Chapter 18: The Right Medium

Bridgewater is a production of iHeartRadio three D audio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Maky. For a full exposure listen with headphones. Listener discretion advised.

This way, it's this way.

Wait, it's coming from over here, so last, so last, come on, hurry there.

Wait, dad, dad, Jeremy? Who's we have got to stop meeting like this?

Oh it's just you?

Wow? Am I already such old news?

That is not what I meant.

I just sorry. I thought you were bigfoot? Maybe what?

Well, I assume we're here for the same reason, right, the attack on the campers, right, yeah.

Right, right, I guess I should have expected to see you.

Seems like you and your friends really dodged a bullet. Holy crap.

Yeah, I mean the ground was torn to shreds, and from what they said about the dead camper on the news, that was Yeah.

I'm starting to think that it was a bad idea coming back here.

Wait did you did I what? No? Never mind that you're gonna think I'm nuts.

No, Well, I think I think we're at the point where you should know that I'm the right audience for stuff that sounds nuts.

I thought I heard a voice, I mean just now. But it wasn't you. It was a woman. I think you heard that. Yeah, yeah, you did too. What do you think it was?

Or?

I guess the question is who?

Okay, so I recognized that voice, at least I think I did.

Well, who is it?

It's it's someone impossible. What do you mean the woman that I mentioned to you before, that the one who died in free Time? Yeah, it was her voice. What?

Yeah, I know it.

Sounds crazy, crazy, remember right?

No, right right?

I don't know. I don't know.

I don't believe in ghosts. What is happening?

Well, maybe it's some kind of mimic, something pretending to be her somehow.

A mimic like like.

What, well, you're the expert. But that's a thing, right, changelings and shape shifters.

You know, I was just talking about shape shifters with my friend. Whatever attack the camper feels like the thing that we saw the other day, but some of the details aren't lining up. So we were thinking maybe there's something that can yeah, I don't know, transform in some way, which would explain all of the different kinds of attacks that have been happening lately.

Yeah, you think it's all one creature.

I don't know.

I don't know. I haven't actually gotten my eyes on anything except the Howler, and that did not feel like a shape shifter.

This is all so strange.

I mean, I've been feeling like things are off here, you know, but I haven't seen anything yet. So I think if I hadn't met you, I would think I was going completely batch it crazy these days.

Well, I am happy that I've kept you saying. I have to say, it's funny. No. I was also talking to the same friend about how you're one of the first people that I've met in a long time that doesn't make me feel like I'm a total head case when I talk to them.

Well, aren't we a pair, isn't it rich?

We're just two middle aged weirdos wandering through the wilderness, one of us desperately trying to find a monster, the other one tripping over them all the time.

And amazingly, that feels like the least of my problems.

Are you saying there's more to your interest in all of this, more than just childhood obsession?

Ah?

Yeah, I'd like to hear about it.

I mean, if you're willing to talk about it, that is maybe maybe we could grab a drink sometime.

Oh, I would actually really like that.

You don't have to sound so surprised.

No, I'm not. You know, I just don't have a lot of people to talk to about this stuff, or at least the people that I do have to talk to about it are all tangled up in it themselves.

So well, it sounds like we'll be needing a few drinks then, yes, what's your poison.

Let's get trashed.

Okay, So I mean it sounds like it supports the shape shifter theory.

Voice mimicry is so common.

Yeah, but it's too common. I'm still not sure about the voice growing the ability to pull two people who were standing side by side in opposite directions.

Maybe it was just run of the mill magic, something that messed with our perception.

Well, whatever it was, we need to be more careful. We can't keep getting separated like that.

We will always find each other, I promise.

Well, I want to be prepared. I've texted Vippin and he's going to pull everything that you can about voice mimicry. But even with the added detail of it sounding like it was coming from two different places.

We're looking at a lot of possibilities, still.

So many possibilities. You know, it's funny. I always thought it was fascinating how no matter the location or the culture, human beings they come up with the same kinds of monsters over and over again. There are these, you know, culturally religiously specific ones, of course, but the basic idea of shape shifters, vampires, vengeful spirits. There are iterations of

Right.

You really love this stuff, don't, all of the folklore and history?

Yeah? I mean I used to, anyway, Now it feels like I just it feels very different. Now, it feels like it's a survival tool.

