chapter 1
I don’t really know if I should be doing this, writing this note I mean .I’m sure you’re expecting me to tell you why I did this, tell you that behind my smile I was some tortured soul, and that despite your love there was always something missing. In a way that was true, but it’s nothing against you, we were always an unlikely pairing from the get go. Classic me, just rambling on, you probably must be sick of reading this by now. But, all I want you to know is that…this wasn’t for the usual selfish reasons that people had back in the day when they wanted this kind of freedom, when this was normal. It’s kind of funny to me that we used to laugh at those ancient stories from an era we saw as archaic and primitive, but here we are, or rather here you are . Know that I’m doing this ,in the end to save you , there are things you’d rather not know, places you’d rather not go, thoughts you’d rather not think .All I’m saying is, forget about me and my reasons ,don’t investigate , don’t go looking for answers, don’t leave your bubble, in fact if possible find the most close minded unimaginative people imaginable ,the kind you’d absolutely hate to spend more than 5 minutes with ,and spend the rest of your life with them .And tell Melissa ,my final words of advice to her (And tell her this verbatim ) are to live like you’re the centre of the universe ,believe that the stars truly belong to you ,that the sun rises for you, the galaxies were born in all their brilliant light and billions of stars rose out of the dust shaken by creation’s first act , just to see you come into the world . This is my final gift, a white lie. I hope it will save her from the curse I’ve put on us all.
Love Jerry,
see you again when the story ends
4TH JULY 2164
After all these years, all this time,all the arguments and petty fights that we had ,I still can’t believe that Jerry would do this. It’s…almost impossible to process in all honesty.I don’t know how….why someone would choose to do this to themselves .I still have that voice in the back of my head telling me someone else must’ve done this, as weird as that sounds in this day and age, but then I read the note he wrote to Fatma and I recognise all the metaphors and stupid wordplay he used to use. Just another rambling incoherent mess saying nothing and leading nowhere. Fatma refused to even look at it, let alone read it. And that’s why I’ve taken it upon myself to destroy the letter, and maybe give them some peace.Things like these are….odd, too odd for the rest of the general public to ignore and I really wouldn’t want some half baked e-tuber accessing his IP through his handwriting and “exposing ’’his secrets to the world. Apart from that, I feel like I have a responsibility to uncover the truth, not for his sake, but for Fatma’s and Melissa ,give them some justice by unmasking his killer as much as he believed he was protecting them .
5TH JULY 2164
I looked up at the stars today, something I haven’t done for years. I’d always thought it was stupid staring at the night sky like that , no equipment, no computers, nowhere to take down notes. Almost like trying to stare at the locked door to your house instead of going out to find a key. Or maybe that’s just the astrophysicist in me talking. I did it today though, because it reminded me of him, of our dreams of spending our 200th birthdays up there. He always did love the stars, the cosmos, we both did, though I of course took my fascination seriously, he just used it as just another setting in his books .Tonight though….the sky looked strange…less crowded. Like half the stars in the sky just blinked out of existence. This may just be my mind messing with me , I just can't think straight.
6TH JULY 2164
I started my little investigation today .I decided I might as well considering the fact that I now have a 3 month disaster leave and I'm basically being paid to stay home at this point.It started small though, just looking through his writing documents ,unfinished novels, emails and messages coming to and from his personal IP.I didn’t find much today, but I DID find where he worked , and that’s a plus. Apparently he wasn’t just the freelance grifter I thought he was. He was a pretty big part of the ADC, some semi-defunct government agency made to ‘’protect the arts’’ at a time when people still cared about such things .I’ve also been looking through the note he left, must’ve read it hundreds of times by now .I know I should’ve gotten rid of it by now, but I just couldn’t .It’s completely illogical I know, insane in fact . .The nostalgia for his writing maybe , or the evidence I thought I’d get using it and cracking his code.Or maybe it's because this is the last thing i have from him, one last story . Regardless, its a part of me now, and i don't think i'll ever get rid of it .
Back to my investigation, all roads lead to the ADC and that’s exactly where I’ll be going tomorrow,the office of the writing department . I’ll find some answers there for sure, and maybe …just maybe I’ll find the person or thing that did this to him, and I won’t have to believe anymore that .. Tomorrow is a big day regardless
10TH JULY 2164
Today was…exhausting. More of mentally than anything else, though it didn’t help that the ‘’Meeting’’ I scheduled with the head of the writing department of the ADC turned out to be just another tour of their ‘’facility’’ if it can even be called that. It’s more of a giant art gallery than anything else, but I digress. It’s been 3 days with almost 0 leads, every office I’ve been to, every two bit official, every useless clod, leads to another office, another level of pointless bureaucracy for me to beg for permission to start my investigation before they point me to another and go back to their inane ‘’work’’.
I tried to speak up to them about this , this whole secrecy business they've got going on . I tell them i was Jerry's brother , and all they do is start talking down to me , as if I was the crazy one.
But, at least it wasn’t all a waste, spend enough time somewhere and you’ll start to pick up on the whispers, the rumours.
My brother wasn’t the only victim of whatever seems to be going on there. From what I gathered, about 46 high ranking members of the ADC followed Jerry in death, all writing really cryptic notes, all having a history in astronomy and writing .
Something much bigger is going on in the ADC, and it seems to be spreading fast.
