I follow a coworker of mine on Twitch. Over the holidays, they went back home to visit family. I was up late one night when I saw they were Streaming. I figured I’d tune in, see how the vacation was going. What I witnessed were the ramblings of my coworker, seemingly off their meds. It didn’t make much sense, as I was obviously lacking context. Needing answers, or just being plumb nosey, I decided to check their blog to see if I could figure out what in the hell was going on. Piecing things together, this is what I’ve gotten so far, in chronological order, starting with the blog posts. I transcribed (as best as I could) what was said and what happened on the Twitch Stream as well, it’s at the end. If anybody knows the whereabouts of Pat Guidry, please contact me, or the authorities. Thank you for your time.
~~~
Returning home for the holidays is always a pain. Requesting time off of work, securing traveling arrangements, organizing and packing my suitcase. It’s always a headache. When I finally get there, exhausted and jet lagged, I usually want nothing more than to crawl up to my old room and sleep for 24 hours to recuperate. Instead I was bombarded with family and old friends, all wanting to spend time together and catch up. I always say next time I’ll blow them off, but I never do. It’s good to be home, and despite my exhaustion, I always end up conceding.
When some old friends found out I was back in town they invited me out for some much needed drinks, and I happily agreed. It’s good to see them, and despite being home for less than 12 hours, it’s good to get away from my family. I love them, don’t get me wrong, they can be a little much though.
When one friend mentions my little sister’s new boyfriend, it piqued my interest. My sister and I have never been really close. I chalk that fact up to our age differences. I was an only child for the first 16 years of my life, and then when my mom got pregnant into her early 40’s, soon after that my little sis was born. By the time she was talking more than gibberish and babbles, I was heading off to college. It hit me hard, talking about my baby sisters love life. She was almost all grown up, I realized. Nevertheless, what I heard about her boyfriend unsettled me.
Apparently, he was the son of a man who held quite some reputation in our little town. Depending on who you ask, either a nefarious reputation, or an idolized one. If rumor was to be believed, he was the leader of an organization, a religion he had invented himself. In other words, he was the leader of a cult.
I was worried about my sister, she was still so young and impressionable. The last thing I wanted for her was to be tied to those quacks. She’d end up brainwashed, possibly wife number 6 of some whacko with the power to persuade idiots to signing over their homes and bank accounts to him.
Upon returning home tonight, I confronted my mother. Something needed to be done about my younger sibling, whether or not she knew the company she kept nowadays was irrelevant, I’d be the one to tell her, and hopefully together we could nip this thing in the bud before it got too serious. That was what I wanted to happen, what actually did happen was another matter entirely. She defended the young man. She defended his father, and even his kooky cult. A lot had happened since I had been home last, apparently. I looked around and finally noticed that our family crucifix above the mantle was gone, and in its place hung a strange symbol. It looked like an eye, surrounded by occultish scribbles. My family had been indoctrinated. We got into a huge argument, and I seriously considered leaving to return to my normal life entirely. I wanted to, but something in my brain had snapped. I’ll be damned if I let some cult control my loved ones, and while I didn’t leave town altogether, I did pack up my things and rented out a motel room for the duration of my stay.
I’m sitting on my rented bed now, and I’ve written this out here in hopes that it may help bring some clarity to the situation. Writing out whatever is going on on my blog has always been helpful to me in the past, therapeutic even. It’s having the opposite effect here now. So far, reading and rereading what I’ve put down so far has only served to further antagonize me. I need a good night’s sleep, then hopefully I’ll figure this thing out tomorrow.
~~~
I slept for too long today. A combination of jet lag and reliving my mom and I’s argument last night that had me tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep for the longest time, meant that I hadn’t been up and awake until after 1pm today. I was on a mission though, bound and determined to fix things. After a half a pot of coffee and a long hot shower, I was up and ready to go and find some answers. I had planned to find my sister, to talk some sense into her. To grab her and shake some damn sense into her if I had to. After I got dressed and went to leave my motel room, I found that I didn’t have to though. When I opened my door, she was standing there just outside.
Surprised, I began yelling at her. Scolding her like the immature little child that she was. She just stood there though, eyes cast at the ground. She wouldn’t even look at me. I stepped out to further confront her, to really get in her face and shake some sense into her, when I was stopped by a suave tall and dark stranger who had been hiding just out of my sight, right beside my door.
He tried to seem cool and level headed as he stopped me with a casual hand on my shoulder. Startled that he had seemingly come out of nowhere, he immediately went on the offensive. Not physically, but with a calm expression and pretty words. He tried to tell me he was a great guy, that his father was doing so much good in the community, that he and my sister were in love and he wanted my blessing. I glanced at my sister, still staring meekly at the pavement, she looked more like a prisoner than somebody who was happily in love. I said as much to him, and the suave bastard looked almost angry for a split second. Gotcha now, I thought. He resumed his ‘catching more flies with honey’ schtick, and said he was sorry that I felt that way. Then taking her by the hand he led her away. The way my sister looked back at me over her shoulder, it’s the closest thing to a cry for help that I’ve ever experienced.
I contacted one of my old friends, the one who had warned me about all of this in the first place. We met up for dinner that night and I got the information that I needed. I know where those bastards live now. I need time to think. There’s got to be some way to put an end to all of this, to get my family out of these people’s clutches. If I have to reign holy hellfire on these people, then I’m ready to do whatever is necessary.
