Work Text:
Prologue
Hello. I’m Rosalie Crocker. I got a diary for my birthday yesterday. I started writing now because I was wandering around my neighborhood when I noticed something sticking out of the dirt in the backyard of my next door neighbor’s house. They had recently moved around a month ago and the new owners of the house were not home at the time. I decided to sneak into the yard and dig whatever it was up. After some digging around, I found a book. It’s strange. I can’t read what it says just yet. I wonder…what does it say?
I turn the dirty pages and open it. As the dust and grime falls off of it, the front cover is revealed.
All it says is “Diary”
I begin to wonder whose diary this is…and now, I write about it in this diary.
September 18th, 2025-Chapter 1
I wiped the dirt off with my hand and tried my best to recover the book; it seemed quite old, despite not being so (as I later found out).
“Hello. If you are reading this, you have found the book I buried. I am currently 14. Something crazy happened. I can’t let people know what I have discovered yet. If he finds out, he’ll find us. I’ll explain later. I moved to a different house, which is why you are finding this book. I abandoned where I used to live and left this book in the backyard.”
What the heck? What is this…
I became even more curious, turning the page, but the dust and dirt flying from the pages made me cough.
I continued reading.
“Please, do not tell anyone if you find this book somehow. The next page will tell you, but please proceed with caution. This needs to be kept a secret. If you need to find me, my name is…”
The name was covered in a stain of some unknown substance. I couldn’t make out any of the name except for “c⍳–-a rပg–-s”, and I’m not sure if that’s an r or an f. I think an r.
But I continued to try to uncover the name of the person writing in this mysterious diary.
I couldn’t stop myself from wanting to know more, so I turned the page, careful not to be near windows or places where people could see this.
“Alright. I found a building in the forest. It had nobody inside from what I could see, but I tried to go inside to take a look. I kicked on the door, the leaves covering the ground, and the uncut grass up to my shins. I kicked it some more, and the door budged open. It was a little building, near the house where I’m burying this book. I found that the windows were trying to hide the inside, as they had black sheets covering them. I thought it was abandoned, but I walked through the quiet building, and my steps sounded loud in the environment. The wallpaper was old, probably something out of the 1930s or earlier; it was torn. I heard the wood floor creaking, and then turned a corner from the hallway I walked through, and saw a door. I heard a voice coming from it. “Hello?” it called out, it sounded like a girl. Then I heard more voices calling. “Open the door!” and I did just that. The doorknob slowly turned, and sweat dripped down my face. I was nervous to say the least. The door opened to reveal a set of stairs in a dark room, only lit up by my flashlight. I walked down cautiously and found 3 people. Or at least they seemed to be people in the dark. My flashlight is starting to run out of battery, so I refilled it with extra batteries. To my horror, it was 3 kids around my age or so, hiding in this room. I asked why they were here. They told me they were hiding from someone who was planning to do some terrible things to the town. I asked how long they had been hiding. They hesitated to answer until the youngest kid, a boy who looked around 12 years old, answered. “We’ve been here for a year, surviving off of canned food we brought and the rooms we found in this old building. I don’t know how long we have to stay, but that man is going to make us participate in that strange experiment to make…those..creatures.” I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to be an experiment for making monsters. What the hell? Was this an elaborate prank, or was it really true?”
My eyes widened. The date on the page…I didn’t even check how long ago this was written.
“July 9th, 2025”
It’s currently September 18th, 2025. I heard stories about a strange man, nobody really knew his name, but he lived 4 houses down from me. I wondered if maybe that was him. I kept reading.
“They told me they found out from papers in his house explaining his plan with his name written on it. They went to check out the house of the ‘weird guy’ as a dare when he wasn’t home, and realized if they didn’t hide soon, they’d fall into the guy’s trap.”
How did I not know of this? How did nobody else know but these kids and this random girl? I have so many questions, I have to keep reading…
“They didn’t say much more. I am going to bury this book now and come back to hide there. I will let you know that the man had kidnapped the kids’ parents and experimented on them already. We must hide to escape the same fate. He wants to make us into monsters to showcase us to the world and mark them as a ‘discovery’ that he found, rather than made.”
I have to go there and hide. I would investigate more, but I’m scared that if I do, I’ll join the fate of those kids’ parents.
I think I finished reading the diary she wrote, so I closed it.
“Rosalie! I made PB&J!”
Can’t say no to a PB&J. Maybe I should get my backpack to stash some things after I eat it, though.
I walked into the kitchen, and my mother handed me the sandwich.
As I ate it, my mom asked me various questions, like “How was school? Did you make new friends? Is 9th grade fun?” etc, etc.
I answered it like normal, “Yes, a few, I guess it’s kinda fun.”
Then something caught me off guard.
“So, you know our neighbor 4 houses down? Well, I found out his name is Mr.Thorne. He said he wanted to see if I could help him with cleaning his house if he paid me. I’m not sure if I should take it, but he seems nice enough.”
Oh god no.
“Mom, I know you’re short on money right now and need to find a gig for some since you can’t find a good-paying job, but I swear there are better ways. I don’t trust him.”
“Honey, you haven’t even met him. Give him a chance. I’ll be fine. Here, I’ll be back within 3 hours. Lock the doors.”
Oh god, I really hope that she’ll be okay…or that she ends up not taking the money and cleaning it, but…
I have a feeling it won’t go as I’m hoping.
I grab my stuff, pack my phone, a charger, a portable charger (port), batteries, some cans of knock-off Chef Boyardee,a flashlight, and some refillable water, stuffing it in my backpack and wolfing down the rest of my sandwich, chugging the rest of my apple juice. I had to run quickly. I couldn’t stop my mom from going there, even if I tried (which I did); she’s too stubborn and will take anything at this point for some money.
