Entry 1:

Sometimes I catch myself staring at the ceiling for hours at a time. I normally don't sleep, but this is getting concerning. I reset the desktop a couple of weeks ago and lost everything, I mean, there's a backup file on everything important, but I lost the things I'm really interested in. This job is really draining, it's what I expected, but I've gotten into the habit of actually taking care of myself, and my mental health isn't going to hold up if this continues to get any worse. For the job itself... I'm more of an artsy and science guy, I'm not really too good with details and digits. That itself should be fine, I have a friend that guides me through that part, but I don't want to push her into doing anything too intense, this is my responsibility after all. Mum told me that everyone always hates the first six months of a new job, and she's probably correct. Mum was so happy when I told her the news, even though she's getting older she still takes the energy to crack a smile at me every time I see her, she keeps me going in ways, she now leaves fruit baskets outside my door, I used to let her in to deliver them, but I'm so caught up in work I don't get anytime to spend with her. I go to pray with her on Sunday, that's my favourite day of the week. I love my religion as well, knowing there's someone looking over me, watching and protecting me at every turn keeps me warm and at peace. People believe in different things, and some people go as far to say that a religion is "made up" or "fake", I don't care what people say about what I believe in, and I wouldn't say something like that to someone else, "don't say something you would take offence to yourself", that's what my Mother said, and I wouldn't enforce my beliefs onto people with this new power.

Entry 2:

One thing I miss about my old job is the weekends and the days off, there really isn't any of that here, I don't even get a break. I'm usually sat at my desk looking out of the window for about 12 hours, then I go home, collect my fruit basket, sleep, repeat. I decided to go through a few old files when I had the chance on Saturday. Nothing caught my eye, there are files that are confidential, if they went missing or got leaked, I'd get in some major bother, so I played it safe and didn't even hover my mouse over them, I asked Nadia if she wanted to look through some files- as a special treat, but she promptly declined the offer, she's been working so hard recently I felt that was the only way I could repay her, aside from money of course. I got really lucky to be paired up with someone like Nadia, even with her own daughter at home she still makes time for running my errands. While I was writing this, I noticed this saved under "Log2", I'm not sure- but I think that means that this desktop already had a "Log" on it. I really want to read it, but I've got a bad feeling that it may have been lost during my little accident last week, I'm going to get Nadia on Monday to see if she can find an archive of it, and whatever other files I accidentally deleted during the reset.

Entry 3:

I got Nadia to look around for these archives, and by some miracle, she found them. "Log", "PT" and "README", I was so excited to read it, but you should of seen the look on my face when I saw it was empty... which doesn't really make sense, the file size is huge, and the document goes on for 31 pages, I even printed it out, and yeah- 31 pages. It's almost like someone had went in and hid it all, or deleted it. This finally peaked Nadia's interest, but we couldn't figure out why it was just empty. "PT" wasn't interesting either, I should of known it just stood for photography, and for a photographer, they didn't take many photos. The ones they did take were very scenic, nice mountains, fields, cows? "README" took ages to load, and the file was making my desktop slow. Me and Nadia shared the same look when we saw the document was 1,103 pages long- wow. It wasn't what I came for, so I backed out of it and deleted it, and my desktop was as good as new! Nadia is keeping the archive of the documents just in case I want to see them again. I don't know if it's relevant, but the three files were together in a folder called "Shared", right...

Entry 4:

I was out today volunteering at the St. Stayloss children's hospital, people expect that from me anyways but it always feels good when I put the effort in, that makes me sound lazy, but after 12 hours on the job I'm usually too tired to do anything. If you think about it, life is just a shift at work, work for years, then retire and be too tired and old to do anything. I actually wasn't in my office today, I had left Nadia at my desk to get on with her own stuff, I had left my desktop unlocked so she had full access to my files, I was secretly hoping she would snoop around the "Shared" folder, in hope she would find something that would peak my interest. I couldn't stop thinking about that README file, 1,103 pages... there is no sequence of events that would require a README file to be 1,103 pages... it just doesn't make sense to me. On the other hand, I invited Nadia to come to pray with me and my mother on Sunday, it was on a whim but I guess I made the right choice, she seemed excited about it, I had no idea on how religious Nadia was, she basically jumped with joy when I told her about our Sunday tradition. She sat me down as she spastically flicked through photos on her phone of her and her daughter celebrating their religious holidays. I really want to take this opportunity to get closer to Nadia- not in that way, but as a friend more than a colleague. Nadia told me she was bringing her daughter, I've never spoken to Claudia before, but it's my responsibility to make a good first impression, and to make her feel as comfortable as possible, as I think more about it, I don't even know how old Claudia is, or actually anything about her, but as always, it's so nice to meet new people.

