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Bright Falls
Saga: He didn’t have a heart, but he still got up. The page predicted all of it. It helped me fight him.
Casey: He just disappeared? What the hell is going on here?
Saga: We need to figure that out if we’re going to do anything about it. Somehow we need to make sense of this. There’s no rational explanation to what we just saw.
Casey: I’d love to blame this on a mass hallucination caused by inhaling volcanic gas, but we both know that’s bullshit. This was supernatural.
Saga: Glad you were the one say it. Now we can figure out a way forward. Right before things got crazy, Sheriff Breaker just vanished.
Casey: Maybe the sheriff knew more than he was letting on.
Saga: Hmm. He seemed anxious, like he dreaded what was coming. One more mystery. The victim of a ritualistic murder turns into a monster. Is there a connection?
Casey: Looks to me like the Cult of the Tree is performing rituals to create monsters.
Saga: Hmm maybe. We need to start with learning this cult’s goal, their purpose.
Casey: There’s one of those pages on the floor.
Saga: These pages are important. Breaker dropped one before he disappeared.
Saga (V.O.): A dead man turned into a monster. Light as a way to fight him. Pages predicting the future. There’s no rational explanation. This is the case we must solve.
Alan: Saga was back at Cauldron Lake. Saga had to pursue Nightingale. Into the Overlap. Finding a way in would be difficult. A ritual. Saga would learn how. Stop the monster.
Saga: The page places Nightingale back at Cauldron Lake. Calls him a “Taken”. We need to head over there, stop him before anyone else gets hurt.
Casey: Okay.
Mulligan: Hey! We heard gunshots. You all okay?
Thornton: Did ya get spooled by the bodies?
Saga: Sheriff Breaker disappeared. Nightingale turned into some sort of monster and there are officers down. You two handle things here. We need to get back to Cauldron Lake immediately.
Thornton: Fuck me, that’s terrible. We’ll do what we can, ma’am.
Mulligan: But, uh, that’s crazy, right, Thornton? Nightinhage’s heart was missing. How could he do anything, he’s dead.
Thornton: Yeah, right! That’s all crazy talk. Monsters aren’t real. And what do you mean the sheriff disappeared? Like, poof, he’s gone? Like magic? Magic’s not real. Magic’s not real, right, Mulligan?
Mulligan: No, Thornton, monsters aren’t real and magic’s definitely not real!
Thornton: I knew that!
Casey: They’re a fine pair.
Lawyer: My client has been held here long enough. Are you going to let me speak to them or not?
Receptionist: Uh, just a moment, ma’am. Someone will be right with you.
Deputy: How many times do we have to do this, Walter? I’m at my wit’s end with you! Do you think I like throwing you in jail every other day? No, I don’t! Do you have any idea how much paperwork you’re causing me? It’s a lot! You can sit here and stew for a while. Think about your life choices, buddy. Is it really worth this?
Prisoner: I want out! Something bad’s going down, I can feel it. Let me out!
Saga: Nightingale and this cult are dangerous. We need to be prepared in case things escalate more than they already have. Can you call it in, Casey?
Casey: Smart choice, Anderson. Agent Casey here. Yeah. We need back up. The Bright Falls case. Whoever you can spare. ASAP. Think we’ll actually find Nightingale at the lake?
Saga: The pages haven’t been wrong yet.
Casey: We can’t assume the person writing these pages isn’t playing us.
Saga: I agree, but it’s our best lead.
Float Builder: How about that weather forecast for Deerfast? I’ve been working on this float for a month straight. If it rains, I am going to lose it. It’ll ruin all the paper maché! That shit is delicate!
Assistant: I’m sure we’ll get a nice sunny day.
Float Builder: Oh, do now you’re a mentoro-erm, meteor-uh… a weather man?
Float Builder: Did you hear something, over by the Sheriff’s Station?
Assistant: Nope.
Float Builder: It better not have anything to do with Deerfest. They need to keep their messes out of my festival.
Assistant: Well, we’ve got plenty more to do here before we can call it a day.
Float Builder: Tell me about it! My float’s not even finished. So much to do still! So much stress! So close to Deerfest!
