Chapter 3: Stories

few days here. Have a seat, so okay, So you said you recognize these symbols. Yes, I think so. Well, can you tell me what you think you know? I think you should probably go Wait wait, Officer Maria, I don't know what you're afraid of, but I promise you anything that you say that's going to stay between us. Okay, you won't put it in your book. Okay, I promise

that I will anonymize anything. I'm sorry. I'm not usually I'm a cop in one of the weirdest parts of the state because there isn't a lot that frightens me. I don't believe in ghosts or monsters or UFOs. Well, we're in agreement there. Really, you don't believe even a little bit of it. No, I mean I think that maybe did. When I was a kid. I think it was a lot easier to think of my dad being taken by a Sasquatch and acknowledging that human beings can

be capable of such terrible things. You think he was murdered, Yeah, I mean, don't you. That's been the prevailing theory among the police since the eighties. I think a lot has been blamed on the gathering. Yeah, that's what Anne said. Yeah, well, despite what you've heard, Anne isn't crazy. So you're familiar with the gathering. Man wasn't that well before your time? It was, but they never really left Freetown tried to drive them out. But the gathering is still around, it is.

It's smaller than it was in the seventies, I think, and more underground, but they're still active. And huh so the police, the police think that they have something to do with this missing hiker. No, the police don't know that the gathering still exists. Then how do you know my girlfriend is a member? Oh? I see, her name is Katie Frank's Katie isn't the hiker you talked to earlier. Oh you see what, I'm talking to you instead of my boss. Wait, Haddock doesn't know that she's your girlfriend.

No one on the forced US um that, because are you? Are you worried about? Um about? I don't know? Oh oh no, not at all. No, No one will care that. I'm gates. Me having a girlfriend wouldn't be a problem. The fact that I have a girlfriend who's a member of a group that doesn't have the cleanest history with the police would be a problem. So I take it Katie didn't mention the gathering when she reported her missing friend. No, okay, don't you think that that would be relevant information. Daniel

isn't part of the gathering. Yeah, but if Katie is and he went missing after going hiking with her, she were involved, why would she report it? I know my girlfriend and the gathering have nothing to do with this. It's just a spiritual group Katie joined after her mother passed away, and it's been a really positive influence on her life. That's what most cultists would say. It's not

a cult, Officer, Batista, it's by definition. I know what you're thinking, but I've checked them out and I've spent hours talking to Katie about who they are and what they do. They're harmless. Wait, so what does all of this have to do with the symbols. You said that you've seen them before. They're used by the gathering. Cool. So Katie lied to me. She didn't want suspicion being

cast on the gathering again. But you're here telling me that one of their members carved a bunch of symbols into a rock the day after my father's badge was found. I don't think the two are related. Asson at Ledge has been a meeting place for the Gathering for decades. It would make sense that they'd leave messages for each other there. That's what you think. This is a message from the gathering to its members. It's how they tell

each other where meetings are. They'll carved symbols into trees or rocks, sometimes even sand or dirt if the weather is drying. If they've been around this whole time, why would they need to communicate where they're meeting. They're constantly moving. I'm assuming to avoid people like me and my colleagues finding them. Freetown, Forest, Hacko, Mock Swamp. They're big places. It's easy to get lost, so they leave symbols and well traveled spots to tell those in the know where

they're meeting. Okay, and this is something that Katie told you so she would know how to read these symbols. No, this particular symbol system is only for core members. Katie isn't one of those. She's not She's not deeply involved or anything. It was just it was a source of comfort for her after her mom died. She only goes to their main meetings, meditations and stuff. Okay, I'm confused this this message is for a different kind of meeting. Yeah,

and Katie's never been to one of those. She knows about the code, how it works, what it's for, but she can't read it. The only person that could maybe help you translate that would be someone familiar with Wampa dog symbols. I'm pretty sure that's what the system is based on. But really, you need a core member of the gathering, and you will have as much luck finding

one of those as you will sasquatch. Why come to me like this, with all this secrecy and subterfuge, and you seem so nervous telling me this, Maria, are you sure the gathering isn't dangerous? They aren't, I promise not to us anyway. What does that mean? Katie? She she isn't on the inside, but she's been hearing things. These symbols showing up near the lake. Is it means something? The only other time they've carved on that particular rock was in the gathering? Is scared? What are they scared of?

