The Journal

These are my field notes from the Candle Face investigation, dated as the events happened, beginning in October 2023. They track the Lost Souls, the Fugitives and Isabel. The newest entries appear first. To follow the case in order, go to the last page, read from the bottom up, and work back one page at a time. If you catch something I missed, tell me.

The Journal

A dark, empty downtown alley at night, lit by a single street lamp, lined with old brick buildings, dumpsters, and a distant lit high-rise.

Candle Face Victim #4: The Homeless Man with the Limp

A man with a limp came to my bedside. He'd lived on the streets of downtown Austin, where people traded stories about Candle Face as...

Arthur Mills
Dim interview room with an empty wooden chair, plain table, and video camera on a tripod, lit by a single overhead lamp.

A Conversation with a Candle Face Believer

An email arrives from a stranger who calls himself Mr. Smoe. He says Candle Face helps people find peace, which fits nothing the spirits have...

Arthur Mills
A man in a dark cap and jacket grips a machete while lurking behind a doorway in a dim, green-lit room.

Candle Face Victim #3: Sixth Street to the Gravel Pit

Two spirits came together this time, a man and his girlfriend. They'd come to Austin to visit a friend, laughed off his warnings about Candle...

Arthur Mills
An empty porch-style swing on a wooden frame at night, backlit by a bright green glow and low fog on the grass.

Candle Face Victim #2: Mama's Last Embrace

A young girl, four or five, came to my bed in tears. She told me about the last day she saw her mother: the cold,...

Arthur Mills
Spiral tie-dye pattern in vivid magenta, purple, blue, and white, radiating outward in a swirling, psychedelic burst of color.

Candle Face Victim #1: A Spirit Begs to Die

The dreams change. One spirit steps out of the crowd and stands at my bed. She says she was one of Candle Face's victims, kept...

Arthur Mills
A row of identical anguished faces with wide eyes and open, screaming mouths, receding into black shadow, the nearest one in sharp focus.

Candle Face Chronicles: The Voices Grow Stronger

The voices are no longer a blur. They come through as separate people now, children, the bitter, the grieving, all calling me by my childhood...

Arthur Mills
Abstract swirls of gold and black paint blending in fluid, cloud-like patterns, suggesting shifting shapes in darkness.

Candle Face Chronicles: Genesis of the Nightmares

Four nights after the interview, sleep turned into something else. Swirling colors, garbled voices, the fire and the lost boy replaying every time I closed...

Arthur Mills
A man with gray hair and a goatee stands against a black background, wearing dark sunglasses and a black leather coat with the collar turned up, face lit dimly.

Candle Face Chronicles: A Witness Speaks About Candle Face

Mr. John Doe kept his anonymity and gave me ten minutes. In that time he laid out the fire that killed a two-year-old boy, corrected...

Arthur Mills
An elderly man in profile, lit from the front against a black background, wearing a cap, glasses, and a jacket, his face mostly in shadow.

Candle Face Chronicles: An Elderly Witness to Candle Face's Past

The witness who kept refusing me finally said yes. He's 82, he knew Candle Face before I ever did, and he watched part of her...

Arthur Mills
A dark passenger train at night, windows glowing orange, surrounded by trees and thick red and green smoke.

Candle Face Chronicles: A Research Project Derailed

Back in Texas, I reopened the witness file on Candle Face. Two of the three original witnesses have vanished, and the third backed out after...

Arthur Mills
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