Assistant: Jeez, Louise.
Bird Feeder: It’s so quiet here now that Hubert and Hester flew over the rainbow bridge. Do you fellas ever miss them? Do you miss your parents? I know I do. Remember to have some sustenance, my little ones! It’ll keep you warm and full of energy. It’ll keep you soaring in the sky. You don’t want to plummet down to the ground. Trust me. It’s not nice down here. Much better in the clouds. A life lived with the birds is not for the birds.
Hotel Staff: Rinse and repeat, clock out, get a beer. Or maybe three. I don’t know if coming to this town was the best idea. “Bright Falls, bright future”. Yeah, right.
Guest: What’s good here? Any nice restaurants? I’m a bit of a foodie.
Hotel Clerk: Well, uhm, the restaurants and shops in town are closed at the moment unfortunately. They’ll have a grand re-opening right after Deerfest though! So if you’re sticking around until then —
Guest: Oh. I don’t think I am. Whatever “a Deerfest” even is.
Hotel Clerk: Oh. Well there’s always our own restaurant, at your convenience. If you’re a fan of coffee and retro vibes, the Oh Deer Diner is just down the street.
Guest: Do you go there a lot yourself?
Hotel Clerk: Sure. It’s, uh, very quaint.
Casey: Did you check out the town, Anderson?
Saga: Just getting my bearings. Ready to go?
Casey: Waiting on you.
Cauldron Lake
Casey: I need to come clean, Anderson. I know why Nightingale was here 13 years ago. He was chasing a writer. Alan Wake.
Saga: Tammy mentioned him. She’s writing a book on his disappearance.
Casey: You know the detective character from his books. Alex Casey.
Saga: Yeah, I’ve heard the jokes at the office. Cold Case Casey. Murder Cas Casey. Sorry.
Casey: Ha ha. Same name, similar job. It’s the first thing anyone thinks. It annoyed me, but that was it. Then, ten years ago, I started getting strange letters in the mail. Fragments of prose describing murders. You’ve heard the stories about what happened in New York, some of it at least. Bodies started to pile up. It was a murder cult. Turns out the fragments sent to me were from the crime books of Alan Wake. The cult was copycatting the murders from the books. In their heads they were performing a ritual to bring Wake back. Their imagined prophet. After that case, I started looking into Wake’s disappearance on the side.
Saga: And you thought this case might be connected to him. His name does keep popping up.
Casey: I just wanted you to have all the facts.
Saga: Next time give them to me before we find ourselves in the middle of a horror story.
Saga: The page says Nightingale is in something called an Overlap. Need to figure out exactly what that means.
Casey: I’m happy I’m not in charge of this mess.
Saga: Thanks. Let’s start looking for Nightingale where he was killed. Great. This area is supposed to be closed to the public. The writer of these pages knows what will happen. Because they’re behind this, or because they can see what’s coming? Impossible things are happening here. A world operating on different rules. I need to understand this strange logic. To see the clues. To solve the case. I’ve been thinking more about the Cult of the Tree. What sort of cult refers to themselves as a cult?
Casey: In my experience, they don’t.
Saga: We’re not seeing the full picture yet.
Ilmo: Hey! Hello there! How are you folks doing?
Casey: Those restricted area signs don’t do a damn thing, huh.
Saga: Hello. Saga Anderson. Are you two supposed to be here?
Ilmo: I’m Ilmo Koskela, fantastic to meet you. And yes, Steven here hired me to show him through the woods. He’s in town on important government business. Fixing this impressive piece of hardware.
Steven: I work for the FBC, ma’am. I’m authorized to be here.
Ilmo: And I bet you two are here about that murder. Nasty stuff. How’s that going?
Saga: How’d you hear about the murder, Ilmo? Do you know anything that could help us?
Ilmo: People tend to tell me things. The Koskela brothers are kind of a household name around here. Speaking of, if you’re looking for some fun then stop by Watery, just down the road from Bright Falls. There’s our Coffee World amusement park.There is sauna. Sauna ja vihta! And we offer a variety of guided tours. Hunting, fishing, hiking, whatever strikes your fancy. You name it, we probably got it!
