Chapter Text
Sasha:
Hello? I see you!
(Sound of a door creaking eerily open. Sasha pays it no mind)
Sasha:
Show yourself!
(Static rises, reaching a crescendo as Sasha screams. There’s a brief sound of clothes rustling and something solid hitting the floor, quickly overshadowed by a wet, meaty tearing and spiralling, tinny screeching. The rending stops and a tentative skittering noise begins to fade into the distance. Footsteps echo for a second, like something taking a short step forward.)
Michael:
Hello, Sasha
Sasha:
Wh- m-Michael?
Michael:
(amused) for a given definition.
Sasha:
what-what are you doing here? H-how’d you-
Michael:
You were about to cross paths with one of I-do-not-know-you’s faceless shades. Perhaps having your being undone and remade and erased would be a fitting ending to your story…but neither I nor what I am apart of is in the business of fitting endings. So, I thought I’d lend a…
(Pause as if Michael is regarding something with amusement. A noise of sharpness unsheathed is heard.)
Michael (con’t):
Well…you know
Sasha:
(Heavy, fearful breaths) wha-what was…i-is it dead?
Michael:
Dead? No. no longer your concern?...that depends on what you do next
Sasha:
I…I need to- Tim and Jon-a-and martin…they’re…they all need my help, I have to-I need to-
Michael:
-You need a door…
(Again, the door creaks eerily)
Sasha:
I…I um
(Pause as if Sasha is contemplating)
Sasha (con’t):
(cautious)…no…no I don’t think I do
Michael:
Hmm. Suit yourself, assistant
(Michael laughs and Sasha winces. Footsteps echo, followed by the final creaking of the door, and the satisfying shut of it closing. Sasha is left alone with nothing but her own breath and the hollow echoes of artifact storage)
Sasha:
…Damn it…
(Tape clicks off)
(Tape clicks on)
Sasha:
Are you sure? I gave you the tapes
Jon:
You gave me the ones that weren’t lost
(pause ensues. The silence is thick)
Jon:
…I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be harsh i- you’ve done more than anyone could ask of you during…all this. I just-I’d like one coherent account is all. then you can finally go home
Sasha:
I…(sigh) yeah. okay
Jon:
Everything alright?
Sasha:
Yes, Just…not sure I want to go home. (chuckle) Don’t want to be here either but…you’ll see what I mean
Jon:
…right. Statement of Sasha James, archival assistant at the Magnus Institute, London, regarding the infestation by the entity formally known as Jane Prentiss. Statement recorded direct from subject, 29th of July 2016. You can pick up from when you and Tim were separated. Statement begins.
Sasha:
After I’d got separated from Tim- I had no clue where to go or what to do, so I just started running. He was a damn idiot, letting go of me like that.
Jon:
In all fairness, you ran out of what may have been the safest place in the archives to save him.
Sasha:
That was different-
Jon:
How?
Sasha:
i…it just was! Okay? Anyway, I saw the fire alarm, and without really thinking, I set it off. I don’t know what I was expecting to happen…(sarcastic) maybe the sprinkler would wash Jane Prentiss away like the bloody itsy-bitsy spider
(Awkward pause. The joke did not land)
Sasha:
… *ahem* but well, nothing happened except the alarm going off. So, I ran to find Elias. you’ve got that tape, don’t you?
Jon:
Yes, he says you two got separated?
Sasha:
Yeah- huge wave of worms just…came rushing at us, and we ran in different directions.
I ended up in artifact storage. Do you have that tape? i…don’t think I really want to talk about it
Jon:
No, unfortunately. we have the tape, but it was…corrupted somehow. Some kind of audio distortion- it was completely indecipherable except for a few split seconds. (softer) if you really don’t want to talk about it I under-
Sasha:
No, no I…I should say. I should say.
Jon:
If you say so
(Sasha takes a breath, steeling herself)
Sasha:
I ended up in artifact storage, which, I suppose could’ve been worse. I used to work there, y’know. There was at least some familiarity…but familiarity hardly breeds affection when you’re spending all your time studying cursed coffee table- (quiet) the table.
Jon:
Sorry?
Sasha:
The table! Um, the one you mentioned getting delivered, from, um, Amy Patel’s statement? You were right about the patterns. completely hypnotic. they um…they looked a bit like fractals?
Jon:
Oh.
Sasha:
What?
Jon:
Nothing I just…didn’t particularly think they were? Fractals, I mean
Sasha:
…right.
