THE CONTENTS OF THIS FILE CONTAIN THE EVENTS INVOLVING THE INITIAL MEETING WITH WEISS HOLTMAN, THE APPARENT UNKNOWN SEREIAL KILLER BEHIND THE KILLINGS FIFTEEN YEARS PRIOR.

--File 038: Revelations 2:2-3--

When the video begins recording again, it is Emma who now has the camera, her hands shaking as she quickly fumbles with it. Blaine has stepped forward; there is a half-circle made up of Jim Anders, Jakub Bartosz, and Alex [REDACTED] between Emma and the Others.

Blaine: "So you're the one who's behind this? You're the one whose gotten people we love killed?"

Weiss chuckles at Blaine's aggression. Anders and Bartosz are tightening closer to Emma, hands near their pockets as they quietly assess the situation- but it appears that this meeting is not intended to be a showdown at this time. There is a level of ease about their aggressors that does not seem to speak of attacking, though this does not seem to ease the tensions in any of Emma's guardians.

Weiss: "Look at you pretend to care. Say all the right things, Blaine, and perhaps you'll convince them that you're good, eh?"

Blaine: "Shut the fuck up, you don't know me."

Weiss: "I know all of you intimately, even if I do not quite remember you. I have such knowledge of you that you would find truly terrifying."

Anders: "What, from your 'Others'?"

Weiss: "I am glad, at times, that I don't remember everything, or I would certainly grow tired of explaining this to you again, and again, and again..."

Blaine: "What is this, some kind of evil villain monologue?"

Weiss: "Sure, if that's how you want to reason it. I play my part each and every time, Blaine, and you all play yours."

Anders: "So, you're the second serial killer behind the killings, then?"

Weiss: "By extension, yes, though I was never present for them. I had my part to play, and my brother had his."

Emma: "Brother?"

Weiss: "But of course. Brothers birthed in suffering, messengers of the true gods come to create true art in this dying world."

Bartosz: "Oh, for fuck's sake."

Weiss: "What? Not impressed?"

Bartosz: "Hardly. You're not artists. You're psychopaths. You think you're hot shit, don't you?"

Weiss: "It doesn't matter what I think I am, Ex-Agent Bartosz. I know what I am, and I know the part I have been given in this world. There is nothing you, or your God can do about it."

Blaine: "Jake Grantham is dead. Neither of you created art, he died like the murderous dog he was, and you aren't brothers."

Weiss seems to suddenly grow angry, the laconic laziness that has been guiding him evaporating with unhinged quickness.

Weiss: "We were brothers the likes of which none of you shall ever witness! Brothers, true brothers, thicker than any blood in this world, a covenant born of true godly suffering!"

Bartosz: "He was a fucking dumbass killer with a big-ass head and a self-absorbed ego, just like you are. You are all like that. He was caught, you'll be caught; he got injected and tossed like the trash he is, and you will be, too. Dead, murderous, dipshit brothers in hell."

Weiss: "Oh, how you love to try to pick apart your betters, Bartosz- but at the end of the day, none of you knew I existed for fifteen years, and you have the gall to call me stupid."

Alex: "You're not as powerful as you want us to think you are, Weiss. You can't step foot on hallowed ground; the Church repels you. God repels you."

Weiss snickers, tilting his head.

Weiss: "Is that what you think? That I'm repelled? Certainly, it takes a little more effort to step into your little house than I might like, but every year your faith wanes, and every year, my faith strengthens. Your God will be replaced like all the others before Him, and my gods will do what they are destined to do, time and again. They will eat this world."

Blaine: "What gods?"

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Weiss: "The only gods that matter, dear boy. All gods are born of suffering, don't you see? No god in the history of mankind would have existed, were it not for suffering. All these deities relish it, feed off of it- why do you think your God doesn't answer your prayers, doesn't save your lives when you beg and plead and pray and die?"

It is Father Perez who answers, standing on the steps of the church behind them, illuminated from behind by the lights of the church, displayed when Emma turns to look at him.

Perez: "God respects our freewill, our freedom to choose and to come to the right choice on our own. Our God is loving- your gods will consume you just as joyously as they consume all the rest, fool."

Weiss sneers at this, unamused and unimpressed.

Weiss: "Ah, yes, an almighty God with the power to stop all suffering, but he 'respects your free will'. How sweet. My gods become more tangible with each death, replacing more and more people in this town and beyond, and your God sits on his throne, twiddling his thumbs because He doesn't want to hurt your feelings."

Alex: "He can't force us to do his bidding, or He'd break us!"

Weiss: "Ever hear of the greater good? What's a few broken souls, to a saved and free world?"

