Heart Breaker

July 17

This is Jasmine Waterson, a private investigator. It was reported that 17 year old, Marie Duran, went missing two days ago when camping with her family up in the mountains to celebrate her birthday. Her mother states that she ran off into the forest after a fight with her. She went after her but a fire soon broke out and caused the family members to flee, leaving behind Marie. There was no sign of Marie after the fire was put out which puts us into the position of labeling her as a missing person. There are no clues as of now toward her whereabouts.

July 19

It has been four days since the disappearance of Marie. There is still no trace of her that she is anywhere in or near the forest nor any clues of where she could be. After talking with her family, I found that she was a talented girl. She was an artist and a writer whom acted in plays at her high school. But, unfortunately, that leads me no closer to her whereabouts.

July 20

I decided to go ahead and look at her school records to see if she had any struggle. Sometimes a child may run away because of family issues, being overwhelmed by school, or being bullied in any way. Looking through her records, I found that she had struggled in quite a few classes as she grew up. Although she had low grades, it seemed she wasn’t  because she lacked intelligence, it was because she rarely turned in work. The only reason I suspect this is because the assignments she did turn in had really high scores and her test scores were most excellent.The one thing that makes me question is that at the end of freshman year, her records show that she hadn’t been in school for the last few weeks. For her sophomore and junior year, she  attended a new school. What happened between then?

July 21

While talking to her former teachers, I found that she was indeed a bright student. She did, as I suspected, only had low grades because of her lack of turning in work. But by looking beneath the records, I found that she had to move schools because of an incident involving another student. From talking to her family members and friends, they explained that she wasn’t an aggressive individual so she might not have gotten into any physical transactions. I need to talk to the people involved in the event…

July 23

After talking to previous counselors, her family and her case manager, I have roughly made together what happened between the end of school to the end of the summer. Marie went to her counselor one day in order to “take out her frustrations”, as her mom says. She was mad and let out some of her anger upon a student, specifically, the student body president of freshman class council. Her words were twisted around by her counselor, Mrs. Florenca, which unfortunately sent her to a mental hospital for 5 days. After that, she was kicked out the school and was put under watch, saying that she was not allowed to be alone unless watched by an adult. After a week or two after she left the hospital, she returned for change of medication and to be monitored around others. Soon after leaving the second time, she was diagnosed with depression with psychotic features.Looking at all this information, I feel like I’m getting in too deep with this case.

July 26

I don’t know why, I haven’t been able to sleep normally for the past few nights… I think it’s because of this case. Ever since I started investigating the Marie Duran case, I’ve been feeling like I’m being watched. I keep seeing things running at the corner of my eyes. This case and my personal life are starting to get to me. This is not good, considering others are starting to notice. People at work have been asking me if I’ve been sleeping enough or if I’m alright. I’m currently writing this at 2:34 am. I woke up just a few minutes ago and I’m starting to feel like I’m being watched again. I’m going to start putting something by my bed just in case…

July 28

My boss brought me into his office today. I guess another employe was worried and brought it up to him. He told me that he thinks I’ve been working too hard on this case. I don’t know, maybe I am but at the time, I denied the fact. He simply told me that I should get some time off, a week or two. I knew that I shouldn’t argue with him so I accepted the day off. He also said that he wouldn’t mark it off on my record and that he would still pay me. I’m glad that I have a great boss.After I left the office, I told myself that it wouldn’t be so bad to have this time off. I did have that invitation with my brother and his wife up to the mountains for the week. Now that I have the time off, I could finally spend time with my brother and get to know his wife a bit more.

July 30

I know that I shouldn’t be on the computer while I’m camping. You know, get in touch with nature and all that but I felt as though I would feel better with it on me. Especially with the fact that I still want to be in touch with the case. Even though they passed the case onto an intern to make sure everything is in order, filed and up to date until I return but I hate the idea of letting someone else do my work.Although I’ve been keeping in touch with my job, I was still able to have time with my brother. We went fishing in the lake, hiking and bird watching. I also got to talk to his wife, Amberly. She wanted to join us but her having a child and all. It limits her activities. But, either way, I am still happy to be with them.

