RQ Network Feed Drop – Malevolent Part 1 “The Dark World”

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Crowdfunding for the game begins on the 9th of March on Kickstarter. Go to www.rusticwheel.com/mysteries to find out more and to sign up for notifications as soon as the project goes live. That's Rusticwheel.com/mysteries. Thanks for listening. Hi everyone, it's Anusha here, voice of Gwen in the Magnus Protocol. Today, we are bringing you the very first episode of a brilliant show on the Archu network, Malevolent, which is created

by Harlan Guthrie, the talented creator of multiple amazing shows, including Devizer and Dice

Shame. Malevolent is a thrilling, eldritch horror mystery audio drama brilliantly combined with elements of choose your own adventure and actual play via their Patreon. Malevolent follows our company, Arthur Lester, who wakes up blind, terrified and confused with no memory of who he is and what has happened, only in nameless, eerie voice guiding him through the darkness. You can listen to more episodes of this series by searching for Malevolent wherever you listen

to your podcasts or by clicking the link in the show notes below or for more information

visit www. Malevolent.ca or www.rusticwheel.com. Have fun and enjoy the episode.

That's all I'm dreaming of. And you call it madness, but I call it love. What happened? Don't you remember? Who are you? Who am I? I'm a friend. The best friend you have right now. The only friend you have. What happened? Why can't I see anything? What do you mean you're now? Who are you? Relax. Take a deep breath. Relax. I can't. I don't remember who I am or where I am or what's happened. I can't see anything.

“Calm down, friend. I'll tell you everything you need to know. Okay? Okay, okay.”

Let's start with where you are. You're standing in the office that belongs to one Arthur Lester. Arthur Lester. Yeah, sounds familiar? Not really. It should. Because do your offices. Mine? That's right, friend. Why are we? Don't move just yet. Why? Because I want you to do something. You want me to do something. Yes. Okay. Reach down by your feet. What am I reaching for? Something you dropped.

All right. I feel I feel a book. Yes. Pick it up. More dizzy. A book. Hang out to book out. I mean, I know what you meant. I'm just adding some levity to the situation, friend. I turn around and head towards your desk. I can't. I'll tell you when you're close. Look. I don't understand what's going on. It will be fine. Just take a deep breath and step backwards. Okay. Okay. Stop. Stop.

I said, stop, friend. I tried. I just. I tripped over something. What? What is this? It. If you was. I feel like. Now just calm down. Oh my god. It feels like a body. Yes. It's a body Arthur. Your partner. Well, this is too much. Arthur. Arthur. Listen to me.

“I have your eyes now. Do you want your ship a fuck up and listen to me?”

What to the desk? Put the book down. That's right. Good. Now that wasn't so difficult. Was it? No. Okay. What now?

and I'll tell you when to stop. Arthur, your whimpering is offered distracting.

There. Stop. Close it. What? What did you learn? Nothing. I didn't already know. And what is that? I don't know why someone gave you this book Arthur, but in opening it you've cursed yourself. Kirst myself. In a matter of speaking,

me as well. We're bound. Bound. How?

I am trapped inside you. I can see through your eyes and as far as I can tell I control nothing else. But I can hear you. Yes. Well, I guess sharing a body means that we share a mind. Who? What? What am I? Let's save that for now. The simpler question is, who are you? You told me who I made who are you to have received this book.

As for who you are, I knew that because it's written on the door to your office. Arthur,

Lester, and Peter Yang, private investigative services. It's on the open door. And my partner. His Peter Yang, I assume, says I can't imagine why he called out his own name before dying. He called at my name? Yes. You dropped the book and turned to him. He called out your name and then and then what? And then he died. How? Arthur? Question and answer period is over. Did you not hear me? The door is open. And your partner is laying dead in the middle of the floor.

“You need to move him before some passerby looks in. What? All right.”

Watch it. There's a... Better. I am. I'm having a tough time with all this right now. I really need to just breathe. I don't know who. I am. I don't know where I am. I don't recognize this. I... I... I... Are you there? Of course. Why? Arthur, it seems to me that you need to take a moment to compose yourself. Act right. Looks like someone plays the piano. Maybe it's you.

What? You want me to stop asking what and just listen to what I am saying.

“Sit down at the piano you bumped into and play something. But Peter. Isn't going anywhere?”

