Part 5 "The Gift"

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Well, hey to you too, friend. Who is this? Me. I'm your new friend, apparently. I'm sorry, I wasn't... Yes, I mean, hello. Well, you're all kind of turned around, aren't you? You belong here. Here? Here, there, everywhere, nowhere, anywhere. What do you mean? Where are we? Where are you? Me! Oh, I'm just a little voice inside your head telling you that everything is gonna be all right. Look up!

You see the vent in your cell? You and I are side by side. Hold on. Cells. Yeah, wow, you really are out of it. The locked door, the padded walls, they didn't give it away. Padded walls? Jesus Christ, what are you, blind kid? Well... Ah, fuck. I'm sorry. Now I sound like a real prick. Let's start over, shall we? Name's Adam. Adam Fry. Right, right. And you are... In the cell next to you. Probably.

I heard you saying hello and I figured I might as well take you up on the chat. Where are we? You, my fine friend, are in the nut house. The what? The loony bin, you know? Where the crazy folk go when they can't stop being crazy. Why? I shouldn't be here. You and me both. How did I get here? How should I know? All I hear is the freaks dragging a new body for the cell next door. Not the hows and whys of it.

I don't understand. Look, don't wreck yourself on trying to figure it out. You'll have a panic attack. Just relax.

These walls, you said that they're padded. Yeah. They feel thick like hide, almost. Yeah, well, they don't want us schizos go throwing ourselves against the wall just to escape, you know? Escape? Shuffled off this mortal coil. Come on, you sound smart. You know Red Hamlet? No, no, no. Of course I have. Love, Shakespeare. The blood, the betrayal, the sex, the violence. It's one thing you did right. Me? You, the British. Oh, right, yes, of course. This door...

It's the only way you can arrive, so you might as well get comfy. Yes, but it feels... Yeah, it's padded as well. You'd be surprised with the amount of nuts that want to dig out the wrong ear with a fork. No, no, it feels... odd. Almost shaped, oddly. There.

What do you mean dig out their own ear? I still have my hands free. Ah, well, you're lucky then. Some of these psychos get tied up proper. Hands wrapped around their backs. Yeah. Lucky me. Adam, I need... Hey, come over here to the vent on the wall. So I don't want the shirt so much. Better? Much better. So, friend, what do you need? Adam, I need to leave this place. I cannot stay here. I have things I need to do. What do you mean? What things?

It doesn't matter. I don't belong here. I don't think I do, at least. You think anyone here thinks they belong? Adam, I... Wait, you said your hands weren't tied up. No. Well, maybe you could get out. There are guards, see, right? Every so often they pass by. They sure don't okay. They check on us through that little slit in the door around eye level. If something is wrong, they'll come in. And...

And they got keys and shit. You can knock one out. I'm not gonna... I'm not gonna fight a god. These are no fine people, pal. They're monsters. Regardless, I'm not gonna justify my belonging here by being a villain. It's probably your only bet. No. No, not like this. So what things you gotta do? You said you gotta get out of here. You gotta do things. Yes, well, I was trying to piece together something. Something important. What? It doesn't matter now.

Yeah, maybe there's another way. Yes? Anything. I've been planning my own breakup for a while now. I got the pieces where they need to be. That's wonderful. Hold on. Take a breath. First, we gotta wait for the guards to pass. You know, do their rounds. Sure. Get somewhere out of sight. Maybe behind the door. Alright, yeah. Are they shh?

Anyway, so I've been planning my own way out of here for a while now. If I'm going to share it with you, I want to know a little bit more about you. What do you mean? Let's just say if I'm going to bring a friend along, I want to make sure I'm not bringing someone who should be in here. All right. Come back over here. What was the last thing you remember? I was in a boat. I was bleeding. I was on a lake. That's it? That's it. Why were you on the boat?

I was escaping someone. Who? The man who was trying to kill me. Where were you going? Harper's Hill. For what? For answers. Jesus, Arthur, I need more than this. Who were you going to get answers from? A girl named Amanda Cummings. She... Wait. Amanda Cummings. Wait, did I tell you my name? Thank you, Arthur. Wait, what?

Arthur, relax. You're in the hospital. Just relax. Everything is okay. After you passed out on the boat, I managed to drag us to a nearby road. As luck would have it, someone saw us and brought us here. You've been unresponsive since. Where are we? I told you. I mean... Oh, we're in Harper's Hill. Where is... Where is he? He was... Who was? What happened? Something is wrong. When I was unconscious, I was... I was in another world, but...

