THIS FILE CONTAINS ANOTHER JOURNAL ENTRY FROM EMMA, FOLLOWING THEIR LIBRARY FINDINGS.

--File 036: Disturbing Discoveries--

10/20/XXXX - 8:13pm

Dear Journal,

Being at the library was some of the most tense hours of my life. We were there all day. We had to be- there was so freaking much to sift through.

They had this old as nails computer in the back that basically just acted as a cataloguing system. It mostly just told us what section of the cellar certain years were located in.

We split up into groups. I looked for anything from forty years ago, Blaine looked at the papers from Grantham's high school years, and Anders took anything following that.

I felt like something was watching us down there. Seriously. It felt like we weren't alone, and that sounds SO stupid and like such a horror movie classic, but seriously. No one talks about what that feels like. You have this constant tension in your skin, adrenaline makes you feel like you're somewhere you're not supposed to be for hours on end, and you've got this fight or flight response that's trigger happy at every sound, every smell, every movement out of the corner of your eye.

The three of us were all stressed to the max. The silence was deafening. We'd have put music, but the last thing we wanted was for Old Lady Smile Face to come down the stairs and get mad at us. The fact that this whole creepy face thing is just a part of life now is WILD. We're literally in it. That's what it feels like, like we stepped into a horror movie and that's just it, horror straight out the gate.

These people are happy to have me here, happy to accommodate, and happy to let me use their facilities, and that does not feel right. They're not afraid of me at all. They're not afraid of what we might find. Hell, they're not afraid of me doing anything. Assuming that smile isn't some defense mechanism, they're happy as hell to have me here, and that's terrifying.

I digress.

We discovered a lot, but it doesn't feel like a lot. Anders has a lot of notes, and he's thinking pretty hard on what we have to do next while we head out to the Church that Bartosz is at. No point in hiding our affiliation, since all the creepoids here already know.

It's obvious that half, or most, of the town isn't in on whatever is going on here. It feels pretty culty, but until we have solid confirmation that it's a cult, we shouldn't go assuming anything. Whenever we do pass locals who aren't part of the Happy Meal Society, they practically run in the other direction. It's kind of alarming- like we're the killers, or something.

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Granted, this game console is basically a ticking time bomb for whatever freak out it's going to give us tomorrow morning, so it's not like I can blame them, assuming the normal folks here know anything about it.

Shortly after Grantham's death, we were able to pinpoint a few things that seemed really alarming. We noticed that there was a sudden shift in power- these people have had almost the same Town Council for the last forty years! I don't even think that's legal, but if anyone knows, they're not doing anything about it. The town just... goes on as it is, making a crap ton of money, running like butter, and birthing serial killers.

We didn't copy out everything we found, but following the death of Jake Grantham's mother and this Weiss dude's entire family, there were a lot of deaths in town. The deaths continue up until really recently, but there are no articles talking about these crazy deaths that just... happen. It's all ages, too, and it's started bleeding out into surrounding towns, although the exact numbers in that department are difficult to say, because we're mostly just going off of what this Vincent Alexis was willing to write about, and if they're not under the paycheck of this Mayor MacGregor, then I'm actually a walrus.

So we've got corruption, our own experiences with obviously paranormal entities originating from this town like it's the eye of a massive storm, and we've got this cloud of death that's creeping out of here like a miasma.

Delightful.

How are we supposed to fight this? We're hoping Bartosz has a better plan, but things are looking bad. Bad enough that we don't seem to pose a threat at all to the local Smile Brigade.

And then, of course, there's the great unknown: Weiss.

Weiss and Grantham were well-known enough back in their day that they were even written about as best friends. Weiss's obvious interests in games in the Science Faire article was a huge red flag, and Anders got real quiet when we showed him that. I don't know how he's holding up, because if Weiss is behind the games, that means... that means Grantham wasn't alone all these years. They were chasing two serial killers, and they never even knew it.

Would there have been clues to there being two serial killers?

Clearly not, because it was never discussed or even theorized, not in the fifteen years since Grantham's capture. Maybe it was poked at, but there never seemed to be concrete evidence enough for there being a second serial killer.

Bartosz isn't going to like this- either that, or he'll throw a party over finally getting a breakthrough.

Whoever the hell Weiss is, he's probably still alive, and that's a fact that we have to come to terms with. Is he controlling the flies? Is he able to communicate with Grantham's ghost? Is he watching us?

I feel like the answer to that is yes.

We haven't discussed all of this yet, but I know that we're going to have to.

Whoever Weiss is, he's at the center of this horrific nightmare, and I'm not keen on that, because I feel like every time I look out the window right now into the dark streets of this crazy town, I see a "Snack the Smiles Back" face staring through the window, right into my eyes.