The Journal Of Jacob Maddings by Ceryna

[Keeper Of Lore]

-

"I'm going mad. "I haven't eaten in a week... I'm as thin as a
skeleton. I'm so hungry, I've tried eating my boots, the wood off
the doorframes, ANYTHING. Nothing seems to help. I caught another
rat, and it looked so delicious, but I ate it and I vomited it up
almost immediately.

"Everything hurts. I can't move without feeling like my bones are
grinding together. I haven't slept in two days, and everything is
starting to seem surreal.

"More later, when I can think...

" -Jacob Maddings

[Keeper Of Lore]

-

"I know what's happening.

"That whore! I have whatever killed her, and now it's killing me!
Patches of skin started flaking off... I'm always hungry...
everything hurts... oh, Light, I'm dying.

"Allison, how could you? How could you have done this to me?!"

[Keeper Of Lore]

-

(This page is splattered with long-dried blood, pus, and ichor)

"I'm becoming one of them. I can see it in the mirror when I
light a candle... I'm rotting alive, and I'll wake up as one of
those things. You've damned me, Allison... damn you! I only hope
that I retain enough of my mind to kill you if I ever meet you...

"Oh, Light, I'm so hungry..."

[Keeper Of Lore]

-

"The end is here. I was outside, when they came, with swords and
torches. They came with violence, moved like death, all dressed
in crimson. I don't know who they are, but they're people, and
they tried to kill me.

"I managed to make it back here, but I can hear them pounding on
the door. They'll kill me soon... thank the Light. Maybe I won't
come back. Maybe I won't be one of those things.... but I know in
my bones, I will. "I deserve to die... and so did Allison.

"When they break in, they'll kill me. I hope this journal serves
as a warn

----

Ceryna closed the book, shaking with rage and fear. Zepmir
crouched warily on the table, trying to look as small as
possible. She saw him and snarled, hefting the book and hitting
him with it as hard as she could. The little creature fell off
the table, whimpering and yelping like a kicked dog.

"You're lying!" The other patrons glanced up, then went back to
their drinks, studiously ignoring her as she kicked the little
beast as hard as she could.

"You're lying!" Zepmir whimpered and struggled, thrashing about,
trying to escape her brutal beating, but to no avail. She sobbed,
great wracking heaves, as she beat her imp with anything she
could find, chairs, candlesticks, her hands and feet. She grabbed
him by the neck with both hands, squeezing as hard as she could.

With one last choking gasp, she dropped him, sitting heavily. His
limp, inert form slowly faded from the world, but she knew she
could summon him back. Her head fell into her hands.

Jacob had died hating her. He would never forgive her, not even
if he could be rescued. Her life with him was over, and for what?
Because he brought home plagued grain?

She straightened, her sobs turning from sorrow to anger in a
qicksilver flash. How dare he?! He blamed HER?! She kicked a
chair over, almost into the fire, and silenced the innkeeper's
protest with a glare from her glowing yellow eyes.

She had a duty, and a penance, and she would accept them both.
Her quest to find her husband continued, and find him she would.
He was somewhere in the Plaguelands, wandering as a Scourge...
she would enlist the aid of the Grim, and she would find his
walking corpse.

And she would make it stop walking forever.