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Post by Eve Vardell on Jun 5, 2008 12:43:17 GMT -5
[The recording crackles to life. A girl's weary sigh breathes over the soft pattering of rain, and then she begins to speak.] So... I'm not really sure what I'm doing with this. Chances are that you'll never even hear it, but I feel like I have to say it anyway. I feel like... like I should explain. It's been burning up inside me ever since I left - all these things I never got to tell you. Never can say. Well... not yet, anyway. Maybe someday, when you're older... when I'm back home and everything's normal again... [The voice trails off.] Whatever normal means... [For nearly thirty seconds there is nothing but the sound of the rain hitting the sidewalk amidst the device's occasional crackle.] Anna, I know that you hate me right now, that you're terrified. After what I did to Dad... no. After what this thing inside me did to Dad... sometimes I hate myself too. I don't know what Mom will have told you about what happened, and about what I am now. I'm guessing not all that much - probably thinks you'll be safer staying out of the know. I don't know, maybe that's true... but I hope someday I will be able to show this to you and you'll be able to understand the truth about why you lost both your father and your sister to the darkness and the moon. You'll remember the night I was bitten. When I snuck out to that party - you, Mom, and Dad all thought I was safe in bed, and then get woken up to a call saying I was in the hospital.
So there's some good, older-sisterly advice for you, Ann: listen when Mom tells you a party's not going to be safe. And don't... gods... don't ever go walking around by yourself after dark. There are too many things out there in the night. Things that can destroy your life... and the lives of those you love.
I don't want to have to be saying all this. You're just seven years old. I want to wrap you up in my arms and keep you safe. Make sure that nothing bad ever touches you. I want to find a way to bring back that light and innocence that was stolen from your eyes that night... after what happened to Dad.
But as long as I'm around you're in danger. You and Mom... everyone. As long as I'm around that thing inside might come out... and hurt you like it hurt him.
[Another pause. A careful listener might detect several soft, shuddering breaths, muted by the sound of the rain.]
I love you, Anna, and that's why I'm leaving. I'm gonna go out there and search 'til I find a cure for this. I'm gonna kill this monster and then I'm gonna come home, and you, me, and Mom can be a family again. And... and I'm going to let you listen to these messages when you're older. When you're old enough to understand. If anyone can ever understand this insanity...
And someday, I swear, I'm going to earn your forgiveness. Whatever it takes.
[For several more seconds the recording picks up only silence, then a harsh sniff and a trembling sigh. The recording cuts out.]
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Post by Eve Vardell on Jun 9, 2008 11:16:22 GMT -5
[The recording crackles to life, and for several seconds picks up nothing but silence. Then a soft creaking of springs - someone settling onto an old bed - and a girl's voice begins to speak.]
My last recording was a lot of nonsense, wasn't it?
[Laughter, quiet and self-deprecating.]
I guess I should try to explain this all a little more fully. That's what this is all about, after all, isn't it? Trying to explain it all so you understand.
...I feel like Sarah Conner at the end of "Terminator" - talking into her little recorder, trying to figure out what she should tell John... You've never seen that movie. Maybe you never will... heh... I don't know, is that too many years behind your generation?
Ok, I'm getting off-topic again. It's just that... this little machine's all I've been able to have a real conversation with for a few weeks now. Ever since I left home.
[Another short pause. The bedsprings squeak as the girl settles back against them.]
It's the end of June now... not sure of the date. I always pay attention to the moon cycle now, but specific dates don't matter so much.
[She sighs]
But that means it's been a little over a month since I left home. And then a month before that is when I was bitten by the... Ok, I have to say the word at some point. Actually make this real in my head. It's been over a month now, and a lot of the time it still doesn't even seem completely real.
I was bitten by a werewolf. It wasn't like in the movies - wasn't some big, furry person. It didn't look like a real wolf, either. It just looked pretty much like a person, from what I could tell, anyway. Well... you saw how I looked, those nights when I...
It's really strange, how it happens. I just go to sleep - everything's normal - and then I wake up somewhere completely different. Things around are torn to shreds, people are terrified, someone's... dead. And I don't remember a thing in between.
But I have figured something out. Took me a few days to puzzle together: why I would change that first night, and then not change the next two nights, and then change again. I mean, that doesn't fit with how it works in any of the stories. It's got to be the nights around the full moon, not arbitrary ones throughout the month. Then I figured it out. For some reason I've got to be asleep to change. Like... if my waking mind's in control then the wolf can't force it's way to the surface and take over. And that's such a relief, because however bad things are now, I know there's something I can do to prevent it from happening again. 'Cause I couldn't live with the thought of changing into that... what... four nights a month? Hurting people possibly each of those nights?
Knowing that doesn't make it safe for me to come back - this is only a short term fix. I've switched my sleeping schedule about, making sure I'm never asleep by the time the sun goes down. I'm a real "creature of the night" now...
[She laughs, then trails off into another long, contemplative silence.]
Even with all my precautions I don't feel completely safe. There's always a chance I'll oversleep. Just one slip-up and... that's why I can't come home yet. I need to keep looking for a real solution to this.
I've been looking in a lot of obscure places for information about werewolves, the supernatural. Stuff I used to think was just interesting crazy people talk. There's a lot to sift through. A lot of myths about how to cure this, but I can't be sure what's true and what's not. A lot of people say that if you... well... if you kill the wolf that bit you then you'll be cured. I'm not gonna go there, obviously. Chances are this guy doesn't even know what he is, like I didn't.
