Subjects of Interest:
Candle Face Chronicles
The Lost Souls
March 27, 2024
I was lounging on the couch, lost in thought about the increasing visits from the lost souls. Interestingly, none had shown any hostility toward me of late. Perhaps it was a mere coincidence. While preparing my makeshift bed on the couch, the side door swung open, ushering in an intense wave of body odor. A man, seemingly in his middle years and mirroring my own age, approached. His gaze, however, was fixated on the fresh brownies my wife had prepared just a few hours earlier. Offering some, I was taken aback not only by my own ease of communication but even more so when he responded, “I appreciate the offer, but partaking in the pleasures of the living isn’t something I can do without consequences.” His refusal was met with my encouraging smile, “Well, if you reconsider, they’re there for the taking.” We then proceeded to the living room, where, for the first time, one of my nocturnal visitors chose to sit. Curiously, I inquired, “What brings you here tonight?” This is what he told me:
I used to stand on a corner downtown, holding my tattered sign, just another face in the homeless crowd. My days were a loop of survival: beg for change, buy a drink, numb the pain, and start all over again. It wasn’t much of a life, but it was all I had.
One day, this guy came up to me, holding a flyer. His eyes had this weird intensity, like he was trying to sell me something. The flyer had a drawing of a little girl. She looked kind of sad, almost forgotten, like she was waiting for someone to notice her. She looked like she was from Mexico or Central America. He said she could save people like me and give me a way out of this hell.
I didn’t take him seriously. I mean, what good is a ‘savior’ when your stomach’s empty, and the cold cuts through your bones? I tossed the flyer back at him and muttered, “I need food, not another savior.”
That night, I crawled under the I-35 overpass, my usual spot to crash. My mind wandered back to that guy and his talk about this little girl. Was it hope? Or just desperation?
The next morning, an older guy—one of the regulars on the street—came up to me. He had this haunted look in his eyes, like he’d seen something he couldn’t unsee. He warned me to stay far away from that little girl because she’s actually Candle Face, said nothing good came from crossing paths with her. But the more he talked, the more curious I got.
Over the next few weeks, I couldn’t get her out of my head. At first, I blamed the booze. The voices I started hearing? Must’ve been another side effect of drinking too much. But they didn’t go away—not when I was sober, not when I was drunk. They said things, secrets, promises… and they made my daily routine unbearable.
Eventually, I linked up with some other folks who’d heard of Candle Face. We started swapping stories, piecing together what we could. We thought we were onto something, but it was like chasing shadows. No matter how hard we tried, the truth stayed just out of reach.
Then came the betrayal.
The guy who’d handed me the flyer? Turns out he was working for her the whole time. He wasn’t trying to save us—he was feeding us to Candle Face. One by one, my friends fell under her spell. The yelling in my head even grew louder, driving me to the edge.
I thought I could handle it, but the pressure was too much. One night, I drank more than I ever had before, hoping to escape it all. I thought I was taking control, but that’s when she came to me. Candle Face herself.
She stepped out from behind a pillar, her face glowing faintly, like melting wax with two flickering flames where her eyes should’ve been. Her voice was cold and calm. “Do you still not believe?” she asked.
I laughed bitterly. “You’re just in my head,” I said. “A drunk’s nightmare.”
She shook her head. “No,” she said, “I’ve been waiting for you to give up. Now, you are mine.”
In the end, I gave up. I let her take me, my spirit too tired to resist anymore.
Now, my old street corner belongs to someone else, another lost soul who doesn’t realize what’s coming. Candle Face’s influence stretches farther every day, swallowing people like me. The world keeps moving, oblivious to what’s really happening, while the homeless community—the forgotten ones—falls deeper under her grip.
And me? I’m just another name on her list, another warning that no one will hear.
He finished telling his story, then walked over to the brownies, their aroma clearly calling to him. I watched in silence as he lingered there—his whole demeanor radiating a quiet longing. Finally, he turned toward me, looking torn between desire and resignation. “I’d give anything to taste the life I once knew,” he said softly, “but sometimes it’s better to leave certain wants unfulfilled.” With that, he left the house. By the time his foot reached the sidewalk, his form slowly faded into the night until there was nothing left but the echo of a tired sigh.
Personal Note to My Readers
One detail from the spirit’s story stood out to me—the flyer he mentioned, with the drawing of a little girl. He said she looked sad, almost forgotten, like she was waiting for someone to notice her. He thought she might have been from Mexico or Central America.
It makes me wonder who she was. Was she just a figure meant to draw people in, or is there something more to her? Spirits often leave pieces of themselves behind in the stories they tell. Maybe this was one of those pieces.
I don’t know what it means yet, but I’ll keep it in mind as these visits continue.
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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