Questioning

Officer: Hey, sorry to keep you waiting like that. I thought you might be a bit hungry, so I brought some sandwiches. You want one?

August: No.

Officer: You really should try to eat. I know what happened was rough, but you really shouldn't torture yourself like this.

[Neither of them say anything for a moment.]

Officer: What are you looking at?

???: Don't worry. He can neither see nor hear me.

Officer: Nothing here is going to hurt you, kid. It's just me and you. And these sandwiches.

???: Eating may give you time to think of a lie.

Officer: There you go. Don't go too fast, though. You don't want to make yourself sick.

[There's the faint sound of chewing and the sound of ??? breathing through his mask. This goes on for a couple minutes.]

Officer: So, you ready to talk about what happened.

August: Didn't you listen to the tapes?

Officer: It's alright if you don't want to. Take your time.

August: But the tapes... I recorded...

???: He doesn't know about the tapes. He'll never see them, he'll never know about them. Even if he did, he would never hear what's on them.

Officer: It's alright if you want to cry. I cried the first time someone I cared about passed away.

August: No. It's... alright. Me and my girlfriend, April, were out camping at her uncle's cabin. We were going to spend the weekend there. Our first night there, we had a fight and she... went outside. To... clear her head.

Officer: I'm so sorry. Was that the last time you saw her?

August: Yeah. After a couple of hours I started to get worried. I though that... [August kind of starts to falter here] something had... gotten her.

Officer: Yes. The reports on the news have been a little exaggerated, but animal attacks have been pretty bad lately. It's dangerous to be in the woods at night.

August: Are you saying it's her fault that she died?

Officer: No, no. I'm sorry if that's what it sounded like. It's just... you know what, just forget it. I'm sorry I said anything. Would you mind explaining what happened next?

August: I called the cops.

Officer: You didn't stay to wait for them, though.

August: My girlfriend was in the woods. Alone. I had to go and find her.

Officer: You should have waited for the officials. They would have helped. You might not have seen...

August: But I did see it. I saw her being...

[August doesn't finish and trails off. Every now and then I can hear his shaky breathing. The officer doesn't seem to notice and just continues.]

Officer: So it was a wolf attack. Do you think you could describe it for me? Mhm. Mhm. About how big would you say it was? Alright. Hey, I'm just going to run this out to someone real quick. I'll be right back. Feel free to have another sandwich if you like.

[There's the sound of a door opening and closing. After a while, August's breathing settles down.]

???: You are not a very good liar.

August: It doesn't seem like it matters. What was he even hearing me say?

???: I couldn't tell you.

August: You don' know what you made him hear?

???: I didn't do it. My friends did.

August: Friends?

???: Mmm... perhaps not the best word for them. Allies might be more applicable here. They are beings like myself, and for now they share my interests.

August: The blurs...

???: They choose to refer to themselves as Melody and Discord. They are beings who sing to your perception, altering it, distorting it. They made man hear things that were never said. He sees you talking when you aren't. They might even be making you look like someone else.

August: How do I know they... “singing to my perception”?

???: You don't, though I have forbidden them from manipulating you while I'm helping you.

August: You said I couldn't trust anybody except my tapedeck. How do I know I can trust you?

???: Again, you don't.

[There's the sound of the door opening and closing again.]

Officer: Sorry about that. Paperwork is such a pain, you know. Hey, you ate all the sandwiches, too. It's good for a kid to have an appetite, especially after something like this. It'll never do you any good to stop eating. Anyway, I've put out a notice for that wolf of yours. We'll see if we can catch it. A couple of officers from the city will be showing up in a bit. They're going to take you with them, ask you a couple questions about what happened. Don't be afraid, just tell them what you told me and you'll be fine. Is there anything else you want to tell me before they get here? Anything at all?

???: Don't say anything.

August: I wasn't going to.

???: Good. I want you to look at his collar. Do you see the pin?

