Neptune

Well, today was very eventful, honestly.

Let’s see, where to start:

• The new member, that came out of nowhere!
• The meeting!
• The Nightmare I had involving Grey!
• The Old Man informing Steven and I of yet ANOTHER murder!
• The Old Man's advice.

Let's start with the nightmare, I guess!! ^___^;

Well,  I went to bed around two last night; lucky me, because I usually never sleep at all. I was having the usual dream I have; at first, I'm alone, in the field by my old Elementary School, John Tyler. I'm sitting on the bleachers, just watching the birds fly by....the sun's shining, leaving their shadows all across the field...

But then the scene morphs, as the birds' shadows grow and grow, consuming everything.

Suddenly, I'm in a school bus, that's increasing rapidly in speed. Soon, the bus turns a corner, and I see our target; a limousine. I don't know why, but all of a sudden, that limousine makes me think of a little girl I somehow know. As soon as the bus aims for the limousine, I try getting up and stopping the bus driver, but the gravity and acceleration of the bus forces me down to the dirty bus floor.

We collide, and as the vehicles' metal rips and shears together, the dream ends....usually.

But this time,...the objects kept moving and crushing past each other...

I heard the kids in the bus scream...and I started to feel a massive, crushing sense of complete guilt...because of me, a girl is going to die...she may only be confined to this dreamland, but she's nevertheless, important to me, and to my future. Her name is....

The dream...or nightmare, changes, as one of the students in the seat next to me changes into The Dying Man. This one, however, is not Grey...he's another monster, just like him, though.

Maybe even more monstrous.

The monster, who's wearing a robe and a Devil mask, grabs ahold of me by the collar, and throws me towards the back of the bus. I hit the emergency exit door, and the extra force from the crash opens the door, and I go flying out at a terrifying speed.

Instead of hitting the pavement, the entire scene changes; the concrete swims past me in dizzying colors while the urban scene is transformed back to the once tranquil field behind John Tyler. Now, contrasting the prior image of a sunny, cloudless day, with birds flying past from high above, the field is now in the middle of a strong hurricane, seemingly. Torrential rain and humongous bursts of gusts push past me.

I'm reminded of Irene and my battle with Grey not even a mile away from the school, when, speak of the devil, Grey attacks me. Emerging from the mist caused by the rain, he kicks me up into the air with a massive kick and a forceful punch.

I'm now on the muddy ground, and Grey's staring at me from above.

Grey cackles wildly, and opens up his robe;

underneath, his entire body has been replaced with irons, writhing wires. The wires coil and vibrate underneath the robe. Tiny speckles of dried blood are caked on the wires, plus hair, a few leaves, and bits of flesh. I thought I even spotted a tooth among the wires.

I couldn't scream..I couldn't scream..if I opened my mouth, the wires would invade.

The wires started to pull apart, slowly revealing what was underneath....

a shining, metallic key.  It was silver, and it shone brighter than the Sun on the brightest of days.

And yet, my eyes did not hurt from it, and I had no want of looking away. Instead, I had the desire to overwhelming desire to take, and use, the key on something.

Something grand.

But I fought my desire, which seemed to surprise Grey. Angered, the wires rained down upon me, and I tried to run, but yet, they were too fast. I was tripped yet again, but instead of letting me fall through the air and hit the grass, Grey caught me with the wires, and pinned me to the muddy dirt.

Defenseless, I felt despair wash over me, and the entire scene washed away yet again. This time, I was sinking like a stone in the sea again, like I was back in April.

I was trapped again.

But then I woke up in my bed, wet from all the sweat flooding out of my pores.

I have no idea what that dream was trying to symbolize, but I think...I think it's important...

and Grey's hold of over me is getting stronger...

Okay, with that out of the way....well, I guess I'll move on to the new murder...

Dave Lancaster was an awesome dude. Everyone loved him.

Joking; he was a complete bastard.

Dave had anger issues. He was basically, a bully. He tried pushing everyone around. Hell, if you so much as looked at him a bit wrong, he'd go on a rant and try to kick your ass.

Well. He picked a fight with the wrong dude.

Yes, Dave tried to fight the Dying Man.

Idiot...

...okay, I try fighting him too, but that's different..

bleh, anyways.

Cameras at a local store caught the entire scene...Dave is walking up to the very same Walmart Janie near, when he sees Grey. Grey says something, which spurs Dave into running after him, in an apparent anger charge. They both run off screen of the camera.

About five minutes later, Dave's head can be seen rolling into the frame.

His face is contorted into a look of sheer terror, mixed with a bit of anger in it.

No one else was on the street at the time, for some reason or another.

This is really stressing The Old Man out. He kept slurring his words, and almost fell asleep while telling the story! I almost feel sorry for the guy....

So, that's all the info on the murder....oh, wait, no...

There was one last thing...that really scares me...

Grey left a message JUST FOR ME at the scene of the crime...

One of Dave's eyes had been torn out, and in his empty eye socket, Grey had smushed an apple core into it.

