Rubbing his neck, Jack staggered out of the bedroom and over to the little kitchen counter. Flipping open the cabinets, he removed a mug and set to work to brew up some coffee. He'd forgotten to bring his own brand. So, he settled for the favored brand his mother had stocked in here. While the coffee pot gurgled, he went to his backpack and unpacked his stuff. Finding the video camera that he'd hidden within it, he heavily sighed to himself. Evelyn had told him not to take it. She wanted him to write all his thoughts down, but he'd never been one to write a lot. Biting his lip, he raised the camera and turned it on. He'd just make a personal vlog. He wouldn't post any of it. Not that he could without waiting hours for it to go up. For now, he just wanted to keep himself sane. Giving the camera a bright smile, he gestured around with his other hand and clearly shouted. "Top of the morning to ya! Look where I am! I'm back in my old cabin!" Backing up a little to show the bedroom behind him, he continued happily. "This is where I used to record all my old videos, remember guys?"

Glancing at the room, he let the nostalgia fill his voice as he reminisced aloud. "It's been so long. It feels good to be back here. I came in through the door and I got a huge surge of emotions. I didn't think it would... but a lot of stuff hit me. Because this is literally where it all started for me. This is where I started recording videos that started up my channel and it's where a lot of my life really got started. Just the smell of the place and... I got flashbacks. I don't want to say that I missed the place because where I'm at now allows me to do what I do much easier. But... I do miss it in a way." Leaning against the wall, he felt his eyes tear up a bit but tried to hold them back as he pressed on. "Lately, it's really important for me to come back and do this stuff. Cause lately... I've been getting so caught up in this overwhelming pressure to do more. To be more. To keep myself from... being forgotten. That is starting to affect my mental health." Reluctantly looking into the camera, he took a shallow breath and strained out. "What you don't know... is that... I'm scared. I'm scared of being forgotten. Of letting people down. Of letting myself down. Letting my friends and family down. It's stupid and silly but... I'm really starting to wonder if I am doing enough. I keep pushing myself to do better. To be better. To strive for better. But I'm failing..."

Brushing a tear away from his eye, he sniffled and spoke a bit softer into the camera. "I used to say that this didn't feel like a job. That I was just having fun... but it's not anymore. Recently, it has become a job that demands blood. I'm working harder and harder, but I can't keep up anymore. I'm struggling to hang on to this life, because if I lose it... What else is there for me? I've built this life... and if I lose it. I'll have nothing. If you all leave me... I'll just be forgotten." Sniffling, he gestured around and added in a broken voice. "Without all of you. I'm back to this. I'm all alone. No one is around. I've struggled with a lot of things growing up. But nothing hurts worse than feeling all alone." The soft whistle of the coffee pot snapped him from his sinking thoughts, prompting him to set the camera on the counter as he poured himself a glass and said slightly uplifted now. "Anyway, that is where my head is at. Not a very good place, but my doctor and my therapist believe that coming here. Getting away from it all will cure me of my anxieties and stress. I'm no doctor. So, I'm inclined to believe them. So, this is my... What should I call this? Mental Health Vlog? Fuck, that sounds morbid..."

Taking a cautious sip of the hot coffee, Jack looked up at the window over the counter and told the camera absently. "You wanna know how my first day is going? Badly. I blew a tire in a snowstorm. So, my car is totaled... but I had a strange new nightmare thanks to the storm. And today, I'm going to find out why a company named I.R.I.S. is posting signs up on my family's land. So, come along with me today. You can be my witness and I could use the company. I haven't been left alone since... A long time. So, let me finish dressing and I'll show you around." Hitting the pause on the camera, he quickly changed clothes and went to the mounted cabin phone. He'd almost forgotten to call his insurance company and his cell phone wasn't getting a signal. So, the landline phone was his best shot. Using his phone to pull up the number in his contacts, he dialed the number and waited. He listened to it call out, before someone picked up and in a soft static riddled voice, he heard someone whisper distantly. "Jack... Come back... We need you to come back... Can you hear-"

The line went dead suddenly, and Jack pulled the phone away from his ear with a confused expression on his face. Had he heard that right? Why did that voice sound familiar? Placing the phone back on the wall receiver, he collected his jacket and camera before slipping outside. Pressing play, he slowly walked around the cabin to the phone line as he as said for the camera. "Ok. Either, I'm hearing things... or some freaky shite is going on. Because I was just on the phone and..." Jack drifted off as he stared at the hanging phone line through the camera screen. Reaching up to touch it, he mumbled out to himself. "What the fuck is going on? This was... Someone ripped this out. Look at it. This was stapled to the wall and fixed into this metal box. What the fuck?" Looking around for footprints in the surrounding snow, he saw nothing. The only tracks were his own. Everything else was covered in a flawless fresh coating of snow. Groaning with soft frustration, he told the camera flatly. "Great. Now I've got to walk around in the hopes of getting a signal to call out. Just great. I'm not stressed. I'm relaxed, guys. What do I have to be stressed about?"

