Collinsport. The snowfall that everyone has been expecting has finally arrived. For some it means sitting with some close by the fire, for others it is a time of increased business, their tow trucks moving about the city, for others, it brings a lack of business. Such is the case for Rhyaad dAannar, who having closed the Nightingale, prepares for a night of solitude from the mysteries that have perplexed him only, tonight, he will received an unexpected visitor and even more tantalizing mysteries to unveil.
12 minutes past midnight. The falling snow, falling now for most of the evening has kept not only the regular patrons away, but, as he had called and told them they were not expected owing to the inclement weather and his knowledge of snows affect on customers, the staff. Rhyaad dAnnar looks now at the deserted tearoom and smiles. He so welcomes this moment the solitude. Nothing but the sound of the logs in the fireplace crackling snapping to a devouring flame. He has not had a moment like this in sometime a moment in which there are no sinister plots. No outré dimensional Gods. No snipers. No Churches of Starry Wisdom.
It is a brief moment, as he reaches to turn out the lights knowing that the moment has past and that all of the above were still very real. But, before he can touch the switch, for a second or two the lights wink out.
Electrical failure? Snow and Ice on the power lines?
But not, they flicker back on.
And suddenly the front doors of the Nightingale burst open.
The lights flicker once more.
Rhyaad turns to the open doors. He stares at them.
Outside its a winder wonderland.
There is a gust of wind.
Snow is swirled into the entrance.
The wind whips about the lobby.
Mr. dAnnar . . . The voice is a rasp
“WHO IS THERE?”He calls out loudly, and his eyes seem to brighten, almost to glow.
“Why were you so f**king late to help me.”
“What manner of specter are you? Late? I don’t know what you mean.
“Do you not know me!”
The ghost appears before him.
As the ghost takes form before him, he stares at her pale and pallid face. “No . . . but I have known so many. Why does the dead come to visit me tonight?”
The doors slam shut loudly.
“I was Natasha Snow.
Why did you not save me!”
“Ah Natasha.” He pauses for a moment. “I’m note sure if you will believe this, but really, I did want to save you. I really did, I swear. But mistakes were made. We were foolish not to have taken the risk to steal that projector before it was too late. I’m . . . I’m sorry.”
“I am of the wretched I am trapped between death and undeath.
“They stole my Body. They stole my Mind.”
“Blairand Finch.” Her voice a grasp above a whisper.
“II was aware they stole your body. But I feared it would be even worse for you. At least you have some existence, even if as a non corporeal spirit.”
The ghost of Ntasha Snow wails, Oh, the Godless heaven! I am trapped this way forever!!!!”
“Is there anything we can do? Is it too late? Lillian has your body nowbut is there no way to put her back where she came from?”
She raises a hand and points at him.
YOU!
Yes. He says.
You must stop them you must help her it is too late to save me now!”
“Help . . . her? Lillian? But she was one of the ones who did this to you.
Rhyaad notes the transparency of Natasha Snowss ghost as he looks through her with fascination. In the fireplace a knot n a log pops. Red embers dance in the hearth and he can see them through her frail, pallid form.
“My father like her father before meperverse beyond your imaginings.”
“He raped her and my father raped me.”
Iscariot and Aldous.
“Eternal reoccurrence.”
He gasps. “That baddid Lillians father kill her also?”
“Yes.”
Why? Why would he kill his own daughter?
The ghost of Natasha Snow settles her unblinking eyes upon him:
Apostate! She divulged secrets of the order of things.
Alliances they had made; promises they had to keep.
They had made us vessels for perversity.
She sought escape.
“And even in death she could not for they brought her back.”
“But how can I help Lillian? I am no necromancer like this Blair. What can we do?”
You must find the films you must destroy them. Most especially The Hounds Daughter!”
“Oh God if there is a GOD, you must destroy The Hounds Daughter.”
“I . . . I can do this. But won’t that just trap you forever? Forgive me, how does destroying the film set you free?”
“I can not be set free it is far too late for me.”
The sins of my family are great.
Even to my youngest sister.
Narcissais a serial killer you know”
“NoI did not know this” Rhyaad says with a sadden shake of his head, the terrible things these horrid fathers have done to their daughters, But it would help Lillian avoid your fate?
“Or worse.”
“What of Blair? He will try to stop me from getting his film.”
“Beware, for they have placed charms and wards to protect the house but, Mr. de’Annar, you have ways to evade them do you not?[i]”
“Yes, I have ways of escaping wards, even breaking them.”
[i]Lillian of us all deserves a better fate. Have you smelled the stench of rot and decay the scent of old meat left lying too long in the ground sweet-sugar reek of loss and death that Mr. de’Annar is what he smells of this Pickman.”
