The next day was a struggle to even move. My nightmares had gotten worse and seemed to be physically trapping me, as despite becoming more awake and aware of my surroundings, I found I couldn't open my eyes and my limbs felt numb and difficult to move- if I was even moving them at all. At times it felt like something was pricking into my wrist but as much as I tried to jerk away, I couldn't get away from the sensation and was pulled under once more.

Once I could open my eyes and move well enough to look around my room I was still unsure if I was actually awake. For a split second I had even sworn I'd seen a tall, strange figure with glowing eyes near my closet door but after blinking a few more times the room was completely empty. My muscles protested the attempts to sit up and ached like I'd been up all night, which was impossible as I'd passed out after several hours of driving to get back to my apartment.
"Sleep paralysis... nothing unusual." I shrugged off the event and glanced over at my phone, which was finally charged.

Zac's frantic messages and unanswered calls from the past two days greeted me as I unlocked the screen. It wasn't surprising given I hadn't met with him after reaching out asking him to meet me, though the sheer number was a little overboard. What was unusual, however, was the newest voicemail I'd received; the date listed from this morning... from Tim. I hovered over the button to hear the message, unsure if I'd get garbled static or a threat.

"He can't know it was me..." I put the phone to my ear and listened.

Tim's voice seemed distressed but otherwise kept a neutral tone throughout the message. "Ashley, we need to talk. Meet me at the park around noon tomorrow."

The voicemail ended and I sat my phone down. I wasn't sure I wanted to meet him, not after what I did. "He knows... He has to know... I don't know how, but... he remembers and connected some dots..."

I glanced at the time, relief going through me when I saw it was a few hours past noon. "Doubt he's still there... I shouldn't worry about it- unless he'd be more suspicious if I didn't respond? No, no... it's fine."

I gave a small hiss of pain as I pushed myself further out of bed and looked down at my wrist to find a clean cut design with dried blood around it. I'd seen the symbol before- The Operator's circle with an X through it- but this one was different than those; mine had a diamond shape around the circle. I couldn't be sure what it meant or why I now had one but it probably didn't mean anything good. For now, all I could do was clean it off and ignore it.

I got ready for the day and settled down on the couch with Angel sleeping on the vent nearby, her eyes cracking open occasionally to check on what I was doing. She would usually join me and I couldn't help but wonder just how sick she was despite the vet's observation. I ran a hand through my hair and forced myself to focus on the one thing I could deal with right now: finding a new apartment.

Most of my searches were for places in nearby towns given how much easier it would be to move things but as I continued to look at the screen I began wondering if I should go farther away. I doubted it would get the proxies off my back for long, moving in general probably wouldn't, but I didn't want to stay in the same area my friends lived in- assuming any of them managed to survive. I made note of some cheaper places to check out that were about a day's drive from here and wiped the browser history. It was unlikely anyone would've used it to track where I was going but I decided to do it just in case.

"I'll have to leave Angel here alone..." I looked over to her as she stretched and slowly followed me to my room so I could pack. "I'm sure I could get her into a hotel but... I don't want to stress her out in a car or risk her getting lost. She'll be fine alone- hopefully. She was when I was in that damn forest."

I picked her up and looked at the darkening coloration in her one eye; it was bigger than before but not by much. "I wish I could do something..."

Angel stretched out a paw and placed it on my nose as she continued to stare at me and I gave a small smile before putting her down on my bed and getting the small pile of things I'd have to bring with me. If everything went well- no proxies or faceless demons showing up- then I'd only be gone two days. After that I'd have to decide whether to actually move to any of those places or not.

***

I woke up in my hotel room to the sound of someone knocking on the door. At first all I could do was simply stare at the door in confusion; it couldn't be the cleaning crew, as it was much too early and I knew I'd put the do not disturb sign up after checking in last night. The knocking ceased and didn't return so I uneasily shrugged it off as someone just having the wrong room number... then I heard the sound of something crinkling as it was forced under the door. I tensed and stared at the paper, my stomach already churning at the knowledge they'd found me so easily.

"How? No one knew where I was going... Did someone follow me? I should've paid more attention." I nervously stood up and flipped on the light while staring down at the small note. "I should just throw it away..."

Curiosity got the best of me once I picked it up and my sickened feeling got worse when I read it: You are lost. They are gone.

The Operator sign crossed out several crudely drawn faces. I crumpled up the paper and chucked it in the trash, a scowl on my face. "I didn't kill them! ...I didn't... They were alive when I ran off... I don't- I can't believe they're all dead."