Saga: What is this thing?
Steven: Just a monitoring station, ma’am. The Federal Bureau of control checks volcanic activity and air toxicity levels. No need to worry though. It’s mostly for research purposes.
Ilmo: That is one gorgeous sweater, Saga. Looks Nordic. I bet a family member made it?
Saga: My mother made this sweater for me. How’d you know?
Ilmo: I knew it! My mom used to knit those sweaters for me and my brother. Watery, my hometown, was founded by Finnish immigrants. Between your name and the sweater, I figured your family might be from Finland too. Suomi Finland! Pulla! Karjalanpiirakka!
Saga: Close. My mom’s family was from Sweden originally. I don’t know much about them beyond that. The sweater’s just something to remember her by. Steven, we’re investigating a murder that occurred nearby. What can you tell me about your bureau?
Steven: Nothing that isn’t classified, I’m afraid. But I don’t know anything about a murder. Operations here are run by a different department. I’m just here to make some repairs. The wiring on this thing frays every couple months.
Ilmo: That’s the raccoons. They grow real big here, with teeth like you wouldn’t believe. Can gnaw right through a garbage can.
Saga: That’s all for now.
Steven: What the hell is this?
Ilmo: What’d you find there, Steven?
Steven: Nothing, just something that shouldn’t be here. Raccoons, my ass.
Ilmo: I’d be happy to get you VIP tickets into Coffee World. Just say the word.
Steven: Thanks, but I don’t drink coffee.
Ilmo: We brew our own beer too. Ahma beer.
Steven: Now we’re talking.
Saga: Let’s get to the murder site, Casey. A lot of things about this case keep bothering me, but one thing feels really off. Breaker’s disappearance. I don’t get the feeling Nightingale was responsible.
Casey: He was about to give you more of those pages. Something didn’t want us to have them? Or was protecting him from Nightingale? Spontaneous combustion? I don’t know! Not the kind of disappearance we normally solve.
Casey: Our crime scene’s drowning. I never minded rain. Feels like home.
Saga: No sign of Nightingale. But the page did place him at Cauldron Lake, in an “Overlap”. So how do we follow him there?
Casey: Maybe something around here will tell us.
Saga: We’ve seen this symbol before.
Casey: Hm. Good eye.
Saga: After we find Nightingale… What then? I’ve never arrested a monster.
Casey: I’ve watched you arrest plenty of monsters, Anderson.
Saga: You know what I mean. Monster monsters. Light worked against him at the morgue. That might be the only way to stop him from hurting anyone else. Monsters, Overlaps, rituals. What do you make of all of this?
Casey: The killers are usually the ones performing the ritual, not the detective. Acting out their sick fantasy. They may be trying to get you involved. Forcing you into their twisted world.
Saga: But with dead men coming alive, the word “ritual” starts to have more weight behind it. We need to look around, learn what this ritual is.
Saga: Bare feet. Nightingale. I’ll see where these footprints lead. Can you comb through the crime scene one more time, Casey, just in case?
Casey: On it. If anything comes up, I’ll radio you.
Saga: The tracks lead into the water. Where’d he go from here? I can feel something. A presence. Nightingale isn’t far.
Saga (V.O.): I know Nightingale is somewhere around Cauldron Lake.
Nightingale (V.O.): The tree was a threshold. This place and the Dark Place. You’re in over your head. Next stop, Caldera Street Station.
Saga (V.O.): The threshold. Like a doorway? Leading to Nightingale? It’s somehow connected to a tree. Witch’s Ladle?
Saga: What is that? Seems like it’s reacting to the light. These aren’t the same tracks that were here before. They’re headed into the tree, not out of it. My flashlight burned the dark stuff away. It was covering another page.
Alan: The fuse was in place. Saga stepped inside the Witch’s Hut. Inside, a bright light. There were objects that stood out to Saga. As if the light had manifested them.
Saga: The Witch’s Hut. Okay. I trust the pages to lead me to the Overlap.
Saga: Is Witch’s Ladle the doorway into the Overlap? If so, that’s where I’ll find Nightingale. That’s it! Light is the key. To stay safe, but for something more to be revealed as well.
