THE FOLLOWING FILE IS TOLD IN TWO PARTS, BEGINNING WITH THE TRANSCRIPT TAKEN FROM BLAINE'S CAMERA AND ENDING WITH FOOTAGE THAT WAS TAKEN WHEN IT LIKELY SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN.
--File 031: Solutions and Sins--
10/20/XXXX - 10:56am
The camera starts up and is immediately showing Bartosz rushing from his desk to Emma, who is reaching for the paper in his hands with a sharp, jittery eagerness.
Bartosz: "Took me longer than I would have liked, but anagrams don't usually have this many letters. 17's a shit ton to work off of."
Blaine: "I tried looking for an anagram cracker online, and every single damned one only goes up to 14 letters. Gave me jack all to go off of, too."
Emma: "Let's see-"
Emma spends a minute cross checking all of the letters that Bartosz has crossed off on the sheet. Blaine moves around the couch to shoot over her shoulder, and the camera displays, in all caps, written on the sheet in a shaky, nervous hand, "WHY COULDN'T IT BE YOU".
Emma: "If that's what his mother actually said to him, that's brutal."
Anders: "You're an ace to figure that out, Jakub."
Bartosz: "I can't take all the credit. I used a lot of context clues to figure it out, mostly. Remember the beginning, when you looked at the memorial table?"
Emma's eyes snap open in realization.
Emma: "Of course. 'Why couldn't it be her'."
Bartosz: "My initial thought was that it was that, again, but obviously it was missing some letters. Given Grantham's thoughts and feelings though and the obvious hint that he doesn't care too much for his old lady, I think this is the only answer it could be."
Emma: "I'm extremely confident in that."
Emma navigates the character back over to where Grantham's mother is waiting. When she activates the NPC- non-player character- the text input window opens once more. With extreme care and exaggerated slowness, Emma inputs each letter perfectly, double checks it several times, gets a confirmation from the others, and then hits the ACCEPT button.
The screen goes blank, and every single person in the room goes very still. Emma, with yet more exaggerated slowness, pushes the game gingerly away from her, as if concerned it will explode onto her lap.
Instead, a new text box appears:
> ONCE THERE WAS A BOY
>
> A BOY WHO ONCE KNEW JOY.
>
> HIS FATHER WAS ALIVE NO MORE
>
> AND HIS MOTHER WISHED HE WERE
>
> THE DEAD ONE.
>
> WITH FATHER GONE FOREVER MORE,
>
> MOTHER HAD NO ONE TO STOP
>
> THE MADNESS THAT WOULD SOON
>
> BE FED
>
> BY THE WAITING ONES.
As before, the screen flicks off following the text, with only the timer remaining, counting down at just under 47 hours. No one speaks for several very long moments.
Anders: "Well, what do you figure?"
Bartosz: "I want to hear what Emma's got, first."
Emma is quiet for a few more moments, her eyes hard and distant, the game sitting untouched in her lap. When she speaks, it's decisive; Blaine has moved, now, to sit in front of her, so the camera is facing not just her, but Bartosz and Anders, as well, who are both standing behind her.
Emma: "I'm no professional on serial killers, but from the research I did, I realized that a lot of them... a lot of them... had extremely rough childhoods."
Bartosz: "You'd be surprised how long it takes a lotta students up at those colleges to figure that one out, kid."
Emma: "Yeah, but this... is different."
Anders: "In what way?"
Emma: "All that flavor text. Sure, serial killers are born from extremely difficult, often tragic and violently traumatic childhoods, but the mother... she's not the only thing going on here. There's something being hinted at, some... outer plan."
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Emma looks up at Blaine.
Emma: "I need to check back the footage from earlier, but I'm positive of it. All of those people there, they were hinting at having had Jake Grantham's father killed, on purpose, for some end."
Anders: "So, what, the mom was in on it?"
Emma: "...No. I don't think so. There was a line or... something, something about how she'd be 'in on it' soon. I think these people were priming her for something. I don't know what. I definitely think the town knew what was going on in the Grantham house, though."
Blaine: "Jesus. You mean they knew that Grantham's mom was... whatever she did to him?"
Emma: "It would explain why no one will talk."
Bartosz: "Of course."
Bartosz looks like he just won the jackpot.
Bartosz: "It was one of my theories. I had two working lines of thought, but I could never get those assholes to open up, even a little bit. They were either scared shitless, or... they knew what the hell was going on with Grantham, and they either didn't care, were still scared shitless, or... they wanted it that way."
Emma: "I am tentatively aiming for the last in that list- but not everyone, I think."
Anders: "Not everyone?"
Emma: "No. Wynona's mom... I read your book, Mr. Bartosz."
Bartosz: "Jakub, please. Or just Bartosz. The 'mister' sounds like I'm respectable, which... let's be honest, I'm not."
