Woke up this morning with a headache that felt like somebody lined the inside of my skull with roofing nails.
Took me a minute to realize I still had the storage key clenched in my hand.
Apparently I carried the damn thing home from the Legion and fell asleep holding onto it like some kind of lunatic.
Just laid there staring at the ceiling for a while trying to decide whether I should keep digging into any of this.
Because I can already see how this kind of thing gets into people’s heads.
One strange document turns into ten. Then maps. Then archived records. Then suddenly your entire personality becomes explaining obscure theories to exhausted strangers while everyone around you quietly backs away.
I don’t want to become one of those people.
The internet is already overflowing with paranoid idiots who think every blurry lightbulb reflection is proof civilization lives underground.
And honestly?
Most of this still probably has perfectly normal explanations.
Old records. Bad paperwork. Half-remembered stories. Forgotten storage units.
And the stupid part is I’m not even completely sure any of this was actually his.
The key might not’ve been connected to my grandfather at all.
Could’ve belonged to somebody he served with. Somebody from the Legion. Somebody who used the footlocker before him for all I know.
I keep acting like all these loose pieces automatically connect back to him when they might not.
Which would honestly make this entire situation even more ridiculous.
But the problem is my grandfather keeps sitting in the middle of all of it somehow.
Not directly. Just close enough that I can’t stop wondering what exactly he got involved in.
If it wasn’t for that friggin’ picture of him and Pennington, I probably could’ve let this whole thing go already.
I think that’s the part dragging me forward more than anything else.
Not Hollow Earth. Not Pennington.
Him.
Still haven’t decided if I’m going back to the Legion to ask about those boxes.
Part of me thinks I should let the whole thing die right here before it turns into an obsession.
Doesn’t matter much right now anyway.
Supposed to be leaving for Germany on business in a couple days.
Maybe some distance from all this nonsense will finally get my head back on straight.