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Wake: Darkness engulfed the elevator. There was something there. Reaching for her. Trying to make her act. It was a distress call. Faden sensed a drawing man. A hunger in the dark. Investigations Sector.
Jesse: “Investigations Sector,” huh? We should check this out.
Jesse: Hello? Anyone here? Guess not. Seems a lot more… crowded than the rest of the Bureau.
Jesse: Hmm, it’s not working. Probably a loose Power Core somewhere.
Wake: Do we know each other? I feel… this feels familiar. I can’t seem to… I’ve forgotten… I’m sorry. I’m… My name is Alan Wake.
Wake: Who are you? Who are you? Do I know you?
Zane: I’m your friend Tom. Tom Zane. There’s nothing to worry about.
Wake: Tom? The poet? The diver? You look different.
Zane: That was just a… a role, a character. The protagonist I played in my old film. I’m a film maker, an auteur like yourself. We’re working on this together, remember? An artistic collaboration. You need a drink. Kippis!
Wake: Endless… darkness. Nothing holds still.
Zane: But we’re very close now. You’ve been writing. We found a way to escape. It will work this time.
Wake: Writing?
Zane: You found a way!
Wake: No. I, I, I don’t… Wait. There’s… something… It’s my double! He’s out there. I’ve seen him.
Zane: Yeah, yeah. Nothing to worry about. I’m dealing with him. It’s fine, my friend. Let me handle him.
Wake: You’ve met him? What the hell?
Zane: Now, now. Come on! You… you misunderstand me.
Jesse: That was Alan Wake, the writer who went missing in that AWE case I read about. What’s he doing here? And Thomas Zane was with him. The poet. No, wait. He was a filmmaker. I always remember that wrong.
Wake: Doctor Emil Hartman. Devoured by hungry darkness. Become the Thing-that-Had-Been-Hartman. Broke loose. Killed everyone it could. Lurking. Roaming. Waiting. Then something else came. A resonance. The Thing-that-Had-Been-Hartman went through another change.
Jesse: Creepy, damp, and abandoned. Why did Wake want me to come here?
Jesse: That doesn’t look like a House Shift. Do I even want to know?
Jesse: Whoa. Looks like the House has gotten a little wild in here.
Jesse: This… darkness is blocking the door. So now I have to deal with an interdimensional; noise AND sentient shadows?
Jesse: Light burns it away, huh? Makes sense.
Hartman: He said: “Baby; baby; baby; yeah.” “Orange peel.”
Wake: The Third Thing. The sound made darker. The darkness made louder. Hartman was stretched. Like a worm through time. The Third Thing was a monster. Now he crashed out of darkness toward Faden.
Jesse: Ugh. I don’t feel right. Something in this darkness is draining me.
Jesse: Shit! Now what?
Hartman: Hartman was stretched!
Jesse: What is that?
Hartman: Devoured by hungry darkness!
Jesse: Come on, elevator. Time to go.
Hartman: Doctor Emil Hartman was desperate.
Jesse: Fuck, fuck, fuck. So you don’t like light… I can use that.
Jesse: There we go! Yeah! How do you like that?
Langston: Ma’am? What are you doing in Investigations?
Jesse: Jesus! Don’t scare me like that, Langston.
Langston: If you’re talking right now, I can’t hear you! It’s a one-way system. Try to find an intercom.
Jesse: Langston? It’s me, Jesse.
Langston: I know! I can see you on the monitors. The cameras in there haven’t worked since we sealed that sector off a couple years back.
Jesse: Let me guess: you sealed it because of the monster guy?
Langston: Wait, did you see Dr. Hartman? Jesus, I REALLY wish you hadn’t opened that Firebreak. OK, listen, you need to find Hartman and kill him before he gets out into the Bureau.
Jesse: That thing is a person?
Langston: He was a person. We brought him here to study after he was, uh, altered in an AWE. I forget the medical word for what happened, but now light physically hurts him. Do you have a flashlight?
Jesse: No.
Langston: A lantern? Headlamp? Flare gun? Ooh, Christmas lights! You could wrap them around your—
Jesse: I don’t have any of those, Langston.
Langston: Shit! OK, uh, well I’m sure you’ll think of something. I’ll keep an eye on you from the Panopticon. This is kind of exciting, right?
Jesse: Maybe from where you’re standing.
Langston: Right. OK, well, uh… Break a leg! Oh, why did I say that?
Jesse: OK, this Hartman thing can’t have gotten very far. Let’s go flush him out. Hm, Langston was right. This is kind of exciting.
Langston: It’s just nice to have someone to talk to, you know? Ever since I got put in charge of the Panopticon, people treat me different. Like I’m “crazy” for wanting to work with Altered Items. People just don’t understand the Altered Items like I do, you know? I don’t want to brag, but it does take a very empathetic mind to connect with the Items.
Jesse: “Doesn’t want to brag.” Right.
