World-

This is the Marksman. Eleven Fifty-Nine asked me to keep this record going in case he didn’t return from his mission. He hasn’t. I suspect he may be gone for good. But I’ve lost too much over the years to let another friends dying wish go unfulfilled. The fight isn’t over. Vampires may run our lives, but they can’t control our minds, at least not yet. We can’t give up hope, even in our darkest moments. Now I’m going to take my shotgun and go shoot some bloodsuckers. Talk to you later.

Hello Grandmother,

I hate lying. It’s a sad reality of life that lies are just something you have to accept as something people are going to tell you and something that you have to tell others and yourself. I wasn’t exactly truthful in my post yesterday. Which I was hoping you would understand, when I was talking about the moon, but well, I had to risk confusing you for the sake of accomplishing a goal.

And it was successful. I got good intel on what’s really going on with the vampires reality altering device. Unfortunately, it’s all too real. I can’t really talk about what I’m doing next, but I feel a lot better about how I’m going to approach it. I just wish I didn’t have to lie to get here. I don’t know what I’m going to find where I’m about to go, but I can’t wait to talk to you about it.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

I’ve discovered the whereabouts of the device. I can’t say much more. I’m going to make a play tonight that’s going to accomplish what I need to survive. If I’m still around tomorrow, I’ll contact you at the place the moon rises. You know where. Wish me luck.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

I’ve started to make a map of the place the ministry could be hiding a device that effects the fabric of space-time. A major headquarters make sense, but they also allow for more leaks on this kind of project, and that doesn’t seem to be happening (OK, well, it could be happening and they’re just erasing them all from existence, but that still allows too many cracks, so I’m gonna vote no on that possibility). The most likely possibility is that they have the device itself held in a bunker somewhere, possibly with a missile silo, possibly in a high-security bank vault. Then they blast the power to some kind of satellite which shoots it back down to earth where they’re looking to alter reality. Yeah, that doesn’t really make sense to me either, but I’m guessing blind here. I can’t believe that they just have a portable device that they can carry around in a trench coat, because then we’re all screwed. It has to be big and buried somewhere. Which limits the number of places it could be. Which means all I have to do is eliminate the places it’s not, and I should have a guess as to the real location. “Real”. It takes on a whole different meaning at a time like this. For the first time in a year, I’m really scared, is what I am. I feel like I’m jabbering like an idiot at a time like this. I’m not really sleeping. I know how fragile the world we live in is, but I don’t think I can handle reality breaking down around me. That’s too much. I think I need help, and you’re really the only person I trust. And you don’t even remember me. I think I’d better go before I start to get really depressed. After all, I can’t let a little thing like being erased from existence scare me. Talk to you in the future, grandma.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

I’m being hunted. And the scariest part is that I have no idea the direction my attackers will come from. A vampire assault makes sense. They have to come at me, use their strengths and abilities to try and work around their weaknesses. But someone, somewhere in the Seven Deadly Ministries (who are the only ones I can think of as responsible for the latest attempts on my life) have the power to remove buildings from reality. Maybe even people too.

Which means I have to stay extra hidden. But I can’t stay that way forever. And I can only assume that they’re upset with me about leaking their secrets, which means they aren’t going to stop hunting me. So I’m going to have to change the game plan. I’m going to have to go after them. I’m going to have to take on the head of the dragon. Because if I’m going to live, I’m going to have to eliminate whatever power they have that can do this. And holy crap that is a scary thing to contemplate.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

I’m glad that I’ve resisted the urge to talk to you, to call out to you by name. The vampires seem to have a weapon of great power, a power I can only begin to conceptualize. They can remove things from existence.

It’s not something that’s easy for me to believe. I understand the weird creatures that exist in our world, I see them every day. But understanding the mysteries of the shadows only allows for me to have a better understanding of reality. I know, in general how magic works. I know the edges of science and what it has reveled about the nature of the universe. No where in these powers is the ability to erase an entire building.

I’ve spoken with the Marksman, and he reiterated his story about the fall of the super-heroes, how the vampire conquerors had wiped them from the face of the earth and removed them from history. Is it possible? Has history as we understand it been retroactively altered to such an alarming degree? What could we possibly do against such a power?

It’s that last question that’s keeping me up at night. Because clearly I’ve pissed someone off. And I can’t imagine that I’m safe until I figure out how I can prevent my fate from being the same as that building.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

I’m a lucky guy. You taught me to see things that way. I’ve seen amazing strangeness in my life, and that’s something I look upon positively. But not this. I don’t know how to deal with the information I’m processing.

My apartment was destroyed. That makes sense; it sucks, but I can deal. It sucks a lot, actually, because it’s the second time this has happened. But I’ll learn to live with it. Part of doing so, for me was to return to the scene. To get a look at the remains of my life. But it’s not there. Not the remains. Not the chard wreckage. The building itself is gone. Like it was never there. I know there are strange things in the world. But I don’t know how to deal with a building just NOT EXISTING.

Do the vampires really have this kind of power? Really? How can we fight that? How can anything? What do I do know?

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

Vampires have a draw on humans, it’s true. It’s something that I seem to see every day. Sure, plenty of them use hypnotic powers to draw people under their sway, but I think this overlays a more pertinent problem. People want to be drained. They don’t want to fight the world, and the vampires provide the draining that people feel they deserve.

The world, itself, is bigger than all of us. People feel drained every day. And I’m starting to think, to these people, the vampires see themselves as providing a service. They give people the satisfaction of having their baser opinions validated. If these people aren’t going to do much with their lives, then why not just let it slip away to the bloodsuckers. Give them the gratification of at least having a face they can put to the forces that are slowly killing them. It’s almost mercy.

So how do we avoid this fate? How do we stand up to the world, and not let ourselves be picked apart as meals for parasites? Sometimes it’s a hard answer to find. But you taught me, look inward and you’ll find the strength you need. It took me a hell of a long time to figure out what that all meant. And I only really know what it means to me. But when you read this, just remember that you aren’t alone in fighting, and that there are forces out their that hope to life you up as much as tear you down. When the opportunity comes, remember that and you just might make it out alive.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

Well, vampires blew up my house again. I don’t know if it was Ministry agents, cult of Lucifer terrorist, or hell, Infiltration member trying to frame the vamp elite. All I know at this point is that I’ve lost all of my possessions. For a second time. The Marksman’s Network has already moved me to another location, and actually, it was kind of fun for a while there where vampires where trying to just kill me and I got to stake a few, but… yeah. This sucks. So if you were wondering about the big explosion in Silvelake last night, that was me.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

I want to talk about where we’ve gotten to, mentally. It’s not just a place of assumed conflict, it’s a place where the lack of actual conflict seems like it’s starting to feel out of place for either side. Robots are walking through the streets, shocked when they aren’t assaulted by werewolves or vampires. The vampires grip about the shut down of local clubs due to fear of terrorism, and then practice the same fear in their own lives and workplaces. The conflict isn’t escalating. It’s past the point where people are ready for it. Now it’s just a matter of time until the first attacks fall down on our heads.

-1159