Paranoia

That kid: the one whose girlfriend seemed to have become a Slender Man victim? He decided to attack some cops.

Apparently, he was screaming about how they were puppets of "him" and that they'd infiltrated every level of society and how he was going to eradicate them all. It seems that he'd cracked and was convinced everyone but him was a proxy.

Anyway, the cops fought back. He's now in the hospital.

Evidence

I think I found a lead. About three months back there were reports of a tall man hanging around outside an elementary school. The reports seemed to come in steadily for three days before stopping. Two weeks later, the daughter of one of the teachers there went missing. She was a highs school student.

Recently, her boyfriend was involved in a rather nasty brawl.

It's disturbing to think that there are more of Them in town than just those Timberwolf junkies.

Investigations

So I decided to take a page out of Sarcastic Observer's book and look up old police reports for any evidence of Them. I'm thinking maybe it could help me figure out the Timberwolves' goals here. They seem to have an awfully large presence in New Rossfield, all things considered.

So far, I've got no real promising leads concerning Their activities, but then again, I only really just started. I've noticed that there was an increase in unusual disturbances over the last twelve years or so, but I think we can assume that that's because of RossCorp. You see, RossCorp's the company that's responsible for taking this town and, well, turning it into a city. They shot to prominence twelve years ago and started really developing this place. This of course led to an increase in population, which of course would lead to Them taking a greater interest in the area.

I'm gonna go see what I kind find in these old reports.

And that will lead you straight to Them.

Death Sentence

I guess I can't really hide from it, can I?

I'd suspected it. Looking information on the Timberwolves, it wasn't long before I found information on the Archangel, and from there, the rest of Them. I'd hoped like hell that I hadn't encountered the Dying Man. Guess I wasn't so lucky.

Still, this "Judas" doesn't seem to be killing me. The only things I've noticed are the rash on my left side and the occasional blank part of my memory, when Judas takes over. It's odd. After he wrote that post, he wrote a note for me, explaining a number of Timberwolf hideouts. I sent it into the department as an anonymous tip.

Unfortunately, I wasn't part of the raid. The evidence locker's been filled up with all sorts of weapons, drugs, and books. The rest of the department is finally figuring out that these guys are a cult, not just a normal gang.

For whatever reason, Judas seems interested in helping me kick the Timberwolves out of town. But I doubt he's working out of altruism.

No, he's definitely playing a bigger game. I just hope it continues to coincide with New Rossfield's best interests.

Hi

Somebody had a bad day.

It's a pretty terrible day for a cop when he gets called in on a domestic disturbance and then proceeds to faint at the sight of a couple yelling angrily at each other. Though admittedly he may have fainted due to some other reasons. Oh yes, and let's not forget the rather nasty rash that seems to be developing on his side.

I guess it just sucks to be Matthias Stanford.

Judging by the comments on his previous post, my audience already knows what I am. Once I was whole. Once I was powerful. Once no one would fuck with me. But alas, those days are long gone. Now I am split into several pieces, spread out all over the world. It's rather inconvenient, I tell you.

So hello. I am the Dying Man.

Hm... I'm not like some of my other selves that you may be familiar with. I have vision. I have goals. I also like to take a new name whenever I get myself a new host. Helps make it more difficult for people to track me.

So his name is Matthias? After Jesus' thirteenth apostle? I suppose I can draw from the same mythological source.

Call me Judas.

First Blood

I have a confession: I didn't just up and decide to write this for no reason. The department's shrink recommended I keep a blog of some kind to help me get my thoughts straight. You see, a couple days ago, I killed a man.

It was around noon. We got the call that there was some kind of shootout going on. Two gangs crossed each other. One of course was the Timberwolves. The other was a group of nobodies calling themselves the Barrels. By the time we got there, the Barrels were pretty much wiped out. That just left our cultist friends.

They saw our squad car, and they opened fire.

We had back-up, we managed to subdue them. A few surrendered, some ran, a couple went down.

There was this one guy. His face was... it was badly scarred. Bright red along the side, his hair in clumps, boils and pus coming out of his cheeks. He was running right me with his gun raised, firing wildly.

I shot him right in the chest. He kept running. Bullets don't work like they do in movies. It's not one shot, and the person's down. Adrenaline can do some crazy shit, and this guy didn't even seem to notice his wound.

I fired six more times before he reached me. He stumbled and fell. My last shot had hit him dead center in the neck.

He grabbed my leg, and there was desperation on his face as his life faded away. He tried to say something, I don't know what. It just came out as three indistinct gurgles. And then he stopped moving.

I felt sick. I'd never seen a man die before, much less killed one. I threw up, right then and there. Of course, they made me see the psych guy, and made me take a few days off to cool down. That's when I started doing research, learning more about the Timberwolves. That's when I stumbled upon the Archangel.

I go back to work tomorrow. I just hope I can make it. I've felt sick since that day.

What's In a Name?

After Judas' betrayal, the disciples drew lots to determine who would take his place among Jesus' twelve chosen Apostles. Matthias was the one who took that position.

And now you know why I named the blog the way I did: because my namesake was, in a sense, the thirteenth apostle.

I was raised Catholic, you see. I still practice. Go to Church every Sunday. I suppose that's why the Timberwolves anger me so much. They believe in a god that is, essentially, an Anti-Christ. It does not love us, it sees us as tools. It does not allow us the luxury of choice or freedom or even life: it demands our deaths, and it demands them now.

In Catholic dogma, Hell is not a place of fire and brimstone. It is not a place of punishment where God throws the unrighteous. It is simply an existence where God's light does not shine. It is an existence without God, and therefore it is an existence without happiness or meaning. It is an existence we choose. When we reject God, we push Him away from us and choose a world without Him. We choose Hell. He does not. Heaven is the opposite: it is existence with God.

But the Archangel is different. There is only one afterlife, and it is an existence with "god," but it is not an existence of happiness and contentment. It is an existence of pain and of slavery.

The Archangel is the antithesis of everything I believe.

But I do not hate the Timberwolves. I understand them perfectly. My God is a subtle god. He works in mysterious ways, and does not reveal Himself. Their god is an overt god. It takes the forms of the dead and appears before them. How can they not believe? How can they not turn their backs on all other religions and worship this demon before them?

I understand why the choose to follow the Archangel, and I don't begrudge them for it. But they go a step further: they bring pain to others. They harm others and they kill for their god.

That is something I cannot allow. That is something I cannot turn my back on.

And so I fight.

Them

My name is Matthias. I'm a cop in a town called New Rossfield. It's a fairly sizable town located in eastern Tennessee. I'm not surprised if you haven't heard of it. Up until just the last few years, nobody had.

I suppose you could say I'm a rookie. Only had the badge a few months. New Rossfield is on its way to becoming a pretty big place, so it has its fair share of criminals. Mostly just the same kind of scum you'd find lurking around the streets of any other place in this country.

At least, until they arrived.

A new gang rolled into town about two years ago. No one really gave them much thought. But recently, they've been acting up. I've done some research. I've read all the blogs people have written about these bastards. Not sure if I believe everything recorded on them, about monsters and stuff, but one thing's for certain: this gang-- this cult-- is much more dangerous and much more insane than anyone here had realized.

You may have heard of them: they're called the Timberwolves.