Update

Hello - this is Serah.

Jack is really rattled right now. He barely speaks. Once he wrote that last post, he sat against the wall of the new cave we've been sleeping in and stared at the opposite wall without saying anything. He would wordlessly swap shifts with me when we were standing guard, though I offered to let him sleep more; he needs it, the poor kid.

He's been remarkably strong throughout this; I think this most recent incident is simply the straw that broke the camel's back. While the creature clearly had sinister intentions, it was unclear whether it was capable of real harm; this sort of proves that it is, and I think that has really terrified Jack.

Anyway - since I'm here, I'll update you guys on things Jack has failed to mention. Jack has been wholly focused on getting home, with little regard to the creature other than avoiding it. I, however, feel that the creature is our way home if indirectly, and think that learning as much about it as we can can only help our chances of survival. To this end, I have been pestering Jack for more details on his story, but he gives me only cursory examples. The small bits that I have match up rather eerily with my own story.

I was 16 when the creature began stalking me. It started not long after my father returned from his trip to Japan, and it lasted around a month before the eventual encounter where I fell into its trance. That was a day before my birthday, and I burned my house down at its urging and walked out of the blaze into its open arms. The next day - the day I turned 17 - I awoke here, in this godforsaken forest.

That was in March. In May, I found a group of three other children - Brandon was among them. He was 17 as well, and I spent much of my time with him. We grew... fond of each other, let's say. Very fond, in fact. When the other four children showed up in June, we were inseparable. It was only out of concern for the younger children - Emily and Jack, the two youngest - that we agreed to separate.

To see him like that is a pain I'm not sure I can properly convey through text. That image will haunt me for the rest of my life, no matter how long it proves to be.

Jack and I are going to continue moving locations. We've put the thoughts of the door behind us, for the moment, though I know it will eventually come back to that.

Now, I'm not stupid. I've read The Dark Tower. I recognize the signs here; Black 13 imprinted on some mystical door than can open on numerous realities and that is supposed to be some coincidence? No. Clearly some larger game is afoot here.

For example? My name is Serah Grace Henderson. 19 letters. I haven't asked Jack, but I will guarantee you his middle name has eight letters. I don't know what this all means - but it's cause for concern. If King's works have made the leap into reality... you may not be safe reading this blog.

Door Trials #1

We spent much of the past few days searching nearby bodies of suicides, and we finally found a Polaroid camera (even though it's 2011). We took a picture of the interior of the cave we've been hiding in and then set off in search of the door. When we got there, acting on advice that you guys had given us, we placed the photo into the triangles, which is apparently a photo frame.

Once we did so, we were able to open the door, which swung outward. When we opened the door, we saw ourselves looking in on our cave.

We shut the door, removed the photo, and found that the door had locked itself. We took off back to the cave before night fell, but found something rather unsettling when we reached it. Not far in, about halfway to the point where we had been sleeping, we began seeing blood smears on the wall. When we reached the point where we had been sleeping, we found the bodies of Brandon and Emily, two of the other survivors, disemboweled and propped up against the cave wall, as if sitting down casually next to each other. Despite the gruesome state of their bodies, their faces were untouched and appeared normal, with the exception of being ghostly white and frozen in a look of horror. Perhaps most unsettling, however, is the symbol drawn above their heads in (probably their own) blood.

We ran all night away from that cave, and we have found another one. We are sleeping in shifts to look out for anything so we don't meet the same fate.

I'm scared.

Hey guys. I don't have any new information for you, but since I have a minute in between moving around to avoid the creature, I thought I'd address some of your concerns.

Xankek said...

Jack, Are there leaves around the door that do not seem to match the leaves of the forest?

As far as I remember, no. The door is the only conspicuous feature of the area it is in.

Nemo said...

Directions for a sliding puzzle perhaps? Do the triangles appear to be loose in any way?

The pieces are rigidly attached to the door frame, actually. They won't budge. I will say though that they aren't flush against the door; they are protruding somewhat from the door.

Xander sent me this message in an e-mail, originally sent in base64 code:

"Jack, can you give me a drawing or picture of the triangles on the door? I am looking to help. Also, what is your real age? And can you give me some information on the Serah girl?"

First, the base64 is no longer necessary I think. The reason I was sending messages in base64 at first was because I felt there would be a much lower chance of the creature understanding it and realizing what I was doing. Now that I'm fully in control of the blog again, we should be okay to communicate in plain text. On the safe side, however, we had best not exchange pictures in case we unknowingly contribute to the creature's plans.

More to your point, I'm 13. Everything the creature said in the blog was true, but why it wrote in that God awful style I can't say; it's insulting, really. Serah, on the other hand, is 17, and has been since March. She says it's been a long time since the creature brought her here, but it was under the same circumstances - she was compelled to burn her house down by the creature near her birthday. Beyond that, her father was a traveller, and would often go on long trips out of the country. One of his more recent trips was to Japan, interestingly enough.