"Apple of my Eye."

He wants to challenge me to another duel...greaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. Just...just great.

He's too strong now....has too much of a hold over me...there's no way I could win if I faced him again.

Anyways,...I think it's time we moved onto...well, let's go in chrological order for the next topic...

Luca Brasi; he's a cool kid.

Tall, black hair, prominent nose, hazel eyes, tan. Very calm. Meticulous. Every movement he makes has a purpose; he does not fidget. Stands with a restrained confidence. Wears nice clothes.

Okay, well...he wasn't calm in the accompanying story,...but that was under different circumstances.

This is how I met Luca earlier today:

While I was driving about town the other day, I decided to drive to the cemetary my grandfather is buried at.

....(I'll never forget about that...that was all my goddamn fault. That's one of the driving forces behind my actions the past  months).

While I was at my grave, Luca was standing nearby, at another grave.

For the strangest reason, I felt...like I just had to ask him why he was here also

Okay, maybe it isn't that strange of things to happen like that anymore. Maybe it's Divine Intervention, but this has become too common for me to just disregard as basic instinct.

Something's pushing us towards a common goal.

Something's pulling us together....like magnets.

Luca just looked at me like I was a fucking weirdo. I saw tears in his eyes...and I felt embarrassed...but I had to see...

"I lost my grandfather earlier this year...it's why I'm here...his death was all my fault..."

Luca looked away from me...he didn't seem to want to talk.

But I pressed on.

"How about you? Why are you here?"

Luca gulped, and to my surprise, started talking;

"Just like you...my grandfather...he died...because of me..."

He choked up in the last part of that sentence.

"How so?"

"...."

"If it makes you anymore comfortable, I'll tell you my story."

He didn't answer, but I went on anyways.

I started off with the recollection of my entire life the past couple of months. And unlike Andrew and Keil, Luca didn't have an incredulous look the whole story. Rather, he seemed to be intently listening. Throughout the story, he kept wiping at his eyes, until they had stopped running.

When I finished, he sighed, and looked away, and then said two words that changed my entire perception of him, and my situation:

"Me too."

Luca proceeded to tell me everything he had been put through the past few months. Within his story, there are remarkable parallels to my story.

He found a pocketwatch down in near the Elizabeth River. He had seen no need for it, so he thrown it back into the river  (I'm assuming that I picked it up shortly after him). After that, the possession by his own personal Dying Man started.

Then, like what Grey did to me, his Dying Man killed his grandfather during a hissy fit or some such.

Soon afterwards, Luca figured he'd kill himself...but...he was saved..

by the same old man who saved me.

But, instead, The Old Man...is this kid's step grandfather.

Another connection!

The only difference between Luca and I was that his Dying Man never targeted his girlfriend, Ashlyn. His Dying Man, the old man took care of...via Sowing Season.

Luca didn't really want to tell me any details of that experience, though...must of been painful..

....I know mine was.

So, someone else on this planet, knows what it's like.... to feel almost completely numb...

From there, I started discussing The 757 with him, and...well, he didn't want to join at first, because The Old Man had apparently warned him about associating with any paranormal business again; that it's dangerous.

Fuck that. Sorry, Old Man, but we have to deal with this. We can't just let this weed keep growing in a beautiful garden...or something. That sounded kind of lame, sorry.

Luca didn't want to join at first,...but then he looked back at his grandfather's grave, ...and then signed up.

The meeting was in an  a couple of hours from the time when we were there, so I told him the directions, and he told me he'd meet me there.

And an hour later, he was there.

The sun was going down, and the air was now almost frosty; Winter was hitting full force. Everyone was there; Markus, Patrick, Andrew, Mason, Keil, Steven, and Luca. Everyone was sitting on the bleachers excepting Steven and I; we were going to go over the situation in full.

Everyone got to ask a question; some of them were HILLARIOUS; thanks alot, Patrick, Mason, and Markus. >:/ Hope that makes y'all feel better!
No, seriously, it mostly went according to plan.

And then we started talking about what we could actually do.

...what were we going to do to stop Grey? Attack him all at once?

But then I remembered what The Old Man had told Steven and I earlier during the day, about Grey.

He had told us that Grey was slowly taking over the city, area by area.

If we went around, and tried decreasing Grey's influences on places, then maybe Grey would grow weaker.

...He declined to tell us HOW to do this, though. -___-

I'm guessing we'll have to go around, and...bless places or something??

Ehhh, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I do agree that we have to explore Portsmouth, and become familiar with the battleground.

Everyone else agreed on that plan, and with that, the meeting was shortly adjourned. The next meeting will be decided upon on a later date.

Steven and I told them, though, that we would probably try investigating deaths down in Oldetown Portsmouth, so there's that, too.

I've got Luca's phone number, too, so no worries about that.

...damn, today was a tiring day...

Gotta sleep now.

I feel we're on the precipice of something though...

Things seem less bleak, yknow?