Update #6

Sitting in the middle of the hurricane, right now. Still have energy. I'm just posting this, for many people out there right now in the middle of the catastrophe. Keep yourself safe and for the man and woman that are working through this disaster, thank you and please be safe. I'm going to sleep. At least, Legion are not being assholes. So keep safe everyone. Also, its an opportunity to meet your neighbors, you know, chaos usually brings people together. So help each other. Good night and stay safe.

My second day in the desert

Heat, paranoia, the incoming danger that follows when you are behind enemy lines. My squad was deployed in the middle of nowhere which the knowledge of any time they will attacked. Setting up our positions, hiding, keeping for the most time radio silence. That feeling of dread, each time I remember it. It pierces through me, eating away my false sense of security.

We were all trained by the best of the best. But that's training, this is real. Any mistakes, any sneeze, even a murmur can compromises the mission. All I had will we waited for a single mistake from their part, was that jingle. The jingle I memorized as a kid. The Candle Cove jingle, it soothed me in that desert wasteland. It keep me focus, it keep me safe. As if I was watched by a guardian angel. Now that I reminisces, it wasn't an angel that was guarding me. It was that thing from my childhood. My imaginary friend, the faceless one, ha, ha,ha. I need to find a better name for it, if even it has one. I feel sorry for all its victims. Past, present and future.

No way out. Feels different when you know, you are no longer on the top of the food chain. Even though, I don't know if it eats. Getting off track here. It was a waiting game. I could hear that tick tock in my head. Slow and loud tick tock. Tick Tock. Then a boom.  They knew. They used a RPG. Crap. Fuck. That's all I could think of. One of our sharpshooters shoot. Head shot. I started to give support fire. All routine for a war zone.

Everything becomes a blur. Only pure instincts follows. Oh, no. I remember something. He and a girl was there. D and that little girl. It looked that they were playing. D was more like a older brother to the little girl. The girl was dancing in a joyful manner. They both were having fun.  I only got a glimpse of them, but it had to be burn in my memories. Why they were there? I know, I talked to D before. In that bar and I seen him in my childhood. I see no reason why he was there?

D can't be that accountant, unless he's a vampire or something. I did my research about Dante. He checks out. He has a past, he had parents and have a brother. That's normal. Dante could looked like D, but he isn't. He is just a red herring.

The end of my second day in that desert, we won. We lived. None of us could hurt. Only for that glimpse, nothing out of the normal. I don't know, maybe it's a detail somewhere deeper in my past or more into the events in my desert that holds answer.  My squad died, that's what Brandon said. Or more specific, I said in one of our past, I don't know what else to called it, incarnations of our sessions. Maybe, just maybe.

My first day in the desert

I'm in a temporary leave from work. I wasn't fired, I'm coming back next week. They said, I needed a vacation. Since I was looking stress out, especially having those two other incidents. Well, it's for my health, I guess. Sitting alone in this big place, I started thinking about my past. My first day of being deployed.

 I remembered the feeling of being stuck in that plane. Feeling the heat inside that hunk of metal. Sweating, feeling uncomfortable. Knowing that I'm no longer home, the feeling of being miles and miles away. Thinking of what I left behind, I remember thinking about a girl, I used to date. What would I say when I come back. If I come back, would I be the same person she fall in love with? Small things are always precious, sometimes we just take it for granted.

Then that uneasy feeling when you know after  you get out of that plane, you are walking into, simply  putting it, hell. At least, the training teaches you to hold your emotion in check. But that uneasy feeling it almost hard to shake it off. It always buzzes in the back of your head. I meet up with my CO, to have our orders.

I felted relief when I found out, we are only setting camp that day. No insurrections today. No storming a village, just setting up. Which it's weird really, but I prefer not to question it. I started to talked to the other fellow members of my squad. Knowing their ambitions, their desires. We talked all day.

Nice group of fellows, some maybe out of their minds, but still reliable. Hmm, is like we slowly become this weird, demented family. I talked about Candle Cove to them. Of course, they never heard of it. I explained to them, how is about pirates trying to capture inspiration. They thought that was a cool concept, that I should write it. Since they don't believe it truly existed. Now that  I think about it, my recollection of people remembering Candle Cove was either in my childhood and now. At least, if I remembered correctly.

The next day was a different story. My first mission or my first real orders. I don't know if I should even mentioned it. Maybe another day. I will say one thing though, the night sky in the desert, it's one of the most beautiful thing you could ever see. Hmm, nirvana if it wasn't for the heat.

The Accountant

As I mentioned before I went to the accountant's office the other day. It's a big office, countless accountants, but I went to see a specific one. A new boy in  town, so to speak. His name is Dante Espinoza. I'm been told that he is a genius with numbers and predictions. So, I went in there all business. Until I enter the office and I saw him. It was D. Funny. D stands for Dante, very clever there. Ha, ha, ha.  I was shocked or flabbergasted, but I maintained my cool. We shake hands and I sat down. Gave him the papers that he needed. For work, of course.