“He wants her he lusts to bring her into his dreamworld of those rank and detestable ghouls.”
“And they plan to give her up.”
“Pickman . . . he should be long dead. Blair will give Lillian to Pickman?”
Lillian told him secrets this Richard Upton Pickman. He is now a master of the Ghouls in Dreamland, they do his bidding. He returns to Boston to dineto pay homage to the old alliances.{/i]
[i]There are rules!
Which for her he is about to break.
“He is to bring them what they want from the Plateau of Leng.”
“So he is like those . . . things he painted?”
“Yes, he passed over this world into theirs, he is one of them.”
“I know not what they seek from Leng. Rhyaad tells her, There are magical things there. Time objects. But the object we fear the most is in the darkness of a bay.”
“He and his ghouls to the Cold Wastes go. To the High Temple. Nyarlathotep in the Cold Wastes they betray.
The Priest in the Yellow Mask. Beware the Yellow Sign.
“For Lillian he will trade. A deal is done.
“You have to save Lillian.
They have taken her, hidden her way until they meet with Pickman they wait Petofi.”
“Trade? Trade what? And who is the yellow masked priest?” Rhyaad asks, It is he who has made this deal?
They are evil men to betray a God.
Petofi has struck the bargain with Pickman. He risks much.
He and his ghouls will attack the temple for what Petofi seeks.
He lust to have her with him within the stench of the barrows in which he lives.
Ryaad tries to press upon the bargain, They are going to trade Lillian to Pickman for what, this Priest?
They await Petofi.
“He is coming — on his way.”
“Bathory was unable to stop him.”
Rhyaad narrows his eyes, so this is where Bathroy has been, And if Bathroy failed, that is frightening. But how, Natasha, how will destroying the Hounds Daughter prevent Pickman from getting Lillian?
The destruction of The Hounds Daughter frees her from her binding to the film; they will have no more power over her.
She will live in my body.
But it does not stop this bargain with Pickman?
There are other things bound within that film, things best not removed.
“Things captured with Pickman’s camera.”
We have to invade the house of the necromancer Blair and steal the film before Petofi can arrive?
“Yes.”
“And you must get Lillian away from them.”
“Then it must be donewe must destroy the film. And take Lilian. But you know whom I fear we may be up against.”
You must also beware my brother!”
Too smart by half.
He thinks to use the necromancers to his own need.
“The cult of Nyarlathotep, the Starry Wisdom people, they are in this.” He asks Natashs swaying figure suspended before him.
Elijahit is he who attacked your friend. He seeks the Shinning Trapezohedron.”
Blair is using them to his own design.
They are using Blair for theirs.
“So it was him that shot at Esther? And far too many people are seeking that damned Trapezohedron. There are plots within plots.”
As wheels within wheels.
Elijah found a boy in Bangor and filed him with temptations he found the scroll.”
The boy got away.”
Elijah seeks him and the gem to restore the Church of the Starry Wisdom.”
“Not Noah? Noah was allowed to escape.”
Elijah is not my sister, he is a poor shot.”
They are better with a knife.”
“He is but a man. It’s Blair that worries me.”
Mr. d’Annar, these are reckless men they do not know the forces, the powers that they are dealing with . . . the darkness is aware of what they are planning, and he is coming also.
“You were not in time to save me, I hope you and your friends are in time to save this little village because the battle that is about to take place will destroy it forever.”
“Save Lillian, Save Collinsport. There is no bargain without her.”
He nods grimly. “I had hoped to find that trapezohedron and smash it, but if the creature of darkness himself has escaped from it, what can we do? How can he be put back into it?”
The lights flicker.
“He will do everything in his power to never go back”
“My time here with you grows faint . . . I will try to come to you again.”
“What can such as we do to trick such a creature into returning to his crystal? But yes, first we must get past Blair and destroy the film.”
“You would do well never to face him, for he is Nyarlathotep, the messenger of the outer ones, the High Priest of Azathoth who can call forth annihilation.”
“I know this. But he is called the one of a thousand faces. He could take any man’s face.”
“Those you feel his wraith find themselves before the God of Chaos beyond the Ultimate Gate of which there is no return.”
The ghost glides now moving closer to the door.
“This will be very difficult. I will call the others. May Adonia grant even you hope, Natasha Snow.”
“I can assure you Mr. de’Annar, before this is done, you and your friends will see his face. He too is coming.”
“That’s a face I’d rather not see . . . ”
The doors snap open. The cold wind enters.
Snow falls into the lobby as she moves out into it and fades away.
The doors slam shut!
Cue Music End of Episode