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Somewhere in Arizona
TV Host: … becomes hopelessly blurred, and nowhere as vividly as in… Night Springs. The man before you is a champion of the light. He is part of a conflict between darkness and light that is both ancient and eternal. He is chasing a dangerous quarry, the herald of darkness. His evil doppelganger, known only as Mr. Scratch.
Wake: I’ll catch you eventually!
Mr. Scratch: Maybe, but what’re you gonna do then? By then, I’ll have had my hands on everything you love.
TV Host: The man has been brutally spat out from the darkness that surrounds the shores of our reality. He has come to fight a decisive battle… in Night Springs.
Wake: It’s gonna be like that again, huh?
TV Host: In another life, the man was a writer. He still practices that art, forging weapons of war out of ideas. But the violent currents that brought him here have scattered the pages he has written.
TV Host: The lights of the motel promise safety. The man senses that the solution to his predicament begins there.
TV Host: Somewhere within the earth, space itself has been pierced, and from dark depths runs a steady flow of monsters. The man recognizes the hand of his evil double in this. He knows he must put an end to this madness.
Wake: I can’t stay here now!
Wake: Hello?
Emma: Hey… it’s you! There. You remember me, right? Emma, Emma Sloan.
Wake: I think you might have something that belongs to me.
Emma: Really?
Wake: A typewritten page?
Emma: Oh, yeah, that’s weird! I did find a page like that. I don’t even know where it came from. It was all this weird stuff about the oil derrick and a satellite…
Wake: Yes! That’s what I’m looking for.
Emma: Oh, I don’t know how you knew I had it, but I guess it’s yours. Listen, what’s this all about? There are these really creepy guys handing around the oil derricks. There’s something really weird about them.
Wake: They’re dangerous. I’m going to deal with them. Try to stay out of their sight, okay? And stay in the light. They hate the light.
Wake: Just to be clear: you should know that we haven’t actually met before.
Emma: Sure we have, Mr. Wake! Remember, you stayed at the motel here!
Wake: No, the guy you’re talking about just looks like me, even if he uses my name. He’s behind all this trouble.
Emma: Oh, I thought… Um. Now that you mention it, I guess your aura looks a lot nicer than his, actually. I’m very sensitive to things like that.
Wake: There’s a bunch of stuff I need to find.
Emma: The things mentioned on that page? Well, there’s a lot of old crap lying around this place.
Wake: Great, thanks.
Emma: I think you should be able to find everything. Except the satellite. Obviously. Are you gonna tell me what this is?
Wake: I don’t think that’s go over too well.
Emma: Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?
Wake: Fine. The page is a formula for rewriting reality. Either I use it to close a strange portal to a place that isn’t in our world, or shadow serial killer monster things keep pouring out of there.
Emma: Yeah, you were right the first time.
Wake: You can think what you want about me, but there are still bad guys around. Be careful.
Emma: Well, you might be nuts, but I’ve seen the way they move, the way they look… I’ll buy that.
Wake: They’re called Taken. They aren’t really human, no anymore.
Emma: And they’re climbing out of the oil well? What, do they have a secret headquarters down there, or…?
Wake: No. That’s just where the point of connection is. It’s a hole that leads to… well, it’s a really nasty place. That’s why I need to close it.
Emma: And the guy who looks like you opened it? ‘Cause he was hanging around the oil field before…
Wake: He gets around, unfortunately. Thanks for helping me.
Emma: Oh, I wish I thought you were just a nutcase.
Wake: Actually, I kind of expected you to.
Emma: Me too. But I feel like this is how it’s supposed to go. Isn’t that weird?
Wake: Not really. I get that a lot in my line of work.
Emma: What do you do, anyway?
Wake: I’m a writer.
Emma: Obviously.
Wake: What was that you said about my aura?
Emma: Oh, I’m very spiritual, you know. I can see auras. But I only use that for healing and helping people. I’m like a wisewoman, you know? I give people insight and advice.
Wake: Look, just because I say crazy things, that doesn’t mean I believe everything.
Emma: Don’t be like that. Maybe you should take a few crystals with you if you’re going out there? It might be dangerous. They soothe your energies and focus your mind. It’s fantastic.
Wake: And they help me take out the bad guys?
Emma: Oh, well, no. Not as such.
Wake: Yeah, okay, I think I’m—
Emma: Or I have some wonderfully potent herbal detox suppositories—
Wake: Yeah, I’m good. I’m good.
TV Host: The champion of light recognizes the page he got from the woman: it is a weapon of his own design, custom engineered to destroy the dark portal. If he recreates the conditions of the page, a great power will be unleashed.