I have no idea, but whatever it is, it's just beginning. Do you think Katie would be willing to talk to you again, even if she can't translate the symbols. I bet the Gathering has a lot of insight into the Bridgewater Triangle. They could be a great resource for the book. I'm really not sure that I want to be using a cult as a reference. Well, they're as reliable as anyone else who claims to have had paranormal experience. Yeah,

I guess, I don't know. Batista texted me this morning again asking that I not tell anyone what she told me, not even Anne. Have you heard from her? And I mean, I don't know, I know, and I I really think that it's best that we go our separate ways. She might have experience and knowledge that I know, but I I think that now that I have some of my dad's files, I don't really you know, need her, And Anne just wants to turn this into something that it's not.

What do you mean, I mean, I don't think she's entirely stable. The police files that she had, She's got tons of copies, and it seems like they were files that she'd gone over again and again and again. And that's just not the behavior of of someone in the right mind. Yeah, but it is the behavior of someone trying to figure something out. She was a detective after all, I know, But what is she trying to figure out?

It's been forty years. She isn't going to solve the mystery of what happened to my dad, and it's just not going to happen, right. But maybe there's something else at work here. You said she talked about it happening again, which Batista seemed to believe as well. The gathering is gearing up for something exactly. Maybe that's what Anne is trying to solve, using for two year old case files to predict cult activity. Now, all right, well, let's just

let's just look over the files. Maybe we'll start to see what she sees I've already looked them over dozens of times in the last twenty four hours. I'm starting to sound like an I didn't sleep much last night. Oh boy, should I be making a lesson plan for tomorrow's lecture. No, it's all right. It's about Dighton Rock, which I know backwards and forwards. I could do it in my sleep. Oh wait, wait, wait, wait, I think there was something about Dighton in the files, and I

thought you said you were working on your thesis last night. Yeah, well, helping you out is kind of part of that, and these are now part of your books. So no regrets, except I haven't decided that yet. Come on, a scholar writing about the Bridgewater Triangle who actually has a personal connection to it. You know that's too good to pass up. Yeah, because I love exploiting my childhood trauma for book sales. I didn't. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that was completely out

of line. No, it's okay, don't worry about it, and you're not wrong. Maybe you know I have been thinking about it, making the book more personal or probably would help book sales. No, I really don't think there's much new information in here. It's the same legends as always sure, but the first person perspective, Uh here here it is, um yep. They went to go look at Dighton Rock a couple of times, such stimulating police work. Okay, just just listen to this. October one, Becker and I went

to look at Dighton Rock. Today it's in the museum now. They moved at their features back fifteen years back. Demmi, you know, the worst sense of timing of anybody that I know. Still just a big rock at this time, though it was it was odd the rocket. It seemed to be humming and informed to the touch. I don't know. I mean, Jemy's got the fluke. Gosh, the poor kids. So maybe I got something and I'm just hallucinating. But anyway, no,

you weren't hallucinating. I felt it too. I should have told you the same weird symbols that have always been there. And Becker thinks the symbols we've been finding in the woods might be based off Dighton Rock somehow, But no, so far, so far, that doesn't seem to be a connection. I mean, people have been trying to figure out what this damn rock means for centuries. I don't think B and B are going to be the ones to finally cracked the code. You always hated that nickname. I loved it,

RAJ Hank Becker, the dynamic duo. I think the symbols in Freetown have something to do with that new group in town, the joining that wait, no, it's gathering, idiot, the gathering. Literally, how many times do I have to tell you anydio? I forget every time. It's a stupid name for a group anyway, Gathering. Yes, I mean, I don't even really know what we're supposed to be looking for with them. Captain wants us to keep an eye, but they can't be responsible for all the weird ship

that's been happening around here. But these symbols, they Becker, I wish you were here. I always think better with you on it. I wish I were there too. So we'll do another patrol this weekend see if we can't figure out a pattern to that placement of these carvings. Hey, Jeremy, what are you doing up? And that's nothing? No, no, no, it's not nothing. Okay. The humming, the warmth that could have been anything, that was the rock was sitting in sunlight, okay,

in the museum. Yeah, it was a museum that had windows, and the humming could have been uh, fluorescent lights or some construction outside. All right, you really really think your dad didn't consider that? I mean, he wrote it down. It clearly was significant. He was just being thorough. Your dad thought there was a connection between carvings in Freetown forests and strange things that were happening. Just like, now, what strange things? What strange things? Where should we start?