September 18th, 2025-Chapter 2
I adjusted my backpack straps and tried my best to run, though it was harder with how heavy it became with those supplies inside.
I quickly ran into the woods and buried the book under some dirt and put a pile of leaves on top. After some more running, I eventually found a strange-looking building, similar to the one described in the diary. I prayed it was the same building, so I could make sure that the kids were still alive and okay. I don’t want them to be dead, even if I don’t know them.
I opened the door, and sure enough, it was exactly like the girl had described.
The wooden floors, the black sheets on the windows, the old, torn wallpaper…it was all there. I walked down and found the door that she had found, and opened it slowly. I heard voices calling.
“Another person?”
“Did someone else find out?”
I answered the questions as I walked down into the dark room. I saw 4 kids there.
“Yes, another person. I found out from the diary one of you guys buried. Don’t worry, I buried it here in the woods when I was done reading it.”
I learned the kids’ names. Here I’ll describe how they look and their ages, youngest to oldest. They had brought clothes with them to change into over time. Today they were wearing what I describe:
12 yrs old: Caleb Moore (short, dark brown hair, blue sweater, green eyes, khaki pants, and round glasses. Short for his age.)
13 yrs old: Penelope Baker (Curly ginger hair, blue eyes, freckles, green hoodie, black leggings. Average height.)
14 yrs old: Liam Edwards (Blonde long hair, brown eyes, red cardigan, boot-cut blue jeans, quite tall.)
14 yrs old: Clara Rogers (Writer of the diary, strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes, brown sweater, flared jeans, and freckles. She was a bit shorter than me.)
I was the fifth kid hiding here so far. There may be more people if someone else finds the book or stumbles upon this building.
I hope we have enough supplies for it.
And room.
I sigh and set my stuff down, sitting on the cold, wooden floor. There’s a hint of that “Wood” smell (if you know what I’m talking about). I noticed the walls didn’t have wallpaper, or at least didn’t have a pattern, but rather a cream colored paint, which was a contrast to the other section of the building.. The ceiling was pretty low to the ground, and we locked the door just in case something happened. I learned they unlocked it when they heard footsteps of someone who sounded like they weren’t Mr.Thorne, and were more likely to if they sounded around 9-16 years old. I grabbed my orange sweatshirt out of my backpack and put it on. The room was getting quite cold. This September wasn’t the warmest. It was quite chilly, actually. There was no heating system from what we could tell, so when it was summer, they had to deal with that.
God, that’s gonna suck.
“So, what’s your name?” asked Liam.
“My name? Well, I’m Rosalie. I’m 14.” I replied.
I shifted around nervously and fidgeted with my sweatshirt.
“Cool! Well, do you want a tour?” queried Penelope.
“I think I’ve seen everything. I don’t wanna make you guys do that.” I smiled and giggled sheepishly.
“You sure? It’s not a problem, really.” Clara interjected.
“I’m fine.”
“Okay. I think Penelope really wanted to give a tour, though. She’s happy to meet new people and stuff, you know.” assured Caleb.
“Well, what do we do in here?” I asked the 4. I was beginning to get sort of bored.
“We just sit here until we do dinner and stuff, I mean…if you have your phone, you can use that, but it’s guaranteed to run out of battery unless you have a portable charger and batteries to power the charger. There are no working outlets since we have no power.” Added Clara.
“I did bring batteries and all of that stuff just in case. Right now, my phone is at 52%. I should be able to use it until I run out of batteries for the charger.” I replied.
We waited and waited and waited…until something could be done. I realized I didn’t think to call the police yet. Dang it, I must be stupid.
“I think we should call the police and let them know about this. If it doesn’t pick up, I can’t just go out of here. My mom is probably gone, and I’d be at risk if I just went back to my house. They’d see me. I have to hope and pray they can pick up.” I said worriedly.
“We were going to call the police, but none of us brought our phones since we knew they’d die,” said Liam.
“Plus, I don’t know if the WiFi would pick up from this far away,” he added.
“Usually, you can call them without WiFi, and it’ll pick up the nearest network. Not a bad idea to still try,” I suggested.
I dialed 911 on my phone and waited. The nearest WiFi network was at least 3 miles away. For context, this place was FAR into the woods. The phone rang over and over; waiting, hoping for it to pick up. Was it busy at the station? Were there really no networks close enough? We were in the middle of the woods, far from houses other than this building, to be fair…but can it really be that hopeless?
“9-1-....whaat–sss…emer-ge—cy—?” It came out as very low-quality audio and was glitched as the signal was weak.
“There’s a man named Mr.Thorne living 4 houses down from my address who has kidnapped my mother and the parents of 4 other kids.”
“O–o—dear!---what—your–addres–ssss?”
“Uhm…85 West…Philmont Lane.”
“Okay,--is-i—81…philmont—la—ne..the—house?”
“Yes! Yes! Please, we think it’s him! He had asked our parents to work for him, and they didn’t come back from there!”
“We–heading—the-rrr…–now”
“Stay here and tell us if you see anything, if possible. We’re hiding in a building together, so that’s why our signal is so bad. We can’t risk telling you where. Just let us know what happens.”
The call continued, and the police agreed they could try and tell them.
Since the police station was about 15 minutes away, while the houses were around 10, the signal gradually got better, and we could understand more.
“Open up! Police!”
“...”
“Open up! Or we’ll come in here ourselves!”
“FINE!” answered a man, who I was 99.9% sure was Mr.Thorne.
I heard the door opening over the call, and then the sound of arguing between them when they handcuffed him. Once another police officer took him into custody to be questioned later, the other stayed through the call.
