FLOORBOARD
A rotten cavity now exists where a floorboard once concealed this hidden compartment beneath your feet. A darkness seems to crawl from within the hole, spreading like a cancer to the floorboards around it. You reach into the darkness and feel around, landing on the journal as well as a note you failed to notice earlier.
The journal belongs to young Virgil, Elsie’s older stepbrother.
You think back to the note that was found at the scene of the kidnapping of Aunt Jane’s daughter, Rose. The writing on that note could certainly match the writing in this journal.
*ahem*
You look up from the floorboard to find the corporeal figure of Virgil standing before you.
“You’ve got the wrong idea!”
“I… I demand to know what you’re doing!”
“Nothing, I promise! You’re just like Charles! You think I did this! Well… I suppose that’s what I get. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, sir, I don’t know why I do the things I do. I stole Birdie’s dumb gnome and was gonna smash it later. I… I did other bad things too… but I didn’t murder Elsie, and I don’t know where she’s vanished to now!“
“Once we got back to the house, everyone was here, in the main room, except for Elsie. I saw the neighbor, Birdie, run up to my mom and start yelling about something. It must have been about the missing gnome I had taken. I remember that it was cold from the rain, and we were a little wet. Mom had made some hot cocoa so I grabbed a cup and ran to my room to make sure the gnome was well-hidden, just in case. When I got back to the family room… they were all dead! Jane was in the chair, and the salesman was on the floor. My mom… she was on the floor too… they were all dead! I ran into the hall and nearly tripped over the body of Birdie. I looked over and saw Emmett emerge from his room holding his stomach. He collapsed right then and there and I knew he was dead too! I ran back to the family room and hid in the corner… then I tasted it. The worst taste I’d ever had… like I had unfurled a roll of pennies in my mouth. My stomach ached, and I got dizzy. And then… and then I think I died.”
“So you’ve read my journal… I guess that’s your job, being a detective and all. Charles found it too, and when he read it he was as mad as I’d ever seen him. I swear if I were alive then he would have ended me! I admit it, I wrote the note they found at the park that day. I didn’t know Rose was going to be taken! I had such a good hiding spot, I thought it would make for a good bit of mischief if I couldn’t be found for a bit and pretended the “curse” had gotten me. When Rose vanished… they found the note and… I didn’t want to get in trouble. I’m sorry it happened. No one believed in the curse anyway, it was just some foolish McDermott folklore. Everyone knew it must have been that man in the hat that took Rose.”
“The all-seeing eye
believes it true,
That seconds fly,
and half are through.”
What a bizarre note. Did everyone think they were a poet back then?
You think back to the note that was found at the scene of the kidnapping of Aunt Jane’s daughter, Rose. The writing on that note could certainly match the writing in this journal.
*ahem*
You look up from the floorboard to find the corporeal figure of Virgil standing before you.
“You’ve got the wrong idea!”
“I… I demand to know what you’re doing!”
“Nothing, I promise! You’re just like Charles! You think I did this! Well… I suppose that’s what I get. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, sir, I don’t know why I do the things I do. I stole Birdie’s dumb gnome and was gonna smash it later. I… I did other bad things too… but I didn’t murder Elsie, and I don’t know where she’s vanished to now!“
“Once we got back to the house, everyone was here, in the main room, except for Elsie. I saw the neighbor, Birdie, run up to my mom and start yelling about something. It must have been about the missing gnome I had taken. I remember that it was cold from the rain, and we were a little wet. Mom had made some hot cocoa so I grabbed a cup and ran to my room to make sure the gnome was well-hidden, just in case. When I got back to the family room… they were all dead! Jane was in the chair, and the salesman was on the floor. My mom… she was on the floor too… they were all dead! I ran into the hall and nearly tripped over the body of Birdie. I looked over and saw Emmett emerge from his room holding his stomach. He collapsed right then and there and I knew he was dead too! I ran back to the family room and hid in the corner… then I tasted it. The worst taste I’d ever had… like I had unfurled a roll of pennies in my mouth. My stomach ached, and I got dizzy. And then… and then I think I died.”
“So you’ve read my journal… I guess that’s your job, being a detective and all. Charles found it too, and when he read it he was as mad as I’d ever seen him. I swear if I were alive then he would have ended me! I admit it, I wrote the note they found at the park that day. I didn’t know Rose was going to be taken! I had such a good hiding spot, I thought it would make for a good bit of mischief if I couldn’t be found for a bit and pretended the “curse” had gotten me. When Rose vanished… they found the note and… I didn’t want to get in trouble. I’m sorry it happened. No one believed in the curse anyway, it was just some foolish McDermott folklore. Everyone knew it must have been that man in the hat that took Rose.”
“The all-seeing eye
believes it true,
That seconds fly,
and half are through.”
What a bizarre note. Did everyone think they were a poet back then?