Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 October 31st, 1990 7, 3 40 3:00 PM What I told you, I didn't wanna do this here, and I told you to take it up with my mother, Drew and Lucy offered they could have, could have what, could have hosted our kids' birthday party at their house and put the onus on us to explain to the whole fam Danley, why do you want to have that conversation with your old man? Because I sure don't. It's too much. It's too many people, it's too loud. Things keep getting mixed up and I, I can't, I'm ruining everything
Speaker 0 00:01:00 Babe. Hey, hey. Case three. All right. The most exciting thing about this party is the pin the tail on the donkey game that mom found at the Dollar Tree. I don't think you're spoiling any formative memories. No, you always do this. I try to tell you something's wrong and the best you can do is tell me to calm down because you need to calm down Kendra. This whole thing will be over in like half an hour at most. Okay? The party will wrap up. Lucy's gonna take the kids trick or treating and then you and I can just decompress and ah, fuck, I forgot to buy the Halloween candy. I'm not. Well Todd, your wife is unwell and all you can think about is the fucking Halloween candy. You're so goddamn selfish. I'm not talking to you while you're like this, like this. Like what? Say it fucking bat shit. I'm, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm running on like two hours of sleep. I shouldn't have Story of our lives. I'm bad Shit. And you're doing things you shouldn't have done.
Speaker 1 00:02:20 Oh, sh
Speaker 0 00:02:21 You left the cam quitter on dumb ass. Nice, nice memory for Caitlin's birthday. All right, When I tell you that I have had it up to here with being the fucking fillin all the time,
Speaker 3 00:03:31 Hello everybody and welcome back to Compelled Dual. I'm Barry.
Speaker 0 00:03:35 And I'm Al.
Speaker 3 00:03:36 And we are a single player co gMed TT R P G actual play podcast
Speaker 0 00:03:43 Previously on compelled dual desert song. Barry, please describe your character.
Speaker 4 00:03:53 Um,
Speaker 3 00:03:54 Here's the thing, I can't
Speaker 0 00:03:58 That you cannot an aunt
Speaker 4 00:04:01 Who
Speaker 3 00:04:02 The fuck is Kalin O'Connell
Speaker 0 00:04:05 And you see the same woman from that whatever that
Speaker 4 00:04:10 Was
Speaker 0 00:04:11 Covered in dirt and very obviously dead.
Speaker 4 00:04:16 Oh fuck what
Speaker 0 00:04:20 The,
Speaker 3 00:04:26 You know that your name is Dian O'Connell, you know that you're running from
Speaker 5 00:04:32 Something, but the name or names totally escape you.
Speaker 6 00:04:38 I said someone's coming to get you runaway sit tight.
Speaker 0 00:04:45 He's gonna exhale hard through his nose and like this fucking cannula on fire.
Speaker 4 00:04:51 <laugh>, okay,
Speaker 0 00:04:57 The head on this figure swivels to look up at you on the couch and you see that this is the man from the photos, from the garage, from the kitchen and there is blood pouring from his eyes, from his nose, from his mouth.
Speaker 2 00:05:18 <laugh>
Speaker 0 00:05:18 Should have got out while he still could kid
Speaker 3 00:05:23 Ca can't move, she can't even open her mouth to scream. So she just lays there on the couch and screams against the back of her own clenched teeth until her voice gives out. Okay everybody, So to keep up the dramatic tension present at the end of probably most of our episodes, we decided that it was a better idea to do end of session experience at the top of the next episode after the recap reel. So I think because the siblings O'Connell are separated right now, we're gonna go down through this list separately,
Speaker 0 00:06:11 Okay? So let's do Kay's questions first.
Speaker 3 00:06:15 Did they conclude the current mystery?
Speaker 0 00:06:19 No.
Speaker 3 00:06:21 Did they save someone from certain death or worse?
Speaker 0 00:06:26 No.
Speaker 3 00:06:28 I mean on death is a sort of salvation in and of itself, don't you think?
Speaker 0 00:06:33 Yeah, but that wasn't like an active choice that you made <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:06:38 Okay, Okay, I'll take it. Um, did we learn something new and important about the world? I mean, I feel like I learned a lot of things given that CA's mind was like a blank slate, which she crawled up outta the ground. So
Speaker 0 00:06:53 I would argue that for you personally, we didn't get a lot of world building exposition that session. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 3 00:07:00 Yeah, fine. Did we learn something new and important about one of the hunters? Fucking yes. We learned that I'm trans. We learned that I don't like the dmv. We learned that I didn't like the movie Memento. We learned that my house is haunted. We learned a lot. Okay,
Speaker 0 00:07:16 That is true <laugh>. So that is a yes to one of our questions. So you are going to mark one experience just so everybody knows. If one or two questions get a yes, that is one experience. If three or four of the questions get a yes, that's two experience
Speaker 3 00:07:32 Anyway onto Damien.
Speaker 0 00:07:35 Did I conclude the current mystery?
Speaker 3 00:07:38 Uh, no.
Speaker 0 00:07:40 Figured did I save someone from certain death or worse?
Speaker 3 00:07:45 I would say no because technically Luke saved your ass by getting you out of the emporium.
Speaker 0 00:07:53 Technically, I warned Luke things were coming.
Speaker 3 00:07:58 Technically you killed a lot of people in that hospital, bro. One life does not.
Speaker 0 00:08:03 Also technically though, these are questions for the entire group. So whether Luke or I saved each other's asses, I would argue that that's a yes.
Speaker 3 00:08:14 Fine, you bastard take the point.
Speaker 0 00:08:17 Thanks. Did I learn something new and important about the world?
Speaker 3 00:08:22 Yes. Via that conversation with Luke about the state of things you did,
Speaker 0 00:08:29 I learned that a certain corporate mouse is trying to take over the world. Um, and did I learn something new and important about one of the hunters?
Speaker 3 00:08:38 Um, I'm gonna say no on that one because you didn't really learn that much about Luke and there's still a lot you don't know about yourself. All that Swiss cheese in your brain has not had the holes filled in really at all.
Speaker 0 00:08:52 I will take that. So that is one experience for me as well, and we're gonna mark those for the NPCs that are currently in our groups. So Luke for me and Lydia for you.
Speaker 3 00:09:03 Okay, and with that settled, let's pick up where we left off, Damien, when last we left you, you were running for your life across the parking lot of Johansen's eccentric emporium, getting into one Luke Johansen's truck and driving away as the earth swallowed the entire building and the forces of darkness fell upon it. We find you in the cabin of that same truck now burning rubber down I 15. The cap of the truck is silent, save for the roar of the engine and your and Luke's ragged breathing. But eventually as you pass under guttering streetlight hanging over the interstate, he whips around to stare at you. His fancy pompadur hairdo knocked a kimbo and a button ripped out of his crypted Hawaiian shirt. All right, when you said you had someone after you, I thought it meant you had pissed off a lone shark. Not the fucking Fay. Come on man.
Speaker 0 00:10:20 Dian is turned around in his seat looking out the back window and just says, Oh, so the fay, you believe in siren's eating people on live tv. That's too much of a stretch. But the fay, oh, that's fine.
Speaker 3 00:10:34 He sets his jaw and stares out through the windshield, gunning the engine a little harder. There are two types of people in the world, Damien, people who are convinced the truth is out there and think that finding it is gonna do something to change the world. And people who know better, the former kind of people often end up putting a lot of money in the latter kind of people's pockets trying to find the truth and then they end up dead. And I'm sitting here, So what kind of person do you think I am
Speaker 0 00:11:06 For the sake of politeness? I'm not gonna answer that. Do I see anything out the back window?
Speaker 3 00:11:13 Uh, roll or read a bad situation for me please.
Speaker 0 00:11:17 Okay, I have plus one to sharp, so I get plus one to whatever this is. That is a seven.
Speaker 3 00:11:25 So you get to hold one and you have a list of questions and you can pick one to ask me,
Speaker 0 00:11:31 Hey Barry,
Speaker 3 00:11:33 Yes my friend,
Speaker 0 00:11:36 I'm gonna regret this, but what's the biggest threat?
Speaker 3 00:11:43 He, well, you see that's kind of a question that answers itself.
Speaker 3 00:11:54 You are still turned around in the passenger seat of this truck looking out into the dark emptiness of the desert beyond you. When you see the biggest threat approaching at a rapid pace, it's really hard to tell what you're looking at for multiple reasons. Whatever is approaching you is surrounded by that same warping, living, almost looking shadow that you saw rise up around johansen's, eccentric emporium and pull the whole place into the dirt. Also, whatever it is, it's keeping off the road, it's out in the desert, off to the side, riding parallel along the interstate so you only can catch glimpses in the streetlights that it passes. And thirdly, it's just hard to look at if that makes sense. There's something so inherently wrong about what you're seeing that your eyes want to gloss over it, you want to look past it and not see it there, but you grit your teeth and focus and finally you pass a streetlight bright enough to illuminate a pack of riders on horseback.
Speaker 3 00:13:16 But it's not just that you watch and the way the horses are moving it, it's wrong. Their, their joints and their legs are bending at all the wrong angles and you can't keep track of how fast they're going. And then you see the people riding them are, are they people you're not sure? At first glance, they look like John Wayne. Ask cowboys long live figures in flannel shirts and blue jeans, cowboy boots, belt buckles, ging under the moonlight, but you can't see their faces. Not because they're in shadow but because they are shadow their faces aren't there something's wrong. And then over the roar of the engine of Luke's truck, you hear the howling and tangled up amongst the legs of these all wrong horses. You see even more all wrong coyotes if you can even call them that they look like something that was brought into the world by somebody that had some idea of what a coyote looked like. T fur and dripping sharp MAs, but they have too many legs. Why do they have so many legs and why are they moving so fast?
Speaker 0 00:14:36 Okay, um, I'm gonna bet you're gonna want me to roll to act under pressure to do this, but I'm gonna turn to Luke and say, Hey, does this back window open
Speaker 3 00:14:52 Luke's eyes cut up to the rear view mirror and go really wide? Oh shit, Uh, yeah, yeah it does. Good idea. And then he takes one hand off the steering wheel to reach down beside the center console and pulls up a fucking nine millimeter.
Speaker 0 00:15:11 Okay, that totally snaps me out of the horror of the situation for a second. Why do you have a gun?
Speaker 3 00:15:20 He's too busy caulking the gun for a second to answer you practical reasons.
Speaker 7 00:15:26 Like
Speaker 0 00:15:27 What?
Speaker 3 00:15:29 Like I cheat swindle and deceive people for a living and I do like living.
Speaker 0 00:15:37 I'm just gonna open the back window
Speaker 7 00:15:38 <laugh>, okay?
Speaker 3 00:15:41 Okay. You pull this rusty window open and it's sliding frame and this pack of whatever the hell it is is gaining on the truck. Luke has the engine going wide open, he's got the pebble of the metal, he's going as fast as he can and at the head of this pack of riders, you see one of them adjust the 10 gallon hat on its amorphous shadowy head and point at the truck and the coyotes scream.
Speaker 0 00:16:15 Ah, okay. Um, like I said, I'm gonna roll to act under pressure to start taking pot shots at these things. I'm gonna use a luck point,
Speaker 3 00:16:29 Okay? Uh, so for the reference of the folks at home, if you use a luck point that is something that does not reset, you do not get them back except for as perks of leveling up if you choose to do so. And if you use one, it means that you automatically rolled a 12, which in monster of the week is a perfect success.
Speaker 0 00:16:50 Uh, yeah. And on act under pressure, I get to either do what I wanted and something extra or do what I wanted to. Absolute perfection. I'm gonna do what I wanted to absolute perfection. I'm gonna have crawl out the window and just throw a fireball onto the road and I'm gonna try and slow down the things coming for us. Uh, given that I don't have the wall effect for my combat magic, I'm gonna guess it's just the ball effect. So it's not gonna stop anything. It doesn't have the barrier tag, but I'm hoping it'll slow 'em. That's all I got.
Speaker 3 00:17:33 The road lights up with a bloom of flame and you see some of these odd looking horses rear back in fear. You get the impression that being creatures of shadow as they are, whatever the hell these things are, are not fond of flame and can't exist inside it. If that makes sense. And by sheer dumb luck since you used that luck point, this fireball manages to rise up the dry wooden pole of a power line next to the highway. So intense and so hot that it crumms like a match and snaps and falls down across the road. It's not enough to stop him, but it's enough to slow him down and Luke is driving for all he's worth. He is just pushing the truck to its absolute limit as he continues down the road after another tense silence, he says to you, All right, we're gonna need a plan. Cuz whatever the hell those things were, I don't think you scared him enough to stop him.
Speaker 0 00:18:49 <laugh>, right now the plan is fucking run man. I I,
Speaker 3 00:18:53 Yeah, run and they've got magic and weird fucked up dog things. I'm sure that'll go great for us. Weird fucked up dog things. Uh, uh, dogs, hunting dogs, right? They're there to track a scent.
Speaker 0 00:19:08 If you're trying to tell me ire, I know I haven't had a shower in, I actually don't know how long.
Speaker 3 00:19:15 Luke nods and reaches one hand up to slam the sliding window behind you. Shut yeah and that's stinky. Yours might just save both of our asses. I've got a plan, but for it to work we've gotta get you some new clothes. That's priority number one and surrounded by the desert night with the bright lights of Las Vegas fading into the rear view behind you, you continue on.
Speaker 0 00:19:46 So Caly, after all that at the end of last episode, what do we find you doing?
Speaker 3 00:19:58 Uh, depends when we are and how long it took those sleeping pills to wear off.
Speaker 0 00:20:06 We are early, early the next morning and I would say that those sleeping pills probably wore off about six hours after they kicked in.
Speaker 3 00:20:17 Cool. As soon as she's able to move again, Kay's gonna get up and go over to the entertainment center slash ferret habitat and look around for some kind of sound system and source of music.
Speaker 0 00:20:33 There is a surprisingly modern sound system under the tv in the entertainment center. There is what appears to be a collection of CDs in one of the cabinets, but given that it is the year 2018, it doesn't look like the sound system, a CD player. Um, you have your phone.
Speaker 3 00:20:51 Yeah, I'm gonna plug that in and start blasting aggressively upbeat music as soon as the sun is over the horizon
Speaker 0 00:21:01 As your keeper. I will point out that you have not checked your phone since you decided to ignore it last night.
Speaker 3 00:21:08 Yeah, you're right. I'm gonna sit down on the arm of the couch and go through all of my notifications.
Speaker 0 00:21:16 There are so many. You have a full voice mailbox, you have dozens and dozens of text messages, you have a multitude of missed calls, you start to go through them. How are people listed in Kay's phone by the way?
Speaker 3 00:21:33 Meticulously by their first and last names and then like in the little company section or whatever of the contact it has, whoever they are to them. <laugh> listed like Lydia Antonoff, ex-girlfriend, probably
Speaker 0 00:21:50 <laugh>, you know, normally I would say that with the amnesia plot line we're setting up, that's really too convenient. K is the one character for which I would say no. Yeah, that sounds right. You have a lot, a lot of notifications. A few missed calls and texts from Lydia Andina have listed as your ex-girlfriend. A few from somebody called Frankie Napolitano, a few from somebody named Bailey Kim. A lot from people with the last name O'Connell. You count no less than eight names. Most of the texts are variations on a theme. Hey, where are you? What's going on? Da da da da. Are you gonna go through your voice mailbox?
