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Wake (V.O.): Something I only know as the Dark Presence held my wife captive and used her to make me write a horror story that came true. Some part of me had been aware enough to write my escape into the story. I saved Alice and wrote a better ending for the story. But not without a price. I was trapped somewhere in the Dark Place, a strange zone somewhere beyond our world.
Wake: It’s not a lake. It’s an ocean.
Wake (V.O.): After the completion of any difficult undertaking, there are mixed emotions: accomplishment and relief. Sadness. Depression. For a while, everything was about the work. Like an illness, it consumed you. Changed you. You locked yourself away from the world to do it, and now you need to recover, learn to live without it. Find a way to crack open the door and let the light back in. I knew this place. I was familiar, but wrong, somehow.
Rose: Welcome to the <distorted>!
Wake (V.O.): Everything had a surreal, dreamlike quality.
Rose: I can’t believe it! I’ve got all your books! I got the cutout from the bookstore when they took it out of the window.
Wake (V.O.): I had a disturbing feeling of déjà vu. I had no idea why I was here, or where I’d been before this moment, but something was waiting for me at the back of the diner.
Rusty: Try the coffee. Just don’t blame when you fall in love, ‘cause it’ll break your heart when you have to leave.
Rose: <distorted> here is no longer human. Nothing but black coffee under a thin layer of skin. Are you staying long, <distorted>? I can’t believe it! I’m having a conversation with <distorted>! Are you on your own or is your wife with you? I can show you the town if you want. I get off work at six.
Odin: Do me a favor, sonny. I could really use a tune right now. “<distorted>”, number six in the jukebox. I’d do it myself, but both of my legs have gone to sleep. Bad circulation. Yeah!
Tor: Are you serious? “<distorted>”, again? You disgust me. Call yourself a rocker? Unbelievable. Hah!
Odin: It does that, gets stuck. Yeah. You need to give it a good, solid whack. Now that’s what I’m talking about. Yes!
Tor: This is it. I’ve died and gone to hell.
Cynthia: Don’t go in there, young man. You can hurt yourself in the dark.
Zane: Alan! Listen to me: go no deeper.
Wake: What?
Zane: Focus! You’re losing yourself. I will try to help the best I can, but it’s up to you. Find a better point of contact.
Wake: What do you mean?
Zane: I cannot hear you. Please, you’re the one making all this happen. Concentrate. This is what’s happening:
Wake (in the mirror): Nightmares. Too deep. Can’t take the pressure. It’s too much! Suddenly, Wake found himself face-to-face with himself.
Wake (V.O.): At the sight of myself, the dream suddenly became lucid. The Dark Place. That’s where I was.
Zane: You will need weapons. It’s not the light itself, but what it represents. You will need it. This is not a gun. It is a tool in a logical process of elimination. Be careful. I will try to find a better point of contact.
Wake (V.O.): I didn’t understand Zane’s message, and knowing where I was didn’t fix anything. Something had gone wrong after I’d finished Departure.
Wake: Ahh! What the hell was that?
Wake (T.V.): Day had become night. The diner had become deserted. Then the door was smashed off its hinges, and Wake had to fight for his life.
Wake: Zane! Wait for me!
Wake (V.O.): The world had become twisted. These trees didn’t belong here.
Wake (V.O.): I knew it was my writing, but the words were jumbled, dreamlike fragments…
Wake: … reloading frantically, the rounds slippery in my sweaty fingers… just a stone’s throw away from the tent… The bed looked inviting, but I had to go on… But it was just the radio… She was startled by the phone.
Wake (V.O.): The GPS system was working. I hadn’t expected that.
Wake: Hello?
Zane: I’m trying to reach you? Can you hear me? Can you hear me now?
Wake: Yes.
Zane: Listen. I can help you, but you are drifting deeper. I can’t reach you. You must come to me. I can’t maintain the connection. Use the words! Follow the signal!