WHOA, what happened here?

Well it happened again?

What what happened again?

The creepy humming house shaking thing and happened to you guys the other night, this time with added spooky soundtrack.

What there was music?

Music? What kind of music?

Oh, the kind that makes you feel like a killer clown is going to pop out at any moment.

Killer clown.

Yeah, it was classical, some kind of you know, string instrument. I think maybe a harp. Music was never really my strong suit, but.

It was Wait wait what then? And why did that lead you to tear apart your living room?

Well, it sounded like it was coming from inside the house, like somebody dn't a speaker somewhere?

Oh, come on, you did this?

Don't you think that you would have noticed if someone stuck a speaker cabinet behind your couch?

That speakers can be really small now, like it's like everything else. But you don't You don't really think that somebody planted something here, do you? Oh?

No, but that doesn't mean something didn't get in here anyway.

You know, what do you mean?

You came through the veil to our side, so I have a bunch of monsters, So was to say that something else couldn't have as well? I mean, I don't know, like.

Like someone who came in and planted a tiny fairy speaker or a magic herb.

And I told her it was unlike me.

Come on, well then, the livey why are you helping her?

Because what if it was coming from something that's already here.

I don't follow.

We were thinking about the voicemails, the ones you left Thomas.

Right, voicemails.

What we never asked you about it. When you were trying to speak to me, trying to get the word out about what was happening, it was coming through as messages on my machine.

You weren't just hearing my voice.

I just assumed that's how I heard Celeste, just a disembodied voice in the.

Limital, right, But that's because there's nothing in the liminal. So somehow, when you were speaking through the veil, it was captured by an old message machine.

Yeah, thank god too, because if I'd just been hearing your voice, people would have thought I was really off my rocker.

You know, I think people thought you were off your rocker.

Anywhere I am on my rocker, son.

So wait a minute. So you think that the music was coming from something that you already owned, that it's from the liminal getting here somehow, I.

Don't think it's from the liminal. I think it's from the other side.

It would have to be from the other side. My whole time there, I never heard anything close to music.

Well that doesn't mean that things haven't changed. I could Alden somehow be doing it. And are you sure? Are you both sure that it wasn't actually singing. It's not like the connection between here and the liminal is exactly like Crystal Clear.

No, not singing. Okay, it was definitely instrumental in it.

There's something so weird about it?

What what? What could be weirder than it? Coming from nowhere?

It was I don't know right, nothing sounded human, nana like, even if it was human instruments, it was like they were being played by something that wasn't It was.

I'm badly played off key.

No, that's not it. I can't explain it.

It's more like, Uh, it came with a feeling, you know. I think that's what you're trying to get it right, Like a feeling.

Yeah, it came with this feeling.

Oh that can't be good.

Well, hence trying to find some sort of reasonable explanation, you.

Know, reasonable being an extremely relative term over here.

Okay, did have you found anything?

Nothing? How'd you fare in the swamp? Was it that thing that we saw kill the camper?

Yes? Maybe it's a little unclear, but it is clear that something something is is definitely trying to communicate with us. Has So we heard Celestes voice.

What what isn't she dead?

Yeah?

And not in the limit A right?

Okay, so we have no idea what we're dealing with here.

Well what was she saying?

I don't know.

She was saying a bunch of stuff, trusting her uh and it happening.

That would be better this time?

Right?

What better?

Okay, Well, that's good.

She also said we want you and come here.

Which is what Ethan said.

That's right, Yeah, exactly the same thing.

Yeah, maybe it was someone who got possessed in the same way that Ethan did.

It wasn't a person.

No, that voice was coming from two different directions.

And it was definitely Celeste or her voice at least that I know.

Okay, we don't really know what's on the other side yet. Maybe it was some kind.

Of afterlife and Celeste's spirit is trying.

To talk to you.

I think that that would be the best option. Honestly, I don't know.

Should we hold a say aunts or find a medium medium couldn't hurt.

I have never done a SANDS before, but I guess I know the basics.

I mean, I think we can probably find a medium in Bridgewater.

Well, yeah, we have to be careful because even if talking to the dead is possible, it doesn't mean that there aren't a whole shitload of scammers out there.

A medium, a medium. We need to find the right medium.

