Millstone

The 757 investigated almost all of Oldetown today. We were looking for any clues to Grey's whereabouts, and while we did find some evidence of his existence, none of them really foretold on how to find Grey, or give any specifications on the aforementioned whereabouts.

I texted everyone to congregate at my house around noon. Before anyone arrived, I went exploring in it, and...well, apparently Grey's visited there. On one of the walls, someone spraypainted the words: "Space Cadet, Pull Out." Under it, Grey left his name.

This really angered me. He vandalized my childhood home! Though it isn't in good shape now, due to my emotionally abusive mother (not going to talk much about that, but yes, my mother is abusive) abandoning it in March of this year.

Maybe I should talk more about my family and backstory in a future post.

Anyways, soon it was noon, and everyone started to arrive. First, Steven and Luca pulled up in front of the house (Steven driving). Luca still seemed a bit hesitant, but he wasn't leaving anytime soon; no one can now. We're all bonded together now.

Then, Keil, Mason and Markus, and afterwards Patrick by himself, and finally, timid little Andrew.

Before we set out, I got to talking with Luca more about things pertaining to The Dying Man, and his possession by it. The following thoughts result from that conversation:

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If The Dying Man was controlling Luca too, then it is confirmed that my possession was not just a special case. This might be a local breakout of something paranormal in nature. Or, this may just be a worldwide phenomenon. Then again, I've seen no evidence to the latter, so maybe this is only centered into this region of Virginia. I don't know, but Grey's influence is definitely increasing here, and if the former theory is true, then Ptown maybe just practice for what he intends to do with the rest of the world. If so, we need to stop it immediately.

I'm not stupid though. I know Grey isn't the only thing, and definitely isn't the strongest thing, out there. What about the creatures surrounding the blogger Peter Rivers;...The Fears? Is The Dying Man really one of them, like Peter claimed, or is he something else? He just seems so inferior compared to them.....

Or maybe we're not giving him enough credit. He does seem to have alot of potential. He could, theoretically, end up possessing a large amount of the human race. Or, perhaps, he already has?

How do we stop him? Judging from my experiences, he's almost like a cockroach. And if these experiences over the last few months have shown anything, it is that if his influence over a person is strong enough, he can pull off almost anything with their bodies.

Now, notice I said anything. Can he possess things, not just humans? After all, we forced him out of my body by transferring his possession from it to the mask I recieved from Peter.

If he can possess objects,...can he possess towns? Cities? Worlds?

Has Grey literally merged with Portsmouth?
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Bleh. These thoughts scare me.

I have to kill the problem here. I need to completely eradicate this plague. I can't let it escape and hurt anyone else. I don't want someone to go through the pain I had to endure.

And yet, people are dying out on my streets right now, and I can't do anything about it...

Onwards.

[[by the way, we skipped school today to do this, but I think The Old Man told us that if we end up missing any days due to Grey, he would take care of it, so I guess we'll just pin it on him.]]

We set off around 12:30 to Oldetown. We didn't really know what to do, so we kind of just wandered the town, honestly. We explored alleyways, parks, and forgotten streets. We searched for suspicious activity, supernatural happenings, and paranormal behaviors.

We kept our eyes, ears, and even our noses open.

We searched the Oak Grove cemetary in the West Park View neighborhood near Oldetown first. When we first stepped into the entrance of the graveyard, I just suddenly got hit with the profound feeling of complete...dread, accompanied with another feeling; the common touch of a prickly, cold static that usually finds itself on the back of a person's neck.

Felt like I was being watched. I looked around constantly, and saw nothing, but I knew better, or at least my body did, that something was stalking us.

Was it Grey? Or just my imagination?

I ignored these feelings and pushed on. We decided to split up after entering the gate; Patrick, Markus, Mason, and Keil walked together, while Steven and Luca wandered together. I was alone, as I had decided not to accompany Luca and Steven, and Andrew chose not to skip out on this leg of the journey...because, well, he was scared.

It was a good thing that he skipped out on the exploration, though. Later on, after finding nothing of value or mention, we congregated near the center of the cemetary, and decided that we should move on to another location. As we were exiting the graveyard, Markus happened to spot one gravemarker, with the dating:

July 3rd, 1960 - December 23rd, 1976

The dating was underneath the name "Andrew Wood."

Everyone seemed to know that this wasn't just a coincidence. I explained to them about the documents the Old Man let me post in the entry "Notes 3(Part 2)" anyways though.

Back then, I would have shrugged off the connection, and would have now, if not for the item that was laying in front of the gravestone.

A rotting apple, with the word "Grey" carved into the browning skin.

"Apple of my Eye."

another warning, eh, Grey? I get it, you want to show me who's boss. Stop bringing it up.

Patrick, after about half a minute of silence between us all, suggested that we got the hell out of there, so we did. Grey could have still been around, so I was on guard while we hurriedly exited the graveyard. From there, we moved onto the back alleys of the downtown area, but that quickly ended after all the hobos started stalking us everywhere...Ptown's flooded with the fuckers, but these ones seened different. More persistent...more hopeless looking.

We walked around a bit more, and almost an hour later, we decided to quit the adventure, as we weren't finding any leads whatsover. We also needed to end it as soon as possible anyway, because The Old Man did not know that his grandson Luca was hanging out with us. Luca was going to leave early, but Keil and I managed to convince him to eat a late lunch with us.

There is a restaurant by the title "The Circle" in Midtown Portsmouth. It is owned by my grandmother's side of my family, The Hopewells. It's a good place, and nearby, so instead of going to Mickey D's or another fast food joint, we pickedit to eat at.

It was fun. I haven't had that much in....well, years. After all the things I was going through when Grey was possessing me, and hell, even before that,...I'm finally free.

