「R」【S T R A N D E D ᴮᴱᵧᴼᴺᴰ ᴹᴬᴰᴺᴱƨƨ】「Narrative」

**Dire Hoef** · 08-04-2016, 04:35 AM

【S T R A N D E D ᴮᴱᵧᴼᴺᴰ ᴹᴬᴰᴺᴱƨƨ】
"To be Quaint, is to be Satisfied with the Contempt of Death"

"Do not fear the shadows, as those who live in darkness crave the light more than anything else..."

WARNING RATED R

CONTAINS: Blood, Gore, Strong Violence, Explicit Language, Sexual Situations/Nudity, Drugs and Alcohol Usage, Religious Afflictions/Convictions, Dark Themes

VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED

Synopsis

It's been four years, and no luck so far...

The search had became stale, and investigators were only finding dead-ends to the potential leads they had scrounged up in the years before. Everyone was beginning to think that their bodies hadn't really washed up on the beaches of the east coast, and had been swallowed by the sea. Coast Guard and every other agency involved declared this a cold case and sealed it away. They had announced that the five young adults that were on board that vessel were presumed dead, and a funeral was to be held in their honor. However, one man persisted that his "friends" weren't dead. This man was none other than Charles Blake himself.

His persistence on the matter forced him to be jailed due to his proclamation that he was going to violently interrupt the coming funeral. To him, this interruption was a statement to everyone that his friends weren't dead, and that any one of them could return within the coming days. However as his sister and family had told them, the officials had declared them dead and thus it would be time for Charles to move on. But, the man was extremely stubborn in that he knew, deep down, that they weren't dead. He just knew, somehow, that they weren't dead. And yet, no one listened...

It's winter by this time, or what feels like winter. November.

Charles had been released from jail, after the funeral of course to prevent him from vandalizing the property during the event. He's beat up, tired, and had loss a few of his screws. He seems to have held some rather long-winded doubts on his friends' deaths. But, as he contemplates moving on, an email comes to him telling him to meet at the public library. And from there, his life will take a whole new path.

One filled with deceit, death, and mystery.

C A S T

Spoiler: Charles Blake

CHAPTER RECAP

I N D E X

Page 1

✦Prologue: Another Day in Newberry
✦Chapter 1: Ordinary Vanity
✦Chapter 2: There's Serenity Here
✦Chapter 3: The Email
✦Chapter 4: What Comforts Thee

Chapter 4 Will Be Coming Soon

**Dire Hoef** · 08-05-2016, 02:50 AM

「BGM」

Prologue ⋮ Another Day in Newberry

October 14th, 2017
08:37 AM EST
The Blake Household

The morning was a cold one.

Nothing really seemed to grasp the comically nature of Charles' situation, but the cosmic conundrum that was his life always seemed to provide an irony. That irony, faced with the incredible environment that was around him, suffocated the very aspect of what made Charles a man. However in the face of that fact, Charles has remained vigilant and is constantly aware of this ever-circulating irony.

Charles, waking up to his rather cold room, found that the window was left open. Didn't he close the window last night? What the hell was the window doing open this early in the morning? Charles knew that the room was a little above room temperature and it was kind of uncomfortable to sleep, but there was no need to really open up the window. As far as Charles is concerned, someone had gone and opened up his window without him realizing it. Or maybe he opened it and just doesn't remember anything. He isn't entirely sure on this front.

Aside from his growing mental pains, he found himself standing in the middle of his cluttered room. Clothes all over the floor, a couple pop cans, and various other items that weren't needed in a room of a maniac.

Tripping over some cans of pop, he stepped over towards the north wall to see that a piece of paper was nailed to the wall. That piece of paper was a notice to anyone who knew anything about the disappearance of his five friends. He had this piece of paper up for four years and hadn't taken it down. In fact, he added to the wall where the entire wall was covered with the same sheet. To him, this was a reminder to never give up hope. He needed to stay strong... For them...

Besides his unhealthy obsession with the search effort, Charles would back peddle over to his closet where he would find a suited assortment of clothing he would wish to wear for the day. However, as he gripped one of his grey T-shirts, a mental image of something horrid rocked his cranium. This image, dripped in the crimson blood of some corpse, flashed in his eyes causing him to stumble over onto the floor. He held his mind in pain as the image flashed in his eyes revealing the malformed corpse of somebody. This body was in the mouth of some creature that was too horrific to even describe with accurate vocabulary. If one were to summarize this beast of horrific origins with words closest to description it would be a malformed husk of flesh and leather dipped in a pot of boiling oil where then that husk grew limbs that held reddish-molten flesh.

The flash only lasted about ten seconds and within those ten seconds, Charles was on the floor screaming in agony as his mind was being raped by this image.