Arthur, just relax. It was like a dream. Everything was real. I could touch it and I could feel it. We need to find Amanda Cummings. We need to find her as soon as possible. Before someone else does. Who is looking for her? Adam. This man. All this thing. I think he was trying to get information from me. Arthur. We need to move. I feel so... Arthur. What? We've been in a coma for over a month. I... I... Arthur? I just can't believe it. Believe it.

counted every waking minute. You've been awake this entire time? Yes. I've been trapped. Well, I'm sorry for that. It must have been terrible. It was. But it also gave me time to... Arthur, I don't know what's happened to you. I don't know why I became bound to you, but from the dark world that I thought I would never return from, I escaped.

Or I was pulled. I've been so focused on never returning, I haven't actually thought of how lucky I am to have found you, so... Thank you. Well, I... Don't. I just...

I needed to say it. Alright then. So where is everyone? You're in a wing of the hospital dedicated to patients like you. It's not very busy here, and besides, it's the middle of the night. Around 2 a.m. So what have I missed? For one thing, they don't know who you are. No? No. I thought maybe they would piece together the missing driver from the car accident a ways away from here. You've been John Doe for the past weeks.

It's... What? It's actually interesting. Oh, how so? The nurses, one in particular, she comes in to check. She always says good morning, John. And, uh, well, I like the sound of it. What do you mean, you want to be called John? It sounds bizarre, I know. No, no, I'm glad I can call you something. In the place that I was, when I tried to call out to you, I could only think of friend. Yes, about that.

What do you mean, place you were? What happened? When I passed out on the boat, I awoke in a hospital. Not like this one. It was a place for insane people. An asylum. A dream? No, I don't think so. There was a man there. I couldn't see him. I can only talk to him through the vent in the wall, but he sort of prevented me. He wanted information. What information? He wanted to know why we were coming to Harper's Hill.

This is why you said Amanda Cummings. Yes. Something is very wrong there. The walls, they felt off. Almost like flesh. The door seemed... It was in an odd shape. The gods were otherworldly. You said we need to find Amanda as soon as possible. Before someone else does. Yes, this man. If he was a man. Adam Fry. He seemed to only need me for her name. We need...

We need to get... Arthur, relax. You haven't walked in months. I know, but we need to move. Didn't you hear me? They don't know who you are. They're going to want to know when you wake up. So then we can't stay here. We need to get out and find Amanda before this Adam does. Arthur. No, John, Parker is dead back in Arkham. If they find out who I am, it is likely that they will at least take me in for questioning, not to mention everything that happened at Kellyn's.

Did you see Kellen die? We moved away as he was bleeding on the dock, but... No. Do you still think he's... I don't know. Let's not think about that.

We got out alive and- Wait, what happened to his sister's head? Arthur, you're not seriously still. Did you- You left it, didn't you? Of course I left it, Arthur. Besides the fact that I think you're insane for bringing it, I didn't think we'd be as likely to be picked up if we were carrying a rotting, severed head. What did you do with it? What do you think I did? I left it. In the boat?

Yes, in the boat, which is either washed up on the forest shore where I left it or floating somewhere on the lake. Arthur, I couldn't have brought it. You must realize that. You're right. I need to try to sit up and walk. No one checks on us during this time of night, usually only in the morning and before the evening, so we're good to move around.

You're going to try walking? Yes. I'm just... Stolick. Why do you think this Adam Fry is after Amanda? I don't know. I just... He seems to have all he needed at her name. Just...

I don't know. Call it instinct. All right. Well, let's take a second and go over our path that led us here. After all, it's been a month of sitting here for me. Could use a refresher. Right. Well, it's still fresh in my mind, so... You appeared to me when a book from J.D. Ackerman arrived at my doorstep. Opening the book seemed to have killed my partner, Parker. Well, let's just say that for now. The symbol on the book was one that I had actually seen before at an abandoned house.

One that you had originally went to when looking for a girl who wound up being murdered. Right. But let's just put a pin in that for now because she was not a lead that we followed up on. Instead, we went to the bookstore, which was ransacked. Someone shot at us. And missed. Thankfully. Or purposefully. What do you mean? Well, whoever shot at us did so at point-blank range. And missed. You think it was intentional? I don't know what to think.

