Felicia woke up to a knock at the door; the fog of drowsiness slowly fading over the course of the following several seconds. Just long enough for her to reach the door, press her eye near the peephole, and still require a moment for everything to come into complete focus. Identifying her guest, she quickly unchained the door and opened it. "Hey. Come in." Felicia said quietly, almost whispering. She pulled the door open just enough for the tall, lanky man waiting outside to slip through. His name was Max. He and Felicia went way back; all the way to fourth grade, when they were in the same classroom. Their friendship had stayed platonic ever since, which always surprised Felicia. Even through college, which they had both recently graduated from. "Oh crap, did I wake you? I figured you'd be up, it's after noon."  She closed the door quickly behind him. "Don't worry about it. I couldn't sleep last night." "Ah, right, the big day is toda...

If you missed Part I, start with that  here . You can find Part II here . Part III: The Cellar As Charlie turned, his eyes were drawn to a single billboard on the wall in the corner opposite him. It was the only object in the entire room, save for a naked incandescent light bulb hanging from the center of the ceiling. The lone window in the room appeared to be painted black, and was fully opaque. As he walked cautiously to the billboard across the room, the floorboards creaked slightly under his weight. This farmhouse was indeed old. After a short ten paces, he had reached the other corner of the room. He peered at the papers tacked onto the billboard. They were news articles from a wide range of years; the oldest one he found was 1964, and the most recent was from only last year. Each of the articles had a similar theme: a disappearance without a trace. People from all different ages had disappeared with no explanation. Most notable, as Charlie read through the articles, was...

If you missed Part I, you can check that out here ! Part II: The Dark Room The black sedan raced down the two-lane highway, swerving abruptly as it navigated around slower cars in front of it. With each pass in the oncoming lane, Charlie was jerked back and forth in his seat. This had been going on for close to an hour now, and he wanted to start finding some answers. "So," he started carefully, gauging whether he would be able to have a conversation with the Stranger or if he would be having a conversation with himself. "Slow drivers, huh? Guess you can't escape them anywhere you go." "Indeed," responded the Stranger, not taking his eyes off of the road in front of them. "Sorry, I know you're probably a little busy right now, but I have a lot of questions--" "I know, and I do apologize for the abruptness of our arrival. Due to events out of our control, we felt we needed to act quickly to ensure your safety." My s...

Charlie held the knife firmly in his hand. He stood, slightly crouched, peering carefully around the wall of his living room and out the window. Where is it? he thought to himself, scanning the short distance from the start of the backyard to the thick woods beyond. He had been in the middle of cooking a late dinner consisting of macaroni and cheese. Very classy, indeed. The truth was, he had lost track of time playing video games for the past six hours and was desperate for anything edible. He had wanted to get back to his TV and finish the game he was playing with little delay. But that had suddenly changed as the pot of water was heating up and he wandered over to the oversized window that stretched horizontally across most of the exterior wall of the living room. He had... seen something. Whatever it was was looking right at him. Its eyes had reflected the light of the house, but only for a second or two. Then it was gone. As Charlie glanced from corner to corner of the y...