Speaker 3 00:22:37 No, she's not in the best state of mind and I think doing that would not help. So she's just gonna clear the notifications and plug the phone into the sound system and start cleaning So aggressively looking for every cleaning supply in this house. Volume turned all the way up.
Speaker 0 00:23:03 Yeah, you managed to dig a bunch of cleaning supplies out of the closet under the staircase you find pretty much just the Bear Centrals broom mop. There's not industrial to be seen but there is an industrial size like bulk by bottle of purple fso and you get to work you clean through the kitchen and the living room I think without incident you've been in these areas, you've gotten familiar with them since last night.
Speaker 3 00:23:33 I wanna look at the living room rug where I saw whatever I saw in my sleepless paralysis last night.
Speaker 0 00:23:49 You look at the living room floor, generally it's kind of unfinished slats like somebody tore up carpet and never replaced it and like you see really gross seventies carpet around the edges of the entertainment center where it couldn't have been pulled out. There's a big area rug on top of the slats.
Speaker 3 00:24:10 I'm gonna pull the rug back, like move the coffee table and flip it over.
Speaker 0 00:24:18 You move the area rug and there is this big blotchy rusty brown stain on the slats of the floor and you're not there anymore. You are a little bit further across the room, closer to the door watching the same scene that you saw last night. Play out. You are standing there, you can dimly feel yourself shaking and you watch as one shaky hand that you recognize as your own comes up into your line of vision to press over your face and then you're back.
Speaker 3 00:25:02 Nah, nah, we're gonna fab. So this shit kays down on like their hands and knees trying to scrub at the floor.
Speaker 0 00:25:13 You're not there anymore. You feel that same perception shift that you felt a few times now, but you are doing the same thing. You are on your hands and knees on this floor just scrubbing and scrubbing and then you hear from off to the side. Someone say, okay and then you're back.
Speaker 3 00:25:37 They just freeze where they are and grit their teeth. All right, you know what? Fuck this. And then they stomp up the stairs and go take their fucking meds.
Speaker 0 00:25:55 Good call. You do that in the light of day. The room that you recognize as your own is much the same. The garden in the window so looks way nicer with the sun coming in. You look around and like with a little more light you can see details. There's like a cigarette burn in the carpet. There's some nicks in the paint on the wall. You see a spill of nail polish across your bedside table. This is a room that has been lived in for a very long time and I think subconsciously you just feel more comfortable in here. Are you doing anything else while you're upstairs?
Speaker 3 00:26:36 I think if there's any degree of comfort up here, like you said, she's just gonna lay down on her bed for a second and curl up and stare at the wall, but then after a minute stands up again and starts cleaning in here. She's gonna clean the whole upstairs if she can. Not going in the bathroom though,
Speaker 0 00:27:01 The upstairs floors are still carpeted. You have to dig out a vacuum from a like tiny little broom closet up by the landing around the stairs. Not even big enough to warrant a real door. It's basically just a glorified cabinet, but you get to work, you clean up your room, get everything straightened away and which of the other rooms are you gonna go in?
Speaker 3 00:27:24 The one with all of the art projects on the walls and the guitar in the corner
Speaker 0 00:27:32 From the hallway. You can survey this room. It looks like a tornado. Hit it, not like it was ransacked but just like someone chaotic was living in the space and just kind of throw shit wherever. Art projects up on the walls, bed unmade comforter like half on the floor, total mess. The second you step through the doorway, you're not there anymore. The room is decorated differently. There's light shining through the window. There's a bunk bed right next to the door and over the top of it pops ahead. Just this chubby little kid, dark, curly hair pulled back in a ponytail, gives you a big smile with both front teeth missing and starts to say something and then you're back. You walk a little more in again clothes everywhere on the floor and everything is covered with this thick layer of dust. I think you have to watch your feet to get anywhere without tripping and you're not there anymore. You are again in a room that's decorated differently. There is a slightly older version of that same kid you just saw haircut, short, big, thick glasses perched on his nose. He looks up as you walk in and goes, I'm doing my homework, I've got it.
Speaker 0 00:29:02 And then you're back. You walk a little further in. You look at these art projects on the wall and you're not there anymore. There is maybe a 12 year old version of the same kid sketching something on a piece of notebook paper that's pressed up against the wall. You hear a floorboard creek under your feet and this kid turns around and again, big smile. As soon as he sees you and you're back,
Speaker 2 00:29:33 You
Speaker 0 00:29:33 Step a little closer to the bed and you're not there anymore. The room is decorated much the way it is now and there's that same kid, maybe 15 or 16 holding the guitar that's in the closet tuning it. Absently looks up as you get closer. Big smile says we're not late yet, right? Cause I, I have a couple more things to do and you're back. You walk a step closer and you're not there anymore but you are, the room is empty. It looks very much the same as it does now and you are watching your own hands settle on this nightstand, look through the mess on it and you watch your own vantage point. Just spin around this room looking for something and then you're back.
Speaker 3 00:30:26 Kay collapses her knees hit the floor. She grinds the heels of both hands into her closed eyes and shakes her head super hard. Okay? Okay, who are you? I know you, I know you. Who are you? And she's gonna start doing what she was doing in that last flashback, just tearing through the bedside table and everywhere else that could maybe yield some information.
Speaker 0 00:30:55 Roll to investigate a mystery please.
Speaker 3 00:31:01 Six. So I'm marking experience,
Speaker 0 00:31:05 Okay, Yeah, with the six, there's nothing really immediately identifying around in this room. The nightstand has a bunch of post-it notes with like reminders and brief like lines of songs written on it. Half of them are torn outta the post-it pad and just stuck on the surface of the table. It's very like adhd, scroll reminder type deal. There are multiple different inhalers in different colors, just kind of strewn around here. More than one of them empty and just not thrown away. There are a couple orange prescription bottles with the labels kind of picked at and peeled halfway off. There's no name on 'em. There's a nest of like blankets and pillows in one corner. When you go over there it smells distinctly of stale marijuana, which with the inhalers paints a picture if not a particularly illuminating one.
Speaker 3 00:32:05 Kay brushes some of the accumulated dust off the surface of one of these pillows. Sniffs at it, looks at the inhalers and says to no one, ah, an idiot lived here.
Speaker 0 00:32:18 <laugh>. There's nothing really remarkable in the closet. Just a bunch of growth. Teenage boy clothes. <laugh>. The hamper in there is full bursting. Various shit is just like strewn across the floor. You see three socks, none of which match and a bold up sports broth thrown right into the corner. The art projects on the wall are illustrative work, if that makes sense. Lots of like landscapes and various like plant studies. Um, there's a couple collages and there are a few photos. Most of them feature this same kid that you saw a bunch just cheese in it for the camera. It's held kind of like selfie style.
Speaker 0 00:33:05 You are in the background of most of them at various points of your childhood and adolescence, mostly adolescents. You also see the kid with the blunt cut bangs and the overalls that you've seen a couple times in one of them. You see the same very big dude that you watched die question mark in the living room last night. Sitting on the couch downstairs waving a hand towards the camera like in what seems like a very go away, don't bother me kind of gesture. A few more kids that aren't immediately identifiable to you but nothing else in the room is particularly identifiable.
Speaker 3 00:33:49 Okay, I'm gonna run the vacuum dust as best I can with paper towels and cleaning spray. Make the bed, take all the laundry downstairs and throw it in the washer and then come back upstairs and go into one of the other bedrooms. The one that you said had all the stuff folded at the end of the bed.
Speaker 0 00:34:15 As you walk in, you're not there anymore. The room is decorated in a much more kind of old fashioned style. There's a different bed pushed up against a different wall and on it sits, an older lady maybe in her fifties, tall, skinny, long blonde hair. She tucks her hair behind her ear and you see that she has a hearing aid in and she sees you standing in the doorway and says, Come in, come in. And then you're back
Speaker 3 00:34:45 Still hanging out in the doorway. Kalin brings up one hand and just presses it to the side of their own hearing aid and then shakes their head and goes in and starts cleaning.
Speaker 0 00:34:58 This room is a lot cleaner than any of the other rooms up here except for yours. Like I said, bedspread is folded at the end of the bed. It was recently vacated. The old dresser is very banged up. There are cigarette burns in the varnish like this. This has been through it. There are dents, there are chips, there are various stains, Everything else is pretty new, very well up kept. You open the closet door to vacuum in there and you're not there anymore. Sitting on the floor of this closet, there is a 12 year old kid blunt cut bangs wearing what looks like an oversized like sleep shirt and pajama pants, big headphones on her head reading a book. She looks up at you as light hits her in the face. She's squinting and in that very self righteously, annoyed way that only 12 year old girls can pull off. She goes, What do you want? But face, I'm busy, I I want a vacuum and you're in my way ass hat. Move. Move. And then your back. The closet, which in that memory was full of like frilly little kids clothes is full of very practical like sturdy jeans, sweaters, a big solid brown coat. Hair care products on the top shelf, very like more masculine leaning sense leather cedar sandalwood, whoever was staying in this room recently clearly stays here often. Go ahead and roll to investigative mystery
Speaker 3 00:37:01 10.
Speaker 0 00:37:04 Okay, on a 10 plus hold two you can ask me two questions off the list.
Speaker 3 00:37:09 What sort of creature is it
Speaker 0 00:37:11 Judging by the clothes and the hair care products. Butch <laugh>
Speaker 10 00:37:16 <laugh>
Speaker 0 00:37:17 And judging by whatever that was you saw when you opened the closet door. A little sister.
Speaker 10 00:37:24 Okay,
Speaker 0 00:37:25 What is your second question? Where did it go? I think you rifle through the bedside table. There is a similar pad of post-it notes to what you saw in the other room. Just a few quick reminders scribbled into it. You see a prescription bottle of anti-anxiety medication prescribed to one Ellis O'Connell and you find various paperwork. Again this name Ellis O'Connell Ellis O'Connell. You recognize that name from your phone. This person sent you a lot of texts and a few voicemails. I don't know if you went into her contact or not, but under the company in her contact, it does indeed say sister. And as you're going through the paperwork in this bedside table, you find an acceptance letter to Smith College in Springfield, Massachusetts with a hefty scholarship addressed to Ella O'Connell.
Speaker 3 00:38:22 Caitlin Squince down at the acceptance letter for a second and then looks up at the empty room around her. Wow, my baby sister is going to Smith on a full ride and I'm sitting here with my ferrets playing League of Legends. I can only imagine how proud the rest of my family must be.
Speaker 9 00:38:43 <laugh>,
Speaker 0 00:38:46 Not too much else remarkable in this room. Again, it's been very obviously packed up pretty recently. You clean up in here even though it was already pretty clean. Uh, are you going into the last bedroom up here?
Speaker 3 00:39:02 Yeah. Yeah I am.
Speaker 0 00:39:05 You walk in this place has also obviously been undisturbed for a while, you think Not as long as the other bedroom. This one looks like it's been cleaned more recently. Just not regularly older. Solid furniture. The beds made. There are a few things on one of the bedside tables, another goddamn novelty ashtray. A matchbook, an alarm clock and a bottle of like cheap Walmart brand cologne, solid bed frame, solid dresser with a mirror bolted to the back of it. And you're not there anymore. You are, you can kind of feel just way smaller and you are looking into this mirror at yourself, maybe like six or seven years old, dressed in a white button up shirt, dark pants, fumbling with a tie. You are standing on this bed so you can see into the mirror and at the foot of the bed right next to you.
Speaker 0 00:40:17 Also looking into the mirror is the same big guy that you saw presumably dying on the floor downstairs last night. He is also tying a tie, wearing a white button down shirt, dark pants and not looking at you, just looking into the mirror and kind of squinting. He says, Yeah kid, I understand you don't wanna wear it. It's a hard day but we are gonna be there for your mother because it's a harder day for her. So you and me are gonna man up, put on the monkey suits and get down to business. All right? Yeah. All right. He finishes tying his tie and slicks back his hair and then turns around with a big smile, reaches out and pulls your hands off of your tie and does a nod in it for you and then pats you on the side of the face, says add a boy. I'll take you and your sister out ice cream afterward. Okay, and then you're back.
Speaker 3 00:41:25 K full body wins and staggers forward bracing both hands against the front of the dresser.
Speaker 0 00:41:33 There are a few little things that you saw on the dresser in whatever that was you just saw kind of gathered up. In one corner there is a half empty bottle of women's perfume looks more expensive than the cologne. Over on the nightstand there is one of those little stands for like rings, earrings, sort of jewelry and one of those little stand mirrors like the magnifying ones you use when you're putting on makeup again, gathered together, they weren't in whatever you just saw and they are shoved into a corner. So there is a lot of empty space across this dresser and they don't get bumped into all the time you would guess. And they are dusty.
Speaker 3 00:42:23 Yeah, okay, cool. I'm cleaning and getting the fuck outta here as quickly as possible.
Speaker 0 00:42:29 Roll me another quick investigative mystery if you could. Four
Speaker 3 00:42:39 More experience for me, but no answers, never answers.
Speaker 0 00:42:45 I don't think you're looking too much into anything in here. I think you're just trying to get the fuck out. You clean this room and go to head out. I think you pause in the doorway
Speaker 0 00:42:57 And then you're not there anymore. You are standing right outside the doorway in such a vantage point that you should be looking at yourself where you know you are standing instead, you are looking in at this room and you see the big guy that you've seen a bunch of times now and the much smaller woman that is in the wedding photos with him, long, dark, curly hair. She is seething, you don't quite make out what she's saying, but she is hissing something under her breath. And this big guy that you've seen is just like standing there looking off into the distance, not responding to what she's saying and that seems like it's making her angrier. And then you watch as this big guy spots you, you watch his eyes go a little wide and then he looks at this smaller lady and he goes, Babe, stop. And she a little louder says, Don't you tell me to stop. We're having this conver. And then he grabs her arm and spins for a little bit and she sees you and her face just falls and then you're back.
Speaker 3 00:44:12 I I I'm shutting the door. I don't ever want to go in here again.
Speaker 0 00:44:18 Okay, where are you going?
Speaker 3 00:44:21 Back downstairs to the kitchen to get the butcher knife again and then back upstairs to the bathroom. I'm gonna turn the door, kind of kick it open and then pick up a toilet brush from the corner. So I'm dual wielding
Speaker 0 00:44:39 The toilet brush is further into the bathroom. Like I said, there's kind of that first room with the sink in the counters and then there's another one a little deeper in that has the toilet in the bathtub.
Speaker 3 00:44:50 Okay, so I'm gonna go in far enough to get the toilet brush so that I'm dual wielding and just very vigilantly start cleaning the bathroom, all the lights on door wide open, still listening to the music downstairs
Speaker 0 00:45:06 Roll to investigate a mystery. I know you already looked through the Madison cabinet but you didn't really investigate the rest of the room. So
Speaker 3 00:45:17 Now I roll a 10 fucking shit.
Speaker 0 00:45:21 Okay, you got two questions.
Speaker 3 00:45:25 My first one is, what was it going to do?
Speaker 0 00:45:30 You start going through the drawers and these cabinets under the sink. You find various like shower products. You find hand soaps. You find another bottle of that like mid-grade perfume that you found in the dresser in the other room. And the longer you are in here, the more this oppressive air starts to settle on you. You feel watched by something that is angry and bitter and resentful and you feel off kilter and unbalanced and you get the feeling that that is the idea. That is what whatever is watching you wants you to feel.
