There were other messages from the same address. All of them your typical spam. Enlargement pills, Nigerian Princes, the whole lot. This was the only one he responded to. These were found from my father’s email, the day of the event.
From: [redacted]
Sent: Monday, May 7, 2018, 4:01 AM
To: John Goodchurch
Subject: naughty naughty
>please regard my english.
>i have hacked your phone and have recorded videos of you abusing yourself to illicit material.
>shame shame.
>also haves videos that you abused self to.
>send me $300 in bitcoin to bitcoin address in attached word doc
>or I will send videos of you with links to material that you abuse self to all of your friends,
>family and coworkers.
>u have 24 hours to comply.
John Goodchurch
To: [redacted]
Re: naughty naughty
>Nice try asshole.
>I’m not falling for that.
>Under no circumstances am I going to open up that attachment,
>I know it is probably a virus.
>Try harder next time.
>Peace,
>Sent from my iPhone
>Rev. Goodchurch
[Redacted]
To: John Goodchurch
Re: naughty naughty
>Fair enough Rev. Goodchurch, fair enough.
>We will do away with the facade then.
>By the end of the day, you will open our attachment.
>As of this writing, it is 12:00 PM.
>You normally get home around 4?
>Tell me, what time does Daniel normally get home from school?
>You have eighteen hours to comply.
>Return to the forest.
>[Redacted].
I was summoned to the office that day. The principal told me that she received a call from my father, said that he was coming to pick me up. There was some sort of family emergency. My mind raced at a manic pace. What could have happened? Was someone in my family about to die? They had no further information.
That’s because it was all lies.
So, I waited outside. The spring sun was warm on the back of my neck, and if it weren’t for the anxiety I was feeling as I worried about an unknown family emergency it would have been very pleasant.
I felt the chill before I saw Its shadow. Its vibrating, malicious shadow.
Then there was nothing but darkness. I was out cold.
John Goodchurch
To: [redacted]
Re: naughty naughty
>WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY SON?!
>WHO ARE YOU?!
>Sent from my iPhone
>Rev. Goodchurch
[Redacted]
To: John Goodchurch
Re: naughty naughty
>Oh, we have your attention then?
>Your son isn’t safe, but then, he never truly was, was he?
>We are your retainers, Rev. Goodchurch.
>We are very disappointed.
>You will not see your son alive again,
>but that does not mean that he will not live.
>Go to the cops and we will kill him.
>Open the attachment.
>Return to the forest, John.
>[Redacted].
John Goodchurch
To: [redacted]
Re: naughty naughty
>What do you want?
>Why are you doing this?
>WHERE IS MY SON?
>Sent from my iPhone
>Rev. Goodchurch
I have no idea how I got there. I have no idea how long I was there. One moment I am fretting under the sun in my school parking lot, the next I am fighting off the burden of sleep surrounded by darkness. No, that’s not right. In darkness. In.
I shouted for help and was startled by the sound of my own animalistic desperation.
Something squirmed beneath me, something tightened around my ankles. I felt a chill ride down the small of my back. The darkness was total. The darkness was complete.
[Redacted]
To: John Goodchurch
Re: naughty naughty
>We want your debts paid, good reverend.
>We want them paid in full.
>Do you not remember what we did for you?
>Do you not remember how we made it go away?
>Tell us, was the child the only one?
>Has Daniel ever met the same fate?
>Has the affectionate touch of his father ever turned grotesque?
>He is far from grace, good Reverend.
>Even here He will not dare to look.
>You have fourteen hours.
>Return to the forest.
>[Redacted].
There were moments where I honestly did not know if my eyes were open or shut. I felt no ground beneath me. Felt nothing around me. Only the coiling of something cold as it constricted around me. After crying, after shouting, after struggling with whatever was holding me I prayed. I prayed out loud. Each holy word was like chewing on salted glass.
I heard laughing. Hollow and mocking.
John Goodchurch
To: [redacted]
Re: naughty naughty
>Lies.
>Whatever you have been told it is lies.
>Whatever you want, just tell me, just bring my son home!
>I can wire you money right now.
>How much do you want?
>I have $50,000 that I can wire right now.
>Just bring me my child back home!
>Sent from my iPhone
>Rev. Goodchurch
[Redacted]
To: John Goodchurch
Re: naughty naughty
>What use is your money to us?
>Silly creature.
>You remember.
>The ways you treated your lambs,
>the ways that you preyed on them!
>You were always careful to keep them quiet.
>Always careful to shame them into silence with the Lord’s name.
>You will do well to return to the forest.
>We can be monsters together.
>Three hours.
>[Redacted].
I slept. I dreamed of primitive eyes. Black as the abyss and filled with the ineffable. I dreamed of no gods. I dreamed of the shattered edge of the universe. When I woke, the darkness was somehow worse.
It was hard to breathe. I remember my face being raw from tears. I remember the feelings of hopelessness beginning to feel comforting.
The grip around me slackened just a bit. I surged forward with all of my desperate energy. But in an instant, the restraint tightened its grip. The smell of acrid wood burnt my nostrils, the dead and cold feeling of bark as it tightened around my body. My chest felt like it was going to collapse under Its squeeze. I fought for air.
I lost.
I dreamed of primitive eyes.
John Goodchurch
To: [redacted]
Re: naughty naughty
>THAT’S WHAT THE DOCUMENT IS?
>YOU ACTUALLY THINK I AM GOING TO PRINT THIS OUT?
>THIS IS LUNACY!
>Sent from my iPhone
>Rev. Goodchurch
[Redacted]
To: John Goodchurch
Re: naughty naughty
>No, John, it is payment.
>You came to us, you begged for a deal.
>We took the child, battered bruised and abused,
>we strangled his parent’s memories because you asked us to.
>We were happy to just sleep.
>The deal was clear.
>The roots will be wet with the blood from your male line.
>It can be yours, or it can be your son’s.
>We do not care.
>You have an hour.
>[Redacted].
The hard feeling of ground was at once comforting and somehow unfamiliar. I was just outside home. No longer was the crushing sensation of death gripping me in a complete abyss. I came to, and I came to at home.
I have never ran inside faster. I have never locked the door with more urgency. I cried out for my father, I ran to his study.
I found him dead with a gun in his mouth, clutching his suicide note, detailing his regrets, chronicling his sins.
The terrible things he had done to the children.
I no longer dream.
The original /nosleep.
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