Walking out a little ways into the backyard, he panned around the open field beyond and stated aloud. "This is about as sunny as Ireland gets. What little sunshine that comes through the clouds hits the sparkly snow and boom. We have a sunny winter day. It is quite nice out though. The storm last night was gorgeous but not to drive in... Hence, the lack of my jalopy in the driveway. Over that way is a bog. If you guys, don't know what that is... Think quicksand. Only it is wet mud and expands to the size of a lake as it takes in rain. Scary, huh? But here in Ireland they are as much of a resource as they are a hazard. Because the bogs make peat. If you don't know what that is... Peat Moss is decayed vegetation. When it is dry it burns like wood logs for the fireplace. It's amazing stuff but doesn't smell as nice as wood." Staring out at the distant bog, Jack's mind drifted off as he said aloud absently. "You know what's weird? I can't remember who told me this. But someone told me that there used to be a village around here. Abandoned by the people... when it sank into the bog. I always imagined it was in some other forest... far away but... does that look like a weathervane to you guys?"

Jack zoomed in as much as he could on something sucking up vertically out of the muddy water. What resembled a running horse on an arrow seemed to be showing now, but it was hard to tell at this distance. Zooming back out, Jack turned the camera back on his face and began walking as he shrugged out. "Oh, well. Probably just a ghost story anyway. We've got loads of them in Ireland. You wanna hear it? I think I can recall it and we've got a bit as I look around for government shit." Taking a deep breath, he looked around, but clearly spoke aloud to the camera. "So, this village was in a remote forest. Isolated from the world. Like most villages, they survived because they shared as a small community. Now, the story goes that one night there was this... storm. Some say electrical, some say it wasn't. Either way. Something struck this slab of rock in the center of town. People that came in contact with it started to get sick. Nosebleeds. Headaches. Itchy eyes. Lots of coughing. Before long, they abandoned the village. Shortly after, people came to investigate the slab... and shortly after it was taken away. The village was devoured into a bog. Neat, huh?"

Smirking to himself, he chuckled out. "I remember trying to find the bog as a kid. I thought I found it once... but I became overwhelmed with anxiety as I approached it and ran." Gesturing back at the bog, Jack giggled out. "I probably saw that same stupid weathervane looking thing and freaked out. Cause that is as close to a bog as I recall ever being. I'm too much of a coward. Something scares me... well, you best hope you can run faster than me or I'll leave ya behind." Stopping a moment to cough from the dry air that messed with his throat, he told the camera a bit strained. "Ugh, I think getting caught up in the storm last night is making me sick... Ugh. That would suck. I hope not. I've got enough problems. Let's head down this dead-end road. That is where I'd hide something if I was up to no good." Stopping on the snowy road a few feet from the cabin, Jack lifted the camera up to showcase himself and the road behind him as he told the lens dryly. "In case whoever sees this doubts that I lived in the middle of nowhere, look at this. Look at the road behind my house. That road leads to nowhere."

Turning slightly to look at himself as he pointed, he added seriously. "Honest, it doesn't. The company that used to own the land planned to build a town down there. But when they realized this whole area is riddled with bogs, they pulled the funding. My da got this land cheap after that. Turned this old cabin they used for overnight work into a hunting cabin. And now we are left with this freaking horror movie road that just ends around the fecking corner." Behind him the paved snow-covered road led straight into a thick cluster of trees with frosted leafless branches that formed an archway over it. Shading the road beyond in eerie looking shadows as the road turned off into the unknown. Turning around with the camera to show the other side of the road, Jack informed the lens with a casual shrug. "This way is just a turn that leads back to civilization. I would have driven up this road and into the driveway last night had things gone well." The road behind him now was a similar to the other side but closer and with less trees covering the roadway. Allowing the light reflecting off the snow to make it serene looking in comparison to the other.

