Today, I decided to share an entry from The Agency that I had to write during the day since I managed to spook myself with it. It's based in part on the 2010 film YellowBrickRoad, but the similarities are minimal. The movie's a fairly decent one for horror fans that like a bit of a psychological aspect to their horror and worth a watch if you're interested. 

Like I said, I had to write this one during the daylight hours because I managed to scare myself when I was barely three hundred words in. It should be noted that I spook easily, but none of the other entries in The Agency have made me write them only during the day. 

This was also a bit different for me to write than the other entries based on the fact that one of the later testimonies involved a recording of an agency team sent to investigate things and figuring out how to format that as well as the distortion present was a bit challenging, though I think I did fairly well with it. This is another entry that I may share more excerpts of in later posts, especially since it introduces a character that I think could be fun to play around with. 

Strap on your hiking boots, pack extra rations, and head off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz.

Location 009R

Location Description & History

Location 009R, otherwise known as Richwell, was a small town, population approximately 560, nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, founded in the late 1800s. This town was comprised of several red brick buildings—a bank, a general store, a post office, a doctor’s office, a courthouse, a church, a hospital, and a movie theater—as well as the houses of the population, built from brick or wood depending on when they were built. The town was uninteresting and plain, like many small towns of that time and area, and likely would have continued to be ignored by the Agency, but gained notice in 1939.

            In 1939, the town vanished. Rather, most of the population—540 of the 560—did. The town itself still stands to this day and is even still lived in by the population that didn’t vanish and those descended from them and the few who returned. While most of the population vanished, as evidenced by Testimony 1940-09-26, a small percentage—40 of the 540—did return a year later. Approximately 376 of the remaining 500 were found on the hiking trails near the town—frozen, dead from exposure, or killed in a violent manner before being scavenged or more than likely cannibalized, as evidenced by the bite marks on the bodies. The remaining 124 have not been seen since, though as of Testimony 2017-09-26, one of the 124 may have returned. His identity has not been confirmed, however, so he is still considered missing. (Addendum: It has been confirmed that he was indeed one of the missing 124.)

            As evidenced by Testimony 1939-09-26, the population vanished after viewing The Wizard of Oz, though the Omega scientists have determined that the viewing of the movie had nothing to do with the sudden vanishing. The Agency has taken possession of the town’s copy of The Wizard of Oz just to be safe. It is currently still being discussed as to whether or not it will receive an Artifact designation.

Testimony 1939-09-26

Arch. Moss: Statement of Samantha Whitaker regarding the mass exodus of five-hundred-forty citizens of Location 009R, also known as Richwell. Statement recorded direct from subject by Archivist Oliver Moss.

Whitaker: I don’t know why everyone decided to leave. Well, it wasn’t everyone, obviously. There’s me and nineteen others. I don’t know why the rest of the town just walked off. They just got up and walked, walked right into the forest up that old trail. I watched them, you know. I watched as they just started walking. It was just a few at first, then as they walked, more people joined them. By the time they entered the forest, almost the whole town was there.

            I managed to grab one of them, a teenager—I think his name was Caleb Henderson, why they were walking and where they were going. He seemed a little dazed and looked right through me. He just kept staring straight ahead as others walked by, flowing around us like water around a rock in a creek. He finally answered me after I repeated my questions.

“We’re off to see the wizard,” he said. “The wonderful wizard of Oz.”

I let him go and watched as he rejoined the group, continuing on to the trail. I watched until he entered the forest and disappeared from view. I don’t know how long I stood there, watching everyone leave town. None of them were carrying any food or supplies. They were all just walking into the forest with the clothes on their backs. Some of them weren’t even wearing proper clothes. Jane York was in her bathrobe and slippers with curlers in her hair. I just stood there and watched as they walked into the forest. While I stood there, I thought that I could faintly hear singing. Not enough that I could understand what they were saying, but I could swear I heard singing. When the last one had finally vanished, I snapped out of my trance and realized I’d taken a few steps toward the forest.

