Pandora's Shitbox

 We've been driving through this forest for what feels like a few days now.  Can't really tell with the trees covering most of the canopy, making everything darker than it should.   But at least the headlights work.   Anyway, turns out, our driver goes by Omega for some odd reason and he switches with Al and Hal when they get tired.   Apparently he was on his way to meet a friend of his in Britain when he got stuck.  Only, his car died and went into a ditch.   ...You know, I think I see something running by the van, in the trees, but I can't tell because of said trees and it's only glimpses. Besides, what's able to keep up with a van?  I don't think those maskies could. Whatever, I'll just rest alittle bit. Laters.

  Well, we left. And…Dear God everything went even more insane than usual.   Remember me mentioning those weirdo masked guys?   Apparently, they have powers.   It started with us leaving the house. As it was my house, I already got all my clothes, underwear, bras, all that.   Though Al advised leaving out the toothbrush because water’s probably going to be scarce and brushing teeth would be considered abit of a waste. Anyway, we hit everyone else’s houses for their clothes and meds before we started for the city park.   During one of our trips to get more kerosene oil for Mom’s lanterns (which we’re bringing a couple as flashlights aren’t a guaranteed light source anymore) when Hal and I overheard others venturing out that people were getting together and getting the hell out of town. We told Al and them and we decided to join them. I can’t say it was a mistake because we were still able to get away, but Holy shit…We get to the vehicles, mostly consisting of some trucks, a co

             Everyone had to convince me that staying wasn't a good idea, and Mr. Hepburns said that Mom and Dad would want me to live, even if it meant leaving home.              So  Mrs. Hepburns helped me write a bit of a letter to Mom and Dad, putting it in a spot where my parents and I know to look. It’s not easy, leaving a place after seeing them blink out of existence.   Especially when everything’s going insane like it is.   But everyone’s agreed that we have to go.   The feeling’s getting stronger almost by the hour, and we’ve been hitting all of our houses for non-perishables.   Apparently Al’s family are also Doomsday preppers, so he actually had, like, a few cases of water. Only reason why we weren’t in his bunker was because it wasn’t big enough and had far too many guns in it. He said his family were the wrong kind of doomsday prepper. So…here we are, getting everything rounded up to go…somewhere.   Wait, Al just told us to stay in.  Sounds like someone'

           Okay, this is weird, but everyone’s suddenly ansty.   Like something’s wrong and we need to leave.   Now.   But it’s a quiet, nagging thing in the back of our minds. It’s weird.   So Alicia suggested we listen to the feeling and leave.   Even though everyone outside is calming down, those crazy masked people are still out and about, causing problems and hurting people.  Everyone else, including me, aren't as sure we should.  What if everyone that vanished comes back? Alicia says that if that was the case, they would have come back by now.  And it's clear to her the Vanished aren't coming back. I...I don't want to leave.  This is my home.  I grew up here.  My life is here.  I...I'm scared.  I don't want to go outside because I don't know what the weather's going to do.  I don't want to go because those masked creeps might show up. I don't want to leave.   Not yet.

  Okay, because the Weirdness Train apparently wasn’t done yet, some guy in what looks to be red bishop robes and a weird hood to hide his face came into town, preaching that the End Times were upon us and how we need to listen to him so as to ‘seek salvation in the New Gods’.   Everyone in the house agrees:   he’s nuts.   And that’s on top of all the OTHER shit going on.   A lot of looting’s going on right now, so the lanterns and lamps are on dim light to keep people from getting curious.   Windows are mostly boarded up and the heavy curtains brought out, but Al wanted to be on the safe side.   I don’t blame him, though I still wonder about why he knows about those masked dudes. Him, Hal, Alicia and I take turns keeping watch out of the window, making sure to keep the light away so that no one can see.   Never thought I would see the end of the world.   Almost like how the movies portrayed it, but not exactly.   None had hands coming out of mirrors or screaming metal in t