After the image had subsided and Charles' pain had stagnated, he slowly pushed himself up to his knees looking around as to what happened. And just as he surveyed the room he saw that his roomate, Daniel Pepper, was standing with his eyes dead-set on helping Charles.

"Charles man," Daniel screamed, "Are you alright!?"

Charles only shrugged off the question, "I'm fine Dan.. No need to worry about me, just had a mental breakdown is all."

"You said that the last time you had a mental breakdown. The interval between these breakdowns are becoming shorter and shorter with each day, and its starting to annoy me and the neighbors. Every time you have that 'mental breakdown' of yours, the neighbors think someone is being brutally murdered over here. I don't need the cops showing up at my door every breakdown accusing me of killing someone." Daniel would step over to Charles and kneel down to him, "Look Charles, I need you to go see a doctor or something. I can't have you freaking out in the house when the neighbors are always listening."

Charles quietly snickered to himself, but Daniel wasn't having it.

"Dammit Charles listen to me! You need to see someone. You hear me? You need to see someone!"

**Dire Hoef** · 08-06-2016, 12:12 PM

「BGM」

Chapter 1 ⋮ Ordinary Vanity

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The͢ ͡We̴sţ ̛S̕ide̢ ͠of̨ Tow̕n ͢
͏T͜he A͢v̡er҉r̢i̧ng ͘C͘ǫunséli̵ng Of̡fice

"You have been coming here for two months Mr. Blake and we've surely seen improvement. However your lack of compassion and blatant disregard for human life has labeled you a lunatic in the eyes of your friends and family. Now tell me Mr. Blake, why does this trouble you so?"

Charles contemplated the question heavily. He was unsure of what to say, and even more so how to say it. On one hand he could tell him, as pure as truth it could be, that he hates the people of whom he calls friends and family. On the other other hand, he could lie to him and say that his family and friends are not relevant to this discussion and that his friends and family have nothing to do with his recent outbursts. However, his stance was perfectly set on disposing all connections with his former life. Thus, with no further contemplation needed, he took those much needed steps towards closure.

"Ever since my friends disappeared four years ago, I had been a downward spiral into insanity. I-I didn't really know where to go. I was stuck in between a rock and a wall of spikes. At one moment I could impale myself on the spikes, while the next moment I could be crushed by the boulder. I constantly pushed my family and friends away because I didn't want to hurt them. I've nearly killed my sister due to her persistent teasing. I can't be trusted around anything anymore."

Doc. Averring, the man who is counseling this poor fellow, stroked his beard with a thoughtful look.

"It is perhaps best that you continue to take the prescribed medication to soften those violent rages of yours. That aside, I assume you've been dealing with a lot of... Visions... Since the last time we spoke. Could you tell me about those?"

Charles visibly shook at the thought of talking about those horrid visions. Looking back on those visions he noticed that there was a specific person. A person he didn't wish to see be mutilated by some horrid abominations of flesh and leather. "Azriel," Charles spoke with surprise and horror.

"Azriel? One of the five individuals that went missing on the way to your birthday party?" Doc. Averring narrowed his eyes as began to write something out on the pages.

Question the visions some more;
Find out more about Azriel from Charles.

Charles nodded as he slowly rocked back and forth, "I saw him in my visions. He was being forced to have sex with some sort of female abomination, and was eventually violently castrated and then mutilated." The images of such an event transpiring within his mind made the man shrivel up in his seat as he moved his knees to his chest. "I think my friends are being killed off by these abominations one by one, and I'm here to witness each one. It's hell I tell you!"

Doc. Averring scribbled some more notes in his little notebook as his expression were that of expectation and worry. He'd expect Charles to come up with something so vernacular, but to hear it go to such an extent made him feel a little uneasy. He's starting to think that Charles might have had something to do with disappearance of those five young adults. Doc. Averring is thinking that Charles is using the insanity card to hide the fact that he killed them, and hid their body so well that no-one could find them for four years. Though, there is doubt in that hypothesis.

"And what have you been doing to 'save' your friends from these abominations?"

"There's nothing I can do. I'm only left to watch and listen. It's maddening to think about. Your friends being killed one by one and you're helpless to stop it. All you can do is pray that at least one of them makes it out alive."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ＦＥＷＨＯＵＲＳＬＡＴＥＲ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

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6:͜48 ҉PM ̕EST
Th̨e East͡ S͜i̶de ́of To͘w̧n ̸
̢T͟hȩ Sp͠r͠ind͝a̡le A͏par͞tme̕nt͝ C̛om̨pl̵e̷x

After a few hours of intensive examination, Charles was given his prescription of mood altering drugs and left the office to return home.