Speaker 3 00:46:29 Caitlin looks up into the medicine cabinet mirror and does not falter. My second question is, what happened here?
Speaker 0 00:46:44 You close these drawers in these cabinets looking into the bathroom mirror at yourself and presumably still holding the butcher knife. You turn to go deeper into this bathroom and you're not there anymore. Your new vantage point is much closer to the ground, probably about half the height that you are now. You see your own hand, very small curled around the door frame into this other half of the bathroom and <silence> your brain doesn't wanna process. You are looking at inside this door, you see water running across the floor toward you. You see one hail hand stretched over the side of the bathtub towards the floor limp. You see a mass of dark curls spilling with that hand. You see one of those stupid Walmart life is good graphic tea soaked plastered tube pale discolored skin. You see a head lulling back against the tiles of the shower and you realize that you are looking at a dead body and as you realize that something in your perception shifts you're back, but you are still looking at this and with a wash of water over the side of the bathtub, this dead woman pushes herself upright with one hand and her head lifts and she looks at you and snarls
Speaker 0 00:48:54 And then disappears.
Speaker 3 00:48:59 I'm not gonna flinch. That's what she wants
Speaker 0 00:49:07 From behind you. A voice says Good morning sunshine.
Speaker 3 00:49:12 I'd like to roll to kick some ass. That's an eight according to the rule book on anything over a seven I and whatever I'm fighting inflict harm on each other. The amount of harm is based on the established dangers in the game. That usually means that you inflict the harm rating of your weapon and your enemy inflicts their attacks. Harm rating on you. I have a big knife. It is one harm and a hand weapon.
Speaker 0 00:49:47 Okay? You lash out with this knife and immediately after you do it, but too late to stop your momentum, you see that Augie and Lydia Antonina are standing behind you in the bathroom doorway. Lydia blinks and brings her arm up. You get a shallow cut across her arm and she reaches out without seeming to think about it, grabs you by the elbow and twists your arm. You stand there for a second, you drop the knife because you can't not because she's twisting your arm into a pretzel and she just stands there blinking and then goes, uh, sorry, and then lets your arm go and backs up a step.
Speaker 12 00:50:30 I, uh,
Speaker 3 00:50:32 Oh. Oh my God. Oh my God. Lydia, I'm so sorry. I
Speaker 12 00:50:37 I I I saw, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Speaker 0 00:50:43 Uh, it's fine. Um, she looks down at her arm, which has a like a few inches long, very shallow cut on it and then goes, huh uh, the bandages are behind you. I'm gonna get those. I charged it on you with a gun last night. I think were even and behind her Augie raises a hand and goes, um, I brought pancake fixings.
Speaker 3 00:51:19 Damien, you are in a place in your life where you're relearning a lot of things about the world and currently you are relearning that there ain't much on I 15. After you leave prim Nevada, you see Luke Grimes as you cross the California border and remember him talking to you about something to do with arrest warrant, but he does not stop the truck until the gas light is on and you are running on fumes. He peels off the interstate at a sign marked Bartow and you roll into a gas station where he promptly pops up in the gas tank, swipes a credit card, starts filling up, and then he chucks the credit card in the garbage.
Speaker 0 00:52:11 I mean, Damien's not gonna call attention to that at the gas station. He's gonna wait until Luke gets back in the truck and then he's gonna go, So am I to assume that you hit the limit on the MX or
Speaker 3 00:52:25 He slams the driver's side door shut behind him and turns the key in the ignition takes off out of the gas station back towards the highway.
Speaker 0 00:52:34 <laugh>,
Speaker 3 00:52:35 No, that was a platinum card actually had plenty left on it. But the thing about credit cards is that they can be traced where we're going. We're gonna want cash. Oh and speaking of witch, he takes his phone out of his other pocket, rolls down the window, tosses it out the front of the truck and runs over it on the way out of the parking lot.
Speaker 0 00:52:58 Damian nods slowly, I throw out my phone in solidarity but I left it in my bedroom when I was 16 so
Speaker 3 00:53:07 I had to wait for the loss. I've got a burner. He pulls another phone out of his pocket.
Speaker 0 00:53:14 Huh? Just outta curiosity, how long have you been preparing to go off the grid?
Speaker 3 00:53:21 You can see him start counting on his fingers against the steering wheel looking like he's really thinking about it.
Speaker 0 00:53:27 Nevermind, keep driving.
Speaker 3 00:53:30 I mean hell for what it's worth, there is one good thing and only one good thing about being adopted by a couple batshit crazy Mormons and it is that I have always known how to doomsday prep. I don't think un Sealy Clint Eastwood and his posse are gonna be ping and cell towers or trying to track down our finances anytime soon. But when shit breaks this bad going off the grid is safer. Our next stop is finding you some new clothes and then we play it by ear from there.
Speaker 0 00:53:57 All right, Can we also rob a pharmacy? Cuz I got a few prescriptions that are way outta date, but very necessary,
Speaker 3 00:54:06 Rob. Yeah, sure. Whatever man, you stay on the highway a bit longer until he peels off another exit and you wind through sort of a shopping area of this town. It's not residential. There's a lot of big box stores. There is a certain super center that is open 24 hours a day that is very conveniently there because it's quite late in the evening.
Speaker 0 00:54:33 Uh, yes, an unbranded supercenter whose owners have driven many, many small businesses into the ground all across the country. I'm familiar,
Speaker 3 00:54:41 Yeah, there's no moral quandary about stealing anything from here. So it's all good. You go in assaulted by the bright fluorescent lights buzzing over your head and the two of you are a sight to see Luke in his disheveled crypted Hawaiian shirt and messed up hair and you extremely dirty and in hospital scrubs, a little bit scorched. But as anybody who has ever been a patron of this particular 24 hour superstore chain after 2:00 AM knows you are not the weirdest people in there.
Speaker 0 00:55:17 I'm gonna walk in confidently and smile at any greets they might have by the door because if you act shifty, that's when they catch you.
Speaker 3 00:55:25 So true. Luke starts pulling you down an aisle towards where like the grocery side of things is like where all the snack cakes are piled up in the middle of the aisle on a display and stuff and sort of pulls you around the corner behind some oatmeal cream pies and leans over to whisper to you. All right, I'm gonna go grab some stuff for the road. You go in the bathroom and give yourself a sponge bath I guess, and then head over to the clothing section and you look like you were a teenager once. Do you still remember how to do the whole shoplifting from the dressing room thing until you one better? I was a poor teenager. Yes, I know how to do that. All right, sick. He reaches into his pocket again and hands you like this crumpled, crusty $5 bill that still has some soot on it. When you're done buy some candy at the register on the way out so nobody gets suspicious. I'll be waiting in the truck.
Speaker 0 00:56:21 Yeah, I go to do that <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:56:25 Okay, act under pressure for me please.
Speaker 0 00:56:30 Come on baby. Anything over a seven, that is an 11.
Speaker 3 00:56:37 Okay, on a 10 plus you do what you set out to do. You manage to duck into the bathroom, clean up with hand soap and paper towels the best you can and then head over to the clothing section. I'm gonna say since it is so late and the employees of this corporate mega, hell do not give enough of a shit. You can take whatever you want on an 11, just go shopping. It's like supermarket sweep right now. You can take anything you want outta here within reason, like, maybe not like a TV or anything, but
Speaker 0 00:57:10 Okay. Uh, bare minimum that I need for an outfit. I need a shirt, a pair of jeans, a bra, some underwear and preferably shoes. I just realized like just now that I have not been wearing shoes this entire time,
Speaker 3 00:57:26 I guarantee you it is not the first time that somebody has been in this store barefoot at two o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 0 00:57:32 Oh for sure. But it is distressing. Um, <laugh>. Okay. Um, I'm wearing scrubs. They're pretty baggy. I think I can fit everything that I need under the shirt, just like tying shit around my waist real quick. I want a pair of jeans. I want like two t-shirts, a full set of underwear and a pair of shoes. And if I can get away with it, I would like to also get a hoodie and a jean jacket.
Speaker 3 00:58:00 You're looking a little lumpy as you go off to the dressing room, but again, nobody here cares. It's too late at night. Their paycheck is too low with a roll that high. If you want to go hit up health and beauty and take some stuff too, I wouldn't say no
Speaker 0 00:58:18 God, I need deodorant. Thank you. Yeah, I, I need a tube of deodorant and I'll probably get like, unfortunately I will get a three in one like body wash and hair wash because I don't think I can manage getting out of here with body wash and shampoo and conditioner <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:58:36 Not unless you get real creative and I would've made your role at 12 for that.
Speaker 0 00:58:40 That's fair. Uh, I will take my deodorant and my single awful soap <laugh> and I will like it. Good sir. <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:58:50 Okay, are you doing what Luke told you to do and stopping and getting some registered candy before you leave?
Speaker 0 00:58:57 Duh. Um, I'll probably, if I can manage it in five bucks, I'll probably also buy a, a pack of hair ties because I need a haircuts so bad.
Speaker 3 00:59:06 You leave the superstore with no name victorious in your heist with all of these clothes shoved under your scrubs and waddle over to Luke's truck where he is already chilling in the front seat, chewing on a toothpick and emptying a handful after handful of lip balm tubes out of his pockets.
Speaker 0 00:59:29 Uh, respect. But why do you need that much lip balm?
Speaker 3 00:59:34 I took it because I could and because it resells well I use it to stock the gift shop. Oh wait
Speaker 0 00:59:42 Jamie, it's gonna hop in the car just saying. Yeah. Sorry about your, Is Taurus trap the right word? Are you gonna be insulted if I call it a Taurus trap?
Speaker 3 00:59:52 Uh, that's one of the more charitable things I've heard it called actually get in, we got a pharmacy to hit
Speaker 0 00:59:59 Sick. Uh, yeah, I'm gonna close the door after me. I'm gonna do the maneuver where you put a bra on under your shirt. You know the one
Speaker 3 01:00:09 Anybody that's ever had to change on a marching band bus knows? Yes.
Speaker 0 01:00:13 Yeah. I'm not gonna get completely dressed in front of Luke in the truck, but I that's uh, essential <laugh>.
Speaker 3 01:00:21 Okay? You guys drive around for a little bit longer and eventually pull up not in the parking lot but in like the loading dock, if that makes sense. Behind a pharmacy that is very much closed. Luke cuts the engine and kind of squints out to where the streetlights are beating down on the empty parking lot and goes right, This one's gonna be a little bit harder. They've got locks and cameras and alarms.
Speaker 0 01:00:52 Yeah, I can such it on fire with my brain, but that's uh, not gonna help with all of it.
Speaker 3 01:00:59 Well, whatever we do, it's gonna have to be quick. Do you know what you need?
Speaker 0 01:01:03 Uh, yeah, sure. I need, uh hmm. I cannot remember the names of anything that I am on.
Speaker 3 01:01:21 All right. This might as well happen. He gets out of the truck, walks back around to the bed and pulls out a pair of bolt cutters before trotting over to the cargo bay door, which is shut.
Speaker 0 01:01:37 I get out of the truck and follow him.
Speaker 3 01:01:41 Okay, I'm gonna roll for Luke to act under pressure to try to get this cargo door open. That is a 10 on a 10 plus you do what you set out to do. So he goes at this big heavy duty padlock that is hooked through the cargo door with a grunt of effort as he squeezes the bolt cutters, but the lock does give way. He slides up the door and I think you're going to move around him and go past him when he flings out an arm and just catches you in the stomach. Al
Speaker 2 01:02:21 What
Speaker 3 01:02:21 Part of cameras and alarms did you miss? Dumb ass look over there.
Speaker 0 01:02:27 I'm gonna look but not because he told me to.
Speaker 2 01:02:31 <laugh>.
Speaker 3 01:02:32 There is a little alarm system panel that is on the wall. You seem to be in the stockroom of this pharmacy. There are piles of boxes of things like toothpaste and toilet paper and all kinds of stuff like that. You think that if you want to get to the actual part that has medication, you're gonna have to go through the pharmacy and shutting down the alarm. Sounds like a good idea before you try that.
Speaker 0 01:02:58 Okay, I'm gonna roll use magic to try to melt the alarm box.
Speaker 2 01:03:02 Okay?
Speaker 3 01:03:03 Do do that, do
Speaker 2 01:03:04 That.
Speaker 0 01:03:06 Come on baby. No Emmy, it's uh,
Speaker 2 01:03:09 <laugh>.
Speaker 0 01:03:11 That was a 13.
Speaker 3 01:03:14 Luke is fully not paying attention to you. He's pulling like a multi-tool out of his pocket that has like screwdrivers and FLIs in it looking like he's getting ready to walk over and try to pry this thing out of the wall and snip wires and a fireball just goes whizzing past his ear and melts this thing into a charred ruin. He blinks slowly folds this multi-tool up with a click and size. Well that's one way to do it
Speaker 0 01:03:49 Sure is. I'm going to just walk in. I'm just gonna walk in.
Speaker 3 01:03:55 The stockroom is at the back of this pharmacy pretty close to where the actual medication is, but you do see Luke like swing through the hair care aisle and just like grab three or four tins of pomade that he puts into his jacket pocket, but then he heads over to the actual pharmacy counter, which he just jumps effortlessly and lands on the other side. All right. I did not go to pharmacy school, I must confess, but I have done a lot of drugs in my life so I do have some vantage point here. Maybe I can help you.
Speaker 0 01:04:31 Yeah, maybe <laugh>.
Speaker 3 01:04:34 So Luke is gonna use a move called help out where when you wanna help another hunter, you roll plus cool on a 10 plus your help grants them plus one on their role on a seven to nine. Your help grants them plus one to their role, but you also expose yourself to danger. And on a 12 plus your help lets them act as if they just rolled a 12 regardless of what they got. So he gets plus two to cool. Let's see what happens. An eight. So you get plus one on your role, but he just did something to put himself in danger. So I need you to roll to investigate a mystery to try to find your medication. Luke is giving you a plus one on that. I need you to roll plus.
Speaker 0 01:05:18 So true. And I will love to see whatever box Luke's about to drop on his head and give himself a concussion with that is an eight.
Speaker 3 01:05:27 All right, bestie,
Speaker 0 01:05:28 You get one question off the list. I guess the relevant question is what can it do? Okay? Okay,
Speaker 3 01:05:39 So you know what is wrong with you physically, namely that you can't breathe, you have asthma. But the thing is you've been having a lot of issues with names. Remembering names of things has been very, very difficult. You have no idea what medication you're actually looking for, but you stumble upon a shelf of inhalers and after tearing open a couple boxes, you're able to remember the color of the inhaler that you usually take.
Speaker 0 01:06:12 I'm gonna need at least two buddy. I would have a maintenance and a rescue.
Speaker 3 01:06:16 Okay? You get both of those and something in your memory, something inherent that you know is just that there are pills that you take too. Those are going to be harder. You remember blue? It was blue.
Speaker 0 01:06:33 Um, okay, he's gonna like lean around the shelves to look at Luke and go, Hey, we're looking for something blue and round about yay big. Uh, and he holds up his fingers about the size.
Speaker 3 01:06:50 Luke is halfway through taking a bottle of something off a shelf and shoving it into the inside pocket of his jacket and looks up at you kind of wide eyed. Okay? Start open bottles I guess.
Speaker 0 01:07:06 Yeah, I'm sure this will be an in and out kind of deal. Uh, I'm gonna start ruffling through bottles. <laugh>,
Speaker 3 01:07:13 You do find a bottle eventually of blue round pills and from directly behind you where there is still rattling and uh, popping of bottles opening as Luke looks around for stuff too, barely even looking over his shoulder. He goes, That is a drug for erectile dysfunction.