The door is shut. I shouldn't have alarmed you. So your attendor's soul, friend. I shouldn't have put such a fire beneath you. Now head over to that piano for me. There. Just put your fingers on the keys. Play something that comes to mind. Anything. [Music] Well, now look at that. And don't you feel a whole lot better, too? A little bit, yes.

“I am. I also remember things. I remember opening that book. I remember hearing a voice.”

And I remember turning to Peter. And you remember killing it. It was an accident. Of course it was. I was there. I saw the whole thing. But that doesn't change the fact that you did kill Peter. And if somebody finds out that it was you, you and me are going away for a long time. So

need a world record silver tongue. Why? Why can't I just explain that something is controlling your

sight? Do you understand what that would mean to these people? Right. Think there is a solution.

“I'll be a temporary. We need to get rid of the body. I think maybe Arthur. It's okay. Relax.”

We're in this together. Do you remember anything else? I remember Peter was my best friend. I felt who might be here. Yes, there was an appointment. There's a closet in the corner. Is it empty? Yes. Yes, it is. You're going to have to move Peter in there. All right. Is there any blood though? No. Call out. Tell her you'll just be a minute. Sorry. I'm just in the middle of something. I'll be just a few seconds. I apologize.

Why? I said a minute. I mean a minute. Sorry. Check the body to the right of you.

The other way. Not straight back. Good. The closet is already a jaw. Just kick it open. I can't. Perfect. Now stand the body up. Good, man. Arthur. Follow the left wall through hand. The door is right there. Wait. What? Do you have a gun? Of course. If she starts asking too many questions. Of course, with that closet, I'll let you know. Then you'll use it. We'll see. Open the door.

There's no wood there. Oh. Maybe the guard tired of wood here. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe there was no

“appointment. I could have gotten my dates. Can you wait? What is that? What?”

All the four by your feet. Paper. Did the book come in a package? Yes. Yes, I suppose it did. I remember I was saved it. I told paper off and let it fall. Pick it up. Let me read it. Junior, do-wit, acumen. Rare books. Arkham, Massachusetts. Is that where we are? Yes, yes, of course. You all right, dear. There's a man to your right. I didn't see him come up. He's wearing blue overalls and has dark spots all over his hands. He's looking at us. He's the building maintenance,

what do I say? Here, me, I said, are you all right, Dan? Get rid of her. That I heard you and your partner having a sped. That I come down and check it out. You guys yell in her something. What's going on? Was that him knocking? Was that you knocking? Yes, sorry. You're moving furniture in there or something? What's his name? Eddie, no, it's completely all night. I just had a bit of a full trip to something.

Had to pick it up and move it. He's suspicious of you. Oh, yeah, no, I found not fair enough here. Is that a pretty heavy whatever it was, you need some help? Get rid of him. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's packed away now. I appreciate it so much, Eddie. Actually, I'm just on my way out. Hold up. Mr. Lester, look, I hate to do this to you, but it is building maintenance supervisor. I'm going to have to take a look inside. What? No, not nothing like that. It's a few

complaints on the floor below you about leaky pipes. I'm in door for a while and I'm in the area and I'm catching you now. So I figured I'd just pop in the place to not let him in. No, no, of course, of course, you're just doing your job. Um, perhaps another time, though, it could be a little bit more and being in later for me, Frank. And like I said, I'm just-- No worries. No worries. Like I said, I can just go in without you. I don't actually need you there. I just need to get that a pipe.

Right. All right. Um, yes, of course. Let's go. What are you doing? You know that they are that just in the back there. Of course, of course, thanks so much. Appreciate it. He's looking around the office. He is only a few feet from the closet where your partner's body lives and what are you doing? It's it's Sunday after all, isn't it? I'm trying to remember.

“Lord, it's day of rest. That's why I want to get this work done, frankly. What are you talking”

about? Building's mostly empty. I'm surprised. You're even here, Frank. You know me, I'm always here.

Wait. Does that mean you're the only two in the building? So it's only us in the building, and I suppose? Yep. Unless your partner's here somewhere. I can feel you reaching for your pistol. Yes, we get most of our work done on Sundays. It's pretty quiet here. I imagine your line of work need a lot of quiet. Oh, Arthur. I underestimated you. If you aim straight ahead, you can't miss. However, you would be killing a man who's done nothing wrong. Arthur, put the gun away.