On the way back to the apartment, however, Charles dipped into a state of deep contemplation. He began to suspect, no believe, that one of them had gotten out alive and that they were somewhere in the world coping with the horrors they faced. But, the chance of that happening were almost nil due to the fact that he'd seen at least three people die on whatever sort of land form they were on.

Though as his mind returned to reality, he found himself swerving just off the road to the right. He quickly pulled the steering to the left, pulling the vehicle back in place on the road. The tired man felt his forehead for a few moments before swearing under his breath. 'I've really got to stop thinking deeply about this...'

Once Charles had reached the street that led into the apartment complex, he noticed that there was a police car posted on that corner. The police car was blocking the street leading in, and Charles was wondering why that is. So, the curious man pulled in close to the police officer that was standing at the curb guiding traffic and initiated conversation.

"What's going on officer?"

The officer looked up and down the street before coming over to Charles, taking a momentary absence from guiding traffic. "This street is on lock down. Chief and a few detectives are here investigating a murder in the apartments just down the street."

Charles' eyes widened in surprise and immediately jumped on the question. "What apartment?!"

"Springdale," responded the officer, "Now could you please get your car out from the curb, this is a one-way street and you're blocking traffic coming this way."

Charles nodded as he pulled out from the curb and found a neat little place to park. Once he put the car into park, he was immediately hit with another vision. However, this vision was for the better. He noticed that a person, perhaps a female, washed up on what looks like a Florida beach. And after seeing such a vision, he was filled with hope. He witnessed one of his five friends made it out alive and washed up on a beach. Though, this person seemed different than the four others. From the vision she didn't seem like she was one of his friends, but happened to show up there. Strange...

That aside, when Charles arrived at the apartment complex, he noticed that all sorts of vehicles from different departments were parked all around the apartment complex. Charles quickly rushed pasted one of the many police officers at the scene, but was eventually stopped by a police officer who saw him rush up on the scene. After being apprehended by police and thrown to the side, Daniel came over to investigate the situation and found his roommate on the asphalt looking worried.

"What did you get yourself into this time Charles?"

Charles looked up at Daniel and smiled with relief, "Thank god you're not dead."

Daniel crossed his arms, "Of course I'm not dead. I'm not like that poor fucker that got her insides pulled out and strewn about her apartment."

Charles tilted his head, "What the hell?"

"Yeah! Like, the police told me that a woman was found with her intestines all over the damn place and her limbs in various other places in the apartment. It was as though she was attacked by some animal and then was completely destroyed thereafter."

"And this all happened and no noticed anything?"

"Well about that," Daniel rubbed the back of his head embarrassingly, "I was one of the few people that heard the commotion long before anyone found her. Strangely enough, I thought a boyfriend came over and they had a horrendous fight. I heard furniture being knocked over and shit breaking. I was too scared, at the time, to investigate so I waited for the noise to stop before investigating."

"What are they ruling?"

"Homicide likely, at least that what I heard them talking about. Not entirely sure of that just yet."

"Murders in this town? I thought I was going to get a break.."

"Well, at least the police department are transferring us to unsold homes on the south side of town. We'll have an actual home, and not just some dingy little apartment. That's at least one good thing to come out of this murder." Daniel thought about that statement, "Not that the murder itself isn't important of course."

Charles leaned forward a little bit as he stared at the apartment complex, "How long are we gonna have to wait before grabbing our stuff and heading to the new house?"

"The officials said that it'd be a few days before we can actually start moving stuff out of the complex."

Daniel and Charles quietly stared at the snow on ground around the apartment complex as their breaths can be visibly seen.

'This is shaping up to be one hell of a day...'

**Dire Hoef** · 08-07-2016, 10:53 PM

「BGM」

Chapter 2 ⋮ There's Serenity Here

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After a couple days of waiting, and a whole day's worth of moving, Charles and Daniel found time to adjust themselves and relax for the time being. However, with the recent murder taking place within their own apartment complex they're beginning to feel like something wasn't right with the murder. As if that attack was meant for them, but had gotten to the wrong person. And they feel that their displacement of space allowed them to get away from being brutally murdered... At least to them...

While Daniel is reminiscing on the past, Charles had finally set up the house phone and was aiming to call one of his friends in town to talk with them about the murder. He picked up the house phone, but noticed that there wasn't any service. He narrowed his eyes just a tad, and quietly stared into the top-half of the phone. He wondered why there was no service on the phone. He could of sworn Daniel paid the bill a couple weeks ago, so there still should be service on the phone. Neglecting to even ask Daniel about the phone, Charles put it back in place before looking around the living room of their new home. It seemed vacant, and depressing. Like, the life from which it would have carried is no longer there. It looks like it carries a grey undertone.