I tried talking to mom again, to talk some sense into her. I wanted to know why she abandoned her old faith and took up with these crazies. She swears that God came to her in a dream and told her that they were legit, that their leader was doing His will on earth. She says that she personally has watched the man perform several miracles. I’m not buying it though. He’ll need a miracle to keep him alive once I’m done with him.
~~~
Been finding out more information about this cult. They’re smart, I’ll give them that. It seems a few years ago they infiltrated and converted several members on the city council. It’s all been downhill since then. They got the pull they needed to pretty much run roughshod all over town. Even the sheriff is in their little group these days. It’s all just a social club, and everybody has that fear of missing out. Just go along with the pack so you’re not the odd one out. Bunch of weak willed assholes, if you ask me.
Going to do some more digging, I was planning on confronting them head on until I heard what kind of influence they had. I’m no fool, though. I’ll need all the dirt I can on these punks if I’m going to make a move and expose them for the lying scumbags that they really are. That’s the play, I decided, to expose them. Sure, I could go the petty route and do what I need to do to get my family out, but then they’d still have most of the town in their pocket. There’s no guarantee that once I leave town they wouldn’t just make my family’s life a living hell or just re-indoctrinate them. If I can put these people to light though, show everybody what they truly are, then that would be like a killing blow.
They have some big meeting out in the woods on the edge of town tonight. I’m going to the store later to buy some dark clothes and hopefully a pair of binoculars or something. Maybe I can record them doing something shady, as if meeting up in robes after dark in the forest isn’t shady enough. Maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll sacrifice a poor little goat or something. I wonder if that would count as animal cruelty or something? Either way, I’ll be there with bells on. You better believe that.
~~~
*Transcribed from Live stream on Twitch*
“HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT! I went to their ritual earlier tonight. I’m still trying to shake whatever it was I just witnessed. I feel dirty all over. I feel like there’s a stain on my soul. Whatever in the fuck that thing was, IT”S WRONG. It doesn’t belong. I can’t stop my hands from shaking. I just need to keep taking deep breaths. Deep breaths.”
“I followed one of them to the edge of town, making sure to keep a safe distance. I didn’t think anyone spotted me. They walked to the edge of the trees and disrobed. Ever see a city treasurer naked? Yeah, me neither. Stark naked, he walked through the trees with his hands held out from his sides, palms up, as if he were basking in the glow of the night. I was a good way back, but I could distinctly hear him humming some creepy hymn or something. I didn’t think it odd at the time that his was the only vehicle that I saw upon arriving, or that he was the only one of the creeps to show up. I guess… I don’t know what I was thinking. I was too focused on tailing him and trying not to be spotted. I realize now that he was leading me.”
“I followed him into the woods a good way, when he stopped in the middle of a clearing. He just stood there for a while, humming his little tune while I slowly caught and crept up on him. I figured I had a good vantage point where I ended up behind some bushes. I didn’t have my phone out because I was waiting for the rest of the cult assholes to show up. Filming one naked man in the woods wasn’t exactly the kind of paydirt that I was trying to score there. It’s kind of pathetic leverage and a little creepy on my part, if you ask me. I wish I had been filming though, because as I drew close and settled into my little hidey spot, it happened.”
“He had his back to me, still holding his arms out and doing his little ditty when the hymn stopped. He slowly turned, until he was facing right toward me, and even though it was plenty dark out there amidst those trees, the moon was shining into the clearing just enough so that I could see his eyes, or lack thereof. He didn’t have any. Where they should have been was just smooth skin, alabaster in the glow of the moon. Even without eyes though, he obviously knew I was there. He produced a knife from somewhere (WTF, I mean, he was fucking NAKED!) and proceeded to cut himself some new ones, slicing into the smoothed flesh where his orbital sockets should have been, and began singing the words to whatever demonic hymn he had been humming all the way there. Now, I studied Latin my sophomore year at college, and whatever language he was singing in, it sure wasn’t Latin. It was Greek to me, and by Greek I mean who the fuck knows. When the blood that was now pouring out of his newly cut eyes began orbiting around his head in the night, faster and faster, I KNEW something was up. I mean, I knew something was up when he turned around and didn’t have any EYES, but that could have just been a trick of the light, I thought.”
“I watched just long enough to witness the blood start to coalesce into something, something wrong, something from outside the laws of our universe. It was something that should not be. Something horrible, a mass of gelatinous terror that formed and destroyed and formed again, each time more horrible than the last. God, I can still see it when I close my eyes, and yet at the same time I can see myself, looking at me through its eye. When I close my eyes, it gets worse.”
“I can’t stay here. I’m packing my bags right after I finish recording this. I can’t stop crying, I want to get naked and jump into the shower and scrub my eyes raw with a wire brush with the water boiling hot to get rid of this feeling. I don’t think that will be enough. Nothing I do, no matter how long I live will ever be enough. I want to remove my eyes from my skull, but I know that will be worse, because it gets worse when I close my eyes…”
*Streamer sets phone down and leaves frame*
(Sounds of suitcase zipper)
*Pained grunts and moans*
(12 minutes of silence)
“Siri, call UBER.”
(26 minutes of silence)
(Knocking on door)
(Door opening)
UBER Driver: “Jesus Christ! What happened to your eyes!?!”
*End of Stream*