Speaker 0 01:07:34 I toss it over my shoulder and keep looking.
Speaker 3 01:07:37 How do you expect to find this thing if you don't even know the name of it? What's even wrong with you?
Speaker 0 01:07:43 It's Damien Gestures vaguely at himself and goes, it's called Mm, my lungs don't work is the thing that it is. And it is called something
Speaker 3 01:07:59 Cystic fibrosis.
Speaker 0 01:08:01 Not that one
Speaker 3 01:08:04 Emphysema
Speaker 0 01:08:05 <laugh>. I just give them a look for a second and then say, Did you miss the part of our whole conversation where I'm 21?
Speaker 3 01:08:15 Listen man, I don't know your life. We got all these kids walking around now with Popcorn lung because some corporate entity told them that vaping was cool. You could have been up to all kinds of shit in your youth.
Speaker 0 01:08:26 No. What the fuck is vaping?
Speaker 3 01:08:28 Oh, you're lucky you don't know about that one. It makes you look like a real douche bag. Fucking asthma. I don't know.
Speaker 0 01:08:34 Damia just points at him. That's the bitch. Yep.
Speaker 3 01:08:39 Asthma. All right, well that just made this a whole hell of a lot easier. He pulls the burner phone from earlier out of his pocket and just pulls up something on the screen and starts typing. All right, I know what we're looking for. And literally within 10 seconds he has a bottle in his hand just holding it out to you.
Speaker 0 01:09:02 Damien head hanging, just takes it wordlessly and goes, There's a second one for when it's like really bad if you wanted to get that too.
Speaker 3 01:09:12 He gives you a bail full look, but goes back to typing, kind of mumbling under his breath. Asthma drugs. But for when it's like really bad,
Speaker 0 01:09:23 I don't have to take mockery from the guy who went to cystic fibrosis before asthma. All right?
Speaker 3 01:09:29 Yeah. And I could have kept my mouth shut and let you take the Viagra, but hey, who's keeping score? Come on.
Speaker 0 01:09:36 Fair enough.
Speaker 3 01:09:42 You see him look at his phone on the way out at the search result that he had been looking for and just reach up and grab another bottle before he leads you back out through the pharmacy and the cargo bay, the arid stench of the melted security system still smoking on the wall and you pile back in the truck and start heading out as you pull out of the parking lot. The um, the danger part of that help rule is gonna kick in. You see Luke's eyes kind of shoot sideways up towards the top of one of these streetlights in the parking lot. And he goes, You, uh, you don't think that those cameras were wired into that thing that you melted, do you?
Speaker 0 01:10:29 Damien is also gonna look up towards the cameras and go, That one's got a light on. So I don't think so.
Speaker 3 01:10:39 All right, we're gonna need to switch the plates at the earliest possible opportunity. Remember those arrest warrants I talked about breaking into a pharmacy with somebody who I can only assume was declared missing. Probably ain't gonna help me out too much.
Speaker 0 01:10:55 Yeah, probably not. It might be federal. I would've been declared missing in Nevada
Speaker 2 01:11:01 <laugh>.
Speaker 3 01:11:01 Oh great. Oh well what are the federal marshals gonna do? Come knock on my door and ask me where you are. He pulls back up on the interstate, but it's a different interstate. You notice after a couple minutes, you're not on I 15 anymore. You're headed somewhere else.
Speaker 0 01:11:24 I get that you're helping me out a lot, but, uh, any chance you're gonna tell me where we're going.
Speaker 3 01:11:31 He grits his teeth and checks the rear view mirror and you see his knuckles go a little paler on the steering wheel north. Remember how I said if we were gonna make it out of this, we were gonna need cash?
Speaker 0 01:11:47 Uhhuh
Speaker 3 01:11:50 Just so happens. I know where to find some.
Speaker 0 01:11:59 Kay, we find you in your kitchen. You are sitting at your kitchen table across from Lydia Antonov, who is trying to wrap up this shallow cut on her arm as Augie Antonov is standing by the stove whistling and flipping pancakes. He seems a lot more put together than he did last night. Has much more of a ease to the way that he carries himself as opposed to the, uh, weird energy from last night. And you notice when he walked in, he has a lightweight cane that he's not leaning on now, but that he was, uh, carrying when he walked in. Lydia still wrapping her arm, struggling with it a little bit cuz she's only got one hand free looks up at you and goes, uh, you wanna help me out with this?
Speaker 3 01:12:50 Uh, yeah, yeah, sure. It's my fault after all. Do I have medical training?
Speaker 13 01:12:57 <laugh>
Speaker 0 01:13:00 Lydia takes her free hand off of the bandages and kind of wiggles it and not officially, But you've always been kind of good at this stuff and it wasn't your fault. I shouldn't have snuck up on you. I know better. I didn't think you were gonna have a knife, but
Speaker 3 01:13:18 Yeah, maybe it's better for everyone if we just assume I'm armed at all times as a baseline. Now I start like wrapping her arm for her.
Speaker 0 01:13:27 Yeah, you have like muscle memory of doing first aid. You're not there anymore. You are sitting at the kitchen table and hedging up a big old scrape down the arm of the little kid that you've seen a couple times with the blunt cut bangs. She is squirming in her seat going owow, owow. Ow. And then you're back.
Speaker 3 01:13:56 Kay squeezes her eyes shut and stops what she's doing for a second.
Speaker 0 01:14:01 You feel Lydia kind of tap at your arm. Hey, you okay?
Speaker 3 01:14:08 Yeah, I just, um, I don't know how well my meds work now that I'm dead. So
Speaker 0 01:14:15 Lydia and Augie in unison say you're not dead. It appears that Lydia has caught Augie up on the situation now that he is sober. After a pause she says, Do you wanna talk about it?
Speaker 3 01:14:33 Absolutely not.
Speaker 0 01:14:36 Okay. And then she raises her voice a little bit and says, Augie, how's the pancakes coming from over by the stove? Augie says, I'm working on it. Okay, maybe if somebody didn't want three toppings in all of her pancakes and Lydia goes, You love me and you know it.
Speaker 3 01:14:56 Familial affection. Gross. Speaking of family, I was told something last night about mine. Are we going to, uh, rectify that situation today?
Speaker 0 01:15:09 Lydia makes an uncomfortable noise and deflates a little bit. Uh, yeah. Um, I texted your aunt this morning. I said that you were back, but things were weird and you needed to not be crowded for a bit. And she's good at discretion so she knows we're coming over, but I don't think anyone else does. We can go over whenever you're ready. I just figured that would be a while probably. And, uh, we're gonna wait for, um, our friends Frankie and Bailey to come over first.
Speaker 3 01:15:49 Yeah. Yeah. Waiting's probably a, a good thing. I've like almost killed you twice, so maybe I need to learn how to mellow out a little bit before I'm around the population at large.
Speaker 0 01:16:01 I mean, you're having like the weirdest 24 hours that I think anyone on the planet has ever had, and that's a lot even for you. The knife is, uh, understandable. I think
Speaker 3 01:16:14 I didn't sleep last night, by the way.
Speaker 0 01:16:17 She doesn't look surprised. She just size and reaches up to need at her forehead. I mean, I got you the sleep aids.
Speaker 3 01:16:29 No, that's what I mean. I I I didn't sleep because I couldn't sleep. The sleep aid worked and I still didn't sleep. I don't think I can anymore.
Speaker 0 01:16:43 There is a long moment of silence. Lydia looks pretty rattled. She doesn't say anything and then Augie comes over from the stove and just slides a plate in front of you.
Speaker 3 01:16:58 Am I hungry?
Speaker 0 01:17:00 Eh?
Speaker 3 01:17:01 Well anyway, here's hoping that the weird shit about me is limited to my sleep schedule and my lack of a heartbeat. And that this, this doesn't turn to ash in my mouth because this looks delicious. Augie. Thank you. I'm gonna eat my pancakes.
Speaker 0 01:17:17 Augie gives you a little two finger salute and then settles down with his own plate and hands one to Lydia. You all sit there for a good minute and then you hear knocking on the door.
Speaker 12 01:17:31 Well,
Speaker 3 01:17:32 My house, I guess I should probably be the one to answer that. Should I do like the whole UGA booga factor just for kicks or are Frankie and Bailey the type that can't take a joke?
Speaker 0 01:17:44 Augie and Lydia make eye contact with each other and then Lydia slowly stands up and says they can both take a joke, but maybe not this one. I I can get it.
Speaker 3 01:17:58 They just shrug and sit back down and go back to their pancakes.
Speaker 0 01:18:02 Lydia heads to the front door. You hear it open and then you hear a very nasally voice. Go morning lid. Where's my best friend and what's her excuse for missing my birthday?
Speaker 3 01:18:14 Kay has a mouthful of pancakes and just kind of freezes crypted, like hunched over her plate.
Speaker 12 01:18:22 I in here I didn't know I had a best friend and I missed her birthday party cuz I died.
Speaker 11 01:18:29 <laugh>
Speaker 0 01:18:32 Almost on reflex. Lydia yells. No you didn't. And then there is a moment of silence and then you hear her much quieter, uh, but still audible because the house is kind of small say so it's kind of a long story. If you could give me like a minute to explain and then you hear her go, Hey, as somebody pushes past her and you hear footsteps and then the click of heels on linoleum and then an absolute creature walks into your kitchen <laugh>. You look at her and you realize that you have seen the film grease because your first impression is that this woman looks like she's trying to be Danny and Sandy at the same time. <laugh>, pretty small lady. Um, olive tone, skin, uh, dark hair in just an extravagant mullet Cadillac, red lipstick, leather jacket over kind of like the sweetheart neckline shirt again, Sandy from Greece. But in that one scene, something that looks like it's trying to be both a poodle skirt and a mini skirt and truly atrociously ugly, like thrift sore white go go boots, which have been, it seems like, like hand painted with little decal conversation hearts except they all say extremely rude things.
Speaker 3 01:20:15 Hell yeah,
Speaker 0 01:20:17 Creature. And she stops in the middle of your kitchen, her little skirt flaring as she comes to a sudden halt and just goes, Oh, what the fuck?
Speaker 3 01:20:32 I want to paint a picture. Kaylin has washed all of the grave dirt off of herself, but she is still a six foot seven crypted proportioned like slenderman hunched in this chair. Bags under her eyes for days, eyes glowing hair probably fucked up still with the knife in one hand, just staring at this new person. Hi
Speaker 0 01:21:02 <laugh>. This woman stares at you for a long moment and then says hi. And then turns on her heel looking into the living room and says, Yeah, lid. I'd appreciate an explanation.
Speaker 3 01:21:23 Well, I mean it might be easier if you heard it straight from the corpse's mouth. Um, I have a case of complete and total amnesia. I don't remember anything. Are you Frankie or Bailey? By the way, I crawled out of a grave in the desert yesterday and I don't appear to be among the living anymore. So
Speaker 0 01:21:45 She turns back to you mouth escape and pauses for a long moment. You hear the sound of very quiet conversation out in the living room, not quite loud enough to make out. And then this woman sits down at the table, extends a hand to you. You see that she has bright red acrylic fingernails that match her lipstick and rings that are stylized to look like brass knuckles and with a big, bright, very strained smile. She says, Francesca Napolitan best friend in residence. This is a little weird.
Speaker 3 01:22:31 Yeah, little weird. Do you want pancakes?
Speaker 0 01:22:42 She looks at you, looks at your plate, looks at Augie, and then says, I would love some, uh, I'm gonna, And then she stands back up and she walks over the stove <laugh> and then Lydia walks back in the kitchen with another person shorter than Frankie, but very heavy set and like round Korean person in like their early twenties. They've got kind of an undercut going on. It's like middle parted and comes about like mid ear length. Those like, you know, the tortoise shell glasses, the like grandpa glasses pair those on a sweatshirt that looks like a bowling alley carpet and a neon windbreaker over it. Uh, they also look at you stunned and then say, Well shit it,
Speaker 3 01:23:45 Okay, I get the whole dead thing, but do I seriously look that bad because like I'm gonna need to do something about that before I go out in public to be seen.
Speaker 0 01:23:56 There is a long awkward silence.
Speaker 3 01:24:02 Yep. Cool. I'm gonna go put on some makeup.
Speaker 14 01:24:07 Kay just walks upstairs to their room and tries to make themself look presentable.
Speaker 0 01:24:15 Okay? You make your best efforts to make yourself look like an alive person. It's not great. I don't think you've never had to do this before, but the attempt is made and I'm sure appreciated. Uh, you walk back downstairs and all four of these people in your house are leaning together over the kitchen table and very quietly talking to each other. They all look up and give you very similar deer in the headlights looks. There's a pause and then presumably Bailey, this other person that walked in with Frankie gives you two thumbs up and a big smile and says, You look great.
Speaker 3 01:25:14 Good. Now I know who the liar among us is.
Speaker 0 01:25:21 Uh, Bailey points at you and says, I resemble that remark. And then they kind of stand up and say, uh, do you want your seat back or, Cause I can, I can go do something.
Speaker 3 01:25:36 I'll stand. Thank you. She walks over and scoops up the photo album from the garage that she found yesterday and just sort of splays it open on the table. If I'm going to have to interact with my family, I don't want any of them to get weirded out by the fact that I don't know who they are. So I'm going to need a crash course. Who wants to help?
Speaker 0 01:26:07 Uh, Frankie gives you another big fake smile and leans over the table to look at the photo album and goes, uh, I can help with that family friend and Bailey, who is still standing goes, I'm gonna, um, oh shoot, Augie already made breakfast. Uh, I'm gonna make something else. Um, and they walk over into the other part of the kitchen where like the counters and the fridge and everything are, uh, and Lydia stands up and says, Well, I'm gonna get started on the dishes then Augie, if you wanna head home, you're good. And Augie from down the table goes, Uh, yeah, I think I'm gonna do that. I am due to take some ibuprofen. Uh, and then he looks at you and goes, The pancakes were my apology for last night. Uh, I was, I mean, I'm not gonna apologize for partying, but uh, I was insensitive to the situation. Uh, and then he gives you a thumbs up and says, I'm gonna get outta here before it gets any more awkward. And then he stands up, grabs that lightweight cane that he brought over with him and just heads out the back door.
Speaker 3 01:27:32 All right, so what's the deal with him? Is he like our mascot or something?
Speaker 0 01:27:38 Uh, Frankie who is kind of flipping through some of the pages in this photo album, Snorts and goes, Nah, he was just the only person that knew how to drive when we were in high school.
Speaker 3 01:27:52 So I started riding the bike after high school. Interesting, interesting. Anyway, show me my family. Francesca Napolitan. What am I dealing with?
Speaker 0 01:28:05 All right, all right, All right. Um, she flips through a couple pictures. She points first to the wedding photo near the very beginning of the album and goes, So parents, first of all, I don't know if you'd figured that out,
Speaker 3 01:28:22 I had an unpleasant inkling, Where are they now?
Speaker 0 01:28:27 Frankie Winces, but keeps up that big fake smile, extremely deceased.