August: Yeah.

???: What's on it.

August: A red hand.

Officer: Alright then. I'm going to go take care of some things. I'll be back in a bit to bring you some more food.

[The door opens and closes again.]

???: Remember the Bloody Hand. After today, they are your greatest enemies, second only to the Beast himself.

The tape runs out there. This seems to be the why August was confused about the story. Also, it seems like he wasn't just dealing with the thing that ate April. ??? and these other two, “Melody” and “Discord.” ??? also mentions the Bloody Hand and the Beast, and he refers to them as August's enemies. But ??? doesn't really seem like August's ally either.

There's also ???'s description of “Melody” and “Discord.” Beings like himself that sing to your perception. What does that even mean. What are they?

A skeleton in a gasmask.

Blurs in the corner of your eye.

A bloody man wearing a goatskin.

The Bloody Hand.

The Beast.

I don't understand any of this.

Holding

I've found the next two tapes that come next. They're one right after another. The first seems to be just August and some other... people? It's hard to explain. There's no one voice, but several, and each seems to try and talk over the other. They're not in unison, but they still seem to be saying the same thing. If I listen really closely, though, some of them are speaking different languages, like German, and French, and some are just... gibberish. I've written what the English speakers say. There's also August's description of him. I suppose it might just be easier to write that part down.

???: Is the device recording?

August: Yeah.

???: Good. I want you to describe the situation. I want you to describe it as accurately as you can.

August: The police...

???: Not to me. To the device.

August: The police picked me up a little bit ago. I can't really remember what happened after that thing left. Just... I was too afraid to move. I was afraid that if I moved, then what happened to April would just... not go away. I felt like, if I just stayed still, then everything would just go back to normal. It... didn't. A cop found me I don't know how much later. He called a bunch of people to deal with April, then brought me here. It's a small police station, because the closest town is only like a couple hundred people. I guess they're getting in contact with a nearby city, to get a better investigation. I don't know. I just get what I can eavesdrop. They won't tell me anything. After a while they just brought me into this room, then left me alone. After a while... after a while you appeared.

???: How did I get here?

August: I don't know. One minute I was alone, the next... I didn't even hear the door open.

???: That's because I didn't use it. Do you know who I am?

August: No.

???: Then please, describe me to the device.

August: You look like...

???: To the device, please.

August: He looks like he could be a teenager. He's dressed like it. Hoody, jeans. The jeans are even torn a little, and his hood is up. He looks about as tall as a teenager, too. I can't see his face. He's wearing a gas mask, like, an old World War One style mask. And his hands... his hands are bone. Literaly bone. No skin or meat or anything.

???: Anything else?

[August is quiet for a little bit.]

August: If I turn my head, I can almost see a blur in the corner of my eye. They look almost like wings. One is mishapen and grey. The other is more defined... for a blur... and colorful.

???: Good. Keep that device with you. Keep it recording. Talk to it, tell it things you wouldn't tell anybody else. It may be the only thing you can trust from here on out. It will also be the only thing that may keep you sane.

[August doesn't say anything, but makes a noncommittal noise.]

???: Now, a man will be coming in here soon. He'll want to ask you questions about what happened. You must not tell him the truth.

August: Because he won't believe me?

???: Because he will.

August: What?

???: You'll understand eventually. For now, lie. Don't worry about making it believable. My friends will make him hear something he won't question.

[August starts to say something but is interrupted by ???]

???: You may want to insert a new record into your device. Our conversation has been happening for quite some time, and I don't know how long the officer will want to question you.

[August makes another noncommital noise and the tape ends here]

I've listened to the next tape, too. It's the officer questioning August. ??? is there as well. I need to go back and listen to it a couple more times, though, because the officer seems to be having a different conversation than ??? and August. I think I understand where the story of the wolf comes from now, though. I'll tell you more when I fully transcribe.