Yes, exactly, we need someone reputable. I mean, can't believe I'm saying that, But maybe I can try to talk to some of the other folklore folks and see a thing, no, not.

A psychic, the right communication medium. Okay, think about it. Thomas was able to communicate through the answering machine, Celest's voice was coming through the swamp.

There's no seeming connection between those things. Okay, so what if there is a connection and we're just not seeing it.

Well, I think that describes a lot of what we're doing right now, right.

Sure, yeah, but maybe there's a way to get more data to connect the dots. So, Alden, before you got here, Thomas, did he ever try to reach out? Did he try to contact someone over here?

He was a scared seven year old trapped in another dimension. He definitely tried to call out for help.

Okay, so maybe someone heard him, and if we figure out how they heard him, then we say.

Okay, okay, but how would we do that? They mean, this was eighty years ago. You know his parents are long dead, right, he had.

A younger brother. Alden has a brother and he's still alive. What really I found him?

When I was looking into Alden's story, I didn't think it was relevant. Honestly, it's not like we can tell him anything that would give him closure after all these years. And he was only five when Alden went missing, so he might not even remember it happening.

But that doesn't mean he wasn't communicated with later exactly.

You didn't start hearing Thomas's voicemails until this year.

Who knows when he left them?

Well, I was always calling out to you, Anne, always right.

So maybe Alden's brother heard something he can't explain either. You think you would talk to us, well, I mean I think it's worth to try. And he's right here in Bridgewater.

Hey, mister Jansen, I think thanks for agreeing to talk to us.

Oh please call me Lee. Not every day I get visitors.

It's really nice to meet you, Lee. I'm Thomas and this is Jeremy. Has your family mostly moved away?

Well?

I never had children myself and my sister rest her soul. Her kids live up in New Hampshire and their kids are all grown now. So oh, they come and visit when they can. But there's not a lot in the way of entertainment in this place. So when they said there were two men here to interview me for a book, well that was just about me my day.

Well, we're happy to hear that, although.

Fish to be quite confused as why you want to talk to me.

Well, i am a professor here at the local college, and I'm writing a book about the region, and specifically I'm looking at unsolved mysteries and the like. And I know that you have lived here your entire life. I have, and I also know that you have a personal.

This is about all of them, isn't it.

Yes, yeah, I take it.

You've been asked about him before a few times through the year.

Every now and again, someone will get their heads stuck into all the missing person cases in Bridgewater, and my brother is one of that. It's kept folks interest, I think because he was so young and there was never any evidence at all as to what happened.

I'm so sorry.

Oh I don't remember. If that's what you're here for well, he was two years old older than me, and I barely remember him at all.

That must have been hard for all of you.

My family, we we didn't really talk about it. It was a it was a different time back then. But I also know that, well, losing your child isn't something you ever get over.

And your parents, they did they ever have any guesses or talk to you about what might have happened?

Well, they assumed he was kidnapped, like everyone else. What did you think? My sister, she was there right before it happened, and she always thought it was some kind of monster in the woods.

I guess that would make sense when she was a child herself.

Right, It's not a belief she grew out of.

And And what what did you believe?

I always thought there was something strange about this place, And based on the type of folk who have come to talk to me through the years, I know I'm not the only one. And I suspect you're not here to ask me about whatever official investigation took place back then. No we're not, so go on tell me whatever wild theory you have.

We actually were wondering more if you had any theories or if there's anything through the years that you haven't been able to explain about it.

You may have I seen my brother's ghost tracked down the monster that they did.

We are not trying to make a mockery of your family's Tragedyly, we care about Alden his story.

But I take it a lot of the people who have come to you through the years have just been looking for something sensational, right.

That's a way of putting it.

We don't want anything but the truth. And if that truth is that you have no memory of your brother and nothing of his life or disappearance to share at this point, then that's totally okay.

What truth are you expecting to fly?

What do you mean?

Folks usually have an idea in their heads. You say you want my theory, but I'm betting you have one of your own.

We we've heard of missing people being able to contact their loved ones.

I've never seen his ghost, As much as some people might want to believe that.

Yeah, I guess we're not really talking about a ghost so much as I don't know. Did you ever hear of a voice of a voice that might have that might have.

Sounded like all, then a ghostly voice is still a ghost.

