The Cellar

[Laraqua]

There is a handgun inside the draw with a small box of ammunition.

[Mr. Handy]

Kate carefully takes the gun and inspects it, loading it if it isn't already. She keeps the barrel pointed safely at an angle toward the floor, taking care not to point it at anyone. "I think you'd better read this," she says, handing the letter to the stranger with her free hand.

[Laraqua]

"I think I have no need to," said the stranger, "for I wrote it myself, once upon a time. I made myself the lynchpin of a sorcerous effort to protect the minds and hearts of our people though at such a grave cost as the lives and terror of several people each few months. I had thought it worth the cost, but knew that to consign people to such oblivion, it were only fair that I live through it myself. I - I cannot believe I have done this. Was I right to do so? Have I won us this war or simply imperilled and slain so many fruitlessly?"

[Mr. Handy]

"I'm sure you meant well at the time," says Kate, "but it strikes me as a horrid thing to do. We didn't need to do anything like this in the last war. True, we weren't facing the threat of invasion then, and while there were air raids, they weren't as bad as they are this time around, but we sacrificed so many young men needlessly. I suppose this is another form of sacrifice, only now I'm one of the ones being cast into the furnace. I don't think I needed it before I came here. I've always kept my morale high, and I've also been able to improve the morale of others. I know how important morale is to victory. But is my stiff upper lip due to this place's effects, or because it's part of who I am? I like to think the latter, but I've never truly been tested until the war started. Yet even in this place, I'm still mostly unflappable. I'm sure if I end up staying here for months or years I'll go completely round the twist if I manage to survive that long, but for now I'm still able to take it. Personally, I think we can win without this place. Standing alone, we've managed to hold off the enemy. There was no invasion before the weather turned, and I think if they try it next year, they'll be sorry. We've got the RAF and the Royal Navy to defend this island. No, I don't believe it was the right thing to do. If we win because of this place, then we've become like the enemy, and we haven't really won at all."

[Laraqua]

"Could this place, my life's work, really be so meaningless? Have I ... failed?" He stares at the corpse. "If you end this place, you will end me.... Should I stop you from making that choice? But I typed the option for someone like you. I left the gun here for someone like you."

[Mr. Handy]

"Perhaps it did make a difference during the darkest days, in the last few months," says Kate. "Some people were thinking of throwing in the towel when France started losing, but I always thought we owed it to Churchill's leadership that we stayed in the fight. The point is, what's happening here is wrong. Yet, I cannot bring myself to take your life. That would be wrong too, and I haven't the right. I can't take my own either."

[Laraqua]

"So what do we do? We must try something!" He gazes wistfully at the corpse. "Though if that is indeed myself and not some mere representation of my own fears, it appears that I am already dead."

[Mr. Handy]

"I suppose that's possible," says Kate. "I want to get out of here, and I don't want to die. I'm still young, and I've barely lived. I want to fall in love, get married, and have children. I don't think I could bring myself to shoot you, but do you think you're capable of shooting yourself? Would that work?"

[Laraqua]

He stares at her, dumbfounded. "Shoot ... myself? It I were so eager to kill myself I wouldn't have lived years in this hellhole."

OOC: It is possible to convince him to do so but rather than leave it to spends, see how Kate goes in convincing him.

[Mr. Handy]

"You were already willing to have me shoot you," says Kate. "You built that possibility into this. It's just one more step for you to do it yourself. Why should I have to become a killer to get out of here? I never asked to be here. I'm only here because of what you did. How many others will fall into this trap if you don't? Do you really want to be responsible for more torment and death? It also doesn't sound like you gave yourself any other way out of here. When the war is over, you always intended that someone would shoot you to put it to an end. Otherwise, people would just keep getting trapped here. You always knew that for the rest of your life you would suffer in the nearest thing to hell that man can make, and then you would die. But you don't have to go to the real hell for all eternity. You can still make your peace with God. He will forgive you if you sincerely repent. If you believe in Jesus Christ as I do, when you die, you will go to be with Him for all eternity. You may feel that you don't deserve it, but none of us do. Nonetheless, He loved us so much that He suffered torment and died for us, so that we could have life everlasting."