You can talk him out of here. Be smart. Eddie, look, I'm sorry. For what? I appreciate that you're

just trying to do your job, but in our line of work, we have sensitive materials and files that you cannot be privy to. Even an idle glance could spell ruin to one of our cases. Could put a target on your back even. He doesn't care, Arthur. Wait, respect, Mr. Lester. I'm used to having a target of so it's on me. Arthur, he thinks you're a pushover. You're smarter than him. What does he value? What is he fear? His body is no temple. It looks like he's gone 10 rounds in the ring. You can't scare him with his

life. Even loved ones. There are many people I'm sure. They're alone, Mr. Lester. Wrong again, Arthur. Look at him. I can't. Well, you've seen him before. Haven't you? Does he look like the type to

“take orders from you, a tightly suit wearing stiff, challenged him? If you want to convince him,”

you'll have to talk to him on his left. I hoarder. I need to offer. There's god damn an author

stop dancing around it and say what you need to say. Oh, right, listen here, Ed. I don't give a fuck what you think you need to do in here. You have two options that I'm going to give you only once. You can get the fuck out of my office and come back when I'm good and ready to let you, or I can pull you out of this office by the greasy hair on the back of your neck and take your fucking teeth in. Now listen here, you lie me piece of shit. No one does to me like that.

You better hope and pray that I don't see you again. Head to the bathroom, Arthur. Do your right. The other right.

Look in the mirror. I want to look at your face. You can't see this, but you have the

cold calculated demeanor of someone not to fuck with. What if you think you know about me? I do not like to be pushed around. Note it. Let's head back out to the office. We have work to do. So, sir, it seems like Peter is dealt with for the time being. And we have a lead on where this book came from. But why did I kill Parker? Trust me when I say I know his little about this as you do. Would it make sense for me to be the catalyst behind all of this perhaps? But it doesn't

“seem all that convincing. Let's remember that it was you who drew the gun on porn Mr. Eddie.”

Bloodshed was all that I was after that I'd be doing the bad job. I remember reaching out a hand to him. Arthur, this isn't going to help anything. How isn't this going to help? Because either you're going to remember why you killed him, which is bad for us, or you won't, which means there's no sense in wasting time on it. Why is remembering why I killed him back? Give me a scenario where killing him was for good reason.

Let us please just focus on the problem at hand. This book was where I was bound until quite recently. What is the name of the book? It doesn't have a name, at least not when I was bound to it, just a sigil on the front. Yes, I remember seeing the symbol on the front. It was meant to be a prison of sorts. So I have something that was in prison inside a book now bound to me.

“J.D. Ackerman, rare bookstore, do you recognize the name?”

No, I don't. More importantly, I want to know who gave this book to me. Why couldn't it be Ackerman themselves? I mean it could be it. It'd be on that he would rap and stamp it. That is a fair assumption. I guess you're not terrible detective. In truth I'm quite good. Take away my sight and I obviously need some time to adjust, but trust me, when my wits are about me, I cannot be matched. Fair enough. Let's head to the bookstore there.

Yeah, well, there could be another option. In lighten me. The source of the book is no doubt important, but who sent it to me? This is the much more pressing matter. Because, because whatever they have attended to do, either has or has not succeeded. Meaning, meaning if they haven't tended to have my spirit bound with you, then what next? And why? So what? I don't know, perhaps they intended something different.

Maybe for Peter to be the one who was killed or maybe for your essence. So whatever to be unbound, completely fine. But what does that mean? Where does that lead us? None of those are leads, Arthur. If I've made an enemy in any of my cases, it can come to you while we are heading towards the bookstore. Right. Now, how do we get there?

In the index of some sort. Fun book, actually.

“Stop! Acrobat there. 23 main street. That's just a few minutes by taxi.”

Well, there's no sense in waiting. A treat. Oh wait a minute. What? There was something. Something very off about one of our last cases. Which was, there was a missing girl. We attracted her to an address, a house, an old abandoned place north of the city.