Not ghostly, No, it would have been It would have come from somewhere like an answering machine or a phone or some specific place.

Or maybe any any kind of object that can produce a sound, right, I mean, as far as we know, be a record player or a radio, a radio, yeah, right, it could be a radio.

Who are you people?

Have you heard something?

Me? Olden? He had a little radio on his nightstand. When I went to college, I took it with me and I've had it ever since.

And you you heard something from this radio, something other than a broadcast.

It used to act funny.

Yeah, I'd have it tuned to one of the usual stations, strong signal and all that, but it gets statically and well, strange sometimes strange. How you said other people have heard voices before of people who disappeared.

Yes, well, we can't tell you more without violating people's privacy.

But yes, I always thought I was imagining it.

But you heard something.

I don't know what it was. It sounded like a little boy, but I always I always thought it was interference from another broadcast. It was an old radio, and there were so many more stations than there used to be.

When was this?

Let me see it? Was that was at the Green Bank House. So the seventies, well, the eighties, maybe we.

Do you still have that radio?

Hello?

Hey, Hippin, come in, Hey Vippin.

Hey is Jeremy here?

Oh?

You just missed him?

Yeah. He and Thomas went back to talk to Aldon's brother. Oh Lee, you know. Yeah.

Olivia and I talked about it a little bit. I thought we agreed it wouldn't be good to tell him anything.

No, we do, we do agree, But I realized maybe he could tell us something that maybe maybe Aldn tried to communicate with him the same way Thomas did with Anne.

Oh smart, Uh, how are you guys doing after the whole earthquake thing? I texted him, You're not the only one apparently, I've missed quite the afternoon.

Yeah, how was your coffee with Peyton?

Illuminating? I'll tell you all about it. But you're okay?

Really?

Yeah, I mean we're okay, But I mean it can't be good that this is the second time it's happened.

Right, Yeah about that. I don't think anyone should be staying here until we figure out what's going on. It could be dangerous.

That's a good point. Yeah, we'll figure something out.

You could stay with me.

I mean I only have a couch, but I could sleep on that and you could take my bed. I really don't mind.

I don't actually live here, remember, Oh right, God stupid, forget I said.

Anything, no, no, thank you for that's a really sweet offer.

And the offer extends to you too. I know Jeremy doesn't have a guest room either, but between the.

Two of us, well, I think it might be time for us to go home with Live. But thank you?

Really?

Are you sure?

I don't know how much longer we can hire Thomas from your mom live. I'm sure we could couch surf, but you know it's time.

So about that?

What Thomas hasn't talked to you about what? I look, Mom needed to know live, so I brought Thomas to see her and christ Well it was it was, I mean, it became fine.

You know.

I explained everything and she and Thomas talked.

So I don't know, I think she shouldmight be willing to have you this stay over.

Would this be why maybe she's not returning any of my calls.

Well, she's pissed Nana, and I think she has every right to be.

Oh, Olivia, I am not okay with you going behind my back like this.

Oh, and I'm not okay with you hiding my grandfather's identity for forty years. So yeah, I guess we're even.

Yeah, I guess. So what should I expect then? Will she even let me into the house?

Fifty to fifty chance? I mean, maybe a little higher, since it's it's just her.

Right now, Ethan and your dad are still at his parents right.

Yeah, for the next week at least.

It gives us plenty of time to talk it out.

Well that's optimistic.

All right, I'm gonna go call your mom, make sure it's okay, and then pack a bag and just give me your phone what she'll pick up for you.

Okay, So you're just leaning into her being kissed off at either.

Well, it can't get any worse, can it.

I mean, only one way to find out.

So how do you actually feel about that?

I don't know.

I mean I do think my mom has settled down a little. But putting her and Nana and Thomas and I mean, let's be honest, probably Jeremy all in a room, it's going to be.

Oh yeah, I don't envy that conversation.

Does that offer to stay applied to escaping to yours just for an emergency drink.

Yeah, definitely. I'm sorry about that. I didn't it was that was so presumptuous of.

Me, Nippin.

You weren't propositioning me. You were making a nice offer to a friend, you know, unless.

No, no, no, I swear I was just friendly not to say that. I mean, you know, I think we.

Would you like to go out on a date sometime? What what do you like?

Yes, yes, definitely I would, Yes, that that.

