The Evacuation (new version)

JOURNAL ENTRY 01 (September 11 2016)

Hello everyone. I'm making this journal hoping to make known to the world these horrible events that have plagued my life and the ones of my life-time companions.  I live in an old block, the place where I was born and where I suppose I will count my last moments. Now, let me introduce you to the world I live in.

As time passes, I start feeling lonelier. The set of apartments I live in has never been a nice place to stay. The lights on the hallways are dim and when one goes out it takes months before anyone comes to repair it and there are carvings in the walls that make out words. However, the worst part of this block is some of the residents. At night, the best thing to do is to lock yourself in your flat and stay with a bat near your bed in case anyone decides to give you a visit. Of course, nobody would kill you, but they would still cause you harm.

Some residents used to say it was actually fun to live here, but later they left. I still remember when one drunk man jumped in my apartment with a knife, wanting to steal something or maybe even worse. I think I was eleven when that happened and thankfully my father put him down. I still remember his malevolent smile and his mad eyes. The man wasn't taken away and he still lived in the block up until the bottles got the best of him and, once when drunker than usual, he fell on the stairs and cracked his head, dying.

From this year on a lot of murders took place in my block. Yesterday, a woman was found dead in the elevator. It It was proven that has been strangled to death, but there are no prints. We swore not to use the elevator ever again, except for one guy who left not long after hearing about this murder.

At this moment, there are just seven apartments in this block where people live: Gregory's, Joseph's, Gina's and Clara's (they live together), Michael's, Lisa's, Bruce's and mine.Gregory lives next to my apartment, on the seventh floor. He is one of the friendliest people in this entire neighbourhood. He links the murder of this woman to the disappearence of the little girl two week ago (after a few days following the incident, her parents left) and to the death of Larry, who was found dead at the entrance with his eyes gouged out.

To this day, Gregory remains my only good friend in here.

Goodbye for now.

JOURNAL ENTRY 02 (September 13 2016)

Today I sat with Gregory in his welcoming flat and we discussed the major problems we were facing. Of course, there is no bigger problem than the murderer who moves freely around our block. Greg always pointed out the vague similarities between the murders. The people were always strangled in some way, no matter if this was the cause of death or not. And that there were never prints of the killer found. Greg had a notebook that he claimed to be full of information regarding the murders, but he never let me see it. I asked him about a local musician and he ddidn’t even finish his sentence, as there was a knocking on the entrance door. Gregory got up to answer. I went to the entrance and found Lisa. She said that Joseph asked for me to go to his flat for us to talk. I ran there in a hurry. This guy hated me so I knew it had to be interesting. I found him in his living room, dressed in his usual dusty suit and looking at a photo of his dead friend.

"Henry, what do you think is going on in here?" he asked.

"I don’t know, sir. Do you?"

"Look, Henry, the policeman who I called yesterday said he needs more evidence to catch this damn murderer. Now, I know you dislike me in the same way I disliked you since you were just a kid randomly running around here with your big-mouthed parents. But if we want to survive and get justice, we must stick together. Now, first I would like us to visit the two girls that live on the last floor. I just can't fuckin' handle them by myself!"

I knew what he meant. These young women were always agitated and impolite. I agreed to go with him, shook his hand and went to see Gina and Clara. I observed that he slowly changed his behaviour as the situation worsened. We went up the stairs, over rivers of dirt and I asked myself again: how did my parents get in this hellhole? They said it was better in the past, but it just couldn't get so bad.When we arrived at their apartment and knocked, Clara opened the door, welcoming us with her cute, but uncaring smile and while dressed as if she was going to a party. Joseph began to talk and asked about Gina. She said her 'sister' left to get a gun so they could defend themselves if the killer attacked. Her laughing tone made us question where her girlfriend really was. After we convinced her that we weren't the murderers, she let us enter. We didn't even make ourselves comfortable and Joseph started questioning her.

The "interview" didn't lead anywhere and while I was dead certain that she was hiding something, I didn't thinkshe killed anyone. Well, it looks like me and my friend will have to solve the mess. I hope.

