I could understand was some swearing, something about Richard, and something about Harper. Then he threatened Em. In English, so I could understand.
I told Elliott to get out and check on her, which he did. I continued to challenge him, he continued to be a smug, cheating twat. And then he made a mistake. Decided he'd try to get under my skin. Didn't fucking work though, did it? The fucking lying bastard is going to meet his match one of these days and I sincerely hope I'm the one who gets to do the honors. The things he said and did... Well, I will see him pay, one way or another.

Right. On to less ominous business. We're on the road again. Met up with Richard again last night. I didn't stick around to see what happened. He made it pretty clear he didn't want me there. More travelling ahead, I think there's one more place Elliott wants to go.

Silence at last.

Staying at a hotel, the location of which I'm in no mood to give out. Already had to deal with a couple of tails on the way here. Last thing we need is another unwelcome surprise.

Always kind of liked hotel hopping. When I left the house to attend uni I spent a couple days moving from place to place, trying to find somewhere to settle. It was Zach who eventually got me a place near the school, actually. Kid always had resources. Knew people. Enough people to make you wonder.

Still kind of wonder.

Anyway.

Here's a little tip: Douglas Coupland had it right. Next time you stay at a hotel with rooms that have those big armoires that hold the TV, (most chains will have them - Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, Super 8) climb up and feel around on the top. Housecleaning'll often miss that spot and people will dump anything they don't like there. Nasty, compromising stuff. Gifts people didn't want. Stuff they couldn't get rid of in case management or something found it. Tacky jewellery. Airport books you don't want to keep. Porn - and I mean the really, really dirty stuff. Drugs. Weapons. You name it, you'll probably find it up there. Found an abandoned hard drive once. Brought it to Alex. Guy spent a week going through security measures just to open the wrong file and watch the entire thing wipe itself and his computer completely blank.

Still kind of wonder.

Anyway.

Try it out. You'd be surprised at what you find. People are into some weird shit.

As I said earlier, we're out. Nothing new to report other than that. Head's quiet, Elaine's still a mess, Em's quiet and sad and I'm bouncing between them as best I can. August, I respect you. How you can deal with stuff like this all the time and keep going is a fuckin' amazing gift.

Don't think I know where we're headed to next. Probably just going to travel for a while. I've got... business to take care of north of the border and think that might be where we're headed next. Though how a missing person, an ex-convict and a somebody who doesn't technically exist will manage to cross the border is beyond me. I guess we'll have to figure something out.

I have to admit, I kind of miss Canada. Culture shock's fuckin' weird. I don't think I can respect a country where the only Tim Horton's lie 150 miles from the border and all of their money is the same colour. Just feels strange.

Uncanny.

We'll see. Stay safe and all that.