Subjects of Interest:
Candle Face Chronicles
The Lost Souls
March 18, 2024
I’d had enough of crashing on the couch, so I made my way upstairs to sleep in a real bed. As I climbed the steps, I noticed the faint silhouette of a man standing in the bedroom. Unsure if he might get aggressive like some spirits have in the past, I edged forward, carefully pushing the door open wider. He looked about as wary as I felt, which put me somewhat at ease. I slipped inside and leaned against the wall in silence. Interpreting my quiet as a sign to proceed, he began to speak.
Every city has its share of stories, and Austin’s no different. I thought I knew them all, but Candle Face? She was just another one of those urban legends to me—until she wasn’t.
I wasn’t much for smooth walking after the accident. My limp made sure of that, and it wasn’t just my leg that felt broken—half of me never fully woke up after the crash. I’d mutter to myself sometimes, just to remind myself I was still here, still alive.
Most nights, you’d find me downtown, hanging around the edges of all the action. I never felt like I belonged, but watching the energy and the people—it was enough to keep me going. That’s where I met her, my ‘Lady Friend.’ That’s what she liked me to call her. She had this laugh, warm but sharp, like it could cut you if you weren’t careful.
She was obsessed with the stories that gave this city its pulse, especially the one about Candle Face. She’d light up when she talked about it, her eyes practically glowing as she told me about the woods in northwest Austin. How there was something out there—a creature with a face like melted wax and fire in its eyes, hunting down the doubters.
“You don’t believe, do you?” she’d ask, teasing, but with a seriousness underneath.
I’d just laugh and shake my head. “Nope. I believe in what I can see, what I can touch. Stories are just that—stories.”
That answer never sat well with her.
One night she took my arm and pulled me away from the comfort of downtown. We caught a cab out to the northwest side of town, and then she led me on foot into the woods. She didn’t say much, but the way she gripped my arm told me this wasn’t a stroll for fun.
“Why are we here?” I asked, my voice already shaky.
She turned to me and smiled. “You’ll see. I’m going to show you something real. Then you’ll believe.”
The trees closed in around us, the trail getting tighter with every step, like it was watching us. Like it was waiting.
We came to a creek. The water was dark and still, like it didn’t want to move. That’s when I saw her—Candle Face.
She stepped out of the tree line like she’d been there all along, her face twisted into this horrifying mask of melted wax. Her eyes burned like candles, dim but alive. She reached for me with a hand that shouldn’t have been solid but was. I tried to pull back, but it was too late.
“Thank you,” Candle Face said to my Lady Friend, her voice like the rustling of dead leaves in the wind.
And then my Lady Friend laughed, this wild, unhinged laugh that didn’t sound like her at all. “You should have believed,” she said.
I panicked, trying to yank my hand free, but Candle Face had me. My limp made it impossible to run, and she dragged me deeper into the trees. The trees seemed to laugh along with my Lady Friend, their branches closing in, blocking out everything but the sound of my own terror.
The pain in my leg burned as I stumbled, but it wasn’t just my body hurting. It was the betrayal, the realization that my Lady Friend—this person I thought I knew—had fed me to her monster. Candle Face wasn’t a myth. She was as real as the cold fear that wrapped around my chest, as real as the ache in my useless leg.
As we moved deeper into the forest, Candle Face’s eyes dimmed, like she was satisfied. Her voice, low: “Belief is the beginning and the end. Only when you believe do you truly see.”
And I saw. I saw everything in that final moment.
The spirit began reaching out his right hand but quickly withdrew it while glancing back toward the portal as if he knew he had made a mistake. I didn’t push the issue. I thanked him for his time and told him I’d try to help him. He looked at me surprisingly, like he didn’t know I could respond. He winked and limped back into the shadows of my bedroom.
Personal Note to My Readers
It looks like I’ve started speaking directly with the lost souls. This might be the second or third time I’ve done so. Whenever they tell their stories, I just take in what they say—no questions yet. Once they’re gone, I wonder why I can’t bring myself to ask them anything. With time, I hope that changes. I really want to ask them questions, but right now, I just can’t.
This situation makes me think of my childhood confrontations with Candle Face. At first, she got into the house through unlocked doors, so I made sure to lock them. Then she found open windows, so I closed and locked those. My family teased me for it, but I kept doing it. Eventually, I realized I could control some aspects of my dreams. In one encounter, I saw Candle Face outside a window trying to open it. Even though I knew I was dreaming, I rushed to lock the window, and right after that, she moved on to another one. By staying one step ahead—flying around and locking each window—I managed to stop her from getting in. It ended in a huge showdown once I figured out how to shape the dream. I’m hoping I’ll reach a similar point with these visits from lost souls. I have so many questions waiting to be asked.
Is Candle Face real?