Langston: Still, I don’t know why people are making it so personal. I mean, the teams in Research handle paranatural materials every day and no one thinks they’re weird. Well, maybe that’s not true. Darling is famous for being a bit out there. But when he’s weird, it’s “charming”. Altered Items really aren’t frightening once you get to know them. If you figure out what they like or don’t like, you know, what sets them off, then there’s nothing to worry about. I guess at the end of the day we’re still just wild animals scared of our own shadows. We’re supposed to be on the same team here, but sometimes it feels like it’s every department for themselves, like it’s a race and we’re all trying to be number one. If it IS a race though, I’d say Darling is a mile ahead of everyone else. He was Trench’s golden boy for years but that relationship has gotten pretty tense, or so I’ve heard through the grapevine. Not that I spread rumors. Just, you know, people talk. Not me though. I keep my nose to the grind. Too much work to do to focus on those kinds of things. I need to stay focused so I can get my work done and get home to feed Alfred.
Jesse: He’s just going to talk forever, isn’t he?
Langston: Of course, can’t always make it home for mealtime, so I have my neighbor check in on Alfred at seven o’clock if I’m not back yet. She’s very nice. Her name is Maria. She’s older. She came to New York in the ‘50s to attend school and has been here ever since. She has a couple kids. I met them at Thanksgiving. Big family. Very nice people. Anyway, she has a key to my apartment and she gives Alfred his dinner if I’m not home. I’m gonna have to buy her a nice fruit arrangement as a “thank you” after this. I’m missing a LOT of Alfred’s mealtimes. She’s probably gonna have to go to the store for more wet food. I’ll have to remember to pay her back. Hold on, let me make a note. Pay. Back. Maria. For. Alfred’s. Food. OK. Oh, one more thing. And. Buy. Her. A. Fruit. Arrangement. Alright. Done. Are you a cat person? I don’t think I ever asked. You seem like one though. You’d like Alfred. He’s very proper. Really carries himself well, you know? I named him after my favorite poet. It felt like a good fit. I got Alfred just before Sylvia died, when I was at the… huh, you know I don’t really remember where I got from Alfred from. But, boy, those two did NOT get along. No, no, no. Sylvia thought she owned the place. Didn’t like me getting in her way. Scratched me more than once when I was just trying to move her food bowl. That cat was a real asshole.
Jesse: Wow. That’s kinda harsh.
Langston: I’m realizing now that that language was not entirely, uh, professional. You see, Sylvia didn’t tolerate most people. Or animals. Or anything. That’s what I meant when I said “asshole”. I would never use that word about a person. It was just a, you know, a… Hey! There’s a light flashing on the console here. I gotta, uh, check this out. I’ll get back to you later.
Jesse: Real smooth, Langston.
Jesse: There. One less place for him to hide.
Jesse: Christ. Did the Hartman thing do all this?
Jesse: Lots of dark corners to hide in… OK, let’s get the lights on and clear him out!
Jesse: Where’s it running off to now?
Langston: Director, ma’am! Great timing! Hartman just came through here. God, he was hideous! He tore the security door into the Bright Falls AWE site wide open. He was so ugly, like, wow, I got a good look at him and Christ! He does not look like he used to. The Hiss must have messed him up or something. He looks like a bar rag that’s been twisted by the world’s strongest man. Or a monster from some ‘80s horror movie. You know, back when it was all practical effects? Ugh! Nasty!
Jesse: Real professional, Langston.
Langston: Did you say something? Remember, I can’t hear you. Nevermind, just go after Hartman! Ugh, so disgusting!
Wake: Rewritten. The darkness wants to hide the past to make me lose my way. I trust what I read on these pages. I wrote them for a reason. Cut through the reality. Tear it apart. Rewrite it. They are drawn to the mystery.
Wake: I’ve forgotten again. I had a plan. I know it. I’ve forgotten. He’s coming. I’ve got to get out of here. Dive deeper.
Jesse: Whatever is going on with Wake, he clearly needs some help.
Wake: Going mad… Wake had to escape. Write his escape. Wake needed a hero. A hero needed a crisis. For the part in the story about the government agency, Wake needed something special. Something to convey an alien force mimicking human intelligence.
Jesse: Another replica, like the one they made for Ordinary. I wonder what happened here? This must be where they studied Hartman. Kind of looks like Dylan’s cell. I wonder if they treated him as badly.
Hartman: Hartman was stretched!
Jesse: There. Now it’s my turn. Langston was right. You are pretty rough on the eyes, Dr. Hartman.
Jesse: Hartman won’t be a problem anymore, Langston. But Investigations needs someone to run it. Interested?
Langston: I’ve seen what happens to sector heads, ma’am. No, thank you. Ma’am? I’m getting something on my terminal here. An AWE alert from Bright Falls, Washington. But it might be a glitch. The date’s all wrong, a couple of years in the future. And we’re in lockdown. There shouldn’t be any incoming signals.
Jesse: Maybe it was active before we went into lockdown? Are there agents onsite?
Langston: Let me check. Agent Estevez is the field agent in charge of monitoring the site, so she should be there to let us know if the situation has been through any major changes recently…
Wake: Things set in motion. If the alarm’s true, then so is the reason for the alarm. The effect must follow the cause. It’s happening again. A return. You have been warned.