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

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

history lesson

In a few posts, I have mentioned a person by the name of The Artist. This person left me a map to find Silence and so on. Well, Silence figured The Artist was the right person to ask for help. So, after a while of staying in our little hole in the woods, Silence decided it was time to pack up and take a drive. I rented a car and off we went. Silence wanted to explain and show some things to me along the way, so we took what she considered, "the scenic route".

The first thing we came to was an inn. The town we were staying in wasn't too far away from the town I lived in, and I found the inn's sign a bit odd.

Theory was, you could take a train-as this sign clearly showed-between the towns. The town I lived in-as I said in a entry a long time ago-is very, very old. But, like my town, there has never been a train, and there no tracks to even be found here. The inn had apparently been run by her & Jars father, who had apparently been the "leader" of whatever it was they were involved in. As Silence explained it to me, the only way you can become leader is to have it passed down to you by someone who was leader and was related to you. When their father died, it came down to Silence and Jars, and now Jars wanted Silence dead. Jars however was the one claiming Silence was going to do me harm. Here are some more photos of the inn.

Much like the house that I had to pass through to meet Silence, it was very beautiful and well kept. She and her sister apparently spent a lot of time here as kids. After the inn, we continued our drive to meet The Artist. Upon arrival at The Artist's house, Silence wouldn't allow me to go in. Apparently she had to speak to The Artist in private and I would meet The Artist either afterwards or at a later date. I was able to get a shot of the house after she'd gone inside. She left me out there for over an hour.

The thing that still bothered me was that if Silence was so dangerous, why was I still alive? Jars had followed me to meet with her, but she seemed to be after both of us. But, as I'd learn later, Silence really was dangerous, and Jars was really telling the truth.

As the old saying goes, "If I only knew then..."

john