I remember we had only searched the first floor of the house before an anonymous tip found

her body in a field miles away. How did you receive a tip? A Peter and I are legally obligated to alert police before entering any location where a possible victim could be, you know, in case things go south of it. Peter felt uncomfortable in the house as if we were being watched. So we made sure to call it in before proceeding. Enduring the call, that's when they said they had found her. A body, yes. And so why do you think this is a clue for us? Because I remember seeing

something on the wall of the basement door, something that children made. And it was a symbol,

“the same symbol on the front of the book that you were pounded. Well, yes, but I think you are”

right. It makes most sense to go to the book shop first. Oh, greed. It may be a bit of a struggle

to try and get there though. I assumed that the very least this would be good practice for us. Exactly. I'd hate to be in a situation where you need your eyesight and we've been unable to communicate effectively. Don't want you missing any important shots. Right. Well, since we have the address, the easiest way would be to take a taxi there. Well, then do we have everything we need? I suppose so. I have my gun. I'll bring the book. It'll be difficult, but we can make do if we

forgot anything. All right. Hopefully we can avoid that maintenance man on the way out. Let me know if you see it. No sign of him yet. You're almost at the stairs.

So, what are we hoping to find? Answers are a third. We're both looking for answers.

To what questions? Which questions are you looking for answers to? For me, I want to know why I'm bound to you and how I can become unbound. What? Just grab the reel. I'll let you know when we've reached the bottom step. I suppose for me, I want to know the same. That and what you are. What I am

“friend is something you wouldn't believe. And I never thought I'd believe any of this. Fair. But I think”

this is beyond your capabilities right now. Try me. Are you sure? Yes. If I am to be toting you as a passenger and my body, then I deserve to know what you are and where you come from. What I am isn't as important right now as where I come from. And if you are truly curious, I will do my best to explain. Please did. All right. That book isn't from this world. It isn't even from this side of the divide. It's from a dark plane of existence. What? Your world, as you know, it is on a singular path,

like a road? No. Think of existence as a singular pathway. From the dawn of your earth to now, your existence or the one that you belong to has followed this path. Like a timely. In a way, yes, however time is not the factor that distinguishes this world. What does? Choices. And these choices change our world. Yes. It causes different versions of the same core world, branches off, alternate pathways that diverge and cause massive changes to that version of this

world. All right. Look, all of this is only to provide a backdrop to explain. That you are from one of these worlds. Originally, yes, but no. Now, now all of these worlds have one singular exit. Think of it as a collective junkyard for every version of your world that exists. An ultimate end from which there is no return and what enters that junkyard, everything that dies. So you're dead. Yes, in my world, I died. And then I entered this dark world, along with every other creature that

it's ever existed, each pulled from their own. Well, that must be chaos. Chaos beyond understanding. How many of these other worlds exist? To count would be pointless. There are worlds that have monsters of legends, worlds that exist billions of years from now. Alternate paths that allow space travel and viruses to affect the entirety of your world. So we don't occupy the same time.

confuse. These worlds are all acting simultaneously and yet they all exist in very time. Some

billions and billions of years into the future to when the world has been covered twice by dead civilizations. Some over 50 years from now, with pathways that have led to worldwide epidemics, some even have an ancient past where magic was prevalent. Magic. Yes, look, you wanted to know and I am explaining. I am from the dark world. Within that world, I was bound to a book and that book was somehow brought here to you. So it's possible to bring things from this dark world.

Back. It's it's possible to return. Yes. And this is why we need to find out how I came back.

Stop. What? You've reached the last step. Uh oh. Are you all right? Yes, I just need to grab my mind around all of this. Well, continue straight ahead, pass the doors about 15 steps from where we're standing. Let's head to the street and wave a taxi while you think. You're about four steps from

“the doors. Well, what? Nothing. I just, the city is so alive. Was the world you were from like this one?”

Slow down. You're almost at the street. Oh, a taxi is seeing you. He's pulling up. Well, a question for another time, Arthur. The handle is to your left. Main street number 23. Hi. The city, the life that exists on every street corner. It's so different than the dark world that I thought I would forever call home. What is this

dark world? What does it look like? It is a shadow of all of the worlds that have existed. A dark mirror projecting in twisted forms, a horrible vision of what worlds we have come from. It is a prison. Arthur make no mistake and I have no intention of ever returning. We're here. How much is the affair? Well, it says 233. Right. Thank you.

“JD Accommon's rare books. Looks like the light is on inside. What do we want to ask him specifically?”

Everything we can about the book. All right. There. To your left. Just that. Hmm. It's a cozy looking place. Describe it to me. Describe everything to me. All right. The feels ancient and comfortable. There are massive stacks of books piled all around as feels almost claustrophobic. It looks like there's a small wooden desk in the back with an oil lamp on it. I hear a radio. Do you hear that? Yes, but I can't see it.

