THE FOLLOWING FILE PICKS UP SHORTLY AFTER BLAINE'S INCIDENT WITH THE MIRROR.

--File 051: Reunion--

When the camera begins, the conversation being recorded has clearly been going for some time already. Blaine appears to be the one holding the camera, and he is pacing back in forth in the main room, agitated and nervous.

Alex: "-think it's a little weird that this just suddenly happens? Out of nowhere? Why now?"

Blaine: "Because I know at this point. I know what happens in every other iteration. I know what 'I' do."

Alex: "And you said that this reflection of you... what, 'made sure that you won't'? What the hell does that mean?"

There is a pregnant pause, and Blaine stops pacing. The camera is facing Emma, who is standing in the middle of the room, looking anxiously between Blaine and the bathroom. Some look must pass between them, because Emma tilts her head slightly, expression changing into alert curiosity. Either way, Blaine doesn't answer Alex, and the exchange lasts only a moment.

Blaine: "I don't know yet."

Alex: "Bullshit. You must have some idea. Are you hiding something?"

Blaine returns to pacing anxiously.

Blaine: "No. I'm not hiding anything. I told you everything that happened in there. My reflection looked like something out of a cursed Stephen King novel, and then it started ranting about how I wasn't going to kill Emma. 'I made sure of it.' It said that, word for word. It didn't explain what it meant."

Alex's expression when the camera is facing him is moody and uncertain. There's a shadow over his face as he considers Blaine, but Blaine- who must see this- says nothing.

It is unclear if Blaine really has actually told them everything. From the short piece of the conversation recorded, Blaine does not mention the most cryptic message relayed by his reflection. There is reason to assume that Blaine is withholding something.

Alex: "Okay, so then, what, the mirror just... exploded?"

Blaine: "Seems like it was losing control. My reflection, I mean- almost like it wanted to come through the mirror."

Emma: "How do we know this isn't a trick?"

Blaine: "All I've got is that it started with 'Emma must not die'."

Emma: "So this means... I've been possessed by you this whole time?"

Blaine snorts, and when he speaks, he sounds somewhat unhinged.

Blaine: "'Me', yeah- from another timeline. Dimension? Reality? Whatever the fuck 'iterations' means. You're being possessed by a version of me that has already killed you."

When Blaine turns to face her again, she has paled significantly and looks slightly ill and panicky. She's wringing her hands.

Alex: "As if this whole nightmare wasn't screwed enough as it-"

Before Alex can continue, there's a sudden knock at the door.

Immediately, Blaine and Alex spring up and away from the door toward Emma, the camera pointed steadfastly toward the entrance. Alex picks up one of the nearby plastic chairs, adrenaline-charged and poised to throw it at an intruder. They have little else in the way of weapons.

Blaine: "Who is it?"

There is a long moment of silence, and then, through the door, comes a familiar voice.

Anders: "Open up, Blaine. It's me."

There is a strong response to this. A very loud sob erupts from Emma, and Blaine immediately begins to take a step toward the door, the camera half dropping to his side, when Alex- dropping the chair- grabs him by the shoulder roughly and abruptly.

Alex: "Make sure, dude."

Blaine seems to shake himself and swears quietly, falling back a step.

Blaine: "How do I know it's really you?"

Anders: "You could look outside the window."

Blaine: "I've been seeing a lot of things outside that window, and half the time, it looks like it's from another reality."

Emma: "What?"

Alex: "You never mentioned any of that!"

Blaine: "Yeah, well, the haunted fucking mirror took precedence."

Anders: "How can I prove it?"

Blaine: "Say something only I would know."

There is a small pause as the person claiming to be Anders considers this.

Anders: "I like your shoes, kid."

Blaine relaxes immediately, nearly dropping the camera in his relief.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Blaine: "It's him."

Emma: "I... feel like I'm missing something."

Blaine: "It was the first thing he said to me when he saw me, during the... case."

Alex: "Case? What case?"

Emma: "It doesn't matter right now."

Alex: "Like a murder case?"

Emma: "Alex. It's not important right now."

Alex: "Are you nuts? There's no more important time for-"

Blaine's voice gets louder as he interrupts and talks over Alex, very obvious irritated.

Blaine: "He said that to me because there was no blood on my shoes."

Alex: "I still don't-"

Emma: "Just take my word for it, Alex. That's a good thing."

Anders: "Are you stooges done deciding my fate, or what? It's really unsettling out here."

Blaine: "Come in!"

Both Alex and Blaine startle somewhat anyway when the door opens, and Anders quickly steps in, followed almost at once by Bartosz. Emma squeezes past them before they can stop her and she immediately grabs Anders in a hug, before almost as immediately stepping back and looking at him in shock. It is evident as he steps into the light of the dark room; he is filthy, covered nearly head to toe in dirt. His cheap suit is rumpled. Behind him, Bartosz looks a little disheveled and grim, but otherwise completely fine.

Emma: "Why the hell are you covered in dirt?"

Blaine: "And why the fuck didn't you call us?"

Anders: "You know damned well why I didn't. Phones aren't working properly. Nothing we sent was going through to you two, but it was working well enough between the two of us."

Anders suddenly realizes Alex is with them, and he blinks.