Saga: I need to find the Witch’s Hut.
Saga: This is the Witch’s Hut. The page described the hut being lit. And mentioned a fuse…
Casey: Anderson, thought I saw something in the woods. Probably just a deer, but I’m gonna check it out.
Saga: Okay. I found another page. Following up on a lead. Keep checking in.
Casey: Roger.
Saga: The fuse box is missing a fuse. I need to find one to turn on the lights. This fuse is busted. This one looks good. People should really stop littering though.
Saga: Another page. Making progress.
Alan: The image of the witch in the sign. Saga addressed the witch. The smudged line on the heart. The second part recited from memory. “I brought you the heart, witch. Show me the terror.” Saga pushed the heart through the hole in the sign.
Saga (V.O.): The page from the Witch’s Hut seems to be describing some kind of ritual. To get to the Overlap, I need to find Nightingale’s heart, read the line imprinted on it plus the line on the page to the Witch’s Ladle sign, then push the heart through the hole in the sign. Nightingale’s heart disappeared from the morgue. Where is it now? I need Nightingale’s heart to get to the Overlap.Where is it?
Nightingale (V.O.): A cultist leaned close. He was there, but he was risen. Nightingale was there. The opposite of sunspots. Who said that?
Saga (V.O.): That’s not it. I don’t have what I need to find Nightingale’s heart. There must be more. Nightingale’s heart. Where is it?
Nightingale (V.O.): Meanwhile, they played cards in the general store. The witch had stolen his heart. Get out of my house!
Saga (V.O.): Nightingale’s heart is at the general store, in a fridge.
Saga: I need to check the general store for the heart. Casey, I’m headed to the general store. I think I know how to get into the Overlap.
Casey: Roger that. I followed some ATV tracks in the woods and got a bit turned around.
Saga: Did you get lost?
Casey: I’ve only been lost once in my life, Anderson. The years I spent with my ex-wife. I’ll find my way back, don’t you worry about it.
Saga: Christ!
Taken: We watch in the night!
Saga: Fuck!
Taken: The Cult of the Tree! Overgrown.
Saga: A cultist. A monster, like Nightingale. The text on the heart is clearer now. Legible. I feel like I recognize this. The fridge, the heart. I knew it would be here. Like I saw it in a dream. And now I need to give the heart to the witch. Makes total sense.
Saga: Found the heart in the fridge, just like the page said I would. Sounds literary, but what does it mean?
Saga: Casey, there are cultists in the area. They’re Taken, like Nightingale. Watch yourself out there.
Casey: Thanks for the heads up. I’m still finding my way back.
Saga: You have the worst sense of direction.
Casey: Any city in America, I can get through drunk and blindfolded. It’s these damn trees.
Saga: Okay, okay. I’m en route to Witch’s Ladle. I need to perform a ritual to open the Overlap. This case just keeps getting weirder, but it is exciting.
Taken: In the night. Prowling. Submerged.
Saga: Well, now there’s less monsters.
Saga: “The wave crashed on the far side of the mirror. I brought you the heart, witch. Show me the terror.” Fuck me. Casey, I think I’m in the Overlap. Are you still on your way? Casey? Casey, do you read me? Fuck. Okay, Saga, going in solo.
Logan: Mom!
Saga: Logan?
Logan: Mom, help!
Saga: Logan! Where are you? What the fuck was that? Logan’s back in Virginia. You’re imagining things.
Vision: Please, help…
Saga: What was that? Wait. Did I get turned around? No, this is right. This place is looping, like a nightmare.
Nightingale: The writer was writing again.
Saga: He’s here. Nightingale.
Vision: Trapped… escape… danger…
Saga: Who is that? It’s like they’re coming in over a bad signal. Nightingale’s badge.
Nightingale: Sent to find the light switch. Show me the Clicker. Nightingale hunted Saga. Their shapes shifted. Echoes of the writer’s dream.
Saga: Oh shit! Get to safety.
Nightingale: Show me the terror! Get out of my house!
Alan: Who are you?
Saga: What is this? Who are you?
Alan: … hear me.