The way he quoted the movie and how he looked so dazed, I knew there was something wrong. I immediately went to the police station and found two officers that hadn’t left with everyone else. They were already on the phones, calling in more officers to help track down the people and bring them back. I suppose one of them was calling your agency. After one of them got off the phone, they took my statement and sent me home. I went home and went about my day, then a little while later, you and those other agents arrived to take my statement. I don’t know why you needed a different statement when I already gave the police my statement, but I agreed to tell you what happened anyway.

Arch. Moss: Statement ends. The Agency has taken the copy of The Wizard of Oz, but Omega scientists have determined that the viewing of the film is not responsible nor is there anything inherently unusual about this copy of the film. Still, the film has been taken into custody and, until it is decided whether to designate it as an artifact or not, it will be kept in the box with the rest of the information regarding Location 009R.

Testimony 1940-09-26

Arch. Moss: Statement of Louis Chapman, one of the residents of Location 009R who vanished last year, regarding the incident and the return of himself and thirty-nine others recorded direct from subject by Archivist Oliver Moss.

Chapman: We just walked. I…I guess we walked in circles. We must have. We didn’t get too far into the woods. We just kept walking in circles. I don’t think we slept or stopped at all. I know we must have, but I can’t remember ever doing so. I don’t remember eating or drinking. I don’t even think we made it to the creek, but we must have. We had to have made it to the creek because my shoes and pants were wet, but I don’t…we couldn’t have gotten there. We couldn’t. I don’t think we did. We kept walking in circles, I know we did. I know we passed the same rock, the same tree, the same pile of fallen trees stacked like a wall. I saw that same wall a dozen times, I’m sure of it.

            It was strange, though. Every time we passed that wall, it felt like our group got smaller and smaller. We just kept walking in circles and every time we passed that wall, our group got smaller. And it’s not like we couldn’t get around the wall. It was only about seven feet tall and maybe twenty feet long. We could have gone around it. But…no. No, we couldn’t have. We couldn’t go around it. That wasn’t allowed. Not allowed. Not allowed. Not allowed.

Arch. Moss: Not allowed?

Chapman: Not allowed. Walking around the wall wasn’t allowed. We could walk by it as many times as we did, but we couldn’t walk around the wall. That wasn’t allowed, wasn’t right. Wasn’t right. Walking around would have been wrong and wasn’t allowed. Wasn’t allowed. Wasn’t allowed.

Arch. Moss: What happened after you stopped walking by the wall?

Chapman: We walked back down the trail, back to Richwell. We came home. We came home and then we were brought to the hospital. Then the police came in and told us we needed to talk to you, tell you what happened and where we went. Then the doctors began checking us, doing all their poking and prodding. They were bothered by the blood on our clothes, hands, and faces. They ran all sorts of tests and asked us questions. They didn’t seem reassured by us telling them that it wasn’t our blood.

            They asked us where the others were. We told them that the others were still on the trail and the ones that weren’t there had gone to Oz to meet with the wizard. I don’t know why we said that about those. They walked past the wall, not to Oz or to meet the wizard. That’s just ridiculous. That was just a movie. They just walked past the wall. They kept walking. They’re still walking. They’ll come back when they’re allowed to come back. They’ll come back when they’re allowed to come back.

Arch. Moss: Statement ends. Location 009R will remain under surveillance and the forty who returned will be carefully monitored for any abnormalities or effects caused by their time wandering the mountain. Epsilon medical personnel will remain in Location 009R for the next two years to monitor the returned residents. Many of the returned are displaying signs of mental instability and amnesia regarding their time spent in the woods. The blood found on them has been tested and found to be human. A search party is going to investigate the trail and it is expected that they will find the remainder of the missing citizens.

You've reached the end of this excerpt, but not the end of the trail. I may share another excerpt of "Location 009R" in a later post. For now, though, there's nothing to be done except continue on. 