Small Update

It wasn't easy sleeping last night. I don't even really remember what the nightmare was, but every now and then I can remember something. Blood. Teeth. A goat, though I can't remember if it was the goat being eaten, or doing the eating.

Regardless, I couldn't really sleep last night, so did end up looking for the next tape. I went through the box and tried to sort them as best I could. Now I've got semi-organized piles of tapes all through my living room. I haven't gotten together any particularly long sections, though. More like small, scattered groupings of tapes.

I still haven't found the next tape yet. The journal says that it was after the police picked August up and were holding him for questioning about April's death. The tape after that seems to be the actual questioning. I'll keep working at it.

Last Will and Testament

Despite the label on this tape, it doesn't actually have to do with Testament, the group from the letter. It seems more like August thought it might have been his last recording.

This seems to take place on the same night of the last tape, or at least the early morning after. The journal confirms this. This is... also when April dies. The recording starts suddenly.

August: ...on come on come on you piece of shit. There. Alright. Hello. My name is August. This audio tape may be my last record, and just in case, I want whoever finds it to know what happened here. Me and my Girlfriend Ap... April were... are camping in her uncle's cabin. We came alone, but we're not the only ones out here. Last night... tonight... fuck I don't know it's still dark there's no fucking clocks and jesus fuck fuck fuck.

[There's fast breathing. I can sort of make out August trying to count to ten. I've seen him do it before. It's a coping mechanism for when he feels overwhelmed by something. He's told he only has to do it occassionaly, when things are just way too much for him.]

August: Alright. Slow breathing. There was this man outside. He was naked and covered in blood and he was wearing some sort of goatskin or something. We were going to call the police, but then me and April had a fight, we never got around to it. We ended up sleeping in different rooms. I just woke up to see her outside. I went to call out to her, and there was this blur, like something really fast going by, and she was gone. I think that man took her, so I'm going out to look for her. I've got a fire poker and if I see that fucking bastard I'm going to hit him over the head with it. I know what I'm doing is stupid, but I called the cops and it'll take them 20 fucking minutes to get here. I need to make sure that April is okay, that that fucker isn't raping her or something. I'm... I'm going now. God help me. God help April. And God save that fucker from my wrath if I find him hurting April.

[A good amount of the tape from here on out is the sound of snapping twigs and the brush of something, likely branches. Every now and then, August will call out April's name or shout at the man who took her. Near the end of the tape, August begins to talk again. Before he does though there are different sounds. I really hate to be so blunt, but it sounds like something tearing meat from the bone.]

August (barely whispering): Jesus.

(Louder): Get away from her.

(Louder still): I said get away from her.

(Shouting now): GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER YOU BASTARD! GET AWAY! STOP FUCKING EATING HER AND GET AWAY! GO!

[There's a thunk. I think it's August hitting whatever was eating April]

August: Oh god

[There's another thunk, and then it sounds like the recorder hits the ground. There's the sound of something sniffing, then... I can only describe it as laughter, if I can call it that. It almost sounds more like a cross between a growl and some kind of crunching sound, but still almost like laughter. I can hear August beginning to hyperventilate again. Eventually there's the sound of something else dropping to the ground. From here on, August sounds close to tears.]

August: Fuck you. Don't fucking beckon like that. I'm not joining you. I'm not going to eat my fucking girlfriend, so fuck you. Fuck you. Get the fuck away from her. That's right, go. Get outta her you bas... you ba... b... b... ba...

[August breaks down into tears at this point. He's like that until the end of the tape.]

'Stop fucking eating her' That's what he said. Everything I've written down, save for the liberties I've taken with names, is, to the best of my abilities, word for word what is said on these tapes. So that's what he said. 'Stop fucking eating her' I guess it really was that man who killed April. Killed her and ate her. I just don't understand why he would lie about it. He had the tape, he was an eye witness. He could have told the cops, but he didn't, he just said it was an animal attack. Why do that?