Speaker 3 01:28:35 Felt that one. Okay, next
Speaker 0 01:28:40 From the sink, once again, sounding very tired. Lydia goes, You're not dead. We just haven't figured out what's going on yet. Frankie flips through a couple of the pictures, goes baby photo, baby photo, baby photo. And you hear Bailey rifling through the cabinets go, Yeah, what's up with the dead thing? Anyway, any leads on that? Or
Speaker 3 01:29:08 Like I said, crawled out of a grave. Uh, can't sleep. Don't seem to need to breathe for sure. Don't have a pulse. As far as the physiological possibility side of things though, uh, nah.
Speaker 0 01:29:26 Lydia just mutters to herself as she scrubs at a pan. Um, and Frankie stops flipping through the photo album, turns to look at Bailey and says, Baby, go a little bit easy on her. Weird things are happening and Bailey still rifling through the cabinets, waves a hand. I'm going easy. I just wanna know what's going anyway. Um, and they go, Kalin, you know, you've got no food in this fucking house, right?
Speaker 3 01:30:02 No, I didn't know, I don't know anything. I thought we had established that
Speaker 0 01:30:08 All three of them went <laugh>. Uh, Frankie points to one of the photos and goes, Okay, okay, okay. Uh, she points at the older blonde woman that you've seen a couple times and goes, So that's your grandma Bridget. Um, she was interesting.
Speaker 3 01:30:30 More dead people. Cool.
Speaker 0 01:30:35 Uh, there's, there's a lot of that. Uh, she flips another page from the cabinets. You hear Bailey go Seriously, It's just pre-made meals. Easy Mac, Easy Mac, Easy Mac Ra, and Frankie points at another photo. Uh, and it's the guy from the wedding photo, your dad apparently with both of the other tall dark haired men that resemble him and she points at one of them who is laughing in this photo with an arm slung around your dad's shoulders and goes, So that's your uncle Damien. Um, also dead. Uh, he was a really fun dude. I don't remember much. We were pretty young when, Anyway, and then she points at the other guy who is kind of standing with his arms crossed over its chest rolling his eyes at the antics going on in the rest of this photo. And that's Uncle Drew who apparently we're going to see today, right? Lid, uh, and Lydia from the sink goes, Yep.
Speaker 3 01:31:43 Oh good. And a live one. I'm gonna flip through a couple more pages in the photo album and try to find the two kids that I've been seeing when I've been kind of checking out.
Speaker 0 01:31:58 Uh, okay. Like I said, last session, one of them, the one with the dark curly hair, you see in a few of these photos, like from baby pictures to a few years old, you don't see the little girl with the blunt cut bangs until like the last couple pages of this photo album. Uh, and she looks to be about five or six when she starts shoving up. You find a photo of the two of these kids yourself and apparently your father all at it looks like some kind of outdoor event. Uh, your dad is leaning on a picnic table saying something and the little kid with the dark curly hair is kind of leaning away from him, laughing, leaned into you. And the girl with the blunt cut bangs is leaning her head back kind of into the sunlight.
Speaker 3 01:32:54 Who are these two?
Speaker 0 01:32:58 Frankie frowns for a second and then shakes her head, smiles again and goes, Oh, that's, that's Delli.
Speaker 3 01:33:08 Very illustrative. Who are they
Speaker 0 01:33:13 From the sink. Lydia calls over, That'd be your brother and sister.
Speaker 3 01:33:21 And where are they now?
Speaker 0 01:33:24 There is another beat of awkward silence. Frankie is putting real effort into the smile. She says, uh, well, Ellie's off at college. Uh, and she winces kind of pulls at one ear lobe. Um, d hasn't been around in a while. She looks incredibly awkward and unsure as she's saying this.
Speaker 3 01:33:59 Kay thinks back to all the dust that was in that room with all the art projects on the wall in the guitar in the closet and grits her teeth super hard. Yeah, not in a long while. I guess
Speaker 0 01:34:18 There is another beat of silence. And then Frankie just plows ahead starts flipping back through the earlier pictures in this album. She stops on one that includes that like chubby redheaded lady that I said was in here last session. She points at her again with that big strained smile and says, so that's Aunt Lucy, um, Uncle Drew's wife. Uh, and then, and she flips a couple pages forward and finds one where you see your Uncle Drew and Aunt Lucy, apparently with a couple very small children running around them. You see a little girl who can't be more than like six with mousey brown hair kind of clinging to your Aunt Lucy's leg and your Aunt Lucy is holding another little girl, uh, slightly darker hair, way younger like a toddler. And you see a girl that is like between their ages, bright red hair in a little fairy princess dress trying to bolt out a frame. And Frankie points at these three little girls in that order and goes, And that's Maureen, Kira and Carrie. I don't think she flips a couple more pages. I don't think Rory's in here. And Beth's definitely not. She would've been way too young
Speaker 3 01:35:45 Cousins. Okay? They start like drilling the names under their breath to remember them all right, Well, nothing to be gained from me sitting locked up in the house all day. Let's
Speaker 0 01:36:06 <laugh>.
Speaker 3 01:36:06 I was gonna say, let's go tell them I'm alive, but
Speaker 0 01:36:12 You hear Lydia just drop a pan into dishwater in disgust and just very exasperated go, You're not dead. She has kind of thrown her hands up in exasperation. They are covered in suds and she just puts them down at her sides, shakes the soap off and goes, Can somebody go get my car keys?
Speaker 3 01:36:40 Damien, you've lost track of how long it is you've been awake continuously. You're not even really sure what time it is. The clock on the dashboard of Luke's truck seems to be off by several hours and it's the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere, just from sheer physical exhaustion rather than feeling safe enough. I think you do nod off a couple times and one of these times that you nod off the car is moving when you fall asleep and stationary when you wake back up and you're not in the desert anymore. The very beginnings of sunrise are creeping over the horizon, gray and thin and casting tall, tall sequoia trees into sharp relief. You're in the middle of the forest somewhere and Luke's not in the driver's seat.
Speaker 0 01:37:48 Okay? Um, I think on reflex I'm gonna lock my door and then look around to try and figure out where he is,
Speaker 3 01:37:56 Okay? Just, uh, go ahead and roll plus sharp for that.
Speaker 0 01:38:01 Ey dokey. Uh, six.
Speaker 3 01:38:09 Okay, go ahead, Mark. Experience for me. You have no fucking idea where Luke is. Keys are in the ignition, but the cars turned off, headlights are on, but it's still too dark to really see out beyond the circle of light that they cast. You get the impression that if you want to find him, you're gonna have to exit the vehicle.
Speaker 0 01:38:36 Yeah, don't love that. Um, okay, yeah, I'm gonna step out. I think just nervous stemming, just snapping his fingers quietly and I think he's gonna like actually snap them and have just like a little bit of fire come up from his fingertips so he can see what he is doing,
Speaker 3 01:38:57 Okay? You have no way of knowing that you're in a national park right now, but I want you al to know that Smokey the bear would be very disappointed in you. Only you could prevent forest fires
Speaker 10 01:39:08 <laugh>.
Speaker 3 01:39:11 But after a while of wondering a little bit beyond the edge of this clearing where the truck is parked, you're able to hear this dull rhythmic sound. It sounds like metal hitting the ground repeatedly.
Speaker 0 01:39:29 Okay? Um, I'm gonna follow the sound.
Speaker 3 01:39:34 Okay? So I don't need to establish that Luke Johansen's a weird dude, okay? You're intimately familiar with that by now, but you find him in a position that's like weird. He's in another clearing not too far from where he parked the truck down on his hands and knees. He's not in the eccentric emporium uniform anymore. He's changed his clothes and there are two tied up plastic grocery bags on the ground next to him. You assume your old clothes and his old clothes, he's not paying attention to those right now because he's too busy slamming one of those like portable camp shovels repeatedly into the dirt at the base of one of these sequoias and just digging for all he's worth.
Speaker 0 01:40:26 Okay? Damien's gonna pause for a second and then hesitantly say, so, uh, I assume you're not getting ready to bury my body because that would be counterintuitive to the rest of the shit we've done in the last 24 hours.
Speaker 3 01:40:42 He pulls out his gun
Speaker 0 01:40:44 <laugh>,
Speaker 3 01:40:46 You startled him
Speaker 0 01:40:49 That
Speaker 3 01:40:53 He pauses slowly, puts the gun down and then just shakes his head and goes back to digging. No, I'm, uh, actually digging something up, not putting something in the ground. Well, the clothes are going in the ground, but that's gonna be at a secondary location. Don't worry about it. All right?
Speaker 0 01:41:14 You know, I'd love to not worry about it, but I went through stranger danger training and the phrase secondary location is kind of triggering. What the hell are you digging up anyway?
Speaker 3 01:41:27 Well, you know how I said that we would need cash if we were gonna go off the grid.
Speaker 0 01:41:36 I mean, yeah, but I feel like normal people would just go to an atm.
Speaker 3 01:41:43 Well, unfortunately for you, I am one of those people who doesn't trust the banks. Also, they could trace our location through that if they really had to. So here we are more life lessons with Luke. There are three ways to get money off the grid. Buy gold, put it in the ground, credit card fraud. This is some mixture of all three. You hear this camp shovel, he's using hit something metal and then he hauls this big metal briefcase out of the ground, fiddles with a combination lock on top of it for a second and then pops the latches and there's like $10,000 in cash sitting in this thing.
Speaker 0 01:42:31 Why the fuck are you a guy that just walked out of a mob movie?
Speaker 3 01:42:37 Oh no, I didn't get this money from the mob.
Speaker 0 01:42:42 Every question you answer gives me three more
Speaker 3 01:42:46 Logical approach would be to stop asking them.
Speaker 0 01:42:52 Yeah, well, I'm a dumb ass.
Speaker 3 01:42:57 You don't say anyway, we have the cash. I'm gonna throw the old clothes in the ground, throw whatever the hell that was off our scent and we are gonna haul ass back towards Nevada. I don't feel great about the fact that those security cameras caught us and I cannot go back to jail. So home again, home again. Jy jog.
Speaker 0 01:43:21 Okay, Yeah. Uh, and then after we get past the state line, what's the plan?
Speaker 3 01:43:29 Luke shuts this briefcase with a snap and leans back against the tree. And just size. Uh, well, I mean, I mentioned before that I knew people who could help get you somewhere that ain't here. That network still stands. And as for me, I got no business, no house, but I do have another briefcase like this buried somewhere in Red Rock Canyon that has about five different people that I could be within a 24 hour span. Wouldn't be the first time I've started over from nothing. Come help me fill in this hole.
Speaker 0 01:44:13 Okay? Uh, yeah, I'm gonna pick up the shovel.
Speaker 3 01:44:21 You're not here anymore, you're back in the desert. It's the middle of the night and your hands are scrambling at dirt. The ground is hot, it's scorched and fire doesn't hurt you as we've established, but parts of the sand have burned so hot that they fused into glass that carves small, shallow cuts into your palms as you scrape at it and you are sobbing, but you don't know why. There's something under this dirt under your hands and it has a name, but you can't remember what the name is. Just that you need to cover it up. You need to get outta here now and you're back.
Speaker 0 01:45:19 I drop the shovel and take a step back.
Speaker 3 01:45:25 Luke gives you a weird look, but doesn't say anything.
Speaker 0 01:45:34 Damien plasters on a smile and shakes his hands out and guess Woo. Sorry about that. Um, vertigo. Uh, I have a hard thing. It happens. Um, I I I need to sit down. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 01:45:54 He's still giving you that weird look, but he comes over and takes the shovel outta your hands. Yeah. All right, cool. Whatever. Just go back to the truck. I'll be there in a second.
Speaker 0 01:46:08 Yep. Uh, I, I go back to the truck and as soon as I'm there, I put my elbows up on the dash and just put my head in my hands.
Speaker 3 01:46:19 Luke comes back to the car after a few more minutes, his stolen new clothes covered in dirt and hops in the driver's seat with the two tied up plastic bags sitting between you on the console. He turns the key in the ignition and drives you out of this clearing. You are deep in the bowels of Yosemite National Park. You're winding down narrow dirt roads for quite some time, seemingly at random. He puts down the window and just chucks the bags out as you're driving. And then you hit the main road again. The sun has risen over the mountains. Now the glare harsh in your eyes as you go, and in the midst of this silence, Luke just reaches over, squeezes at your shoulder and then puts his hand back on the wheel.
Speaker 0 01:47:17 Kaylyn, we're back with you. You are in Lydia Antonina's car. I say car generously. It is a beat up ugly brown minivan that is quite literally duct taped together in places. Um, the inside smells like cigarette smoke and cheeseburgers. It is awful, but it runs sort of <laugh>. It makes horrible rattling noises every time you go around a corner. And she is tapping her fingers on the steering wheel as you drive. Are you talking or just kind of watching the scenery go by?
Speaker 3 01:48:00 I think she probably made one or two attempts at normal conversation that ended up so awkward that she just shut up. So now Kay has shifted their focus to staring down at the picture of all of the cousins that was in the photo album, just drilling the names over and over and over again.
Speaker 0 01:48:24 Uh, Lydia doesn't turn to look at you, she's just squinting at a straight sign, but she says, Don't overthink it too much.
Speaker 3 01:48:34 How can I overthink something? I don't know.
Speaker 0 01:48:39 Well, if anybody could find a way to do it, it'd be you.
Speaker 3 01:48:44 I can't tell if you're insulting me or feel bad for me.
Speaker 0 01:48:49 I mean both. It kind of comes with the territory. When you've been friends for 20 years. Fuck, I missed the turn.
Speaker 3 01:48:59 I mean, I wouldn't have noticed. I have no fucking idea where we are.
Speaker 0 01:49:04 Yeah, Lydia pops in a legal youi and turns around, uh, heads down a side street and says, Well, we're gonna be there in like two minutes. So last chance for clarifying questions.
Speaker 3 01:49:22 Do they like me?
Speaker 0 01:49:27 Lydia Snorts and then says, I mean, they all love you. I'm not like that close with any of the girls Shera, but everybody's close with Kara. But I mean, you've never said anything bad about 'em to me. I will say Beth's 17, so she kind of hates everybody.
Speaker 3 01:49:56 <laugh>. Yeah, sure. Uh, just going to see my family who loves me. Totally normal thing and nothing to be terrified over.
Speaker 0 01:50:08 Lydia, his sister or teeth. And then turned the car into the driveway of a, I don't think it's technically called Mediterranean style, but like southwestern house. And she drums her fingers on the steering wheel again and says, I'll come in for moral support if you really want me to.
Speaker 3 01:50:32 No, no, I I couldn't ask that. You've already given me so much the last couple days and you've got work besides, I've got this.
Speaker 0 01:50:46 Okay. Yeah, you've got it. Um, and she's gonna pat you on the shoulder and I think kind of lean in, give you a side hug, you jump outta this van, it drives away with a horrible rattle.
Speaker 3 01:51:05 Kalin walks up to the door. It's like a weird thing for any bystanders watching, probably to see somebody as tall as they are trying to make themselves as small as they are, but they're gonna reach out from where they have their arms crossed tightly over their chest and just sort of nudge at the doorbell with their elbow.
Speaker 0 01:51:35 Yeah, you walk up the path, uh, under kind of an archway into a little patio area. There's a really old rickety patio table and chairs kind of desert scaped planter boxes all around it. And you hit the doorbell, you watch a light flash inside and then you hear, I'll get it and footsteps. And the door opens to a very obviously high school aged kid. Obviously not as tall as you, but like five eight ish you think chubby, wearing a white button up with, uh, butterfly sleeves tucked into a pair of shorts and sea through knee socks, hair dye, very obviously a very artificial black and pulled into two pigtails with straight cut bangs. She looks at you for a second. She is very obviously wearing last night's eye makeup. It looks awful. And she blinks and then she yells, Mom, we got a problem
Speaker 3 01:52:52 K finches and then calls back over this girl's shoulder through the door. It's me. I'm the problem.
