A Journal of Warning

“JOHN ASTLY”

That was the name scratched into the cover of the journal I found one stormy day walking home from high school. The name looked almost as if it had been scratched in by ones own finger nails. Who am I? That’s not really all that important. I guess I can tell you, my name is Alex and I am 18 years old, and as far as I know, I have lived an ordinary life, not really believing in the super natural just like like most people, but what I’m about to tell you… it makes even me question how I feel.

One stormy day after school, I was walking home after hanging back with my friends while they waited for their rides home. Walking home my normal rout, something caught my eye. As I stated before, It was a journal with the name “John Astly” nailed into its cover, the only other notable feature on the outside was its odd amount of dust having been out in the open. It was taking refuge under a tree, untouched by this dreary weather. I don’t know what possessed me to do so, but I went over and picked it up. Being somewhat of a book worm, I thought maybe it was some sort of horror story that I could read over this long and damp weekend.

As soon as I got home, I went in my room with it, and eager to find out whom the protagonist might be, and what kind of tail he has to tell. Maybe it would be a mass murderer with some sort of twisted sense of justice, or maybe it was about some sort of vigilante looking to rid the streets of crime. Those were just my initial thoughts at the time.

As I opened the dusty journal, I was shocked to find out it was all handwritten. I had thought that the journal look was just all part of the cover, but no, it was in fact an ACTUALL journal. I hesitated at first, thinking that whom ever this might belong to wouldn't want me to know their secrets, but I shrugged it off thinking “finders keepers, right?” So read it I did, and I almost wish I hadn't…

“My name is John Astly. I am 18 years old.-”

The same age as me, I thought as I read on;

“-If you are reading this, that means that they got me and that I am either dead or one of them, either just as bad. This all started about five years ago, when the Soviets and Americans began war on one another, and the nuclear missile bombings began. It was hell on earth, or so we thought, not knowing that soon a greater hell would rise from the ashes. The nuclear missiles devastated many cities all over the world, even in countries that had no business being attacked. It caused many deaths, and as we would soon find out, an even greater after effect. We didn’t know, no, NO ONE knew, that underneath the soil lay a greater evil that would doom us all. Somewhere in Egypt, low below all the sand was buried not too far from Cairo, was a strange structure. No one knew of it till after Cairo was destroyed leaving a large crater uncovering this sort of structure. I’m not too familiar with the details as I was young at the time and only know what I was told, but it was said to be made of some unknown material never before found on Earth. It was a large circle about a mile in diameter, written around it weird symbols looking to be some sort of language. It was said that a small group of people discovered this when looking through the remains. What happened next would be the beginning of the end of all of us…”

There seemed to be some sort of red stains at the bottom of the page, but I read on;

“As curiosity got the best of them, as if often dose with us humans, they decided to examine the large mystery circle, and that’s how IT started…the end of all life… All it took was one touch by one of them, and it glowed a crimson red inside the circle, the letters illuminated as well. This was the beginning. From the circle, came…HIM…that shadowy figure…like a tall disfigured silhouette of a human…his glowing red eyes…that seem to burn right through you… He is the destroyer of worlds…no…the destroyer of DIMENSIONS! He himself exists outside of time and space, waiting to be brought forth wherever he might to wreak havoc. It was then that he released…the black mist… All it takes is one breath of this black mist, and it, he, consumes your soul. You could try and fight it, hell, I knew a guy who was able to hold it off for a whole 5 months until succumbing to it. First, it takes your heart, blackening your blood, then it twists your mind, making you go insane, then your eyes begin to rot away in your very sockets, but only darkness is seen inside as your blackened blood drips. Once the procession is completed, your one of his…puppets…sure you can still talk, breath, hear, and somehow even see, but your only a twisted shadow of your former self willing to do whatever HE wills you to do…even if its…killing your very own friend and person who loved you so very much…”

That part was smudged slightly as if some sort of moisture had touched it.

“After that, the black mist follows you wherever you go. We counteract the mist using gas masks, but still, the “fallen ones”, as we call them, still manage to pin you down and force it inside you. We tried resisting, rising up against HIM, but it only failed miserably… You cant stop him once he is unleashed, your best chances are to pray to whatever god you believe in that has not yet forsaken you and take your own life. As I am writing this, they are closing in on me. I shall make my last stand as one of the very last humans left, if not the last entirely. I hope that somehow, in some way, this can get to another dimension and warn whomever this journal may find and its people of their impending doom, although I don’t see how it would, maybe its just wishful thinking. My name is John Astly, and I shall die knowing I was human.”

Scratched on the inside of the very back were the following words;

“WHEN CHAOS RISES HE SHALL COME TO CREATE THE WORLD ANEW IN HIS IMAGE”

This journal is a warning to us all of what has yet to come. I only hope that this world shall never know the suffering that is spoken of in this journal, and although I may not be a religious man by any means, I pray to god every night that this shall never happen.