That's all the information I have for you as of now. We're going to make another trek to the door soon; let me know if you have theories that I should investigate while there.

Door Update #1

The creature was back yesterday. We couldn't leave the cave for very long, as on our way to the door we spotted it walking slowly through the woods. It didn't see us, or at least didn't pursue us, as we made it back to the cave safely.

We ventured back out today in search of more firewood, being very careful, and found the door again, which is odd because we weren't exactly searching for it, and it seemed to be in a different spot than last time. At any rate, we inspected it while we could.

It is still locked, but there are some new developments. I found an image-creating app on this phone and used it to sketch a few of the things on the door. First, the imgur link that was hidden in previous posts does display the correct symbols on the door; but it's only the top row. The top three symbols are in large, black print above the door.

Second, the triangles.

This is what they look like. They haven't moved and appear to be in the same condition as they were in our previous encounter with the door. Still not sure what to make of these.

Third, the paint on the door - it's a deep blue - has been chipped off near the bottom, forming this symbol.

Once again, not sure what to make of it. I've never seen a symbol quite like it, though it appears in some ways to resemble an hourglass. I don't think it's Japanese script because it's been scraped into the door while the script is written in black.

One final observation - the doorknob is loose. Last time it was pretty rigid, and while it is still locked and secured to the door right now, it is a fair bit looser than it was before, as a knob gets with heavy use.

Serah and I had to run back to the cave as night was starting to fall. We haven't decided if we should go back or not, and we're having some slight disagreements on how to proceed. Serah wants to bash the door open, while I fear that may disrupt whatever purpose the door is intended for. I have some feeling that this is our way home, but I can't be sure how.

Will update when I have more information to share. Stay safe, and let me know if you see any instances of the creature or something like it near you. If he's not here, I don't want to think what he must be up to.

A Locked Door

We've been moving constantly the past few days. Serah swears that she saw it a few hours ago, so we've been running ever since. We're inside a cave at the moment, heading right into the mountainside.

We're still in the forest. Assuming it is in Japan, we'd have to cross the ocean to get home, and that isn't something we're likely to accomplish. If we stay in the forest, however, we have some chance of finding wayward travelers - but even more than that, that creature had to bring us here somehow. Perhaps we can find whatever dimensional passage or whatnot the creature used to get us here, and use it to get back to the U.S. (Serah is from the U.S. too, she lives in California).

Anyway, the reason I'm updating you guys is that we've made an interesting discovery. In the forest today we found a door. In the middle of the forest, it was just standing there in a frame connected to nothing but the ground. On the door in huge black script were some Japanese symbols - neither of us can read it, unfortunately. Below the symbols are four strange metal triangles, arranged into a rectangle, with the triangles at the corners.

What is weird is that when we tried to take a photo of the door to show you guys and see if you could translate the symbols, all the camera picked up was the forest behind it. No door. The door is, for some reason, locked from both sides. We have a strong feeling that this door is related to the creature, somehow. When we go back out tomorrow we are going to try and find it to investigate some more.

If you have any ideas as for how we can translate these symbols, please let me know.

6 - Answers.

Hello readers of this blog. I am Jack Redding, and this is the first time I will have spoken to you in plain text.

The person posting on this blog is not a person, but a creature with the appearance of a man in a suit, but lacking a face. This is the man who was stalking me during the month of June, and the events played out almost exactly as they were reported on this blog. The day before my birthday the creature cornered me in the woods, and I only remember parts of the weeks following. I remember setting my house on fire and walking out of the burning house into the arms of the creature while my parents were burned alive inside. I remember waking up in this forest, which some of your emails seem to suggest may be Aokigahara

I have been using a phone that I found on one of the many hanged corpses in the forest to send emails and make blog posts, but I have been posting them in base64 so the creature cannot read them - at least, I do not think he can read them.

I do not know the creature's purpose in bringing me here, but I am not the only one brought here by it - I found a group of others, all abducted as well. In the interest of remaining safe and undetected by the creature, the group of us - there are around ten - split off into pairs. I am travelling with a girl named Serah, who is seventeen - she was one of the oldest.

We have only suspicions about why he wanted photos of trees, but since the request was quite fervent and inexplicable, we suspect that the purposes are malicious. This is why we have been asking you not to send photos, and we continue to ask that you only send plain text.

For the time being we are safe from the creature and feel safe in taking full control of the blog and e-mail account and are working to find our way back home. What is important, however, is that innocent lives are protected and that you readers did not fall prey to the creature.

There are still a lot of questions we have yet to answer and would greatly appreciate your help, as you provide a link to the outside world that internet alone cannot provide. We will be posting as often as we can, safely, to try and find our way back home.

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