I I am uh ch charlie a uh and th I I know y you won’t bu buh believe me but I need t to tell s s someone um so it uh it was with my family and oh my god it was so awful it oh god I have to start from the beginning so we were st stay staying a at the e the elm manor a and th the no in the summer so school was out a and w we were on a t trip in Ohio the morning middle o of no no nowhere I was actually really bummed cu cause I wa want ted to h hang wi with a all m my fri frien friends and so we went it was a three hour c car ride ride it was over overnight a and so we got there a and it wuh was so so ordinary looking it was like the wo worst ho hotel r room e ever an and it was all wh white with cra crappy a art work um uh and so we stayed there for a while and it was so boring and normal I was so bummed and I was like why are we even going and my mom told me to stop complaining I should have listened oh god so okay I was bitching about it and my mom starts yelling at me and so soon a man comes up and tells her to shut up too and she yells at him oh my god I was so embarrassed so we got kicked out of the ho hot hotel an and oh god please no I mean wait I’ll keep going so I we ended up going to another ho hotel and thi this one was cooler it um uh looked so uh cool and um well it was like a haunted hotel from a movie it looked so fun so we went in and paid it was super cheap and everyone acted really weird they told us curfew was at ten and lasted until six am and and and and we had to be silent or else well and anyone who broke it would be fined a thousand dollars ma promised we wouldn’t at looked at me I looked back and oh man I was like woah a thousand bucks that is so much and why would they do that it seems so extra but anyway so then we get to our room and it has some really cool paintings of cat castles and it is still boring but I am so glad we are here and not at that other place so then it’s really late so we start getting ready to go to sleep and when I get in bed it is 9:57 and my parents are talking and I am laying in bed staring at the ceiling and then a female voice comes to our door and sa says th that okay so she says tha that cu curfew is n now and so we can’t talk anymore so everyone is quiet but I am still awake and now it doesn’t seem cool anymore ma no no way it it is way way way way t too creepy creepy man too creepy so um well I listen to the click it sounds so loud in the silence and I can’t fall asleep because it is just too too w weird ma man it is so so so so so so so so weird oh man and then oh god oh god oh god anyway so then and then at midnight I hear my mom and dad talking again an and I do don’t kn know wuh why but I feel so scared I want to yell at them to stop don’t you know we need to pay a fine but I don’t I’m too scared but then I hear a knock at the door and my bones freeze in in in in in inside me it’s like so scary man I have such bad goosebumps and I am so scared we’re going to get fined and pay a thousand dollars okay so I know a thousand dollars isn’t a lot of money to adults but it is to me cause I only have a hundred dollars and I’m saving up for a bike and the bike I want is a thousand dollars so if I have to pay money then I I I will end up being broke and in debt but maybe mom and dad will pay it they have jobs and stuff so a thousand dollars is probably o o okay fo for for them to pay but still they are going to get fined at least they aren’t talking anymore they are staring at the lock and I close my eyes and hope they don’t see that I am awake oh god I am so scared I don’t know why it’s just so weird this place is weird so weird I we shouldn’t h ah have cu cu come here becau because there is something evil but the knocking is back and it’s louder and oh god my heart is pounding why did we come oh god we won’t escape well we will be eaten and we will die and no one will miss us and we will be ghosts trapped here forever the person at the door is yelling now trying to get us to come out it’s a guy he is yelling get the fuck out of there and pay your fine mom and dad are scared too they stare at the door with shining eyes their eyes are so wide they are so scared then I hear a horrifying sound the jungle of keys and oh god he’s coming in so I roll over and close my eyes and vow not to move until it is morning when there is light because right now it is dark and my eyes are shut and I am hearing sounds I don’t know what they ar are but I know they will realize I am awake eventually I am staring at the blood spattered wall at some point something came in one one of tho those thi things th that makes the weird noises and then my mom screamed and then my dad made a gurgle sou sound and so then uh um oh oh god oh gu god I can’t okay but I have to yes anyway so then I look and there is this thing this it looked looks like a human but but it’s sk skin is so so so pale and it’s so weird it looks like a walking skeleton covered in plastic wrap oh god any anyway so so so um well then it turns around and I close my eyes and I hear my mom and dad scream more and then I open my eyes back up and my mom and dad are hanging from the ceiling like okay so this one time my dad took me into his butcher shop and it scared me so bad cause there were was all this de dead meat hanging from the ceiling and it smelled so bad well that was now and they are all bloody my parents are all bloody their chests are sliced open and they are all red oh no god I have to puke but I can’t bec because so anyway they are all torn up and I wa want to to lo look a away and um well then I shut my eyes buh buh becuh because so the monster is coming again and so I squeeze my eyes shut and oh god it’s so scary so then now I open I open my eye eye eyes and there is the monster face it is so disgusting it’s rotted and fleshy and white and carved into the flesh where the eyes should be is the number ten but it has no eyes just shallow ditches webbed over with white skin and grayish patches of skin are falling off it and it has a a a nose like a snake and and and it has no mouth either just a slit that is a smile cut into his skin he’s the reason the curfew is ten he he is the reason he is so scary oh god I’m so scared tears are dribbling down my face and it looks at me and smiles and it says you’ve been a good boy you followed curfew you are a good boy and then it looks at me so since you’re such a good boy you have to join us and then my eyes shut and I was asleep and when I woke everything was normal we are back at home me and my family and my dog and then I woke up today and looked into the mirror and my mouth is gone it’s just a slit and my skin is fleshy white and then as I watch the disease creeps up my face and my eyes go da dark bec because I I don’t ha have any eyes to see so that’s why I’m recording this on my ta tape and oh I hope someone finds this I am so alone and I’m back in the hotel and I can see but I can’t control it and the disease I kill people oh god they are everywhere there is so much blood and I thought that a thousand dollars was enough to keep them away and oh god I’m only eleven and why can’t they just listen to the people they need to be silent after ten it’s not hard oh god I should never have come to this hotel and they need to up the price maybe a million then maybe they’ll listen or maybe just I don’t know but oh god it’s almost ten again I have to go out and hunt again I can’t control my body anymore I can only do things when it is daytime and I have to hide out of sight out of the light the light burns but please someone come and put me out of my misery I am in Ohio at please come it’s nine fifty nine the address is....