Jon:
Suppose it’s up to interpretation
Sasha:
Suppose.
Anyway, I, well…I got lost in the patterns of the table. I might’ve nearly died because of it. (pause). I was pulled out of whatever trance those patterns had me in when I heard a noise from across the room. Don’t think I should have to tell you that a noise in artifact storage is bad. Really bad. I called out to it. I don’t know if I thought it was Prentiss, or maybe one of you but I just..couldn’t help myself. I needed to know. And then um…then…
Jon:
Sasha?
Sasha:
D’you remember Michael?
Jon:
Wh-yes, why?
Sasha:
He…he was there.
Jon:
what? how?
Sasha:
I don’t know but he…
Jon:
He what, Sasha?
Sasha:
He helped! Alright, he helped me!
(silence ensues for a beat)
Sasha:
He helped me and I don’t know why. I almost think I would’ve preferred he threaten me, but…he didn’t. he…he chased away whatever was hiding in artifact storage and offered me a way out. I didn’t take it of course. He’d pointed to a door that…Jon you’re going to think I’m insane but…I don’t remember it being there before he showed up. I just- everything about him- the way he acted, the way he said his own name- it was all telling me I couldn’t trust him. So I went with my gut and turned him away. I’m not sure if that was the right thing to do but…it’s what I did. I left artifact storage the normal way- I must’ve been staring at the table for longer than I thought because when I left, the police were already at the building.
I immediately knew things weren’t right, what with martin getting interrogated within an inch of his life. At the time I didn’t even know where you two were- obviously now I know you were both just in quarantine but… (choked up)I thought you two were-were-
Jon:
Sasha-
(Sasha takes a moment to steady her breathing).
Sasha:
Sorry, sorry. I’m a bit of a mess.
Jon:
Understandable, considering.
Sasha:
Right. Anyway, I saw the police, got a bit panicked that something bad had happened, and…well I sort of…eavesdropped? I just wasn’t eager to be told “it’s all under control”, like I knew they would if I asked any questions. I really didn’t have the patience left to be dismissed. I didn’t overhear much, just one officer complaining about how “they always got the weird jobs” and “of course a call about killer worms would take them to the nut factory”- her words, not mine. I figured I probably wasn’t going to have much luck trying to talk to that officer in particular and made up my mind to try and find someone else, but as I was leaving, she noticed me and called me over.
Can’t say I wasn’t nervous when she did that- she hadn’t seemed like she was in a particularly good mood and like I said, I was too tired to really deal with police right then. She had a partner with her though- still not the friendliest face I’d ever seen but she definitely had less murder in her eyes. Anyway, bad cop calls me over and asks who I was. I told her, and her partner asks if I was in the building at the time of the attack and if I needed medical attention.
Then…I don’t really know what came over me, but I remember getting this chill up my spine, as I remembered the thing that almost got me in artifact storage. Before I could think about it I was pleading to the officers to go look in artifact storage, to see if anything was still left in there, to…to see if anything was in there at all. To prove I wasn’t going crazy. The two of them exchanged looks and, I remember the tough looking one say to her partner that she was “more of a people person”, like it was some kind of inside joke. I remember she had this soft voice with a Welsh accent. Didn’t really suit her demeanor in my opinion…sorry I don't know why i…anyway, she went into the building and her partner took me over to one of the paramedics. they fixed me up- I wasn’t as bad as you and Tim, but I still had some injuries that needed tending too. By the time they’d finished up the police were done interrogating Martin, and he caught me up on…
Jon:
(darkly) …Gertrude’s body
Sasha:
Yes
I knew her, y’know. Gertrude, that is. Not well, but I knew her. In research, we ran into each other once or twice and exchanged a few words. I don’t think I’ve ever been more confused by a person before.
Jon:
How so?
Sasha:
Well i mean…you think she was senile, she left the archives in such a horrible mess, and Tim once called her “more cardigan than women” but…that’s not at all the Gertrude I knew. Forgive me for speaking ill of the dead but she was a stone cold bitch.
Jon:
Wha- Sasha!
Sasha:
It’s true! I guess I figured that maybe something had happened to her at the end of her life but…now I’m not so sure. I don’t think I’m particularly sure of anything at the moment.
Jon:
I understand the feeling
Sasha:
…I want to know too Jon
Jon:
What?
Sasha:
What happened to Gertrude…I want to know too.
Jon:
Well…yes I um-…statement ends
Sasha:
Jon-
(tape clicks off)