I tried to find him. After I left home I stayed for a few weeks around our town. I camped out in that park with the carousel, where I used to take you last summer. I was hoping that on the next full moon I'd be able to track down that guy. Maybe he would know something, or maybe he'd decide to team up with me on this "quest..." or whatever you'd call it. I wasn't able to find him, though. By the next full moon he was gone... or at least he didn't attack anyone. That was great, of course, but it left me back at square one.
I'm traveling to the mid-west. Taking buses... probably stealing a lot of money out of your future college tuition funds, I'm sorry. But a lot of the lore I've read comes out of there, so I'm going to try to look around, see what I can come up with.
I miss you, Anna.
[The recording cuts out.]
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Post by Eve Vardell on Jun 12, 2008 21:05:21 GMT -5
[The recording crackles to life, but the sound can barely be heard over the harsh, panting breaths of the speaker. Fast, stumbling footsteps beat across a hard, pavement surface. After nearly twelve seconds the footsteps suddenly stop, replaced by the jangling of keys being drawn up in a shaking hand. A door opens, slams back shut, and a thump of metal signals a lock being clicked into place. The speaker's heavy breaths begin to slow, but as she speaks her voice is soft, weak, and trembling.]
Oh gods... Anna... anyone... I don't know how much time I have. This woman’s hunted me down twice already. Twice and... it doesn't look like she's about to give up any time soon.
[As the girl speaks rapid footsteps signal an agitated movement, and fabrics ruffle, sometimes muffling the sound of her voice as she gathers them into her arms.]
I should get this out, in case I… can't talk about it later. Should leave some... some kind of record…
It's been a few months since I last did one of these. It's September now. Spent a lot of the summer traveling around the mid-west. Missouri, Kansas... found a lot less than I'd hoped for. Told people I was out of my first year in college - communications major - and was doing internship research for a TV special on werewolf sightings. People are a lot more likely to talk about something if they think they're gonna be on TV over it.
[Something clatters to the floor, shattering.]
Shoot, shoot... I don't have time for this... I think I lost her but I thought I'd lost her then too...
Ok, so I moved over to Nebraska with the same story, but after hearing a lot of nonsense about how this little neighborhood's scary Pit-bull might actually be a werewolf I got approached by a woman who... well... who I thought would be a life-saver. She was around thirty and called herself Molly Rourke. She was so together and smart and really knew what she was talking about... she explained a lot of stuff about werewolves that I already knew - that they didn't change much physically on the full moons, except to get faster, stronger... and that their fingernails and teeth sharpened into deadly weapons. She also told me some new info - that killing the one that changed them wouldn't save them from the curse. She said that there was no cure... but that was the one thing I refused to trust her on.
She told me to stay with her while I was in town - this adorable ranch where she made money giving horseback riding lessons. I stayed there for a total of three weeks but I swear I'd already started hoping I could just give up my quest and live there.
I messed up. I didn't want to tell her what I was. No matter how amazing she was it was clear that she hated werewolves and other supernatural stuff, and wasn't going to be changing her mind about that easily. So I told her that I was looking for a way to stop the wolf that had killed my dad – which is true – and switched off my nocturnal schedule, trying not to raise her suspicions. I figured if I could get through a full moon without changing then that'd be proof that I wasn't a bad person and maybe I could convince her to help me find a cure.
Like I said, she was… brilliant. I'd latched on to her like a friend, a mentor... maybe even a replacement for Mom.
I messed up... I thought I could handle the four days of the full moon, taking little naps in the afternoon... I mean, it was only four days. On the other hand, it was four whole days. I made it three days, then dozed off in the stables in the afternoon, and didn't wake up before the sun went down. The next thing I knew it was dawn, and I was in the middle of the woods outside town, one of my arms bleeding where a knife had cut it, and the rest of me covered in the blood of the horses.
I wanted to go back, to apologize, try and make her understand but... gods... it's a good thing Molly wasn't there when I did. She was probably still out in the forest trying to hunt me down. I found... in the living room there was this chest that had always been shut and locked. Now it was open and inside were all these weapons: guns, knives, crosses, bottles of clear liquid that I don't even want to think about... so I grabbed as much stuff as I could grab fast and ran.
I got to the next big town, nearly thirty miles away, and settled in there to figure out my next move. Not a week later Molly found me where I was staying at a park, dagger in hand, ready to take my life for her horses.
[The speaker gasps sharply, suddenly, and for several seconds all is quiet. Then, with a slow breath, she begins to speak again, her voice now barely more than a tight whisper.]
Thought that might be… but it's just a neighbor getting home.
I barely managed to get away. She was fast, knew what she was doing. Like she made a habit of hunting down and killing girls in parks. If a patrolling cop hadn’t spotted us and slowed her down I would have been dead back there in Nebraska.
So I left, decided that I’d never go back to that horrible state again, and figured I would be safe from her.
Last week I made my way here: to Elkhorn, Wisconsin. This state is an insane breeding ground for werewolves, if any of the stories are true, and I’d been… I don’t know, hoping to find allies. Someone who might understand, be willing to help me search. When I heard the rumors of the “Bray Road Beast” I thought this would be the perfect place to start looking.
Well, apparently so did Molly. I… I never thought she’d come this far after me. I never meant… I didn’t…
I was out scouting the road and she nearly hit me with her freaking car. I managed to duck behind one of these horrible, scraggly trees. It almost didn’t stop the car at all. Then she dove out and started chasing me. I couldn’t even believe it was her…
Gods… I hope I lost her.
I have to get out of town… I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t know if she’s watching the roads or if she’s finding out right now where the town’s motels are or…
Just pray I get out of this one, Anna. I love you so much.
[The recording cuts out.]
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