Batel though, despite what she'd experienced, she's still skeptical. I don't blame her, even now it sounds crazy telling them the Illuminati exists and ancient myths are returning. But with what she's seen and everything, why does she resist? Maybe she doesn't want it to be true? I can't be sure I want it to be true either. But our desires are secondary to the reality, it doesn't matter what we want to be true. Of course, that doesn't stop people from wanting things to be true. I guess I can't blame her for wanting something to not be true.
I suppose I should go over what happened rather than just writing about it.
Batel and I worked on chores together, she had clothes to clean before heading back as well. So it worked out, and having someone to drive me around rather than taking the bus made things quicker. It was nice spending the day with my sister. After Max got out of class, we met her at Batel's favorite restaurant.
We talked for a bit, just catching up, before Max started up on her conspiracy theories. She brought up a sample of the news articles that she and I had already gone over, and explained to Batel what we thought of them already. Max had even found a few more articles to add to the pile. A recent disappearance up in Manitoba, Riding Mountain National Park I think it was called. Also one in Hawaii, somewhere in the Kau Forest Reserve. I'll have to remember to consult a map or something, I don't think I've heard of either of those places.
There was also another stranger found wandering into Kansas City from off the plains. Noone knows who she was or where she came from, but she actually had a WWII pilots jacket and spoke halting English. The article didn't offer a lot of specifics, but said a mental health provider would be working with her to rebuild her memories. Also, investigators would be able to use details on the jacket to try and find her family.
I'd like to know more about her, and I'm very curious about needing a mental health professional. The way they talk about her, it sounds like she has amnesia or something. But reading over the article, I'm not seeing any indication that's the case beyond rebuilding her memories. It almost sounds more like they don't believe the memories she's offering them. Their response is to find the "true" memories, as though what she's claiming are distortions. They don't seem to be considering that she's already telling the truth.
I'm getting off track. As interesting as that article was, Max had gone digging and had been finding a lot of stories that weren't making the news media. And with good reason, these were people who were relating stories that would be deemed crazy. They were accused of hallucinating their experiences, usually accompanied with accusations of drug use. Though the more generous were willing to admit there were lots of way, intentional or not, that one could induce hallucination.
Most of these stories included floating lights, like firefly's, which was odd considering the time of year. Max had been attracted to these stories after what we had seen at the tree. But as she looked through those stories, she was finding other strange stories. Rather than witnessing lights, people were reporting seeing tiny people. Not small people, like that show Little People, Big World. More like Tom Thumb and Thumbelina. Other people claim they were approached by small animals, birds, or insects, who would speak to them.
Max said so many of these stories on their own wouldn't have made her blink twice. But as she read through them, they were unique almost every time. She found that impressive. All too often it's not many stories, but one story repeated over and over, each time the teller claiming it had happened to a friend of theirs or a family member. In these cases, the stories were always personal, and never the same. With today's proliferation of the smart phone, a lot of people would offer videos or pictures they had taken. Conveniently, though understandably, whatever media they would have captured was always after the fact. They couldn't capture what they were seeing as they were seeing it, but they tried to capture tracks or marks that would prove what they had seen.
As disappointing as that was though, it did bring Max's attention to another group of stories. Pictures and video that had been taken of one thing, capturing something unintended. This was another common conspiracy tactic, but usually such media was blurry like the big foot video. The new ones she was finding, and confirming where she could that the file was taken recently and unmodified, weren't always so blurry. And in them were images of tiny people, or birds with arms, mice with wings, and other oddities. She said there was even a picture of a jackalope, which we all laughed at.
The thing was, Max pointed out that there were a lot of images, and just like the stories they were all unique. Some were taken out in the wilderness, others in backyards, one was in the city streets. The other thing was that these files could be found all over the place. They didn't just originate from Deviant art or Tumbler, which would suggest one or a group of people were churning them out. Max didn't have any way of checking all of them herself, but the ones she did check indicated they were raw files, unmodified and taken straight from the camera.
The only suspicious point she could think of was that they mostly originated from areas here in the Midwest. Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Kansas. Normally this would be another indicator that one or a group of people were staging the photos somehow. Except we had already identified a pattern in disappearances and sudden appearances. Centered here in Denver, and spreading out over time.
Max had only just started discovering all this, so she hadn't had the time to inspect any more than a fraction of the media she was finding. But she fully intended to start checking location and dates and seeing if they followed the same pattern.
Batel usually just tolerated Max's conspiracies. We had a lot of fun together growing up, but Batel has said to me privately many times that she just didn't care for Max's theories. She felt they were a waste of time or something. Today though, she seemed to really be paying attention. Which only emboldened Max.
When she was given the chance though, Batel had some news articles of her own that she had brought up. Missing hikers in the Tuscan area, had gone out hiking in the Saguaro National Park. She had multiple articles covering the same story. It seemed important to her, which at first I thought was just because she and Jason had planned on hiking out there as well. Turns out she didn't notice the articles until a week after their trip had been planned.