Wake (V.O.): It made no sense for the GPS system to work. I doubted any satellite was in range here. These were alien skies. But it was guiding me towards something. Towards Zane?
Wake (V.O.): Something had shifted again. The Dark Place was playing tricks on me. It wouldn’t stay still.
Wake (T.V.): The town itself turned against Wake. Cars flew toward him, eager to crack bone and crush muscle. It oozed hate! It wanted to bury him.
Wake (V.O.): Everything I saw was familiar, and yet it wasn’t.
Wake: Hello?
Zane: I cannot keep up. You are going too deep. I will try to guide you. Follow the signal.
Wake: I’m trying!
Zane: You must face yourself. Follow—
Wake: Ohh!
Wake (V.O.): The GPS system was supposed to lead me to Zane, but the shifts were interfering with it. I had to keep trying. I wouldn’t survive alone.
Wake (V.O.): The changes were becoming more violent. The street wasn’t so much ripped apart as it was missing, like some great hand had reached down and scooped it up. Everything felt erratic, unstable.
Zane: Alan.
Wake: Where are you? Look, I—I’m trying to follow your goddamn signal!
Zane: The Dark Place is playing tricks on you. You’re still going deeper! I’m trying to guide you, but it’s hard.
Wake: What is this?
Zane: I can help you, if you just stop sinking.
Wake: What? This is bullshit…
Zane: It’s happening again! Brace yourself!
Wake (V.O.): I was running after Zane, and he was telling me I was going too deep. It was ridiculous, but I was more scared than amused. I felt like I was being hindered by an unseen force in ways I couldn’t fight. All I could do was keep going.
Wake: I don’t see Barry!
Sarah: Look, Wake! Maybe that’s him? That’s the way to the chopper.
Wake (V.O.): I remembered this. This happened before we found Barry.
Wake (T.V.): The playground. Wake’s pathetic memories of the wonder years and the contrary little boy pretending he didn’t miss his father he never knew. It surged up and beat Wake down, merry-go-rounds and slides eager to cave in his head.
Wake (V.O.): I had to find the key to get the door open.
Sarah: I’m gonna give Pastor Howard a piece of my mind about this lock. I told him to get it fixed! Wake! I got the door open! Run for it!
Wake (T.V.): The world was… It was changing. Twisting out of control! It was too big on the inside. He couldn’t see the ceiling. Something was moving in there. He was lost! He couldn’t find the exit!
Wake: Asshole.
Wake: Gah! Not again!
Wake (V.O.): The shifts were getting more severe. I wasn’t sure if the place got bigger or I got smaller. The signal was going haywire. I would have to find my way out of here on my own.
Wake (V.O.): Zane left me a page. He was trying to help me.
Barry: Yowza!
Wake: Barry?
Barry: Hey hey, Bestseller! Lookin’ good!
Wake: You… you’re not real.
Barry: Well, no shit. What gave me away? What, the see-through thing? I’m a figment of your imagination, just like pretty much everything else you see here. Maybe even you.
Wake: That’s insane!
Barry: Yeah, you’re right. Everything that happened before made perfect sense, but this is insane. Good catch, Al.
Wake: Okay… Okay, look, I gotta get going. The GPS—
Barry: The GPS, yeah, I know. “Follow the signal.” Got it. So, anyhoo, I’m here to help you out, pal. The thing is, you need to get a grip. All right?
Wake: You nag the way the real Barry does, you know that?
Barry: Well, hey, you know. Be faire. It’s not my fault you think I’m annoying.
Wake: I don’t think you’re annoying!
Barry: Al, baby. Relax, it’s cool. Just try to stay on the ball here. You need do what Zane tells you. He’s been here for ages, he’s like the expert. Anyway, if this is insane, and it’s all from your mind, what’s that say about you?
Wake: Fine! Enough! I can’t believe I was actually happy to see you.
