Bound in Silence and Blood

[Marisa (DELETED 3552)]

A nondescript book, bound in black leather by the hands of a very skilled craftsman. The pages light and thin, too heavy a finger even ripping pages occasionally if someone were to be too harsh with them. The embossed emblem on the front cover a Fleur de Lis over which rests a single eye. The penmanship light and fluid, an easy read to most yet more difficult to those not well practiced in cursive. A single, and complex looking lock keeping the pages locked tight. Something nagging at the back of any peeper's mind that to try and force the lock would be disastrous.

Well, I finished off the other book and left it back in Rome with Michael so I guess I'll start a new one for this trip. Gotta have it all recorded and dated and properly done for Michael's archives. (This is where I roll my eyes at you ya bum!)

I arrived today in Ontario after one very long two weeks, the sky a blanket of stars above me and it was streaked with stars from a marvelous meteor shower. Orion stood prominently in the sky as the ship rocked with the waves. It was, of course, Melanie's fault I was stuck on that massive rust bucket of a cargo ship. On the bright side it was big enough to get lost in for a while. It gave me time to wander around as sleeping while your nerves are shot is damn near impossible. After the transfer from the Transatlantic ship to one of these damn 'Salties' and then to my connecting flight it'll be far too damn long since my feet have been on actual land. How Michael managed to set this all up I'll have no idea but maybe next time I'll tell him I'm over that little flying fear of mine. I've lain in my little cabin thinking of everything that could possibly happen or is rumored to happen around here. Back home if you went to the right places at night and found the right people you could hear almost every rumor imaginable and that was how all three of us managed to be in different parts of the world all at once. From Werewolves in Russia (Pietr was off in that godforsaken land), to Witches in Kent (Melanie had that one...lucky *****) and now Vampires in Ontario (lucky me! yay!). Next thing you know Cthulhu is going to awaken and R'Lyeh was going to rise up out of the damn ocean.

Ever since Michael had inherited his parents estate, though, he has poured so much money in to this ****. He pays us well when we get back and makes sure travel is taken care of but his damn fairy tales get annoying as hell sometimes. Just last month he had my butt off in Ireland looking for leprechauns. Apparently, he feels as if all of these myths and stuff have SOME basis in reality and he's dead set on knowing the truth before anyone else. If he wants to pay me to take vacations like this then more power to me right? I mean, whats the worst that's going to happen? Someone tries to mug me, I kick em below the belt, run off, call Michael and get a trip home early because he'd be worried about me. Easy. Besides, it's November, it's cold as hell out here.

The writing trails off for a bit, a new entry a few hours later is on the same page.

So i'm here. Apparently a few phone calls were made or something while I was napping on the ship and my flight has been changed. I was originally supposed to arrive in Toronto but now apparently I'm heading to a smaller city. Some place called Harper Rock. Michael texted me as soon as I got off the ship and told me that they have a lot of missing persons, a couple of weird stories about monsters and even a Quarantine Zone. Oh, and a lot of local hocus pocus mythology from the Native Canadians. It seems like Michael found the sweet spot for me. So a tiny *** airplane ride later and I'm in the heart of all these rumors. Went and got a drink at a bar not too far from the airport just to settle the nerves and I already hear stories of an abandoned mansion being haunted and the city going to hell and something about Triads and Broussard gang ****.

**** it, I'll deal with this **** after I sleep in a real bed for once.

[Marisa (DELETED 3552)]

Two days in this city and not a single thing until today...

I went and checked out that 'Haunted Mansion' in the northern part of the city and found absolutely nothing. I did have a few odd experiences however. The first one was the sight of some old world dressed guy standing in a corner but when I went to look at him fully he was gone...but I swore I saw him! he was wearing robes or something and seemed to be watching me. I couldn't see his eyes but you know that awkward feeling you get when your being watched? Yeah that was it. On top of that I found this weird....thing off in the northwest corner of the Mansion. It was like...pure darkness and when I tried to touch it I got sucked in and now I'm sitting in this huge room with runes and symbols all over the floor. It has four points like a compass. To the west is a heart shaped looking symbol that I'll try and draw out in a little bit. To the north is a seven pointed sun symbol with a hole in the middle of it. To the east is a seven pointed wheel that lacks an outer ring, this symbol too has a hole in the middle of it. To the south is a symbol that seems even weirder than the rest. It's like a cross but it has a diamond over the middle and over each arm is a 'c' shape so that each arm seems to end in three prongs. Inside of an eight pointed star that connects them all is teardrop shape which is encircled in writing I have never seen nor could I even try to copy it down. As a last note, it seems there are odd...abstract designs in each star point not connected to one of the cardinal direction symbols. Each design seems to have a key of some sort incorporated in to it some how so I have to wonder if this whole diagram is some kind of door or something about opening a door. Did I find some occultists circle or haven? I have no idea but I'm keeping track of it all and I'll try to copy it all down and attach my drawing to this page. It shouldn't be too hard to find a paper clip in a city.

