My Mother's Diary



Since this is a journal entry, I will be updating every other day for a reading of a different entry

As of June 16th 2005, my mother Elyse passed away peacefully in her sleep. A week after the wake, I was handed a worn out brown book. Old and smelled of musk. It looked okay, and the pages were brittle. I took it down to my summer home. My father works as an executive at a company that is extremely successful and well known. This was in fact his summer house but I was able to come whenever I would like.

I put the book on a shelf and sat on my bed, however, curiosity bugged me like a tick on my neck. I took the book off of the shelf and carefully opened the worn out cover. The first page was like those classy 17th century French diaries. My mother loved those because she was fluent in French and taught me to be as fluent as her. It’s a beautiful language, and the first page read “The rightful owner: Elyse Desjardins”. That was her name……yeah.

She wanted this to be given to me as a final wish to reveal the truth. A story of power, death, hunger, and insatiable inner strength.

The Rightful Owner: Elyse Desjardins

July 19th 1975

Our team is a group of young, inexperienced chemists, just great! On the way down the hills into the woods, we received the plan from our boss. Finding a plane that crashed amidst this forest.

At this point, I guess there is no more room for complaining. Get this shit over with. Now, my husband was with us, as the manager of our team. We set up little tents around this forest which surrounded a lake that was near. We figured to get on a diet of fish. We did bring some other sources of food such as nuts, bread, some snacks, and packs of these ramen thingies. Along with several pots to boil water. Flint and steel, along with oil and multiple first-aid kits. We set off taking some wood planks as we go. We hear little animals scampering as we walk.

It was actually kind of nice to do this. We kept a fire by warming up oil under the sun in a pot and dumping that oil on the floor, adding water to it and surrounding it with white wood and twigs. A nice little campfire. Yes, that should do for the night.

I hear the gentle blow of leaves and the rush of wind. It’s supposed to be summer but the weather doesn’t care.

You know, this kind of reminded me of girl scouts when I was little when I would have the best times camping with my best friends. Fishing, hiking, but I loved telling ghost stories. I love making stuff up out of the top of my head.

My moment was interrupted by one of the scientists, Taylor.

"Yo, I got fish." He said with a smile.

"Nice going meathead." I said. Even though this task was proven to be difficult, I will still have to admit that the people I got are nice people. We sat around the campfire to impale one of the fish with a metal rod that we have and spin it to eat. The campfire was never quiet. We were all talking about this mission and the plane, how we were going to find it, and what we were going to do.

Eventually, my husband actually broke the topic of the mission and asked us if we had any stories to tell. Ah, my husband Brandon, I love him. He always knows what's on my mind for some reason.

I heard one of our group members pipe up. Her name is Krystal and she began telling about what happened in the lab when someone made a massive chemical fission because they screwed up on the liquid nitrogen and put too much. Good times. After a few more stories popped up, I joined in.

"Okay y'all, let's take a breather from the comedy shall we?" I said. Everyone looked at me and shrugged.

"Let's notice our surroundings. Look around, and notice how much rock is around us." I said. When they looked around, they saw mounds of rocks stacked in piles.

"Notice how this land seems farmed and notice how there is wood strategically placed around these woods. Does look like something has been living here?" I asked.

"Oh shit, she's right." said Taylor who actually looked bewildered. Everyone was now looking at me because I'm guessing it's because they never noticed all of these little quirks around the island. In fact, I didn't either until I began telling the story.

"Notice that if you look around, you can see other parts in that area of darkness that is overgrown and no human has even stepped there. Even when the grass is greener, the trees are more luscious, the water is clearer, and the view of a sunset is better right?" I asked. Everyone nodded.

"Well, I don't believe that's a coincidence. Remember, this is the most remote part of Canada." I said. I grabbed a map from my backpack and showed everyone. Now, when I got this map, it was from our boss. He's the one who told us to find the missing plane. The plane crashed in a remote place in Nova Scotia and there is one part of the map that is completely blacked out.

"See that part of the woods?" I asked, pointing at the dark end across the lake. Everyone nodded. "That part on the map is completely uncharted."

"Do you want to know why?" I asked. Everyone nodded once again intently. "Based on the data, I can conclude that there used to be civilization living here at one point in time. However, something happened to them. These stones that are stacked seem to be parts of old houses. They are strategically placed and are still on top of each other in separate mounds. However, the place was abandoned. Look at this place, it looks like they didn’t want to leave yet everything is still intact.” I said. The group went absolutely silent.