I had to listen to this a couple of times, to make sure I heard things right, that I transcribed it correctly. Every time I get to the part where August finds... I feel nauseous. I'm sorry August, I really am, but I'm not even two tapes into the box and already I'm considering just walking away from this. Just take the box, throw it into the back of my car, and drop it off at the dump. If it were anyone else... I probably would.

I'm not going to bother looking for the next tape tonight. It's late. I spent way too much time on this and I'm tired. I'm just going to try and get some sleep. We'll see what happens in the morning.

"Not Really Camping"

I realized this morning, before listening to the tape, that I never really explained why R----- chose the username PerpetualFriday for me. I don't imagine it's really that important, but I guess it's best to explain everything. When we were kids, we used to play pokemon together. I can't really remember why, but for some reason, I always named my character Friday, and named all of my pokemon, the ones that were the main part of my team, after the other six days of the week. R----- would do the same, but with months. He always called his character August.

I think, from here on out, when I'm transcribing, I'm going to try and use those as aliases. Months and days of the week. He's asked me not to give names, and it will be easier to just use a naming pattern like that.

As for the tape, well...

I've found it, and I've listened to it It's not comforting, to say the least. The Journal says that the tape took place when August went camping with April a few months before he disappeared. April was August's girlfriend. It was the night that she died.

The worst part was, August didn't even want to go camping, not the way April wanted to at least. April's uncle had a cabin, and August and April were going to go camping up at it for a weekend a couple summers back. August wasn't going to tell April straight, but he confided in me that he didn't consider staying in a cabin camping. He wanted to 'rough it,' as he put it. He preferred tents and sleeping bags. He called that real camping, but in the end he went ahead with what April wanted.

They weren't even there a day before she had been killed.

Officially, she was attacked and eaten by a wolf. Listening to the tape, I'm not so sure anymore.

This is, to the best of my abilities, what was on the tape.

August: There, a new tape is in and recording, ready to go.

April: I really wish you hadn't brought that thing along. It was supposed to just be me and you this weekend.

August : April, you know I never go anywhere without recording.

April: I know, I know. It's just...

August : Listen, it won't be recording all the time.

[There's some giggling. Something squeaks. I think it might be bedsprings.]

August : Here, I'll just turn it off and...

[There's a crashing sound, but it's distant.]

April: What was that?

August : I don't know. It sounded like it came from outside. Did you bring the can in?

April: Shit, no, I forgot. Sorry, I'll go...

August : Don't worry about it. Whatever's out there has already gotten into it. It'll be a pain in the ass to clean it up this late at night anyways. Let's just...

[There's another crash.]

August : Great. April, do me a favor and see what the hell that is.

[There's more squeaking noises.]

April: It's dark out there. It... it looks like a goat.

August : A goat?

April: Yeah. Hold on, I'm going to go turn on the porch light and get a better look.

August (mumbling): If this were real camping, we'd have a fire going, and it would keep this shit away. But no, April just had to take us to her uncle's cabin. Now there's fucking goats in the fucking...

[There's a very loud scream.]

August: April!? April!

[There's stomping noises, almost like someone's running.]

August: April! Are you all right, what happened?

April: Jesus Christ, August. It was a man. It was a fucking man and he was rooting through the garbage. He was naked, and covered in blood, and he was wearing some sort of fucking goat head. Jesus.

August: Shh, shhh. It's alright. We'll call the cops, we'll let them know he out there. We'll leave tonight...

April: It's late, August-. I don't want to be on the road this late at night.

August: Fine. We'll leave first thing in the morning. Now come on. Give me a hug and let's go back to bed.

[There's a bit of a rustling sound.]

April: Is that... Jesus H Fucking Christ August, I scream and you bring your goddamned recorder with you? There's some bloody, naked man out in the woods, miles from civilization, and all you can think is to grab is your fucking recorder?

August: I'm sorry, I...