All I know is how they fired and ran. You can do this, Arthur. Come on. I feel like my legs are made of string. But you are walking. Yes. Keep moving straight. What is this? The sink. Why? You've grown quite the beard, Arthur. Oh. If you want to get out of here, let's make it difficult for people to recognize you. There's a razor next to the sink. Right. Here? Yes. Alright. Is this high enough? Yeah. Start there.

So, at the bookstore, J.D. Ackerman, the owner, was not there, but we did find an index card for one Roland Cummings that had our address on it, leading us to believe... That he meant this in the book? Our book? To someone else. A man named Roland. Right. Then we went to the house. Where we found the symbol in the cavernous basement in which we found corpses and a ritualistic altar.

To you, it looked like a gateway. When we looked at the newspaper records about the house, we found that two girls were seen wandering from the house. And one of them was Amanda Cummings. Roland's daughter. A connection too strong to mistake as coincidence. And the other girl? We have no idea about. Hopefully Amanda can shed some light on it. Right. Then... When we went to the Cummings' last known address, a neighbor told us that she moved up to Harper's Hill.

With some family. So the neighbor says. So, Amanda should be able to tell us what happened at the house, which should give us insight into the symbol where you came from, her father. Really, she is the missing piece of this puzzle. There.

You look much better. Yes? Yes. For not being able to see, I have to say you did a bang-up job. Thank you. So what now? Well, we need to get out of here. Quietly. There's no sense in making this more difficult for us. Where are my clothes? They put them in the drawer on the far side of this room. Looks like they've cleaned them, too. Brilliant. Take your time. So, assuming we can get out of here quietly, what's the next step? We find Amanda.

How? Well, actually, we might be in the best place for that. Why? Well, she's lived in Harpers Hill, at least for a few years now. Possible they would have a record of her here, or even more likely that they would have an address. Well then. A records room? Exactly. All right. Arthur, you look like your old self. A thinner, paler, more gaunt version. But that'll pass, I'm sure. Okay.

Any idea of the layout of this place? None. Well, let's get back on that bicycle. The left. The right looks like a dead end after more rooms. There's a nurse's station up ahead, but it's empty right now. Wait. There's a map on the wall. Excellent. Stop here. Luck has our number. Looks like it's on this floor. Continue down the hall, past the break room. So when we find Amanda, what then? What do you mean? Do you tell her what's going on, or do you play coy?

We both know how bad you are at lying. Right, well, I suppose we play by ear. Maybe honesty is the best policy at this point. Stop. What? The break room. I hear someone. They're listening to a radio. Crouch down. Let's crawl beneath the window on the door. Of course. I'm still getting my legs back to form. You're clear. It's like learning to walk again. Alright, we're here. Locked. Of course. Well, what now?

Well, that break room had someone in it. We can try to steal a set of keys. Or... Or what? Or we could force the door open. You mean with my shoulder? Yes. Or we can try to find an object in the storage closet. Like a pry bar. I saw it on the map as well. At least we have options. Some options are better than others. Yes, I agree. Let's just see if we can't find a set of keys.

Good. Head back to the break room. Just peek around the doorway. There's a window on it. Let me get a good look inside. There's someone in there, but they look asleep. You think they have a key? I don't know. Look again. Definitely. What's more is that it's not even on them. It's on the table inside. Slowly now. They're just to your left. On a couch. Their back is to us. The key is on the table ahead of you. Slowly. Stop!

Stop, you're at the table. Reach up. A little higher. Arthur, we have one shot at this. Yes. Yes. Yes, right there. Quickly, they're waking up.

What the hell was that? I don't know. Let's just move. Alright. A to C. First cabinet on the right. No. No. There. C. Keep going. Cummings. Stop. There. Amanda? Yes. There. The second one. This one? Yes. Ah, yes. The address. What was she last in for? Wait. What? This... This is an autopsy request. What? Arthur. She's dead. How? When? Just a few days ago.

We have her ideas. Maybe she's left something. Is she still in the morgue? Yes. We should go. Why? Because we can find out how she died. Maybe...

I don't know. I suppose since we're in the hospital anyway. Safe to assume the morgue is in the basement? Yes. Let's move. I think I saw a stairwell at the far end of the corridor. Arthur, when we talked about what had happened to us earlier, I noticed you neglected to mention a few parts. Such as? Well, you ran through everything that happened, but...