Science Fiction Idea: Alien Races

 I've not shared much about this particular project, mostly because I haven't worked on it very much. Inspiration called me to other projects and then life happened (a car accident, specifically) which meant that my focus was drawn elsewhere. Still, I remembered this project and have been world-building a bit here and there when I feel a lag in inspiration for the break-time project or want something different from The Agency. 

I've not done terribly much with the idea at this point, though I do know a fair bit about the primary alien races for the idea and that the "idea" is no longer a space opera, not quite. The "idea" is more like a series of stand-alone novels that are all set within the same universe, but feature different characters and have different tones, spanning different genres. 

For example, there is one novel idea featuring a salvage crew that finds a derelict ship that definitely falls into the horror category, but then there's a novel idea featuring a rogue synth that has gained sentience and is now on the run that falls under action or possibly thriller. There's also an idea has elements of the biopunk genre, such as genetic engineering and genetic modification. Then, of course, there's going to be intergalactic armies at war (military science fiction) and a ragtag group of heroes out to save the galaxy (space opera). Not to mention the disaster landscape Earth has become (post-apocalyptic) and the space habitats that the upper-class call home (dystopia). With so many different ideas that fit into different genres, it only made sense to have it be separate novels that occur within the same universe. 

I mentioned that I know a bit about the alien races present in this idea. I don't have all the information about every race--or even all the information about one race--but I do know a little about each of them. Mostly, I know what they look like, but for some of them I also know their culture, normal occupation, how they interact with humans, and (in the case of one alien race) how they evolved. 

The first alien race that I created was the Amphayans. Amphayans are a species that have moth-like wings, long barbed tails, four arms, two legs, antennae, compound eyes capable of seeing infrared and ultraviolet, and fluff (much like how some moths are fluffy). The Amphayans are a symbiotic race, protecting and caring for the alien race known as the Naem'i that incubates their eggs, but due to a plague (which may have been a bio-weapon that was released) that race is dying out and not healthy enough for the incubation. The Amphayan home-world is one with tall trees where the Amphayans live in massive, multi-level treehouses that can sometimes span multiple trees, and are connected to the other trees by bridges, though adult Amphayans are capable of flight. I have a lot more of their culture written down and even went so far as to make a calendar for them.

Next up there's the Lunulata. The Lunulata are a race that was inspired by the blue-ringed octopus. As such, they are very squishy, venomous, four tentacled, two legged, beaked, three-hearted aliens with crescent-shaped designs on their bodies that pulse and change color. They can survive out of water, but prefer to be in it since their gills are better developed than their lungs. Their planet is a very watery one, dotted with islands (those who play video games may have Subnautica spring to mind), and despite being very squishy, they are very war-like and have gone to war with (and conquered) a race of terrestrial crab-like aliens based on the porcelain crab, the Cellthonians. Single males of the Lunulata are the ones most likely to venture off-planet as slavers while the rest tend to focus on education, technology, and military advancements.

The race that appeared shortly after the Amphayans is the Culicivorans. This alien race is based off the jumping spider known as Evarcha culicivora, a spider that found only around Lake Victoria in Kenya and Uganda that feeds on mosquitos, but only those who drink human blood. Naturally, the Culicivorans have no need to feed on mosquitos and instead go straight to the source: humans. Culicivorans look like spider-centaurs (or driders, for those who are familiar with Dungeons & Dragons) where the upper half is humanoid while the lower half is that of a very large spider. Much like the spiders they're based on, Culicivorans are mostly gray with white and red markings. Unlike their namesakes, however, Culicivorans are very much capable of creating and using webs, mostly as nets to trap their prey. Culicivorans are hunters that originally preyed on a humanoid species from their home-world, but found themselves in need of a different type of prey when this species was almost hunted to extinction (the species is critically endangered now, but recovering). Originally, Culicivorans were more spider than human, but began to evolve the humanoid torso to better lure in prey. Throughout millennia, the evolution made the humanoid torso more detailed and more dexterous until finally becoming the Culicivorans of present. Presently, the Culicivorans are the ones most likely to pay the Lunulata to steal humans from Earth (which isn't doing so great, as mentioned briefly above) so they can hunt them on their home planet. 

