ARCHIVE // LOG_0005

Signals Beneath the Skin

I have been out here for eleven days. The cabin was cheap because nothing is near it, which was the entire point.

I have found four of the same mark carved into trees within half a mile of where I'm staying. Not the same mark by coincidence — the same mark, same proportions, same depth, like a stencil. An X, but not quite symmetrical. One arm is always slightly longer.

I did not carve them. I checked the growth of the bark around two of them. They are older than eleven days. Older than this year.

I feel watched in a way I don't have a clean word for. Not followed — observed, the way a recording is observed by whoever reviews it later. I keep thinking that if I turn around fast enough I'll catch the exact angle it's being watched from. I have not turned around fast enough yet.