JOURNAL ENTRY 03 (September 16 2016)

Nothing too interesting happened in the last couple of days. I was yesterday at Gregory's apartment to see why his T.V. was no longer working and we discussed like some detectives while we were fixing it. It's now working properly.

While writing, a light bulb started flickering furiously in my room. I stopped in mid-sentence and went to see what's wrong with it. When I approched the bulb, the flickering stopped and the bulb worked as if nothing had ever happened to it since then. Well, I'm sure something's not right with this block. Or maybe I'm just getting paranoic because of the murders.

JOURNAL ENTRY 04 (September 18 2016)

I went to Joseph's apartment again. In the last time, he started being more open to visitors. I told him that we should call a local policeman or detective and ask him/her to interview all the residents since there are so few people in here. He agreed and he called a policeman from the neighbourhood named Yohann. He took us one by one in an abandoned flat where he talked to each of us about an hour.

I'll tell you how it went for me. I was told to sit on a chair and he just put me different questions, apparently unrelated, while writing in his notebook. Among others, he asked me if I was the killer and if I felt in love with anyone living here. I responded with a strong "No!" both times. Unfortunitely, I think my agitation made him suspicious. He also asked for my opinion on the killer and I preety much told him Gregory's theory, adding that it can't be him or me.

After he left without pointing out to a possible murderer, I asked the other residents about their interrogations. Besides Bruce, Gina and Clara, they were willing to talk about that, but it turned out that the story was preety similiar for all of them.

JOURNAL ENTRY 05 (September 21 2016)

Well, this day was trully tragical. Two more people died and Gregory moved to my apartment from fear. But let's start from the beginning:

It all started in the evening. I was sitting in my sofa, thinking about the events that took place in the last time and I realised that I don't have a gun. Fastly, I rose from the sofa, wanting to get out of the building and take one before I get killed.

As I prepared to leave a knocking made me wince. I took a baseball bat and went to the door, looking through the spyglass. It was Joseph. His eyes were full of fear. I opened the door and he spilled everything,

"Bruce is dead! I just saw him in the elevator! Oh, my God."

"Wait, what? He's dead?" I asked frightened.

"Yes! He was fuckin' decapitated! I can't believe what's happening in this fuckin' block!"

Then I saw that Joseph was holding a pistol. I suddenly felt the need to hide, but then he turned away and left in a hurry. I took my head out of the apartment and looked after him. Joseph was going up the stairs. Against my better judgement, I decided to follow him. I ran after him on the stairs. Suddenly, he stopped. Then he pointed the gun at me and I raised my hands without dropping the bat.

"Where are you going?" I asked him.

"To see the bitches!" Joseph answered.

He turned again and continued on his way. We reached the last floor and Joseph walked up to the women's apartment and knocked furiously on the door. Clara opened the door and Joseph busted in.Gina pointed her gun at him and then Joseph pointed his at her. I stood in the doorway and watched, ready to run if it turned to the worst.

"Clara, leave the room!" Joseph shouted.

She did and then Joseph turned his attention towards Gina. Joseph said:

"I know you did it."

"And what are you gonna do, huh? Hand me to the cops?"

"No. Before I do that, you might do a lot more. I will kill you right now."

"Who are you to judge me?"

I watched in silence, expecting the worst, but hoping that [he’d just put the gun down. Suddenly, he pulled the trigger and the bullet penetrated her neck. Clara screamed. Gina lost her grip on the gun, putting her hands around her neck, before hitting the floor, dead. Clara, trembling, ran to the stairs, starting to cry. I was getting terrified and as I turned, my face met Joseph's, angrier than I've ever seen him. Frowning, he studied me. I thought I might be also giving him an ugly look, but I tried to control my expression and just show bewilderment. I asked him:

"Are you sure it was her?"

"Yes! That bitch is finally dead!"

He tried to calm down. He was breathing hard while I watched him and wondered what really brought him to that conclusion. Then he looked me in the eyes and said:

"Do you know where Clara left?"

"I seriously don't know."

At that moment, my position changed. I was no longer Joseph's ally, I was supposed to stop him from killing us all while Clara called the cops. He turned to leave, but I felt the need to do something, so I grabbed his shoulder and he pointed the pistol at me. I raised my hands and watched him, sure that he was going insane.