“I don’t want this to sound outlandish but I believe that in that darkness, there lives an evil. That’s why that part of the woods are so overgrown with no sign of any human life. No tracks of birds, or other animals such as bears and raccoons.” There was actually nothing on the other side, and I can tell that. In fact, I was freaking myself out as I’m telling this story as I’m noticing these things as I speak.

“We better watch out tonight. Who knows if that is where the plane crashed.” I said. Everyone was frozen at this point. Glued to the spot in either fear, or awe. I can see it in their eyes.

“As scientists, I want you all to take that into consideration. Think about it, and watch out for that side of the lake.” I said. For the sake of time, I positioned my hands like the were claws and scared the shit outta the person next to me. We had a good laugh. However, there was something about my story that made everything seem so real. The evidence and the scenery made it so real.

I almost believed it for a second.

Night fell and we huddled in our tents to get some sleep. I kept thinking about my story as everyone else was snoring. I never told a story like that. I have always told stories that were crappy and cliche like stupid ghost stories or dumbs stories about zombies and jumpscaring the shit out of people. But I guess those days were over and my English evolved. However, I just kept thinking about the fact that what I said may be true.

July 20th, 1975

We began our search today. We began our search on the hill in these woods and we went and picked up suspicious pieces of whatever to test if they are the parts of this lost plane. This plane was actually a big plane and shouldn’t be too hard.

We went further down the hill and searched further down the lake and we kept going further. We must have found thousands of bits by the end of the day.

Finally, when we were pretty close to the dark side of the woods, we found some parts of a plane, score! It was around 2PM at the time we got to the place where we found those plane bits. I think we found a part of the wing and I think we may have also found a bit of one of the windows that were on there.

We kept getting closer and closer to the area of the woods that I had told a story about the night before. However, we didn’t actually get in that area. Due to the fact that we didn’t get there, we didn’t get much bits from the plane. We even searched the lake and wallowed in the shallow ends and tested the water to see if there was any sign of a plane crash, there was absolutely nothing.

I had the sickening feeling that the plane had crashed in the dark end of the woods. Why am I so afraid of this? This story was completely made up. Is it? I really hope that I just made it up that night and all that evidence was just coincidence or animals moving stuff. However, my story was stuck in my head again.

Why was this place on the map even uncharted? Surely, it can’t be true. That there is an evil living there?

Yet, I’m still afraid of that place. It’s like an entrance to hell, and gave an aura that there is something evil living there.

“Yeah, I’m not going in there.” Taylor said.

“Well we have no choice Taylor.” My husband replied. “How about this, I’m going in there and I need one more person to go with me?”

“Sure, I’ll go why not.” said a man in the back named Sean.

I asked Brandon if he is sure about this, but he reassured me. Something made me trust him and let him go into the dark part of the woods.

“We’ll be back by 7PM” he said.

Everyone nodded and went back down the campsite.

We hiked and joked for hours and we finally got to the campsite at 6:30 PM. We were talking about the 2 and how they were going to do this. However, the group was a tad quieter with worry.

I can tell that everyone was thinking about my story after dinner and wondering.

“Hey Elyse, do you think what you talked about was true? I mean that seemed pretty real. It’s either that or you are a hell of a story teller.” Tayler said.

“Oh shoot, I guess it’s just my storytelling. I think it’s just an enormous amount of evidence and the insane coincidence. Who knew that I had such luck.” I said.

Everyone went silent.

“Why are y’all so silent?” I asked. I forgot that time flys when you are having fun.

I looked at my watch to see that it was 9 PM and the 2 weren’t back from the dark part of tthe woods still.

They were supposed to be back 2 hours ago.

There was no way in hell that I can go to sleep now. It’s only day 2 and 2 people have gone missing.

“Guys, we can’t leave them.” I said.

“Them?” Taylor asked. “Who is the-”

He stopped midsentence to also realize that the conversation was about Brandon and Sean.

“Oh right.” He said.

“We really need to search for them,” said Krystal, “Remember, they’re not supposed to spend a lot of time there because we don’t know what’s in there.”

“We need a search plan, and someone to stay back here.” I said. I expected to see some hands go up when I asked for a volunteer to stay back and hold down the fort, however, I saw the worry on their faces. The fact that we are losing people must have snapped in their heads and they realized that they can most definitely be dead or barely alive. They can literally be living off of dirt and worms while they are missing. Even though we are scientists, we aren’t survivalists. We don’t know what is in that forest. We don’t even know what those 2 are doing.