Speaker 0 01:53:04 Yeah, you see behind this girl is a hallway and you can see that it leads into a kind of like linoleum tiled kitchen. And out from around the corner comes a middle aged woman very round. Uh, you recognize her from the pictures you've seen, big pile of dark red hair, lots of freckles. Um, how do I put this delicately? The way she is dressed is what would come up if you Google searched in quotes the phrase white mom fashion <laugh>. This woman is wearing like novelty socks with two cans on them and like mom jeans and a t-shirt that says, if at first you don't succeed, ask your mother how to do it. Which are the words on a real sign that my real mother has in a real apartment <laugh>. She is moving with purpose, uh, wiping her hands dry on a dish towel and going, Oh, thank goodness you're back. We were worried. And then she looks at you and goes extremely wide eyed.
Speaker 3 01:54:19 Yeah, there's a few things going on that we need to have a family meeting about.
Speaker 0 01:54:28 She and this teenager who you would assume is your cousin Beth, given that Lydia said she was 17, just stare at you for a long moment. And then your Aunt Luie apparently says, Right, I'm gonna make some coffee. And then she turns around and walks back in the kitchen.
Speaker 3 01:54:59 Kay stares at the empty place. She left behind and very quietly to herself goes, Nailed it.
Speaker 0 01:55:12 There is another pause. And then Beth you would guess says, um, are you gonna come in?
Speaker 3 01:55:29 Yeah, the stuff I gotta tell you guys isn't exactly porch sitting conversation. That's probably a good call. She goes in
Speaker 0 01:55:40 The situation in this house, like, kind of similar to the, the furniture situation in your house. A lot of it is like old and worn down, but you notice that there are family photos all over the walls, which is not the case in most rooms in your own house. There are like sports trophies in a case, there are a bunch of big bookshelves. This living room, you haven't been in the rest of the house, but this living room is so crowded, but like comfortable. And Beth kind of nervously looking back at you, leads you through this hallway that presumably leads to the kitchen. You walk in there, the kitchen has obviously not been updated in a very long time. About as old as your kitchen at home. Sure enough, Aunt Lucy is fussing with a Mr. Coffee, very much the energy of parent who needs to accomplish a task so they don't freak out.
Speaker 0 01:56:43 You know what I mean? Beth kind of walks past the kitchen around a corner to like a, a smaller family room down a couple steps. You see what cannot be a functional fireplace. It's definitely decorative against the far wall. A couple of comfy couches next to the decorative fireplace. There is a dog bed. You first mistake the thing in it for a pile of dirty clothes, but like a very small one, like an abandoned shirt. Uh, and then the shape moves and you see that it is a very small, like red and gray dog, ancient, wearing a doggy diaper.
Speaker 0 01:57:25 Ah, you make that noise and Beth immediately turns to see what's wrong, follows your eye line, and then relaxing for the first time since she saw the state of you, she says, Hey, don't be mean to pepper. Is it like one of those crusty dogs? Oh, undeniably this dog is, you cannot even estimate age. Uh, you also can't guess at what breed. The dog is small and red. There is a crust, uh, the dog kind of not moving the back half just like front paw scrabbling moves a little bit off the bed and like, does a dog smile at you? You know what I mean? Ah, pepper, the dog is unconcerned with your disgust, just smiles real big. Her tongue rolls out of her mouth and it's blue. So you would guess she's a chow mix. Beth walks across the room and just sits down on the carpet and starts meditatively petting. This dog just goes, It's okay baby. They don't mean it.
Speaker 3 01:58:45 So I'm not a dog person. This is a fascinating development.
Speaker 0 01:58:52 Beth looks up at you squints and says, Is you acting weirder than normal related to how much you look like shit? Or is it like two distinct events?
Speaker 3 01:59:05 Kay. Side eyes are super hard. All right, well first of all, bitch, second of all, what's my normal level of weird?
Speaker 0 01:59:18 Beth opens her mouth to reply. And then you hear your Aunt Lucy very sternly say, Elizabeth Grace O'Connell. This is not the time.
Speaker 3 01:59:31 Yeah, Elizabeth, this isn't the time
Speaker 0 01:59:36 Beth is finished being alarmed at the situation. She glares at you with such venom that it like genuinely churns your stomach.
Speaker 3 01:59:48 Kay just smiles at her. It's supremely unsettling.
Speaker 0 01:59:53 Your Aunt Lucy still in the kitchen says, Okay, I I can't sweetie, how about you sit down? Uh, I would prefer if you two didn't have a fight right now because I need to process. Okay?
Speaker 3 02:00:11 I fold myself down and down and down into one of the couches.
Speaker 0 02:00:18 It gives wave with a feeling that you immediately associate with, Yeah, this is a pullout couch and not a nice one, and you're not there anymore. You are sitting on the same couch staring at a very small cheap TV on a coffee table and the distinctive presence of a purple game cube watching as somebody's playing Mario card on the TV with the screen split four ways You are surrounded by other children. Uh, you see the same two kids you've been seeing in these whatever. These are your brother and sister. Apparently your brother is sitting right next to you and your sister is sitting on the floor next to the couch staring intently at this Mario game. And there are various other children who are apparently your cousins a raid over the rest of this couch over the floor. And you watch as one of the cars on the TV crosses the finish line and one of these little girls who if you had to guess they're all a little bit older than the pictures you've seen, but if you had to guess this is your cousin Kira puts both arms up and screams victoriously and then you're back.
Speaker 3 02:01:41 Kay. Blinks really hard and does that thing again where she digs the heels of her hands into her closed eyes. Damn it. Okay? Yeah.
Speaker 0 02:01:56 From across the room, Beth is still looking at you caught somewhere between worried and confused. Uh, her mouth is pinched and her eyebrows are scrunched together. She's got a little line going between them and you feel like you've seen this facial expression before, but not from her. She opens her mouth to say something and then your Aunt Lucy busts down the steps from the kitchen and just holds out a cup of coffee to you.
Speaker 3 02:02:25 I take it, I don't drink it.
Speaker 0 02:02:29 Okay? The mug she holds out to you is this really pale lilac color with like vines going up it and it fits very comfortably in your hands As you're sitting there, there is a pause and then Lucy says, So, um, Drew and the rest of the girls should be home. And, and then you hear the sound of wheels coming up the driveway and she deflates a little bit and says, Now I guess,
Speaker 3 02:03:06 Uh, just as well, I'll wait for everybody to be in here together. This is the kind of story that I really only wanna tell once.
Speaker 0 02:03:15 Okay? Yeah, you hear footsteps, uh, you don't hear anybody talking, but obviously people are approaching, uh, the door opens and immediately your Aunt Lucy kind of hangs back over the back of the couch and waves a hand over the railing into the kitchen. So you think she would be visible from the front door, and then you hear footsteps over the floor and four people walk in. One of them is very obviously your uncle Drew. Uh, he has changed significantly, obviously from the pictures you've seen. He is middle aged, uh, extremely gray in the hair, but obviously his face has not changed, uh, except for the crow's feet at the corners of his eyes. And he somehow carries himself exactly how you thought he would from his pictures, he looks so tense instantly like he's smiling, but like the way that he moves and carries himself says that he is one step away from having an anxiety attack, seeing him in person for the first time.
Speaker 0 02:04:28 He doesn't look super much like you facial structure wise, um, from what you've seen in the pictures, you look a lot like your dad who looked a lot like his mom and it would appear that your uncle Drew didn't take after your grandmother. Same fucking nose though. Big straight dominates the whole face. Accompanying him are three young women in their twenties. Uh, one of them looks a little bit older than you. Looks a lot like your Aunt Lucy, round dark red hair, lots of freckles. Uh, she is wearing a big chunky cardigan, very obviously fashion conscious, but in a way where you can tell that she doesn't have a lot of money, if that makes sense. You know, the, the kind of style I'm talking about, big old heart shaped sunglasses on and she is signing to the people she is with. Uh, you watch her brush her hair back one handed and she has hearing aids in, uh, they are sparkly pink and there is a little cherry decal on the one that is visible.
Speaker 0 02:05:32 Um, and she is obviously in the middle of a conversation. You don't catch even the first half of the sign she's doing, but like you notice that and it occurs to you. Oh yeah, if you had caught the entire movement that she was making, you would know what she was saying. There is also a girl that's a little bit shorter than her. She's not tall. She's maybe 5 6, 5 7 around beds height. The next young woman is much shorter, uh, about your Aunt Lucy's height, maybe five two, kind of a stocky muscular build, extravagant side shave. Uh, and the part of her hair that is not shaved is just these dark curls that have like differently dye streaks. Um, in a braid, she is wearing a leather jacket that you see has been painted along the back. Most of the paint looks extremely old and faded, but it's obviously been patched up in a couple places.
Speaker 0 02:06:35 She has two nose rings in and she is laughing at something and the third young woman is quite tall, not as tall as you, but verging on six feet. Um, you can tell she has the kind of same dark red hair as your Aunt Lucy and this other young woman, but it is in a buzz cut. So it's just like dandelion fuzz that is that color. She's wearing a band tank top and jeans. She's got like very dark smud eyeliner on and she is halfway through signing a story. You catch the movements of absolute bullshit and then they all spot you and go very still. I wave at them slowly. You are all just there still in awkward, awkward silence for a moment. And then the tallest of these young women looks at her mother and big emotions, signs, what the fuck?
Speaker 3 02:07:43 Kalin hives a long suffering sigh and then launches into a story. Um, she's speaking, but if it's come to her attention that she actually does know American sign language, she'll sign as well for the benefit of anybody else in the room that needs that. Okay? You are all going to think that I have completely lost my mind. I'm sure you already do.
Speaker 0 02:08:15 Your entire extended family apparently has shuffled into this family room and kind of array themselves around the room. Uh, you notice that the shortest of these young women takes up the space next to you on the other side from your Aunt Lucy, and you kind of understand intuitively that she's taking that position because she does not need to watch your hands. These other two young women and your uncle Drew all kind of congregate in armchairs and like the love seat perpendicular so they can see you. Uh, you notice as he sits down that your Uncle Drew is also wearing hearing aids. They are all just looking at you wide eyed. Uh, your Aunt Lucy turns to you and she is signing as she talks, she says, Honey, we don't think that.
Speaker 3 02:09:05 Uh, look, one thing I didn't come here for today is to be coddled. So if you could just not do that, I'd appreciate it to a degree. I know how this looks and I know how it's going to sound, but I don't know any of you.
Speaker 0 02:09:28 There is a pause and then the oldest looking one of your cousins, you know that the oldest two in the pictures were Maureen and Carrie and you know, Maureen has like mouthier brown hair, so you would assume this is Carrie opens her mouth, closes it, and then moving slowly and tentatively just signs. What are you talking about?
Speaker 3 02:09:54 I'm, uh, I'm having some memory issues. Lydia's been helping me piece things back together bit by bit, but there's still a lot of blank space. Um, all I know is that last night I crawled out of a hole in the desert and I couldn't remember anything. And again, I've been able to put a couple things together so I know what this seems like and I know how it sounds, but I swear to God, I am taking my meds. I'm just not sure if they work when you're dead.
Speaker 0 02:10:39 The tallest of these young women. Frankie pointed out the other cousin that had reddish hair as Rory to you, you would assume this is Rory again, just staring at you wide eyed just signs bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.
Speaker 3 02:10:54 Try me. I don't have a pulse. I cannot sleep anymore. I don't seem to need to eat. I definitely don't need to breathe. Name one good reason. I have to try to tell you all this big of a lie
Speaker 0 02:11:11 Without a word. Your uncle Drew stands up and walks down a hallway off to the side, not towards the front door, but uh, deeper into the house over by the fake fireplace. Beth is still just methodically petting the dog, not looking at anybody. Rory and Carrie turn to each other and start signing rapid fire. Neither of them is facing you, so it's kind of hard to parse out what they're saying. But you catch something, something last week, something something have to call. And then what you presume to be somebody's name, sign something, something, and then your uncle Drew comes back and he is holding something. Uh, as he walks over and holds it out to you, you kind of instinctively know this is like a pulse ox monitor for home use.
Speaker 3 02:11:58 Like one of the little things that you put on your finger and it like says your oxygen counter, whatever
Speaker 0 02:12:03 He is,
Speaker 3 02:12:05 Yeah, fuck it. I'm, I'm as curious as they are. I'm gonna put it on.
Speaker 0 02:12:11 This thing does not tell you a number. It just starts beeping and flashing presumably because it can't get a reading because you are one of the shambling unad.
Speaker 3 02:12:24 Kay doesn't take this thing off. She just lets it beep and flash and looks over at her uncle Drew with a complete panned expression. What do you know? She's dead. Jim,
Speaker 0 02:12:40 There is a flurry of activity. Your uncle Drew looks at this thing, shakes his head, and then speaking for the first time since you met him a few minutes ago, says, Oh, alright, I'm gonna go make a doctor's appointment. I'm gonna, And then he walks off, you see outta the corner of your eye. Uh, Kira catches rory's attention and signs along with what he's saying and he just walks up the steps of the kitchen and throw it presumably to go get some privacy to make a phone call. Uh, your cousin Carrie jumps up and like follows after him. Presumably he forgot something or she's gonna help with something. Your Aunt Lucy kind of flutters nervously for a second and then says, I, I'm going to get something for lunch. Ready? This is, I I'm gonna do that. And your cousin Beth comes over and takes her spot on the couch as she gets up and just reaches out and pokes you in the cheek. And after a second your cousin Rory stands up and looking at you and then looking at Kira emphatically signs. Did anyone tell? And then somebody's name sign,
Speaker 3 02:13:53 Kay Fra frowns and signs back who spell the name
Speaker 0 02:14:01 Rory looks at you blankly for a second. And then spells e l l i e.
Speaker 3 02:14:10 Ellie, that's my sister, right
Speaker 0 02:14:16 There is yet another pause. And then Kira puts her head in her hands and just very quietly says <laugh>. Oh, for fuck's sake. Uh, and Rory whips out a phone.
Speaker 3 02:14:34 I mean, what you thought I was kidding about the amnesia part that somehow suspends belief more than the dead part. Everything I know I had to piece together through photo albums and Lydia, okay? I'm kind of putting myself in a vulnerable place. I don't know you people from Adam. All I know is that a couple weeks ago I apparently left and then I woke up in a shallow grave in the desert. I don't know why I'm back. And I sure as hell don't know what put me there in the first place. And I just, I wanted some answers. I was hoping one of you would have insight about what I was looking for. I don't know. Was I looking for something?
Speaker 0 02:15:30 Kira and Beth are sitting on either side of you. Rory is standing up clutching her phone for dear life and watching as you sign all of this to her. And she shakes her head, tightens her grip on her phone and possibly, and then kind of gestures with her head over to the side down that hallway, uh, as if to say, I'm gonna go over there and looks at Kira and emphatically signs you tell her. And then she turns on her heel texting furiously on her phone and walks down this hallway.
