Final Decisions

I've finished recovering from the fight on the Path, though my vision has yet to improve. In any case, it is reassuring to see that things at the estate have not changed in my absence, and everyone seems thrilled by my return. However, I had several guests coming to me with concerns about the "potential threat" I was allowing to walk the grounds unattended. I've done my best to assure them that Melody is not a threat to them, though I kept their concerns in mind when she approached me today, asking if we could talk in private.

"So, I've been thinking about things since we got out."

"What kind of things?"

She started walking around the room. "I don't want to go back to being a proxy. After all, I never wanted to be one in the first place, and Tall Dark and Faceless made it clear that I wasn't exactly welcome. On top of that, I owe you for saving me back on the Path."

"You owe me nothing, Melody. I told you I would help you out of there, and I did."

"You said you'd help me out of the loop. You could have ditched me the minute the denizens showed up. Instead, you got yourself cut up protecting me." She came to stop by the wall, leaning against it and folding her arms. "At the very least, I owe you an eye."

I knew that debating with her on this would get us nowhere, so I moved back to the topic at hand. "You were talking of your plans?"

She nodded, walking over and sitting across from me. "I want to stay here, be part of your Resistance thing."

"Very well. I'd be more than happy to let you stay."

"I also want you to teach me this magic stuff you do."

I shook my head. "I've already taken Brett on as an apprentice."

"So? It can't be that hard to train someone, why not take on a second one? I won't be a hindrance, I swear."

I thought for a moment. Magic is tricky to grasp, and teaching it to someone isn't easy, unless you have someone that is a natural at it. Still, I could tell she was determined to learn, and if I told her no now, she'd only continue pushing me on it until I finished training Brett, or said yes. In the end I sighed, and agreed to teach her.

She got out of her char and hugged me. "Thank you. I promise, I'll be the best student you ever have. And if it's okay, I'd prefer to keep my mask." I nodded, seeing no harm in it. We had several ex-servants turned runners staying with us, one of whom also preferred to keep his old mask on. With that, she walked out of the room, and I personally informed everyone of Melody's decision to join at dinner that night.

As of now, there's about twenty seven people at the estate who are part of the Resistance, and another thirty one who are here for protection from the Fears. As for our next move, I'll get to that in the next post.

The Great Escape

After I'd put up the post, we took a moment to get ready before we jumped off the edge of the cliff. It was strange, feeling yourself falling but seeing nothing around you. It felt like ages before suddenly, we were out. One moment there was just a void, and the next, I was rolling across the ground, the crunch of gravel a welcome sound. I was so happy to be out, I almost didn't realize the tall, pale trees with black leaves. Then Shadow pulled me to my feet, with a sword in each hand, offering one to me. I took it, confused, until I noticed the growling behind me. I turned, and barely got the sword up in time to block the claws of one of those fucking denizens. Just my luck, our exit dropped us next to a fucking pack of them. The ugly fuckers started getting closer, and Shadow steps up next to me, raising his sword, and said "I can't open a portal. The effects of the loop must still be wearing off."

I looked back at him, thankful my mask covered my horrified expression. "So what the hell do we do now?"

"There's nowhere to run in this place, we'll just attract more. All we can do is buy time until I can get us out of here."

"Buy time? That's your plan?"

"You have a better one?"

I sighed, looking back at the denizens. "Fuck."

With that, we got ready to stand our ground. Now I will say this now, I don't know how to fight with a sword, never used one before, so it was only a matter of time before I fucked up. Shadow was watching my back, and I was defending myself from one of them, I went to swing my sword, but it was two high, and it grabbed me and threw me to the ground. The sword got knocked from my hand, and I only had time to throw my arm up as it pounced on me. It's claws tore into my arm, and I could feel them raking against bone. I screamed like hell, and I honestly wrote myself off. But just when it reached for my face, a knife buried itself in it's skull, and Shadow kicked the thing off me. I looked around, and those things were surrounding us. I looked down at my arm, it was a bloody mess. I looked at the ground, my voice shaky. "You should get out of here. At this rate, I'll pass out from blood loss. I -"

He cut me off, his voice even. "I'm not leaving you here. We agreed to get out of here together, and I don't go back on my word."