Finally, a woman to the left of me volunteered to stay back. Her name was Lina and she was actually one of the smartest ones out of all of us.

“Thank you Lina.” I said. She nodded with a smile and went down into the tent to get some rest before doing some night watch.

“Wait Lina,” Krystal said, “Take this transmitter.”

“What’s this?” Lina asked

“Press this red button in case you see or hear trouble, got it? We don’t know if whatever is in there is gonna find you here got it?” Krystal said.

Lina thanked Krystal and retreated into the tent.

We went down into the forest, just the 7 of us. With Lina at the tents, and my husband along with Sean missing, we had to move fast. The forests of Canada are thick and luscious due to it being summer. However, at night time, the forest is like those forests where it creeps you out. It was so dark to the point where we all needed our headlamps.

I heard the owls hooting and the wonders of the night. We heard the lake and felt a gentle breeze of wind.

This place was one part heaven and one part hell, and we needed to get 2 people out of the part of hell.

Now we were all crunching through the leaves and even trying to search for some more bits of that plane. However, we would still have absolutely no luck until we hit that dark part of the woods.

We moved as fast as possible. We took a break at the 2 hour mark and it took us one more hour to get there.

According to the map, we have hit the border of the dark part of the woods. With a deep breath, we all trotted on.

We went into the dark part, and the further we went, the less light was visible other than our headlamps. I absolutely hated it. I gives me a sense that what I was telling about this part of the woods is correct.

I was barely able to see 2 feet in front of me and I was feeling fear with each step. We were sleepless due to our adrenaline and crept forth.

I noticed how unnaturally quiet it is as all of mother nature here just fell into a hush. Nothing made a sound even though there should be life here. There was not a single hoot from owls, not even a gust of wind nor the rush of water that hits the shore on the crystal clear lake on this side of the woods.

I heard the sound of stuff behind me and I turn to find out that Krystal had been dropping rocks to keep track of our trail.

“Well, you’re being smart.” I said

“Thanks,” Krystal replied.

The further we walked, the more quiet it got. As if something was watching us and mother nature was helping it by being quiet so that we won’t know what or where it was.

At this point, it was too dark to find the plane parts, so we ignored that and kept searching. There was nothing but darkness. We did find more plane parts, but it’s been so long and none of us wanted to move further into this creepy old place.

After 2 hours of the same old shit, we went back.

I thought about using the trail of rocks to get back, but I froze to see that the trail of rocks the Krystal left at the beginning was gone.

None of us moved the rocks other than Krystal who was placing them down.

“Okay, real funny, which one of yall took the rock trial?” I asked

“You mean the one that

“Guys, we need to get out of here, now!” I said.

“Why?” Krystal asked.

“Because the damn rock trail you made is gone!” I was in a bit of panic right now and I had to take a seriously deep breath to calm down. The one thing I can remember was that we had to follow the light and resist the urge to wander aimlessly. The 7 of us walked in the direction we came from until we can see the moonlight.

What kept going through my mind was “what took our rock trail?”. I looked at Krystal and she looked extremely worried as well. We continued to trot out of the dark part of the woods.

I think I began running and I saw Taylor and Krystal running behind me. We were running at full speed right back to the camp.

When we got there, we sat down to gasp for air and get some water because it’s just about 4 in the morning.

“Hey, how’s everybody doing?” I asked.

However, out of the 6 people that came with me, only 4 were with me then.

July 21st, 1975

Out of the 4 hours I had left to sleep, I didn’t use any of them. I just can’t sleep. We lost 4 people in those parts of the woods, and we have a shitload of plane parts to find in those woods, and we have to get back in 12 days. There is way too much to do. Plus, I have a child at home who is barely even 6 months old and there is no way that I can tell him “daddy is gone.” I almost cried at the thought of that moment.

Dear God, please bring my husband back safely. Bring him back home to me. I don’t want to tell my baby that his dad is gone and it’s my fault.

We can’t just keep going back in there and lose more people. We already got duped twice by these woods, and things aren’t looking better.

“You okay Elyse?” asked Krystal.

“Oh god, probably not. We are losing too many people.” I answered. “We need a plan.”I had to formulate a plan. However, I can’t think of anything good. I sat on that cold, hard ass rock just thinking about ways to stick together.

