From Tara, Again

Hey guys, this is Tara, again. Things are looking good on the illicit medical care front. Should be able to have her see someone tomorrow.

One of the comments asked "what the hell" I was thinking when making Smiley. Honestly...I don't think any of us thought it would work. Mostly we were just writing stories and doing terrible jobs doctoring images. Only one of us took it super seriously And I think she was doing...something else.

She was never terribly upfront about what she was doing, though. I don't know her real name, but she went by CarrionPrincess. We called her Cari for short. She kept talking about rituals and secrets. I wasn't too close with her. Will, WTRainbow was, but I can't get a hold of any of the old gang. I guess Jack's dead now, but, as for the others I have no idea where they are.

Cari was also one of the first ones to drop off the map. The last thing she said to anyone was that she had "seen something awful".

As for who Penny Balisong is, I'm not sure. Though I'm pretty sure it's a pseudonym (given that her last name is essentially butterfly knife). My best guess, actually, would be that she's Cari. She always kind of had a trolling streak, after all.

That's all I can really think of for now. I should probably get going because Jeanette is looking super annoyed at me.

Tara, out.

I Am The Kill

It took me a few hours wandering, but somehow I found my way to where the kids were being held. Like before, I just kind of found it.

I guess Smiley was waiting for something. Maybe it wanted Slendy to come after me first.

I'm still not sure why the Slender Man came to me for all this. Shouldn't he have fucking contacted, oh, I don't know, Smiley if he had a fucking problem with what it was doing?

I walked inside, not really being as careful as I should have. I mean, Smiley's never had a problem with me shooting it, not since it fucked up my face. It was just an old storefront, after all. Abandoned for renovations. One of the half-dozen other abandoned buildings I've seen since I started all of this.

So imagine my fucking surprise when someone fucking shoots at me the moment I walk in the fucking door.

And then immediately starts apologizing about it.

The kids were in back. They were barely seven or eight. They'd been stripped down completely and a heart shaped dotted line had been cut into the surface of their skin, around the heart. They were huddling in fear from a very large, very fat man who had a crazed expression and a hunting rifle.

I didn't realize who it was until he started mumbling "God help me."

Jack of Thorns. The proxy was the Jack of Thorns.

I ducked behind a counter and he took another few shots at me. Started rambling about this being necessary, that he was so sorry, Queen of Swords, but this is the only way. The only way that the Smiling Man would "take back" what it had "shown" him.

He said that maybe Smiley would let him keep the kids. To make up for the daughter he had butchered. He could have a family again. He asked why I couldn't see that.

I tried to shoot him, but I'm not used to shooting with just my right arm.

So I ambushed him with the knife, up close where the rifle would be a liability. You'd think it would be hard to kill someone with a knife, but it's so easy. You just pick a spot where they'll bleed out from and slash it. Then you go on the defensive, wait for them to weaken, and then slash again. It's so easy. Especially if you're smaller and faster than they are. Especially if you're athletic and they're out of shape and have no idea what they're doing.

Why does it have to be so easy?

And he thanked me. He thanked me, and apologized the entire time. Said it was necessary even as he bled out. Asked for God to help me. To help us all.

I knew him. Well, I kind of did. Was he trying to warn me about this? I wonder if I should have listened to him. But it's too late now. He's dead and I killed him and that's all there is.

I gave the kids a card. It has addresses, like for the Tutorial and Brighter Than A Spoon and other people who have been somewhat fucking successful in Running. It also has my email address. I told them, when their special tall friend comes back in ten years, this stuff'll help.

I hope it will, anyway. I called the police from Thorn's cell phone and I got out of there.

I leave Boston tomorrow. I'm not sure where to after that. No trail from Smiley at the moment. Maybe STAB or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or the SCP Foundation or whoever the fuck is out there is suppressing the info. I really don't fucking know.

At any rate, I'm headed west. Might as well get a head start.

birthofamonster.txt

Okay so this is the thing that Jack of Crazy sent me back when I was still a high school student trying to find a way to kill Smiley. You know, before I became a high school dropout trying to kill Smiley.

There's not a whole lot of context. It just kind of starts.

Anyway, here it is--

JackThorn has entered the Chatroom

PerilousFool: But I'm looking forward to the next one, if it ever comes out.

PerilousFool: Oh, hey Jack.

yournightmare: yo jack wassup?

JackThorn: Its happening.

SephysWife: Is it vague warning thursday already?

yournightmare: lol

JackThorn: Im staring at a bouquet.