The fourth species that I have at least a little information figured out about is the Xethalians. Xethalians are an owl-like race with four wings (two large, two small), six eyes with astonishing eyesight, powerful tails, small pointy ears, a wide beak, and four small, clawed legs. Their skin is fairly weak and covered in short wide feathers that are primarily dark orange and gray, dulling with age. Unlike most bird species on Earth, the males have less varied colors and aren't as flashy. So far, this is all I've got on them, but it's more than a couple races I can think of that were briefly mentioned above. 

That's all for the alien races at the moment. I do have more written down about Amphayans, but don't want to share too much too soon. I'm also still creating alien races as well. After all, it's a big universe. 

I've been neglecting this idea and neglecting talking about it, but that's going to change. I'll be posting about either this idea or the break-time one in between the regular posts featuring excerpts from The Agency.

Location 059MV

 So, this is one story from The Agency that I'm exceptionally proud of for two main reasons: it's one of the longer ones and because of the character development present through it. Because it's on the longer side, I'll only post an excerpt of it, but may post other excerpts from this one later on. 

Anyway, enjoy a trip to the marvelously entertaining and exceptionally fun amusement park, Midnight Village. You'll never want to leave and in some cases, you never will. I present to you, "Location 059MV." 

Location 059MV

Location Description & History

Location 059MV is an amusement park known as Midnight Village which is composed of two smaller sections, Terror Land and Lunafair (Location 059MV-TL and Location 059MV-L, respectively), as well as waterpark section known as Underwater Realm (Location 059MV-UR) which was added in 2008. Terror Land has more intense thrill rides such as drop towers and intense roller coasters as well as scarier decorations as it is clearly geared toward a more mature audience. Lunafair is very kid-friendly, moon-themed, and has an Asian-feel to it with Chinese lanterns, a person in an Asian-inspired outfit with rabbit ears that hands out mooncakes, and Asian cuisine.

            Location 059MV contains the following rides and attractions: The Comet, Star Wheel, Cliffhanger, The Mammoth, The Vault, and The Pendulum. Location 059MV-L has the Tunnel of Wishes, Dragon Mountain, The Octopus, and the Star Bridge as well as the Zodiac, a carousel with horses, dragons, oxen, sheep, pigs, and tigers to ride on while the carousel is decorated with the animals from the Eastern Zodiac: dragons, mice, oxen, horses, sheep, roosters, dogs, rabbits, monkeys, tigers, snakes, and pigs. Location 059MV-UR has Island Loop, The Wipeout, The Wave, Plunge, Fortune Rapids, The Typhoon, The Kraken, and Expedition Ocean. Location 59MV-TL has Blade Plunge, The Broken Obelisk, Punishment Manor, and Loop of Chains.

Most incidents occur in Location 059MV and Location 059MV-TL, however Location 059MV-L still has a few occurrences on the record. Location 059MV-UR, despite being new, has had several incidents, though many of them can be and usually are attributed to ride malfunctions. Of course, these are still suspect due to the park’s history. As the park is still in operation, there are many testimonies and that number continues to grow.

            Location 059MV is still in operation as there is not enough evidence to encourage the owners to sell it or close it. Instead, they have worked things out with the Agency so that custodians act as security for the park to keep unusual incidents to a minimum and guarantee that those who witness the incidents sign nondisclosure agreements and provide statements to the Agency so there is a record. The custodians working in Location 059MV are allowed to bring their family to work for free admittance so as to keep up the appearance of working for Location 059MV.

            As of yet, support team Omicron researchers have not uncovered anything that would lead to a cause for the occurrences such as hauntings or building on cursed land. They are still looking into the property records and the history of the land as well as the history of Location 059MV to see if there were any deaths that occurred while the park was under construction.

