SUNDAY JUNE 26TH, 2011

("Fears. There's the rub.")

10:30 AM
In case you’re wondering, that last bit wasn’t, like, some demon sneaking in and writing “Rapture is coming” into my journal while I was asleep. No. I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about what Rogers had said. So I just.. wrote it down and thought.
I haven’t been talking much lately. I’m just.. I dunno.
Lost in thought.

11:02 AM
- Rabbit holes are key to Rapture
- Rabbit holes are growing (according to Harlequin)
- All this was started by…? (“Doctor Cloud?”)
- This is not Rapture. Rapture is coming.
I’ve done some thinking. And I’ve deduced that oh my god I need more information. I need to learn more about the things. The monsters.
Except they’re not monsters, are they? That’s what Mist the Harlequin told me. She called herself a “goddess.” Or something. But is that true?
Is that false?
I really don’t know. I have no way of knowing. Rogers said something about fears. Do gods have fears?
I need to look into this more.

11:11 AM
I wish I could get some answers.
I’m gonna ask the generic family about things. About Rogers.

11:20 AM
Alright, they don’t mind me writing this stuff down as we talk.
“Rogers was a very good child. The doctors told us he was” mumble “we still don’t believe that. He’s just… a savant.”
They might be right about that. He certainly knew a lot more about what’s going on than anyone I’d met.
“We, I.. we don’t know who would want to kill him. He had no enemies, nothing to hide.”
Meredith is crying.
“On the way down here, Rogers was” interrupted, that was Bill, Richard doesn’t want him talking about that.
Noted.
“Can you not ask about Rogers, please?”
I asked about the Exodus. About America.
“We heard about the Exodus when we were nearing London a few weeks ago. London was quite.. impossible for us to enter. So we turned back and found some flyers about the Exodus and Liverpool, and.. here we are.
“We don’t have any real reason for going to America besides survival. England is theirs now. Staying for much longer would be stupid.”
I asked about “them.”
“Rogers knew a lot ab” Bill was interrupted again.
Richard “Rogers called them.. there was this phrase he used a lot. Some old English word.. and then ‘abomination.’ So we just call them abominations.”
..Eldritch?
When I said that, Bill’s face lit up. Hit the nail on the head, I suppose.
“Whatever they are, they’re abominations, they are not of this world, not of God. They shouldn’t be here. But they are.”
I asked about the rabbit holes.
“Portals to Hell, I say. I don’t care for them; we try our best to avoid them at all costs. Y’know the first one I went in took me to a world of nothing but toilets? It was this big city, industrial, completely normal. Except every time you thought you’d see a human, there was a toilet, instead. Not of this world! Ridiculous.”
They have to get going somewhere soon. My last question: Camper Festival.
“I’ve heard of that. I’ve heard the name, not much about it. But it’s really good. I hear it’s the best thing to come out of this apocalypse, lots of the oldies, the kind of music they don't make anymore. Listen, we’ve really got to get going.”

12:39 PM
I’m looking around town. Donnie didn’t want to come. She said she’s feeling a little under the weather. I’ll make sure to look for medicine of some sort.

1:16 PM
I couldn’t find anything. Returned to the inn.
Wednesday can’t come any faster.

1:30 PM
The innkeeper’s calling another headcount meeting.

2:00 PM
Innkeeper says we’re all here, except for the deceased from yesterday. She gave her usual precautions, and said we’re having a five o’ clock curfew this time. Some people argued that the Massacrer will just kill people before then; curfews don’t matter to psychos. The innkeeper stood her ground.

2:34 PM
Donnie’s really got a bad cold. She has a nasty headache and can’t stop coughing and sneezing.
And I have no idea where any medicine is.

3:07 PM
Taking another look in town. There’s gotta be something.

4:10 PM
Noth
…
..okay. It was that same old woman again. She was standing in the inn hallway. Now she’s gone.
o_o;
..anyway, I found nothing. It’s nearly curfew.

5:49 PM
Donnie doesn’t want me hugging her. She doesn’t want me catching whatever it is she has.
Jordan is a sad spidercat now. ._.

7:24 PM
I’m wondering a lot of things. What kind of cold might Donnie have? I mean, chances are it’s just a normal flu, but.. considering all these foreign creatures leaking who knows what into the atmosphere…
I’m gonna try not to think about that. >_<

8:52 PM
SCREAM
WHERE

8:53 PM
All the people are coming out of their rooms.
Who screamed?

8:54 PM
Innkeeper’s doing her headcount.

8:56 PM
A lady from down the hall is dead. Her head was cut off entirely. Cleanly, too.
I get the feeling it was our Masky. But that may be stating the obvious.

10:02 PM
We were all questioned. I was here with Donnie; Donnie attested to it and I have this journal here, too.
So every night, someone dies. But we’re getting out of here, and there’s gotta be somewhere around thirty of us. I think we’ll be fine.
Either way, I’m getting some goddamn sleep.

