Another short absence

I was trying to find a tape player that still works, and then a way to get the recording onto my computer. I ended up having to pay a guy to do it. I did a little looking into it, and it seems that this came from a somewhat-local psychiatric institution in Crownsville, MD.

It's... probably best you listen for yourself:

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Whoah, man.

Sorry about the extended silence, the police have been giving me shit about that box in Grandpa's attic. This one guy, Inspector Calston or something, his eyes didn't look right. Almost kind of like how an animal's eyes shine in the moonlight. Like a cat's. And he only seems to work the graveyard shift.

Good news, though, I got a lead on Adam! An anonymous tipper told me he saw a kind like that walking with someone dressed like a friar later that same year, so my search continues!

This is probably a really bad idea

But I've begun reading the blogs of the people that follow me. A rabbit mask, someone calling themselves Iscasomethin' Archangel, a drunk girl talking about a Gentleman?

What the hell's going on, guys? Is this just some sort of group in-joke, a horror writing club that found my blog and wants to incorporate it into their... game, I guess?

I don't have any kids for today, my house was broken into and the box is missing. I can't tell the police about it, because I get the feeling a lot of that stuff wasn't supposed to be in Grandad's attic.

Adam Stark

Alright, this one is... a deviation from the norm. It's the only one in this entire box that isn't local. Hell, it's not even from the same part of the country.

So, apparently I was... evaluated? It better not have to do with work, I'd just taken my last evaluations less than a week ago. That was just plain strange, really. I guess I'll look into it?

Lately, when I go out for walks, or ride to work, I've been seeing flitting movements out of the corner of my eye. And not, like, birds flying around or animals. It's... I really can't explain it, but it's freaky.

So, back to today's clipping. It's actually really badly-burned, I wouldn't have been able to make it out if Grandad hadn't written what he thinks is the full thing down. Neither of us were able to salvage the city name, though.

"December 12, 2010

[UNKNOWN], Indiana

Local law enforcement has been left boggled by the sudden disappearance of 7-year-old Adam Stark on August 23, 2010. His parents claimed he had gone to the magazine stand to get a magazine as a reward for a week of good behavior, but when he hadn't returned to them when they arrived at the checkout line, they became concerned.

[This next section was marked by Grandad as speculative, because it was so badly-charred]

Other shoppers claim to have seen him walking in something of a daze, and snapped out of it when a young man, suspected to be Damien O'Connor, allegedly tripped him. These shoppers heard about Stark's disappearance, and seemed adamant that O'Connor had kidnapped him.

Police confirmed that O'Connor was a suspect in several unrelated killings, but were unwilling to comment as to whether or not he was a suspect in today's kidnapping.”

Huh. That's a lot more disconcerting than I thought. I stumbled on a website referencing a guy by that name. Must be a hell of a coincidence.

Kaitlyn and Andrew Monroe

Excuse the language, but holy shit! I was riding home from work today on my scooter (yeah, I know, but it's like three bucks to top it off and that's good news with gas as expensive as it is) and almost crashed. Some hunched-over guy in a ratty black hoodie and torn-up jeans ran out in front of me on Brock Bridge... almost like he was loping or lunging. And something about his eyes... Ah, I can't place it. Never mind. I'm home, safe and sound, and that's what matters, right?

Okay, here we go.

'February 17, 1983. Laurel, MD

Tragedy struck Main Street today as an attempted robbery ended in the kidnapping of a six-year-old girl and her five-year-old brother by armed gunmen. The two men, identified as a Caucasian male in his 30s and a black male in his early 20s, had been attempting to rob [I can't make out the store name, unfortunately, it's too badly faded] at noon, when Kaitlyn and Andrew Monroe, 6 and 5 respectively, ran towards the men. Their father, Robert, 43, was working the register and had a gun trained on him.

When Robert finally agreed to an interview, he remarked on seeing a tall man with long limbs wearing a suit. The gunmen seemed to keep looking back at this man, who lurked just outside the store. When questioned, Monroe could not reliably identify the man's features—every time he visited a sketch artist, the face ended up completely different. The sketch artist seemed confused, and also went on record as saying that the faces were extremely indistinct—each was different but remained the perfect everyman, someone people wouldn't be able to pick out of a lineup of one.

Monroe has put a $1,000 reward out for anyone who can give him reliable information on the whereabouts of his son and daughter.'

On the bottom of the article, someone had scribbled “Kaitlyn found, hanging in back of jewelery store. Age 12. Andrew thought to be ID'd in Laurel, March 1995, wearing black hoodie and old jeans.”

Andrew is alive, at least as of 1995. If you know someone by that name, or knew of a boy who dressed like that during that time period who answered to Andrew, please leave a comment so we can work on finding his whereabouts.

Hailey Mullins

You don't know who I am. And that's not really important. I'm not doing this for recognition, and I'm not doing this for acclaim. I'm doing this, because there has to be some chance some of these people are still out there, lost, maybe wondering if they'll be reunited with the people they were taken away from.

You know how, sometimes, you find things in the most unexpected places that prompt you to act in ways you never thought you could?

Would you believe that I found an entire box of missing persons reports and newspaper clippings in my grandfather's attic? They date all the way back to the 1970s, and they're all from Laurel, Maryland. All local, an entire box of them.

My grandad was a private investigator, he usually handled missing children reports. I lived with him until I turned 18, and then I moved in with a friend from high school. I just got a call last week that Grandad was dead... he'd spent a week in Crownsville, a psych ward, talking about a gentleman and a girl that hung herself. The doctors think he was having flashbacks of his father and his sister, who hung herself in August, 1957.

Some of these are really weird, so let's go with the best bets first. Numbers have been redacted, and the names of the publications have been ommited (as well as the headlines), because the point is to look for these kids, not to feed the trolls with publications and grieving parents ripe for prank-calling.

July 7, 1998. Lee's Market at Brock Bridge Road in Laurel, Maryland.

'Jennifer Mullins, mother of two, reported her daughter, 5-year-old Hailey, missing after using the restroom while at Lee's Market. She claimed to be purchasing sodas for her children and a six-pack of Budweiser for herself for a coworker's fortieth birthday party.

When questioned, Mullins revealed that she had left her children in the car, that it was running, and that it was unlocked. The store clerk admitted that he was going to call the police, but that a tall man in a well-pressed suit was standing near the vehicle. He had assumed the individual was a family friend or a coworker, if not the father.'

If you've met someone named Hailey Mullins, or if you've got any information about what happened that day, please leave a comment so that we can talk. There's a young woman out there, somewhere, wondering if her mother and brother even remember her.