Entry 8

Last night was abhorrent and terrifying. After I extinguished the flame of my candle I attempted to return to my slumber, but would not be grated such a privilege. The noise that I believed to be the penning of my quill was not of that origin. Throughout the night the sound of incessant clawing at the walls filled my ears. The more disturbing part was that the sound possessed no distinct origin; rather it seemed to be exuded from all directions. After an hour or so passed, I finally drifted off to sleep. I wish I had an explanation, but my ability to reason and analyze the situation and the finer details was clouded by my overbearing terror at the time.

More startling than this, though is the peculiar state in which I found my study this morning. When I woke up, I quickly moved in to the site, seeking an immediate sense of security after last night’s events. All of the objects and books remained exactly as I had left them; as expected. The odd case was the chess board that I had left on its designated table. I distinctly remember moving only one piece last night and I double checked my suspicions to be correct using this text. What was puzzling was that in addition to the white piece that I had moved, a black piece had also been moved. Knight to C-6.

I spent the first portion of the day monitoring the chess set. So many questions have arisen. How was this piece moved? How could they have gotten in here without my notice? Could this be related to the mystery phantom I encountered the other day? Are the clawing noises related to this in any way? But the one question that burned in my brain, more so than any other, I should be regarding as the least important – what will my next move be? After long deliberation, I loosely defined a strategy in my mind. Knight to H-3.

Following my mandate, I returned to the area in which I had sighted the man. There was no notable change in any way, but I would not be deterred. I closely examined places where I believed he had walked and where he would have walked if he had continued on his path. The path I had used on that day was a route I did not typically traverse, and since then I had not used it. Sprawled across the hallway that he moved through was an old carpet. One of the things I searched for were disturbances in the carpet thread’s alignment. I found none that would correlate with the man’s footsteps. Reexamining the room he had entered I took great care not to overlook any details or disturb any objects, yet I still found nothing that would point to his existence in any way, shape or form. This was truly a mystery.

Unbeknownst to me, the day was already fading into night when I had finally given up my investigation. I hadn’t even visited my father’s grave and the sun had already retreated too far to grant me proper sight. Tomorrow I would have to make up for lost time. What was even more startling was that I hadn’t eaten anything yet that day and I felt no tinge of hunger. To ensure my health I opted to forcibly eat something before I went to bed. I can only imagine what tomorrow will hold.