  Did I mention Al was in the military?   Apparently good portion of his family were career military.   I don’t know what branch, but the patch on his jacket is yellow with a horse head on it. Reason I bring that up is that he had to, in his words, ‘plant a few Dumbass Trees’.   Meaning he had to kick some peoples’ asses and send them packing.   Alicia asked why let them live, they could bring more people back. His response was kinda weird, though.   He said that he knows they won’t come back.   They had masks. I told him I wanted more information than that because having masks usually doesn’t mean much.   But no matter how nice or angrily we ask, he wouldn’t say more, only to trust him on that. Hal asked if he was in league with the masks and that got him a nasty look.   So Al does know who and what they are, but by the looks of it, doesn’t want to associate with them anymore.   And definitely doesn’t want to talk about it.   Maybe they were part of a gang he left when joining

  I’m going to just…stop doing the dear journal thing. Yesterday, my mirror grew some hands and tried to reach out to grab me.   Dad heard me scream and took my prop cane to break the hands, causing my mirror to scream before breaking.   Glass shot everywhere, but Dad and I only got small cuts.   Everyone in town tossed out their mirrors an hour after that.   Hand mirrors, full length mirrors, some accent mirrors.   Most were broken so I guess I wasn’t the only one with the hands sticking out. However…however that’s not the worst part.   Worst part is that…that…my parents vanished!   They’re just gone!   Mom was making sure the scratch on my face was okay while Dad talked about how everyone was tossing their mirrors out when they just blinked out!   No Thanos Snap dust, no poof of smoke, nothing!   Just gone!   Everyone still around’s going nuts.   Some people are accusing ex’s of kidnapping their kids, others trying to find missing loved ones.   One of my neighbors was trying

  Dear Journal   Shit’s getting weirder and weirder.   Something has caused all technology to become either unreliable or cease working.   Nuclear power plants aren’t working because the uranium’s gone somehow, most modern vehicles either won’t start or act like they’re choking, (Whatever that means, I don’t know the mechanic lingo) and the International Space Station is apparently malfunctioning so badly that the astronauts there had to get into escape pods and literally plummet back to Earth in them.   Thankfully none of them died but a few did get hurt pretty badly. They landed in the water, thankfully near South Carolina’s shore, but any new boat couldn’t go out to get them, had to use diesel engine tugboats to do it.   The Space Station itself is falling out of the sky, looking to land somewhere in Australia’s Outback. The internet, meanwhile is laggy as all get-out, making it hard to look up anything, and don’t get me started on the tvs and radios.   Tv shows nothing but

  Dear Journal   Okay, more weird shit’s going down. Like, what the Hell?   First the sky changing colors, then a weird nightmare literally shared by millions of people with no variation, not to mention the Bird War over a lot of places.   NOW we get weird booming noises from absolutely fucking nowhere.   This isn’t normal.   TV and forums are mentioning all the weird shit going around, and apparently no one knows where the booms are coming from and some of them are pretty loud.   To the point that they can shake the house. Like now.   Yay. Well, I’m going to head to the front room and talk to my parents.   They have decided that this weather and noise shit’s for the birds and are staying home until this mess is over.   Laters.

 Dear Journal More weird stuff’s going down. I looked up to see what Reddit had with dreams and stuff, (Since that one dream was still kinda bugging me) and it turns out there were literally dozens of people that had the exact same dream. Like, right down to the color of the guy’s suit, it was damn freaky.  Someone on the Reddit mentioned the Fear Mythos, which seemed weird because aren’t they the guys that came up with Slender Man and that Jeff the Killer creepypasta? Well, whatever.  Anyway, wanted to mention that the sky’s still green, sun’s still purplish and now the clouds are starting to look a tad brownish.  The really weird part’s is that it rained.   Without clouds. News said the weather’s acting really whacked out now all over the place, raining without clouds, really cloudy day giving nasty sunburns, people in the deserts and hot places are getting FROSTBITE while people in the Artic Circle are suffering from heatstroke!   Mother Nature, go home!  You’re drunk! 