“I’m searching his house, okay? If I see any of them, I’ll tell you.”
All I could hear soon was the sound of grotesque squelching noises accompanied by the sound of garbling. Then I heard a shrilling scream from the officer, but the call continued. I heard the sound of the monster again, and I think it grabbed the car of the other officer since it took a bit to get Mr. Thorne to get in the car, since he wouldn’t cooperate-meaning the car hadn’t started yet. I’m scared of what happened. Did he really turn one of our parents…or worse…all of our parents into monsters already? Or did he just make one himself and make it torture them? I’m not sure yet, but it seems it's the first option, judging by his plan they found from a year ago.
It could be the latter, though, since it was so long ago that the plan was made,or at least found. It could’ve been even earlier when he made the plan.
Well, there goes our luck with having the law involved. We’re pretty much sure that both officers were killed, or at least taken inside the house by that monster.
How can we get out of here now? Are we stuck hiding forever? How long do we have to be here? How long until he gets in trouble? When are we finally safe?
I have so many questions that I can’t get answers to.
And I hate how they’ll be left unanswered for a long time.
Would I rather die of boredom or die from going back out and being killed by that monster?
Boredom.
Looks like I’m staying here with these kids.
At least these kids are nice, and I’ve already made good friends with them.
We’ll have to tough this out until we get an update somehow.
I hope that I don’t get in trouble for calling that thing a monster.
Because it could be my mom.
Or it could be the mom or dad of Penelope, Caleb, Liam, or Clara.
And that terrifies me.
Because if he can do that to them, I can’t imagine what he’d do if he got ahold of us.
The thought of that is a bit much to bear.
I can’t imagine wanting to see my mom again and having to see her as a monster.
She wouldn’t be herself.
I wouldn’t be able to get her back.
I don’t want to lose her like I lost my dad.
God, I’m crying now.
I wiped up my tears quickly, though. I have to stay strong.
I hate how this had to happen in the first place.
Sorry that I’m writing so little of the actual dialogue and stuff, but I needed to get my thoughts down.
“Hey, what are you writing?” asked Caleb, his brunette hair swaying as his head turned inquisitively.
“Uhm… It's a…diary! Just..you know…like Clara’s!” the words came out frantically from my mouth.
Why am I so freaking shy? He asked me such a simple question!!!
This is why I can’t seem to make friends easily.
I keep messing up like this.
“Rosalie, are you alright?” asked Penelope. She was very kind to me and the others. I’m lucky that she’s so nice. Wait, did I already say that? Nevermind.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just shy, that's all. I don’t do the best talking to new people..haha.” I cringed, clutching my knees to my chest.
“Hey, if you don’t want to talk…that’s fine,” added Liam.
“No, no, I can still talk, I just…you know.”
We started getting hungry, so I suggested we eat dinner.
“I brought some cans of this ravioli stuff, wanna share?”
“Sure,” the group agreed.
We ate the cold ravioli and shared stories about life before all of this.
“Hey, remember when we went to the beach together and you got a seashell in your hair, so I tried to get it out, and you yelled at me?”
“Liam, what the heck! Why are you mentioning that?” yelled an embarrassed Caleb. They had known one another since 1st grade, apparently.
“Good thing you can’t say anything embarrassing about me since I’ve been here for a couple of hours, and nothing about Clara since she’s been here a couple of months.” I said confidently.
Well, guess that ounce of confidence I had would be crushed immediately, because they had something to say about me AND Clara.
“Well, Clara…remember when you spilled your food on your pants?”
“Dang it, Liam! How are you the ‘embarrassing moment call-outs’ master?!?” I asked, frustrated.
“Well, I just remember stuff. Wanna hear what I have to say about you?”
“No, I-”
“WEEEEEELLLL, remember how you had a crush on that blonde-haired kid in your class and all of our class knew about it after you told your friend and she told everyone? That kid was me, ROSALIE!!”
“That was fifth grade…we don’t even go to the same middle school anymore!”
“Still happened.”
My cheeks flushed red in embarrassment. I guess I WOULD rather die by that monster killing me at this point. It’d save me from the embarrassment of being with my 5th-grade crush who KNOWS I embarrassed myself in front of EVERYONE!
I sighed and laughed it off. Nothing to worry about. I need to calm down.
“So where do we sleep?” I asked after we conversed some more.
“I brought sleeping bags, I think we had 2 extras. Clara took one of them. You can have the last one.” Replied Liam.
“How…uhm…do you fall asleep with all of..this…happening?” I was still nervous talking to him after that whole..’thing’...
I can’t keep worrying about that.
I already told myself not to…
“Hey Rosalie! It’s getting late now, get in your sleeping bag!” Chirped Penelope.
My eyes widened. Had I been here that long already? I mean, I knew it was late, but not that late.
“How do you know, I mean, other than outside.” I then inquired.
“I have a watch.”
“Oh, that makes more sense then, Penelope.”
We crawled into our sleeping bags and tried to fall asleep.
I just stared at the ceiling.
I tried everything to fall asleep, but I just couldn’t.
The others were already asleep, so I just waited until morning.
September 19th, 2025-Chapter 3
Penelope was the first to wake up. It’s now 8:32 am, September 19th, 2025.
I need to keep track of the date so I can have this documented.
The others were still asleep, so we both went into the small bathroom that was connected. Since we didn’t have power, they used water from the creek nearby, along with the plunger to flush it. (I was curious how they did that, so I wrote it down.)
Penelope and I chatted in the bathroom so we didn’t wake the others.