July 31

Yesterday, as I forgot to note, I found a trail that went astray from the original path. Me and my brother were about to go but, unfortunately, didn’t have enough time. So, today I decided to go alone so I could give them some alone time. I planned to be on the path from 7 am til sundown if it was that long so I brought 4 water bottles, granola bars, a flashlight (in case I don’t get back before sundown), and some other supplies in case I ran into trouble. I left at precisely 6:46 and went down the original path until I found the desolate path. It was dirty and almost didn’t look like a path but after walking about 5 minutes into it, it totally clears up. I thought was very strange but I didn’t think about it for long. In all truth, it’s a lot more pretty than the original path. It went by a much greener area of the woods where many different flowers grew and looked more lively with animals. I even saw a doe on the walk.

But as I was walking, I felt that strange sense again. I felt like I was being watched. Although I felt this way, I ignored it and continuing walking. After a few minutes, however, I began to hear, what sounded like, footsteps from behind me. My logical side, of course, explained that it could be that doe from before but my mind went astray from logic. I would turn around every once and a while just to see anything but, of course, I wouldn’t see any sort of creature behind me.

It was like this until the fourth or fifth time. In the distance, I faintly saw the shape of a human, I couldn’t get anything much than they had some sort of sweater and long hair. They seemed to notice me looking at them and quickly ran off.I ran as fast as I could to the direction they ran. Unfortunately, it strayed from the path and soon enough, I lost her track and found myself in an unfamiliar area. I was in the middle of a grassy field. It wasn’t anything special but it was calming.I was about to turn and try to find my way back to the trail but I suddenly thought that I should check the area to make sure that they were truly gone. Since it was only 2, I decided to do so. For about the next few minutes, I looked around. As soon as I was about to leave, I saw something shine from the corner of my eye. I went to investigate and found what frightened me. It was a well maintained dagger. Not just any dagger but with very curvy edges and at the very tip of the handle was a crescent moon. I had never seen anything like it but what scared me was if the person whom ran away was actually carrying this.

I wasn’t exactly sure about this until I thought deeper. This path must have been pretty old if the beginning was such a mess and the rest was more nature like than the original trail. That and the fact that this place was no where near the original trail so it couldn’t have possibly been visited recently. So if the last person who visited this place dropped it, it would have indeed been rusted and not at all in such a condition. Before I could hesitate any further, I picked up the dagger, put it inside my bag and proceeded onward back to the path.

After I returned to the path, I quickly went toward the campsite and told my brother about the encounter although I left out the dagger in the conversation. After that experience, I have decided to return home that same evening.

August 4

Ever since I came home from the trip, I’ve been feeling more and more paranoid. I thought that the stress from the case was the problem but I guess now I know that someone is actually out there, following me. I’ve been hiding the dagger in a safe in my room. I tried to find any fingerprints of any sort that could lead me to its owner but to no avail. All evidence of its owner that ever was on it, is gone. The only fingerprints on it was mine. How could that be?Every time I would go out, I’d feel watched and when I’d return home, I would find things out of place. It first started off as very minor things, such as a cupboard open or a picture out of place. But now it’s starting to be more ‘aggressive’. There would be pillows thrown about and tables turned. I don’t know how that would be. I have a home security system that detects if someone has tried to open the doors or windows. I make sure all of them are locked before I leave the house. I even have a camera in the living room, where most of the action would take place. I constantly check the cameras but it turns to static for a few seconds then everything is thrown about. They must be hacking into my cameras somehow…

August 5

I was woken up by some sort of commotion downstairs. It was about 2:32 am and I knew that if I was quiet enough, I’d be able to catch the person. I slowly went down the stairs, making sure I don’t make any noise. However, when I looked in the living room, I found nothing but again items thrown about. I quickly went to check the camera and found something disturbing.

It started about a few minutes after I fell asleep. I saw someone sitting on the couch but it was too dark to see any details. All that I could really make out was that they were looking at the staircase. After a few minutes, they got up and started to look around. After a minute, they seemed to look at the camera. It went black for a few seconds and random text flashed through the screen. Then it went back to normal, showing the room torn apart and me entering.