I looked up. He still had the sword in his hand, and he'd drawn a knife in the other. He seemed... calm, and he had a look of resolve to him. I watched as he blocked a denizen from grabbing me, splitting it's belly open and tossing it in the path of another one. He sidestepped another as it attacked from his left, and stabbed it through the eye. I honestly thought he might be able to take them all on, and then one rushed for me at the same time one rushed him. He should have defended himself, but instead he protected me. He ran the one headed for me through, burring his knife in it's temple. He'd only just turned around as the other denizen raked a claw down his face, slashing his eye open. He stumbled back, and the thing grabbed him by the leg, dragging him to the ground. I watched blood spray from his leg before he managed to retrieve his sword and slash it's throat. He staggered to his feet, and took his position in front of me again. Blood was pouring from his leg like a waterfall, it had to have cut several arteries. He was really going to get himself killed defending me. I slowly picked up my sword and got to my feet, looking over at him. A jagged cut ran down his face, and his right eye was closed, but I could see blood streaming down his face and from under his eyelid. I turned to the denizens, doing my best to steel myself, at least take one of them with me. But then, they backed off. At first, I thought they were afraid, but then I saw Shadow looking behind us,  and realized He was standing on the path. I shuddered when I saw it, nearly dropped my sword. Then, to my astonishment, Shadow stepped toward it, doing his best to stand straight, and pointed his sword at it. Despite his injuries, he still managed to maintain an even tone.

"Listen well, you thrice accursed abomination. I will not run from you anymore.  Before my life is over, I will see you destroyed."

My jaw dropped. He'd just lost his eye, and could barely walk, yet here he was making death threats to a something that could easily have ripped him in half at that very moment. Slendy tilted his head, and I expected tentacles to come out any second. Before I got the chance to say anything, Shadow turned towards me, and suddenly there was a golden portal next to us. He grabbed my good arm, and dragged me through with him, the portal closing behind him. Now we were in the front yard of a huge mansion, and I saw people coming towards us. It was at that point Shadow collapsed, and I fell to my knees, dizzy from blood loss. I looked down and saw a little sliver necklace in my hand, and that was the last thing I remember before I blacked out.

~

Turns out the little necklace was one of his "healing charms". I've had the thing with me for most of the day, and my arm's almost back to full strength, though I think I'll have a few scars to show off. While his Resistance friends were hesitant to trust someone in a proxy mask, Shadow insisted I was safe. His injuries are healing pretty quick, but he still hasn't open his injured eye, so I think I was right that he won't see out of it anymore. I'll wait until we're both back to 100% before I talk to him next.

♪Melody

Bloody and Beaten, but Alive

Fucking hell, I can't move my arm without it bleeding everywhere. And magical healer or not, I don't think Shadow will be able to see out of his right eye anymore, let alone keep walking. but at least we fucking made it. I'll update you guys when we've finished patching ourselves up.

♪Melody

The Edge of the World

We've found the cliff. As far as we can tell, it's too smooth to climb down. Looks like we're going to have to jump after all. If we're lucky, this is the exit and you'll here from Shadow once we're out. If not, it was fun while it lasted, I guess. Time to find out.

♪Melody

New Developments and Old Wounds, Part Three

Melody again. back to the conversation from earlier:

~

He stared at me for a while, probably trying to figure out if I was lying. Finally, he spoke again.

"I'm sorry to be the one that tells you, Melody, but I'm not joking. See for yourself, if you don't believe me."

I moved over to the laptop, skimmed through his blog. Sure enough, the last date was labelled 2014. I... didn't really know what to say. What the hell warrants locking someone in here for two years? I just sat there, staring at the screen, when Shadow spoke again:

"I can't claim to know what this is like for you. I haven't been in here nearly as long. But we need to get out of here, you said you knew of something?" When I didn't answer, he placed his hand on my shoulder. "Melody?"

I shook my head and looked at him. "It's fine... Yeah, there's something other than the field. There's a drop off, think it might be a cliff edge, not sure how far down it goes. I was walking along it when you first showed up here."

"A cliff? Well, it's the only significant thing around here. Which way did we come from?"

"I think we came from over there."

"Alright. Let's start heading for the cliff, we can make our next move from there." He stood and offered me his hand.

I looked at him, cautious, and stood on my own. "You sure you want to be working with a proxy?"

He picked up his laptop as he spoke. "I couldn't care less if you're a proxy. Right now, we're both prisoners, and getting out of here is what matters."

I couldn't help rolling my eyes. "All for one and one for all, huh? Great."

