The Operator Symbol I drew is gone. Friday morning, I walked past the church and realized that I hadn't seen it there since before Sage and I went looking for Kay. I don't know why it's suddenly gone, but it is. And there's more.

There have been no sightings of It, nor anything related to It, for over a week. No shadows, no cryptic scribblings I don't remember making, no sense of being watched aside from understandable jumpiness on my part. I filmed a sweep of the campus on Saturday; no distortions. The first place I went to was the goddamn pedestrian tunnel, but... not a thing. I think I'm in the clear.

How in the hell am I in the clear? I mean, it's a bit early to say so with finality, but still, you'd think there'd be something.

I'm withholding most of the footage because there are signs and landmarks that would give away my location. But take my word for it: There was nothing. Anywhere.

Nothing in the tunnel. Nothing around campus. Nothing by the church. Nothing around the preschool, or the elementary school for that matter. Nothing in Bay's goddamn dorm room, or the surrounding property. Nothing by the train station or the subway. I spent all Saturday traipsing around the city with an increasingly confused but amicable Bashawn, and all Sunday scouring the footage minutely for even slight signs of distortion, and goddammit, I have nothing to show for it.

Most people would consider this a good thing, yes?

It's just... It's not that simple, guys. It's never that simple.

Once you've been seen by It, it's supposed to be only a matter of days before distortions and stalking start kicking in. I put it down to luck the first time; luck and sheer force of will. This time... The past few weeks were different than two years ago, both in terms of what happened and in my reaction to it all. I was more than seen, I directly defied It in helping with Kay's rescue! I figured that if I was already slated for an early death, I might as well do something useful while I still could. But... I'm not even being stalked. There's no sign of It anywhere... and I don't know why that is.

I have the seed of an idea growing in my mind. If I'm right... I really have no idea what'll happen if I'm right. There are a lot of things I could test or try to exploit, but I really don't have the courage just now. It's not on the footage I showed you, but... as the day wore on, I kind of got in a bad way. Bay didn't understand at first, but then I told him the reason... well, one of the reasons... and he understood.

...Yeah, to be perfectly honest, revealing locations weren't the only reason I withheld parts of this video.


I just... I don't understand this. I don't understand.

There is no such thing as a gift horse. Not with this.