After I slowed the images down, I was able to find what the text says.

“Return what you have stolen”

“You have no choice”

“With love”

I need to find out who this person is before this any danger happens.

August 8

I haven’t left the house… I have been keeping everything locked and blinds closed… I have been putting up cameras around my home… I don’t feel safe… I don’t want to move but is there any other choice? I feel like this person is teasing me… They haven’t been showing up. They haven’t been messing with my cameras. Everything has been in place. Do they think it’s some sort of game? I don’t know…

I haven’t gotten much sleep either. I fear they will come and attack me… My work has been trying to call me, asking me where I am or if I’m okay… I haven’t been answering… I’m really tired… I can’t keep my eyes open...

August 9

I fell asleep and I regret it. I passed out on the couch and when I woke up at about 3 am, my computer was showing what was live on my cameras and I saw them. They were in my room, staring straight at the camera for a good minute. It glitched and showed text here and there but it never covered her face all the while. They had a red mask on, resembling a heart. It wasn’t just a regular heart, the design of it had cracks, one running straight down the mask and more proceeding from the main crack, one running straight through the eye. They looked very feminine with long brown hair pulled up into a ponytail, side bangs that slightly covered her right eye, ‘eyelashes’ marked on the mask, dark red lips and large hazel green eyes staring at the screen. They wore a red tank top, showing off her feminine figure although some of it was covered by the leather jacket they wore.I quickly jumped off the couch and ran to my room, only to find nothing but my bed, closet, drawers, and an open safe with a note inside. I proceeded to the safe and looked at the note.

“Thanks for keeping my baby safe...

See you soon Jas."

On the back was a simple drawing of a heart with a crack in the middle.

I have to leave as soon as possible… It’s not safe here anymore….

August 13

Since the person broke into my house and stole ‘their’ dagger, I have left my house and lived in a motel. The only things I brought with me was this computer and a gun that I purchased. I haven’t left the room for much but to eat and to get some light exercise. I don’t know how long it will be until that thing finds me. But I’m going to hide it out for as long as I could….

My cameras haven’t been turned off and are still linked to my computer so I’ve been able to keep watch of my house. I haven’t seen them enter my house ever since August 9. After looking at the footage from that day, I again slowed down the video to find out what the text said.

“Seems like you made a mistake, Jasmine...”

August 15

After she came home from eating, she was shocked to find me on her bed. I remember looking at that young face of hers. How frightened she was...

She always kept her gun inside her purse so right as she saw me, she pulled out her gun. I tilted my head, a hidden smirk underneath my mask. I had my flame dagger in my hand, plain enough for her to see. She pulled the trigger but nothing was released. I chuckled while taking off my jacket, “You really think you could hide a gun away from me?”She was frightened and right was she was about to run to the door, I teleported in front of her.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I pinned her down, making her movement very limited.

“Why are you doing this to me," she exclaimed in question.

I tilted my head again and chuckled, thinking of the question. She really doesn’t get it does she?

“I think you already know that answer…”, I pulled out my dagger, holding her wrists with one hand pinned above her head. I saw tears fill her eyes and I laughed at her reaction. I couldn’t believe that she thinks that I would feel any remorse for her.

“Please….” she stated with sorrow, looking into my eyes.

I relaxed my arms a bit, she looked at me as though she thought that I might let her go. I laughed and raised the dagger and plunged it straight through her heart. She cried in pain and I laughed, pulling out the dagger and plunging it back in. Her warm blood began squirting out of her exposed heart, making it cover my skin and mask. After a minute, I stopped and stood above her plunging my hand into her chest and ripped out her still beating heart. She was still breathing, barely, and looked at me, with tears running down her face as blood continued to pour out of her body. I watched her as the exposed heart stop in my hands and her life slowly leave her body.

Before she lost consciousness, she looked at me and weakly said her final words, “Why…”

I put one of my gloved fingers to her mouth, silencing her.

“Shhh, you won’t miss it anyways~”