Free from tyrants in all shapes and forms.

We laughed. We discussed. We chatted. We ate.

Once our bellies were full and minds were empty, we...called it a day. I took care of the bill (apparently I don't get free food, even if I'm related to the owners) and I drove home.

But the day was not over. That was only a prelude of sorts.

See, a few of us had been invited to a party that night.

...and by that, I mean everyone who's a resident of Portsmouth. Keil moved to Norfolk recently, while Steven and Luca live in Chesapeake.

Andrew, however, wasn't invited in the first place.

The party was at some kid's house I barely knew. Friend of a friend, honestly. It wasn't even a big party...or a party almost at all. More of a small get-together, for old friends. It would have been bigger, but the idiot host of the party decided to throw it on a weekday.

I mostly just sat in the corner. Sowing Season...it was hitting hard. I just felt out of place. I felt....anger...and resentment...plus, the sleepless nights were finally catching up with me...

People tried to get me to socialize, but I softly declined. Eventually, they just gave up on me....everyone I've ever known eventually does that too....

I felt helpless, I felt alone. I felt bored.

These feelings multiplied...flooded my entire emotional being...enslaved me...

Someone should have just killed me there right on the spot...or something...

I felt ~better~ than these people. I felt ~more deserving~ of these people.

Because I almost embarrassed myself and my friends...I almost...burst out into a rant about...something, I don't even remember anymore. I got up, and started to enter the living room of the house we were in, but somehow...my friends knew what I was about to do. They saw my expression, I guess. Markus and Patrick grabbed onto me, and they pulled me back into the living room and started to ask what was up with me.

Something started to control me...my personality changed. I insulted them. I just let all my bitterness out on the ones closest to me.

They told me to chill out, and to go look in the mirror and ask myself what I was actually saying...if I was actually acting like the usual me.

I think they somehow knew that Grey was influencing me again.

I went into the bathroom of the house, looked into the mirror, and....saw Grey where I should have been. Yep. He was fucking with me again.

I faded out of that dimension, and entered the one Grey pulled me into last time....a dream land.

Grey was there too. As I turned around, I saw him, and with him, he brought a materialization of a, before that moment, of an invisible landscape.

An ocean. We were standing on an ocean...

I looked at Grey. He did not speak. All he did was point at my neck. As soon as he did, ropes bursted out the water and wrapped themselves around my throat. They were extremely heavy, and I was pulled underwater.

I was soon at the bottom of the ocean, drowning. The ropes were somehow shortening themselves, and eventually stopped at approximately a 3 feet long distance.

They were wrapped around a Millstone/Milestone. Hahahaha, Grey, great music reference.

Carved into the stone, was the word "Pride."

Water invaded my lungs, and my whole body felt like it was going to explode.

I was not afraid, but christ, it hurt so so much. I just wanted it to end...

And it did. One second, I was dying, another second, I was....

I was in a square room. The walls were composed of bricks. There were no windows or doors.

Suddenly, in the middle of the room, a mile stone appeared. It started to glow, burn red, and...it leaked fire. Or something. I can't exactly explain WHAT it was doing.

The small fire started to grow, and grow, and began swallowing everything in the room. It was inches away (at this point I was backed up to a corner, with my back against the wall), when the bricks behind me fell apart, and I fell through.

Just as I hit the hard ground, the fire shot out of the hole, before the brick square and it disappeared completely.

While I was laying on the ground, sweating, and too exhausted to look around at my surroundings, a voice shouted in my head:

"If you'd be my breath, there's NOTHING I WOULDN'T GIVE."

When the voice finished its declaration, I was thrusted into a sequence of images and memories. from past points in my life.

Going to church for the first time...attending it every other Sunday...praying every night before bed...reading the Bible...looking at the world around me..questioning my faith..rejecting my faith.

My father congratulating me on a good soccer game...my father fixing my brothers and I dinner...my parents seperating...my parents fighting...my parents not paying attention to me...my mother yelling at me...my mother choking me....

Sitting alone at the lunch table...meeting a few of my friends...moving to their lunch table...hanging out with them....falling out of touch with them...moving away from them...

Anna....kissing her for the last time...

I was suddenly trapped inside my own body.

I was suddenly running out into the street.

With every step I took, I decreased in age.

I was suddenly eleven.

I was suddenly eight.

With every person watching, I increased in rage.

I was suddenly in front of a speeding car.

I was suddenly also in front of a speeding schoolbus.

With every screeching tire, I repeated my saving grace.

With everything I mentioned, I weakened the bars to my own cage.

I was my own cage.

With the resulting collision, I was free.

And yet, I don't, and won't ever, know what true freedom is.

Though I was dead in the street, I was alive in a hospital bed in the middle of the trees.

Over my hospital stood Grey, except this time he looked different. He was bulkier, and on his head, there appeared to be dull horns growing out of his head and tearing holes into the hood he was wearing. The mask was different too; now, it was much more skeletal in appearence, and the jaw had widened, accompanied with sharper teeth. Behind the mask, I could see wires slithering inside. The wires were thicker now; they no longer looked like strings, at any rate.

The mask appeared to be in the middle of a transforming into an actual face and head.

This time, Grey wasn't fucking around. He ran over to my bed, picked me up, and threw me against the wall. The wall gave way, and suddenly I wasn't in a hospital. I was flying through the air....the hole that was once in the hospital wall morphed into an Emergency Exit Door.

It was the schoolbus again...it was currently crashing into a Limousine.

Instead of skidding on pavement, I skidded on a cool, tiled floor...

a bathroom. I was back inside of the house.

I had apparently been out of this realm for almost 10 minutes this time....

Grey's grip is even stronger now...

I left the house, went home, and now we're here.

Will converse with The Old Man about it tomorrow....nothing else to say...really...