I said I was getting hungry again, but she said we need to save food, and we normally only have lunch and dinner. So I guess I’ll have to deal with being hungry in the morning. Fine by me.
Soon enough, Clara woke up.
“What are you two talking about?” she asked.
“Ehh, nothing really. Just getting to know this place and all of that stuff.” I answered.
“Oh, okay!” Clara said with a smile.
Penelope and Clara seemed to get along well, both were quite cheery.
Unlike me. I mean, I can be, but not usually.
I took a deep exhale and reminded myself that it’s fine if I don’t do amazing with the others. We are friends, but we just met yesterday, after all.
I looked at Penelope’s watch and realized it’s already 9:34. A whole hour and two minutes had passed.
Dang, time really flew by when we were just chattering with each other.
I’m still wondering what the heck is going on outside of here. It’s probably a wasteland of empty houses at this rate…unless that monster is sparing people.
Which I doubt.
Soon enough, Caleb and Liam woke up, and my sleep deprivation got to me. I was starting to get tired.
I’m gonna go to bed now.
Goodbye sleep schedule!...
Haha.
September 20th, 2025-Chapter 3
I woke up. Turns out I slept through that whole day and am STARVING. Looks like I’ll have to eat half a can of ravioli instead of a fifth of it. Sorry about that.
It was really good, but that might just be from me being really hungry.
I suggested maybe we should go outside and see if everyone really is gone.
They said it’s not a good idea.
Caleb has started developing a sort of hatred toward Liam.
I’m not sure why. He didn’t really do anything but embarrass him ONCE.
He keeps bickering with Liam. Clara, Penelope, and I keep having to break up the fights.
They haven’t gotten physical yet.
You see, Caleb and Penelope were the first two here.
Then came Liam only a week later.
Then came Clara.
Then me.
Hopefully things don’t get worse. It’s only been this long, after all.
“Please, I need to see if anyone else is alive. I hate being isolated here.” I call out desperately.
“It’s only been a little while for you! Maybe if you were here an entire year we’d understand, but…” Liam paused,
“I don’t think it’s a good idea if you are this desperate to leave this early on.” he added.
I slump down back onto the floor after pacing around, and sigh.
How am I gonna stay here for this long?
Sigh…
I hope my sleep schedule isn’t really gonna be that bad from one night.
September 30th, 2025-Chapter 4
I stopped writing for a couple days. Things were pretty boring so that’s why.
Today we ran out of ravioli, but we have a lot of food left.
I’m not sure what to put here, honestly. We usually have been sitting around and chatting about random stuff. That’s the reason why I didn’t write in the first place.
I keep wanting to go outside. I’ve told them a million times we need to see outside, but we haven’t left the bunker. Who knows what could be outside, anyway?
I guess I understand why, it’s just hard to.
I realized I don’t really write dialogue as much as I did before. I’m more worried about writing my thoughts now I guess.
So it’s been a few hours and Liam and Caleb just punched one another in the face. They were arguing about something stupid (I didn’t hear all the details)
Luckily, it didn’t go past that. Clara and Penelope had to break it up because I was in the bathroom.
I noticed Caleb’s mouth was slightly swollen from being hit in the cheek.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
Liam looked annoyed that I was more worried about him since he started the fight. I think they shouldn’t have been fighting because Caleb is younger and Liam could easily hurt him more, but I don’t really know for sure.
“Uhm…I think one of my teeth got knocked out-”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”
“How could you do that, LIAM??”
“You started it!”
The constant bickering was getting exhausting.
Sometimes I wish I could always sleep through the day. I’m so ✱✱✱✱ing tired of this.
Bordom, hiding, eating dinner, chatting, it’s become a cycle and if I’m already this upset about it I don’t know how I can stay here.
Am I repeating my old thoughts?
I keep thinking the same things I guess.
Ugh…
The tooth was 6 away from his two front teeth- on the right. It was bleeding a lot, so we used a rag to clean the floor of the blood that dripped onto its surface, and tried to comfort him.
Liam was still quite bitter, but I let him know we weren’t trying to ignore him, rather that Caleb needed the medical attention we could try and give.
October 1st, 2025-Chapter 4
It was still extremely sore for him so he did end up crying in pain in the middle of the night, though most of us slept through it. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. I just hope it doesn’t get infected.
I don’t blame him. I felt bad for him, but he did start the fight after all.
I should probably stop worrying about that so much. It’s done and over with.
I took a deep breath, calming myself down.
Clara and Penelope were both up before me and were chatting about random stuff from what I heard. I don’t know, I just got up so I didn’t really pay attention.
Liam was lying in his sleeping bag, but was awake.
Caleb was still half asleep and was going to doze off after not sleeping that night.
I told Penelope and Clara to be a bit quieter because he was sleeping and they nodded but continued, this time whispering. I went over to Liam’s sleeping bag and tapped his shoulder gently.
“What do you want?” asked Liam, groggily.
“Uhm…are you doing alright?” I answered.
“Yeah, just…I don’t know. You ever wanna sleep through all of this and dream away until you forget we have to…you know…be here?” Liam queried. It was a strange question to ask right after that, but I guess he had a lot on his mind.
“Yeah, I have.” I replied. I thought about this yesterday-I think…
Is that a pun? If it is, that's not intended.
“Well, uhm… I actually thought that exactly.”
“Oh. Dang.” he replied.
“So, what do we do now?” echoed in my mind, uncertainty about where to go next was something I’ve been thinking about a lot.
“At some point, we really should try going outside. We can’t hide here forever and expect to save anyone if we just stay here like cowards…I mean-y-you’re not a coward, of course! And..uhm…they aren’t either!..Sorry…I uhm..” I stuttered as I realized my sentence may have been offensive to them, and I began thinking I made them upset.