So we started walking in the direction we think the cliff is. I pulled out my flashlight, and he closed the laptop. We were walking for a little while before he spoke again. "When you were following me, what was that song you were humming?"

"Hmm? Oh, it's called Poltergeist, by Zatox and Nikita. There's a version of it called The Darkness, by Hardstyle." I looked over at him, and I swear I saw that hint of pain in his eyes again. "You know it?"

"Yes, I know it. There was a Runner named Lisa, she'd named her blog after it."

I couldn't help but ask "Was?"

"She... She isn't human anymore. She's part of IT now."

"Seriously?" I wasn't sure if I could believe that, but the look he had was a fairly convincing testimony. "Wow. Things sure got fucked up after I was tossed here, huh?"

"Indeed... Now that I think about it, all of the bloggers I first encountered are all gone now."

I got the feeling he'd thought about this before. "All of them?"

He nodded. "First, there was BlackRose. He tried to stay home instead of run. Him and those around him were all killed. His blog was taken down not long after. Then there was LunaSimon, she just stopped posting one day. Ember... is hard to explain, and hasn't posted in a long time either. I told you what happened to Lisa. Keiken's been silent too, so I don't know about him. Same goes for Maze."

"That's rough."

"Yes... yes it is."

I got the feeling he wasn't telling everything. "What aren't you telling me?"

He sighed. "I'm able to open portals, as well as heal people's injuries. At any point, I could have gone to help them."

"But you didn't."

He nodded again, that pained look he had was obvious now. "At the time, all I cared about was my problems, so I just sat there and offered advise. If I'd just intervened... BlackRose might still be alive, Lisa might still be human..."

I'm not one for seeing people wallow, so I stopped, and flicked him in the forehead to get his attention. "Hey."

He looked at me, confused.

"You can't sit there living in the past, Shadow. You could have helped them, but you didn't. You made mistakes, we all do. Don't feel guilty for events you didn't cause. You just have to make up for your mistakes, and the best way to do that is to keep going. They aren't around to tell their stories, so you tell them in their place. Don't let yourself forget, and avenge them. Take it out of Slendy in blood. Well, his equivalent."

~

He's been quiet since than. We're still looking for the cliff, so I guess there'll be an update when we find it.

♪Melody

New Developments and Old Wounds, Part Two

Hello everyone, Melody here. Before you ask, no I didn't kill and or attack Shadow. He just wanted me to type this up, guess so you can get an idea of what I'm like or something. Personally, I think he's mulling over what we talked about (You'll have to wait for that part, I'm not typing the whole thing in one session.) and wasn't up to making a post (I ain't thrilled about it either.). Anyway, on to the conversation:

~

After introducing myself to him, he introduced himself as Shadow. I sat across from him, and asked him the only thing I was really interested in.

"Were you lying about knowing how to get out?"

"Yes and no. I know that in order to escape a loop, you need to do something to break it, do something that makes absolutely no sense."

I sighed. Nothing can ever be simple, huh?

"Alright, what do you have in mind?"

"That's what has me stumped. All I've seen in this place is an endless field of black grass, and you. What about you? Have you found anything other than that?"

I tapped the chin of my mask, thinking for a bit, before I answered:

"I may have. But before I tell you, I'd like to have an idea of who's keeping me company. Who exactly are you?"

"I'm a Runner from Georgia, and I've been working to establish safehouses for Runners, where they can learn to defend themselves."

I decided to mess with him a bit: "My, how noble of you. Tell me, gallant knight, do you have a princess in this castle of yours?"

I didn't get a physical reaction, but I swear I saw a hint of pain in his eyes as he answered: "No. She was killed by the Slender Man."

Shit: "Oh. I'm sorry to hear that."

I decided to get off that topic as quickly as possible: "So, uh, how'd you end up in here?"

"I honestly have no idea. My memory of the whole day is gone. According to a friend back in reality, I'd left with a couple of my guys to check in on our second safehouse, we split up, and neither I nor the person I was with ever made it there, though the others did."

"Hmm. Well, haven't seen anyone other than you in here, so whoever you were with is either dead, captive, or a turncoat."

"I'm hoping it's the second. What of you? How did you get put in here?"

"Who, me? I was given some orders I didn't like, told my boss to stuff it. He decided he could beat me into doing things. I was about half way through breaking his legs when Tall Dark and Faceless showed up, next thing I know he tossed me in here. Guess he doesn't like when his kiddies fight."