Daniel, on the other hand, seemed completely oblivious to this small realization. In fact, the man was busy looking out the window at thick snowfall. The fact that it was snowing heavily at this hour made him a little antsy. He needed to head to work in about an hour. However, seeing this thick snowfall made him worry that he'd be risking the car.

Charles, seeing Daniel stare out the living room window, pivoted in his direction. Charles was simply staring, watching if that. He felt a strange aura around this house, and the silence wasn't making things any easier. So, Charles decided to speak up. "Don't you have to go to work tonight?"

Daniel's fear had been realized, "Yeah.. It's just that I don't think the car will be able to make it through this snow.."

"We've been through worse Dan.. Remember?"

Daniel would nod as he acknowledged the history of disasters they've trudged through with the car.

"So what makes you so cautious about taking the car to work?"

"It just doesn't feel right.. Maybe I should call off wor--"

"No! You're going to work Dan!"

Daniel was startled by this sudden outburst from Charles. Though Daniel knew not to step on this man's toes. So, Daniel reluctantly obliged.

"There.. Not so hard huh? At least you have a job."

That is quite correct. Charles lost his job two years ago after a violent outburst caused him to attack a customer with no remorse for his actions. Apparently the customer in question was being rather persistent on being annoying towards the unstable Charles, and he just simply snapped. After that ordeal, he's been jobless ever since.

Daniel gave him a worried look before moving away from the window and down the hall to Charles' right. Charles watched the man travel down the hall with silence.

It remained silent for at least twenty minutes before the phone immediately rang out of nowhere. Charles, being the one in the living room at the time, looked at the phone with a raised brow before lifting himself off the couch and walking over to pick up the phone. However, just as he was about answer the phone it immediately stopped. Charles stopped mid-stretch and stared at the phone in slight horror. 'Something isn't right here...'

Suddenly the phone rang again. Charles, startled by this, took the phone by the mid-section and answered. What he heard was static. Static and then an ascending tone and that had a short four burst. The tone continue to ascend while at the same time static (or white noise) was present. Eventually voices could be heard with other ambiguous sounds. One of those sounds was certainly a heart beat, but Charles couldn't really make it out.

As these sounds played in his ear, Daniel walked back into the living room to see Charles standing there at the little table for the house phone. Daniel could see that Charles' stance was stiff, almost scared. Daniel, noticing this stiffiness calmly walked over and touched the man on the shoulder.

Charles immediately swung for Daniel's head, but Daniel was a little faster than Charles and side-stepped the strike.

Charles' eyes were filled with horror and disbelief as the sounds continued to play in his ear before abruptly hanging up.

Daniel stood there for a moment before speaking up. "Uhhh... Charles? You alright man?"

Charles remained silent as the hand, with the phone in it, slowly dropped to his side. He eventually dropped the phone to the carpet.

"Charles?" Daniel took a step forward. "You alright?"

Daniel slowly stepped past him, "Well I'm heading off to work.. Hold the fort down for me eh?"

Charles slowly nodded keeping his eyes forward.

And just like that, Charles was left to listen to his own thoughts.

**Dire Hoef** · 08-10-2016, 12:35 PM

「BGM」

Chapter 3 ⋮ The Email

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It had only been roughly an hour since the phone call, and Charles was still on edge. He wasn't sure what he heard, but it startled him to the absolute degree. Was the call even from a tangible location? He didn't know...

However, trying to take his mind off the phone call, Charles found discomfort in the living room migrated over to his bedroom where he had his desk setup but not his desktop. Instead, he had his laptop as setting everything up was going to take time. So, Charles closed the door behind him, locked it, and blocked it with his clothes basket to ensure that no-one would step in unannounced. Thus, he plopped down in his swiveled chair and began to browse the internet.

He didn't have a particular mindset when browsing the internet, but he needed to do something to past the time. What he had ended up doing was prowling his email account. What he saw were useless emails that were of no importance to him. Rather so he more or less witnessed various newsletter sites asking him to join their site for weekly updates and other such commodities. However, Charles was not in the mood to give a damn about those emails.

After a few minutes of diving into his emails, he noticed a particular email that stood out from the rest. It read as follows:

SHOULD YE DISCOVER THE TRUTH

Charles raised a brow in concern as well as confusion. He thought someone, or maybe one of his friends, were playing a joke on him and he just didn't realize it at the time. Though, his curiosity got the better of him and clicked on the email. This is what it read:

If you have clicked on this email, then you're one of the few that have been having strange occurrences happen to you throughout your lifetime or current timeline. Should you crave more knowledge. Meet me at Morley Library in Newberry, North Carolina on December 18th at 9:00 PM EST.

The ambiguous nature of the email was an immediate red-flag for him.

Something about the email startled him, but he wasn't sure what.