*static*

*hears screaming in background*

*audio recording ends*

The harbor was silent with age, and the mist that hung heavily over the water, seemed to still the world and quiet the gentle lapping of the gray swells.

A single figure stood on the edge of a crumbling stone pier, unmoving as if caught up in the same timelessness that flowed trough the air.

Aearandein gazed out across the dark shrouded ocean of Lanaia, his deep green eyes ancient and weary.

The Fortress port had not always been desolate and forsaken as it was now. It had once been the greatest hub of trade and the capital of the Silvi realm, bursting with life and activity.

Now, Deleienvail was a mere shadow of what it once had been, its crumbling walls, eroding statues, and empty fountains, bearing testament to what had once been the pride of the Silvian people.

The ocean fortress Deleienvail, had seen many trials but had always stood through them all, unyielding to attack, storm, or magic. But then the men had come. They were unlike anything the Silvian people had ever seen. Where their other enemies knew and feared Silvi magic, these men from the north refused to believe in it at all. They destroyed the Silvi magic with their own, though it wasn’t like any magic the Silvians knew of, for they did not wield it, at least not consciously, but their disbelief fueled a repelling magic so thick that it decimated the Silvi with its force.

The Silvians fled after that, unable to survive within the crush of darkness brought down upon them. With them fled the light of Deleienvail, which had guided the humans of the west for thousands of years, and without its bastions the fortress crumbled, succumbing to the darkness.

The Silvi ships had departed like swans across the ocean in a stream of brilliant white sails and arching sterns. Every ship had departed leaving the once overflowing piers empty of their proud vessels.

Never more did anyone see the magnificent ships of the Silvi grace the waters of Lanaia with their ivory masts, and flying pennants, and the waters of their beloved ocean turned to gray, as the presence of the Silvians forsook its swells.

Still though, thought Aearandein with deep bitterness. The poets descended from the northern men and the western peoples, still sang songs during the long fire lit eaves of the winter moths, of the great and beautiful departure of the people of Deleienvail, who sailed way to places unbeknownst, nearly seven hundred years ago.

Aearandein hung his gray head and clutched his failing heart as he slumped down onto the rubble of the pier. What would he know though? Of the goings on seven hundred years ago? He was just the old man the children called the watcher, because of the way he stared out over the waters. He was only the old man who told the little ones his stories of the old Silvi people, and the tales of their mighty king. The king who would not abandon his fortress. The king they called Aearandein.