Failed to mention Eddie. The maintenance man. What about him? You don't remember? Remember what? You drew your gun on him, Arthur. You shot him. You killed him. Do you not remember? No, I... I do. I... I just... Rather not think about it. Yes, and... It's difficult. I... I relied so much on images to recall things, I suppose.

Or maybe I just didn't want to remember. Maybe I wanted to block that out. I recognize why you want to forget something. Right. But it's important to remember that Eddie is a big reason why we need to keep a low profile. I know. Since the police back in Arkham found your partner, it won't take much to connect him, your office, and the body of Eddie all to you. After all, we left him in your apartment storage locker in the basement.

This is why we need to be smart. This is why we need to move under the radar. Right, but also, it's been a month. Out here. Back in Arkham, who knows how large the manhunt has gotten, and I have no doubt we will need to return to the city soon enough. No, you're right. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure that we haven't forgotten anything. I haven't.

Have been thinking about Eddie's death during this time. Why? Well, it's when I gained control of this arm. Yes. I'm sure you and I have been thinking a similar thing. Why haven't you gained more control over me? Especially being that you were out of commission for a month. I don't know. I've been pondering on it, and it may have something to do with the situation itself.

What do you mean? In that moment, you experience something that most people don't. Something that pushed the boundaries of your sanity. And you think that's why you grabbed a hold? I don't know. We'll have to wait until your mind is pushed to the brink once again, I suppose.

We're here. Bottom floor. Amanda's death couldn't have been an accident. Do you think that thing, that man you met while dreaming... I don't know. Yes. Possibly. There's a set of double doors on your right, down the hall. You'll have to peek in. There are no windows. Looks empty. This is clearly where they store the cadavers. There's a wall of drawers for the bodies. Do they have... Names? Yes. Follow the wall. Here, stop. So now what? I don't know.

We came all this way to find Amanda. I suppose we should take a look. Alright. Well, you'll have to open it. There's a bag zippered over her face. Right. You'll have to open the bag a bit more, Arthur. You heard that too? Heard. I saw something. What? You... What do you mean? You accidentally brushed your knuckles over her skin when you opened the bag. What? And when you did, I... I saw something.

How? I think maybe the moments leading up to her death. I don't know, Arthur. This isn't... When I woke up from that world, that dreamland, I felt maybe a bit different, more... That doesn't quite explain what the fuck just happened. No, it doesn't, but clearly something happened to me, to us. It happened after I woke. So... So what?

Do not touch her again. Why? You said that we could see her up to the moment of her death. Arthur, these are powers beyond our comprehension. But we have no leads. We have her house, her diaries, her life. We have plenty of ways to find out more about her. Or... Or we could touch her and find out exactly how she died. At what cost? What do you mean? Do you think this will leave us unscarred? Arthur, you went to a place while you were in a coma and came back different.

Do you not understand that these things carry a heavy toll? Nothing is free. What does seeing this take from us? I don't know. But if we can see what happened, we need to do it. For Amanda's sake. For Amanda? Yes. Or for your sake, Arthur. What do you mean? You feel guilty. I... Yes. Yes, I suppose so. Well then, let's get on with it. Are you ready? I suppose. I see Amanda. She's in an apartment. A small bedroom.

She's tucking something away. Something. A book. A diary. I don't know, but she's putting it under her mattress. She's nervously looking at the door. She's... She's walking across the room. There's a man. He's... What does he look like? I don't know, Arthur. He's... He has long features, a warm smile, deep lines in his... He's stepping inside. She's... She's frightened. He's reaching out with his hand. His fingers are long and he's... Jesus Christ. What? His fingers. They're long and thin.

driving themselves into her neck and face, bending into her flesh, forming as one. What? How? His hand is sliding into her. It's as if he's devouring her body, absorbing it. I don't... Arthur! What? He's looking at me. He sees us, Arthur. How is that possible? Arthur! What is that? What is that? What is that? What the fuck happened? I don't know, Arthur. I... He... It saw me. How? That doesn't make any sense. I don't know either. I just...

I could feel his gaze looking through me. Looking through us. You said it. I don't know. I don't know what it was, but it wasn't human. It's... He's... something else. The way he drove his fingers into Amanda's skin like they were nothing. As if she were made of clay. Why did all the lights break? I don't know. Ah, there. Everything's down. The fridge is stopped. Jeez. Were you...

