A New Kind of Poison (Danvid)

Xemüg's Guide to Eternal Salvation (Old)

He wasn't sure how to proceed. He needed.... he needed his books! He vaguely remembered having some of his books with him before the whole... incident. Maybe they were still around? He made his way back towards the campsite, standing in the cover of the forest a bit before it. He studied the buildings, pondering which one could potentially hold his items. Would they still even be there? He decided that if his items were to still be there, they would be in the mess hall. So, with some difficulty, he lets himself in the mess hall and eventually finds himself in an old closet. The closet was filled mostly with junk, old supplies and random items, but among them one thing stood out to him. His briefcase. He felt he had to be imagining it, but upon closer inspection, it was in fact his. It was in a corner, already covered in spiderwebs and slightly damaged. Based on the positioning, you could tell it had been tossed in by someone. Nevertheless, it was in his possession again. He makes his way back to David's cabin and quietly sneaks back in. He slides his briefcase under the bed and lies down. Immediately upon lying down, he could feel his body un-tense. He didn't realize how physically tired he was. However, his thoughts would not let him rest, so he found himself simply lying there for a bit longer, staring into the blackness of the room in the direction he had sat his briefcase down in. Eventually, he drifts off to sleep.
The next morning, he awakened and sat up. Ugh, another morning within the camp. His eyes darted around before landing on something. Blood on his sleeve. The events of the night before now flooded his memory. His eyes immediately moved from his sleeve to his briefcase. He undid the latches and was happy to see that his belongings had not been visibly tampered with. His books were intact. He pulls out a series of three books, stopping on the last one. He runs his fingers along the cover of a black book with the same odd symbol from the night before, dusting it off. He had spent a lot of time reading from this book, but he could not remember most of it in this moment. He spent the next few hours after waking up flipping through the smooth, worn pages, planning and plotting. "I... i can..." he mumbles to himself as he is reading. A balance. A compromise. There was a way this could work out.