            Thanks to information from an inside source, we have learned there are at least eight separate entities that call Location 059MV home. The Executioner seems to be in charge and stays primarily in Location 059MV-TL, along with the Gentle Prisoner, the newest of the entities and the one about whom the least is known. Location 059MV-L has the Rabbit who preys on children, specifically twins, and the Twins, who stay in the Tunnel of Wishes and are counted as one entity. Location 059MV proper has the skull-headed Jester who enjoys causing “pranks” and Eternal Jenny, who little is known about though she seems particularly active on Valentine’s Day. The addition of Location 059MV-UR has brought forth the entities Tick Tack who slices victims in waterslides and Wet Willy who is active around The Wave, Island Loop, and Fortune Rapids and drowns people.

            Location 059MV also has a few resort hotels, though as of yet there have been no incidents involving entities in these hotels. The hotels are still being carefully monitored, however.

Testimony 1999-06-12

Arch. Fuller: Statement of Mason Griffith regarding unusual occurrences at Location 059MV otherwise known as Midnight Village during the park’s construction in 1997. Recorded direct from subject by Archivist Kris Fuller.

Griffith: Everyone who worked on the park had to sign nondisclosure agreements, you know. We all agreed not to talk about what happened there to anyone. Not our family, not the cops, no one. Well, I’m not gonna live much longer so I thought it would be a good idea to give you a record of what happened there before I kick the bucket.

            I wasn’t among the first group that started working there. I came on after they broke ground and had up a few of the rides. I didn’t give much thought to the NDA. My ex had needed to sign some before and, while it wasn’t normal for someone in my line of work to sign one, I signed it. I needed the job.

            Things went well enough. I showed up to work, did what I needed to do, went home at the end of the day, got my paycheck at the end of the week. It was like a normal job. I didn’t know why there was a nondisclosure agreement, but I didn’t care. As long as I got paid, it was fine.

            It was my second week when I first heard the laughter. I was over by the Tunnel of Wishes in Lunafair, working on the track. Obviously, this was before the water was added. I stopped when I heard it and called, “Hello? Anyone there?” There was, predictably, no answer. I yelled out, “You’re trespassing. Leave or I’ll call the police.” The laughter stopped and I went back to work. I didn’t give it much more thought. Then it started again. Again, I yelled that if they didn’t leave, I’d call the cops. It stopped again and I went back to work.

            One of my coworkers, Bobby Lane, came over and asked about why I was yelling I’d call the cops. I told him about the laughter and he said he’d go in and set those kids straight. He went into the tunnel and I kept working. I could’ve gone in with him, but dealing with delinquents wasn’t my job. Wasn’t his either, but Bobby had a temper and no patience so I wasn’t that surprised he went in there.

I finished what I was doing and went to clock out. I let the boss—that’s Tyler Becker—know that Bobby went to go deal with a couple kids that were in the Tunnel of Wishes. He said he’d go check on Bobby and make sure he wasn’t too rough on the kids. I told him good luck and went home. When I came in the next day, I asked about Bobby and the kids. Tyler looked at me and said, “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but you’ll hear about it anyway and besides that the cops will likely want to talk to you. Bobby’s dead. Drowned, from what the cops said.”

Drowned. How could he have drowned? There was no water in the tunnel. No water in the whole park since they hadn’t gotten the plumbing in yet. He couldn’t have drowned, but that’s what happened, autopsy confirmed it. I told the cops what happened, that there were some delinquents in the tunnel and Bobby went in to kick them out, and I told them that I didn’t see the kids but I heard them. They investigated, didn’t find anything, pretty much wrote his death down to ‘natural causes,’ and life went on.

The laughter kept happening during the construction on the tunnel, right up until we added the water. We mostly ignored it. There were other things that happened. Motion sensitive lights would go on when there was nothing there. Minor things that could be explained away as technical errors, faulty wiring, bats or insects flying in front of the sensors on the lights. Nothing major. All easy to ignore and brush off. As long as I kept getting paid, I didn’t care.