Emma and Blaine both try to hide their amusement, but Anders openly snorts with laughter.
Emma: "You mentioned that following Grantham's targeting of her girls, Wynona's mother fled, immediately."
Bartosz: "Yeah... fat lotta good it did her in the end."
Emma blanches, but pulls herself together quickly and moves past it. Blaine is able to catch Anders surreptitiously smacking Bartosz in the gut, who looks guilty, but says nothing as Emma continues on.
Emma: "I don't think their family knew. I do think they found out, though, with the revelation of Grantham. I don't think Wynona's mom fled a memory... I think she fled the very dangerous reality that was still there, in that town. The people that put together this death- but why? To what end?"
Everyone falls silent on this for several moments. It is Jakub Bartosz who finally breaks the silence.
Bartosz: "I don't know. I do know that we can't keep sitting around, unfortunately; there's a ticking time bomb on that thing, and if your latest adventures can point to anything, you've got less than 24 hours before some biblical plagues comes for your asses."
Emma: "We need to hit the road."
Anders: "Understood. We can grab some coffee on the way. Sleep will have to wait until we're in town."
Blaine: "Ah... are we seriously going to sleep there?"
Everyone pauses at this question, and a troubled look comes over each of them.
Blaine: "How close is the next available pit stop?"
Bartosz: "Unfortunately, this place is real isolated, which just adds to the whole fuckery of it all. I'm going to be living it up in my camper outside city limits; I've got walkie talkies, because cellular is shit out there, and even then, the trees are gonna fuck with us. Still, I'll be in the wings. I've got some good gear to work with from the sidelines, curtesy of ol' Alois."
Anders: "No shit? You got Alois on this?"
Bartosz: "I just couldn't keep it from her. She's one of us- one of the Lost Ones."
Blaine: "What exactly is the plan of action here, then? We're going into potentially a literal demonic lair of... I don't know what. Convicted father killers?"
Emma: "We can set a watch every night."
Anders: "I don't know if they're going to do anything to us."
They all look at Anders in disbelief.
Blaine: "Why not?"
Anders: "Think about it. Emma's a target. She's got a game. If all of this has been orchestrated from within... why would they want to stop that? I'd bet that game becomes our ticket in."
Emma looks unhappily at the game sitting so innocently in her lap.
Blaine: "Either way, I can set up cameras at night. I'm good at that."
Anders gives Blaine a pained look, but Blaine busies himself with fiddling with the camera, which shuts down a moment later.
----------------------------------------
The following appears to have been filmed shortly after; the camera is switched on in a dark hallway, and for a moment, all that can be heard is the fiddling with the device and some heavy breathing. After a moment, however, it picks up the somewhat quiet and hushed voices of Bartosz and Anders.
Anders: "So? What are you thinking?"
Bartosz: "You're right. The girl's not what I expected. I keep stickin' my foot in my mouth because she makes me feel like I'm talkin' to Alois, or something' like that. She's hurtin', but I think she'll be all right."
Anders: "And Blaine?"
Bartosz: "...Kid's got somethin' to hide. I know you don't want to hear it, Anders, you never did get to have kids, but that kid... I dunno. It's been too long since I was in the field, but some people give you a little red flag in your head, and you learn to pay attention to that little red flag. Kid's even less perturbed by all this than the girl is."
Anders: "I told you what he went through."
Bartosz: "That's not what I'm talking about, Jim. He's excited."
They fall silent. It's unclear who is filming this.
Anders: "I haven't told Emma yet about Keith."
Bartosz: "What, the boyfriend? Shit. Did he die?"
Anders: "...Yeah. They couldn't pump him clear of all of it before it overwhelmed his system. Body totally shut down. I heard it was... not pretty. Closed casket."
Bartosz: "Ah, hell. Fuck. Dammit. Fuck!"
There's the sound of something thudding to the floor, followed by a moment of silence.
Bartosz: "I'm getting this sense of Deja Vu, you know that? Like it's all happening all over again. I thought I'd be ready- I thought I'd be happy for this to finally come to a goddamned close."
Anders: "No. There's no happy ending for all of us. I don't know if the kids know that."
Bartosz: "There's a happy ending for me, but I can't reach it until this whole shitshow is over."
Anders: "Jakub..."
Bartosz: "Don't start. I just want to finally put this nightmare to bed. I've been infected with a sickness I can't cure for years, Jim, and I'm ready to die."
Anders: "...Well, we have to win, first, so you're gonna have to wait."
Bartosz: "Yeah, yeah. Look, let's get back out there before they start missing us-"
As footsteps start to reach the camera's microphone, the person filming quickly cuts the camera as they move silently away from where they were hiding.
--END TRANSMISSION--