Speaker 3 02:16:09 Well, now we're getting somewhere. Tell me what
Speaker 0 02:16:15 Kira kind of leans off the couch to try and look around this corner where Rory vanished, grimaces and then turns to you. She's still signing as she's talking. Uh, presumably because Rory's gonna come back and won't wanna be left outta the conversation. And it's easier if she just keeps going and hesitantly, she says. Okay. So a couple weeks back after Ellie got back to Boston, she texted me, wanted me to check in on you. Um, apparently you two had had a big fight right before she flew back and you hadn't been answering her calls. So I went over to the house to make sure everything was okay. Lydia said she was house sitting because you'd gone up to visit Great-Uncle George. Uh, you noticed as she's been signing, she's been doing name signs for Ellie, which is an e like on her forehead. And in all the flashbacks you've had of Ellie, she had bangs that were cut to about that length. Uh, and as she does great Uncle George, she just does a g as high above her head as she can reach. She spells out Lydia's name though.
Speaker 0 02:17:25 And then when I called great Uncle George, uh, he said he hadn't seen you since last Christmas because he hasn't. So obviously that was a lie. So we didn't know what had been going on. So I called Ellie for clarification and she said that right before she had come back for spring break you were talking about, and then she hesitates and shakes her head and Beth takes over and says, she said that you said you thought you got a voicemail from Damien. And she does a name sign as she says Damien's name. It's just the d kind of tapped over her chest.
Speaker 3 02:18:12 I'm a I'm still a little behind the curve here, Beth, you're gonna have to help me out. Why would my sister and I fight about me getting a voicemail from our brother?
Speaker 0 02:18:25 Kira pipes up again? Her voice is very quiet and a little shaky as she says, Okay, if this whole amnesia thing is you fucking with us, it's really not funny.
Speaker 3 02:18:38 Why would I, Maybe I'm the kind of person who just fucks with people for no reason. I don't know. Hey, Kira, do me a solid. Do you know who my fourth grade teacher was?
Speaker 0 02:18:52 Without hesitation? Kira responds. Mrs. Flores, she smelled like mothballs and she wouldn't give you the advanced math sheets.
Speaker 3 02:19:02 Cool. You know more about me than I do. Out of everybody standing in this room right now, who would I be the worst at telling a lie to
Speaker 0 02:19:12 At the same time Beth says her and Kira very quietly says me.
Speaker 3 02:19:21 Cool. You know more about me than I do. Why would me getting a voicemail from my brother? My sister and I have a fight,
Speaker 0 02:19:31 I think with a kind of like sick dread. You remember the dusty abandoned looking room in your house and your friend Frankie's hesitance and awkwardness as she told you who your siblings were in the pictures. Kira shakes her head and Beth from your other side very quietly says he died.
Speaker 3 02:20:05 How?
Speaker 0 02:20:09 Kira says, Well, he, he disappeared. We don't know. And Beth cuts her off, just goes, Kira, We know
Speaker 3 02:20:20 How
Speaker 0 02:20:24 Beth kind of shrinks and Kira says he disappeared. He didn't take his meds with him. He was sick. And by the time it had been a couple weeks, we don't know for sure. We just kind of, everybody kind of assumed,
Speaker 3 02:20:54 Well, you know what they say about assume it makes an ass of you and me. It's fucked up that I remember that, but not you. Anyway, I don't understand why Ellie and I would apparently have a fight about this if there was a chance. I mean, she takes her phone out and no ones up her voicemail and starts scrolling down through all of the entries that you said were in there. I'm, I'm trying to find something from Damian O'Connell.
Speaker 0 02:21:24 Nope, you're going through your voicemails. You see a few missed calls that are just labeled work. You see a couple that are labeled just doctor's office. You see a few that are labeled Kira and Frankie and Lydia and Bailey and just et cetera, et cetera. Just names of people that you know. Now there is not a single voicemail labeled Dian O'Connell.
Speaker 3 02:21:57 Okay? I'm seeing the implications here. They're glaring. The kid gloves that you're all handling me with right now, tell me that this has all happened before. You're used to me being like this. However this is. So I get into a fight with my sister about a voicemail that doesn't exist, and then I ride out into the desert to die. Nobody seems surprised by that. What's not clicking for me is the part where I got better. Anybody got some theories to toss around on that front? I can't exactly hallucinate my lack of a heartbeat.
Speaker 0 02:22:39 Uh, neither of them says anything. You hear footsteps across the linoleum behind you and your uncle Drew walks down the steps. He waits until he's in your eye line to start talking and just says, All right, you have a doctor's appointment for Wednesday, which was apparently the earliest. My niece doesn't have a heartbeat. Gets you. Uh, and then he reaches up and rubs at his forehead for a second and then keeps going. I don't know what else to do about that, but, and then he shakes himself off and says, Can I get you anything? Or, and then he looks at you and Beth and Kira and says, It seems like emotions are running high. Do you wanna ride home?
Speaker 3 02:23:34 Kay stands up off the couch and walks out of the family room. Yeah, that'd be great. I don't know what I thought I'd find here, but not worth looking anymore.
Speaker 0 02:23:49 Okay, as you walk out, you hear a wine from across the room, uh, pepper. The dog apparently objects, and I think as you turn at the sound, you're not there anymore for just a second. You are looking at your little sister, maybe 10 years old, sitting on the bricks next to this fake fireplace with a much younger peppered the dog riling in her lab, very happy, and your brother starfish on the carpet, uh, giggling, weasley. And then you're back.
Speaker 3 02:24:32 Caitlin doesn't say anything. The entire trip home just stares out the window.
Speaker 0 02:24:38 Your uncle pulls his old and entirely unremarkable station wagon into your garage, and I think before he completely comes to a stop anticipating that you're gonna make a break for it, he leans over and just pats you on the back and says, We are going to figure this out, that we're going to,
Speaker 3 02:25:09 Yeah, I'm sure we are. There's gotta be some reasonable explanation nation. Why should anybody take me at my word? Thanks for the ride, Uncle Drew.
Speaker 0 02:25:23 He pauses taking a deep breath and then pulls his hand back and says, Anytime. And because I know you're having some issues with your memory, I will tell you, you are always welcome at the house.
Speaker 3 02:25:49 I appreciate that. I'll talk to you soon. They're gonna walk inside and lock up behind them,
Speaker 0 02:26:03 Okay? Uh, you lock the garage door and almost as soon as you've done that, you hear the sounds of a car pulling out. You cross the yard to your house and there's someone in your kitchen,
Speaker 3 02:26:20 Huh? Shit, I don't have my knife.
Speaker 0 02:26:25 Yeah, you don't have your knife. Um, <laugh>. There is an older woman with blonde hair starting to go silver standing in your kitchen at the stove, wearing a fuzzy bathrobe over a pair of pajamas and some bunny slippers with a cigarette in one hand. And she is humming to herself. You don't know the name of the song, but you immediately recognize it as Joanie Mitchell. And as you walk in, she looks over her shoulder and you see that it is the older woman that you've seen in a few of these flashbacks. She doesn't have her hearing aids in, so she just gives you a quick wave over her shoulder and then turns back to the stove.
Speaker 3 02:27:15 She reaches up and fiddles with one of her own hearing aids for a second before blinking really hard and shaking her head and just walking past into the living room. Um, it's, it's been a rough fucking day. I think at this point, K is so rattled and hurt and upset by the way she perceives it not being taken seriously, that it's really all they can do to just sit on the couch and they're gonna play every single voicemail on their phone. All of the ones that haven't been played yet, just all of them.
Speaker 0 02:28:05 I think you're scrolling through trying to get to the beginning of the unplayed ones. Um, like I said, a bunch from your friends, a bunch from your family, a few from work, a few from a doctor's office. And then as you're scrolling, you get to the bottom of your unplayed voicemails and you notice it because your eyes want to slide off of it. It hurts to look directly at the spot on your screen, and the text is kind of glitched out, but you concentrate and you read the label on this voicemail, which is Damian O'Connell, April 2nd, 2018.
Speaker 3 02:29:00 I take a screenshot and send it to Kira.
Speaker 0 02:29:05 The screenshot is glitched out. Fuck.
Speaker 3 02:29:12 Uh, I look around for anything else that might have a camera on it, like a tablet or like even an old digital camera or something. I'm like tearing through drawers.
Speaker 0 02:29:25 Okay, uh, you find a digital camera in the entertainment center. You try to take a picture of your phone screen. The display of the digital camera as you are looking through it is also glitched out.
Speaker 3 02:29:39 Okay. Fuck it. Uh, um, I'm getting a pen and paper and I'm just gonna keep scrolling and if I can find any more times and dates where this weird shit's going on, I'm writing it down.
Speaker 0 02:29:52 Uh, you scroll a little further back, you don't get a lot of voicemails. Uh, the next played one after that is one from work. The next one after that is one from Lydia and then you see right next to each other. One from Ellis O'Connell on March 19th. And then another of these glitched out ones Dian O'Connell March 18th. And then below that another work call, a call from your doctor's office and then Damien O'Connell, March 14th, 2018. You scroll for a really long time. You don't see anymore after that. Just these three glitched out weird looking voicemails. The last one being the last voicemail on this phone that has been listened to.
Speaker 3 02:30:54 I'm gonna try to play that one.
Speaker 0 02:30:58 And you do. The display is glitched out. The audio is patchy in a couple places, but as you hit the play button, the first few seconds of it are crystal clear
Speaker 3 02:31:17 Hatch in Damien final voicemail. Kay stares down at their phone for a long time after this voicemail finishes playing solar panels. She looks down at where she still has a little bit of dirt trapped under her fingernails and then has a fucking panic attack. Damien, we are back with you and Luke. Luke does not stop driving until the two of you get back over the Nevada border. He's going like a bad outta hell. You can tell that he is very done with being in the great state of California, but he seems to relax after being back on his home turf for a little bit. You stop for gas, even for lunch, and it is late afternoon going on evening. By the time the two of you pull into a town called Mountain Springs, Nevada, calling it a town is generous. You could miss it if you blink while driving through, but that does not seem to be Luke's intention because he peels off the highway, rumbles down a gravel road to a beat up looking old roadhouse that is standing as a lone silhouette before the desert stretching out endlessly behind it. There are a few trucks similar to Luke's parked outside. A few more motorcycles leaned up against one wall and there is a faded painted sign out front that reads Angie's Roadhouse. Luke pulls into a parking space and shuts off the ignition and just slowly leans forward and puts his forehead against the steering wheel.
Speaker 3 02:33:26 All right, we're safe here.
Speaker 0 02:33:35 Okay, cool. Uh, this where roommate and your friend?
Speaker 3 02:33:42 Well, she owns the place so I sure hope so. Come on.
Speaker 0 02:33:48 Okay. Damon hops out the truck.
Speaker 3 02:33:52 The inside of this roadhouse is dingy and dusty and worn. There's like beat up old metal beer signs tacked up to the walls that tacky like license plate collage art that you see in such establishments. There's a small scattering of people throughout the place. It's not packed by any means, but it's not empty. One thing you notice is that a few of these people seem to know Luke and call out to him in greeting as you go through the door. He doesn't really stop to make small talk with them though. He's more focused on the person standing behind the bar. She's a tall, slender, the word wiry comes to mind like lean and strong, but skinny white lady in her like late thirties, very like unconventionally pretty, She has long, very straight thick straw colored hair that's that's pulled back in a braid down her back. She's got on a flannel shirt that's rolled up past her elbows. You could see that she's very tan, like she's been out in the sun a lot. She has a nose that's been broken obviously at least three times and big, very dark brown eyes. She gets a bead on Luke as soon as the two of you walk in and those eyes narrow Johanson you piece of shit, you still owe me 5k
Speaker 0 02:35:32 Under his breath, Damien says, Motherfucker,
Speaker 3 02:35:38 I've got it handled. Luke hops up on a bar stool and pretty suddenly reaches into one of his pockets and pulls out a couple of those stacks of cash from the briefcase you guys dug up, which he then slides across the counter at this woman with a winning smile. Angela, you are looking fantastic. You know, they say time heals all wounds, but cash heals them faster. I need a favor. This lady Angela, who you would assume is Angie of Angie's Roadhouse fame very methodically counts the stacks of money and like pulls one of those counterfeit pens out from under the bar and marks off a couple bills to make sure they're legit before she throws them in the drawer of a cash register and turns back to Luke with a way more amicable expression.
Speaker 0 02:36:42 Damien relaxes and starts just fiddling with the, uh, chain around his neck.
Speaker 3 02:36:51 You see that this lady's not really paying you any mind. She's already involved in a conversation with Luke. They seem to be catching up and he wraps on the bar in kind of a complicated rhythm and goes, Oh, talk is sweet, but I am so thirsty. I'll have the usual and uh, the kid's gonna need a house special. She actually looks at you for the first time and her head tilts to the side. All right. Are you uh, gonna want that on the rocks or,
Speaker 0 02:37:30 I think Damien has realized all is not well here. <laugh>. So he kind looks at Luke and raises his eyebrows.
Speaker 3 02:37:39 Luke kind of bites on the inside of his cheek and nods at Angie. Uh, frosted glass actually, uh, inch dirty, super dirty. Her lips press into a thin line and she pulls a cup up from under the bar. All right, you're gonna wanna chase her with that and Luke immediately goes, Oh, big chaser in a tall glass.
Speaker 0 02:38:11 Ah, yeah, what he said,
Speaker 3 02:38:15 This lady does not try to card you, which is red flag number one.
Speaker 0 02:38:22 I mean, I don't have an id so I'm not that upset about it.
Speaker 3 02:38:28 She makes Luke a rum coke real quick and then looks down at the well in the bar where all of these liquor bottles are kind of stacked up ready to go and sucks your teeth a little bit. Ah, damn. All right, well we gotta wait to get our next shipment in before I can make you a house special kid, but, uh, if you hang out until last call, it should be here.
Speaker 0 02:38:54 Uh, Damian looks at Luke again.
Speaker 3 02:38:59 Luke makes eye contact with you in nods almost imperceptibly. All right, let him order for himself then.
Speaker 0 02:39:08 Uh, Damian presses his lips into a line and then says anything but whiskey orange juice as a chaser.
Speaker 3 02:39:21 She just makes you a screwdriver, dude. You could tell that she doesn't give that much of a shit. Luke slides are a couple more bills for your drinks and she nods over at a table in the corner that seems to be empty. All right, if you boys wanna post up over there, I'll get Roxy working on something for you back in the kitchen. You look hungry,
Speaker 0 02:39:45 Uh, DMI and nods a little more emphatically than he means to, and then putting on his most winning smile says. Uh, before we do that, ma'am, if you could point me towards the bathroom, I'd be, uh, real grateful.
Speaker 3 02:40:02 She's already pouring someone else another drink. She doesn't have fingers to point, but she just kind of jerks her head at a hallway in the opposite corner.
Speaker 0 02:40:12 Cool. Uh, I'm gonna nod at Luke and then head over there.
Speaker 3 02:40:18 There are three bathrooms. One labeled cowgirl, one labeled cowboys, and then a family bathroom with a little baby changing station logo on it that says cow pokes.
Speaker 0 02:40:30 I'm gonna check that the little cowboys room is empty before I go in.
Speaker 3 02:40:37 Sure. Is partner,
Speaker 0 02:40:42 Uh, okay. Yeah, I go in there. I think this is the first time Damien has been in a room with a mirror that he has not been under significant time pressure. I think first of all, he's gonna just like white knuckle it on the sink and just take a couple of deep breaths and try to chill out and then he's gonna look up in the mirror and kind of examine his whole deal right now.
