Still reeling from my initial firsthand experience with the supernatural, I wasn't able to do much of note. In fact, I was still coming to terms that all my preparations for my death were for nothing. I was still here; I still had need of my clothes and my phone, I still had to pay rent, I still mattered. It was strange, and that's all I can say for the moment.

I did, however, experiment with my sweet Elle's ring some more. I'm not sure how or why it was imbued in such a way - though I may have a tentative theory - but I am now able to become one with it if I give myself to the feelings now eternally roiling within. Being that monstrous centipede creation is adjacent to torture, yet it's also numbing. My senses sharpen, my agility as well. There is potential in this that I want to attempt to unlock.

I considered going out and starting my reconnaissance towards making a list of all the Sons in my city, but after some more thinking I decided to postpone that plan. Since they undoubtedly know about me being alive and out of prison, there is a high chance I might be under surveillance. I need to figure that out for sure first, then slip the leash. I needed more power.

So, that means only one thing: waiting for another contract.

Keeping in mind the hunch I'd outlined in Addendum 1A, my freedom for action was limited until a point where I'd confirm or deny enemy surveillance for sure. I didn't have a way to do so now just yet, but I'd hopefully get something useful from my next contract - whenever that will happen. I was somewhat worried about my potential watchers becoming agitated by my new penchant for taking trips to England, but I doubted that they had contacts overseas. If anything, they probably thought I was just trying to 'find myself' on soul-searching journeys.

In the relative sanctity of my sullen home, though, I continued my experiments. My grasp over the phantasmal energies that my centipede form was able to command had strengthened - a feeling both tangible yet also indescribable. I felt that my capacity for it had increased somehow, and I am now able to benefit from most of its effects for longer, but that's not the biggest bit of progress for this month: I found a way to seek out the energies' currents all around me and 'ready' them so they'd intercept any incoming damage.

This will be a lifesaver, I guarantee it.

Boston feels more dangerous nowadays than I remember it being in the past. Or, perhaps, it was always like this, and I was simply blind despite my old job. Either way, I seemed to have gained a greater awareness of the world around me as of my last contract, potentially echoing the strangeness surrounding Amy, so ultimately... I decided to go on a walk. I finally had the ability to do so safely.

Because I could now sense both electricity and liquids alike - something akin to local proprioception - I finally had a way to verify if I was being spied on. It turned that no, I wasn't - or, at least, that was the case today. During my stroll through the bustling metropolis I did get tailed by a trio of juvenile thieves, but they did not seem like Sons to me. And though I evaded them easily enough, during my stakeout of a local bar I was then subjected to surveillance of a different sort.

Two men in suits, with one carrying a briefcase, set up shop at the bar. They were positioned in a way that let them see me through the window of the pastry shop I was in. There was a laptop inside the case, and the other man even had a pistol with a laser sight hidden inside his suit - I recognized that specific sensation from the armory of the police department I walked past on my way there. I didn't know what they wanted from me, but the longer I stayed the more it became clear that they were, indeed, spying on me. I paid for the meal, headed for the bathroom, and escaped through the small window into the alley beyond as Mirielle.

I spotted them a while later, but tailing them didn't yield much. They seemed frustrated, shared some hasty words, and then called for transportation via one of their phones and left. It unnerved me that I was indeed a person of interest to someone - Sons or not - and I resolved to figure that mystery out at a later date. As I began to turn in the direction of the area my apartment was in, though, I finally, finally found what I was looking for all this time: an obvious Son of Salem.

Twenty-ish years of age, male, alone, and in a common ensemble of attire for their kind. He was someone that nobody of consequence would mourn, I was certain. Amusingly enough, his apartment building didn't even have cameras as I slipped in, still out of sight.

One down; a myriad more to go.

To ensure that my streak of flawless performance would continue, I redoubled my efforts to stay fit and get better. I started using the apartment complex's pool again, training my underwater agility; I began properly exercising for the first time in over a year, finally holding onto that sliver of newfound motivation. I even made an effort to eat better meals, which would surely contribute to everything else. I'd done so, because I hoped that if Elle were to look upon the me of today, she would say that I wasn't a lost soul just yet.

Even in spite of all I'd been through.

I also hoped that she would not judge my darker efforts too unfavorably. Realistically, she probably wouldn't - Elle had quite the vengeful streak herself. There was this one time where a classmate accidently spilled their drink on Elle's bag, and Elle waited for an entire year and a half to retaliate by setting up a similar situation without being discovered...

I miss her so damn much. But, at least, I can still remember her.