Anders: "I did not expect to see you again, but I'm glad you're all right."

Alex: "I-"

Blaine: "We'll come back to that. What the hell were you two doing?"

Anders: "Well, we decided to do a little digging on our own."

Bartosz suddenly snorts in grim laughter, the first sound he's made.

Bartosz: "That was a bad fuckin' joke, Jim."

Emma: "You went... digging?"

Anders: "Literally, yes. I decided to go do a little illegal grave digging."

There is a stunned period of silence in which everyone, sans Bartosz- who obviously already knows about this- simply stares at Anders in disbelief.

Blaine: "I'm sorry, what?"

Anders: "You remember. We felt the whole situation surrounding her death was weird, so I decided to get to the bottom of it. Shit's hit the fan a lot faster than I thought it would, and we're completely cut off from the outside world, so at this point, what have I got to lose? My life?"

He gives a slightly unhinged laugh that no one shares.

Alex: "So... what did you find?"

Anders: "Nothing."

Emma: "So her death was natural?"

Bartosz: "No, sweetheart- he means nothin'."

Anders: "The grave was empty. Dead empty."

Blaine: "So she's still alive?"

Bartosz: "I don't know if I'd say that. I think she's probably plenty dead, I just don't think she died from a fall down the stairs, or whatever the hell that document said."

Anders: "Casket was filled with old game consoles. They looked like they were all broken or nonfunctional- maybe original tests for Weiss, to weigh down the casket. Tried to take some photos with my cell phone, but uh... I was never very good at that."

Blaine: "And there was nothing else?"

Anders: "Nothing else from me."

Bartosz: "I followed Weiss around."

Alex: "Are you insane? God above, you're lucky to be alive. Father Perez and I never even dared to do that."

Bartosz: "I know. I don't think he thought I would, either- or else he just didn't care. Took some time to find him, though, and to lose the idiots they set to trail me. They really underestimated my ass."

Bartosz sounds annoyed and almost insulted by this admission.

Bartosz: "I don't know anything about these supposed iterations, but I do know these fucks are sloppy. If these asshats think we're in some time loop or whatever, then they're getting too comfortable. I don't personally believe a fuckin' word of it-"

Emma: "We can tell you about that."

Bartosz: "I'm hoping you can tell me about something more important."

Alex: "If you're talking about the hive mind fly being, we know about that too."

Anders: "The- what the fuck? You didn't mention anything like that, Jakub."

Bartosz: "I'm honestly not sure I'm currently sane right now, so I didn't know how to say 'Oh, by the way, I saw Weiss hug the vague shape of a man made up of flies and maggots, and it hugged him back'."

Emma: "Jake Grantham is back. He's... I don't even..."

Blaine: "He's back in the form of a hivemind of his own maggots and flies. He came out of Weiss's game."

Anders: "Jesus fuck."

Alex: "Pretty sure we accidentally got the entire diner killed..."

Emma: "Remember, Alex. Don't dwell on it. We couldn't do anything."

Alex doesn't look well for a moment and looks incredibly guilty, turning away from them all. He has a hand on a small table, and his knuckles turn white as he grips it in silent agony.

Blaine: "So you followed Weiss and saw the new Grantham?"

Bartosz: "Not all I saw. There has to be other entrances into whatever base these fuckers have got, but I saw them going into the old Grantham house- and they didn't come back out."

Alex, Emma, and Blaine all groan in horror.

Emma: "God dammit. And here I thought we got away from that."

Anders: "I take it something happened."

Blaine: "You want the cliff notes? Let's see- Alex ran off because he suddenly remembered that he actually had an exact, identical copy of Emma's one-of-a-kind journal that he woke up with after beating his copy of the game."

Emma holds up the two journals, fishing them out of her back pockets.

Bartosz: "The fuck? Let me see-"

Blaine: "That's not all. The lake outside the old Grantham house has a massive... glass... squid... alien thing. It nearly took out Alex. We got out by the skin of our teeth."

Emma: "The 'other' journal has a section where Alex dies. It's at the lake."

Anders: "Hold on-"

Alex: "Jake Grantham was revived at the countdown on the game, so I don't know if we've got much longer than tomorrow to get this whole thing handled. A little more than 24 hours, and I don't know what that thing is capable of doing."

Blaine: "And on top of that, we're being watched. I look out the window, and there are cultists out there. Sometimes. And then a second later, they're not there anymore."

Both Anders and Bartosz rub their faces in exhaustion.

Anders: "All right, look, I need a shower and a half, I need to eat something, and I need some sleep, if we're going to try to save the world or whatever tomorrow. Or die, I guess."

Bartosz: "Let me see those journals."

Emma: "I marked out the most important pages. The entries get really weird toward the end, kind of panicky-"

Blaine: "Anders. Hang on. You can't use the bathroom."

Anders: "What? Why?"

Emma and Alex both freeze and turn to look at Blaine.

Blaine: "Because the glass shattered. My reflection tried to warn me. Turns out the thing that's been possessing Emma is me, from another dimension. A 'me' that killed her."

There is a long beat of silence, and then, as a million questions start pouring out from both Bartosz and Anders, Blaine cuts the camera, presumably to try to explain to them again while not recording any omissions he may be making.

--END TRANSMISSION--