It's weird. I didn't feel the same feeling, nothing paranormal. The air was normal. The only physical differences between the two was their hair. D had longer and unkempt hair, he had a professional medium hair, but they were both brown. His voice is identical. He has to be him. I was about to asked him about Candle Cove, but his phone rang. It was his girlfriend Jane or something, it took him an hour on the phone until he remember I was there. They (D and Dante) are both impolite pricks. If I was a detective, I would have snatch him, right there and then.

He didn't apologize for wasting my time. So I asked about Candle Cove to him. He denied it. I asked about Brandon Morris, he said he doesn't know who he is.  I tried to maintain my cool. This person is the exact doppelganger of my childhood boogeyman. I deserve an Oscar for my performance of maintaining my cool. I asked anything I could had ask to him. He didn't know jack. Either he is a lookalike and it's just another red herring or he is a very good actor.

He asked me to leave because I was creeping him out. I asked him about the faceless one, my imaginary friend. He looked at me. This was it, an answer. He said, "What are you on? Really, you have an amazing imagination. I want some. Fuck, this place it's boring as shit. An escape from this machine. That is what I want." I was dumbfounded, he continued talking about bullshit. In my mind, I just wanted to punch him. choke him, something to just make him shut the fuck up.

I decide this wasn't leading me anywhere.  So I abruptly ended our asinine conversation, he said to give him a call. So we can talk ideas, great because he believe we could make it into a movie or a series. My life into a movie. That would be the day. I  got out of the building. taking in the toxic city air. Looking at the busy city life, I looked at the other side of the street. I saw it. My imaginary friend was there. People walking pass it, as if he was just thin air. I needed to reach him/

 I ran through the traffic, I almost got hit by a car. I reach near it, he vanish in a blink of an eye. How? He was right in front of me.  I looked back at the building where the office was. I looked straight and then I looked up. I saw it again with a little girl on top of the building. The little girl was walking toward the edge. Oh, my god. I started screaming to someone to look up.

Someone have to save that girl. No one answer, they all looked at me as I was crazy.  A policeman stop me, I was pointing up at them. He said he doesn't see anything. I looked up again. They weren't there. I looked at the police officer, his face became D's. He was smiling. He said "Is that what you want for your daughter?" I started to cry and I scream and insulted him. Lucky me, it was a real policeman, after all. The policeman put me into custody, for a day. Obstruction and insulting an officer.. Ha. It's all a game. In that cell, it got me thinking about my past. I said before,  maybe the answers lies in my past. I have no where else to dig.

update #5

I just got back home from custody. Yippe, I got a court date. I'm tired as fuck. The accountant. No, he can't be. They looked the same, talked the same. Hell, they have that stupid cocky, but irritating attitude. Who was that little girl I saw in the rooftops? Why did it showed up as well?  I just don't know anymore.

Update #4

I've asked my coworkers, if I have gone out or done something weird during my blackouts? Of course, I omitted the word "blackouts" and I didn't mentioned the incident that happened with my other co-worker. Even though, they know already. They said I haven't done anything out of the normal, that I been just sitting on my desk doing work. The only surprising thing was that I was humming a beat. Now I believe my blackouts aren't related to them and could be only my stress and paranoia. Well, I'm going to the company's accountant tomorrow. So far, everything is mundane and normal.

Blackouts

I've been suffering blackouts during work lately. I believe is my research, which only leads me into dead bodies or missing people, mostly inconclusive stuff, have been taken a toll on my sanity. Seeing faces that aren't there. Hearing entire conversations that wasn't spoken.  Hell, I remembered one event that happened last week during work.

I was chit-chatting with one of my co-workers. Everything was normal until she started talking about Candle Cove. I was intrigued, I said to myself I finally found one of the children.  She mentioned an episode that had no plot, only screaming. I never heard of that episode before. Just about I was going to ask about it. She continued talking about how it felt that the actors and puppeteers where dying or going insane. I was thinking to myself if that was why the show mysteriously disappeared. I asked when did she saw it.

She looked at me as if I was talking Chinese. I asked the same question with different wording and still not a response. I got agitated and ask again. She freak out and said she doesn't know what I was asking about. I said, you just mentioned it. She denied it. I  snapped at her, which it was a mistake.

She slapped me in the face and left. I was called to my boss' office. He was a bit disappointed at my lashing out, I thought I was going to be lay off. He let me go with a warning. I went to her, to apologizes.  She said to me, watch yourself. I nodded to her. I walked back in my office. I heard something.  I heard laughter in the back of my head. It was D's laugh. It's that what they want, to jeopardize my work life. Fucking smooth