I... I... What? What's wrong? That's song. I... I don't recognize it. I don't think it.

Quiet. Just let me listen for a second.

I... I... I don't understand. What don't you understand? I... I don't recognize it. I do. Well, that doesn't make any sense. I know what doesn't make any sense.

“We need answers. Head to the desk in the back. I think...”

It looks like there's a bell on the desk. I hear a movement in the back. Yes, I... Are you okay? Yes, I'm fine. Let's get some answers. What was that? I don't know. Sounds like something fell over back there. What? Nothing. Just the desk looks messy. messy. Yes. Everything does seem rather close together. It does feel a bit claustrophobic in here, despite me not being able to see it.

All that a bookstore owner wouldn't be quick to answer.

that the person making all that bracket works here.

They must not have heard the bell the first time. But they had it that time.

“Arthur, maybe you should draw your fire on.”

Crouch low and hug your back against the counter. Good. I don't hear any more movement. What should we am? Just wait. Listen. I don't hear anything. Me neither. Maybe they left through a back entrance when they heard us here. What should we do? Pick over the counter. Very slowly. Just enough so I can see the door leading to the back. All right. Okay. It was to the right of the desk and we're pretty well covered now.

Get out of your ass and follow me right now. Get up. Arthur. We're not following him. What? Despite my severe lack of ability to follow if he shot and ran as opposed to shooting us dead chasing him would only end badly.

“Did you get a look at his face? It looked like he was wearing a mask. What? What kind of mask?”

It was pale white. It had eyes but no mouth. It was something about it seemed familiar. You've seen him on before. I don't remember. All right. Well, I doubt that was the owner. Arthur relax. That was a close call but it won't be the last. So what are we doing here? Looking for information about the book or who sent it to you. Don't tell me that gunshot

rattled jenervs so much that you forgot why we're here. All right. Looks like the place is finally

empty. Why don't we take a look around? Get up. Move around the desk. Let's take a look behind it first. I don't know what you do. Do you want me to move things around? No. Just stand for a moment and look down. Right. We're at use suppose the owner is possible his body is in the back. Should

“it cool the police? No. Not with your partner's body stolen your closet. Right. See anything?”

Nothing that means anything to me. Let's head to the back. There's an open archway to the left of the desk. It looks like it leads to the back. Wow. What? That person was definitely looking for something. This place is a mess. This isn't a coincidence, isn't it? It could be how often

do rare bookstores get robbed around here. I'd say pretty close to never. Then I think it's safe

to assume that there must be some connection. What are the chances they found? What are they looking for? I guess unlikely. Since they were still looking when we arrived, however, the mess is much bigger than the sounds they made. So perhaps they were at the tail end and just making sure they had everything they needed. What do you suppose they needed? I don't know Arthur. It's not likely. I'll notice if you keep asking me questions. I have to assume there are no bodies back here based on your

reaction. None that I can see though the mess is substantial. Shall I move around? Yes. Wait. Stop. Bend down for a moment. Did Tribis Militabus? What does it mean? I'm not sure. But it seems familiar. You don't seem to remember very much. It's difficult when you've lived as long as I. You've been dodgy about answering my questions about who you are from the beginning. Have you forgotten? I told you time works differently for different worlds. The dark world is

without time entirely. I've lived life times upon life times over there. It was all I knew for as long as I could fat them and now you're here and now I'm here. So you have forgotten who you are or who you were. Yes. Well, both on sex I have it comes back to you. There's a desk in the corner. It looks like a bookshelf is fallen over it. Head forward a little bit. No, put it. Yes. There. You feel it? Yes. Lift it up. Good. Well done Arthur.

This looks like a writing desk. The owner is maybe. There's a sea of papers on top of it.

All right. Let's just think for a moment. Let's step back, even. Why did we originally come here?