I chuckled as he asked his next question: "I see. Do you know how long you've been in here?"

I shook my head: "Nope, no clue. What's the date out there?"

He turned to his laptop, pulled up this blog: "The last post I put up, which was before getting you to talk to me, was labeled March 21,-"

"Oh, thank god. I haven't been here that long."

"-2014."

Bullshit.

"... You're fucking with me, right?"

"Pardon?"

"This is your way of making joke, right? There's no way it's 2014."

He was quiet for a moment before asking: "When did you get put in here?"

"January 6th, 2012."

~

♪Melody

New Developments and Old Wounds, Part One

I'd been thinking of ways to try and convince whoever this girl was to come and talk to me, but so far, I wasn't getting anywhere. All she ever did was wander around, out of view of the light from my laptop, humming that same song. I still couldn't place the name of it, but it was something I knew I'd heard before, something that held personal meaning to me. And I couldn't shake the sad feeling I get hearing it either. Eventually, I went for broke, and shouted into the darkness:

"I know how to leave this loop. If you want out of here as well, I suggest you come over, or I'll leave without you."

I was completely bluffing. While I knew that I had to break the loop to get out, I hadn't figured out how yet. But regardless of that, the humming stopped immediately. It seemed she'd bought what I said. I expected her to approach, but instead it was just quiet. In the end, I sat down in the light of the laptop, closed my eyes, and waited. Eventually, something was going to happen, it was only a matter of time. Eventually, I heard a voice come from the darkness to my left:

"You really know how to get out of here?"

"Yes, I do. Interested in leaving as well?"

"How do I know you aren't trying to trick me?"

"You don't."

I heard her walk away, and it was quiet again after that. It was like that for some time. As I was getting ready to give up on her coming back, I heard her footsteps coming from in front of me. They stopped, and I opened my eyes to see her standing in front of me, in full view of the laptop's light for the first time. She was about my height, and was wearing a dark blue shirt, jeans, boots, and an old black leather jacket. What I could see of her skin had a somewhat olive tone to it, darker than I had guessed from the fleeting glanced I'd been going off of. She had fairly long black hair, and wore a white proxy mask with a simple blue music note on its right cheek. She waved at me, and introduced herself.

"Hey there. I'm Melody."

~Shadow

Music, and Marcus

I've managed to get a better look at whoever it is that's watching me. First off, they're wearing a proxy mask. Not very surprising. Second, their female. Third, she seems to like music, seeing as I've heard her humming the same tune for a while now, somewhere out in the dark. That song is very familiar, but I can't for the life of me place the name of it. I've tried talking to her, but I don't get any form of response back, save the humming. I think she's enjoying this.

In any case, on to the second part of what I fave to tell you. I've finally made contact with Marcus. From what he's told me, the estate is just fine, though they've had to fend off a couple of proxies that started messing with them. But I've also learned a bit of information about my disappearance. Apparently, I was taking Kiba and a few other Resistance members to the safehouse in Kansas, to check in with them and the like. I opened a portal, we all went through, and everything was going fine. We'd come out a little ways off from the safehouse, and the others went ahead while I talked to Kiba in private. Kiba and I never made it to the safehouse, so I can only assume that she was taken as well. When I get out of here, I'm going to have to prioritize finding her. I just hope she's still alive.

~Shadow

Danger in the Dark

Thanks to Incognito's comment, I know that I've been gone for about seven months. I still don't know what this place is, or how I got here, but I can only guess it's some kind of Loop. If anyone could please give me a run down of what's happened in that time, I would be grateful. I'd like to type more, but I think something is in this place with me. I caught a glimpse of something moving in the dark, on the edge of the light given off by this laptop. I'm not sure if it's a servant, or something else. I'll try to keep in touch.

~Shadow

Confusion

I'm surprised that this thing finally managed to find a connection. If this post makes it up, I need some help figuring out what's going on. I woke up in this place, and it's just... darkness. I can't see anything in any direction, and the ground is nothing but black grass. Walking doesn't yield anything, no matter which direction I go. I can't use a gateway to leave either. My only light source is this laptop, and the clock reads all 0's, so I can't tell how long I've been here. Please, someone tell me what the date is, how long have I been gone? And where am I? This doesn't seem like the Path, there's no trees or trails in sight, just emptiness.

~Shadow