Taking a moment to adjust the camera screen for him to see behind him better, Jack chuckled out softly. "So, not much that way." Fixing the camera screen, he smiled into it, before his smile quickly faded. Staring at the little screen, he caught a glimpse of someone standing within the bushes. He never would have noticed them in their dark clothing if the silhouette hadn't flickered. Jerking around to look behind him, he froze in place as his eyes scanned every inch of the trees, but nothing was there. Taking a deep breath, he called out. "Hello?" There was no response. Not even the crunching of snow or rustling of branches. Calming down, Jack lifted the camera back up to check behind him, but the image was gone. Furrowing his brows, he mumbled to the camera lens. "Well... another thing I don't miss about this place. Is natures sick amusement for scaring me with shite that isn't there. Simple trick of the light and I'm on edge. So... no more ghost stories for now. Need to give my poor heart a rest."

With a long exhale, Jack started walking down the dead end road. For a bit, he said nothing and just kept his eyes open for anything. It was mostly just comforting to have the camera on. It helped to calm him when he thought of the people that usually were watching him behind the screen. Reaching the end of the pavement, Jack stepped off onto the uneven ground and into the thick forest that had overgrown this area. Pushing rustling twigs out of his way and trudging over the deep crunching snow, he told the camera to distract himself. "Just takin' a stroll through the forest. As you do, because I live in the wilderness. And nature is everywhere around here. Ugh, I'm walking very weirdly. I'm gonna fall everywhere. So, forgive me that you're shaking so much. I'm just trying not to drop you as I navigate the spooky wilds." Smirking to himself, Jack slowed to a stop to lightly cough before pointing into a thick brush and joking aloud. "See that? That right there is where something spooky would be hiding. He'd just be hiding in there and then everything on the camera would get all staticky, and I'd be scared, and I'd run away. Like a normal person. But then on my abandoned camera... 'BOOM'!"

At the same time that he said it that last word, a flock of startled ravens flew off into the cloudy sky with sharp cries. The outstretched tree branches rustling and swaying in their wake. Flinching into a slight crouch, Jack held the camera closer to his chest. Catching bits of the flock as they took to the skies. Taking slow jagged breaths, Jack uttered out in a low voice. "Fuck..." Straightening back up, Jack looked back into the camera and stated gruffly. "And THAT is why my granny hated birds. Especially ravens. They are bad luck here in Ireland. They take your soul with their fecking shenanigans. Interestingly enough though, black cats are good luck here in Ireland. It's the white ones you've got to watch for. Like little fecking ghosts they are. They'll... What the fuck is that?" Lowering the camera, he pushed through the last of the thick brush into an overgrown clearing. Surround by a chain-link fence with bits of ivy woven into it was a small blocky grey building with rows of iron bars over shattered windows. All around the fence were loose hanging signs from I.R.I.S. claiming the grounds were condemned.

As he stepped carefully over the broken and bent metal gate, Jack told the camera uneasily. "What is this place? I didn't know this was here. Looks... old but... that can't be." Filming what remained of the gate, Jack added nervously. "The rest of the fence looks fine. But this gate doesn't look like it fell on its own... Is it just me? Or did something... break out of here?" Turning slowly to face the little overgrown and frosted cobblestone walkway, he approached a large white sign and brushed the snow from it to read the bold slightly faded blue words written upon it. "White Mountain Hospital?" Running his fingers over the little mountain logo, Jack winced in pain from a sudden stabbing headache. Covering his eyes, his vision flashed with a red light as a slightly familiar voice drifted in and out of his ears. "We only want to help you, Mr. McLoughlin." Pinching the bridge of his nose, Jack groaned as another voice shouted in and out. "It wants to destroy you from the inside out! JACK!" Suddenly within his flashing red tinted vision, a face appeared with bright neon green eyes. It's laughter thundering and echoing in his eyes as a hand shot out toward his face.

Jerking back violently, Jack slipped in the icy cobblestones and fell onto his ass. His vision was clear now, but the sensation of something running down his nose made him reach up to touch it. His nose was bleeding again. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he tilted his head back and groaned out weakly. "Ugh. Not again..." Lowering his head to check on his camera, he scooped it out of the snow and nestled it on his lap. Taking a minute to collect himself, he swallowed as he looked at the building and absently told the camera. "Something about this place is... very familiar. But... I can't remember why." Stiffly getting to his feet, he dusted himself off and coughed a little before heading toward the hospital door to rip the caution tape free. To Be Continued...