“Rosalie, rosalie! You’re fine, calm down.” said Penelope, her hand on my shoulder. I flinched for a second at the sudden feeling of fingers on my shoulder, before exhaling and realizing it was okay.
“Do you have anxiety or something? You’ve been acting really nervous a lot.” added a concerned Clara.
I looked back at Clara and Penelope, and I nodded slightly.
“Yeah, I just didn’t take my medication here, so I’m kind of…worse than normal.” I replied.
“Oh, okay then. Well, we heard you talking about needing to go outside at some point. While I agree, we’d have to spend a bit more time planning before we can really decide on that.”
Penelope looked at Clara when she finished talking, then opened her mouth.
“True. If we go outside without a good plan, we’re bound to get injured, caught, or possibly even die.”
“You’re right. How about we plan right now?”
I realized I was a bit loud when I said that, and had woken up Caleb.
“OWWWW! Ugh…it hurts!”
I heard Caleb’s voice echoing out with moans of pain, and we all came to see if he was okay.
The rag we used to cover the wound where a tooth once was had been covered in dried-up blood and strongly smelt like saliva and iron. It went from blue to being tinted with a scarlet red that all of us could clearly see was more blood than we thought would leave his mouth.
“Here, something must’ve happened to make you bleed that much, a knocked out tooth couldn’t have been that bad. Could you open your mouth, Caleb?”
Clara was trying to be the “medic” of the group and tried to use her knowledge of treating medical issues to the best of her ability. Her mother was a nurse and used to teach her how to treat some small stuff, so she was the most trusted with something like this.
A pained “Aaaa” was weakly uttered from the brunette boy.
Caleb’s lips parted, and Clara grabbed a flashlight. She used it to examine anything she could, and saw his cheek had a cut from the missing tooth’s sharp edge scraping it as it fell from the impact. It was surprising to see a tooth did it, but that’s where most of the blood came from.
Liam had soon woken up after this discovery, and he was strangely jealous of the attention Caleb was receiving, feeling overlooked.
“Why do you guys care so much about him anyway?” he grumbled, annoyed.
“He’s injured, Liam. We already told you he needs medical attention right now and that’s why you are being ‘ignored’.” replied Penelope, coming to Caleb's defense quickly.
“Okay, I’m sorry. I just feel left out. I know that’s weird to say about him…but it just feels like now you guys ignore me.”
“We aren’t trying to, sorry.” I tried to comfort him again and reassured him that we do care about him.
“I’m hungry…but it hurts to eat…” interjected Caleb, turning the attention back to him.
“Here, let’s see if I have anything to help out…” Clara looked through her bag, and found a small bottle of hydrogen peroxide, which can be used as a mouthwash and maybe help the bleeding.
“Here, it’s gonna taste terrible, and it’s gonna probably burn, but just try swishing this in your mouth for like 30 seconds.”
Clara unscrewed the cap of the bottle, and shook it slightly. She didn’t really know if you should shake it or not, but oh well.
She handed the opened bottle to Caleb, who winced slightly. He didn’t grab the bottle, so Clara held her hand back, still holding the bottle.
“Please, it’ll be better if you just try…” Reassured Clara, trying to persuade him to do it.
“Fine, I’ll t-try…if it helps.”
The boy reluctantly grabbed it out of her hand, opening his mouth and closing his eyes, and let it drip into his mouth. He looked uncomfortable, and he swished it around, wincing as he did it, and when it hit the wound, he spit out some of the liquid, before dumping it all into the sink from his mouth. As the liquid was dripping, blood and saliva coated the sink as well and it had a strong odor to it. Penelope tried using a bit of the water supply to wash it down and keep the smell from being overly strong.
Liam got up from his bed, and tried to help. He grabbed a rag and wet it slightly, before giving it to Caleb. It was a change from his usual attitude toward Caleb. Caleb grabbed the rag and put it into his mouth, spitting as the fabric from it tasted terrible. He seemed to push through, though, and put his hand on his cheek with his other hand holding the rag in his mouth.
“How am I gonna eaaaatttt though?” he dragged out his sentence to emphasize his whining so we’d pity him (it worked).
I decided to take the can of ravioli I was eating the day before, and let him have the last of it. Using a fork to take a piece, I handed it to him. He opened his mouth slightly and bit off a piece slowly, cringing as he tried not to let it reach any painful areas. I felt bad for him, even if he technically “started it”.
“We should draw out a plan or write one, or something. It’d be a good idea to start sooner rather than later before he has a chance to do too much to our parents” I tried to persuade the group, turning the attention towards me.
“But what should we use to do it?” asked Penelope.
“I have the diary I’m writing, we can draw the plan in here.” I replied.
“Wait! There’s no need, I have paper with me. Don’t wanna waste paper, you know. If we die, we want us to be remembered in as many pages as possible, so we kind of need those pages for writing, not planning.” said Clara.
“Alright. So…uhm…does anyone have plans for ideas?” Liam looked to the group, hoping for an answer.
After a few seconds, we gave out our ideas, which included making a secret opening to get out but easily get back into, making disguises to sneak to the house in, camouflage, and more.
We eventually drew it all out and came up with a plan that looked like using camouflage to sneak in, then ambushing Mr. Thorne’s house. We’d have Liam tackle Mr. Thorne, and Clara trying to hold off the monster. I’d try and rescue half of the people who were prisoners to this house, and take them outside to our hideout. Penelope would then help bring the other half with me. We’d then lock the door and run back to Mr.Thorne’s house, and try to grab a sharp stick to kill, or at least injure Mr. Thorne. If anyone asks us what happened we’ll say it was a suicide and make it look as such. Caleb and Liam would finish stabbing him and we’d take another stick and kill the monster, or at least do it if it’s not my mom or any of their parents. If it is, we’ll have to choose whether or not we let it live. It should be the choice of whoever the parent’s kid was.