Mallory's broken body flashed through my mind and I gritted my teeth, a hand grabbing a fist full of my hair. "Stop! Please... She was still alive...! I didn't... I didn't want to do that..."

At this point there was no use trying to go back to sleep so I merely began getting ready for the day and making sure everything else was packed and ready to leave. I could only hope whoever had left the note would be gone by the time I left. Strangely, my alarm never went off while I was getting ready and looking at my phone revealed it had already been turned off. I simply assumed I'd done it as I was packing before getting ready.

I shook off the doubts and slid the small device into my pocket before walking downstairs and checking out. My muscles tensed up as I walked out to my car; I could feel someone watching me. Even worse I found another note was on the windshield of my car along with an empty pill bottle on the ground.

"What...?" I grumbled and pulled the small paper free and crumpled it up into a ball while kicking the orange bottle aside. I could feel someone watching me. "What do they want?"

I managed to catch a glimpse of yellow disappearing around the corner of the building as I checked my surroundings. It wasn't hard to guess who it was, as impossible as it seemed for him to be alive, but decided against following him and got into the car. I risked looking away from the corner he'd disappeared from to turn on the gps on my phone and select the route I'd saved. Another movement in the corner of my eye made me jerk my head back up to stare out the window but this time it was merely another person walking from the hotel to their car. I shook my head and began driving, annoyed I was getting so paranoid over everything.

My suspicion rose however after the directions began taking me further out of town and into the country around it. The apartments I'd planned to look at were in a town over so I didn't think too much of it at first until it suddenly told me to turn into a small gravel lot for a park. There wasn't anywhere else for me to stop and check my gps given the several cars behind me so I had no choice but to obey and stop my car after haphazardly parking in one of the spaces.

I immediately looked at my phone and was surprised to see my route had been replaced by this one destination. "When did that- what that this morning? That guy in the yellow hoodie... Why did he knock on my door to give me a note if he was able to get in- oh shit, that man was actually in my hotel room! What the hell?"

I glanced around at the plain looking landscape in front of me. "Rosswood Park huh? Don't know why they'd want me to come here and hike- actually I'd bet it would be to kill me or something... Did they really think I'd just get out and go into the woods?"

I laughed a bit at the hole in the man's plan before putting the car in reverse and glancing back. The smirk faded from my face when I saw the man in the yellow hoodie standing behind my car. The man tilted his head slightly as he stared back at me from under the mask he wore but didn't move.

"Could just run him over... How did he even get here? Was he waiting- he had to be the one who changed my gps destination." I glared and turned off my car before getting out and turning to him. "What do you want!?"

He continued with his unnerving stare for a moment before darting forward and snatching my keys from me while I flinched away. The man didn't even slow his stride as he bolted towards the forest, clearly aware I'd have to follow him if I wanted to leave. I hesitated to follow however, as I doubted chasing him would be worth getting my keys back, before giving in and running after him.

"I can't involve anyone else, even for just a ride anymore. Not after Mallory..." I picked up my pace to a full on sprint, barely slowing as I broke through the trees and onto a poorly maintained path.

The man had already managed to put distance between us and ducked off the trail before fleeing deeper into the trees. I could barely see him as I continued following him; his yellow jacket weaving through the trees was the only way I could tell I was still going in the right direction. Eventually I couldn't keep up and began slowing down despite my best efforts to keep going. My breathing sounded more like ragged gasps for air as I tried to catch my breath.

"Shit." I realized I couldn't hear the man running anymore nor could I see him. I leaned against the nearest tree and coughed before glancing around. "...How do I get out of here?"

I looked back one last time in the direction he'd gone before slowly trudging back in the general direction I'd come from, hoping to eventually make it back to that path. It was already getting difficult to see despite how early in the day it had been when I got here- the oddity of how fast it had gotten dark didn't slip by me and I tried to pick up the pace as a feeling of dread creeped up in the back of my mind.

The exit never appeared and it was too dark to keep moving- I hadn't even managed to find a path that might lead me out. The light of my phone barely helped light anything around me, which left me blindly stumbling through the trees hoping I didn't trip over anything. Each snap made me jump and I wondered if it was the man in the hoodie watching me... or something worse. Once more I mentally cursed myself for following the man into the woods and eventually found a semi decent spot to rest for the night- not that I'd likely be getting much sleep between jumping at every sound and the uncomfortable ground.