Speaker 3 02:41:18 Yeah, well, I mean, you look like shit.
Speaker 0 02:41:21 Oh, for sure. Um, I think he's got a lot of scars that he didn't think were there and his nose has like visibly been broken and not healed. Right. I think he spends a minute just kind of poking at a bunch of the new scars. I think there's one like cutting down the middle of his eyebrow when one, like on the corner of his mouth, I think he takes a second and just runs his fingertips over a line of them going down. One cheek shakes his head and I think he kind of nervously traces over a really old one across the bridge of his nose, like centering himself. Uh, and then pokes at his nose, which is like visibly fucked up and goes, <laugh>, ah, fuck. I look like dad and I think he's gonna stay in that bathroom until his hands stop shaking. <laugh>,
Speaker 3 02:42:22 You're not there anymore. You're standing in a different bathroom in front of a different mirror, looking at a different person in whatever this is. You're much younger and much less worse for where, but there is a big gash across the bridge of your nose that is bleeding freely down over your lips. You taste copper, it's dripping onto the bathroom floor and next to you in your ear you hear? All right. All right, come here. Let me see. Let me see.
Speaker 0 02:43:04 Uh, yeah, I turned my head, uh, kind of laughing with blood on my teeth, just going. It's fine. It's fine.
Speaker 3 02:43:14 Yeah. And the fact that you're saying that is how I know it's not. You look up into a face that you know almost as well as your own. Same big straight hawkish nose facial features, a little bit finer than yours, A little bit sharper in the cheekbones, ashy blonde hair in a very tragic scene. Fohawk haircut, and you feel spindly thin fingers, clothes around your jaw. Tilt your head up right before the impact of an alcohol soaked cotton ball hits your nose and that shit doesn't feel good at all.
Speaker 0 02:43:59 How weren't a guy
Speaker 3 02:44:04 Sometimes the price of doing stupid shit is pain. What was it this time? You know their name. You know their name. What is their name? It's right on the tip of your tongue.
Speaker 0 02:44:17 Uh, Dian in this memory, squirms under this cotton ball and goes, tried to hop a fence, didn't work so good, got dizzy at like just the wrong moment.
Speaker 3 02:44:30 The hand that's wrapped around your jaw squeezes a little tighter and you see this person's eyes narrow and concern air. Sure it wasn't, Dad's not, The longer you look at them, the more something seems out of place on their face. Their lower lips a little more swollen than it should be.
Speaker 0 02:44:57 Damien clenches his draw and then smiles again. Bloody teeth. No, I'm all good, just doing stupid shit.
Speaker 3 02:45:13 This person's facial expression, God, what is their name? Softens. And then they pat you on the cheek in a way that feels a little bit too much like a slap before reaching up to ruffle your hair. Yeah, we'll cut that shit out. Okay. And you're back.
Speaker 0 02:45:37 Damien folds in half over the sink and just cries. I don't think he even knows why.
Speaker 3 02:45:46 No, you don't. And you lose track of how long you're hold up in this bathroom. So much so that it's a very big shock when you hear a knock on the door and Luke's voice muffled on the other side going, Uh, you are right in there kid.
Speaker 0 02:46:10 Damien shakes his head, pulls himself together and yells, I'm fine. I'll be out in a minute and tries to make sure his eyes aren't too red before he goes out there.
Speaker 3 02:46:25 You find Luke at the table that Angie had pointed the two of you towards exchanging pleasantries with a kind of rough looking lady in her fifties with nicotine stained fingers and a couple teeth missing and a little name tag on her uniform that says Roxy. She's handing him this big platter of deep fried goodness. You see some jalapeno poppers and mozzarella sticks on there amongst other things. He just puts one hand up to wave at you as you come out.
Speaker 0 02:47:00 I'm gonna go sit down next to him.
Speaker 3 02:47:04 He's already like two jalapeno poppers deep by the time you sit down. Oh my god, Roxy, if I were on climb towards the fur or sex, I would cu you right now. This lady gives him a Yeah, right. Look and goes, Don't get a girl's hopes up Luke. And then she goes back into the kitchen.
Speaker 0 02:47:28 Damien's just nervously fiddling with the train around his neck again. Uh, he gestures at the food on the table and then says, Did we already pay for this?
Speaker 3 02:47:41 Yeah, dude. Do you think Angie gives out freebies?
Speaker 0 02:47:45 Okay, Damien's shoulders relax and he's gonna reach out and grab a jalapeno popper.
Speaker 3 02:47:53 It's extremely fucking good. And not just because you're hungry and malnourished like it's a damn good jalapeno popper. You and Luke spend a certain period of silence as you snaf down a bunch of this food, but eventually he looks up at you and wipes some grease off his chin and goes, Okay. So the good thing is that Angie does have showers for some of the truckers that come through, so you'll be able to freshen up before whatever comes next if you feel like it. You you look dirty, is what I'm saying.
Speaker 0 02:48:34 Yeah, I got that. Uh, and then he kind of reaches up and rakes his fingers back through his hair. Don't suppose I can get anybody to shear me like a shape while I'm at it.
Speaker 3 02:48:48 Uh, well, Roxy gave me a haircut last time I had to come here to ask for Angie's services, but I ended up walking out of it looking like the Beatles and Manda from Dexter's Lab had a baby. So I'm not sure how bad you want it.
Speaker 0 02:49:03 <laugh>. Nah, I I'm good. I'll deal with it if I can ask. Uh, what exactly are Angie's services?
Speaker 3 02:49:16 Luke laughs and takes another swig off of his drink.
Speaker 3 02:49:22 Uh, new opportunities. Angie is, uh, how do I say this? She's real good at making people who wanna disappear, disappear. There are even some idiots in the world that say that she's supernaturally good at it, but I know the truth of it. She's got a lot of practice, a lot of good connections, and an innate ability to know when to buy somebody silence with cash and when to buy it with blood. That's all she needs. He leans across the table and kind of shoots his eyes around the room to make sure nobody's watching your conversation, but she's really good at what she does. Damien, I wouldn't have brought us here if she wasn't. You'll be safe. I was.
Speaker 0 02:50:26 Thanks. I just, yeah, thanks. Uh, he's just slowly tearing an onion ring into very small pieces.
Speaker 3 02:50:40 Yeah. Uh, I'd say anytime, but I desperately hope that this is a one time thing.
Speaker 9 02:50:47 <laugh>,
Speaker 0 02:50:49 You and me both.
Speaker 3 02:50:52 We'll, uh, chill out here until the Roadhouse closes, and then once it does, Angie will ask you a question. She'll ask you where you want to go. You'll give her an answer and she'll handle the rest.
Speaker 0 02:51:11 <laugh>, that poses a challenge. I can't think of anywhere I wanna go.
Speaker 3 02:51:21 I hear Cabos beautiful this time of year.
Speaker 9 02:51:26 <laugh>.
Speaker 0 02:51:29 I'll keep that in mind.
Speaker 3 02:51:35 He shoves a mozzarella stick in his mouth and then reaches out to squeeze at your shoulder, kind of rattles you a little bit. You haven't been there that long, but a couple people start clearing out of the roadhouse. Seems like they have places to be. Eventually, Angie comes out from behind the bar and comes over to sit at your table with you. Okay, Luke, The, uh, entertainment value of your stories is always almost worth all the work it takes to clean them up. What's going on here? Luke's eyes get kind of big and he looks away and takes another drink. That's not my story to tell.
Speaker 0 02:52:21 Damian shrinks in his seat.
Speaker 3 02:52:25 Angie's face twists up into this rye little smile. Oh, it's that bad, huh?
Speaker 0 02:52:34 Damien takes a deep breath, grabs a mozzarella stick off the platter and says, Ah, I turned 16 in September, 2012, and as far as I'm concerned, it was December three days ago. And between when my memory leaves off and when it picks up, I apparently made some really determined enemies.
Speaker 3 02:53:05 She frowns and leans over the table to kind of wrap her hand around your forearm and give it a reassuring squeeze. Sounds like you have enough questions that I don't need to add to 'em, kid. We'll figure it out. You and me. And then you see the look on her face kind of change. She's not looking at you anymore. She's actually looking past you over your shoulder at the window that's next to the front door of the roadhouse.
Speaker 0 02:53:44 Damien brings one hand up to fiddle with the chain around his neck.
Speaker 3 02:53:51 Angie still looks a little weirded out by something and you can see her start to squint as she keeps staring out this window getting dark awful early for April.
Speaker 0 02:54:06 Can I read a bad situation?
Speaker 3 02:54:10 Oh, I encourage you to do so.
Speaker 0 02:54:15 Okay. I got plus one to sharp.
Speaker 15 02:54:21 Nice.
Speaker 0 02:54:22 That was a 12. That was a 12 plus one as a 13. <laugh>.
Speaker 3 02:54:28 God. Okay, you get to hold three and you got a whole list of questions here. Go ahead, ask me,
Speaker 0 02:54:36 Are there any dangers we haven't noticed?
Speaker 3 02:54:40 You turn to follow Angie's gaze out this window and yeah, it's like 7:00 PM but it is dark as black as tonight outside, way too dark for this time of year, you feel Angie stiffen in the seat next to you and reach back behind her to grab a remote off the bar and turn off the football game That's playing on one of the TVs. And in the absence of that sound, you hear the desert outside crickets and warm winds, coyotes, howling and hoof beats. You have two more questions and I will tell you that with reading a bad situation on a 12 plus, you can ask me any question you want about the situation, not just the listed ones. So you have two more questions and they are fully open-ended.
Speaker 0 02:55:44 My second question is, is it gonna do any good if I try to fight him?
Speaker 3 02:55:52 You have tried to fight them before when you were arguably better rested and in better fighting shape than you are now, and all you did was slow them down. So I'll leave that to your judgment.
Speaker 0 02:56:11 Okay? What's my best way out?
Speaker 3 02:56:16 Luke is starting to look panicked across the table from you, but Ann Jay seems extremely composed. She slowly gets up from her seat and goes over to look out the window staring into the night, and then she softly goes,
Speaker 0 02:56:36 Shit,
Speaker 3 02:56:38 Closes the blinds, walks over to the front door, locks it, and then rounds on the two of you. You weren't kidding about the size of that chaser, were you? Both of you with me now? She seems like the only person in this building that has any idea what the fuck is going on and what she's doing.
Speaker 0 02:57:05 Yeah, I go with her. No hesitation.
Speaker 3 02:57:09 She gets you by the hand and tugs you off and hauls Luke out of his chair by the collar of his shirt, takes you back behind the bar, back through the kitchen where she only stops to yell. Roxy, lock all the doors, all of them. And then she pulls you behind a big brushed metal commercial kitchen counter through a large steel door into a walk-in cooler. Damien, you don't recall all of your experiences between 2012 and now, but whatever they have been, they have bred a very keen survival instinct in you. And the first thing you notice is that there is only one way in or out of this room,
Speaker 0 02:58:01 He bulks.
Speaker 3 02:58:04 Angie rounds back to look at you, an odd calm over her face. Are they gonna look for you in a place where you couldn't get out?
Speaker 0 02:58:19 I don't think consciously. He knows why he says it, but he looks at her and he says, <laugh>, they're gonna look for me everywhere
Speaker 3 02:58:30 And they're not gonna find you today. Get inside.
Speaker 0 02:58:38 Yeah. Um, okay. Yeah, they're getting closer. I don't, I don't have time to argue. I'm gonna get in the cooler.
Speaker 3 02:58:46 Angie shoves Luke into the cooler behind you and shuts the door behind all three of you and then reaches down into the plain canvas, waitresses apron. And she has tied around her waist to pull out a big chunky black marker that is probably used for marking up beer deliveries, boxes, stuff like that. All right, Both of you under the shelves go.
Speaker 0 02:59:16 Uh, okay. Yeah. Damian hits the floor and goes under the shelves.
Speaker 3 02:59:22 Luke does the same thing on the opposite side of this aisle and rolls under a shelf. So the two of you are laying down on the floor, staring at each other. She reaches out, gets you by the wrist and yanks your hand forward, popping the top off the marker with her teeth and scrolling some sort of weird, almost imperceptible sidle across the back of your hand. You have brief flashbacks to a life of walking into places and getting an X on the back of your hand at the door. But this is not that. After she's done with you, she grabs Luke's hand, pulls it forward, does the same thing, draws the same symbol, and then she reaches out and grabs both of you by your upper arms holding super tight, bruising tight and looking both of you in the eye. You hide and you stay quiet and you don't move. Do you hear me? It will not work if you move. It will not work if you talk. Do you understand?
Speaker 0 03:00:38 I mean, Damian can't move or talk to give an affirmative.
Speaker 3 03:00:44 She lets go of you for a moment and then turns around and braces both hands on either side of Luke's face. She gives him a little kiss on the forehead and leans forward to press their heads together for the millionth time kiddo, you have gotten yourself in over your head. You run fast, you run fast, you run far. But for now, hide and no matter what you hear, stay still. And then she turns around and leaves the cooler.
Speaker 0 03:01:25 Yeah. Damien lays there doing something that he has a lot of practice at laying still and pretending he is not there and he feels fire like at the back of his teeth, but he does not move.
Speaker 3 03:01:47 You hear the sound of a key turning a lock on the door of this cooler. And on the other side i's biggest dinner plates, but he doesn't talk and he doesn't move over the low hum of the refrigeration unit. You can hear hoof beats and coyote Ys outside, but closer you can hear the sound of muffled shouts and the scrape of furniture as it is piled against doors. And then for one infinite moment, you hear nothing. And then you're not here anymore. You're eight years old and your grandma's dog, God, what's the dog's name? What's its name? It doesn't matter, has caught a rat in the backyard.
Speaker 3 03:02:55 The dog is growling tossing this thing around like a chew toy. And it's screeching. It's traumatizing. There's a big pair of Amber Brown eyes looking down into yours and spindly hands braced on either side of your face and a voice saying, Hey, hey, look at me. It's okay. It's okay. And then you're back and it's not rats. You hear screeching, you hear screams and growls and the tearing of flesh. But closer you hear muffled shouting to loud shotgun blasts, and then a cutoff cry and a gurgle. And then you hear a key turning in the lock of the cooler. I don't move. The door opens a thin sliver of fluorescent light cutting across the tile floor. You see it illuminate Luke's face across from you and he is crying, but he is silent and still you hear footsteps.
Speaker 3 03:04:30 And then right in front of your face as you were laying underneath these shelves, you see a pair of cowboy boots walk slowly into your field of vision, Frost, even colder than the environment of the cooler creeping across the tile. And they're wake. It feels strange to notice as much detail as you do the fractals and the frost, the worn increases of the leather, the ancient Celtic ruins branded into the side. There is a creek and a motion forward of the boots, and then directly next to your face, you see a void, half obscured by a bandana, pure shadow with nothing but too gleaming. Eyes at its center, looking at you, not at you through you. There's a tingle on the back of your hand, on the still drying ink that Angie had scrolled across your skin. Something that feels warm and safe, like being a kid who fully believed that hiding under the blankets would keep the monsters away. This, this thing, whatever it is, looks at you and does not see you. And then it stands up, walks out of the cooler and you hear nothing. And that's where we're gonna end for this time.
Speaker 3 03:06:44 Yeah. Yeah. Things aren't looking good for anybody involved in any of this,
Speaker 0 03:06:56 But that is the end of our first mystery for each of our PCs
Speaker 3 03:07:01 Here on Compelled Dual Desert Song.