[Laraqua]

"But suicide is a sin.... As is murder." He looks around the room. "Though I don't believe I ever did believe in God. At least not a caring and humane God. There are things in this world that would terrify us both to see them. Things that slither in the dark, beyond the sight of Man, things older than Man. I didn't create this. I tapped into something older, I am sure of it, and I twisted it to our whim."

He takes the gun.

"But you are right. You should not be made to be a killer. I always knew this would be my fate. What alternative is there?"

He looks at her.

"What will you do when this is all over? Let my last thoughts be of your future."

[Mr. Handy]

"Thank you," says Kate, her eyes overflowing with tears as she thinks about her future, at last coming to a resolution. "I shall enroll in medical school and study to become a doctor. I will go on to save countless lives. You're not just saving my life, but all those others that I'll go on to save in the future you've given your life to give to me. I'll marry a wonderful man, and we'll have many children who will go onto do greater things than I ever will. If you have a last message, I can take it to your family for you. It's the least I can do for you. And I can give you a farewell kiss, if you like."

[Laraqua]

"I don't even know my own name," he says. "Everything has been peeled away by my time here, but if you somehow uncover it, then tell them this: I'm sorry I left. I thought I'd found a way to help the war effort. Tell them I did help. I think I was wrong to take part in this, but they don't need to know I died for nothing." His troubled look deepens. "Be wary, Kate, not to talk to people about this. A work like this could not be undertaken alone. I agreed to sit as lynchpin, but others might disagree. Go home quickly, though time may have passed, get dynamite, and blow this place up before anyone can know its stopped. Stop at a nearby train, stay there three nights, then ride a bike or walk here to do so. It can't be traced back to you. It could be any sort of society, even the government, who has done this. Promise me you'll lay it all to waste so that it can't be redone. This place was built to do this and we had years of expectation of war to prepare. They can't repeat it easily."

He looks at the gun. "A goodbye kiss would be nice. Even if just on the cheek. Something to remember you by before I am undone."

[Mr. Handy]

"I'll do it," says Kate, "though I'm not sure where to get dynamite. I've never even handled it before, but I'll figure it out. With luck, the explosion will be chalked up to a stray UXB that went off later." She leans over and kisses him on the cheek. "I suppose this is farewell. Would you like to be alone for this, or would you rather I were here with you?"

[Laraqua]

He blushes slightly at the kiss. "Can you stay with me? Please? I've been alone for so long. I don't want to be alone for this." He puts the gun to his temple. "Do you ... know how to sing any songs? Last thing to hear...."

[Mr. Handy]

"Oh, yes, I'm a good singer," says Kate. "I'll sing one you'll not have heard before. It's a Vera Lynn song, and it only came out weeks after you went in here. It's called 'We'll Meet Again,' and I think its meaning is especially significant." She clears her throat and begins to sing:


"We'll meet again,
Don't know where,
Don't know when
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day

Keep smiling through,
Just like you always do
'Til the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away

So will you please say 'Hello'
To the folks that I know?
Tell them I won't be long
They'll be happy to know
That as you saw me go
I was singing this song

We'll meet again,
Don't know where,
Don't know when
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day

We'll meet again,
Don't know where
Don't know when.
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day.

Keep smiling through
Just like you always do,
'Til the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away

So will you please say 'Hello'
To the folks that I know?
Tell them I won't be long.
They'll be happy to know
That as you saw me go,
I was singin' this song.

We'll meet again,
Don't know where,
Don't know when
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day."

We'll Meet Again

[Laraqua]

He closes his eyes and listens to the song with a smile, letting it flow through him, and then as the last verse dies away....

The gunshot is loud in the silence. And he slumps to the floor immediately.

The corpse on the desk chair slumps forward against the desk.

And the cruel energies that suffuse this place are snuffed out like a candle flame.

She can feel her breaths come a little easier. An oppressive weight lifts from her shoulders. Everything feels ... normal.

[Mr. Handy]

Kate closes the dead man's eyes and leaves the room, heading back for the surface.

[Laraqua]

The corridor is as long as before, the rooms still containing their horrors, though now the stink of it rolls into the corridor as decomposition continues. She makes her way up to the building above, only to see a night sky twinkling with stars. A train trundles up toward the platform. Checking her watch, she finds that it is the train she was waiting for though some of her earlier encounters suggest she may have lost a year. The conductor steps out to check her ticket. "Are you ready, ma'am?"

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, thank you," says Kate, holding out her ticket.