We made a diagram on paper with some text but I just explained it through writing to save room.
We decided we’d strike in almost 2 months on November 21st.
The day progressed and 4 or so hours after we stored the plan’s diagram safely, we had all gotten hungry.
Penelope and Clara prepared some cans of food and we opened them up. Liam had felt bad and offered to help Caleb eat. Caleb accepted the offer.
“Here, do you want the ravioli or alphabet soup?” Liam held the two options in his hand and offered them.
“Uhhm…I’ll take the alphabet soup.” replied Caleb, taking the can of soup into his hand and opening the can.
“Alright, split that with me. Okay?” Liam didn’t wanna go hungry.
“Okay…but let me eat half first and then you can have the other half.”
Caleb ate half of his while Liam waited, and I shoveled Ravioli into my mouth and wolfed it down.
“Dang, you must be hungry-Rosalie!” Penelope remarked, waiting on me to finish my section.
“Alright, have the rest. Unless you wanna save more cans…then you can give half to Clara.”
“I’ll save more cans. Here, Clara. I’ll take what you don’t eat.”
Liam was now eating his portion of the soup and spilled some on his shirt.
“Dang it!”
I offered Liam a napkin and he cleaned it up.
“Here. Have the rest of this.” Clara gave the can to Penelope.
Soon, everyone was finished eating and it was getting late.
I got out my phone. It was 1% but I didn’t want to use my charger yet to save battery, so I looked at the time quickly and saw it was already 8:00.
We had an hour and a half until we usually went to bed.
Soon enough, night rolled around, and we went to bed. Clara washed the rag Caleb had in his mouth and make him use the hydrogen peroxide again. He was bleeding a lot less now, but blood still came out from the wound.
I got in my sleeping bag and went to sleep. I’m gonna actually fall asleep now…good night, diary.
October 5th, 2025-Chapter 5
Sorry for skipping some days again. They were uneventful and I didn’t think it’d be necessary to document them because of this.
It’s currently 1:37 pm and I remembered to write for today in case something does happen.
.”Hey, Rosalie. Come here for a second, I need you for something.” Called out Clara from the bathroom.
I twisted the doorknob and creaked open the door, and saw Caleb’s mouth open wide as Clara held a flashlight.
“What’s going on?” I turned my head as I peeked through the door before shutting it behind me as I walked in.
“I need you to use the flashlight while I examine the wound in his mouth, okay?” Clara offered the flashlight to me, gesturing to me to pick it up.
I picked up the flashlight, “Okay. Where do I need to shine it?” I turned it on.
“Right on this side where the wound is, alright…there.”
I kept it shining on the area and looked at the cut. It had healed quite well and Caleb seemed to be in less pain.
“Seems like it’s almost completely healed. He should still use the hydrogen peroxide mouthwash, though…as it seemed to speed up the process a lot and reduce pain afterwards, even if it hurt while using it.” Clara closed Caleb’s mouth and gave me a thumbs up that the examination was done and I could put up the flashlight.
“Awww, man!” Caleb whined, crossing his arms.
“I hate that stuff!” insisted Caleb, trying to convince us to allow him to stop taking the “stuff” in question.
“You have to, Caleb. I wouldn’t want to either, but it’s not a choice. It’s for the better, alright?” Clara put her hand on his shoulder to comfort him.
He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms tighter, pouting, then sighed.
“Fiiiiiinnneee…If I HAVE to…” Caleb moaned. He was being such an annoying little pr**k right now.
“Caleb, stop that.” Clara moved her hand off his shoulder.
“Best to get it out of the way.” I handed the bottle to him.
“Okay. You’re probably right, here…give me it.”
He snatched the bottle out of my hand and unscrewed the cap, dripping it into his mouth and swishing it around. He spit it out into the sink and cleaned it out with a bit of our water supply like normal.
Clara turned to face me before walking out of the bathroom.
“Thanks for helping me. It means a lot.”
“Of course, Clara.” I smiled.
We walked back into the main room and sat on the cold wooden floor.
Caleb was already back in his sleeping bag, staring at the ceiling.
Penelope was doodling in a notebook with a pen.
Liam was sitting in the corner doing nothing, like he had been for the past hour or so.
I wondered if he was alright.
I was walking toward him and he looked up at me. He smiled slightly, but when he saw I was just writing, the corners of his mouth fell back down to form a straight line.
“Why do you always write in that thing anyway? I thought you took a break.” asked Liam.
“Well yeah, I did, but the break is over now, idiot.” I replied.
“Did you just call me an idiot?” he seemed to grow upset.
I quickly realized my mistake and tried to apologize.
“Sorry. Wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s whatever. Not like you weren’t correct.” he mumbled under his breath.
“Liam…You’re not an idiot. I didn’t mean it.” I tried to make him feel better.
I was getting kind of annoyed talking to Liam, and went back to Clara.
When I sat down beside her, Liam’s expression became even more irritated.
“Of course you go back to her!”
“Oh, shut up, won’t ya’? It’s not like you’re her only friend here.” defended Clara.
“I guess you are right. I’m sorry. I’m still upset after that whole fight with Caleb.” his expression changed from an annoyed one to a regretful one.
“It’s okay.” I assured.
“Just try to be nicer, that’s all.” Clara chimed in.
“Okay.” Liam sighed.
Not much more is happening now, so I’ll write more later if need be.
