Like Ghosts In Snow

Fiona, Soren, and I went to see a movie. We considered leaving Soren behind as a guard, but we barely know the guy, all things considered. We honestly have no idea how reliable he is at this point. He seemed to understand.

On our way there, the car broke down. Apparently, it was too cold for the engine. As Soren and I worked out how to fix it, Fiona just stood by awkwardly. She's not really the car buff type. (Well, actually, she's terrified of even driving a car.)

As Soren and I discussed the best way to get the car working again, I noticed a kid playing in the snow, jumping around in a raincoat and some big yellow boots. He made me think of that kid from a few months back, the one I saw at the library.

For some reason, Soren tensed up when he saw the kid.

"What is it?" I asked.
"Little Boy Blue. Jack Frost. The Cold Boy," Soren said, his eyes widened. "I... how did this happen? I just... I just made two new friends..."
"What are you talking about?"

The kid started getting closer. His skin had a slight blue tint to it.

"Oh, shit, that's bad," I said. "He needs to go to the hospital!" I started walking forward. Soren grabbed my shoulder.
"Are you crazy? He's gonna eat you alive."
"Dude, he's a child."
"He's a monster."

As the little boy got close, I noticed he was singing some sort of rhyme.

"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take."

He looked up at me. His eyes looked like they could give you frostbite.

"You're cold, aren't you?" he asked, giggling. "That's good. I'm cold too. Now it's not just you who's cold. Now we are cold."

Fiona took out her earbuds and turned around. Her eyes widened when she saw him. "Something's wrong," she whispered. She took me by the hand. "Shan, come on, we have to go."
"What about the car?"
"The car is the least of our concerns. Now go."
"Where?"
"Anywhere."

With that, we ran to the same restaurant we took Soren recently. It was in the opposite direction from the Cold Boy.
"I feel like a dumbass," I said when we had gotten settled. "We're running from a six-year-old."
"There is something terribly wrong with him," said Fiona. "I don't know what, but... he's not human."
"That's right," Soren said, pointing at Fiona with a fry. "He's the Cold Boy. The fear of isolation. Or the elemental of cold. Or the embodiment of some sort of anxious or depressive disorder."
Fiona sighed. "To be perfectly frank with you, Soren, I feel as though I shouldn't believe any of this. But... somehow, being around that boy made me realize that these monsters you keep talking about... these elementals... are real."
"Probably because you just met one." Soren shrugged.
"Smartass," I muttered.
Soren shrugged again.
Fiona grimaced. "Actually... I believe I might have an idea regarding Jack Frost. The Cold Boy. You see, when I was very young, around six years old, I met a boy my age named Jack. He seemed to make the area around himself colder than ordinary, and he always sang these strange little rhymes. I never thought anything of it until I grew older and he stayed the same age. I was seven, eight, nine, ten years old, and he still looked like the same small child. I never said anything because I was sure I was... I'm not certain what I thought, really, other than that such a thing couldn't happen. I rationalized it however I could. The usual was that he just looked young for his age. But.. it has been twelve years since I met him. If he still looks the exact same as he did then..." She shook her head. "There is something terribly wrong."

I Am Not Afraid To Keep On Living

Recently, I had food with Fiona and Soren at a local restaurant called Barry's. Soren ordered a lot of food. After he finished eating, a worryingly brief process, he still had one box of fries left. He wordlessly slid it over to me.

"Okay. So. This might sound weird... either of you guys see anything strange lately? Shadows moving on their own, tentacles coming out of the water, anything like that?"

Fiona and I glanced at one another.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked.
Soren sighed. "The Panopticon, those creepy dudes in the suits, they hunt down people who have strange experiences and try to brainwash them into thinking they never happened. Lowe and Marten, the guys who came after you at the apartment, they're known for being less subtle. They'd rather just murder anyone who talks."
"So, what, they're like the world's shittiest Men in Black?" I asked.
"Hmmm." Soren thought on that for a few moments. "Yes. Uh, basically, the Panopticon want to stop people from learning about these things, and I was hunting them down the other day. They led me to you. I wanted to explain what was happening, but I couldn't have found you even if I wanted to." He shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter at this point. To be perfectly clear, whatever it is that's after you, it's got something to do with something called a Fear. They're embodiments of... I dunno, fear? Mental illness? The classical elements? Nobody is quite sure."
"That's a pretty broad spectrum," I said, raising an eyebrow.
He shook his head. "You tell me, buddy. They've got an entire mythology built up around them. EAT was created by the Blind Man, the Dying Man was killed by the Wooden Girl, the Archangel used to be a crime boss... nobody's got a clue about any of it."
"And those things are what, exactly?"
"Okay, uh, EAT. That one's a monster that replaces water and manifests tentacles. Also, it's a hive mind, and its name is an acronym for Eater of All Tides. Or End of All Things. Or... well, you get the idea. The Blind Man erases people's childhoods, the Dying Man possesses people, the Wooden Girl does that on a much bigger scale, and the Archangel impersonates dead people."
"...The Dying Man, huh?" I asked. "Could that one manifest as female?"
Soren shrugged. "I've heard of one of them doing that before. Not as common, but it happens. Why?"
"Nothing." I ate another fry and mulled things over a bit.