His badge being found, the missing hiker, the woman last week who saw a four foot tall eagle. I still can't believe that. You can stand to watch local news. How can you not? It's basically modern folk lore? Okay, hippen. All of this has an explanation, as I'm sure everything in nineteen eighty had a rational explanation too. We just got to find it. Yeah, But I mean just the sheer concentration of events, like look at this here, Okay,

just listen to this. In August to November eight, there were seven missing persons cases in Freetown State forest, three reports of livestock being killed, seventeen eyewitness accounts of cult activity, and to alien abductions. Supposed alien abductions. Suppose it alleged, of course, but you know what I mean, I'm not going to assume anything hippen. You seem to be buying into quite a lot more of this than I'm comfortable with. Okay, I'm just saying it's strange. You know, whether any of

it is real or not. It's not. It's not real, Okay, fine, But it's strange right that this particular moment in time, exactly forty years ago contained the highest concentration of paranormal sightings in this area. I don't see how that's strange. It was the late seventies, the early eighties. It was a time when everyone across the country was panicking about some demonic thing or another. There were all these stories

just breeding more. Stories became trendy to be worried that your neighbor was a witch, or that your dog got eaten by some mythological creature. That's just what was happening then, I know. But not all these reports are just people seeing something odd or making up a story. There there were legitimate crimes. There are always legitimate crimes, always, all right, just hear me out. There's this one report, okay, a

girl who went missing. Yeah, I know, and told me about her twelve year old she was camping and she got lost and came out of the woods a day later without remembering anything. It's not as eerie as you're making it sound. I don't remember half of the things that happened to me as a kid. Sure, a toddler maybe, but twelve. She went through a trauma VIP, and she was lost and cold and scared, and who knows, maybe she had to run in with a wild animal. Her

mind just blocked it out in self defense. Happens all the time, does it? Because I'm not sure that's how it works. You think it's more likely that she encountered something supernatural. I'm just saying that. It raises questions. I don't know what we're gonna do. I mean, we're also relieved that Francine was found, that she found her way home. How how did she get out of the woods and she was completely fine, not a scratch or a bruise anywhere.

It doesn't make any sense, And she didn't remember anything, and she doesn't remember anything that's right. It's it's just awful. It's just reminding me too much of Jeremy. And I just said, I know she's going to have nightmares, just like him and just like me. But she doesn't remember any lights, so I can't. There's nothing I can do, not if I don't have more to go on. And the only thing we were able to get out of her it was something about the lake. Lake. She said

she saw a woman all in white. I don't know. Maybe she was hallucinating. Maybe the captain is right, Maybe it really is the gathering, kidnapping children, performing ritual sacrifice. But at the lake, something about it just doesn't feel right. I know what I saw. What did you say about that lake? I know that the Indian abductions and big Foot stings aren't real, but something out there is real. The only thing that the girl mentions is seeing something

at the lake, a woman all in white. Well, it's probably someone from the gathering, or or the children of Titchaba. You know your dad and Becker went to the lake the day after and saw something too. What do you mean, what didn't you read all the files this? They saw a miurage. No, they saw a vortex. Okay, it was probably just a whirlpool. It's unusual, but it's not impossible really above the water. Listen, it was late at night, and it says here that it disappeared faster than they

can blink. And this wasn't a report that was ever filed. These are just some personal notes. Yeah, one of the only personal notes in all of these files. It was clearly significant. Sorry, Vippin, we have different definitions of significant. I just don't think that there's some grand paranormal conspiracy at work here. Okay, But why would he write this incident down if he wasn't going to report. I don't know.