WTRainbow: congratulations, you have some flowers

JackThorn: It worked.

SephysWife: What are you talking about?

JackThorn: It was in my daughter's locker. She got to school and there was a bouquet.

yournightmare: lol, stop fukcing with us jack

SephysWife: Yeah, really bad taste.

JackThorn: Whens the last time you saw Cari? Or Jackie? Or Steve? Or Dom?

SephysWife: People leave randomly all the time online. It's a hazard of knowing people on the internet. That doesn't mean we invented a supernatural serial killer.

yournightmare: dude r u serious?

WTRainbow: you believe him, craig?

yournightmare: u cant tell me u werent thinkin this 2

SephysWife: Jack, I think you're getting a little worked up. There's nothing going on.

WTRainbow: i wasn't, because i have half a brain.

yournightmare: fuck you man im not goin 2 just turn my back on jack hes always been there 4 us

JackThorn: We are all doomed. Its going to come after us first. Like it did Cari and Jackie and Dom.

SephysWife: Stop it, Jack. It's not funny.

yournightmare: maybe we can stop it?

PerilousFool: It doesn't have a weakness. We never gave it one.

WTRainbow: ****, seriously?

SephysWife: Don't encourage him, ****. You're better than this.

SephysWife: The Smiling Man is not real. The Slender Man is not real. You can't just make up a monster and have it exist. The world does not work that way.

SephysWife: When the rest of you have grown up, let me know.

SephysWife: Bye.

SephysWife has left the chatroom.

yournightmare: you leavin' 2 will?

WTRainbow: not yet.

WTRainbow: don't get me wrong, i don't believe in any of this.

WTRainbow: but i miss cari. i thought we had something, you know?

WTRainbow: and if someone really did put a bouquet in your kid's locker then maybe one of the missing guys is playing a trick on you.

WTRainbow: dom was always kind of a jerk.

JackThorn: Theres nothing we can do.

JackThorn: The Smiling Man has come to life.

JackThorn: God help us all.

---

Back to modern day Jeanette again. This is where the file cuts to a completely different block. I think it's an email that Jack got. I'm not sure about the timing. I'll comment on the whole thing after.

Oh, by the way? No response from any of these screen names. At least, not the right response. Sometimes I get false positives, but none of them are the right person.

---

Dear Jack

You fucking moron.

Did you think you actually made anything? That you and your social reject friends actually created Him?

He's been here forever. Looking for a way in. And you gave it to Him and now He's loose.

"God help you." What a loser.

Though it makes sense that you'd be looking for a divine figure to help you.

After all, you just gave one a body.

This is the last time we're going to talk. He's going to show you what He showed me.

I don't think you'll do nearly as well as I have, though.

Yours Truly

The Queen of Cups

ps. You'd better show this to Jeanette. Some day me and her are going to have a friendly chat. Royals should be well acquainted with each other, after all.

pps. Hey Jeanette. How's your eye? Oh, that's right. Silly me.

----

Okay, a few things here. This is Jeanette here. One, I'm pretty sure some pretty hefty editing was done to the letter and the chatlog. I'm not sure why.

Two. This was sent to me two weeks before I had my Significant Peripheral Vision Downgrade. If I had been updating this in real time, I'm sure you reading this would have seen this as foreshadowing or something, but, no, I spoiled my lost eye weeks ago. I'd be sympathetic, but I'm still the one with only one fucking eye, so I'm not, really.

Three, I still haven't met this bitch, but I've seen...things. I'm not sure how to describe them. It's all been pretty innocuous, but...

Okay, remember way back when I started this whole blog? You know, in real time, before Smiley showed up? And I talked about having weird dreams?

I never mentioned what was in them because it wasn't important. None of it had anything to do with anything, including Smiley. I've read about people in the Slender Man stories all dreaming about trees and bags and evil shit like that. My dreams were not like that.

Most of them were me somewhere, I don't know. Some sort of public building every time, never the same one. And in them, I'm just talking to someone. I don't remember what she looks like or sounds like, but I do remember she has the Most Punchable Face I've ever seen. Just this self-satisfied smug expression that you just want to smack right in the mouth and make her spit out those pearly white goddamn teeth. I never remember the conversation.

But those are my dreams. You see why I never brought them up. I mean, I never even hit Miss Punchable in them.

But I think she's the Queen of Cups.

I mean, just read what she wrote. Tell me you don't want to just punch her in the goddamn mouth.

I'm not sure what they are. Maybe it's the future. Maybe we're having dream conversations. All I know is they've been happening to me pretty much all my life.