9:30 pm-evening
It’s been a bit and it’s past time for bed. Liam and Caleb have separated their beds to different sides of the room to avoid altercations between them, and I moved my sleeping bag between Clara and Penelope.
I’m writing about what happened at this time after it happened before going to sleep.
12:03 am
:”Are you still up?” whispered a faint voice.
“Who, me?” I turned over to see who asked me.
“Yes, uhm. Hi. I can’t sleep.”
It was Clara.
“How long have we known each other for?” She asked.
“A couple months now. Why do you ask?’ I was intrigued, but confused nonetheless.
She continued.
“No reason. It’s just…when I first saw you…”
She paused.
‘Hm?” I tilted my head slightly.
“I always thought you were really pretty…Rosalie.” The words barely escaped her lips, coming out quiet and muffled. She looked away in embarrassment, waiting for my response.
“H-huh? Thank you…I guess?” I was confused.
“Of course, Rosalie…now, what was I saying…” she stopped for a moment and seemed to be in deep thought.
She continued soon after.
“Well, I always enjoy your presence. A lot. And your voice…is always so…nice. And your hair…is always so good looking, even if you haven’t showered in months, haha.” a weak giggle was shared between us both.
“U-uhm…oh! That’s…really nice of you…Clara.” I was stunned, I didn’t really know how to respond…to…all of this.
“Are you…blushing, Rosalie?” she seemed teasing in the remark, but it was with lighthearted intent.
“M-maybe I might be, w-why?” I grew more embarrassed as the seconds passed, each second of uninterrupted silence feeling like an eternity.
“I mean, I think you’re pretty, too…for being here longer than me.” the words barely came out.
“A-and in general, of course.” I stammered, hoping to not be offensive.
“Really? Me?” She beamed with excitement, stars glowing in her eyes. I remember her look so fondly.
“Yeah…” spilled out from my lips, quiet, but not enough to not be heard by Clara.
“Rosalie, you’re the best!” Her smile grew even bigger and she embraced me tightly.
“O-of course!” I was overwhelmed with feelings of confusion, happiness, and nervousness.
She pulled away from the hug and laid back down.
We were both on our sides, facing one another.
“You know, I should’ve said it more clearly…”
My heart pounded in anticipation, and I wasn’t quite sure if I felt nervous or excited. Maybe both. Who knows.
“I think I really, really, like you, Rosalie. Like. a lot.”
My eyes widened in shock.
“ME?!?!??!!” I gasped, my hands over my mouth.
She shushed me, pulling my hands from my mouth and moving her finger in front of my lips.
“Don’t be so loud, they’ll wake up.” she whispered.
“I…uhm…I don’t know what to say, Clara…how do normal people respond to this stuff?” I stuttered.
“Normal people?” She looked confused.
“You know, people who aren’t socially awkward, autistic, and anxiety-ridden?” I clarified.
“That may not be normal, but it’s you. And if it’s you, I frankly don’t care,” said Clara.
“And to answer your question, people react differently. There’s no singular way to respond.’” she added.
The first sentence didn’t make a bunch of sense, but I got her meaning.
“Well, I think I enjoy having your presence around, and you make me feel happy, and you’re pretty, so like…” was my response.
“So in short…you like me too!?” She seemed really happy to hear that answer of mine.
“Basically, I guess!” I was overwhelmed with a lot of emotion and giggled slightly, but happiness was one of the biggest things my brain was making me feel.
I felt like this whole interaction was crazy, I knew I had to write it down.
“Come here, Rosie!”
She pulled me closer towards her and hugged me tight.
I smiled.
“Nobody has called me that nickname before. But I like it!”
“Come on, let’s go to sleep now. Goodnight🎔”
I finished writing this part now. Time to sleep…
October 6th, 2025-Chapter 6
Gooooooooood MORNING, diary~!!!
When I woke up, I noticed Clara’s arms were around me.
I was confused for a moment before looking in my diary and remembering what had happened the night before.
I saw that Penelope and Liam were already awake, and I had woken up Clara. Caleb was still asleep.
He tended to be the last one to wake up a lot of the time.
“Good morning, Rosie!" chirped Clara.
“Rosie?” asked both Penelope and Liam. They turned their heads almost in sync!
“Oh, it’s just a nickname she gave me. Haha.” I assured them.
“Oh, okay. That checks out.” Penelope nodded her head at the realization in confirmation.
“Why were you two snuggled up like that this morning?” mocked Liam.
“I thought she was a pillow and my arms were around her. What’s your problem, anyway?” Clara’s brows furrowed.
“Oh, nothing…it’s just that I thought she still liked me for a while and it caught me by surprise.” said a snarky Liam.
“Oh, shut up. As if!” I rolled my eyes. Clara seemed quite annoyed, and I don’t blame her.
“What time is it, anyway? I’m starving!” asked Penelope.
“It’s 11:00, we overslept quite a bit. Lunch time is soon, so if you wanna go ahead and eat, then sure.” answered Clara.
We brought out some cans of Abcs and 123s and distributed them out.
SPOILERS ON NEXT PAGE!!! Note:please someone help write out the ideas I have
TIMESKIP, there's more before this I just need to write this
Caleb has started going insane. He’s still mad at Liam, and we have to contain him by locking him in the crawlspace. I feel bad, but he keeps yelling about how Liam was the worst for embarrassing him. I mean, he has been here for a year and a half by now. But that doesn’t excuse him.
SKIP, again there’s more.
We got back from killing my mom. I don’t know what to do.
Caleb was angry he didn’t go with us and wanted to leave this place. We said he can’t let him because we don’t trust him yet.