Barry: Oh, come on, don’t shit a shitter, Al. Deep down, you’re always happy to see me. Can’t lie to yourself, know what I’m saying?
Wake: I must be a sucker for punishment.
Barry: You? No, really? And I always thought you went out of your way to avoid trouble!
Wake: Thanks. Thanks for that.
Wake: I think the signal’s pointing towards that thing in the distance.
Barry: Yeah, that’d be the Biltmore sawmill.
Wake: How the hell do you know that?
Barry: I don’t know anything you don’t, so why don’t you ask yourself that? Huh? Maybe you saw a sign for it back in the real world. Or! Maybe it’s the sawmill ‘cause I said it’s the sawmill, and now you can’t get it out of your head.
Wake: Fantastic.
Barry: Yeah, it sure is giving me a headache. Or is that your headache? Do you have a headache?
Wake: Barry.
Barry: Dude. We’re bonding.
Barry: Whoo mama! Hey, Al? I guess the pen is mightier—
Wake: If you complete that sentence, you’re fired.
Barry: Mightier than the sword.
Wake: You’re fired.
Barry: Aw.
Wake (T.V.): He could feel them coming. net even flesh anymore, just shadows and ghosts and thoughts, slicing through his flesh. They were here! They were here!
Barry: You know, you’re gonna have to make your way across here. I’m thinking the solution probably has something to do with those words.
Wake: Really? You think?
Barry: Yeah, you should probably use them!
Wake: Your insight is staggering.
Barry: Duh. I know!
Barry: Ahh. See, this is the way things should be! I give advice, and you follow. That’s when things go right! When you get up to something on your own, that’s when the trouble starts.
Wake: That’s horseshit.
Barry: Uh, Al? I’m not saying anything you haven’t come up with first. Figment. Remember?
Wake: This kind of thing could drive a man insane…
Barry: No, this is great! And it’s probably therapeutic for you, too!
Wake (T.V.): Wake’s own words, littering the landscape. His books, common and discarded, like mud beneath his feet. Hardbacks, paperbacks, turned against him. Trash. Just cheap trash.
Wake (V.O.): I had seen weird transmissions of myself before, but not like this. The version of myself I saw now sounded insane, like a demented storyteller who was out to torment and destroy his protagonist.
Wake: Get off me!
Barry: Al, come on! You gotta be careful. Those are bad words! Heh heh. “Bad words.”
Wake (T.V.): The earth shook. Streelights pushed themselves up through the ground, flickering madly and spitting sparks! In the shadows, Wake saw far too many figures advancing eagerly, already tasting the kill.
Wake: Ahh! Enough!
Barry: Okay, this is just too weird. You’re weird.
Wake: Barry, is all this really coming out of my head?
Barry: That’s just the way this place is, Al—all that random stuff in your head? Imagination can be the enemy here.
Wake: But you’re from my imagination—
Barry: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know what, Al? Do yourself a favor and don’t pursue that train of thought any further.
Barry: You need to get that door open before you can get into the warehouse. That’s the way forward.
Wake: If I’m making this up, why is it so complicated?
Barry: Because you’re a complicated man, and no one understands you.
Wake: Shut your mouth.
Barry: But I’m talking—
Wake: Barry.
Barry: It’s a demolition derby! Al, it’s a demolition derby! A death rally! Vroom! Vroom! Ha ha! Oh! Oh, that’s crazy! Make sure you don’t bite your tongue, Al! Ha ha ha! Al, you drive like a maniac! I hope you’re wearing your seatbelt, Al! Oh! That one is going right to the great junkyard in the sky!
Alice: Hey, what are you up to? I thought this was my side of the bed!
Wake (T.V.): He entered the trap. Surrounded by enemies, Wake had nowhere to run.
Wake: I’m so sick of you.
Barry: Oh, that’s never a good sound, is it?
Wake: No. No, it isn’t.
Barry: I think the dust in this place is setting off my allergies.
Wake: You’re not even really there!
