A wounded man, a torn friendship, a deadly ritual...
Summary[]
John and Arthur discover notes on a plan to open a gateway to the realm of the gods in the basement of the Allan Estate. They use these notes to open a gateway in an attempt banish Scratch. Though they are successful, Scratch merges with an unknown woman in the gateway. Back in the farmhouse, John and Arthur reunite with Oscar and plan to part ways once they return to the city.
Synopsis[]
Inside the barricade room, Arthur tries to plan their escape. John informs Arthur that Oscar looks unwell; briefly, they discuss whether cauterizing the wound will help. Ultimately, John points out that they have larger issues, namely the insects at the door. He reminds Arthur how tired he is and reviews the past day: waking up at Marie’s, meeting with Oscar, visiting Daniel, the Butcher and the hospital, and finally the farmhouse. John attempts to convince Arthur to give Oscar the stone, given his injuries, and states that Oscar has already served his purpose.
Arthur does not acquiesce; instead, he attempts to climb the barricade to escape through the decayed roof. John insists that Arthur should compromise by leaving the stone with Oscar. Arthur disagrees and climbs onto the roof, ultimately slipping through the ice and falling off.
He gets up and asks John for directions to the back door. John starts to complain of uselessness, that Arthur has been ignoring him since Oscar came along. When pressed, Arthur confesses that he doesn’t want to have this conversation, and that when John comforted him at his lowest point in Larson’s estate, he didn’t mean it.
When John is confused, Arthur reveals that John had directed him to raise the axe too high – that he wanted Oscar dead. John tries to defend himself. Arthur moves on, agreeing that John has changed, but points out his recent issues: not noticing the car keys, missing the turn off, ignoring the basement, and now convincing Arthur to sleep, all indicative of John wasting time.
Arthur acknowledges that some lapses are outside of John’s control, but hypothesizes that John is wasting time to force Arthur into giving the stone away. Despite defending himself against Arthur’s accusations, John eventually admits that he did see the car keys.
John attempts to convince Arthur of his morality by mentioning his disapproval of Father McKenna’s murder and Arthur’s willingness to leave the people in the mines behind. Arthur reasons that, in Addison John had been upset about Arthur’s moral faltering – if Arthur could falter like that, then what would that make John?
Arthur also rationalizes that either Yellow had deserved the benefit of the doubt or John viewed Yellow as himself, unchanged. If the latter, then every negative remark towards Yellow could be made towards John.
Eddie is also brought up. Arthur points out that John lavished killing Eddie, defensive murder or no, but John counters that he recognizes his actions were wrong. John ultimately asks whether Arthur is seriously considering that John hasn’t changed at all.
Arthur relents, admitting he’s made mistakes. He hypothesizes whether John’s behavior in Addison was due to his removal from the situation, but now that something John desires is at stake, he’s fallen back into bad habits. This is how Arthur thinks he’s been failing John, as well.
What John said to him in Larson’s Estate was genuine, Arthur explains, but it will take longer than a few months to shed a god’s lifetime’s worth of violent habits. Arthur likens John to a young boy shaping his personality, that John is just now learning how to handle negative emotions. He had underestimated that John would be willing to kill Oscar to be rid of him.
Arthur blames himself for John’s actions, as well as suggesting that he was responsible for Yellow. He wonders aloud if that is the cause for John slipping away.
When Arthur turns to John, John admits he doesn’t care about Oscar, the farm, Scratch. He cares about Arthur and the Order. Arthur doesn’t understand, but John refuses to explain. Eventually, they come to a compromise: Arthur refuses to kill Oscar, but they will leave him alone after this.
John acknowledges he was wrong to attempt to kill Oscar, but that – given his position in Arthur’s head – he feels isolated. Arthur agrees, but adds that it is unfair of John to ask Arthur to never speak to anyone else. They do not come to a solution.
First, they go to the car and retrieve the bestiary. They plan to go to the basement, as the creatures are upstairs, and realize that they move via the stoves. Arthur plans to trap the creatures in the basement with this knowledge.
In the basement, they follow an earthen tunnel and find an excavated room and a lantern. Rope-like mucus runs from ceiling to floor; alien symbols are carved on the floor. A stone vault has been opened, also covered in strange marks. There is also a writing desk strewn with papers, as well as a bottle-filled crate. Another tunnel leads off.
They also note a stove down here. Arthur abruptly remembers the brick chimney, and wonders why there was no fireplace attached.
At the writing desk, they find what appears to be Edward William Allan’s journal and notes. Arthur asks John to read from the journal and scan his notes for ‘time dilation’. John begins to read.
