DANIEL CARTER: SICK WITH WORRY

Daniel Carter here again. I have included a journal entry I composed around the time Professor Wills delved into the dark web. I believe it speaks for itself.

JOURNAL ENTRY: DANIEL CARTER MARCH 14, 2019

I am very concerned about the professor. He is in and out of the office unreliably; he is completely disinterested in (and not likely capable of) teaching. When he is present, he mutters to himself and scribbles down incomprehensible notes.

I have resigned myself to being a full-time instructor in his stead (despite my meager compensation) until the end of the semester. I have told the students that he is on an extended sabbatical, working on a research project. I’m covering for him with the university as best I can. I am growing increasingly tired of this burden, but of course I’ll continue to protect my friend and mentor.

Two nights ago, I visited his office at the end of the school day to retrieve some papers to grade, and I took the opportunity to look through some of the newer materials generated by the professor.

I have never known the professor to be a creative writer.

Until now.

I counted over two hundred individual pieces. Notes, poems, sketches. Photo collages. Most only one page, or a part of a page, stacked on his desk in sloppy piles with no discernable order. I decided to stay late and xerox all of them. I am hopeful that this mania is temporary, but if I need to catalog his mental deterioration, I wanted to ensure I had this material for my records.

Here are a few of these pieces, provided to give you a sense of the professor’s mind at the time he was writing the final entries chronicling his investigation.

That night, they showed me such sights

Beautiful and terrifying

So grateful

So happy, finally

You never know how blind you’ve been

Until the veil is lifted

Thank you, Z

Shepherd me, shepherd me

To my home, my Static City.

Tell me what gifts I must bring

And I shall arrive with glorious bounty

At the gates of your kingdom.

Three notes from the piper

Three notes for the famished

Let us satiate your craving

When we ring our bell.

One

   Two

    Three

     Four

      Five

       Six

        Seven

         Eight

Infinity

See me.