Gut Loop

It didn't stop raining today, but it lessened a lot, so I went out to the mountain bike trails I had biked on with my brother. This is where we saw Locust, or ///it/// or Slender Man, whatever Razputine said it was. I walked along the Gut Loop trail. I couldn't remember exactly where I had seen the man in the suit, but I knew it was after the rock face with the jumps.

It was completely muddy and dirty and cold outside. Practically everywhere I stepped was a puddle. I'm already catching a cold from just being outside in that horrendous weather.

Anyway. I was walking down the rock face. Perched at the bottom was this tiny box. It couldn't have been there long, because there were bike tracks going directly under it.

Man, do I wish I had a picture. Directly in front of the box someone--or something--had scratched "YOU'LL NEVER FIND HIM".

Well, if I wasn't already scared of being murdered, I sure was now. Heh. The box had "James" in green marker on the top. It's a fairly small box, much smaller than a shoebox. It's made of wood. I've never seen it before.

I was about to (stupidly) open it right there, in the drizzle. I would have gotten everything wet. But I heard a howl, a really really loud howl really close. It wasn't a coyote or a wolf or an owl, or anything I had ever heard. I booked it back home. Ran all the way.

When I got home I couldn't find my parents. I freaked out some more. Then I found they were sleeping, probably for the first time in a long time. I decided to open the box alone. They probably wouldn't consider it important anyway.

I undid the clasps on the case and realized what it was--James's flute case. He had taken his flute out, put it somewhere else (I honestly don't know where, I'm not going to go into James's room until we find him), and stuffed papers and photos inside.

More stuff about Locust. Four pages of just the word "lOcust", with the O bigger than any of the other letters. One of the pages has "It watches". Another says "TELL THEM" with the word "never" inside.

But the worst part was that he had stuff on Shiva. He had a printout from Wikipedia about Shiva. Circled the words "eight arms", and that Shiva was associated with Rudra. This means that Ken knows about this. He knew about Shiva and Rudra.

Oh no. The Howler--Rudra. That's what I heard on the trail. Is this happening to me to? No.

James had one photograph in the box--flute case too. It was a picture my dad had taken of him out in front of our house a month ago. James circled something off to the right. It's a head. A blank, empty white face. Wearing a black bowler hat. Oh God.