Then, Sean May fell while building the Blade Plunge in Terror Land. Daxton Bradley who was working with him said that he didn’t fall, he was pushed. The cops looked at Daxton at first, thinking he pushed him, but evidence cleared him. Daxton told me and a few of the other coworkers that they were up there working on it and Sean just kinda lurched like he’d been shoved even though there was no one there that could shove him. Daxton said he wasn’t going back up there again and asked, practically begged, that he be moved to a different ride. Tyler agreed and said he’d work on the flat rides, probably The Vault which is something like an escape room in the main part of the park, Midnight Village proper, and needed more standard construction than ride construction.

He accepted the change in job and things went well right up until his third day working there when second shift found him locked in there, dead of dehydration. Now, I don’t know if you know this because I didn’t know it, but it takes three days without water before you die of dehydration. He was only there for a few hours. Cops came and talked to all of us, looked at the security cameras. Nothing. He was shown going in for work like normal, but then the camera feed goes weird, like it cuts out, and then comes back when they unlock the door and find Sean’s body.

After that, we all started working in areas together. At least two people in every stationary or non-coaster area and at least four people in coaster areas. We made sure we were never alone. Even if we just needed to take a leak, we went in pairs. We never went anywhere alone. We never made ourselves easy targets for whatever it was that was after us.

That didn’t matter. It still picked us off.

When we moved on to The Broken Obelisk in Terror Land, there were three deaths. Enrique Santiago and Benson Greer were killed by snapped cables once the ride was put together and being tested. Before that, though, there was Zain Newman who apparently hung himself from one of the metal support beams. We were all glad when it was finished and we could move on to a different ride.

Look, I could sit here all week telling you about every person who died while we were building that damned place. You can get the autopsy records, the real ones. I don’t doubt that your agency can get ahold of those. You can probably get the police records too. I mean, your agency seems like it could get its hands on just about anything if they wanted it badly enough. You all probably have more pull than the owner of the park and more influence over the police and medical examiners than I even want to think about. You’ll know everything about how they were found, what the autopsy shows, and all that. I’ll tell you what you want to know. The one that made me quit.

I was over in Punishment Manor, helping put the finishing touches on it. It’s sort of like a haunted house kind of set up. You know, something like what Disney World’s got. My work partner, Kellan Oliver, must have finished up and left without letting me know. We weren’t working nearby at that point. We’d given up on thinking we’d be safe in groups. At that point, we knew that if whatever was hunting us wanted us dead, it would get us. Didn’t matter if we were alone, in a group, daytime or nighttime. If it wanted us, it would get us. So I was alone, but that was fine. I put the finishing touches on one of the decorations, a rack, and went to leave the dungeon.

There was someone there, dressed in a black hood. They looked like an executioner. I tried to speak to them, but they didn’t say anything. Then, they raised their arm and I blacked out. I woke up five days later, though to me it felt like I’d just blinked or maybe just taken a nap for a couple hours. I don’t know what happened, honestly, but when I woke up, I was naked. Kellan and Tyler found me and took me to the hospital. I had several broken bones, stab wounds, slashes, burns, scars…I was a wreck. I’d been tortured, but I didn’t remember any of it. Apparently, people had heard me screaming and thought it was just part of the general strangeness of the park. Kellan just happened to find me that day and got me out of there. He said it was kinda like what happened with Sean, except to me it felt like one day when it had been five at least.

While I was in the hospital, I told Tyler I quit. I wasn’t going back there. No way in Hell. He told me he understood and he’d send me my last paycheck, including pay for the five days I was missing since I hadn’t been clocked out during that time and was still at the park thus was technically where I was supposed to be during that time. The owner of the park, don’t know his name, showed up while I was in the hospital and reminded me I signed a nondisclosure agreement then offered a small fortune and to pay for my medical bills. I agreed to that, but said the money is to be put in a trust for my daughters, Amy and Abigail. He agreed and set it up then and there.