Barry: Well, my allergies are definitely here. Achoo! See? Allergies.
Alice: Ha ha ha! Stop it! They’re waiting for us downstairs, we don’t have time for… Alan!
Wake (V.O.): I knew she wasn’t really here, but she still made my heart ache. I had saved Alice, but I wasn’t even sure when that happened. Was it days ago? Weeks? Longer? I had no way of knowing.
Barry: That looks crazy dangerous, Al!
Alice: Hey, lover. Come here, I’ve got something for you.
Wake (V.O.): I could only hope that Alice was all right. I didn’t know what happened to her after she left the Dark Place.
Wake: Zane? Is that you?
Alice: Hey, hold that pose! That was a good one.
Wake: Like this?
Alice: Yeah, but smile a little more—no, that’s too much. You want to look mysterious, maybe a little tough. You know how people go for those dangerous bad boys…
Wake: But I’m not dangerous.
Alice: Oh, come on, you write about terrible things all the time. People want to think that you’re intimately familiar with them. You kill Casey in this book, you need to look a little bit like a murderer. Oh, that’s good, do that again. You look handsome.
Wake: And dangerous.
Alice: You know, I wasn’t sure about the beard before, but I was wrong, it looks good on you… Okay, I think we’re done.
Wake: Great. I want to get out of this suit.
Alice: Hey, things are looking up!
Wake: Ha ha! Guess danger is sexy.
Alice: Ha ha ha!
Wake (V.O.): That was when I was still working, when I felt like a real writer instead of a fraud. It was a good memory. I wished I hadn’t seen it.
Zane: Alan. You made it. This area of the Dark Place is calmer, at least for the time being. We can talk here, but we don’t have much time.
Wake: Zane. How do I get out of here?
Zane: That’s what you face. That’s you, even as we speak.
Wake (T.V.): Darkness… darkness coming! Swept him away. Lost. He knew. He knew! He couldn’t hold on. He knew there was no way out. Ogg. The world was going wrong! Wrong!
Wake: No, I’m right here. Zane, that’s not me. It’s just… I don’t know, an echo, a hallucination. The Dark Presence—
Zane: No! The Dark Presence is not responsible for this. You are making this happen. You’re trapped in your own nightmares. You are fighting yourself.
Wake (T.V.): Wake didn’t understand it. He would never make it. He would never wake up! He’d get swallowed up in the rising tide of darkness. It was coming! It was coming!
Wake: Shut up! Gahh!
Zane: No! Alan, you must—
Wake (T.V.): Swept away by the gathering insanity, Zane was gone. Wake could feel the pressure gnawing at his mind. The darkness wasn’t so bad. It was in him. He felt it. He knew the voice spoke the truth. It was—just too hard to think. He can’t—couldn’t make sense of it! Couldn’t. He wanted to go with the flow, stop thinking and just let go.
Wake (T.V.): Abandoned by his only ally, all Wake could do was accept the inevitable. The scope of this horror was unimaginable. It would have been so much easier to let go. Everything he saw was a twisted memory, a stray thought. Even this evil he faced came from within! It burns! It burns! It burns! He knew he could just let go. Succumb to it. A part of him had already done it. It was over, it was finished. He was done! What did he have left to fight for? He’d lost everything even before he came here. Even his sanity was gone. What was the point? Why was this happening to him? He couldn’t even understand what he was facing! Aaaahhhh!
Wake (T.V.): Why? Why? Why? He couldn’t make it stop! What good was it going to do? Why had everyone abandoned him to die here? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh! Too loud. Too loud! I can’t think! It’s in my brain!
Hartman: There you go, Alan.
Wake: Hartman…
Hartman: It’s all in your head. You’ve been making it up.
Wake: No! No. No.
Hartman: Really, Wake. Come on! Your delusions…
Wake: Why is this happening to me? Lodge. No. Hartman! There’s no way out! How do I get out of here? No! How do I get out of here?