Would be great, good good.

I mean not now obviously we're even like this week, because but after we stop the end of the world or whatever, then then.

Maybe we'll go out to celebrate.

Okay, perfect, all right, your mom's expecting us later.

How'd that go?

Well, she didn't yell at me, so so really bad. M hm, Yeah, this is gonna be very unpleasant. All right, Vivan, how is our favorite mystical leader?

She was surprisingly forthcoming. Really yeah, she explained everything she knows. The Gathering is tasked with protecting our world from the other by keeping the gate closed through human sacrifice. Well, she said, volunteering.

I'm sure she did.

It'll be her in Virginia when the time comes, their leader goes into the liminal willingly, letting the person in there already move on.

She signed up for that.

Apparently she's a legacy, and I bet she's not the only one. The gathering is just the group here on the East Coast. There are what sounds like hundreds of other groups around the world doing the same thing.

So a network of supernatural gatekeepers and literally, yeah.

Literally, and sometimes that leads to stuff like the children of Tichiba, people going rogue and trying to harness the power of the Fay realm for themselves.

What is that even possible?

Peyton wasn't sure. She said there's a lot of magic over there that we still don't understand, and maybe someone could learn it, But she was pretty insistent on the fact that the Fey are not something to be controlled.

Did it seem like she was interested in learning that magic herself.

I don't.

I don't think so. I think we can trust her. She clearly has a lot of respect for the other side. She doesn't think that she's more powerful than it, or that she could try and harness it the way that the children wanted to.

Well.

Respect isn't all that far from Reverend I mean when she got rid of the sasquatch, she sent it back instead of killing it, and always bugged me.

She has killed monsters before, or well her dad did, I guess, but she didn't seem bothered by that idea.

I just want us to be careful.

Okay.

It all feels a little convenient that she showed up here.

Why isn't she filling in for Celeste? I mean that has to happen from gathering group to gathering group, right.

She said they don't actually talk all that much, but that she knew something was wrong up here.

Yeah, And my question is how It's not like Bridgewater went from having no paranormal sidings to having a bunch of them. I mean, how would she even know that things have gone wrong?

Now?

Celeste always said she was attuned, right, Maybe they're taught to connect to the veil somehow feel it when it tears or gets thin.

Well, that's what I'm worried about. That sounds like magic to me. And if Peyton has learned that Anne learned how to banish monsters back to the other side, then what else had she learned? What could she be hiding from us?

I see that finding out about literal monsters that want to kill us has not made you less suspicious of humans, Nana.

I'm just saying I think.

We should be careful.

Yes, yes, yeah, Oh that's Jeremy.

They're done at the retirement home and headed to my house.

Oof.

Okay, looks like it's time to face the music.

Hey, thanks for waiting for us.

I didn't think it was a great idea to just knock on the door.

Are you okay? You sure you want to do this?

I think it's a good idea for us to stay somewhere else, and.

She's really willing. I do want more time with her.

Should I even be here for this? I don't want to overwhelm Shelley.

I mean she's already been told all the really life shattering stuff, right, and it's not like she's never met you.

Yeah, but not as her brother.

Okay, Hey, did you guys have any luquidly?

Yeah?

We actually were able to borrow an old radio that he thinks he may have heard Alden through back in the seventies.

Really, that's awesome news.

Yeah, so we can try to communicate with the missing boy from the nineteen forties through a radio after we have this weird family reunion with my new half sister and my dad.

Dad.

All right, this is going to be fine.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is gonna be fun.

Yeah.

What are you waiting for?

I don't know.

Should we knock? I have a key, but I don't know if that's the right thing to do.

I live here. Oh my god, Hey Mom, we're home.

Oh oh great, you're all here.

Jeremy.

Yeah, well it's.

You always said you wished you'd grown up with siblings. That is very helpful.

Thank you.

Live Someone had to break the eyes, Shelley. I not ready to talk to you yet. So I look. I understand that you guys need a place to stay for god knows what reason, But Nana's house is haunted.

Uh huh wow.

Just because we're under one roof, it does not mean we're a family.

This episode of Bridgewater was written by Lauren Shippen and directed by Brendan Patrick Hughes assistant director Sarah Klein. Sound designed by Vincent de Johnny Rima Ilkali Josh Thain, and