Margaret Blackthorn's Annotations

Handwritten marginalia from the Finch manuscript, 1976-1999

The following annotations were discovered in Margaret Blackthorn's personal copy of Professor Finch's published work. Written over a period of twenty-three years, they reveal aspects of the manor's history omitted from the official record.

On the Preface (1976)

What follows is not merely architectural documentation but a record of containment. The east wing was never designed as residential space but as an elaborate mechanism to manage what Walter encountered in Egypt—an intersection between dimensions that threatened to widen without intervention.

Annotation dated approximately 1976

Harold wrote what I permitted him to write. The truth would have endangered him further. He already hears them at night—he told me so before he left for the final time. Poor man. He should never have taken that photograph.

The Watchers remember everyone who sees their image. There is no escape from that memory. I should know. I have lived with their attention my entire life.

Annotation dated approximately 1978

Regarding the east wing measurements—Harold was correct. The internal dimensions exceed the external by precisely 7.13%. This is not measurement error. The space inside is larger than the space outside because it extends partially into Their realm.

Great-grandfather understood this. He built the east wing as an interface—a place where our world touches Theirs. The Agreement requires such a place to exist. Without it, They cannot be contained.

The door is not a door. It is a membrane. What passes through in one direction must eventually return. This is the terms of the Agreement.

On the 1869 Delay (1988)

The first documented manifestation occurred during foundation excavation when workers uncovered a previously undetected chamber beneath the stone circle. Three laborers disappeared after entering the chamber. Walter himself witnessed a "partial materialization of non-human form" before implementing emergency containment measures derived from Egyptian texts.

Annotation dated approximately 1980

THE AGREEMENT

Great-grandfather William signed it in 1869, during the construction delay. He did not know what he was agreeing to. The workers had breached something beneath the old stone circle—something that had been sealed for thousands millennia.

The Watchers emerged. Seven of them. They could not be fought. They could not be contained by conventional means. They offered terms.

The Agreement was signed in blood. Not ink. Blood. Great-grandfather's blood, and the blood of something else—something that burned where it touched the parchment.

The terms: They would remain in the interface space. They would not fully enter our world. In exchange, the Blackthorn family would maintain Their prison. We would keep Their existence secret. We would never document Them. We would never photograph Them.

And every generation, one of us would meet with Them speak to renew the binding.

I am the last. There will be no one after me to renew it. God help whoever owns this property when the binding fails.

On the Agreement (1993)

The Agreement was signed in blood. The renewal was due in 1996. I will not live to see it performed. What happens when the binding fails?

On Chapter III: The East Wing (1982)

The "guest rooms" were designed for specialized containment of different aspects of these entities, with each space calibrated to specific dimensional frequencies Walter documented during manifestation events. The Baroque room contains entities associated with structural manifestation, while the Oriental room contains those associated with cognitive influence.

Annotation dated approximately 1982

The Aperture—what Harold called "the well room"—is the true center of it all. It is not a well. It has never been a well. It is the original breach. The place where They first touched our world.

Great-grandfather built the manor around it. The east wing focuses energy toward it. The Apparatus in the attic maintains the seal. Everything is connected. Everything serves a single purpose: keeping the Aperture closed.

But "closed" is relative. The Aperture cannot be truly sealed. It can only be maintained. Like a wound that will not heal, it must be constantly tended. The monthly rituals. The equinox observances. The seven-year renewals.

I have performed them all, as my father did, as his mother did, as her father did before her. The weight of it has shaped every moment of my life.

Annotation dated approximately 1985

DEPARTMENT 8

They contacted me in 1942, shortly before the evacuation. Government men with questions about the manor. They knew more than they should have. They had files dating back decades—reports from local police, military observations, even correspondence from the British Museum regarding Great-grandfather's Egyptian acquisitions.

They call themselves Department 8. They monitor locations like Blackthorn Manor throughout Britain. "Threshold sites," they call them. Places where the barrier between here and elsewhere is thin.

They wanted to "secure" the property. I refused. They do not understand the Agreement. Their containment methods would breach the terms. The Watchers would be released, not controlled.

We reached our own agreement. They monitor from a distance. I continue the family duties. When I die, they will take over. I pray they have learned enough by then not to destroy everything my family has sacrificed to maintain.

They are watching this site now. If you have found these notes, they know. They have always known who accesses this archive.

Annotation dated approximately 1990

James Reed came to see me before he went to the manor. Young man. Determined. He had read Harold's study and sensed the omissions. He wanted to know what Harold had left out.

I told him not to go. I told him the property was dangerous. I told him some places should not be investigated.

He did not listen. None of them ever listen.

I felt it when they entered the east wing. Even in London, I felt it. The Watchers stirred. Three new minds to observe. Three new memories to keep.

They never left. The Watchers keep them now, as they keep all who see too much. The Agreement permits this. The Agreement demands requires it.

I am sorry, James. I am so sorry.

Final Entry (1994)

[Written with visibly shaking hand]

Future guardians will recognize the significance of what I've recorded here when circumstances align for its discovery. The Watchers are patient. The Watchers are waiting. The Watchers remember you.

Final annotation - 1993

I am dying. The doctors say months, perhaps less. There is no one to continue the family's duty. My brother died in the war. My sister's mind broke when she performed the 1950 renewal—she never recovered. I have no children. The bloodline ends with me.

The Agreement will lapse. The seven-year renewal is due in 1996. There will be no Blackthorn to perform it.

I have done what I can. I have left instructions with Department 8. I have encoded the ritual requirements in the architectural preservation documents—they will find them if they look carefully enough. I have made provisions in my will for the site's protection.

But I fear it will not be enough. The Watchers are patient. They have waited for over a century. They can wait longer.

When the binding finally fails—and it will fail—pray that you are far from this place.

The door is not a door. The Watchers remember. We have always been here.

That is what They say. That is what They have always said. I hear them even now, whispering at the edge of sleep. They are saying goodbye. Or perhaps hello.

Perhaps, for Them, there is no difference.

ADDITIONAL ANNOTATIONS SEALED

Remaining annotations in this volume have been sealed by order of Threshold Holdings Ltd. under Heritage Preservation Act guidelines.

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