I'm going to hang around here a bit and maybe someone will come by and I can ask them about it. I've looked around and I can't find a door anywhere so maybe they will find a way for me to get out too. I'd love to know where I am now. It's...dark and damp and it's cold and the walls are made of stone. Everything echos too so I have to be in some kind of building and if I could hazard a guess I would say I'm underground or close to underground. I would try calling someone but my damn phone is dead. Too much time using it as a music player I guess. From now on, I think more than one battery is a must have. If I carried more than one battery I could have an audio recorder, flashlight, radio and more all in one. Oh the glory of technology!

Give me some time to get all of this written down and recorded and I'll attach the drawings or something. I have to get these symbols down. Maybe someone in the city will recognize them!

So, I copied down the symbols. I'll see if I can find someone at some point to tell me what they are.

[Marisa (DELETED 3552)]

It's been quite a while since my last entry, I know, and my 'superiors' can shoot my later for it but so far through all these months there has not been a single person to come forward with any stories, no one to mention anything worthy of me being in this damn city a day longer than I need to be. I went and performed a legitimate investigation of the 'Haunted Mansion' and I found not a single thing. Apart from the place looking like it's been blown to hell and then some and yet it is still standing I see absolutely no reason for it to be considered haunted. Apart from a feeling of sheer creepiness I didn't find anything and I have had no further rumors to substantiate any other claims of paranormal activity in Harper Rock.

I'll be sending a copy of this journal back to England tomorrow morning and hopefully with this and the results of my investigations I can get out of this hell hole before it's too late. Maybe someone will take pity on me and get me out of here sooner, these dingy motels I'm staying in are a right pain in the ***. You never know when a roach might crawl over your blankets or you might rent a room fresh from someone 'doing the deed' or what ever inhuman conditions could be thought up. Hell, I've even been given a room once that had people in it doing it up with lord knows what kinds of drugs. At one point I swear I even saw one of em drinking a vial of blood or something. I just wanted out of there, not gonna bother asking questions and I'm not even gonna worry about it. I'm just going to finish writing, copy my pages, mail them off and wait however long it takes to get the hell out of here.

On a side note:

I have yet to find a true explanation for the symbolism I discovered in that awkward room but I have had many people inform me that they seem pagan in nature and that I may have actually stumbled upon a pagan practitioners circle. This is a possibility and I'm not going to rule it out but I will keep an ear mark in this journal on the page with those symbols just in case something crops back up or I learn something new or...whatever.

[Marisa (DELETED 3552)]

Well, it's been a week. I'm supposed to be going home tonight but Michael had a new errand for me the other night. Not only are there supposed to be vampires running around Ontario but one of his 'sources' leads him to believe that some kind of long dead religious nut jobs might actually be hiding out here. I haven't even BEGUN to look in to that nonsense. So far the last week has been comprised of a whole **** load of nothing. I packed up what few things I had at the motel and gave the manager my notice that'd I'd be leaving tonight so I gotta figure that out now. I went down to the bookstore and fond this book called The Orders of Knighthood, British and Foreign but I haven't even cracked the damn thing yet. Maybe I need to start being more serious about all of this. I'm sure Michael would have my hide if he knew how lazy I was being. The ******** deserves it though, after sticking me out here on something he KNEW was probably a wild goose chase I should just call him and demand that he bring me home. There isn't a damn thing going on in this city....then again...maybe playing the part of skeptic is my issue. If there IS something here then maybe it would respond better if it were provoked. I mean, on ghost hunts they tell us never to provoke but provocation tends to lead to the best results right?

Maybe I'll do that then. I'll see if I can get in touch with that Robert Pratt guy and ask him about it. He did raise some pretty interesting points in that community awareness class thing he held. Both he and that blonde he was there with were pretty stunning...if they know so much then maybe they deserve having a closer eye kept on them. Same with that old guy that was there, he seemed to know a fair bit about the city as well. Then there was the whack job who seemed plenty terrified and of what I can only guess but getting a straight answer out of him would be like pulling teeth and even then the credibility goes down the drain pretty quickly. "Yeah, I got my info from an escaped mental patient", yeah, that'll go over pretty well I think.

But I guess that's where I stand now. Crack open this book, leave a message for Mr. Pratt and try to find that old guy again. But first, I gotta find a new friggin place to stay that is cheaper than that crummy motel and just as private. I can't stay at a shelter, too many people and who knows who might find this book? Wouldn't that just suck? Yeah it would.