The floorboard is no longer here, so there’s just a hole where someone less aware than you might twist an ankle. A malignant darkness seems to emanate from the hole, spreading outwards toward the surrounding floorboards. You stick your shoe in a bit to make sure nothing is waiting to grab you. Nothing happens, so you reach in and fumble around in the darkness a bit before landing on the journal. You also find something you missed earlier: a small note.
The journal belongs to Elsie’s older stepbrother, Virgil. You give it a quick scan – it’s full of angsty poems and woeful laments.
Hmm, there are a few pages where the writing reminds you of the wording of the note the kidnapper left behind after taking Rose, Jane’s daughter.
*ahem*
You hear a cough and look up from the floorboard to find the corporeal figure of Virgil standing before you.
“You’ve got the wrong idea!”
“I didn’t! I promise! Elsie was a brat, but I wouldn’t do anything bad to her! I’m just as worried as you are. What if what happened to Elsie happens to me, next? I’m just a kid, just a scared kid! Murder and kidnapping is something adults do! Please, you have to ask the adults, not me!“
“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.”
“Yes I wrote it, but it was meant to be a joke! I was always teasing the girls about the family curse. I didn’t believe any of it, of course. I had a really good hiding spot up in a tree, and I was going to trick them into thinking the curse had taken me! I left the note hoping they’d find it and start crying because I was gone. Then, after an hour, I’d reappear and pretend that nothing ever happened! When Rose was taken by the man in the hat… I was too scared to come forward and claim the note. It didn’t matter, anyway. Rose was gone and there was no getting her back.”
“The all-seeing eye believes it true, That seconds fly, and half are through.”