(Attached: “Ah. Fears. There’s the rub. And the perfect jumping-off point for me to share another anecdote that this brings to mind. I mentioned some logs back that I had done some time in Aegyptus. Well, when I first arrived, date something like 90 CE, I knew nothing of the local languages so I feigned myself a mute and took residence in Memphis. I hid in an abandoned store for a few weeks, stealing food and learning bits and pieces of dialogue from observing the locals. My clothes, I found lying on the street. Probably stole them too. I didn’t know how long I intended on staying, only that I refused to leave that time period, not when I knew at that point what I had just discovered– but that’s a story that requires far more context and so will have to wait awhile. Before I knew it, I was standing before the the Great Temple of Ptah, listening to two people nearby speaking in English.
---Amazing what they do for us.
--- Pfft, yeah. All this effort. We don’t even care.
--- It’s not like we can just tell them we don’t want it.
--- Well, yeah, they’ll likely fight another war or something.
I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from until I looked up and saw two people standing atop the front gates. Having no way to get up there, I called up to them, asking if I could speak. Within a second, one of them suddenly appeared in front of me, the other one still climbing down. The one who had teleported bore the head of a jackal as a mask, the one climbing down wore bright white clothes with a long black beard.
The jackal-faced man asked me what I wished to discuss, throwing in a ‘mortal’ for good measure.
-- Ah, so you’re Fears,
I said with much relief. This, however, only offended him.
--- What? ’Fears?’ Is that what they’re calling us now? Hey, Osiris! They’re calling us 'Fears’ now!
Osiris, out of breath by the time he got to the ground, wiped sweat from his forehead and rolled his eyes.
--- Cute, but I wish they’d stick with 'god.’ I’m getting tired of all these epithets, and why do people insist on calling me a 'Lord?’
I decided to clarify.
--No, nobody’s calling you that yet. I, uh. I’m not from around here. I actually just wanted to know why you guys are speaking in English.
The two gods looked at each other in confusion. Osiris said,
--- We’re not, foreign one. We speak in the ancient tongue known only to us gods. Your puny ears interpret it as whatever you’re used to.
Jackal guy added,
--- But what is 'English?’ That doesn’t sound like the name of any language I’ve heard of.
-- Never mind, you answered my question, we’re good.
I didn’t want to say I was from the future; that struck me as kind of a no-no with time traveling.
--- Say, you’re a god too, aren’t you? The jackal guy asked, sounding enthusiastic.
I looked around to see if anyone was watching. No one in sight.
--..yeah. I’m Thoth.
The two of them gave a look as if they knew my secret.
--- You look awfully young today, Thoth, said Osiris. Last I saw you, you were on death’s door.
I just lowered my eyes. He laughed.
--- Unless you’re gifted with the ability to traverse time itself or something?
The two of them laughed at this until they saw my expression.
Jackal-face asked if I really could.
I quietly nodded.
They looked at each other with awe then proceeded to ask me all kinds of questions, to which I replied by asking if we could go somewhere more private.
Before I knew it, we had been teleported to some glade within a forest who knows where. Awaiting us was a woman in a single large green garment. I was formally introduced to the whole lot: Jackal-face was known by many names including Anubis and Hades, Osiris also had the name Dis Pater, and the woman called herself Aura.
Anubis told Aura of my abilities, and I clarified that it’s not so much an ability as more of.. a possibility.
-- And I certainly can’t choose where or when I go. I go where the Empty City takes me, I guess.
Then I realized it wasn’t called that yet and the others assumed I was being poetic.
-- So what do you guys have powers over?
--- I see to every soul in the afterlife, every being that has passed away comes under my rule, declared Osiris.
--- I control the gales and the airs that come with it, followed Aura.
--- I judge people, added Anubis.
--- He and I, Osiris clarified, work in tandem. He’s the groundskeeper for the afterlife, to wax words. He is responsible for making sure none of my undead might have too much power.
-- As for me, I.. wander throughout space and time, writing and observing. I take it you guys have encountered me before?
Aura smiled and pointed at my book.
--- Many times. You would never explain why your appearance altered, but you would always have that same tome.
-- Did I ever show any powers?
--- Not often. Sometimes, you could snap your fingers and take a human’s memories away, she said.
--- Oh, shouted Anubis, and you seem able to communicate with Olympus itself!
-- Olympus?
--- It’s one of the great mysteries of our kind. A sprawling jungle of houses built with materials no human has ever aspired to. It accompanied us on our journey from the stars, though we know not its ontology.
Sounded like the Empty City to me. I thought for a bit about what else to ask.
-- ..is there a god in this time by the name of Ptah?
Osiris recognized the name as belonging to the one he called Hephaestus, and then he and Anubis left to go and get him, leaving Aura and I alone to question each other.
--- Are there still gods in your time?
-- Uh-huh. You change quite a bit, though. I’m still trying to figure out who Anubis is in the future.
--- Of course we change, for many of us embody the nature of change itself. We have powers unrivaled by any beasts of the cosmos; such powers as us cannot stay stagnant.
-- Tell that to humans in power.
--- Ah, but we aren’t humans, dearest.
-- Many of us were, I’d imagine.
She looked at me funny. That’s when Anubis ran in, requesting that we come with him. Ah, but unfortunately even to proceed with this anecdote would require much context. So I’ll have to leave this note at the conversation above and urge the reading return to Jordan’s journals.”)