A Forever Nightmare

Letter 2: Bonnie and Clyde

October 16th, 2014, Raven Woodbridge

It has been a few days since my arrival at this completely disastrous landscape. Unsurprisingly, the last thing I ever remember was my determination in discovering how Abdoul Hanlon and Toby Cuddihy decided to disappear off the face of the earth with no trace. To nobody's surprise, I spent over hours at the Halestone Library and broke my way into its restricted section through a simple lock pick, thanks to a helpful guide by Bear Grylls. Through this knowledge and helping hand, I was able to dive into the town's most treasured and locked away books; I swear I even stumbled upon a story of how the notorious Bonnie and Clyde had traveled through our town, but only wounded a small child of six...

...on the night of finding a heavy but yet grand book laboriously spoiled and rotten away from the bugs who had trespassed onto its contents, I discovered the fault line in the sudden disappearances...

...dating back to 1949, the first disappearance was of Zoey Bennett. A maid and heavily celebrated woman in the town, Zoey was the life of the party and in some circumstances, the face. That is why on the date of her disappearance, the town came into an upright frenzy and searched for weeks upon weeks without any luck of finding a body or trace of her leaving. Much to their little knowledge, the blame was immediately placed on her handsome husband, Rexian Bennett. However, on the night of his trial, the poor soul went missing in the same orderly fashion as his respected wife... with no sign of a struggle or rush...

...upon these mysterious missings, the rate of disappearances steadily increased upward and it was only until the number reached above five hundred in 1982, did the surrounding towns refuse to make such missings go public. How many more have vanished from the face of the earth in thirty-two years?...

...it was only when I started to notice further strange and similar evaporations across many towns in America, did things get even more interesting. The most fascinating story was the way a once vibrant and industrialist town by the name of Evanesce, suddenly turned into one of America's biggest cases of unexpected ghost towns. Nobody to this day knew what happened to the citizens, but only one theory exists for it now... they suffered the same fate as many of those in here have undoubtedly witnessed...

...just before my abduction, I remember reading a small folklore tale of an entity that stole the souls of common farm sheep and goats. However, after the discovery of the new world and the Spanish Invasion, it decided to grasp onto more stronger and intellectual beings who showed emotion and courage to bring down those who they count as enemies... humans... this way, it had the energy and satisfaction of ruthless and barbarous murder...

October 19th, Abdoul Hanlon

...today, only a small hope buried inside of me expected to wake up in a heavily uncomfortable hospital bed, whilst the doctors conversed and revealed I was in some type of tragedy and placed into a coma. Or to find myself simply in my bed, shivering and shaking for the nightmares this place inflicted upon me...

...we have recently noticed as we scattered to a new piece of The Wood, a fire burning from a copper container that incessantly blew sparks away from its ignited contents. Languid and languorous were the people surrounding the extreme heat it was permitting for them, but as soon as a twig snapped or a raven hooted nearby, they dispersed to a location unknown. We haven't had a theory or clue as to why the struggling survivors would want to be so close to the fireplace, as even from a mere fifty feet from the burning sensation, a powerful and almost antagonistic heat has scorched our skin. However, we have been highly appreciative for this rare occurrence as what seems to be winter has started her due course...

...I have started to realise the agitation this wretched place has caused me and Toby to start feeling. However, with the new arrival of Raven Woodbridge and the tale of how she had managed to get herself caught in the web of disasters is beyond our storytelling, so we have agreed for her to write what she remembers in this journal, in case anyone was to make the same irreversible errors. We have attempted to ask about our family and how the whole town had reacted to our offbeat missings, but so far she's refused to speak of anything of the sort except about her odd tale...

...for the first time ever in this diabolical hellhole, we have seen a killer up close... Now, it wasn't exactly close to the extent that we saw into the chambers and mechanics of why they have turned so savage against their own kind, but enough to know why so many have hidden themselves so beautifully; yet incapable of leaving. We don't know the gender of such wild beast, but we can only assume it to be a man of slim build. What it appeared to be what was left of his face, was a grotesque and twisted mask of different kinds of human skin, as if he had done these unnatural features to himself, whilst distinct areas of his body were burned and still showed the scarring and green dashes of inflicting infection... we collectively decided to call him "The Skinner"...

...All was silent and all was still as he passed our hidy-hole, and I was fortunate to not get a good glimpse toward his choice of weapon or notice if it was drenched in the blood of his countless victims. Nonetheless, the ominous atmosphere that the outlandish creature casted toward its surroundings silenced everything in its path and we have yet to discover who his next victim will be...

...shortly after the corrupted meeting we had with our fellow companion, a small hand reached into our perfectly camouflaged twigs that protected us from the harm we could've witnessed. It was the hand of a small boy around the age of fourteen who befitted no sign that a careless animal just passed in our tracks. As he introduced himself from the outside of our base, he talked with a hollow whisper with no meaning; yet his demeanor seemed very presentable with a touch of innocence. In the act of the savage returning to our general location, we dubiously accepted him into our infrastructure of what we have started to learn to call our "home"...

...it wasn't long until he revealed his name to be Andrew Clooney. He talked of his entrance into this devilish place after following an enigmatic but yet appealing mist on the coast of Oahu. Shortly after his arrival, he found himself drawn to a colony of banded survivors called The Unassailable, a network of people who had warded off the merciless barbarians and created their own safe zone. Upon learning this advanced knowledge, we have all agreed to leave for this promised land amidst a world of demons and death...

...Upon the next time I may write, I hope we do manage to get to this land of Gods, and for us to finally discover our one way ticket out. A note for my future self or any worthy wanderers who trespasses upon these letters is to never give up, as well as to keep your own hopes at an all time high and to keep reminding yourselves that you're 'in it to win it'. More frequently, we have been seeing innocent souls dragged into the afterlife due to insanity crawling onto them when they least expect it, or their dissatisfaction in that they will never leave or see the light of day again. As we entice ourselves into wanting to go to this holy land, I have also realised that we may never fully know the full reasoning behind these ungodly bonfires, but we do know something for sure... that no matter how brutal this place appears, Mother Nature still provides one of her truest forms to protect us from harm's way...

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