He makes a deal, he takes a cut, what a fellow, good ol' Jack.

 Hello my dear readers!

My, my, it has been a while hasn't it? My sincerest apologies, after my latest encounter with our Tall Faceless Friend, I understandably had to lay low for a while, good practice when doing so is to cut one self off from any form of communication, in my case that would be this lovely website that I update. 

However, my silence is not only due to my wish to remain hidden, it was also imposed by research, a lot of reading has been done on my end over the course of Summer. It's really hard to track certain items when they tend to bounce around from one author to another. Sadly I was not able to track down what I am looking for, however, I know where it was last spotted and this location might present a plethora of various difficulties, one of which was my method of getting there.

Since I've been cut off from the Path with Franky's absence, there is only one other way I can find my way inside of the many of Creepy Crawlie's domains (Not specifying which one, just yet) and that is to find a "hot spot" (As I lovingly refer to them) which would transport me inside. Considering how much trouble I had when finding my way inside of the Catacombs, that is not an ideal way, not to mention, the only reason I was able to find my way inside the Catacombs is because I had a lead. With this current desired destination, I have nothing...

Well, had nothing.

Que a visit from the one known to all of you as "Jack". 

How do I know? Well apart from him introducing himself by that name, it was kind of hard to believe that this was some regular ol' "Jack" from the street, regardless how hard he might have tried to blend in with the populous of that dirty alley he found me in. Quite indeed, his appearance was very fitting, dressed in a white jumper hoodie, a dark blue "NY" baseball cap peeking out from underneath the hood, dark blue joggers and sneakers. If it wasn't for the fact that he knew so much about me, I would have figured that I was about to be offered a heaping load of drugs for an undoubtedly bullshit price.

Obviously he didn't look like a simple drug dealer, no matter how hard he tried. The fact that I couldn't see his face thanks to the combination of a single light source that being a lamp under which he was standing and the hoodie along with the cap, creating a dark enough shadow for me to be unable to discern any facial features. And possibly the most damning giveaway of them all, one of his hands was red. The hand unlike his face, I could see very clearly, it appeared to be the hand of an elderly person wrinkly and veiny, and it's redness appeared to be as if a nasty rash covered the entire hand.

Indeed I was tracked down by good ol' Jack, a fact I became increasingly aware of when his voice echoed through the alleyway, calling out specifically to me. Funnily enough, none of the bums seemed to pay any attention to the strangely calm, yet loud voice that was now echoing through their living place.

"Kelevra." He called out, standing under the light of the singular alley lamp, already standing there as I turned around to face him, not moving an inch, his hands clasped together.

"That would be me." I answered and immediately realized as to why nobody payed attention to Jack, my own voice didn't have an ounce of reverberation anymore, which is ridiculous considering I was standing in an alleyway and the sound of my voice, no matter how quiet had to reverb off of the dirty, brick walls. Glancing around, I realized, time had come to a halt.

"No, that would not be you..." His voice echoed once again "You would be his offspring."

Somehow, Jack over here knew about everything, including my current goal, which is even more bizarre considering I never told anyone about my plans or hunches. This meant all sorts of bad news, if he knew, how many of the rest of the Creepy Crawlies knew what I was up to?

"Regardless, allow me to introduce myself, people here tend to refer to me as..." At this point I began to feel a slight pressure begin to build up in my ears "Jack."

Trying to come off as unfazed by his games, I had to keep him talking whilst my darling could find a way to get away from this little time loop he threw us into "I know of you, Jack the Dealer, come to try and kill me too?"

Laughter, his laughter, that weird broken noise that tried to imitate laughter erupted from the hooded entity "No, no, nothing so trivial..." The after echoes of the previously mentioned noise finally faded away "I am here to collect."

"Collect?" I'll be honest, he managed to intrigue me "Collect what?"

And then I saw it, shining at me through the shadows of the hood and cap, a red light shine towards me where his mouth would be, the silhouette of which seemed to form a smile "Collect on a debt your originator owed me."

Further intrigue, no doubt he was talking about my previous life, but what possible deal could my past self have cut with Jack? Pointless question to ask now, since I asked it in the actual confrontation, a better question to ask now would be 'What was he thinking?' but alas I doubt I'll get an answer to that one.

"I've given him a safe haven after his old master cut him off from it's domain due to his betrayal..." He was talking about my past self betraying Our Tall Faceless Friend no doubt "The safe haven allowed him to travel freely over your plain..." That would explain how my past self was able to travel around so easily without having any access to The Path, so the only question now was: What was the price? "In return he promised me his eternal servitude." And of course that didn't come through because in the end my past self ended up killing himself via Sergei's hands.

"So? What does that have to do with me?" In retrospect, a pretty dumb question to ask.

"You are practically his next of kin, so the debt transfers to you." How convenient, of course if it was 'Eternal Servitude' he was expecting, then I told him to essentially shove it. But of course, things are never so easy with Good ol' Jack.

"I do not want your servitude, the time for that has long since passed..." There it was again, the building pressure in my ears "What I want from you is a simple retrieval."

Yeah right, nothing is ever 'Simple' with Jack, ask any of the countless unfortunate saps that he fucked over with his 'Deals'. However, the bastard sure as hell knew how to entice.

"And it just so happens that the item I require is locked away in..." That's where I'm going to redact what he was about to say, basically he knew exactly where I wanted to go and he was offering me an opportunity to get there in return I bring him what he was asking me to retrieve and all the past debts are wiped clean, but there was a caveat, of course.

"And what is it you want me to bring back?" I asked sceptically.

"Don't worry, you'll know once you see it." The pressure began to build up yet again and this time it was heavier than before, to a point that I felt like my ear drums were about to burst.

Whether due to the painful pressure in my ears, whether due to seeing this as a legitimately only option I had, or some other dumb justification rattling in my head, I agreed to those terms. I know, I know 'HAHA Dumb Kelevra, didn't follow the warnings of so many before him' very funny. But the issue is, this was indeed the quickest way to get where I wanted to go. As we struck our agreement, he informed me that he had created a gateway into the domain that I was seeking passage to in a specific spot, all I had to do now was get there.

Once the deal was struck, the world began to move yet again around me, the air of the stinking alley returning to my nostrils, the sound of arguing bums hitting my ears, the pressure slowly but surely disappearing, replaced with the sudden urge to vomit out my insides, which is exactly what I did. After I was done emptying my guts on the wet ground, I looked up but Jack was nowhere to be seen, he was gone, as swiftly as he had arrived.

Jack is known to fuck over those who strike up deals with him, we'll see who fucks over who first.

At least now I know where to go next.

Things are getting exciting yet again my dear readers.