Chapter 1: Prologue ll

Jason had prepared himself for that special night. For the first time he would have something interesting to do in his free time instead of sitting in his living room and watching the adult channel or going out drinking.

There were many things Jason hated in his life, among them was working. His job consisted of having a photography studio or, he personally went to couples' homes to give his services, and not only did he work with newlyweds, he also went to schools and helped the campuses take pictures for credentials or graduations.

There was a funny thing, and that was that Jason hated kids and opted to work as little as possible with them, although if there was money involved, he would gladly bring all his equipment and help the campuses.

Jason jumped in the shower, boy did he stink... He only showered on very special occasions, that time he wanted to impress Ashley. Time flew by for Jason, when he came out of the bathroom he only had black shorts on.

Shortly before the agreed time, Jason was eating pizza that he had kept in his refrigerator and, he was surfing the internet looking for some kind of information about Vallimorth, its population, customs.... religion...

Little had he found since it was a rural town, since most of its productivity was based on jobs related to the harvesting and distribution of agricultural products.

—Which dumpster you're going to put me in, Ashley?

Jason had found a few blogs dating back to 2004 about Vallimorth, including a report on the extraction of minerals from mines that had been discovered. There was also talk about the opening of a supermarket whose chain he'd never seen before.

—Vallimorth's Shopping Mall...

Regarding the supermarket, one way to integrate products from abroad and carry out a connection and export/import of materials was through it, since Vallimorth was not as developed as other cities.

—Well, there is not much information on Vallimorth as such?

When Jason tried to go to some links within the blog that explained in depth things like Valimorth's religion, the city's relationship to the outside world, its economy even... the page wouldn't load.

—What can I expect from a crappy blog from eight years ago?

Jason picked up his cell phone and opted to call someone, someone who could surely help him since Rebecca had cancelled on him since, she said she had other business to attend to.

Jason leaned his bare feet against his own desk and waited, waited for them to answer....

—Hello?

—Nikolai!

—Jason! My neighbor. What's wrong? It's nine o'clock at night, I was resting.

—Niko, Niko! I was wondering... Are you doing anything tonight and tomorrow?

—I'll be honest, no. -Why, Jay?

—Oh! I wanted to know if... well, why don't you come with me on an "expedition"? Me and some friends and I are going to have some fun on the road. I don't know if you'd like to come and...

—Mmm... In the middle of the night?

—Uh, yeah...

—I don't think so. I mean, it's at night, it's not safe to walk on the road and... I'm sorry, I can't go. I don't think it's good to walk on the street... or in your case; the road. But I can during the day. See you later, Jason.

—Bye, Niko....

Jason hung up and looked at his computer in disgust.

—Well, shit.

Jason started getting dressed again, tied his hair up in a ponytail and was soon ready with casual clothes, a black trench coat and white pants that stood out a lot.

—A little perfume, some gel.... Yes, dammit! Yes! Now...

The next step was to prepare his materials for the investigation. He stuffed some video and still cameras into a backpack, as well as bringing along multiple chargers and recorders. He didn't think it was anything relevant, so he brought about three notebooks at most.

—And my batteries... Where did I leave the fucking batteries?

He tried looking in the drawers and under his bed... all he found was garbage, pizza boxes and cockroach carcasses. He found a package on his bed, in the middle of the covers.

—This will do fine...

Jason opted to keep surfing the internet until Ashley arrived. As he searched for more information about Vallimorth, he thought more and more that it could be a ghost town, almost like a collective experiment and that, in reality, there would be nothing or nobody in that place in the middle of the mountains...

But how did he explain the reports and the blogs?

—I don't like what's going on here... I have a bad feeling about it.

Jason waited until Ashley arrived, as he had nothing better to do. He stowed his laptop in his backpack and looked out his window at the city. It was a very quiet night, hardly any cabs or motorcycles were passing by....

He did not understand why it gave him so much tranquility to see the sky...

His cell phone started ringing, at about one o'clock in the morning.

—Mmm? Hello?

—Jason! Jason. Hello.

—Niko... what's wrong? I thought you would be asleep...

—I've been thinking, and I'd like to come with you. You sounded very excited inviting me and I thought you would really like to have me with you.

—Oh! Well, yes, yes... I would have liked you to come, but...

—I'll go with you! I'll go with you, Jay. I just need to get dressed and go to your place. It's okay?

—Sure! I would love to have you here. We'll be out in an hour. Is that okay with you, Niko?

—Great! Wait for me. I'm actually getting dressed while I'm calling you. And... I'm so sorry I turned you down, I was kind of stressed. I'm going soon.

—Don't worry! I'll wait for you. It will be great to have you with us!

Jason hung up, quite pleased.