Waiting out the rain

I don't know why I'm so sleepy. I wake up and I'm still tired. And often times, I can't drive out in the weather. The storm is too much. I'm just holed up in a motel trying to wait it out.

So more pages from the notebook. These are the last ones that look like they are code. There are some random pages with words or images, but they don't look like they were deliberately coded or anything.

for

Notebook

So tired. Need sleep. Can only post in monosyllabic words.

Flipped through the notebook from yesterday. Pages in code I had never seen before. Here are the first three. Will upload more when I have the time. If I'm not dead.

Return to the Road

I'm driving again. On the road to Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

I went out again yesterday, just looking for some clue, some hint, anything. I found nothing. Eventually, I just sat down and finished reading Echo. Which was also unsatisfactory, because it was only the first volume and it ended on a cliffhanger.

I finally checked the comments and found that you guys figured out where to go next. So I went back to my motel room.

It was unlocked. Cautiously, I opened the door and stepped inside. There was nobody there. Nothing was moved. Except.

Except there was a package on the bed.

Tentatively, I opened the package and found the same note I had found a few days ago on my car. Except now someone had written over it.

"hell of a race" is what it now says.

I flipped the note:

It's the "see you soon" part that disturbs me.

Underneath the note was a notebook:

The outside of the notebook.

And the first page.

And, even stranger, underneath the notebook was this:

Yes, that's right, it's the "complete edition."

I looked around the motel room some more, but didn't find anything else. So I packed up the box with my other stuff and left.

I hope this is the last place. The place where I can find Derek. I'm beginning to lose hope. I know I still have a phone call. The Jester promised a phone call. I'm holding onto that.

I wonder how long it will last. How long until the Jester tires of the game and decides to just kill us both.

Kill Devil Hills. I wonder. Can I kill the Devil? When the time comes, can I kill the Jester?

Slip Slidin' Away

I'm still in Memphis. Visited Graceland again. Nothing. Went to see Elvis's grave. Nothing. I don't know what to do. Do I buy a plane ticket to Hawaii on the chance that the next clue is there? I don't have much of the Jester's money left - I've spent it on gas and motel rooms and food. Perhaps a thousand is still left. Enough for a plane ticket. One ticket.

Have you ever read Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead? I had to read it in high school. Didn't understand it back then, but then a few years ago I caught the movie on television and watched it all the way through entranced. They were trapped, stuck in the play, unable to escape their own demise, even though they knew it was coming. And every time a scene from Hamlet came up, they said their lines and played their parts and then went back to being lost, unable to be free.

I've been feeling like that lately. I'm stuck in this game, unable to move forward until the code is solved, unable to avoid whatever is coming, even though I know something is coming. I can feel it. The Jester has to be up to something. I haven't seen the Misfits since that incident at Starbucks - it seems like forever ago. Why? Why send me a fake finger and then cut off the real one? Why send me on this wild goose chase in the first place? I don't know. I'm just an actor in a play.

Speaking of which, there was a note under the door of my motel room. I'm sure it will lead to something which will lead to something else:


KIDOSEA RVJ DBHSCX

is

Sleep

I need some sleep. Eight hours of driving equals a very tired Grace.

At another motel. Starting to get used to the itchy bedspreads, tacky wallpapers, and continental breakfasts.

Flipped through Echo again. Slip of paper fell out from one of the pages. This was written on it:

"Wzw zodzbh olevw svi nliv. R'ev zxxvkgvw gszg. Dsvmvevi sv dlfow erhrg, sv dlfow hdvvk svi rm srh zinh zmw hslfg 'Zs, nb orggov Qfwb!' Rg dlfow lmob yv zugvi z uvd nrmfgvh lu sfttrmt gszg sv dlfow hzb, 'Zmw dsviv rh nb orggov Kfmxs? Dsviv rh nb Kfoxrmvooz?' Sv dlfow sft nv, yfg mvevi zh sv sfttvw svi."

No idea.

So tired. Bed looks so comfortable.

hope

The Flamingo

I walked into the Flamingo last night. Even just this one casino was huge. I didn't know if I would be able to find anything. Everything was bright and opulent, but the people there seemed...used to everything, as if they didn't want to seem like rubes or tourists.

I walked around, looking at various places where I thought the clue might be, but had no luck. Finally, I decided to go to the roof, thinking that it was at the very top of the Griffith Observatory, so it might be the same here.

I walked into the elevator and pressed the top floor. On the second floor, a man wearing a seersucker suit walked in. He stood next to me and pressed no button. "Sola gratia," he said with a soft voice. "Grace alone. Are you alone, Grace?"

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Names don't matter," the man in the seersucker suit said. "Not when everyone has so many of them. They become things to be used and discarded. Needless to say, I am an associate of your friend the Jester."

"Not my friend," I said. "So you have the clue?"

"I do," he said. "And I will give it to you."

"So why you personally?" I asked. "Why not just leave it somewhere, like last time?"

"Ours is not to question why," he said, "though I suspect they wanted you to meet me, to know that not all of her servants are as...chaotic as the Misfits. Some of us are even subtle."

"So you're a servant of the-"

"Just call her the Wooden Girl," he said. "That's as good a name as any. And yes, though I am one of the few that has a degree of autonomy. Like the Jester. That's why my movements aren't as orchestrated as the Misfits were."

"So you serve her willingly?" I asked. "How?"

"You misunderstand me," he said. "I have a degree of autonomy. I am still entangled by her strings. If I didn't want to give you this note, I would have to do so anyway. Doing things this way is just easier on myself. To resist her is to resist the tide or the wind. If you bend with the wind, it will go far easier than if you stubbornly fight against it and break."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Everything has a reason, Grace," he said. "My reason for being here is this." He handed me an envelope. The elevator dinged. "Good luck, Grace," the man in the seersucker suit said and then walked away.

I opened the envelope and took out the note. On the front it said:

Grace:
I Scream Before Normalcy
9780375703768


I opened it up and this was written on the inside:

33:14,28,1,3,8
157:5,12,17
299:10,9,17,40,14
127:4,8,21,17,1
431:14,24,22
417:16,10,21,4,32

Grace,

Only Just Begun

When I came back for my car, I found a note on the windshield.

We've only just begun. Try to have some fun. Find all the clues or you will surely lose. 

Vafvqr gur pvgl bs natryf vf n cynpr jurer navznyf bapr yvirq, ohg yvir ab zber. Rzcgl fcnprf, oveqpntrf jvgubhg oveqf. Tb gurer abj naq lbh jvyy svaq bhe jbeqf.

That last part is gibberish to me. It's either in code or they just randomly banged it out on a typewriter. In either case, I have to figure out the next clue.

Frankly, though, I'm tired. I'm tired and I need sleep. But I have to solve this. I need help.

mummer's