#the.archives

“case file number six, five, two, dash, three, five, one. date of statement is august seventh, nineteen sixty two. the statement comes from janice mcguillins of austin, texas. statement begins: .....”

“as a child, i was always told of an uncle, maybe it was my great-great uncle, that had disappeared in eighteen fifty-nine. his name was albert mcguillins. it was during the time of the old-west. so, of course, we all assumed the disappearance was that of some stand-off or carriage raid. no one ever thought much about it. people went missing all the time then, and majority of people left it at that. one thing that remained of the existence of his life was that of several journals he wrote. i don’t think anyone wanted to look through them, hating the reminder of the man who was taken too soon from us. recently, i have became in possession of the journals, all six of them. i didn’t think much of them, pushing them to the side of my study that i never paid attention to.”

“it wasn’t until recently that i had an urge to look into them. it was as if something told me i needed to read them. all was normal until the part of the final journal. he had recently fallen in love with a lady, they were set to be married, but it was soon ruined when she was found with a new man in her interest. back in those days, people settled their differences in duals. i’m glad we don’t handle situations in such, anymore. could you imagine the crime rate sky rocketing? anyways, that’s when the entries begin to become odd. he writes that a man, who he describes not much older than a teenage boy, found him riding down a road on his way home from collecting some things from his beloved’s house. he says the boy was on the darkest horse he had ever seen, almost as if there was nothing there but a shiny glimpse of lead powder.”

“the male had shaggy hair that brushed across his forehead, a clean shave, and spoke as if he had seen many of years past of his age. this is, from what i understand, the boy began to ask questions --- as if he knew what was happening in my uncle’s life. he promised that my uncle that he could have revenge on his beloved’s new lover for a small price. it never says what the price was. i assumed he was a dirty sheriff or had connections, obviously, my uncle felt obligated to accept the offer. days went by after that day he met the boy, and he trekked back to the house where he found the new lover. from there he describes how he beat the man to death --- busting his knee caps to prevent him from walking, took an eye out, broke his teeth. it goes on a list of horrendous acts. but my uncle, he was an angry man --- but the writings since he met the boy didn’t sound like him. it was as if the writing style had changed, as if he wasn’t himself anymore.”

“he never spoke of the boy after these occurrences, but he does write than he feels like he sees the boy at night, as he’s falling asleep. albert writes that it’s as if the boy is still waiting for his payment from him, one he promise in return for revenge with no consequences. my uncle’s last statement in the journal, before it was abruptly stopped mid-sentence was that that described the sound of hounds barking outside the shack. as if they were hunting for something. end of statement ....”

“after some research, we found more information. a man with broken kneecaps, one eye, and nearly no teeth in his head was found floating down a river on august seventeenth, nineteen fifty-nine. the man was lawrence dowell, widowed by alice dowell. i could find no information on the whereabouts or possible death of albert mcguillins. it’s as if he never existed. as well, there was no information on the account of the boy who met albert on the road. left with the statement is a journal, the final journal of albert mcguillins.”