← Previous Chapter |
Next Chapter →
Back to the game page
Wake (V.O.): The coal mine wasn’t far, now. Today, I would meet the kidnapper, and he would give me Alice. I wouldn’t give him any other choice. A drowning man will clutch at a straw. Little by little, without realizing it, I had come to believe that the story in the manuscript was coming true. The current of its narrative had taken me deeper and deeper into dark waters. Alice had been taken from me. Barry was probably in jail. I was a fugitive from the FBI. The whole world, taken over by the Dark Presence, was trying to destroy me. It all felt real, but it matched a textbook case of insanity.
Wake (V.O.): I was early. I was supposed to meet the kidnapper at noon in the main building. The coal mine was quiet. It was a museum, now.
Wake (V.O.): I didn’t want to go outside. The cops had to be looking for me. The noon sun turned the place into a sauna. The day dragged on. Different scenarios ran through my mind, ways of how I’d torture the kidnapper to get Alice back, or the different horrible things he could’ve done to her. I imagined her dead. I had no way of knowing she was still alive. It was killing me. I was running on blind hope. It was all a waste of time. The bastard never showed up.
Mott: Wake.
Wake: Where the hell are you?!
Mott: Change of plans. You know where Mirror Peak is? It’s the big mountain north of where you are. You follow the path from the mine, you can’t miss it. There’s a lookout point there. I’ll be waiting.
Wake: I’m through being jerked around by you—
Mott: You want to see your wife alive? ‘Cause if you do, you better watch what you say to me. Do we understand each other?
Wake: I want to talk to Alice.
Mott: Yeah, and I want the manuscript. Don’t keep me waiting, Wake.
Wake: Hello? Hello? I’m gonna kill him!
Wake (V.O.): I had to get to Mirror Peak. It was close, maybe closer than ever before.
Wake (V.O.): The only way to reach the hillside ahead was to go through the building. I had to find a way to avoid electrocution.
Wake (V.O.): There was no way the flashbang grenades were standard power company equipment.
Wake (V.O.): I had no real plan. I was going to give the kidnapper all the manuscript pages I had for Alice. If that wasn’t enough, I’d hold him at gunpoint and make him talk.
Wake (V.O.): The dark presence was moving ahead of me in the same direction I was going. A cold feeling settled itself in the pit of my stomach: was it going for Alice?
Wake (V.O.): The place was dead, a ghost town. Had been for decades, maybe a century.
Wake (T.V.): Anything outside of writing is a struggle. I feel ill. I managed to make my way downstairs. There’s a shoebox filled with books and papers by Thomas Zane. It’s very hard to focus but I managed to read some of it. He’s a poet and a good one. He writes of muses and creators, summoning fabulous things from a magic lake, using its power to shape the world, of a realm of gods and dreams, and demons, dark things that wait for a chance to slip through, wearing the flesh of men as disguise. Zane writes about himself, his girlfriend being taken over by a dark presence, about growing scared of the lake. Zane believes it’s a mirror to the gaping void of darkness above, where some Lovecraftian presence lurks. I crawled back upstairs. I’ll borrow these things for my story. They ring true. They fit.
Wake (V.O.): The kidnapper had sent me a text. The message was full of spelling errors and insults. He was telling me to hurry up.
Alice: Alan. Alan!
Wake: Without warning, the headache stabbed in my brain.
Alice: Alan! Alan! Where are you! Help! No! Alan! Help me!
Wake: Alice?
Alice: Aaaaah!
Wake: Alice! I’m losing it. I gotta get out of here.
Wake (V.O.): I’d have to make my way up this mine shaft in order to go on. Maybe the machinery could help me with that.
Wake (V.O.): Oh great, another cable car. Just great.
Wake: Oh no! Shit!
Wake (V.O.): I could see Cauldron Lake. I thought I could make out the spot where the island and the cabin had been. There was a light near it. It had to be a boat. I was close now. I had to get there fast. I dreaded what I would find.
Mott: Wake? That you? Wake?
Wake: Hey! I’m here! I’m coming!
Mott: Aah! No, no, no! No, get away! I’m sorry! Please, lady! The boss didn’t know who he was messing with! I didn’t know! I swear, I didn’t know! We don’t have his wife! We don’t know where she is! She’s probably drowned! We just said we had her to make him play ball, you see, you see? To get him writing for us! Aaaarrgghh! No! Please! Aaaaaaarrhhhhhhh!
Wake: Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!