April: No. Fuck You. I'm going to the bedroom, you stay the fuck here.

August: But...

April: Fuck you.

[There's some stomping here. I think it's April storming away. It's quiet for sometime after that. Occasionally there's a deep sigh, presumably from August. After a while the tape just ends.]

I'm... really not sure what to say. August never really talked about that night, but what he did tell me... He never mentioned the man April saw. He never mentioned it to anybody.

When I heard that April had been killed, I had asked him how. He didn't tell me the first time, so I had to go to another friend of mine whose father was a police officer. He told me that August had told them a wolf had eaten her.

I asked August to talk to me about it another time, and he told me it was a bear attack. When I told him I thought it had been a wolf, he corrected himself and told me I was right, that it was a wolf. At the time, I just passed it off. August had just been through a traumatic experience, and he had never really had the best of a life, so I figured he was just stressed and confused. Listening to this tape, I'm thinking he was covering something up. The man April saw, was he the one that actually killed her? The letter from Testament mentioned something called the Phobic and the Carnal. Does this man have something to do with them? Is he them? Are they some sort of cult, or serial killers? August, if this man killed April, why not just tell the police? They could have done something about it. They could have searched for him, maybe caught him, stopped him from hurting more people. I just...

I don't understand what's happening with you.

There's still more tapes to go through. The next one is listed as Last Will and Testament. It's also marked with a red sticky. The writing is darker, like August really ground the pencil to write it. There's also several dark scratches around it. I'll find it and listen to it. Maybe it will clear things up.

A Letter from the Past

I received a package in the mail today.
It was addressed to me, from an old friend of mine.
Probably wouldn't be that much of a deal, if it weren't for two things.
One. What was in the package.
Two. My friend went missing nearly two years ago.
Not left without a word. Missing. As in, his parents don't know what happened to him, the cops don't know what happened to him, even his friends don't know what happened. A lot of the other guys figured he just ran away from home. I kinda thought that, too. I mean, guy's girlfriend gets mauled and eaten by some wolf, guy might just want to walk out the door and keep walking.
But I get this package full of audio tapes, and I begin to wonder. I get these letters, one from my friend the other from I don't know who, and I begin to wonder. I get this journal, full of dates and scribbling, and I begin to wonder.
You see, my friend had this habit of recording everything on this little handheld tapedeck he carried with him everywhere. Me and some of the other guys tried to tell him to turn to digital, but he wouldn't listen. He said the sound wasn't the same. So he carried this tapedeck around with him and recorded everything. Conversations, lectures, the radio, everything. I know for a fact that he kept a personal diary, too. I asked him if I could listen to some of them. Not the diaries, those are personal, but some of the other stuff. Just curious. He got real quiet. He said no, but he told me that I could try recording some of my own. He handed me this extra tapedeck he had and said I could borrow it for a while. To see if I liked it.
I think the damn things are still in my closet somewhere. I'll have to dig them out now, I guess.
Why? Well, mostly because of the letters.
The one from my friend is probably the better one. It was nice seeing something from him again.