    Dear Journal   Something is kinda odd today.   For some reason, the sky looks lightly greenish, with the sun looking like it has a tinge of purple to it.   Really weird.   The news said the sky looked weird due to a combination of a volcanic eruption in Hawaii and a powerful solar flare.  Mom isn’t so sure, but as she went outside a few times and didn’t get sick or smell anything wrong, she decided to let it go.   If school was still going, she probably would have kept me home, but this is Summer.   I’m free to do whatever I want. Within reason.   Oh yeah, almost forgot.   Had a weird dream last night.   I wouldn’t call it a nightmare, but it was definitely kinda scary.   But mostly weird. Started with me appearing in front of a circus tent doorway, with the performers inside screaming and trying to perform while either melting, impaling themselves, or trying to flee as the ground or tent attempted to eat them. This ringleader guy came up and was begging me to join the

 Dear Journal Birds went back to acting normally now.  Yesterday was weird, and apparently alot of the birds were acting nuts in other places around the world, too.  News said that the bird fights were more intense during thunderstorms, but now alot of the places are cleaning the bird bodies up. Other than that, though, everything's back to normal.  The murder investigation is still going on and the corpses have been mostly cleaned up in my neighborhood so there's that. Mom's shop is open today and apparently had to have a window replaced because three birds broke it.  I think she said it was two ravens and a peregrine falcon that were found on her counter.  So her shop's mostly cleaning up the mess. Dad's old truck had a few dents due to divebombing birds when driving home last night, but that old thing has ALOT of dents in it, so I don't need to worry about it. Well, time for me to do chores. Laters.

 Dear Journal The birds are acting really odd today.  Ravens and crows fighting and even winning against some eagles, hawks, some doves and a bunch of starlings.  It was weird and it was over the entire town so dead birds been falling out of the sky almost all day. Red-tail hawk just fell off the house.  Man, I have no idea what's going on, but I don't like it.  Mom closed up shop early today and Dad's not back yet. I'll head to the front room now. Laters.

 Dear Journal I like working at Mom's shop because we have so many books to look through and read when I'm bored and my buddies aren't on. She runs a book store and has local 'bad apple' teens help her as one of the rehab programs for them.  They usually turn out well and we don't lose any books because they're books. Today, though, a man with a badge came in, asking Mom what she knew about the murders.  Mom did know the guy, but not well.  On Halloween, his place was definitely the house to hit for big bars, maybe a five dollar bill if you really impressed him. The guy asking questions though, he looked like he was a Fed.  Now I'm more curious and worried, but Dad told me that we weren't in trouble, they usually just ask questions and leave.  Just procedure. Speaking of Dad, he has a job as a mechanic.  The garage he works at is on the other side of town, though, so he has to get up real early in the morning and doesn't get home til around 8 at

 Dear Journal I can say with a straight face that I have met a cute guy.  Talked to him for abit about the latest movies, even mentioned different book series we're into.  Definitely going to read the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, if only so I can get a load of this Kazul character he mentioned. Anyway, we're having take-out for dinner so I don't need to worry about doing the dishes tonight, and my online D&D group's thinking of finally taking on the BBEG of our campaign.  Which is great because my guy's got some really lit spells to use.   I just hope the DM doesn't decide to have a surprise dragon before then.   Oh!  Almost forgot, went to another thrift store today and found a particularly heavy baseball bat.  Red, made of metal, kinda hard to pick up.  Dad says that someone may have put cement in it to make it hit harder, and not for baseballs. If it wasn't for the fact that it's really heavy, I would have gotten it.   In other news, someone in to

Dear Journal, I have bought me a notebook.  Found it in a thrift shop for like, a penny and thought it was a great deal.  Nice leather-bound cover, has a ribbon built in to mark my place, even has a little lock to keep it closed and a little thing to hold the pen or pencil. Pretty neat looking book. Anyway, I'm Amber Jones and this is now my personal diary.  I'll probably be using this to write ideas for stories, random thoughts and gripes, though. Okay, dinner's done so I'm off. Laters.