“We wanted answers on the book Arthur. Exactly. Now let's find some. Is there anything on the desk”

that would indicate a catalog of sorts? Maybe a purchase of sale? I don't or even a receipt book. Yes. Yes. There's a book to the left of where your hand is resting. It says receipts. Well there we go. Any book that came from here that was purchased or sold or shipped or whatever would be written down or categorized in some way. Let's take a look. Does it say anything about the book? Maybe even an unknown book? Something with a

sigil on it. No, say who shipped it? All right. Something isn't adding up. Why would someone send me a book from here and not have any record of it existed? We should have followed that number of relax. You getting heated isn't going to make evidence suddenly appear. He could have taken something important with him, Arthur, but instead you decided to lie on your earth. Listen. Maybe I was wrong. You're in what way? I said that it was not likely that someone sending

a book would stamp it if it were the owner, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe the owner did send it. Why do you suddenly think that? He's nowhere to be found. There doesn't seem to be any mentioned of it being shipped. Maybe if our friend who ran sack this place was looking for your book

“wrapping it so it looks like any other package would be the best way to hide it. Maybe.”

Maybe. On his desk is there are all the decks? What? It's a metal object that opens. Yes. Where? The back right? All right. There. Oh, it's already open. Yes. Right. Well I'm going to rotate it. Tell me if you see my name or my partner's name or even our address. What's your address? 13 Mosby Avenue. Are you ready? Arthur it's already on your address. What do you mean the role of decks? It's been left on 13 Mosby Avenue, but the name isn't yours.

It says Roland Cummings. Yes. That was the previous tenant. What did he do? But the same I believe he was a private investigator. We had to take over the least rather quickly

in fact he sort of hurriedly needed to leave the city. I always thought it was a bit suspect,

but in our line of work it's not entirely Arthur out of the new Arthur. Do you know what this means? Yes, it means that the owner meant to send the book to Roland Cummings. No, not that. It means whoever trying to shoot us knows your name, where you live, and most assuredly we'll find the body of your partner if we do not hurry. Look, we can't go back there now. Regardless of what happened we need to keep moving forward. Covering the new ground. Arthur, you know I'm right.

“So we found everything we can here. I believe so. Then let's head to the house. Do you remember”

where it is? Yes, it wasn't that long ago. A week or so really. It was just our last case. Then I suppose there isn't much time to waste. It's possible if we stay here too long we could run into another patron or the police. Right. After all that gunshot wasn't quiet. Very true. Let's head back out to the street. Move down the block a bit and hail a cab. Okay. It's around here. Left, left, there.

So tell me again how you came upon this house. Yes, right. As I mentioned a week or so ago we thought a job. I missing girl was reported to the police. With cases like this ones where the parent is especially anxious so the girl is rather young.

Having all the help the police can get is always beneficial. So they hired you Peter and I have a special

luck with missing persons cases. We took a review from the previous tenant before us. Roland coming. That's right. No. Well, yes. You said that Roland Cummings was the previous tenant. You said he hurriedly needed to leave the city. Yes. Technically, the lease we took was coming. But leaving the city hurriedly was only something I heard second hand. In this game, it's often that a PI closes down. It's a dangerous line of work. Cummings was the name on the lease that we obtained. But we rented

the office from an investigative team named Stone, Lyasias, Strong, but he retired and you took some cases. Yes. He mentioned him and his partner were working on a few missing persons cases. Did his partner retire also? No. He passed away during the case rather terrifically I gathered. In any case, there were a few unsolved ones that he handed off to us and we successfully dealt with them. So much so that we stuck with it. Missing persons cases, that is.

The taxi's pulling up. And so with McFarland case. Yes. It landed on our laps. We tended to go about them differently than the police and in any case, a vagrant notice her bike outside the house. And we had our lead. Where did the lead take? 58 Pelican Lane.

What made you want to call it in before moving in any further? It was Peter mainly. He felt like like we would be watched. The symbol also. It seemed to chill him to his coat. Well, that's what the look.

What's wrong, Arthur? I... I always value to my sight, obviously, as much as one can.

But it's quite a different thing to lose it all together one day. Instinctively, I go to look out the window trying to see the city as I know it's out there. It's a warm sunny day, Arthur. The streets are busy with people moving about. Cars find their way through the spaces in the traffic as the world brims with life. Believe me, I appreciated enough for the both of us. Yes. I already miss it.

Knowing I won't see a loved one's face and... and... and never mind.

The driver's stop. Here's to enchange, keep it.

Thank you.

“Well, this is a quiet looking street. Yes, I remember it being particularly quiet as well.”

I'm sure you can guess why we searched the house. It looks like it's the only one on the street. What's around here? There are a few businesses about 10 minutes down the road south of us and there was a few apartments up the road north but for the most part this house is completely on its own. It's quite odd really. Why is that odd? Because it's not often a house is like this a built up here.

