Bye

She's let me go.

I don't know what happened. I've read the account here and...I remember that happening. The strings wrapped themselves around her and she...she became something else. She became the Wooden Girl.

I don't know how, but she did.

I could feel the strings wrapping around me again. I knew I wouldn't be able to move or talk or even blink unless she decreed it.

But she just let me go. I felt this searing pain and then I was back at Shady Lawn. In Grace's room.

And there was Grace. The Wooden Girl.

"Why?" I asked.

"We had a deal," she said. "You saved Grace instead of yourself. Grace was saved." She took a bow. "And now you get to go. I always keep my promises, after all."

I sank to my knees as the strings withdrew. "What about-" I stuttered. "What about the others? All the ones that were eliminated or saved? What about them?"

She looked at me. I tried to see a glimmer of Grace, but I couldn't see any expression behind that mask.

"Any who got away, I'll let go," she said. "Any who stayed...they are mine to keep. Goodbye."


And then she was gone.

I don't know what to do now. But I know what Grace would want.

I've let all the patients out of the building, all the ones that were left. I taken all the files that were in Dr. Beakman's office. I'll probably mail them to the FBI in the next few days.

And then I started pouring gasoline around. One of the patients helpfully provided me with a match.

We all watched as Shady Lawn burned.

I don't know what's going to become of me. I don't know where Beakman went or if he'll be arrested. Probably not.

Bad people are never punished. And the good suffer and become twisted.

I'm going to leave this place and never come back. I'm going out and never stopping.

And if one day, I meet Grace again?

I'll beg for forgiveness.


Bye.