Hey man, long time no see. Sorry to have cheesed it like that, but some weird shit was going down and I had to get outta there. It's been a long time and a long journey travelled, and a lot has happened, but I got every bit of it down on my tapes. Hell, those things are probably the only thing that kept me from going nuts for this long. But all this shit's wearing me thin, I was starting to think I wouldn't make it. Then this man approaches me, tells me he represents a group who try and help people like me. Poeple who've been on the run from weird shit. He made some weird speech about experiments and psychokinetic mumbo jumbo. Probably bullshit, but hey, I've seen and heard weirder. Anyway, to cut a long story short, this man told me to choose someone I trust and appoint them as my scribe. He tells me that I should take all my tapes and send them to the scribe, have him write them down, put them to paper. He said that might keep the Madness at bay a little bit longer. Well, there's noone I trust more than you, man. So I packed up the tapes I still had from all the shit, at least, the ones up to just before I left, and gave them to the man. The man even had a few that I had lost (a little weird, but hey, stranger things, right?) There were actually quite a bit of them, so I took some time and went through them, marking the important ones and writing them down in a little notebook. Then I took some time and wrote this letter to you. Well, I've actually written like, seven letters, but most of them are in the wastebasket, so I don't think they count. Anyway, I'm giving the tapes and the notebook and this letter to the man, and he says he'll take care of the rest. I hope he does. Those tapes are, quite literally, my life. I trust you with them, but him, not so much.
Alright, almost outta paper, getting late, gotta finish. Follow the notebook, Be thorough (not sure if I have to tell you that, you were the better note taker), Listen to these Testament people. I may not really trust them, but they seem to know what they're doing.
Also, no names. The man mentioned the internet, and I'd prefer people not knowing our names and stuff.
Be in touch, man,
R-----


He's right, I was always took better notes them him. I just wasn't the better talker. I flipped through the notebook. A lot of dates, a lot of doodles, a lot of loose paper, and a lot of little, colored stickies. It looks like there are maybe 20 or 25 different colors, some of them only subtly different from others. His binders and notebooks during school were the same. No rhyme or reason, yet he seemed to know how to find what he needed. The tapes probably helped, but I think the stickies were the real hint. Somehow he managed to understand that crazy system of his and work with it. Hopefully I will, too.
The second letter was from this group R----- mentioned. Testament.


Dear Mr. D-------,
Your dearest friend, Mr. J------, has selected you to act as his Scribe in an ongoing experiment of ours. The experiment involves the involvement of certain unnatural beings, known to us as the Phobic and the Carnal, with human individuals, the effects of that involvement on those individuals' minds, and the manners in which the individuals attempt to cope with that effect.
You see Mr. D-------, the human mind is a very malleable thing, but even the most malleable of things can snap given the right amount of force. The Phobic and the Carnal seem to exert this force on humans. Some men experience this force and go mad within moments, if they are not killed on the spot. Others go years on the run, surviving on the very edge. Sooner or later, however, they are brought down by one of two things; Death or Madness. It is only inevitable.
Our research seeks to prevent the latter of the two for as long as possible. Our studies have shown that recording the experience in some manner seems to dissipate this force. Different manners of recording seem to dissipate more force. Audio and Visual recording seem to be the weakest of the manners. This is followed by paper recording; Journals and Diaries. Interestingly enough our studies show that the most effective manner seems to be recording it on the World Wide Web. We are not entirely sure as to why, though we suspect it may be related to the fact that these records are much more of a shared experience, causing the force to be dissipated further.
As such, we have sought many on the run from the Phobic and the Carnal, many who have recorded their experiences in the lesser forms, and urge them to take part in an experiment. In this experiment, we attempt to dissipate the force as far as possible, and observe the effect it has. We seperate the act of recording into two areas. The Runner, in this case, your friend Mr. J------, and the Scribe, in this case you, Mr. D-------. The Runner takes the brunt of the force and records it in one of the lesser forms. We take those records and pass them onto the Scribe, who records them on a provided website. The following account will be where you record Mr. J------'s audio journals. We have provided you with an alias Mr. J------ says you will find to your liking.

Username: PerpetualFriday

Password: **********

We recommend that you change your password as soon as you log in. We trust you to follow our instructions to the letter. Thank you for your cooperation.

Yours Truly,

Testament

They are certainly polite, but I will say this. I'm not doing this for Testament. I'm doing this for R-----.

This is a pretty big box, and there are a lot of tapes in here. The first entry of the journal R----- sent me is labelled “Not Really Camping.” There's a red sticky on it. The tapes are all labelled, but none of the ones near the top of the package are labelled that. I'm going to try and dig through them all and find the one I need.

R-----, I don't know where you are or what you got into, but if you're reading this, stay safe, alright?