They're usually a close at the city centre, especially one as old as this. Well, I suppose we shouldn't

deliver. How did you manage to get it in? The porch on the front wraps around. I'll just watch the porch. Seems rather worn. Guide me towards the back of the. Sure. Step two right. There's a fallen banister. Lift her leg. No, higher. There. Big step forward. Okay. Okay. Yes. Good.

“Now there should be a window. Yes. Yes. The boards look removed. That's how we made our way in.”

It was off its nails when we got here too. Out of the reason why we thought she may be here. If you put your hands out and move forward, you should be able to feel for it. Right. So what happened to the girl? Emily? Yes. As I said, they found her in a field. It seems like she was dismembered to the find out who did it. No. In fact, there had been a curfew in effect since her murder was crucially to say the least. A friend of the station said that

the waste she was dismembered to the find out. So I'm not sure. I didn't press. Why? I don't know. I didn't think I could help. Did you even try? What? Did you even try to help? Let's copy into you. Nothing. I'm going to climb in now. All right. If you can calm yourself. We're in. The symbol was by the basement door. I see it. It's carved in. I can feel the indentations.

“You were bound to this book. You must have some idea what this means. I don't.”

And I suppose we should look downstairs. Do you have a light? I have my light, yes. After you. Well, it's a small damp basement. The ceiling beams look well worn. Burns is from the plumes of wall sconces, dot the corners. There are a number of barrels in the corner. The walls look like their cobblestone. Save a bookshelf on the far side. That's it? That's it. It's small.

Smaller than the house? By quite a margin. Hmm. Why? I just want to walk the wall. Keep your eyes. Wait. But the bookshelf. It looks open. Open. Just move along the wall. Arthur. It's another small room. This room is much nicer. The walls are smooth plaster and painted.

in the book. It's painted above a creature. Well, what creature? Arthur. I don't know if you want to.

Just tell me what you see. Finally. It is an enormous mass which extrudes black tentacles.

Slime dripping mouths and short-riding goat legs. It is immense and horrific. It is more than death itself. It is a forest of despair filled with a thousand young and it is an all-consuming, all devouring and

“to life as we know it. Well, that is debated in the mirror. No. How do you know that?”

I don't know. What is this name? The show made it off. Arthur. I am not this creature. How do you know? You don't even remember. We should leave this place. Agreed. We have a name and we now know what the symbol represents. Maybe there is a library in town that we can research. Yes. Yes. Yes. There's one in the Miss Katonic University that should help us understand. Did you see anything else? No. Let us leave. Wait. Yes, I do.

It's barely noticeable, but there is a stone in the mural which looks like it can be turned. What? Where? Reach up. There. Yes. Here. Turn it. It's a stone passageway. It leads down. Are we sure we want to head down there? We need to know all that we can about this place in why it's here. And if there is an answer down there, we need to find it. There's an opening up ahead. It feels much wider down here. It's a cave. A large opening with no apparent eggs.

What else do you see? Tell me everything. There looks to be three cages on the ceiling high above their chain to the cavern ceiling. There's a stone slab in the center of the room that looks like it might be sacrificial. God. There's more. At the far end of the room it looks like there's a stone archway. Where does it lead? No where. It just stands there as if an opening to something, but there's

“nothing just stone beyond it. Could it be it? Wait. What? There are also bones here. Where?”

Up past the podium. Does it podium? Yes, before the archway there looks to be a podium and behind it there are the remains of what looks to be two people. This? Yes, that's the podium. There's nothing on it. No, why? We have a book now. You think this could be where it came from? The bodies, how long have they been here? Years, but I can't tell how many.

There is still flesh on their bones. It looks like they struggled and killed each other. The stone beneath them is stained red with their blood. It looks to be a knife. Wait. What?

No, one may have killed the other, but the second looks to have deep cuts clean through its bones.

Wait, he was dismembered? Yes. Emily McFarlane was killed the same way.

“You think she found this room? Well, she must have, but why was she here? What was she looking for?”

And what did she look out? Well, you think she let this creature out? But no. No, I would have had to survive for years in here without anything. Arthur, there are creatures that exist in both your world and mine that you cannot begin to fathom. If there is even the slightest chance that whatever killed this man also killed Emily, that means it has been released and you defile it. Creature on this has to be stopped.

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