Saturday, November 12th, 2016

Sid’s POV

I think I’m guided through the woods by Angie, for the first time in a very long time. But something about the dream is different, as Angie is playing with a bunch of other kids, playing hide and seek.

They’re giggling, laughing, calling out to each other while obviously enjoying themselves. Compared to the forest as I know it, it is a lot more colourful and alive. Most trees are dropping their leaves, a colour scheme or red’s oranges and yellow’s creating a fall-like impression.

The colours mix beautifully with the bright blue water in the lake – a lot different from how I’ve been seeing the lake lately; a rotting, black, stinky substance.

I smile as Angie giggles, running past me to find a spot to hide. I follow her, not because I want to, but because my body does.

I’m not in control of this dream, and I think neither is Angie.

And I’m starting to dread the outcome, as Angie is clearly wearing the dress she is wearing as a ghost, bright white with a bit of dirt on it from all the playing.

She runs deeper into the bushes, and I dread where she’s going; nearby Hunter’s Lodge, now certain this dream isn’t a dream, but a nightmare.

I want to call out for her to stop, but there’s no sounds leaving my throat and I feel as if right now, I’m the ghost instead of Angie.

And she can’t see me.

I follow her further, until she decided to lay under bushes, giggling still, covering her mouth to smother the sound as to not be found soon.

It’s when I see young man, standing in the distance, taking in the scene of playing kids.

When things go silent, only the seeker’s voice calling through the woods, counting up to twenty, when I look back to Angie, the guy now close behind her.

He moves quickly, grabbing her, covering her mouth to smother the scream, pulling her further backwards and into the woods, Angie screaming and fighting to get out of his hold.

And I want to help her, but I’m helplessly floating after them, as the guy easily lifts Angie off her feet, dragging her further towards Hunter’s Lodge.

She’s in complete panic, kicking her feet, scratching his arms, biting his hand, not affecting him in any way. It’s when we’re inside Hunter’s Lodge that I am able to look straight into his eyes; which are pitch black.

“Let me go!” Angie screams, running towards the door.

But one moment, the guy is heading towards a bedroom, while the next, he is in front of the door, pushing her backwards with the same amount of force I used when I fought Liza.

This isn’t good, and I don’t even want to see this.

Angie is thrown into the corner of a bedroom, the guy slamming the door shut behind her, locking me inside it with her.

Angie is frantically searching the room until her eyes land on the window. She scrambles up, heading over to try and open it.

It doesn’t bulge, and eventually Angie settles in finding a spot to hide.

She eventually hides in the closet, making herself as small as possible, trying to keep her sobbing sounds to a minimum.

I wait and wait, but nothing happens for a while, then, the door opens, and the guy reappears, instantly moving over to the closet after taking a look around. He pulls the closet open, and Angie screams a bone chilling scream as he drags her out of the closet and out of the room.

I unwillingly float after them, into the other bedroom, where the closet is opened, the floorboards of the closet are gone, and a staircase is visible, leading down.

It has to be the old basement of Baywick’s cabin.

And Angie is thrown down the steps, her cries in pain and fear silencing as she hits rock bottom; literally. The floor of the basement is paved with old big rocks, and Angie tries to push herself up to crawl away from her attacker, crying, whimpering, sobbing uncontrollable.

“Please…” She cries beggingly, her eyes full of fear. “Please don’t hurt me…”

The guy does not speak, simply pulls her up by her hair, holding a knife in his free hand.

I want to look away, and I focus on the surroundings, not able to turn around, but able to cast my eyes sideways, finding something that seems like… bones. There’s a rotting body of another kid in the corner, and then the scream of Angie, high, full of pain and agony.

She continues screaming until her voice becomes too weak.

I keep focusing on the wall, incapable of looking anywhere else.

When everything goes silent, the room starts to go darker then ever, and right before I can’t make out different forms or shapes, I look in Angie’s direction, finding her lifeless body on the floor of the basement, the guy leaning over her with his face close to her body.

I can’t see what he’s doing, as the darkness takes over, everything shifts, and I wake up, bathing in sweat, laying on a hard floor.

I instantly throw up as I remember Angie’s bloody and lifeless body, and again it’s merely black stinky slurry that leaves my stomach.

I scream out in frustration in between grasping for air, tears streaming down my face, as my eyes adjust to the darkness and my heart drops as I start to recognize my surroundings.

I’m inside Hunter’s Lodge.