I’m never going back there. Not even to visit, not even with my kids who want to go there. I won’t let them go there. I warned my wife, Sophia, against that place, but didn’t tell her what happened. My kids don’t understand that I’m afraid of that place, but I’m not going back and I’m not letting them go there either. I’ve left all this in a letter to my wife to be delivered along with my will at the time of my death so that she’ll know why I won’t let them go. I need to protect them from that place, if it’s the last thing I do.

Arch. Fuller: Statement ends. Mr. Griffith left after giving the statement and died shortly after. He was found in the dungeon of Punishment Manor with clear signs of having been tortured. Clearly, he didn’t survive this round in the park, though that does beg the question of why he would go back to the park in the first place as he made it perfectly clear he wanted nothing to do with that place.

Testimony 2000-05-15

Arch. Fuller: Statement of Amber Marshall regarding her experience at Location 059MV and the disappearances of Paige Wilkinson, Max Reeves, Brooke Jones, Tripp Roman, and Seth and Luca Shaw on the second of May. Recorded direct from subject by Archivist Kris Fuller.

Marshall: I can’t believe they’re gone. They were there and then…gone. It was stupid of us. There was no reason for us to do it, but we were bored and figured it’d be kinda cool. Sneak into the park after hours, ride a couple rides, maybe have a few beers, smoke a little pot. You know, just harmless fun. Teenage crap. Unwinding since finals had ended and we were all ready for summer.

            We didn’t want to take Luca. Sure, he’s an okay kid, but he’s a kid. God. He’s just twelve. Anyway, we didn’t want to take him, but he caught Seth sneaking out and threatened to tell their parents so Seth decided it would just be easier to take him with us. He reasoned that we could all ride some rides then he could be a lookout for us while we drank and smoked.

            It was around midnight when we got in there, so I guess it was May second. We decided to go for a ride first, before the drinking and all that. Immediately, we went to Terror Land. All of us were a bit too old for Lunafair and usually only went over there during hours for snacks because they had some of the best food.

            We decided Loop of Chains was the ride for us. Well, for them. One of us had to stay on the ground and man the controls. I wasn’t much of a fan of that coaster. I preferred Blade Plunge and the Broken Obelisk. Drop towers were just cooler than coasters. So I offered to stay and operate the controls. The others were fine with that.

They got in the train. Paige and Seth in the front, Max and Brooke behind them, and Tripp and Luca in the third row. I noticed…I noticed a track B. I told them about it and asked them if they wanted to try that one. They were all excited for it so I pressed it. I heard the grinding as it switched over to track B and the light was flashing red. Then, when the console lit up green, showing it was ready. I pressed the button and the train pulled away from the station. I watched them for a bit, then they disappeared behind one of the buildings. Punishment Manor, I think, or one of the shops over near it. That was the last time I saw them.

Ten minutes passed, then twenty. The cart never came back. I waited an hour before I couldn’t stand it anymore and I called the cops. They showed up quicker than I expected, probably only two minutes later, along with my parents and the owners of the park. I got my ass chewed out by my parents, grounded for the whole summer, then got threatened with trespassing by the police. The owners said they didn’t want to press charges. They just wanted the cops to find my friends and escort us off the property. Oh, and I was banned for a year.

They never found my friends.

After they found our pot and alcohol, they figured I must be high and drunk so I was imagining track B. The owner said that track B was almost the same as the regular run, just it got a little closer to the graveyard behind Punishment Manor. They didn’t listen to me when I said that it dipped behind the buildings over there. They checked the area, though. Nothing. They didn’t find anything and just wrote them as missing. They never found them.

One of your agents came to talk to me when I was at home while my folks were working. He asked if I’d been to the park and I told him that I had. He asked if I would give my statement to his agency, said that the lot of you were looking into it. I said that I’d do anything to help find my friends. He gave me this address and told me to come here to give a statement whenever I can manage.