That’s when it hit me, “stick together.”

I proposed that we stay in one group and keep tabs on each other because people disappear without us noticing. We have to be within reaching distance as we set in the woods. We would notice if one of us disappears and we will notice and head in that direction.

We tried again today. We worked through our fatigue, and it seems so unreal that we are so sleep deprived yet we have never felt more alive. I had that determination to find these people because their lives are at risk and there is no way in hell I will leave them behind.

I think my leg muscles have grown stronger due to all of this walking and trotting.

As we got closer, we saw some of those stone houses from the campsite, and I thought they were cool. However, I mustn’t get distracted.

When we went into the forest, it was still deathly quiet.

We trotted on for a solid 40 minutes and actually ate in that part of the woods with fish we brought from last night. We continued further in search for the missing people.

It was so quiet and this is normally just about the time when someone disappears. I guess Krystal then decided to break the silence.

“Hi” said Krystal

“Oh, hi Krystal” I replied. Instantly Krystal turned around.

She looked at me confused, “Why did you say ‘hi’?”

“Because you said hi.” I replied

“I didn’t say anything.” Krystal replied.

I realized, something was horribly wrong. That voice, it was a woman’s voice. The only women here are me and Krystal. If I said nothing and neither did she, then………..

“Guys….get out of this place now!” I yelled.

If that woman’s voice wasn’t from Krystal, then who was it from?

We ran like mad out of that forest. There was no way in hell that I would go further in there. We stayed within reaching distance, and luckily we all did survive.

I looked back to see something that I will never be able to unsee.

I looked at Krystal and I saw that she was smiling, with a large gash on her back. The gash must have been 1 inch deep, yet she was smiling.

She continued to smile, however, her smile got wider, and wider until I can barely look at it.

Her smile was inhuman.

This isn’t Krystal, this is a creature of the forest. I was so frozen in fear to the point where I couldn’t even run. I stood there as her gaping mouth became so large, it took up half her head. There was black substance dripping from her mouth and she looked at me with a stare so intense that I would be paralyzed.

“Hi,” she said. “How are you today?”

As she said that, she gave an ethereal roar that could never be uttered by a human. Something has taken over her. She was roaring in pain and in agony as her mouth’s gap became smaller and smaller until it returned to normal. Her hazel eyes turned back to a light shade of blue and her hair returned to being blond and wavy. She fell to the ground, she won.

Something had taken over her and she fought for her body and spirit to remain alive. She still had that gash in her back and was still breathing, that’s a good sign.

Taylor carried her back to the campsite. However, on the way, I noticed a foul smell. It was the part of the woods where I found those little stone houses.

“Holy shit, what is that stench?” I exclaimed.

“Well, don’t ask me.” Taylor replied. We stumbled to the rocks and removed 1/4th of the height.

The stone revealed hair, human hair.

I almost passed out, however what Taylor uncovered was enough to make me barf. He uncovered a human head. It was half eaten and decaying with worms all over it and bloated with maggots and it was nearly unrecognizable.

However, I realized, it was Brandon. I burst into sobs to see that my husband died the most gruesome and agonizing death I have ever seen.

Martin, I’m so sorry. Through this book, I want you to know the truth of what happened to your father and why you never saw him ever again. I’m sorry for being so irresponsible and reckless that I would let him go into those woods knowing the horrors.

This is the truth Martin, your father is gone and I wasn’t able to do about it. I’m a terrible mother, and I will never forget this day that I let your father go into those woods and die. I’m sorry……...my son, and I will promise to take care of you to the moon and back.



I never actually saw my father because as a baby, I wasn’t really healthy with rashes and boils everywhere and the doctors had to cure it.

I always asked my mom where father was and she always said “He left us.” As a teen back then, I was always mad at my father for leaving our family when times are hard and leaving a single mother alone with a baby. However, I learned the truth.

I’m not mad at my mother, because she didn’t know better. However, the things that were done to my father were unforgivable, unforgetable, and most of all, unexplainable.

I stopped here in her diary and dropped the book.

For some reason, I began crying because this is the wonderful dad that I never got the chance to meet yet he was taken away.

It was just so unfair………

So infuriating………

Most of all, so horrible because there was nothing that could be done about it. Now, I can’t forget about this because I was wrong for a long time in thinking that my father left.

God, why did you let this happen to me and me only?

Why?

There was only one way to find out.

I continued to read.