As she explained it, they had planned their trip, and she remembers getting around that morning and packing. But she doesn't remember going on the trip, or even coming back. She just remembers waking up in her own bed the next day after having a vividly weird dream. Batel hesitated to tell us the dream, but with a little assurance she finally described it to us. In the dream, she and Jason had gone to Saguaro as intended and hiked the ridge trail. As they were coming back though, they came across a snake that was making its way up the trail coming toward them. They paused, not sure how dangerous the snake would be, and noticed that riding on the snakes head was a bee.
Batel said that she and Jason stepped to the side of the trail, allowing the snake to pass. But as they did so, the bee flew up from off the snake and approached them to check them out as bees do. They remained still, not wanting to anger the bee and get stung. Next thing Batel knew, the bee flew up to hover before her, and asked if she knew the way to Beshbegowa? Batel wasn't sure how it was spelled, as far as she was concerned it was nonsense. Considering she was dreaming a bee that was asking the questions... and coughing too, apparently the bee was also coughing.
Anyway, Batel of course shrugged her shoulders and looked over to Jason. Jason decided this was the time to get protective and he shoo'd the bee away. The snake, which had stayed where it was from when the bee left it's head, seemed to not like the idea of Jason swinging at the bee. So it struck out and bit Jason in the shin. Batel cried out and knelt down to help Jason, only to have the bee land on her neck. She flipped out, and the bee stung her while accusing her of being rude. Batel said she woke from her dream after that, drenched in sweat in her bed. It was the next morning after they would have gone on their hike and she has no other memory of their day.
Batel said she had asked Jason about their trip on a couple of occasions afterward. She'd noted that he hadn't said anything about it himself, so she purposely brought it up. She said he brushes her questions off. He'll indicate that he had fun, that it was a fun time, or that they should do it again. But he never goes into detail about what they did or what was fun about it, and he always changes the subject quickly. She hasn't asked him about her dream, nor has she admitted to him that she doesn't remember the trip or how they even got home.
Max had a lot of questions, and Batel tried to answer some, but it wasn't long before Batel was getting frustrated and snapped at Max about the questions she couldn't answer.
So I stepped in to tell my story, mostly trying to help Batel out. I still wasn't sure about bringing it up, but I didn't want Max pushing her luck too far. I wasn't trying to "tell all," but once I got started it just came out.
Batel wasn't aware of who Hal was, much less the conspiracy talk that had brought us to his attention. So I started for her with meeting Hal at the hospital, after I'd blacked out during the solar eclipse. Max kinda butted in, but she helped tell how he was interested in the conspiracies that she had been working on. Of course once she was reminded of that, she then remembered how things were left hanging before we both got distracted with Halloween. That was when things really started spilling out. I'd been wanting to tell her anyway, which made it easier. So I told them both everything, from Max's trip to the other side of the Ohvau, and cracking that runestone, to the fall of the Ohvau and the waking of the giants. How the tree in LODO came from over there, and that it was probably a true Ironwood and what that means.
It still felt odd admitting it out loud though, the look on Batel's face mirrored my own fears and didn't help. Max and I hashed out her disappointment, my fears, all that. It actually helped a bit with Batel's skepticism. Obviously I don't have anything truly concrete, so I'm not frustrated by my sister's continued reluctance. But they both recognized my worries for the things that I had seen, some of which Max was able to confirm. She hadn't seen Hal or Tim when we'd visited the tree, but she was aware that my own attitude had changed after I'd seen them.
I do feel much better now, being open with Batel and Max. Though now I've got Max's undivided attention and she wants a full report of everything Hal and I talk about the morning after our dinners. And she wants me to push Hal a bit harder about letting her in. I don't blame her, and to be honest it might be the smartest thing I could do. It just feels like I'm being pushed into a level of covert intrigue that I'm not prepared for. Being on the outside of a conspiracy at work and witnessing it, that's one thing. But this'd be taking part in a conspiracy and trying to make things happen. And lest I forget, I'd be actively working against The Illuminati. That's as frightening and it is ridiculous.
After Max and I smoothed things over, it allowed her to go on to speculate about how all her video's and news articles fit in to what all I was saying. And things do fit, scarily so. Even Batel had to admit that, though she felt it was all a little convenient. Especially all these new videos and stories that Max had come across. Max was really excited about it all, she would be. So I brought up the things Hal and I had been following along with Nephmesu's trip around the states. It seemed mundane in comparison, but the idea that Nephmesu would be coming here to Denver had Max practically jumping in her seat. She now had a mystery that she could potentially solve all on her own.
It was fun, and relieving. Even Batel seemed to enjoy it despite her hesitation. She did say she'd start trying to pay attention to everything down in Arizona, and she'd keep in touch with what she finds. Max was hoping she'd be able to check up on the break in down there, but Batel wasn't sure she'd have that much time. She said she'd try though. Max now has even more reason to check in on these new reports, and is definitely going to start paying attention to dates and locations. Of course, I am to stick with Hal and keep them both informed.
I did call Candace this morning, and she was hoping I would come over. I told her Batel would be leaving in the morning and I was hoping to see her off. She said she'd talk to Sam about picking me up later in the day. He texted me later to say he'd be busy, and apologized. It's fine I can take public transportation, and he can still give me a ride home in the evening. So we'll see how that goes tomorrow.
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