Her? Were you watching her? Were you looking through her eyes? How did it all look? It was as if we were watching a scene play out. As if witness to a crime. A third party floating around it. Until his eyes met ours. Arthur, this is bad. It was like stepping through a doorway. Yes, like my dream was. Except... What? I got the feeling that...

That he couldn't pass through. Well, that's good. No, it's not. It's almost as if he wanted us there. As if he wanted us to think he was showing us something. He... Wait, hold on. What do you mean? This didn't feel like we saw something he didn't want us to. It felt like... It felt like he tricked us. For what purpose? I don't know. You said he couldn't pass through.

No. But he wanted to. Well, I suppose that's as much as we're going to find out. Arthur, don't you understand? We fucked up. How? That wasn't... He wanted us to touch her. He wanted to see us. He wanted to connect our worlds again. Why? You said he can't come through. As far as I'm concerned, as long as he's on that side and we're on this side, then we're... Arthur. What was that? Where did that come from? Is Amanda still there? Yes. He can't come through. No.

But maybe other things can. What do you see? Nothing. It's pitch black in here. All the lights shattered when we broke contact. Lights... Let's just follow the wall to the exit.

Watch it. Sorry. I see light leaking through the crack of the door. You're almost there. Yes. Is it moving closer? Arthur, just move quietly. What if it can see in the dark? Arthur, move! Find something to lock the door. We need to move now. Agreed. We need to leave this place. Put that beam against the door. Do you think it f-? Fucker! Just, let's get the fuck outta here. You want to just leave this thing here? I'm barely standing at this point, John. I've just been in coma for a month.

We need to leave this place. You're right. Where are we heading? Up and then out. Amanda's? Yes, unless... Unless what? Unless we don't have a choice.

Arthur, it broke into the stairwell. It's coming up the stairs. We need to hide. Now! There's a door. It's the floor just above the basement. Where? To your right. Go. Does the door lock? Yes. What are we looking at? Offices. There's a long hallway leading down between the doors leading off. It seems like no one is here. Is there anywhere we can presumably... God damn!

Is there anywhere we can hide? Yes. Through one of those doors. Or maybe... It's breaking through, Arthur. God. Where can I... Del Mahal! Move!

There's a desk here. See if you can get behind him. so I can look around the corner. It looks like foulness. It moves like an animal. Like a dog. But it's large. Its... Its skin doesn't look organic. But rather... I can't, Arthur. Just stop. Let's not... Arthur, it was like a hound, only without features. Save the sharp fangs.

It had a mouthful of them. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that. How did it materialize? I have no idea. It seemed to just appear out of the corner in the basement, as if it... as if it entered our world. Was there anything else? I couldn't tell in the darkness. We need to get out of here. No. We need to stop it. What? Arthur, this thing. It's not going to stop hunting us.

It's going to find us no matter what. Well... Well, we need to stop it. I don't see how we can... I don't know either. But we need to move. Is there a... Wait. What? Run! Quickly! Arthur, there's a chute on the wall for laundry. Is it coming down? Would it fit in? I think it's coming down. Oh, fuck. We need to. Wait. What? There's a large machine here in the center of the room. Yes, I can feel the heat.

Is it a furnace or... No. It has a large door on it. An incinerator? I think so. This... This is it. This is how we kill it. How we lure it towards us. At the last second, I dive out of the way. Should we test it first? No time. Where is it? Move forward. I feel it. It's already warm. There are buttons on the side. Okay, well, which one is which? There's a large red button on the top. Right. Yes, that one. The door, Arthur. It's coming.

feel the heat. You'll need to stand in front and wait for me to tell you to dive. To the right? Oh, I see it, Arthur. It's Jesus. Just hold. Just wait. A little more. John. A little more. John!

We need to get out of here. Yes. Whatever saw us when we touched Amanda's corpse knows we're here, so we need to move. Where is the way out? Around the back of the incinerator, I think. Wait. What? There are some boxes here. Of? I don't know. Things. Belongings, I think. Like a lost and found? I don't know. Take a look. Why? Arthur, you have no money. No ID.

We have literally nothing and miles to go before I sleep. What? It means we have a long way to go. No, it's a poem by Robert Frost. Oh. All right. What's in here? Nothing of use. A belt, a hat. Wait. I think there's something in the lining of the hat. There's money in here. Oh, how much? Arthur, there's at least a couple hundred dollars. Well, that makes things easier, at least. So, where to now? Well, I suppose we should head to Amanda's. Or... Or what?

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