Maybe he forgot his tape recorder that day and said that he would always copy his tapes to the official reports. He must have recorded his personal notes usually. I don't know. But then maybe there's a lot more information that we're missing, you know, maybe his personal notes have more of these kind of sightings, you mean, the ones that he was so uncertain of that he wanted to keep them from his boss. Okay, you have to admit, aren't you curious? At least? I mean, wouldn't you want to hear your

dad's voice again? Sorry? I just I get it. Yeah, and of course I want to hear and said she would make copies. But honestly, I am I'm reluctant to go back there. I just don't want to. I don't want to get a mestion in all of her crazy theorizing. Frankly got enough of it with you, alright, professor, And I'm just gonna put this out there. What if, just as a thought experiment, you believed Anne, What if you went along with all of this being real? Um? Why

would I do that? None of it is real? I know, I know, I know, But just what do you risk by keeping your mind open? I risk looking like a total idiot, right, because that's the worst thing in the world. It is. When it's my literal job to teach people, I don't need my superiors or my colleagues finding out about this research is one thing. But going off on wild, unfounded speculation based off some individuals personal reports, it's just the dean's don't need to know. Oh my god, I'm

not going to keep things from them. I'm not my father. The school isn't in charge of your book. You are. And this entire thing, this investigation, that's a strong narrative to hang a book on. I mean I would read that book. What investigation? There's nothing to solve here? Really? Well, what about the carvings you guys found huh in the missing hiker. That's not our job. We are academics, were

not detectives, and we're definitely not ghost hunters. What if we went back to the lake though, you know, just checks to see if the carvings have changed, and if they have, it just means that the gathering is up to something that is business that I definitely do not want to get mixed up in. In the badge, what about it? I agree that a missing person is in our problem, but how his badge ended up in the

woods is your business. He died in Freetown forest, it makes sense that something of his would remain there, But that doesn't explain how the badge is in mint condition. Well maybe that's something that I just don't need to explain. No, you always need everything explained, and it could be anything witchcraft or wormhole or the cult members. Stop fipping, seriously, stop, we are not having this discussion. You have one saved message, yeah, and you need to help the leak. You're right, it

isn't what it seems. It's happening again, and it hold end this time one way or another. Come on, why are you trying to tell me, Thomas, and you need to help lak. You were right, it isn't what it seems. It's happening again and it will hold end this time one way or another. Thanks Mom, And you need to help the lake. You were right, it isn't what it seems. Hey, Nana, Hey baby, whoa? What is this stuff? It's nothing? Police stuff? Oh, come on, Ethan, you know I'm retired. Yeah, right, it's

just it's nothing. Hey, um di Olivia ever take a class from Professor Bradshaw? I don't know. I don't really pay attention to what classes she takes. I'm glad you and your sister are getting along. We get along fine. She just doesn't talk to me much. Well, she's always in her room doing computer stuff. M you're twelve. Don't you like computer stuff? Well? I like Minecraft, but you like hiking better, don't you. Heck? Yeah? Okay, Well are you ready? Do you think we could go to the

ledge today? No? I don't think so, Nana. I don't know why you're so scared to take me there. I told you it's dangerous. It's just some rocks in the lake. Okay, Well, you're just gonna have to trust me. Ethan the You know, this is why I live never wants to go hiking with us. You freaked her out with all those ghost stories. I know. I know, honey, I never should have. Your mom was right, But I I haven't freaked you out right. Mm hmmm uh. But you you do know that the

woods aren't safe. You have to be careful, Nana. I'm not a kid. I know there aren't any monsters in the woods. Of course there aren't, baby, all right, come on, you have one new message. Bridgewater was created by Aaron Manky and written and directed by Lauren Shippen, with executive producers Aaron Manky, Misha Collins, Matt Frederick and Alex Williams, supervising producer Trevor Young, editing and sound designed by Trevor

Young and Matt Stillo, and music by Chad Lawson. Starring Misha Collins as Jeremy Bradshaw, Melissa Ponzio as Anne Becker, Karen Sony as Vipen Corona, Lori Allen as Nancy Collins, Cheryl Umania as Officer Bautista, Victoria Grace as Katie Frank's, Will Wheaton as Captain Haddock, Hilary Burton Morgan as Shelley Hoskins, Jonathan Joss as Joseph Hoskins, Sabra May as Olivia Hoskins, Samuel Marty as Ethan Hoskins, Kristin Bauer as Celeste, and

Nathan Fillion as Thomas Bradshaw, with additional voice acting by Brigand snow and Drew Nowak, Julia Maurit Sawa, Jarvis Johnson and Brielle Bresnan, Kristen de Mecurio, James Oliva, and Leron Amiel. Learn more about the show over at Grimm and Mild dot com Slash Bridgewater, and find more podcasts from I heart Radio on the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows, and as always, thanks for listening,