It stinks awfully familiar and it looks as if the cabin might break down any moment now. The roof is leaking after today’s downpour, causing a smell of wet, rotting wood to fil the air, among with the smell of mould and… decomposed corpses? I don’t even want to know.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

I need to get the hell out of here.

I haven’t felt as strong as I do right now in a long time, and I happily use the energy to scramble up, and run out of the door and into the woods.

There’re no bright beautiful colours of fall. No red’s, oranges and yellow’s. It is pitch black, the only light coming from a waxing crescent moon, leaving awfully little light to see where I’m going.

But I know these woods like the back of my hand, thanks to Angie.

Thanks to the girl I just witnessed dying right in front of me.

And therefor I don’t need a lot of light, and even less motivation to get to the Guards cabin, through the closet and into the tunnel where everything went to hell little over a month ago.

I run for as long as possible, but as I’m nearing the end of the tunnel, my energy is running low again, the energy suddenly gone, and eventually I have to catch my breath.

* * * * *

I wake up in my bed, confused, and noticing there’s dirt in my bed that could only come from the forest, the cabin, or the tunnel.

I’m not even sure how I got here in the first place, only remembering closing my eyes for a second while resting in the tunnel.

Far away from that place where I witnessed a murder.

And as I wake up, I wonder if Angie knows what I saw, and I search to room to see if she’s here to tell me it’s okay, she isn’t in pain anymore, and she accepted her faith, now solely trying to get someone to find her body.

Her body, that might still be in that basement.

A basement I do not ever want to enter again. But then again, if Angie’s body really was left in there, I could find her remnants and keep my side of the promise; seek her body and get her home.

She did everything she could to keep me safe, the least I could do is try to keep my end of our deal too. I might not succeed in the end, but it’s something to at least try.

I try calling out for her, but she still isn’t showing herself, and I grumble in annoyance, rolling out of bed while the first rays of sunlight peek through the curtains. I need a shower first and clean my bed later.

Nobody needs to know I was in Hunter’s Lodge in the middle of the night, right?

But as I get down, I notice my parents are already up, out of bed, and I hear them talk downstairs. It’s to vague to make out what they’re saying, but my mom sounds stressed out, so instead of heading straight to the shower, I sneak down the stairs to try and eavesdrop in on them.

“He’s wandering around, Harold,” my mom deadpans coldly. “We know we’re losing him and we’re not doing anything to stop it from happening! He’s our son!”

“We aredoing everything we can.

A flash of Hunter’s lodge flashing in front of my eyes, as if I’m back in the basement.

I shake my head to get rid of the image, focusing back on my parents bickering about me, or helping me.

“Where do you think he went?”

“I’m not sure…” Dad sounds sad and really tired. “But there’s no news about a missing kid…”

“It was night! Off course he didn’t abduct a kid! They’re safe in their beds. All kids went missing in broad daylight.”

“Right… But we need to keep an eye on him.”

“Davy reassured me Angie is following Sid around, warning him, Cory or Annika as soon as Sid does something that isn’t right.”

Angie is following me?

Another flash of a cabin flashing in front of my eyes. I’m outside, and there’s people yelling in front of it, with torches…

Not now.

Angie is supposed to be with me, but she isn’t here. I search the hall, and the staircase, still not locating her.

Did I lose my connection again? Is the entity getting too strong? Is he taking over my body as we speak?

I sudden burning sensation spreads across my skin and I bite down, fighting the need to cry out as the burning intensifies.

I hurry back upstairs, turn on the shower and strip out of my clothes. I jump under the cold shower beam, but the burning sensation only slightly lessens at first.

Jolts of pain start to spread through my chest and I sink down in the bathtub, fighting the need to scream, as the pain grows stronger every second. I sit under the stream of water, taking in deep collective breaths, fighting the pain, fighting the weak feeling that makes me want to close my eyes and tune out of life for a couple of seconds.

As I stare to my trembling hands, I notice my chest is completely void of marks.

The marks Michael and Raphael left on me are gone.

A new jolt of pain – way worse than before – shoots through my body, causing me to groan, throwing my head backwards in agony.

What’s happening!?

Monday, November 14th, 2016

I watch as Davy and Annika sit down in class, while I requested the teacher for a spot close to the door, lying how I’m still feeling sick and might need to run to the bathroom every now and then.

I merely came to school because I wanted to see for myself that I can no longer see Angie. She has to be here, but she isn’t.

