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Alan (V.O.): Parliament Tower was here, again. Zane said the manuscript of “Return” was the key to escaping. I had to get to it before Scratch did. Scratch was closing in. Gaining control. I couldn’t let him escape the Dark Place. I had to keep him from Alice.
Alan: Hnn.
Alice: Go to hell!
Alan (V.O.): Alice had turned the bathroom into a dark room.
Alan (V.O.): I needed to get inside, to the manuscript.
Alan (V.O.): Alice’s work had consumed the apartment. Her whole life.
Alice: For months after Alan died, I didn’t leave the apartment. I was flattened by the confusion, the shock, the guilt, the fear. I could barely get out of the bed. Barry Wheeler started visiting, even cooked me meals. I couldn’t stand the guy when I first met him, but he’s a better friend than I gave him credit for. He still checks in, even after he moved out West. One morning I saw a deer soar past my bedroom window. It was a balloon of some cartoon animal. And I looked down at the street below and I saw a little girl crying like losing that balloon had just ended her whole world. It was the perfect image of the horror of caring. And that’s when I got myself out of bed and I picked up my camera. There was something in the dark. Something I needed to see. To show. The more shadows I photographed and filmed, the more I felt like I was on the verge of a breakthrough. I submerged myself in it, I only went out at night. My search became obsessive, but I still had no idea what I was looking for. There’s a world hidden behind ours. A dark tide ebbing and flowing against reality. Faces in the shadows. Fear of the dark is really just fear of what could be. That vast paralyzing ocean. But photography can freeze reality in a snapshot. Put a cage around the infinite. Capture it. I need to prove those faces are really there.
Alan (V.O.): The full manuscript of a novel. “Return”. A horror story about the Dark Presence escaping from the Dark Place. Taking over Bright Falls. I couldn’t remember writing it. I had not written it. I would never write this. I knew who had. Scratch. A monster with my face. If this story came true, Scratch would get out. People would die. Destroying the manuscript. It wouldn’t stop it from happening. I would have to fix it. Edit it. I could not change the genre of the story. I’d have to work within the constraints set by Scratch. I needed someone in the story to fight the darkness. Saga Anderson. I kept seeing her in my visions. She was already in Bright Falls, already involved. But she was not in “Return”. Not yet. I’d write her in. Try to stop Scratch within the limits of the horror story. It was almost impossible. It was taking too long. I had not reached the end.
Alan: No!