The messages collected here were sent during October to December 2011.
To suit the conventions of a printed format I have arranged them into chronological order, reading as prose rather than as the original social network updates.
The use of space echoes the time breaks between messages, allowing them to be seen as they were first sent with some indication of time or urgency.
Some spellings, abbreviations and typos have been corrected simply for easier reading, but most remain true to the original. No content has been changed. Where the meaning was ambiguous the original text has been retained.
None of the senders or recipients were available to comment, although their feeds remain ‘live’.
Ján Engels
London
2011
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Saturday
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@janicewong3 OK, day two of the big move? tired of all that peace and quiet yet? 😉 | |
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| Still, Sophie says she hates the quiet. Guess she’ll get used to it. City girl. Can’t even hear cars on the road. Curious. | ||
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| @janicewong3 OK, day two of the big move? tired of all that peace and quiet yet? 😉 | ||
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| Still, Sophie says she hates the quiet. Guess she’ll get used to it. City girl. Can’t even hear cars on the road. Curious. | ||
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Monday
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| Definitely got vermin. Woke up smothered in blood down my arm. A row of bites. No noise. House still. Soph sound asleep. | ||
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@janicewong3 no worries. Tom the mouse hunter will get em! 🙂 xxx | |
| Hope so. This is getting stuuuupid. I can hear them but just can’t see them. got bitten last night | ||
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| Weird much… those bites are exactly 1cm apart. 13 of them in a straight line down my right arm. | ||
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@janicewong3 you keep a tape measure in your bathroom? pray tell why? | |
| LOL. I was putting up shelves, obviously ;-). Back to work now. Thought Soph was on the phone, but she’s sound asleep | ||
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| @janicewong3 hey there! was everything good with Tom? He called earlier and said Sophie was out but the door was open. | ||
| Thx J. All good. Soph was asleep. Feeling poorly. Tom set traps and whatnot. No kids or pets, so used the strong stuff. | ||
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| BTW, some B keyed my car. New school is hideous. Thought supply in the sticks would beat town, but no such luck. | ||
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| Forgot yesterday was Halloween. No kids came knocking. Don’t they do that here? | ||
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Tuesday
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| Hey J, could you get hold of Tom for me? He’s not picking up. Those traps didn’t work. something took them | ||
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| Great, the Head gave me a ‘special assignment’ 1:1 with the worst kid in school. Benjamin. Bet he keyed my car | ||
| Insists I call him ‘Beano’. When I forgot he sat and sulked. Refused to speak. How do you teach a mute? | ||
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| Major run in with Beano. He stormed out, barged me out the way. Day 2 out of town and already physical. Beats Hackney | ||
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| @janicewong3 sorry, been trying your home phone. no reply from Tom either. can’t get round there til the weekend. ‘took’? | ||
| Just walked in. Soph has been home all day. Sleeping. Just awoke now day’s over. Great! Still no word from Tom | ||
| I mean all piled up in the middle of the floor. VERY neat. Thought kids had done it, but the house was locked. | ||
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| Anyway Soph is ok, she’s gone for a walk in the garden. I’m off to bed. speak tomorrow | ||
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Wednesday
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| Soph never came to bed last night. Got worried, but can see her in the garden. Must be on the phone. Talking. | ||
| Scratch that. Her mobile’s still on the table. |
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| Morning J. Don’t worry about Tom. Soph says the traps are ‘vile’ and thrown them out. Says there are no mice, but I can hear them! | ||
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| I swear Beano must go home every evening and practice his scowl. | ||
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| Massive blow up with Beano. I swear he thinks teaching him to read is ‘dissing’ him. Whole bad boy attitude. | ||
| Fracking fantastic. The brat’s pissed on my car. Other kids even saw him do it! |
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| Come home after a hellish day to find S has gutted the place. All plastics I’m recycling. Even the tv and microwave! | ||
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| @janicewong3 Just saw that tweet. You OK? Did S go to work? Still no word from Tom. I will try and pop over at the weekend. xxx | ||
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| Blazing row. Saved what I could in the car. S screamed at me like a banshee when I argued back. Says the house must be ‘original’. | ||
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| S let me back in. She’s calmer now. Didn’t go to work. Slept most of the day. Only had a mad half hour when the sun set. | ||
| Not sure if S will be ok with visitors. You know how she can be with you. But do check on Tom. Still no word x | ||
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Thursday
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| couldn’t sleep. S has gone for a walk again. House is silent, but I can hear the mice skittering in the dark. just can’t see them | ||
| felt one on my shoulder. hit at it in the dark. bloody bit me! can barely type. 1 puncture in my palm. tiny bt deep. still bleeding. | ||
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| Good start at least. No Beano today. The head’s called social services in. |
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| not every day at work is bad. No Beano, no worries. Nice school. Hope Soph is better. Off home in the dark and rain 🙂 | ||
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| the house is dark. No Sophie. No power. Called about the electricity, they’ll send someone. Want to call the cops about s. Too soon? | ||