The writer has found the location of the vault, told to him by something. This entity also foretold of the Allan family (a husband, a wife, two grown children) living above it, beset by nightmares. He approached the family as a young parishioner and acquired the grown son’s identity to usurp the property.
The entity cautioned the writer not to bury the bodies, because his dream-visitor warned of creatures that would come from the fissure he was seeking to create, and they could reanimate dead flesh. The writer does not trust the entity fully, but bricked the bodies in the chimney. He begins using Edward William Allan’s name.
The writer wants to open a gateway to the realm of the outer gods, but the location is difficult to narrow down. Though his dream-entity assists him, he does not trust its intentions. A book retrieved from the fault contains the invocations needed to establish a gateway, but the pronunciation is very particular. Experimentation with these led to the insectoid infestation.
John doubts that this writer meant to access the Dreamlands. Both briefly wonder if the dream-entity was Scratch, and if so, why Scratch is at Marie’s.
In the final entry, the writer claims his experiments have been successful and he plans to go to the city. The writer discusses the mechanics of the gateway: initially, each time he ‘reopened it’, he was only moving the other side to a new location. Now, he knows how to fully close the tear by usage of a second invocation, which he plans to rid himself of the alien insects with.
He discusses the insects are drawn to heat and avoid the basement; to avoid them, the writer has tunneled from the basement to the barn. The writer believes closing the gateway will eliminate the creatures.
Also, the writer believes his dream-visitor has gotten impatient. Though initially believing they worked for similar goals, the writer now believes the dream-visitor means to enter his world or possess him. He intends to draw a fail-safe sigil on the floor of the final gateway. If he steps off it, the gateway closes and traps the dream-visitor.
In concluding, the writer states that he intends to take the tome, but will return for his journal and notes later. If something goes wrong, he assumes other followers will find them, seeking ‘the eye of the gods’, and he hopes that his notes will help ‘you, my brother’.
Arthur realizes the gateway is still open and Scratch is still here, trapped between worlds. John realizes if they close the gateway, opened twenty years ago, both Scratch and the insects will be gone.
John searches for time dilation. The writer describes going through a gateway and into a forest. He explored for an hour, but his watch only recorded a minute passing. The dream-visitor is described, though noted as a potential disguise: silver eyes, violet skin, which at first was blurred and unfocused, like clumps of black hair. The entity behind the dream-visitor might be from another plane or a prison, though its words are almost seductive.
Arthur realizes Scratch is a guise, to his confusion, and ponders that if Scratch is a Forgotten One, he might have forgotten his true nature and adopted the disguise for lack of any other identity.
John suggests that Scratch’s stone might anchor him to Earth, like John’s book did for him. He proposes opening the gateway, throwing the stone through, and closing it for good. Arthur is hesitant, but eventually agrees. They go to the barn, seal it up, and covers the passageways. John notes the cocoons appear empty.
John reads the invocation and Arthur repeats him. The gateway opens, described by John as an abyssal nothingness. The otherworldly material in the barn begins to thrum with light. Arthur throws the stone into the gateway. As they read the second invocation, the pages are blown from their hands.
Scratch appears within the gateway, declaring Arthur a ‘betrayer’, though he appears to be trapped. Arthur looks for the missing pages as the insects in the walls begin to hatch.
Arthur accuses Scratch of his actions, but Scratch appears ‘like a lost child’. Eventually, Arthur finds the correct page and, as Scratch reiterates that Arthur is his favorite, they finish closing the gateway. They hear a woman laughing as they do.
All signs of otherworldly influence are gone. John describes someone else in the gateway: a woman with black hair, alabaster skin and silver eyes. It matches the description of the painting, though John doesn’t remember. The woman and Scratch merged together in the gateway.
John hypothesizes that they might have completed what the entity tried to manipulate the journal writer into doing twenty years earlier.
They return to the farmhouse. At the barricaded room, they realize Oscar has awoken and shifted the barricade. Arthur tells him that Scratch is gone and helps him to the car. On the way, Arthur expresses his gratitude for Oscar, but that their partnership is over and he’s taking Oscar to the hospital.
In the car, Oscar gives Arthur the location of where the Freemasons meet and asks who John is. Arthur tells him that it’s no one he’ll ever meet, and says goodbye.
Votes[]
- Chapter 186: Leave the Stone with Oscar [68] / Keep the Stone with Arthur [97]
- Chapter 187: Get the Book from the Car [105] / Head directly to the Basement [30]
- Chapter 188: Forgotten Ones [39] / Hypnos [44] / Scratch [11] / Time Dilation [57]
- Chapter 189: Attempt to Close the Tear Between Worlds [17] / First Open, Return the Stone & then Attempt to Close the Tear Between Worlds [134]
- Chapter 190: No Vote