I came to another horrible realization. Those piles of rocks back at our campsite weren’t houses, they were graves and disposals of whatever took and killed those travellers.

I will never forget that image of my husband half eaten in the head and bloated with maggots crawling out of his brain. His decaying body there, he’s with god now. I completely forgot about the fact that there were more back at our campsites. Fuck, great, now we have even more dead people sleeping right next to our tents.

I sobbed the entire night and I got no more than 7 hours of sleep. That was actually one of my better sleeps because I probably cried myself into a state of REM.

There is no way that I will get over this. I would just think about my husband, and think about my son. What should I say to him?

July 22nd, 1975

It’s now 1 day before we leave to go back to HQ. In that case, I would have to have an explaination of why these people are missing. So, I went back to the burial place to take pictures and prove their disappearance. I felt sick doing so because I’m not a person who has to take a picture of dead people in order to prove what happened to them.

I hit the spot where my husband and Sean and whoever else was taken. I was prepared for the pain and anguish to see these people again. However, they weren’t there when I arrived. There are dirt spots where the rock tombs used to be. looks like the monsters decided to not leave any leftovers.

Just like that, that monster took away so many people. However, I found out that this time I was crying tears of sorrow or grief or sadness in general. I was crying tears of anger and rage. I knew I wanted to do something about this. I wanted to take that creature by the throat and strangle it with all my might until I can hear it breath it’s last, and blood gushing out of it’s eyes. Having it die a violent death just like my husband did.

That is what I actually wanted to do. However, I couldn’t. I’ve seen it when it tried to take Krystal, I’ve heard it when it imitated her voice. I know what it can do and I began to once again cry tears of sorrow and grief because I knew that my husband is dead because this malicious creature brutally murdered him and there was nothing I can do about it.

I also imagine my son’s reaction when he would hear the news. He would never be the same again and I would never want that to happen to my baby. I don’t want him to end up as a teenager and walk around the streetlamps knowing that his father is dead.

I can’t just tell him the truth. I have no choice but to lie to him. What am I supposed to tell him though? That his father got lost in the woods? I can’t tell him that his father is dead in any way, shape, or form. I mean, I guess I can tell him that his father left? Yeah, that sounds better. I would rather have him know that his father is still alive rather than the fact that he is dead.

I’m sorry Martin, but as a mother, it’s my job to make sure you live happily through childhood and It’s so important to me that you grow up to be the good strong man that can hold up the family. I’m sorry that you wouldn’t know this for a long time.

However, son, never forget that you are always my baby, and I love you so much. Once again, I’m sorry that mommy has to tell you this way.



Now, I’m glad that I know the truth. I know that my mother wanted the best for me and she didn’t want me to be depressed about my father being dead and what actually happened.

Sometimes, a reader or two may ask, “Do you believe this stuff that your mother is saying?” Well, I do. My mother never told me a lie before and she never broke that streak. I love her because of how honest she was and even though she would have to twist the truth because of personal reasons, she would always tell the pure truth once she feels like she’s ready to do so.

You know, I could have been a rebellious teenager and partially depressed and I could have probably ended up at a reform school and I would never have the life that I have right now.

I guess I owe it to her for not telling me.



July 23rd, 1975

Today is the day when the helicopter comes to pick us up. I had to tell them the story that there were 4 people that went into uncharted territory and were found dead.

I honestly don’t know how, but the project manager believed me and will be sending a larger group into those woods just o find plane parts.

This mission felt so incomplete. I can’t stop thinking about it. I have my son to think about and my husband, and my job, and my co-worker. What will society think of this? They might not believe what I said. However, what we saw will forever be engraved in our minds.

Update: Krystal was infected back in the forest with an unknown chemical and fell into a coma. She is expected to be back in a week. However, I think that is what made the other scientists believe what we said.

It turns out, Krystal almost died and nearly infected the doctors if they weren’t wearing their equipment.

This trip is something that I would never want to do again. My flight back home is scheduled for tomorrow and the survivors like Me, Lina, Taylor, and 2 others will be placed in a hotel until we can return to our families.

I have to face the music with my son now. I have to tell him that daddy left and there was nothing I can do about it. It even hurts to think about that because I guess that’s just a mother’s sense.

I’m sorry son…..

I’m truly sorry……..

I just want you to know that even if dad is not here, I love you with all my heart. To the moon and back, to heaven and hell, and you’ll understand when I tell you.
 * Your Mother, Elyse