So, that’s my statement. My friends rode track B and they were never seen again. I should get home before my parents find out that I’m not there. I hope my information helps you find them. Or their bodies. I just…I want to know what happened to my friends.

Arch. Fuller: Statement ends. Ms. Marshall is correct in that that particular coaster has a track B. The custodians that are in charge of monitoring Location 059MV have agreed to look for the teens while working. Given that the Agency and the owners of Location 059MV have an agreement, we should have more success locating the missing teens or, rather, the survivor.

There's the opening of "Location 059MV." Perhaps somewhere down the road, I'll share another couple excerpts from it. Even though it's concluded as of now, I may actually add one or two more testimonies to it since I enjoy playing around with the characters and setting. Besides, it's an amusement park that is still operational. And, as is pointed out in a later testimony in "Location 059MV" which may be shared, there's always more than one incident per year, but the agency only records one a year. 

For now, though, you're left with just the beginning of the longest entry in The Agency. Maybe next time I'll share a couple more testimonies or it'll be an entirely different excerpt. 

Break Time Project Update

 Continuing from the previous post about break time hobbies where I spoke about the project that grew from the idea of one random supposed-to-be NPC, the project has continued to evolve and grow. I'm still not sure what my ultimate plan is for this, but I'm enjoying working on it. It's fun to play around and work on something that doesn't need to be perfect. 

The project has grown to include three more characters, all of whom fit into the world and have connections to the overarching plot. They also have their own storylines that are separate from the main one, but tie in nicely with their backgrounds and the plot. 

For example: One of the new ones is a former soldier who is from the same army that was involved in the murder of the important elf mentioned in the last post about this idea, and has made an enemy of the colonel that instigated the murder of the important elf. This former soldier is also a quarter-snow elf, a supposedly extinct race that is mentioned in the section that detailed the tyrant's past. 

Another one of the characters is a former hermit who was exiled from his home because he took the fall for a friend of his. The friend? The colonel that's been causing so many problems. His father is also a standard bearer in the same army, or at least he was the last the character heard. He may have gone missing since then. This character ended up joining a monastery, but not before having a few misadventures. 

The third one works as a guide through some treacherous mountains, which may or may not be near the mountains from the tyrant's backstory, and is determined to make sure no one else falls victim to the dangerous creatures that live there. His younger brother was taken by one of these creatures when he was young and couldn't do anything about it, but now he's grown and knows more about hunting monsters and slaying evil. He's also made an enemy of the colonel that's been causing trouble so there's bound to be some conflict there. 

Obviously, these three have their own families that get some detail and description. For example, the guide through the mountains has a sister who is a monk from a monastery known for healing the sick and their astonishing gardens that are home to a wide variety of butterflies. Their histories get fleshed out more than what I've shared here. I'm going to keep it vague since I'm still not sure what the end goal of this project is. After all, it wouldn't take much tweaking to turn this into a full-fledged fantasy series, but it could also easily be made into a Dungeons & Dragons homebrew campaign setting. Either way, things will be kept vague, but I do enjoy sharing information about this project so you can expect more.

Currently, without the information on the tyrant or the three new characters detailed above typed out, the Word document with just the main character's "Family History" sections and the important zombie elf's "Interlude" sections is 20 pages. It's going to be longer, much longer. I don't know how long yet, but I'm going to enjoy finding out. Then once it's finished or I have some time and have the notebook on hand, I'll start planning out how to take this from summarized backstories to full, fleshed-out novel. 

You'll note that I have a notebook for this idea now. This is a new notebook, specifically purchased for this idea. I'm copying down the character details into this notebook and will be using it for plotting things out to figure how it would best be laid out to tell the story. 

Again, notebooks are not necessary for planning and organizing stories, but this works for me and reassures me that I have the information written down in multiple forms and locations so it won't be lost. There's also just something pleasant about writing things by hand in a nice, new notebook. 

This is all the update I have for now, but I'll be posting more about this as I work on it which I will be doing a lot of since it's fun and a current obsession.