John Is Judging You

This thing resumes very very soon. I've had to do a bit of work. She's handcuffed in my front yard at this moment, but she will not last. This ends soon. The Judge is making them pay for their mistakes.

MISTAKE

YOU HAVE MADE AN ENORMOUS MISTAKE. I HOPE YOU REALIZE THIS. YOU ARE ON A ONE WAY PATH TO DESTRUCTION, JOHN, AND HER DEATH SHALL BE YOUR DOWNFALL.

solutions

There's an old saying. "If you sit down at a card table and you don't know who the sucker is, it's probably you."

That was true. I was the sucker.

And this was it.

This was where it'd end. I could feel it in my gut. I'd come this far, and in the end, for no reason. As The Artist drove to what she wanted to "show me", all I could think about where the last few months. This had all been orchestrated so beautifully. What if there WAS no power struggle? What if Silence and Jars were fighting just to get me out of the picture? If that was the case, then they succeeded in spades. And here I was, stupid enough to follow their every whim, to end up in a car with the one person who had the balls to kill me.

We hiked a bit into the woods, and neither of us said a word. I thought I might be able to turn and run at some point, but it didn't really matter. The Artist had a gun, and there was no way I could dodge bullets. I'm no action hero. I'm just a sad, lonely man now. As I followed The Artist on the death march towards my inevitable ending, I realized that these were not good people. Annie, Silence, Jars. The Artist was just following orders, she actually did give me answers. But even still. These were not good people, and I'm not sure why I wanted to help them. Maybe I wanted to regain something I'd lost.

And then she pulled it.

I knew it wouldn't even help to beg or plead. She wasn't going to let me go. Not now. I just asked "Why" because I felt I was at least entitled to the answer of why my life had to end here, in the middle of the woods, for seemingly no damn good reason. The Artist didn't say a thing at first, but when she spoke, she said something I wasn't expecting.

"You're not going to die. I need you."

WHAT.

This was not what I was expecting. What does she need me for? I asked why she was holding a gun to me, and she said, "This is merely a formality, I need your assurance and word that you aren't going to turn on me. I have answers, I am the only one who's been honest to you, you NEED me. You need to listen to me. If we work together, we can both get what we want out of this. You want to see Silence and Jars hurt the way you hurt, and I want out of this thing once and for all. It's a win/win situation, the way I see it."

And she had a point.

She WAS the only one who'd been honest with me, and here she was, defying orders and saving my life when I SHOULD be being buried under a tree right now.

Then she heard something. We both did. I think we both knew it was Jars. She'd been tailing us for a while. Ever since Silence and I had split, Jars had apparently been on our tail. The Artist seemed to know this, and enjoy it. That's when it hit me. THIS IS WHAT SHE WANTED. This whole time, showing me everything she'd shown me and giving me answers...all she was doing was trying to make Jars angrier. Angry enough to possibly be willing to attack.

"You're going to head back to your apartment, and when you get there, you're going to wait for me." she told me. I understood.

There's an old saying, "If you sit down at a card game and you don't know who the sucker is, it's probably you."

The thing was. I WASN'T the sucker. Jars was.

john

problems

There have been many times in my life where a phrase has made me ill to my stomach. Examples of some of these would be, "We need to talk" and "John, listen..." but never had I heard the phrase, "I'll take care of him."

The Artist took me on a scenic tour, much like the one Silence had taken me on prior to my meeting with our mutual frienemy. We slept in her car, but she always kept her gun close. She didn't trust me, and from the sound of that phone call that morning, someone didn't seem to want me around anymore either.

She got off the phone, back into the car and told me to buckle up. We had one last stop to make. This was it. Anytime now, I'd either be begging for my life, sobbing uncontrollably, or I'd just be another body left in the trunk of a car. I didn't want to die for nothing, especially knowing I had fought all this way for nothing to begin with. Knowing that Annie never loved me from the start made the fact that my death would be meaningless all the more depressing.

I was going to die...

FOR NOTHING.

So I just smiled, and buckled my seat belt and we took a ride.
I needed a plan.

john

answers

My mother always told me not to get in the car with strangers, especially if they have visible weapons, but The Artist was going to give me answers, and I needed to be with her to get them. I had no choice; I'd come this far, I wasn't going to give up NOW. So, we got in her car and started driving.

I began to ask her questions, and she actually did answer them in full honesty. Annie's father, whom I'd only met once, was named William, and he died in 2010. He began this society with Silence and Jars father, who's name wasn't diverged to me, but died in 2011. When they both died, the leadership of the society fell to their daughters, to carry on what they'd started. But...only one leader could be appointed, and the sisters were much more willing to take it, seeing as Annie had me.

The Artist continued to tell me that Jars wanted it more than anything, always having felt like 2nd best to her sister, and she came up with a plan to kill both of them. She had Annie killed in a seemingly apparent car accident, and Silence went into hiding, until discovering that Annie had known me, and that's when I became involved. Now it was down to the sisters, and each wanted leadership, and each were willing to kill eachother for it.

The Artist felt, though, that "Silence doesn't have it in her to kill her sister. Only something so drastic would force her to do it. You've always been a pawn to them, and I think Annie only loved you because you provided an out for her. She could easily have left the society, but Jars killed her before she had the chance."

There it was. Annie never even loved me.
All of this...I thought I was doing it to avenge her, but...she never even cared.
She was just as bad as these girls had been.