Saga: I’m Saga Anderson. FBI. I can hear you.
Alan: Cauldron Lake.
Saga: Yes. I’m at Cauldron Lake. Where are you?
Alan: … escape… danger. The Dark Presence.
Saga: Danger. Thanks. Got it. Hey! Are you okay?
Alan: Ah! No! It’s my fault! It got out! With my face! Scratch!
Saga: Sir. Calm down. I’m gonna need you to take a breath.
Alan: He’s changed the story. The Dark Presence. We must stop it… before…
Saga: Easy now. First things first. What’s your name?
Alan: My name is Alan Wake. I’m a writer. I’ve been…
Saga: Wake? Where did you come from? You’ve been missing for thirteen years.
Alan: Thirteen…
Cauldron Lake After the Overlap
Casey: Anderson! Where did you go? All of a sudden the radio stopped working, and then that flooding just disappeared. Crazy forest. Is this who I think it is?
Saga: Casey, say hello to Alan Wake. Mr. Wake, this is Special Agent Alex Casey. He will escort you to our car. Casey, I’ll meet you there after I take a look around. If the flooding has receded, there might be evidence we missed earlier.
Casey: Okay. See you there.
Alan: Alex Casey? How? Am I still, is this the Dark Place? No. It can’t be. I got out.
Casey: Yeah, the PI from your books has the same name as me. Great. Moving on. It’s a bit of a hike to the car, Wake. Get your bearings, then we’ll head out.
Alan: I just need another minute. Cauldron Lake. I thought I’d never see this place again.
Casey: Take your time. But you should know these woods aren’t the safest.
Alan: Yeah. It’s getting dark. You have a flashlight? It’s not safe without a light.
Casey: I have a light. And a gun. You can relax, Wake.
Alan: And pages? If you see pages of writing anywhere, you must take them and keep them safe. Our lives could depend on it. They have vital information.
Casey: We know about the pages, Wake. We’ll keep an eye out for them.
Alan: Okay. Okay. Just give me a moment. It’s okay.
Casey: Take your time.
Saga (V.O.): Nightingale goes missing for 13 years, shows up murdered — and then turns into a monster. After I stop Nightingale, a writer who’s also been missing for 13 years turns up. What’s the connection? What kind of case is this?
Saga: Should look around. With the flooding gone, could be further clues out there. The flooding disappeared very suddenly. I wonder if there’s any connection to the Overlap. To Nightingale.
Saga: Even the animals are turning into monsters.
Casey: We’ve reached the car, Anderson. How’s it going down there?
Saga: I think I’m done here. I’ll meet you at the parking lot.
Saga: “Warning. Activity detected. A.W.E. Event in progress. Cauldron Lake.” What’s an “A.W.E” ? Casey, what exactly does the FBC do?
Casey: After New York, when I started looking for our friend here, their name came up. I pushed them for any files they had on him, but got stonewalled. They have a reputation of showing up for weird shit. They have a presence here, and now we find our writer. How about that.
Casey: Ready to go?
Saga: Mr.Wake, we’re taking you back to our field office in Bright Falls. You can freshen up there and then we’ll talk properly.
Logan: Hey, Mom. Before you say anything, I’m totally fine. Don’t freak out. Dad shouldn’t have even texted you.
Saga: Logan? No one texted me. What’s going on?
Logan: I’m totally fine! I slipped, that’s all! God, it’s not the end of the world.
Saga: Put your father on the phone.
Logan: Mmm, ok. Dad! It’s Mom!
David: Don’t worry, hun. Logan slipped in the shower and bumped her head. She has a slight concussion, but I’m keeping an eye on her. Lucky I heard her fall. She could have drowned.
Saga: Jesus, David. Why didn’t you call?
David: I tried! Didn’t go through. She’s fine, really. But what about you? You sound stressed.
Saga: No, it’s… just a weird case, that’s all.
David: Well, if you need a hint, my years of board game victories tell me Colonel Mustard did it.
Saga: I’ll keep an eye out for him. Love you, Dave.
David: Love you too, honey. Want to say bye to Logan?
Saga: Just tell her I love her. Bye for now.