Sorry about the delay in updates. Things are kind of blowing up here in San Fran (I guess locals hate it when you call it that? Ha). My laptop broke two days after I last posted - not sure if it was a horrible virus or a hardware issue, but my mouse moves around on its own onscreen and I have no control over it. The movements look mostly haphazard, but it keeps opening Chrome and my Word documents, including this account along with my other urban exploration journal entries. It opens a bunch of picture files, too, but without control over the mouse I can’t tell which ones. I don’t think it has anything to do with the Infected Town, but it is super annoying and preventing me from posting here. As of now, I’m oscillating between typing this out on my phone and using Blake’s (my friend’s) computer. I sent my laptop to a computer guy, so hopefully it will be fixed soon. Honestly, I have other things on my mind. But I’m alive and totally fine - still no signs of mold in California. Since I work online from home anyway, I’ve extended my trip here by quite a bit. Blake has to get the days off from work so he can come with me, and now we’re apparently taking his girlfriend along too.
I have to admit, when I first read the posts by Jessica, Liz and Alan I thought a few kids had been inspired by the Infected Town and written an elaborate scary story about it. The mold, the buildings, the body in the basement - all could be explained by separate natural events if you firmly refused to believe in the paranormal. I didn’t actually think the town was infected so much as unlucky. Still not sure where I stand on the whole paranormal issue. I might have to literally get slapped in the face by a monster before completely accepting it.
But since posting these accounts and getting attention for them, I’ve gotten several strange messages and emails (not sure how they - you? - found my email address) from three different sources, as far as I can tell.
So, as for future plans, I’m still planning to go back, this time with reinforcements, and we’re going to figure out what’s happening there. It’s going to be me, Blake, and his girl Heather, who we met at a bar a couple nights after I got into town. They clicked immediately, so now we have a new team member. They’ve both been prepped on what’s going on, and both of them are aware of the risks and still willing to join me.
I haven’t slept well since leaving Oregon. I have nightmares nearly every night, the kind where something’s chasing you but you can’t see it, and you can’t quite get the muscles in your legs to move. I’ve mostly fixed the problem with melatonin tablets and Vodka (having no dreams at all is superior to having nightmares) but I’m hoping that exposure to mold spores hasn’t permanently altered my neurons or something (she says, as though she has any idea what she’s talking about).
Okay, the update. First off, a couple nights after arriving in California, I got a PM on Reddit from u/helpmenosleep. If you don’t remember, that was Jess’s username when she first posted her story. Since the story’s end, helpmenosleep and u/alanpwtf have been posting weird messages in comment sections, usually gibberish or nursery rhymes. I’ve gone through the comment history, and was creeped out when I realized a lot of the comments almost sounded playful, or like they were trying to be. Only a few get aggressive, but when they do, they get really aggressive. Also, helpmenosleep has a pattern of bizarre misspellings with no rhyme or reason to them. I don’t get it. Here is the PM I got, in case you can make any more sense of it.
Subject: my dear Claire
From: helpmenosleep >> sent two weeks ago
Vrrse I
O’er the midnight moorlands crying,
Thro’ the cypress forests sighing,
In the night-wind madly flying,
Hellish forms with streaming hair;
In the barren branches creaking,
By the stagnant swamp-pools speaking,
Past the shore-cliffs ever shrieking;
Damn’d daemons of despair.II:2 II:6 II:15 II:31 V:11, V:35 for V:8 V:22 V:21 V:36 V:37
I:12 III:23 V:34 III:15 V:15, III:12, III:37 DO NXT TRUST HIM
reaxd the rest..> tp FIGHT perpetuates DESPAIRr.
… Yeah. So there’s that. Seems our moldy friend is a poet. I am so not English-Lit Girl. The streaming hair bit immediately made me think of the lady under the bridge, and the forest imagery made me think of the woods around the town - except that there are no swamps or moors nearby, to my knowledge. And what’s with the letters and numbers underneath the verse? Some kind of code? I've tried to match them up as lines:words in the verse but the result is gibberish (I thought II:2 would mean line 2, word 2... only it doesn't). Also, obviously none of the lines have 35 words. Must be something else. Or nothing at all. Who is to fucking say? It's clear helpmenosleep is insane.
I don’t know how helpmenosleep knows my name, since I’m pretty sure I haven’t told anyone here. But now the secret’s out. Name’s Claire, nice to meet you.
I hesitate to call helpmenosleep “Jess,” or say that whoever may be posting as u/alanpwtf is Alan or Liz. I think who/whatever is behind the mold has the password to all of their accounts and a working knowledge of phones and computers (even if they suck at typing). I think the comments are just meant to tease or fuck with us. Helpmenosleep in particular seems to want to pique my curiosity and make me return to the town. I’ll rise to that challenge.
The next item of interest was something I found on the passenger’s seat in my car shortly after I’d left town the second time. I’d left my windows cracked, so someone could easily have slipped it inside when I was exploring the apartment. I forgot about it when I posted the previous update, but I recently found it again, where I’d shoved it to the bottom of my backpack. It’s just a note. I took this picture of it at the motel, but it’s transcribed here.
GET OUT OF THIS TOWN.
I don’t know who you are or why you’re here, but get out. I’m not afraid to take drastic measures if I see you here again. Final warning, little girl. Someday you’ll thank me.
-- a friend
Uh huh. I’m getting sick of vague warnings. On the back of the folded note was drawn a house, with CAUTION: DO NOT ENTER next to it. No idea what that’s supposed to symbolize, but I’m adding the note to the “evidence” file.
I know a lot of you will say it’s Z or his organization. I don’t think so. Here’s why:
I received this email three days ago.
To: [My email address]
From: Unknown (yeah, that’s all it said - “Unknown.” I didn’t know you could make your email address private like this. They apparently don’t want their address out, and they definitely don’t want me to reply.)
Subject: Infected Town
I’m going to say this once, and only once. Leave that town alone. No good can come of it.
We will not be there for you. We will not answer your questions or try to help. Z is dead. R is dead. Everyone who knew anything is dead. We are giving up the fight. We never had the resources for anything besides a temporary fix, anyway. I’m sorry we lied. I’m sorry we pretended we were stronger. We are not.
It wins.
You can help by posting this online so it knows it cannot find us. It has no cause to. We know when we’ve been beaten. JUST LEAVE US ALONE.
I keep saying "we," but it’s just me now.
Good luck, Claire. Please be smart. Do what it doesn’t want you to: just forget about it. That’s the only way.
I will not be in touch. I have heard it whispering to me. Its only a matter of time now. I still have my motor functions. I still have Z’s gun and one bullet. I can stop my torment. I can prevent yours..
Good bye.
Was I sent a suicide note? The email left a horrible taste in my mouth and a sinking in my stomach. Poor whoever-it-was. I wish I could help them.
But I refuse to believe that whoever is behind all this “wins.” My resolve is firm, so don’t try to talk me out of this. We will find answers, and we will fix this. It can’t just be ignored and allowed to cause pain!
So now you’re up to speed. A couple messages, a few nightmares, but no mold here in California. I’ll update you if anything happens in the meantime, but next time I post it will hopefully be to tell you about my return to Infected Town.
As always, your thoughts and advice are more than appreciated.
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