The Artist then took me somewhere. Another graveyard.

That was Annie's fathers grave. I was a little confused why they were buried so far apart, but The Artist told me it was because she went against her family by trying to find a way out with me as her scapegoat. Doing anything against the family is grounds for treason-murder or just trying to escape even-and that's why she's buried where she is. She'd not only failed to escape, but even been abandoned in death. And frankly...I didn't even feel bad about it. She got what she deserved.
Then she showed me Silence and Jars fathers grave.

A more important man with a more important family gets a more important headstone. I knew right then that I wanted nothing more than to make these people hurt the way they'd hurt me. I wanted to destroy their family, and their society. The Artist told me she had one more thing to show me, and to get back in the car.

Unfortunately, that thing was the end of her gun.

john

the artist

Finally, after all this time...I was going to meet The Artist. Silence drove me into these woods, and I hiked most of the way into the deep thicket of them as she told me to. All alone and not armed at all, you can believe that I was cautious as hell.

I only brought my laptop with me, and the CD case. I was going to get some answers right now. I'd waited so long, and I finally had someone who was willing to give me some sort of explanation for everything I've been through. This was it.

And then, as you saw in the last photo of my last post, I saw her there. She was sitting on a fallen tree, and had long blonde hair. She wasn't at all what I expected, but of course, none of what has happened has been what I'd expected. I remember I said the same thing about Silence the first time I met her. So I approached her carefully, as Silence told me she was armed and dangerous.

Another mask. Big surprise there. She clearly was being careful about being watched, as she had the binoculars. But she didn't seem dangerous. In fact, I felt more comfortable with The Artist than I ever have with Silence. She asked if I was John, and I told her I was. I then handed over the CDs, informing her of all that had happened.

She must've opened it to make sure I didn't put a bomb inside or something, I don't even know anymore with these people. But she seemed satisfied that it was clear of anything deadly. I assured her I wasn't going to hurt her, and that I just wanted answers. After Silence being quiet (sticking to her name) and Jars only leaving cryptic and vague messages, I needed something solid and concrete. She asked me what I wanted to know, and I told her I needed to know where the CDs came from, and who Jennifer was.

She informed me that Jennifer was the deadly one, not Jars. Jars was nothing more than a pawn to her, as I was to Silence. I told her that Silence wasn't using me, but The Artist made a good point.

"Think about it, everything you've done up until this point has been on their command. Jars sends you something and you take note of it. Silence tells you to dig and you dig. You follow her around like a puppy dog wanting something that you know she'll never give you. It's pathetic. But...it's why I'm helping you, and Silence. Jars must be stopped, and Jennifer must be stopped as well. She's more dangerous than you can ever believe."

Then she told me a statement that did actually surprise me.

"I gave you these."

She bugged the phones, but when she retrieved them, Jennifers audio was missing. She told me as best she could what had happened.

"I bugged them, I knew they had information you'd want to hear. When I got the bugs back though, Jennifers was gone. She must've wiped it clean or something, I'm not sure. All I know is that it was gone. The thing that's interesting to me is that she didn't tell Jars. I think that's because Jars is her fall guy. She's going to let Jars take the hit. This is just another example of the kind of woman Jennifer is and why she must be taken down."

She told me to get in her car and I'd get more answers, so I did. Finally someone was telling me the truth. But I'm not as stupid as these girls have made me out to be. I know to be careful, and I can lie just as well as they can. I knew that though The Artist was giving me information, it was probably information that she'd crafted together perfectly so it was good enough for me but not everything I needed to know. I figured she was still hiding some things, but I took it anyway. I needed SOMETHING to go on. But I was still careful.

 You can never be too careful.

john

graverobbing

Back when I originally dug, I found some teeth.

I didn't know what to make of this at first, probably because at the time I was so frightened, angry and confused. But I had a hunch. The photo it came with was a photo of the jar that Jars sent. I figured that if Jars had had Annie killed, they might be Annie's teeth, in a way of mocking me. What kind of sick person rips the teeth out of a dead lady? God my poor Annie...

So I had Silence take me to the graveyard where Annie had been buried.

Shovel in hand, teeth in my pocket, we headed inside. Silence seemed nervy about the whole thing, but I didn't care. I HAD to do this. I knew it was illegal to rob a grave, but I didn't care. I needed to know if Jars had desecrated my Annie. So I headed to her headstone and got to work. Silence just waited.

After a good 2 hours, I dug her coffin up and almost threw up. I was no better than they were now, even if I WAS doing this for Annie's sake. I wanted to avenge her in some way, put her to rest. So I pulled the lid open and there she was...or what was left of her. And yes, her teeth were gone. At first I thought it might have just been decay, but teeth don't really decay, and Silence pointed out the way they had been tugged out of her skull that they had indeed been stolen.

I would've asked Silence why Jars would do such a thing, but I didn't get a chance. She told me she had to take care of something and to head to a woodsy area, to meet The Artist. The Artist would come up with a plan to get back at Jars. Not being one to question Silence at this point, I agreed, and so I headed to the woodsy destination. After a bit of hiking, I finally saw The Artist from a distance, waiting on a log.

The Artist was the one who didn't appear to be a part of this cult. The Artist appeared to be a middleman of some sort, which meant that they had answers I needed.

And I was going to get them.

john