2023-01-03 3:18:10 ¶ ●

MAG 2 - ‘Do Not Open’ - When doing the wrong thing is the right move.

The statement of Joshua Gillespie is truly iconic amongst those of survivors; he’s not someone who made a good choice, he’s not somebody who particularly deserved to survive, and unlike many he had almost complete choice in getting himself into his predicament. As paranormal encounters go I’d say this is just about as close as one could get to the opposite of Jon’s encounter with Mr. Spider, both of which took place in Jon’s own hometown.

To be presented with the statement of somebody who did everything wrong and suffered not a single consequence? Its a bitter and unpleasant thing to face, especially so early into the thankless task of reorganising the archive.

Jon, a child, a true innocent, suffered greater than a drug addled, privileged, stupid uni graduate. And worse still? He’s handed conclusive proof that these things, these horrible fates can be avoided with simply enough effort, enough critical thinking. A man who’s devoted all of himself to intelligence and capability is plainly told that he (for how well can we separate ourselves from the child we once were?) could have saved the boy that pulled him from the ready jaws of the web had he just been quicker, smarter, more alert.

What intense frustration to see that somebody who made one good decision in a situation that he could not, was spared. The unbelievable foolishness of a man willing to store a coffin in his home for over a year was beaten by the one good decision to store the key out of his reach.

What if Jon had the good sense to get rid of the book? What if he’d noticed there was something wrong with it- he should have, after all; he was an absent-minded child but not a fool. He could have figured it out. One good choice could have spared him the childhood trauma that led him to this job that’s steadily becoming more and more odd, falling more out of his control.

To be beaten by a fool is never a good thing, to sit defeated whilst a clown who made one right choice lives on is just intolerable. Perhaps Jon’s utter denial of it came not from the lack of reliable, but from the fact that if it wasn’t true it would also be false that his own encounter could have been avoided.