"Please don't tell me you wanna kill her too."

Joseph smiled with trickery, looking at me like a psychopath, then went to the ladder. I knew what he wanted: to kill others. I decided to stop him without reckoning. So, I grabbed his foot. He fell to the ground and I picked up my bat and strongly hit him on the back, then on his head. As he seemed to tighten his grip on the gun, I hit his right arm, shouting for him to give the gun to me. I do not know how many times I hit his hand, I think about 5 times, but eventually he let the gun go and I grabbed it. Finally, I was in control of the situation.

"Calm down, Joseph. I don't want you to kill anybody. We do not have proof!"

"Then tell me, smartass, who did it?"

"I don't know, Joseph, but do you realise that you just fuckin' killed a person?"

Joseph stood up and looked at me. He studied me. Did he... think I was the killer? I waited for him to turn, but he didn't.

"Do you think I'm gonna show you my back while you have a gun pointed at me?"

He was right, but I was right too to keep the gun pointed at him.

"And what are you gonna do?"

"I'll wait before the cops come here and find you pointing a gun at me."

Son of a bitch!

"I'll throw the gun, but you will turn and leave after that."

"All right. But do not throw it at your feet and let me take the bat."

It wasn’t going to get any better, really.

"All right. You take the bat, but then step back. I'll throw the gun, but don't try to look after it, sir."

I raised my left hand to give him the bat. He just looked at me for a few seconds, then he yanked the bat from my hand and carefully stepped back. I started wondering if this was really a good idea. I looked at him and he looked back at me without any expression on his face. I threw the pistol to my right and it hit a wall. Now Joseph started smiling and he turned, running down the stairs in a hurry.

I waited there. I sat on the floor and thought if he could or could not be right. Then I heard a scream. It was a desperate scream and then everything turned quiet. I was too afraid to leave this floor. I sat there, looking at the stairs, trying to sight anyone coming in, humane or not. I heard footsteps, shouts and hits. But I stayed there unmoving, just turning to the doors of the apartments around me for a short time. Then Lisa came up and I stared at her. She came to me with a shattered look and approched me. I raised and she moaned in my ear that Joseph murdered Clara. Apparently, Clara had locked herself in her apartment but Joseph hit the door up until it broke and he went in and killed her. Gregory and Michael restrained him and she called the police who took him in custody.

In these moments of grief and horror, I think the only escape for me and other people from here who have a soul is leaving this structure in a hurry and with the joys and hardships to walk toward a new life elsewhere.But the overwhelming problem remains: I am not rich enough to get a new apartment and I think the others are like me, otherwise they wouldn't have been here for such a long time.

My friend, Gregory, is seriously disturbed. I try to calm him down, but he just seems to be getting worse. Sometimes he starts to tremble as if he was ill and shout things I no longer want to hear. Gregory begged me to allow him to sleep in my apartment and in the same bed as me and I agreed, as I was very scared too.

JOURNAL ENTRY 06 (September 22 2016)

Okay. Maybe this will be my last entry. I don't know what's going to happen. I hope it'll be fine.I was in my bedroom with Gregory. I stayed at the computer and I heard him going to the hallway. Then he opened the door to the entrance and I heard a deafening shriek. I was so scared that for the moment I just couldn't move. Then I quickly hid under my bed and tried to not make a sound. My pistol was in the living room, God damn it! I have to get out of the bedroom and get the pistol.

The bedroom door was open, whoever passed by the door also passed by my sight. The lights in the hallway turned off. Then someone stepped by the door, moving to the living room. It was a human shape, but not one that I recognised. I waited and waited for him to reappear, but he just wouldn't show up again.

I write this while constantly turning, afraid someone would enter the room and kill me. Each second I feel like someone is behind me, preparing to grab and throw me on the floor from where I will be dragged in the darkness that has enveloped this building. I have to go to the living room and get my gun, but I am too afraid for now.

Maybe that creature took it? I think I know what's going on in here. It's a disturbance that caused people to be so mad sometimes, destroying their characters and making whole new people and now, it's reaching a climax. Maybe the shadow was Gregory and now he feels the need to kill me. I realise that...

We were cursed.

I hear footsteps. Wish me luck.