Also, I'm pretty sure she's working for Mr. Smiles. Somehow.

..which means she's my nemesis. Great. Next time I need to make sure to dream punch her.

But, all that exposition aside....there's something else. I censored PerilousFool's name. Because I knew who she was and....I'll just explain it in the journal entry I wrote afterward:

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 5:02 AM

I am such an idiot.

She was so quick to come up with the idea, that maybe smiley is like the slender man, wasn't she? Such a big leap of logic to make. Why didn't I realize this then?

Because I'm a fucking moron.

Why hasn't she told me? Why hasn't she said a goddamn thing!?

People have died! They've fucking died! Fuck, one of them fucking fell on me! I thought she was my best fucking friend but it turns out no, she doesn't fucking care enough to tell me that she was on of the ones who fucking made this fucking bastard in the first fucking place god fucking damn it why am I crying

I still can't stop it. I don't know where to begin.

And if I can't stop it now...if Tara's the reason it's here...

I only have a couple weeks before it takes her.

Heliotrope, Lavender, Celandine, Cypress, Larkspur.

Christ I don't even know what half of those are. But that's what Tara's bouquet was.

It's going to come for her, my best friend, my only friend, and one of its creators.

And I can't stop it.

Conversations With Jack of Thorns

A list of a few of the more pertinent IM conversations I had with Jack during the period I spent researching and running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

1#

Jack: Queen of Blades?

Me: oh christ you're the crazy guy, aren't you?

Jack: I'm sorry. This is my fault

Jack: We wanted to make our own myth.

Jack: And we succeeded, God Help Us

Me: Please, no more madness mantra. What did you fucking do? How the fuck did you make this thing? How can I stop it from taking ****?

---Jack signs out.

2#

Jack: I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do.

Me: So stop talking to me if you're not going to fucking help me.

Jack: I didn't realize it would come to life. I'd read about the Fears, about the Slender Man and the Wooden Girl and the Archangel, but I didn't think they were real. It was just a game. Just a game. But it's not a game. It's not a game. Not a game.

Me: Tell me something I can use or don't tell me anything at all. I get it, you're repentant. Let's move on.

---Jack signs out.

3#

Jack: How many victims, Queen?

Me: Can you even understand me? Are you seeing anything I'm typing?

Jack: How many more until we can stop this monster?

Me: For the love of god, please stop harassing me. I'm trying to find a solution.

(right here he gives me the file birthofamonster.txt)

Jack: this is all the help i have. god help us all.

--Jack signs out. Again.

That's the last thing the Jack of Thorns sent me over IM. The last I saw of that screen name on IM, in fact.

But I still get emails, every once in a while. They're all pretty much the same, though. All something like this:

godhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpus

godhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpus

godhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpus

godhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpus

godhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpus

godhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpus

godhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpus

godhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpus

godhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpus

godhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpus

godhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpus

godhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpus

godhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpus

godhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpusgodhelpus

god help us all

Jesus, talk about melodrama. I mean, all he did was unleash a psychpathic stalker monster on the earth. I mean, get a fucking grip, guy. It's not the end of the world.

...Probably not, anyway.

More Weirdness

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28; 7:21 AM

First of all, Tara is here and she asked me something very important that I hadn't thought of.

"How do you know what flowers were in the bouquet?"

I couldn't tell you what heliotrope looks like. But if I saw the Smiling Man's flowers I could point to it. Tara just hmmm'ed when I told her this. She says she's going to look them up in 'the language of flowers', whatever the fuck that means. I think she's really enjoying this.

She shouldn't be.

Second, I got an email today, from someone who calls himself Jack of Thorns.

It read:

"Dear Queen of Blades

We didn't make him. We gave him a body and set him loose, God help us, but we did not make him.

No, he made himself. God help us, he made himself and we gave him a body and we CLAPPED OURSELVES ON THE BACK AND CONGRATULATED OURSELVES. And this is what we have wrought.

And now he's Feeding. Soon he won't need the body we gave him. Soon he'll have one all his own.

God help us. God help us all.

Jack of Thorns."

How the fuck did this guy know to email me? These aren't even fucking online! Come on, I wrote about taking a fucking gun to school, why would I put these online?! I may be trash but I'm not dumb.

And why the hell did he call me "Queen of Blades?" Maybe the haiku in my info box? With the whole 'Jack' thing sounds like he's going for a card motif.

Tara said something about finding our Toothy Ark, whatever that means.

Better get ready for school. Wouldn't want to miss this shitty, shitty day.