Entry 5:

It's been a hot minute since I filled one of these out, I bought myself a video camera so I could get my thoughts across more efficiently, I recorded a few entries on that camera before I scrapped them, maybe I'll use it for something else, but after that- I completely forgot about Log2. I've been praying with my mother, Nadia and Claudia a couple of times now, it's been a really special few days for me, I've gotten really close to Nadia and gotten to know Claudia even better- she's studying philosophy, politics and religious studies in school, she told me she even wanted to be mayor one day, or even something bigger. Last Sunday, Nadia left early, so I had my mother drive Claudia back home. It rubbed me the wrong way, that really isn't a Nadia thing to do, I shrugged it off until I got home, because when I got into a bed, I loaded up my phone. The day before I had given my phone access to the "shared" folder- just in case. When I loaded up the README file, there was someone else viewing it. It said they had been viewing it for six hours, and they were on page 115, I couldn't see who was viewing it on my phone, so I hopped into my car and broke the speed limit until I reached my office. To my surprise, the computer was on,  I sat down and loaded up the README file,  they were still there, page 117, I recognised their profile picture instantly as Nadia's dog- it was Nadia's personal account, I felt a bit of relief, but couldn't really shake off the feeling that had sunken my gut. I slumped into my seat as it really dawned me that I haven't even bothered to read the first page of the literal "README" file. I didn't care, it was 12:31, I must of fell asleep in my chair however, because Nadia was on page 203, and it was 6:04, I almost jumped out of my seat when I realised she had been up all night, I decided to scroll down to whatever she was reading, it was time to be a good reader, and- blank. It was just like the "Log", completely and utterly blank, except from the the first 11 pages, which was useless crap about the job. I felt angry, I felt like Nadia was somehow betraying me, and she knew something I didn't, was she hiding this from me? It's my responsibility to protect the people- that includes Nadia. So I blocked Nadia's personal account from viewing the folder.

Entry 6:

Nadia had a couple of days off, which she doesn't do very often. I sent Claudia a message asking her how she was doing, and I didn't get a message back until eight hours later saying Nadia had left the house. I'm not really proud of it, but I logged Nadia's car register into the desktop and tracked her location, she's a better driver than I am, but the more I watched, the faster she went, and then I realised- she was coming here. I locked the computer and hid behind the sofa on the other side of my office. It was a solid 15 minutes before I heard her pull up. My office door swung open as she basically tripped over herself running in. I peeked around the sofa as I watched Nadia log into the computer, and did some snooping around until she locked the computer again. I've never felt fear the same way I have when sitting in that pitch black room with Nadia. She was just... sitting there, her face partially lit up by the faint glow of the computer. It sounded like she was sobbing, and after an hour, she left. I stumbled out of my hiding position and logged into the computer, where I came face to face with "README" again. My stomach twisted as I saw that there was someone new viewing it- it was Nadia's work account, I tried to block it again, but to my horror, I was greeted by an error screen, saying I did not have the required permissions for the document. Nadia had made herself the admin of the file, and the folder too. There was nothing I could do about it. I sat and stared as Nadia's pages read went up, and up, and up. Nadia comes into work tomorrow, and I've decided I'm not going to ask her about it, if anything was wrong, she would tell me.

Entry 7:

It's been a couple weeks, and Nadia is still acting suspicious, she keeps taking days off, ignoring her emails and reading the README file, she's on page 405 as I'm writing this. She and Claudia have also stopped showing up to our meetings on Sunday. She's also blocked my phone number, deleted her social medias and cancelled all of her memberships. Nadia was meant to be filling in for a school charity event, but as I expected she didn't even show up to work, so I took it upon myself to go there myself. Being there for the people really took my mind off everything, and boosted my spirit. The kids were having some sorts of games afternoon, with them balancing eggs on spoons and having races around the school yard. I got to give the students a trophy at the end of the day, I felt so special, felt so real for a second, felt important for once seeing the joy in their eyes. They really caught me off guard when they surprised me with a group hug, it didn't stop me from breaking into laughter though. Is this what it felt like to be mayor? For the first time in my life since I took on the role- I felt true happiness.

Entry 15:

God, where do I even start. Nadia finished the README file, now she's just been flicking through the pages over and over again, almost like she's studying them or something. Claudia was my last hope for clarity on what's going on, but when ringing her phone- it went straight to voicemail, hearing her voice again though... it made me so upset. I've felt so lost and confused that I forgot what it was like to hang out with my friends, but Nadia and Claudia were more than that, they were family. I'm not proud of it, but I searched up Claudia's location, she's out of town, and most likely for a while. When I searched up Nadia's location, she was at home. This was my chance. I hopped into my car and made my way through the quiet streets, a pit in my gut grew and grew the closer I got to Nadia's home. When I got there, all the lights were off... off, but more covered up than anything, it looked like it had been bordered up, or stuck with reflective sheets. I stepped up to her front door. Was this a bad idea? I am the mayor after all, and Nadia is the deputy mayor, it's my responsibility to look after her, I couldn't imagine a world where she got hurt and it was my fault. This had gotten ridiculous, this stupid README file had ruined the bond between me and Nadia, it was time to take matters into my own hands. I broke down her door. The house was engulfed in darkness, I took my keychain with the miniature flashlight and lit the room up. The living room was in ruin, pictures Nadia had once proudly hung up were shattered and spread across the floor, baby pictures of Claudia were stuffed into the fireplace in one big pile, ornaments had been smashed and used to cut the wallpaper. The closer I examined the mess, I realised it was all religious themed, all things Nadia had once believed in so much, was obliterated in the scene Infront of me. I tiptoed around the house, trying to avoid the broken glass. I just so happened to flash my light to a picture of me, Nadia, Claudia and my own mother, destroyed in the carnage. In the kitchen, there was sheets of paper printed out and piled upon each other, there was so much paper, it made me sick.  I tried reading one of the sheets- gibberish nonsense, was this the README file...? It couldn't be right? It was completely blank. When I went upstairs, I heard some shuffling, I felt somewhat relieved knowing Nadia was here, I opened up the bathroom door. Nadia was sitting in the bath, curled up into a ball with her face buried into her knees. She was sobbing, wailing, almost choking on her own tears and gagging every time she began to let another wail out, I ran over to comfort her, she took her hands off her head to look at me, where I realised she was missing most of her hair. I struggled to ask her what was wrong, but she just kept on crying... and crying... I was horrified... "It's not real..." she whimpered to me... I really tried to understand her... but the shock of it all- I couldn't. "My whole life... it's been a lie." She continued to me, in that moment, I picked her up in my arms to hold her, she sobbed into my shoulder, her teeth almost biting into me, as if she was trying to take out some of her own pain on me. I told her that she needs to tell me everything, and she stopped crying for a little bit. "The file Erin,  you need to read it... everything has been fake, Erin." After a couple more hours, I left Nadia alone, with not many questions answered. I sat in my car for a while before I set off, I put on some music and kicked my feet up...

Entry 18:

I opened up the README file in the morning, there was obviously something I was missing. None of this makes sense to me. It broke my heart, but I had to fire Nadia, over email of course, she never comes into the office, nor have I seen her in person since the day I broke into her house. As I expected, when I opened the file, I was faced with... nothing. I facepalmed at the thought that something new would suddenly show up- or anything at all, for that matter. It's been so quiet recently, I feel like everyone I know has put up some sort of wall against me.

Entry 19:

Hah… oh man. I really am not cut out for this job. My eyes were killing me, so I switched my computer display to dark mode. It's a really neat feature that makes it easy on the eyes, but I didn’t expect it to help me uncover this mystery once and for all. I opened up the README file… and it was all there- all of it. The text had been in white colouring this whole time, to blend in with the page, it HAD been hiding something- SHE had been hiding something. Log was all there as well. I really couldn’t believe it. I felt like such an idiot. Mayor Erin Watkins- the biggest idiot to be. I slammed my head against the keyboard in disbelief. I’m going to make some time to read the README file and the original Log, I’ll report back if I find anything interesting.

Entry 28:

Where do I even start? Do I even believe this…? It’s official-sensitive, so it has to be real… right? This was never meant to be read by anyone, not Nadia, not me. But this… It was MADE for me, it’s been here this whole time for ME to read. I read the Log… it was from the previous mayor… a warning… a warning to believe the README file and nothing else. 

The README file…

There is no God.

There is no religion.

There is no hope.

There is no guidance.

Five Spirits.

My life has been a lie. The thing I’ve been looking up to my whole life. The thing I’ve been praying to every Sunday. It isn’t real… who have I been praying to? I feel so sick, as if my heart is going to collapse into my stomach. I hopped into my car and practically slammed the gas, I broke every speed limit there was to get to Nadia’s house, I tried to call her every bit of the way- no answer. When I got there, I parked my car in her fence, literally. But I had no time to worry about my little crash, I broke my way into her house like last time. 

The bathroom door was open, I could hear the faint trickling of water, I calmed myself down for a second… What was I doing? I’ve just broken into Nadia’s house again… but it’s valid right? We’re on the same page now- she knows the truth, and so do I. But why do I care so much? A normal person with none of these beliefs wouldn’t care about the truth, the truth that five spirits apparently created this world. I buried my head in my hands thinking about it. Poor Nadia, she really loved what she believed in, she revolved her whole life about it, it made so much sense now. 

I made my way into her bathroom, I looked down in disgust as my foot landed in some bath water. The bathtub was flooded, and was still filling up the room. I got closer, and spotted a bottle of empty pills laying by the side. Finally, I looked down into the bathtub- and there she was. It was so hard to see through that water, but it was her, sunk to the bottom of the tub, her clothes missing and her hair floating gracefully with her body. I leaned to turn the tap off, and silence flooded the rest of the room. I kneeled down to get a closer look, she finally looked at peace, as if whatever had been bothering her had finally let go. I wanted to hold her so badly, tell her how sorry I was, how much I wish I understood what she was going through.

I wish I had been there for her. I wish I knew how much what she believed in meant to her. I wish I was there in her final moments. I wish she had told me. I wish she didn’t do this.

She’s gone. There’s nothing I can do to bring her back now. I had a chance and missed it. There’s nothing I can do to change that now. Nothing.

Entry 32:

This is my final entry. I am going now, please do not expect me to come back. If you see this Brodie, please do not tell anyone, please don’t make the same mistake I did. Be good, I know you can accomplish so much more than I could. Please accept this photo as a memento of my beautiful friend, Nadia Moore.