Wake: I guess it’s about time I went full auto.
Wake: Uhh… wait, wait… Woah! That’s one thing down.
TV Host: The enemy tears itself in two to avoid the hated light. It becomes weaker, but more numerous. Such is the arithmetic of horror.
Wake: That was just messed up.
Wake: That’s two. Just one more to go. Something tells me I’m really going to need the extra firepower.
Wake: That’s everything!
TV Host: The man has found the battery, but it is empty. It will need to be recharged.
Wake: I need this battery charged.
Emma: No problem. Here you go.
Wake: Thanks. Listen, I don’t know what’s going to happen exactly when I do this, my memory’s a little hazy.
Emma: I don’t even know what that means.
Wake: All I’m saying is you don’t want to come anywhere near the oil field, all right? This thing could get out of hand.
Emma: In the middle of highly flammable materials? Great…
Wake: I’ll do my best to contain it.
Emma: Just… Please don’t turn out to be some kind of crazy terrorist guy, okay?
Wake: Okay, I’m gonna go now. Wish me luck.
Emma: Wait a sec, I want to ask you about something first. What did you mean with that “my memory’s a little hazy” thing?
Wake: I had a pretty rough time, coming here. It was like being caught in a tsunami. I blacked out for a while. It’s hard to explain. There’s a… a barrier of sorts that I had to break through. I was lucky to make it here with my wits as intact as they are.
Emma: So… you might have brain damage, you’re about to go do great things with a magic piece of paper, and you came here from another dimension?
Wake: No, I’m from New York. I was just visiting another dimension.
Emma: Oh, yeah, okay. My bad.
Wake: It’s a little sad how many problems you can solve with buckshot.
Wake: Time to make some serious changes.
Wake: Ahh! Whoa!
Emma: Somebody help! They’re trying to get in! Help!
Wake: I’m here! Just keep your head down!
Emma: I think I hear more of them!
Wake: Yeah, I think I noticed.
Wake: That’s the last of them! We’re good.
Emma: What the hell was that?!
Wake: Easy, easy. I got ‘em, you’re safe. I need you to tell me what you know about him — the guy who looks like me.
Emma: He… there was a — there was a party in one of the rooms. It was pretty wild. I, um, I’m not sure which room it was in.
Wake: You didn’t attend?
Emma: I… no, I wasn’t there. But it got way out of hand. Anyway, I… I heard that he went out to the diner, and there was a fight there or something. Maybe you could find out more from there? I, I got some keys that you could maybe use…
Wake: You just happen to have the keys, huh? Fine. I’ll take a look. Stay here.
Emma: Like hell. I’m getting out of here as soon as you leave so I can close up this place and go home.
Wake: Emma, you really want to stay here in the light.
Emma: Yeah, thanks for the advice, but I’m not sticking around. Just go already, okay?
Wake: Are you okay?
Emma: I guess. Thanks for the help. Were those the… what’d you call them, the Taken? What are they?
Wake: It’s complicated. Short version: the darkness can take people over. That’s why I had to destroy the oil derrick. Otherwise they would’ve overrun this place.
Emma: Wow. I didn’t think you’d actually do it. I mean, I didn’t think it’d work. That’s crazy.
Wake: Let me just try one more time, at the risk of sounding like a broken record. It’s bad out there. I don’t want you hurt. You should stay put.
Emma: Yeah, while you turn this place into an inferno, run around shooting things up and play some kind of weird games with your psycho evil twin. Don’t get me wrong, you’re — you’re nice for a weirdo, I’m impressed as hell by all of this, but enough is enough. I seriously just want to get out of here. Okay?
TV Host: A poltergeist. Its existence is one of rage and hostility, and its very presence turns ordinary objects into deadly projectiles.
Wake: Oh shit!
TV Host: The scene: traces of violence. A callous midnight snack. A room key left carelessly behind. The man recognizes the enemy’s handiwork.
Wake: I think these are keys for the motel rooms.
Wake: Satellite… and now this. That place might be involved.
TV Host: Emma Sloan was a believer in great many things, most of which were entirely fallacious.
Emma: No! NO! Eeeeeaahh!
TV Host: Emma Sloan. An innocent victim of his dark half. Collateral damage in the ongoing war. Damned by forces beyond her control as much as by her own actions.
Wake: Damn it, why didn’t you listen?
Wake: Damn…
TV Host: Michael Farabee. Dead. Tortured. Dressed in clothes that bore the name of a local observatory. A slim lead, but solid enough: it stirs something deep in his mind. He knows where to go, now. The observatory! Hot on the heels of the herald of darkness, the champion of light forges on… to see the stars.