This is a complex and deeply personal question. On the one hand, there's the possibility that Candle Face is a manifestation of my childhood trauma, a figure created by my mind to cope with fear and emotional turmoil. On the other hand, the consistent details, physical evidence, and shared experiences with others suggest that Candle Face may be a genuine supernatural entity. Whether Candle Face is real or a creation of my psyche, her impact on my life has been undeniably profound. Ultimately, the answer to this question is up to you.
How are you able to communicate with the dead? Are you a psychic or medium?
I don’t consider myself a psychic or medium, although many in the paranormal community believe I have some kind of gift, perhaps one that I haven’t fully tapped into yet. Unlike those who claim to communicate with any spirit, my ability seems limited to connecting with Candle Face’s victims and Candle Face herself. While I’m not sure how this works, the connection is strong and focused on these particular Lost Souls, allowing me to share their stories and seek justice for them.
Do you use AI to create your content?
From October 2023 to around March 2024, I personally wrote the short descriptions you see on Google and social media platforms when my web pages or journal entries are shared or found in search results. These descriptions are those brief, 160-character summaries that pop up beside the URL. It was challenging to condense complex ideas into such a small space.
By March 2024, I began letting Wix, my website host, handle this task for me. Their AI generates these summaries much faster and often with more precision than I could manage within that tight character limit. It was a practical decision to let the system take over this small aspect of my work, allowing me to focus more on my writing and investigations.
The web pages and journal entries themselves are entirely my own. My writing encompasses a wide range of topics, including the testimonies of the Lost Souls, my investigations into Candle Face/Isabel, my books like Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona and The Haunted Handbook, as well as other works and research. Everything I write is rooted in my decades of experience in writing (over ten books in 15 years) and my 30+ years of expertise in intelligence analysis, missing persons cases, and human trafficking investigations. The core content you read always comes from me.
By early March 2025, I decided to create a Shopify account to sell copies of Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona, The Haunted Handbook, and to look for caretakers for The Scrolls of Souls. It was a tremendous amount of work to manually transfer all 130 journal entries from Wix to Shopify and recreate the Google SEO titles and descriptions for each entry. Shopify’s blogging platform also required a summary for each journal entry. Summarizing my work was taking around 30 minutes per entry, which became overwhelming and unsustainable.
To streamline the process, I allowed AI to create the summaries for me by uploading each journal entry and letting the AI generate the SEO descriptions, summaries, and ALT text for images. Here's a clear breakdown of what is AI-generated:
- Some journal entry titles.
- Nearly all SEO journal descriptions (up to 160 characters).
- Nearly all summaries (which are only available in the backend and not visible to the public).
Everything else you read comes from me, whether it’s documenting testimonies from the Lost Souls, researching Candle Face/Isabel, or writing my books. The AI simply handles the tedious, mechanical parts of the process, leaving the writing, storytelling, and investigations entirely in my hands.
I review all AI-generated summaries and descriptions to ensure they accurately represent the essence of my writing. My decision to use AI for these backend tasks is about maintaining efficiency and allowing me to focus on what truly matters: writing, storytelling, investigations, and giving voice to the Lost Souls, protecting the Fugitives, investigating Candle Face/Isabel, and exploring new projects. Your experience as a reader is shaped by my work, not by AI.
Why did you end the podcast?
I decided to cancel the Candle Face Chronicles Podcast for two key reasons. First, while the Get Haunted Network is a fantastic community for paranormal entertainment, it wasn't the right fit for the serious and important nature of my work with Candle Face Chronicles. The network's lighthearted tone didn’t align with my mission.
Second, the friends and family of one of Candle Face's victims reached out and asked me to stop discussing their loved one on the podcast because it was causing them too much pain. Their request made me realize that my work, while well-intentioned, was unintentionally hurting those who are still living and grieving.
These reasons led me to end the podcast, but I remain committed to continuing my mission to uncover Candle Face’s origins and methods with a renewed focus on compassion and respect for the living.
Why did you stop using www.candleface.com and start using www.branchingplotbooks.com?
I have had the branchingplotbooks.com domain since 2012, but I transferred the domain to Shopify to use it as my storefront. I needed to do this because Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona can't be published or sold via Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing because of its spiral binding requirement. The same goes for The Haunted Handbook.
I decided to sell them, along with most of my other books, on Shopify because it allows me to provide a more streamlined and reliable experience for my readers. It also enables me to have full control over my work and how it reaches my audience. Additionally, all my books are still available on Amazon (paperback and Kindle), except for Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona and The Haunted Handbook due to their unique binding requirements.
I also chose to use Shopify’s blogging platform, keeping all books, my journal, and the shopping experience located in one place.
I plan on keeping www.candleface.com up for the interim, but it will likely go down as well, or at least be redirected to www.branchingplotbooks.com. In the end, I want my work to be more streamlined and easier for the paranormal community and my readers to find my work, read and help the lost souls, protect the fugitives, and care for the Scrolls of Souls.
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