Blaine: "If all gods are born of suffering, then your gods aren't all powerful. They need you to exist; why bend to their will if you could just ignore them?"

This seems to amuse Weiss quite a bit, for whatever reason.

Weiss: "I hear the echo of you across time, always asking the same questions, every- single- iteration! You play a pretty part, boy, but you and I are born of the same suffering, and you are no better than I!"

Anders: "What the hell are you talking about? He's insane. We're not going to get anything out of him worth listening to. We're arguing with lunatics!"

Weiss: "It doesn't matter what you all do or say. He will come to me- he always does."

Emma jumps forward to grab Blaine by the shoulder as he jerks forward, as if to hit Weiss. Anders, too, grabs Blaine, but in spite of this, still, none of the figures move, not even Weiss, who smiles benignly at him.

Blaine: "Fuck you! Fuck off! You don't fucking know me!"

Weiss: "You know what it's like to suffer, Blaine. They don't. You know what it's like to want revenge- and you know what it's like to get it."

Emma: "You want to talk about predictable, you're a palm reader's wet dream."

Weiss: "You get funnier every iteration, I'll give you that."

Alex: "Where are these so-called gods, then? I don't see them!"

Weiss: "They are all around you, reaching through the veil, smiling through my friends. With each and every iteration, they grow stronger and stronger, until one day, there will be an iteration where they can just consume your God entirely."

Holding the camera, Emma jerks suddenly, as if reacting to something specific. Her voice is soft as she repeats a single word:

Emma: "'Iteration'...?"

Almost simultaneously, or perhaps reacting to the same word as Emma as she says it, Alex suddenly jerks up; as Emma turns the camera to him, he turns and bolts for the church.

Weiss reacts by bursting into laughter; none of the other figures respond.

Weiss: "Perhaps in this round, the boy realizes just how futile the fight is! You see, Perez? Your sweet little protege believes in nothing, in the end! He runs at the first sight of adversity!"

Perez: "He believes, as I do, in the power of the Lord, Weiss. It is Satan who puts us in these dark cells, to suffer, to break our faith and force us to run to him. You will not break me, you will not break my God, and your pale imitations shall never exceed His powers, He who has existed before all and before thought itself!"

Perez ends this impassioned speech with a roar, standing up at his full height and, for a moment, looking half his age. It is suddenly clear how this man has survived in a town slowly turning against him with the power of occult gods created through death; his tenacity burns suddenly brilliant.

Weiss, again, flicks with no warning from his lackadaisical mood to a much more furious one.

Weiss: "I grow tired of you, old man. Your time in this town has come to an end. If your God loves you, He will save you."

Perez: "I am already sa-"

Perez doesn't get a chance to finish his sentence.

There is an unholy sound suddenly from the space around them; the game lying forgotten on the floor suddenly releases a piercing, high-pitched tone, which causes Anders, Emma, Blaine, and Bartosz to shout and cover their ears. A moment later, the note is drowned out by a moment of buzzing, increasing rapidly in volume, before an utterly immeasurable cloud of enormous flies erupts from the game console’s screen, almost ludicrous in its volume compared the small, harmless object it comes from.

Emma, crouching on the ground, screams, the camera pointed toward Perez; the video catches, in full, the cloud descending upon the man, who screams as he is consumed by a veritable swarm. In flashes of clarity, the flies can be seen digging into the man's skin through his pores, his eyes, his ears, and into his mouth. His screaming stops abruptly, and his body drops to the floor, rolling down the stairs; the flies do not abate, coalescing on him like a black, oozing mass.

Chaos immediately breaks out in the group. Emma twists around to try to get the game and Weiss in her sights, but Blaine is being shoved toward her by Anders and Bartosz, who have now both withdrawn guns from their persons, pointing them toward Weiss.

Bartosz: "Get her the fuck out of here, now!"

Anders: "Go, go, go! Get going! Get GOING!"

Blaine doesn't wait. He turns on his heel, grabs Emma by her wrist, and begins dragging her in the direction of the woods beyond the church. The sounds of bullets go off behind them, coupled with unhinged laughter... and loud buzzing.

Neither Emma nor Blaine look back, sprinting at full pelt into the woods and breathing hard. Several minutes of this go by with neither of them uttering a single word; Emma trips once, then twice, but Blaine continually catches her, never letting her hit the ground.

Occasionally, as the camera flashes past the surroundings rapidly, a brief flash of a small square of light can be seen as the game console steadily follows Emma and Blaine.

Unfortunately, fatigue causes them both to stumble at last, and Emma smashes into the ground with a cry; the camera hits the floor, and the footage is cut.

--END TRANSMISSION--