Caleb grabbed a pipe and is threatening to whack Liam with it. He’s escaped the crawlspace even though we boarded it up, and is hitting Liam with it. For him being here as long as Penelope, surprisingly-Penelope has been the most sane out of all of us. I don’t know how she keeps herself so calm.
OH GOD, OH NO, WHAT THE ****!?!
I TOLD HIM TO STOP!
I think Liam is going to die
There’s blood everywhere
We can’t have a corpse in here, I hope he isn’t dead
He was so young
He shouldn’t have died yet
Caleb?
He just bashed himself with the pipe in the head
He said he felt guilty and deserved it
Caleb and Liam are going to die if we don’t help them
It’s just me, Penelope, and Clara now.
We have to go out and do something. We can’t hide here forever.
We have to find a way to save our parents, the police,
And everyone else who probably got captured.
EXTRA INFO FOR LATER WRITING+QNA SECTION
Make everyone slowly go insane-not completely insane, will do some insanity.
Then they will go to the house and save their parents, but find out that their parents and the other captured people were tortured to death by her mom
But everyone is captured except for Rosalie's mom who ends up being the non failed monster
And basically she has to choose between killing her mom or not
Kills her mom
Goes insane
Everyone but Rosalie dies of starvation really quickly, (this is a hint that it was a dream to Rosalie), so Rosalie eats them to survive since all the food in her house is gone and the guy who did the experiments tried to kill her so she goes into the bunker, ends up killing herself
BUT before she does she wakes up, and writes about her dream, realizing they didn’t die and she passed out, dreaming all of it up and that Penelope and Clara are still alive but Liam and Caleb are in critical condition and it’s likely Caleb has brain damage.
So she tries to save them but she realized Caleb bashed himself so hard his head was bleeding and Liam’s chest was hit but not close to his heart but near his stomach and it was cut from the pipe’s sharp edge. She and the others try and carry the two with them and break into Rosalie’s mom’s car. Despite not knowing how to drive, Clara agrees to try and drive it from her knowledge of what her dad taught her to help her when she would’ve started driver’s ed. They crack a window using a large stick over and over and unlock it from the inside, opening the doors. They move Caleb and Liam, who are barely breathing, to the back seats and Clara drives quickly to the nearest town, and finds a hospital while calling 911 on Rosalie's phone which is 13% at the time. They end up crashing and try to carry the two to the hospital which is a minute walk away, and end up walking into there and trying to explain. The nurses were disturbed but took the two into the hospital and tried to help them. Liam and Caleb end up surviving barely, but Caleb has long term memory loss and forgets a lot of the events but shows signs of knowing something happened after the brain trauma. Liam ends up getting stitches all over his stomach. Clara, Rosalie, and Penelope just say their parents died as they can’t tell them how Rosalie’s mom died or where she is. They say that their parents died but that they don’t know how. They go to an orphanage and have to go to a psychiatrist for the immense mental, emotional, and physical trauma that they had. Rosalie documents her paranoia after this happened. She said she knows she is safe now, but can’t shake the feeling something will happen. She knows Mr.Thorne is still lurking somewhere, and even though he would be arrested on sight for what the police find when seeing the crime scene area, she still worries he will kill her or something.
The five stayed friends after the incident. Caleb and Liam forgive one another and Caleb is extremely guilty after what he did to him. All of what happens here will not happen quickly but over much more time. I hope to make this book at least 110 pages long. The days will be documented in more detail to make more pages for a single day, and the dialogue gets documented more as Rosalie has more interesting conversations and interactions she would write down. The reason we know what she dreamed is she documents what happened in her dream and how crazy it was.
Also, when Liam and Caleb are in the hospital, so are Penelope, Clara, and Rosalie. Rosalie writes about this. They were malnourished from having to restrict to eating only one can a day to share after almost running out, and also had terrible hygiene due to rarely using the river water for anything but flushing the toilet and had to keep the water bottles they had stored.
Also toilet paper and other bathroom products were present but weren’t the most hygienic if anyone helping to write this was wondering.
All swearing will be censored as Rosalie likes to censor it with scribbles. To replace that before printing this, we will use asterisks (*).
Any more questions I’ll answer
note-What about they starve first and then she can eat them.
Answer-she dreams this happens but they do all survive in the end with extreme trauma.
Will there be any romance?- Maybe some tension or slight flirting between Liam and Rosalie, but I don’t know if this goes anywhere. Liam knows she used to like him so he sees if maybe she still would. I kind of would rather ship Rosalie and Clara for some yuri and Penelope and Liam maybe. Or just one of those. I’m not sure.
Why not Caleb? Well, he’s the youngest and I feel weird writing a 14/13 year old and a 12 year old. Idk, it just feels a little icky to me..?
What would this be rated for;age wise?-probably 13 and up recommended. This story gets dark and describes some gory stuff.
Why write it on your chromebook then?-I started this in math class on the 18th.
Is this going to be a novel or novellete?-Hopefully a novel. I’m planning to have at least 110 pages, as stated earlier.
Will they be drawn somewhere?-I’m planning to have a picture of them “taped on” to the back cover, and to make the front look like a diary, but with the title of the book and the author part saying “written by:” but the part with return to saying Rosalie Crocker.
How did Rosalie’s Dad die?-He had died when Rosalie was only 5 so she barely remembers it. He had gotten a fatal disease.
Is this going to be published?-If a company lets me. If I have to change a lot then no. Probably not, I would have to do a lot and I’d rather just print a few copies and give them to people.
Are any old chapters going to be revised?-Yes! I will try and revise stuff if needed.
What is the address from?-It’s from a random US address generator. The story is set in the United States but not any specific state.
Any more questions? Suggest them below! I did these for questions you might have wanted to ask!!