Dear Diary...

Dear Diary,

Halloween was supposed to be the one of the most memorable event this year. But a lot of things turned out the way I didn't expect it to be. You see, I was trick-or-treating with friends around a specific neighbourhood located near a graveyard that one halloween night. It was dark, raining, and muddy. Though we have our umbrellas, we can't avoid our costumes still getting wet, especially our footwear. So we decided to rush to the nearest house to take shelter for a while until the rain stops. But, we haven't spotted any house within the parameter. The nearest shelter was located at the graveyard. It was a gazebo. The four of us, terrified and soaking wet, had no choice but to take shelter at that gazebo.

Just by looking at it, I felt a slight chill crawling down my spine. I told them that it was not a good idea, and that we should move on to the next house. But, they never listened.

Furious and terrified of being alone, I stayed with them as well. It was a pretty bad decision.

But -- the worst decision we ever made was reading someone else's diary.

That same night we found a really old notebook at the gazebo. It was just sitting there on the muddy ground, inside a new, tight-sealed zipper bag as if it was just there and was meant for us to read it. I was pretty scared to even touch it.

Vinnie picked it up and checked it out. The cover was really old and its pages were almost falling apart. There was a picture of a little girl on the inside cover. You'd easily know that it was from a few decades ago because of its black and white colour and it was faded. The ink on the pages were smudgy and we can barely read the words. The pages from the back cover were all written in red and were unfinished. Those pages seemed to have a different penmanship from the first few pages starting at the front cover, and some of the middle pages have different strokes as well - which was really odd for a diary. Also, there were still a few, blank pages left.

Len was trying to figure out why it was the way it was, and came into a conclusion that the diary must be a family heirloom passed down from generations to generations. Des and I tried to stop them from opening it but either way, nothing seemed to matter. It was too late for us.

They opened the diary and started reading.

Dear Diary,

It was said that the former Ionia Ruins and Lotus Lake were owned by the wealthiest Shaman of Ark Continent. The
Lotus Lake, located just in front of the mansion, was a former swimming pool which was opened to the public. The Ionia Ruins was a very peaceful mansion named after the Shaman Ionia. The portal now, that adventurers see, was used to seal and protect the inside of the mansion away from intruders when the owner and his family is out to take a walk around Ark Continent. Ionia Ruins and Lotus Lake were formerly the most beautiful tourist attractions in Forest Labyrinth.

Not until one day...

Ionia and his family was brutally murdered. The portal gate was broken. No one knew who did this. Labyrinth Guards searched for clues. Even after years, and years of searching, not one bit of clue was found. Every search team who entered the mansion never came back. They were reported either dead or missing. Not even a slight progress was made throughout the history. The townspeople and the Labyrinth Guards decided to give up and end the search for justice for the Shaman Ionia and his family.

It was one Halloween event when a few adventurers in Ark Continent noticed the change in Forest Labyrinth. The grass immediately dried out, trees wilted, beaches turned into swamps, and the bright blue sunny afternoon turned into a dark, thundery night. All the friendly creatures turned into blood thirsty carnivores and started hunting their kind and devouring their prey. Was this the work of evil sorcery? Or, was this the curse of the Shaman Ionia before he died? Nobody knew.

There's an old story passed down from generations that as night falls in Ark Continent on the day when Shaman Ionia and his family died, the Lotus Lake turns into a huge, fresh blood pool. Everyone knows that the phenomenon starts to happen the moment they smell the stench of blood lingering all over the forest. On top of that, the townspeople can hear screams and cries from inside the former Ionia mansion. But no one dared to look inside the mansion and figure out what's going on. No. Not anymore after witnessing the most horrifying act.

A century ago, one fearless adventurer decided to check out the mansion just a week after the yearly phenomenon occurred. In order to reach the mansion, he needed to cross Lotus Lake. The bridge was already broken at exact date of the murder, and there was no other way but to swim. A lot of townspeople were watching. It was a bright and sunny day but it seemed like the day started to gloom after watching the adventurer being reeled down the lake as soon as he stepped in the shallow water. Due to fear, nobody tried to swim down to help him. Some things that floated back ashore were the adventurer's clothes, his weapon, and some of his amputated body parts.

After what happened to the adventurer, more and more weird phenomenon occurred. There is one area where a few houses were built that turned into a graveyard in a single night. The townspeople had enough of this horrifying phenomenon. They started evacuating the whole area near Ionia Ruins and Lotus Lake and never came back. But no matter where they go, they kept coming back at the place where they belong. It's not home though, it was at the graveyard. Those townspeople who evacuated mysteriously went missing one by one. A new tombstone kept appearing every week out of the blue with the name of the missing person written, and the date he or she died. The cause of death was still a mystery, and the bodies were never found. It was suspected that the bodies were buried in the graveyard. But no one knows for sure.

A few witnesses said that it was the work of a little girl running around astray on the death anniversary of Shaman Ionia, and on the night of Halloween. They warned all the trick-or-treaters to stay away from this little girl and stay away from this area even if the paranormal activity seemed to have calmed down over the past decades.

Rumours said that anyone who reads this Diary of the Dead found near the dead tree in Dark Swamp Graveyard will disappear.

I was ...

My heart raced the moment I saw the unfinished sentence with a thumbprint in red. We suspected that the thumbprint was dipped in blood. Also there was a post scriptum below which says:

P.S.
LOOK BEHIND YOU

I looked around and saw nothing or nobody was there.

To my horror I suddenly realized something...

A moment ago, we were reading the diary at the gazebo.

Right now, it's just me. My friends are missing, and I'm sitting on the muddy ground in the middle of the graveyard surrounded by three tombstones. My eyes started to cloud in tears, it's horrible. I don't know what happened. My hands were stained in blood. My costume had blood splash all over. I didn't know how it happened. I didn't know how I ended up writing in this diary. And I didn't know how my friends died. Their names were written on the tombstones around me. I froze in fear as I saw the blank tombstone behind me.

The scent of blood started to grow stronger than before. I can clearly hear screams and cries from afar. But -- NOBODY was there.

And then I felt someone's breath touched my neck