I wasn't entirely sure why I played along.

Well, no. There's a very good reason why. You've read this blog. Looking back at one of my earlier entries, the Unforgivable mentioned living water. Sounds an awful lot like Soren's EAT, right? It's a tenuous connection, to be sure, but it's there.

And then there's the Dying Man. The Unforgivable isn't exactly being subtle if she doesn't want me to know what she is.

Crash On The Couch

We got attacked by these fucking creeps in suits shit shit shitshitshitshit

shit

Fiona and I were out. When we went in the house, there were these weirdos in suits rooting through my stuff like goddamn lunatics. They heard us come in. One of them stood up and pointed a knife at me. What in the goddamn fuck.

Then something even weirder happened. See, there's a young man named Soren Jaeger who lives here in Atkins and rambles about monsters a lot. He refuses to settle down for too long because he thinks the monsters will get him if he does, so he's basically homeless. Well, Soren showed up outside our door.

I wouldn't really say he saved us, considering he's scrawny as all hell, but he managed to distract them. He just stood outside, waving his arms around and yelling like a dumbass.

Then he ran inside and punched Skinny Suit in the face. Couldn't have been a lot of force behind that punch, but Skinny Suit grabbed at his nose like he'd been hit by a champion boxer.

Big Suit, meanwhile, got up from my stuff and got out a knife of his own. I guess gunshots wouldn't be subtle enough for these incredibly unsubtle dumbasses. Whatever.

I panicked. I grabbed a lamp and smashed it into Big Suit. He stumbled backwards. He wiped the blood from his forehead and charged, his knife ready. My reaction time wasn't quick enough. It entered my chest. I screamed in pain and dropped the lamp.

Fiona turned around. Her eyes narrowed as she saw what was happening. She grabbed the lamp. She brought the base down on Big Suit's head. He fell to the ground, unconscious.

Soren was still fighting Skinny Suit, now without Fiona's assistance. He swung a fist at Skinny Suit. He was slow. Skinny Suit blocked the punch and pulled Soren down, then elbowed him in the head. It was short and decisive, and Fiona and I were too busy with my wounds to do anything.

Soren collapsed. Fiona and I were up against Skinny Suit alone. Skinny Suit stabbed at me with his knife, trying to hit in the same spot as Big Suit had. Dirty-fighting bastard. Well, I figured if he was gonna fight dirty, I was gonna fight dirty. I managed to wrestle the knife from his hands and made like I was going to stab him. I had no intentions of actually doing so, but apparently, it worked, because he ran off.

Soren woke up before Big Suit. He got to his feet shakily, assisted by Fiona and myself, and looked down at Big Suit.

"Shit," he muttered, seeming dazed still. "That guy's still here. What about the, uh... the other guy?" He gestured vaguely at Big Suit. "There were two of them. There's Lowe, where's Marten?"
"Got away," I said. I shook my head. This was too much. I'd started talking like I was in a goddamn action movie or something.
"Fuck. Okay. We gotta get rid of... we gotta get rid of that guy." He waved again at Big Suit, whose name was apparently Lowe.
"What?" I asked. "Get rid of him? What the fuck are you... what are you talking about?"
"Hey, how about we get Shan some medical attention first?" Fiona asked. "She's still bleeding from the chest. That's probably not great."

So I dialed 9-1-1 and made up a story about how I slipped while I was about to go cut a cake. Never mind that the knife was a combat knife, not the sort you'd use to cut a cake. Never mind that it was still in my chest, since removing it would just give it another chance to cut me.

So we ended up at the goddamn hospital again.

I don't remember everything that happened after that. Just look up "how to treat a stab wound" or something. It'll probably give about the same results. Long story short, I was... relatively fine. Fortunately for us, when we got back, we realized the suits entered when nobody was in the apartment but us. It's a pretty small apartment, so that happens pretty often, all things considered. For that matter, we got in when nobody was there, so we were able to clean up the mess without issue.

Well, either that, or everyone was just really nonchalant about how they heard me hit Big Suit with a lamp, scream in pain as he stabbed me with a knife, and call 9-1-1 after he and Skinny Suit were dealt with.

For now, Soren's sleeping at our apartment, specifically on our couch. Hopefully we can figure out something more permanent, but as it stands, he's a new tenant.

Also... terrifyingly enough, Lowe was gone when we got back. I can only hope he was too scared by the prospect of being caught as a home invader and stabber of random people to go to the authorities, because otherwise, he's almost certainly pinned us as having attacked him without cause. Which is... not a great feeling, all things considered.