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| Called Soph’s work. Thought she went in today. She didn’t. Been off all week and never called in sick. Manager was furious. | ||
| Electrician came & went. Couldn’t do anything. said the fuse box and half the wiring has been ripped out. Lucky S didn’t get killed. | @janicewong3 Still at work. can’t call. What is going on with you?! Where’s Sophie? | |
| House wasn’t broken into. It was locked up. Damage done. Her phone is here, not her keys. It was Soph. | @janicewong3 Where is she? | |
| If I knew that the answers would come. Look i’m going out for a curry. Need to find people. This house is a morgue. | @janicewong3 You do that luv. Look I WILL come over this weekend. We have Eid off. Need to see Tom too. tell me when S turns up x | |
| Going home. Eating for 1 in a new town no fun. |
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| Heard a trailer for American Haunted. Wanted to see it too. My house is just haunted by mice and unreasonable behaviour. | JD3458 don’t you mean ‘American Horror Story’? Looks good, but ticks all the cliches. | |
| Home. No change. No Soph. |
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Friday
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| 3am. This house is cold and damp. All I can hear are are the sound of tiny feet running. Soph is gone | ||
| Sitting the dark. 3 hours listening to this house, the rain. The little feet. Gives one a sense of perspective. Now I have a plan | ||
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| Called in sick for work. Going to tell cops that S is missing then get an electrician to turn on the lights. Put it all back. | ||
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| 2 hours with the cops. Obvious results: is S an adult? Yes. Did you fight? Yes. ‘well we will start file on her’. Useful. Not. | ||
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| Tonight there will be light! Electrician installed a new fusebox and replaced some of the wiring downstairs. I can watch tv! | ||
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Friday
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| Bugger. Daytime tv 😦 | @janicewong3 exhausting day. gonna pop over to Tom then you in the morning. Any word from S? x | |
| A night with the lights on. Only downstairs but that will do. No sign of S. Don’t want to worry her mum. Will call her tomorrow. | ||
| Fireworks tonight. I can see them through the leaded Windows. We must be too isolated to hear them. | ||
| No. Nothing. drove down every lane I could find, walked for miles through the woods. nothing. | @janicewong3 walk? In this weather?! Look I hate to say it, but S is smart. She’s not gonna just wonder off like that. | |
| You didn’t see how she was. sleeping all the time. No fever, but still, it wasn’t right. and what she chucked out… | @janicewong3 about that, you know she’s always been into that vegan fruitarian thing. It’s not really out of character is it? | |
| throwing out the mircrowave?! really. Look I’ll see you tomorrow, but Soph’s not what you think. I’ll wait. |
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@janicewong3 Sorry. no offence. I just mean don’t worry. she’s bound to be ok. she’s versatile. |
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| Yeah. as you say. See you tomorrow. |
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Saturday
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| Sophie came back last night. She brushed my hair. Said everything was good. She wore a light summer dress in winter. | ||
| But now I wake. The lights are still on and the rain is beating this house into submission. Sophie’s still gone. | ||
| And still those silent fireworks illuminate the leaded windows. Fireworks at 5am. That’s those strange country ways I hear of. | @janicewong3 morning. just leaving. will be at yours after 1. will tell you what happens with Tom. | |
| When the lights are on the mice are silent. |
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| want to search the woods when the sun comes up. I’ll have my phone with me, so just send a message. see you. | ||
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| @janicewong3 Where are you? trying to call you but no answer. Need to talk to you urgently | ||
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| i’m here. No mobile reception but got 3g, what’s up? |
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@janicewong3 Tom’s dead. |
| What? I don’t understand. | @janicewong3 got to his place. mail in the letterbox. van still here. called him. could hear the mobile ringing inside. | |
| @janicewong3 neighbour called the landlord. opened the flat up. He’s dead. police are here now. | ||
| shall i come there? |
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@janicewong3 NO! don’t be stupid. Wait for Sophie. Police need to talk to me. |
| @janicewong3 he was sitting in a chair, face covered in blood. No break in, but just bled t | ||
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| OK. But what happened? Break in? | @janicewong3 (sorry, hand slipped. shaking). He bled to death. lots of tiny holes in his face. | |
| bites? I’m going back home now. |
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@janicewong3 police wan to talk. speak later x |
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| Janice arrived a little while ago. Very shaken obviously, but she’s not the kind to cry. cops finally let her go | ||
| problem is she had to tell them abt Tom working for us, cash in hand. He kept no records, but tweets are public, no sense in hiding, | ||
| What frightens me is how Tom died. The cops are making out he was sick, but he wasn’t old, and was hale and hearty last week. | ||
| Janice says the blood was everywhere, from the bedroom to the chair, as if he bled to death from a hundred tiny wounds | ||
| I showed her the bites on my arm. And my hand. They’re not infected or anything. Very clean in fact. Thank god. same as Tom’s | ||
| Things need 2 change. Obviously something’s not right here, bt I refuse to believe it’s ghosts. Think we’re infested though. | ||
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| Too dark to do anything now. Need to really fumigate this house and get some info about the area. J is staying the night. | ||
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| Oddly no fireworks tonight. just stone cold silence. Happy bonfire night | Oddly no fireworks tonight. just stone cold silence. Happy bonfire night |
Veil 0.1 to follow…
Yán Engels 