Nightmares woke me up again... I guess I fell asleep at my desk, just after my last entry last night.
It's almost become a routine. They still scare me but I guess they don't surprise me.
So I moved myself to bed, and laid there for a while. I don't know how long. But eventually, I heard Dad starting to stir downstairs. I want to go down and share breakfast with him, but I don't move.
Everything seems so slow and still, but when I finally decide to get out of bed, it is past lunchtime... I go to my door, and listen through it for a second, before opening it slowly. Dad is nowhere in sight, and even though I do want to see him, I am relieved. On the floor, in front of the door, he left a bowl of pasta and a bottle of water... I bring them inside, but after trying to eat, I just feel nauseous. I push the bowl away.
At my desk, I reach for the next tape, in defeat. Got to get it over with... The label says ‘Oct 30th 1949 - Afternoon’.
Here is the conversion:
On the tape, Uncle Phil sounds defeated.
"You and me, Uncle Phil..."
I say out loud. I can't decide anymore if it is terrifying to experience the same things he did, or feel comforted in the idea that I am not alone...
He realises the thing in the mirror is looking more like Uncle Phil than he does himself. It keeps on haunting him and taunting him. To make sure of it, he checks himself on a mirror just outside of the room, and he is terrified to see that he looks like how he described the reflection on the very first day. He ends the tape with a frightful declaration:
Yes, he has taken my form. God pity me! I've taken his! I slunk back to the room in horror. Back to his laughter and the hell that is now my existence. God knows what to-morrow will bring!
I feel it too... The ending of it all. Tomorrow... Somehow I just know that I will be freed from this story. But I have the same apprehension as Uncle Phil. Am I hoping for salvation, or will something very bad happen... I have no way to know... Tomorrow will come soon enough.
Next instalment October 31st
The Westerly Tapes is a Halloween Horror by Julia Mersobian and Nathan Schulz, for The Drama Merchant, based on the short story by Paul Compton.
The voice of Westerly is performed by Kent Lee