She’s either with Cory, Davy, Annika or me.

We’re all here, but I can’t see her.

The other reason I came to school, is for some much-needed distraction from the whole situation. The diary is safe in my backpack, wrapped in a small towel to protect it. But I worked on my part of our history project, that is now focusing on the lost daughter of Baywick; Natasha.

And the fact she claims she’s his daughter is in the diary.

The fact Baywick knows she’s his daughter is in there too. So, if Mr. Brightwaters won’t believe us, I can show him the prove we found. It also contains proof of Baywick’s innocence, which is something I am going to show to him too and ask him how we could possibly change the statements of him being guilty, changing the history of this town and making sure Baywick no longer will be looked down upon as a bad influence on the town.

Nobody needs to know he’s currently haunting the town through me and killing innocent kids ever thirteen years.

He wouldn’t have done it if he wouldn’t have been murdered.

I wonder how Mr. Brightwaters is going to respond, and if he knows a way to set facts straight.

It’s one of the few things I want to do before I completely lose control over my body and mind. It’s one of the few things I feel like I needto do.

Maybe Baywick will have mercy on my soul if I help him to prove his innocence. If I take a different revenge for him.

Who knows, maybe Natasha managed to find out who was the actual killer. And maybe if I find that out, I get to set that straight too.

The last thing I really want to do before I die, is find Angie’s body, but I’m not sure how to fix that.

So, I will ask Davy if he’s willing to take that on himself if I won’t be able to succeed myself.

It all sounds final, but that’s what it feels. The entity is breaking out, it’s showing me memories that aren’t mine. It’s showing me how Baywick used to live, it’s showing me how his entity forced others to kill kids.

I have black outs almost constantly now, I don’t sleep well, and I’m afraid all the time.

This whole thing is wearing me out and I need to do as much as I can before I give up for real.

Which might be soon, since I’m in constant discomfort because my skin keeps heating up, every so often burning to a painful degree.

My chest every so often feels as if it’s being ripped apart, knocking the air out of my lungs and I think I’m spiking a fever.

Not that I feel sick, I feel deflated and weak, but not sick.

If you don’t look at the countless of times I threw up the disgusting slurry that is almost leaving a permanent disgusting taste in my mouth that I can’t seem to get rid of.

“Mr. Hayes?” Mr. Garner looks at me worried.

“Yes?” I pull up my head, noticing I placed it on the desk.

“Are you okay?”

Am I okay? No, I’m not; I’m dying. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? You look… sick.”

“I’m fine, really.” I hate how I feel all eyes in the classroom focus on me, including those of my worried friends. “Just continue class.” I wave him off dismissively, ignoring the need to send a cold look to each and every of my fellow classmates for staring at me shamelessly.

“Well, maybe you should consider going ho…”

“I’m fine!” I snap, now annoyed because he’s attempting to send me home. “I wouldn’t be here if I wouldn’t be.”

He sends me a disapproving look for snapping at him. “Sick or not, I need you to show a little more respect…”

“Respect is earned, not demanded. And those who get on my nerves, will be snapped at,” my voice is cold, not entirely mine, and I notice from the corners of my eyes how Cory and Davy share a look that tells me this isn’t good.

And I’m hardly capable of controlling my words. It’s like I’m not talking, for I would never talk back to a teacher like this.

“Mr. Hayes, I do not tolerate such behaviour…”

“You’re provoking it yourself. Deal with the consequences.”

“Mr. Garner, I think Sid just wants to stay, and he’s sick and tired of people telling him what to do.” Cory got up from his seat and walked over to me. “He’s the one who was attacked, and I know how annoying it is to have everyone treat you as if you’re made of glass.” He puts a shaky hand on my shoulder, which my body – not me, my body – shakes off nearly instantly.

Mr. Garner is intensely looking towards me, still visibly disagreeing to my behaviour, but while I want to apologize, something is holding me back. “You’re warned, Mr. Hayes. One more disrespectful comment and you’re out.”

“Whatever…” I shrug, wanting Cory to stay because I liked the fact he stood up for me, but instead watching him as he walks back to his seat with a sad look on his face.

Him and Davy lean towards each other and Davy whispers something to him, causing me to feel irritated because they’re probably talking about me.

I just need to get through this day, make it into history and show Mr. Brightwaters the evidence.

Let’s hope the entity will let me without getting me in trouble.