The Horror of Blood III

We had just arrived at ARC's local headquarters. Caledon heard something growl from the bushes. Pretty quickly, we figured out something was wrong. Clara ran inside as soon as the thing showed itself. I suppose she realized that a fight between a teenager and a Dying Man shard wouldn't end well for the teenager. Eric shot a few times at the Carcass. It didn't do much.

Caledon, meanwhile, took out a long combat knife and made a swing at the Carcass's neck. It didn't do much, but it seemed to cause the Carcass pain.

I, meanwhile... well, I provided moral support. (I'm not much of a fighter.)

But seriously, I did help somewhat. The Carcass, as has been established by now, is rather stupid, and there was a rock by my feet. I threw it while the Carcass had its eyes closed for a moment, and it honest to God looked to see what made the sound. So Eric took the knife from Caledon and stabbed it into the Carcass's leg. The Carcass howled and swatted at Eric, scratching up his face.

That did it. I took out my own knife and stabbed the Carcass in the eye as it moved downwards to bite Eric. The Carcass, apparently acting on what was left of its human instincts since it had been possessed, ran back into the woods with a limp, bleeding from several spots.

After that, we followed Clara's lead and went into the headquarters. The situation is... being worked out right now, what with Caledon's being a former member of both ARC and of one of its most personal enemies, and Clara's being a teenager with a Puppet for a mother and a father who is, to my knowledge, absentee.

And... I feel really bad for suggesting the Carcass was David. I mean, I know what survivor's guilt feels like, I know what it's like to feel as though the people you once knew want vengeance from beyond the grave, and I know what it's like to be told you're right. That's not something I would wish on anyone.

I guess I was just projecting.

- Poe

The Winged Seraphs

In short, I became a new man, and lived a man's life. 
It was Alan Roach. It was his footsteps I heard.

Or rather, it was the man I met while he was wearing the mask of Alan Roach, and playing that part. (That mask, if you're curious, is a good old-fashioned devil mask.) Currently, not-Alan is going by Asher Lyall, and he's wearing the kitsune mask to match. Really, he's indistinguishable from your average Mountebank, complete with the tattoo of a hand shaking a red glove on the back of his neck. However, he said he wasn't really... working with the Mountebanks for that particular mission.

Unfortunately, Eric, Clara, and I were all unable to save Asher. He had cleared out the Puppets nonlethally, mostly through his sharply-honed stealth skills (and, apparently, actual magical abilities, though I... think he was joking about that?), and gotten to the cell where Eric and I were being held, but some other people came after him. Angry Mountebanks, I think. I don't know if they've captured him yet, or what, but it doesn't seem like things are looking up for him. He told us to get outside, and to leave him down in the tunnels.

He said it was his battle to fight, not ours. I didn't argue. (...Should I have?)

Shortly after leaving the tunnels, we came across a man with long hair and a long beard. Eric recognized him, called him "Caledon." He had the Archangel seal on his hand, though he tried to cover it up when I looked. Evidently, he was Zagreus, the former ARC agent/current Timberwolf I talked about a few posts ago.

He asked us to kill him.

We refused, of course. Even though Eric had seemed... pretty mad, he pretty quickly decided not to do what Caledon had asked; instead, he brought him along with us. I think Eric's planning on turning him in to ARC. We're headed back to their local headquarters anyways (again; hopefully we don't get attacked by Puppets this time around) as it stands.

Not sure what ARC will do with him.

- Poe

Mere Puppets II

Clara snuck in my phone.

I guess I should give context for that. Eric and I got kidnapped by Puppets as we made our way to the local ARC HQ. One of the Puppets is named Henrietta Bendis, and she has a daughter named Clara who's being trained to become the Princess of Puppets, meaning the Wooden Girl will take control of her body if her current one gets destroyed.

Currently, Eric and I are being held in an otherwise-abandoned tunnel. Evidently, this city has a lot of those lying about. Just our luck. The Puppets are usually very picky about leaving Clara unwatched, but I guess they were busy dealing with some sort of intruder, and they decided Clara was too vulnerable to be exposed to anything like that.

I'm going to give my phone back to Clara after I write this. I don't want the Puppets to suspect her of anything; her situation is clearly not working in her favor, and it wouldn't surprise me if they mistreated her upon finding out that she let me use this. I actually tried to convince her not to give it to me, but she insisted, so I figure I may as well leave a post and update you

Footsteps

The Tell-Tale Heart

Eric says he's okay if I post this here. So... I guess I will.

We swapped stories last night. He already knew about Addie, so I didn't tell him about that. I don't... really want to talk about what I told him in such a public place, though. It's hard to explain. Just suffice it to say that I've told you all about some pretty terrible things... and this was worse.

Eric, meanwhile, told me about his own past. It happened pretty recently, actually. It turns out his circumstances aren't all that different from mine.

Eric was camping in the Appalachian Mountains with a guy named David. A friend of his, evidently. It was cold, and they were alone. David heard something. Eric didn't. It got pretty tense; Eric eventually agreed to go check with David, but at some point they got separated without realizing it. Eric heard something, something horrible. In a panic, he searched for David. He found him, all right. Just... not living.

The official answer was highly unclear. They thought it was some sort of wild animal that did it, but they couldn't get any further than that. It wasn't human, at any rate.

ARC contacted Eric soon after. They didn't say what did it, because they didn't know. They just told him they didn't think it was natural. They did say they'd had an eye on him for a while, though; he was a law enforcement ranger, and they believed that, despite the tragedy inherent in the situation, it was the perfect opening for a job offer. And now Eric works for ARC.

I think David was the Carcass.

It all clicks. I think, in some way, the Carcass was vengeful.

It sounds crazy, I know. But then, is the idea that it could feel residual anger really more unbelievable than that it could exist in the first place?

I don't know.

This all feels weird.

- Poe