Candle Face Victim #21: Lured by the Drumbeat

March 22, 2024

Main Subjects: Candle Face

• Victim #21
• Victim #7

Just as lightning lit up the sky again, followed by thunder so sharp it felt as though it cracked right in front of me, a shadowy figure slipped into my upstairs bedroom while I was getting ready for bed. I knew what he wanted. I said nothing. Something told me to just listen. Without a greeting from either of us, he began to tell his story:

I used to find peace in my walks. They gave me a way to get away from everything for a little while. The world out there seemed to have its own rhythm, and my drum was always with me. That drum was more than an instrument to me. It was my voice. I spent hours trying to pull out the perfect beat, the one I felt somewhere deep in me. No matter how hard I tried, it always stayed just out of reach.

Then one day, I heard it.

It was late fall. I had stopped for a moment after seeing a snake move through the grass. Then it came. A drumbeat. Pure, perfect, alive. It was the rhythm I had been chasing my whole life, the one I’d dreamed about but never managed to make real.

I followed it without thinking. I pushed through the brush, desperate to find whoever had mastered what I couldn’t. The sound drew me farther and farther into the woods, each beat pulling harder than the last. Then I stepped into a clearing, and the drum stopped.

Three figures were waiting for me.

I should have turned and run. I didn’t. I couldn’t move. They weren’t drummers, and they weren’t there to teach me anything.

“You have failed her,” they said together.

The air turned hot, and I understood. They were servants of Candle Face. She had come to me in my dreams weeks before and given me a task, an ugly one. She wanted me to bring her the people who doubted her. But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t hand innocent people over to her and know what would happen to them.

The figures moved closer. The ground split under me, and the earth swallowed me. When I opened my eyes, I was in her Lair.

Candle Face stood in front of me, her face like melted wax, her eyes burning with anger.

“You spent your life chasing the perfect beat,” she said, her voice crackling like fire. “Then I gave you one thing to do, and you refused.”

I tried to speak. I tried to explain. Nothing came out.

“You chose them over me,” she said. “Now you stay here with the souls you failed to protect. You will watch their suffering and know it is because of you.”

I thought I was saving people. I thought I was keeping them from her. Instead, I only added to their number.

Now the world I knew is gone. The walks, my drum, all of it is far away. Her Lair is my prison. And the sound of that drum, the perfect beat I chased for so long, still follows me. It stays just at the edge of hearing, always out of reach, always there to remind me of what I lost.

I thought I could stand against her. I thought refusing her would count for something. I was wrong. Now all that’s left is failure.

He stopped there. Then he looked at me as if he wanted to say more but couldn’t.

When he was gone, I kept thinking about what he had said. This is the second spirit punished for refusing to serve her rather than for doubting her. Victim #7 believed and still would not obey. Some of the souls trapped with her may be there because they told her no.

That leaves me with the same question I keep coming back to. How do we help these Lost Souls and keep Candle Face from taking more lives?

I don’t have a full answer yet. Each account makes Candle Face look stronger than I first thought. If there is any chance of helping these souls or understanding how she operates, then the stories need to be documented and examined carefully.

That’s part of why I keep directing people to www.candleface.com.

It’s where information, theories, and leads can be gathered in one spot. If Candle Face depends on fear and confusion, then careful documentation may be one of the few ways to push back.

I’m asking people to take this seriously. Share what you know. Compare details. Look for patterns. Candle Face has already taken too many.

The investigation continues in the three most recent entries below. Each adds to the record on Candle Face (Isabel), the Lost Souls, and the Fugitives. You’ll find every entry to date in The Journal.